by Liz Delton
Nearly at the Moonstone’s door, Kira looked back in time to see the girl fall from the dragon’s clawed wing.
At the same moment, a gust of wind flew from Jovan, sailing right under the girl and whisking her away behind him. Without sparing a glance for the girl, Jovan raised one arm and then the other. All the Light magic around him disappeared.
The dragon dripped pools of darkness from multiple wounds, staggering all over the courtyard. Jovan spread his palms, and all the Light magic he had pulled bloomed to create an immense guillotine blade, glowing into existence above the dragon’s neck.
Nesma buried her face in Kira’s shoulder before the sickening sound of the blade falling echoed through the courtyard. The dark dragon fell to the ground, and Kira felt the impact rattle up her spine.
Jovan turned on his heel and crouched to attend to the girl he had whisked away on the wind. Mistress Tori rushed out of nowhere and dropped to the ground beside the girl.
As the knights released their weapons and the ruined beams around the tree, Light returned to the cobblestones.
The body of the dragon, a massive dark blotch on the courtyard, shuddered. Then it burst into delicate green snow, which caught on the wind, and sailed off into the moonless night.
Chapter Nineteen
Agreement
For the first time anyone could remember, lessons were cancelled the next day.
“Master Tenchi must be furious,” Hana remarked from her bed after the squire tasked with informing the girls had gone.
Kira, Nesma, Hana, and Michi were confined to their room. The squires—or so Michi had overheard on a reconnaissance trip to the wash room—had been assigned guard duty by both gates and at posts along the inner wall.
“Was Tenchi there last night?” asked Kira.
Michi shook her head. “He only goes to the Master’s council to vote. I’ve never seen him at the ceremony. It’s a shame, though. I bet he would have loved to take a crack at that dragon.”
Kira shuddered. She had barely slept after returning to the dorm houses last night. The roar of the dragon felt as if it were on repeat in a set of headphones she couldn’t take off. And then there was the constant dread boiling her stomach; she was beginning to think the beast had come for her.
“It’s lucky Lord Kosumoso was there,” said Nesma, and the other three nodded fervently.
“It’s lucky Nayoa wasn’t hurt that bad,” Hana added.
The girl the dragon had swiped from the crowd was in Mistress Tori’s care up at the apothecary, but the girls had heard Nayoa’s mentor had been up to see her first thing this morning.
They had already exhausted the topic of the dragon, it being nearly mid-day by this time, but the girls lapsed into another conversation because they had nothing better to do.
“But it didn’t seem like Shadow magic,” Michi said for the tenth time, after they had gone off on a long tangent about the Storm King. Kira had listened hungrily, building more upon her mental picture of the Storm King. Her anger toward the man was building as well, even if he didn’t have anything to do with the dark-creature’s attack, as Michi believed.
“What else could it be?” scathed Hana.
“Have you ever heard of Shadow magic becoming solid like that? And what was with the green snow? You can’t tell me you’ve seen that before.”
“I agree with Michi,” Kira said.
“Why do you say that?” asked Nesma.
Kira kept her silence, regretting her words. She certainly couldn’t tell them she had seen one of these creatures before. So she merely shrugged.
“Besides, who else wants to harm Gekkō-ji other than the Storm King?” Hana continued. “He moved onto Arishi only two weeks ago. He’s not stopping. My father wrote me about it—he’s a knight,” she added to Kira.
Hana went on, fiddling with a paper crane she had summoned with Light magic. “I bet Mistress Nari is calling in all the knights across the country to defend Gekkō-ji. The Storm King has never been able to get any of his agents in before. There must be a spy.”
Kira’s heartbeat picked up, thoroughly aware that she was the last person to arrive at the temple from Shadow territory.
“I wonder if the ceremony will be rescheduled,” Nesma said, perhaps to divert the conversation from spies and Kira’s newness. “They should just let you be a page.”
