by Cindy Lin
Her ears pricked at the sound of rustling and angry voices, and she turned to see movement through the tangle of trees. The Guard were coming. Alarmed, she moved in the opposite direction, and bumped into a masked figure dressed in black, who grabbed her. Usagi screamed.
“Hush!” whispered the figure in black. “I’m not here to hurt you.” Usagi recognized the voice and stopped struggling. She stared at the alert brown eyes peeking over the face mask. It was the young woman from the entertainment troupe.
“You were in the rice fields!” Usagi breathed. “I knew it!”
The young woman’s eyes twinkled. “Now how would you know about something like that?” She pulled down the mask and smiled. “We haven’t much time, but I think we can help you. Do you trust me?”
“Did you leave rice for everyone here in town?”
The young entertainer’s eyebrows shot up. “Why yes, we did. But how—”
“Then I trust you. You’re better than the Blue Dragon’s men,” Usagi interrupted. Time was short. The Guard were hacking their way through the copse of trees with their swords, and she could clearly hear the clattering armor of Strikers approaching.
The young woman looked relieved. “Good.” She pulled the mask back up. Her eyes darted about the ground. “Where did you plant the comb?”
“You—you know about that?” Surprised, Usagi pointed. “It’s over there.”
The bandit took Usagi by the hand and brought her to the bronze Dragonlord, the comb stuck in the ground before it. A shaft of sunlight illuminated its carved spine with the twelve zodiac animals. “Listen carefully. I’m going to pull this comb from the ground, and the moment I do, we’ll be exposed. There’s Guard all around the marketplace now, so the only way out is up. I’ll have to carry you.” She put Usagi’s arms around her neck, draping Usagi across her back. “I want you to hang on to me like this, whatever happens. Can you do that?”
“Y-yes,” Usagi stammered. “But don’t lose the comb. My father gave it to me.”
“Believe me, I won’t,” promised the bandit. “Ready?” She reached down and with a swift flick, tugged the comb out of the earth. The trees around them vanished, sliding into the ground even faster than they sprouted. For an instant, Usagi saw the Guards who’d been trying to find her, their swords slashing at nothing as the branches before them disappeared. A flash of bright light flitted across the Guards’ faces, making them squint and cover their eyes. Then a bang sounded, and the town center rapidly filled with acrid, choking smoke. The Guards coughed and shouted in the confusion, unable to see.
“Hold on!” The young woman lunged toward a nearby building and nimbly climbed up its side, while Usagi tightened her grip. Before she could even blink, they were on the tiled roof. Below them, a series of small explosions went off in the swirling smoke, sounding like firecrackers or cannonshot. The young woman leaped to another rooftop, then another, Usagi clinging to her back like a baby monkey. As they traversed across town on rooftops of thatch and tile and bark, Usagi caught snatches of astonished cries from the streets below.
“What was that?”
“That was no bird!”
“Has Aunt Bobo’s little flying boy escaped?”
Reaching a building on the outskirts of town, the bandit stopped and let Usagi off her back. She motioned to stay low, pointing to the Ring Road.
Usagi flattened herself on the rooftop tiles. From their vantage point, she could see the wide ribbon of highway leading into Goldentusk. Broad enough to allow six horses to ride abreast, the Ring Road wound all around Midaga, linking the island’s towns and villages to the capital. In a show of each region’s wealth, parts were paved with marble, smooth river stones, fired clay tiles, metal plates, or timber. In Stone River Province, the rich dark soil had been display enough, and had been beaten till it was packed hard and smooth.
Now in rows five deep came a squadron of Dragonstrikers clad in shiny black plates of lacquered leather that clicked and clacked with every movement. The roaches marched in precise lockstep, looking straight past the low brims of their horned helmets, carrying long spears or firecannon in addition to their swords. In their midst rolled a horse-drawn cart for transporting Jago’s cage to the capital. As it went by, Usagi cried out.
Uma lay in the back of the cart, curled on her side with her hands and feet tightly bound. She appeared fast asleep, but Usagi had seen Strikers use dreamfumes to knock out the younglings they’d taken away in the past. It kept them from struggling and using their zodiac powers to escape.
