by Claire Luana
Hiro looked at her for a moment, his green eyes smoldering, seeming to bare her down to the soul. He pulled her into a tight embrace, burying his nose in her neck.
Kai melted into him, relishing the moment of tenderness. With his very presence, Hiro had a way of making her feel like everything would be all right. He pulled back and his mouth found hers, his tongue gently searching, parting her lips with sweet insistence. And then she stopped thinking of how he made her feel and just felt it, her mind drifting into a bliss empty of worry about gods and droughts and fevers. He invaded her senses and left her reeling. The musky scent of him, the feel of his hard muscles pressed against her body. Her body ached for him.
But, as he always did, he pulled away, leaving her breathless and quivering. Though they had spent months together and had shared countless passionate kisses, he seemed unwilling to cross some invisible line. She’d almost begged him to continue a dozen different times, but her pride had killed the words on her tongue.
A cleared throat sounded behind them and Kai whirled around, her face red. Ryu and Quitsu stood in the hallway, bland expressions on their furry faces.
“Let’s get my horse saddled,” Kai said, smoothing her hair and heading to the next stall. She risked a glance back at Hiro and was rewarded by a stormy look of longing on his face. Though it stirred her own emotions once again, she felt a touch of satisfaction. Good. Let him stew.
Kai and her retinue made their way out the big oaken citadel gates and into the city proper. Though Nanase insisted on Kai having at least two master moonburners and four other guards with her, it still was preferable to remaining cooped up in the citadel.
Kai held court once a month, during which her subjects could come to her to present a problem or complaint, but she had taken to riding through the city at least once a week to let the people see her. Sometimes she visited Tsuki’s temple or the merchant’s guild headquarters. Other times she’d go to a school or library. Last week, she had visited a boarding house Emi had set up, where vulnerable women could learn a real trade and escape a life of prostitution. That visit seemed like a lifetime ago.
Tonight, having Hiro at her side was a welcome addition. With Quitsu and Ryu trotting along beside them, they drew quite a few stares from Kyuden’s citizens. Often her passage was met with cheers and hollers, but this ride was different. The faces she saw were withdrawn, guarded. Hungry.
They made their way through the well-kept streets that bordered the citadel into the Meadows, the rundown neighborhood where Kyuden’s poorest citizens lived. Kai had made efforts to better the situation for those who lived in this area, opening an orphanage and kitchen paid for with royal funds. It was a start, but there was very far to go.
Tonight they were headed to the city’s granaries situated on the docks of the Nozuchi River. Kai had read reports about the sorry state of Kyuden’s food stores, but she’d had to see it for herself. Hanae had arranged an appointment and tour with the dockmaster.
Kai glanced over at Hiro, who seemed lost in thought. He worried at the reins with his hands, his attention far away.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked him.
He started, as if he had forgotten she was there. “Daarco,” he admitted.
“About that,” Kai said sharply. “I don’t want him here. We have enough to worry about as it is.”
“He won’t try anything,” Hiro said. “He knows he has to behave or he will be stripped of his rank and discharged.”
“The man tried to kill me,” Kai said. “I don’t trust him.”
“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t either if I were you. But at the time, he was doing what he thought was best for the sunburners. I have made it very clear that what is best for the sunburners now is peace. Our alliance.”
“Will that be enough?” Kai asked.
Hiro sighed. “Daarco wasn’t always like this. Once, he was like a brother to me. Now…I’m losing him. This hatred is consuming him, and if I don’t try to bring him back from the edge…”
“You’ll lose him forever,” Kai finished.
“I know I have no right to ask you to let him stay, especially with all that is going on. But just give me two weeks. To get through to him. If there’s no improvement…we’ll send him home.”
“Two weeks?”
“Two weeks.”
She blew out a breath, fluttering her silver hair. “I can’t refuse you anything.”
