Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters)
Page 16
She drew back. “They will kill you! They will kill both of us! For what we took.”
“They can try. But we’re both still standing, aren’t we?” I looked her up and down, curiously. “Shouldn’t you be in Seoul, trying to win back Duck Young’s soul?”
“No.” Unexpectedly, No-Name giggled. “You are right. We are both still standing. I think…Vampyre Queen is not angry that we took her son’s soul. We took something else that night, something much scarier to her.”
I cocked my head. “What would that be, No-Name?”
“Our freedom.” She smiled, opening her hand to reveal a handful of squished cherry blossoms. The breeze sent them tumbling away. “Maybe I find my name now. Maybe it is here. Maybe it is there. Then I will not be a stranger to myself. Perhaps Mother knows. I find her, now.”
“Well. Looks like little soul-searching sojourns in Eve can work after all. You’ve certainly caught on faster to your purpose here than he has.” I jerked a finger toward the stubborn lantern-maker.
No-Name pursed her lips. “Well? Do you know his name?”
She might have stayed longer, but Old Man Zhi sparked flint to light a tiny sun lantern that would chase the chill away. I finished my water in a single gulp and slunk back to my penance.
“Your friend…she still will not come?”
“She doesn’t like fire.”
The cavern filled with smoke and the silence of our secrets, until I felt ready to explode under the weight of them. I mean, I had rather confidently proclaimed that I would restore Old Man Zhi’s sight. He should be opening up to me like a book, not treating me like a stranger.
I stopped in the middle of delicately weaving together the wires for a butterfly lantern’s wings. That was it. Strangers. Damn, No-Name had been right. We were still on an “Old Man” and “wolf-girl” basis. Why should I expect him to open up to me?
“What is your name, Laoshi?”
His paintbrush quivered over the pink fabric of a bell-shaped lantern. “You forget?”
“No. I think I don’t know it.”
He began painting moonflowers again. “In my day, strangers never introduced themselves to one another. They waited for someone they both knew and trusted to introduce them before exchanging names.”
“You’re from feudal China. I’m from the twenty-first century. The chance we know someone in common is zero.” I thought about a certain fox. “What happens if a mutual enemy introduced us?”
He chuckled. Old Man Zhi, chuckling! “Then we should exchange names. If only to know our enemies better.”
“Citlalli Mejía-Alvarez.”
“Zhi Renshu.”
And just like that, we started talking. Well, I would ask a question and pray for a response. Sometimes I received a grunt, or a light slap on the hand. Then I would cast around in my mind—you’re asking the wrong question, the wrong question—until I came up with the right one. It was usually about lanterns. Every lantern he touched had a story. And slowly, one by one, he gave them to me.
“He made this one a fortnight before the Shangyuan Festival.” Old Man Zhi held up a deep red rose lantern adorned with lace. “ ‘It will light up when your true love is near.’ I didn’t believe in the power of his lanterns, then…but I did believe such foolishness would sell. He was always scared of showing his work. So I took them. And amidst the love-filled air of Shangyuan, hundreds of people poured out their pockets to own a Zhi Son Lantern. We lived in a small village, then. So word spread fast when the lanterns started magically burning, out of thin air! Some people were joyful; others condemned them as ‘bad spirit magic.’ It didn’t matter. After my own love lantern lit up when Anli smiled at me across the dance floor, I knew we were going to move anyway. On to bigger cities. Bigger worlds. I convinced him to come with Anli and me to Beijing.”
“Zhi laoshi, I thought you were the lantern-maker. Who is this ‘him’?”
His eyeless sockets stared at me for a while, and I thought he would chide me for asking too many questions. But emotion won over.
“My brother.”
We made lanterns far more quickly after that. Lace, papier-mâché, wire: all passed beneath his scissors with swift snaps, and he growled at me for moving too slowly. The lanterns took on a patchy appearance, as if they were bandaging up old wounds that still leaked through.
“Whoa, slow down there! Can we talk about this?” I held up the cheery yellow lantern, which smelled of sweet summer grass. “This is the lantern that calls out the sun, right? How did you create something like that?”
