Aru Shah and the End of Time Read online

  Mini whimpered. “This is where the Council meets?”

  “They gather on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and during full moons and new moons, and also for the season premiere and finale of Game of Thrones.”

  Speaking of thrones…Seven huge royal-looking chairs floated around them. All the thrones were made of gold. Except one, outside the circle, that was tarnished and rusty. She could only make out the letters U-A-L-A printed beneath it.

  The other names were easier to read. As she sounded them out, Aru gasped. She recognized them from the stories she’d heard and the artifacts her mom had acquired for the museum.

  There was Urvashi the apsara, the celestial singer and dancer who was said to be unmatched in beauty. Then there was monkey-faced Hanuman, the trickster who had famously helped the god Rama in his fight against the demon king. There were other names, too. Names like Uloopi and Surasa, the serpent queens; the bear king, Jambavan; and Kubera, the Lord of Wealth. These Guardians were immortal and worthy of worship, but they were often considered separate from the main league of gods and goddesses.

  When Boo had mentioned a council, Aru had imagined stern summer camp counselors…not the very people from the myths and tales that had been crammed into her head since she was a toddler. Urvashi was, like, a heavenly nymph queen, and Hanuman, who was the son of the god of the wind, was a powerful demigod.

  Now Aru really wished she were not wearing Spider-Man pajamas. It was like some horrible nightmare where she was walking the red carpet of a fancy movie premiere in an aluminum-foil hat and rubber-duckie rain boots, and why was this happening to her?

  Aru turned to Mini. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad do I look? Ten being burn your clothes.”

  “But then you wouldn’t be wearing anything!” said Mini, horrified.

  “So what you’re saying is that I look horrible, but the alternative would be much worse?”

  Mini’s silence was a very clear YUP.

  “Better pajamas than skin,” said Boo. “Unless it’s the skin of a demon you slayed. That would be fitting for a hero.”

  Wearing heavy, stinking demon skin?

  “I’ll stick with polyester,” said Aru.

  “Polly Esther? That poor child!” squawked Boo. For a pigeon, he looked thoroughly disturbed. “Middle school children are uncommonly cruel.”

  Perhaps sensing that the conversation was moving from stupid to stupefying, Mini piped up. “Why are some of the thrones only half there?”

  Aru peered closer at the circle of thrones. Some of them were partly transparent.

  “Not every guardian of the Council is in residence at the same time,” Boo said. “What would be the point of that when the world isn’t in need of saving? No one believed the lamp would be lit for another ten or twenty years. They thought there was more time to prepare for the Sleeper. Until…someone.” He glared at Aru.

  Aru blinked innocently. Who, me?

  Beside her, Mini risked a look beneath her feet and started swaying. “I’m going to be sick,” she moaned.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” said Boo. He hovered in front of her face and pecked her nose. “You two are not going to embarrass me in front of the Guardians. Spines straight! Wings preened! Beaks pointed!”

  “What’s going to happen?” asked Aru.

  She didn’t normally feel anxious about meeting people. But Urvashi and Hanuman weren’t just any people. They weren’t legends, either. They were real.

  “It is the duty of the Council to deliver a quest. The Sleeper is out there right now, searching for a way to get the celestial weapons and use them to wake up the Lord of Destruction. You must get the weapons first.”

  “By ourselves?” asked Mini.

  “You’ll have me,” said Boo primly.

  “Great. Because nothing says Come at me, demon like a pigeon sidekick,” said Aru.

  “Rude!” huffed Boo.

  “It’s not so bad!” said Mini with false cheer. “Isn’t the Council meant to help us?”

  At this, Aru heard a laugh that sounded like someone tickling a chandelier.

  “And why should I want to help you?” asked a silvery voice.

  Before, the space had smelled like a summer thunderstorm; now it smelled as if every flower in existence had been distilled into a perfume. It wasn’t pleasant. It was overwhelming.

  Aru turned to see the most beautiful woman in the world sitting in the throne labeled URVASHI. She wore black leggings and a salwar kameez top that would have appeared as simple as white spun cotton if it didn’t glimmer like woven moonlight. Around her ankles was a set of bright gunghroo bells. She was tall and dark-skinned and wore her hair in a messy side braid. She looked as if she’d just stepped out of dance rehearsal. Which, given the fact that she was the chief dancer of the heavens, was probably true.

