by Claire Luana
The creature fell to the ground, where it twitched and jerked before laying still.
Daarco was helping Emi into a seated position, crouched protectively over her.
Just steps away, Colum slashed the other creature across the chest, causing it to fall backwards. Kai, who had retrieved her sword, bore down on its neck, severing its head half off. With a rush of brilliant white, she hacked through the rest of the flesh, and its head toppled to the ground.
She caught Hiro’s gaze, sword in both hands, panting heavily, relief evident on her face. Her eyes widened. “Look out,” she cried, sending another bolt of white over his shoulder.
Hiro spun and leaped backwards, just missing a vicious swipe of the other creature’s claws. Kai’s strike had slowed it, but it was still coming. It was half-charred, its throat was open and ragged, and ooze poured from the wound on its chest. But it was still moving.
“You have to behead it,” Colum called.
As if the creature had heard him, it grabbed Hiro’s sword in its bare talons before he had a chance to strike. Hiro grappled with it, trying to extricate his sword as it drew him in close. Hiro gagged at the sight and the smell of it so close to him, its foul breath like flesh rotting on a battlefield. A mark on its forehead was barely visible in the dim light—a mark that looked like it was etched in blood.
But then, the creature froze, going stock still. Its head leaned forward towards Hiro and toppled off its body, rolling through his arms before coming to rest on the ground.
Hiro shivered with disgust as the body collapsed to the ground, wrenching his sword from his hands in its still-locked grip.
Hiro saw Daarco standing behind the creature, his chest heaving. He had sliced through the creature’s neck with a thin band of sunlight, cauterizing the wound so no black blood flowed. Why didn’t I think of that?
“Emi,” Kai called, rushing to her friend’s side.
Emi’s skin was pallid and her body shook. Her eyes were distant.
“Oh gods,” Kai breathed. “I think the creature had some sort of venom on its claws.”
They gathered around Emi, looking at the wounds marring her back. Hiro and Daarco exchanged a look of horror. The flesh around the marks was already beginning to blacken, the wounds themselves bubbling sickly white.
“Get me my pack,” Kai said, and Hiro ran to retrieve it.
Kai pulled out some herbs, sprinkling them in the wounds on Emi’s back. Emi’s thrashing grew stronger.
“It’s calendula,” Kai explained, placing a bandage over the wounds. “It will fight the poison, but it won’t last long. This venom is powerful. Let me see if I can do anything to slow it.”
“She can sunburn now?” Daarco asked.
In the madness of the attack, Hiro hadn’t even realized. It was daytime. If Kai’s new power had anything to do with moonlight, she shouldn’t have been able to use it now.
“It’s not exactly sunburning,” Hiro managed, watching Kai hover over Emi, her eyes closed. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
Kai hissed in frustration, opening her eyes. “It’s bad,” she said, not taking her eyes from Emi. “I think I was able to cool the wound and slow the blood flow to the area so it won’t spread as quickly, but this is beyond my skills. Even if I did know how to use…whatever this white stuff is.”
“Colum, what were those things?” Hiro asked. “Have you ever seen them before?”
“They’re tengu,” he said. “Lesser tengu, but dangerous nonetheless.”
“They were sent by Tsuki or Taiyo to slow us down?” Hiro asked.
“I presume so,” Colum said. “They must be wise to your plans. We have to assume from now on that we’ll be hunted.”
“We’re in no shape to put up a fight,” Kai said with frustration. “Or even travel. Do you know how far from the seishen elder we are?”
“I think less than a day.”
“Would he be able to heal Emi?” Kai asked, looking from Quitsu to Ryu and back.
“Perhaps,” Ryu grumbled.
“He’s our best shot.” Daarco said. “We have to move.” He hoisted Emi into his arms and her head lolled against his shoulder, her eyelids fluttering.
Hiro raised an eyebrow slightly at Daarco’s sudden protectiveness of Emi, and Daarco stared back a challenge, as if daring him to comment.
Hiro declined the invitation. Perhaps Daarco was starting to…no. He didn’t want to curse it by even thinking it.
