by Evelyn Skye
“That’s right,” Empress Aki said.
“But what’s the purpose of the meeting?” Broomstick asked. “Do you really expect him to agree to a cease-fire? I’m guessing not. I think this is just a stall tactic to allow the taigas from around Kichona to centralize here, so we can fight Prince Gin with a bigger army, right?”
The empress smiled. “You have quite a head for political strategy for someone so young. I’m impressed.”
Broomstick flushed. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
She nodded. “You’re correct. Gin has no incentive to actually agree to peace, even a temporary one, when momentum is on his side. But I do think asking him to meet with me will buy us time. If only because he’ll be tempted to stray from his current plans to try to hypnotize me. Or kill me.”
Fairy trembled a little, knowing what was next in her plan. But being stuck here at the Citadel, unable to do anything while Spirit and Wolf were out there, was like being caught in a pixie trap. Fairy had been rattling the cage bars for days, wanting to get free, but those who had captured her had forgotten her because she was too small. She didn’t want to be insignificant anymore.
She took a deep breath and said, “Which is where our idea comes in. You may have noticed a resemblance between us. Not that I would ever claim to be as radiantly beautiful or intelligent or poised as you, Your Majesty,” Fairy added hastily.
Empress Aki smiled gently. “There’s no need for flattery. But yes, I do see a resemblance. If your hair were gold, you could pass for a younger version of me to someone who didn’t know me well.”
“Exactly. Let me go to this meeting in your place. Your brother hasn’t seen you in ten years; it could work. And with enough Imperial Guards, maybe we have a chance of capturing your brother or . . .” Fairy stopped. She couldn’t suggest killing the prince. Even though he was a traitor, talking about assassinating a member of the royal family was treason.
“It’s all right,” Empress Aki said. “This is war, and in war, there is always the possibility that someone will die. However, I cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself to save me.”
Fairy walked all the way up to the edge of the Council table. “But Your Majesty, that is the purpose of the taigas. We serve you and the kingdom, whatever and however you need. You must stay alive and with your wits about you if Kichona is to survive Prince Gin’s attacks. As one of your soldiers, it would be my honor to do this for you and our kingdom.”
“Fairy . . .” Broomstick said.
“I won’t change my mind.” They had argued ferociously beneath the floorboards about this, muted by their moth spell. But she had prevailed then, and she would again now. Two of their best friends were out there, in danger. She wouldn’t sit here at the Citadel any longer, doing nothing.
Broomstick slid his hand down her arm to her hand and squeezed it. “Then of course I’m going with you. And I won’t change my mind either.”
She squeezed his hand back.
Glass Lady opened her mouth to object. But Empress Aki held up her hand to silence her.
The empress looked at Fairy and Broomstick with grief already in her eyes. “This could be a suicide mission.”
A quiver fluttered through Fairy’s chest. But then she held Empress Aki’s gaze for a moment, before laying herself prostrate again on the ground. “Like I said, Your Majesty. We serve you and Kichona. Whatever and however you need.”
Chapter Forty-Two
As soon as Broomstick had a moment alone, he snuck into the dispatcher’s office in Warrior Meeting Hall.
I can’t believe we’re doing this.
But of course he could. This was what they’d trained their whole lives for. Fairy had already been worried and itching to do something. And now the future of the kingdom was at stake. On top of that, their friends were out there. They knew from Wolf’s dragonfly that Spirit had been captured.
Still, Broomstick’s hands shook as he prepared the tiny scroll and composed a new message to Wolf. Hopefully he was still at Tiger’s Belly and would receive it.
Wolf,
Fairy and I are headed to Copper Bluff in Dassu Desert with Empress Aki for negotiations with Prince Gin.
Please meet us there.
—Broomstick
He couldn’t write the truth, that Fairy would be bait, masquerading as the empress. He couldn’t risk the message being intercepted. But he needed Wolf there. It wasn’t just for support. It was because, if there was going to be any way out of this, they’d need as many of their heads together as possible.