“You are a most magnanimous queen,” Hiro said with a chuckle. He took her hand and kissed it. “Thank you. Besides, I gave him to Chiya to look after. I figure if those two don’t tear each other apart, she’ll whip him into shape.”
Kai laughed. “I’m impressed. They’ll probably glare at each other until one of them goes cross-eyed.”
“Indeed. We can just sit back and watch.”
Kai’s smile grew wistful. “I wish everyone believed it as strongly as we do.”
“What?” Hiro said.
“That what we’re doing is right. The alliance. I know it in my bones. But how to show people?”
“We will,” Hiro said, squeezing her hand.
As they crested a hill, the view of the city stretched out beneath them. The lights below punctuated the inky darkness of the evening, and the stars above them seemed a mirror, reflecting the beauty of her city. A split in the road veered to the right, ending at a small grassy park designed to take in the view.
“Let’s stop for a moment,” Hiro said. He had a strange gleam in his eye. Kai considered rejecting the idea, but he had already swung down from the saddle, handing the reins to one of the guards. A short break can’t hurt, she thought. The park, despite the warm evening, was deserted.
Kai dismounted, landing on the cobblestones of the road. She wore fitted black trousers and a violet silken tunic with a high neck. She was still more comfortable in pants than anything else.
Hiro took her hand and led her into the park, where he looked into the distance for a moment.
“Gives Kistana a run for its money,” he said, referring to the Kitan capital where he had grown up.
“Kyuden beats Kistana hands down,” Kai said.
“You’ve never even been to Kistana!” Hiro retorted.
“I don’t have to,” Kai said. “I know that Kyuden is the most beautiful city in the world.”
“Agree to disagree,” Hiro said, turning to her. “Neither of them hold a candle to the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.”
“And what might that be?” Kai asked, arching an eyebrow.
“You,” he said.
She chuckled, playfully swatting at him, but the intensity of his expression stilled her.
“I mean it,” he said. “Inside and out. I can’t imagine my life without you. I don’t want to have to.” He pulled something out of his pocket.
“Kailani Shigetsu, Queen of Miina. Will you marry me?” He held up a ring that glittered in the starlight. It was simple, formed of interwoven bands of silver and gold, studded with tiny winking diamonds. It was perfectly lovely, unlike the gaudy gems that were all the rage among the nobles. Somehow he had known that this would be exactly what she would want.
Kai’s breath caught in her throat, her mind racing with excitement. A life with Hiro was a dream that she had hardly dared dream, for fear that thinking of it would cause it to slip away. She loved him with force that she felt like a physical thing.
But a flicker of guilt flitted through her mind. War was coming. The very earth was rebelling against them. How could she play the happy bride when her people were starving? Dying?
Hiro seemed to understand the doubt in her face. “I know the timing seems strange. The truth is, I’ve been carrying this ring in my pocket for months, trying to find the perfect time. But there is no perfect time. You almost died yesterday. When I thought I had lost you, I kept thinking what a fool I had been, that I hadn’t told you how I felt. That I had missed my chance. I’m not going to miss my chance again. I love you, Kai. Even i
f Taiyo scorches the earth tomorrow, I want to spend today with you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, her thoughts tumbling inside her. She wanted it too. To marry Hiro. To have one piece of happiness to hold on to while the world crumbled around her.
So she threw her arms around Hiro and kissed him, deep and long, giving him her answer without a word passing her lips. When she pulled back, both of their faces were wet with tears.
“Yes,” she said.
He slipped the ring on her finger.
Ryu and Quitsu plowed into Hiro and Kai with bounds of happiness, nearly knocking them off their feet. Ryu had his paws on Hiro’s shoulders and Quitsu sat on Kai’s head and they laughed and shooed at their seishen with happy tears shining in their eyes.
“Don’t tell me we’re stuck with the fox,” Ryu rumbled as he dropped back to all fours.
“You would be so lucky,” Quitsu said with mock affront. “You have the sense of humor of a bale of hay, and the look of one too! I could teach you a thing or two!”
