Aru was thrown backward, her head painfully smacking into a boulder. “Mini!” she called.
A feeble shield flickered around Mini and Rudy. He lay on his side, staring up at Mini in plain awe.
“I’m okay,” said Mini raggedly. “But I’ve lost the visual.”
Smoke and darkness were trapped inside the shield with them. Aru could taste the enchantments woven into the air, cutting off all sound. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Tiny dots of light glimmered in the sky. Aru blinked. Were those stars coming out? But wasn’t it too early for stars?
FIRE ARROWS!shouted Mini through the mind link. She fumbled with her shield, but the arrows were too fast.
Aru wove Vajra into a net, fear making her hands shake. What if the net exploded? Who would she hurt? The arrows whistled, gathering speed….
And then a curtain of fire encircled them.
Cheep! Cheep!
Baby Boo flew above, squawking angrily. No doubt the firebird had not been pleased to be woken up so unceremoniously. BB exhaled a long flame, and the volley of arrows was incinerated.
Cheep!the firebird added.
Which Aru interpreted asTAKE THAT!
Baby Boo flapped his wings and the smoke pulled back. The ground was scorched, giving them a clearing of a hundred-foot radius. The firebird flew gracefully to the ground, alighting a foot away from Rudy and his outstretched sling. The bird tilted his head inquisitively and burped.
“Good job!” said Rudy, gathering up Baby Boo once more. BB promptly returned to his nap. Rudy clasped his hands. “Now can I have a bow and arrow?”
“Okay,fine!” said Mini.
She performed a complicated gesture with her hands. A shadow ribbon knotted around one of the asuras in midair just as he was trying to fly away. The demon’s bow and arrow fell, dropping straight into Rudy’s hands.
“Yay!” said Rudy, hopping in delight. He frowned. “What do I do with it?”
“Any visuals on the amrita?” asked Aru, ignoring Rudy and whirling in time to avoid an onslaught of rocks from above.
“No,” said Mini, her eyes still glowing as she surveyed the battlefield.
“What about Brynne?” asked Aru. “Where’d she go?”
Aru got her answer from the calamitous shrieking nearby. A jet of blue light snapped across the battlefield. Silence reigned for a moment before a hundred of the Sleeper’s first line of soldiers rose in the air and were thrown backward by a great gust of wind.
The ground rumbled. With a huge roar, a ginormous blue bear charged forward, scattering the troops. A rash of soldiers surged toward her. Bear Brynne shook her head, tossing the soldiers left and right with swipes of her massive paws. Aru polished them off with a neat whip of her lightning bolt, and for the next few moments, their section of the battleground was clear.
And yet, thought Aru as she looked around, the fighting was far from over. The sprawl of enemy soldiers covered more than half the wasteland. The vanaras and Maruts, rakshasas and asuras on their side fought valiantly, but they hadn’t closed ranks on the Sleeper’s army. They were holding them in a sort of limbo.
Brynne shifted back to human form and cast her gaze upward. “Should we call them in?”
Aru knew who she meant. The Nairrata army. The golden militia they had won from Lord Kubera in his gladiatorial contest.
“We can summon them now that we have our celestial weapons back,” said Brynne.
“But so can Kara,” said Aru, scanning the area. “They wouldn’t know which side to fight on.”
“I guess you’re right…” said Mini from above.
“Take the lantern! It should still guide you to the nectar,” said Brynne, preparing to toss it to Aru. “Once we’ve got the amrita—”
“We’ll finish this war,” said Aru.
As she caught the glowing Sun Jewel lantern, Aru felt a prickle of unease. She was going to try her best, but a solution that feltrightstill hadn’t made itself clear in her mind. If she got her hands on the amrita, the devas would expect her to declare the nectar of immortality for them on the spot. But somehow…somehow Aru felt as if she’d missed a step.
