by Claire Luana
“Rox left for a few years to study music under some master up in the Akashi foothills. I think they all met up there.”
“They breed them well up there,” Leilu said.
“Just wait until you hear them play,” Stela said.
The biwa player finished tuning his instrument, and the band started into a lively tune about a man, a woman, and a summer meadow. Kai had never heard such wonderful music before. Rox’s voice was silky and soft, with a surprising vocal range.
The melodies of the biwa and the flute floated and wove together, playing off each other like partners in an intricate dance. When the song was over, the silence hung in the tavern room for a moment before the audience erupted into applause.
Stela grinned with pride as if they were her own children on stage. “I told you they were good.”
When Rox announced that the band was taking a break, they were swept off the stage by friendly patrons and offers of drinks. Rox and the biwa player extricated themselves from their throng of admirers and made their way to the girls’ table.
Stela made the introductions. “Ladies, this is Rox and Atsu.”
Rox and Atsu sidled up to their table on either side of Stela. Atsu looked appreciatively at Maaya, one elbow on the table.
“Maaya. That’s a beautiful name,” he said.
“Thanks,” Maaya replied, a giggle escaping her like a hiccup.
Emi rolled her eyes and turned to Rox. “You guys were great. Really. I’ve never heard anything quite like it.”
“Thanks,” Rox said. “We have a good thing going. But it’s always nice to get some new fans, especially friends of Stela. You all have the most interesting lives.” He winked and playfully palmed Stela’s hat-covered head.
“It sounds more exciting than it is,” Stela said.
“I don’t know, looks like you’ve seen some action lately.” Rox said, nodding towards Kai.
Kai started. He was talking to her. Her hand flew to her eye and her cheeks grew hot.
“Just a little training incident,” she said.
“You should see the other girl,” Maaya said. “Kai dropped the toughest girl in our class.”
“We know now to stay on your good side,” Rox said, holding up his hands in mock surrender.
“And what about you?” Atsu asked Maaya. “Are you a fighter too?”
“She’s more of a lover than a fighter,” Emi chimed in before Maaya could
respond.
Maaya shot her a mortified look, but was mollified when Atsu replied: “I like the sound of that.”
The musicians were soon summoned back to the stage. After refilling their drinks, they began to play again. Their second set was even better, and when Atsu took the lead on a ballad, with some pointed looks towards Maaya, Kai thought the girl might melt out of her chair.
When they finally took their fingers off their instruments, the applause was even louder.
“We should probably head back,” Emi said. “It’s getting late.”
Kai had forgotten that she was supposed to be sleeping and that she would have to face Pura in just a few hours. Her head was already starting to pound.
“Oh goddess,” Kai said. “Class.”
“Me too,” Leilu said. “Bed is calling.”
“I’m going to stick around for their last set,” Stela said. “I’ll be fine to head home on my own. “
“Are you sure?” Leilu asked. “You’ll have to head through the Meadows. It’s pretty late.”
“I don’t mind staying with Stela,” Maaya offered. “My night is light tomorrow.”
Emi looked at Maaya for a long moment. “Uh-huh,” she said. “How kind of you to volunteer.”
“I’m a team player,” Maaya said, smiling sweetly.
CHAPTER 15
The street was quiet as they left The Fox and Fiddle, afternoon shadows falling over the stone buildings. As they made their way back, Kai caught a glimpse of a flash of silver in a nearby alley. She had totally forgotten about Quitsu. She’d have to ask him if he felt tipsy.
Emi and Leilu set a quick pace, and Kai struggled to keep up, between her heeled boots and her pounding head.
“Don’t look back,” Emi said, “but we are being followed.”
Kai looked over her shoulder instinctively and caught a glimpse of a man in brown before he ducked behind a corner.
“What does he want?” Kai asked. “Probably our money,” Leilu said.
“Or our virtue,” Emi said.
