by Claire Luana
“They’ve set up a makeshift dormitory in the glass classroom,” Quitsu said.
She looked around the courtyard and headed towards the library. The big chair by the fire would be more comfortable than a cot in a classroom.
“Let’s make sure Master Vita is all right.”
“Master Vita,” Kai called as she entered the library. The windows had been blown out and several large chunks of rock lay in piles of rubble on the floor near the doorway. There was no response. Kai called out again, trepidation filling her.
“Quitsu, can you find him?”
Quitsu ran ahead of her into the cavernous library as she continued looking around each corner. “Over here!” Quitsu’s voice cried from the back of the library.
Kai ran to him and fell on her knees when she saw Master Vita’s unconscious form, trapped under some loose wood. Part of the exterior wall had crumbled, and it looked like a beam from the window frame had landed on him.
Kai felt for a pulse and was relieved to find one. She and Quitsu cleared the rubble, and she strained to lift the beam. She heaved and managed to move it just enough to drop it to the ground by Master Vita’s feet. Kai gathered his frail form into her arms and stood, bearing him into the small bedroom she saw through an open door. She laid him softly on the bed. His breathing was labored.
“Is he all right?” Quitsu asked, as she checked him over in the way she had been taught.
“I think so.” Kai breathed a sigh of relief. “It seems like he is mostly unharmed, save bruising around his legs and a bump on his head where he must have hit it as he fell.”
Kai collapsed into a chair next to his bed, her fatigue washing over her.
The next thing she realized, Quitsu was nosing her awake. “He’s waking up,” Quitsu said.
It took Kai a moment in her disoriented state to realize who “he” was and remember where she was. She drew her chair closer to the bed, rubbing her scratchy, dry eyes.
“Master Vita? Are you all right?”
Master Vita opened his eyes and started coughing, such a fitful cough that Kai stood up, alarmed. She looked at Quitsu.
“He’s been coughing in his sleep. It sounds bad,” Quitsu said.
Master Vita opened his eyes, tears leaking out of the corners. He held out a shaky hand, pointing towards a dresser at the far side of the room.
“Bottle,” he croaked between coughs.
Kai quickly looked through the items on top of the dresser, but didn’t find any bottles. She began rifling through the drawers full of clothing and books. The top drawer, the smallest, contained journals, an inkwell and nibs and several bottles. She pulled them all out and brought them to Master Vita’s bedside. She held them up to him, one at a time.
“Which one? The blue one?”
He shook his head imperceptibly.
“The green?” She held up a small green bottle with a rubber stopper.
He nodded, but before she could give him any of the liquid inside, he was wracked with another fit of coughing, his frail body thrashing. She waited with the bottle held aloft for what seemed like an eternity, until the coughing subsided enough for him to lay back on his pillow, limp and drained.
“Let me,” he said, taking the bottle and putting a few drops under his tongue. He instantly relaxed, his breathing becoming deeper and more regular.
“Master Vita,” she said, her concern growing. “What is wrong?” She looked at the bottle, which was now empty.
“Rainier Apothecary” was all the label said, it held no clue to its contents. He took her hand and squeezed it.
“I will explain it all, but not now. I am so tired.” He was already falling back asleep.
She took his shoulders and shook him gently, holding the bottle before him.
“Do you need more?” His eyes fluttered open.
“Yes,” he said. “In town. The market. Apothecary.” He slipped into unconsciousness.
“I don’t like this,” Kai said, finding it hard to tear her eyes from Master Vita’s form. First Emi, now Master Vita. Terrible things were happening to people she cared about.
Kai stood and strode to the door, bottle in hand.
Quitsu called after her. “Your clothes,” he said.
She stopped in her tracks and looked down at her pale blue uniform. It was badly torn and blackened from her flight and time in the hospital.
“You can’t wear those into town,” he said. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. At least any more than we have to.”‘
“You’re right,” she admitted, turning. She couldn’t think straight. Her body wanted to propel her forward, to take some action that would distract her from her worry over her friends.
