Darkening Skies

by eden Hudson

  “Is it painful?” Koida swallowed. “The Screaming Death? Did Shingti suffer?”

  The foreigner blew out a long breath and checked a fish that hadn’t had nearly enough time to cook. Koida looked to Hush. The silent woman squeezed her forearm gently and nodded once.

  “He killed them quick and clean,” Lysander said, stabbing at the fish. “They probably didn’t feel a thing from him. The poison, though...”

  Koida took a shaky breath and looked up at the falling water casting mist over the huge boulders on the hillside. She couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t think about their final, agonized moments.

  Murderess.

  Yoichi had been accusing her, the only legitimate heir.

  Then Raijin was on his knees in front of Yoichi. Her betrothed had tried to attack her half-brother, but by then he’d been too close to death. With his final heartbeat, he’d sent his own powerful Ro crashing into her.

  Then Koida felt her head shaking, back and forth almost as if she had no control over it.

  “Raijin drank the Breath of the Underwater Panther with me,” she said, a spark of hope flaring to life in her mind. “He was protected from all malicious harm until after our wedding was over.” When she tried to remember how long ago that had happened, time seemed to run together, as if there were three time periods—Before the Feast, During the Feast, and After the Feast. She couldn’t tell one day from another, but she knew that the Breath of the Underwater Panther had come Before the Feast. “I...I don’t know what day that was, but he said it would protect us until the wedding rituals were over, with enough time to get back to his village.”

  “No.” Lysander sliced one blunt hand through the air. “We saw his Ro leave his body. He’s dead. That’s it. There’s no sense in holding out some ridiculous false hope when we all know he’s dead.”

  Koida turned to Hush. The silent woman’s dark almond eyes held only pity, as if she knew Koida were grasping for solid ground in a landslide.

  From a lifetime spent with the Exalted Emperor, Koida knew there was a time to press one’s case and a time when arguing would gain nothing. Both of Raijin’s associates thought she was building up pretty lies to keep from falling apart, trying to pretend that at least one of the people she loved was still alive. Arguing now would only serve to convince Lysander and Hush that they were right.

  Koida turned her focus inward to the swirling jade and amethyst Ros at her heartcenter. If the Breath of the Underwater Panther was powerful enough that Pernicious’s headbutt the other night hadn’t even made her nose bleed, then some poison couldn’t have killed Raijin. Why had he sealed himself inside that icy coffin? Had it been to protect himself from Yoichi while he was helpless without his Ro? How long would the ice last? She couldn’t go running back in like this. She would never make it into the Sun Palace, let alone stand a chance in a fight with Yoichi. Not without advancing at the very least.

  Lysander pressed a hot fish on a charred stick into Koida’s hands. She looked up in time to see Hush taking her food into the forest, leaving them behind.

  Still considering the sharp right turn her life had taken, Koida picked at the fish. It burned her fingertips, but what was a little pain compared to what her father or Shingti or Batsai had suffered on their way to death?

  “I think Raijin knew this would happen,” Koida said, turning the fish over in her hands. “Before the feast, he spoke of variations and deviations, and he said no matter who I was, he would always find me.”

  Lysander just shook his head. “If I had a link for every weird bit of nonsense Raijin’s dropped since I met him, I would be swimming in silver.”

  “He spoke as if he knew me before he negotiated the treaty with Father,” Koida insisted. “As if it was all intentional, from us meeting to the...to last night. But how could that be?”

  Lysander sighed, his fish-on-a-stick poised halfway to his mouth.

  “Last year, we went with Raijin to the Dead Waters Kingdom. He slipped us for a while, went off alone. When he came back, he wouldn’t talk about what happened, but he was dead set on coming here. That was the first he ever mentioned the valley or your people.”

  Koida frowned. She had never even heard of the Dead Waters Kingdom. She didn’t see how Raijin could have learned about her there.

  “Where are we going now?” she asked.

