by Cindy Lin
“I think you were supposed to move the lever, and that would lift the rock away from . . .” Tora sighed. “Never mind.”
As Goru set aside the boulder, Usagi saw that it had hidden a hole from which a soft blue light emanated. Goru peered inside. “Spirits.” He turned. “I won’t be able to fit through here, but you all should go in and take a look.”
Squeezing through the hole one by one, Usagi, Tora and Inu found themselves in a small chamber. The ceiling was thick with glow worms, which shone with a bluish light illuminating the chamber’s contents. Stacked along the walls were bags of precious gemstones and ingots of gold and other metals. “Great golden ghosts,” breathed Inu. “There’s a fortune in here.”
Tora grabbed Usagi’s arm. “My vision.”
On a block of white marble sat a rough wooden box. Tora fell upon it but fumbled with the latch on the lid. She pushed it at Usagi. “My hands are shaking. You open it.”
Trying to keep calm herself, Usagi pried the box open, revealing a roughspun drawstring bag. She untied the strings, her heart racing, blood rushing in her ears. She reached in and pulled out a painted wooden mallet. It was hard to make out the symbols in the dim light of the glow worms, but Usagi had no doubt. “It’s the Conjurer!”
“Uh . . . can you all come out now?” called Goru. “We have a little problem.”
Inu sniffed the air and grew tense. “We’ve got company,” he muttered. Moving to the hole, he stuck his head out, then raised both hands. He glanced back at Usagi and Tora. “It’s your brother.”
After he climbed out, Tora followed. “Bring the hammer,” she urged.
“Just like this?” Usagi looked at the wooden mallet. It was too bulky to shove under her tunic or hide in a pocket.
Tora’s jaw set. “I want to have a good talk with Imugi about it.” She slipped out of the chamber.
With a shrug, Usagi stuck it back in the bag and looped the drawstring around her wrist. She clambered through the hole to find Panri standing with a long sharp spear pointed at a resigned-looking Goru, and Imugi with a firm hold on both his sister and Inu.
“Want to tell me what you four were doing in our vault?” asked Imugi.
Panri glared at Usagi. “Stealing, obviously.” He raised the spear he was pointing at Goru. “This isn’t going to disappear, by the way. It’s as real as you or I.”
“Unlike the sword you were carrying?” growled Tora. She struggled against her brother’s grip. “Let me go, you lump of stinky bean curd. I asked you about the hammer because we’ve been looking for it. Since you lied to your own sister, we had to find it for ourselves.”
Imugi frowned. “How do you even know about it?”
With a shake of her head, Tora bared her snaggleteeth. “It’s a long story. We’ll tell you, but you have to tell us how you got it. And then maybe I’ll forgive you for lying to me.”
Her brother hesitated, then his own snaggleteeth gleamed. “Fine,” he shrugged. He snatched the bag from Usagi. “Let’s go.”
With Panri still pointing the spear at them, they marched back into the main cavern. Some of the Miners looked at them curiously. “You can put that away now, Boar Boy,” said Imugi. He strode to the circle of stones and bade them sit.
Fiddling with the strings of the bag, Imugi nodded at his sister. “You go first.”
“You’ve asked how I escaped the Dragonlord, but I haven’t told you everything.” Tora gestured to Usagi and Inu. “It was really because of these two.” She explained that Inu was one of the last Warrior Heirs to survive the war, and that he and the other Warrior Heirs had found Usagi and helped train her. “Thanks to them, Goru and I are now on Mount Jade, training to become Heirs as well.”
Her brother was incredulous. “I can’t believe it. I thought anything having to do with the Twelve was wiped out.” He shook his head, then held up the bag. “So where does this come in?”
Tora gave a little bow in Inu’s direction. “You’re the senior Heir. Want to tell him?”
Describing the Treasures that had once been carried by the Circle of the Twelve, Inu explained they had become scattered by the war. A look of understanding dawned on Imugi’s face. “You’re saying this once belonged to the . . . the Ram Warrior?”
