Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

Author:Roshani Chokshi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: 2020-04-06T23:00:00+00:00

Something like a hologram emerged from the jewel, rendering an eerie sequence of scenes in front of them.

They saw a young boy in a market, his face turned away as he stared after a young child walking off hand in hand with her two parents laughing and smiling beside her. Someone grabbed the boy’s arm impatiently. “There you are! Come. It’s time to return home.”

The boy responded in a small voice: “The orphanage isn’t home. Homes have families.”

Whoever stood beside him laughed. “It’s the only home you’ll ever have.”

The vision jumped ahead, showing the young boy studying hard, building inventions, reading books. In every image, his face was hidden.

And then the projection changed to show the boy grown up—a man in his early twenties standing before a council of five elder Otherworld Council members. His dark hair flopped in front of his face, and when he pushed it back, Aru could see his eyes: one blue, one brown. It was him. The Sleeper. Only he was so young. He wore a dark polo with four red letters embroidered on the chest: OFCS. Aru recognized that acronym. It stood for the Otherworld Foster Care System, the same system that had taken in Sheela and Nikita.

“Ah, Suyodhana,” said a dark-skinned man, who leaned forward, steepling his taloned fingers. “You are perhaps the youngest and most accomplished member ever to seek permission to pursue a higher education in the magical arts. It’s tradition that every student wishing to pursue such studies takes on the burden of a quest. Yours was simple: show us the strongest substance in the world. And yet you have arrived empty-handed.”

The elders looked at each other, exchanging smirks.

Suyodhana smiled. “I have certainly fulfilled my quest, but before I show you the results, perhaps we can share a toast? I am honored to have even been given this opportunity to prove myself.”

He snapped his fingers and five golden goblets floated before the elders. The drink must’ve smelled delicious, because all five Council members sighed deeply.

“To our dreams,” said Suyodhana, lifting his own goblet. “May they never turn to nightmares.”

The members drank, and then the eldest one wiped his mouth and said, “And as for your quest?”

Suyodhana pointed at each of the goblets. “Every single one of those was filled with a rare poison for which there is no antidote.”

At once, the members paled. They scrambled to their feet, clutching their throats. One of them fell to the floor with a loud crash and started thrashing about and yelling, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Another fainted dead away. All the while Suyodhana watched without emotion.

“What’s the meaning of this?” gasped the elder. “How dare you!”

“How dare I what?” asked Suyodhana. “How dare I lie?”

They all paused.

The person who had been yelling about how he couldn’t breathe suddenly sat up. He pointed a shaky finger at Suyodhana. “So you poisoned us and then magically administered an antidote?”

“No.”

“Then explain why I am suddenly able to breathe!” said the man.

Suyodhana shrugged. “Because I never poisoned you.

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