  “This is what you brought back to save us? I might as well set myself on fire and save the Lord of Destruction the trouble.”

  It took a moment for Aru to realize that Urvashi wasn’t talking to her or Mini. She was talking to Boo.

  To the left of the celestial dancer, a deep voice let out a powerful laugh.

  “You really hold on to a grudge, don’t you? Hasn’t it been a millennium since he ruined your outfit?”

  The monkey demigod Hanuman materialized in his throne. He was wearing a silk blazer and a shirt patterned with forest leaves. His tail flopped over the back of the chair, and from one of his ears dangled a jewel that looked like a small crown.

  “It wasn’t just any outfit, you big ape,” snapped Urvashi. “It was made from the skipped heartbeats of every person who had ever laid eyes on me. It took centuries to sew! Subala knew that!”

  “He’s a bird—what did you expect?” said Hanuman.

  “Not a bird!” shouted Boo. “And you know that!”

  Aru was so distracted by their arguing that it took a while before she felt Mini tugging on her sleeve. She pointed at the tarnished throne bearing the letters U-A-L-A.

  Now Aru could see where the other letters might have fit: S and B. Subala. Boo was one of the Guardians! But he didn’t seem like the others. He wasn’t glowing and powerful. And his throne had been pushed out of the circle. What had happened?

  “You know why I’m here,” Boo said to the Guardians. “These are the chosen heroes of the age.”

  Urvashi wrinkled her nose. “We’ve gone from training and assisting the saviors of humankind to playing nursemaid? No thank you.”

  Aru blushed. “We’re not kids.”

  “Um, Aru…” said Mini, “we kinda are.”

  “We’re preadolescents.”

  “That’s the same thing, just a different word.”

  “Yeah, but it sounds better,” muttered Aru.

  “Whatever you may be, there is only one thing you are to me,” said Urvashi. “You. Are. Not. Worth. My. Time.” She flicked the armrest of her throne and then fixed her dark gaze on Boo. “Honestly, how did you bring two mortal children up here, anyway?”

  “The usual routes,” huffed Boo. “And they’re not mortal children. They have the souls of Pandavas. I know it to be true.”

  “If they really are Pandavas, then the irony that you are the one who has been chosen to help them delights me.” Urvashi’s laugh sounded like gunghroo bells. “But I don’t believe you. The Pandava souls have lain dormant since the end of the Mahabharata War. Why would they appear now?”

  Aru’s skin prickled with fury. “Because the Sleeper is awake,” she cut in. “And we need help if we’re going to save our families.”

  Beside her, Mini gave a grim nod.

  “So you need to give us a weapon and tell us what to do,” said Aru.

  Hanuman regarded them solemnly. “The Sleeper?” His tail stood straight behind him. “It is as we feared, then, Urvashi. Everything we saw…It is him.”

  Under Aru’s feet, the sky disappeared. Static rippled in the air, and it was like she and Mini were now standing on a giant television screen. Hanuman swe
pt his hand over the screen, and images twisted beneath them.

  The first vision was of the street outside the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture. A leaf caught up in the wind hadn’t fallen. The only things that moved were the clouds. It was silent, but the silence wasn’t pleasant. It was like a graveyard—lonely, eerie, and undisturbed.

  The second vision was on the suburban street where they had first found Mini. Two boys had been frozen while arguing over a comic book. A girl playing basketball had jumped for the hoop and stayed caught in the air, fingers still gripping the ball.

  Beside Aru, Mini let out a cry.

  “My neighbors! Are they okay? Did you know that if you don’t have water for twelve hours, you could die? What—”

  “The frozen do not suffer now,” said Hanuman. “But they will if the Sleeper is not stopped by the new moon.”

  Aru’s throat tightened. All those people…people she had never met. They would be hurt because of this, because of her.

  “The Sleeper is right on our heels,” said Boo somberly. “Looking where we last were.”

  “Looking is too quiet a word for what he’s doing. He’s hunting,” said Urvashi.

