Yuki onna in icy blue kimono patrolled the perimeter, and surrounding the castle was a barren field of snow. There was no way to approach it without being seen immediately. But according to Mori, his younger brother was trapped inside there somewhere. If she wanted to get him out and win the Tengu Elder’s favor, they’d have to get him out. To get in, they’d need disguises.
“I have a plan. We’ll go in disguised as yuki onna, find the prince and then slip him out in disguise as well.”
“You’re right, I noticed there seems to be a lot of yuki onna arriving. We can use that as part of our cover, they shouldn’t scrutinize us too closely.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Rin reached into her sleeve and withdrew a leaf, which she would use as an anchor for Hikaru’s disguise. She concentrated her fox fire into the leaf and envisioned the form that Hikaru would take. And then she placed the leaf against his forehead. As soon as she did, her illusion magic transformed Hikaru from a handsome man, to a beautiful woman with skin as pale as snow and ebony hair.
“How do I look, am I beautiful?” he asked, fluttered his long fake lashes at her.
She chuckled, and it dispelled some of her nerves. Rin exhaled and unclenched her jaw. The yuki onna were predatory yokai, if they sensed fear on her, it might destroy their cover. A single yuki onna would be no match for her fox fire, but with how many she’d seen guarding and entering, they’d be overwhelmed in an instant if their cover was blown. Her spiritual energy was strong enough to disguise them both, as long as they remained close together. If they were separated… Well, she didn’t want to think about that.
“Ready?” she asked Hikaru.
He reached for his bow and arrow and hid them in the hollow of a fallen tree nearby. Yuki onna fought with their ice, and didn’t use a bow and arrow. Though it would leave them vulnerable, they couldn’t risk breaking the illusion.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said grimly.
She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. She hated bringing him into a dangerous situation. They’d fought many yokai together, but after they’d been separated for decades, she was more afraid than ever of losing him. But she knew him well enough to know, he wouldn’t let her do this alone. They just had to be quick, get in, get the prince, and get out.
Rin took a deep breath again. And before she could second guess herself, they exited the forest onto the road, where a stream of yuki made their way toward the palace. No one gave them a second glance as they approached the gates. But as they passed through into the courtyard, Hikaru gasped.
Rin’s eyes grew wide. From the outside, the palace was an icy blue, inside was a dream space of shifting light and color. All very cold. Yuki onna with their pale skin, glowed in the shafts of light coming through cleverly made hanging ice, which caught the light and illuminated the spaces.
Clusters of yuki onna gathered around chatting amongst themselves. Their voices were sweet but seductive and their beauty as sharp as a knife. Hikaru’s head kept drifting in their direction, unable to resist their charms. This was how they lured men in, with their songs, their magnetic auras, and this was without them trying. How much more intense would the pull be if they knew outsiders were in their midst.
Rin tugged Hikaru away from the group, and they headed into the building beyond the courtyard. She strode confidently through the crowd, as if she knew exactly where she was going, so no one tried to stop them and ask them where they were headed.
Inside the walls of the palace, was an icy labyrinth. If the tengu prince was here, where would he be kept?
“Do you suppose they have a prison somewhere?” Hikaru reasoned.
In this glimmering palace of ice, it was hard to imagine a prison. Thinking like a yuki onna, they lured men in with their beauty and their voices, and only once they had them did they expose their true faces. Perhaps they were keeping the tengu prince somewhere hidden, somewhere he wouldn’t destroy the illusion of this place.
“There must be a secret entrance, or somewhere they’re hiding him,” Rin said.
They had already turned down a few hallways, and ignored the numerous doors that lined the halls. The cold was already starting to seep into her bones. Her fingers were numb with it; she could only imagine how much worse it was for Hikaru. And what of the tengu prince? The tengu lived on mountain tops, but even he must have been nearly frozen solid after being trapped here for centuries, how had he not been frozen solid? Unless that was exactly what had happened to him...
“You don’t think, they’ve got him frozen into an ice block, do you?” Rin whispered to Hikaru as another pair of yuki onna passed them by.
Hikaru raked a hand through his hair; it was uncanny seeing a yuki onna do that. He rubbed the spot on the top of his head, where one of his twin scars marked where his kitsune ears had been. He always touched them when he was thinking.
“They wouldn’t want to kill him, but tengu are strong, it might be how they’ve kept him so long here.” He gestured around the room.
“How do you find a frozen tengu prince in a palace of ice?” Rin mused aloud.
“What are you two doing there?” said an unfamiliar voice. Rin nearly leaped out of her skin and swiveled toward the yuki onna, who was striding toward them. Had they been caught already? She assumed they were alone, and no one would overhear them. She stepped in front of Hikaru, prepared to transform into her kitsune form if necessary.
“We seem to have lost our way, we were looking for the main hall.” She plastered on a fake smile, and prayed some Kami would be listening and save them.
The yuki onna narrowed ice-blue eyes at Rin. Did she see through their disguises?
“You two...”
Rin clenched her hand into a fist, prepared to unleash her fox flames.
“Where are you from, I don’t think I’ve met you before...”
“We’re from the southern mountain range,” Hikaru said.
