Sunburner (Moonburner Cycle Book 2)

by Claire Luana

  Daarco stood still, listening. “Nothing.”

  “Kai,” the voice said again, with more urgency this time. She spun yet again and peered into the mist. And then she grew very still. What she saw…It was impossible.

  “Father?” she said, her voice wavering. Though partially shrouded by mist, he was unmistakable. A face she had prayed to see again hundreds of times. Square jaw, thick brown hair, a big smile that revealed even, fine, white teeth.

  “Kai,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Come here, my daughter. I’ve missed you.”

  She knew it was madness, but it was a madness that she wanted to fall into headfirst. And if she could meet an ancient queen in the spirit world, who was to say she couldn’t see her father? She took a step forward, tentative at first. And then she broke into a run, arms extended to pull him into a hug.

  When she wrapped her arms around him, he was gone. She looked up with confusion. There he was. Right beyond her arms’ reach.

  “Come here, my little fox,” he said.

  A whimper escaped her. She started running, but again, he seemed just past her grasp. Hiro and Colum called out for her, but she ignored their alarmed cries. They were flies buzzing in her ears. She only had eyes for him.

  “You’re in danger,” he said. “The path before you is so narrow. You mustn’t stray.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was too late…” She stopped right in front of him. “I went in the building. They never would have found you if I hadn’t gone in to save Sora. And then after they sentenced you…I would have come, but I didn’t know how to save you. I didn’t know how to burn…I did nothing and it killed you.”

  Her tears were flowing freely now, but when she tried to grasp him, he moved once again.

  “It’s not your fault, my daughter. You’re here now. And I need your help,” he said, the lines at the corners of his brown eyes crinkling with his smile, a smile she hadn’t realized how much she’d longed for.

  “I miss you so much,” she said.

  “I’m right here. You just have to reach me. Try, Kai, try to reach me.”

  Kai ran forward, determined, stumbling over roots, her vision blurred with tears.

  She burst through a line of trees into a clearing where his ephemeral form stood. The world tilted slightly and she threw her arms out for balance. Her feet were stuck. She had sunk to her knees in mud.

  “Father…” she said, twisted with misery and sorrow. “Help me! Why did you bring me here? Why do you keep running?”

  Her father drew near, floating, she realized, not walking. And as she struggled with the squelching muck that held her captive, he smiled.

  Her blood grew cold. The smile on her father’s face grew unnaturally wide, his teeth now filed points. His eyes shone inky black without a sliver of white.

  “Who…what are you?”

  “Foolish girl.” The creature spoke in a sing-song voice, no longer her father’s velvety deep tones. “So quick to run, so quick to believe. I have not seen a mortal in many years. Are they all as foolish as you?”

  “What do you want?” Kai whispered. She struggled but only sank deeper in the mud. It passed her knees and lapped at her thighs.

  The creature laughed, an oily bubble that set her teeth on edge. “I want you to die!” With its words, the creature transformed into a spirit of the forest, a malevolent sprite with spindly limbs, wisps of thin hair, and a squat face that was all black eyes and flashing teeth. It rose on the wind and spun around her in a mad dash before it was gone.

  Hiro couldn’t believe it. Kai had run into the woods, abandoning Emi and the rest of them.

  Quitsu, who seemed equally surprised, recovered faster than he did and bounded after her into the mist.

  Hiro took off after Quitsu a split second later to the angry shouts of Daarco and Colum. He didn’t care. These woods weren’t safe for anyone alone, even Kai.

  Quitsu’s silver form disappeared into the mist like a ghost. Hiro stopped and searched the ground in front of him for signs of Kai’s passage. It was damned near impossible to track anything in this fog.

  Ryu emerged out of the mist behind him.

  “Do you feel Quitsu?” Hiro asked. “Where did they go?”

  Ryu swung his shaggy mane twice. “No. It’s as if they vanished into the mist.”

  Hiro wanted to scream with frustration. He pulled his sword from its scabbard, starting in one direction, then stopping, looking over his shoulder, and changing tacks.

  “I have to find her,” he said, doubting his direction.