The bandit clapped a hand over Usagi’s mouth. “Quiet! Do you want them to find us?”
Usagi pointed with a shaking finger, and pushed the young woman’s hand aside. “They’ve got my sister!”
“Keep your voice down,” ordered the young woman. Eyes narrowed, she stared after the cart. “Your sister—she’s got a fire gift, no? Along with animal talent?”
“Horse speed,” whispered Usagi.
“Right,” the bandit replied. “Unfortunately, when she showed up, she put sand in the rice pot for us. We were going to try to get that little flying boy out.”
“I saw you in the tree at Guard headquarters!” Usagi felt a spark of hope. “Isn’t there anything we can do now?”
“Against Strikers?” The young woman shook her head. “We’ll be lucky if we can get out of here without attracting their notice.”
Usagi helplessly watched her sister and the cart proceed farther into the town. She moved to spring off the roof, but a wiry arm yanked her back.
“Do you want to join her as their prisoner?” asked the bandit, not unkindly. “Look, I know how you feel. But you don’t know what you’re up against. You’ll have a better chance of helping your sister and your friends if you stay free.”
The clack and clatter of the Dragonstrikers and the horse-drawn cart receded as the procession turned a corner. Usagi blinked back tears. “How?”
“First we need to get out of here.” The young woman helped Usagi up. “Hop on,” she instructed. After a moment’s hesitation, Usagi wrapped her arms around the bandit’s neck. They swung off the edge of the roof and the young woman climbed them down to the ground. They were met by two other masked figures in black. “Nice work with the smoke screen and decoy firecannon back there,” the bandit told them.
“The smell of the smoke nearly knocked me out,” muttered one. A shaggy lock of hair poked out from beneath his hood. “But there’s a bigger problem. We saw them capture that youngling in the cart. One of the Strikers had horse speed of his own—ran her down in no time.”
“What?” said the young woman in disbelief. “The Dragonstrikers have zodiac powers now?”
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it,” said the other bandit. His voice cracked in a squeak, as if it had newly deepened.
“A Striker with animal talent is a disturbing new development,” added the bandit with the stray lock of hair.
“Could that be what the Blue Dragon is doing?” the young woman asked, half to herself. “Recruiting his own prisoners?”
“I heard he eats younglings with powers—and his Strikers torture the younglings they take,” Usagi interjected, feeling frantic. “That’s my sister they have in that cart!”
“I’m sorry about your sister,” said the bandit with the squeaky voice. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think he actually eats them. But the stories about torture . . .” Trailing off, he looked away.
The young woman shook her head. “Let’s get into safer cover before we say anything else.”
With dread in her chest, Usagi followed the three black-clad figures as they stole away from the town, crossing the Ring Road and diving deep into the forest. She was unfamiliar with this part of the wilderness, untouched by farming and filled with old growth. Usagi stumbled a few times as she tried to keep up with them, her mind racing as fast as the bandits. If Uma was caught by a Striker with zodiac powers—what did that mean? Was the Dragonlord turnin
g prisoners with powers against their own kind?
Finally, they reached a small clearing where a camp had been set up. It was the hour of the Horse and the sun was straight overhead, but only a few stray beams of light reached through the thick canopy. A ring of stones surrounded the charred remains of a campfire, and several traveling packs were tucked behind the fat trunk of an enormous old camphor tree. Usagi saw three wood pulp masks—of a red monkey, green rat, and a spotted yellow dog—hanging from one of its branches.
The young woman pulled off her hood and tucked a few stray chestnut strands back into her topknot. “My name is Saru,” she said. A smile lit up her pale face as she gave Usagi a formal bow of greeting. “Born in the year of the Earth Monkey.”
Usagi bowed back awkwardly. “I’m Usagi. Year of the Wood Rabbit.”
“Ah, rabbit talents!” The squeaky-voiced bandit pulled down his cloth mask and flashed a grin, his teeth gleaming white against his tanned skin. “Good to meet you, Usagi. I’m Nezu, and I was born in the year of the Water Rat.”
