“Now the games begin.” Toko gave a fierce grin, and it was the pleasantest expression I’d ever seen on Akira’s face. He nodded to one of the Kate and Luce pairs and they ran out onto the verandah.
I heard the real Akira’s shout of rage and the sound of a gun being fired. I winced. As if that was the signal, the kitsune scattered, leaving one pair of “guards”, Toko, Luce and me.
“This is going to be interesting.” Luce’s grin matched Toko’s.
We hurried down the corridor toward the main wing of the house. Two guards still stood there, keeping stoic watch against marauding kitsune, though their attention was clearly on the distant shouts and occasional gunfire. They stiffened to surprised attention at the sight of Toko.
“What are you doing here, fools?” he barked at them in irate Japanese. Luce obligingly translated for me. “The kitsune have escaped while you guard empty rooms. Go join the hunt!”
“At once, master.” They both bowed low, and before they could straighten again Luce and one of our pretend guards bashed them into unconsciousness. We stepped over their crumpled bodies and moved on.
“Where to?” Luce asked.
“The garage. We must get you to the airport. Nowhere in Japan will be safe for you after this.”
That suited me just fine. The sooner I got home, the sooner I could be reunited with Lachie. And then there was just the coronation to get through. The endgame was close.
We hurried through empty rooms and past anxious servants who bowed deeply to Lord Akira and watched him escort his captives, whoever they were. If they wondered what had become of Daiyu they kept it to themselves.
Hakawa appeared, flanked by a pair of guards.
“Lord Akira.” He bowed. “I can’t find Lady Daiyu.”
“She has already gone ahead,” Toko grunted. “I go to meet her. Wait here until we return.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
“Stop them!” shouted a familiar voice from the garden. The screens were open. The real Akira, looking a little worse for wear since the last time we saw him, stumbled toward us. His kimono was ripped and smeared with blood, and there was something not quite right about the way he moved, as if he was having trouble coordinating the movement of his limbs. Shame the jorogumo venom hadn’t finished him off, but it had certainly had an effect.
“My lord!” Hakawa, open-mouthed, stared from one Akira to the other.
“Arrest that imposter,” Toko commanded. “He is a kitsune.”
One of the guards with Hakawa started toward Akira. Akira’s problem was that, at the moment, Toko looked more like the real Akira than he did himself. Toko was dressed immaculately, drawn up to Akira’s full haughty height, whereas Akira himself was slurring his words like a drunkard and covered in filth. There was nothing like being dragged backward through the bushes by a ravening spider-woman to mess with your outfit.
Akira backhanded the guard out of the way. “You fool! He is the kitsune.”
He dropped his ruined kimono. The air around him shimmered and a red dragon stood in his place. Oops. Looked like the old taboos were out the window in Japan as well as Sydney.
The dragon drew in a deep breath. Shit.
“Incoming!” I reached for trueshape. “Get out of the way!”
I slammed into trueshape, smashing screens and bursting through the roof with a roar. Luce and the kitsune ducked behind my bulk as the red dragon let loose a blast of dragonfire. It rolled off my scales, no more than the pleasant warmth of the sun on a summer afternoon, and licked hungrily at the paper screens. They went up with a whoosh.
Hakawa and his guard burned bright as torches. They had time for one scream before their charred bodies collapsed.
“Go!” I urged Luce, my voice booming above the crackle of the flames.
She went, dragging the kitsune with her, and I leapt out into the garden to face the red dragon. My tail lashed the neatly raked pebbles and sent them flying.
“Who are you?” he growled, but his eyes were having trouble focusing. The jorogumo venom was still bothering him.
“Your new queen.”
I pounced on him, but he collapsed even before my claws touched him, his eyes rolling back into his head. He shimmered back into human form, leaving me feeling rather stupid, like an elephant who’d just made a big deal out of defeating a mouse. I took human form too, and snatched up his filthy kimono to cover my nakedness.
