by Cindy Lin
At last, they reached the cloud forests around Sun Moon Lake, after more than a week of hard travel. It would have taken just a couple of days had they been able to use spirit speed. Usagi had almost forgotten what it was like to go without it. Propelling themselves over long distances quickly, whether by jumping through treetops, running at high speeds, or leaping enormous strides, was one of the great advantages—and joys—of having zodiac powers.
The mists that hung about the cloud forest thickened along with the foliage, and the sounds of chattering monkeys, booming frogs, and twittering birds filled Usagi’s ears. More than a year and a half had passed since she’d last been here—in fact, at the time she’d hardly believed that Warrior Heirs still existed, nor understood that they were fighting for their survival. So much had changed.
They approached the great lake that sat in the crater of a former volcano, the morning sun creeping higher in the sky. Usagi listened carefully for any trace of the old friend she’d encountered on her first journey to Mount Jade. Before long she was rewarded with the sound of several animals snuffing and padding toward them. She smiled. “Yunja’s dogs have found us.”
Three wild mountain dogs emerged from the underbrush, their pointed ears erect and their sickle-shaped tails wagging. They ran up to Usagi and Nezu and licked their hands, then sniffed at Tora and Ji. The dogs cocked their heads.
“I’m sorry Inu’s not here to speak dog with you,” the Rat Heir laughed, patting the brindled back of one and scratching the base of its tail. “But first let me introduce our new friends. This is Tora, who’s born in the year of the Wood Tiger, and a candidate for Tiger Heir. We found her at the Dragonlord’s compound. She’s with us now.” Tora’s eyes were wary as she held out a hand for the dogs to sniff. Nezu put an arm around Ji and knelt as the three dogs circled round and inspected her. “And this is Ji—she’s going to be staying with you for a while.” One of the dogs made a huffing noise and trotted into the cloud forest, followed by its companions. Nezu got to his feet and shrugged. “I have no idea if they understood me. Inu was here last time to talk with them.”
Tora looked around the dense growth of the cloud forest and flinched as a drop of moisture splatted on her nose. She wiped it with her sleeve. “When you found younglings who weren’t ready for Mount Jade, what made you decide to bring them here?”
“It’s isolated, far from the Ring Road, and hard to get to,” said Nezu. “It’s the perfect place for a youngling with zodiac powers to hide.”
“More importantly, they’re under the care of someone who can help teach them a little about their talents and gifts,” Usagi said. “Wait till you meet Yunja. He’s born in the year of the Wood Dog, and was the first one to teach me how to fight—using a stick.”
Tora gave her wooden staff a twirl. “The invaders slaughtered all men and women with any hint of animal talents or elemental gifts. It’s a wonder that old man managed to survive.” Her face clouded over. Absently she rubbed at the scars slashing across her forearm. Usagi knew she was thinking of her father and older brothers. Her own parents had been caught in the brutal purge. They had not survived.
“Becoming a hermit is what saved him,” Usagi replied. She heard an indignant snort in the trees. “Good morning, Yunja!” she called.
A shaggy man dressed in barkcloth and moss shambled onto the path before them, a stout leafy branch slung over his shoulder like a club. He shook it at Tora. “Old? I’ll have you know, in some parts of the world, being in your fifties is considered young.”
Tora put her hands on her hips. “Where, in some magical land where everyone lives to be a thousand? You’ve lived for more than half a century!”
“Well,” growled Yunja, “when you put it that way . . . better old than dead.” He made a rusty coughing noise that Usagi recognized as his laugh. His eyes twinkled at her. “Rabbit Girl, your friend is a fierce one, I can tell!”
Usagi threw herself at him and gave him a big squeeze. “This is Tora—I’ve told you about her!”
“I gathered this was your Tiger friend,” he chuckled. “One of the new Warrior Heir candidates, eh? No doubt she’ll be promoted from Heirling to full Heir soon enough.”
Nezu grinned at Tora. “Heirling—I like that. That’s what I’m going to be calling you and the other candidates from now on.” Rolling her eyes, Tora shrugged, but the glint of her snaggleteeth betrayed her.
The hermit held Usagi at arm’s length. “The boys told me you’re Rabbit Heir now.” He gave her a wide, gap-toothed smile. “That’s just as it should be.”