“Let’s hope just our money,” Leilu said. “We know you don’t have any virtue left to take.”
Emi barked a laugh. “Nice one.”
“Should we take our hats off; show him we are moonburners?” Kai asked.
“No,” Emi and Leilu said together.
“It’s daytime,” Emi explained. “We can’t intimidate them with burning. Plus, there are plenty in the city who would be even happier to take down a moonburner.”
Kai opened her mouth to ask why, but before she could, Leilu ducked into a dark alley. Kai quickly followed, despite a growing sense of trepidation. They flattened themselves against the wall behind a pile of garbage.
“I hope we lost him,” Leilu whispered.
Two shadows entered the other side of the alley.
Leilu sighed. “Damn. There’s more.”
Emi and Leilu stepped into the center of the alley and Kai quickly followed suit.
“We don’t want any trouble. We don’t have any money,” Emi called. Her stance was wide but calm. “Let us pass.”
Kai turned back the way they had come and saw the man in brown had been joined by a large, dangerous-looking friend.
Emi slowly loosened a dagger from its sheath on her belt and Leilu drew two twin needle-sharp blades. Kai cursed herself for not being more prepared. Had she grown soft in a few weeks at the citadel? A sliver of silver streaked up the alley wall behind the men in front of them, catching Kai’s eye.
Quitsu was crouching on the edge of the roof, ready to attack. At least she had him.
“Fine clothes like those, I’se be betting you have something,” said one of the men they faced. He took a step forward. He was blocky and stout, with a scar running down the side of his face, pulling his eye down in an expression almost like sorrow.
“And why don hats on this fine summer afternoon?” he looked at his friend in a mock questioning tone. “Very odd indeed.”
“If you know who we are, you know who we serve,” Leilu said. “Stand aside and let us be.”
The other man was skinny, his cutoff sleeves revealing wirey ropes of muscle running up his arms.
“Not everyone is a fan of who you serve, burner,” he spit. “My father was a reputable merchant, until your queen stripped him of wealth and his title for the crime of having balls.”
The first man looked them up and down.
“Maybe it’s time we remind you bitches what having balls is all about. Ain’t no moon to help you now.”
Kai felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. The two men behind them were closing in.
She leaned forward and whispered. “Two more behind us.”
Emi nodded imperceptibly before leaping at the ringleader, sticking her knife in his eye. Her sudden violence startled Kai. The man’s scream echoed through the alley, and he clutched at his face, blood bubbling through his fingers.
Leilu moved on the other one a split second later, slicing at his belly, trying to open up his soft insides. He was too fast, leaping backwards just out of reach of her blade.
Kai spun and dropped to the ground, anticipating an attack from behind. The man in brown stumbled over her, but his friend was still on his feet, clutching a short dagger in his hand. Kai would have to disarm him. She remembered her father’s calm voice. “Attack first, when you have the element of surprise. Your opponent will only underestimate you once.”
As the man came towards her, she lunged and punched him hard in the throat. He stumbled back, chokin
g, and she kneed him in the groin. He careened sideways onto the ground. She stomped on his hand, grabbing his knife.
A strong arm snaked around her neck and grabbed the wrist of her knife hand, pulling her back against his body. It was the man in brown. He smelled of sweat and dirt; his breath on her cheek reeked of stale onions.
She stomped on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach, but he didn’t release her. Kai heard a screech and felt the man lurch forward, screaming. She wrenched herself out of his grip and saw Quitsu crouched on the man’s shoulders, claws dug into his flesh. He had the man’s ear in his mouth, ripped clean off the man’s head.
She turned and saw that Emi and Leilu had dispatched their two attackers as well. The men were on the ground, groaning and bleeding. As she glanced at the two she and Quitsu had dealt with, she saw more figures enter the alley, running towards them. Reinforcements.
“Let’s go!” Kai said.
The three girls ran from the alley, Quitsu close on their heels. They entered a market square still dotted with people, despite the late hour.
