by Ellen Oh
She knelt by Ranger Park’s side and listened to his breathing before gently moving Jiho’s hands away for a moment. “It doesn’t look like the bullet hit his lungs, which was my major concern. And the bleeding has slowed down.”
She opened a few jars and mixed several sharp-smelling ointments together in a small cup.
“What is that?” Jiho asked. “It’s not magic, is it?”
Micah snorted. “People like to pretend that this is magic, but it is just good old folk medicine using herbs and some mountain roots and a secret Botan clan ingredient. This will stop the bleeding and keep the wound from getting infected.”
“Will he be all right?” Jiho asked.
“If you keep his wound clean and watch over him,” she said.
Micah moved the cloth from the wound and quickly applied the paste, then covered it with a new bandage. She added several padded layers before wrapping the last bandage over and around Ranger Park’s shoulder to keep it in place.
As soon as she was done, the guards slapped manacles on Jiho’s hands and placed Ranger Park on a stretcher.
“Be careful with him,” she admonished sharply.
As they led them away, Jiho turned to look back at Micah. “Thank you,” he said.
Chapter 22
MICAH COULDN’T QUELL the strange feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach. She’d had it ever since entering the castle, and it had worsened since the imprisonment of the Nackwon Council masters. When she was with Samena, she was so enthralled by her mere presence that she could ignore the feeling. But away from the fairy, Micah couldn’t ignore the sense that something was desperately wrong.
Seeing her master Samena give the order to shoot the ranger solely to get his staff had been eye-opening. The callous disregard for life, by her brother even, had shocked Micah. She wanted to talk to Kai, find out what had changed him. But he was always by Samena’s side.
And Samena herself seemed off to Micah. The strong connection that Micah had felt with the fairy had faded. Had Kai supplanted her in Samena’s affections?
Now she deeply regretted not leaving with Mari when the others had. She missed Mari and her wise counsel desperately. Yet she knew Samena wouldn’t have let her go. Would Samena still trust her with the moonstones, or had she lost faith in her number one?
But the real question was, would Micah follow through on what Samena wanted her to do? Having seen what had happened today, Micah didn’t know what she would do. The Botan clan had always been about protecting the weak from the powerfully corrupt. What was she doing here helping a powerful fairy who was seeking absolute power? Was she betraying generations of White Peony chiefs by choosing to side with Samena and Roku?
What Samena planned to do would lead to a new world with a new leader. Yet it would come at the expense of much death and destruction. Micah could finally see that now, and it frightened her deeply.
Chapter 23
ON THEIR WAY down to the dungeons, Jiho kept a close eye on the guards carrying his father. He yelled when the guards almost dropped him down the narrow stairway and earned himself a sharp smack on the head.
The cells were dark, with only small horizontal slivers that let a little of the natural light inside. The sun had risen, and the few rays that shone through only highlighted the filthy conditions. Six cells had been built in a big circle. The guards dropped Jiho’s father unceremoniously on the floor of the last open cell and locked the door. Jiho cursed as his father moaned in pain. As he knelt on the filthy floor, Jiho was at least grateful that they’d left his father on the stretcher.
“Jiho, how’s your father?” Aeria asked from the cell across the way.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “He seems stable for now.”
He stood up to look out through his prison bars and saw Aeria and Zaki in one cell and Remauld and Diana in the cell next to them. Diana looked livid and was talking in hushed tones to Remauld, all while glaring at Jiho.
At the other end, across from the staircase and to Jiho’s right, was the largest cell, where Koko was being embraced by her parents. The king and queen looked gaunt and exhausted, but so happy to see their daughter. Yet Jiho could see that Koko was not doing well.
“Princess, are you all right?”
Koko raised her head slightly and gave Jiho a weak smile. “I’m fine because I’m with my parents. At last.”
The queen wiped away her tears to smile at her daughter. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
The king stood up and walked over to the bars. “Why is she so weak? What has happened to her?”