Kai rummaged through the drawers of Master Vita’s dresser, looking for something that would fit her. She didn’t mind dressing in men’s clothing. In some ways, she was still more comfortable with it. She found a pair of green trousers, a white linen shirt and a brown belt. Topped with Master Vita’s hooded cloak, Kai should be able to blend in.
She began stuffing the other clothing she had pulled out back into the bottom dresser drawer when her finger hit a hard corner.
“Ow,” she complained, pulling her hand out and sucking on her cuticle. She moved the clothes aside and found a small oil-painted cameo portrait. The detail was exquisite; she couldn’t help marveling over its craftsmanship.
“Look at this,” she said.
Quitsu jumped onto the dresser, examining the cameo with his sharp eyes.
“It’s Master Vita,” he said.
“What?” She looked closer. She drew in a breath.
“It is!” It was a younger version of him, but it had his same earnest expression, the unmistakable wrinkles by his eyes.
“He was handsome,” Kai smiled, taking in the sight of Master Vita in a happier time.
“The girl is beautiful too,” Quitsu said, examining the other figure in the work of art. “I wonder if it was his daughter?”
The girl looked to be in her mid-teens. She looked . . . familiar. The young woman had a round, delicate face, twinkling gray eyes and a petite nose. Her silver hair was drawn back, and her ears stuck out in a way that would be unattractive on another woman, but somehow only seemed endearing on her. Kai scrutinized the painting and drew in a breath. There was no mistaking those ears. But how could it be?
Kai fingered the oil of the cameo. “It’s my mother,” Kai said, finally. Quitsu stood on the dresser, hackles up. “What?”
“It’s her,” Kai said firmly. “Her ears . . . they’re the same. I see her so clearly.”
Quitsu jumped from the dresser and they both looked at Master Vita, who was still unconscious.
“How is that possible?” Quitsu asked. “Your mother is from Kita, isn’t she?”
“I always thought so,” she said. “But I never really asked. We didn’t talk about things like pasts or futures. It was always about surviving the moment.” Kai turned the picture over and saw a small silver engraving on the back. “Vita and Azura.”
She and Quitsu looked at each other, eyes wide, mouths open. “Like the Oracle said. Daughter of Azura,” Kai breathed.
“So, your mother was the princess of Miina?” Quitsu said. “Doesn’t that make you . . . a princess of Miina?”
Kai’s mind raced. “I . . . don’t know. No one knows she is alive. Was . . . alive. No one knows she had children.”
“We need to find out why everyone thought your mother died. And how she ended up in Kita.”
“But who would know? My mother and father are dead,” Kai said. They both looked at Master Vita.
Kai sat back down on Master Vita’s bed. She shook his shoulders gently, and then more firmly.
“Master Vita,” she said. “Master Vita!”
He moaned and moved his head, but fell back into sleep.
Kai let out her breath in a frustrated hiss. “Let’s go get the medicine,” she said. “Hopefully he’ll wake up by the time we get b
ack. He owes us some answers.”
CHAPTER 24
Kai and Quitsu had no problem slipping out of the citadel gates. Between the chaos of the attack and the continued rescue efforts, no one seemed to pay much attention to a cloaked figure dressed in street clothes. Just to be cautious, Kai used her link to moonburn slightly, pulling the light from her, angling it so that she and Quitsu were cloaked in shadows. Burning rejuvenated her, making her feel more awake and alert than she had any right to be after fighting in a battle, crashing a koumori, and bandaging wounded for a day.
Kai followed the sporadic signs and the general press of people towards the market area closest to the citadel. She had to ask for directions a few times, but slowly made her way to the right street. The entrance to Rainier Apothecary sat in a narrow alley off a quiet market square. The building was old but tidy.
