Circle of Shadows

by Evelyn Skye

  “Then you understand that an assassination attempt against me is an act of treason. I could have you beheaded right here on this deck.”

  She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. Pushing aside her feelings—her fear—might help. Glass Lady would tell her to focus on logic.

  What Prince Gin says isn’t true, she reasoned. Trying to kill someone who is a known traitor probably isn’t treason. Sure, he was born into the Ora family, but after he tried to murder his own sister, was he still considered part of the imperial line?

  But Sora kept her smart remark to herself, because she did know one thing for sure—the Dragon Prince could take off her head right now if he chose.

  “Where’s your gemina?” Prince Gin asked. “Surely you didn’t board my ship alone?”

  “I did,” Sora lied. “I took extended leave after the Autumn Festival. My gemina is at the Citadel with the rest of the apprentices.”

  Behind her, Hana cleared her throat. “I don’t believe that. You and Wolf were always inseparable.”

  Sora winced. Was that another reference to the fact that she’d ditched Hana the night of the Blood Rift because Daemon and their other friends were going to ride on the dirigible? I’m sorry I left you behind, Sora thought. But I promise I’ll make this right. Somehow. I just need time to figure it out.

  “Hmm,” Prince Gin said. “Lying to me, in addition to trying to poison me. The charges of treason are racking up. You know, I haven’t killed anyone in a long time. I returned to Kichona with a plan to spare as many of our taigas’ and citizens’ lives as possible, since they will constitute my army. But one life won’t matter in the long run. Besides, the legend says Zomuri requires blood.”

  Sora tried to muster some bravery, but all she could feel was how fragile her neck was. She was used to believing she was strong—so much muscle from years of training—but in reality, it was just flesh and bone that could be sliced through with a blade or snapped with whatever ryuu magic struck the prince’s fancy.

  “Your Highness, wait!” Hana stepped forward.

  Sora frowned. What was she up to? She had seemed ready to cast Sora into the sea not long ago.

  “This taiga is my sister,” Hana said.

  Sora blinked. Hana was coming to her aid?

  Prince Gin arched his brow. “You didn’t tell me this before.”

  “I’d disavowed my family. For the past ten years, Spirit didn’t exist for me.”

  It felt as if Hana were stomping on Sora’s heart, which already lay at the bottom of the ocean.

  “However,” Hana said, “because we share blood, she probably has the same ryuu power that I do, just like how Skullcrusher and Skeleton both excel at controlling bones.”

  The Dragon Prince considered this new information. Every ryuu on the ship was silent, waiting for his verdict.

  Sora was the only one looking at Hana. What was her special power that made it tempting enough for Prince Gin to commute Sora’s sentence in order to have one more soldier?

  A slow smile crept across his face. “Spirit, you’ve been trained by the Society and spent the last decade under my sister’s rule. I know there are some things about my past that may have been . . . skewed. I wasn’t here to offer my side of the story. But as you can see, there are many smart and accomplished warriors who support me, including your sister. I hope you’ll let me share my perspective.”

  That warm, mushy porridge sense of calm she’d felt at the Kaede City outpost began to fill her. For a split second, she was aware that he was casting his hypnotic spell on her, but it was too fleeting a moment for her to do anything about it. Not that she’d be able to fight off his magic anyway. No one could, except Daemon.

  Prince Gin told her what had happened after his warriors fled Kichona a decade ago. It was the same version he’d given the taigas in Kaede City. Sora nodded along, rapt. “I can give you access to our new magic,” he said. “Would you like that?”

  Yes yes yes. Giddiness welled up in Sora’s eyes as the feeling of security and conviction inside of her warmed even more. There was a niggling in the back of her mind, as if Daemon would disapprove, but she couldn’t figure out why. And the tickle of wrongness was soon subsumed by the rightness of what the Dragon Prince offered. “Yes, Your Highness. I’d like to be a ryuu, more than anything. I’d like to be reunited with my sister, who up until today, I had believed lost to me forever. It would be an honor to serve you.”

