by Claire Luana
The man was…remarkably un-god-like. He was undeniably handsome with smooth bronzed skin, strong cheekbones and a defined jawline. But as for the rest—he wasn’t impossibly tall, or well-muscled, or radiant. The only thing that set him apart was a thick shock of fire-red hair, which swooped down over his brow.
Hiro revised his assessment as Taiyo met Hiro’s gaze. His eyes were strange as well. Glowing and bright, like two tiny suns.
The god vaulted out of the icy coffin, nimble as a deer. His carriage was proud and regal.
“What a strange place you’ve brought me to,” he said, peering around the icy bowl. His voice was deep and reverberated through Hiro’s body as he spoke. “So much frozen water. This must be my lady’s creation.”
Even in the moonlight, Taiyo’s clothes stood out in a rainbow of color against the dull frozen landscape. The garments were old-fashioned; he wore wide crimson pants topped by a rich bronze tunic wrapped in an obi sash of golden braid.
Hiro wasn’t sure how to proceed, so he decided to dive right in.
“I am Hiro, crown prince of Kita, and a captain in the sunburner army,” Hiro said, bowing low. “We have freed you from your prison where the tengu trapped you.”
Taiyo frowned, stroking his chin. “Trapped, you say?”
“Do you…not remember?” Hiro ventured. “Do you remember the tengu? They have been masquerading as you for many years. They have found a way to travel from the demon world to our own.”
“The tengu vexed us for many years. Never satisfied with their realm. Wanted to have ours as well,” Taiyo said. “But I must admit, I don’t recall being trapped. We fled the spirit world when those awful tengu and their followers broke through. They were halfway through the barrier to the mortal realm too. The burners and Tsuki and I agreed that it would be best if they hid us.”
“Hid you?” Emi asked, her voice flat.
“Yes. The demons wanted to kill me and my love because if we are lost, the sun and moon will disappear. And they are quite fond of darkness. They are born and bred in the dark. So Queen Hamaio, King Samsua, and their guardians hid us away until such time as the danger passed. Has the danger passed?”
“No,” Hiro said weakly.
“Then why have you freed me?” Taiyo asked.
“We…thought…you could help us. To defeat the tengu.”
Taiyo recoiled. “Fight? Oh, no. The creator made Tsuki and me to shine light into this world. The burners and the guardians were created to protect us.”
Hiro closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and letting it out in a slow exhale. Geisa’s mocking words replayed in his head. How delightfully ironic. They had been played.
“If you can’t help us fight, what good are you?” Daarco asked, stepping up beside Hiro.
“I shine the light upon the world, without which all living things would shrivel and die,” Taiyo snapped. “So there is that.”
Hiro laid a calming hand on Daarco’s shoulder, though what he really wanted to do was punch something. “You understand these tengu better than we do. You have a history. What do you think our next course of action should be?”
Taiyo stared at them blankly. “Put me back to sleep. It is the best solution the burners came up with.”
“We…don’t know how to do that,” Hiro admitted.
Taiyo frowned. “I’m afraid it is a lost cause. They are too powerful. They have been striving towards this end for a millennium.”
“Surely, you sell yourself too short,” Stela said. “You command great power, and we know the burners of old had much wisdom. Otherwise, they couldn’t have held back the tengu for so long. Are you able to remember something that could help us fight them? Tactics the burners used? Tengu weaknesses?”
Taiyo brightened, like the clouds had cleared before him. “They are weakest in daylight, under the direct light of my sun. The burners and their guardians had weapons they used to shine light on the tengu to weaken them. Mirrored shields…and little devices that would explode inside the tengu’s gullets.” He chuckled. “Very crafty, actually.”
“Do any of these weapons still exist?” Emi stepped up, an edge of excitement in her voice.
“Perhaps,” he said. “In the armory at Yoshai. Many such things were kept there.”
“Where?” Hiro said.
“Yoshai, the capital of all the lands. The grandest city ever built. Our stronghold.”
Hiro looked to the others, who met his glance with shrugs or blank faces.