“Now, kids, don’t fight,” Kai said with a laugh, her gaze meeting Hiro’s with the sudden joy of possibility. He could see it too. Children. A family. A life to build.
Hiro circled behind her and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her silver-topped head. They looked over the sparkling lights of Kyuden, reveling in the moment. His spirit soared. She had said yes.
Kai wasn’t one to play games, and Hiro had thought he’d known what her answer would be. But a small part of him had been terrified. He wasn’t used to feeling so exposed.
Now, holding her in his arms, Hiro felt silly for doubting their love. They had been through so much together already.
“I never thought I’d get to marry for love,” he said.
“You assume your father will approve?” she joked.
“You know he respects you,” Hiro said. “He thinks you’ll keep me in line.”
“He’s not wrong,” she said.
“If I married at all, I was resigned to a marriage that would only serve Kita’s political needs. I thought I’d be fortunate to end up with a wife who didn’t despise me.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer through a marriage with a wife who adores you,” she said.
Hiro kissed the smooth indent at the side of Kai’s neck, and she shivered lightly under his touch, turning in his arms for another kiss. Her lips tasted of honey. When she pulled back, he drank in the sight of her: the sprinkling of freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose and cheeks, her warm hazel eyes that revealed such intelligence and wit. He felt like they could see to the heart of him, and for once, the exposure didn’t frighten him.
“I wish I could stay here forever,” Kai murmured, pulling back slightly.
“But…”
“But I have a meeting with the dockmaster to walk through the granaries,” Kai said. “I shouldn’t miss it.”
“Duty calls,” he said, unable to keep from smiling. He thought he might never stop smiling.
They mounted once again and made their way down the hill to the maze of warehouses, docks, and ships that made up Kyuden’s port.
Hiro had never been to this part of the city, and he took it all in with interest. A spiderweb of rickety wooden docks splayed over the meandering Nozuchi River, creating a bustling city all its own. They passed a floating market full of merchants in long wooden boats hawking their wares—spices, cloth, dried meat, little black shellfish that cracked open to reveal gooey flesh inside. There were human wares too, women with high hemlines and low necklines, watching him hungrily as they passed. Young girls and boys who should be in school peering around corners with haunted eyes. Kai saw all of these things, her mouth set in disapproval. He could see her mind working, whirling through strategies and initiatives that might help these people.
They rode through many docks and stalls before they arrived at the first of four identical warehouses. The warehouses were huge, set on large platforms built half on the riverbank and half over the river. It didn’t seem like the best location for a granary, but it was close to where the flat barges of grain came into port from farms upriver. Perhaps it was just a temporary storage area. Armed guards patrolled the fenced perimeter of the warehouses. With no crops this year, the grain in these buildings was more precious than gold. It was a wise precaution.
A tall older man strode out of the granary to greet them. His salt and pepper hair curled about his head in a wild fashion, bobbing as he walked. His angular face was framed by pronounced cheekbones and held discerning blue eyes that seemed too fine for the rest of him.
“Gooday,” the man said with a drawl, shaking Hiro’s hand with a surprisingly firm grip after he’d dismounted. The man’s other hand grasped a tall wooden staff smoothed by years of handling. The man was Hiro’s equal in height and build, well-muscled under his suede trousers and faded linen shirt.
The man turned to Kai, taking her in with an appraising look before bowing low before her and kissing her hand. “I am at your service, Your Majesty,” he murmured.
Hiro furrowed his brow. What kind of merchant was this man?
“I am a trader, a merchant, and an entrepreneur,” the man said to Hiro, as if reading his mind. “If you can name it, I’ve done a bit of it in my time.”
“What kind of entrepreneur?” Hiro asked.
“Antiquities, mostly,” he said unabashedly.
“Antiquities,” Kai said with suspicion, retrieving her hand like a handkerchief someone had sneezed into.
