by Claire Luana
“You’re not that old.” Emi snorted. Her friend was sitting on a bench, polishing a set of daggers. Her friend’s moonburner uniform, with its navy-blue fabric and silver embroidery, was unbuttoned at the neck to let some air in. Emi’s full, silver hair was plaited in a thick fishtail braid down her back. She didn’t look the least bit concerned that the two heirs of Kitina were missing. They could be dead for all she knew!
“The point of sparring was to quiet your mind. You didn’t even make the smallest effort. So, you suffer the consequences for your lack of focus.”
“I suffer the consequences of having two obstinate children!” Kai threw up her hands, spinning to begin another line of pacing. “You’re sure Oma knew nothing about Rika’s plans? She didn’t even have a whiff of a hint of where she was going?”
Emi shook her head. “Daarco questioned her about it. I think he was channeling some of his old dark sunburner ways—getting all intense and in her face. Poor Oma was quaking in her slippers. I had to bribe her with rice pudding to even come to the dinner table after. If she knew anything, she would have talked.”
Kai smiled. She hardly remembered the old Daarco anymore, angry and sullen and hateful. For so many years now, he had been her faithful general and friend, a true partner to Emi, and a good father. “I wish I knew where they were! It doesn’t make sense—Rika and Koji planning anything together. They can’t stand each other right now.”
“We know where they went. Rika went to meet this shadow, to try to force her powers to manifest. Koji probably followed along like the little brother he is because he can’t stand to be excluded.”
“I thought Enzo would have had the sense to talk Koji out of something so foolish,” Kai grumbled.
“We seishen are only as foolish and headstrong as our burners,” Quitsu drawled from the corner, where he was draped over a pile of shields, his chin on his paws.
“I’ll choose to ignore that,” Kai shot back. “You don’t think that Rika would confront these invaders by herself, would she? I didn’t raise that foolish of a child?”
Emi shook her head. “Rika may be desperate to gain her powers, but she’s been soaking in all those lessons on diplomacy and foreign relations you’ve been feeding her all these years. She’ll know how important it is for Hiro to take the lead in this negotiation. I don’t think she’s confident enough to think she could manage it herself.”
“Let’s hope not,” Kai said. She closed her eyes, rubbing them wearily. “Hiro, take care of our babies,” she said under her breath.
“Did you get any sleep last night?” Emi asked, concern written in her dark eyes.
Kai shook her head.
“Had any breakfast?”
Another head shake.
“Let’s at least get some food in you. You can’t help them by sheer force of worry.”
“It’s a mother’s most powerful weapon—“ Kai began, but her stomach interrupted her with a loud rumble. Kai pursed her lips. “You win this round,” she relented.
“I won all the rounds today.” Emi grinned, the old burn-marks on her face paling against her brilliant smile.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Emi wrapped her arm around Kai’s shoulder and squeezed. They rounded the door into the hallway and a servant scrambled to a stop, nearly bowling into them. “Your Majesty!” He panted. “Prince Koji has been sighted riding through the Sea Gate! He’s coming in at a gallop. He should be nearing the palace gate by now.”
Kai’s stomach dropped. What would bring him back at such a pace? Not slinking back with apologies, but at a full-fledged run? “Let’s go.”
Kai and Emi sprinted through the hallways of the palace, dropping all sense of royal decorum. Quitsu streaked after them like a silver arrow. They dodged servants bearing trays of food and nobles who plastered themselves against the walls in surprise at the queen’s passage. It wasn’t fast enough. Kai needed to be there now, to see him now.
They burst out the doors of the castle into the main courtyard, shaded with soaring camphor trees. “Koji!” she cried. Her son was across the courtyard, standing next to Enzo, whose flanks heaved with effort. Koji turned towards her with a face red and blotchy with tears. When he saw her, he ran towards her and they slammed together in a fierce embrace. Kai held him in her arms, taking in his solid presence with palpable relief, rocking him as shuddering sobs began to wrack his body.
