Daunting?

That seemed like a good thing? At least, she hoped so. Last year, everyone in homeroom took the Divergent quiz on Buzzfeed, and she got “Dauntless” as her faction, which apparently meant she was brave and courageous. So…yay?

And if Hanuman—the Hanuman—thought they were daunting, maybe it wasn’t so bad. But then she looked down at her hand with the three symbols of the absurd keys (how, exactly, does one take a sip of old age?) and her stomach turned. Nope, still bad.

Hanuman opened his paws. A small sun hovered above his palm. It burned so bright that Aru wished she had sunglasses.

“When I was young, I mistook the sun for a fruit. Got in a lot of trouble for that,” he said, sounding more pleased with himself than guilt-ridden. “I clashed with a planet, and threw off a scheduled eclipse. Your father, Indra, was so mad that he used his famous lightning bolt to strike me down from the sky. It hit me in the side of the face, which is how I earned the name Hanuman, or ‘prominent jaw.’” He stroked it, smiling at the memory.

“I used to play pranks on the priests, too. So they cursed me,” he went on. “It was a tiny curse. The kind designed for mischievous immortal children.”

“They punished you with a curse?” asked Mini.

“Just for being a kid?” added Aru.

That didn’t seem very fair.

“They said I would never remember how strong and powerful I am until someone reminded me,” said Hanuman. “Sometimes I wonder if it is a curse that we are all under at some point or another.”

The small sun in his palms vanished. He patted their heads lightly. With a final nod at Boo, the monkey demigod disappeared. Now it was just the three of them and an expanse of empty sky.

“Come along, Pandavas,” said Boo. “The map will guide us to the location of the first key. From there, it’s up to you.”

Aru touched the image of the first key, the blossoming twig on her wrist. She felt a tug in her stomach. Her breath caught.

One blink later, the three of them stood in the parking lot of a strip mall. Where were they? It didn’t look like Atlanta. Snow frosted the bare branches of the few spindly trees. Only a couple of cars and loading vans were parked there. A shopgirl dropped her cigarette when she saw them. But if she thought it strange that two people and a pigeon had materialized out of nowhere, she didn’t say anything.

Aru felt a rush of relief. If the shopgirl was still moving, it meant that the Sleeper hadn’t caught on to their path. Yet.

“Oh no!” said Mini.

“What’s wrong?” asked Aru.

Mini held up her hand. At the center of her palm, there was a symbol:

“It’s the number of days you have left until the new moon,” said Boo grimly.

“It is?” asked Aru, looking at her own palm sideways. “That’s a weird-looking nine.”

“It’s in the Sanskrit language,” said Boo.

Mini peered at her hand. “Ashta,” she said slowly. “The number eight.”

Goose bumps fluttered down Aru’s arm. They’d already lost a day!

“How do you know that?” she asked, feeling a little jealous.

“I taught myself how to count to ten in fifteen languages!” said Mini proudly.

“Sounds like a waste of time.”

Even Boo nodded.

Mini glared at both of them. “Well, it’s pretty useful right this minute, seeing as how we now know we only have eight days left until the world freezes over and Time stops.”

Aru straightened her shoulders. A cold wind tangled in her hair. She felt that sticky sense of being watched. “Boo…what happens if the Sleeper finds us before we find the weapons?”

Boo pecked at the sidewalk. “Oh. Well. He kills you.”

Mini whimpered.

Note to self, thought Aru. Never go on a quest again.

A Trip to the Beauty Salon

It took Mini a full five minutes before she could say another word. “Kill…us?” she squeaked.

“He’s a demon, Mini,” said Aru. “What do you think he’s going to do? Sit you down for tea?”

Boo hopped along the sidewalk, gathered a pebble in his beak, flew up, and dropped it on Mini’s head.

“Ow!”

“Good! You felt pain. Relish it, girl child. That’s how you know you’re not dead,” said Boo. “Not yet, anyway. And you”—he glowered at Aru—“careful with that sharp tongue.”

Aru rolled her eyes. She’d only been pointing out the obvious.

“Can’t he just find his own way into the Kingdom of Death?” asked Aru. “Why does he have to follow us around?”

This demon sounded lazy.

“He cannot see what you can,” said Boo.

“What if he tries to attack us in the meantime?” asked Mini. “We don’t have anything to defend ourselves with.”

That wasn’t exactly true. They each had a gift. Aru opened her hand where the golden Ping-Pong ball sat. It didn’t look like it would do anything remarkable. She threw it onto the ground. Instantly, it bounced back into her hand. Aru frowned. She threw it farther. Still it came back. Then she tossed it across the street, where it rolled straight into the gutter.