by Liz Delton
Kira couldn’t help but think of the burned fingers as they descended, clutching the charred vines. The blackened vines were still warm, as though the heat had flashed through them too rapidly.
No doubt the heat had caught the door’s conjurer off guard.
It was an awkward climb. Blackened flowers crumbled away in their now ashy hands. The staff Kira had summoned got in her way, but she didn’t want to banish it. Neither had Anzu, who had more difficulty brandishing her longer, bladed staff as they descended.
Finally, they reached the bottom. Kira clapped the ashes off her hands and stared at the door, only yards away.
The castle shook. Kira’s knees trembled, and she balanced herself on her staff.
Kagami, a dark void now the size of a church, had slammed her tail into the Spire’s raised foundation, almost crushing half a dozen Shadow mages. They managed to sail above on a gust of wind instead, thoroughly enraging the spirit. She wailed, thundering on their eardrums.
Below Kagami, the Grey Knights tirelessly beat upon her with all they had. Blasts of fire, icy daggers, and their powerful weapons barely made the mad spirit flinch as she slipped in and out of solidity.
She swiped her tail again, this time sending the Storm King flying through the air. Kira thought he would land with a crash, but just before impact, a light breeze cushioned his fall.
Kira gaped. The protections around the Storm King had long since dropped. His mages were scattered. Not one Grey Knight made any move toward him. Their focus was entirely on Kagami.
“Kira!”
She whipped her head around to see Jun running toward her, holding a gash in his side. Ichiro was not far behind him. They had been standing on the other side of a corner, where the foundation sloped down, just out of range of Kagami.
“Come with us,” Jun called, waving his hands.
Kira glanced at the door. Her gut wrenched, but her feet carried her toward Jun. Anzu followed at a backward run, her eyes on Kagami and the Storm King.
“What is going on?” Ichiro demanded when they were all crouching behind the insufficient barricade.
The castle quaked again. Kagami screeched, and they all clapped their hands over their ears.
Her eyes watering, Kira lowered her hands. “It’s the spirit of the lake,” she shouted over the din. “I think the door drove her mad or something—that’s what Gekkō told me.”
Ichiro’s bushy eyebrows furrowed. “Gekkō?”
“That’s right, Gekkō,” came an irritated voice from Kira’s jacket. Thistle’s head popped out, and Ichiro took a step back. “And you better start listening to this girl, or I’ll have something to say about it. You live on our mountain, you know.”
Ichiro put a hand to his chest. His mouth hung open only for a moment, and then he said, “My apologies. Tell me everything.”
She did. At some point, Jun put a hand on her shoulder, and Thistle crawled out of her jacket. He chimed in whenever he thought Ichiro wasn’t properly listening.
“And Gekkō doesn’t know who is causing this?”
Kira shook her head. “But Anzu and I found something that might help. It’s a—”
Whoosh. The four of them sailed suddenly through the air. Kira landed on her back and looked up in time to see Kagami’s tail slam onto the stones where they had just been standing. Zowan ran toward them, having just thrown his friends backward with a gust of Shadow.
“We have to stop her!” Thistle squeaked.
Zowan did a double take at the fluffy creature perched on Kira’s shoulder but didn’t question it.
Thistle spoke up again. “She’s attracted to strong magic, Grey magic. Gekkō thinks the spirits might be seeking the energy to put them out of the misery of chaos.”
Attracted to Grey magic? Something about that sounded funny to Kira, but Kagami was indeed focused on the Grey Knights. The Storm King, back on his feet and surrounded by his people, attacked with almost no retaliation from the spirit. She merely swatted them away. Was she really baiting the Grey Knights to kill her?
Jovan rushed upward with a surge of air beneath him, and two of his companions did the same. It was as if they flew up and up until they hovered right over Kagami.
The spirit had not weakened. She wailed again, forcing Kira and her friends to cover their ears. How could Jovan stand it?
Kagami’s face, a plane of darkest night, turned toward him. She slashed with her claws, but Jovan and the others dodged, surging up on the invisible breeze. Out of her reach, the three Grey Knights seemed to pause.
