Sunburner (Moonburner Cycle Book 2)

by Claire Luana

  The hours quickly passed, full of nervous energy and sharpening of blades. The burners had emerged from the armory bristling with weapons. Stela had slung a bow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulders, while Leilu bore a yari staff with a wicked curved blade. Daarco held a double-headed masakari axe as tall as he was and had shoved four daggers into his belt.

  Hiro sent Leilu and Daarco to search the palace for any signs of water or food, after their restless pacing across the great hall began to drive him mad. Hiro suspected it was a futile effort, but it gave them a task and got them out of his hair, which Hiro counted as a small victory.

  Stela seemed content to sit with Taiyo, asking him quiet questions about his former life and the movement of the stars and seasons.

  As for Hiro, he sat with Ryu’s head on his lap, stroking his seishen’s thick mane. Ryu’s wound from Geisa’s blow had healed into a neat red line, and Hiro didn’t think it would trouble him during the battle. The seishen’s close ties with the spirit world lent added benefits to their mortal bodies. Hiro was a bit envious, but grateful, for Ryu’s quick healing abilities.

  Daarco and Leilu jogged back into the great hall, their waterskins empty. Daarco leaned against the two huge doors, closing them with an ominous thud.

  “They’re almost here,” Leilu said, breathless from their rapid return.

  “No,” Taiyo said, standing and walking to one of the tall arched windows. “They have arrived.”

  A flock of black creatures streaked past the window, descending into the courtyard outside with thuds and screeches.

  Hiro motioned the others to him. “We keep Taiyo safe no matter what. Hopefully, Emi will return with reinforcements. But until she does, we’re all he has.”

  “He is a god,” Leilu said in a low tone. “Don’t you think he could take some…you know…ownership over his own safety?”

  “I’m sure he will join us in the fight,” Hiro said. “He did raise this place so we could access the weapons.”

  “Do you think…” Stela began. She pursed her lips. “Never mind.”

  “Out with it,” Hiro said.

  “I’m sorry. I’m just wondering if it was a mistake to make our stand here. Should we have fled, gotten Taiyo to somewhere safer?”

  “I wondered that too,” Hiro said. “But as far as we know, wherever we go, there could be tengu and Order of the Deshi there. Better to make a stand where we can defend ourselves. And hope reinforcements come.”

  “We hold out as long as we can,” Daarco said.

  “Do you think they’ll tell stories about this day?” Leilu asked with a grim smile.

  “We woke a god, rode on dragons and saw a city rise out of the desert,” Hiro said. “And it’s only the afternoon. I’d say this is a day for the storybooks.”

  As the words left Hiro’s mouth, the heavy doors at the far end of the hall burst open.

  A nightmare flooded in.

  Kai stumbled forward through the sand, falling to her knees beside Colum’s prone body.

  Chiya was already evaluating his condition. She held her fingers to his neck, feeling for a pulse.

  Kai bit her lip, watching with wide eyes. How could he have survived a blow like that?

  “I feel something,” Chiya said, her shoulders sagging in relief.

  Kai closed her eyes briefly, gratitude welling through her.

  “Colum.” Chiya shook his shoulders gently. “Colum, wake up.”

  He moaned, but his eyes remained closed.

  Chiya narrowed her eyes, and in one swift motion, she unstopped her canteen and dumped the contents over his face.

  Colum’s eyes flew open and he gasped for air, his hands clutching his chest.

  Tears sprang to Kai’s eyes as she and Chiya exchanged a look of relief. Then they quickly looked away from each other, realizing that they had unfinished business between them.

  “Colum,” Kai said. “It’s a miracle you’re alive. Jurou got you with a fireball.”

  “You don’t think…” He coughed weakly. “I’d die without getting paid?”

  Kai laughed out loud. “Of course not. You wouldn’t let me off that easy.”

  “Exactly. Now help me up.”

  Kai and Chiya helped Colum into a seated position in the sand.

  The three humans and two seishen looked back at the island in dismay. Every living thing was on fire, the flames burning tall and hot behind them, palm leaves curling and smoking in the heat. Their koumori had fled; Kai could see their dark forms in the distance headed to the next island.