The market was full of colorful tents and booths, many closed up for the day. The merchants were mostly women, with burly bodyguards standing cross-armed to the side of each booth.
Kai had only paused for a moment to take in the sights, but realized that Emi and Leilu were nowhere to be found. She spun around, searching for their clothing and their hats in the crowd. Where were they?
Two rough-looking men were making their way through the crowd from the alley. She ducked behind a tent and started running across the square, hidden by the bulk of the main tents. She made it to the far side and turned into a narrow, cobbled street between two mismatched buildings.
Kai slowed to a trot, moving through the streets. She had no idea where in the city she was, but she hoped that she could follow glimpses of the citadel, high on its hill, back to the courtyard with the thirsty man. She couldn’t see Quitsu, but she was confident that he was following her.
She zigzagged through streets and alleys, hitting dead ends and back-tracking. She loped through the streets for what must have been thirty minutes. She had to be getting close. Based on the smell, she thought she had passed through the Meadows. The sun was low in the sky and would be setting soon. What would Pura do when she didn’t show up for moonburning class? Should she try to find someone to ask for directions?
Kai turned right into a narrow street, its buildings lined top to bottom with climbing ivy. She saw a number of people gathered at the end of the alley, and flattened herself against the ivy behind a doorpost, not wanting to attract attention. She peeked through the leaves, trying to gauge whether they were dangerous or not.
The group was clothed in navy blue robes, hoods up. She saw a flash of silver in the air and squinted. She searched for it again and caught sight of it, rippling sinuously in the air. It was a seishen—the queen’s seishen.
She peered harder and saw long straight silver hair smoothed down the front of one of the cloaks. She could just see the silhouette of the hard face beneath the hood. Geisa, the queen’s general who had attacked Kai’s village. There was another figure in a blue cloak that only came up to Geisa’s shoulder. That had to be the queen. As Kai leaned further out of her hiding place to see who else she might recognize, the dragon’s head flicked in her direction. She flattened back against the wall.
Don’t look, don’t come over here, nothing to see here! She thought. She glanced back in time to see the group enter a doorway in the side of the alley. The wall of the building rumbled slightly against her back and then the group was gone.
“That was too close,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Agreed,” Quitsu said, jumping down from the nearby roof. “I don’t get a good feeling from the queen’s seishen. There is something off about him.”
“Aren’t all seishen supposed to get along?” Kai asked.
“Like all humans do?” Quitsu retorted.
She couldn’t argue with that.
“Let’s check out the door,” she said. “Maybe it leads back to the citadel.”
Kai stood before the wall where Geisa and the others had disappeared. Nothing. There was no door, no handle, not even an outline of a door. She threaded her hands beneath the ivy and felt the stones, feeling for a latch or seam. Again, nothing.
“Where is the door?”
“I don’t know,” Quitsu said. “ But something tells me that we aren’t supposed to know about this.”
They looked at each other, the moment stretching between them. What were the queen and Geisa doing in the city, hooded and clandestine?
At breakfast that morning, Kai filled her plate with food, hoping a full belly would make up for the fact that she felt like she had sandpaper for eyelids and a drummer for a brain.
After the dead end in the alley, she and Quitsu had managed to find their way back to the courtyard of the thirsty man. Kai had just enough time to run back to her room, throw her uniform on, and make it to breakfast.
When she sat down at the table, Emi and Leilu fell on Kai with relief, whispering profuse apologies for losing her. Kai was tempted to tell them about the strange scene she and Quitsu had seen in the alley, but something held her back. She didn’t want to admit to anyone, even her friends, that she had been spying on the queen.
Maaya and Stela joined them at their table as Kai devoured a plate of eggs. Maaya was positively glowing, as if she had gotten days of extra sleep, rather than missing a night of it. Though she tried to fight it, a smile kept creeping onto her face when her guard was down.
