And then the first faced Aru. “Your heart is full of doubts. And want. I taste a heart that has everything to lossse…. But we are not here to gulp down your secrets like candied jewels…. Oh no, we need this energy to impart to you atreasure.”
“We don’t want your treasure!” said Aru. “We want Mini! Give her back to us!”
“Ooh, such a lovely fire to your words!” said the second. “You think your sister is the key to your success. But if youabandonyour quest in order to rescue her, you may miss your only chance to locate the thief’s precious song. And without it you would be—”
“Ruined!” sang the third.
“Ruined!” sang thefirst.
“Ruined,” echoed the second with a cruel sneer. “Oh yes, we know what you seek. You seek to undo the pronouncement of Uloopi and prevent your own exile. Such a sssmall thread you tug in a greater tapestry.”
“You should thank us for what we are about to offer you,” they said in unison. “But our gift will mean nothing if first you do not learn the truth of this place.”
The three naginisshot up in the air, their tails waving powerfully behind them and swirling the sand. Aru, Brynne, and Aiden gasped as the scenery changed. The broken spires regrew, the toppled walls righted themselves, the skeletons faded away, and the ruin became a picture of its former grandeur. And at the center of it was … Uloopi.
Well, a vision of Uloopi, as her younger, more beautiful self.
Her hair wasstrewn with gemstones, but nothing shone brighter than the huge emerald in her forehead. It glowed with an unearthly light. Uloopi’s serpent tail was wrapped tightly around her torso and … she was weeping. Pleading. Before her was an enormous black cobra. At the center of its forehead sparkled a ruby the size of a football.
“He will die, Father,” Uloopi said. “You know the curse! The gods foretoldthat Arjuna will be killed by his own son’s hand. I can save him from his fate.”
The cobra’s deep voice echoed through the courtyard. “Andwhatconcern is his life to me? Men die. That is what they do best. You have already given him many gifts, my dear. You made him invincible underwater. You gave him the gift of communication with all sea creatures. Let that be enough.”
“I cannot watch himdie,” said Uloopi fiercely. “He is my own, my husband.”
The great serpent laughed. “You had his attention for one night, and he has your heart for the rest of his days? Think of what you are saying, for you will never die and he was always meant to.”
“He would do the same for me,” she insisted.
“Would he?” asked the serpent gently.
“Please,” begged Uloopi. “Give me the jewel that will restorehis life. Then, if the curse comes true, I will be able to snatch him back from the Kingdom of Death.”
The cobra bowed. Uloopi reached for the jewel glimmering on his scaly forehead, but before she could grasp it, the serpent pulled back.
“That is not the jewel you seek, my child,” he said.
Uloopi gasped in pain, her hand flying to her face. When she removed her hand, a sparkling green emerald—theone that had been in her forehead—now lay in her palm. She clutched it tightly.
“Now do you understand the price?” pressed the serpent. “Without your heart jewel, you will age … and you will be vulnerable among the immortals of our kind. You will no longer be able to tell when someone is lying to you. A shadow will fall across your reign.”
“Prince Arjuna will return it to me,” said Uloopi. “You’llsee.”
Aruand the others did see, in a different vision….
Uloopi, in her human form, glided out onto a battlefield. A mortal woman was already there, weeping and crouched beside a fallen soldier. Aru knew, even without seeing the man’s face, that it was Arjuna. And from the way the mortal woman clutched him, Aru could tell that she was one of his wives. Aru thought she’d feel something lookingat this former bearer of her soul, but he was a stranger to her.
Uloopi approached them. She set the emerald—her heart—on top of Arjuna’s chest. A few moments passed, and then he stirred … his chest rising as he drew breath once more. But when he finally opened his eyes, he did not look at Uloopi. He gazed at the woman beyond her. And it was with the other woman that he shared the first smileof his renewed life.
The vision changed again to show Uloopi returning to the sea.
Another naga greeted her, and Aru recognized him instantly. Takshaka, the blind guardian king of the naga treasury. He looked just as he had when Aru had first seen him in the Court of the Sky—young, and covered with burn scars.
“The Pandavas have all left this earth, my queen. And as I suspected, your belovedhusband never returned your heart to you, did he?”
Uloopi remained tight-lipped and stone-faced.
“I do not mean to gloat,” Takshaka went on. “I only meant to say that I was among those who tried to warn you. Justbecausehe is a hero does not mean he cannot also be a monster. The Pandavas burned down my home, after all. I have not forgotten.”
