by Claire Luana
“Oh, and the man will be executed,” she called over her shoulder, as if she were waving a flippant goodbye to a friend.
“No!” Maaya screamed. She threw herself across Atsu’s unconscious form, sobbing. The moonburners in the circle tore Maaya from him, hauling her bodily towards a post near the rookery. Kai had never known what it was for until now. She swallowed as she saw Maaya being chained to it.
“My queen,” Stela said, stepping forward. The queen turned back.
“This man is a friend, a good man. He did not understand the rules. He doesn’t deserve death. Please, I beg you. Spare him.”
“No man is a good man,” the queen said, “and ignorance of the law is no excuse. This man is a criminal and will be punished accordingly.” She motioned with her head and two moonburners hefted Atsu’s unconscious body, carrying him towards the dungeons.
“As for you, daughter, report to General Geisa in one hour. She has a special lesson on loyalty that I believe you should hear.”
General Geisa nodded at Stela with a grim smile, before rolling up her sleeves and heading towards the whipping post.
Kai began to walk stiffly towards Stela, who stood with her head down and fists balled. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Pura. Her face was kind. Kai turned to her, emotions flowing over her like a tide.
“This is wrong,” she said, choking on the words.
“I’m sorry. I know they are your friends. But this world we live in . . .” Pura hesitated. “Sometimes it is cruel.”
Kai turned back towards Maaya and Geisa, who had been handed a long whip. The least she could do was be there for her friend. The least she could do was watch.
“Kai,” Pura said more insistently. “I need you to come with me.”
“No. I need to be there . . . for Maaya. And Stela. To be with them.”
“I know you want to. But I’ve been instructed to collect you, immediately.”
Her eyes widened and panic stabbed at her. The door she had burned out. Someone had connected her to the break-in at the facility! Now Pura was going to get rid of her for good.
“Why?” Kai asked with a calmness she didn’t feel.
“With the recent attack, and the losses we suffered, we need all the masters we can get. You and some of the other samaneras are headed to the Akashi Mountains for your final test.”
“A test? In a time like this?”
Pura shook her head and shrugged. “I know it seems silly, but its a tradition that goes back many generations. The test is a part of us.”
Kai turned to look at Maaya one last time before allowing Pura to lead her away. She knew she was being a coward, but a part of her was relieved to have this excuse not to watch. She would pass her test, become a master moonburner, and come back to do everything in her power to help her friends.
Master Vita! She had forgotten all about his medicine.
“Pura, can we please stop by to see Master Vita before we leave? In the library?”
Pura shook her head. “No time. They are already saddling the koumori.”
“Then, would you give him something for me?”
Pura raised an eyebrow at her.
“He’s sick. It’s medicine. He needs it.” She pulled the green bottle out of her pocket and handed it to Pura. “Please.”
CHAPTER 26
Kai and five other samanera rode in a loose formation behind Nanase on their way to the Akashi Mountains. Kita and Miina nestled up against the mountain range, which formed a forbidding wall of dark rock and snow. Kai didn’t know what lay on the other side of the mountains. Maybe no one did. They were said to be impassable.
The green land of Miina stretched across below her, bleeding into the emerald green of the Misty Forest. It would normally inspire her, but all she felt was an aching sorrow. Poor Maaya. She didn’t deserve this fate.
The temperature dropped as they grew closer to the mountains, as if the peaks sucked the heat from the world. The cold air numbed her body, matching the numbness of her mind. She couldn’t even think about all that had happened in the last few days. It was too much.
Despite Pura’s insistence on speed, it had taken hours to ready their group for departure, and the day had dawned with bright and harsh light while they flew.
The samanera issued a collective sigh of relief when they landed. The sunburner attack on the citadel was fresh in everyone’s mind and flying during daytime left them feeling particularly exposed. They landed in a clearing near an alpine lake, filled with tall green trees, blue thrush grass, and yellow moss. It was a landscape unlike any she had ever seen.
Nanase dismounted her koumori and walked a little way into the clearing. Her eagle seishen, which had been flying in formation with them, landed on a high branch behind her. The samanera, exchanging glances and shrugs, followed her like a herd of ducklings. Nanase turned to address them.
“These mountains represent the edge of the known world. But as moonburners, you are asked to go beyond the known, into the unknown. Without question and without reservation. And sometimes you are asked to do it alone. With no support, with no resources. Today is one of those days. Each of you will be given one vial.” Nanase pulled six small vials out of a pouch at her belt. “You will travel into the mountains. You will find the spring that flows with purple water. Fill your vial and return here to camp. If you do so, you will pass the test.”
“Purple water?” Kai murmured. “Is that a metaphor?”
“Nanase doesn’t seem to think so,” Quitsu whispered back.
“Kai?” Nanase’s sharp voice rang across the clearing. “Questions?”
“Um, yes,” Kai said, her cheeks flushing, her mind scrambling for a question. “Is the spring water potable?”
“So sure of your success already, are we?” Nanase said. “Yes. You may drink from the spring. In fact, legend says that only the worthy will find the spring and that those who drink from it will be granted what they wish for most in life.”
