by Cindy Pon
“No!” Zhen Ni cried.
He folded his hands in front of himself. “I don’t have the power to turn people into demons. Why would I want to? Tell your friend the truth, Sky.”
Skybright flinched to hear him call her that, felt as if he had kicked her in the gut. She finally raised her face, trying to plead with her mistress for forgiveness only using her eyes. But Zhen Ni was crying so profusely now, it was a wonder she could even see. “She’ll bleed to death,” her mistress stuttered.
“The cuts are superficial,” the abbot said in a soothing voice.
But Zhen Ni ignored him, rummaging through her knapsack until she found the cloth that Skybright had wrapped her dagger in. She crouched down beside Skybright and tied the material snug against her forearm. “I’m so sorry, Sky,” she said under her breath as she did so. “So sorry,” she repeated after she made certain her knot was tight enough, then smoothed the wisps of hair from Skybright’s face. “I’ll fix this somehow,” Zhen Ni whispered against Skybright’s ear, trying her best to sound courageous, but terror seeped into her words.
This was something that could never be fixed.
Skybright wanted to throw her head back and howl, to pull her mistress into her arms and cry onto her shoulder, to apologize for lying to her. Instead, she touched the bandage Zhen Ni had made, already seeping red, and gave a nod, feeling as if her heart would break.
Suddenly, the rich scent of earth filled the cavern. Skybright reared up on her serpent coil. Stone stood only a few steps behind Abbot Wu, having appeared from nowhere. “What have you done with the serpent demon?” Stone asked. Skybright had never heard his tone so hard and cold. To her amazement, she was relieved to see the immortal.
Abbot Wu jumped in surprise, and whipped around. “Nothing, master. Only a simple spell to ascertain her true identity. I’m eager to question her.”
“She is not yours to question,” Stone replied. It was obvious that he and the abbot were no strangers. “Release her.”
Abbot Wu masked his shock within a moment, and bowed his head. “Of course, master. I didn’t realize she was one of yours.”
Stone didn’t reply, but stared at the monk, his chiseled features unyielding. The abbot fished the key from his robe and began fumbling with the lock. “Yes, of course,” he repeated, “Merely a misunderstanding.” He pulled the door open and Zhen Ni slipped her arm around Skybright’s shoulder to support her. Skybright shivered. She’d never felt a human’s touch as a serpent before, and Zhen Ni’s nearness disturbed her. Was her mistress safe while she was enchanted and a demon?
The abbot raised a hand. “Only the serpent leaves the cage.”
Zhen Ni froze and Skybright hissed, before slamming the cage door shut again with a swipe of her coil. The bars reverberated with a loud clang. Skybright would never abandon Zhen Ni, would do all that she could to protect her. Her mistress cringed to see her tail move so swiftly, and released Skybright, dropping to the floor and pressing her face into her hands. Skybright wanted more than anything to comfort her mistress, but knew that she was only adding to Zhen Ni’s anxiety.
“Who is the girl?” Stone asked.
“Our chosen sacrifice.” Abbot Wu had retrieved the walnut staff from the ground, holding it wearily. He kept his distance from Stone. There was no doubt in Skybright’s mind that Kai Sen’s abbot was the one in alliance with the gods. He alone knew the truth about the breach in hell, and was willing to sacrifice innocent mortal lives as part of the pact. Still, what was Kai Sen’s role in closing the breach? She couldn’t shake the dread she felt for him, even as she tried to devise a way to somehow save Zhen Ni. Could she appeal to Stone for help?
He was pacing in long strides before the cage.
“The covenant states that we must have a sacrifice to close the breach,” the abbot said.
“Do not tell me what I already know, Wu,” Stone replied, enunciating each word, casting them like knives. The abbot took a step back. Skybright had never witnessed Stone appear so tense, his immense power wound tight. Where he was silent in his motions during their previous encounters alone, his gleaming armor resounded now with his every step. It was like watching a leopard, and even Zhen Ni had lifted her face to stare at the immortal, his presence was so forceful.
Finally, he stopped in front of the girls, and said to Skybright, “A sacrifice is needed.”