“You still don’t understand, do you, Citlalli?” His lips pursed as the dozens of sequins he was sewing on came undone. “I didn’t create any of these. My brother did. And inspiration for genius is easy, when the Emperor’s guards are threatening your family’s lives.”
“Y-you mean—? After you arrived in Beijing—?”
“I sought an audience with the Emperor, to show him what my brother could do. It took many long hard years, and many meals of plain rice, but I knew my brother’s gift was the key to elevating the Zhi family off the streets. Into a fancy lord’s home. When word finally reached the Emperor, the opposite happened. Guards came and took my brother away to the Forbidden Palace. I was the only one allowed contact with him, and our conversations were always the same: Were Anli and the girls okay? Was Mother all right?
“Barely, I always told him. They were four helpless women, and I was a lowly blacksmith. We needed him. If he didn’t meet the Emperor’s wishes…then the Emperor would make us disappear completely. Quicker than snuffing out a lantern.”
“Never trust the dude wearing the crown,” I growled. “That type is always corrupted. But you thought you could provide a better life for your family. My mother thinks much in the same way.” My throat tightened at the thought.
He slowly looked up at me. “Did your mother also lie to you about how bad your lives were?”
I shut my mouth.
“Lanterns that called out the sun. Fire lanterns for his warriors. Dragon-beard lanterns that summoned the ancestors. The Emperor became famous throughout the Old Kingdom. Japan feared to invade for fear of his ‘lightning lanterns,’ or the dreaded ‘cage lanterns,’ which could imprison a man’s soul. None of these existed, of course. But legend grew. And I was the Emperor’s most trusted lord. The one who could convince my stubborn brother to listen to the Emperor. To make him build more lanterns for his family’s sake. I had long ago left Anli in favor of the more beautiful ladies of the court, and my daughters were enrolled with famous scholars. Mother alone seemed discontent with the rich wonders of our new world. No matter the expensive wine from Europe that was placed in front of her, or the expensive yak fur that was draped around her shoulders—she only wanted ‘to see her real son.’ That always hurt. I was the one who had brought wealth and honor to our family’s name. My brother had the talent, but he’d wanted to hide it. Keep it to himself. I was the one who had shown these miracles to the world.”
He shoved away the tattered remains of the kite lantern and crawled to the very back of our cavernous abode. I thought he didn’t want to talk anymore, but he returned with an old box engraved with a bonsai tree. Two small glass lanterns lay inside: one was a sphere the size of a fist, and the other, a rhombus. He removed the former. The glass glimmered with every color of the rainbow as it caught the candlelight.
“My brother grew suspicious. If I were a poor, toiling blacksmith, then where were my scars? Why had I filled out nice and plump, and my hair was free of lice? So he spent one year making this in secret: the truth lantern.”
I held my breath. It was one of the wonders he’d offered to me in his workshop long ago: a lantern that could tell truth from lies.
“He was very sorrowful as he began asking the usual questions: How were Anli and the children? How was Mother? Had the Emperor threatened us again? And each time I answered, his face broke down a little bit more. This lantern glowed red the entire time: red, the col
or of lies. He finally couldn’t speak anymore through his tears. Why aren’t you green? he kept repeating. Why aren’t you true? I saw the glass lantern, and I knew. I was so angry, I threw it at his shelf. Several fire lanterns fell and combusted. My brother and I escaped, but his hands were burned, badly burned. He would never make lanterns again. And I…” Those empty sockets ached for something to fill them. “I couldn’t see.”
I was almost afraid to ask: “What happened to you?”
“Oh, we were cast out in the streets, of course. My girls, I never saw again. They were taken, in case they later developed the talent. Mother lapsed into senility, but it was a delighted bliss. She would always prattle happily that her two sons had returned to her, and so it was that even in her old age, she took care of us once again. Every day on the streets she would beg for us, imploring strangers: ‘Please. Help my sons. One has no hands. One is blind.’ I would take the coin and go demanding cures from doctors and medicine men for my blindness. I was only robbed. One ancient medicine man finally told me, as he emptied my coin purse: ‘There is no cure for what blinds your eyes.’
