by Claire Luana
“Master Vita . . .” Kai said, trying to hide her impatience. “The stones?” “Of course. The man was endearing and funny, but undeniably lewd. He bragged that he would get a dirty joke into the treasury.”
Kai raised her eyebrows expectantly. “I still don’t understand.”
“Have you ever heard the song “To Catch a Maid?” He began humming a tune that did sound familiar to Kai. “It was one of his favorites.”
“I think so . . .” Kai said. “I can’t remember the words.”
Master Vita started to sing, the gravel of his voice contrasting with the cheerful melody of the song.
“To catch a maid
You need spirit brave
A chest like a rock
And a twelve inch . . .”
He trailed off.
Kai put her hand to her mouth, blushing. “I have heard that one.”
“The words to the song will get us through the hallway.”
Kai laughed. “He made a dirty tavern song the key to the treasury? No wonder the queen wanted him executed!”
“I never knew why the queen was so angry with him, but that is a good theory,” Master Vita mused.
“All right.” Kai said, “Here goes nothing.”
Kai followed the stones marked by the words to the song. With each new stone, she held her breath, bracing herself for a shock to jolt through her body. But it didn’t. It seemed that they had figured out the key. She shook her head as she stepped on the last stone, etched with the word “cock.” That man must have had some nerve.
She turned the door knob, and the door opened to reveal a huge glittering room.
The three of them gazed at the wealth of the room, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“How . . . this is . . .” Kai trailed off.
The room was long, with a central aisle-way flanked by stone columns. Each column held a moon orb that lit the center of the room, but left the shelves in shadow. To the left and right of the columns stood rows and rows of shelves stacked neatly with treasure. There were piles of gold, jewels, statues, scrolls, weapons, lamps, carpets and beautiful carved wooden furniture. The room contained more opulence than Kai had ever seen in her life.
“How will we ever find it?” she wondered.
Luckily, Master Vita had an answer to this. “The treasury is divided according to time of acquisition. The solar crown was acquired four queens ago, when Queen Athita met King Othio in the Seven Days War.”
Kai vaguely remembered Madame Furie droning about the Seven Days War in her History class. She really should have paid closer attention.
Master Vita moved through the rows, seeming to understand the organizational system in a way she didn’t. She and Quitsu trailed behind him.
A scraping noise sounded behind her. She whirled, peering into the darkness. Nothing. Probably her imagination, jumpy with the excitement of their break-in. She turned back to Master Vita, but as she did, she saw a shadow flicker across the well-lit room.
“Quitsu,” she whispered. “Do you hear anything?”
He was standing with his tail outstretched, the hackles on the back of his neck raised.
“Yes,” he whispered back. “It sounds like . . . scuffing feet. Multiple feet.”
“Ah-hah!” Master Vita cried. He had pulled a golden circlet off a shelf, and held it aloft triumphantly. “I found it!”
Kai inched closer to him. “That is wonderful. Now let’s get out of here!”
“Oh yes, yes,” he said, turning towards her. “There should be a door at the end of the room. It can only be opened from the inside. It will lead us to a tunnel that we can use to circle back to the Oracle’s tower.”
“Kai.” Quitsu said behind her, his voice even but tight.
“What?” she asked, turning. And she froze. There was a spider at the end of the row. It was unmistakably a spider, with a black carapace body and eight legs covered in fine hair. But it was big. Bigger than Quitsu.
“Oh dear,” Master Vita said. “I was hoping they had abandoned the idea of using spiders.”
“How do we kill it?” Kai asked. Her knife had found its way into her hand. She looked around for other weapons, trying not to make any sudden movements. There! A sword on the shelf, close to where the spider stood, blocking their path to freedom.
“I don’t know how to kill it,” Master Vita said. “I wasn’t privy to that part of the treasury plans. I imagine, though, that you kill it the usual way.”
“On my mark, we run for the door.” Kai said. “Stay behind me. Quitsu, stay with Master Vita.”
