by Claire Luana
Then he did. His lips were gentle but firm, and he tasted both salty and sweet. Her universe narrowed to nothing but the feel and taste of him, the heat of her body and the sound of her heartbeat raging in her ears.
“Sir,” a throat was cleared towards the tent door.
As Hiro pulled away, she opened an eye, glaring at the unwelcome intruder. It was Hiro’s servant.
“You are wanted in the command tent. There is word from the front.”
“I’ll be there in a moment,” Hiro replied.
The servant vanished.
Hiro looked back at Kai and reached out, tracing her cheek with the rough side of his thumb. “Zeshi always had an impeccable sense of timing,” he said. “We’ll have to finish this later.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
She walked back to her tent on the other side of camp slowly, as if in a dream. She had heard the phrase walking on air before, but she had never felt it herself. Tonight, she understood. This thing with Hiro, whatever it was, felt right.
And then someone grabbed her from behind, pulling her back while strong hands shoved something in her mouth. Before she could catch a glimpse of her attacker, he threw a hood over her head, blackening her view. Kai schooled herself to still the panic rising inside her. Her breath came quickly, turning the air inside the hood stale and sickly warm. Her hands were roughly tied behind her back and she was hoisted over someone’s shoulder. Though she struggled and tried to scream, she could hardly make a sound.
CHAPTER 33
After a few minutes that felt to Kai like an eternity, her assailant reached his destination. He unceremoniously dumped her on the ground. Her stomach ached from bouncing against the hard shoulder of the man carrying her, and her hands were still painfully tied behind her back. She could see thin points of light through the fabric of the hood and could hear low male voices talking nearby.
Who had taken her? How could she plan when she had no idea what kind of trouble she was in? She wished he would remove the damn hood.
Her wish was granted, and the hood was snatched off her head. What she saw made her heart sink. It was even worse than she had feared. Daarco stood in front of her, a twisted grin on his face.
“Your precious prince isn’t here to protect you now, sorceress,” he spat the word as if a curse. He pulled the gag from her mouth slowly.
She looked at him coldly, praying that her face displayed calm and defiance, rather than the fear that was curling up her insides. “My precious prince, as you so eloquently put it, is also your commanding officer. And I’m quite sure that you are disobeying a direct order by kidnapping me and subjecting me to this mistreatment.”
“Mistreatment?” He said the word as if considering it from every angle. “You haven’t seen anything yet, moonburner.” He pulled up a stool and sat in front of her. The movement reminded her of one by Hiro just days before, before everything had changed. The movement, the situation, was so similar, and yet it was so deadly different.
She looked around the room, surveying the scene. They were in a small tent, similar to those in the camp. The only furniture present was the stool Daarco sat on and a small table which held a lantern and, to her dismay, an array of sharp, deadly-looking knives and objects. She couldn’t even imagine what some of them were for. Torture, no doubt, but what form, her mind was not creative enough to comprehend.
“You see, moonburner, unlike in Miina, we sunburners aren’t all just mindless beasts who follow every word of our bitch queen. We are taught to think for ourselves. To think critically.” He leaned closer to her.
“Think critically? I’m surprised you even know those words, let alone how to do it,” she snapped at him, knowing even as she said it that it was not a good idea to antagonize him.
He backhanded her across the face, snapping her head to the side. Her vision blurred with stars. She tasted the metallic sting of blood in her mouth.
She glowered at him.
He went on. “I have been thinking . . . critically . . . about what could make my prince do a complete about face and make a deal with the enemy. What could make him abandon his men and spend all his time with a burner bitch? Why is he protecting you?” He leaned even closer. “I could only come up with one reason why.”
Due to your inferior intellect . . . Kai thought, but held her tongue.
“You have bewitched him. This is all part of a moonburner plot to destroy us from the inside. It’s really very clever. You would almost have to admire the plot, if it wasn’t a coward’s way to wage war. A woman’s way.”
Kai bristled. “I suppose leaving defenseless infants in the desert to die is the pinnacle of bravery? The very height of manhood?”
“That is politics. I am a soldier. I’m talking about war.”
“A convenient distinction. I don’t suppose you’ll believe me, but I am not a spy, and I have not been bewitching Hiro. I have been drinking lusteric, for Taiyo’s sake!”
“You’re right, I don’t believe you. All moonburners are liars and whores! You try to take everything from us. You took my father from me, and now you try to take Hiro, who is like my brother?” He grabbed a thin knife off the table and knelt in front of her. “I won’t allow it,” Daarco said. He leveled the point of the knife to her throat where she felt its razor-sharp edge begin to bite into her skin. “This is for Hiro.”
Kai squeezed her eyes closed, trying to push aside her panic.
“Daarco!” a furious voice barked from the door.
It was Hiro. Behind him stood his tall, silent manservant, Zeshi.
Kai sagged in relief. He really did have an impeccable sense of timing. Hiro’s face was hard and his eyes flashed like lightning in a storm.
“How dare you disobey a direct order? She is a guest here. I will have you stripped of rank and sent to clean the latrines for the rest of your career for this insubordination.”
