by Claire Luana
“Oof!” Her follower went down like a sack of rice, landing flat on his back. Rika’s knee pinned his chest, her belt knife held aloft in one hand.
“Ow, Rika, get off me!” Koji said, squirming beneath her. “Are you going to stab me?”
“I should,” she said. “I’d finally be rid of you.”
Koji’s seishen, Enzo, emerged from the darkness, leveling his long horn at her. It wasn’t close enough to be threatening, but she took his point well enough.
She pushed off Koji before standing up, causing him to wheeze out another breath. She sheathed her knife and offered him her outstretched hand. “Happy?” she asked Enzo.
The seishen straightened. “Very,” he said.
Her eyes opened in surprise as Koji took her hand and hauled himself to his feet. Enzo didn’t often talk to her, not like Quitsu or Ryu. He and Koji kept to themselves, a secret friendship of whispered confidences and jokes. A friendship she wasn’t welcome in.
She shook off her surprise and resumed glaring at Koji, her hands on her hips. “Ko, what in Tsuki’s name do you think you’re doing here?”
“Same thing you are,” he protested.
“You’re confronting a threatening darkness that your powers were prophesied to defeat?” she asked.
“Okay, not exactly the same thing. I don’t want to miss the action,” he said. “I’m fourteen. I’ve been training my whole life with Armsmistress Emi and the other sunburners. This is the first exciting thing that’s happened in…our entire lifetimes. I’m not going to miss it!”
He had a point there. There had been war and strife when her parents had been young, but her own childhood had seen nothing more exciting than tavern brawls and villagers grumbling about taxes. Things had been remarkably peaceful. Still. “I’m not here to be part of the action. I’m here so my moonburning powers manifest. Because according to Roweni, if they don’t, we’re all screwed. You’ll just get in the way.”
“I won’t,” he said. “Enzo and I will…observe. I want to see these foreigners. Do you think they have three eyes and blue skin? That’s what my friend Jino said.”
“Jino’s an idiot,” Rika said. “I bet they look exactly like us.” She sighed. “Is there anything I can say to convince you to go back to Yoshai?”
“No,” he said, sticking his chin in the air. Rika grimaced. She recognized that stubborn look. She was the one making it most of the time. There would be no convincing him to return. “Fine,” she said. “You and Enzo can ride with me. But when it’s time to tell Father I’m here, you’ll hide. I have a good excuse for why I’ve come. You’re just nosy.”
“But then I won’t get to see the foreigners!” he protested.
“You can watch from a hillside. You’ll be able to see how many eyes they have and everything. And then you won’t get in trouble with Dad for sneaking out.” At least until you get back to Yoshai, Rika thought, and Mother flays you alive. But Koji wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Typical boy, she thought. He clearly liked the idea of having this adventure without getting in trouble with their father. “Agreed,” he finally said.
“You have to do exactly what I say, though,” she warned.
“Unless it’s stupid,” he countered.
“Fair enough,” she said. “Let’s go. Father should be nearing Antila. He’ll set up camp soon. If we get to a good spot nearby, we can get some sleep.”
Koji seemed content to let her lead, and they mounted up, riding in silence. Rika tried not to stare at Enzo, but it was still disconcerting to see her brother riding a golden unicorn. She still hadn’t gotten used to his seishen.
They slowed to a stop as the lights of Antila came into view. Rika could just make out a tent going up by the light of four orbs the moonburners must have cast. In the distance, along the black line of the sea, hundreds of green lights glowed. No, not hundreds. Thousands. They stretched as far as the eye could see, floating eerily in the air.
“Look at all of them,” Koji whispered.
“What’s making that green light?” she asked, more to herself than to Koji. The illumination was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Her mother was right. Whatever had borne these ships here, whatever made that light, it was magic unknown to the burners of Kitina.
“Maybe they’re here to trade,” Koji said weakly. She glanced at him. His face was drawn, pale. It seemed the reality of this adventure was coming home to roost for him. Who was she kidding? For her too.
“Father will be able to reason with them. He faced demons from another realm, remember?”