  She took a deep breath, knowing from Kaede City that the next part of becoming a ryuu required Prince Gin doing something that might hurt. Daemon had told her about the surprised cries from the taigas on that rooftop. But no matter what the Dragon Prince was going to do, it would be worth it. Everything was worth it for Prince Gin.

  He smashed his fingertips to Sora’s eyes. She barely managed to close them in time so that he didn’t gouge her eyeballs directly. It felt as if his nails were drilling through Sora’s lids, and then as if hot iron was burning right through them. But even though it hurt, she didn’t care. The sound of magic whooshed around her like a small dust storm, and Sora smiled as she lost herself in the chaotic melody.

  Prince Gin yanked his fingers away as suddenly as he’d started.

  Sora rubbed at her eyes. When she opened them, she gasped.

  Emerald particles floated everywhere, tumbling through the air and sprinkling down on her like colored sugar. She cried out in wonder. And then she stuck out her tongue. It tasted sweeter than apple sidra, than cherry ice cream, than golden empress cakes. She sighed with a deep-seated happiness as the ryuu magic twinkled all around her, the sweetest of snowflakes.

  Prince Gin turned to Hana, his expression harder than before. “You asked for her, Virtuoso. She’s your responsibility. Train her and show me that I didn’t make a mistake in letting your emotions get the better of you.”

  Hana paled. But then she squared her shoulders. “Yes, Your Highness. I won’t fail you.”

  Sora should have been worried, both for herself and Hana. It was unknown whether she would be able to command magic the way it was implied that her sister could. And yet Sora was too entranced by the emerald dust to register rational feeling. Even though it was hardly dusk, the world was lit up like it was made of emerald galaxies. Everywhere she turned, the air sparkled. Even the Dragon Prince’s mutilated face looked handsomer amid the glitter, as if he were a fairy prince come to bless the kingdom with beauty like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Sora’s mouth dropped open as she continued to spin around, drinking it all in.

  Prince Gin’s forehead wrinkled a little. “Can you already see the magic?” he asked.

  Sora nodded. “It’s magnificent. It’s as if the entire universe has come to earth.”

  “Maybe something does run in the Teira family blood,” Prince Gin said.

  He watched both Sora and Hana as if something else were occurring to him.

  Prince Gin turned his focus to Sora. “One more thing, Spirit. Pull up your mental ramparts. You are a ryuu now, and you have your sister back. You won’t need your gemina.”

  Sora frowned. Her gemina connection yawned, as if telling her it wanted to stay open.

  But the reassuring warmth of Prince Gin’s smile encouraged her. He wouldn’t tell her to do something if it wasn’t right. She nodded and followed his orders. With a slam, she blocked off her gemina bond.

  I am a ryuu now, she thought, her happiness at being on the same team as her sister buoying her spirits as if she were floating on a balloon. I don’t need Daemon anymore.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Afterward, Hana stood at the bow of the ship, ostensibly watching the final approach to Tiger’s Belly, but really, thinking about her sister’s unexpected return.

  She had known there was a good chance that she and Sora would cross paths as the ryuu swept through Kichona, since Prince Gin intended to hypnotize every tenderfoot, apprentice, and warrior in the Society to make them his. But she’d thought she had long ago burie
d all the emotions that came with thinking about her family. If there was to be a reunion with her sister, it was supposed to come later, at the Citadel, where apprentices were based. Instead, Hana had run into Sora sooner than expected—too soon—and she wasn’t prepared.

  In the distance, the lights of Tiger’s Belly’s harbor twinkled, reflecting in the water much like the thousands of candles that were lit around the lake at the Citadel during All Spirits’ Eve. Tenderfoots were not allowed to partake in the midnight festivities because it was much too late for them to be awake. But each year, Hana had longed to stay up to watch the skit where the older apprentices dressed up in costumes like the mythological animal constellations from the sky, and the music played into the early hours of the morning, and the teachers drank too much sake and fell asleep on the benches of the amphitheater underneath the stars. So when Hana was five years old, Sora had “borrowed” the joey part of the kangaroo constellation costume, put Hana inside, and carried her around all evening, pretending she was just an inanimate stuffed toy. That’s how she’d gotten to see the All Spirits’ Eve celebrations.

