by Claire Luana
“And I thought Daarco would be the one to get us killed,” Emi snapped.
“Quitsu, Ryu, do you think the elder will hold our association with Colum against us, even if he doesn’t come all the way to the island with us?” Kai asked.
“It is difficult to say,” Ryu said.
“He’s still our best chance of finding the elder quickly,” Quitsu said. “I won’t be able to pinpoint his location until we get closer. I don’t see how this changes anything.”
Kai met Hiro’s eyes. Her concern was mirrored on his rugged face. What had she gotten them into?
But Quitsu was right. They still needed to get there. “Very well,” Kai said. “We continue.”
CHAPTER 15
That night, sleep fell over Kai fast and strong. When she awoke, night had fallen, or whatever passed for night in this strange, misty world. She stood, stretching her stiff muscles, feeling the pops and groans as she bent forward. It had been a while since she had slept on the ground.
As she surveyed the others, a chill fluttered through her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. She stood still, opening her senses to the unnatural stillness of the forest, the bright white sheen of the moon, the smells of the forest. But there were no smells. No sounds.
Kai stepped forward hesitantly, peering into the darkness between the trees, unable to shake the sense of unease growing in the pit of her stomach.
The otherness of the forest struck her suddenly, and she realized where she was. “The spirit world,” Kai said out loud. She had been here once before, after she had passed her test to become a master moonburner. The night she had met her mother and discovered that Hanae still lived.
Kai crouched and drew a sword from its resting place beneath her pack. She didn’t know what manner of creatures prowled the spirit world, but she didn’t want to find out without a weapon in her hand. Did her burning even work here? She opened her qi to the moonlight, trying to pull it within her spirit. It felt distant and faint. Her mouth went dry. She couldn’t burn.
“You will need more than a sword to stop what is coming for you,” an alto voice said behind her.
Kai whirled to face the speaker, her sword before her in a fighting stance. When she saw the speaker, she straightened. She was still wary, but less so.
The woman was a moonburner. She wore an elaborate wrapped dress of green silk, layers upon layers decorated with a pattern of leaves caught in a breeze. Her silver hair was twisted up into a bun high on her head and was caught with a clip shaped like a fan. She stood demurely, her hands clasped before her.
“Who are you?” Kai asked. “Are you a spirit?”
“I am Hamaio,” she said. “I was once queen of the moonburners, as you are.” The woman approached Kai, taking her by the arm and drawing her underneath the protection of a large tree before turning and surveying the clearing.
Hamaio was quite lovely with soulful brown eyes and dimples that revealed themselves when she grimaced. And young, Kai realized. Perhaps no more than a year or two older than herself. Had she died so young?
“You are mad to come here,” Hamaio said. “Why would you risk yourself?”
“I don’t know why I’m here,” Kai said. “I didn’t come here on purpose. I’m just…dreaming.”
Hamaio furrowed her brow as she scrutinized Kai, considering. She reached out a hand and drew the collar of Kai’s shirt to one side, baring a section of Kai’s chest.
“You are marked by the creator,” Hamaio said, a note of awe in her voice.
Kai looked down and realized the handprint scar was glowing silver in the moonlight.
“The creator? How do you know?” Kai said.
“His work is evident,” Hamaio said. “Tell me how you came by this scar.”
“I don’t remember,” Kai said. “I almost died, and when I woke up, I had it.”
Hamaio frowned. “I do not understand this thing. Perhaps in your brush with death, you encountered him. Such a thing would be unusual…unheard of. But…if it was so, perhaps it would explain why you have been pulled into the spirit world. He is strongest here.”
Kai shook her head, trying to comprehend the new information Hamaio was telling her.
Hamaio continued. “You must leave. It is not safe for you here.”
“But…I was sick…days ago. Why is this the first time I’m here?”
Hamaio considered this. “Have you been in the Misty Forest each of these days?”
“No, I was at the citadel.”