“Shhh,” she said, stroking his golden hair. “It’s okay. You’re home now. You’re safe.”
He held her, bowing his head to let his tears fall on her shoulder, wetting her blouse. Kai held tight to her son and her fears, a thick knot deep within her, wanting to know what these tears meant, but also holding on to this moment of not knowing—sensing that soon, everything would be change.
He finally pulled back, wiping his nose on his sleeve. She had never seen him look so miserable.
“What happened?”
“Father’s dead,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “They killed him. And Ryu. And all the other burners.”
Kai felt her knees grow weak beneath her and it was only Emi, at her side in a blink to grasp her arm, that kept Kai on her feet. Hiro…dead. Her mind stumbled over the word, unable—unwilling to wrap around it. It couldn’t be.
“Your sister?” Kai asked, grasping for something to distract her from a cascading sorrow that was too great to bear. Even if…Hiro…Rika had to be safe, right?
He shrugged, wiping his nose on his sleeve again. “She killed one of them. Her power, it came and when the thing tried to kill her, she killed it instead. That didn’t make the others too happy. She told me to run…she was holding them off…” He looked at her then, misery etched across his face. “I left. Enzo started running, and I didn’t stop him.” Tears flowed fresh. “I left her. I’m so sorry. I left her.”
Kai pulled him into another embrace, her own tears mingling with his as she pulled his cheek against her own. “You did the right thing. If your father couldn’t defeat these enemies…you did the right thing. You came back to me. You warned us.”
“I’m a coward,” he sobbed. “They were hurting her and I abandoned her.”
She pulled back, taking his face in her hands. “Sometimes it takes more courage to live than to die. We needed you to live. I needed you to live. When faced with overwhelming odds, retreat is not cowardice.”
He nodded, but she saw he didn’t believe her. She didn’t know if she believed herself. She wanted to scream at him, pound his chest for leaving his sister behind, for going in the first place and putting himself at risk. But she knew, the small part of her that was still in control, that if she did such things, she would lose him forever. And she needed him. He was likely all the family she had left.
“Koji,” Emi said gently, putting a hand on his arm. “These invaders. You’ve called them…things. What did you see?”
“They’re not human,” he said. “They’re eight feet tall, covered in impervious armor. They have four arms with claws on the end. Burning can’t touch them.”
Kai and Emi exchanged a look of shock. “What do they want?”
Koji shrugged hopelessly. “They called themselves soul-eaters. They…they suck the life from people. I saw… Father and Ryu…they turned to ash.”
Emi took Kai’s hand, grasping it tightly. Kai nodded with much more calm than she felt. “Why are they here?”
“I think…” Koji shuddered, closing his eyes at the memory. “I think they’re here…because they’re hungry.”
CHAPTER 10
A SOFT BREEZE ruffled Rika’s hair. Her eyes fluttered open, taking in an impossibly large sky filled with unfamiliar stars. She was lying on the deck of their boat. Gone were the giant tortoise, the red phoenix rising, the white tiger, the blue serpentine dragon. The constellations she had grown up with, her familiar friends…they were gone. Replaced by unfamiliar stars in unfamiliar patterns. She closed her eyes again, shutting out the strangeness, the horror of her present circumstances.
It was a dream. It had all been a dream. Her father. Ryu. An armada of monsters intent on destroying everything she held dear. Hot tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and she curled her arms around her stomach, trying to hold in the wracking sobs that threatened to consume her, to deny the reality that her mind insisted upon. This was a dream. She’d walk down to breakfast and her mother would be perched in her father’s lap kissing him and she’d tell them about the wildest dream she had had over cups of steaming tea.
“Rika?”
She opened her eyes. The strange stars remained, refusing to be banished, to admit they were anything but firm and fixed and real. An ache rippled through her, a quake that shook apart the already-shattered pieces of her heart. Her father and Ryu were gone, and she was here. In this strange place. With this strange man.