Skybright dropped down beside her mistress and wrapped both her arms around Zhen Ni’s shoulders. Her throat spasmed, filled with words she couldn’t say. No, she mouthed to Stone, and pressed her lips to Zhen Ni’s temple. Her mistress grasped Skybright’s unwounded arm with both hands, back arched and chin thrust forward. Defiant.
“I can go in her stead,” someone said from near the entrance of the cave.
The cavern spun for a long moment when Skybright heard Kai Sen’s voice. Her vision blurred as he appeared from behind a small outcropping, and he walked toward them, the outline of his familiar shape limned in light. The five other monks lingered behind, dark shadows beyond the entrance. Skybright collapsed forward, catching herself by her wrists against the dirt floor. Her stomach heaved. No! What was Kai Sen doing here? Then her mind filled with sudden understanding—his mission—and she wanted to dash out and thrust him from this place, would accept never seeing him again to make him vanish.
“In her stead?” Stone lifted one dark brow. “How gallant.”
“Kai Sen. You’re early,” the abbot said, his expression shuttered.
“This is the false monk boy?” Stone’s words were like ice.
Kai Sen grimaced. He glanced toward Skybright briefly before he looked Stone square in the face. “I was sent to close the breach. And if a sacrifice is needed, I can take the girl’s place.”
Abbot Wu thrust his staff into the ground. “Stay out of it, Kai Sen. This was not what we discussed.”
Skybright slithered away from her mistress, and leaned into the cold bars of the cage. Kai Sen was covered in dust. She had little doubt he had run the entire way here, probably sensing the danger she had been in. He stood with his feet planted apart, a hand on the hilt of his saber. Skybright had never seen him look so young. Although Stone wasn’t more than a year older in his physical form than Kai Sen, the disparity between the immortal and boy couldn’t have been more pronounced as they faced each other; Stone, as cold and removed as his namesake, and Kai Sen, feigning bravado. He had never appeared more mortal to her.
“Why would you give your life for this girl’s?” Stone asked with genuine curiosity.
“Because Skybright cares for her,” Kai Sen replied. “I—I don’t want her to grieve. Her mistress is innocent. It’s the right thing to do.”
Skybright clenched the bars in her hands until it felt as if she’d dented the iron. She wanted to rattle them like a mad thing for Kai Sen’s foolishness.
“As it was the right thing to do to leave Skybright trapped in a cage when your abbot had captured her?” Stone clasped his hands behind his back, the muscles of his jaws flexing. “She’d be dead now if it weren’t for my interference, Kai Sen.” The immortal spat out the last two words, like something rotten in his mouth.
Skybright’s hands flew to her chest. It wasn’t true. Kai had saved her, unlocked the cage for her so that she could escape. Her eyes sought his, but Kai Sen would not meet them. His fists were clenched at his sides, his face flushed red. In disbelief, she slid away from the bars, her vision beginning to swim.
Instead, Stone was the one who glanced her way; and his full mouth curved. “Ah. I see. You led Skybright to believe that you had saved her?” He laughed, the sound remorseless and chilling. “Is that how mortals care? You were too moral to free her from slaughter but base enough to bed her?”
Kai Sen unsheathed his saber in one swift motion. “It wasn’t like that.” His voice trembled, but the tip of his saber pointed unwavering at Stone’s throat. “Sky, I couldn’t believe it was truly you that night. I di
dn’t know.” He spoke so swiftly he choked on his words. “Forgive me.” Kai Sen’s dark eyes finally met hers, and they were filled with pain and regret. “I love you.”
Skybright hung her head, feeling broken. Shattered. He loved her, and she believed him. But despite his assurances, he would never truly accept her demonic side. How could he? He had been trained to kill creatures such as herself since he was a boy.
“Touching,” Stone said. “You are convincing me more and more that you would indeed make an appropriate sacrifice, false monk.” Despite his cutting words, Skybright was certain she was the only one who could actually detect the sarcasm in Stone’s emotionless voice.
Kai Sen jerked, his body tensing as he shifted his attention back to the immortal. “Why do you speak like you know me?” Then Kai Sen winced and his hand rose to the birthmark at his throat involuntarily.