  “She’s in the Misty Forest now. Finding her would be like finding a raindrop in the ocean. Unless it wants her to be found.”

  “Ryu, this was your home. You know this place. Surely, there is some way to…bargain with it. Get it to show her again.”

  “Our best chance is to seek the aid of the seishen elder. This forest is his; it bends to his will.”

  “I’m not going to leave her out here alone!”

  Ryu puffed up his mane, stalking towards Hiro with a snarl on his face. Hiro inadvertently backed up a step. Sometimes he forgot how big Ryu really was. His head was level with Hiro’s chest, even standing on all four legs.

  “Put that sword away before you poke my eye out spinning about like a top. Kai is capable and Quitsu is with her. She clearly has a new ability that is protecting her as well, as we saw when the trees attacked. Whereas we have her friend’s life in our hands. How would Kai feel if you let Emi die on a fruitless search for her?”

  “Fine,” Hiro bellowed, sheathing his sword. “Let’s go. But if anything happens to Kai, I will never forgive you.”

  “Then you will never forgive yourself.”

  “Exactly,” Hiro muttered, jogging back towards the rest of the group.

  “Find her?” Colum asked.

  Hiro shook his head.

  “We’ve wasted enough time on your runaway girlfriend,” Daarco said. “Emi is getting worse. If Kai’s foolishness means Emi doesn’t make it, I’ll gut her myself.”

  Hiro descended on Daarco in a tidal wave of anger. “Don’t you ever threaten Kai. You think because you and Emi exchanged a friendly look five minutes ago that you have the monopoly on worry? That she’s more important than Kai? Don’t forget you’re here by my good graces! I could have you shipped back to Kistana so fast, it would make your head spin!”

  “I forgot, perfect Hiro can do everything himself. You’re a regular one-man army. You never would have made it this far without me!”

  “All you’ve done is drink and almost get us killed by a bunch of trees!”

  “MATES—“ Colum sidled between them, as they were almost nose to nose now. “This is not the time. The lady is fading and we have tengu on our tail.”

  “We do?” Daarco surveyed the mist behind them.

  “Well, if we didn’t before, your two-man band is sure as hell bringin’ them from all corners. Now, Hiro, take the girl.”

  “I can carry her,” Daarco said, sticking his chin out stubbornly.

  “You’ve been carrying her for hours. I don’t care how manly your arms are. You’re fatigued. Speed is what Emi needs, not a pecker-measuring contest.”

  The two golden-haired men glowered at each other, but Daarco finally relented. Hiro lifted Emi gently from the ground. As she settled into his arms, he was alarmed by the chill, clammy feel of her skin on his own. She was fading. Colum was right.

  They resumed their jog through the endless lines of gray bark interspersed with white mist. It’s enough to make a man go mad.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the texture of the mist began to change. No longer was it a swirling, oppressive force—it felt lighter, more open.

  “Is the mist lessening?” Hiro asked between ragged breaths.

  “Yes,” Colum said. “We’re almost there.”

  Colum and Daarco looked back at Hiro, who was lagging behind. Hiro’s arms were on fire, past the point of aching from Emi’s weig
ht.

  “I’ll take her again,” Daarco said, though his face was haggard and dripping sweat.

  “No,” Colum said. “Give her to me; I’ll take a turn.”

  As Hiro transferred Emi’s unconscious body to Colum’s arms, a rustle sounded in the trees beyond their view. The rustle turned into a snarl.

  “Run!” Colum said, dashing off into the trees.

  Hiro, Daarco and Ryu sprinted after Colum as a glimpse of a dark shape flickered through the trees. Tengu.

  Hiro risked a glance over his shoulder as a tengu burst onto the trail behind them. Hiro pumped his legs even faster, desperately asking his body to dig deeper, to find some hidden reserve to draw from. The tengu’s snout was covered in slather and hung open, revealing sharp, inch-long fangs and a lolling tongue.

  It was gaining. A sound crashed through the trees to their right. Another one. Hiro grasped desperately for sunlight, but it was beyond his grasp. The sun hovered below the horizon, a few minutes from rising.

  Daarco slowed and stopped, drawing his sword.