There were many who smuggled artifacts out of historic sites in Kita or Miina to sell on the black market. The rich adored displaying trinkets from long-lost dynasties in their sitting rooms. But it was a dangerous business. There was more to this man than met the eye.
“Merchant Silvie, as an…entrepreneur who trades in antiquities, how did you come to serve as my dockmaster?” Kai asked.
“I’m not your dockmaster,” the man said airily. “He’s a snivley little man with a ledger twice his size. Somewhere in the back.” He pointed a thumb back at the warehouse.
“What?” Kai exclaimed.
Hiro drew his sword.
“Who are you then?” Kai asked.
“Why, I’m Colum, at your service.” He twirled his staff before slapping the end to the dock. “I wanted to get a look at you. I heard you’d be visiting this part of town.”
Before Hiro could respond, a great rumble sounded. It echoed across the docks and the river, drawing little ripples on the water.
“What was that?” Kai asked, her eyes widening in alarm.
Ryu yowled and Quitsu cried out with a screech, their voices blending in an animal cacophony that stood Hiro’s hair on end.
As their voices died out, the world hung perfectly still for a moment, as if taking a deep breath. A sense of overwhelming wrongness flooded through his bond with Ryu.
“That, I suspect, is what Tsuki has planned for you next,” Colum said.
And then the wrongness exploded, seeming to rip the very fabric of the world itself. The dock bucked beneath them in great galloping strides, the ground shuddering in an earthquake. Hiro’s feet lost contact with the dock as the ground lurched up to meet him. He hit the dock hard, pain exploding up his tailbone and spine. He clung to the boards, forcing his fingers between the tightly-packed wood, seeking desperately for purchase. It did little good—the rolling of the dock flung him into the air like a leaf on the autumn wind.
Kai and the others were doing no better. Kai was flattened on her stomach clinging to one of Quitsu’s legs as the dock heaved beneath her. Ryu had dug his claws into the wood of the dock and appeared to be holding firm. The weathered man was on his backside, bouncing about like he was breaking in a yearling in the stableyard. He had a mad smile on his face and…was he laughing?
As suddenly as it had begun, the shaking ended.
People poured out of the granaries and warehouses down the length of the docks. Guards and merchants, laborers
and nobles all scrambled over each other in headlong flight towards the shore. The mass of humanity seemed united in one goal: get to safety.
Hiro pulled Kai to her feet. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she said, drawing in a shaky breath. Blood dribbled from a split in her lip. “But I’m getting awfully tired of the gods playing dirty.”
“They haven’t played all their cards,” Colum said. “Let’s get out of here.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the earth let out another ominous groan.
“More?” Kai said, the dismay plain in her voice.
They joined the crowd of people fleeing the warehouses and docks running towards land. There were people all around them—a woman carrying her baby in a sling, a huge burly warehouse guard who overtook them easily, an old bookkeeper who was falling behind.
The shaking grew more violent as the earth not only undulated in waves, but also tossed them side to side like rag dolls. The mass of docks began to list to the side, leaning precariously towards the river.
“The docks are collapsing!” Hiro said, grabbing Kai’s hand. “Run!” He knew Ryu and Quitsu followed somewhere behind, but he only had eyes for Kai. He had to keep her safe.
The world lurched beneath him in the most violent jolt yet. Kai’s hand was ripped from his as the dock let out a colossal boom and the boards snapped in two. Hiro was tossed towards the land, while Kai was thrown towards the raging middle of the river.
Hiro hit the surface of the river like a ton of bricks, taking in a mouthful of cold dirty water. He flailed about in blind panic for a moment before orienting himself and kicking to the surface, spluttering and coughing. The dark water around him roiled with people, wood and waves.
Hiro scanned the churning surface of the river, trying to locate Kai. Where was she? His fear for her pulled at him like an anchor. He caught a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye and spun to see Quitsu pressed beneath the waves by two men barreling towards the shore.