Stone laughed again and the hairs on Skybright’s arms stood on end. “Do not flatter yourself. I only know you because of Skybright.”
Kai Sen’s sword arm went rigid, its corded muscles tightening in definition.
“You believe you are special because of that birthmark?” Stone smiled. “That the gods in heaven—or underworld—have taken notice of you somehow? You are only an ordinary mortal, one of millions scuttling your blind way on earth like so many ants.” Stone raised an arm and Kai Sen twitched, but stood his ground. The immortal swept his hand in the air as if he were holding a calligraphy brush, and Kai Sen’s saber clattered to the floor as he lifted both hands to touch his own throat again.
Skybright surged forward, hissing deep.
“How could you possibly be special? Now you are no longer even accidently marked. Because do you know how brief human lives are in an immortal’s eyes?” Stone made a twisting gesture with his fingers and the air suddenly chilled, suffused with snowflakes. They swirled, so abundant that they blinded Skybright with pristine white. “Like this,” Stone snapped his fingers and all the snow fell to the ground at once, melting instantly. “Like this,” Stone repeated, and the air crackled until Skybright’s hair lifted from her head. Lightning blasted all around them, blazing, so intense and loud that Skybright cowered, covering her ears.
When the air cleared, she was momentarily deaf. She blinked the bright halos from her vision, and saw Zhen Ni curled in fetal position on the ground, sobbing into her knees. Skybright slid to her mistress and slipped her arm around her, trying to comfort her. The scent of burnt hair hung thick in the air.
“So it matters little to me who is sacrificed this time,” Stone said. “And you will do very well.”
Kai Sen stared at the immortal, his eyes rimmed in white from shock. When Kai Sen finally dropped his hands from his neck, she saw that his birthmark had disappeared, leaving pale skin, stark against his tan.
Skybright lifted high on her coil and hissed again, the sound too loud in her own sensitive ears after the lightning strikes. “Enough,” she said, the word grating out like granite. She had covered her own shock by the time Stone turned to gauge her. The immortal’s power was so intense, it hummed against her skin. She would show no weakness.
“She speaks,” Stone said. “Finally.”
She slithered through the unlatched cage door and stopped between Stone and Kai Sen, rising so she was as tall as the immortal. “I’ll take Zhen Ni’s place,” Skybright said. Her voice was deep and rough, completely inhuman. She cringed inside to hear it.
“You?” Stone chuckled, amused. “We need a human sacrifice. From someone who has a soul. You are a demon.”
“You’re wrong.” The words rasped, harsh and without inflection. “I have a soul just like any other mortal.” Skybright thrust her wounded arm out. “I bleed red like any other mortal. And I’m capable of love, Stone. Unlike you.”
Stone’s cheekbones colored with two bright spots of anger, but they disappeared so quickly, Skybright wondered if she had imagined it. “So you do,” he said.
“Don’t do this, Sky,” Kai Sen whispered from behind her. “Please.”
The ground began to rumble, a violent earthquake beneath their feet.
“Sky! No!” Zhen Ni had run to throw herself against the bars. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her mistress was shaking her head, her face wild with sorrow and terror. “How could you have kept this from me?”
Zhen Ni’s last words were tinged with the spirit that Skybright knew so well—and with anger and accusation. Skybright’s throat snapped shut, as if large hands were crushing her windpipe. Kai Sen had betrayed her trust, and she had done the same to Zhen Ni. She flicked her tongue out and turned away from them both, unable to consider what she had lost within a matter of moments. “It’s better this way,” she hissed.
The floor undulated, throwing everyone to the ground, except for Skybright and Stone. Pebbles struck them from above, and dust stirred in plumes beneath. She had forgotten about the abbot, who pressed his brow into the dirt now, his lips moving in constant prayer. The other monks shouted from outside the cavern, and Skybright felt them flinging themselves against an invisible barrier; the entrance had been magically sealed.
“There might be an alternative,” Stone said above the roar of shifting rocks.
Steam erupted from the yawning crack in the cavern, suffocating the air with sulfur.