And they’d always said that if they were going to die, they wanted to die fighting together. All four of them.
Maybe it was better that Sora wouldn’t be there. Maybe she would be spared.
Broomstick rolled up the miniature scroll and secured it to a dragonfly.
“Gods-speed,” he said, as it dashed out the window to the Society outpost at Tiger’s Belly. “Gods-speed to both you and Wolf.”
Chapter Forty-Three
The pearlescent orange-and-black buildings along the Striped Coves’ coastline glimmered in the midday sun. As the center of Kichona’s tiger pearl industry, the ocean-side city was always bustling, full of diving outfits harvesting the gems, jewelers creating world-famous baubles, and wealthy trading companies taking the goods abroad and bringing back chests full of gold.
But rather than catch the city unawares, the ryuu found something was already waiting for them when their ship pulled into the harbor at the Striped Coves. An enormous wooden sign with a letter tacked to it. It was clearly marked in large script: “Prince Gin.”
Hana leaned so far out over the railings to get a better look, she nearly fell over the edge.
“Virtuoso,” Prince Gin said, as he strode to the gangplank. “Come with me.”
As usual, he took his time. He was the one with the upper hand; he didn’t need to rush. Hana matched her steps with his, practicing the gravity of power.
When they reached the sign, the prince charmed the letter to untack and open itself. It remained suspended in the air as they read it.
Dearest Brother,
What a surprise to find you have returned to Kichona.
I understand you have been poaching my taigas, to which I, of course, object. I have ordered the Society to take precautions and evacuate outposts you may be tempted to take possession of.
I also request that you cease and desist your activities, and that we meet for peace talks and negotiation. I am sure we can come to an acceptable compromise.
Please meet me at Copper Bluff in the Dassu Desert in three days’ time. Bring only yourself and one warrior.
Your sister,
Aki
Prince Gin took a long, slow breath. When he’d finally exhaled, he said, “It seems my dear sister has figured out what we’ve been up to.”
“It appears so, Your Highness,” Hana said. “But it’s not unexpected. You knew she’d catch on to your plans sooner or later.”
“Yes, but I’d hoped to capture one or two more cities before we were discovered.”
Prince Gin glanced at a small cage hanging from the bottom of the wooden sign. There was a dragonfly inside, presumably so he could respond to the Society. “They’re still using these messengers,” he said. “How quaint.”
He quickly scrawled a note to Empress Aki, accepting her request for a meeting, and simply enchanted the scroll to fly itself to the Citadel, without the dragonfly.
“You’re going to go?” Hana asked, mouth hanging open in disbelief.
“It’s a trap. I’m sure of it,” he said. “And yet, this would be a good opportunity to get Aki off the throne, away from all the witnesses in the Imperial City. Then I could take the crown without being seen as killing my own sister.”
“You could have one of the ryuu do it, Your Highness. You’d avoid the risk of being ambushed yourself while still achieving your goals.”
The prince’s expression was uncharacteristically conflicted, his e
yes shadowed and mouth turned down at the corners. Was it just that he was unsure of what to do next? Or was there something more that made him hesitate?
But then he nodded. “That’s an excellent idea. Make it happen, Virtuoso.”
Hana’s breath caught. Crow’s eye, she hadn’t meant to volunteer herself. She didn’t know if she could do it. Hana wanted Prince Gin on the throne, but his sister was still the ruler of the kingdom. Assassinating an empress with one’s own hands was a very different thing than talking about someone else doing it. As much as she hated to admit it, Hana still respected the symbol of the throne, even if the person sitting on it was the wrong one.
But the relief in Prince Gin’s expression—the way the creases around his eyes and the frown lines at his mouth smoothed at her suggestion—extinguished her doubts. Hana would get this done for him. Somehow.
Prince Gin looked again at his sister’s message hovering in the air. “Take Spirit with you. Two invisible ryuu are better than one. And it will be a good test of her abilities.”