“It’s the iron shackles,” Jiho said. “This is her second time being exposed to iron, and she was already really sick from it before.”
“What do we do? How can we help her?” the king asked.
Master Zaki, who had been very quiet, came to the front of his cell to speak to the king.
“Your Majesty, iron poisoning can be deadly for magic folk. The only cure for her is to get out of those shackles.”
The queen gasped in horror, and the king shook the cell bars in fury.
It reminded Jiho of how he’d felt while trapped in the iron wagon.
“Princess, you need to hold my hand,” Jiho said. He moved to the farthest corner of his cell and reached his arm into the neighboring cell. “I can help you! Remember the wagon? I nullify magic, so the iron can’t hurt you.”
The king quickly lifted Koko and brought her as close as possible to grab Jiho’s hand. Several minutes passed and Koko’s grip on his hand grew stronger.
“Thank you, Jiho,” she said. “I feel better already. But your arm must be so tired.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “But maybe we should sit, so your father doesn’t have to hold you the whole time.”
“I could hold you forever, my little Koko,” the king replied.
Koko giggled. “Thanks, Papa.”
“How is that possible?” Diana asked. “Why isn’t the iron affecting his magic like it is doing to all of us?”
“It is strange,” Zaki mused.
Only Remauld let out a quiet laugh. “Of course! His essence is to nullify magic, which is what iron does. But Jiho’s talent only manifests itself when magic is directed at him. So the iron has nothing to nullify.”
The princess and Jiho sat holding hands for a long while before Koko finally let go. “I’m feeling a lot better now,” she said. “Why don’t you check on your dad and rest your arm for a while.”
Jiho stood in relief and stretched.
He went over to check on his father, who was still sleeping. He wished there was a blanket for his dad, but there was nothing in the cell. Frustrated, he returned to the corner to help Koko again.
“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Koko said.
Jiho looked to see the masters huddled together whispering through their cell bars. Their discussion was becoming agitated until finally Diana pulled away.
“Jiho,” Diana yelled from her cell. “Why didn’t you or your father tell us that he had Sejo’s staff? It was part of Luzee’s staff of ki!”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Jiho asked, perplexed by her fury.
“Wait, your father’s walking stick was Sejo’s staff?” Koko asked in surprise. “Remember the pool of dragon’s tears in Mir? It showed us how Luzee created the staff of ki with the three most powerful magical objects—the dragon’s egg, the three moonstones, and Chief Wizard Sejo’s staff.”
Gaping in surprise, Jiho responded heatedly. “We had no idea what it was!”
“How could you not know you held one of the most powerful magical artifacts in the world?” Diana blasted at him.
“Because it’s just an old walking staff that’s been passed down in my family for generations.”
“Just an old walking staff? The nerve—” Diana cut in.
“Well, if it was so important, why didn’t you guys recognize it?” Jiho yelled back. “You should’ve known what it was as soon
as you saw it!”
Diana was momentarily speechless. “How dare you!” she yelled.
But before she could continue, Remauld calmed her down. “Stop, Diana, he’s right. They didn’t know. How could they? They’re not Nackwon Council members. But we should have known that the Parks would have been tasked with keeping it safe. After all, their ability is to nullify magic. What better way to hide the most important magical artifact in all of Nackwon but to give it to them? None of us could see what it was.”
“But then how did Samena recognize it?” Diana asked.
Neither Aeria nor Remauld had an answer to her question. But Jiho remembered when he’d first seen her. She’d said something he’d thought was strange.
You also have something that I need. Something that used to be mine. And now I want it back.
“She knew what it was,” Jiho said. “She told my father he had something of hers. It had to have been the staff.”
“How could she have known?” Aeria asked. “Even Remauld didn’t recognize it.”
“She had to have seen the staff of ki personally,” Diana commented. “Which would mean . . .”
“She was there when Luzee first created it,” Remauld finished.