“The citadel is warded with powerful enchantments to protect creatures of the spirit world or beyond from traveling into the mortal realm. I cast some of these wards myself during my reign. They must prevent you from inadvertently traveling to this realm. You must return to the citadel at once.”
“I can’t,” Kai said. “We’re traveling to see the seishen elder. I have to talk to him.”
“You will never make it if you linger here,” Hamaio said.
“You said you cast enchantments over the citadel. Can’t you teach me how to keep myself from entering the spirit world?”
She looked up, thoughtful. “Actually, yes. I believe so. Bind together a sprig of ash leaves and a lock of your hair. Sprinkle it with dust from the earth and water from a fresh spring. This should bind you to this world until you return to the safety of the citadel.”
Kai almost laughed at the suggestion, but seeing the seriousness on the woman’s face, suppressed the urge.
“Thank you. I will. But I still don’t understand why I can’t be here. It seems…fine.”
“There has not been such a concentration of tengu in this realm since my time.”
“You know of the tengu?” Kai asked eagerly. “What happened in your time?”
Hamaio gestured to herself impatiently. “You don’t think I died peacefully of old age, do you?”
“What can you tell me of them?” Kai said.
“They come from a different realm, a realm of darkness and death. Over thousands of years, they broke down the border between their realm and the spirit world, claiming this realm for their own as well. That border is totally disintegrated; they can pass at will. The border between the spirit realm and the mortal realm is deteriorating quickly, its eventual destruction hastened by the help of their followers.”
“I know of these followers. I have one in my dungeons.”
“Every time they summon a tengu through the border between realms, that border weakens. They will make a full-scale assault soon, as they did in my time.”
“But you stopped them?” Kai asked hopefully. “How?”
“It was a patchwork magic, and a force that we could never recreate. And our seal was only a partial fix. They broke through once again.” Hamaio opened her mouth to continue but then froze.
“What?” Kai whispered, her hackles rising. A tree creaked in the distance.
“You must go!” Hamaio said. “Leave this place! They are coming!”
“I don’t know how,” Kai said, lamenting the depth of her ineptitude. This was a world she didn’t understand.
“You must wake!” Hamaio said. “Wake!” She pushed Kai’s shoulders, forcing her to stumble back.
Hamaio seemed to grow, the sleeves of her gown billowing, her eyes glowing bright with moonlight.
“Leave!” She pushed Kai again, and Kai shuffled back. “Wake!”
Kai’s head whipped to the right as a crashing of leaves and limbs burst through the trees on the far edge of the clearing.
Hamaio shoved Kai once again, and her scrambling heels snagged a tree root. She fell backwards and hit the ground hard.
Kai awoke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright.
Colum sat against a tree a few paces away, watching her. He puffed on a thin horn pipe, its sweet-smelling smoke tickling her nose.
“Nightmares?” he asked, his voice low. “Been rollin’ around like a badger in a rice sack.”
Kai felt for her sword where it rested under her bedroll. It
hadn’t moved. She shook her head to clear it. “I don’t think it was a dream.”
“Howdya figure?”
Kai recounted the tale of her encounter with Hamaio in the spirit world, the tengu attack. She didn’t mention that the scar on her chest glowed white. She wasn’t sure what to make of that yet.
Colum listened with rapt attention. “This Hamaio sounds quite compelling. Maybe next time you can take me with you. I love me a strong woman.” His grin was roguish.
Kai rolled her eyes. “Have you ever met a woman you didn’t want to sleep with?”
Colum rubbed his chin, pondering. “Sure. The very elderly. Relatives—”
She tossed an apple from her pack at him, but he ducked, causing it to hit Hiro’s sleeping back.
“Ow,” Hiro said, rolling over on the apple as Kai and Colum snickered.
“What’s life for if not appreciating the beauty of creation?” Colum said, waving his hand at the mist around them. “And let me tell you, women are my favorite part of creation.”
“I’m confident the feeling is not mutual.”
