Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes (Pandava Quartet #3) - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,57

reach.

Brynne directed all her powerful gusts at the second yali, but the moment it was blown back, the first one returned.

“Come now, surely you must be tired of this game…” said the first yali.

“Let us do our job…” said the second.

Too late, Aru realized they didn’t have visuals on the third yali—it had disappeared into the wall.

On her right, the missing yali zoomed up from the ground, arced across the pillar, and smashed its huge tail against the stone. A huge fissure spiderwebbed down the column. Aru heard the scritching and scratching of claws on rock, and a new odor invaded the air. It was the old-penny smell of blood.

“He is hungry…” said the first yali.

“His bloodthirst must be slaked….”

“And thieves make such sweet morsels….”

The yalis slunk into the marble—in anticipation of Narasimha’s arrival, Aru guessed.

She and her friends were trapped.

If they backed away from the pillar, the yalis could pick them off one by one. If they stayed close to the column, Narasimha would finish them in five quick bites as soon as he broke out. Aru tossed Vajra between her hands as she tried to come up with a solution.

“We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” asked Rudy, collapsing against Aiden. “I can’t die like this! There’s things I haven’t seen! Music I haven’t listened to! I still don’t know what a microwave does!”

Aiden smacked him upside the head. “Rudy. Shut. Up.”

The naga prince whimpered.

“Well, Shah?” asked Aiden.

“The yalis’ skin is impenetrable,” she mused. “If we can’t hurt them on the outside…we need to go inside.”

“What, like prop open their jaws and toss in a grenade?” asked Brynne sullenly.

Mini looked at Aru, then looked down at her plum sweater and skirt, which were secretly armored. “I think I know what you’re going to ask me to do,” she said with a sigh. “And I don’t like that I’m going to agree.”

Aru called to the yalis, “All right! Kill us! This is boring anyway, and I could use some reincarnation!”

A chasm opened in the floor not ten feet from her. The first yali emerged from it and fixed its glowing eyes on Aru.

“Is that so?”

Aru nodded. Behind the yali, the floor rippled as the other two rose to gaze at her.

“Then allow me to honor your request,” said the first yali.

Aru adjusted her grip on Vajra. Behind her, Brynne stood at the ready. Aiden slashed the air with his scimitars, startling the second yali, who had gotten way too close. Rudy gathered up stones and flung them at the third yali, who laughed and laughed.

The first yali dove toward Aru, its huge jaws unhinged.

“Now!” commanded Aru.

Brynne directed strong winds at something right in front of Aru. Mini’s invisibility glamour melted off as she was lifted and thrown sideways right into the yali’s maw.

“I—HATE—THIS!” yelled Mini. She summoned Dee Dee in stick form.

The yali, confused, fell to the floor. It tried to shut its mouth, to shake Mini out of its teeth, but she didn’t budge. It growled and clamped down harder, but Mini’s armored clothes protected her. She thrust up the Death Danda and wedged the stick between the yali’s jaws, opening them further. Then she slid out of the mouth.

“Do it, Aru!” she yelled.

“Sorry, Vajra,” said Aru, hurling the lightning bolt deep into the yali’s throat.

The monster thrashed angrily as its insides lit up.

The other two wriggled backward, alarmed. The second one said, “How dare you try to kill us?”

“I can show you if you’d like,” said Aru coldly. “All I’d have to do is explode my lightning bolt.”

All three yalis growled.

“But I won’t turn your friend into monster sushi…as long as you play by my rules.”

Behind her, more and more chunks of rock rolled off the shattering pillar as sharp talons tore at it from the inside. In just a few more minutes, Narasimha would be free.

And they’d be goners.

“Get us out of here,” she commanded the yalis.

“We are but humble prisoners,” said the third yali. “Cursed to stay within these walls….”

“Didn’t I hear one of you say something about freedom?” asked Aru.

The first yali grunted twice, as if saying Me! Me!

“Yes!” the second said hurriedly. “It has been foretold. Godly beings will free us….”

“It is only a rumor,” said the third yali. “The curse cannot be broken.”

Aru wondered if the monsters were trying to trick her somehow. But they were nearly out of time—the pillar was breaking. Mini blasted a force field above them, and rocks bounced off the violet shield.

“Maybe we shouldn’t mess with a