“Daarco’s right,” Kai said, shoving her medical supplies back in her pack and shouldering it. “Every second counts now.”
They jogged through the forest, Daarco bringing up the rear. Hiro’s wounds were forgotten. Adrenaline surged through his veins and his senses were alive with the possibility of threats. The white fog of the forest made it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet ahead, so he listened for twigs snapping, for rustling, for anything beyond the staccato sound of his own breathing. Anything could lay in wait just steps from them.
He increased his pace to match Colum, who had taken the lead.
“What can you tell us about these enemies?” Hiro asked.
“Not much,” Colum said. Despite his quick pace, he wasn’t winded at all. “These ones were low-level tengu. They were testing us, our weaknesses, our defenses. They’ll send something worse next time.”
“How do we kill them?”
“Beheading is really the only way. They don’t like fire, but it can’t kill them.”
“Where do they come from?”
“Most tengu are from the demon realm. But these ones…I’m not so sure.”
“What do you mean?” Hiro asked.
Colum hesitated.
“No holding back on us,” Hiro said. “Any piece of information could be the difference between life and death.”
“The marks on their foreheads, they looked like they were written in blood. Did you see them?”
“Yes,” Hiro said, imagining the creature’s foul breath in his face once again and shuddering, closing his eyes. He immediately tripped over a root and barely caught himself. Okay, eyes open.
“Those marks were placed on them. By someone. These weren’t tengu from the demon world. They were manufactured.”
Hiro’s mind reeled with this information. “Made? By who?”
“Someone who put their money on the other side of this war.”
CHAPTER 18
Kai could see Hiro and Colum jogging ahead of them, conversing in low tones. Hiro occasionally looked back over his shoulder at her. She couldn’t muster the energy to care what they were talking about.
She was bone tired, every inch of her body hurt, and now her muscles screamed from the hours of extra exertion she had forced them through. Her burning had betrayed her, abandoning her when she needed it the most, leaving her with some foreign power that frightened her. But mostly she worried about Emi. She couldn’t lose another friend. She wouldn’t. It would break her.
Her mind flashed to the moment on the cold stone floor of the facility when Maaya’s lifeblood leaked out onto her white servant’s uniform.
She shook her head to clear the memory. No. Emi would live. The elder would help them. It had to.
Her mind instead filled in the memory from a few moments ago: waking up to hollow eyes and putrid breath bearing down upon her like the kiss of death. The image wouldn’t clear. When had her mind become a place of horrors?
“Kai,” a soft voice said.
“What?” she called to Hiro.
He looked back with a puzzled glance. “I didn’t say anything.”
She turned back to Daarco, who had fallen behind, bearing the excess weight of an unconscious Emi in his arms. He was oblivious, his face set in a look of strained determination.
“We need to take a quick break,” Kai said. Daarco looked dead on his feet.
“I’m fine,” he called.
“Just for a sip of water,” Kai said. “You can stretch your arms.”
; He relented and the group came together as he lay Emi softly on the trail. Her face was a deathly white contrasted with the red of her burn marks.
“Kai,” a voice said again.
She whirled around, peering through the thick mist. “Did any of you just say my name?”
The men shook their heads, confusion on their faces.
“Did you hear…?”
“Kai.”
“There!” she said. “Did you hear that? Someone said my name.”
Daarco stood still, listening. “Nothing.”
“Kai,” the voice said again, with more urgency this time. She spun yet again and peered into the mist. And then she grew very still. What she saw…It was impossible.
“Father?” she said, her voice wavering. Though partially shrouded by mist, he was unmistakable. A face she had prayed to see again hundreds of times. Square jaw, thick brown hair, a big smile that revealed even, fine, white teeth.
“Kai,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Come here, my daughter. I’ve missed you.”
She knew it was madness, but it was a madness that she wanted to fall into headfirst. And if she could meet an ancient queen in the spirit world, who was to say she couldn’t see her father? She took a step forward, tentative at first. And then she broke into a run, arms extended to pull him into a hug.