Kira smiled. “I wonder if Jun passed. He wasn’t guaranteed.”
Michi giggled. “If anybody advances to page early, it’s the son of Jovan Kosumoso. They should just advance him for what his father did last night! Or maybe because of Jovan’s rugged good looks.”
The four girls burst into laughter, until Hana said, “Don’t go saying that all over the place, Michi. You don’t want people to think Jun is advancing just because of his family.”
“Oh, don’t be such a wet blanket, Hana. No one would believe Master Tenchi voted to advance anyone just because of their family. Skill and discipline are that man’s only source of enjoyment in teaching.”
“True,” Hana replied with a chuckle. “Tenchi is certainly a man of honor.”
Just before dinner, a surly-looking squire popped her head into their room and informed them that it was their turn to leave and go to the bath and kitchen houses.
“You have thirty minutes,” she called after them as they all but ran down the corridor and into the evening light. “I’ll be waiting.”
From boredom, Kira had taken to practicing her calligraphy in the long afternoon hours when conversation had lapsed. She was tired of Master Caledon’s admonishments and, even worse, the other trainees’ pitying looks whenever Caledon harangued her. When they reached the bath house, she spent a good ten minutes scrubbing ink from her fingernails.
“Go on without me,” she called to the other girls. “I’ll just be a few more minutes—you get some food.”
As she finally left the bath house alone, Kira saw one of Mistress Nari’s fox messengers running out of the Moonstone, and her stomach jolted, reminding her all over again of her brief but mystifying stay in North Noxbury. The fox, the hound, and the door. And now she was here, and the dark-creatures seemed to be following her.
Was it her fault the dragon attacked the temple?
Without another thought, she turned toward the Moonstone. She might not get another chance to talk to Ichiro.
He was not in his office, however. As she retreated back to the foyer, Mistress Nari strode out of the small garden just off the foyer. The bright tail of another messenger fox disappeared out the main doors ahead of her.
Nari towered over Kira, in full armor today. Her salt and pepper hair was tied tight behind her neck, the length of it tucked inside of her shirt. Padded leather covered everything from feet to fingers as she slid on a pair of gloves.
“Kira,” Nari said, surprised. “Shouldn’t you be—?”
“I’m looking for Ichiro.”
“He’s meeting with Sir Jovan. In fact, I’m about to go join them.” She made to walk around Kira.
“I need to talk about the creatures.”
Nari closed her eyes and ran a finger down the bridge of her nose then turned back to face Kira. “A problem we are in the midst of solving.”
“I think they’re looking for me. It was the same as the one that attacked me. They’re not Shadow magic, are they?”
“We do not know yet,” she said tersely. “You should return to your dorm house.”
“But—”
“You need to be patient, Kira. If this is a trick of the Storm King—”
“Can’t I come to the meeting?” Kira fumed. She was tired of being told to wait, to keep quiet, to lie. “Shouldn’t I be included anyway, as a visitor from the Starless Realm?”
Nari pinned her with a gaze that would freeze a volcano. “If you dare speak of it—” she warned.
“How long do you expect me to keep lying? Or will you advance me through the temple just to get rid of me?”
“Kira,” Nari
breathed with barely controlled rage. “Now is not the time.”
“Fine,” Kira snapped. She left the Moonstone before Nari could even respond.
One look at the clock on the Moonstone told her she had five minutes to return to her dorm house. Rather than face the wrath of the surly squire, Kira skipped the kitchen house and went back to the dorm houses. She wasn’t hungry anymore.
There were large groups of trainees gathered on the front gallery of the dorm house, all no doubt waiting their turn to cross the square to eat and bathe. Kira turned away, heading for the back entrance instead. She was in no mood to speak to anyone—cordially, anyway.
The path between the dorm house and the stone wall was lined with plants, and the short walk in the greenery cooled her temper a bit. Enough that when the fluffy creature sailed into her path, she merely said, “Oh.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. The flying squirrel adjusted his grip on the creeping vine, and Kira regained her senses.
