by C. R. Jane
Let go, the voice insisted.
I did the only thing I do locked in place as I was. I stopped resisting the heat that I felt surging through my veins. I leaned into it, relaxing my muscles and allowed it to take over.
White hot pain shot up my spine as fire spread from my splayed fingers. I tried for calm, for focusing on anything other than the pain, but it overwhelmed me.
I let out a fiery scream.
Chapter 4
In an instant, the world around me blanked out into a glorious white.
And then, all that white energy pushed outward and slammed into the monster. It let out a roar that raised the hackles on my neck as it was hurled back into the forest. Trees went down, easily broken in half as if they were matchsticks.
Hayato laid a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, did it get you?”
Before I could answer, I saw another dark blur leaving the forest. Hayato responded to the look on my face as much as to the danger, and he whirled with his sword again and successfully ducked under swiping claws while his blade sparked against something metallic.
Body armor? On a monster?
As Hayato faced it, the metal wasn’t something the creature wore; it was part of the creature itself.
How are we supposed to pierce metallic hide?
Hayato was quick, ducking and flipping as he landed a flurry of sword strikes along the monster, looking for an opening or weakness of some kind. But, the monster only needed one lucky strike to tear Hayato’s flesh into ribbons.
The pressure in my gut grew again, but this time I wasn’t afraid of it and welcomed the bloom of energy, eager to see what it could do. I blew out the energy toward the creature that was slashing at my brother.
The field was weaker than the other that grew from me, but it was still effective. The monster was knocked onto its back, its multi-jointed legs flailing as it sought to gain purchase.
Hayato didn’t pause. He pressed his advantage and vaulted in the air, sword positioned to thrust down at the monster’s exposed underbelly.
Then, multiple things happened at once.
The monster’s tail arced up from underneath its body, a needle-like stinger aiming for Hayato’s middle.
A dark blur flowed over the temple’s walls, and knocked into Hayato.
I screamed as Hayato fell, the sound raw and harsh even to my own ears.
Energy welled up inside of me, an electrical current that was both hot and itchy on my skin. I welcomed it, demanded it to work for me, and forced it out once more.
As my vision narrowed into two pinpoints of light, I saw the energy land right on top of the monster’s exposed body, crushing it to gory bits.
I fought for consciousness, fought for feeling, anything, just so I could see if Hayato was safe.
Like the other deep desires, I wished for in my short life, I was denied and darkness threatened to wash over me.
“Don’t worry, Queen. I have you.” Strong hands anchored me to consciousness.
I didn’t know who that voice was talking to, but it surely couldn’t have been me. I was no queen. I was barely the same rank as a lady of the Imperial court.
Whatever status I had was through my father or brother.
A man had appeared beside me, and was now taking off his glove. Then, he covered my hand with his, and the warmth that flowed through him made me feel better. It was amazing how well I felt, as if I drinking a hot cup of tea on a cold wintry day. I could almost feel it filling me up bit by bit.
“There you are, my queen. That’s it. Take as much as you need.”
I heard his words but didn’t quite comprehend the meaning of what he said. My limbs felt weightless and free as if I floated along atop an ocean and was bobbing in the waves.
Finally, the darkness receded from my vision and I was able to see clearly once more. The man before me was dressed all in black, from the top of his head down to his toes. His head wrap had a hooded flap that covered his eye area completely.
The only reason I could tell he was human at all was the hand on top of mine.
His fingers were really smooth and elegant.
“You must have mistaken me for someone else. I’m no queen.” I would have asserted my disguise: that I was a man not a woman, let alone a queen.
But being this close to me, I could almost feel the intensity of his gaze. His eyes were so sharp, he knew exactly who was in front of him. It was as if he could see and scour my very soul.
“You may not have been queen before this moment. But you are one now. Come on, let’s go see to your guard. We have one shot at this.”
“One shot at what?” I asked, my head still groggy.
Despite the mask he wore, I could almost see him smile at me. “You’ll see.”
Chapter 5
“Where do you think you’re going with her?” Captain Jun’s indignant voice rang out as he marched to where we now stood. “And Xiulan, I cannot believe that you had been subjected to these horrors this entire time. Your father would be so angry to know that this was how you lived out your legacy.”
I felt my cheeks flame, but said nothing. My father would have been crushed knowing that not only had I been outside of the Imperial City virtually unprotected, but also because I had been found out. The shame upon my family would be grievous
The man in black stopped to assess Captain Jun. “Me? I’m keeping her safe.” Then, the man in black extended his hand toward me. I placed my hand in his, more as a reflex rather than intention. Immediately, another wave of calm flowed into me.
It felt good not to worry about what others thought about me. Sometimes others’ approval muddled up what I knew deep down inside. It was really annoying and made things so much harder.
“If you truly want her to be safe, you would have opened the gates.” Captain Jun bit off every little syllable.
The man in black surged in front me and put his face in Captain Jun’s. “We cannot open the gates when any of those things are present. We would risk destroying the foundations of the world.”