  “Daarco, no!” Hiro cried, slowing.

  “Go,” Daarco shouted. “Protect Colum and Emi! I’ll hold them off as long as I can!”

  With a last tortured glance over his shoulder, Hiro saw the tengu crash into Daarco, who stood braced with his sword in hand. Daarco was a good fighter, and they still had the other tengu to contend with. Glimpsed through the trees, the one to their right was gaining.

  Ryu slowed so he was running alongside Hiro, cutting off to the right.

  “No,” Hiro panted. Ryu aimed to take on the other tengu. But it would be pointless; he could hear at least two more flanking them. They would only get torn apart by those. Hiro’s heart was beating in his throat, ready to explode with exertion. He could go no farther.

  “Together,” he gasped with ragged breath. They would make their stand, and Colum could continue on with Emi. It wasn’t yet dawn, so he couldn’t burn. But he still had his sword. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  As Hiro prepared to turn and face the nightmare creatures, he burst from the edge of the forest out of the mist.

  Before him lay a grassy bank and a pristine lake, dark and serene. Across the lake was a temple—no, a city nestled on a green island. The towers of the city rose high in the air, squat square structures stacked with circular towers, tapering to delicate spires reaching towards the sky. The sky lightened in the east, painted in shades from yellow to velvety navy. If he had any breath left, the scene would have stolen it from him.

  Colum had made it to the edge of the lake, where a small, reed boat rested.

  Hiro started to head towards them but whirled back towards the forest as snarls sounded close behind. Four of the black-skinned tengu crouched before him in a semi-circle. These tengu were canine in form with hunched, hulking backs and four clawed feet churning up the earth beneath them. Their yellow eyes watched him with hunter’s savvy, and their horn-like hackles were raised, ready for the attack.

  “Hurry,” Colum called.

  Hiro started to back up as the first tengu sprang for him. But Ryu, like a golden blur, crashed into the tengu with a roar, toppling it to the ground mid-leap.

  “Run,” Ryu cried, and the other tengu leaped onto him.

  Hiro lunged forward at the tengu on Ryu’s back, who was struggling to sink its teeth into Ryu’s neck. He slashed with his sword, opening up a slit in the creature’s side. It screamed and fell to the ground, clawed feet scrambling for purchase.

  “Hiro!” Colum cried urgently.

  “Go,” Ryu snarled at him while shaking another tengu off himself. “Save her!”

  Hiro ran for the boat, cursing himself for leaving Ryu behind. He grabbed the sides of the boat and pushed, launching himself into it while pushing off the shore. The boat rocked dangerously but stayed upright as he settled into it, whirling around to watch Ryu’s desperate fight.

  Ryu was running towards the lake now, dragging a tengu that clung to him with talons buried in Ryu’s powerful hindquarters. The others harried him, close on his heels.

  Hiro’s anger flared red hot as he watched the unholy creatures struggle to take down his best friend.

  Colum continued rowing as the first ray of sunlight crested the far hillside and temple. Hiro smiled grimly and burned, sending three bolts of white hot lightning into the tengu flanking Ryu.

  They snarled and writhed on the ground, stunned by the blasts. Ryu used the confusion to dislodge the last beast and leap towards the lake, splashing into the water. He began swimming towards them, his blood leaving a crimson wake.

  The tengu that had almost taken down Ryu scrambled to its feet and galloped towards the lake’s edge. Hiro pulled in more sunlight, ready to strike again.

  But as soon as the tengu touched the water, it screamed in pain and steam rose from the surface of the lake. The tengu backed out quickly, whining and snuffling at its feet. The four animals paced along the lakeside, loudly protesting the loss of their prey.

  For some reason, the tengu couldn’t go in the lake.

  Hiro breathed a heavy sigh of relief. They were safe.

  Safe. Hiro looked about the remnants of their group. Emi near death. Ryu bloody and laboring to swim alongside their boat. Kai and Daarco, missing somewhere in that mad forest—if not dead already.

  No, they weren’t even close to safe.

  Kai tried not to panic. Think. She could get out of this.