The earth rumbled. Stones from the courtyard surged from the ground, sailing up as if drawn by a powerful magnet. The stones piled upon Kagami’s tail. It thrashed wildly, until all of the stones beneath the spirit had risen from their places and were piled upon her.
She clawed at the stones, but more and more rose up from the courtyard, forcing all the mages and knights to retreat behind the corner of the foundation beside Kira and the others. Her gut twisted when she saw even the Storm King make his way over, trying to cover up the fact that he was limping.
Jovan and the others sank back to the ground. Kagami groaned, clawing her way toward them. Kira clutched Jun’s elbow in terror. She wondered why Kagami stayed solid.
The other three Grey Knights had reserved their strength and now came barreling up behind Kagami. A surge of water followed them. They ran, then the next moment they ran on the air, on the breeze that carried them over Kagami’s back.
The water that followed in a growing wave sharpened like a blade. It cascaded toward Kagami like a falling sword.
The screech that followed drove Kira to her knees, clutching her head. Tears sprang to her eyes as she felt the impact reverberate up through the ground.
She looked up to see a cloud of blue mist blooming from the place where Kagami had been. She was gone. The poor, beautiful lake spirit.
The door was still there.
Kira rose to her feet as the others got their bearings. She half expected everyone to start fighting again, but they didn’t. Zowan gazed at his uncle in disgust but walked away to help Nari through the earthen battleground. She had gotten thrown near the lake’s original shore at some point and looked shaken but not broken. The lake was half empty. Eventually, Kira thought, the water would seep back into it through the ground, but the lake wasn’t the only part of the Storm King’s castle that had seen better days.
The castle’s foundation had cracks running through the larger stones, and the courtyard looked like a bomb had gone off in it.
She looked up, and her stomach lurched as she took in the Spire. What if the foundation had been compromised?
“It’ll never fall,” the baritone voice whispered right in her ear.
She leapt backward. The Storm King, pale in the bright moonlight, gazed up at the Spire.
“If that’s what you’re worried about.” He gave her the shadow of a wink. It reminded her of Zowan, and she shuddered.
“What I’m worried about,” he carried on, “is what happened to the lake spirit. And why a girl claiming to be from the Starless Realm showed up just before Kagami went berserk.”
“Because I was coming to warn you,” Kira said. She stuffed her hands in her pockets, so he wouldn’t see them shaking. Her hand curled comfortingly around the library card in her right pocket.
“Someone is summoning these—things,” she nodded at the door, “and it’s driving the spirits crazy, driving them into chaos that forces them to seek out strong magic—maybe because they know it can release them from the chaos.
“Gekkō, the spirit of the mountain, wanted me to warn the leaders of the temples that you need to return to balance in order to stop it—together.
“The doors, the dark-creatures, the earthquakes and rifts, it’s all connected. And it’s not being caused by the Storm King.” She directed the last part at her Light companions.
“Obviously,” the Storm King muttered.
Zowan was glaring at her, one
eyebrow cocked. She cringed and mouthed, “Sorry.” She had meant it when she told him she had never dreamed of confronting the Storm King, but she had turned it into a lie.
The Storm King turned his back on her and drawled, “Starwind, please tell me why you’re parading this girl as a visitor from the Starless Realm. It’s obvious she’s Light.”
“Actually, I think I can answer that for you,” an old man said. It wasn’t Ichiro, and it wasn’t any of the Shadow mages. It was Gekkō.
Thistle sat on his shoulder. Kira’s heart lifted, and she smiled timidly at the old spirit. She had fulfilled her bargain, hadn’t she?
Raiden narrowed his eyes at Gekkō but didn’t challenge the old man. Perhaps he could tell he was a spirit—Raiden did walk past statues of all the spirits of Camellia every time he entered his castle.
Gekkō stood beside Kira, his hand on her shoulder. She fought the urge to pull away. She still didn’t trust Gekkō. Not after tricking her into this bargain.