That would be nice. Maybe she could wish that Queen Airi had never been born. Kai wondered if Emi and Maaya had drank from the spring. Or Chiya. It didn’t seem like they had been granted their deepest desires.
“The stream is a two-day hike from here, if you were hiking straight to it. You will leave camp several hours apart. This is meant to be a solitary endeavor. Usually we only bring one samanera at a time to be tested, but due to . . . recent events, we’ve brought you all. If you come across each other, pass by and keep moving. Do not speak to one another.”
One of the samanera spoke up, the freckle-faced girl that had seemed to dislike Kai from her first History class. “If this is a solitary endeavor, Kai should have to leave her seishen behind. Otherwise, she has an unfair advantage.”
Quitsu hissed. Kai raised an eyebrow. Thanks for throwing me under the cart-horse, she thought.
“A seishen is an extension of their moonburner companion,” Nanase said coldly, briefly eying her seishen above her. “Kai can no more leave Quitsu than she can leave her arm or her leg. Would you like to attempt the test without a leg?”
“No, Headmistress,” the girl muttered.
“Very good. Since you are so eager to excel beyond your compatriots, why don’t you set off first.”
The girl opened her mouth to ask another question, but was silenced by Nanase.
“Lastly, you will receive no supplies or provisions. You have been trained to survive in the wild. Good luck.” Nanase handed the freckle-faced girl a vial. The girl straightened her uniform, gave a final glare to Kai, and strode off into the woods.
Kai was fourth to depart from the clearing. She and Quitsu settled into a comfortable pace. The long rays of afternoon light fell across the mountains, setting the chiseled peaks and snowy patches on fire with color.
“This is stupid,” Kai grumbled. “We should be back in the citadel, helping our friends, not out here in the middle of nowhere, jumping through pointless moonburner hoops.”
“The faster y
ou pass the test, the faster you can get back to the citadel and execute your brilliant, foolproof plan to rescue Chiya and overthrow the queen.”
“I don’t have a brilliant, foolproof plan to rescue Chiya and overthrow the queen,” Kai said.
“Exactly. Maybe we should take these few days to try to form such a plan?” Quitsu said.
Kai took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. First things first. How do we find a purple spring in the middle of a mountain range?”
“Scrying?” Quitsu said.
“That’s the only thing I can think of,” Kai agreed. “So first we need to find a pool of water. How to find a pool of water in the middle of a mountain range?”
“Ask around,” Quitsu said. Before Kai could reply, Quitsu darted off into the trees.
Kai continued on her path, swatting an occasional bug. As the sun set, the air grew colder, and she shivered in her thin, light blue uniform. Kai pulled in moonlight and wrapped heat around herself in a protective bubble.
“Perfect,” she said, now toasty warm.
Quitsu bounded back out of the trees, pine needles sticking out of his fur, a twig caught in his tail. Kai suppressed a smile. Quitsu had become accustomed to the citadel as well, it seemed. A city fox.
“Some raccoon dogs said there is a pond a ways up and to the east,” he said.
“Raccoon dogs?” She asked. “They told you this?”
“Yes,” he said, impatiently. “Come on.”
She followed, shaking her head. “Since when do you talk to regular animals?”
“Since always,” he said over his shoulder. “You just never asked!”
They found the lake, a cool oval mirror reflecting the light of the moon and stars over the silent tree tops. She knelt next to it, drinking her fill.
Kai performed the scrying ritual Pura had taught her, drawing symbols with moonlight across the surface of the water and asking the water to locate her target. Pura had said that scrying had to do with a moonburner’s inherent connection to the earth. Even knowing this, it still seemed miraculous when a faint picture of a spring appeared on the water, illuminated by the moonlight. It looked like the spring was partially within a cave, surrounded by crystals that gave off a pale purple glow in the silver light.
“That makes more sense,” Kai said.
Quitsu peered at the image from beside her. “See if you can move it out.”
She did as Pura had taught her, willing the image to pull out further, pushing the moonlight into it. The image of the cave blurred into an image of a ravine, sparkling slightly with some sort of mineral.
“Ravine. Check,” she said, running the image along its length. The bottom flattened out into an expanse of trees that could be anywhere in the forest.
“Trees. That narrows it down,” Quitsu said.
Kai moved the image to the left, what she hoped was the west, looking for any landmarks. Nothing. Then to the east.
“There,” Quitsu said. “That rock. It has to be something we can find.”
She studied the landmark, a smooth double humped dome of gray rock. “It’ll have to do,” she said, standing up and stretching her legs. The strain of the scrying had tired her. She shook her head.
“Do you want to see if your new raccoon dog friends can help us find the big rock?” she asked.
“On it!” he cried, running from the lake’s edge like a silver blur.
With the help of the forest creatures Quitsu had befriended, they made it to the strange rock formation by sunrise.
“It’s harder during the day,” he said. “It’s easier for me to communicate with nocturnal animals. Closer affinity, I suppose.”
Kai could tell that the morning was cold and crisp from the frost on the grass. She burned moonlight from her moonstone link to reinforce the blanket of warm air around her. She hoped it would last until the sun reached this side of the mountains.
