Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,54

Aru moved to break her fall, but Aiden got there first. He caught Kara in his arms, the movement causing him to dip her gracefully as if they were in the middle of an elaborate dance. Kara blushed as he helped her stand.

“Thanks,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“No worries,” said Aiden.

They looked…good together, thought Aru distantly. They both had this weird glow to them that Aru knew she’d never had.

The row next to her carried a bunch of cheap plastic mirrors with cow horns on the frames, and when Aru turned to catch a glimpse of herself, all she saw was…

A cow?

“AHH!” she screamed.

The milk-white cow had stuck her head through an opening in the shelf and was staring at her. “Hiya!” she said. “Just checking in to see how you’re getting along!”

“Fine?” said Aru.

“Okeydoke,” said the cow, drawing back.

“Okay, that was terrifying,” said Aru, turning back to the others.

“Let’s try another aisle,” said Mini.

They crossed into a row with expired milk from various decades. Something shiny winked brightly from one of the lower shelves. Aru rushed forward to snatch it, but it disappeared.

“Maybe it’s behind the carton?” said Mini. She reached down to push one of the dusty gallons out of the way and then jumped back….

“AHH!”

“Hiya!” said the milk-white cow, trying to shove her muzzle through the space between the milk cartons. “Uff da!”

Again? Thought Aru. The cow should really start hollering SURPRISE!

“Don’cha know,” said the cow, “I forgot about our little warning. Now, I don’t think you kiddos would ever be up to any mischief, but do be warned that, in our store, shoplifters get a time-out!”

“A time-out?” scoffed Brynne.

The cow laughed its friendly Midwestern laugh. It was, Aru thought with a shiver, a little too friendly.

“Just a place to contemplate greed and the slow death of one’s soul.”

Everyone went quiet. The cow hummed to itself and slowly drew its head back out of the aisle.

“Okay, how is that cow moving around so quietly?” asked Aiden, shuddering.

“Who cares!” said Brynne, pointing at a different part of the aisle. “I see the eye!”

She pointed at a refrigerated case marked with a flopping paper sign: TRY OUR MOO-TIQUE’S EXOTIQUE DELIGHTS! It offered a tub of yak butter, a pint of water-buffalo gelato, packaged reindeer cheese, a quart of camel milk, and…

“Does that say ‘human cheese’?” asked Mini, gagging.

Aru didn’t want to know. All that mattered was that Kubera’s golden eye blinked serenely at them just below the tub of yak butter. Before anyone else could react, Brynne sprinted over to it. The eye was stuck between two shelves, and when she pulled it out, the top one tilted, spilling all its contents. Camel milk splattered onto the floor.

“Let’s go!” she yelled.

“Don’t we have to pay for—?” started Aru, but Brynne had already flown past her.

The barn’s exit was straight ahead.

“Ope!” said the cow, popping up to block their way. “Looks like ya made a little mess back there! Now, let’s see, you could work for a week as—”

“Not a chance!” said Brynne. Aru recognized the look on her face. It was pure, cold determination.

I can fix this.

Brynne was talking to herself, but she said it so forcefully that it blasted across the Pandava mind link. It was like a scream unleashed in Aru’s skull. She and Mini staggered backward at the same time.

“Don’cha know you gotta pay for that!” shouted the milk-white cow when Brynne sprinted past her.

Aru tried to follow, but she’d only managed a couple of steps when the convenience store transformed. Everything—the weird cheese, the rickety metal shelves, the dead fly on the stained linoleum floor—quivered and turned transparent. Beneath the illusion Aru could see what the moo-tique actually looked like: milk-and-honey waterfalls pouring down the walls, floating jars of gold coins, and rare nectar sitting in gleaming silver bowls.

Then, just as quickly as they had come into view, the riches flashed and disappeared, replaced once more with the ugly aisles.

Brynne was halfway out of the barn door when the shop sank.

Well, not sank, exactly.

It plummeted.

The walls blurred around Aru as she and her friends fell into a deep hole in the ground. Aru’s hair flew around her face and her stomach swooped violently as they tumbled head over heels. High above, the barn ceiling ripped away, revealing close-up constellations and bright lunar mansions.

Aru kept trying to haul herself upright and turn Vajra into a hoverboard, but she couldn’t get control of her lightning bolt. Eventually, they all slammed into the ground. Stars