Emi, in typical fashion, called her out. “We can all tell you’re in looove,” Emi said, exaggerating the word and bobbing her head from side to side in mock dreaminess. She lowered her voice. “But we all know what comes of a moonburner in love. Ten lashes if you’re lucky, the headsman’s axe if you’re not. He’s not worth it.”
A dark cloud crossed Maaya’s face.
“Just for once in your life, can you not be a total bitch?” She picked up her tray and stormed away from the table.
“You’re right, Emi,” Stela said. “But when it comes to matters of the heart, we have no ears to hear at all. You have to let her make her own mistakes.”
“She’s not some farm-maid who’s going to end up broken-hearted or pregnant. The stakes are too high here,” Emi said. “She can’t see him. End of discussion.”
CHAPTER 16
The days began to flash by as Kai settled into her life at the citadel. The summer faded into a crisp fall, and then into the cool beginning of winter.
Kai took her meals with Emi, Maaya, Leilu and Stela, always hearing the latest gossip and news. The targeted sunburner attacks continued around the city, particularly downriver from the waterfall, below the city’s protective walls.
Kai pointedly avoided Chiya and her followers wherever she went, though a few runins were unavoidable. While Chiya and Tanu sent plenty of insults and glares her way, it seemed that Nanase’s punishment had been enough to dissuade Chiya from throwing any actual blows.
Kai progressed in her classes, catching up enough to earn even Mistress Furie’s approval, though she only showed it with a tight nod of her head. Kai learned to care for the menagerie of unusual creatures that lived in the citadel. She learned to differentiate the koumori from each other, saw that they had different personalities. Her favorite was Peppe, who had first borne her from the Little Tottori Oasis to the citadel. Peppe would click and coo when Kai brought her fruit from the kitchens.
Nanase was true to her promise and moved Kai into the samanera weapons class. Nanase was an excellent teacher, illustrating form and technique while allowing her students to experiment and find their own strengths. After class one day, Kai cornered Nanase as she headed from the courtyard. Nanase’s seishen was with her, soaring above them, a silver sliver against the bright moon.
“I was hoping that I could obtain a dagger of some type.” Kai said. “Just a small one. To ke
ep with me.”
Nanase stopped and turned on her heel, her braids swinging behind her. “Do you not feel safe here in the citadel?”
“No, it’s not that,” Kai said, backpedaling. “It’s just . . . you never can be too careful . . .”
Nanase chuckled. “Only a fool feels safe, and that is because he is too stupid to see his enemies around him. Your request is a wise one, especially until your blockage is dealt with.”
Nanase unstrapped a dagger and sheath from her own arm, a short, wicked looking little blade with an intricate carved knot of jade at the pommel.
Nanase handed it to Kai. “Here. The carving means sister. It was a gift to me from someone many years ago.”
“I can’t accept this,” Kai said, trying to hand it back. “Something from the armory is fine, something plain and functional. This . . . is too much.”
“I insist,” Nanase said. “It has watched over me for many years. Now, I believe it is supposed to be yours. After all, you can’t run about dangerous parts of the city during the daytime without a blade.”
Nanase turned on her heel, leaving the dagger hanging limply in Kai’s hand.
“How does she know everything?” Kai said to herself out loud. Louder than she had thought. Nanase turned back.
“I wasn’t always a bureaucrat,” Nanase said. “Don’t ever forget it.”
“Why did you take the job as headmistress, then?” Kai asked, feeling bold.
“A weapon does not choose where to cut,” Nanase replied. “The warrior
does that.”
Kai’s least favorite class was Moonburning, although she had nothing but admiration for Pura. She learned all about moonburning theory, weapons techniques, the wanes in power during the phases of the moon and how to store moonlight in a moonstone for use during the day. Everything a moonburner would need. She learned about scrying, a technique that allowed moonburners to locate someone or something. Pura said there was a way to block a moonburner from scrying you out as well, but the faculty didn’t share that with novices.