When she wrapped her arms around him, he was gone. She looked up with confusion. There he was. Right beyond her arms’ reach.
“Come here, my little fox,” he said.
A whimper escaped her. She started running, but again, he seemed just past her grasp. Hiro and Colum called out for her, but she ignored their alarmed cries. They were flies buzzing in her ears. She only had eyes for him.
“You’re in danger,” he said. “The path before you is so narrow. You mustn’t stray.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was too late…” She stopped right in front of him. “I went in the building. They never would have found you if I hadn’t gone in to save Sora. And then after they sentenced you…I would have come, but I didn’t know how to save you. I didn’t know how to burn…I did nothing and it killed you.”
Her tears were flowing freely now, but when she tried to grasp him, he moved once again.
“It’s not your fault, my daughter. You’re here now. And I need your help,” he said, the lines at the corners of his brown eyes crinkling with his smile, a smile she hadn’t realized how much she’d longed for.
“I miss you so much,” she said.
“I’m right here. You just have to reach me. Try, Kai, try to reach me.”
Kai ran forward, determined, stumbling over roots, her vision blurred with tears.
She burst through a line of trees into a clearing where his ephemeral form stood. The world tilted slightly and she threw her arms out for balance. Her feet were stuck. She had sunk to her knees in mud.
“Father…” she said, twisted with misery and sorrow. “Help me! Why did you bring me here? Why do you keep running?”
Her father drew near, floating, she realized, not walking. And as she struggled with the squelching muck that held her captive, he smiled.
Her blood grew cold. The smile on her father’s face grew unnaturally wide, his teeth now filed points. His eyes shone inky black without a sliver of white.
“Who…what are you?”
“Foolish girl.” The creature spoke in a sing-song voice, no longer her father’s velvety deep tones. “So quick to run, so quick to believe. I have not seen a mortal in many years. Are they all as foolish as you?”
“What do you want?” Kai whispered. She struggled but only sank deeper in the mud. It passed her knees and lapped at her thighs.
The creature laughed, an oily bubble that set her teeth on edge. “I want you to die!” With its words, the creature transformed into a spirit of the forest, a malevolent sprite with spindly limbs, wisps of thin hair, and a squat face that was all black eyes and flashing teeth. It rose on the wind and spun around her in a mad dash before it was gone.
Hiro couldn’t believe it. Kai had run into the woods, abandoning Emi and the rest of them.
Quitsu, who seemed equally surprised, recovered faster than he did and bounded after her into the mist.
Hiro took off after Quitsu a split second later to the angry shouts of Daarco and Colum. He didn’t care. These woods weren’t safe for anyone alone, even Kai.
Quitsu’s silver form disappeared into the mist like a ghost. Hiro stopped and searched the ground in front of him for signs of Kai’s passage. It was damned near impossible to track anything in this fog.
Ryu emerged out of the mist behind him.
“Do you feel Quitsu?” Hiro asked. “Where did they go?”
Ryu swung his shaggy mane twice. “No. It’s as if they vanished into the mist.”
Hiro wanted to scream with frustration. He pulled his sword from its scabbard, starting in one direction, then stopping, looking over his shoulder, and changing tacks.
“I have to find her,” he said, doubting his direction.
“She’s in the Misty Forest now. Finding her would be like finding a raindrop in the ocean. Unless it wants her to be found.”
“Ryu, this was your home. You know this place. Surely, there is some way to…bargain with it. Get it to show her again.”
“Our best chance is to seek the aid of the seishen elder. This forest is his; it bends to his will.”
“I’m not going to leave her out here alone!”
Ryu puffed up his mane, stalking towards Hiro with a snarl on his face. Hiro inadvertently backed up a step. Sometimes he forgot how big Ryu really was. His head was level with Hiro’s chest, even standing on all four legs.
“Put that sword away before you poke my eye out spinning about like a top. Kai is capable and Quitsu is with her. She clearly has a new ability that is protecting her as well, as we saw when the trees attacked. Whereas we have her friend’s life in our hands. How would Kai feel if you let Emi die on a fruitless search for her?”