  Hana almost smiled now. But then she remembered that it was also the only All Spirits’ Eve festival she’d ever witnessed, because after that, she’d been whisked away from Kichona during the Blood Rift, and Sora and the Society had done nothing about it.

  “I hate you, Sora,” Hana said in an attempt to remind herself how to feel.

  But the wind swallowed her declaration and stole it away.

  Prince Gin walked up to the bow of the ship. He stood silently beside her for a few minutes, looking out at their next target.

  Finally, he spoke. “Family reunions aren’t always pleasant. You think blood is strong enough to bind you, but the truth is, sometimes those bonds are shattered irreparably. In the end, it’s better to choose your family than to remain prisoner to what you were born into. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Hana nodded. The prince was sharing his own experience, and she realized how much that sliver of vulnerability was worth. Most of the original ryuu saw him only as their passionate leader, who would stop at nothing to bring to Kichona the glory it deserved. It was not a bad thing at all for the Dragon Prince to be regarded this way; it’s why the original ryuu had fought with him during the Blood Rift, willing to give their lives for their prince and his noble cause. They didn’t need to be hypnotized to follow him to the ends of the earth.

  She herself had been a little harder to convince. She’d only been a child when she was taken from Kichona, and at first she was frightened and cried to go home to the Society. But the warriors had taken care of her, and when Prince Gin recovered from his Blood Rift injuries, he recognized that she had more talent for magic than anyone else. He took her under his wing, and she felt like she was home again.

  Of course, he would often try to break her during training, expecting more of Hana than he did any other soldier. But he also mended her afterward with moments like this one now. Advice to make her stronger. She appreciated the tough love, that he recognized she could handle it. That it made her better.

  “I’m going to take you off the duty of training our new recruits and give that responsibility to Firebrand,” Prince Gin said.

  She took a step back, caught off guard. “Why? I should be the one training the new ryuu.”

  “Because you need to focus one hundred percent of your energy on whipping Spirit into shape. Our army will reach critical mass before we know it, and then we’ll march on the Imperial City. If your theory is correct that your sister harbors the same talent in her veins as you do, I want her ready. You’re my secret weapon. But if I can have two such weapons when we face Aki and the Society stronghold at the Citadel, then I want you and Spirit both ready and at full power. You can do this for me, can’t you?”

  Hana’s stomach twisted. When she was little, it had been her dream to fight by Sora’s side. But her sister hadn’t turned out to be who Hana had held aloft; by abandoning Hana, Sora had shown herself as helpless and ordinary. And then Hana had gone on to prove that she was actually the extraordinary one, that she could rise above the taigas and every single ryuu except the prince himself.

  I’m supposed to be his most valued soldier. But what if Sora ended up better than her?

  “Virtuoso,” Prince Gin said. “Did you hear me? Treat Spirit as you would any other recruit. Or harder. I want her as ferocious as you promised me. And soon.”

  “Of course, Your Highness. I’ll be merciless in her training.”

  She bowed and retreated a bit to give Prince Gin space. He liked his solitary moments at the bow, like a small meditation with the sea before reaching land.

  She didn’t feel calm, however. The thought of being able to punish Sora—to force her to spar until her legs were too weak to stand upon, to deny her sleep as she practiced magic, to push her until she threw up and then push her some more—should have made Hana happy. It was payback for her sister abandoning her all those years ago.

  But instead, Hana’s hard exterior cracked, like the desert floor after a decade of drought.

  No, she thought, as she gritted her teeth. I will not feel sorry for Sora. She left me on my own, and this is who I’ve become. I am immune to sentimentality.