Beaming, Usagi looked at her old friend. His hair was as long and tangled as ever, still littered with leaves that flecked his equally long and tangled beard. But though he still blended into the cloud forest, his face and hands were no longer smeared with mud, and he seemed less gaunt and haunted than he had the first time they’d stumbled across him. He greeted Nezu with a hug, pounding him on the back, and then turned to Tora and Ji.
“So, who’s coming to stay this time?” Yunja’s voice boomed through the trees. He looked at Ji, who was shrinking back behind Tora, and instantly softened. “No need to make yourself small, youngling. Here you can be as big and as loud as you want! Come meet the others and you’ll see.”
The hermit led them through the cloud forest, giving them updates on the progress of his charges and their zodiac powers. “Biri’s getting quite strong—I swear she set off a small earthquake the other day. And the twins—I think they’re almost more Dog than my dogs!”
Nezu told the hermit about their latest mission, and how Ji had helped them escape the Guard with her rooster talents. “But we had a close call with some Dragonstrikers. They were on the hunt for bandits with powers. You haven’t been taking the younglings onto the Ring Road for some mischief, have you?”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Yunja shook a long finger at the Rat Heir. “You should know me better than that! I’m insulted.”
“Right, sorry,” laughed Nezu. “You’d rather eat your own slippers than leave Sun Moon Lake. But hearing about these bandits worries me. It means younglings with zodiac powers are attacking and robbing others. Which will only make Midagians without powers fear and mistrust anyone with gifts and talents.”
The hermit grunted. “The Blue Dragon makes no distinction between those with powers and those without. Whoever isn’t with him is his enemy, and everyone else is a tool for his own gain.” He smacked his club against his palm, thinking. “There must be a way for those without powers to see that we’re nothing to be afraid of.”
“It would certainly help if all Midagians joined in fighting him instead of turning against each other,” said Nezu.
They reached the lake, where an encampment of snug huts had been set up, built of wood and vines. Around a central firepit, half a dozen younglings were laughing and tussling, while Yunja’s dogs romped at their feet.
“Oi,” called the hermit. “Come meet our new friend!”
The younglings stopped and stared. Then the oldest, a girl of about nine, caught up the hands of two small boys, and they raced over. The younglings were dressed in barkcloth and jackets of moss, blending into their surroundings like Yunja, and wore sturdy sandals of woven reeds. Usagi smiled in recognition. Yunja had made a similar pair for her that she’d worn for months on end. She’d been so sad to outgrow them. The younglings bobbed their heads in greeting, and the littlest boy lit up at the sight of them. “Nezu’s here!”
“Daga!” Nezu crouched and embraced him, then lifted him up and tossed him in the air. “How’s my fellow Rat?” The little boy squealed with delight. Daga was barely four when the Warrior Heirs found him, caged by his stepfather after his powers had been discovered. He had nearly gnawed his way through the bars with no apparent harm to his teeth, much to the stepfather’s horror, and was about to be handed over to the local Guard, who would have had him carted off by Dragonstrikers.
Usagi had heard all about it from Nezu and Inu, the Dog Heir, when the
y’d returned from a mission. Nezu had been shaken. “We couldn’t just leave him—but we couldn’t bring him to the shrine either! Thank the gods Yunja was happy to look after him.”
On a different mission led by Saru the Monkey Heir, she and Inu had come across a young girl born in the year of the Ram, living on the outskirts of a village with her small brother, born of the Water Boar. The two of them were fending for themselves—much like Usagi had done with her sister and Tora. The Warrior Heirs had noticed them using their powers and quickly convinced them they would be better off under Yunja’s care.
Over time, the Heirs had found an eight-year-old girl with monkey talents similar to Saru’s and a pair of identical twin boys born in the year of the Dog. All of them were just starting to display their powers but hadn’t yet been caught by the Blue Dragon’s Strikers, so the Heirs spirited them away to the safest place they could think of outside of Mount Jade.
Now the younglings stared at them with eager eyes. Usagi nudged Ji forward and introduced her. “Ji can do amazing things with her voice—and she can create fire!”
“Ooh!”
“Can she show us right now?”
“Yes, please show us!”
Ji’s face reddened, and for a moment Usagi feared she would burst into tears and her ears would flare again, but then she hesitantly snapped her fingers and sparked a small flame between her thumb and forefinger. The other younglings shrieked with excitement and applauded, the two littlest boys jumping up and down.