The bandit with the stray lock of hair took off his hood and ruffled his shaggy mop till his dark eyes were nearly hidden again. “Inu,” he said gruffly. “Dog year, ruled by the metal element.”
Usagi glanced at the colorful masks that the bandits had worn the previous night when they were performing, then scowled at the three of them. “You’re thieves. Thieves pretending to be entertainers so you can travel around and steal.”
“That’s a serious charge,” said Inu, his dark eyes flashing with indignation. “Where would you get such an idea?”
She pointed at the black hood in his hand. “I saw you earlier this week. The three of you were dressed just as you are now, and you got away with quite a lot of rice. And then your fake show got a little boy in trouble, and now my sister and best friend are prisoners too!” said Usagi, getting louder.
“Fake!” said Nezu. His voice cracked in surprise. “We worked hard on those routines. Without using our zodiac powers, I’ll have you know.”
Saru put a calming hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Look, I told you, we felt bad about the little boy, and we were going to try to free him. But when your sister triggered an alarm and all the other Guards showed up, it became too risky.”
“Too risky? The three of you knocked out more than a dozen Guard on the fields the other night,” Usagi protested.
“That was a good fight,” agreed Nezu, grinning again. He removed his hood and pulled out the thin, long rat-tail braid stuck under his collar. “But we had the element of surprise and the cover of darkness to help us. And regular Guards aren’t half as fierce as Strikers.” He smoothed the fuzz above his lip, becoming serious. “If the odds aren’t in your favor, you pull back—otherwise you won’t be able to fight another day.”
Usagi sagged. “I can’t fight at all.” Tora could fight—what a sight she’d been, with those newly sprouted fangs! Even so, she’d been overpowered. And Uma, who could run faster than any grown man—she’d looked so helpless and small, tied up in the back of the Strikers’ cart. What if Usagi never saw them again? Her chest grew tight and she choked back a lump in her throat. Should she go back onto the Ring Road and try to find them, use her rabbit hearing to locate the Dragonstrikers? Even if it meant getting captured herself, at least then they’d be together.
Saru put an arm around Usagi and sat her on a low stump. “You could learn.”
“Learn what?” asked Usagi.
“How to fight, of course!”
“From you?” Usagi frowned. “You said I’d be able to help Uma and Tora if I stayed free. Are you saying I should become a bandit too?”
“We’re not bandits,” said Inu irritably. He stuffed his black hood into one of the packs beneath the camphor tree. “We don’t steal. We give to the people the things they deserve. That rice belongs to them.”
“So if you’re not thieves, what are you, then?” demanded Usagi.
The young woman exchanged glances with Nezu and Inu. “It’s complicated. And dangerous. It’s not the sort of thing we go around telling people.”
“I trusted you enough to come along with you when you asked me to,” said Usagi. “I let you hold my father’s comb—which I want back, by the way.”
“Right.” Saru nodded. “I suppose that’s true.”
“We’re not bandits,” Inu repeated. He hesitated, twisting a horn ring that he wore on his thumb.
“Just tell her,” Nezu exclaimed. “If we’re going to do what we talked about, she’ll need to know.”
Inu scowled. Intrigued, Usagi leaned forward.
“We’re Warrior Heirs,” said Nezu, puffing out his chest. “I’m the Heir to the Rat Warrior, Saru’s the Monkey Heir, and Inu is the Heir to the Dog Warrior.”
Usagi slumped and rolled her eyes. “That’s ridiculous. Why would you lie at a time like this?”
“It’s true,” Nezu insisted. “I was chosen to become the 49th Rat Warrior. I’d be known as Nezu the Seventh upon promotion.”
“You dishonor the Twelve!” Usagi rose with a huff. “The Warriors of the Zodiac are all dead, and so are their Heirs. The shrines are gone, the schools are gone, all the teachers—my mother was one of them. You’re not funny.”
“He isn’t joking,” said Inu firmly, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “There’s still a few of us left—and the most important shrine was not destroyed.”
“Its priestess still remains,” Nezu informed her.
“What shrine is this?” Usagi challenged.
Nezu waved vaguely north. “The one on Mount Jade, of course. It’s the one place on Midaga that the Blue Dragon can’t conquer.”