Daarco stood up, gripping the thin knife tight in his fist. “She has bewitched you—corrupted you. Don’t you see? She has put a spell on you. She is the enemy. She must be killed to break her hold on you.”
“I am under no spell,” Hiro said. “You do not know everything. She could have killed me and she did not. I trust her. More than I trust you in this moment.”
“It was part of her plan! To gain your trust. Don’t you see? She must die!” Daarco lunged at Kai with the knife.
Hiro was quicker. He grabbed the other man and heaved him back from Kai, tossing him to the ground. The knife went skidding across the dirt floor. Hiro scrambled on top of Daarco and punched him viciously in the face, knocking him back.
Kai watched the scuffle in shock, but began to register sounds outside the tent. Shouting, the sound of metal on metal.
Zeshi disappeared out the tent flap to investigate. She strained at her ropes and looked around. She couldn’t see outside the tent, but there! It sounded like an explosion. Daarco and Hiro were still lost in the rush of their personal battle, pummeling each other and rolling over in the dirt.
A flash lit the tent, a white so bright that Kai’s eyes burned with the image of it. Daarco and Hiro lay on the ground, both smoking slightly. Were they dead? A moment later, Hiro began to move, groaning and trying to sit up. Kai breathed out in relief.
Until the tent flap opened. It was General Geisa.
A moonburner cut Kai free from her bonds, and she walked outside the tent, rubbing her sore wrists. Daarco, Hiro, and the two guards Daarco had brought were on their knees in front of the moonburners, wrists tied behind their backs. Ryu had been brought down with a bolt of electricity, it appeared, and his paws were bound. Steam rose from his prone body, but his chest heaved in labored breaths. He was still alive.
Kai couldn’t believe how quickly things had changed. Days ago even, she might have welcomed being rescued by her sisters, but now, Kai could only see malice and calculation on General Geisa’s otherwise pretty face. The moonburners’ presence filled her with dread. Her plan was falling apart a
nd she didn’t know if she was savvy enough to piece it back together. It had been such a long shot in the first place.
Geisa strode to stand before the four men, hands on her hips. “My my. What do we have here?” She looked at Daarco, who was practically growling with hatred of the women before him.
“A dog . . . two rats . . .” She went to stand in front of Hiro, bending slightly to look into his face. “And something more. Queen Airi will be pleased with the gifts we bring her.”
She straightened and looked at Kai, who was trying to stand to the side, out of her notice.
“You did well, little daughter. Led us right to them.”
Kai’s mouth opened slightly in shock, before she clamped her jaw shut.
Hiro’s head swiveled and his gaze met hers. No more did it hold esteem or compassion. Now it was hard and filled with hatred.
She wanted to run to him, to cry out that it wasn’t true, that she had nothing to do with the moonburners finding the camp. But she knew she couldn’t say any of those things in front of Geisa. So she only stared at him, willing him to see the truth in her eyes.
“Load up the prisoners,” Geisa barked. “We need to get back to Miina by daybreak. Torch the rest of the camp before you go.”
“What of my seishen,” Hiro said. “Should he not be taken with me, if I am to be a prisoner of war?”
Geisa’s laugh was chilling. “You wish you were to be a prisoner of war. But no. You are to be . . . bait. And then, when your job is complete, we will use you until you are worthless and empty, and then you will die alone in the dark, with not even your seishen to mourn you.”
Hiro paled. “Those words . . . you were my father’s prisoner, weren’t you.”
“You remember me?” Geisa put her hands to her chest in mocking. “I’m flattered.” She leaned down, until her face was level with Hiro’s. “Every mercy your father denied me, I will repay to you threefold. And since I was not able to say goodbye to my seishen, neither will you.”
She turned to Kai. “You. Finish the seishen and follow. Prove your mettle, little burner. Bring me its claw for a necklace.”
“No!” Hiro jumped to his feet and went berserk. He thrashed and ran towards Ryu, bashing one moonburner’s nose bloody with his head. But then he staggered, falling to his knees, his eyes bulging. Geisa stalked towards him. She grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up to his knees.
“It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it. When your blood temperature starts to rise, to boil? Just another degree and you’ll be dead. I’d calm down if I were you. “
She knocked him over the head with the flat of her blade and he fell to the side, unconscious.
Kai watched numbly as they loaded the men onto the koumori, strapping them down. Two women rode double, leaving Kai a koumori of her own. Geisa yelled to her as her koumori took off, laboring under the weight of two bodies.
“Prove your loyalty and finish that seishen, moonburner.”
Kai approached Ryu, who snarled at her, snapping his huge jaws. She whispered to him as best she could while keeping her distance. She didn’t know how long his bonds would hold.
“I did not betray Hiro. I’m on his side. I am going to free you and you should come to Miina. South of the city, there is a waterfall. Hide there and when Hiro is free, I will send him to you.”
Ryu eyed her suspiciously, but seemed placated. She took a deep breath. This next part wouldn’t go well.
“I need to take a claw, to prove to Geisa that I followed her orders.”
Ryu thrashed in his ropes. “Absolutely not,” he growled.
“Please,” she said. “For Hiro. I’ll only take one. Which one is the least important?”
