The Twelve

by Cindy Lin

  “Honored Teacher,” said Saru, bowing. “Thank you for answering our call.”

  Inu and Nezu followed suit and bent low. “Honored Teacher.” Nezu looked up briefly and flashed a quick smile. “It gladdens the heart to see you, Mistress Horangi.”

  Usagi jumped as the enormous glowing tiger spoke with an old woman’s croak that echoed through the trees.

  “I wish I could say the same, youngling. The protocol is that I summon you for regular reports. To ring your Summons Bell indicates grave danger.”

  “No, Teacher—we are safe,” Saru assured the tiger.

  “For now,” Nezu interjected, his voice cracking with excitement. “But we’ve made an urgent discovery about the Dragonstrikers. Inu and I saw one of them use animal talents to capture a youngling.”

  The tiger let out a deep growl that rumbled beneath Usagi’s feet. “The Blue Dragon’s forces now include those with zodiac powers?”

  “At least one that we know of, Teacher,” said Inu. “We witnessed a youngling with horse speed caught without the use of fly-nets or spidertraps.” He shook his shaggy head. “A Striker ran just as fast as the youngling and overtook her.”

  “It was my sister,” Usagi volunteered. “Uma. She’s not yet nine but has both horse speed and a gift with fire.”

  The tiger swung its great radiant head around. Its eyes narrowed into green slits. “Who is this youngling? I see from her spirit form that she is born in the year of the Rabbit. What in the name of the gods is an outsider doing in a Summoning Circle?”

  Usagi’s mouth went dry. She probably wasn’t supposed to speak. Now what? In a panic, she looked at Nezu, who gave her a rather sheepish smile.

  “This is the only youngling with talent who didn’t get caught by the Dragonstrikers today,” he told the tiger.

  Saru held up the comb. “Teacher, she was carrying one of the Treasures.”

  The tiger’s luminescent ears swiveled forward and it lowered its great nose, as if to sniff the carved wood piece. “The Coppice Comb,” it snarled. “On that you have done well. I am glad it has been recovered. But I do not see why you had to reveal yourselves to the youngling.”

  “Her father gave her the comb. She promised him she’d keep it safe. And since she has talent, we couldn’t just take the Coppice Comb from her.” Saru took a deep breath. “Teacher, we want to bring her to you.”

  With a growl, the tiger reared back. Its tail lashed back and forth. “Bring her to the Shrine of the Twelve? An untested, unschooled youngling?”

  Usagi’s breath was so shallow that she was dizzy.

  A priestess with the power of a tiger had manifested right here before her.

  It was impossible to deny the truth of what the three bandits—no, Heirs—had been saying all along. The Twelve had not completely been wiped out. A Warrior still lived.

  Those with zodiac powers were not alone after all.

  “If the Blue Dragon is capturing these younglings for his strike force, we’ll be at a greater disadvantage than ever before,” Saru said to the luminous tiger.

  “It’s not enough for us to try to keep the Treasures out of his hands,” said Inu, his dark eyes stormy. “We must keep talented younglings from him as well.”

  Usagi’s chest grew tighter and tighter. “But my sister and our friends . . . they all have powers and they’ve already been caught by the Strikers! Can’t any of you help?”

  “It is not so simple,” the tiger snapped. “Even when the Twelve was whole, we were never invincible. That is why a Shield of Concealment was created for the island in the first place. With our tattered remains, thwarting the Blue Dragon has been the bleakest of battles.” The giant cat began to pace within the circle. “Even if you Heirs locate younglings of talent and bring them to Mount Jade safely, they still must pass the Running of the Mount. None of us can force the mountain goddess to accept them.”

  “But if they succeed in getting to the shrine,” said Saru, “it only makes sense to teach them all that you’ve taught us. And we found one today, carrying one of the Treasures, no less. It’s a sign from the gods—we have to try. We can’t let the legacy of the Twelve die.” She tucked the comb into her tunic. Usagi’s fingers twitched, wanting to snatch it back.

  “Yes! Don’t you see?” Nezu’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat and spoke in a deeper register. “This could be our chance at rebuilding the Twelve. Once there are enough of us, we can take on the Warrior mantle. The Warriors of the Zodiac can rise again. Isn’t that what you want?”