From the drawstring bag, he removed the mallet. Afternoon light filtered through the cleft in the ceiling, piercing the gloom of the cave. In that sunbeam, the mallet’s bright colors seemed to glow. The twelve animals of the zodiac were lacquered on the wooden head, and the circular swirling symbol of the Twelve adorned the flat round faces. It truly was the Conjurer, before them at last.
Imugi rubbed at an invisible speck on the gleaming lacquer. “It was crusted in mud when I found it half-buried near the mines. I just thought it was a regular hammer at the time. But when I began using it, strange things happened—wonderful things. I started making my daily quota and more—no one else could keep up with my output. I helped a couple of other miners make their quota. Food and water would appear, lasting just long enough to keep us going. The food it makes can cause a bit of stomach upset.” They all nodded, Goru most vigorously. Imugi’s snaggleteeth glinted. “But we were starving, so we didn’t care. We figured out that whatever we wished for would be granted to us by the hammer for a day.
“Eventually we grew strong and bold enough to make plans for escape,” he continued. “The hammer granted us armor that allowed us to dress like the Guard, and weapons to protect ourselves. It was just a few of us at first, but once we were successful, we went back and helped others get out.”
Led by Imugi, whose possession of the hammer had helped free them, the Miners made a home for themselves, first in the abandoned quarry, then in the Marble Gorge. Though Imugi’s main power was a metal gift that had served him well as a blacksmith’s apprentice, he did have some dragon tendencies—like an affinity for water. He couldn’t control weather and bring rain like some Dragonborn, but he’d found the Peacock River and the cave. “We’ve been here ever since.”
“You’ve taken good care of the hammer, and it’s taken good care of you,” said Inu. “But it needs to be brought back to its rightful home. Our mission is to collect all the Treasures before the Blue Dragon can get to them.”
Tora’s brother frowned. “We have a mission too.” He told them that the Miners’ main purpose was not mere survival. “We’re the lucky ones,” said Imugi. “We got out. There are many more prisoners still suffering.”
In an effort to disrupt mining operations, Imugi said they’d been raiding mine shipments, diverting precious metals and gems from their ultimate destination. They’d also made attacks on the Eastern Mines, causing enough distraction with the Guard to give people the opportunity to escape. “We’re not the only group out there now. There are other former miners who’ve scattered to neighboring provinces and are in hiding. They have zodiac powers too, and help us with selling the metal and gems from our raids. But we’re the ones who’ve been able to do the most, thanks to this hammer.”
Tora put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Papa would be so proud of you. He always said that your heart was as big as Mount Jade.”
Scrubbing a hand through his shaggy hair, Inu cleared his throat. “So . . . you’re not willing to let the Treasure go?”
“How can I?” asked Imugi. He turned the Conjurer in his hands. “One of the biggest shipments from the mines is scheduled to pass by soon. We need this.”
“So do we!” blurted Usagi. “The Blue Dragon has captured our teacher. We need all the Treasures to help her.”
Rising to his feet, Tora’s brother put the hammer back in the drawstring bag and secured it to his belt. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. You’re welcome to stay a while longer, but I can’t let you go with such an important tool.”
“Why don’t we help you with the raid?” suggested Goru. As everyone looked at him in surprise, he shrugged. “Maybe all you need is a few more people with zodiac powers instead of the hammer.”
Imugi snorted. “I doubt it.”
“But that’s a great idea,” said Tora, brightening. “I’d love to help with a raid.”
The scar on Imugi’s cheek puckered with his smile. He put an affectionate hand on top of her head. “All right, then. We could always use help. Now, I’m going to go fix the door on our vault. Want to assist me?” He excused himself with a bow and left, Panri and Tora following close behind.
At a loss for words, Usagi sat there in the circle of stones. She looked at Goru and Inu in dismay. “What now?”
Inu sighed. “Ox Boy’s bought us some time, but we’ll have to figure out a way to get that Treasure.”
In the following weeks, Usagi and the others did their best to help the Miners around their encampment and prepare for the upcoming caravan raid. Tora followed her brother like a shadow. Her usual fierceness had softened, and she seemed happier than Usagi could remember. “Did you ever think Tora could be this sweet?” she asked Inu and Goru.
“If she hangs around her brother much longer, our Tiger Girl might lose her fangs and claws for good,” joked Goru.
