Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes, page 21
A terrible ache of loss settled in her chest, and Aru tried to hide it. She didn’t want to feel this confusing mix of anger and pity and pain, much less show it. It would make people believe all the more that she was destined to turn on them. To become the “untrue” sister.
Aiden faced the chakora birds. “We’ve done our part and spoken our secrets. Now it’s your turn. Read the piece of moonlight for us so we know where to go.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay longer?” asked Sohail plaintively.
Aru hadn’t noticed until now that he’d hopped closer to Vajra…and that her lightning bolt didn’t seem to mind.
The elder birds nodded and lifted off their moon branches, circling over Rudy, who held out the thin pane. The moonbeams traveled with them, trailing silvery threads that landed on the mysterious message and scanned it like lasers.
A woman’s voice echoed through the forest as the words appeared in English:
All growing things know where the tree can be found,
But it takes the right ear to hear the right sound.
All growing things know, but not all wish to talk.
The youngest of roots are the best to unlock.
When the voice faded, Aru saw that each of her friends wore a matching expression of confusion.
Sohail piped up from his branch. “I like trees,” he said. “And I’m excellent with growing things.”
“The right sound…” said Rudy, staring at the now blank message. “Maybe it’s talking about me.”
“I think it means Nikita,” said Mini. “Sorry.”
Sohail puffed out his chest. “Show me this Nikita, and I shall vanquish him for the heart of my true love!”
The group ignored the bird.
“All the more reason to get to her,” said Brynne, eyeing the elevator to the House of the Moon’s palace. “If only we knew how to operate the elevator.” She said this last part in a stage voice, glaring meaningfully at Sohail.
Sohail immediately flew over to the pillar of moonlight and landed next to its control button. “I do!”
On the horizon, they could see a faint seam of red. Dawn was coming, and the pillar began dissolving like sugar in tea. The other chakora birds squawked and cawed as their moonbeams began to fade.
“Come, Sohail!” they yelled. “Let us go to another moonlit grove!”
But Sohail only had eyes for Vajra. He hung his head. “I know you have to go. I just wish I could come too,” he said sorrowfully. “But I will still help you, my beloved. You and your companions may board, and I shall ensure you arrive safely. But hurry before the night disappears.”
They raced toward the elevator. At Sohail’s soft caw, the pillar of moonlight expanded and two silver doors slid open to reveal a moonlit lounge with plush chairs, chrome and glass tables, and glittering portraits lining the walls. Even though the sunrise was beginning to lighten the world outside, the tall and narrow windows in the elevator looked out onto eternal night.
“Never fear,” explained Sohail as the Potatoes stepped inside, “it is a long but pleasant ride.”
Aru was the last to board. Vajra leaped off her wrist, transforming itself into a bird with electric wings. It flapped its wings twice and a gentle shower of sparks cascaded onto Sohail. The chakora rolled over, basking in it, and then Vajra turned back into a bracelet at Aru’s wrist. A slight sensation of warmth infused Aru’s skin, as if her lightning bolt were letting out a sigh.
“Farewell, my love!” said Sohail mournfully.
Just before the elevator doors closed all the way, the bird called out, “Maybe we can try long distance?”
What’s a Publix?
Brynne immediately made a beeline to the elevator’s snack table. “DIBS ON THE SANDWICHES!” she hollered.
“Be careful, Brynne,” warned Mini, walking after her. “You devour food like you’re conquering it, and honestly, if you eat too fast, you could choke! Or perforate your stomach! And then you’d get peritonitis, become septic, and die.”
Aru laughed to herself, and then went back to examining the rest of the space. About ten feet up from the white marble floor hung several gilded portraits of someone who could only be Chandra, the god of the moon.
“Someone clearly likes himself,” Rudy said as he stepped up beside her.
Chandra was startlingly handsome….
And it looked like he knew it.
The god had pale, glowing skin, perfectly arched eyebrows over sparkling dark eyes, and a slim nose perched over perpetually smirking lips. His shiny black hair was streaked with silver. In the first portrait, he was wearing a tuxedo covered in stardust and holding a glass of something sparkling as he stood on a balcony overlooking the night sky.