“Go!” she cried, and ran forward, grabbing the sword off the shelf. She swung it with all her might, knocking the spider out of their way. Its skin was thick and hard, the sword reverberated in her hand as if she had struck a wall. Kai doubted she had done the spider any serious injury.
As they got into the main aisle of the room, she stifled the urge to sprint for the door. Master Vita wasn’t moving very quickly. They needed to stay together.
“Kai!” Quitsu called, and Kai raised her sword just in time to block the mandibles of another spider leaping at her. The force of its attack threw her to the ground, its heavy weight pressing on her. Her thoughts went blank as she focused on the spider viciously biting at her blade. She managed to get her foot up and kicked it away from her.
It went sliding across the polished stone floor, legs scrambling for purchase. Another one was coming from the left, and one from the right. She glanced around and saw at least five more spiders scurrying down from the ceiling and the aisle-ways. There were too many to fight.
She swung her sword again and again, hacking a way towards the door. They were getting closer. They might make it.
A spider leaped onto her back, its heavy weight crushing her to the ground. She felt its sharp mandibles bite into her shoulder, and she screamed in agony.
Quitsu was on it in a flash, shredding the spider’s eyes with his sharp claws. The spider reared back, an inhuman scream ringing out. Kai managed to turn over as it reared up and grasped her sword, which had fallen to the ground. She pointed the sword up as the spider came back down. The sword pierced its stomach, and black liquid squirted over her.
Kai scrambled up, slipping in the spider’s blood.
“Master Vita,” she cried, half to herself and half to Quitsu. He was surrounded by spiders and they were closing in, toying with their prey.
She had lost the sword under the collapsed body of the other spider, and she didn’t think she could lift it. She looked around wildly for another weapon as she dove into the circle of spiders, swinging wildly with her fists. If only she could moonburn, she could light them all on fire. But there was no light down here. She reached out mentally, searching, grasping for any stray wisp of moonlight that might be stored within the treasures of the room. She had exhausted her moonstone link. But there . . . she felt it . . . a well of moonlight. She yanked it to herself without thinking, drawing in the moonlight and sending it out, a mental movement so quick it seemed as one.
The spiders exploded in flames. Fire jetted from their backs and their bodies, consuming them. They rolled and screamed and scrambled, a mass of legs and smoking hair.
“Come on,” she said, pulling a stunned Master Vita towards the door. Mercifully, it opened.
Kai slammed the door closed behind her and sagged against it, breathing hard. She tousled Quitsu’s head, thankful they had escaped largely unscathed. The wound on her shoulder stung fiercely, and Master Vita and Quitsu looked like they had gotten a few scrapes themselves. But they were alive.
“My, my.” A female voice rang out from the darkness of the hallway in front of them. “Doesn’t it look like you’ve been up to something.”
Kai froze. Was it the queen? The speaker moved into the light of the moon orb in the closest alcove, and Kai felt some small measure of relief. A tiny measure. It was the Oracle.
Kai scrambled to her feet, and when she did, she looked down at herself. She l
ooked like she had been through battle. Black spider blood covered the front of her uniform and her own blood coated the back. There was no way she could talk her way out of this.
She straightened her back.
“We have orders. We cannot speak of them to you.” Kai tried to sound as authoritative as possible.
The Oracle laughed, that strange tinkling laugh that Kai had heard before. “No you don’t. If you did, you would have been given the instructions for how to deal with the treasury . . . guards without having to kill them.” She strode closer to Kai. “Try again.”
Kai weighed her options. She could try to fight the Oracle, knock her out, and tie her up until they accomplished their goal with the crown . . . but the woman might scream, or fight back, and Kai had no idea how formidable an opponent she was. She could try to lie again . . . but her lengthy silence was already enough to cause suspicion. So, the truth then. She took a deep breath.
“Kai . . .” Master Vita said with a note of warning.