“Anli found us eventually. I’d forgotten that my brother had given her a garden lantern for her birthday, which would sprout every evening into the most beautiful flowers. After I’d left her, she’d survived by selling passerby the most wondrous bouquets, until a passing nobleman fell in love with ‘the Flower Girl.’ She now lived in a two-roomed villa overlooking a lush garden in the mountains. When she approached, I could hear her favorite lucky rabbit bracelet jangling and smell the peony perfume she was so fond of. I heard her footsteps pass me by. They stopped at my brother first, and then my mother. Then all three of them faded away.”
That was it. I felt the wind beat at the emptiness rattling within both of us. “So. You died alone on the streets.”
He nodded.
“That sucks. I mean—” I tried to cast around for any silver lining. “You were an asshole even up until the end of your life, but damn.”
“I thought much the same, myself. In the end.”
“Well, at least you got your wish.” He glanced at me, and I shrugged. “Certainly it happened in a much more tragic and gruesome way than you pictured—but your family didn’t perish along with you. They were taken care of.”
He still looked miserable. I tried to cheer him up. “And, I mean, it’s not like you’re burning in Hell or something. You’re in Eve. The In-Between. You’ve been given the chance to figure all of this out. And you’re obviously making progress. When I first met you, I would have never guessed you were a cold-hearted son-of-a bitch who sold out his family for riches and power.”
Finally, a small smile. “You say things very plainly.”
“Best way to avoid confusion.”
My fingers wandered over the second glass lantern. It was in the shape of a rhombus, with two crossed branches inside. At my touch, the glass grew warm.
“A second glass lantern?”
“He blew the glass himself. It took me forty sleepless nights to make a copy.” Old Man Zhi cupped it fondly. “It’s a warning lantern. The birthday present he left me. If you think of a loved one really hard, then the warning lantern will tell you if they’re in danger.” He pressed it into my hands. “Here. I think you will use it more than I ever did.”
“Thank you!” I held the lantern close to my heart and closed my eyes, thinking of Raina. The glass grew so hot that I nearly dropped it, but then just as suddenly, it fell cold. When I peered into the rhombus, milky whiteness sloshed around inside.
“It can’t find her.” He looked at me with pity.
Resolutely, I cast Raina aside and thought hard on Marisol. As I’d dreaded, it was the same result.
“It can’t find either of them,” I choked out. Rafael, then. Raf had to be okay. The lantern would find him—
Reassuring yellow warmth seeped through my fingers. Staring hard into the swirling glass, I realized I could see him. I recognized his broad shoulders as he leaned over a map. A shorter but just as thickly-muscled man was standing beside him. Jaehoon? The pack had arrived at the shelter, then. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Mami.” The pleasant heat remained. She was in her office. Staring out the window. She looked sad, but at least she was safe.
“Miguel.”
The lantern roared to life with intense red-hot fire. The tiny bell dangling from the bottom began to ding high-pitched peals of alarm, and we both covered our ears.
“What does it mean?” I shouted over the bell’s maddening chimes.
“Danger! Life-threatening danger!” Old Man Zhi cried. “Come to your senses, wolf-girl! Find out where!”
I bent low, plugging my ears against the siren. My brother. Face-down on the floor. A shadowy shape pacing back and forth behind.
“What can you see?”
“My brother is a prisoner!” Fear lurched in my chest. No. This couldn’t be happening. I was supposed to meet the vampyres. I was supposed to save Raina. No one was supposed to hurt my family when I wasn’t, when I wasn’t—
What? Wolf asked sarcastically. When you aren’t around to protect them? Seems like the perfect time to attack to me.
“Who is it?” I screamed at the warning lantern, shaking it. The infernal heat threatened to melt the skin off my fingers, but I didn’t care. Finally, the figure turned. And I didn’t understand—
“Una,” I whispered. Won Una restlessly prowled around the room, bending from time to time to shake my brother’s shoulders. What was going on? I didn’t understand—but then I saw the candle doorway. The food offering for good spirits. And I knew.