In another painting, he was surrounded by beautiful women, whom Aru recognized as the twenty-seven nakshatras, or constellations. He’d married all of them.
“Valentine’s Day must be a nightmare for him,” she said.
“Nah,” said Rudy. “From what I hear, he’s got a favorite: Rohini. She gets most of his attention.”
Aiden, who’d been staring out a window, looked over at them, his expression darkening. “So then what? The other wives get a box of chocolates from Publix and a card he couldn’t bother signing?”
“That’s specific,” said Rudy.
“I’ve seen it before,” said Aiden tightly.
From the familiar way Aiden’s brows were pulled together and the grim line of his mouth, Aru knew he was talking about his dad.
“What’s 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 like him needed it. Sometimes Aru suspected that the closer Aiden got to the heavens, the more his celestial blood shone, as if declaring that he belonged there. He held up his camera, adjusting the settings.
Rudy had sat next to him, on the far side, despite Aiden pointing to the many empty chairs.
“Nah, I’m good,” Rudy had declared, scooting closer.
Now Rudy was snoring, his enchanted sleeping jewel in his lap and his cheek on Aiden’s shoulder. Aiden was careful not to disturb him as he adjusted Shadowfax.
“Something on my face again, Shah?” he asked, looking over at her.
Aru ignored the sudden warmth in her cheeks. “No,” she said, averting her eyes. “I just thought you’d try to fall asleep, too.”
He shrugged. “I’m Pandava adjacent, remember? I can’t follow you guys into your astral meeting with the twins. Might as well stay awake and grab some shots. I wasn’t able to get that many in the chakora forest.”
At the mention of the chakora forest, Vajra glowed a little. Maybe it was thinking of Sohail.
“I don’t miss that place,” said Aru grouchily. “If I’d stayed any longer, Sohail might have passed out from having to endure the sight of me.”
By now, the music had started to reach her in fits and starts. Her eyelids grew heavier, and she gave in to the lull of sleep.
As Aru slipped away, she could’ve sworn she heard Aiden say, “Maybe he didn’t see you in the right light, Shah.”
But she must have been dreaming.
Brynne, Mini, and Aru met inside an ugly dream theme park. It was empty and dingy, and the roller coasters creaked and swayed in the wind. The pale cement beneath their feet was littered with soda cans and fast-food wrappers. All that moved was a Ferris wheel, glossy and bright amidst the dullness. It looked similar to the Ferris wheel they’d rescued the twins from.
“Do you think they’re in there?” asked Mini.
“Of course!” said Brynne.
“I dunno,” said Aru, glancing around them dubiously. “This place doesn’t look right. I don’t think Nikita is ready to talk to us yet.”
It was hard to forget how viciously Nikita had dropped them out of the last dream.
As they walked toward the Ferris wheel, strange details leaped out at Aru.
She noticed that one of the booths was in the shape of a stingray, and beneath its wings were row upon row of music sheets, only they looked stained and ripped. Frozen soap bubbles with spinning ballerinas trapped inside bobbed silently overhead on a string of dead lights. And although the concrete floor looked pale and dusty, Aru could faintly make out the design of polka dots splashed across it. There were none of the riotous gardens and plants that Nikita usually favored.
“This isn’t Nikita’s dream,” said Aru. “It’s Sheela’s.”
Dream logic doesn’t always make sense. One moment Aru was approaching the Ferris wheel, and the next all three of them stood before an open compartment door. Aru’s heart leaped in her chest when she saw Sheela sitting inside. Her knees were pulled to her chest, and she was rocking slowly back and forth. Aru, Mini, and Brynne ran to her at once, but Sheela held up a hand.
“I love you, but you have to stay away from me right now,” she said in a tiny voice.
She turned to them slowly. Her ice-blue eyes hadn’t lost their silvery prophetic sheen. With a shiver, Aru remembered the last words Sheela had said to her.
He’s making a terrible mistake….