Koji gave her a grateful smile and she felt a twinge of fondness for her brother. “You’re right. If he and Mother could free the gods, destroy the tengu…he can handle these guys.”
“Now, I just have to figure out how to let Father know I’m here with minimal yelling.”
“Good luck with that,” Koji said. “Remember when that litter of chinchillas got loose in their chambers, and he didn’t realize his pants had a hole in them until halfway through that royal dinner?”
Rika cackled at the memory. “There couldn’t have been a worse place for a hole.” She laughed. “Remember how red his face got?”
“And that vein in his neck started to bulge? I thought it was going to explode, and a spurt of blood would come out of the side of him!” Koji pantomimed the explosion, and Rika held her stomach as she laughed. She had never seen her father so furious. But he couldn’t say a word, not until the dinner was over and his guests had left.
“I can assure you”—a deep baritone voice sounded before them—“that his fury over the trouser incident will pale in comparison to the rage you two will face tonight.”
Koji and Rika froze as Ryu, their father’s seishen, stalked out of the tall grass as silently as a wraith.
“Both of you. Come with me.”
CHAPTER 6
RIKA COULDN’T HELP the feeling that she was walking to the gallows as she and her brother followed Ryu towards their father’s tent. Koji, for once, was silent beside her. Even Enzo’s head was down, his horn skimming the ground. This was going to be much, much worse than the trouser incident.
She had wanted to present herself to her father on her own terms, to prepare her case for why she should be allowed to stay. This wasn’t at all what she’d imagined. How had Ryu even found them? As if he had heard her thought, Ryu rumbled, “Seishen can sense each other’s presence. Even communicate telepathically across short distances. Something you might want to keep in mind for future rebellious acts.”
Rika glared at Koji and Enzo. They had given them away! If she had come alone, she would have been fine. Koji seemed to shrink under her gaze, and Enzo looked away. She’d deal with them later. For now, she had to brace herself for the gale force winds of her father’s anger.
The burners who had accompanied Hiro were still finishing erecting the tent, tying the sturdy bamboo poles to the crimson fabric. Hiro stood in the middle, stock still amongst the flurry of activity. Even from behind, Rika could see that his muscles were tensed, his fists balled in fury. Her heart hammered in her chest. On a whim, she seized her brother’s hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back—his palm sweaty.
“So,” Hiro finally said, after the silence stretched so long she thought she would scream. He turned, his eyes pinning them like arrows. His face was red—thunderous. “Instead of performing valuable reconnaissance, Ryu has had to waste his time bringing my errant children to me. Do you think this is a game we’re playing here?”
“No,” they both murmured, their eyes glued to the ground.
“Do you think it is sport?”
“No.”
“Do you think I forbade you to come because I am a spiteful father, intent on depriving you of fun? Do I forbid you to do things without good cause?”
“No,” they both said, though at this point Hiro was getting going, and Rika thought his questioning was more rhetorical.
“I forbid you to come here because what we do
is dangerous. And I do not want to put my beloved children and the heirs to this nation’s future at risk. Does this seem so unreasonable? So intolerable for you that you must disobey me?”
“No—”
“And now you put me in the impossible position of deciding whether to send you home with an escort, depriving me of valuable burners whom I need here, or allowing you to stay in this dangerous situation.”
Rika looked up at that. “You must let us stay,” she blurted out. “We’ll stay out of the way. Watch from afar. But you might need my power…”
“I am a sunburner and a king!” he thundered. “I do not need my teenage daughter’s assistance with affairs of state!”
“But the prophecy…” she said weakly, his words stinging as surely as if he had slapped her. She felt her chance to see her powers manifest slipping through her grasp like sand.
“Prophecy be damned. I will not be ruled by a few words uttered a decade ago by an unhinged Oracle! Now, I have made my decision. You will return to Yoshai at once. One of my sunburners will escort you, and if you give him a peep of trouble, you will both be locked in your rooms for a year. Do I make myself clear?”