I hesitated over his body for a moment. His face had a better colour than when he’d first staggered out of the garden, and the wound to his arm was healing over. I should probably kill him now while he was still helpless. Leandra would have done it in a heartbeat.
I shrugged and jogged off in the direction Luce and the kitsune had fled. I had a plane to catch.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The kitsune already had the motor running when I arrived.
“Thank God,” said Luce as I fell into the back seat of the black sedan with her. “I was just about to come looking for you. What happened to Akira?”
“He’s enjoying a nice rest in the garden.” I rubbed one bare foot vigorously. After running across the frozen ground my feet were so cold I couldn’t feel them. I dragged the thin kimono a little more firmly around myself, thinking longingly of my thick winter jacket.
“You should have killed him.”
I let my head fall back against the headrest with a sigh. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because it would have been the smart thing to do, and you know I’m right.”
“Next time, then.”
She rolled her eyes at my flippancy. “I hope there is no next time.”
But if there is it will be all your own fault, her unimpressed face said.
“What was wrong with him?” Toko asked. He had taken his own form again as soon as the car rolled out of the front gate, and watched me now from the front passenger seat. “He seemed ill.”
“Miyako attacked him,” I said. “Got him with her stinger.”
“Ah.” He eyed me with disapproval. “Lucinda is right. You should have killed him. The jorogumo’s venom will not slow him for long.”
I sighed. I’d just managed to break the captive kitsune out of their prison and saved their leader from death by dragonfire, and still no one was happy. Everyone was a critic. “We don’t need long. It’s only an hour to the airport. We’ll be in the air in no time.” I looked out the window. It was full daylight now. The jorogumo would be asleep, if she’d survived her encounter with Akira. From the state he’d been in, I’d guess she had.
“Where are the rest of your people?” I asked Toko. “Did they all make it out?”
“We will rendezvous with them after we see you safely to the airport. I did not see any bodies, so I hope they are all safe.”
I hoped so too. There were so few of them left.
“And then where will you go? Where is safe for you now?”
An unexpected smile lit his face. “Anywhere is safe, now we have our hoshi no tama back. We can be anyone. Daiyu will not trap us so easily again.”
One day I would have to get the story from Kasumi of how she’d trapped them in the first place. Perhaps they’d willingly walked into her clutches, as loyal servants to the throne, and found their powers stolen and abused. If so, she would live to regret it. Nobody needed an enemy who could take on any form. If she survived, Daiyu would be forever looking over her shoulder. They might make good servants, but kitsune were bad enemies.
“I’m glad. One more thing, if you will. I made a deal with your daughter, that I would free her people if she would free my son.” I nodded to Luce and she passed her phone across. “Please tell Kasumi it is done.”
He dialled the number, then spoke in rapid Japanese.
*It’s done,* Luce said into my mind. I’d forgotten I still had the compulsion on her. *He told Kasumi we’d held up our end of the bargain. He said to take Lachie and get out of there before Daiyu discovered what we’d do
ne.*
Thank God. I felt as if a weight had been lifted from me. Lachie would soon be safe with Garth. After that there was little to do but watch Tokyo slide by past the window and count the hours until I would see Lachie again. Luce rang our pilot and instructed him to file a flight plan for Sydney and get ready to leave.
At the airport the car rolled onto the tarmac. Our small plane shone in the morning light, the dragon on its side seeming to breathe a fiery welcome. Toko got out of the car and bowed to Luce and then to me, his face grave.
“We kitsune owe you a debt that can never be repaid. Know that you have only to call and we will be there for you.”
I bowed back, but then I gave in to my feelings and hugged him. Bowing just wasn’t the same. And he looked like he could do with a hug.
“Thanks for all your help,” I said.
He smiled, though his eyes glittered with tears he would never admit to. “Thank you, for saving the children. We have a future again because of you.”
Well, I was all for saving children. Especially my own. I waved as he got back in the car, and stood there until he’d driven away.
