One by one the Potatoes walked out of the tent and headed to the platform. Through the narrow strip of her helmet visor, Aru couldn’t get more than a glimpse of the throng. She felt jostled as she walked behind Brynne and Mini. Rudy was at the rear, and Aiden was nearly invisible up front.
Beside them, a pair of towering yaksha bouncers in black shirts parted the crowd. “Talent coming through!” one of them shouted. “Make some room!”
Despite the shouting, Aru was able to pick up some of the onlookers’ comments, including“Is that one carrying atambourine?”
Aru swiveled her head, wanting to shake the instrument at the rude speaker, but she was quickly pushed ahead. The walk to the audition platform took almost ten minutes. By the time they stepped onto it, Aru’s nerves had spiked.
Aru looked out and saw an audience of hundreds. Cameras flashed. Harsh spotlights in the ceiling of the great pavilion pivoted in her direction. To her right the crystalline Final Stage loomed fifteen feet above them, and above that, more than fifty feet in the air, hovered the door that would bring them one step closer to the labyrinth with barely a day to spare. Aru really wished they’d had time for at least a dress rehearsal.
This was bad, thought Aru. Her hands turned clammy. What if Tumburu’s blessings randomly failed? What if the plan didn’t work and they got booed off the stage? This was a thousand times worse than being called on in class when you were on the verge of falling asleep and hadno ideawhat was going on….
Aiden took his place in front as the lead singer. A microphone magically appeared before him. The three judges sat ten feet away, their expressions inscrutable behind sunglasses. Aru remembered hearing their names earlier—Lady Moonlight, the Lord of the Afternoon, and, if she had this right, the Artist Formerly Known as Starlight.
Lady Moonlight leaned forward. “We are ready to be grossly underwhelmed. Begin at your leisure.”
Aiden looked over his shoulder, lifting his visor. “Ready? Brynne, you start. Rudy, introduce some effects. Then it’s your turn, Mini.”
“What about me?” asked Aru. “The tambourine deserves its moment to shine!”
“Try to punctuate the words, I guess,” said Aiden. “On three. One, two—”
“RUDY ROCKS!” hollered Rudy. “LET’S DO THIS!”
“Three,” said Aiden solemnly.
He lowered the visor over his eyes.
What about me and my tambourine?!asked Aru through the mind link.
I don’t know!said Brynne, rotating her wrists and stretching her fingers.
Just follow the beat once he starts singing?suggested Mini.
Brynne struck the tabla. The beat juddered through the stadium, and the crowd fell silent. The rhythm built, becoming faster and faster as Brynne’s fingers hit the drum.
The Artist Formerly Known as Starlight uncrossed their legs and sat up a little straighter.
Moments later, Rudy threw down three amethysts and a sapphire. The sound crescendoed over the stadium, conjuring an illusion of waves crashing down. The audience gasped.
Lady Moonlight lowered her sunglasses, staring up at the pavilion’s ceiling and then at the stage.
Next, Mini bent her head. As she brought her fingers to the keyboard, a tune soared around them, at once bright and friendly and strangely sorrowful, too.
Aru lifted her tambourine. Now? Should she just go for it? But she paused when Aiden began to sing.
His words poured like honey over the crowd.
Aru lowered her hand, but the movement jangled the tambourine. The instrument seemed to know, on instinct, how to punctuate the rhythm. Aru found herself wrapped up in the words, sung so vividly that she imagined they were meant for her.
“They said I have to be honest,
So here’s something you don’t know…
You scare me, but I try not to let it show….”
That was all it took.
As one, the judges shot out of their seats and began clapping wildly.