  “As far away from the empire as possible before you’re captured and executed,” Lysander answered. “Now eat your food so we can saddle up.”

  Koida nodded. That made good sense. Yoichi would be telling everyone that she had killed her family and Raijin. Maybe by now word had reached Raijin’s tribe, and the Ji Yu would want her dead as well. A sudden wash of helplessness hit her. There were so many people in the world, so many more than she had ever even considered, and it felt as if everyone but Lysander and Hush wanted her dead.

  Except maybe that wasn’t true. There was one place, one allied tribe Yoichi might not even try to bring over to his side.

  Koida looked at Lysander. “Which direction have we been riding?”

  “South,” he said around a bite of food. He swallowed. “Why?”

  Half a day’s ride south of the palace. Another day and a half would bring them to the lower reaches.

  “With all of us dead or gone, Cousin Yoichi...” She grimaced, though there was no real emotion behind the expression. She just didn’t want to call Yoichi her cousin anymore, didn’t want to be associated with him at all. Our family, he’d said. She poisoned our family. “He’s the next highest rank in all the empire and the only other blood relation to the emperor. The nobles love him. Power will fall to Yoichi, and all of our—the empire’s—allies will become his allies. Except perhaps one tribe. Yoichi didn’t like Raijin bringing the Uktena into allegiance with the empire. He called them filthy savages and suggested they were worthless.” Koida held the charred stick between her fingers and twirled the rapidly cooling fish, picturing the barbaric delegation Raijin had seemed perfectly at home with. She glanced up at Lysander. “I know Raijin was acquainted with them before he brought them into the empire.”

  “He never said he didn’t know them before the negotiations.” Lysander tossed his stick into the fire, then wiped the grease from his hands onto his pants. “You people just assumed.”

  “I’m not accusing him of deception,” Koida said. “I believe Yoichi won’t think to convince the Uktena that I’m a murderer. He probably won’t even uphold their agreement with the empire. That means they could be a potential ally. We should go to them first.”

  “We should eat our food,” Lysander said, picking at his teeth with a thumbnail. “So we can get back on our horses and run for your life.”

  “Well, that’s where I’m going,” Koida said. “You and Hush are welcome to come with me or go off as you please.” She raised her chin a touch as she would have with an insubordinate messenger or lady in waiting and switched to a formal tone. “You have done everything you were tasked with, Lysander, rescuing me from the massacre and getting me to safety. Gratitude.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “Are you dismissing me?”

  Hush came out of the tree line, her fish gone, and knelt next to the fire. Lysander reached over and slapped the silent woman’s arm.

  “This infant is dismissing me, Hush,” he said. “Can you believe that?”

  Hush rolled her dark almond eyes.

  “Your responsibility to me is fulfilled,” Koida said, looking from Hush to the soldier. “You are free to do as you see fit. I release you both from my service.”

  “Well, isn’t that just as sweet as sugared violets?” Lysander snorted. “You release us! Kid, I don’t work for you, and I’m sure as sunrise not one of your subjects.”

  “When the Ji Yu tribe joined the empire, all members became—”

  “Ah, see, there you go making assumptions again. Did Raijin ever say I was a member of his tribe?”

  Koida tried to remember, but everything before th
e massacre melted together once more. She couldn’t pick any specific thing her almost-husband had said about Lysander from the soup of days and years.

  “I’m not the joining type,” Lysander said as if her confusion had proven his point. “Never joined the Ji Yu, never allied myself with the Shyong San Empire.”

  Koida shook her head, trying to make sense of his words.

  “Does this mean you’re leaving or not?” she asked.

  “No, I’m not leaving!” Lysander crossed his arms over his wide chest. “I wouldn’t trust you to use the necessary alone, much less keep yourself alive out here. Raijin told us to get you to safety, and you’re a long way from anything resembling that.” His lips twisted into a smirk. “Of course, I can’t speak for Hush. She may want to leave us both behind.”