“The queen’s plan is folly. You know the one of which I speak. It will bring the end of the sunburners. I believe the battle the queen plans is unnecessary. The sunburner prince is ready to declare a truce.”
“And here we have the truth of it,” the Oracle said, sounding pleased. “But the truth of it is much worse. If the queen’s plan comes to pass, I see a day with no sun and a night with no moon. Our victory will mean our defeat.”
Those words. It was the Oracle’s prophecy, spoken to her the day she first met.
“Yes,” Kai said, the pieces finally clicking into place. “Not just a day of no sun and a night with no moon . . . the prophecy you gave to me, when I was first here . . . do you remember it?”
“The moon cannot enslave the sun, nor make the day its mistress.
Or victory shall spell defeat, a crimson sky its auspice
The sun and moon must shine as one, or all will be undone.”
“I finally understand,” Kai said with a mixture of awe and horror. “The queen’s plan to capture the sunburners and enslave them, it will fail. It will be the end of us. Only by working with the sunburners will we find a victory.”
She had known in her heart that trusting Hiro was the right choice, but she savored the validation.
“You see the truth,” the Oracle said.
“Haven’t you told the queen this?” Kai asked. “If she won’t listen, why don’t you tell everyone? Expose her plan for the folly it is. The citadel would listen to you.”
“The queen does not want to hear the truth that I speak. Her obsession with destroying the sunburners has consumed her. And as for why I do not speak to the rest of the citadel . . .” She curled her hands into fists. “She is too powerful. I will not risk challenging her outright until I am certain my efforts will be successful.”
“It will be too late by then. The eclipse is happening, and the queen will execute her plan. You have to help us stop her.”
The Oracle sighed. “I will do my part, in my own way. After all, the queen’s plan is a matter of precise timing. But I will not challenge the queen, as you so foolishly suggest. It would be suicide.”
Kai ground her teeth, wanting to argue further, but she could tell it would be a losing battle.
“I will help where I can. For now, let’s get you cleaned up. And you will need to charge that crown.”
Master Vita had been holding the solar crown behind his back during the exchange. He sheepishly brought his hands around to his front. The crown seemed dull and dark.
“It needs a full day and a full night under the light of the sun and moon. Just enough time to fully charge it before the day of the eclipse,” the Oracle said. “And then you can free your hero, daughter of Azura.”
The Oracle led them up a set of winding steps to the top of her tower. Her chambers were open and cheerful, with the last vestiges of daylight pouring in through windows on the west wall.
Kai wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, maybe some petrified animals or dripping wax candles, certainly not the tidy crisp furnishings tastefully decorating the chamber in shades of lavender and blue.
“This tower was built to reflect the phases of the moon. It is astrologically perfect,” the Oracle said. “Not that I get to use those features much.”
Master Vita sat down in a plush chair while the Oracle pulled a fresh set of moonburner blues out of a large wooden wardrobe. Kai changed into the clothes gratefully, tossing the bloody tatters of her uniform into a trash basket.
Giselli, the Oracle’s seishen, began darting around the room, flying into the air under the high ceiling before sweeping down directly before the Oracle’s face.
“What’s wrong?” the Oracle asked.
“Someone’s coming up the stairs,” Quitsu said with a hiss.
Kai and the Oracle looked at each other with wide eyes, quickly surveying the room for a hiding place.
“The wardrobe!” the Oracle said, hurrying to help Master Vita out of the chair.
They lowered him into one side of the wardrobe, moving aside silken shoes and scarves. Kai and Quitsu tucked themselves into the other side of the wardrobe, and the Oracle closed the doors.
“Roweni,” a haughty female voice said. There was light coming through a crack in the wardrobe doors. Kai could not see the speaker, but the voice was undeniable. The queen.
“We need this room for a few hours,” Kai heard Geisa say. “With Tsuki’s temple burned in the attack, this tower is the next best place to worship.”