“I’m worried,” said Usagi. “How are we going to get the Conjurer from him? And even if we do manage to get that hammer—is it possible Tora won’t want to return to Mount Jade? What if she wants to stay here and isn’t interested in becoming an Heir anymore?”
Inu twisted his thumb ring, considering. “It’s not going to be easy,” he agreed. “Somehow we need to take the Treasure back without angering the Miners. As for Tora, we can’t tell her what to do. We can hope that she still wants to become the Tiger Heir. But if she decides she wants to stay with her brother, we have to honor that.”
Biting her lip, Usagi nodded. She didn’t want to lose her friend. But Tora looked so utterly content. “I’ll ask her to convince him,” said Usagi. “I just hope she doesn’t forget our mission and what we came here to do.”
The thought kept her awake that night. Usagi tossed and turned, staring at the ceiling of their sleeping nook, which glowed softly with the light of dozens of glowworms. In the dark, they gave off pinpricks of pale blue light, making the roof of the cave look like a starry sky. Usagi heard Tora tiptoeing toward her bedroll, and raised her head.
“You’re awake,” said Tora, sounding surprised.
Usagi squinted under the dim light of the glowworms. “You seem like you’re having a nice time with your brother.”
“I still have to pinch myself,” Tora said. She unrolled her bedding and lay down with a contented sigh. “It’s been wonderful to be with him again. To be with . . . family. Not that you and the Heirs haven’t been great.”
Reaching out, Usagi squeezed her friend’s arm. “I know.”
“He knows about my visions,” Tora confided. “I told Imugi about it all, how I saw our father in one. And how they started after I got up Mount Jade, and how everything’s been coming true.”
Usagi drew back. “What did he say about that?” she asked cautiously.
“He’s proud,” said Tora. “He says he always thought that I would be the one in our family to do the best if only I’d had the chance to attend school. He thinks I could become a Warrior Heir.”
That was encouraging. Usagi relaxed. “Have you talked to him again about letting us take the Treasure back to the shrine?”
Tora shifted in her bedroll and was silent for a moment. “Err . . . no. Not yet.”
With a frown, Usagi raised herself on an elbow. “You need to talk to him. He might listen to you. The Tigress—”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Tora interrupted. “Usagi, I’m tired. Let’s talk about this in the morning.” She rolled over, and before long was snoring.
Lying back, Usagi felt for the rabbit at her neck and stared at the winking glowworms. The Ring of Obscurity clinked beside the pendant, and she wrapped her fingers around it, feeling the amber stone warm in her palm. Tora had seemed to deflate when she brought up their mission. A knot formed in Usagi’s stomach. Was Tora going to choose her brother and abandon them?
The next morning, Usagi awoke to find that everyone else had long been up and about. “Sleepy Rabbit wakes at last!” said Goru as she stumbled out of their nook.
“I had trouble falling asleep,” she replied, her voice froggy. She looked around—the cavern was near deserted.
Goru handed her a bowl and feedsticks. “A few of the Miners are out hunting, and some are scouting outside the gorge. The rest are preparing for the raid. Inu, Tora, and I are going to see what they have planned. So eat up, and come down to the river when you’re done.” He pointed to the firepit in the center of the cavern. “We saved you some millet gruel for morning meal. There might be some pickled snails left.” He lowered his voice. “It’s bland and the snails are rubbery, but it’s not conjured food, so it shouldn’t give you any problems.” Chortling, he turned and strolled out of the cave.
Bowl in hand, Usagi approached the ring of twelve chiseled stones where the Miners liked to gather. Each pale, silver-veined marble boulder had a rounded squat base that narrowed and curved up like a claw, forming a perfect seat. Usagi could picture the members of the first Warrior Council sitting around the firepit in this circle of thrones, discussing matters of the kingdom. Sunlight poured from the great crack in the ceiling, illuminating the stones so they glowed.