  From the glare on the silent woman’s face, it was obvious Hush did not find this as funny as Lysander did. The woman shook her head sharply.

  “It’s settled then.” Lysander shrugged. “We’re staying with you.”

  Koida nodded slowly.

  “I accept your protection,” she said. “And your tutelage.”

  The smug smirk disappeared from Lysander’s face.

  “You what now?”

  “Cous—Yoichi is a formidable Master of the Living Blade with a Heroic Record more decorated than even Shingti’s. I’ll have to train like mad and find a way to advance before I can repay him for his sins against my family. And my betrothed,” she added belatedly, remembering that Lysander and Hush both thought Raijin was dead. She turned to the silent woman. “I’ll need a master, and Raijin said you were master of many Paths. You already began by teaching me meditation. Would you continue?”

  Hush’s expression darkened above the cloth wrappings, her brows drawing low over her almond eyes. Lysander, however, was the one who answered.

  “If this cousin of yours is the man behind everything, then he’s more than another Master of the Living Blade. He’s practicing the Path of the Water Lily as well, if not already a master of it. You don’t just run into battle with these people. They can’t see your attack coming or you’ll be dead before you strike. You can train to your heart’s content, but going after him is suicide—and not the honorable kind. If you think...”

  Lysander went on, but Koida let his words dissipate into the crackling of the fire. Hush hadn’t immediately refused. If the silent woman did later, however, that wouldn’t matter. Koida would just find another master. Raijin had been certain that she could advance, had gone so far as to entrust his Ro to her. How could she be worthy of that responsibility if she gave up now?

  Koida took a bite of the cold fish. It tasted like ashes, and it sat in her stomach like river stones, but she ate the entire thing. She would need all the energy she could get for the path ahead.

  Epilogue

  PRESENT

  Raijin opened his eyes to a blue-gray world of smoke and shadow. Distortions danced and shimmered in the air like a heat haze. Nearby, a slate waterfall ran off a vertical cliffside into a shallow indigo pool, the water churning strangely. It was as if he could only see glimpses of its motion, and between these glimpses it froze, as still as a painting.

  He looked down at himself. He wore nothing but the loose-fitting pants of a warrior artist, and his hands and body were rendered in the same bluish charcoal smears as the twin waterfalls. When he turned them over, they moved in the same skips and jumps as the roiling water in the pool.

  The air smelled like burning incense. It felt thick, but a lungful of it barely satisfied his need to breathe. Within seconds, his shoulders were heaving.

  Where was he, and why did he even need to breathe? He shouldn’t be alive. He had drank Koida’s poison, just as he’d done in each of the potential futures—the ones where both Koida and the world survived, anyway—and he had gifted her his Ro to keep it out of the Water Lily’s hands. He should be dead, the prophecy of the Thunderbird and the Dark Dragon fulfilled.

  Was it because the Koida in this reality had been so different from the Koida in the others? Had he or she done something unintentionally to alter the outcome of the prophecy? Raijin had tried to stay within the confines laid out for the chosen one, but Koida kept surprising him. Maybe he had failed, and the Dark Dragon would crush the world.

  Through the haze, a flickering near the pool caught Raijin’s attention. The pale blue ghost of a woman, almost glowing against the dark blue-gray shades of this strange world, tossed some unseen object into the pool. She stared down into the depths for several long seconds before sinking into a martial pose Raijin had never seen before, her feet so wide that she was nearly sitting, right palm raised to the sky, left facing the ground. As Raijin watched, the woman rose up on one leg, thrusting her right hand forward and her left behind her.

  Unlike the water and Raijin himself, the woman’s movements were smooth and natural, no skips between. She flowed through the series of sinuous, graceful techniques like a snake sliding through the grass, focused unwaveringly on her every motion. The thin air didn’t seem to have any effect on her.

