Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,102

Potatoes fought over what movie to watch. It was Aru’s favorite day of the week.

Their friend Hira, the shape-shifting rakshasi, liked the X-Men and amused herself by turning into Mystique. Nikita liked reruns of Project Runway, while Sheela kept pushing for thrillers, which was somewhat frightening. Aiden usually tried to convince them to watch a documentary. Mini liked rom-coms, and Brynne either wanted a cooking show or an action movie, while Aru tended to pick out weirder films. Kara went along with pretty much everything. Last week was Aru’s turn, so she’d made them watch Snakes on a Plane. By the end of it, Rudy was furious.

“This is the most disrespectful and inaccurate thing I’ve ever seen,” he’d hissed. “We would never go on a commercial flight!”

“Yeah, that’s definitely the biggest inaccuracy of the whole film,” said Aiden.

Aru laughed. She might’ve felt sad over these past few months, but she’d never felt lonely. She had her sisters and friends. In the Otherworld, the Potatoes had never been more popular. Of course, some people—mainly Opal, who had made their lives a nightmare last year—had complained that the Pandavas had let the Sleeper get away yet again. But for the most part, people thought that the reincarnated warrior sisters had proven their heroism, and would be able to keep them safe.

In fact, all the attention on them got so overwhelming that Hanuman had to move their training sessions to a secret location accessible only through a portal that opened at his touch. On the other side was a spherical arena, bigger than two Olympic-size pools placed together. Sometimes, Hanuman transformed the whole place to look like a dense jungle, full of camouflaged pits and vines that could break without warning. Other times, he filled the whole thing with murky water full of vortices and sharp objects, and forced them to fight their way across it.

“You’re more powerful now, Pandavas,” Hanuman had said during one of their training sessions early on. “But that doesn’t make the Sleeper any weaker. Wherever he is, he’s gathering strength for his ultimate objective: finding the nectar of immortality.”

It was just as her mom and Kara had said from the beginning, thought Aru.

“The devas learned of the Sleeper’s mission when their army captured and interrogated one of his troops,” Hanuman went on. “The soldier confirmed that, as the battle of Lanka raged, the Sleeper took advantage of the Otherworld’s distractedness and moved even closer to his goal.”

“We are scouring the seas, doing everything we can to find the amrita before he does, but you must remain on call,” said Urvashi. “And we’re increasing security around all your homes. No one should be able to get in.”

“What if my mom tries to come home?” asked Aru, panicked.

Urvashi’s sternness softened. “The museum will recognize her and let her through. Do not worry, Aru. Your mother is too clever by far to land herself in serious trouble.”

At first, Aru had worried that the Sleeper would try to come after them again, but Kara calmed her.

“If he comes near us, I’ll know,” she said, tapping the gold circle on the back of her neck. Aru remembered the burst of light before the Sleeper had materialized in Lanka. “We’ll be ready.”

Ever since that assurance, Aru had noticed that Kara had a habit of rubbing the golden patch on her skin. Whenever they went on walks through the neighborhood or visited the Night Bazaar for shopping, Kara would reach up and touch the circle, as if waiting for something to happen.

One day, when Kara did it again during a run to the grocery store for one of Brynne’s food experiments, Aru couldn’t help asking, “Does that thing itch?”

“What? Oh…no,” said Kara. Her cheeks turned red. “It, well, you know how it lights up when the Sleeper is nearby?”

“You think the Sleeper is here?” asked Aru, alarmed. She eyed the row of carrots and celery suspiciously.

“No!” said Kara hurriedly. “Not him! The ward isn’t just for Dad…. He made it so it would work for my mom, too. I used to wonder if she’d come find me someday, but she’s never tried. Or maybe she can’t, who knows. But around here there’s so many people, and I guess I just hoped that maybe one of them would be her.”

Aru fell quiet for a moment. “What would you do if you saw her?”

Kara shrugged. “I don’t know…I guess I’d just want to know why she left. Or if she ever thinks about me. It doesn’t really