“CHAMPIONS!” shouted the Lord of the Afternoon.
Lady Moonlight flung her sunglasses on the ground and started to weep.
Behind the judges, the crowd surged forward, their hands waving in the air. But Rudy Rocks wasn’t finished.
Mini leaned over the keyboard, lost in her rhapsody, while Brynne thunderously beat the drums. Rudy spun a tornado of jewels above them, drawing out the strands of the music and overlaying them with his own magic: the weightless wonder and terror of falling from a great height, the breathlessness that comes after laughing too hard, the way October sunlight feels on your face. It was mesmerizing.
But then something odd happened beside them. The huge crystalline stage began to glow. A set of stairs emerged from its side and lowered to meet the Potatoes’ audition platform.
“The Final Stage has acknowledged its champion!” shouted one of the judges before collapsing on their side.
Aiden sauntered up the dozen steps, singing all the while to the huge cheers of the crowd. Brynne, Rudy, and Mini followed. Aru was the last to head up. She felt overwhelmed by Aiden’s lyrics. They made her heart hurt, but she didn’t know why.
“They said she’ll be the death of me,
And honestly, I agree….”
Once she had climbed a few stairs, Aru could see the crowd stretched out before her as Rudy’s jewels rippled light over their faces. The ceiling of the pavilion was awash with color. Even the animals made of smoke had curled up in one spot, their tails whipping lazily to the beat.
Here goes nothing, said Brynne through the mind link.
Out of the corner of her helmet visor, Aru watched as Brynne slowly removed one hand from her drums. With her left hand, she kept the beat going. With her right, she touched her choker and Gogo slowly tugged the Sun Jewel lantern from the pocket of her blazer.
Aiden turned his head. His voice grew louder. Rudy threw a handful of quartz pebbles up in the air. They absorbed all the sunlight in the pavilion, and the crowd screamed. Multicolored beams began to spin around in the darkness like light from a feral disco ball.
Aru watched, still thumping the tambourine against her hand, as Brynne levitated the lantern higher and higher. The smoky purple edges of the door brightened in response. Its hinges glowed.
Aiden gasped for air, and the disco lights spun faster. Aru watched as one of the judges turned toward Brynne, a furrow appearing between their eyebrows.
“Keep going, Wifey!” shouted Mini. Hunched over the electronic keyboard, she looked a lot like a mad scientist. Colors bounced off her jacket.
Aiden began to sing again in earnest.
“I think you’re chaos walking and we probably won’t get through today,
But, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t have it any other way….”
Aru stilled. Why did those words make her heart race? Aiden was singing to the crowd, not her….
But then she remembered the joke he’d made in Tumburu’s recording studio.Chaotic, he’d called her, with the corner of his mouth tipped up.
There was a faint ringing sound in her skull. But what about the wholeLet’s be friends—
IT’S OPENING!yelled Brynne through the mind link.
Aru looked up just as the purple door swung open. Whatever lay on the other side was impossible to see. All she could make out was a dim purple glow against a star-flecked background. A thick beam of indigo light shot down from the portal and onto the stage. The moment it touched the crystal floor, billowing silver clouds gusted across the pavilion. It was as if an odd drowsiness had poured into the space. When Aru looked out into the crowd, she saw people dropping to the ground like they’d fallen asleep on the spot.
Fortunately, the clouds had no effect on the Potatoes.
“I’ll send you up one by one!” said Brynne. “Mini, come on!”
Mini sprinted toward the purplish blue light. When she reached Brynne, her feet lifted off the ground. Brynne whirled her wind mace and with one gust sent Mini straight through the opening.
For one terrifying moment, Aru wondered if something had happened to her, but then she heard Mini shout back through the mind link,I’m okay!
“Rudy, you’re next!” said Brynne.
Rudy took off at a run, jumping into the beam at the same moment Brynne sent a wind to push him through the door.
