by Claire Luana
Fortified with a hot meal, they resumed their journey through the city’s winding streets back to the citadel. What had been so important that her mother had left the citadel and everything she knew? And how could her dark-haired mother be the silver-haired moonburner from the photo? Kai turned these questions over in her mind, but always reached the same conclusion. She needed more information.
Kai pulled up short, looking around the square they had just entered. “Where are we?” she asked, looking around for landmarks. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn’t been paying attention to their route.
Quitsu jumped onto the counter of a buttoned up stall for a better view. The sun was setting, and the square was deserted. A cold breeze blew, and Kai pulled Master Vita’s cloak tightly about her, thankful for its warmth.
“It looks familiar,” Kai said, walking forward a few paces. She looked to her left and her eyes widened as she recognized the narrow, ivy-lined alleyway she had once seen the queen and General Geisa disappear into.
“Quitsu,” Kai whispered, suddenly feeling like they were being watched. She crept into the alley and stood before the brick wall that had confounded her last time.
“The invisible door,” Quitsu said. “Our old nemesis. We meet again.”
“Do you think I can open it now that I can moonburn? It probably leads back to the citadel,” Kai mused.
She drew in light from her moonstone and sent a tendril of moonlight against the wall, trying to caress it to reveal its secrets. The outline of a door appeared with hinges and a latch.
“Look!” Quitsu said, excitedly.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Kai said. “It’s not very secure.”
“They probably don’t expect anyone to know there is a door here. People don’t generally go about burning moonlight at random brick walls.”
Kai rolled her eyes. She lifted the latch, but it was locked. Quitsu snickered.
She shot him a look. She tried teasing the lock with moonlight, but it didn’t work.
“I spoke too soon,” she admitted to Quitsu, who was pacing back and forth before the door. “Any ideas?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Stand back,” she said. “I am going to try something.”
“Kai . . . is this a good idea . . .” Quitsu asked, but it was too late. She had already pulled in moonlight, draining her moonstone link. She sent a jet of fire into the latch, melting it.
Quitsu ducked behind her, shielding his eyes from the light.
She took her knife and carefully laid it into the edge of the still-smoking door, just above the twisted metal of the latch. The door groaned and swung open.
“Subtle,” Quitsu said.
But Kai had a smile on her face.
“Stop worrying. If we get caught, we’ll tell them we were looking for a shortcut back to the citadel. What’s the worst that could happen?”
CHAPTER 25
They stepped onto a landing before a twisting staircase that led down into darkness. Kai grabbed an unlit torch set on a hook on the wall and lit it with a match that rested in a nearby recess.
No moon orbs here. Odd.
Kai pulled the door shut behind them. She and Quitsu started down the staircase, the stone walls on either side cold and wet with damp. It grew colder the further they descended.
“I’m beginning to think this wasn’t such a good idea,” Quitsu whispered.
“You and me both,” she said, swallowing thickly. Her elation at successfully opening the door was quickly turning to trepidation. Her hand was sweaty on the torch, and the hair stood up on the back of her neck. Where were they going?
The stairway came to an end, and they found themselves in a wide hallway. Ahead of them, the hallway was lit with torches.
“Put your torch out,” Quitsu urged.
She complied, and they crept forward, keeping to the shadows on the right side of the corridor. They turned a corner, and she drew her breath in sharply. There were bars lining the left side of the hallway.
“A dungeon?” Kai whispered, her voice hardly perceptible.
“The citadel has a dungeon above ground,” Quitsu said uneasily. “Why does it need a secret dungeon?”
They inched forward, sticking to the shadows cast by the flickering torches. She looked into the first cell she could see and clasped her hand over her mouth to keep from exclaiming. There was a man inside, dirty and foul-smelling. He had a long scraggly beard and wore stained, tattered pants. His chest was crisscrossed with lines and bruises from what she could only imagine to be daily beatings and flogging. But despite all of this, what drew her eyes most was his hair. His hair was not blonde, but golden, like wheat flax in summertime. Though greasy and unkempt, it shimmered in the firelight. A sunburner!
