by Claire Luana
“The meat can’t be salvaged?”
“We don’t think it’s safe to eat,” Master Vita said, wiping his half-moon spectacles with his handkerchief.
“That’s not all,” Hanae said. “The spotted fever has made it to the city. We’ve had to quarantine sections of the Meadow, as well as the Coin, by the docks. We’re just short of a widespread epidemic.”
Kai wanted to scream. These tengu thought they could starve them and sicken them and kill them? She tightened her fists. Not under her reign.
“Anything else?” Kai asked, afraid of the answer.
“Uprisings,” Chiya said. “We’re hearing reports of rioting in the streets. Looting near the quarantine zones. The city is near the boiling point.”
Kai took a deep breath, sorting through the parade of horribles in her mind to identify something, anything, she could help. “We need to set up a hospital outside of the city. The sick can be boated down from the quarantine point out of the city. We need to get those people outside the city before the bodies start piling up. I want all the moonburners, healers and nurses we can spare to get to work on caring for those people or trying to find a cure for the livestock ailment, and the rest of the moonburners in the city need to be giving out what food we can spare. Let’s see if we can release some pressure.”
“And then what?” Chiya said, as tactless as ever. “All those solutions are temporary. They won’t even get us through the winter.”
“And then,” Kai said, setting her jaw, “we free Tsuki and Taiyo, kill some tengu, and take back our world.”
Kai’s council listened with rapt attention as Kai detailed the journey to the Misty Forest.
“Now we need to travel to where Tsuki and Taiyo are trapped and release them. We hope they will be able to fight the tengu and show the world that these horrible events were not divine will after all.”
“Did the seishen elder tell you where Tsuki and Taiyo can be found?” Master Vita asked.
“No.” Kai hesitated. This part was delicate. She needed to convince Chiya that she held the secret to finding Tsuki without her understanding why. “The seishen elder did give us something to help reveal the locations.”
Kai produced the wooden box and handed it to Chiya, who sat next to her. “Will you do the honors?”
Chiya looked at it in confusion, but the confusion didn’t last long. As it touched her hand, the box erupted with light, just as it had in the seishen temple. But this time, the image was different.
The faces in the room turned towards the light in rapt attention, taking in the details of the scene projected by the box. The viewer was on a beach covered in fine white sand. A cluster of palm trees stood tall to the right of the scene, the green fronds fluttering in an ephemeral breeze. In the distance, a smaller island crouched in the crystalline water. As they examined the image, it began to move.
“We’re moving!” Master Vita exclaimed.
“What are you doing?” Kai asked.
“I don’t know. Nothing,” Chiya said.
They watched in rapt attention as the image transformed. A long, thin rowboat came into view, its turquoise paint peeling in the afternoon sun. They seemed to get into the boat and begin rowing towards the next island as the sun’s tangerine light slipped over the horizon to their right. Twilight blanketed the landscape and a few stars appeared. As the oars dipped into the water at the edge of the image, they left a faint trail of light in the dark of the water.
The image winked out in Chiya’s hand. Chiya stared at the deceptively mundane-looking box with wide eyes.
“It must be finished,” Kai said. “That’s all it will show us.”
“So Tsuki is on an island in the south?” Master Vita said, running his hands through his snowy hair.
“Do you know where that is?” Kai asked.
“That light in the water,” Master Vita said. “I’ve heard of such a thing.”
“What is it?”
“It’s called phosphorescence,” Master Vita explained. “Tiny creatures in the water that light up when disturbed. One of the burner scientists of old studied them, thinking that they might be linked to the moonburners.”
“It would be an ideal place for Tsuki to be hidden then,” Kai said.
“The scientist ultimately concluded that a chemical reaction caused the light, not magic. But there are only a few places where the phenomenon occurs. The Adesta Islands southwest of Kita are one of few such places. They’re tiny, practically too small to be on the map. That must be where this is.”