Great. Not only do I have to do the impossible, I have to do it with my sister.
But even as she told herself that, she knew she was starting to feel differently about Sora. And Hana reluctantly admitted that it was unreasonable to have expected her sister to come after her a decade ago. As Sora pointed out, they were children then. A bunch of eight-year-olds couldn’t have commandeered a naval ship and sailed after the kidnapped tenderfoots. There was nothing they could have done differently during the Blood Rift.
Hana could try to forgive her. Or at least work with her, for Prince Gin’s sake. There were many who were sacrificing more than their pride to move Kichona closer to the Evermore.
“Of course, Your Highness,” she said. “Spirit and I will go to Dassu Desert, kill your sister, and bring her body back to you.”
Chapter Forty-Four
A diver emerged from the sea, climbing onto the rocky shores with a heavy net full of oysters. Sora stood on the cliff above the Striped Coves, watching one of Kichona’s oldest trades. Pearl hunting was a family legacy, the expertise passed down from generation to generation. It took years of training to learn how to dive to depths of a hundred feet on a single breath alone, how to navigate the dark underwater caverns, how to identify the oysters with the most beautiful tiger pearls. She wondered how many centuries this diver’s family had been hunting for the orange-and-black-striped jewels, and how they’d discovered them in the first place.
The man sat on the slick rock for a minute, letting the sun warm him as he filled his lungs with precious oxygen. His nearly naked body shimmered, coated in coconut oil to keep him warm beneath the surface. But if he knew Sora was there, he didn’t care. Tourists often came to gawk at the process. One girl on the cliff wouldn’t bother him.
Soon, he upended his net and dumped the oysters onto the rock. In one deft motion, he inserted a small knife into the shell, slid it around the edge, and popped the oyster open. He pressed on the soft mollusk inside, and a second later, a large pearl slipped out into his fingers.
“It’s perfect,” Sora whispered. With her hawkeye spell, she could see the famed orange and black stripes on it, gleaming even though the jewel was unpolished. The pearl was round too, not oval or lopsided, but an exact sphere. And it was nearly an inch in diameter.
The diver nodded to himself, as if approving, set the pearl on top of a small silk pouch to dry, and moved on to the other oysters in his net.
Daemon had spearheaded the Level 12 fund-raiser to buy Empress Aki a string of tiger pearls during Autumn Festival.
Sora startled at the thought. She’d almost forgotten her gemina existed, which was a horribly disloyal thing, since they’d been best friends for ages. Mortified, Sora latched onto the memory.
But as soon as she tried to hold it, it wriggled away, like an eel. She lunged for it again, but it began to fade, the memory swimming into the murky depths of her mind.
This had happened before, hadn’t it? She’d remembered Daemon, but the thought had disappeared quickly, subsumed by something else.
She also felt strangely guilty for thinking about him. Or was it that cutting him off was wrong?
The diver shouted in alarm. Sora rushed to the edge of the cliff, her cloudy musings forgotten at the sound of someone needing help.
Three ryuu had suddenly appeared, riding on a wave. They were all women, and they surrounded him like sirens circling a stray sailor.
“Hello, handsome,” one of the ryuu said. “Did you find some good pearls?”
The diver tried to take a step back, but he bumped into another of the women.
“Hey,” she said, “Tidepool asked you a question. It’s rude not to answer.”
“W-what are you? Where did you come from?”
Tidepool smiled maliciously. “We’re your darkest fantasies come true. And your nightmares.”
The two other ryuu laughed and closed in on him. They put their hands on his chest and his back, holding him prisoner as they began to kiss his oiled skin.
“Stop!” Sora shouted from the cliff. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Leave them be,” Prince Gin said, approaching behind Sora.
She fell to her knees and bowed. “Your Highness.”
He gestured for her to rise. “The ryuu have been working hard. They deserve a little reward.”
Sora frowned. She wanted to believe him, to agree with his words that warmed her like sweet wine, but something felt wrong. “They’re forcing themselves on him.”