  It was a lie, and Hana knew it. But she held on to it anyway.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  On the main deck, away from the bow, the ryuu were preparing for their arrival at Tiger’s Belly with a scrimmage, which seemed to Sora to be a combination between magical sparring and a rally to get their adrenaline pumping. The scrimmages were duels where two ryuu cast spells, and the others judged which was more impressive. A scrimmage ring had been set up in the middle of the deck, and ryuu surrounded it, shouting and laughing and placing bets on the next two warriors to fight. It was fascinating—a look at the kind of power she would soon have once she practiced—and Sora wanted to get closer.

  She found a spot against a post to lean on. The bug boy popped up beside her, grinning as he took a bite from the dessert sandwich he held in his hands. It was made of two soft sugar cookies, filled with chocolate and sliced pear.

  “This is your first scrimmage, huh?” he said. “It’s exciting stuff. We haven’t met yet. I’m Beetle.” He stuck his hand out for Sora to shake. His fingers were smeared with chocolate.

  But Sora didn’t take it, because she was too busy staring at him. How had she not noticed before how young he was? He was barely a teenager, his cheeks still holding on to some baby fat, just the faintest hint of down on his upper lip.

  He must have been one of the tenderfoots who was kidnapped with Hana, she realized. Instinctively, she stepped back, anticipating his wrath that the Society had not come to his rescue.

  But the boy kept smiling. There was no resentment, as there had been with Hana.

  Maybe he was too young when he was taken to remember anything about the Citadel and the Society, Sora thought. Hana had been six during the Blood Rift. But the boy would have been two or three. He had no fond memories of the taigas, and no hopes or expectations that they would come to his aid.

  Sora shook his sticky hand. “We’ve met, sort of. I saw you in the marketplace at Kaede City.”

  He was about to take another bite of cookie but stopped before it reached his mouth. “You did? But I didn’t come across any taigas.”

  “I was disguised in layman’s clothing,” Sora said.

  Suddenly, a memory of turquoise flashed through her mind. And coral pink. She scrunched her nose as she turned the colors over in her head. They were insistent, poking at her like real, sharp coral in a shallow lagoon, as if they were trying to tell her something. Where had they come from? What did they mean?

  She focused on the colors more intently, and they began to take shape into something familiar—Daemon’s hideous shirt from Tanoshi and Kaede City.

  Oh. Sora frowned. She hadn’t thought of him in a while. How long? An hour? Two or three? But now, as she remembered him
, she felt a slight pressure on her gemina bond. There was something not quite right about it, similar to the sensation of diving too deep in the sea and forgetting to clear her ears.

  Where was Daemon? Why wasn’t his presence in her head?

  Instinctively, Sora reached out toward her gemina connection. She hit a wall.

  Huh? Why was it closed? On her side?

  And then she remembered. Prince Gin had asked her to close her mental ramparts.

  Everything was fine. He wouldn’t lead her astray.

  He loves his warriors. He loves his people. He loves his kingdom.

  She smiled. Just thinking of the Dragon Prince filled Sora’s head with a warm cloud of contentment, like walking into a bakery and breathing in the aromas of cranberry tarts and hazelnut cookies coming out of the oven and pots of chrysanthemum tea on the counter.

  What was I thinking about before that? She shook her head but couldn’t remember.

  Probably wasn’t important.

  Beetle was sitting in front of her, though, looking at her with his head cocked sideways. “You still there?”

  “Huh?”

  “Your eyes got all dreamy for a minute.”

  “I’m . . . fine. More than fine.” The pastry warmth still floated through her head. Maybe the cookie sandwich Beetle was eating had something to do with it too.

  “So you were about to tell me why you were in layman’s clothes in Kaede City?” he said.

  “Oh, right,” Sora said. “I was trying to spy on your army. But that was before I heard Prince Gin speak. Now I understand how naive I was. I’m thrilled to join the ryuu.”

  Beetle grinned more broadly before he took a big bite of his cookies. “Yesh,” he said with his mouth full. “We’re really lucky to get to use this magic and fight for the prince.”

  Two warriors—a man and a woman—stepped into the scrimmage ring.

  “Oooh, this one’s gonna be good,” Beetle said. He was so intensely focused, he forgot to finish chewing.