Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

The book's American cover

***Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes***, written by Roshani Chokshi and edited by Rick Riordan, is the third book of *the Pandava Quintet*. The book was released on 7th of April, 2020. The book takes place in various different magical and mythical locations, but primarily in the Otherworld, approximately 1 year after the events taking place in *Aru Shah and the Song of Death*.

The book follows the three Pandava sisters; namely Aru Shah, Brynne Rao and Mini Kapoor, along with their Pandava-adjacent Aiden Acharya and the self-proclaimed 'Pandava-adjacent-adjacent', aka Rudy, the Prince and Heir of Naga-Loka, as they go on an unofficial mission to fix a blunder they committed in the hopes that they can turn the fate of the inevitable war between the devas and the Sleeper, with just one single, priceless wish.

This book is followed by *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*.

## Synopsis

*War between the devas and the asuras is imminent, and the Otherworld is on high alert. When intelligence from the human world reveals that the Sleeper is holding a powerful clairvoyant and her sister captive, 14-year-old Aru and her friends launch a search-and-rescue mission. The captives, a pair of twins, turn out to be the newest Pandava sisters, though, according to a prophecy, one sister is not true.*

*During the celebration of Holi, the heavenly attendants stage a massive PR rebranding campaign to convince everyone that the Pandavas are to be trusted. As much as Aru relishes the attention, she fears that she is destined to bring destruction to her sisters, as the Sleeper has predicted. Aru believes that the only way to prove her reputation is to find the Kalpavriksha, the wish-granting tree that came out of the Ocean of Milk when it was churned. If she can reach it before the Sleeper, perhaps she can turn everything around with one wish.*

*Careful what you wish for, Aru . . .*

## Dedication

The book is dedicated to Roshani Chokshi's parents: May and Hitesh. She says they "always insisted on making sure we read the 'real' versions of myths and fairy tales." She thanks them for the "delightful trauma" and tells them she loves them.

## Cover

The fantastic cover is, just like it's two preceding books is designed by Abigail L. Dela Cruz.

The cover depicts the three Pandava sisters, namely: Aru Shah, the reincarnation of Arjuna standing in the middle with Vajra, her lightning bolt in her hand; Mini Kapoor, the reincarnation of Yudhishthira standing on the right with her Death Danda in her hand; Brynne Rao, the reincarnation of Bhima, standing on the left with the Celestial Mace of Vayu in her hand. In front of them stands the shadowy and murky figure of the Sleeper, with slanted red eyes, shadowy horns, dreadfully long hands with claws and even an animal-like tail.

Right in front of them lies the titular Tree of Wishes, aka the Kalpavriksha. The ostentatious tree is covered with leaves varying in the various flamboyant shades of pink and purple with its twisted trunk has a few magical jewels swirling around the upper part of the tree. The land is covered in grass which looks tinted blue due to the light that is being casted onto it from the light from the celestial light

## Plot

### Rescuing the Twins

As the book opens, the Pandavas sisters, namely Aru, Mini and Brynne along with Aiden are sent to rescue two targets by a Ferris Wheel. Aru had a gigantic lightning bolt and really wanted to use it, despite her friends' protests. Aiden claims that she would electrocute the targets and they would blow up the mission, to which, Brynne and Mini agree.

Aru remembers Boo and Hanuman explaining them about their mission. They were to rescue two people, of which, one of them was a clairvoyant. A clairvoyant is a person who can see the future and prophesize and given the fact that the Otherworld was waiting for a prophecy, this mission seemed pretty important.

Brynne suggests that she could blast the booth, where the targets are hiding, with wind, to which everyone disagrees. They go through all the options they have, which included Aru start it with Vajra: it could fry the clairvoyant and Brynne trying to move the wheel by gently pushing it with some wind, Aru says they don't have time for gently. After coming to a decision, Mini suggests that she and Aru could climb the Ferris Wheel and scan the booths for the targets. After some protests, Aru reluctantly agrees.

Aru and Mini began to climb the wheel when Aru starts to sing the theme song of Spiderman. When questioned by Mini, Aru quickly shuts up and says that it was an illusion of the wind.

About fifteen feet away, across a slender metallic bridge, was a glass-encased compartment big enough to hold two people. Its red door was shut tight, and the inside was dark. Aru aimed Vajra at the door hinge and threw it, only to reveal nothing. Mini confirms through Dee Dee that there were no magical enchantments.

They check the remaining four booths, only to find nothing. As they were moving to the last booth, Brynne's panicked voice interrupted their thoughts to inform that the demons have found them.

As they entered the last booth, they sensed the two targets. And a rakshasa.