  “We’re trapped,” Chiya said.

  “Can we swim for the next island?” Colum asked.

  “Not in your condition. Or mine,” Kai said, struggling to take a deep breath. “Quitsu, can you reach the koumori? Or another seishen?”

  “I can’t speak to koumori telepathically, and we’re too far from other burners to reach any seishen,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Could you try your fancy new power?” Colum asked, pointing to the handprint on Kai’s chest.

  “I don’t know what it could do to help us,” Kai lamented. “It doesn’t cooperate when I ask it to.”

  Kai looked back at the flaming island and swallowed, her dry throat sticking. Maybe this island would be all of their graves.

  Chiya stood in a fit of rage, her hands balled into fists at her side. “How could you let this happen, Kai? I thought we were freeing the goddess so she could help us! Not so we could deliver her to the tengu wrapped with a bow!”

  “I…” Kai faltered. “I missed it. I wanted so badly to believe we had found a solution…I missed the signs. I should have realized there was something off about Jurou.”

  She should have seen it. How he’d showed up unannounced. How he had conveniently discovered the scroll that started them on this whole wretched course. Geisa’s escape, still unexplained. She should have seen through him. But he was so helpful, so unassuming. And she had been desperate for a way to fight the tengu. “Do you think the others…?” She thought of Hiro, Emi and their team. Were they under attack as well?

  “Probably!” Chiya said. “If they’ve freed Taiyo, it’s only a matter of time until the Order swoops in to kill him. It’s inexcusable. You had a responsibility to all of us! And here you were harboring secrets, lying, making plans that would mean our downfall! You’re no different than Airi.”

  Chiya’s words were like a slap in the face. But a slap that Kai had been waiting for. That she almost welcomed. Finally, someone had spoken aloud what the silent voice inside her had whispered all along. She wasn’t fit to be queen. She was no different than Airi.

  “Now, now,” Colum said. “No need to twist the knife. I’ve worked for several Miinan queens now, and I can say without a doubt that Kai is nothing like Airi, or your grandmother, Isia.”

  Kai felt ridiculously grateful for Colum’s kindness, a small bloom in a barren wasteland of fear and shame and disappointment.

  “Let’s not take it out on each other. We know who our enemy is, and we aren’t done fighting. It’s always darkest before the dawn,” Colum said.

  “It’s midmorning,” Chiya said flatly.

  “It’s a metaphor,” Colum said. “Things get worse before they get better. For instance. Take us at this moment. Stranded on this burning island with no water, no transport, grievous wounds… With only two powerless moonburners, two over-important rodents, and one daring adventurer to save the day.”

  Quitsu and Tanu growled, and Chiya crossed her arms menacingly.

  Colum held up his hand. “But take us now, thirty seconds later, when the same ragtag group has discovered a boat.”

  “We have?” Kai asked.

  Colum pointed behind them, where the little teal boat lay forgotten, swamped in the surf, pushed up onto the sand of the beach with each beating wave.

  “Colum, you’re a genius!” Kai said, springing at him with a fierce hug.

  As they rowed through the surf, Kai found herself lo
oking back at the burning wreck of what had once been a tiny paradise. It had gone all wrong.

  They hopped out as the boat scraped onto the sandy shore of the nearest island. Colum pulled the teal boat out of the water.

  “Now what?” he asked.

  Kai let out a sharp whistle to call their koumori. Kai said a silent prayer to Tsuki that they hadn’t flown too far. Then she laughed, a harsh sound escaping her.

  “What?” Colum asked.

  “I just prayed. Force of habit. I guess it’s time to stop doing that, now that we’ve doomed Tsuki to death.”

  “I was never much for prayer,” Colum said. “I’ve always found it more effective to trust in no one but myself. Harder to be let down. Though not impossible,” he amended.

  “I’m the one who messed everything up,” Kai said. “I’ll have to try another philosophy.”

  “Kai—” Colum began but cut off as black shapes emerged from above the green foliage of the island. Their koumori.

  Kai heaved a sigh of relief.

  “How will we find Jurou and Tsuki?” Kai wondered.