  “Enough,” thundered the tiger. “Return to Mount Jade, and bring the youngling—if you can. It is up to her to make it to the shrine. If she does, then I will teach her.” The form pulsed with a white glow, becoming so bright it hurt to look at. Usagi cowered, shielding her eyes. In a great flash of light, the tiger disappeared.

  In the dim and quiet beneath the forest canopy, Usagi blinked, dazed. Inu put away the little bell he’d used to call upon the glowing tiger, wrapping it in cotton wool and placing it in his pack. He glanced at her and his mouth quirked up. “Still don’t believe us?”

  Usagi shook her head. It hardly seemed possible, but three Warrior Heirs stood before her. What next?

  She was to go with them. The Tigress had said that she would teach Usagi—if she made it to the shrine with the Heirs. Perhaps she’d finally learn to master her talents. And from an actual Warrior of the Twelve! How proud her parents would be!

  Usagi sank back onto the low stump. If she studied with the Tiger Warrior, she would surely find a way to help her sister and Tora. It certainly sounded better than going after them alone, just to get captured herself.

  “This is a lot to take in, isn’t it?” Nezu flashed a sympathetic smile. “I don’t know about you, but I’m famished. Let me make a quick porridge—it will settle us after the morning we’ve had.” After murmurs of agreement from the others, he retrieved a small burlap bag from one of the packs under the camphor tree. “Lucky we didn’t give all the rice away.”

  He brought out an iron pot and poured in some of the rice, followed by water from his drinking gourd. While he washed the rice, Saru had Usagi help gather dry wood, which they stacked in the blackened ring of stones for a cookfire.

  From his pack, Inu removed an unstrung bow of bamboo and horn that was curled in an open circle. “I’ll see if I can’t hunt down some meat.”

  “A bow!” Usagi stared. It had been a long time since she’d seen anyone other than a Guard or Striker with such a weapon. Bows, swords, and spears had been confiscated after the war, even though they were mainly used for hunting or handed down as family heirlooms—at least before the arrival of the invaders. In some parts, even knives had been banned, with only a communal knife chained to a post in the middle of villages.

  Usagi pointed. “Why didn’t you use that when you were stealing in the rice fields?”

  Inu snorted. “Show up with a forbidden weapon? Sure. Because that wouldn’t raise any alarms.”

  “When you’re outnumbered by well-armed foes, it’s best to use stealth tactics,” Saru told her. “It’s why we used hidden blades and farm tools.”

  “Hidden blades,” said Usagi slowly, thinking of the night she’d first seen them. She remembered hearing the whistle of something that flashed in the moonlight, of Tora telling her the bandits were throwing metal stars dipped in sleeping potion.

  “At first the Guard didn’t know they were being attacked,” said Inu. “It might have bought us only a little more time, but that little bit can make all the difference. To get you and Saru out of the town center, we used the sun’s reflection, smoke bombs, and firecrackers to distract the Guard.” He attached a sinewy string that pulled the bow’s arms into curved wings. With his thumb ring, he gave the string a twang, then slung a small cylinder of arrows over his shoulder. “I won’t be long.” He slipped into the trees.

  Usagi stared up at the masks that hung from the branch above her. Her head was flooded with questions, an
d she hardly knew which one to ask first. “There are still things I don’t understand,” she said to Nezu and Saru. “The comb my father gave me. You said it was a treasure, and that tiger seemed awfully interested in it.”

  Nodding, Saru drew out a firestarter and struck it above a pile of kindling. “The Coppice Comb is one of Twelve Treasures, created centuries ago at the shrine on Mount Jade. Each possesses unique and useful powers and was passed down from Warrior to Warrior. Most of the Treasures were lost when the war began. We’ve been hunting for them ever since.” A spark flew into the kindling and flared. Saru blew on it gently.

  “How many have you found so far?” asked Usagi.

  “We’ve recovered two on this mission.” Nezu smoothed his whiskers. “Including yours. At the shrine are two others.”

  Usagi cocked her head. “Why is it so important to find them?”

  Saru sighed. “It’s a long story. For now, let’s just say that they were very important in keeping Midaga safe for many years. They hold even more power together than individually, so we want to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Like the Dragonlord’s?”

  Saru nodded, frowning. “Especially his.”