“It’s too early for Colum’s warped philosophy,” Hiro grumbled from his bedroll, trying to pull the blanket farther over his head.
“It’s about time to be gettin’ up, actually,” Colum said, standing and stretching. “Good luck wakin’ that one up without a bucket of cold water.” He motioned to Daarco. “He sleeps like he drained a tavern dry.”
“That’s because he probably did,” she muttered.
Colum clapped his hands. “Up and at ’em,” he said. “Time to get a move on.”
The group grumpily peeled themselves out of their bedrolls, brushing leaves off their clothes, running fingers through hair. There wasn’t much to do to break camp; they hadn’t brought tents.
As soon as they scarfed down a bit of food, they were back on the march. The night was eerily quiet, and Kai’s sense of unease grew as they walked deeper into the mist. The forest seemed to be watching them. As they passed through the trees, Kai pulled a sprig of ash from a nearby tree, beginning to make the charm Hamaio had spoken of. She hoped it would work. She wasn’t anxious to find herself in the spirit world again anytime soon.
She approached Colum, curious to find out more about this strange man who had appeared so suddenly in their lives. She hoped Master Vita was right in his assessment that they could trust him.
“You’re not from Miina, are you?” she asked.
“Could ya tell?” he joked. “No. I’m from the south, past where the land meets the ocean. There’s a chain of islands. King Ozora claims the islands as part of Kita, but we haven’t seen a tax collector in a hundred years. We reckon we’re free.”
“I guess he’s been too busy fighting moonburners to worry about the far corners,” Kai said. “What are the islands called?”
“Shima,” he said.
“Do they have burners there?” she asked.
“Aye. Mostly healers, village elders and such.”
“They don’t go to the citadel or Kistana for training?” Kai asked.
“No,” he said. “Nothing but fighting and death waiting for ’em. The elders train the youngsters when their hair starts to change.”
“Wow,” Kai said. “I can hardly imagine a place where burners are just…people. Not soldiers or warriors.”
“Best place in the world,” Colum said, a faraway look in his eye.
“Why did you leave? Why become an entrepreneur? Or adventurer? Or whatever you consider yourself.”
“Why does anyone do anything?” he asked. “For love.”
“You? Love?” Kai asked.
“Aye! A tender heart beats beneath this ruggedly handsome exterior!”
“If you say so,” Kai said.
“I was young then. I fell in love with a girl from my village. Mesilla and I grew up together, were like brother and sister. Until we got older…and then we weren’t. Her hair started turning silver, and her seishen arrived, and we knew that she was a moonburner. For a time, life was good. We played at being adults. Vowed to love each other forever, to marry. She was so beautiful,” he said, his eyes wistful. “I used to lay on the toasted sand of the beach and watch her and her seishen swim in the waves. There was never a more perfect sight. Their silver hair, flashing in the turquoise water.”
He fell silent, and Kai gave him a moment. But she was curious now. “What happened?”
“She was smart and ambitious. Wanted to see the world. She wasn’t content to be trained by the burners on the island. She wanted to learn at the citadel in Kyuden. So I vowed to escort her. I wanted to travel too, to have adventures like in the stories. But most of all, I wanted to be near her. One day, in Kita, we were attacked on the road. Men took her and her seishen and left me for dead.”
“That’s awful!” Kai said.
“I was young and stupid, thinking I could protect her.”
“You didn’t know…” Kai trailed off. She had felt that same naiveté herself. It was easy to think you could conquer anything when your world stayed small.
“I traveled to every corner of every land looking for her. I went to the citadel, hoping she’d escaped and made her way there. She hadn’t. I stayed for a few years, working for the queen, hoping she’d come ridin’ through the gates one day. I eventually had to face the reality. She never would. And by then, after all those years, I was more at home on the road. Staying in one place…being too close to people…grated on my soul. I’m not made for that anymore.”
“I’m sorry you never found her,” Kai said quietly. What would she do if someone took Hiro from her? She shuddered at the thought.
