Why, Why, Why? Stupid Words

“You didn’t…” said Mini.

This was the fifth time Mini had said this.

“Mini, if you say that again—”

A cackle from Urvashi made Aru shut up.

On Fridays, their first class was traditional dance (specifically, bharatnatyam) and etiquette with Urvashi. But Aru had arrived looking so shaken after her encounter with Aiden that Urvashi had demanded to know what happened.

When Aru had told her, Urvashi had laughed hard enough to cause a lightning storm. Several merchants from the Night Bazaar had come to complain that she’d ruined their stock of raincoats (actual coats that shed rain). But the minute Urvashi had smiled at them and cooed, “What’s the problem again?” they’d forgotten what they were going to say, and they went away dreamy-eyed.

Now Urvashi had called in Hanuman and Boo and forced Aru to tell the story again. Hanuman hadn’t laughed, but his mouth had twitched. Boo was still trying to pull himself together.

“I remember Arjuna being a lot more…” started Urvashi.

“Suave?” offered Boo.

“Charming?” chimed Hanuman.

“Good-looking?” suggested Mini.

“Mini!” said Aru.

“Sorry,” she said, blushing.

“You know, in my day, you could just swoop in and take the person you liked,” said Boo. “It’s far more efficient than talking.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s called kidnapping,” said Mini.

“It was romantic.”

“It’s still kidnapping.”

Hanuman clapped. “Come, Pandavas, it’s time for strategy lessons.”

Pandavas. The word still sounded strange in Aru’s head, especially because she knew that it wasn’t going to stop with just her and Mini. The Sleeper was still out there, and as the danger grew, more Pandavas would be required. She had even gotten a glimpse of them in her vision. All girls….So where were they?

Sighing, Aru took off the bells around her ankles and handed them to Urvashi.

Urvashi patted Aru’s head. “Don’t worry, my dear. When I’m done with you, you will fell men with a laugh.”

Aru didn’t want to kill the guy. Just maybe talk to him?

Why was everything the worst?

As Aru and Mini left Urvashi, the Night Bazaar dance studio closed up behind them. Urvashi refused to rent space anywhere, because I have an image to maintain, and I’m not going to put my feet on a floor that’s been stained by other people’s shadows. Which meant that, three times a week, the sky of the Night Bazaar opened up to allow Urvashi to descend in a celestial blue lotus as big as the museum. When the girls finished their lesson, the petals of the lotus closed over Urvashi and she floated back to the heavens.

Hanuman’s lessons were a lot more…rugged.

“This way,” said the monkey-faced demigod, bounding ahead of them.

Aru and Mini trudged dutifully after him. Hanuman liked to use the terrain of the Night Bazaar. Today, he took them around the orchard of Dream Fruit and beneath an archway of gleaming silver feathers.

“Those feathers come from chakora, or moon birds,” said Hanuman. “A feather plucked from a moon bird will glow brightly, but only for a moment. If you wait until the feather is shed naturally, it will forever bring you light.”

Sure enough, the feathered archway never seemed to dim.

On the other side of it, the landscape was steep and more treacherous. They peered down into a deep canyon with a wide river rushing through it. Far below, on the opposite bank, a shiny crown hovered in the air.

“Pandavas!” called Hanuman over the roar of the river.

Mini turned white. Aru remembered that her sister had a horrible fear of heights. Not of spiders, though she wasn’t wild about spiders, either…

“Imagine that it’s your duty to retrieve the crown,” said Hanuman. “How would you get to it?”

“Find another way?” offered Mini.

“Trick the other side into bringing it over here?” suggested Aru.

Hanuman frowned. “Always choose the simplest route! Aru, you have a tendency to choose…complication over simplification.”

“Or maybe I just don’t want to drown?”

Mini nodded vigorously.

“In my day, I built a bridge. I called on my friends to help. We gathered rocks and threw them into the ocean so I could get across,” said Hanuman.

“I don’t have any friends like that,” said Aru.

“Hey!” said Mini.

“Besides you, I mean.”

“What about changing shape?” asked Hanuman. “Always consider how you might adapt to your surroundings rather than forcing your surroundings to adapt to you.”

“But…we can’t change shape?” said Mini.

“Use your tail!” said Hanuman. His tail curled over his shoulder.

“We don’t have tails.” She stuck out her butt so he could see.

“Oh,” said Hanuman. His tail went limp.

At that moment, an alarm went off. Hanuman tensed. Before, he’d been the height and build of an average man. At the sound of the alarm, he shot up in size, snatching up Aru and Mini in the process so that they could stand on his open hands.

“I’m gonna throw up,” said Mini, crouching on Hanuman’s palm.

“Whoa,” said Aru. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but she had an incredible view of the entire Night Bazaar. It looked like thousands of cities were attached to it. From here, Aru could see the entrance line, which stretched into a bank of clouds. At security, the bull-headed raksha had been replaced by a raksha with the shell of a tortoise. She could even spot the brilliant jewel that was the Court of the Seasons.

The alarm blared once more.

The sky changed from the split colors of daytime and nighttime. Now it was a uniform black.

“Something has been stolen,” said Hanuman, sniffing the air. “You must go to your homes immediately. I’ll send word by Monday.”

“Wait, what’s been stolen?” asked Aru. She craned her neck over the side of Hanuman’s hand, as if she could catch sight of a runaway thief. She felt bad for whoever had lost whatever it was. But at least she wasn’t the only one who’d had the Worst Day Ever.

“It’s something even the gods fear,” said Hanuman darkly.

It took only three steps for Hanuman to cross from one end of the Night Bazaar to the other. He let Aru and Mini down near the stone door carved with elephants. The door had been created just for them when their moms had decided it was high time the girls started their training.

“Be safe,” said Hanuman. He patted their heads with the tip of his pinky (which was still big enough to almost crush them) and then strode off in the other direction.

“At least we have some free time?” said Mini.

“Yeah,” said Aru.

But at what cost?