a Publix?” asked Rudy.
“A supermarket,” said Aiden.
“Ah,” said Rudy, nodding. Then he added, “What’s a supermarket?”
“Where people go to buy food.”
“Or eat all the free samples and bounce,” said Aru.
Aiden shook his head.
“So people buy food…” said Rudy slowly, working out the strange concept. “You don’t have servants deliver it? Or do the servants come with the meals you purchase?”
Aiden pinched the bridge of his nose. “When we get back, we’re going on a field trip.”
“A trip to a field?” said Rudy, repulsed. “No thanks.”
“What about Chandra’s other wives?” asked Aru. “What do they get?”
Now that she’d noticed them, she couldn’t stop staring at their faces in the portrait. All of them were beautiful, yes, but only one of the wives had fully defined features, and her outfit was more glamorous than the others’.
“Revenge,” said Rudy.
Brynne wandered over from the buffet table, her cheeks stuffed. “Who said revenge?”
“I did,” said Rudy, pointing up at the picture of the wives. “Those constellations are the daughters of King Daksha, who got super angry when he found out how Chandra had been treating them. He cursed him. Made it so he’d start withering on the spot. Typical overprotective parent.”
Brynne went a bit quiet after that, and Aru wished she could sometimes just make Rudy shut up. Brynne couldn’t say Duh about how Daksha rushed in to save his daughters. Her mom, Anila, would never do something like that.
Mini pointed at a photograph of a muscle-bound Chandra in a sleeveless tee—he was holding up a planet one-handed. “He doesn’t look withered to me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s because Chandra begged Shiva to save him. Shiva fixed it so Chandra gradually dies each month, but then becomes whole again,” said Rudy. “Phases of the moon and all that.” He looked up at the portraits of the constellations and shrugged. “Too bad for the other wives.”
Brynne’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, too bad. Must be a blast walking around your house and wondering why someone who should love you just won’t.”
Oh, Brynne. Aru wished she could comfort her, but she wasn’t sure what to say.
Aiden pushed himself off the wall. “Bee?” he asked softly.
Brynne stomped off then, but not before saying over her shoulder, “Sohail said it’s a long ride. Let’s get some sleep and see if we can’t reach the twins.”
Aiden sighed and walked after her, and the two of them stood in a corner and talked in low voices. Rudy seemed confused for a moment, but he obligingly dug around in his bag. After a moment, he pulled out a moonstone wrapped in a silver cord that was strung with little rose-shaped bells. It was the same contraption he’d used to help them fall asleep in the tent.
“Where’d you get that?” asked Aru.
“Nowhere,” said Rudy. “Made it myself after my brothers forced me to watch this human movie called The Grudge. Couldn’t sleep for a week.”
Aru shuddered. She hated that movie. Which was to say: IT WAS AWESOME! It had this dead lady who made croaking sounds and her hair was all in her face. Part of the reason Aru was keeping her hair long was so she could step out of the shower, do a weird disjointed walk, and scare off intruders.
The five of them settled back into the plushy armchairs. Rudy made some complicated gesture with the moonstone; music lifted out of it, and a wave of calm swept through Aru. She pushed a pillow behind her neck, kicked off her shoes, and propped her feet on one of the white couches. All around her, the stars gleamed brightly, and she thought of her name, Arundhati.
I will name her Arundhati. For the morning star, the Sleeper had said. So that my daughter will always be a light in the dark.
Honestly, things would be so much easier if she’d never found out he once cared about her. The fact that he’d tried so hard to fix his own future summoned a pit of cold in Aru’s gut.
In all the memories she’d captured so far, there was one answer that danced out of reach.
“If the Sleeper got this far in his search for the tree, why did he stop?” she asked aloud. “What stopped him from finding it and making a wish to change things?”
Aru looked over, but Brynne and Mini were passed out. Aru closed her eyes and tried to focus on Rudy’s music, but it didn’t work.
Aiden sat on the couch two feet away from her. Moonlight had a tendency to make everything beautiful—not that people