“Hello, Aru,” said the palace. Its voice rose up from the ground, warming the kitchen. The smell of just-baked cookies and fall candles wafted through the air, and Aru curled her feet beneath her.
“What am I doing here?” she asked, and then paused. “I’m not…dead…right?”
“I promised to provide you with rest and shelter when you were in need,” said the palace. “And you are clearly in need.”
“Oh.”
“Want some ice cream?” asked the palace excitedly.
Before Aru could answer, dozens of bowls of ice cream popped up on the table—mint chocolate chip, chocolate swirled with fudge, delicate rose falooda, and lemon curd.
“Yes? Wait, no! No, this is not the time for ice cream!” said Aru. She almost regretted that when she saw a flavor called the Milk at the End of a Bowl of Cereal but with Fudge. “I was…I was in the middle of a war! I just grabbed—well, kinda fell on the nectar of immortality…”
Aru’s stomach dropped in horror. What was going on with everyone she’d left behind? Were they okay? Who had ended up with the amrita? Did this mean the war was over—?
“Don’t worry,” said the palace. “It’s only for a moment.”
“What?” asked Aru, looking around. “What do you mean?”
“The time you are here will not even be half a blink,” said the palace proudly. “Are you sure you don’t want some ice cream?”
Aru wanted to say yes, but even the delicious temptation couldn’t distract her. All she’d wanted was a moment to herself, and now that she had it, she found herself shaking. She thought she’d cry, but she must have run out of tears hours ago.
Her mind turned to everything that had happened—the light going out in her father’s eyes, Kara’s trident glowing sunset red. Last, her mother’s trembling hand hovering over the Sleeper’s still heart. The heart that, up to the end, had never stopped belonging to them.
Aru sank farther into the armchair and winced. Something sharp poked into the top of her leg.
“Check your pockets,” said the palace.
One by one, Aru brought out Aleesa’s bangle, Jambavan’s claw, Menaka’s earring, and Urmila’s anklet. In her other pocket she’d stashed—and forgotten in the rush to get to the nectar of immortality—her father’s necklace.
Aru held them all in her lap, a heaviness settling just behind her ribs.
“You can stay for as long as you like,” said the palace hopefully. “I can make us some board games! We can build pillow forts! We could stretch a moment into a whole year, if you’d like, Aru….”
She heard the hopefulness in the palace’s voice.
“I wanted to bring the others, too, but the rules are very strict aboutneedand such. Although the youngest Pandava has managed to visit me in my dreams, and that is very nice. A welcome break from my nightmares about white picket fences. I hate those.”
Aru laughed a little. As usual, the palace sensed what she needed and before long a mug of steaming tea appeared on the table. She dropped the necklace, earring, anklet, claw, and bangle onto the table, where they clattered loudly. Then Aru gripped the mug of tea in both hands and inhaled deeply. Truthfully, Aru didn’t care for tea—it was literallyleavesin boiled water—but shedidlike the warmth of the cup, the steam clouding her face, and the ritual of waiting for something to cool.
Aru focused on the steam.
It would be nice, she thought,to stay here awhile. To rest. To sit in silence. But she couldn’t leave the world waiting.
“I have something to do, don’t I?” she asked, exhaling.
“Eventually, yes,” admitted the palace.
Aru curled a little more into the seat, staring at the tokens on the table. As a Pandava, her duty was to end the war, and she had vowed to try her best to do that….But now that the moment had come, it didn’t seem like a win.
Why did everyone want to be immortal, anyway? What was the big draw? Eventually, you’d get bored!
And what if it was like one of those cautionary stories where someone wished for eternal life but got stuck with eternal adolescence and ended up shriveling in eternal embarrassment?
If she gave the nectar of immortality to the devas, the jar would be moved somewhere else. Within another labyrinth. And there’d be more seething anger in those who had been denied it. There would still be too much power in one place, and too much temptation in the world, because it wasn’t as though the nectar itself could be destroyed….
Aru inhaled sharply.