  Usagi thought about the fearsome tiger of light that had stalked around the clearing. “So the talking tiger—that was . . .”

  “The 42nd Tiger Warrior,” said Saru. “Horangi. We call her the Tigress. You saw her spirit. In a Summoning, you don’t see the person—you see the animal that hides in their heart.”

  So Horangi had seen her in rabbit form. Usagi wondered what sort of rabbit the Tigress had seen. Probably not a particularly ferocious one. She tugged at her ears, which were no longer ringing. “That little bell made an awfully big sound.”

  Nezu laughed. “That was the answer—from the Summoning Bell. It used to hang at the Palace of the Clouds, and kings would ring it when they needed to call for their Warrior Council. Luckily Tupa smuggled it out and got it to Mount Jade. Can you imagine being at the Blue Dragon’s beck and call?” He shuddered.

  “Tupa?” asked Usagi, confused. “Who’s that?”

  “He’s the other surviving Heir—to the Ram Warrior,” Saru told her. “He’s been on a long mission in the north, but hopefully you’ll get to meet him someday. It’s just been the four of us, and the Tigress, since the Blue Dragon came to power.”

  Usagi’s head swam. Four Heirs and a retired Tiger Warrior. “My sister is just eight years old. Do you really think the Blue Dragon wants her for his strike force?”

  “I think we have a way to find out,” said Saru thoughtfully.

  Nezu nearly knocked over the pot of porridge. “The Mirror of Elsewhere!” he exclaimed. “Of course!”

  “Inu has it,” Saru told Usagi. “We’ll have to wait till he gets back from hunting, but he’s carrying the other Treasure we recovered. We found it in the village of Sea View. It will give you a way to see your sister again.”

  Hope sparked in Usagi for the first time. “Really?”

  Saru nodded. “Swear by the gods.”

  Impatient for Inu’s return, Usagi listened for him, rubbing the carved wooden rabbit at her neck. A thought struck her. “How would my father wind up with one of the Treasures?”

  “Someone must’ve entrusted him with it,” said Nezu. From a small pouch, he threw a pinch of seasoning into the pot and gave it a stir. “He seemed to know it was important, no? You said he’d made you promise to keep it in sight.”

  “He did,” said Usagi. She’d bent her forehead to his hand and swore to him that she would.

  She’d also swore to him to take care of Uma. What a failure she was.

  I’m sorry, Papa. Her voice grew small. “So if it’s truly one of the Treasures, does it mean I’m not getting the comb back?”

  “You won’t be breaking your promise to him,” said Saru gently. “If you come with us to the shrine, you can keep an eye on it all the way there.”

  Usagi nodded, but she was doubtful. How would she ever get up Mount Jade? In prewar days, when the time came to find a Warrior Heir, only the best students in the kingdom were allowed to attempt climbing its slopes. Whoever was the first to reach the shrine on Mount Jade received the honor of becoming Heir. Usagi’s mother used to tell stories about spectacular failures during a Running of the Mount—terrible falls, broken bones, encounters with wild beasts, even momentary blindness and strange hallucinations. “The Tigress didn’t seem to think I could make it to the shrine.”

  “Don’t you worry about that,” said Nezu stoutly. He smoothed the sparse whiskers above his lip. “We’ll do everything we can to help you prepare.”

  Usagi heard snatches of a tune in the distance. Someone was humming “The Welcome Song” softly under his breath. “Inu’s on his way back. He should be here in a few minutes. I think he’s caught something.”

  “How would you know that?” asked Saru, squinting at Usagi.

  Shrugging, Usagi pointed to her ears. “Year of the Rabbit, remember? I can hear him coming—and it sounds like he’s in a good mood.”

  “That would be a first,” said Nezu with a chuckle. He sliced some wild mushrooms and added them to the pot. A warm, earthy fragrance filled the air.

  Inu’s humming grew louder, then stopped as he strode into the campsite, his bow and quiver slung over one shoulder. A fat pheasant flopped over the other. “Anyone for a bit of meat in their porridge?”

  Saru clapped her hands, her pale face alight. “That’s a handsome catch. It’ll fortify us for our journey.”

  While Nezu began preparing the bird, plucking its feathers and exclaiming over its size, Usagi approached Inu, who was putting away his bow and arrows and looking pleased with himself. She stood by until he looked up from his pack, his dark eyes quizzical. “Yes?”