“Who is she?”
“Clearly a disciple of Luzee who we were unaware of,” Aeria said darkly. “And she is trying to free her.”
“What can we do?”
“We have to stop her,” Aeria said. “We have to escape from here. We have to hope that even if she frees Luzee, she cannot rebuild the staff of ki without a dragon’s egg.”
“If she frees Luzee, then we are all in danger, whether she rebuilds it or not,” Diana said grimly. “Sejo’s staff and the moonstones combined are still more powerful than any other magical object we have in our arsenal. We don’t know the true limit of its power.”
The atmosphere was tense as the masters fell quiet. Jiho could see that the iron was visibly weakening all of them. He felt so helpless and lost. Jiho gazed at his father, lying so still. If only he wasn’t hurt. Ranger Park was the strongest man he knew. Iron didn’t affect him either. His father would’ve been able to break them out of this jail. He would’ve come up with a plan to help them.
At that moment, Koko squeezed Jiho’s hand, reminding him that she was there, and he was not alone. Jiho drew in a shaky breath. They had to think of something. They had no choice.
Chapter 24
MICAH WATCHED AS the other sycophants plied Samena with gushing praise and flattery. The receiving room was filled with them: Roku and his loathsome minions, the Omni Murtagh employees and the repulsive Brock Murtagh. All fawning over Samena as they realized the power dynamic in the room. Yet the fairy was indifferent to them all, gazing out the open veranda doors to the view of Mount Jiri. They still fought for her attention like flies at a dung heap. And the worst of them all was her brother. He never left Samena’s side. Micah was sure that Kai would lick the soles of Samena’s feet but for the fact that no one was allowed to touch her. And how odd was that? Micah had always wondered why Samena never touched her, not even accidentally. She wouldn’t even take the moonstone from Micah’s hands. In fact, she had never seen the fairy pick up anything with her hands.
How strange it was.
The moonstones that Samena so desperately desired but needed Micah to collect, protect, and hold in her bag. With the admonishment to keep them with her at all times. If they were so important to her, why wouldn’t she at least want to see them, examine them, touch them? Why had she relied on Micah to take back the moonstones from Roku and Murtagh?
It was puzzling.
Now watching the fairy without the rosy glow of infatuation that had once tinged her views, Micah noticed the subtle nuances she’d missed before. The slight shimmer that surrounded Samena meant she had protected herself with magic. It made her seem unreal, as if she were a mirage, an illusion. What was the fairy so afraid of? She said she trusted Micah, but clearly the truth was that she trusted no one. What would happen if Micah left with the moonstones?
As if sensing Micah’s thoughts, Samena’s unnaturally blue eyes settled on her. She beckoned her over with one finger, and Micah was compelled to join her.
“You are unhappy, my dearest,” Samena said. “Tell me what is the matter.”
“Micah has always been an angry little child,” Kai chimed in with a smarmy smile. “Nothing makes her happy, even when she has everything.”
Micah closed her eyes, biting back the nasty retort forming on the tip of her tongue. She’d saved her brother from imprisonment—she thought that at least their family bonds kept them unified. But lately, she wondered if she was looking and hoping for something that was not really there. It reminded her of how her brother had changed after she’d inherited the White Peony title. The older brother who had always looked out for her and took care of her seemed to transform overnight. The truth that she never wanted to acknowledge was so obvious now.
“Go away, my pet,” Samena said to Kai, shooing him with a languid wave of her pale hand.
Shock and then anger showed on Kai’s face. The glare he shot Micah saddened her. Had he always hated her this much?
“Micah, you have not been yourself,” Samena said. “What is it?”
Micah stared into the fairy’s cold blue eyes and wondered why she ever thought they were kind and caring. How had she missed the cold calculation in the flatness of her eyes, the cruelty in the curve of the fairy’s beautiful lips? Micah could feel evil as if it was a tangible thing. She suppressed a shudder, and self-preservation kicked in.