“How useful is that?” Yunja chortled. “We’re growing a little army of talents here!”
The oldest ones, both girls, sidled up to Ji. Biri, born in the year of the Ram, stared at the flame in Ji’s hand. “I’m so glad they brought you. No one here has a fire gift.”
“Plus it will be nice to have another girl around,” added Hanuma, born in the year of the Monkey. A small monkey scampered out of the underbrush and leaped into Hanuma’s arms. It chattered at the visitors, its curious eyes bright in a pale face framed by golden fur.
Ji smiled shyly. “I wish my birds were with me. They’re girls too.”
“We’ve got plenty of birds around here,” Yunja interjected. “I bet you’ll be making friends with them in no time.”
Usagi’s ears pricked at a sound in the distance. It was a cry she hadn’t heard in a few days.
Kaa-oh . . .
Ka-ohh ka-ohh ka-ohh ka-ohh . . .
“I hear seagulls!” she shouted.
Ji’s eyes brightened. “You do?” She scanned the clouds eagerly. They parted to reveal a patch of blue sky, and two figures in flight, black and white feathers lit by the sun. They called out, their sharp cry growing louder as they approached. “Neko and Nabi!” Ji ran to the lakeshore. “You’re back!” As she hopped and waved her arms, they circled about her until one landed on her shoulder and the other on her head, grandly flapping its wings. She turned to Usagi and the others, her face aglow. “They came back!”
One of Yunja’s dogs got up, barking, but the old hermit hushed it and then rumbled and grunted in his own throat until the dog whined and sat back down. “When Rooster Girl said birds, I was thinking along the lines of chickens. The gods take my pants, I don’t think I’ve ever seen seagulls so far inland before.” He chuckled. “Well, the lake has fish enough.”
They watched the gulls nuzzle Ji’s ears, and she giggled. Usagi had never seen the little girl look so happy. She looked over at Nezu and Tora, who were smiling. “I think it’s safe to say she’s going to be okay here.”
Nezu nodded. “It’s time we get back to Mount Jade.”
Chapter 5
The Shrine of the Twelve
“TWELVE HUNDRED TEN, TWELVE HUNDRED eleven, twelve hundred twelve!” Tora panted, reaching the top of the Steps of Patience where Nezu waited. She glanced back at Usagi. “Good thing we didn’t try to bring Ji up here.”
Staggering up the last few steps, Usagi groaned. “I’ve climbed this staircase four times now, and it never gets any easier.”
“It’s not supposed to.” Nezu flashed a grin. “At least you’re not trying to take shortcuts anymore.”
Usagi laughed, remembering her very first time on Mount Jade. When she’d attempted the climb, the staircase had unceremoniously bounced her back each time she tried skipping its steps with her rabbit leap. She hadn’t yet understood that the sacred mountain demanded her effort. Her honesty. Her perseverance. “I learned my lesson.”
The bracing alpine air was tinged with warmth, and the snow around the shrine had recently melted away, leaving patches of damp on the ground. They made their way through the Singing Bamboo, the grove filling with melodies from the swaying stalks as they passed. Nezu hummed along happily with the bamboo’s flutelike song. The light from the midday sun filtered through the towering columns, their sword-shaped leaves a luminous haze of green. The color reminded Usagi of the Tigress’s eyes, and once again she felt a pang at the old warrior’s absence. More than a year had passed since they’d left the shrine with the Tigress to Dragon City, only to return without her.
From the shrine’s main courtyard, Usagi’s rabbit ears heard voices raised in excitement.
“They’re back! The mission team has returned!”
“Oh Inu—are you sure? Have you caught their scent?”
“Yes, they’ve just reached the Singing Bamboo. They smell of the sea still—and are in need of a bath.”
“Gods be good! I can’t wait to see the new Treasure!”
Usagi stopped in her tracks, her feet stuck fast at the thought of breaking the news to the others. Tora turned, knitting her brow. “What’s wrong?”
“Everyone is going to be so disappointed,” Usagi said.
Wearily, she leaned against one of the twelve stone animal lanterns standing tall in the middle of the grove. It happened to be the rabbit, her own insignia. Reared on its hind legs, the stone rabbit snarled. Usagi held fast to it, wishing she could absorb its fierceness. Its hollow eyes and open mouth were aglow from a flame within. She stared up at the flickering light.
