Aiden, who had been silently observing up to now, reached for Shadowfax. “It might be easier to show you what happened next.”
“At first it was great!” said Mini. “Boo had tracked down the twins’ parents, and he used his Council status to speed up their immigration paperwork. He brought them to the Night Bazaar so they could be reunited! Apparently, the twins’ parents had been looking for them for years, but children under thirteen have all these protective spells surrounding them.”
At the mention of Boo, Aru’s chest squeezed tight.You will hate him for his love, Sheela had predicted. Aru wished she’d never heard that line of prophecy.
“Boo isn’t who you—” she started, but a movement from Aiden interrupted her.
Aiden pinched Shadowfax’s screen, pulling out an enchanted image. A holographic scene appeared over the dining table. Sheela and Nikita ran into the outstretched arms of their crying parents. Behind them, Boo hovered protectively. Rudy’s lip trembled as he jammed a pair of sunglasses on his nose while Mini openly wept and Brynne looked somewhere else. Suddenly, gold rain fell from the sky, each droplet as big and round as a coin, hitting the rocky ground with a loudplink!And then, over the shower of gold, a loud voice announced:
“INTELLIGENCE FROM LANKA HAS FOUND TRAITORS IN OUR MIDST! BY ORDER OF ACTING COUNCIL LEADER LORD KUBERA, RULER OF LANKA AND GOD OF WEALTH AND TREASURES, ALL TRAVEL TO AND FROM THE OTHERWORLD IS TERMINATED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! LORD KUBERA HAS ALSO HEREBY DISBANDED THE COUNCIL UNTIL INVESTIGATIONS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED.”
The piles of coins started to quiver, and then the gold melted into pools that spread across the floor.
“RUN!” screamed someone in the Night Bazaar. “They’re going to seal the exits!”
At that point, Aiden’s images went shaky and blurred until they finally blipped out.
“Everyone found their families and vanished into their homes,” said Aiden. “Rudy’s parents appeared in a fountain and literally dragged him back to Naga-Loka. Haven’t heard from him since.”
“At all?” asked Aru.
Aiden shook his head.
“Hira has been staying with Gunky and Funky, so she’s fine,” said Brynne. There was the faintest hint of color on her cheeks. “Like, you know, she’s okay, not ‘fine’ like…” She trailed off.
“I gave Rudy my number and thought maybe he’d text or something, but he hasn’t.” Mini sighed. “Anyway, we need to tell you about Kubera…. That announcement wasn’t all he sent. Wifey?”
Aiden grimaced at the nickname but reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a gold coin. “Kubera is superpowerful but also kinda…eccentric,” he explained.
“He’s got command of the fiercest army in the world,” said Brynne, gobbling down half a cake. “It’s called theNairrata, and all the soldiers are made of enchanted gold. They used to conquera lotof territory.”
Aiden nodded. “Centuries ago, the devas got concerned that his army was maybetoopowerful, so Kubera agreed that he himself wouldn’t use the Nairrata anymore. Instead, he agreed to grant control of the army to the Council’s chosen heroes in times of need. The heroes can’t be gods, but they must have the ability to wield godly weapons.”
“You mean like…us?” said Aru.
“That’s what we thought,” said Brynne. “But then yesterday, we got a message from him.”
Aiden flipped the coin onto the table. As it spun, it rapidly expanded and twisted into the molten form of a golden…weasel?
“That’s a mongoose,” said Aiden. “Kubera’s favorite creature.”
The mongoose shook its metallic fur and then scuttled around the table, examining them with its beady black eyes. It opened its mouth to reveal tiny sharp teeth. The apartment’s walls faded away and were replaced with a street-wide view of an enormous city completely wrought of gold. The pavement shimmered like a hardened piece of sunshine. The buildings, rounded and stacked like thousands of coins, loomed over them. At the center of it all stood a magnificent palace that was so bright Aru had to squint just to look at it. A deep voice like that of a smooth-jazz DJ filled her head:
NAUGHTY GODLINGS! ARE YOU GOOD, OR ARE YOU BAD? WILL KNOWING MAKE ME LAUGH, OR WILL IT MAKE ME SAD?The voice paused to chuckle.SO…AH…HERE’S THE THING. WHATISTRUST? I THINK WE NEED SOME TRIALS TO ESTABLISH IT, YOU KNOW? A LITTLE DEATH, A LITTLE DRAMA, ET CETERA, ET CETERA. IF YOU DON’T COME TO ME IN THREE DAYS’ TIME, THAT WOULD BE A TERRIBLE CRIME. OOH YES, POETRY. I JUST…AH, WORDS. SO GOOD. OH, RIGHT, ANYWAY. IF YOU’RE A NO-SHOW, THEN THAT’S A NO-GO ON THE NAIRRATA ARMY, AND THAT’S MY FINAL SAY-SO! SEE YA SOON.
There was a jazz ditty, like something you’d hear in an elevator, and then the mongoose melted back into a golden coin. The image of what could only have been the shining city of Lanka faded away.
“What?”said Aru. “Why do we have to go throughtrialsif he’s supposed to give the army over to us anyway?”
Mini turned red. “After we didn’t show up for the Holi party and you went missing, Opal’s whole PR campaign around us failed…. People started blaming us and talking about that prophecy about the ‘untrue sister.’”
“Lemme guess,I’mthe traitor?” asked Aru.
Saying it didn’t even hurt the way she’d thought it would.
Mini hung her head, which Aru took as a silent yes. “Aiden showed them images to prove that the Sleeper took you, but it didn’t do any good. All they saw was that it looked like you hugged him and then disappeared….”
“People are scared, Shah,” said Aiden. “They don’t know what to believe.”
