“ARU!”
She was standing now. Sheela threw her arms around her waist. Nikita waved beside her twin. The girls were dressed in matching blue pajamas and hair bonnets. The outfits lacked Nikita’s usual flair, which meant she must have designed them in a hurry.
Alarm bells went off in Aru’s head. They were on a cold beach. Above was a gray sky, below was gray sand, and the water was the indistinct color of smoke. Sharks made of clockwork dived in and out of the waves. There was no sound but a constant ticking, like time running out….
“Where are Brynne and Mini?” asked Aru.
Nikita pressed her lips into a grim line. “Couldn’t reach them. They’re lost in their own dreams.”
“But we could get to you, at least,” said Sheela, still clinging to Aru.
“What can we do to help?” asked Nikita. “What happened when you went to Lord Agni?”
Aru quickly told them about the Sun Jewel, and how it had been cut into three pieces—one for Lord Agni, the second for Lord Vasuki, and the third for Jambavan, king of the bears.
“Jambavan’s name keeps ringing a bell,” said Aru. “But we don’t know where to find him. Maybe you can do some digging for us in the Otherworld?”
“On it,” said Nikita.
“I don’t like this,” said Sheela, stepping away.
“Like what?” asked Aru.
Sheela glanced nervously at her twin, who nodded her approval to continue.
“I tried to look into the future, Aru, and it…It was the first time I ever saw something like that.”
Aru tried to keep the panic off her face. She wasn’t sure she succeeded. “Something like what?”
Sheela looked up at her, and her blue eyes seemed to ice over. “Nothing,” she said in her prophecy voice. “I sawnothing.”
Aru frowned. “What do you mean you saw ‘nothing’?”
But if Sheela was planning on answering, the moment was disrupted. The gray sea split in two. The sky churned overhead, and Aru felt her feet sinking into the ground. She tried to catch her balance, her arms shooting out to steady her—
“Whoa, Aru!” yelled Brynne. “You almost took my eye out!”
Aru blinked. Brynne and Mini were already dressed. Two moon jellyfish floated behind them like living lanterns.
“It’s time,” said Mini.
Once Rudy’s enchanted Sad Boi Rocks™ rocks were in place to throw his parents off their trail, Rudy led them through the passages of his palace until they arrived at a chamber with a dozen elevators floating a foot off the ground. The moment the Potatoes stepped inside the room, a pedestal swiveled out of the ground and a sparkling keypad appeared.
All the elevators looked more or less the same, except one. It was an ancient palanquin, the kind Aru imagined had once carried kings and queens. The palanquin was an elaborately carved and painted wooden box with open sides and two long beams underneath that four or more men would have hoisted onto their shoulders to carry the person within. The elevator was big enough for six people, but it didn’t look like it wanted company. Frost spiderwebbed across its exterior, and though Aru was more than twenty feet away, she could feel an odd chill emanating from the interior.
“Don’t worry,” said Rudy, following her gaze. “No one goes inthatone.”
“Where does it lead to?” asked Aiden.
Rudy shrugged. “My mom says it goes to the end of the world.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” said Rudy. “I mean, technically, there’s more than one end-of-the-world location. And I guess it also depends on the universe? Don’t ask. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. But that particular end-of-the-world location is really cold and dark.”
“Remind me again why we couldn’t try to use a portal?” asked Aru, staring around the eerie elevator bank.
“Too risky,” said Rudy. He placed his palm on the pedestal’s keypad. “Patala isn’t like other places. There’s always maintenance going on down there. It’s super unstable, too, because all the other worlds got piled on top of it. If you get stuck…you might not get found.”