  “Saru and Nezu said you had one of the Treasures on you,” Usagi ventured. “A . . . a mirror? They said it might help me see my sister again.”

  Inu’s face cleared and he gestured for Usagi to sit down beside him, brushing dead leaves and sticks from a patch of mossy earth. Reaching into his tunic, he produced a small bronze disk. The gilt back of the mirror was cast in an elaborate raised design. Twelve animals of the zodiac paraded around a small knob, a handle embossed with swirling shapes like fish chasing each other’s tails.

  “This is the Mirror of Elsewhere,” he told her. “Cast in the province of Iron Tree, blessed by Mount Jade at the Shrine of the Twelve, and carried for generations of Dog Warriors. When war broke out I helped my master, Seta the Second, hide it in order to keep it from the Blue Dragon. I was looking forward to recovering it on this mission.” He turned it over and held it up in a beam of sunlight. Light glinted off the mirror’s face onto Usagi’s sleeve. “Look,” Inu smiled.

  A pattern of twelve animals, cast in sunshine, danced on Usagi’s tunic. It was the exact same pattern from the mirror’s back. Usagi blinked in surprise. “It’s like the mirror is transparent. Can you see through it?”

  “Something like that,” said Inu. “It can be used as an ordinary mirror, but if you hold it at a certain angle while thinking of a specific place, person, or thing, the mirror will show it to you. It might not be the clearest picture, but it can give you a general sense of the thing you’re thinking about. It’s how we came to Goldentusk. The mirror showed us that the comb was here, but we couldn’t quite see who was carrying it or the comb’s exact location.” He gave a wry smile. “Until we caught you using it. But the mirror still helped.”

  He rubbed the front of the disk against his tunic and put it in Usagi’s hand. It felt heavy and warm, and fit perfectly in her palm. “Hold it by the handle. Put it just in front of your face, at the level of your chin. Angle it slightly up to the sky, so that you don’t see your eyes,” he instructed. “Now think of your sister.”

  The image in the mirror grew cloudy, going from a glimpse of Usagi’s forehead to a faint moving form. It was if she were looking through a tiny window covered with
a sooty piece of glass. Usagi squinted, then gasped. Uma was no longer asleep, but crouched in a bamboo cage, her hands still tied. Her long mane of hair was completely undone, half hanging in her tearstained face. She looked miserable. “They’ve got her in a cage,” Usagi whispered. “Oh, Uma.”

  She wondered if Tora was with her sister, and another face immediately floated into view, in a cage next to Uma’s. “There’s Tora!” Her long fangs had disappeared, but her amber eyes looked fiercer than ever. She raised her bound hands as if she were reaching for Uma and said something, but jerked back and stared angrily at someone outside her cage. The cages jittered and shook on a jouncing cart—the same one that Usagi had first seen that morning, coming for Jago. As Usagi thought of Jago, the image expanded to show him in a cage on the other side of Uma, his face streaked with dirt and tears. Were they on the Ring Road with the Strikers? As if in answer, a phalanx of black-armored escorts marched into view behind the cart.

  “What do you see?” Inu asked.

  “They’re all in cages,” Usagi choked. “My sister, Tora, and Jago. I think the Strikers are taking them to the capital.” A tear slipped down her cheek as she stared at the faint image of her sister. “I’m so sorry, Uma. I’ll come for you. I promise.”

  Water

  “Water seeks the most direct path, and changes to fit every circumstance. But do not mistake its flexibility for weakness, for even mountains can be dissolved by Water.”

  —Book of Elements, from The Way of the Twelve

  Chapter 7

  Far from Home

  BEFORE THE DAYS OF THE Dragonlord’s rule, people often traveled the island’s Ring Road on foot or by cart, bringing goods to market in the capital and other provinces, or making pilgrimages to shrines. It was a source of pride to stop and visit some of Midaga’s most beautiful wonders—like the Dancing Dunes, Butterfly Kingdom, Staircase of the Sea, and the Rainbow Wood—along the way.

  But this was back before the war, when people weren’t stopped at Guard checkpoints to show their travel permits, and trade within the kingdom still existed. Nowadays no one was able to move freely from town to town without questioning or harassment, except for entertainers and temple monks.