I didn’t know if it was the melodramatic words or if Captain Jun could feel the anger rolling off this man as I could, but he remained silent.
“We will leave now, retrieve her other guard, and see about cutting off the creature before it reports back to its nest that the Phoenix Queen has arrived. If you want to be helpful, why don’t you set fire to those walking disease bags before they infect the entire mountainside.” The man in black stormed away from Captain Jun, taking my hand in his.
As if we hadn’t been interrupted, his entire tone of voice and demeanor changed back to what it was before. “Come on.”
“Where we going?” The man in black tugged me along after him. It felt as if we were floating along without a care, yet when I viewed the scenery, it all went by in a blur. “Wait a minute. You were that blur that came from the temple? How was that you, and how are you doing this now?”
“I’m sure Master Wu would tell you all sorts of in-depth mumbo jumbo about the nature of the universe and all that. The reality is, my powers are just an extension of who I am. So, all this running? Just how I go places.”
I sneaked a peek back, and saw that the temple receded into the backroom. We had spent all day to get there, and here we were, running away again.
“To answer your other question, we’re meeting up with others to finish what we started. The monsters thought you and your guard would have been an easy breakfast before full night descended. You showed them, didn’t you! One of them you crushed, but the other one was just dazed. It’s making its way back to its hive. We need to get to it first beforehand.”
I brushed leaves and twigs from my face. “And Hayato?”
“Your guard?”
“Well, brother, but I guess my guard.”
“Brother? Even better!” Something seemed to switch inside of him and he surged ahead even faster. “He’s with the other temple guards. Sorry, when I knocked him away from the stinger, I teleported
him as far away as I could. For safety.”
Somehow, I didn’t quite believe that reason, but I let it go because we slowed down at the edge of the forest. “Where are we?” I asked. I lingered where there were still green and lush trees. The other side was a barren landscape with craggy rocks and blackened spires. It looked to be an alien landscape devoid of life.
I didn’t want to step foot there. It felt as if I’d be sucked into another dimension.
“Xiulan!” Hayato rushed toward me and hugged me to him. Only then did I realize that the breastplate and helmet of my dragon armor was beyond repair; bits and pieces were warped and melted.
He helped me shrug out of them so that I was at least comfortable. When I was left in just my linen robe, I felt self-conscious without the camouflage of the gear.
“What happened to you?” I asked him. I wanted to hear from his perspective.
“One moment I was about to strike that creature down, and the next, I was knocked out here and told to stay until the other guard arrived. I’d be needed. And then a moment later, here you are.”
“Other guard?” I shifted my gaze to the man in black.
He bowed with a flourish. “Yes, my queen, they shall by arriving about now.”
One by one, puffs of smoke appeared before my eyes, and when the smoke disappeared, another man in black would arrive until there were five total.
When the appeared, Hayato pivoted so that he was between them and me. “Thank you for helping us overcome that creature. But why have you brought us here?”
Hayato was worried, but if they had wanted to kill us they wouldn’t need all this pomp. They would have let the creatures get us straight away.
“Thanks to you, we have the opportunity to have an advantage over one of the monsters. We’d never been able to find their hive’s entrance, but here we are!”
He pointed to a twisted formation of earthen spires reaching toward the sky. It made my skin crawl to even look at it.
“And what do you expect us to do?” I said.
“Well really what we need is from you, Your Majesty.”
Hayato raised a brow at me while I tried to explain that I didn’t request that title from them. “Tell me how she can be more helpful than me in fighting a monstrous horde.” He tried to sound lighthearted, but I knew my brother. He was taunting.
“Simple. The phoenix spirit chose to reside in Her Majesty’s heart. The balance that she creates will be the focus for our combined powers in order to seal the gates that leads them into our world.”
“World? Balance? Phoenix spirit? This is all outrageous!” I sought support from Hayato. “Tell them this is crazy.”
Instead of the guffaws of laughter I’d expected or a shared look of amusement, Hayato was serious. He rubbed his chin pensively, as if trying to measure the weight of the man in black’s word. “I can see this being true.”
I whirled around, shocked. “What? You can see this being true? How? What actual facts can you possibly have to agree with someone we literally just met.”
“The fact that we both faced a creature that was three times the size of a bear with metallic-like skin and claws. The fact that when I thought I was surely dead, you burst into flames and pushed it away from me with claws made of fire.” He lowered himself so that his forehead rested against mine. “Those are facts. But that is not the reason I trust him. It is the fact that he sees your worth when you are blinded to it.”
I huffed and crossed my arms. Hayato was very rarely sentimental so when he was, I didn’t know what to do about it. “Well, if you’re going to be picky about it, I guess I can see your point,” I muttered.
Hayato laughed and hugged me lightly before letting me go. Then turned to the first man in black. “If we are going to work together to seal off the entrance to their world, then we should see each other,” he suggested.
“Agreed.” The first man took off his cowl, and the others followed suit. Black spiky hair was plastered to his scalp, which he fluffed up again. And when he looked at me, he had the most startling gray eyes.
