If I transform and jump off the glass case, I think I can pry it out with my dagger, said Brynne.Just keep her distracted!
Aru turned her attention back to the guardian. Beside Aru, Mini slumped to one side.
“I…I’m not feeling so great,” said Mini.
Good distraction!said Brynne through the mind link.
I mean it, replied Mini.
“What should I do?” asked Rudy, grabbing Mini’s hand and then abruptly letting go of it.
Mini didn’t even notice. Her face looked bloodless.
“Have you no mask?” asked Aleesa, frowning. “I assumed you would’ve put one on by now considering how far we are from the door.”
Mini started rubbing her temples.I don’t think I can talk, Aru. You have to distract her.
“The ring!” said Aru loudly even as alarm bells went off in her head as she watched Mini sway on the spot. “What were you saying about it?”
The sooner Brynne and Aiden could retrieve the piece of the Sun Jewel, the sooner they could get out of this creepy place and help Mini.
Aleesa held the ring close to her body. “It once belonged to Queen Gandhari….Go ahead and speak, my darling. You see, I am not the only one listening.”
A voice clear and low—and achingly mournful—rose from the clear stone.
She held me tight, for she could foresee the destruction of all one hundred of her sons at the hands of the Pandavas and their allies. We turned the color of her tears that no one noticed. We remember her strength that others forgot….
Behind Aleesa, blue light flashed as Brynne transformed into a hawk, her dagger pinched firmly in her beak. Aleesa didn’t notice. Her eyes were fixed on the ring.
“Well!” said Aru loudly. “This was very illuminating and not at all disturbing!”
She took a step back, one hand steadying Mini. Rudy was on her other side, looking more concerned about Mini by the second.
“That was all?” asked Aleesa, frowning. “What about the foundations? Are our jewels safe for the next year?”
Here we go!shouted Brynne.
“Yup!” said Rudy. “Supersafe!”
“So glad that wholedeadly creature protecting the stashthing turned out to be fake,” said Aru, laughing.
A terrible crashing sound tore through the cavern. Dozens of voices cried out jaggedly:
Mothers! Help us!
Breaking!
Who will hear—
Aleesa spun around and shrieked. The cave shook, and several women rushed out from niches in the walls. The light behind them was a pure, vivid white, and in its glow, Aru saw something she hadn’t noticed before about Aleesa and the other guardians of Vasuki’s treasures. Their skin was tingedgreen, like emeralds, or…
Like poison.
“Brynne!” yelled Aiden, brandishing a scimitar.
Near the roof of the cave, Brynne was on a ledge, her blue wings beating uselessly against the rock. She cawed, and Aru knew she was trying to transform, but she was stuck as a hawk. The shard of the Sun Jewel still glowed brightly in the wall behind her. Brynne stopped flapping. Her blue glow faded as her bird form went limp. She plummeted to a ledge not far off the ground, wings feebly stirring.
BRYNNE!Aru screamed through the mind link. She couldn’t catch her breath. Panic choked her, and the air around them turned thick with something foul and claggy.