As the bull-headed rakshasa advanced on them, Sheela tries to control the prophecy which is on the verge of arrival. Brynne sends a gust of wind, with a prior warning, to protect them. The rakshasa disappeared into thin air, only to materialize when the wind was gone. He quickly sent a piece of onyx to distract Aru, while sending tendrils of shadows towards the sisters to knock them off the Ferris Wheel. Aru called out for Vajra, to which, Vajra turned into a hoverboard and saved the two sisters.

Aru had a plan to rescue the targets from the rakshasa. She had Mini make all the booths look identical to the one holding the targets and Brynne to send a gust of wind towards the rakshasa to topple him off the booth. When the rakshasa fell to the ground, the Pandavas and Aiden knocked him unconscious.

When they bring the two targets from the Ferris Wheel, they claim to be Pandavas. After realizing that demons can absorb information even while knocked out unconscious, they decide to carry the demons to Court of the Sky through the Magical Dead Zone, as the targets are underage to have access to a portal through the Night Bazaar. Ordinary mortals refuse to believe in magic, and therefore ignore it. However, within the Dead Zone, the people who are banished there attempt to flee with them, causing the rakshasa to awaken. This allows it to hear the Prophecy Sheela speaks, then it escapes. Nikita and Sheela later get claimed by the Ashvins, revealing themselves to be the reincarnations of Nakula and Sahadeva respectively, their weapons were currently a green heart and silver star placed on their throats.

### Outside the Night Bazaar

The Pandava sisters, along with Aiden sit on a bench on the outskirts of the Night Bazaar. Aru relieves the dreadful conversation they had with their mentor, who had flown back to the Council to triage, which just sounded like adult-speak for ‘You really screwed up’ in Aru’s mind.

Aru looks at the beautiful Night Bazaar and the glittering *chakora* forest, and ruminates about the fact if she really is fighting on the ‘right side’. However, she is interrupted by Sheela questioning her about the beauty of the Otherworld. Aru looks at the Otherworld, which is decorated beautifully with colors, resulting in a dazzling fiasco and flurry of glittering colors. The others cheer up when Aru mentions that the Otherworld has been decorated so alluringly for Holi, which is the Hindu festival of colors and also Aru’s favorite Hindu festival.

Whilst everyone is discussing about the festival, Aru calls Aiden ‘Wifey’, which makes Nikita ask them about that seemingly intriguing nickname, and Brynne adds and lists all the reasons as to why Nikita could call Aiden by the nickname ‘Ammamma’, as well. And then, after being inquired again about the nickname ‘Wifey’, Sheela tells them the story of Princess Draupadi and her marriage with all of the five Pandava brothers.  She finished the story with the tragic fact that Draupadi loved one brother more than the rest, and after finishing the story her eyes glowed silver and she looked straight at Aiden and asked herself if that fact was true even lifetimes later.

### The New Plan

The concerned Council of Guardians, (namely Hanuman and Urvashi) visit Lanka, the City of Gold, as the Prophecy mentions a false treasure. The Prophecy mentions a 'tree at the heart', which the Pandavas to believe refers to the titular *Tree of Wishes*, Kalpavriksha. They visit the gardens in Amaravati where they think it is kept, but Nikita reveals it is a fake and that a hint to the real tree's location is kept in the Crypt of Eclipses, where there lies secrets, which is inside the House of Months. They decide to go on a quest to find the tree. Since they need a key to open it, they decide to visit Vishwakarma, the Hindu God of Architects, first. The quest is kept secret from all others, except Boo, as they were forbidden from helping the devas. Aru is unexpectedly visited by a Naga prince named Rudra. He was the same Naga that helped them in their previous quest. Rudy insists on joining the quest as claims he can get them an audience with Vishwakarma.

They visit Vishwakarma who, after hearing their request, warns them that a key to unlock any lock needs to be *alive*, and live no things demand answers. It is revealed that the Sleeper once tried to find the tree, but whether he succeeded in reaching it is unknown. He was changed after the experience, though, and left 'parts of himself' along the way.

### Fighting Garuda

The Pandavas sneak inside the House of Months, and sneak past Rahu and Ketu, the head and body of an Asura that takes the form of a dragon. The Yalis, keepers of the Crypt, are initially suspicious, as they can sense their celestial weapons, but agree to take them to the Crypt. The Pandavas find a wooden bird, with its voice broken, which holds a memory of the Sleeper. Aru accidentally drops it, and Rudy tries to catch it, unwittingly setting off an alarm. It is revealed that the Yalis have the pillar that contains Narasimha, the wrathful fourth avatar of Vishnu. Aru bargains with the Yalis and they narrowly escape Narasimha.

Garuda is first mentioned when the Potatoes are examining the wooden eagle, and they notice the letter 'G' on it. Rudy immediately starts to panic, since Garuda is the sworn enemy of all the Nagas, *including* him.

