“The task was given toyou, Pandavas,” said Kamadeva. “I am not allowed to interfere. Besides, the Soul Exchange is indirestraits—just look at the stocks! There’s far too much chaos going on in the mortal realm right now, and the investors are up in arms. But I can tell you this. Whoever corrupted my bow andarrow had to leave their soul song in the place where the weapon was stolen.”
“The naga realm,” said Brynne.
“Specifically, the treasury,” said Mini.
Aru recalled the blind naga king who guarded the treasury: Takshaka. He hadn’t seemed to like them at all, though she didn’t know why.
“What’s a soul song look like?” asked Aru. “Sheet music or something?”
She really hoped it wasn’t that. Shecouldn’t remember anything about reading piano notes except some weird acronym….Each good bear delivers frogs?That couldn’t be right.
“The song might take a variety of forms,” said Kamadeva. “It’ll be representative of the thief’s soul, but it won’t look like any ordinary object.”
Well, that was helpful.Not.
“Once you have found the song,” said Kamadeva, “you must speak the name of the thiefover it. Then the song will reveal the location of the stolen weapon. When you retrieve it, you must plunge the arrow through the heart of the thief. Only then will the Heartless be restored to their human selves, and the arrow cleansed of its dark power.”
Plunge the arrow through the heart?Aru thought that sounded kind of violent. Then again, getting your heart torn out and basically becominga robot wasn’t great, either.
“How are we going to get to the naga realm?” asked Aiden.“It’s not like Uloopi and Takshaka are exactly fans of ours. They might have guards waiting for us at the portals.”
“There’s a way around that,” said Kamadeva. “But you’ll have to watch out.”
“For what?”
“Sharks, obviously.”