Rika’s face flushed with anger and shame as she nodded, looking at the swirls on the carpet that had been laid over the grass. This was all Koji’s fault! If he and Enzo hadn’t given them away, she’d still be tucked away out of sight, ready to present herself at the perfect moment. She could kick herself. Why had she agreed to let them travel with her?
Hiro heaved a massive sigh, deflating a bit. “I do this because I love you and I fear for you here. If anything happened to either of you, your mother and I—”
“Your Majesty!” Master Tato ducked inside the tent, his eyes wide as full moons. “There’s movement from the beach. Something…someone is coming.”
“Now?”
Master Tato nodded, wringing his thin hands.
Hiro turned to Rika and Koji. “You two will sit in the corner and say nothing. Ryu and Enzo will guard you. Am I understood?”
They both nodded eagerly, Rika’s heart fluttering in her chest. This was it. The shadow would be revealed, and if the invaders tried anything, her powers would manifest to save them. She wanted to dance with glee, but she kept a serious expression on her face, forcing her shaking hands behind her back, so her father wouldn’t see them. She would be quiet. Until he needed her.
As Rika, Koji, and the seishen retreated into the corner of the tent, Hiro quickly donned his jacket and buckled on his sword belt. He flipped open one of the saddlebags they had brought and pulled out his golden crown, resting it atop his head. Rika knew that the crown was more than an accessory—it was a well for sunlight, catching and holding it so the wearer had something to burn at night. The other sunburners, who had no similar relics, were as helpless as ordinary men at night, though they all had extensive weapons training. Except poor Master Tato. Rika didn’t think the librarian was particularly handy with a sword. At least the group had the two moonburners to defend them—their power was most deadly at night, when they could pull light from the moon and burn it into heat or fire or lightning. Plus, the seishen could be deadly if cornered. Though Rika had grown up treating Ryu like a pet, she knew she wouldn’t want to cross him in a fight. There was plenty of firepower in this tent. They would be able to face whatever came through that door.
Four of the burners fell into position in a row behind Hiro while the last sunburner went outside to great their “guests.” The wait stretched long and wide, but finally, when Rika thought the anticipation would kill her, she heard murmured voices outside.
A man was the first to duck under the tent flap. He looked unlike any of her people. Dark hair swept over his brow, and he had olive skin, as well as thick, arching eyebrows framing eyes that glowed an eerie green. Like the lights over the sea. He was handsome—strikingly so—as tall and broad as her father. Black leather armor stretched over lithe muscle that moved with Ryu’s cat-like grace. The man surveyed each individual standing in the tent, and when his eyes swept over her, a chill crawled up her spine. Despite the pleasant packaging, this man frightened her.
Then he stepped aside to allow the next member of his party to enter the tent. At this sight, Rika forgot all about the man. This…this was the threat. This was the great shadow, the sweeping darkness. This was, in a word—evil.
It stood two heads taller than her father and was clad in black chitinous armor, almost like scales. Its claw-like fingers curled into fists on the end of unnaturally long arms, and the arms, she realized in horror, numbered four. Whatever this creature was, it wasn’t human. It wore a black helmet that covered its head, but where its face should be…was only darkness. Darkness and two orbs glowing sickly green. In one of its hands it held a wooden staff covered in an intricate pattern of vines and leaves.
Hiro backed up a step and tightened his hand on his sword hilt. The creature stepped aside, and another entered the tent, looking identical to its fellow. Except this one, she noticed, was missing two claws on one of its hands. She wasn’t sure why she noticed it, but the sight returned some of her failing courage. If it could lose fingers, it could be killed.
Hiro squared his shoulders and faced the horrors before him. “Welcome to the land of Kita-Miina,” he said formally. “I am King Hiro, one of the rulers of this land. I am pleased to welcome you to our shores. I look forward to talking with you about how our two great races can coexist in peace. We believe we have much to learn about each other, and much to learn from each other.”
Rika was amazed that her father’s voice was clear and strong, without a hint of fear. Suddenly, the bedtime stories of her parents fighting demons and winning came into vivid color. Pride swelled within her.
