“You got this, Shah,” said Brynne.
“Let’s hope so,” muttered Aru.
Brynne didn’t seem to hear her doubts. In a flash of blue, she transformed into a massive crocodile. With a wicked grin, she charged straight into the melee.
I’ll cover you, said Mini through the mind link as Aru hopped back onto her hoverboard.
Aru had only just begun to speed through the ranks of the soldiers when a thick column of shadows appeared in the middle of the battlefield. The inky cloud was so dark it looked like a hole had been blasted through the earth. The column expanded to the width of a house and grew in height until it touched the sky.
In Aru’s hand, the Sun Jewel lantern glowed like a beacon, tugging her toward the darkness. Aru’s pulse ratcheted higher. Of course, she thought.Thiswas where the Sleeper had concealed the nectar of immortality.
That he’d done it so obviously could only mean he was growing panicked, but then why hadn’t he just consumed it already? What was he waiting for?
Aru moved closer and closer. His army had surrounded the tower of shadows, but Aru moved unseen through their ranks, cloaked as she was by Mini’s shield.
That’s as far as I can extend my power, Aru, said Mini through the mind link.
Aru knew she couldn’t fly into that darkness. She needed to dismount, to get her bearings….
At that moment, the soldiers beneath her screamed.
“Get it off!” yelled one. “GET IT OFF ME!”
Aru looked down. Bugs surged out of the ground. Spiders the size of shoe boxes clambered up and over the two dozen soldiers on the north side of the shadow tower. The arachnids scuttled up their legs, hung from their arms, and began tapping on their shields and visors. Aru felt a little nauseated as she watched the soldiers flee, screaming and shouting.
“They’re poisonous!”
“Flesh-eating bugs!”
The moment the soldiers left the area, the spiders slipped back into the ground. Even so, Aru shivered a little as she hopped down from her hoverboard. Where had they come from?
Me!said Sheela, in her head.I thought you’d need us to cause a distraction.
Wait, said Aru, stunned.This isyourmagic?
Uh-huh!said Sheela in her sweet, high-pitched voice.Looks like I can get into the heads of lots of things, and if I ask nicely, they’ll even do what I say.
That’s…that’s not creepy at all.
Sheela went quiet.
Sheela?asked Aru.
I’m sorry, she said.
Huh? For what?
“ARU!” shouted a familiar voice. “WAIT!”
Aru turned around, and her heart dropped. Krithika Shah was running toward her. Enchanted armor glinted on her shoulders, but her head was unprotected and her long black hair streamed wildly around her face.
“Mom,” said Aru, softly at first, and then loud. “MOM!What are you doing here? It’s not safe! Go!”
“I couldn’t!” said Krithika, catching Aru in a fierce hug as sobs racked her body. “I couldn’t stay back and not know if something had happened to you. Or to Kara. Or even to…to him.”
“This is what I’ve been training for, Mom. You shouldn’t be here. You don’t have any weapons.”
Krithika pulled back, her eyes flicking hungrily over Aru’s face. She stroked Aru’s cheek, her hair. “I am so sorry,” she said, before her eyes swept toward the tower. “You can’t go in there.”