“I’m not familiar with this city. Perhaps its name has changed?” Hiro said. “Can you take us there?”
“Yes,” Taiyo said. “Once the sun truly rises.”
The morning light was filtering over the tops of the twin peaks, just minutes from shining into the glacial bowl where they stood.
Hiro sent Leilu and Stela back to camp to retrieve the rest of their gear. He turned back to Taiyo to find him standing with Ryu.
“A fine guardian,” Taiyo said. “Your connection to the earth is strong.”
“Thank you,” Hiro said.
Leilu and Stela returned ladened with backpacks and weapons as the sun’s rays peeked over the mountaintops.
When the sun hit Taiyo, golden light exploded from his skin and hair—even his eyes and ears. For a moment, he was a smaller twin sun, reflecting the rays back towards his mammoth brother. After a few seconds, Taiyo’s light winked out, but his countenance was much changed. It was hard to look at the god without squinting, and when he moved, he left a golden afterglow, a brilliant shadow that confused the mind.
“The sun and I are one,” he said. “Being kept from its rays for so long left me weak. Now, we may go.”
He stood, raising his arms above him. Nothing happened. One minute stretched to two. The burners exchanged confused glances, each silently daring the others to be the first to disturb the god.
Leilu twirled her finger about her ear, mouthing the word “crazy.”
Stela put her hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking in silent laughter.
Hiro couldn’t help his surge of annoyance. Taiyo had been their one hope of defeating the tengu, and it turned out that they were actually doing the demons a favor by freeing the god. This was no laughing matter.
Abruptly, Taiyo lowered his arms and opened his eyes.
“Ah. Here they come.”
Sinuous shapes appeared in the clear northern sky.
Hiro squinted to make out the creatures, and then his eyes widened like saucers. Dragons. Real live dragons. With flashing teeth and ice-white scales and curving wind-swept wings. And they were coming in for a landing.
“This day just got more interesting,” Emi said.
CHAPTER 35
As the sun rose they cleaned the pieces of coral off of the stone tomb, prying years of growth away with their knives and fingers. An image appeared as they worked—a woman lying on her back, carved in relief on top of the stone slab. A thin circlet sat atop her intricately carved head, the face below serene. Her hands were clasped beneath her bosom, holding a stone cup.
“She’s one lady I wouldn’t mind meeting in person, if you get my drift,” Colum said with a wink.
Kai rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky she doesn’t smite you where you stand.”
“Better get all my admirin’ in before she wakes up, then,” he said.
“What next?” Chiya asked. “How do we wake her?”
This was the part Kai was dreading. “We need your blood,” she said.
“What?” Chiya started. “My blood? Why? You’re the queen.”
Kai shook her head. “The seishen elder said…whoever reveals the visions inside the box is the one to wake her. It’s got to be you.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Chiya furrowed her brow. “Why me?”
“The box worked for you, so does it matter?” Kai asked. “We can puzzle it out later. Right now, we need to get Tsuki awake and see if she can defeat the tengu. Every minute counts.”
Chi
ya crossed her arms over her chest. “What aren’t you telling me? We’ll talk about it now. Before my blood gets involved.”
Kai ground her teeth. “This really isn’t the time.”
“Make time.”
Clearly, Chiya was beyond reasoning. But Kai didn’t want to explain it here in front of these others when she was racing against time to prevent the destruction of her people.
“Chiya, we need your blood right now. That’s an order.” Kai put her hands on her hips and drew herself up to her full height. “Are you disobeying a direct order from your queen?”
Doubt flickered across Chiya’s face.
“Oh for gods’ sakes,” Colum said, throwing up his hands. “Chiya, you’re Kai’s long-lost sister, and so you’re the true heir of Tsuki and so on and so forth. She didn’t tell you because the world is ending and there hasn’t really been a good time for a succession challenge. She was going to tell you eventually etcetera.”
Kai’s mouth fell open and she glared daggers at Colum. “How could you?” she hissed at him. She should have been the one to explain everything to Chiya when the time was right. How dare he take that from her!
