by Claire Luana
“Be at peace, brother,” the lion said with a deep throaty growl.
Kai and Hiro looked at each other in astonishment, for a moment forgetting that they were mortal enemies. The seishen were such an integral part of their lives, it was easy to forget that they were not just extensions of their burner partners. There was clearly a shared respect between creatures that Kai had never witnessed.
Hiro’s seishen, Ryu, lay down next to Quitsu and they both placed their heads on their paws.
Hiro shook his head as if to clear it from the surprise. He sat back down on the stool before Kai.
A rough plan had begun to form in Kai’s mind during the time she had been awake. A plan that involved treason and most likely, a painful death. A plan that involved trusting this man and his intentions, despite knowing so little of him.
Hiro opened his mouth to speak, but Kai spoke first.
“I want to help you,” Kai said.
He blinked in surprise.
“But my aid depends on one thing.”
“Another condition?” Hiro asked. A smile quirked the corner of his finely wrought mouth.
Oh, Tsuki, why was she staring at his mouth? She forced her eyes to meet his.
“It depends on what type of man you are. I suspect the answer, but I must ask. Are you the kind of man who lives for war or longs for peace?”
His smile turned sad. “I am a man who lives in the world he was born into. To the duty he was born for.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said. “You didn’t kill me when you could have. Why?”
“You know me so well to make that judgment, moonburner?”
“I don’t claim to know you. But I think I saw the real you in that moment. And you saw the real me. When there was no one to force our hand, to make us killers. And so I ask you again. Do you live for this war or long for peace?”
“I want peace,” he admitted. “I am tired of the war; I see the effect it has on my people. We don’t even remember why we are fighting anymore.”
Her pendant lay cool against her chest. Truth.
“But,” he went on, “I don’t see an end to it, short of the total annihilation of the moonburners and the death of Queen Airi. My predecessors have not been able to accomplish this task, and it’s a task I am not sure I could stomach, even if I could accomplish it.” He put his head in his hands, smoothing back his golden hair. He didn’t look at her for a long time.
“I believe you,” she said. “I want to help you.”
He sat up, blinking in surprise. “Want to help me end the moonburners and kill Queen Airi?”
“The second. Not the first.” “I’m listening.”
CHAPTER 30
So Kai told him. She poured out her story, as she never had before. She told him about the Gleaming and being raised as a boy. She told him about being exposed and left in the desert to die. She left out the part about her mother being a slave to Youkai. That fact, together with his death, was a complication she hadn’t figured out how to deal with. She shared her rescue by Quitsu, training in the citadel, and her testing. She shared the part she knew he wanted to hear.
“There is a facility underneath the citadel. But its not what you think. It’s not a place to torture sunburners. Well, not only. It’s a breeding facility.”
Hiro’s jaw dropped open. “What?”
“Hasn’t the king noticed that the number of sunburners in each generation is declining?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “We have to scour the country for those with sunburning talent.”
“It’s the same in Miina. There are only a few dozen burners in my class at the citadel. The queen figured out why. Only a moonburner mother and sunburner father mating produces a burner child. Because of the escalation of the war between us and your father’s brilliant plan to kill all moonburner children, we are going extinct.”
Hiro started to laugh, a rich chuckle that warmed her to the core.
“It’s so simple. Our hatred of the moonburners made us blind to the thought that they could have any utility at all.” He grew quiet. “Maybe we deserve to go extinct.”
“Maybe we do,” Kai said. “But I think our gifts are miraculous, and if turned to uses other than war, we could do good in this world. The queen is is only concerned about making more moonburners. The sunburners in the facility are being used to impregnate moonburners, to build the next generation of the queen’s army. In a laboratory.”
Hiro’s face twisted. His seishen let out a low growl.
“The queen would use her own people to grow more moonburners?” Hiro asked.
“Yes,” Kai said grimly. “They were not given a choice in the matter. This is why I want to help you. But only if your goal is to end this war and bring peace between our people. It is the only way we will survive.”
He nodded, standing. “Thank you for your honesty, Kai. You are a remarkable woman. You have given me much to think on.”
She felt her face redden again. Her necklace hadn’t grown warm with his compliment. Either she was a remarkable woman, or he truly believed it. Either way, she could live with it.
“I will see that someone brings you food and water,” he said.
Hiro was true to his word. A tall serving man came in and escorted her to the facilities. When they returned to the tent, he chained only her foot back to the pillar. He gave her water and a simple meal of rice, pickled vegetables and salted meat.
Kai ate voraciously. Her chain was now long enough to allow her to reach Quitsu. The seishen sat in her lap and let her pet him as she shared her plan.
By the time Hiro returned, Kai had fallen asleep on the hard ground. She hastily tried to fix her hair and wipe the drool from her face.
Hiro, as ever, looked painfully handsome. Behind him came a huge man with a mane of golden hair and a ruddy glow to his weathered face, together with a massive golden bear, padding delicately on four huge paws. Hiro’s serving man entered after, leading a woman in a torn white dress. Her mother. She looked unharmed.