However, Garuda makes his first appearance the next morning, in Tennessee, along with his army of all the birds. While the birds taunt and jeer at the Potatoes, Garuda silently observes all of them. Finally, one raven starts to inform the Potatoes that they've been charged with the theft of a precious object on loan from Garuda to the Goddess Aranyani. And since they had not only stolen the object but also broken it, they would be executed, which leads to the Potatoes backfiring their words with their chosen words. But the Potatoes slowly realize that the leading cause to their execution is the fact that Rudy, who is the descendant of Kadru, is with them. Mini immediately perks up, trying to reason with Garuda by saying that Rudy is completely harmless. But the raven doesn't take any of their 'excuses' and proceeds to give them an explanation.

The raven proceeds to show them a hologram of Garuda's childhood and all the acts of injustice Kadru did to him and his mother, and at the end of the vision, he justifies the execution of the Potatoes with the fact that Rudy is a direct descendant of Kadru and deserves death. At the end, Garuda sends his army of various birds to attack the Potatoes.

The Pandavas along with Aiden immediately fall into battle formation, attacking the birds and rendering them motionless, while Rudy crouches on the bird, working furiously on the wooden eagle, trying to fix it. During the battle, Aru notices that Garuda himself stays absolutely motionless and still, not uttering a single word and carefully observing the whole battle, which leads to realization dawning on Aru that if they don't fix the wooden eagle, Garuda *will* execute them.

Fortunately, Rudy finally manages to fix the wooden eagle by putting a sapphire in place, and a beautiful, honey-like sound starts emitting from the eagle, signaling that the thing is finally fixed. Then the eagle started emitting a new song, which instantly resulted in all of the birds flying off and disappearing.

Then, finally, Garuda speaks, asking the Potatoes on how they fixed the eagle. After a few more questions, Garuda shows them another vision on how he recurred the amrita, and then commands with lamentation that he must not let the Potatoes leave his service while still staying alive.

And just then, Boo enters the forest.

He uses his power as a member of the Council of the Guardians, and says that he himself sanctioned the quest to them, and because of his authority, Garuda is unable to do anything. Garuda warns the Potatoes of the challenges that lay, and also tell them of the Chakora Forest, from where they might recruit the next part of their mission.

With that, he takes off.

Boo reveals that the Sleeper kidnapped Sheela and the group is deeply impacted. He also says Nikita is in the custody of the moon god.

They travel to the Chakora forest, where they meet Sohail, a Chakora bird who is rejected by the others for his tendency to fall in love with luminous objects. The birds agree to decipher the message, for each one of their secrets, which they force them to say. The birds also reveal they know who Aru is, and give her the memory of the Sleeper, wherein he names her.

### In Aranyani's Garden

They go up to the Chandra Loka, as the revealed riddle mention roots, which leads them to believe that Nikita might have the answer. So they retrieve her and are left on a supermarket where there are magical plants. Nikita speaks to them, and they find out that the tree is in Atlanta, in a floating island. While on the way there, Nikita and Aru reconcile.

### Be Careful What You Wish For

The Sleeper ambushes them with his army. The other Pandavas rescue Sheela, while Nikita and Aru flee to the Tree of Wishes, where Aru leaves Nkkita behind to protect her. Aranyani, owner of the Tree, warns her of the price, and gives her the final memory of the Sleeper. She also reveals that Boo made a bargain with the Sleeper to protect them, which hurts Aru deeply. She is conflicted and loses touch of good and bad. Nonetheless, Aru makes a wish, which is wiped clean from her memory. She pays the price of the wish immediately, as she is taken by the Sleeper.

Aru awakens chained, and meets Kara, a girl who claims to be the Sleeper's other daughter.