“Ah. That’s why I’ve never seen you before.” The yuki onna shook her head.
Rin relaxed, but only slightly.
“Well it’s a good thing I found you, the meeting is just about to start. Come.” She waved for them to follow as she strode down the opposite way down the corridor.
Rin and Hikaru shared a look. They couldn’t refuse her without arising suspicion. For now, they would have to play along until they could slip away and go find the tengu prince.
They followed the yuki onna through the twisted corridors, where she led them to a large audience room. The walls were made of ice as the rest of the palace was, and long icicles hung from the ceiling and caught sunlight coming through the windows at the top, casting rainbows of colors all around the room. And at the end of the hall was a massive pillar of ice that reached from floor to ceiling and was four men wide. Suspended in the center was the tengu prince his wings extended as if he’d been frozen mid-flight.
Rin covered her mouth when she saw it. They had really frozen him solid.
“Is it your first time seeing him?” the yuki onna asked.
Rin hadn’t meant to react this way. She thought they would have kept him hidden. Instead, they were flaunting him, using his frozen body as a decoration.
“Is he alive?” Rin asked, there was no need to disguise the tremor in her voice.
“I didn’t believe it the first time I saw it, but he lives in empress Toku’s ice,” the yuki onna remarked, shaking her head in amazement.
Empress Toku? Rin had never heard of a leader of the yuki onna before, but she didn’t know they’d built this palace either. Many things had changed since the fall of The Dragon, the different clans had fractured and warred with one another, and it seemed when this Toku had captured the tengu prince, she had risen to the role of empress. Getting the tengu prince out was going to be more difficult than she expected.
A group of yuki onna waved them and their escort over. “Who’s your friend.” They narrowed their gazes at Rin and Hikaru, could they see through the illu
sion. She grabbed Hikaru’s hand, discreetly hoping to strengthen it. She’d let her guard down for a moment when she saw the tengu, that couldn’t happen again.
“They’re from the southern mountains,” said their escort.
These new yuki onna looked more suspicious, but before they could question them further, a cheer rose up among the gathered yuki onna. And all eyes turned to the front of the room. A yuki onna took the stage standing in front of the frozen tengu prince. All yuki onna were beautiful, but there was something more beautiful about this one. Perhaps it was the sense of power that she carried, or the fierce angles of her face or the ruby red lips. But there was no doubt, this had to be queen Toku.
“Sisters!” Toku’s melodic voice seemed to boom through the room. “At last, our clan is united for the first time in centuries.”
More cheers rippled through the crowd.
She held up her hands again, and the crowd fell silent.
“Though it should be a joyous celebration. I have gathered you here for a purpose. A pretender sits on the throne of Akatsuki.”
A hiss went through the crowd.
A pretender? Rin looked at Hikaru, he was frowning as well. She couldn’t mean Kaito, could they?
“This so-called dragon would have us all believe he is The Great Dragon returned. My sisters, I ask you, can we suffer this liar to remain?”
“No!” they shouted. The air was getting colder, and Rin shivered. Hikaru trembled beside her as the temperature dropped. Rin pressed closer to him, trying to share the warmth of her body as best as she could.
If the yuki onna were to attack, she felt confident Kaito’s army could defeat them. Though she was outnumbered now, they were no match for Kaito’s army.
“Sisters, we have grown stronger, we captured the tengu prince.” She gestured to the frozen tengu behind her. “It is time all of Akatuski recognizes our true strength!”
They roared with approval.
There was a smug smile on Toku’s face. If Rin could stay long enough to learn their plans, she could return to Kaito and warn him. That was after they got the tengu prince out of ice.
“I asked you all here because the time to act is now. Our allies in the north have reached out to us to march upon this pretender and remove him from his throne.”
The yuki onna were devolving into a frenzy. Their hunger for the battle ahead was palpable. It was time to escape, and reassess. Rin grasped Hikaru’s hand, and they started backing away. But she didn’t get a few steps before she ran into something solid.
They were surrounded by yuki onna. While she’d been listening to their speech, they’d closed in around them.
“Where do you think you’re going?” They smiled.
“I just realized I forgot something.” Rin gestured for the door.
“You’re not one of us.”
Her heart clenched. No.
“Are you a spy?” asked the yuki onna to her left.
Rin forced a smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She tried to shove her way past the yuki onna, but they pushed her back.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
15
The priest howled as his forehead burst. A pair of black curved horns dripping with blood grew out of the tear in his skin. Tsuki let go of the priest, and he crumbled to the ground, grasping his abdomen. He wriggled as if live snakes were crawling under his skin. Though he wanted to look away, he couldn’t. Kazue was the one who ordered he attack the shrine, that he hold the poor bastard while she forced the black stone in his mouth. If he weren’t a coward, he would have refused, or tried to stop her. But running away meant losing himself entirely. Even now, he felt the darkness crawling around him, like an insect burrowing under his skin. Just like this unfortunate soul. Only he wouldn’t lose himself to the oblivion of becoming a hybrid, every moment he had left the darkness clawing him inside was waiting to consume him and Akira whole.
“There’s no use in regretting,” Akira said.
