Wait, what? ME?
Aru glanced up at Brynne’s bubble. The girl was taking a savage bite out of a candy bar. She grinned evilly at Aru, but it vanished with the Council’s next words:
“Aruisto blame, and so is Brynne,” said the naga woman. “Both of them were seen in the Otherworld withthe bow and arrow.”
“How much could one really see?” demanded Boo. “There was a fog of magic concealing the whole of the Night Bazaar. I bet a rakshasi was behind this. After all, the thief was a shape-shifter. Surely you noticedthat, Queen Uloopi?”
Uloopi?Aru knew that name from the stories. In theMahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit epic poem about the war between the Pandavas and their cousins,Uloopi was not only a famous naga queen, but also one of the wives of the Pandava Arjuna. Supposedly, she brought him back to life after he was killed on the battlefield. But Aru didn’t know what happened to her after that.
You were his favorite queen! Trust me, I know. I’ve got his soul!Aru wanted to say.Please don’t kill me?
Clearly Uloopi’s devotion to Arjuna didn’t transfer to his reincarnations.
“Oh, I know what I saw,” said Uloopi darkly. “And I do not put my trust in anyone, particularly you, Subala. Your nickname was once the Great Deceiver, was it not? Perhaps now that theSleeperis awake and building his army, we need to question your allegiance to the devas….”
Boo squawked and ruffled his feathers indignantly. Aru and Mini stood up in their respective bubbles at the same time,wearing twin expressions of fury. Uloopi’s accusation wasn’t fair. Boo had changed since the days he was the devious Shakhuni, king of Subala. He’d proven it by being a loyal friend to Aru and Mini.
Hanuman leaned forward in his throne. His tail whipped behind him. “That comment was uncalled for, Queen Uloopi. Besides, when the Otherworld alarm first went off,Iwas training the young Pandavas.They couldn’t have stolen the bow and arrow.”
“The alarm went off when we discovered the breach in security,” said the naga man beside the queen. “Notat the moment of theft. For all you know, their training session with you was designed to provide an alibi for their whereaboutsss.”
Hanuman glowered and started to speak again, but Uloopi cut him off.
“Takshaka raises a worthy point,” she said.“Things are shifting. None of us has been able to locate the Sleeper, though he is undoubtedly to blame for the recent spike in demonic activity. Perhaps the one who stole the bow and arrow of Kamadeva ishisaccomplice. For all we know, these Pandavas might not even be our true allies! As has been foretold, nothing will be as it seems when the inevitable war breaks out.”
“We have always knownthat the Pandavas awaken only when danger is present,” said Hanuman in his deep, booming voice. “But they are on our side.”
“Are they?” mused Takshaka. His blind gaze turned to Aru, and guilt surged through her. For a moment, she thought he wasgoingto say it was her fault the Sleeper was stirring up trouble. The problem was … it would be true. She was the one who had let him out of the lampin the museum. She’d stumbled in their last confrontation and accidentally allowed him to escape. Now the demon was at large, who knew where, still hell-bent on his mission to bring down the gods.
She’d failed everyone.
Even so, how could the Council think she and Mini were their enemies? Their Saturday goals were simple: imitate potatoes on a couch. Instead, they ended up fighting dentist zombies,and this was the thanks they got? Rude.
Urvashi raised her hand and twirled her wrist. Aru lurched forward as her glass bubble was pulled downward.
“You have spoken long enough, Uloopi,” Urvashi said. “You heard the testimony from all sides. You witnessed the girls’ memories—”
“Itriedto,” cut in Uloopi. “But because they are Pandavas, their minds are harder to access. There are gaps! Enoughto make it difficult for me to believe they are innocent.”
A cold prickle traveled down Aru’s spine. So it was Uloopi she had felt rummaging through her brain. Her face flamed. Did that mean Uloopi had seen Aru singing “Thriller” and doing the shoulder-dance move in the bathroom mirror?
“I have heard quite enough from everyone,” said Uloopi.
Urvashi looked outraged, but even she deferred tothe great naga queen.
“Including the other witness …” added Uloopi.
At this, the naga beside her—Takshaka—shifted. A scowl appeared on his face, but it disappeared so fast Aru wondered if she had imagined it. As her hamster bubble kept descending,Arulooked around the court (half checking to make sure there wasn’t some magical screenshot of her singing in the mirror), but she didn’t see anyother witness present.
Her glass bubble gently bounced on a carpet of mist before dissolving around her. Slippers magically appeared on her feet to protect her from falling through the patchy white clouds. Way up here, where the Court of the Sky hovered, the air was thin and cold, and it burned in Aru’s lungs. The two other glass bubbles landed on either side of her and dissolved, too, leavingMini on her right and Brynne on her left.
Brynne was no longer smug. Instead, she was looking at Aru as if she’d sprouted a second head that had just introduced itself asKathy with aK.
“You’rethe other Pandavas?”
Aru made jazz hands. “Ta-daaaaa!”
Brynne frowned at her, then at Mini. “But I saw you steal….”