Putting a few cooked snails in her bowl, Usagi helped herself to some steaming porridge from an iron pot sitting in the coals. She settled cross-legged on one of the marble thrones, the rough-hewn surface warm from the sun, and slurped at the hot gruel. Thinking of the first Twelve, she reached in her pocket and pulled out the ironstone from the Tree of Elements. Tora had given the stone back to Usagi for safekeeping, uncomfortable with its powers. “What if it makes me see visions all day long?” she’d worried. Though Usagi had tried to calm her friend’s fears, in the end she’d agreed to hold on to it.
Its stripes of red, black, and gold shimmered as she turned the stone in her hand. Tiger iron, it was called. Tiger iron was supposed to be full of powerful energy, able to give strength and stamina to the bearer, and speed healing. Tupa the Ram Heir had told her about it—before betraying them all to join the Dragonlord. Usagi still couldn’t understand how people could turn their backs on their friends, but she would never forget it.
She closed her hand around the tiger iron. If only she could somehow give it to the Tigress. The old warrior had seemed so weak when they saw her in the Summoning. Hold on, Teacher. Usagi prayed that they would be able to rescue her soon.
Placing the ironstone before her on the marble boulder, Usagi looked around the circle. Supposedly one of the First Warriors had marked the Tree of Elements with pieces of tiger iron. What if they’d sat in this very spot? Usagi gave the stone a little spin and fished a bit of snail from her bowl with her feedsticks. It was chewy, like Goru had warned, but not bad. It reminded Usagi of clams.
Orange flames crackled and danced in the firepit. In the distance, Usagi heard her friends showing the Miners how to use spirit speed, urging them to practice.
“You need to be running faster after setting traps for the caravan,” hollered Inu. “Anyone can run, but only those with powers can move three or four times as fast—more if you have horse speed. Don’t let the Guard even get close!”
She smiled to herself and hurried to finish her meal, anxious to join them. As she jumped up from her seat, she accidentally kicked the piece of tiger iron. “Oh!” Usagi watched in horror as the ironstone flew into the firepit. She scrambled to get it, but the heat of the flames was too much. Gods, if only she had a fire gift like her sister. Using her wooden feedsticks, she only managed to poke the rock farther into the flames and set the feedsticks on fire. “Scabs!” she swore, blowing frantically at the burning feedsticks.
It couldn’t be wood. Usagi needed something long and metal that wouldn’t burn. Her sword. She ran to get her walking stick and pulled out the blade. As she stuck the blade into the fire, sparks flew up. She grimaced. Inu
would have a fit if he saw what she was doing to the sword he’d made her, but she couldn’t just leave that rock in the fire—it was from the Tree of Elements.
At last she nudged the rock out from the flames. It lay there in the sand at the edges of the firepit, its stripes of red, gold, and black shimmering with heat. Then to her astonishment, the ironstone began to transform, just as if it were a chunk of wax. Its rough surface tightened and grew glossy. Edges rounded and bulged. The center twisted, lengthened and curled. Before her eyes, the piece of tiger iron became a perfectly polished curved bead, identical in shape to the clawlike boulders around her. It looked just like the jade piece in the Jewels of Land and Sea, only it was striped in the gleaming colors of a tiger’s coat.
“Spirits,” Usagi breathed. She waited for what seemed like forever for the bead to cool, then scooped it out of the firepit, where it sat winking in her palm. The others would never believe this. But as she looked wildly around the deserted cavern, surrounded by ancient paintings on the walls, it began to make perfect sense. This wasn’t just the Miner’s Den—it was the Painted Hollow, sacred to the Twelve, and it had just given her something special. She didn’t yet know how, but this bead was going to help them. Usagi felt it in her bones.
Chapter 16
Caravan Raid
THE DAY OF THE RAID arrived, and the mood in the Painted Hollow was tense. It was quieter than usual, the laughing and joking at a minimum, as the Miners prepared for an approaching caravan from the Eastern Mines. Tora’s brother paced about with the Conjurer secured at his waist in its bag. He fiddled nervously with the drawstrings.
“It’s been ages since we’ve hit a shipment,” Imugi said. “But an especially large one will be coming through on the Ring Road tonight.” The main thoroughfare circling the island ran past the hills abutting the abandoned mine where they’d first found the Miners. Caravans of ox carts and bullock wagons traveled the road regularly, accompanied by Guard.