“Thistle. Nice to see you,” she finally said, remembering his preference for manners.
Thistle narrowed his wide dark eyes at her and leapt down to a vine closer to her level. “Nice to see you?” he repeated in his wispy voice. “Nice to see you, she says! Is that what you said to the dragon last night, too?”
Kira sputtered. “You know about the dragon?”
“Of course we know about the dragon. That’s what I was trying to warn you about last time.”
“Oh. Well, we were interrupted,” Kira said. “How was I supposed to know?”
“And you’re never alone long enough for me to talk to you,” Thistle rebuked.
“I’m sorry,” she said, even though she didn’t feel at fault. “How did you know the dragon was coming?” Kira felt extremely bizarre, standing behind the dorm house between the vines, talking to a flying squirrel, but clearly Thistle was more than that.
“Are they after me?” she whispered when he didn’t answer.
Thistle made an odd chirping noise that Kira took for laughter.
“Not necessarily,” he replied simply.
“What does that mean?” she demanded. “What are they after then?”
“We do not know. They appear…confused, angry.”
“Where are they coming from?”
Thistle looked away. “They seem to appear on new and full moons,” he said, not answering her question.
“Oh,” said Kira. “Is it Shadow magic?”
“It is not, but it is very dangerous.”
“Not Shadow magic? What is it, then?”
Kira could hear voices in the dorm house and realized she was late. She could only hope the squire wasn’t waiting for her.
“So what do we do about them?” she asked tentatively, hoping Thistle would hurry up with whatever it was he wanted to tell her.
“You must warn the leaders of the temples. The dark-creatures are unnatural. The balance between Light and Shadow is being defiled.”
“Me? Why do I have to warn them?”
Thistle eyed her, his tiny ears swiveling from front to back. “Because you are you. That is all Gekkō told me.”
“Because I’m from the Starless Realm?”
Thistle didn’t answer, only said, “You must warn them before the full moon.”
“How can I? They won’t listen to me,” she huffed.
“It must be you,” Thistle said.
Now Kira could hear someone calling her name inside the dorm house.
“But what do I say?”
“You’ll do it?”
“I’ll try, but—”
“Kira?” Nesma’s voice came from the back door, and her mentor’s face poked into the greenery. “Oh, thank the light—she’s out here!” Nesma called to others inside.
Thistle was gone. Nesma raced out and grabbed Kira by the hand in a protective manner, towing her toward the door.
“Where were you?”
“I’m sorry, I went to the kitchen house, but you’d all gone.”
The lie slipped off her tongue easily. Numbly, she supposed she was getting used to it.
Luckily, the squire had been too busy to notice one stray trainee, and only Nesma, Hana, and Michi had been looking for her.
It wasn’t until later, when she was toying with the dagger Zowan had given her, that she remembered his warning about spirits.
The question was, would Thistle have taken her answer as an agreement?
***
Kira woke early the next day and took a trip to the bath house—partially to afford Thistle a chance to speak with her again. She was torn between wanting to confront Thistle and make it clear she had not agreed to anything, yet she also wished he wouldn’t return to bother her again, absolving her of any perceived duties. But she encountered no one.
On her way back to the dorm house, she found a small scroll in her mailbox. It was sealed with a blob of what looked like candle wax, but when she touched it, the seal dissolved into Light, and the scroll unfurled a little. She gasped. She had heard of Light magic which was specifically created to be broken by a particular person in one of Master Starwind’s lessons, so she was unsurprised to see that the note was from Ichiro himself:
Dearest Kira,
First, you must destroy this correspondence upon reading. The seal will allow only you to open it, but it would not do for anyone to find it afterward.
I must apologize profusely for keeping you in the dark. Due to your status, you would normally be consulted on the matter of the dragon. Rest assured that Sir Jovan, Mistress Nari, and I are devoting all our time to the situation.