A man bustled out of the back of the store, wiping his hands on a towel. He was painfully tall and thin, but moved quickly and efficiently. He hooked spectacles over his ears and smoothed his white, somewhat stained apron before him.
“Hello, miss,” he said, despite Kai’s men’s clothing. “How can I help you?”
“Hello,” she replied, not sure exactly what to ask for. “I am a friend of
Master Vita’s.”
At the mention of the name, the apothecary brightened visibly.
“He has some medicine from your shop, in a green stopper bottle. The medicine has run out, and he seems to need more. I told him I would try to get it.”
“Ah, Master Vita! An old friend, an old friend indeed. It’s such a pity about his illness. I am just doing my best to make him comfortable. There is nothing I can do, of course.”
Kai recoiled slightly, taken aback by this news. “What do you mean?”
The man leaned back, examining her. She couldn’t help but squirm under
his intense gaze.
“You can’t be a very good friend of Master Vita if you didn’t even know he was sick,” the apothecary said, arching an eyebrow over his spectacles.
Guilt stabbed at her. Kai hadn’t visited Master Vita very often over the past few months. But she had been distracted with her lessons and trying to unravel the citadel’s secrets. But still, it grated on her to have this man judging her. She had never seen him visit Master Vita.
“Master Vita is very private. He would never share that something was wrong unless he had no choice,” Kai said. “I want to help him, and I can’t do that unless you tell me what is wrong with him.”
“Master Vita has consumption. It’s fairly advanced. He won’t last the year.”
Kai’s heart sank as she imagined the world without Master Vita’s cheerful smile and barking laugh, his shock of white hair and his half-moon spectacles.
“There must be something that can be done. The medicine you give him . . .”
“The medicine just provides comfort, to ease the symptoms. It is not a cure. The only ones who had a prayer of curing him were those blasted moonburners at the citadel, but they refused to help him. It is too far advanced now.”
Kai opened and closed her mouth, working through her confusion. “The moonburners refused to help him? But . . . he works at the citadel. He keeps the archives . . . he is so important.”
“He didn’t want to talk about it, but I worked it out of him. He went to them for help, and they said they couldn’t help him. That was a lie though; I’m certain of it. I know the kind of healing powers moonburners have. Make no mistake. No man is important to the citadel. No man is worth their concern, or, apparently, medical care. Even if they abided by him continuing to work there.”
Kai wished she could protest. But it was true, the moonburners had a blind spot when it came to men. How could a society operate when it didn’t think half of the population was worth the space they took up?
As the apothecary continued his tirade against the moonburners, Kai became lost in thought, the words washing over her. A name jarred her back to reality.
“If Azura had become queen, instead of her viper sister, things could have been different.”
“Master Vita had something of hers. Azura’s,” Kai said eagerly. “Did he know her? What can you tell me about her?”
The apothecary’s face became a still mask, as if she had just hit on a very troubling subject.
“Please . . .” Kai said. “I didn’t grow up in Miina, I don’t know what happened. I just hear whispers.”
He hesitated, but relented. “It was about twenty years ago. Princess Azura, Airi’s older sister, was heir to the throne. I didn’t live in Kyuden then, but there were many in the countryside that hoped that she would be the one to end the war.”
“A peace delegation came from Kita near the spring of that year. Everything was going well; like I said, things looked hopeful. The new Kitan king, Ozora, seemed forward thinking and even-tempered.”
Kai snorted. The apothecary held up a hand, apparently getting into his story now.
“But a few weeks into the visit, one of King Ozora’s sunburners, an up and coming captain, was found in a compromising position with one of the queen’s daughters.”
“Azura?” Kai asked, wondering if she knew the rest of the story.
“Airi. He swore that she had come on to him and he was trying to fight her off, but none of the moonburners believed him. The queen demanded his head. The fragile peace that had been forming began to crumble. It was Azura who suggested a middle ground. She suggested that he be exiled to the Tottori Desert, to let the gods determine whether he was guilty or innocent. The sides relented, and it seemed things would be all right.”
