“ALL THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO WIELD SUCH POWER. WISDOM MUST PREVAIL FOR PEACE TO FLOWER!”
The little golden army rotated around the Mongoose-Pandavas to a trumpet march as a painted backdrop of dawn sprang up behind them.
“DO YOU ACCEPT?”
The spotlights swiveled back to the Pandavas. The glare was so bright that Aru immediately squinted and threw her arm over her eyes. “Ah!”
“GOOD ENOUGH!” boomed the voice. “Andfin!”
The red curtains came down. The mongooses in the balconies stood and applauded.
Mini turned to Aru. “Why are you clapping?”
“What? It wasn’t abadperformance.”
“Were those supposed to be our trials?” asked Brynne. “We only havethreedays for all that?”
“What is it with everything having to be done in exactly three days?” asked Aiden.
Aru slowly lowered her hands. “Because the Sleeper is coming. And if we haven’t proven by then that we deserve the Nairrata army, we’ve failed.”
Around them, the room started to change. The stage melted into the floor. The theater trappings—the balconies and painted ceiling, the curtains and chairs—disappeared. The Potatoes fell on their butts, and when Aru looked up, the room’s transformation was complete.
Now it was a large chamber that looked strangely empty. There was no decoration aside from a few mongoose carvings on the walls. The floor was pure gold, but scratched and pitted. The “ceiling” was an expanse of open sky, and the only furniture in the room was a tall throne, on which Kubera sat and grinned at them expectantly.
Mini elbowed Aru sharply, whispering,“Pranama!”
Aru immediately touched the floor in front of her, then tapped her heart, keeping her eyes lowered as they all respectfully greeted the god. Only when they were done did Aru get a good look at Kubera. He was wearing a traditionalsherwaniand trousers, but the material was unusual. One moment, it looked as green as a dollar bill; another, it was silver, like a coin. As in the billboard they’d seen, he wore an eye patch, and his good eye seemed to shift in color the longer he stared at them, from the shiny bronze of a new penny to the green tinge of an old one.
“That was adelight,” said Kubera in his smooth-jazz DJ voice. “I mean, the fight with Ravana? Brilliant. We just adored it, didn’t we, Biju?”
A little head poked up through his armrest and nodded. It was the same golden mongoose that had hissed at Aru to be quiet.
Biju hiccuped. From its small mouth a bright diamond fell into Kubera’s lap.
The god picked it up and scowled. “You’re getting sloppy,” he said with a sigh. “How many times have we been through the fourC’s of diamonds? Cut, color, clarity, carats! I can see the inclusions on this one at first glance and, what is this,fourcarats? Peasant nonsense.” Kubera dropped the diamond on the floor. “Take it away, Biju. Perhaps you could use it as a paperweight for the letters I have no wish to answer.”
Aru was about to raise her hand.I’ll take it!She’d be rich! But Mini shot her another warning glance, and Aru dropped her arm. Biju the mongoose huffed, retrieved the diamond, and disappeared.
“Now, where were we…?” asked Kubera. “Oh, right.Lovedthe fight. Very, uh, what’s the word…?” Kubera snapped his fingers. “Cinematic!”
Aru frowned. “Thanks?”
“And I hope you enjoyed the mongooses’ performance just as much. They worked very hard on it. It was quite possibly…” Kubera stifled a yawn. “Quite possibly the most fun I’ve had in two centuries. Too bad there were no games. I do like those, too. Oh well, can’t win ’em all! Now off you trot—”
“Fun?” repeated Aiden.
Kubera, who had started to look bored, perked up.
“Respectfully,” said Brynne in a tone that bordered on disrespectful, “it doesn’t seemfunthat there’s an army heading your way. And if the Sleeper actually gets hold of the nectar of immortality, I doubt life is going to befunfor anyone else. The Otherworld might end up, I dunno…destroyed? And instead of enabling us to go find and fight him wherever he is, you’re putting us through trials just to prove we’re worthy of using your army!” A slight wind rose around Brynne, lifting the hair off her shoulders. “All this is said respectfully, of course,” she said again when Mini glared at her.
“Speak freely,” said Kubera nonchalantly. “Sass can be so refreshing. A littlezingerhere and there from blips of mortality is amusing.”
Did he just call us “blips of mortality”?Aru asked via the Pandava link.
“Is none of this valuable to you?” asked Aiden, motioning all around with his arm. “Don’t you care that it all could be lost?”
Kubera cocked his head to one side, studying Aiden. A wide grin spread across his face. “Ooh…I like you,” he said, his eye glinting dangerously. “So earnest! So pretty! No, no, I don’t mind a little destruction. If nothing is ever destroyed, you never find out what’s worth protecting.”
