Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,40

lock away the snacks, but no one listens to me,” said Aiden.

Mini started to rock back and forth, which Aru recognized as the beginnings of a MOMDPA, or Mini Obscure-Medical-Doom Panic Attack.

Aru sat up and held out her hands, as if calming a rabid beast. “Okay, Mini, let’s think this through….”

“What if Kara’s right and Lanka is farther that we thought?” asked Mini. “What if we really are stuck in the middle of the ocean? Do you know what will happen if we don’t have enough fresh fruit? You can get a vitamin-C deficiency, and then your gums start bleeding, and you get weak, and then you get scurvy—”

Kara grew alarmed. “I’m sure that—”

“And then you die!” wailed Mini.

Kara looked wide-eyed between Aru and Mini. “I mean, I’m sure it’s not that far away!” said Kara hurriedly. “Like, maybe another hour?”

“We thought that two hours ago!” said Mini, breathing fast.

“I did say we should go back…” muttered Kara.

“Really?” said Brynne. “You’re bringing that up now?”

“Sorry!” Kara winced. “I take it back! I—”

But they never heard what she was going to say. Their makeshift raft slammed into something. Aru turned to see what it was, but sunlight glared off the mirrors and blinded her. Frigid ocean water sloshed over the sides, drenching them.

“Hold on!” yelled Brynne.

Aru’s mind started racing. Was it a rock? A giant shark? She scrambled to grab hold of something as the raft tipped and they slid into the water. Dark waves closed over her head. Aru thrashed her arms and kicked wildly beneath her.

She broke the surface and yelled, “VAJRA!” and ended up gulping down brackish seawater. Then, as panic overtook her, “WILSON! WILSON?!”

Aru felt a strong pressure beneath both of her armpits. She fought back only to get hauled to her feet.

Wait. Feet? She could stand?

Aru blinked rapidly, rubbing water out of her eyes.

“I kept trying to tell you it was fine!” said Brynne, standing before her.

The four Potatoes plus Kara (Aru was still withholding judgment on whether or not she was an honorary Potato) were standing in the shallows of a golden dock that led to an archway studded with gemstones. There was no sign of a city beyond it—just shadows. It was like they’d stumbled onto some lonely pocket of the Otherworld.

Vajra, which had been hovering in the air, possibly waiting for Aru to stop thrashing around in the shallows, gracefully glided back to her hand.

“How long was I, uh, struggling?” asked Aru.

“Long enough,” said Aiden, lowering his camera with a grin.

“Is that the entrance to Lanka?” asked Mini. “Why’s it so…?”

“Abandoned?” finished Kara, looking at it suspiciously.

“Maybe it’s just the dock that looks that way,” said Aiden. “Remember, Queen Tara said Kishkinda and Lanka haven’t spoken to each other in, I dunno, centuries.”

“Hope they’ll talk to us,” said Kara.

Brynne used her wind mace to dry them all off in seconds as they stood at the threshold of the archway. Aru peered through and thought she spied a glint of gold in the shadows. And was that laughter she heard on the wind?

Only one way to find out, she whispered to herself.

And with that, they stepped through.

Aru had expected Lanka and Kishkinda to look similar. They were both ancient kingdoms mentioned in the old myths…but that’s where the similarities ended. The moment Aru left the archway behind, the landscape before her changed. She found herself staring up at a glittering city unlike anything she’d ever seen.

If the Night Bazaar was a place where magic came alive, then Lanka was the place where magic turned wild.

Huge glittering chariots raced across a street paved with gold. Giant pointed buildings jutted from the ground like golden fangs. Electronic billboards floated between the buildings or above shops, flashing so bright that Aru felt a headache coming on. From one screen, the image of an exquisite-looking buffet peeled off and floated toward her. Brynne whined and gripped her stomach. The illusion was so convincing that Aru could actually smell the spiced rice and naan slathered in rich ghee. From another screen, a beautiful green-skinned woman leaned out and beckoned to them. She blew them a kiss before pointing to the neon words now hovering in the sky:

PERFORMING FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY!

THE GORGEOUS VISHAKANYAS OF LANKA!

THESE POISON MAIDENS WILL KNOCK YOU DEAD!

But one billboard stood out from all the rest.

The image loomed over Lanka, like a blanket flung over the city. In it, a god lounged in a richly upholstered throne. He seemed to be staring straight at them as