Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes (Pandava Quartet #3) - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,55

shuddered. What had happened to these people? She turned around the space, but the only thing she saw was a huge pillar in the middle of the courtyard bearing a single fracture. Why did she feel as if she’d seen it before?

Brynne whirled around to face Rudy.

“You had one job,” she scolded. “Don’t step on the stupid green tiles! It was so easy anyone could have done it!”

Rudy stood there, his eyes wide with panic, his hands clutching the mechanical bird that—upon third glance—looked like a tiny eagle.

A rush of fury swept over Aru. All that trouble, all that effort they’d gone through to get to the vault…and for what? A wooden toy with a broken voice?

“Brynne,” said Mini firmly. “Stop.”

Brynne fell silent, anger bright on her face, and Aru shook herself. It was her fault, too, she acknowledged with a stab of guilt. She’d been thrown off by the vision of the man who had been her father. She hadn’t expected to see him. Worse, she hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted to see him.

“Rudy…are you okay?” asked Aiden.

The naga boy’s hands trembled. A look of understanding passed over Aiden’s face. He put away his scimitars and stepped toward his cousin, placing a hand on his arm. “What happened back there?”

For a long minute, Rudy stared at the ground. Finally, he raised his chin.

“I have trouble seeing certain colors,” he said softly. “Yellow and green look kinda reddish to me, and I can’t tell the difference between blue and purple.” He took a deep breath, one corner of his mouth twitching like a snarl. “I wish that wasn’t the case.”

All of them were quiet for a moment until Mini piped up.

“It’s a lot more common than you think,” she said gently. “In fact, deuteranomaly, the most common form of color blindness, affects, like, five percent of the human male population.”

Rudy laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “Human population, sure. But nagas? You know what it means to be a color-blind naga prince?”

Aru thought of all those jewels and riches deep in the naga palaces…. Things that Rudy wouldn’t be able to distinguish.

“Color and magic are basically the same thing for my family,” said Rudy, his words coming out in a rush. “If I had to make a crown that warded off curses, I’d need to cut emeralds and rubies a certain way, arrange them in a pattern…. I can’t do that. Instead, I listen to the sounds inside a stone and make magic that way. But if I had to go by color, I’d put a bunch of topazes and tourmalines in a clump, and probably get someone’s head turned into a jellyfish. Or turn myself into a jellyfish. At least, that’s what my parents think, and that’s why they never let me do anything. They don’t really understand the kind of enchantments I work, and they’re always worried I’m going to mess something up. I know it’s for my own good and all that, but I can do magic. It’s just…different. Anyway, I’m…I’m sorry. I really am.”

Aru remembered when Rudy had rescued them from the naga treasury by playing all that music. His grandfather Takshaka had called him a disgrace. The insult wasn’t because his own grandson was getting in his way, as Aru had thought at the time. It was because of who Rudy was. And Aru finally understood why the naga prince had wanted to join them.

“I know how that feels,” said Mini.

Rudy looked up at her and smiled sadly. “You don’t have to say that, Mini. You guys are Pandavas and”—he nodded at Aiden—“Pandava adjacent. It’s different. Everyone is proud of you.”

“Yeah…not really. People tell us all the time how much we’ve messed up,” said Mini.

“Or that we’re doomed to mess up before we even start,” added Aru.

“Or that 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