“Fine,” Hiro bellowed, sheathing his sword. “Let’s go. But if anything happens to Kai, I will never forgive you.”
“Then you will never forgive yourself.”
“Exactly,” Hiro muttered, jogging back towards the rest of the group.
“Find her?” Colum asked.
Hiro shook his head.
“We’ve wasted enough time on your runaway girlfriend,” Daarco said. “Emi is getting worse. If Kai’s foolishness means Emi doesn’t make it, I’ll gut her myself.”
Hiro descended on Daarco in a tidal wave of anger. “Don’t you ever threaten Kai. You think because you and Emi exchanged a friendly look five minutes ago that you have the monopoly on worry? That she’s more important than Kai? Don’t forget you’re here by my good graces! I could have you shipped back to Kistana so fast, it would make your head spin!”
“I forgot, perfect Hiro can do everything himself. You’re a regular one-man army. You never would have made it this far without me!”
“All you’ve done is drink and almost get us killed by a bunch of trees!”
“MATES—“ Colum sidled between them, as they were almost nose to nose now. “This is not the time. The lady is fading and we have tengu on our tail.”
“We do?” Daarco surveyed the mist behind them.
“Well, if we didn’t before, your two-man band is sure as hell bringin’ them from all corners. Now, Hiro, take the girl.”
“I can carry her,” Daarco said, sticking his chin out stubbornly.
“You’ve been carrying her for hours. I don’t care how manly your arms are. You’re fatigued. Speed is what Emi needs, not a pecker-measuring contest.”
The two golden-haired men glowered at each other, but Daarco finally relented. Hiro lifted Emi gently from the ground. As she settled into his arms, he was alarmed by the chill, clammy feel of her skin on his own. She was fading. Colum was right.
They resumed their jog through the endless lines of gray bark i
nterspersed with white mist. It’s enough to make a man go mad.
After what seemed like an eternity, the texture of the mist began to change. No longer was it a swirling, oppressive force—it felt lighter, more open.
“Is the mist lessening?” Hiro asked between ragged breaths.
“Yes,” Colum said. “We’re almost there.”
Colum and Daarco looked back at Hiro, who was lagging behind. Hiro’s arms were on fire, past the point of aching from Emi’s weight.
“I’ll take her again,” Daarco said, though his face was haggard and dripping sweat.
“No,” Colum said. “Give her to me; I’ll take a turn.”
As Hiro transferred Emi’s unconscious body to Colum’s arms, a rustle sounded in the trees beyond their view. The rustle turned into a snarl.
“Run!” Colum said, dashing off into the trees.
CHAPTER 19
Hiro, Daarco and Ryu sprinted after Colum as a glimpse of a dark shape flickered through the trees. Tengu.
Hiro risked a glance over his shoulder as a tengu burst onto the trail behind them. Hiro pumped his legs even faster, desperately asking his body to dig deeper, to find some hidden reserve to draw from. The tengu’s snout was covered in slather and hung open, revealing sharp, inch-long fangs and a lolling tongue.
It was gaining. A sound crashed through the trees to their right. Another one. Hiro grasped desperately for sunlight, but it was beyond his grasp. The sun hovered below the horizon, a few minutes from rising.
Daarco slowed and stopped, drawing his sword.
“Daarco, no!” Hiro cried, slowing.
“Go,” Daarco shouted. “Protect Colum and Emi! I’ll hold them off as long as I can!”
With a last tortured glance over his shoulder, Hiro saw the tengu crash into Daarco, who stood braced with his sword in hand. Daarco was a good fighter, and they still had the other tengu to contend with. Glimpsed through the trees, the one to their right was gaining.
Ryu slowed so he was running alongside Hiro, cutting off to the right.
“No,” Hiro panted. Ryu aimed to take on the other tengu. But it would be pointless; he could hear at least two more flanking them. They would only get torn apart by those. Hiro’s heart was beating in his throat, ready to explode with exertion. He could go no farther.