“And there’s no honor in slaughtering the defenseless,” Tsuki replied. He and Akira had disagreed before, but this time it felt different. She’d never been this callous before; she was too willing to forgive Kazue’s transgressions.
The bodies of the slain priests lay scattered on the ground. Kazue said they were to teach the others not to resist. To him, they were the lucky ones; at least they wouldn’t be transformed into monsters by Kazue’s song.
They moved down the line, transforming the remaining priests left in the palace. Tsuki held them while Kazue sang. Some begged for mercy, others mumbled prayers, hands pressed together and eyes closed. The kami were gone. They had been for a long time. The first Kazue had rounded them all up to create this monster who stood before him.
Nothing human remained in this temple, and a small group of new hybrids, relearned to walk with the new strength of their disfigured bodies. The wounds where scales, claws, and horns had burst through their flesh wept blood.
“The transformation is so much more successful when we use priests and priestesses,” Kazue remarked as if they were discussing the weather.
Even the original Kazue had not been this cold or calculating nor had the same mad glint in her eye. Though she claimed they were the same, he saw only echoes of the woman he remembered. This Kazue was different, more bloodthirsty, and more terrifying than her namesake.
“And what will you do with them?” Tsuki asked her. “What’s the point of all this?”
She stroked the scaly green cheek of one of her creations.
“We are creating the perfect world, one in which there are no yokai, no humans. A world where we can coexist.” She turned to Tsuki with a too-wide smile. It was the smile of a madwoman, blinded by her own twisted visions. Had Hisato done this to her, or was she as delusional as him, tortured by memories that didn’t belong to her and a power that shouldn’t be contained by a human body. Which reminded him, he assumed Hisato would show himself by now, but he’d been mysteriously scarce. When he tried to ask Kazue about him, she avoided the subject. They must be plotting something together, if only he could find out what.
“And what good would it do if we know. It’s not as if we can return to Suzume.”
Kazue left the hybrids to their transformation, and Tsuki followed her without responding to Akira. She might have given up on escape, but he wasn’t ready to give in yet.
“Don’t do anything reckless, do you want us to end up like those abominations?” Akira scolded him.
He took a deep breath to quiet the rage that threatened to take hold of him. He never had reason to hide his thoughts from Akira before, and he had to consciously shield his desires from her. If he didn’t, then she might try and stop him. While Kazue held the staff, they were bound to serve her, and because she could read their thoughts when it pleased her, they couldn’t plot together. But he’d tested it, only when he shared his thoughts with Akira was Kazue able to hear them. Akira had given up, but he would save them both.
Kazue entered the shrine, and knelt before the icon of the kami to pray. Tsuki and Akira stood on guard outside. Not that anything could get through these hybrids to reach her. And even if they did, he would have no choice but to destroy them if they tried.
The temple was a small one, the scent of the ocean wafted on the air. They weren’t far from The Dragon’s seaside palace. Would Kazue take these hybrids and march them onto the palace to capture Suzume?
“Brother, you must give up on your delusions of returning to Suzume. Even if we could. They would never welcome us back. Kazue made sure of that.”
Tsuki balled his hand into a fist. For the entirety of his long life, he never much cared for anyone other than himself or Akira. He lived for the sword in his hand, the rush of battle. But being wielded by Kazue as a tool to harm the defenseless didn’t sit right with him. There must be something they could do, he couldn’t just roll over and accept his fate. Wind blew in off the ocean, and ruffled his hair a
nd the garden nearby. His eye was drawn to a plant the priest had been growing. It was one he recognized which had grown wild like a weed from the mountain where Akira and he had grown up.
When consumed, it was a strong sedative. While Kazue was absorbed in her prayers and shielding his thoughts from Akira, he leaned over the garden wall and plucked a few leaves of the plant, stuffing them into his pocket. If he could slip this into Kazue’s evening tea, then he could steal the staff and give them the opportunity to escape back to Suzume and the others.
“Please do not tell me you’re thinking of doing what I think you are.”
“Don’t, she’ll hear,” Tsuki warned her.
“I can’t let you destroy us both.” He could feel Akira’s sneer inside his mind.
She tried to wrestle control of the body they shared from him, but Tsuki clung on tight. Akira gave up the fight when Kazue emerged from inside the shrine. She narrowed her eyes at him. Tsuki had to keep his mind blank, not let anything reveal itself on his face. Did she suspect? Had she heard him and Akira arguing.
She turned to look up at the gray clouds gathering on the horizon. “It seems like it might rain, I think I’ll take my tea early today.”
Tsuki bobbed his head and went to fetch her tea. As he pulled the kettle off the fire, he tore a few leaves into her cup and stirred it around.
“This cannot possibly work,” Akira said. But she didn’t try to stop him, she must recognize this was the only way they were going to escape her.
He brought the cup to Kazue, who sat upon the veranda, watching the ambling hybrids as they wandered the yard. Trails of blood had stained the ground where the hybrids had transformed, and one had died from his transformation. His mangled body was trampled under the feet of the others. Flies gathered on the corpses of the fallen, buzzing around their eyes and open mouths.
The Fractured Soul Page 12