“Kira, you were born in the Starless Realm.”
Her heart somersaulted.
“But you would have grown up in Camellia had your mother not slipped accidentally through the void between worlds while pregnant with you.”
She put a hand to her stomach, queasy. The words jumbled together in her head, and it took a minute before she could force words of her own out of her mouth.
“So my mother really was from Camellia?” Her voice was tiny.
Gekkō nodded.
“How do you know?”
“Listen to the girl’s words,” he told the others.
And he was gone.
“Kira?” It was Jun. Nari and Ichiro were summoning steps into the side of the castle again.
She looked at the door and turned her back on it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Imperial
Once they were all inside and gazing at the destruction of the castle’s foyer, the Storm King gallantly invited their strange cohort into his private living quarters. Kira was suspicious at first, but even Raiden seemed to need a soft chair and a hard drink after the night’s events. No one seemed inclined to fight anymore.
After all their terror and hatred over the Storm King, it was more than strange to follow the man into his living room.
Jovan and the rest of the Six came inside the castle only to see everyone safely inside. They then returned to the courtyard to begin putting the stones back together, refusing to let the work wait until the morning. Kira thought they really just wanted to inspect the door. Before slipping out a tall window, Jovan squeezed his son in a bone-crushing hug and gave Raiden a look that promised violence should anything out of order occur.
It took a while to patch everyone up. Nari eyed the Shadow mage that Raiden had summoned to heal her with deep suspicion, but eventually her wound was nothing more than a bloodstained rip in her coat. They settled into various settees and overstuffed couches. Raiden’s quarters had no feminine touches. It was all dark wood and heavy furniture. Kira and Jun sat together on one of the couches, and she was glad to have her friend close.
Before anyone could demand answers from Kira about Gekkō and the door, Anzu stood up. She dumped the contents of her pouch onto a glossy side table.
“These were left beside where the door was conjured.”
“Ugh,” Jun muttered, leaning away from the be-ringed fingers.
Zowan jumped to his feet and crossed the room in three quick strides. He made a scooping motion with his hand, and Kira grimaced, but he didn’t touch the fingers. Instead, the fingers rose a foot or so off Zowan’s open palm. His nostrils flared when the specimen rose level with his eyes. The silver ring glinted in the firelight.
“Imperial.”
“No.” Nari swept to her feet.
Ichiro, Nari, and Raiden all converged upon Zowan to examine the ring. Kira leaned closer, but she couldn’t make out any details on the ring from where she sat.
“No,” Nari repeated. “What reason would the Empress or her advisors have to cause such defilement?”
“What indeed,” Raiden drawled sarcastically. “It’s not as if the Empress has anything against myself or the Shadow region.”
“You forget,” Ichiro intoned, “that Kira came to warn you of this—it has been happening all over Camellia. In the midst of Gekkō-ji as well.”
“It’s an attack on the spirits—on Camellia itself,” Nari said. “All of us.”
Anzu stared at the fingers in disgust. “It couldn’t have anything to do with the Empress. I don’t believe it.”
Jun shook his head in agreement.
Raiden crossed his arms over his chest. “And if it is?”
“I’d like to know what someone with an Imperial seal ring was doing in your castle, Raiden,” Nari said.
“So would I,” he ground out. “I admitted no such person, though clearly I need to review my defenses if hordes of ill-wishers continue to seek entrance.” He eyed Kira.
“Why you would think anyone Imperial would set foot here—besides to do me harm—is beyond me. Empress Mei turned from the Shadow region a long time ago, as you know quite well.”
“With good reason,” Zowan muttered.
Raiden shot his nephew a look Kira couldn’t decipher. “Rings can be planted. We shouldn’t rely on something so trivial for evidence of such a travesty.”
The two men stared at each other, and no one else spoke. Kira remembered how Raiden had been accused because his signet ring had been found beside the body at Azurite.
Nari finally broke the silence. “That still doesn’t answer the question as to why someone, Imperial or not, is summoning these doors across Camellia and warping the spirits in this way. Are they merely trying to get to the Starless Realm? Or do they know the doors are affecting the spirits? At least we know it’s not Raiden,” she added to Ichiro.