“Coming?” asked Luce.
“You bet.” I turned and bounded up the stairs to the plane. The smiling stewardess greeted me in her prettily accented English. “Welcome aboard.”
“It’s good to be back.” I settled into one of the comfortable lounges, and Luce sat opposite me.
“Can I get you a drink before we take off?”
“No. Just tell the captain we’re ready, please.” I couldn’t wait to get into the air. Only eight hours to Sydney. Eight hours before I could hold my little boy in my arms again.
She was still smiling at me, and I’d half-turned away, when I caught the movement of her arm out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was a knife. I launched myself out of my seat and landed on Luce. We sprawled across the seats together.
The stewardess’s hand slammed into the back of the seat where I’d just been sitting, unable to stop her momentum in time. She shrieked with rage and lunged at me again. I had time to see that it wasn’t a knife but a syringe before Luce dumped me unceremoniously on the floor and closed with the woman. She twisted the woman’s wrist until the syringe fell from her nerveless hand, and punched her in the face.
The stewardess went down like a sack of potatoes. At the same moment the cockpit door slammed open and someone fired three shots straight into Luce’s back.
“Luce!” I scrambled toward her, the floor vibrating beneath me as the plane taxied out to the runway. She was still on her feet, though she sagged against the nearest seat for support as she faced the man holding the gun.
Akira.
How had he gotten here so fast? He must have flown. There was no sign now of his fight with the jorogumo. The gun didn’t shake as he pointed it at Luce. Outside the tarmac flashed past as the plane picked up speed, the engines roaring.
“Shoot me again,” Luce said, pushing herself upright with visible effort. “That tickled.”
“I think I will.” He sneered at her. “And then there’ll be no one to protect your precious mistress. There’s no room for her here to take trueshape, and I’m prepared for her this time.”
He held up his free hand. It held another syringe, just like the first. This was getting old fast. Every man and his bloody dog had a damned syringe full of du these days.
He fired another round and it tore into Luce’s chest. I cried out as she fell forward.
So did he, for she took trueshape as she fell toward him and breathed right in his face. She hit the floor, but he didn’t move, a look of surprise frozen on his face. The sudden thrust of acceleration as the plane left the ground buckled my knees, and I lurched against a seat.
A weak chuckle came from the floor. “Fear breath. Gets them every time.”
My hand closed on the syringe the stewardess had dropped. Akira’s eyelid twitched, but that was the only thing he could move. Wyverns could shoot a venomous mist from their mouths that paralysed anyone within range.
Clearly Akira was in range.
I stalked up the sloping aisle toward him, murder in my heart.
“Luce?” I said.
“Uh-huh?”
“It’s next time.”
I plunged the syringe into his chest and watched in satisfaction as the killing du entered his body.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I fell to my knees beside Luce, ignoring the death throes of the Japanese man. There was blood everywhere; all over Luce’s ruined clothes, smeared all over her scales, and much too much still leaking from her changed body.
At least being in trueshape would speed up her healing. A bullet hit the carpet as I watched, forced out by the healing process. Just as I’d feared, it was silver. So there would be silver fever to contend with as well as the damage from the gunshot wounds themselves.
I snatched up her torn shirt, wadded it up and pressed it hard against the wound on her chest. That bullet must have grazed her heart at least, if not gone clean through it. There was a lot of blood. My hands shook. Shifters healed fast, but this? Some things couldn’t be recovered from, even by shifters. If her heart was too damaged …
I couldn’t even get to the wounds on her back. Her trueshape was too heavy for me to budge in my human form, and her wings got in the way, rammed up against the seats where she’d fallen. The plane was still climbing, its sharp angle adding to the awkwardness. She was barely conscious, her body shutting down everything to focus on healing.
“Come on, Luce,” I urged under my breath. “You can do it.”