  She tried to take a step back towards what she thought was solid ground, but the sticky mud refused to release its captive. She half fell forward, burying her hands in the mud as well. She was able to extricate these and wiped the gooey substance on her pants with distaste.

  “Got yourself in quite a pickle, didn’t you?” Quitsu said. He sat on a low branch of one of the nearby trees. The silver of his fur blended into the mist, transforming him into a disembodied set of black pinprick eyes.

  “Yes.” She sighed, relieved at the sight of him.

  “I almost think you’re lucky you got stuck in that mud,” Quitsu said. “Or you would have followed your father’s ghost over a cliff.”

  Kai cringed, trying to suppress the hot embarrassment seeping through her body. She didn’t know what had come over her. She had acted like a crazed fool, rushing off without any thought to her friends. Were they still headed to the seishen elder? What was Emi’s condition?

  “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said miserably. “When I saw him… Never mind. Just help me get out of here.”

  “Do you have any rope?” Quitsu asked.

  Kai let out an exasperated sigh. Her pack was long gone. Clearly she didn’t. “Do you have any rope?” she shot back.

  Quitsu’s ears flicked in annoyance. “If you’re going to be like that, I’ll just leave you to sink to a muddy demise. Serves you right.”

  She blew out a breath, fluttering her silver hair out of her face. Sometimes her seishen was infuriating. “I am sorry, Quitsu,” she said with exaggerated penitence. “Any other ideas beside a rope?”

  “We need some sort of tree limb,” he said. “Or something you can grab to pull yourself out. Can you burn that white stuff?”

  Kai opened herself up to the pure power, wrestling with its force and pulling a small bit into her qi. She eyed the tree Quitsu was perched on. If she knocked the tree over right next to her, she could use its solid trunk to climb out of the mud. If she didn’t squish herself completely.

  “I can burn it,” she said. “Stand back. I’m going to try something.”

  Kai began burning the light across the trunk, making a precise cut that she prayed would topple the tree close, but not too close, to her. The power wanted to envelop the tree, to burn it, to heat its sap until it exploded in a cosmic fire.

  “Careful…” Quitsu said.

  She shushed him, concentrating, sweat breaking out on her brow from the strain of it. The tree groaned and creaked, leaning over the mud pit she stood in. She was almost th
ere.

  It was enough. A crack of splintering bark sounded as the tree split through. The tree toppled and hit the ground with a slap against the surface of the mud. The mud recoiled against the force, splattering her from head to already-mud-covered toe.

  Quitsu started laughing, his signature chuffing sound growing until he was rolling on the forest floor with peals of laughter.

  Kai wiped what mud she could from her eyes with all the dignity she could muster. She glared at him but couldn’t hold her annoyance for long. She was coated from head to toe in chocolate mud. She must have looked ridiculous. A smile cracked at the corner of her face, and soon she was joining him, laughing at the absurdity of her plight. If she didn’t laugh, she thought she might cry.

  When her laughter subsided, Kai gripped the top of the tree trunk, grabbing hold of a branch sticking out of the other side. She hauled herself up onto the trunk, which sank only slightly into the muck.

  She stood and balanced, carefully placing one foot in front of the other until she was standing once again on solid ground.

  She immediately picked Quitsu up and hugged him tightly, smearing the mud from her face and neck onto his soft fur.

  “Ack!” he cried, trying to squirm out of her grasp.

  “Thank you for rescuing me, brave seishen,” she said, finally releasing him and setting him down.

  He shook until his fur stuck out in muddy spikes. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

  She kicked some dirt at him and looked around, trying to get her bearings. Beside the mud pit that she knew to avoid, the mist around them was entirely uniform. She had no idea which direction to go.

  “Do you know which way leads to the elder’s island?” she asked.

  Quitsu sat down, licking his matted fur. “Hmm?” he said. “I can’t hear you through the mud in my ears.”

  “You know that was a joke,” she said. “But be serious. I’m worried about Emi. Not to mention if one of those tengu things finds us. I only have one knife left.” She fingered the jade-pommeled knife strapped to her arm, comforted by its presence. Her new power was strong but unpredictable. She would rather not rely on it in a fight, at least until she knew how to use it.