“My brother’s somewhere in Eve!” I shook the lantern as if it were a snow globe, desperate to get more answers, but the red flames only resettled in that image again. I blinked back tears. Damnit, Miguel. Why would he come to Eve? He’d never been here. He wouldn’t know how to handle the not-quite-right-feeling that settled in your stomach upon entering, the ghosts and Dokkaebi who lurked in the trees, the trains that could drop you off in an infinity of locations…and a demon fox who knew Miguel’s name before it had ever left my lips.
“Wolf-girl! Put it down! Look at your hands!”
My skin had bubbled up in blisters. With a yelp, I dropped the lantern. Old Man Zhi caught it before it hit the floor.
“Should have known not to trust an animal with something as valuable as this,” he grumbled, tucking it away in a velvet handkerchief.
“My brother is in Eve!” I jumped to my feet, waving my hands wildly to cool them off. Unfortunately, it only looked to Old Man Zhi like I had devolved into a crazy person. He pushed a beaker of water toward me.
“My brother!” I exclaimed again. Old Man Zhi didn’t understand. His brother sounded like the type to spend tranquil hours in the company of lily ponds. But Miguel? I could see him now: Miguel, who hated camping because there were “too many trees”, stumbling his way through Eve, updating every ghost from here to Busan on their profanity.
“Zhi Renshu laoshi. I know I’m supposed to help you regain your sight.” I frantically scrambled around for my belongings. “I promise I’ll return. But you said it yourself: the warning lantern only glows when someone is in life-threatening danger.”
I had to get to my brother. There was no way that was fast enough. Unless— I glanced at the moody skies. I could call a cockatrice. The great chicken dragons used to be charioteers for great kings and queens in past times, but now they would fly you anywhere you wanted in Eve—on the condition that you only called upon them three times. I had kind of already used one of my cockatrice journeys to escape from a fire, my first visit to Eve.
“Citlalli.” I listened when Old Man Zhi said my name. “We’re not alone.”
A tall, fierce woman with panther eyes and skin the color of ebony had materialized out of thin air upon the misty pavilion. A shorter Russian woman with pouty lips and soft curves stood behind her, tightening her mink coat against the light rain.
“She’s uglier than either of her sisters,” the Russian woman decided behind her. “And not too bright, either. I wonder if what they say about her hand in Duck Young’s fate is true after all. HELLO?” She stepped closer and waved a mink glove in my face. “You do know why we’re here, don’t you? I am Lady Eva, and this is Lady Amrit, second and first wife to the Throne of Western Europe, his Royal Highness, Prince Donovan Louvel Beauvais. We will escort you to the Vampyre Court.”
“No.” A breath escaped me.
The vampyres exchanged glances. “Excuse me?”
“No! I can’t go with you right now!” I turned desperately back to Old Man Zhi, searching his empty sockets for answers. What should I do? I’d been given a flower-strewn path directly to two of my sisters. I’d sworn that I would save Raina. The pack’s plans depended on it. But if I fulfilled my vow, then I sacrificed Miguel.
Wolf, I whimpered, what should I do?
Wolf lifted Its head. I want to hunt fox, It said, not shadows.
I thought of the ethereal white fog floating in the warning lantern. I thought of the harsh lines carving Miguel’s face as he lay on the floor. Both of them needed me.
“Your Queen’s son attacked us unprovoked,” I said bluntly, and both vampyre faces clammed up with something like surprise. “So I’ll be deciding if and when I answer her invitation. You will wait here until I return. Cheer up,” I added to Lady Eva as I shouldered past. “The fresh air’s good for you. Might even add some color to those pasty-ass cheeks.”
I couldn’t understand the steady stream of Russian profanity hitting my back, but I did see Amrit’s face. She suddenly looked—alive. Thirsty. As if something had stirred her from a deep slumber. I didn’t know how old either of them were, but I did know it’d probably been a mistake to make them my enemies.