“As you wish,” the Oracle said.
Kai opened the door ever so slightly, so she could get a glimpse of what was happening. The Oracle exited the room.
“Are you okay?” she whispered to Master Vita.
He nodded slightly and then his eyes widened. She looked back out the crack and saw a man materializing on the floor. They must have cloaked him in shadows to transfer him. He had tattered clothes and was covered in dirt and blood. He lay on the floor, unmoving. Despite his filth, she could see his close-cropped golden hair. A sunburner. But not Hiro, she thought with relief.
Geisa rolled up the rug and began retrieving candles from a bag and placing them in a circle. She dragged the man into the center of the circle and then pulled an ornate knife from her belt.
They were going to sacrifice this man. And Kai was in a wardrobe, with the power to stop them. Maybe he was a murderer, the worst of the worst offenders. But what if he wasn’t? What if he was a father or a husband, just an honest, hardworking sunburner in the wrong place at the wrong time? As if Quitsu had sensed her thought, he drove his claws into her foot.
“Ow,” she mouthed to him.
He jumped nimbly into her arms, and whispered into her ear. “Do. Not. Leave. This. Wardrobe.”
“They’ll kill him!”
“If you leave, they’ll kill us. And then him. We can’t fight both of them.”
“We can’t just do nothing.”
“We’re not doing nothing. We are living to fight another day. How can you help Hiro or Chiya if you get yourself killed?”
Kai bit her lip and opened her mouth to argue, but felt a vice grip on her other ankle. She looked down at Master Vita, who vehemently pointed out the wardrobe. She looked out the crack and saw that Geisa was approaching.
God and goddess! Geisa must have heard her and Quitsu bickering.
Kai pulled in as much early evening moonlight as she could and wrapped them in an illusion. She had only practiced minor illusions in moonburning class with Pura, projecting shadows on the wall or a dark face over her own.
She had never attempted anything like she was doing now, trying to create nuanced shadows to match the dark wood of the wardrobe. She prayed it was enough.
Geisa threw the doors wide, examining the contents.
The three perched wide-eyed and frozen, waiting for her triumphant cry of discovery. None came.
“Contemplating a different sacrificial outfit?” The queen asked from across the ro
om. “I doubt anything of Roweni’s will fit you.”
“I thought I heard something,” Geisa said.
“Well, it’s empty. Let’s get on with this.”
“Very well,” Geisa said, closing the doors.
Kai sagged with relief. She was about to drop the illusion when the doors flew open again. Geisa’s triumphant face turned to disappointment.
“Enough with the wardrobe,” the queen said.
Geisa closed the doors.
Kai held the illusion the whole time, thankful for something to distract her from the wretchedness she felt. They heard the man awakening; the chanting; wind howling through the room. They heard Tsuki’s strange echoing voice. And they heard the sunburner’s final cry when a knife was plunged into him. It was almost worse, not being able to see it. Kai’s mind supplied plenty of vivid detail.
When it was over, Kai opened her eyes, which she had squeezed shut despite the utter darkness of the closet. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She was a coward. She should have done something.
She heard Geisa’s voice.
“He didn’t deserve it,” Geisa said.
“What?” the queen asked, sounding surprised.
“To meet Tsuki in death. To be honored by her. He deserved to die like a stray dog in the street, with no ceremony.”
“You hate that we need them,” the queen said. “As do I.”
“You weren’t there . . . you don’t know what they did to me when I was their prisoner. Those ten years. Tsuki . . . she found me. She fed me her blood and she made me strong. Strong so I could have my vengeance, not let them sit in some cell like pampered prisoners.” Geisa’s voice was half-crazed.
“Geisa,” the queen said gently. “I am grateful every day that Tsuki brought you to me, and that you showed me her true face. But don’t forget . . .” Her voice hardened. “This is not about your vengeance. This is about my reign, my legacy, and my moonburners. I am Queen.”