“You only pay attention to Kai,” Micah complained. “You seem to like him more than me! But I’m the one who helped you, not Kai. He hasn’t done anything for you!”
The coldness in Samena’s eyes changed to amused tolerance.
“I am sorry, my dearest,” Samena cooed. “I didn’t realize you were feeling so jealous and left out. But do not fret. Everything will be different after tonight. And you will be by my side and handsomely rewarded.”
Micah recognized the command in her words. Fear flickered through her as she thought of the princess and the masters locked up in the dungeon below.
What had she done?
Chapter 25
IT WAS NIGHTTIME when the guards finally returned. They’d stopped by at midday briefly to drop off bread and water. But now, they returned with orders to take the prisoners directly to Samena.
“What about my father?” Jiho asked.
“We’re to bring him up also.”
Now Jiho knew why they’d left him on the stretcher.
The guards pushed and prodded them all the way up to what used to be the king and queen’s private receiving rooms. Inside, they found Prince Roku lounging on a new and ostentatious throne. Brock Murtagh and Kai stood on either side of him. The guards left them in the center of the room and retreated to the back wall.
“Hello, dear brother,” Roku said with a smirk.
Jiho could feel the waves of rage coming from the king.
“I have no brother,” King Suri said.
“Well, technically, half brother,” Roku said. “But once you’re dead, we won’t have to worry about little details like that.”
“You can kill me, but leave Yuna and Koko out of this,” King Suri pleaded. “Let them go.”
“What? But then I would be an illegitimate king! I can’t have that.”
“They’ll renounce all claims to the throne of Joson,” King Suri said. “They will say it publicly and swear allegiance to you as king.”
“No! Never!” Koko yelled. “I’d rather die!”
“Well, that solves that problem!” Roku laughed. “You can all die together!”
The large double doors leading out to the veranda opened with a gust of wind.
“Not so fast,” Samena said. Micah walked beside her, carrying Ranger Park’s staff in her hand. But no longer did it look like an old walking stick. It was longer and darker and seemed to puls
e with energy. But why, Jiho wondered, was Micah carrying such a powerful weapon that she could not have possibly wielded? Why was Samena not protecting it herself?
“I need an audience for the festivities tonight,” Samena drawled.
Roku leaped to his feet and bowed obsequiously. “Your throne, my lady.”
Samena ignored him and stood in front of the masters. “You are not looking so well,” she said with a toothy grin. “Too much iron in your diet?”
Roku, Murtagh, and Kai laughed uproariously. Only Micah remained unsmiling. Jiho stared at the bandit leader, knowing he couldn’t trust her and yet hoping she would surprise him once again.
“Enough of that,” Samena said, waving the others quiet. “It is time to right an ancient wrong. It is time to free your master. Come, Micah, let us begin.”
Micah stepped forward and held the staff in front of her. Samena electrified it with her hands so that it began to float in the air, revolving slowly.
“Place the moonstones on the staff of ki,” Samena commanded.
Micah opened her bag, revealing the three moonstones.
“Don’t do it, Micah,” Koko yelled. “She’s going to release L—”
But before Koko could finish, Samena shot a spell that sealed all of their mouths shut. Jiho looked around to see that they were all affected but him. Should he say something? Should he finish Koko’s sentence? Before he could say anything, he caught Remauld’s warning eye and remembered his words.
In a war of magic, your talent could be the difference between victory and annihilation.
Jiho stayed quiet.
“Micah, what are you waiting for? Place the moonstones on the staff of ki!”
With shaking hands, Micah placed the first moonstone into a cavity around the head of the staff. The moonstone clicked into place and began to shine brightly. She did the same for the second and the third one. With the final one locked into place, the staff began to let out a low hum.
“Now bring the princess forward,” Samena said.
Jiho bit his tongue to keep from protesting as the guards dragged Koko away from her parents, who fought vigorously.