“All of them are important!” Ryu snarled.
“It’s the only way,” she said. “Please.”
Ryu calmed and pushed out one of his back feet. “The little one.”
She didn’t have the knife that was usually strapped to her forearm, it had been taken from her when she was captured. She grasped at the moonlight, trying to draw it through the haze of lusteric. She hadn’t been dosed sincebreakfast, and it was starting to wear off. She could feel the moonlight pulsing just out of reach. She grunted in frustration. It was too soon.
She ran inside the tent and picked up the most wicked looking knife from the table of implements Daarco had gathered for her. She ran her thumb along the blade to test its sharpness, and yelped as a drop of crimson blood welled from her finger. It would do.
She knelt down, grasped Ryu’s foot, and cut clean through the claw. Ryu cried out in pain, but it was over quickly. He mewed softly, relaxing against the ground.
Kai had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Ryu. I’ll do everything in my power to make this right.”
She stroked his soft side once before slicing through his bonds. She ran to her koumori, the precious claw in hand. She leaped onto the koumori and lifted off, directing her towards the main circle of tents.
The camp was already in chaos, fires burning and people running, screaming. Kai jumped off her koumori before it hit the ground and ran towards the tent she shared with her mother.
“Quitsu!” she screamed, running through the front flap. “Mother!” The tent was ablaze. They weren’t there. As she headed back towards the door, part of the tent roof collapsed in a shower of sparks and flame. She whirled around, looking for an exit. The smoke was stinging her eyes and filling her lungs. Images of the burning house in Ushai filled her mind once again, Sora clutched in her arms, nowhere to go but through flame. Why was there always flame?
As panic began to fill her, she tried again, desperately, to pull moonlight into herself. There! It was only a trickle, but it was enough. She pulled the moonlight into her qi and pushed it out, using its power to dampen the flames.
Kai stepped outside and the scene before her twisted her heart. Men, women and children were running, screaming, trying in vain to bring enough water to douse the hungry flames. She was tired of destruction. She pulled in as much moonlight as she could and burned it, pulling the heat from the flames, sending it dissipating into the air. She was still weak from the lusteric. She could not burn enough to completely put out the fires, but the temporary reprieve seemed to hearten the people and their efforts to put out the rest of the flames doubled.
Kai turned to walk back towards her koumori when her mother ran up to her, enfolding Kai in her arms. Quitsu was close on her heels and jumped into Kai’s arms as soon as her mother released her. She squeezed him tightly.
“Come on,” Kai said. “I got us a ride.”
INTERLUDE
“Geisa, I tire of this.”
The man hung from a set of shackles in the center of the cell, blood mingling with sweat and running in rivulets down his bare chest. His golden hair glinted in the light of the torches, refusing to dull.
“My Queen, you know this is important work,” Geisa said, selecting another sharp implement from the tall table next to the man.
“I know, I know,” Airi said. “But your methods aren’t proving effective.”
“This one thinks he is better than the dog he is,” Geisa said, tapping the flat of the wicked knife to her palm, as if considering her next goa move. “He refuses to mate with the moonburners.”
“I’m not a rapist,” the man said in a gravelly voice.
“It’s not rape,” Geisa said with a scoff. “They are offering themselves to you. They serve the goddess.”
“I’ve been with many a willing woman, and the girls in those cages are far from it.”
“It’s their destiny,” Geisa said. “And if you don’t feel like using your male parts, maybe we should rid you of them. They’re doing you no good.” She ran the knife up his inner thigh, letting it linger.
The man ignored Geisa’s threat. “Queen Airi,” the sunburner coughed, blood flecking his lips.
Airi curled her lip in distaste. She hated that they needed these creatures. They should all be put down li
ke the plague to this land that they were.
“You are not fit to speak to her,” Geisa said, smacking him across the face in a vicious backhand. A fleck of blood and spittle landed on Airi’s light gray silken dress.
She sighed. Now she would have to throw it out. She was fond of this dress. “Enough, Geisa. I think it’s time we try another tactic.” She pulled up a small stool and sat just out of arm’s reach of the man.
“Give him some water,” the queen instructed.
Geisa complied, grudgingly.
“Loosen his shackles.”
Geisa did so and the man slouched to the floor gratefully.
“Do you know why we do what we do here?” The queen asked the man, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knee.
“No,” the prisoner said warily.
“We are trying to prevent the extinction of the moonburner race. Only by mating a sunburner and a moonburner will a moonburner child be born.”
“No . . . that can’t be true.”
“I assure you, it is quite true. And as your king is set upon destroying us, I fear this facility is the only way to ensure our continued survival.”
The man was silent, contemplating.
“Now, will you help us? The task we ask of you is not unpleasant.”
“No,” he said.
Geisa moved to hit him again, but the queen held up a hand, staying her. “Why?”
The man sighed, shoulders slumped. “I love my wife.”
The queen’s face softened. “A family man? I would not have thought. You would truly endure this torture to remain true to her? Would she ask this of you? I think not.”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But there was never a question for me.”
“What is her name?” the queen asked.
“Varya,” he said.