  Shivers ran down Aru’s spine. But something didn’t make sense. If the Sleeper was looking for them, then why hadn’t he just stayed in the museum when Aru had lit the lamp?

  He was definitely looking for them (she refused to think hunting—she was a girl, not a rabbit), but he was planning, too. At least, that’s what she’d do if she were a demon. If your enemies were out to get you, you had to keep them guessing. It was like playing chess. You had to make the least predictable move. And to get to your goal—the king—you had to remove the defenses first.

  “Has anything else happened?” Aru asked.

  Urvashi’s lip curled in disgust. “Anything other than the world gradually freezing, you mean?” she mocked.

  But Hanuman understood. His tail snapped upright. “The vehicles…” he said slowly. “The vehicles of the gods and goddesses have gone missing.”

  Aru knew from her mother’s stories that when Hanuman said vehicles, he wasn’t talking about cars or bicycles. He was referring to the special mounts that the deities used. Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of new beginnings, rode a mouse. (Must be a really muscular mouse, Aru always thought.) The goddess of luck, Lakshmi, rode an owl. Indra, the king of the gods, rode a majestic seven-headed horse.

  “The Sleeper intends to slow down the heavens, too,” said Urvashi, her eyes widening. “He means to chop our legs from beneath us….But if he has truly awakened, then why are the agents of the heavens…them?” She flailed a hand at Aru and Mini.

  Mini tightened her hold on her backpack. But she wasn’t glaring like Aru. Her eyes were shining, as if she were about to cry.

  “Because…because we’re Pandavas,” Aru said, forcing her voice not to shake. “And it’s your job or—”

  “Dharma,” whispered Boo. “It’s their sacred duty to help the Pandavas fight the Sleeper one last time.”

  Fight? One last time? This was all news to Aru. Even the Guardians’ faces turned stiff at his words.

  “Right. That,” said Aru. “So, you have to help us.”

  “Oh, really?” said Urvashi. Her voice turned devastatingly calm. “If you’re Pandavas, then prove it.”

  Hanuman stood up on his throne. “We have never forced anyone to undergo the Claiming before they were ready. The Pandavas were always trained, at least!” He stared down at Aru and Mini. “They’re only children.”

  “According to the rules,” said Urvashi, smiling cruelly, “it must be unanimously agreed by the Guardians in residence that we believe they are semidivine. I do not believe. And if they’re only children, they shouldn’t bother.”

  Aru was about to speak, but someone else got there first.

  “We’ll prove it,” said Mini.

  Her hands were clenched into fists beside her. Aru felt a strange burst of pride in the surprisingly brave Mini. But Boo did not seem enthusiastic. He fluttered to his former throne, his face as pinched and solemn as a pigeon could look.

  “Let the Claiming commence!” called Urvashi.

  The Court of the Sky zoomed back into the shadows. And where the circle of thrones had once surrounded them, now something else did: five gigantic statues. If they weren’t already in the sky, Aru might have guessed that the statues’ heads would have scraped the clouds.

  Aru’s heart pounded, her previous burst of confidence gone. “You keep saying ‘claiming,’ but what are we claiming, exactly?”

  “Like insurance? Deductions?” pressed Mini. She shrugged off Aru’s bewildered expression. “What? My mom’s a tax attorney.”

  “You are not claiming anything,” said Boo. “It is the gods that will do the claiming. Each of the Pandava brothers had a different divine father. You are about to find out who yours is.”

  From her mom’s stories, Aru knew that there were five main brothers. The first three—Yudhistira, Arjuna, and Bhima—were the sons of the god of death, the god of the heavens, and the god of the wind, respectively. The twin Pandavas—Nakula and Sahadeva—were born by the blessing of the Ashvins, the twin gods of medicine and sunset. And there was one more: Karna, the secret Pandava, the son of the sun god.

  Aru wasn’t sure why they were all called brothers when they didn’t even have the same mom, but maybe it went back to what Boo had talked about—that they didn’t have to be blood-related to be siblings. There was a shared divinity-ness in their souls that was just as good as blood.

  Or something like that.