And you will hate him for his love.
Aru had only a dim idea of what it could mean.
“Oh, Sheela,” said Mini, her hands to her heart. “Are you okay? We’re so worried…. Are you hurt? Are they feeding you?”
The dream began to fade, the floor thinning and dissolving. A loud crackling sound like thunder lashed across the sky and shook the compartment, and Sheela whimpered.
“They meant to take Nikki, but they grabbed me instead. She needs you,” Sheela said. “You can find her behind the favorite star of the moon.”
The dream quaked again, and Aru held out her hand, as if she could wrench Sheela from this nightmare.
“Where have they taken you?” asked Brynne. “Tell us! Tell us and we’ll find you!”
Sheela looked as if she were about to answer when a strange look came over her face, and her voice took on an oddly layered tone….
“He knows,” she said. “He knows what you seek, and he wants it too.”
With a final crack of thunder and lightning, the dream spat them out.
Where the Deer and the Cantaloupe Play
A loud banging woke Aru. She sat upright, her mind spinning from that last glimpse of Sheela, lonely and terrified. Aru dropped her head in her hands, wishing more than anything that they had found out her location.
And Aru’s ears still rang with Sheela’s pronouncement: He knows.
“We’re here,” said Aiden.
Aru looked around, realizing the elevator had come to a stop. She and the others got up and collected their things. Brynne grabbed one last sandwich for the road.
The doors slid open and Aru stepped out, head on a swivel, trying to make sure her jaw didn’t totally hit the floor. Which was actually the night sky, stretched out before them like a road. A rotating sign above them in starlit calligraphy declared: WELCOME TO NAVAGRAHA AVENUE, THE PATH TO THE STARS! All the famous planetary mansions stood here on a huge elliptical street that looked like it had been stitched together from a hundred night skies. One looked carved from a massive emerald, another was dappled all over with amethyst, but all were equally extravagant. After the last planet house, there was a glowing door wrapped in a shimmering fog that dissolved into the endless night.
“It’s called the Door…of New Day?” said Brynne, consulting a small map affixed to a nearby podium.
Navagraha Avenue was stunningly beautiful…and weirdly empty.
“Where is everyone?” asked Aru.
“The celestials are super into their time away from ordinary people,” said Rudy, grumbling. “It’s like they think they’re so much better than us just because they have a planet. Like, so what? I could make a planet out of all the jewels we have, but you don’t see me running off into space.”
Aiden patted his back. “There, there, rich prince. I’m sorry there’s other rich people in the world.”
Rudy sniffed. “It’s really hard.”
Up ahead, a different road led to the House of the Moon. The mansion shone bright as a coin, spotlighted by thousands of moonbeams.
“Let’s go,” said Brynne, leading the charge.
They followed her. The moment they set foot on the lawn in front of the House of the Moon, it seemed to shift and expand, revealing what appeared to be hundreds of acres lined with silver fruit trees and pools reflecting crescent moons. Frost-colored peacocks stalked across lunar-white grass, and a wandering path of pale white pebbles marked the way to the towering front doors.
When the Potatoes reached them, the doors flung themselves wide open and Brynne strolled right inside, despite Mini’s squawk of panic.
“What? No! Stop! Shouldn’t we knock or something?”
“If they wanted us to knock, they would’ve kept the door shut,” said Brynne.
In the foyer, Aru turned in a circle, holding Vajra aloft. So far, the interior design of the House of the Moon looked a lot like the inside of the crystal elevator. Lots of portraits of Chandra, and maybe two of Rohini, his favorite wife. A huge glittering staircase spiraled up from the floor and faded into the night sky, which could be seen through the translucent domed ceiling. Several ivory couches with silver feet scuttled off when the Potatoes entered the hall. A couple of armchairs bearing silver-gilded antelope horns made a strange huffing sound and stalked down one of the many intricate mirror-lined hallways. Aru glanced at the floor. Even that was mirrored.
“He sure likes to admire himself,” said Rudy.
“I don’t blame him,” said Mini.