“Are you all right?”
She took in a shuddering breath. She would have to face it. To fix it. To make the most of this mess that had so quickly consumed her reality. She couldn’t stay lying on this salty deck forever. Rika rallied her strength and tried to sit up, her vision reeling. She groaned, bringing a hand to her head, as if she could hold the pounding inside.
“Easy,” Vikal said.
She squinted in the darkness, looking for him. He sat across the cockpit from her, elbows on his knees. The sails fluttered uselessly, flapping back and forth.
“It hits hard, especially the first time. It takes a few minutes before everything works right.”
“What’d you do? How’d you work that thing?” Her voice sounded like an echo in her own head.
“The leeches call it ‘hopping.’ Far more advanced magic than anything we have on our island. I learned when…they controlled me. With this power, you can cross great distances instantly. Travel between worlds.”
Between worlds? Rika couldn’t wrap her mind around that one, so she set it aside for the time being. “The leeches?”
“It is what we have named them. Leeches. Soul-eaters.”
“What do they call themselves?”
“It is not a word that can be translated.” he said. “It means something like—deliverers.”
“Deliverers?” Rika was incredulous. She adjusted her position gingerly, leaning back against the opposite rail. “They have a high opinion of themselves.”
“I saw some of their history when I was under their thrall. They come from the stars. From another world. Many other worlds. They started out by trading—exchanging knowledge of their magic and the worlds for resources. For souls. They would free those who were sick, suffering. They were deliverers, in a way. Then a new queen was born. She was different. Ambitious. Cruel. She killed the old queen and everything changed. They have become these monsters you see today.”
“And no other soul-eaters objected to this new queen’s plan to start murdering everyone in their path?”
Vikal shook his head. “They have a strange social structure. Like—a beehive. The queen controls the soul-eaters. The soul-eaters control the thralls. No independent thought or action allowed. It is contrary to their nature.”
“An army of mindless killers,” Rika said. “Great.” Her head had mostly stopped spinning. A warm breeze blew from the island, invigorating her with the heady scent of lush vegetation. She hauled herself to shaky feet—and felt her knees go weak. She caught herself on the rail. Okay, too soon. “Where are we?” she asked, looking across the dark sea to a body of land she could just make out in the distance. “It’s so warm here. The air feels…thick.” Her despair was fading into the background as her curiosity grew. She had never been anywhere beside Yoshai and Kitina. What was this place? A different land mass? A different world?
“Nua,” he said, standing as well. His voice was wistful. “My home.”
She turned and examined him, leaning on the rail for support. Even in the low light of the starry sky, he was…changed. His spine straighter. His head held high. His skin—there was practically a glow coming off of him. A health and vitality that radiated from his very pores. As if the man needed help being more handsome. And his eyes…was it a trick of the light? His eyes were so vibrantly green, she could hardly believe they weren’t lantern light. And—she squinted, looking more closely. Yes! There was a faint glow coming from his forehead under the thick shock of black hair.
“Are you going to dissect me?” he asked with an uncomfortable laugh.
Rika hardly noticed. What was that? She stepped forward in a lithe motion, sweeping her hand across his forehead to push back his thick hair. Then with a yelp, she backed away. “What is that?” she squeaked, her hand to her hammering heart.
“It’s a long story,” he said, a wry smile flickering across his face.
“A long story? Who—what—Vikal, you have three eyes!”
He pushed the hair off his forehead with a quizzical look. “I do not know what you speak of. All I have is this tattoo.”
Rika’s mouth hung open as she looked at the smooth expanse of skin he revealed. She crept forward and peered at it, standing on her tiptoes. It was a tattoo. Dark green lines depicting a closed eye, decorated by triangles and dots and sweeping geometry. But she had sworn she had seen…she would bet her life… She shook her head in wonder. Had hopping from Kitina addled her mind?
