Aru gulped. That did not bode well.
“Hi,” she said, taking a step toward the yaksha.
She darted a look at her sisters and then at the floating purple door above the stage. How exactly was she supposed to ask for directions to the labyrinth?
“Well?” asked the yaksha, tapping his foot. “What’s your talent? And don’t tell me ukulele. I’ve had, like, a hundred of those. And if you start off by saying you were ‘great in marching band,’ I’ve got news for you, kid—you weren’t.”
Aru frowned. First of all, she wasn’t eveninmarching band! There’d been an incident with a trombone and, well, Aru had been “encouraged” to try a different extracurricular activity. She was still bitter about it.
“Um, do we need to have a talent to go inside?” piped up Mini. “It’s just that we were hoping to enter the, um, labyrinth—”
The yaksha lowered his sunglasses. His eyes were the color of rocks at the bottom of a river, and the look he gave them was just as cool and indifferent.
“Andyouare?” The yaksha sneered at Mini.
Behind Aru, Rudy seemed to puff up in indignation, but Aiden elbowed him sharply.
“The only ones who getaccess”—the yaksha emphasized the word by waggling his fingers and glaring at them—“to the Final Stage are the artists who are deemed worthy of performinguponit. And just to have thehonorof auditioning, one must be wildly talented! And even then, the door may not open. It requires the presence of true genius! True je ne sais quoi—”
The Sun Jewel will open the door for us!thought Mini through their mind link.
I could easily blast us up to it with Gogo in hand, said Brynne.
Aru grinned, hope sparking in her ribs. They coulddothis! They just had to get through the talent-whatever.
“We’ll do it,” said Aru loudly.
The yaksha snorted. “My dear,thousandshave tried to get past the first round and failed. Do you think you’re the only one eager to perform on the stage of the apocalypse? When the great Lord of Destruction dances and obliterates existence, we intend to join him in that dance! And we’re not going to have some two-bit performers ruining the end of the world!”
Aru blinked. “Wait—everyone here wants to watch the world…get destroyed?”
When King Jambavan said that there were others like him, Aru had pictured hermits in a cave making peace with the end times. Not people showing up in chicken costumes and singing opera in the background.
“Some dance with the hope that as we are folded back into the universe, we might find the happiness we missed out on in this existence,” said the yaksha, a wistful look in his eye. “Others dance because there is no hope left. The Sleeper’s army is unstoppable. Even the Pandavas have abandoned us.”
“That’s—” started Brynne, but Aru silenced her with a quick glare and tapped the camouflage petal on her clothes.
“Okay, so your solution is to, what, throw anApocalypse X-Factorcontest?” asked Aru.
The yaksha ignored her. “You’ve wasted enough of my time. Do you have a talent or not?”
Uh-oh…She hadn’t thought this far ahead. “It’s, um, a secret,” said Aru.
The red door inched closer. It looked alarmingly glossy…as if it were slicked with blood. The yaksha smirked.
“But if you give us a chance, it’sreallygoing to blow you away,” said Aru, trying to angle her steps backward. “It’s just so overwhelming that we honestly can’t share—”
The yaksha gestured at the red door of rejection to move a little closer. Mini winced.
Brynne tapped into their mind link.What if we just made a run for it? I could use Gogo to blast us through—
“And don’t eventhinkabout running in,” said the yaksha, bored. “That arena is protected by living hurricanes. You would be shredded to ribbons before you even got a chance, so unless you know some higher-ups, I’d say it’s time to go—”
“We know people!” said Aru. “Right?” She looked at her friends and nodded, encouraging them to follow along.
“Oh yeah?” said the yaksha. “Who?”
Rudy’s mouth opened, no doubt to drop his trademarkI’m a princeline, when someone else spoke instead. Someone Aru hadn’t expected.