“You’re not really the Dog Heir,” Usagi insisted to the shaggy-haired boy.
“I am.” A spark of pride flared in Inu’s dark eyes. “For six years now, in fact. Ever since I was eleven. I would have been the forty-eighth Warrior in the line.”
Saru lifted her chin. “I would have been the 46th Monkey Warrior. My master, Gausana the Third, was the forty-fifth, and he died fighting to save the king. I saw it all with my own eyes.”
“A few of us managed to escape to Mount Jade,” said Nezu. He removed a small drinking gourd from his belt and uncorked it. He took a long draft, then wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his tunic. “Horangi—who was the Tiger Warrior before becoming guardian of the shrine—took us in. I was one of the youngest Heirs ever, not even eleven years old at the time, and only just started. She’s taught me almost everything I know.” Nezu offered the flask to Usagi. “Water?”
Usagi shook her head stubbornly. “If any of that’s true, and you’re actually Heirs of the Twelve, then why didn’t you become Warriors after your masters were killed? Isn’t that the whole point of being Heirs?” Not only did these three bandits cause trouble, but they apparently believed she was stupid.
“It happened so fast. There was no Twelve left to speak of by the time the Blue Dragon seized power. There was just a few of us Heirs, and the priestess.” Saru’s bright eyes dimmed and her face seemed to crumple. “She saved us by sheltering us at the shrine.”
For a moment Usagi almost believed her. But even if it were all true—she had other things to worry about now, like tracking down Uma and Tora. She stood. “I think I should go. Thank you for helping me escape the Strikers. I’d like my comb back now, please.” She held out her hand.
Saru reached inside her tunic for the wooden comb. Turning it over with careful hands, she examined the fine carving of the twelve animals of the zodiac, circling in perpetual order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. She held it up. “It’s lovely. You said your father gave it to you? Where’d he get it?”
“My father was one of the best wood-carvers in the kingdom,” said Usagi, annoyed. “He must’ve made it. He said to never let it out of sight.”
Glancing at Inu, Saru tilted her head and made a strange gesture. “I see. We’ve actually been looking for this comb fo
r a long time. I have a feeling it was given to your father for safekeeping.”
“That can’t be,” Usagi said sharply. She moved toward Saru. “The comb is his. I promised to take care of it.”
Saru took a step back. “And you did. But it’s not really yours to keep. It belongs to the Twelve.”
Furious, Usagi lunged for the comb, but Saru dodged her. “It belongs to me! How dare you use the Twelve as an excuse to steal!”
“I told you,” Inu said. “We don’t steal.” Usagi turned to see him holding a tiny brass bell. He rang it once and a clear high note pealed. It hung in the air for a long moment, then deepened until it became an enormous thrumming sound that seemed to shake the earth. Usagi clapped her hands over her ears, but it was no use. She could hear—no, feel—everything. The quavering hum sent vibrations through her so powerful that they rattled her teeth. It seemed to go on forever. “What’s happening?” she cried.
“Stand by me and you’ll see!” Nezu shouted over the din. “We’ve summoned the Tigress.”
Chapter 6
A Summoning
THE UNEARTHLY VIBRATIONS SHOOK USAGI to her teeth. She clenched her jaw to keep them from chattering. Hurriedly, the three self-proclaimed Heirs arranged themselves so they faced each other. As the resounding thrum faded into the surrounding forest, Nezu turned and yanked Usagi forward to stand in a wide circle with him, Saru, and Inu. The air within the circle rippled like the space above a hot flame, distorting and undulating. A pinpoint of light appeared, growing steadily in size and shape.
Transfixed, Usagi shrank back, her ears still ringing. This was not a firefly, nor a spark from a torch or fire. It was something she’d never seen.
The morphing glow took on the shape of a great tiger nearly the height of a horse, standing tall over them. It gave off a cool light, and had greenish orbs for eyes that glimmered as its saucer-sized ears swiveled back and its glowing tail twitched. It was as if a piece of the moon had come into the forest—in the form of a giant cat. Usagi rubbed her eyes in shock. What sort of strange magic was this?