Another bullet rolled out from under her wing. That was a good sign, at least. I lifted my makeshift bandage. The blood flow had slowed to a sluggish welling, but her scaled chest rose and fell in short, panting breaths.
Still, I felt I could leave her long enough to hunt up a first aid kit, and I found one in the well-equipped kitchen. Akira lay still when I returned, his face swollen beyond recognition. No one had appeared from the direction of the cockpit. Either they trusted Akira to handle the situation or, more likely, his last order had been to stay where they were. Though they weren’t his thralls but Daiyu’s, she would have ordered them to obey him in her absence.
I bandaged Luce as best I could, given the obstacles of wyvern anatomy, keeping a wary eye on the poisoned barb on the end of her tail. She twitched a couple of times as I worked, and moaned. I didn’t want that thing twitching anywhere near me. Wyvern poison wouldn’t kill a dragon but it wouldn’t exactly be a walk in the park either. We had enough worries without that.
The stewardess stirred as I finished tying the last bandage, so I grabbed some tape and more bandages and got to work tying her hands and feet. Her face was a mess; Luce certainly hadn’t pulled that punch. Her nose was broken and one eye was swollen shut. She glared at me from the other one and hissed something in Japanese which didn’t sound at all complimentary. Since I didn’t have Luce to translate I just smiled sweetly and heaved her into a chair. That was probably more consideration than she deserved, but she was getting underfoot.
I swiped Akira’s gun from where it had fallen. He wouldn’t be needing it again, that was for sure. The stewardess’s eyes widened, and she began yelling. Damn. Should have gagged her too. I swung the gun round to point at her, but before I could say a word she stopped mid-yell and slumped to the side.
Hell, I wasn’t that scary, was I? I moved closer, frowning. Her head lolled on her shoulder as if someone had just removed all her neck bones. I tapped her lightly on her undamaged cheek, and then slapped her harder, but got no reaction. Weird.
Still, I had better things to do than worry about fainting stewardesses, so I stepped over Akira’s body and headed for the door into the cockpit. The plane was still climbing, and I had no idea where Akira had us heading. Time for a course adjustment.
No one had locked the door behind Akira. I turned the handle and shoved the door hard, ready with the gun. Or as ready as someone can
be who’s never fired one before in her life. Leandra had always left such things to the hired help, and guns had never been a part of my life as Kate, but these guys didn’t need to know that.
But my dramatic entrance was wasted on the pilot and co-pilot. They were both slumped in their seats, as out of it as their friend the stewardess.
“Shit.”
I dropped the gun and hurried to the first man. His pulse was strong, but there was no waking him. Slapping, yelling, shaking—nothing worked. The other man was just as unresponsive, but his pulse was weaker and more irregular. If it were just the stewardess, I could put it down to panic or something, but all three of them in the same state? That looked suspiciously like something else.
An alarming array of lights and gauges blinked and waved at me from the console in front of the two pilots. None of it meant a thing to me. Outside, grey skies rushed toward us, a featureless wall of cloud. Still the plane climbed.
That could be a problem. What happened if it never levelled out? Did it just keep climbing until there was no longer enough oxygen? Until the engines ran out of fuel? Until we hit the moon and came bouncing back?
Okay, maybe not that last one. I knew nothing about jets and how they worked, but I knew they worked a whole lot better when both pilots weren’t unconscious. A stream of increasingly excited demands for a response issued from the radio. Whoever was on the other end was probably also getting worried about our irregular flight path.
For a moment I toyed with the idea of taking Luce and jumping out. Akira was right; there wasn’t enough space inside the plane for me to take proper trueshape. If I tried, there would be catastrophic results for the plane, and I could get myself seriously tangled in the wreckage. If I was feeling brave I could just jump out in human form and take trueshape once I was in the open air. But Luce was still in her own trueshape, and there was no way I could pick her up while I was in human form. Even assuming I didn’t black out the minute I left the plane. We were probably at some deadly-to-humans altitude already.
Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) Page 22