“I won’t lose either of them, Stone,” Skybright said.
The immortal lifted a hand, palm facing the heavens, and the ground stilled so that her words rang out.
“Let me have you, Skybright, and we can forego the sacrifice.”
“No.” Kai Sen had leaped back on his feet behind her. Skybright swung her coil so she blocked him completely, afraid he might do something rash.
“I’d rather die than to surrender my soul to you, Stone,” she said. “I may be young and half mortal, but don’t belittle my intelligence.”
Stone laughed, his first genuine one since he appeared in the cavern. “I do not want your soul. You are so much more intriguing with one.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“You forsake your mortal life and come with me.” He smiled, his countenance entirely different than before, more open than she had ever seen it.
Skybright felt sick. “For how long?”
“As long as I want,” Stone replied.
“No,” Kai Sen said again. “You don’t know what he wants, what it could mean. It could stretch into eternity if he willed it.”
“You are smarter than you appear,” Stone said to Kai Sen. “The risk is Skybright’s to take. But know that if you agree, you will never see your mistress or this false monk again.”
“But that is no sacrifice,” the abbot interrupted. He had risen to his feet, and pushed the walnut staff into the ground, his stance wide, as if he were certain the earth would begin quaking again any moment. “The covenant says—”
“A sacrifice can be interpreted in multiple ways, Wu,” Stone cut in. “This is something Skybright would never give willingly. I should feel more insulted.” The immortal stalked toward the abbot. “But if you take issue, I could just throw you down the crevice.”
“Me? But—but I’m the abbot,” he sputtered. “My monks need me.”
“You agreed to this, Abbot Wu?” Kai Sen said incredulously. “You knew about the sacrifice of an innocent person all this time?”
Abbot Wu met Kai Sen’s shocked gaze. “One does what is necessary, Kai Sen. For the greater good.”
Kai Sen recoiled from the abbot, jaw clenched. He bent down to retrieve his saber, appearing as if he were ready to stab someone with it.
“Enough,” Stone said. “The Great Battle will end today. Your job is done, Wu. You served well enough, and so would your soul.”
Abbot Wu had stood his ground but took several steps back now, until he was pressed against the cavern wall. The staff rattled in his hand, and he clutched it against his body. His ruddy face had gone pale.
“I did not think so.”
Stone pivoted from the abbot. “Well, Skybright?”
Skybright stared at her hands. As much as she disliked the abbot, she wouldn’t sacrifice another person’s life for her own freedom. But what could Stone want with her? She knew it wasn’t to bed her—he could have that, probably more easily than she was willing to admit. Her physical pull to the immortal was strong, though it was nothing like the love she felt for Kai Sen. But what did her love mean, when it only hurt the two people she cared about most? That was the painful truth. “Agreed, Stone,” she finally said, the words as unpleasant to hear as she felt speaking them.
“Agreed.” The immortal nodded and the ground rumbled again; the glowing red fissure that had widened began to close. The entire cavern shuddered so violently that Skybright’s teeth clacked together. The mortals had thrown themselves to the ground again, but she slithered to the edge of the chasm, peering down. Heat blasted her face, so hot her eyebrows felt singed. Molten red careened endlessly into the earth’s depths, but she could glimpse nothing beyond it.
Stone joined her side, one hand casually encircling his wrist behind his back, and watched with her, as the earth ground together, obliterating their view. “It is an interesting place,” he said, as the sudden silence rang in her ears. “I will show you.”
A moment after the breach had closed and the earth stopped rumbling, Stone slashed a portal in the air and pulled her through it, before Skybright could even throw a backward glance. They had stepped into the center of a circular space surrounded by high walls, with soft earth beneath them. It smelled of moss, and there was the comforting scent of wood.
Skybright winced as Stone unwound the cloth from her arm. Her dried blood had stuck the material against her flesh, and he had to gently ease it from her skin. She held her forked tongue as Stone, head bent, worked at the binding, as patient as the Goddess of Mercy herself. Finally, he was able to pull it free, revealing crusted blood and the three characters Abbot Wu had carved into the inside of her forearm.