Kira blushed; she had never had such a pretty apology directed toward her.
It has not escaped our notice that you witnessed such a beast in the Starless Realm. We have informed Sir Jovan of your story—he is interested in meeting with you when the time is right. It weighs heavily upon us that Gekkō-ji likely harbors a spy of the Storm King’s—so you must be ever vigilant, with both your secrets and your safety. Lord Zowan informed me he has given you a knife; I implore you to keep it on you at all times.
You will find enclosed a document you would have received at the ceremony, as well as your new schedule. I hope that you will not mind that I have placed you on library chores for the next month. I ask that you use this time profitably toward your education on the Realm, though you will also want to keep the library tidy, so as not to attract undue notice. You will be scheduled for the early morning shift, so that you might have privacy.
Yours,
Ichiro Starwind
Kira extracted Ichiro’s note from the other papers, looked up and down the hallway to ensure she was alone, then summoned a tiny wisp of fire from a fingertip. After the initial thrill of summoning it so easily, she felt a bit foolish destroying the correspondence, but Ichiro knew best.
“This message will self-destruct in five seconds,” she muttered to herself, grinning as the flame ate up the paper.
As the last of the ashes drifted to the ground, Kira heard footsteps, and she whirled around to see Nesma turning the corner, her hair damp from the bath house.
“Good morning,” Kira said brightly, discreetly waving her hands behind her back to disperse the smoke.
Nesma sniffed the air and furrowed her eyebrows. “Morning. Your new schedule?”
Kira held up the two remaining pieces of paper and examined them for the first time. One bore the words “Advancement to Page” atop paragraphs and paragraphs of official-looking text. She would have to read that one later. The other was a neatly hand-drawn timetable that Kira shared with Nesma.
“Oh, you’re cleaning the library mornings! Did you request it?”
Kira spotted something else in her mailbox, and reached in to discover her new blue page’s sash.
“No, I never got around to requesting anything,” she said, running the sash through her fingers.
“How lucky!” The smile on Nesma’s face seemed so genuine, Kira wondered if her mentor w
as back to acting normally.
“I’m sorry I’ve been…grouchy,” Nesma said, thinking along the same lines. She eyed Kira’s sash, and the corners of her mouth turned up.
Kira bit her lip. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I should have been proud of you for advancing. I understand if you’re mad at me.” Nesma’s voice trailed to a whisper.
Kira reached out and put her arms around her mentor in a brief hug. “I’m not, I promise.”
Nesma squeezed back, hard.
“Do you think Jun advanced?” Kira asked as they left the dorm house together, Kira on her way to the library with her new sash about her waist and Nesma heading for Master Tenchi’s class.
“Why don’t we ask him?” Nesma said, pointing.
Jun, his jacket collar up around his ears against the cool autumn morning, hurried across the courtyard without noticing them.
“Jun!” Kira called. He turned, and a wide grin broke out on his face.
“I think he advanced,” Nesma said with a laugh.
“What makes you say that?” Kira joked.
“You two are so lucky!” Nesma remarked, after Jun had showed them his sash and revealed he had also been assigned library chores. “Most trainees would kill for library chores!”
They bid goodbye to Nesma quickly so she wouldn’t be late for class then headed toward the underground library beside the Moonstone.
The courtyard was busier than normal at this hour. Besides the last two novices sprinting for the combat rings—their class was about to start any minute—the usual guards at the gate were flanked by a dozen others. Several knights—Kira could see their white sashes from across the square—patrolled the inside of the wall and were stationed at the gates leading to the combat rings, stable, and garden. Kira’s smile faded as she took them in.
“At least no one’s here,” she said as they entered the subterranean library. The stones in the ceiling sparkled in the flickering torchlight. Now so used to seeing Light in the darkness, Kira was keenly aware of its lack, despite it being daytime. “Ichiro wanted to give me time to study in private,” she told Jun.