“Is this true?” Chiya asked quietly, her eyes blazing.
“I’ve only know for a few weeks,” Kai said. “We were going to tell you once this was all over.”
“We?” Chiya asked, her voice still low.
“Me and my mother. Our…mother,” Kai said.
“I had a mother…and a sister…and you didn’t tell me? You used me all this time, lied to me?”
“Please, Chiya. I will tell you everything you want to know, but right now, we need to free Tsuki.”
“That’s all I’m here for, isn’t it. My blood. Well, here you go.” She pulled out a dagger and sliced her forearm, stepping up to the stone box and letting the blood drip into the open cup. “Are you happy? Now will you tell me the truth?” Chiya rounded on her, the knife still in her hand.
A silver light emanated from the stone tomb, running its way along the edges of the lid. But Kai couldn’t look away from Chiya, from the look of betrayal and anger on her sister’s face.
“I’m so sorry I kept this from you, you must believe that it ate me up inside. It was necessary,” Kai said lamely. “I wanted to tell you, but I was worried that it would destabilize everything when things were already going to hell. We needed to defeat the tengu before we could process this and decide what to do.”
“Decide what to do?”
The top of the stone crypt cracked in two with a loud snap, and the two pieces fell to the earth with a thud.
Kai glanced at the box for a moment, but her gaze was pulled back to Chiya at the chill in her next words.
“Oh, yes, decide. Because I am the rightful heir, aren’t I? You’re an…impostor.”
“We didn’t know you were royal, Chiya. My mother thought her first child had died. It wasn’t like I set out to take your throne!” Kai said. “I never wanted to be queen. Do you think I wanted all of this responsibility at eighteen?”
“Uh…Kai,” Colum said.
“What?” Kai exploded, turning to face the other man.
Then she realized that a young woman was sitting up in the stone box, rubbing her face. Tsuki had awoken. Kai had been so intent on Chiya she had missed it. Double curse Colum!
As she moved towards the goddess to bow low and welcome her back to the world, Kai realized that the air around her was crackling with energy, the strange sensation of a sunburner burning.
“Jurou?” Kai said. “What are you doing?”
The man had been silent during this exchange, hovering near the stone box. Now, his face was radiant, his eyes alight with happiness at the sight of the goddess. But the laugh that bubbled forth from his unassuming throat chilled her.
His hands twitched and a blast of fire roared straight at Tsuki.
Colum moved faster than Kai would have thought possible. He leaped in front of the flames, taking the full brunt of the heat to his shoulder. He fell to the sand, smoke curling from his torso.
Kai and Chiya dove out of the way as Jurou burned again, sending flames shooting in each of their directions. But Kai wasn’t quick enough.
A blast of heat hit her in the chest, and with a flash of pain, her vision turned red. Then black.
Kai opened her eyes to find them gritty with sand. The world was tilting strangely, and each rocking movement sent shudders of pain through her body, leaving her breathless.
The rocking stopped and Kai felt her body lowered into the sand. She struggled to move, her ears ringing, her eyes blurred with tears. “What…?” she croaked.
Chiya’s face swam into view. The look she bore was angry but concerned. “Good,” she said. “You’re awake. That blasted scar seems to have saved your life.”
Kai touched her chest with trembling fingers and hissed as her fingers made contact with puckered, blistered flesh. A circle of angry burns surrounded the handprint. But that was preferable to being dead.
A groan escaped as Kai rolled onto her stomach in the sand. Chiya had dragged her into the protection of the forest, away from the intensity of the fire that Jurou shot at them.
“He herded us,” Chiya said. “Away from Tsuki.”
Kai tried to think, her mind searching for a way to get Tsuki away from Jurou, but her thoughts felt like honey on a winter day. Chiya was all but defenseless against a sunburner in daytime. Colum was down. But Kai had the white light. She could stop him.