  “Wait. So, like, they’re just going to reach out from the heavens, weigh us, and say Yup, that seems like mine?” demanded Aru.

  “What about documentation?” shrieked Mini, her voice hitching with panic. “Is this like a conversation, or are there needles involved, like in a paternity test?”

  If Boo knew the answers, he had zero interest in sharing. Ignoring their questions, he walked toward one of the giant statues.

  “Pranama as I say the gods’ names,” he said.

  Pranama was when you touched the feet of your elders. Aru had to do that when she went to the temple and ran into the priest or someone much, much older and well respected.

  “I always have to do that when my mom’s parents visit,” whispered Mini. “My grandfather has really hairy feet….”

  “What about your dad’s parents?” asked Aru.

  “They’re Filipino. My lola only likes her feet touched if I’m giving her a foot rub.”

  “Shh!” said Boo.

  “How will we know if one of the gods is claiming us?” Aru asked.

  “Simple. They’ll choose to keep you alive.”

  “WHAT?” cried Mini and Aru at the same time.

  The walls of ribbon-lights started flickering.

  “Don’t worry,” said Boo airily. “I’ve only been wrong about someone being a Pandava once.”

  “So that means that person—”

  “Watch out!” screamed Mini, pushing Aru.

  The ribbon-lights slowly changed into a bunch of tiny bright spots, like stars. But then they came closer, and Aru saw that they weren’t stars at all.

  They were arrow tips.

  And they were heading straight for them.

  Who’s Your Daddy?

  Aru watched a lot of movies. Probably more than was good for her. Not that she cared. According to movies, right about now was when she should be seeing her life flash before her eyes while a bunch of people tearfully screamed, Stay with us! Don’t follow the light!

  The arrows grew bigger the closer they got. They cut through the air, and the sound they made was halfway between a wince and a whistle.

  Aru’s gaze darted across the empty sky. Forget the rules from a movie. She’d follow anything—even a suspiciously bright light at the end of a tunnel—if it meant getting out of here.

  But then the rain of arrows stopped short. It was as if someone had just
hit PAUSE.

  “Don’t worry,” said Boo. “The arrows won’t actually hit until you’ve paid your respects to the five father gods of the Mahabharata.”

  Aru and Mini were crouched and huddled together. Both of them were staring up at the quivering arrows hovering just a couple of feet over their heads. Maybe it was her imagination, but the arrows seemed really annoyed that they had to wait a bit before they got to launch themselves at Aru and Mini.

  “Um, great?” said Aru.

  “Dharma Raja, we acknowledge you,” said Boo in a deep voice.

  The statue of the Dharma Raja, Lord of Justice and Death, loomed above them. He was as gray as ash. Two sharp tusks curled from under his lip. In one hand he held his danda stick, the rod used for punishing souls in the afterlife. In the other, he held the noose he used to rope the souls of the dead. Aru’s breath quickened as she remembered which Pandava was his son: Yudhistira. He was the oldest Pandava brother, and was known for being noble and just and wise.

  Aru wasn’t sure she wanted the Dharma Raja to be her dad. Being known for being the wisest and most just? Way too much pressure.

  “Pranama!” hissed Boo.

  Mini and Aru rushed forward and touched his feet.

  “Lord Indra,” said Boo.

  The statue of Indra, king of the heavens, was next. His skin was the color of a thunderstorm. In his hand, he held the weapon Vajra, the thunderbolt. There was no way Aru could be the daughter of Indra. His Pandava son was Arjuna the Triumphant. Out of all the Pandava brothers, Arjuna was the most famous. He had the most adventures, and was known for his incredible skill with the bow and arrow. If being wise and just was pressure, imagine being considered the greatest hero out of the entire story.

  No thank you, thought Aru.

  “Lord Vayu.”

  Huh, thought Aru. That wouldn’t be so bad.

  Vayu, Lord of the Winds, stirred a slight breeze. He was dark-skinned and looked like the handsome star of a Bollywood film. He held a spinning flag that heralded the directions. His Pandava son was Bhima the Strong. Bhima was known for having a ridiculously large appetite, being superstrong, and also having a temper. All of which Aru thought she could deal with.