The sunburner raised his head and peered through the bars of his cell. “Who’s there?” he asked, eyes trying to penetrate the clinging darkness.
Kai pressed herself to the wall, Quitsu behind her, eyes closed, willing him to look away.
He lost interest, letting his head droop back down towards his chest in defeat.
She breathed out a shaky breath, and they continued their slow, silent walk through the hallway, her sense of dread growing the farther they walked. She counted six sunburners in the cells they had passed so far.
“The sunburner who attacked us was right,” Kai said, understanding dawning. “They are capturing sunburners.”
“Why?” Quitsu whispered. Kai just shook her head.
They reached the end of the hallway, and it opened into a bigger room, well-lit with oil lanterns. The room housed more cells, though they were cleaner and more spacious than those housing the sunburners. The open area in the middle held a table and what appeared to be medical instruments. She and Quitsu exchanged a questioning look. Both of the walls were lined with cells, so there would be no clinging to one side to avoid detection.
“Let’s just walk through,” Kai whispered. “Quickly, like we belong.”
Quitsu shot her a look of disbelief, but nodded.
She stood, straightened, and began striding into the main room. She pasted a look of disdain on her face and looked straight ahead. She had passed through most of the room without incident when she caught sight of the prisoner in the final cell to the right. She stumbled, stunned, against the wall of the hallway on the other side. She couldn’t look away.
“Quitsu,” she hissed, motioning with her head. “It’s Chiya.”
Quitsu’s mouth dropped open, an expression she would have laughed at in less serious circumstances.
The moonburner was lying on a stone bed with a thin mattress, covered with a blanket, eyes closed. A silver seishen body was lying motionless beside her. When Kai said her name, however, her eyes flew open.
Kai turned to flee, but stopped when she heard one anguished word.
“Help. “
She turned back to Chiya, and their eyes met.
Chiya’s blazed with recognition and she flew to the door of her cell, gripping the bars. “Kai. What are you doing here?” she said, her eyes fierce, but her voice low.
Kai drew closer. “We . . . found a passage. We didn’t know where it led. What is this place?”
As she neared the cell bars, she got a better glimpse at Chiya, standing in thin white pants and a form-fitting white top. She had a distinct bump on her abdomen that while still small, seemed remarkably out of place against her muscled form.
“Are you . . . are you . . . pregnant?” Kai asked in disbelief. “I thought you went on the special mission?”
Chiya’s face twisted bitterly.
“This is the special mission,” she hissed. “Our ultimate sacrifice for the good of the moonburners and the citadel.”
“I don’t understand,” Kai said.
“Neither did I. I thought I was volunteering for battle and glory. But I was volunteering to be a laboratory rat. To be impregnated by those disgusting sunburners and bear perfect moonburne
r children who can be trained for the queen’s army.”
“I don’t understand,” Kai said again.
“It takes the mating of a sunburner and moonburner to beget a child who has burner powers,” Chiya said. “Hence, turning us into brood mares.”
“That can’t be true. Neither of my parents were burners. They were just normal people. My father was a rancher.” As soon as Kai said the words, she realized the falsehood. Her mother wasn’t just a normal person. And apparently, her father wasn’t either.
“Things aren’t always as they seem. Maybe you never knew it, but they were burners. I’ve seen the evidence.”
Kai opened and closed her mouth, dumbfounded. Her father was a sunburner? “I can’t believe it,” she said softly.
Chiya misinterpreted her words. “Do you think they would go to all this trouble if it wasn’t true?” Chiya motioned to the intricate cells and machinery. “The burners hold many closely-guarded secrets. This is one.”
Kai’s mind whirled. “But . . . sunburners and moonburners are raised to hate each other. With the division of the countries, how can there be any burner children left?”