Raiden rolled his eyes. “I’m so glad you’ve come to terms with my innocence.”
“Hardly,” scoffed Zowan.
Raiden rounded on him. “I know how easy it is for you to condemn a man because of a small piece of questionable evidence.”
“Questionable evidence?” Zowan exclaimed, pushing himself right into Raiden’s face. “Questionable? An entire waterfall destroying a temple is not a small piece of evidence.”
Raiden shook his head, and his eyes slid to the sides, as if wishing the others were not in the room. “That wasn’t—”
“Wasn’t you? Please don’t tell me you’re about to say that wasn’t you moving a waterfall. I’ve already heard enough crazy stories today.”
Raiden took a few steps back, not meeting anyone’s eyes. Then finally he looked at Kira; she was too stunned to look away.
“It wasn’t me,” he told her.
Zowan huffed and retreated to the back of the room, where he roughly sloshed a dark liquid over ice in a cup. He leaned against a table and glowered at Raiden in disgust.
No one spoke. Raiden was still looking at Kira.
“Um, why do you say it wasn’t you?” she said, feeling compelled to ask.
“Because it wasn’t. I didn’t move the waterfall. I didn’t kill Lady Asaka.”
“This is ridiculous,” Nari finally said. “We’re not here for more tall tales. We need to figure out what to do about the spirits and the doors.”
“But,” Kira interjected, “Gekkō said Light and Shadow need to find a balance in order to stop the chaos. How can we find balance if not everyone trusts each other?”
Nari glared at her. “Kira, I know we haven’t given you as much credit or attention as we should have, but you don’t understand—”
“Maybe not. But Gekkō did, and he told you to listen to me. Why would he want us to balance out if the Storm King had done something so terrible?” The blood was rushing to her head. She was exhilarated, arguing with Nari. She didn’t know if the Storm King’s objections were true, but maybe Gekkō did know something they didn’t.
Nari didn’t answer.
> “How can he prove he is innocent?” Jovan asked. How long he had been sitting in the window, Kira didn’t know. Raiden jumped.
“I have no proof,” Raiden grunted. “Only my word, which clearly most of you distrust—and never bothered to ask for in the first place. No, it was attack first, ask questions never. Even my own nephew believed I had killed Lady Asaka, and there was no question that it was I who moved the waterfall. No one doubted it.”
They were all silent for a moment except for the sound of ice clinking in Zowan’s drink as he finished it.
Finally, Jun piped up, perhaps the presence of his father giving him courage. “Um, sir, Raiden, do you know who did kill Lady Asaka or moved the waterfall?”
Raiden’s tense face softened. “No. All I know is that my signet ring was stolen the night we camped outside Azurite, next to be planted beside Lady Asaka’s body. I fled the temple alone when the battle broke. I didn’t see who moved the falls.”
Jovan cleared his throat. “Perhaps a truce, for now. As Kira and Gekkō tell us, we need both halves of magic to balance in order to solve this crisis. Whoever is tainting the spirits must be stopped. Can we agree to a truce?”
Nari looked like she had just sucked an entire lemon when she said, “Fine.”
“Agreed,” Ichiro bowed his head.
They all looked to Raiden. “Of course,” he said and smiled—actually smiled—at Kira.
She shivered. She had done it. Really fulfilled her agreement with Gekkō. Had gotten her answers.
She had even had a door.
As Jovan and the others talked of plans and more meetings to discuss more plans, her stomach was doing flips over her decision not to open the door. But what could possibly lay beyond that door for her now? Her mother had come from Camellia; she knew that now. She finally realized the aching feeling she had carried with her through all these weeks of uncertainty was gone. She belonged here, and she couldn’t imagine leaving Jun or Anzu or Zowan.
And to think, all she had wanted when she went to Gekkō-ji was to learn Light magic. Now, she had a home—or the closest she would find to it now that her mother was gone.