“We’ll have to split up,” Kai said. “The other scene is in the mountains. Snowy, somewhere in the north of the Akashi. We don’t have time with what’s going on to try to free one, then the other. Master Vita, can you work with Hiro to try to identify the other scene?”
“Of course,” Master Vita said, his eyes sparkling with the challenge. “I’ll have Jurou assist me.”
“Did the elder say how to free Tsuki and Taiyo?” Nanase asked. “Or what happens after? Will the gods help us defeat the tengu?”
“One thing at a time,” Kai said. “We don’t know yet. We’ll have to get there and evaluate. Hopefully, we can open the cages or prisons they’re being held in.”
“That’s an awfully thin plan,” Chiya said.
“I’m aware,” Kai snapped. “But the elder wasn’t there when the gods were trapped. He could only speculate about how to open the tombs. This box was the only piece of the puzzle he had. As for what happens after…your guess is as good as mine. Personally, I bet Tsuki and Taiyo will be angry about what’s been done in their absence.” She ignored the seishen elder’s warnings resounding in the back of her mind.
Chiya’s words dripped with sarcasm. “Release two trapped, angry gods and let them take their revenge against two powerful demons impersonating them. And hope we don’t get…what, squished in the middle?”
Kai tried to let Chiya’s words pass over her, but they sunk in anyway. The plan was risky. They had no idea what they were unleashing with Tsuki and Taiyo.
“I’m open to an alternate plan if anyone has one,” Kai said.
Her advisors looked down at the table. Nanase examined the end of a braid; Chiya scowled at her fingernails.
“Hearing none, we will continue forward with the only plan we’ve got,” Kai said. “And pray we don’t get squished in the middle.”
After the meeting concluded, Nanase and Master Vita filed out. Chiya reached for the box, as if to touch it again. She stopped herself just before her fingers brushed its smooth surface.
“Why did you give it to me?” Chiya asked.
Kai had spent the whole flight back strategizing what she would say. They said the best lies were half-truths. “The elder thought you might have some connection to it. His knowledge of your seishen, Tanu, gave him some clue. Something about your heritage…your parents.”
“My parents?” Chiya said, her voice quiet.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know any more. Perhaps we’ll learn more when we find Tsuki.”
Chiya narrowed her eyes, looking at Kai.
Kai kept her face neutral, open. Inside, her stomach twisted. She felt wretched. But her friends had been right. This wasn’t the time.
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” Chiya finally said.
“Can you get supplies ready for our journey?” Kai asked. “We’ll need to leave in the next day or two.”
Chiya nodded her head and made her exit. Her seishen Tanu trailed after her, his striped silver-and-white tail bobbing.
Hanae sat still as statue, her stare fixed on Kai.
Kai straightened her obi and sat back down, examining the swirling grains of the wooden table. “Say it,” Kai said softly.
“It’s because she’s her, isn’t it?” Hanae asked, her voice strangled. “She’s my daughter.”
Kai nodded, unable to meet her mother’s eyes. “The box seems to respond to the true heir of Tsuki and Taiyo. It opened to Hiro. But…not to me. I’m no
t the true heir.”
Hanae deflated, sitting back in her chair and closing her eyes for a moment.
“I’m not going to tell her,” Kai said. “Not until this madness is all over.”
Hanae’s eyes flew open, but Kai pressed on. “I know you think it’s wrong, and part of me thinks it’s wrong too, but the last thing the country needs right now is a change in leadership. To have any chance of freeing the gods and defeating the tengu, we need Kita and Miina united. I can’t trust Chiya with the alliance. She’s too…hot-headed.” Kai put her head in her hands, drawing in a shuddering sigh. “As nice as it would be to turn this whole mess over to someone else, I can’t. I need to see this through.”
“I don’t think it’s wrong. I mean…it is. But it’s the right decision for right now. Sometimes you only have wrong choices, and you choose the one that’s less wrong.”
“You don’t think…” Kai hesitated, afraid to voice her fear. “That it makes me like Airi?”