Prince Gin shrugged. “And they’ll kill him afterward. Those three have earned themselves the nickname ‘the Black Widows.’”
“No . . .” Sora shook her head. Again, that sensation that she wasn’t seeing the whole picture nagged at her. It was like that eel of Daemon’s memory, lurking in the muddy water just out of reach.
“The diver is one of our people,” Sora said. “I don’t understand. Aren’t we fighting so we can make all of Kichona happier?”
The ridges on Prince Gin’s face tightened as he pursed his lips together. Was he thinking? Was he considering what Sora had said?
A few moments later, he grunted and walked to the edge of the cliff. “Black Widows,” he said, “stop what you’re doing.” He didn’t have to yell. Somehow, his voice just carried on the wind down to them.
Tidepool pouted. “Why? You’ve always allowed us playthings.”
“That was in Shinowana. But this is our home country, and that diver is one of us. Save your appetites for the war abroad. Then you’ll have free rein to do what you want. It won’t be much longer that you have to wait.”
The women grumbled but backed off the diver. They rode off on a wave Tidepool commanded.
“As for you,” Prince Gin said to the diver, who stood shivering but immobile from his encounter with the Black Widows, “they didn’t hurt you. Everything is all right. Yes?”
The man looked up in wonder. A smile broke across his face, and his body stopped trembling. “Your Highness. You’ve come home.”
“I have.”
The man nodded. “Then yes, everything is all right.”
Prince Gin waved his hand, and the diver quickly gathered his oysters and pearls and dove back into the sea, swimming in the direction of home.
“Is that better?” the prince said, turning to Sora.
She saw him as if through a haze of heat. At the same time, a swell of ambition and purpose washed through her, and she couldn’t recall why she’d protested a minute ago. How silly to question the Dragon Prince. He knew what he was doing. He had Kichona’s best interests at heart.
She looked down at the sleeve of her uniform, where the green triplicate whorls of the ryuu reflected the sunlight off the surface of the water. She smiled and traced the embroidery. So beautiful. Like pride and power woven straight into the threads.
“Yes, everything is better,” Sora answered the prince.
“Good. Because I have a missio
n for you and Virtuoso.”
“A mission? For Hana and me?” Happiness bubbled up inside Sora, like a cauldron of sweet tapioca soup, overflowing. The Dragon Prince wanted her to do something for him. And with her sister. What an embarrassment of riches!
“That’s the kind of enthusiasm I like. You’ll have to pack quickly. I need you to leave within the hour.”
Sora didn’t care. She would have left yesterday if she could.
“What’s our mission?” she asked.
Prince Gin looked at the ground and kicked a rock over the cliff’s edge. “You’re going to assassinate the empress.”
Sora nodded. “It’s time the empress’s rule was put to an end.”
“This is the most important task right now,” he said. “Are you ready for it?”
She could hardly wait to run back to the ship, grab her things, and go. She had to put her palms on her legs to force herself to stand in place for just another minute, to have some dignity in front of the Dragon Prince.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Sora said. “I’m more than ready.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Sora tore through the treetops, chasing after Hana, who sprang from branch to branch as if she’d been born a panther. “You call that fast? I call it pitiful,” Hana yelled, only half teasing as she darted into a hole between cypress branches and emerged several tiers below.
Sora concentrated even harder. It wasn’t that her legs were too slow. It was that she wasn’t completely accustomed yet to the way ryuu saw the world, everything brighter and sharper, as if she’d been myopic before and had only now discovered this marvelous invention called spectacles.
Of course, there were no spectacles, not real ones. And yet the world was new. Besides the omnipresent emerald specks of magic in the air, there were smaller things that surprised Sora. Being able to see a faint green path through the seemingly chaotic mess of forest, for instance. Hana was beating her right now because she not only saw the path between trunks and jagged branches clearly; she also trusted it. Sora had the vision but had not yet acquired the trust to fling herself headlong toward wherever the magic directed her.