  “I can find them,” Chiya said. Her eyes remained fixed on the approaching koumori, her face stormy. “I can feel her. Ever since she woke up. Like a tug inside me.”

  Because you’re the true heir, Kai thought.

  Kai’s stomach twisted. Every time she thought she felt as low as she could feel, another weight piled on, burying her further.

  At the head of the horde was an impossibly tall creature in the shape of a man. Corded muscle bulged from beneath its robes of charcoal and navy. In one massive hand it held a broadsword as long as Hiro was tall. But its face was the most chilling part of the strange countenance; its features were distorted, as if hidden behind a slab of ice.

  “Taiyo,” the creature said, its deep voice reverberating through the hall and setting Hiro’s very bones on edge. “So kind of you to deliver yourself for execution.”

  “Hiei,” Taiyo said, examining his fingernails. He looked up. “To find that you have spent all these years impersonating me? How disappointing. On your best day, you could never be more than a second-rate god.”

  Hiei snarled, taking a threatening step forward.

  Hiro nervously eyed the tengu arrayed behind Hiei. Black twisted shapes, snarling and slathering, clicking and scratching long claws on the polished floor. He tightened his grip on his swords.

  “You always did talk too much,” Hiei said. “It’s all you’re good at. Talk. Talk and hiding. But you can’t hide any longer. Your foolish burners made sure of that. They fell right into our trap.”

  Hiro’s face burned at the truth of Hiei’s taunt.

  “My burners could take you and your mongrel demons blindfolded,” Taiyo said with distain.

  “You’re welcome to try.” Hiei’s voice lowered to a threatening whisper. “But I’ve been waiting a long time for this day.”

  Hiei swung its sword in a wicked arc towards Taiyo, who sidestepped at the last minute. The force of the sword hitting the floor shook the room, obliterating the tiles beneath.

  Hiei came at Taiyo again, surging forward. Taiyo ducked out of the way, diverting a ray of sunlight into the demon’s eyes.

  The tengu roared in frustration, swinging its sword in a wide arc.

  Taiyo evaded the tengu’s blows but made no attacks of his own. He was a god of creation, not destruction.

  Hiro’s attention snapped to a snarling tengu coming right at him. He swung his sword and made contact with a sickening crunch, slicing the creature’s neck down the spine.

  Stela leaped in front of him and shot two arrows in rapid succession into the face of a wolflike tengu racing for them. The tengu crashed to the ground before them, skidding to a halt at their feet. She pulled a knife and tidily slit its throat, opening its neck. Hiro had always admired moonburner fighting prowess.

  Hiro slashed at a birdlike tengu that came at them next, its sharp beak headed straight for his face. It knocked him back with one of its wings, but he kept his footing and dove forward, plunging his sword into its soft belly. It fell to the floor with a squelch of black blood. With another swing he lopped its head off.

  Hiro took advantage of the brief reprieve to survey the scene. Hiei and Taiyo were still locked in a deadly dance. Black, masked figures at the back of the room directed the lesser tengu, who attacked his friends in relentless waves. Hiro growled. Order of the Deshi. Traitors to humanity.

  One of the black-clad figures spun to send two feline tengu towards Daarco and Leilu on the far side of the room. Stela had seen them and sent arrows into them before they could reach their target.

  “Save some for us!” Leilu called.

  Hiro directed his attention back to the Deshi operative and saw a flash of silver hair beneath her mask.

  “Geisa,” he growled. That woman had plagued them for long enough.

  He pulled sunlight into his qi and burned it into a ball of flame, sending it towards Geisa with all the force he could muster.

  She dove to the floor at the last minute, and the ball of fire exploded against the wall behind her.

  As Hiro reached for more sunlight to send another volley, something changed. The sunlight slipped from his grasp like water draining out a bathtub.

  The light in the room dimmed, as if someone had pulled a curtain across the windows. But the glass windows were unobstructed.

  It was the sun. It had darkened.

  Hiro looked frantically around the room for the cause of the dramatic change. Taiyo. He was staggering, clutching his stomach. Golden blood spilled over his fingers.