That wasn’t normal.
He bowed at the waist. “It is a pleasure to serve, Your Majesty. You may call me Li.”
One by one, they each introduced themselves to me. I tried to remember their names as they introduced themselves.
Reo and Kaito came from the same clan, and both had streaming hair that moved around their body like a river. Reo had blue hair while Kaito’s was more teal.
Sora had black spiky hair just like Li, except his eyes swirled blue like a spring day.
Zhang was a powerhouse with a shaved head and jade green eyes that were startling next to his tanned complexion.
I sighed deeply, letting the details soak into my mind. “I apologize in advance if I forget your names.”
Li smiled, and I just noticed the gray that limned the black of his eyes. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty. There are more of us than there are of you. If it helps you could always number us one to five?”
“As long as you’re One, is that it?” Zhang said.
“I don’t see how that’s easier. She would still need to attach a word to a person, and clearly if we are all going to be called One, that would be even more confusing.”
I giggled at their banter. I wasn’t used to being in the company of male companions. “Is it just the five of you living at the temple? It seemed so big for such a small contingent?”
“Oh, there’s more, but most of the other guard rotate in. Think of the temple as one outpost of many.”
“I see. And was there a master you said?”
This was the first sign of tension between the group. “Yes well, there is a master. But he’s pretty hands off regarding our training,” Li explained.
Training? Now that I thought about, being a priest is probably not that different from any other profession, especially since it seemed like they specialized in monster slaying.
“So, what did you need me to do? I fear that when the sun sets, they would be harder to kill.”
“Yeah, about that,” Li started. “The monsters would be harder to kill as there would be more of them, but that’s what we need.”
“We need for a lot of them to come out of their hive so that we destroy them now while they’re the least prepared. That way, we hit them hard, and they will stay away for at least a few more millennia.”
I was dumbfounded. “You mean this has happened before?”
“It’s a cycle, kind of like insects. We’ve never been able to find their queen. But, this way we can take out a lot of their armies and seal off an entrance. That will definitely set them back a few generations. They’re persistent since our world is full of magic for their sustenance.”
My mind was reeling. A hive of these creatures. I nearly expended all the energy I had in my entire body and it was just for two of these things.
“I don’t know how I can help you, though. What I did earlier was the first time I’d been able to do anything like that. It was luck, reflex even.” I played with the cuffs of my robe, not wanting to be a disappointment.
“You don’t need to do anything. Being a focus for our powers is nothing but focusing your mind toward the object in question. In our case, the empty space between those two spires,” Li pointed out the space he meant in the distance.
“So, I’m to just sit and stare?”
“And think murderous thoughts,” he added with a glinting smile.
I burst out laughing to release the tension. “Well, if that’s all, then why not?”
A crack of lightning exploded at the ground near my feet. It made me jump and Hayato drew his sword. When I looked up, a compact man appeared with high cheekbones, long beard, and wiry, silver strands of his hair standing up on end.
“Hello?” I greeted. Hayato was back to standing in front of me in protection while at the same time I felt someone at my back. Or rather two someones. Reo and Kaito stood behind me as if they had been doing this for years.
/> Instead of a response, the man rounded on Li. “I knew you were going to be here. Haven’t we had enough injury? Do I need to personally insult you, too, in order for me to get it through your thick skull: This is a crazy plan? You cannot win.”
“Master Wu, you say we cannot win, but Xiulan the Phoenix Queen has arrived. Tell me that that’s not auspicious. Just as we need the most focus to harness and direct our powers, here she arrives.”
Master Wu looked around as if finding me was so difficult among the other men. I didn’t know what that said about me. I thought to help him out with a wave. “Hi again.”
He started at my feet, and then met my gaze. I didn’t know what he saw there, but he nodded. “All right, well, this changes things.”
Li’s plan was pretty simple. They would create a circle of protection from which I will be standing with Hayato and Master Wu. While I was concentrating on the wall, I would be automatically drawing their energies together inside of myself in order to pummel it against gate.
Seemed easy enough.
“The substance that looks like earth, isn’t. Wherever they came from is seeping into this place. It’s nearly impossible to destroy, or if it does crumble the result is minimal. It wouldn’t even come close to the avalanche we need. The metal of their hide was our clue. We don’t need to crush or pulverize it. We just needed to get something hot enough to melt it.”
My heart bloomed. “Like phoenix fire,” I said softly.
“Like phoenix fire,” Li agreed. “Come. Let’s get started.
The night covered us well. It was like the stars knew that this valley didn’t belong to our world and so chose not to shine into it. The darkness was oppressive. “I’m surprised that there aren’t any of them here?” I asked.
“This is actually the safest point at this time,” Master Wu answered. “The rest of the scouts are actually hunting the forest grounds now. It’s when they return from feeding that we’d have to worry about. Hopefully at that point there’ll be so much fire, that it wouldn’t matter. Come child, time to get in the circle and construct some meditative focus points for you.”
