The Twelve

by Cindy Lin

  When the man in black turned, Usagi stifled a cry. The man’s set jaw and dark, hooded eyes were the same as in the portrait, but his face—she could see it clearly now. His skin was a pale grayish blue, his lips almost purple. The Blue Dragon was actually blue. None of the portraits of him had shown it.

  Was he sick? Diseased in some way?

  No wonder Tora hushed her when she called him the Blue Dragon. The name was a reminder of something the warlord wanted everyone to forget. Something he wanted no one outside these walls to know.

  Usagi stared at the Blue Dragon’s face. Because of him, the Twelve were no more, their powers scattered to the wind. Because of him, the island had been invaded and plundered for gain. Because of him, so many were dead, snatched from their homes, taken from families and friends. And now her sister and Tora—the only family she had left—were in his thrall. They were following the Blue Dragon’s every movement, their eyes shining with admiration. It made her stomach turn.

  In his high, quavering voice, the wizened Master Douzen addressed the cadets. “To the fortunates who have caught Lord Druk’s favor. Receive all that he says and you will be rewarded beyond your greatest dreams.”

  “All hail the Dragonlord!” cried Uma. Usagi flinched. How strange to see her little sister giving commands—as if she were the Blue Dragon’s star pupil.

  “Long live the Dragonlord!” the students shouted back.

  The blue-skinned man gave a curt nod. “Thank you, Master Douzen.” The Dragonlord’s voice was deep and commanding, like a barrel drum. “Your reports of the Chosen Ones’ progress have been encouraging, and the Dragonstriker captain is looking forward to the day they join his ranks. I can see for myself how they are growing in strength and skill.”

  The cadets all seemed to stand straighter, lift their chins higher at the Blue Dragon’s words.

  “As future guardians of Midaga, you should know the great news. Midaga’s last enemy has been captured.” Excited whispers rippled through the assembly of uniformed younglings. He waited till the room was still again. “The witch of Mount Jade was lured from her lair and will no longer stand in the way of our progress. Thanks to the captain of the Dragonstrikers, who delivered her to the palace this morning, we can all rest easier,” said the Blue Dragon. “Dragon Academy, all hail the captain!”

  As the students cheered, the captain stepped forward and doffed his helmet. Usagi cracked the door a bit wider, and almost fell out.

  Tupa stood there, accepting the cheers of the assembled younglings. He was the captain of the Dragonstrikers.

  “No!” she whispered.

  Blindly, Usagi shrank into the farthest reaches of the closet. She thought of all that Tupa had taught her. He’d shown her how to wield a sword, pushed her to use her voice, demonstrated how to fight back, encouraged her in everything she did. He’d been so concerned when she’d gotten hurt in the Blade Trial.

  Yet here he was, captain of the Blue Dragon’s prized force. Which meant the Ram Heir had come to the shrine and lied. To the Heirs, and the Tigress. To her. And brought them all here to the palace like a special delivery. The bitter taste of bile rose in Usagi’s throat and she retched. She closed her eyes, breathing hard. Get ahold of yourself.

  Usagi crept back to the closet door and peeked out. Tupa stood beside the Blue Dragon, smiling broadly and smoothing his goatee. He’d changed out of his monk’s robes and wore a suit of black lacquered leather armor, with a black helmet sporting large beetle-like horns tipped in gold, indicating his rank. His face was flintier, colder, despite his smile. Around his neck was his firehorn, and a firecannon was slung behind his back. “Future Dragonstrikers,” Tupa boomed, “it’s good to be back. The final pocket of resistance has been brought to heel. We have them safely behind bars here at the palace, and several precious Treasures they stole have been recovered. Behold!” He held up the Bowl of Plenty to cries of awe.

  Usagi’s hand flew to her belt, where she’d tucked the Coppice Comb. “Farting firehorns,” she groaned. No wonder he’d insisted on bringing the Treasures. Not only did she not stop him, she’d carried two of the Treasures for him.

  “At the festival of the spring equinox, we shall celebrate—and see the last remnant of old Midaga submit to the new,” said Tupa. “And now, Lord Druk and I look forward to your demonstrations of progress.” He raised his voice. “All hail the Dragonlord!”