Kai opened her qi to the light to pull the power into herself. The raging torrent ripped through her mind, blasting her head with a searing pain that turned her stomach and blinded her vision. Kai retched into the soft sand, a cold sweat pricking across her body. She slammed her mental doors with a gasp, closing herself off from the light. The pain subsided.
“I can’t…burn.” Kai gasped, too shaky to even hold her head up.
“Screw this,” Chiya said, drawing her sword. “I’m going for it.”
She rose and darted forward to take Jurou from behind.
But he must have sensed her. He sent a jet of white hot flame in an arc around him and Tsuki, melting the sand into a bubbling line of molten glass.
Chiya fell back into the sand, scrambling away from the inferno. There was no jumping over that arc. Not if she meant to live.
Tears rose in Kai’s eyes unbidden, not from the heat or smoke of the flames. They were so close. They had found the goddess. And freed her. And now this?
Kai dragged herself to her knees, wiping the sand and sick from her face.
“Jurou!” she shouted, her voice hoarse. “Whatever you think you’re doing, don’t! Help us save this world! Give Tsuki back to us!”
He sneered as he tightened the final strap of his koumori’s harness. The beast was clicking nervously at the flames, huddling close to the sea waves. He strode to stand across the line of fire from her. Gone were his shaky hands, his nervous mannerisms, his hunched scholar’s shoulders. This man stood tall as he looked down on her.
“I’m not interested in saving this world,” he said. “I will remake it into a world of darkness and fire. No more burners or seishen”—he spit the word—“no more kings or queens. The tengu have promised me that.”
“The tengu are using you,” Kai managed. “They’ll discard you as soon as you’ve outlived your usefulness.”
“Even now, your ignorance astounds me,” he said. “I am using them! Just as I used you! The scroll, the blood of the heir, you never would have gotten this far without me leading you by the nose. It wasn’t the tengu who trapped the god and goddess, it was your precious burners! They hid them to protect them. And now you’ve uncovered them for me once again. I must thank you. Without your assistance, I never would have made it this far. You have the privilege of knowing that you played an integral part in the unmaking of this world.”
Kai’s mind reeled. Had she truly undone what Hamaio and her followers had died hundreds of years ago for?
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“What will you do?” Kai asked, afraid of the answer.
“I will kill your precious goddess and use her silver blood to rip open the seal between this world and the spirit world.” He smiled grimly. “I was going to kill you. But I wouldn’t deprive you of the moment when the moon goes dark for all eternity. And then the sun.” He strode back to his koumori, picking Tsuki up and throwing the goddess over his shoulder like a sack of grain. He trussed her in front of the saddle, tying her down. Tsuki looked faint, eyes blinking in confusion as Jurou bound her to the saddle. Why didn’t she do something…god-like to defend herself?
Hiro. Emi. Kai’s heart twanged painfully. Were they under attack too? Already dead? She looked at the sun hanging over the horizon in the east. Taiyo wasn’t dead yet. Maybe Kai could stop it somehow…but she couldn’t even stand.
Kai knelt in the sand numbly as Jurou’s koumori took flight. Through the shimmering heat and flames, she vaguely registered Chiya moving around the arc of fire to fall to her knees beside Colum, feeling his pulse. At her side, Quitsu called out to her.
But her eyes were locked with Jurou’s own—black and cruel in the firelight. As his koumori rose in the air, he burned a blast of fire, engulfing the island’s lush forest in flames.
It was all going up in flames.
CHAPTER 36
Riding a dragon was nothing like flying on a golden eagle. The ride was smooth and fast; the wind chilled Hiro’s face, whistled in his ears. In front of him flew Taiyo, the sun god. His god. That he had worshipped all his life.
The god was nothing like he’d expected. He had expected someone powerful and forbidding, like the legendary warriors of sunburner lore. Instead, the god seemed almost…absentminded. Hiro wondered if hundreds of years frozen in ice had…damaged him somehow. He shook the thought aside. Clearly the god still had some power, or he wouldn’t have been able to summon these dragons. Hopefully, these weapons he spoke of would be enough. They had to be enough.