Hiro motioned to the serving man, who unchained Kai and her mother.
Hiro set four chairs together and motioned them to sit. Both women did, eyeing the two men across from them like wary animals. Quitsu padded to the side of the tent to join the golden bear and lion, slightly out of the way of the conversation. Suddenly, the tent felt very crowded.
“I have stationed guards outside,” Hiro said. “And we have laced your food with lusteric. It inhibits moonburning. I’m choosing to treat you both as guests, but I cannot act entirely without precautions. I hope that my trust in you is not misplaced. This is General Ipan,” Hiro said. “He leads the sunburner armies and is interested in hearing your offer for himself.”
“It is not every day I get to enjoy the company of two lovely ladies,” General Ipan said, winking at Kai.
She looked down at her tattered uniform and her mother’s dirty, torn shift and let out a gentle snort. “You flatter us, General,” Kai said, but softened her words with a smile.
“Why can women never take a compliment?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air. “That’s your problem, you know. Always looking for hidden meaning behind the words. Sometimes words are just words.”
“Have you ever lived with hundreds of other women, General?” Kai asked. “Words are never just words.”
General Ipan erupted in a deep belly laugh, slapping his knee with his huge hand. “I suspect that if I lived with hundreds of women, words would be the least of my problems.”
Kai couldn’t help but like this general.
“I suspect that you two are not entirely what you seem,” Hiro said. “You seem to be a soldier of my mortal enemy and a runaway slave who has murdered her master. I am interested to hear why I should not treat you as such.”
Kai opened her mouth to speak, but her mother threw her a warning glance. Kai didn’t know which of her mother’s many secrets she was urging her not to share, but Kai was out of options. She couldn’t do this on
her own and she couldn’t do nothing. She thought she could trust Hiro. She wanted to trust him.
“As I said, we can help you overthrow Queen Airi and end the war. But only if you and your father give us certain . . . assurances.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Hiro asked.
“We will get you into the city during the day. You will free your countrymen and ours. You will take the city, as peacefully as possible. You will demonstrate to the world the madness that Queen Airi has fallen into. You will install a regent until the next queen can be crowned and establish terms of peace. And then you will leave,” Kai said.
Gods this feels foolish. She was betting the future of Kyuden, the citadel, her very race on this man’s character.
Hiro laughed. “Is it that simple? I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before. And presuming we can accomplish all of these things with minimal bloodshed, who do you propose we install as queen? You?”
It was Kai’s turn to laugh. “Not me. Her.” She motioned to her mother with her head.
Hanae’s jaw was set, her face unreadable. Kai felt a pang of sorrow for drawing her mother back into something she had clearly done everything in her power to flee. But Miina needed her. There was no one else.
“And not to be rude, but what, my lady, is your claim to the Miinan throne?” Hiro asked Hanae.
Hanae sighed deeply and looked at Kai, a pained look on her face. “You might as well tell him, since the seishen’s out of the bag.”
“She is Princess Azura, rightful heir to the throne. “
The silence in the tent was palpable. General Ipan’s seishen stood up and walked in front of Hanae. Or Azura. Kai still didn’t know quite what to call her. They looked into each other’s eyes, silently evaluating each other. Hanae didn’t wither under the intense golden gaze.
The bear spoke in a low rumble. “She is Azura. The vessel has changed, but she has the same qi within her.”
General Ipan scrutinized Hanae, his face thoughtful. “I met Azura when she was a teenager, before she so tragically died. I admit, you share some of her features. And Kuma certainly would be able to tell these things, if anyone. I have one question for you though. The answer is one only Azura would know.”
Hanae didn’t even wait for the question. “We ran into each other in the kitchens. I was stealing honeycakes, you were stealing ale. We both swore we would take our secret to the grave. But, since I have come back from the dead, I believe I am released from my oath.”
General Ipan leaned back in his chair, which creaked beneath him. “It really is you. You must have some story to tell.”
“She may be Azura, but she is not a moonburner any longer,” Hiro’s lion Ryu said, standing and joining the circle. “Miinan law requires the queen to be a moonburner.”
“How do you know what Miinan law says?” General Ipan said. “All these years, you seishen never cease to amaze me.”
Ryu grinned, bearing bright white fangs.
Kai frowned. She hadn’t quite figured out the part where her mother was both Azura, the silver-haired girl in the painting with Master Vita, and her ebony-haired self. Kai had never seen her mother moonburn or dye her hair or do anything else indicating she was a burner. And she hadn’t known the queen had to be a burner. She felt the threads of her shaky plan begin to unravel.
Her mother came to her rescue. “I burned myself out,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I can no longer burn. And what Ryu says is correct.” Hanae looked at Kai with a silent apology. “I cannot take the crown, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. But I could . . . I could act as regent until a new queen is crowned.”
“And who do you propose?” Hiro asked. “My daughter, Kailani Shigetsu.”
Kai’s head whipped around to look at her mother.
“She is the current heir to the throne, as Airi has produced no heir.”
“Oh no,” Kai said. “I can hardly even keep the royal houses straight. I was raised as a boy running cattle!”