“Very astute. There are fewer and fewer children born with burner abilities. Didn’t you ever wonder why the dormitories are so empty? The classes are so small? If the war doesn’t end soon, the moonburners will go extinct.”
“Does the queen really hate the sunburners so much that she would prefer this over peace?” Kai said, horrified. “I can’t believe she would do this to her own people . . .”
Chiya let out a harsh laugh. “Believe it.” Her voice was tinged with hysteria. “She stood outside my cell and watched as I was raped by a sunburner.” Chiya’s voice cracked and the ferocity drained from her. It was as if she collapsed into herself, becoming small and fragile. A tear leaked down one cheek.
“Please,” Chiya said. “Get us out of here. No one knows where we are. They drug us with lusteric so we can’t moonburn. Tanu just lies there, drugged up, all day. Please. Think of something.”
“I’ll try. But won’t they let you out when you have your baby?”
Chiya shook her head, tears flowing freely now. “No. I overheard General Geisa say that they are going to breed us again and again until we are all used up. And then I’m sure they will kill us.”
Kai shook her head back and forth, the shock and the horror of it washing over her.
“Please, Kai.” Chiya gripped her hand through the bars. “I know I was cruel to you, but this is bigger than you and me. This is about the future of the moonburners.” She stopped, choking on her tears. “I’m a warrior. I can’t . . . I can’t live like this. I’d rather die. Either get me out, or get me a weapon, and I’ll end it myself.”
Kai squeezed the other woman’s hand, the bitterness Kai had once felt towards her falling away.
“I promise,” she said.
Kai and Quitsu made their way up the staircase on the other side without encountering anyone. When they reached the door at the top of the stairs, Kai said a prayer and poked her head out. If the queen or General Geisa found out what she knew, she would end up in one of those cells next to Chiya.
“It’s the throne room,” Kai said, opening the door and creeping out. The door was set behind the raised dais that housed the throne. It was a good place for a secret passage; no one but the queen and Geisa ventured onto the dais. The room was silent and dark.
Kai slipped out the front door of the building into the dusky courtyard, closing the huge door softly once Quitsu made it through. She looked around for a moment, unable to form a course of action amongst the cacophony of thoughts racing through her head.
“Geisa,” Quitsu hissed, and Kai saw the woman rounding the far corner to enter the courtyard in front of the throne room. Kai launched into action, dashing away from Geisa towards a stand of ornamental trees and tall grasses nestled against the building. She dove behind the largest tree trunk, wriggling in between the grasses into the dark loamy soil. She prayed the grasses were tall enough to cover her.
Quitsu, who was crouched next to her, crept onto her back to peer out of the grass.
“The queen has joined her,” he whispered, his words so soft to be almost indecipherable. “They are talking. The queen seems upset.”
Oh, goddess, Kai thought. What if they had some sort of secret alarm on their dungeon? What if they knew she had been there?
“They are walking away,” Quitsu said. “Towards the main courtyard.”
Kai deflated as the surge of adrenaline left her. Quitsu jumped from her, and she rolled onto her back, looking into the starry sky, partially blocked by the lacy foliage of the trees above her.
“How could she do that to her own people?” Kai wondered. “How could she hate sunburners so much that this is a better solution than peace? Imprisoning her own subjects?”
“I don’t know,” Quitsu replied.
“All my life I wanted to be a part of the moonburners. I thought I would use my magic to help people, to free people from the tyranny of King Ozora’s rule. But maybe the sunburners have it right after all. Maybe we should just let them kill us all. It would be better than living in a cage like Chiya.”
“Don’t say that,” Quitsu chided. “There is good here.”
“Like what? Tsuki with her blood sacrifices? Slaughtering civilians on nightly raids? Nothing is like I thought it would be.”
“No. Like your friends—Nanase and Pura. There are people here who are trying to do good. You can’t give up. Obviously everyone isn’t in on the queen’s plan, or she wouldn’t have to keep it secret. She must expect opposition.”