  High up on the cliff face, Raijin thought he saw a flash of red. He searched the rocks for any sign of movement, finally catching a glimpse of a long-fingered claw gripping a ledge. Something a shade lighter than blood was slinking down the cliff toward the woman. In the gaps between boulders, Raijin saw powerful arms and swaying folds of bright red skin.

  Raijin tried to call out to the woman, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. She continued to flow through her techniques, oblivious to the thing’s approach.

  Though he could barely breathe, Raijin broke into a run. If he couldn’t warn her, then he had to put himself between her and the creature. Unfortunately, the jerky, halting motion of his body in this world did not translate to swiftness. Out of habit, he triggered Straight Line Winds.

  But the sudden burst of speed never came. He had no Ro to fuel it.

  The woman sunk down into another deep, nearly seated stance and held the pose, her back to the cliff. She didn’t even look Raijin’s way as his stuttering gait took him past her. Perhaps she couldn’t see him at all.

  Just as he came to a stop between the woman and the cliff, the red creature emerged from the rocks. It was nearly twice Raijin’s height, with the backward-jointed hind legs of a dog and the dragging, muscular arms of an ape. Folds of leathery red skin hung down from its equine jaw, slapping against its chest, and an apron of flesh reached from its belly to mid-thigh.

  With a thought, Raijin tried to manifest the butterfly sword from the living lavaglass embedded in his left arm. Nothing. He glanced down. The twin lines of lavaglass sunk into his flesh were gone, replaced by unmarked skin.

  Raijin raised his hands in Inviting Attack. There were any number of bare-handed fighting styles he could use to drive the creature away.

  The red beast pounced, its needle-studded maw dripping with bloody strings of saliva. Raijin planted his feet, pulled both fists back to his hips, then threw them both forward simultaneously, high and low. One struck the creature in the leathery folds hanging from its jaw, and the other landed just above its swaying belly apron. It was a technique Lysander had taught him, often effective against a human opponent. Against the creature, however, neither punch did more than shake the fat inside its folds.

  Undeterred, Raijin grabbed hold of the creature and, with a twist of his body, tried to turn the punches into the throw that was their natural conclusion. But the creature’s huge arm slammed into his side like a battering ram. Raijin tumbled through the air and across the slate-blue grass, finally crashing into a shadowy tree trunk. His ribs cracked like dead branches, and he curled in on himself.

  By the waterfall, the red creature crept toward the woman.

  Raijin drew a painful, insufficient breath and tried to shout. Again, no sound came from his throat.

  The red beast leapt, snapping at the back of the woman’s head. Without looking, the woman slid aside and grabbed the creature
by one long arm and its jaw flap. She slammed it to the ground so hard that the earth shook beneath Raijin, and dark blue-gray blood flew up in a fountain from the beast’s needle-filled mouth.

  It didn’t rise again.

  The ghostly woman turned to Raijin, her face tilting down as if she was looking at him. Where her eyes should have been, however, were only empty holes that showed the shadowy, smoky scenery behind her. She smiled.

  “Welcome to the Land of the Immortals, chosen one,” she said. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to get back to her and finish this.”

  Thanks, Reviews, and Free Stuff

  ENDLESS GRATITUDE FOR reading Darkening Skies! I hope you enjoyed Raijin and Koida’s first adventure. If you’ve got time and feel like making your opinion of it known, consider dropping a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I’m always so excited to hear what readers think, and more than that, word-of-mouth and reviews are unbelievably helpful to a writer’s career. A sentence or two from you can make all the difference in the world!

  If you can’t get enough of the Path of the Thunderbird world and find yourself overflowing with questions like, What is an inji and why does everyone fear them? And What’s the deal with Raijin’s foreign friend, Lysander?, then might I suggest “The Unnamed Path,” a standalone short story featuring that mysterious and often rude drunkard. You can get your copy free by signing up to my mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/griBNT. You’ll also be the first to know when the next book in the series comes out.

  Just beware...the life of an inji isn't for the faint of heart...

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