The sunburners seemed to accept Hanae’s proposition, though, as they were accepting all they proposed in that strange treasonous meeting.
“You would serve in this capacity?” Hiro asked. “Announce who you are and pave the way for your daughter?”
“No,” Kai said. “Absolutely not.”
They all ignored her.
Hanae nodded. “I ran from Miina and the war to save the man I loved. In the end, it killed him anyway. If I can help end it, I will serve. I owe Miina that much.”
CHAPTER 31
They sat together late into the evening and talked about details, terms, and assurances. Hiro’s father would need to meet them both and evaluate their trustworthiness for himself. He was a week’s ride from them and headed their way.
Kai, Hanae, and Quitsu were escorted to their own tent, which was guarded by two men. Kai had been forced to drink more of the lusteric, and it felt odd to not be able to access the moon’s light. It was like the early days at the citadel, when her blockage kept her from her powers.
As the flap closed behind Hiro’s manservant, Kai and Hanae were finally alone. Kai didn’t know what to expect from her mother, knowing she had exposed a secret her mother had fought long and hard to keep hidden, dragging her back into a world she had fled. And part of Kai still felt a low-burning anger about the lies her parents had told her entire life.
But all of that seemed inconsequential as the two women truly faced each other for the first time in months. Hanae wrapped her arms around Kai, gripping her tightly, tears leaking down her face. Kai felt her own emotional dam break as the stress and fear of the last months poured over her. Her tears joined her mother’s, and they clung together, crying and hugging.
After a long while, they pulled apart, wiping their eyes.
“Wow,” Quitsu said. “Warn me next time and I’ll get my rain slicker out.”
The thought of Quitsu in a shiny rain slicker was so absurd that Kai started laughing in great hiccuping peals. She pulled Quitsu up into her arms and hugged him tightly, smearing his silky fur with the salt from her tears. “What would I do without you, furball?” she said, setting him down.
There were two sleeping pallets in the tent, side by side. Kai and her mother sat down, cross-legged, across from each other.
Quitsu curled into Kai’s lap, relaxing into her as she stroked his ears.
“Thank you for coming for me,” Hanae said softly.
“I may be mad at you, but you are still my mother. Once I knew you were alive, I couldn’t leave you.”
“I didn’t think I would ever see you again. I thought our meeting in the spirit world was a cruel dream. I should have known the desert wouldn’t beat you.”
“It almost did,” Kai replied. “If it wasn’t for Quitsu, I wouldn’t have made it.”
“Thank you, Quitsu,” Hanae said, inclining her head slightly.
Quitsu nodded. “My lady, a question for you. You said you burned yourself out. You had a seishen, didn’t you?” The unspoken question hung before them.
Hanae’s face turned grave and for a moment she looked very old.
“When I burned out . . . I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would kill her. It is one of the greatest regrets of my life.”
Understanding dawned on Kai, and she reached forward to squeeze her mother’s hand. “What was her name?”
“Lyra,” Hanae said. “She was a lynx. She had the most beautiful silver variegated markings and white tufted ears. She was my best friend. It was her idea, you know.”
“What?” Kai asked.
“Your father and I burning ourselves out. It was their idea. We didn’t even know it could be done.”
Kai crinkled her brow in confusion. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”
Hanae did.
“My sister Airi and I were close as children. Our mother was the queen, obviously, and our fathers were her royal consorts. We never knew their identities, though we knew we didn’t share the same father
. Our mother had admitted as much to us. We were raised by our tutors, the citadel teachers, the cooks, the moonburner officers. The citadel was our playground, and we thrived. As we grew older, into our teenage years, it became clear that we were more different than we first realized. My mother forced me into classes and special training to be queen. I hated it, although I loved my tutor, Master Vita. He was the only reason I didn’t rebel all together. Airi grew jealous of the special training I was getting. She realized, I think, that while she would stay a princess, I was going to be queen. She began rebelling in petty ways, with little cruelties. But still she was a good girl at heart.”
Kai snorted. She couldn’t help herself.
Her mother shot her a look. “I understand that is not the case now. As I neared the age of eighteen, I was, on the surface, doing everything I needed to be a doting daughter and make my mother proud. But in private, I would flee the city as often as I could. My obligations felt suffocating. Lyra and I would ride across the grasslands outside the city, escaping whenever I could. Master Vita would cover for me, but I know he fretted every time I disappeared.”
“On one of those outings, I came across a man riding a golden stallion. He was tall and handsome and had the most brilliant golden hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. His smile could light up a room. I fell for him the moment I saw him, as if the sun shone that day for the first time. I was completely undefended, out in the middle of the day with just a knife to protect me. He could have killed me, but I wasn’t afraid. I was already so foolishly in love,” Hanae said, eyes caught in a faraway place.
“Luckily, he was friendly, and did not harm me. He was scouting for a peace delegation that was on its way to the citadel from Kita. I knew that there was no future for us, just as quickly as I fell in love with him. The delegation was there to discuss peace, as well as an arranged marriage between me and Ozora. My marriage, if I had one, would serve Miina.