## Chapter List

1. **Aru Shah Is Not Spider-Man**
2. **That Time Brynne’s Shoes Got Ruined**
3. **No New Friends**
4. **Magical Dead Zone**
5. **Worse Than Being Sent to the Principal's Office**
6. **Password! But Make It Fash-un**
7. **Bro, Do You Even Lift?**
8. **That's So On-Brand**
9. **Goal: Don't End Up a Dragon Snack**
10. **Knock-Knock, Who's There?**
11. **Get in Heroes, We're Going Questing**
12. **A Wild Goose Chase**
13. **Begone, Discount Artichokes!**
14. **In Which A Giant Nose Spells (Smells!) Trouble**
15. **No One Signed Up for a Horcrux Hunt**
16. **Florals for Spring? Groundbreaking.**
17. **Never Trust a Hot Dog Stand**
18. **The Plan Does Not Work**
19. **Isn't This...a Bit Much?**
20. **At Least There's Not a Dragon**
21. **Well, Never Mind, Then**
22. **That's a Nice, Creepy, Destructive God You've Got There**
23. **The Bird of Mass Destruction. Maybe.**
24. **You Poor, Unfortunate Souls**
25. **This is Not Fine**
26. **Is a Platypus a Bird?**
27. **Quoth the Raven...**
28. **Surprise Ostrich!**
29. **We Are All Potatoes**
30. **But Soft, What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks?**
31. **It's Not You, It's Me. All Right, Fine, It's Also You.**
32. **A Parliament of Foul Fowls**
33. **What's in a Name?**
34. **What's a Publix?**
35. **Where the Deer and the Cantaloupe Play**
36. **Pick a Wife! Any Wife!**
37. **Gods Don't *Nap*. Ew.**
38. **Someone's Got a Burning Gaze. Literally.**
39. **And I - Oop!**
40. **Not the Tiny Legs!**
41. **You Brought Us to *Home Depot*?**
42. **Shh! The Baby Is Sleeping!**
43. **I'm Not a Regular Mom, I'm a Cool Mom**
44. **Who is Groot?**
45. **Please Don't Say You're Inevitable**
46. **Green is *Not* Your Color, Trust Me**
47. **We're Not Lost, Are We?**
48. **Ignorance Is Bliss**
49. **The Fury of a Pandava Scorned**
50. **The Word Aru Never Spoke**
51. **Epilogue**

## Prophecy

*The scorned powers are on the rise,*

*To claim their stolen immortal prize.*

*One sister shall turn out not to be true.*

*With a single choice,*

*The world shall receive its due.*

*One treasure is false, and one treasure it lost,*

*But the tree at the heart is the only true cost.*

*No war can be won without finding that root;*

*No victory had without the yield of its fruit.*

*In the five days the treasure will bloom and fade*

*And all that was won could soon be unmade.*

### Unveiling the Prophecy

1. The 'scorned powers' refers to the rakshasas and the asuras, and their disdained and disrespected that they've been holding in for too long. 'On the rise' refers to the Sleeper's army which is rising with the power of those rakshasas and asuras.
2. This line refers to the *Amrita* hidden in the Ocean of Milk, which is the key to immortality.
3. This line in the Prophecy is yet to be unveiled.
4. 'Single choice' refers to the single wish that can be made on the Kalpavriksha.
5. This line means that the world shall either be destroyed or be saved, with that one single choice that could be made on the Kalpavriksha. Despite the outcome, the world shall receive it's ultimate prize or punishment.
6. The 'false treasure' refers to the fake Kalpavriksha which had been planted in the heavenly Gardens in Amaravati. The 'lost treasure' refers to the real Kalpavriksha which has been hidden away in Aranyani's Garden in the mortal world for millenia.
7. The 'tree at heart' refers to the Kalpavriksha, which is assumed to be located in the heart, aka the middle of the Mortal Realm.
8. This line refers to the fact that only a proper wish made at the roots of the Kalpavriksha could turn any war victorious.
9. This line refers to the fact that nothing could ever be victorious without first submitting the fruit of hard work. This line plays more of a metaphorical meaning to the Prophecy, rather being an actual relevant line.
10. This line refers to the time period given to the Pandavas to complete their given unofficial quest.
11. Every war which had turned out victorious up until that point could be made 'unmade', because if Aru didn't make a proper wish at the tree, the Sleeper's army could take over the Otherworld and all the wars that had been won would be of vain.

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Aru Shah
* Mini Kapoor
* Brynne Rao
* Aiden Acharya
* Rudy
* Nikita Jagan
* Sheela Jagan

### Main Antagonists

* The Sleeper
* Rakshasas
* Asuras

### Minor Characters

* Council of the Guardians
* Boo
* Opal
* Rahu and Ketu
* Garuda
* Kara

### Devas

* Maruts
* Shani
* Vishwakarma
* Chandra
* Rohini
* Aranyani

## Trivia

* When climbing the Ferris Wheel, Aru Shah remembers the 2004 movie *The Notebook*, which was based on a 1996 book and remade into an Indian Hindi-language film in 2019.
	+ Mini also claims she heard Aru sing the theme song for the 1967 cartoon of Spider-Man. Although, the song Aru sings sounds more like the one Homer Simpson sang about his pig in *The Simpsons Movie*.
* Aru mentioned two wives, one turning into a pillar of salt and another becoming a ghost and floating back to the Underworld. Those two wives were Lot's unnamed wife and Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. In the Book of Genesis, Lot's wife looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah which were being destroyed by God, this was against his angels' instructions. Orpheus tried to save his wife from the Underworld but looked back at her against Hades' orders causing Eurydice to go back.
* Aru is revealed to now be more into Iron Man instead of Spider-Man.
* When talking about how the Sleeper left "parts of himself" while looking for Kalpavriksha, Aru mentions Horcruxes.