we can’t change anything,” said Aiden, quietly running his thumb along the top of his camera.
The anger vanished from Brynne’s face, replaced with frustration. “Truth.”
Aru’s hand went to her mother’s necklace. She couldn’t let Rudy take the fall for everything.
“Listen,” she said. “It’s not Rudy’s fault. I saw something, and—”
Creeeeak.
The five of them froze.
“What was that?” asked Mini, her voice going high.
The stone walls around them rippled as if they were made of cloth and someone on the other side had started to run their fingers across it.
“Silly…”
“Little…”
“Pandava thieves…”
The hairs on the back of Aru’s neck prickled. The yalis bubbled up and disappeared again as they ran just beneath the surface of the stone. Out the corner of her eye, Aru caught sight of a spiked spine and the powerful whip of a crocodile tail.
“You are now in one of our favorite stories….”
Aru really wanted it to be the kind with a happily-ever-after ending, but judging by the pile of skeletons, she didn’t think that was likely.
“We do enjoy what little entertainment we are granted….”
Aru swallowed hard and placed her hand on Vajra. “Entertainment?” she echoed, turning slowly in the same spot. “Have you tried streaming instead? Tons of options.”
“We prefer something…messier.”
“There’s always cable?” tried Aru.
“Get in formation!” yelled Brynne.
At once, the yalis vanished. The ground undulated beneath Aru’s feet.
“Where’s the attack coming from?” asked Mini. “I don’t see anything!”
“Stories…” said Aiden. “Why did they mention stories? Is that a clue, or…Wait.”
Aru craned her neck, squinting. Where had that grate up top come from? She wanted to call out to her soul father, Indra, for help, but the sky beyond the bars looked frozen, still stuck in that moment of purple twilight. She checked behind her.
She knew this courtyard. She knew this exact sky. And, unfortunately, she knew what came next.
“The reflection on the floors of the crypt,” Aru whispered, looking at the others.
The story of Narasimha. The bottled-up wrath that the yalis unleash on thieves.
“Have you ever wondered what a god’s wrath looks like?” whispered a yali.
Out the corner of her eye, Aru saw a pair of glowing eyes melt into the gray marble.
“We can show you,” said another yali.
A dark and scaly tail whipped out of a wall and slammed the pillar that had once held the fearsome lion-headed god.
The column began to crack.
This Is Not Fine
Within moments, everyone had formed a tight semicircle around the pillar (Rudy mostly cowered behind it). If they could beat back the yalis, maybe Narasimha’s anger wouldn’t be awakened.
And then they could figure out how to get out of here.
“On the count of three,” said Brynne. “One…two…”
“Three!” yelled Aru as a yali sprang toward them, jaws snapping and spines waving.
“Shields up,” said Mini. Dee Dee lengthened in her hand, and a blast of violet light shot forward, forcing the creature back.
Aru didn’t even wait for Aiden to say his usual Light it up, Shah. She whipped Vajra to the right and electricity crackled up Aiden’s scimitars so fast he nearly jumped backward.
Aru heard the three yalis, somewhere unseen, hissing and whispering:
“It cannot be…. Freedom! Ah, sweet freedom…Close enough to taste…”
“It is, it is!” said the second yali hungrily. “Instruments of the divine.”
“I knew I smelled godhood….”
The second yali lunged at them, trying to reach the pillar. Deftly, Mini raised her force field, allowing just enough space for Brynne to blast him backward with Gogo. Wind roared through the air, and the creature hit a pile of stones with a hard thud. Brynne whooped triumphantly, but a moment later, the first yali jumped out of the ground a few feet away. The second yali got up and shook rubble from its scales as it zigzagged toward them.
“Camouflage o’clock,” said Mini.
She whirled Dee Dee around her, rendering herself invisible. A moment later, Mini suddenly appeared between Brynne and Aru, standing directly in front of Aiden, who had his sparking scimitars raised to eye level.
“Over here!” Aiden taunted the yali.
The second beast loped toward the pillar. Mini stood her ground. The monster leaped, its huge claws swiping at her body….
Which disappeared immediately.
On the other side of the pillar, the real Mini had turned off her projected illusion. The yali fell onto its belly.
Aiden dashed forward, brandishing his scimitars, and brought them down on the creature’s thick skull. The steel didn’t make a scratch.
The yali hissed as it slunk a few feet away.
Rudy ran to the front side of the pillar, holding out a gemstone that screeched horribly. The first yali flinched but stood its ground.
The