The tattoo popped open with a blink, revealing a glowing green eye fringed by long, dark lashes.
Rika jumped back with a screech, practically careening over the side of the boat.
Vikal started laughing, a deep guffaw that warmed her core.
Rika’s jaw hung open with shock. “Are you—messing with me?” she asked incredulously. Without thinking, she stepped forward and punched him in his sizable bicep with all her might.
“Ow.” He shied back, still laughing. “Is that how they do things in Kitina?”
Rika whirled, his words smothering her rising mirth. She was horrified by her impertinence. Punching him—it was something she’d do to Koji. Not some strange man—if he even was a human man—who had helped murder her father. What was she doing? Standing here joking with him while the soul-eaters were marching on Yoshai? She needed to get back. Now.
Rika stilled her face into a mask of calm before turning back to him. His laughter had died, and he was looking not at her, but at a spot towards the center of the ship. What was he looking at? There was nothing there. She cleared her throat. When she spoke, her words were cold, imperious. As queenly as she could make them. “I admit I’m curious, but we can talk about your third eye later. You made a good call hopping us away from that soul-eater ship. But now, please hop us back. Preferably, a few leagues down from where the soul-eaters made landfall. I need to go help my mother defeat them.”
He leaned against the rail, looking at her. His mask had fallen back as well, and his features were hard, his jaw set. The laughing man of a moment before seemed like a figment of her imagination. The ship’s rigging creaked and clanked in a gust of wind. A feeling of trepidation washed over her. “Vikal. Take me back.”
“I cannot,” he said finally. “I need you here.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are the only person I have ever heard of who can kill a leech. Even in the memories of the hive, I never saw such a thing. The leeches have taken over most of Nua, but some of my people escaped into the mountains. I need your help to rescue them. And I have friends who were trapped under the leeches’ compulsion, like I was. If you kill the leeches that enslaved them…”
“They’ll be free,” Rika finished, her voice cold. “And what about me. Am I no longer free?”
“Of course you are free.”
“Then take me back,” she said. She stormed across the deck, retrieving her father’s sword and buckling it onto her narrow hips.
“If you go back, you die. The might of the soul-eaters armies are marching on your land. You have no hope of defeating them. You cannot help there. But you can help here. Only two dozen or so remained behind.”
“So you would have me abando
n my family, my people, my duty? Let them be sucked dry by these leeches while I gallivant around here freeing your friends?”
“No.” He shook his head, sighing. “The only good thing about the soul-eater’s power is that they do not seem to hurry. They are methodical, moving forward inch by inch. It is unlike fighting a human enemy, where there are tactics and feints and double-crossing. The leeches are straightforward destruction. If your people can hold them off long enough…they might have a chance. You should take that time to master your powers.”
Rika opened her mouth to object, but he continued. “I could help you learn. While you help me. Then when you return, you will be ready to fight them.”
“My homeland will be a smoking wasteland by then. No. The answer is no. I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to help you.” Rika stepped up to the astrolabe. “Take me back now. After I save my family, I’ll come back to help you here. I promise. I owe you something for helping me escape that place. I repay my debts.”
“Go back now and you will not live long enough to help your family or my land. You were captured by only two leeches and a cowardly historian. You think you could defeat a swarm of these creatures? Hundreds? With thousands of men at their disposal? Are you so eager to die?”
Rika narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. True, her first experience using her power had been a little…unpredictable. But she would learn as she went. There wasn’t time to waste trying to learn how to use her power. She had let down her father… She pushed the thought aside. It was too painful to confront right now. She wouldn’t fail her mother and brother too.
“Just show me how to use the astrolabe. You don’t need to come with me. You can stay here and free your people.”
“I cannot free my people without you,” he said, running his fingers through his dark hair. “You… Your power…” He hesitated, spinning on his heel and turning from her.
“What?” she asked suspiciously. “What about my power?”