  “Long live the Dragonlord!” shouted the younglings. They broke into groups and began preparing for their demonstrations, while Tupa snapped his fingers at a couple of the Dragonstrikers. Clicking and clacking in their plated black armor, the roaches fetched stools for the Blue Dragon and Master Douzen, while Tupa stood with his arms folded. He surveyed the hall, frowning, and when his gaze swept past the closet door, Usagi jerked back. Tupa had said the others were behind bars. Were they somewhere on the grounds? She had to get out and find them. But how? She couldn’t just walk out without being noticed.

  She looked down at her uniform and thought again. Could she?

  Usagi undid her braids and pulled her hair down over her face. She grabbed a tall stack of sparring pads. Her cheek pressed up against them, and she nearly gagged again at the sour stink of old sweat. Peering out, she saw that Tupa had his back turned. She nudged the door open and slipped out of the storage room, face hidden behind the sparring pads.

  “There you are!” Tora said. “Uma and I were just coming to fetch you. That uniform fits perfectly!”

  Swiveling to peer around the stack of pads, Usagi gave them both a strained smile. “Thanks,” she muttered.

  “Let me take those and we’ll introduce you to Master Douzen, Captain Tupa, and Lord Druk,” Uma offered. “How lucky that all three of them are here!” She started to take the pile, but Usagi resisted, keeping a firm hold on the pads.

  “That’s all right, Uma,” she said hastily. Through the curtain of her hair, Usagi saw the line of Strikers standing at attention by the front entrance, while the first group of younglings began a demonstration with straw dummies. To her alarm, Tupa glanced their way. Usagi ducked her head. This wouldn’t work—she needed to get out of sight. “They’re awfully heavy. Maybe we don’t need so many? I can take some back.” Usagi gave her sister several pads, then spun around with the rest and headed rapidly back to the storage room, resisting the urge to break into a run.

  She slipped back into the cramped closet and shut the door quietly behind her, heart pounding. There was no way she could walk out of there without attracting attention—not with a squad of roaches at the exit and certainly not with Tupa around. He knew she still had the comb—he had to be looking for her.

  Her ears pricked at Tupa’s booming voice. “Cadet Uma, who was that girl?”

  “Captain,” her sister piped. “You’re just the person I wanted to talk to. My sister is here. She’d make a great addition to the Dragon Academy—she’s got zodiac powers and was born in the year of the Wood Rabbit.”

  “A Wood Rabbit, you say?” Tupa’s voice grew keenly interested.

  “Yes—she has the talents of hearing and jumping. I wanted to introduce you, but she just went to the storage room with some equipment.”

  Usagi scanned the closet frantically. She could hear Uma telling Tupa about how surprised she was when her older sister had appeared at the palace that morning. Glancing up, she spied the narrow window. It was high up, close to the ceiling, with stacks of boxes and chests in the way. Click clack, click clack. Tupa’s armor rattled and clattered as he walked across the hall, Uma chattering by his side. Usagi had to get out now.

  Palms damp with sweat, she grabbed her pack and threw it on, then clambered up piles of boxes, which swayed and creaked in protest under her weight. Standing atop the tallest stack, she found she could just reach the window’s wooden frame. She stretched on tiptoe and pushed until it popped open with a groan. Grasping the windowsill, Usagi scrabbled with her feet and wriggled halfway out. The small pack on her back snagged. Her sister’s voi
ce and Tupa’s were getting close. She pulled, grunting, until her pack came free. Swinging outside, she hung from the frame. As they opened the closet door, Usagi’s sweaty hands slipped. She dropped to the marble tiles of the walkway below, the window closing with a soft thump behind her.

  “I don’t understand—she was just here!” Uma’s perplexed voice floated after Usagi as she dashed away. It pained Usagi to hear it. But she couldn’t let Tupa see her. He was captain of the Dragonstrikers! There was no telling what other deceptions he’d fed them. Usagi ducked into the courtyard where she’d left her broomstick, retrieving it from beneath the forsythia bushes. Now to find the others. They were locked up somewhere, but where? By the gods, if only she still had the Mirror of Elsewhere. At least she had her rabbit hearing.