The creature with three fingers turned to the man who had entered with them. Rika had forgotten about him, but he stepped forward. He began to speak, his eyes flashing with that same eerie green. He had a pleasant voice, deep and melodic, but the words he spoke were strange and garbled. Nonsense. Hiro looked at Master Tato, who shrugged helplessly. Whatever this language was, it wasn’t one the librarian had encountered. Clearly, the creatures couldn’t understand the dialect Hiro spoke.
Hiro paused for a moment, but then stepped forward slowly, taking his hand off his sword. He extended his hand to the creature in a gesture of friendship. The creature extended one of its own arms, wrapping its claws delicately around Hiro’s hand. Hiro gently pumped his hand up and down, and Rika blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. A handshake. It was a good start.
The creature tightened his grip, causing Hiro to grunt in surprise. Ryu, who had been sitting at her side, was on his feet in a flash, a low growl rumbling in his chest. He didn’t approach, no doubt not wanting to make a threatening movement. The creature pulled Hiro towards him, bending its face down towards Hiro’s own. Her father stepped forward—once, twice. What was the creature doing?
Rika looked to the black-clad man, who stood stiff as a board, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His eyes were fixed on the ground, away from the creature and Hiro. The muscles in his strong jaw were working, as if he were grinding his teeth. As if he were bracing himself for what was about to come.
Horror swelled in Rika’s heart and she cried out, though she had promised she wouldn’t. “Father! Get back!”
But it was too late. The creature’s arms shot out and wrapped around Hiro like four lassos. The creature hovered over Hiro—a monstrous shadow bending him backwards like a bow. A scream ripped from Hiro’s throat, a sound of such agony that it was almost inhuman.
Those in the tent exploded into action. Ryu leapt for the other creature while one of the moonburners cast out at the man with a fireball. The other moonburner targeted the creature holding Hiro, sending blinding bolts of lightning into its black-clad body.
Rika stood frozen to the spot, her hands clamped uselessly before her open mouth. She couldn’t look away from her father, from the sight of the c
reature wrapped around him in an embrace so close it was almost…intimate. Hot tears splashed down her face as Hiro’s face began to blur, as if the creature was…pulling Hiro into the dark chasm where its face should be. No. Where its mouth should be. Hiro continued to scream as the other creature batted Ryu away like a kitten, sending him tumbling into the side of the tent. The man had dispatched one of the moonburners, his swords piercing her through. Rika saw these things in the periphery while she watched in numb horror as the creature sucked the life from her father. Where were her powers? What could she do?
Ryu let out a grating snarl as he tried to rise to his feet but stumbled, landing on the carpet with a shuddering crash. What was happening to him? Why couldn’t he stand?
“Father,” Koji whispered. His voice was small and high, like it had been when he’d been a boy. Rika wrenched her gaze back to the creature, but what it held in its arms was no longer her father. It was a gray husk in sunburner red. Empty.
The creature straightened, letting the clothing fall from its outstretched claws. The form clunked to the floor, borne by the weight of Hiro’s sword and crown. But there was nothing between the velvet and linen. Nothing but dust. Rika looked at Ryu through a blur of tears, just in time to catch his eyes as he withered away, his once-proud golden body dissolving into ash.
Rika’s knees collapsed beneath her, and she fell to the ground, numb and disbelieving. They were gone. Her father was gone.
CHAPTER 7
SILENCE BLANKETED THE tent, broken only by the sound of ragged breathing. In and out. In and out.
As if watching from afar, Rika realized the sound was coming from her. The last moonburner had ceased her assault on the creature, watching in mute horror as her king was turned to ash. But she came back to herself—launching herself at the creature with a wave of fire before her. The monster stood unflinchingly as the flames enveloped it. When they died away, it advanced—totally unharmed—upon the moonburner. The fire hadn’t slowed it a step. It reached out black-armored arms and grabbed the moonburner’s navy uniform, pulling her into the same strange embrace it had leveled at her father. The moonburner screamed, flailing in its iron grip, her silver hair whipping about her face. “What are you?” she managed, but the creature ignored the question, intent upon its prize. A sob escaped Rika’s lips as the moonburner’s face began to blur.