“No,” Hanae said, taking Kai’s hand in her own. “If I thought for one second that you made this decision for yourself, I would fight against it. But I know you do not. You make this decision for all of us. And that makes you nothing like Airi.”
“I was so quick to condemn her, to call her evil. But I never knew what it was like to rule a country. To feel pressed upon by enemies at every turn. Maybe she was doing the best she could,” Kai said softly.
“I never thought my sister was evil the way others did. But she isolated herself from everyone who could have guided her, helped her see right from wrong, see outside her own fears and prejudices. She was adrift in a sea of her own morality with Geisa’s twisted agenda as her only compass. You will not become her. As long as you listen to the wisdom of those around you and seek aid from varied and diverse viewpoints that challenge your own, you will stay true.”
Kai nodded, pondering her mother’s words.
“It might matter little in the end,” Kai whispered. “What if we can’t free them? What if we fail?”
“Then we keep fighting. Until we can’t fight anymore.”
CHAPTER 25
Hiro sat on the floor eating a mealy pear with one hand, stroking Ryu’s golden mane with the other.
His mind played over the journey in the forest a hundred different ways as he ate the sorry little fruit, trying to figure out what he could have done differently. To keep Kai from running off. To prevent Emi from being clawed by the tengu. To keep Daarco with them. A hundred decisions, split-second moments that spelled life or death. Luck had gotten them out of the forest alive. But they may not be so lucky next time.
And then there was the fight with Kai, their angry words, striking each other as surely as sword-blows. He knew he should have told Kai about his father’s contingency plan, but he hadn’t wanted to heap more trouble on her already-full plate. Now, it looked like he had been keeping it from her purposefully, which he would never have done. He prided himself on his honesty, and the fact that she thought he was capable of duplicitous double-dealing… Maybe she didn’t know him. But perhaps he didn’t really know her, if he had truly been driving her crazy when he was simply trying to protect her and watch her back—
“You will pet me bald,” Ryu rumbled, though the tilt of his head showed he was still enjoying it.
Hiro let out a half-chuckle and withdrew his hand. He had come too close to losing Ryu to the tengu on the shore of the lake.
“I can’t help but feel that I failed in the Misty Forest.”
“Because you couldn’t keep her safe,” Ryu said.
“I know Kai wants to do everything herself, but what good will I be as a husband or a king if I can’t keep her or the people she loves from being harmed?”
A female voice sounded from the doorway to his room. “If that’s all you think a husband is good for, you’re in for a very boring life indeed.”
Hiro whirled and stood. Emi leaned against the doorjamb, bathed and dressed in a fresh uniform. Her skin glowed with health from the healing waters of the lake.
“Kai didn’t pick you so you could protect her,” Emi continued. “If you haven’t noticed, she can look out for herself.”
Hiro’s face burned as he thought of his failure in the forest. “She shouldn’t have to look out for herself. I should be there for her.”
Emi cocked her head, examining him. “You really don’t understand, do you?”
Hiro bristled. “No, as Kai was quick to inform me, I don’t. Please enlighten me.”
“Kai picked you to be her partner. Her equal. Don’t protect her like some weak porcelain doll or put her on some pedestal to be worshipped. Stand beside her. Fight beside her. That’s what she wants.”
He did see Kai as an equal. He had never met a woman as fearless and inspiring as she was. But wasn’t it the husband’s duty to provide and protect?
“Forget whatever you’re thinking,” Emi said. “Whatever lessons you learned from your father, or the generals, or while bounced on your Kitan nanny’s lap. You and Kai are making a new story. A new path. Equals.” She held her index fingers up next to each other for effect.
A smile quirked on his face. “I pity the man who ever tries to tame you.”
“A moonburner is not a horse to be broken.” A feral smile played on her lips. “Nor is any woman, for that matter.”
Hiro held up his hands in surrender. “Very well. Equals. I will try to remember.”
“See that you do, and you’ll be fine,” Emi said.