“But two days later, Azura was found dead in her room. Battle broke out, and one of the sunburners was killed. The queen was convinced the king had killed Azura for her suggestion, and Ozora was convinced it was all a conspiracy to avoid peace and destroy them. Ozora and his remaining sunburners fled, vowing revenge.”
“How did Azura die?” Kai asked, the pieces of something beginning to coalesce in her mind.
“Poison,” the apothecary said, shaking his head. “Gives a bad name to the business I’m in when people die of things like that. Master Vita found her, actually. He was heartbroken.”
I bet he was, Kai thought.
The apothecary chatted on, clearly grateful to have someone to talk to, even about a forbidden subject. “They say the Gleaming and the exile of the Kitan moonburners to the desert started with the exile of that captain. King Ozora was so bitter to have lost his close friend that he started the testing. He swore to never trust another moonburner.”
“Seems like a bit of an overreaction,” Kai muttered. “Did they ever find the sunburner who was left in the desert? Did he die?”
At that moment, Quitsu jumped onto the countertop next to where Kai leaned.
The apothecary started, the color draining from his face as he looked from Kai to Quitsu.
“It’s all right,” she said, holding her hands up. “We’re friends of Master Vita. We’re not here to get you in trouble. Did they find the sunburner’s body?”
“No,” the apothecary said, voice wavering. “They never found his body. They assumed he must have been devoured by the desert creatures.”
She looked crossly at Quitsu.
“Now please,” the man said, shoving a green bottle into her hand. “Take the medicine and go.”
Kai and Quitsu strode back towards the citadel. Kai’s mind raced as she tried to process the new information she had acquired over the last few hours. She suddenly felt dizzy, like her world was lurching sideways.
“I need a minute,” Kai said, unsteadily. She collapsed into a chair in front of a nearby restaurant. She ran her hands through her hair and took a few shaky breaths. Her mother really had been heir to the moonburner throne.
“Are you all right?” Quitsu asked.
A woman bustled out of the restaurant, handing them a folded paper menu.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked c
heerfully.
“We aren’t staying,” Kai said, dragging herself to her feet. “I just needed to sit down for a moment.”
“Let me know if you change your mind,” the woman said, leaving the menu.
“When is the last time you ate?” Quitsu asked Kai as she straightened up. She paused, trying to remember. She wasn’t sure.
“Sit down,” Quitsu said. “We’re staying.”
“But Master Vita . . .” Kai protested weakly. Her stomach did feel cavernously empty, now that she thought about it.
“You won’t be able to help him if you pass out on the way back to the citadel.”
Kai sheepishly informed the woman that they would, in fact, be staying, and ordered a bowl of hot soup and buns stuffed with spiced meats. She nearly wept with happiness as they arrived.
Quitsu pondered their new information while she stuffed her face. “What do we know?” Quitsu said. “Princess Azura is your mother. Which means she is not dead, like everyone thinks.”
“Or was not dead,” Kai corrected. “Originally.”
“Master Vita might have helped her. He was her tutor, which means that they spent a lot of time together. He found her body.”
“He could have given her something to make her seem dead. Then, she would be placed in the crypt,” Kai said.
“And we know the crypt has a tunnel into the city. It would have been easy for her to escape,” Quitsu said.
“That seems awfully risky,” Kai said. “What if she couldn’t get out of the crypt? She would have been buried alive.”
“Escaping the citadel must have been important enough to risk her life for,” Quitsu said.
“But why? What was going on here that she needed to flee?”
“We know she intervened to stop the sunburner captain from being killed.”
“Right . . . to prevent an all out war. But it ended up happening anyway.”
“I don’t know,” Quitsu said.
“I don’t either,” Kai admitted, licking her fingers to get every last bit of dough. “We need more information.”
“But I bet there is someone who can tell us.” “Master Vita,” they said at the same time.
