I Mean, Technically, We’re Family….
Thankfully, the jaws opened.
“Arrival,” said the eel. “The Palace of Varuna. Please exit to your left and mind the gap in my teeth.”
Varuna?
Varuna was the god of the waters, and he was known for being as fickle as the sea itself. In all the paintings of him Aru had seen, he rode a giganticmakara, a creature that looked like a crocodile-lion. The lasttime she’d met a makara, it had asked if she was a rodent. At least it hadn’t taken a bite to find out for itself….
Aru stepped carefully along the slippery ridges of the eel’s gums, trying to avoid getting impaled on its rows of needle-sharp teeth. A couple of moments later, she jumped out of the creature’s jaws and onto a rocky pedestal. Just when she was beginning to wonder where she was supposedto go next, a current caught her and pulled her through the ocean until she was dropped onto a pathway made of polished mother-of-pearl.
“Whoa,” breathed Aru, when she looked up.
The wordpalacedidn’t even begin to cover it. It was the mostbeautiful(in a slightly bizarre way) place Aru had ever seen. On the one hand, it looked a bit traditional. The path wound through a sea garden of bloominganemone, stately coral columns, and topiaries of kelp in neat, organized plots. But there was other stuff tucked in among the domed spirals. One section of Varuna’s palace was hauled-together parts of shipwrecks. A neon Jimmy BuffettMARGARITAVILLEsign beamed above a spire. The front steps were patterned with spare change that had fallen to the bottom of the sea. At the open entrance stood ahuge blue lotus flower, its petals waving gently in the water. Each petal bore the name of a different ocean:ATLANTIC,PACIFIC,INDIAN, andARCTIC, and also one Aru hadn’t expected to see:THE OCEAN OF MILK.
Its Sanskrit name appeared beneath it:K?IRA SAGARA.
When Aru first heard about the Ocean of Milk, her initial thought had been:That must have taken a lot of cows. Her mother had toldher the story all the time when she was little. After being cursed by an angry sage, the gods began to grow weak. The only thing that would cure them wasamrita, the elixir of immortality, which was hidden somewhere deep in the cosmic Ocean of Milk. In order to find it, the gods would have to stir up the entire ocean. They couldn’t accomplish this task alone, so they turned to the asuras—semidivinebeings who were sometimes good and sometimes straight-up demonic—for help. The gods promised the asuras that they would be rewarded with some of the nectar. In the end, though, the gods tricked the asuras and drank all the amrita themselves.
Some asuras had been waging war with them ever since.
Unfortunately, those resentful asuras cast a shadow on all the others, which Aru thought was ridiculous.You can’t look atapart and judge the whole. No wonder Brynne acted so defensive all the time.
Aru’s favorite detail about the Ocean of Milk story was all the stuff that came out of the waters when it got churned. Like the moon! And a tree that granted wishes! The ocean even unleashed goddesses.
Goddesses like the one who suddenly materialized in the middle of the entrance and glared ferociouslyat Aru.
Aru almost squeaked. “Uh … hi?”
The goddess towered over Aru. At first, her skin was a deep garnet color. But when she took another step toward Aru, it changed. Now it was …sparkling. And golden. It reminded Aru of champagne. Which was disgusting. The one time she’d sneaked a sip from her mom’s New Year’s Eve glass, it had tasted like rotten soda. However, itwaspretty.
The goddess’sblack hair swept the floor and looked like the ocean at night—the waves rippled, and every now and then Aru saw miniature glittering fish dart through her dark ringlets. Aru thought back to the paintings she had seen in her mother’s collection…. If she was in the Palace of Varuna, the god of the sea, then that meant this goddess was his wife, Varuni. The goddess of wine.
Varuni crossed two ofher arms, but she had two others. Her third hand held a blue lotus flower. In her fourth hand, she gently swirled a glass of red wine.
Must be enchanted red wine, thought Aru, because it completely defied physics that the liquid should stay in its glass underwater.
“Mortals are not allowed here,” said Varuni.
“I—”
At that second, Vajra began to glow brightly in Aru’s hand.Varuni’seyes zippedstraight to it, lingering for just a moment before her gaze snapped back to Aru’s face. “Oh, I see. Very well then,” the goddess said. “Come with me.”
Pretty much every instinct in Aru was screamingDon’t do it!But when a goddess gives a direct command, there’s no way to say no. They walked (well, Aru walked, Varuni glided) past the open entrance and into the glittering caverns of the Palaceof Varuna. The whole time Varuni didn’t say a word.
“You have a beautiful home?” Aru attempted, padding after her. It was weird not swimming underwater, but whenever she tried to paddle instead of walk, she tripped. Magic could be very annoying.
“I know,” said Varuni, with a flick of her wrist.
The wine goblet in her hand changed to a tall glass of iced liquid with a sprig of mint stickingout of the top.
Varuni led her into a vast atrium. Chandeliers of jellyfish and moonstone floated above. A giant crocodile was curled up in a corner on a rug inscribed with the wordsDADDY’S LITTLE GIRL. When it saw Varuni, its tail thumped happily. In the middle of the room was a large velveteen lotus flower that looked a lot like an armchair. Aru couldn’t see anyone in it, but from the otherside came a loud yell.
Aru went still. Vajra lengthened into a sword, but Varuni continued on, unfazed. She stopped at the large lotus, two of her hands on her hips.
“Jaani, we have company.”
Jaaniwas like sayingdearorhoney. Mini’s parents called each other that all the time … which meant that Varuni was talking to her husband, the god of the sea. Humbly, Vajra folded back into a demurePing-Pong ball. Varuna yelled somethingincomprehensibleagain, and Aru braced herself. Hehadto be yelling about her. Was he furious that a mortal was inside their palace? And she hadn’t even brought a host gift! She should’ve grabbed a coconut, at least….