  Usagi rubbed her wooden rabbit and listened carefully. She filtered out the sounds of the Academy, the stables, the cookery, the barracks. Was that the voices of the Heirs? It was muffled, but she could have sworn she heard the squeaky crack of Nezu’s voice. It was coming from the Outer Court, which was where she’d left them.

  She hurried toward the Temple of the Immortals, passing ordinary Guards and palace workers, her head held high. Be a Striker cadet. Usagi’s stomach was clenched in knots, but she glared haughtily at anyone who glanced her way. She retraced her steps until she found herself back by the palace temple, where she could see a flurry of activity in the center of the complex. Monks and palace workers were stringing up garishly festive lanterns and raising a platform. Usagi shivered. Something told her this was where the Tigress and the Heirs were going to be forced to submit to the Blue Dragon. And if she weren’t careful, she would be too.

  There it was again—the squeak that Nezu’s voice made when he was excited. Usagi walked behind the temple where she’d seen Tupa leading the others. A raked gravel path led through a wooded park that surrounded the temple complex. Her feet crunched on the white gravel path, which sported trails of footprints. A spray of scattered gravel on the ground caught her eye, marble chips kicked off the path in all directions. Something dark and polished gleamed amid the white gravel. Usagi poked at it with her stick, then bent and picked up a curved jade bead of deep green—the one the Tigress had made to fix the broken Treasure.

  A muffled voice shouted and cracked. “Usagi! Are you there?” She turned around, heart leaping in her chest. It was definitely Nezu.

  A female voice joined in. “Usagi! Can you hear us? We’re in the stone cellar! . . . Are you sure you caught her scent, Inu?”

  “I’m sure, although she might not be alone,” came the reply. “I smell something of the palace with her.”

  Usagi looked down at the Academy uniform she was wearing and sniffed it. If it smelled like those stinky sparring pads from the storage closet, she couldn’t detect it. But Inu would—and he and the others were somewhere nearby. She looked around wildly. Where was this stone cellar?

  “Keep calling,” Nezu suggested. “She’ll hear us with her rabbit talent.”

  With her ears guiding her, she turned toward a hillock of trees, where the voices seemed to come floating out of the earth. Drawing near, Usagi saw that part of the tree-covered mound was a mossy wall. A narrow ramp led down to a hidden wooden door. By her feet there were mesh-covered slits in the wall that could barely be called windows.

  “She’s close!” Inu said, and shouted her name.

  With a rush of relief, Usagi crouched and called into one of the narrow openings. “I’m here! I heard you!”

  “Thank the gods!” Saru sounded overjoyed. “Are you all right? You have to get out of here—Tupa . . .”

  “Led us into a trap,” Usagi finished. “I know. He’s the captain of the Strikers.”

  There was a shocked silence, and then exclamations poured from the cellar vents. “That no-good two-faced billy goat,” spluttered Nezu.

  Usagi glanced around nervously. No one was around but she didn’t want to raise her voice. “Is the Tigress with you?”

  “No,” said Inu, sounding defeated. “The head priest escorted the Tigress elsewhere, and then Tupa led us here and locked us in—to hide us, he said. He told us he had a special way to locate you.”

  Alarm ran through Usagi. “He has the Mirror of Elsewhere,” she confessed. More exclamations and a stream of questions burst from the cellar. “It’s all my fault but there’s no time to explain! I have to get you out. If he’s looking for me, then he or one of the Strikers could be here any minute. What did he tell you before he left?”

  “Just that he’d be back when the sun went down,” said Nezu. There was a faint pounding sound that echoed out the vents, and he yelped. “Ow! The door is solid wood a foot thick.”

  “The whole cellar is nothing but stone—even the ceiling is stone slab,” Inu reported. “And the windows are too small to squeeze through.”

  Usagi jumped into the trench concealing the cellar entrance. An enormous beam barred the door and was secured by a heavy iron lock. She had no key, and had never learned to pick a lock. How could she break them out of such a place? She stood back, looking at the cellar and its protective mound of earth crowned with oak trees. Her eyes narrowed, and she ran back up the ramp to the cellar vents.

  “I have an idea,” she told the Heirs.