“Should we rest, push forward, or look for food?” Kai wondered out loud. She wasn’t feeling too tired yet, but the area around the rock formation provided better shelter than the exposed rocky ravine leading up to the spring.
“You’re the boss,” Quitsu said.
“Let’s rest and refuel. We’ll set out tonight.”
Kai set a few snares in the forest on the other side of the rock, like her father had taught her. She remembered his careful hands guiding her clumsy ones with the knots, showing her how to tie a snare in the most humane way possible. She looked around, taking in the view of Miina through the sparse trees. He would have loved this place.
She gathered a few nuts that she recognized from her survival training class, and Quitsu came back with two eggs he had stolen from some unfortunate bird’s nest. They gathered firewood, took a nap, and by the time she checked her snare that afternoon, it was filled with a lean alpine rabbit.
Kai hummed as she cleaned and dressed the rabbit, setting it to cook. For the first time in a long time, Kai felt a moment of peace.
“You seem almost cheerful,” Quitsu remarked.
As soon as he said the words, Kai felt a stab of guilt. “I don’t have the right to be, with everything going on at the citadel. But . . . I miss being outside. I feel like I can finally breathe again. Maybe we just . . . shouldn’t go back,” Kai suggested. “We could just live out here in the wilderness.” The idea of it captivated her for a moment. To wash her hands of politics of the citadel, the impossible task that waited for her . . . it had appeal. She thought about the woman her mother had taken her to, deep in the Kitan swamp. She had done it.
“Could you live with that choice?” Quitsu asked.
Kai shook her head. “It’s tempting. But I have to go back. I can’t abandon Chiya and the others.”
Appetites satisfied, they bid the clearing farewell and began their hike towards the spring. The ravine was steep and treacherous, with huge boulders to scramble over. No wonder the spring was difficult to find. No one would come this way by choice.
A huge half moon had risen over the mountain peaks, and now lit their way. The rocks and ground glistened faintly with a purple mineral that caught the light. As they neared the top, the boulders became slick with water. The mineral deposits grew, and small purple crystals began to poke from the ground in clusters, clinging to the rocks they climbed.
“These things are beautiful, but a nightmare to climb over,” Kai said, resting for a moment and examining her scraped and bloodied palms. The knees of her leggings were torn, exposing her battered knees beneath.
“We’ve got to almost be there,” Quitsu said, showing no signs of being the worse for wear.
Quitsu was right. They climbed for another twenty minutes before Kai pulled herself up on a wide rock ledge. Water flowed off the ledge to her right in a trickling waterfall. She put her hands on her knees, catching her breath. When she stood, her eyes widened.
The scene in front of them was like a foreign landscape. Back from the ledge yawned a cave mouth, made out of dark rock. Its floor was carpeted with purple crystals. Some were tiny, forming a miniature forest, while others stood as high as her waist and as big as her thigh, sticking out at odd angles.
Through the crystals wove a gentle stream, flowing over the side of the ledge and forming the waterfall she’d seen. As soon as she set her foot on the ledge, an inhuman scream sounded, coming from the cave.
“What was that?” Kai said, realizing with a sinking feeling that their route so far had been too easy.
“Part two of the test?” Quitsu said.
Kai drew her dagger and advanced.
They crept into the cave, picking their footing carefully. Kai burned and cast a silver light above them. When the mouth of the cave was just out of sight, they found the spring pouring from a low table of rock on the side of the cave wall. Crystals veritably exploded from the source, crowding around it like eager children.
“The water must make the crystals,” Kai said.
Quitsu let her take in the sight for a moment
and then approached the fountain.
“Let’s fill that vial and get out of here,” he said. “Before we meet whatever screamed earlier.”
She knelt down, careful not to cut her already bruised knees on the crystals that clustered around the spring. The vial filled in an instant, and she held it up to the light at the cave mouth. Floating flecks glistened purple in the clear water. She stoppered the vial and put it in her pocket.
“Should I drink some?” Kai asked, half to Quitsu and half to herself. “We didn’t come across any water since the lake last night. It’s a long way back.”
“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Quitsu asked. “You could make it back to the lake. You know the way. You’re thinking about what Nanase said. About your fondest wish being granted.”
“Sometimes it’s annoying that you know me so well,” Kai said.
“You should drink it,” Quitsu said. “We could use a little wish-granting right about now.”
She dipped her hands into the cool water and lifted it to her lips. It carried a hint of sweetness.
“It’s good,” she said, drinking her fill.
“Hope you don’t grow purple crystals out of your ears,” Quitsu said.
“Great,” Kai said, throwing her hands in the air. “That would have been the type of thing to add to the pro and con list before I drank the water.” Quitsu just grinned his foxy grin.
Kai turned to leave and found herself looking into two glowing eyes. “Quitsu . . .” Kai said, slowly backing away from the unblinking eyes.
“What is it?”
As if it had heard her question, the dark silhouette of a huge head reared back, and a pillar of violet flame jetted towards them.
CHAPTER 27
Kai dove out of the way behind one of the pillars, landing hard on the craggy crystalline ground. A large crystal drove into her ribs—the sudden pain stunning her.
That’s going to leave a bruise, she thought.