“Now don’t you go feelin’ sorry for me,” he said. “I’ve lived a full life, seen things some people have never dreamed of.”
“Have you been back home?” Kai asked.
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t home without her.”
They continued in silence, Kai contemplating the surprising nature of Colum’s tale. Her mind raced with worry, flitting from thoughts of Hamaio and the spirit world to the tengu to Chiya and what Kai would face when she returned to Kyuden.
After a stretch of hours, Colum called for a break.
Kai groaned, dropping her pack to the ground and rolling her tight shoulders.
Quitsu looked at her with mock disapproval, clicking his tongue. “We’ve only been moving for a few hours.”
Kai groaned. “Last thing I need is a lecture from a supernatural spirit who doesn’t get tired.”
“I’m going to take a piss,” Daarco said, marching into the underbrush.
“Charming,” Emi called to his retreating form.
He hadn’t uttered anything but grunts over the course of the night, though he was keeping up an impressive drinking regimen.
“Is that an enchanted flask or something?” Kai muttered.
Emi snorted. “If it is, I gotta get me one.”
Hiro approached Kai, rubbing her shoulders. “How you holding up?”
She closed her eyes, groaning in pleasure at his ministrations. “When did I get so soft?”
“It’s palace life,” he chuckled. “You have to fight it.”
“Daily runs when I get back,” she said. “No matter what excuse I give.”
“Ha!” Hiro said. “You must think me far more persuasive than I am. I’d just as likely get Ryu to walk a tightrope as get you to go on daily runs if you don’t want to.”
“Leave me out of this,” Ryu grumbled. “Perhaps the fox will perform like a trained circus animal.”
“You wanna piece of me, fluffy?” Quitsu said, puffing his chest up and swaggering towards Ryu’s kneecap.
“Enough.” Kai laughed. “No one’s doing anything they don’t want to do.” She turned her attention back to Hiro, turning and lacing her arms around his waist. “You just haven’t learned the art of subtle motivation.”
“Oh?” He arched a golden eyebrow, tracing his hands up and down her arms, drawing a shiver from her
. “Perhaps another form of exercise would be more palatable?
She opened her mouth to respond, but her comment was cut off by a resounding scream of terror from the forest just beyond the fog line.
They looked at each other with alarm.
“Daarco!”
CHAPTER 16
Kai and Hiro drew their swords and dashed into the forest, Ryu and Quitsu on their heels.
“Daarco,” Hiro cried. “Where are you?”
Colum and Emi were beside them in a flash, Emi with her two knife blades drawn, Colum with his tall wooden staff.
“Over here,” a hoarse voice called, desperate and muffled. Followed by another strangled scream.
“This way,” Ryu said, dashing ahead, the thick underbrush catching in his dense golden mane.
They burst through the treeline into a clearing barely visible in the thick mist.
“Where is he?” Hiro said, his chest heaving.
Ryu and Quitsu sniffed around the forest floor, their noses quivering.
Kai scanned the clearing, peering through the whiteness of the fog, looking for movement. And then she saw something unbelievable. A flash of gold buried under the roots of an ancient oak tree. But the roots…were moving. Retracting. The forest was…taking him.
“Oh my gods,” she said, and launched into action, dashing across the clearing. She took her sword and reached for moonlight to burn down the blade. But the moonlight…she couldn’t grasp it. It was a slippery fish, undulating out of her mental grip. She couldn’t moonburn.
Kai shoved down the panic that was rising in her throat and threatening to choke her. Daarco had only seconds. She hacked at one of the thick roots with her sword, praying she didn’t split Daarco’s skull in the process.
The roots shied back at her blow, revealing more of Daarco’s head.
He lifted it from the debris of the forest floor, gasping in a rattling breath. “Help…me…” he croaked.
Movement exploded around her. The forest came alive, branches whipping and grabbing at her clothes, her arms, her hair.
Emi reached Kai’s side and burned, sending bolts of fire into the oak tree.