Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,65
to the craggy walls and cast a stingy light around them. The whole place had the damp, mushroomy smell of a long-abandoned shower stall, and the cold air raised the hairs on Aru’s arms. Kubera’s eye bounced slowly in the air until they caught up and then it zoomed forward.
Aru shivered. “Dark, creepy tunnel? Check. Monsters?”
“TBD,” said Brynne, transforming into a sleek wolf.
“I hate this part,” said Mini. “When we don’t know what’s coming next.”
“Brynne, which side do you want to guard?” Aru asked.
“I’ll take the front,” she said. “You with me, Ammamma?”
“Always,” said Aiden, releasing his scimitars.
“Aru…?” said Mini nervously. She hated guarding the back.
“I got it,” said Aru. Vajra crackled awake but didn’t transform into a spear. “Kara?”
Kara, who had been distracted ever since Uttanka had vanished, looked startled. “Yes?”
“Why don’t you stay with me,” said Aru.
“Of course,” said Kara.
“So…” said Aru, glancing at her. “What’s wrong?”
Kara bit her lip. “I failed Uttanka’s test.”
“We all failed,” said Aru.
“Not Mini.”
“So?” asked Aru. “We thought we’d failed at Kamadhenu’s boutique, but it turned out failing was the whole point. Brynne saved us that time.”
Kara sighed. “It’s not the same for me. You guys are demigods…. If you mess up every now and then, you can do something even bigger to fix it….”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t call that the pattern of my life so far,” said Aru.
“I just…I want to belong to something…good,” said Kara. “That sounds dumb, doesn’t it?”
“In the words of the infinitely wise Galadriel, Lady of Lothlórien, ‘even the smallest person can change the course of the future,’” said Aru.
“Galadriel?” asked Kara. “Is she a teacher?”
“Um…no. When all this stuff is over, you and I are going to sit down—” started Aru.
Just then, she heard Brynne’s voice in her head:
We found something up ahead. Something…strange.
“Time to hustle,” said Aru. She flicked her wrist, and Vajra finally lengthened into a spear.
Aru expected to find the ruins of a train station at the end of the tunnel: iron nails, rusty tracks, and plasticware from someone who had dropped their lunch during a commute.
Instead, she was met with…the ghost of an underwater garden.
Aru let Vajra slip a little in her hands.
Maybe calling the place a garden was a bit of a stretch. It was the size of her cramped bedroom. The floor was made of polished seashells and the walls were blocks of cement draped in glowing kelp and sea lichen the color of shining pearls. Far above, the ocean water looked like swirling ink. The only light came from the glowing anemone and fluorescent moss that bloomed in between the cracks of cement. Maybe it used to have tons of plants on display, but now there was just one: a blue lotus. It hovered, suspended in a thin column of light. Even though its pale roots weren’t in soil or water, the flower looked perfectly healthy, with petals like slices of sapphire.
Yup. Definitely strange.
“This is the last place I saw Kubera’s eye,” said Brynne. “I think it disappeared into the lotus.”
“Or maybe the lotus ate it,” said Aru. “Are lotuses carnivorous?”
“Carnivorous plants tend to sprout in places that are low in nutrients, like bogs,” said Aiden, snapping a picture of the flower. “This lotus doesn’t even have dirt.”
“Let me guess,” said Aru. “You know this because of a nature documentary.”
Aiden sighed. “Some of us prefer informative cinema.”
Before Aru could mock him, Kara spoke.
“How do we know it’s really a lotus?” she asked. “What if it’s only enchanted to look like that?”
They crowded around the entrance of the not-a-garden, scanning the space. Aiden experimentally tossed a pebble into the room. Aru tensed, half expecting the lotus to sprout fangs and chase them, but the blue flower didn’t move.
It was, honestly…
“Creepy,” said Aru. “But it also low-key reminds me of the enchanted rose in Beauty and the Beast.” Aru placed one hand on her heart.
Mini groaned. “Aru, no—”
“Really, Shah?” asked Aiden.
Aru ignored them. “‘If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken.’” She ended her speech by dramatically lifting Vajra in the air.
It was supposed to be a small, silly, useless movement. But it didn’t stay that way.
Maybe Vajra got caught up in the performance and sparks of electricity shot off without Aru noticing. Or maybe Aru stepped over the threshold just far enough. Whatever the case, Aru heard the lotus flower sigh. It sounded like the first stirring of someone waking from a long nap.