Tora shook her head. “Of course they’ll be disappointed, but only for a minute. Then we’ll figure out together what to do next.” She gave Usagi a little push. “Come on.”
They’d only gone a little way when an enormous wild cat came racing through the bamboo. A cloud leopard. It leaped over Nezu, who ducked and swore. “Flying furballs!”
“Kumo!” Tora shouted. The leopard pounced and Tora went down. “Silly boy!” she cooed, the two of them wrestling and tumbling on the ground. “Did you miss me? You did, didn’t you? Fluffy monster!” Kumo’s deep rumbling purrs filled the grove, almost drowning out the silvery melodies of the bamboo.
Usagi couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t imagine what he must have been like while we were gone.” For years, Kumo had been the Tigress’s constant companion. The old warrior had found the orphaned cub, and when they’d left him behind on Mount Jade for the capital, he’d been anxious and unsettled. When they’d returned without the Tigress, the big cat had been despondent, stalking about and yowling, unable to eat. Only Tora had been able to comfort him, and since then he’d been like her shadow.
“He was mostly grumpy, I’d say.” They turned to see Inu, the Dog Heir, smiling at them. “It’s been a long month.”
Nezu greeted Inu by throwing an arm around his neck in a headlock. “Brother Dog!” He ruffled Inu’s shaggy, dark hair till it stood in unruly spikes. “Watching over the shrine! On the alert and first on the scene!”
The Dog Heir extracted himself from Nezu’s hold with a good-natured grunt. “If you’re trying to take me out, your stink will do it. Gods, you need a bath!” He gave Usagi a hug. “Welcome back, Rabbit Girl.”
Weakly, she returned his smile. They passed through the Singing Bamboo and entered the main courtyard of the shrine, where three figures waited. They were sitting before the enormous building that was the Great Hall, on a low wooden platform that edged the courtyard.
“There they are!” cried Saru. The Heir to the Monkey Warrior leaped up and hurried over. Strands of chestnut hair had come out of her topknot, framing her pale face. The oldest Warrior Heir at twenty, she was the closest they had to a leader now that the Tigress was gone. She swept Usagi and Tora in a warm embrace, her wiry arms wrapped tight around them. “Are you hungry? Shall we get you something to eat?”
Nezu chuckled. “Who cooked while I was away? Did you put these Heirlings to work in the kitchen?” He flashed a grin at the two candidates who’d stayed at behind at the shrine.
“Show us the new Treasure!” Goru, a giant of a boy, big and strong as the Ox that ruled his talents, rose and loomed over them. He peered eagerly at their packs. Rana, a lithe girl nearly twelve, poked her face around his bulk. Her dark braids were coiled about her head like the sign she was born under, the Snake. She wriggled with impatience.
“Yes, let’s see it!” Rana cried. Along with Usagi’s sister, she, Goru, and Tora had been captured by the Dragonstrikers and forced to train as cadets in the Dragonlord’s academy. The three of them had managed to slip away with Usagi and the other Heirs the previous spring. Since arriving on Mount Jade, their powers had steadily strengthened. Goru had grown even taller and wider than before, and some new talents had emerged for Rana and Tora. All three were now candidates, working hard in hopes of becoming Heirs as well.
“The Treasure.” Usagi swallowed hard. “We uh . . . we don’t have it.”
Goru’s face fell. Despite being fifteen and bigger than three men put together, he looked in that moment like a tiny youngling whose favorite sweet had just been snatched away. “Oh,” he said in a small voice.
At first glance, Goru looked ready for his Warrior Trials, which once had been administered by the Warriors when an Heir was ready to carry a weapon. But Goru still hadn’t found a weapon that suited him as well as his fists. After all, why bother with swordwork or the fiddly parts of archery when your hand was big enough to palm a man’s entire head? Tora had been chosen for the mission instead, and when he’d argued that he’d make a great porter in Port Wingbow, the Heirs had overruled him. “You’d make too good a porter, and they’d never let you leave,” Saru had insisted. “We can’t risk you getting stuck there.” Goru had been disappointed, but was cheered when Usagi and the others promised that he could be the first to try out the pen when they brought it back. “So . . . you never got it?”
