Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,28

her were two tall monkey-human hybrids. They didn’t look like Hanuman, who had a simian head on a human body. These creatures had smaller faces and rounder eyes. They wore military jackets on their wide shoulders and no pants, revealing their bowed legs and long, thin tails that curled in the air like question marks.

“You’re…You’re vanaras,” said Brynne.

“Vanaras?” asked Aru.

“Monkey-people,” said Aiden.

Aru glared at him. “Yes. I can see that much.”

“No one’s seen your species in ages!” said Brynne. “I thought you were, like, extinct or something.”

“And whose fault is that?” retorted the first soldier. “Cutting us off from the world! And for what?”

“That wasn’t us!” said Mini.

“It was your kind,” said the first soldier, nodding at the vanara beside it.

The second soldier, who seemed younger and shyer, looked terrified. “Orders, sir?”

“Take them to the court,” said the first soldier. “It’s time to put these humans on trial for what they did.”

Aru Shah did not like monkeys.

At all.

Okay, fine, their faces were a little cute, and she respected their ingenuity when it came to annoying everyone, but she’d stopped liking monkeys the day some had cornered her and stolen her corn on the cob during her one—and so far only—trip to India with her mom. And nobody else had seen them take it! Her mom had just thought Aru ate the whole thing really fast, and then she’d refused to buy her another one. Rude.

All that old resentment rushed up as the vanaras snapped their fingers, causing the net to rise up, as if the Potatoes were a bag full of laundry, and float down the dirt road.

“Brynne, stop shoving!” cried out Mini.

“Your elbow is digging into my stomach!” grumbled Brynne.

Aru had the great misfortune of having one side of her face squashed right up against the net. Kara was beside her, though her back was to the net, and Aiden had rolled up like an angry pill bug with his eyes squeezed shut.

“Om…” said Kara, humming.

“Are you seriously meditating right now?” asked Aru.

“I read somewhere that mindfulness helps in stressful situations….”

Aru heard the bigger vanara grumble, “Quiet, prisoners!”

Aru groaned. The net was enchanted against their weapons, and even if they managed to escape, where would they go? How far was Lanka from the kingdom of the monkeys, anyway?

“All this power, and we’re trapped?” growled Brynne.

Aru sighed. “We’re like the world’s worst Pokémon.”

“Worst? Speak for yourself,” said Brynne. “I’d be a Charizard.”

“What about me?” asked Mini.

They didn’t have a chance to figure it out—although Aru secretly suspected Mini was a Shadow Psyduck—because the enchanted net landed and rolled against a ginormous pillar. Everyone tumbled forward, and Aru, hunched over with her face still pressed up against the net, caught her first glimpse of the ancient Kishkinda Kingdom.

The vanaras had brought them to the center of an amphitheater surrounded by a massive crumbling palace. The ground was studded with dull rubies and garnets, so that it looked eerily blood-spattered. Tiers of shabby throne-like seats surrounded them on all sides. In the middle stood a large podium and a tall structure Aru couldn’t quite make out. Once, the amphitheater might have looked imposing, but now it was run-down. The elaborate stone carvings of solemn vanaras at the end of each tier were chipped and moss-covered, and the satin cushions on the seats looked threadbare. Overhead, the sky was no longer split between day and night, but was fully dusk. The bright, salty smell of the sea filled Aru’s nostrils.

It was almost calming….

Until the surrounding trees began to quiver and shake. From the branches, dozens of vanaras dressed in tattered uniforms, or just rags, leaped toward the agora, whooping and shrieking as they clambered to their stone chairs.

“Deceptive! Terrible!”

“—banishing us!”

“No right to return here—”

“SILENCE!” shouted the bigger vanara guard. “Humans have dared to trespass on our ancestral lands, and for the first time in thousands of years, they must finally answer for the crimes committed against us!”

The vanaras screeched and hooted. Some of them threw fruit, spattering the ground with pulp. The vanara soldier’s lips pulled back into a grin, revealing shiny red gums and long yellow teeth. He tapped Aru’s head, and the net’s enchantment released her—and only her—forcing her to stumble forward. The moment Aru was free, the second vanara guard clamped a pair of enchanted ropes around her wrists. Aru nudged at Vajra in her pocket, but the ball only buzzed weakly.

“BEHOLD ITS GRUESOME VISAGE!” shouted a vanara in the audience.

Aru bristled, trying to shake out her hair. It isn’t