Kai looked at the moon, just visible, sitting low in the sky. Most nights, the moon was a welcome companion, a guiding light and a steady comfort. Tonight it felt distant and aloof. Why would it care about the lives or deaths of mere mortals like her? This was all too big for her.
“I promised I would free her. Why did I promise that? How in the world will I ever free her?” Kai lamented.
“Because you couldn’t leave her,” Quitsu said. “We’ll come up with something. You’re not in this alone.”
She scratched Quitsu’s soft chin, taking comfort in his warmth. She wasn’t alone. They’d come up with something.
Loud voices from across the courtyard broke the silence of the night, and Kai sat up amongst the grasses, wearily.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Let’s find out.”
A large group of women were gathered in front of the burnt dormitories. Kai crossed the courtyard and pushed through the tightly-packed crowd to the front, Quitsu at her heels. She drew a sharp breath.
A moonburner was curled on the ground, silver hair disheveled and face tear-stained. Next to her lay a man. He was bloodied and beaten. As another woman delivered a kick to his ribs, she saw his face. Atsu! The handsome biwa player from Rox’s band. The one who flirted so shamelessly with Maaya and had her blushing up to her eyebrows.
Kai’s heart sank as she realized what had happened. Maaya and Atsu had been found together. The moonburner on the ground was Maaya.
“They’ll kill her,” Kai said to no one at all, insides twisting. She caught sight of Leilu and Stela. Leilu’s face was a mask of grief, Stela’s one of fury.
The crowd across the circle parted as the queen stepped forward.
The queen held up her hands and the crowd quieted, drawing back from the two on the ground. The queen’s doll-like face was the perfect mix of sorrow and anger, a mother wronged and disappointed.
“In this time of war, one of our own has betrayed us. What words do you have in your defense, Maaya, daughter of the moon?”
Maaya climbed onto her knees and looked up at the queen, trying to muster what was left of her dignity.
“I . . . I did not lay with him, Queen Airi. He just kissed me. It was . . . just a kiss,” she broke off, numbly falling back onto her haunches.
“Is this true?” Queen Airi demanded of two
moonburners, who apparently had found Maaya and Atsu in the act.
“We only saw them kissing, Your Majesty. But we do not know what might have happened on other occasions,” one woman said, looking at Maaya with disgust.
The queen looked thoughtful. “Does anyone have testimony to offer in this matter?”
The women in the circle were silent, shuffling from one foot to another, avoiding eye contact.
“If we have no proof that this moonburner has lain with a man, then we shall not punish her for it,” the queen said. Maaya looked up, hopeful.
“However, she has still broken our laws. She will be given ten lashes and stripped of her title as moonburner. She shall serve in the citadel. Let her be a reminder to those who chafe under the burden of their duty. We never promised you an easy life. But there will be glory and honor, serving your goddess and your queen.”
The ranks of the moonburners swelled with pride as the queen continued her patriotic speech. Kai couldn’t hear the words through the angry beating of her heart. All she could see was how this place destroyed good people. Sweet, devoted Maaya, bloody and weeping on the stones. Emi, burned and disfigured in her hospital bed. Master Vita, who had devoted his life to the pursuit of knowledge, left to die alone in the library. And Chiya. Chiya, whom she had hated and feared even an hour ago.
She suddenly understood why her mother had kept her from the citadel as long as possible. Her whole life, she had thought the citadel would be her refuge. But how could it be? Not when Queen Airi, who was so perfect on the outside, was rotten to the core. Her poison had spread, and no corner of the citadel was untouched. There was nowhere Kai or her friends could be safe.
Kai curled her hands into fists and began to step forward. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she had to do something.
Quitsu dug his claws into her shin. “Don’t. This is not the time. Forging forward with no plan will only get you killed. Or worse . . .” he motioned his head towards the throne room.
Quitsu’s warning rang true, and she stepped back, swallowing. The moment had passed, the queen was already leaving the circle, her attendants at her side. She turned back.
