A tiny thud made the four of them whip around to look at Kara. She had woken up, and in the process of sitting up, she’d let the book she’d carried from the Sleeper’s lair fall to the floor. Kara immediately hunched her shoulders, looking around nervously.
“I, um, I think I can help you,” said Kara in a small voice.
Brynne stood up.
The blue choker around her neck, which held Gogo, her camouflaged wind mace, glowed slightly. “Do you really think we’d take help from the daughter of the Sleeper?”
Really, Brynne, scolded Mini.
Kara turned to Aru, her eyes shining. Aru forced herself to stand still. She wanted to defend Kara, but she was afraid that if she did, it would make her look like the “untrue sister” from Sheela’s prophecy. The rest of the Otherworld already thought she was bad news. She couldn’t have her Pandava sisters thinking the same thing.
Kara looked down, hurt, and her hands curled into fists in her lap. “My name is Kara, and I’m not his only daughter, you know.”
The whole room fell silent for a couple of moments. Aru felt her palms turning hot. She was about to go to Kara’s side when there came the sound of a chair scraping back.
“This is ridiculous,” grumbled Aiden.
He swiped a glass of water off the table and walked over to give it to Kara. As she drank, Aiden bent down, picking up the book that had fallen off her lap. He turned it over, a soft smile growing on his face.
“A book of Emily Dickinson poems?” he asked, handing it back to her.
Kara flushed. “Her work has always made me feel…less alone.”
Aiden’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and his gaze lingered on Kara. As Aru watched, something painful nudged at her heart.
“Okay, okay, this isn’t book-club time,” growled Brynne. “What do you really want?”
“I want to help—” Kara started.
“Why?” demanded Brynne.
Mini frowned. “Easy, Bee…”
“Why do you want to help us when Aru says that the Sleeper rescued you? You owe him, and he’s your dad, so you probably—”
“Love him?” finished Kara quietly. “Yes, of course I love my dad.” Kara looked at them, lifting her chin. “I believe he can be both a good dad and a bad person. I can want to stop the evil things he might do and still want to protect him. Maybe, by helping you guys, I can stop him before he makes a big mistake…. I could give him a chance to change.”
Kara’s words knocked all the breath out of Aru’s lungs. There was an ease and confidence in the way she spoke, and instead of pity, Aru felt…envy. Kara was at peace with an ugly situation. But Aru? Aru was angry.
Sometimes she felt so angry that she wondered if holding it in was the only thing that kept her pinned to the ground. Otherwise, the force of all the unknowns in her life might pull her apart.
Aru tried not to think about what she couldn’t know, but the worries snapped at her anyway. Was her mom safe? Where was she? Why couldn’t Aru stop missing Boo? Why couldn’t she erase the memory of who the Sleeper had once been? Why couldn’t she un-see the smudged ink of his inscription in Where the Wild Things Are and un-know that it was proof he’d been racing to get back to her?
Mini sighed, and the sound of it shook Aru out of her thoughts.
“I think the only way to deal with this whole thing fairly is to put it to a vote,” said Mini decisively. “So…do we accept Kara’s help or no?”
“Leave me out of it,” said Aiden, holding up his hands. “This is between you guys.”
“I vote no,” said Brynne, crossing her arms.
Mini looked thoughtfully at Kara. “I vote…yes. We can’t choose our family, and we didn’t hold it against Rudy when his grandfather Takshaka had it out for us and blamed us for stealing the god of love’s arrow.”
Brynne scowled, then turned to Aru. “Well, Shah?”
Aru noticed that Aiden was watching her curiously.
“I vote yes,” said Aru. “I…I believe Kara.”
The moment Aru said it, she realized she truly meant it. Kara smiled shyly at her, but the moment was broken once more by Brynne, who threw up her hands.
“Okay, fine, we’ll accept your intel and help, but you can’t come with us,” said Brynne.
“I’m the one person outside my father’s army who knows why he’s marching on Lanka,” said Kara. “He’s after a specific weapon, and…and if you don’t let me come with you, I won’t tell you what it is. Then, even if you win Kubera’s trials and get the Nairrata army, you might miss the one thing he came there for.”
Aru realized Kara must have been awake for part of their earlier conversation. Maybe sneaky does run in the family, she thought.
“This weapon…” said Aiden. “It’s not the Nairrata itself?”
Kara shook her head, remaining tight-lipped.
“Are you seriously trying to manipulate us?” demanded Brynne.
“No, but I…I will stand up for myself,” said Kara. “I won’t be bullied.”
“No one is bullying you,” grumbled Brynne. “At least Rudy was somewhat useful. As a prince, he could get us into different places. But what can you do? If you don’t give us that information about the weapon, then bringing you with us is just going to get us killed. We need someone who can fight—”
“I can fight,” said Kara, standing up straight.
“Oh yeah?” said Brynne. “Prove it.”
A few minutes later, Kara and Brynne squared off in the wide museum lobby. Aiden had his camera ready. Mini kept tapping her fingers along the edge of a first-aid kit. Aru leaned against Greg, the giant stone elephant statue that served as a portal to the Otherworld (that is, when the Otherworld wasn’t in complete and total lockdown).
“Aru, you made popcorn?” scolded Mini. “That’s terrible!”
“But delicious,” said Aiden, helping himself to a buttery fistful.
“This shouldn’t be a spectacle,” grumbled Mini. “The vote should’ve put the decision to rest. Now Kara will lose and we’ll leave her behind, which will make things even more dangerous for everyone. If the Sleeper finds out that she’s missing, then what?”
“You don’t know that she’s going to lose,” said Aru.
“Against Brynne?” scoffed Mini. “We can barely hold our own against her.”
Aru said nothing. She remembered Kara’s escape from the Sleeper’s lair—the way she’d darted quickly, and how her ring had instantly transformed into a brilliant trident. There was more to this girl than it seemed at first glance.
“Ready?” asked Brynne, twirling her wind mace.
Kara nodded.
Brynne blurred forward, spinning out her wind mace. A cyclone tore through the museum lobby. Papers and dust swirled into the air. Some of the papers folded themselves into birds with sharp beaks. As Brynne slammed down her weapon, the creatures rushed at her opponent.
Kara spun out of the way, then stretched out one hand. Her white-gold ring shattered apart, lengthening into the six-foot-tall trident. Brynne’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped as Kara waved her weapon. An arc of burning light followed the movement, incinerating the paper birds in mid-flight.