Mini shot a glare at Aru and Brynne before taking a deep breath and looking at Uttanka. “Thank you?”
Brynne shook her head.We’re going to have to practice this later.
“What lies ahead is a test of true vision,” said Uttanka. “My gift to you is a warning: remember, we are all our own beginnings and our own ends.”
A ripple of water overhead made Uttanka startle. A frown darkened his face. “They are coming closer…” he said.
Aru didn’t have to ask who he meant bythey. She pictured the army Kubera had shown them—dark, seething, and vast, and Boo flying over them, a fierce look in his pigeon eyes.
Uttanka shook his head, as if startled out of something, and then pointed down the archway lit by moon jellyfish. There, a dim flicker of gold caught their gaze. Kubera’s eye.
“Hurry,” he said. “For you are running out of time.”
The Potatoes followed the eye down the ocean tunnel. Glowing anemones and fluorescent sea moss clung to the craggy walls and cast a stingy light around them. The whole place had the damp, mushroomy smell of a long-abandoned shower stall, and the cold air raised the hairs on Aru’s arms. Kubera’s eye bounced slowly in the air until they caught up and then it zoomed forward.
Aru shivered. “Dark, creepy tunnel? Check. Monsters?”
“TBD,” said Brynne, transforming into a sleek wolf.
“I hate this part,” said Mini. “When we don’t know what’s coming next.”
“Brynne, which side do you want to guard?” Aru asked.
“I’ll take the front,” she said. “You with me, Ammamma?”
“Always,” said Aiden, releasing his scimitars.
“Aru…?” said Mini nervously. She hated guarding the back.
“I got it,” said Aru. Vajra crackled awake but didn’t transform into a spear. “Kara?”
Kara, who had been distracted ever since Uttanka had vanished, looked startled. “Yes?”
“Why don’t you stay with me,” said Aru.
“Of course,” said Kara.
“So…” said Aru, glancing at her. “What’s wrong?”
Kara bit her lip. “I failed Uttanka’s test.”
“Weallfailed,” said Aru.
“Not Mini.”
“So?” asked Aru. “We thought we’d failed at Kamadhenu’s boutique, but it turned out failing was the whole point. Brynne saved us that time.”
Kara sighed. “It’s not the same for me. You guys aredemigods…. If you mess up every now and then, you can do something even bigger to fix it….”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t call that the pattern of my life so far,” said Aru.
“I just…I want to belong to something…good,” said Kara. “That sounds dumb, doesn’t it?”
“In the words of the infinitely wise Galadriel, Lady of Lothlórien, ‘even the smallest person can change the course of the future,’” said Aru.
“Galadriel?” asked Kara. “Is she a teacher?”
“Um…no. When all this stuff is over, you and I are going to sit down—” started Aru.