“Hypothetically, if Kai and I had a heated argument about this very issue, how would you recommend I make amends?” Hiro asked.
“Groveling. Profuse apologies. Admitting your foolishness. More groveling. Honeycakes. She loves those.”
“Honeycakes, eh?”
“The honeycakes are the least important part, man. Groveling, profuse apologies, admitting your foolishness.” Emi ticked them off on her fingers.
“I appreciate your counsel,” Hiro said with a chuckle.
“You’re welcome. I imagine it won’t be the last time you need my sage wisdom. Now, I came here to talk to you.”
“You didn’t stop by just to berate me for being a foolish man?”
“That was for fun. This is business. I’m here because Daarco is gone.”
Hiro’s eyebrows shot up. “What?” he said. “How do you know?”
“I went to see him,” she said. “I went in the back way because I didn’t want the guards hassling me.”
Back way? he thought. Emi sneaking in to see Daarco? He filed the information away.
“He wasn’t in the room. The window was open. I think he climbed out.”
Hiro sat down heavily on the bed. “Gods. This doesn’t look good! If he ran away, he looks even more guilty.”
“You don’t think he did it, do you?” Emi demanded.
“I…don’t want to believe it,” Hiro said. “But I hardly know him anymore. He did a lot better when life was just about killing moonburners. No offense.”
“None taken,” Emi said. “But I think… I think I saw something in him. In the forest. He might be able to find a new path.”
“Why do you care?” Hiro asked, honestly curious. “Daarco’s never been anything but an ass to you.”
Emi sat down next to him, wringing her long, silver hair in an unconscious gesture. “Our whole generation—on both sides—grew up thinking that all we could ever do was kill. We were weapons with a single purpose. I lost my best friend because of that kind of thinking. Because she dared hope that her life could be about more than death.”
“Maaya,” Hiro said, the memory of her red blood pooling on dark stones surfacing in his mind’s eye.
“Yes,” Emi said, her jaw set. “We’re not weapons. We’re people. No one should think that all they have to live for is death. There’s more in each of us. I owe it to Maaya to help others see that. Others like Daarco.”
“I hope you’re right,” Hiro said heavily.
“We have to at least try. If we bring him back before Kai knows he’s gone, it’ll be like it never happened. Plus, he’s a good sunburner, and we’ll need all the soldiers we can get in the days to come.”
Emi had carefully schooled her face for nonchalance, but he could see something there. A crack. Concern. Worry. She truly cared about him.
“I’m not sure Daarco deserves you,” he said, standing up, “in fact, I know he doesn’t. But if anyone can help him find his humanity again, you can. I’m in.”
“Good,” she said, ignoring his comment. “Do you have some water? I’ll scry for him and see if we can find where he went.”
He brought his washbasin over to the small table in the corner of his room and poured the pitcherful of water out.
Emi closed her eyes and pulled in moonlight. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel the charge of energy in the air. She began tracing designs across the surface of the water as he watched, fascinated by the symbols she used. He had seen moonburners scry a handful of times, but the silver on the water still seemed strange and foreign. Sunburners could scry in flames, but the result was unpredictable, not nearly as effective as scrying with moonlight. The connection between the moonburner, the water, and the earth was steadier than a sunburner’s tenuous control over the wild flames.
An image of Daarco appeared on the surface of the water and Hiro breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t galloping away on horseback with Geisa at his side. In fact, the scene was a sad one. Daarco sat, hooded and alone, at a dingy bar, nursing a glass of what looked like sun whiskey. From the way his head hung, he had been there a while.
“Oh, Daarco,” Hiro said softly.
“See,” said Emi, tracing a squiggle of silver across the water, making the picture zoom out to show the front of the bar. “If he had freed Geisa, he would have fled, not stopped at some bar in the Meadows to get drunk.”
Hiro had to admit the logic in that. “Let’s go get him.”
Emi assured him that it would be quicker to move through the city on foot, and so Hiro found himself stooping through the low door of the citadel crypt, stumbling in the darkness.