“Really,” said Brynne, smiling.
Aiden brought out his camera, finger poised over the button.
Kara knelt. On her wrist, her ring glowed brightly.
Aru extended Vajra into a sword and gently tapped each of Kara’s shoulders. “I hereby declare you an official…Potato.”
The moment they left the barn with Kubera’s eye, they found themselves standing outside a decrepit, musty tunnel.
“Ugh, what is this place?” Aru asked, staring around her. “It looks abandoned.”
“I think this used to be part of a train station in the Naga realm,” said Mini. “I remember Rudy mentioning something like this.”
“Oh yeah…” Aiden grimaced. “He once wanted to bring me here so we could take ‘edgy’ pictures for his album cover,Rudy Rocks: The Genesis of Rock.”
“He’s in a band?” asked Kara.
“I mean,hethinks so,” said Aiden.
Aru wanted to laugh, but something about this place feltoff. On the far wall of the station, dim signage flickered over a single stone archway, the wordsROUTE OUT OF SERVICErunning in a continual loop. One moment, Kubera’s eye hovered beside them…the next, it was all the way across the station, winking just below the arch.
Kubera’s task for them was simple: get the eye.
The eye wasn’t very far away—maybe the length of Aru’s school gymnasium.
The real issue was that, between where the Pandavas stood and where the eye hovered, the train station was flooded.
The water looked like what would happen if you drowned weeds in soy sauce, and it had risen so high it practically lapped at their toes. A faintly rotting smell, like pond scum on a hot July day, hit Aru’s nose, and she tried not to gag.
“So this is the second trial?” she asked. “Cross the icky pool?”
“Easy enough,” said Brynne. She aimed Gogo downward, and her wind mace blew a powerful gust. The water split down the middle, sloshing up to form two liquid columns at least fifty feet high. “ONWARD!”
Brynne ran down the slippery steps, and everyone followed her. The once-shiny-now-grimy floor was covered in trash like half-dissolved receipts for Slitherbucks coffee and empty chip packets. Their shoes slid on the slimy tiles, forcing them to take each step slowly and carefully. In the walls of water on either side of them, Aru spotted two jellyfish pulsing away and the unmistakable silhouette of a shark.
“Is it just me, or is that shark stalking us?” asked Aru, lifting her foot.
Aiden glanced over his shoulder. “Definitely stalking.”
“You’re safe, Shah, don’t worry!” said Brynne, puffing out her chest. “If it comes after us, you can sizzle it with Vajra and I can turn it into fukahire!”
“Which is…?” asked Aru.
“Shark-fin soup! Mmm.”
Kara piped up. “Did you know the wordsharkcomes from the sixteenth-century German wordschurkeand meansworthless rogue?”
“Really?” asked Aru, delighted. She turned back to the shark still weaving lazily after them. “Begone, worthless rogue!”
The shark remained indifferent.
At the front, Brynne swiveled around and started walking backward, careful to keep Gogo pointed in the same direction, so she could face them. “GOOD VIBES, PEOPLE! KEEP IT UP!” she said.
Ever since she’d been imprisoned in Kamadhenu’s jail, Brynne had seemed different. Way less mean, which was nice, and also a lot more…energetic? She reminded Aru of that one coach who gave everybody a medal just for showing up to the game.
“All right,” said Brynne cheerfully. “Let’s run though our strategy again.”
“We have no strategy!” said Mini. “All we have is what Kubera told us!To start, the land shall test your heart…”