  Hiro took in the god’s look of surprise a split second before he saw Hiei towering above Taiyo. Its broadsword was raised, swinging down to take the killing blow.

  Hiro launching into action, sprinting towards the god while desperately grasping at sunlight. It felt foreign to his mind, far away. He would be too late. Hiei would kill Taiyo. And their world would go dark.

  But Hiro wasn’t the only one who saw the flash of Hiei’s blade, who understood what was at stake if it found its mark. Leilu dove towards Taiyo and shoved him out of the way an instant before the sword stroke fell.

  It fell instead across her back, slicing her body in half.

  As Kai stretched out her hand to greet her koumori, a strange phenomenon occurred. The bright tropical morning sun darkened, as if a cloud had passed over it. But the azure blue sky was cloudless. The sun had…dimmed.

  “Taiyo.” Quitsu said the word like a groan. He stumbled against Kai’s leg.

  Kai swooped him up into her arms, holding him to her to hide her shaking hands.

  “He’s hurt,” Kai said, realization dawning. “Hiro’s team is under attack. We have to go to them.”

  “We have to follow Tsuki,” Chiya said, rounding on Kai. “Your boyfriend doesn’t matter. He’s got other burners with him, while Tsuki is completely undefended. Plus, we don’t know if Hiro is still in the mountains. We know where Tsuki is.”

  Kai opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the hole in Chiya’s reasoning. She held Quitsu before her like a shield, a barrier between her and the force of Chiya’s distain. She couldn’t abandon Hiro…could she? But she didn’t trust herself anymore. It seemed every decision she made had been wrong. Maybe it was time to let someone else decide.

  “You’re right,” Kai said, finally. “Let’s go after Tsuki.”

  Their koumori harnesses had been incinerated on the island, so they swung onto their koumori bareback, Kai and Chiya holding Quitsu and Tanu tight to their chests.

  “Be gentle,” Kai whispered to her koumori, her thighs gripped like iron vises, her fingers twined in the wiry hair at her koumori’s neck.

  “Appu!”

  The next minutes were a blur.

  Hiro threw a vial at Hiei, shattering it at the demon’s feet in an explosion of white light.

  Hiei roared with anger, backpedaling away from the burst of energy, away from the wounded god and Le
ilu’s mangled body.

  “Retreat!” Hiro screamed, and the stunned burners leaped into action. Daarco shuffled forward and heaved Taiyo over his shoulder, while Hiro grabbed a berserk Stela around the waist, dragging her away from Leilu. They scrambled back through the doors to the armory, barricading the opening behind them with a huge iron-reinforced beam.

  “She could still be alive!” Stela screamed at him, pummeling him with her fists as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Hiro stood and let her flail at him until one of her blows nailed him across the chin, sending his head snapping to the side. He grabbed her wrists in his hands, pulling her to him.

  “Stop,” he said, as gently as he could with adrenaline surging through his blood. “I saw the blow. There’s no way she made it. I’m sorry.”

  Stela struggled for a moment longer before collapsing against him with shuddering sob.

  Hiro wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his chest, trying to keep the tears from his own eyes. Leilu had saved them. Had saved Taiyo. But her sacrifice might not be enough.

  Daarco had torn a piece of his shirt off and was trying to staunch the golden blood pouring from Taiyo’s wound. “I thought gods were immortal,” Daarco growled.

  Taiyo coughed, blood dribbling from his mouth. “Not…totally,” he choked out. “Men cannot kill me, but demons like Hiei are not men. They are not even of this world. Against them…I am vulnerable.”

  Hiro released Stela gently and knelt by Taiyo’s side. Hiro examined Taiyo’s wound—Hiei’s blade had cut a deep slash across the flesh of Taiyo’s stomach. Whenever Daarco took pressure off the area to let Hiro examine it, golden blood spurted anew. Hiro knew enough to know that a man likely wouldn’t survive a wound like that. Would a god?

  Hiro pulled in what weakened sunlight he could and delved into Taiyo’s form, sending heat and light into the wound to heal it. It was like trying to patch a river with a bucket of water. It all flowed together.

  “There’s nothing I can do,” Hiro said, wiping a spatter of black tengu blood from his face with the back of his hand.