  Chapter 23

  True Colors

  USAGI GLANCED ABOUT, MAKING SURE no one was in sight. The Heirs’ prison was crowned with a hill sporting several stately swordleaf oaks. Their roots spread across the mound like a tangled network of silvery snakes. She leaned toward the cellar vent.

  “Prepare to move quickly,” she warned the Heirs. Usagi climbed the mound of earth hiding the cellar, and headed for the largest tree. “Gods help me,” she muttered.

  She’d barely explored what her wood gift could do—had never tried anything like this before. She knelt by the base of the majestic oak and took a deep breath. On Mount Jade, Tupa had advised using force on the Tree of Elements, and it had gotten her nowhere. Usagi placed her hands on the pale gray bark, closing her eyes. Listen to it first . . . feel . . . become one with the tree, the Tigress had told her. For a tense moment, all Usagi could feel was her heart pounding in her chest. Then a deep, slow pulse shuddered through the broad trunk. With a sigh of relief, she felt the tree’s energy surging beneath her palms.

  Usagi connected to it, and focused on following the tree’s pulse down to its roots, which were blocked by the cellar. She envisioned the roots reaching through the soil and prying apart the stone slabs of the ceiling, wedging between the stone blocks of the walls, forcing their tendrils through until the cellar was filled with cracks and holes. Please, Usagi thought. I need your help. Claim the earth that is yours. Free my friends.

  The tree’s pulsing quickened, and the twisting, exposed roots at her knees shifted. A deep rumbling grew and shook the tree-covered mound. Usagi gritted her teeth and pressed hard, her fingers growing as warm as if they were cupped around a bowl of hot tea.

  There was a muffled shout by one of the Heirs. Usagi opened her eyes to see a crack open up in the ground. Loose earth crumbled into a growing split between two stone slabs, into the cellar itself. Thick roots expanded their reach into the space till the gap between the slabs was wide enough that she could see right in.

  “Boils and blisters!” Usagi exclaimed, and pulled away from the tree, shaking her overheated hands to cool them. She crouched at the edge of the hole and peered in. “Everything all right?” The cellar seemed to be filled with a snarled web of roots, looking as if a wayward giant spider had gone on a rampage.

  “A little cramped,” said Inu, “but otherwise impressive.”

  “You really had that tree going,” Nezu called up.

  Saru scrambled up the ropy network. Her head popped out, hair coated in crumbs of soil and her cheeks smudged with dirt. But her pale face glowed. “My stars, look at what you did!” There was just enough space between the stone slabs to shimmy through. She had the boys pass her their packs and walking s
ticks. Then they followed Saru through the split in the cellar ceiling. When Inu got stuck halfway, Saru and Usagi each took an arm and pulled until he emerged like a reluctant radish from the earth.

  “Thanks,” he grunted. “That’s some gift, Wood Rabbit.” He pointed at the cellar vents. Roots had pushed through and grown so long, they dangled to the ground like ragged drapes. Inu tousled his shaggy hair to get rid of fallen soil, while the others brushed off their clothes. Their entertainer whites had become a dingy ocher.

  Nezu pointed at Usagi. “Nice outfit. Where’d you get that?”

  “From the Dragon Academy.” Usagi grimaced. “My sister got it for me, and then she went to ask ‘Captain Tupa’ to let me join. I slipped out of there just in time.” She worried her rabbit pendant with her fingers. “What do we do now?”

  “Find the Tigress, of course,” said Inu.

  “I heard Tupa say there would be some sort of celebration tonight, where they’d make their captives submit to the Blue Dragon,” Usagi recalled. “And there are preparations going on right now at the temple.”

  “Then Teacher must be nearby,” said Nezu. His face darkened. “I still can’t believe Tupa led us into this. How did the Blue Dragon get to him?”

  Saru slapped hard at her dirt-crusted sleeve. “I can’t even imagine. He fooled us all.” She shook her head. “We can’t pass as entertainers like this—and if Tupa planned this whole trap, no one will believe us anyway. Time to change our disguise.” The Heirs took off their brightly patterned entertainers’ coats and turned them inside out, displaying the indigo lining instead. With dark blue coats over their dun-colored clothing, they could pass for groundskeepers or stablehands.