Starburner

by Claire Luana

  “I always do,” he rumbled back.

  “Take care of Master Tato,” she called to Hiro. “He’s hopeless with a sword.” The librarian was far enough from her that he didn’t turn as his name.

  Hiro winked at her and strode from the courtyard—Ryu at his side—in an instant shedding the skin of father and husband and king, and donning the aspect of warrior. He didn’t look back.

  Rika managed an encouraging smile for her mother, who stood, her hand to her heart, worry lining her brow. Then Rika was off, turning and slipping through the corridors back to her room to grab her bag and bedroll. She quickly changed into plain clothes—thick, chocolate brown leggings, a deep purple tunic belted with a plain leather obi, and sturdy lace-up leather boots, worn in from years of training, hunting, and riding outside the city. She twisted her long, black hair into a bun, securing it with two wooden hair sticks. She wanted to jump with giddiness. She was ready.

  She took the servants’ hallways through the palace, making her way down to the stable. The lion horses, the huge hybrid creatures favored by armored sunburners, were kept in a separate stable from the horses, so this one was relatively deserted. She pulled her horse’s tack off the wall and slipped inside his stall, dropping her bag. “Hello, Michi,” she said, giving the bay a scratch behind the ears. He shook his head, seeming surprised to see her. “We’re going on an adventure,” she whispered, sliding the bit into his mouth and the halter over his flicking ears.

  She finished saddling Michi and stole across the stable to scoop out a small bag of grain to add to her food stores. There should be plenty of grass for Michi, but he liked oats, and he would be in a better mood if she had a little treat for him at the end of their ride. Michi huffed at the bag in curiosity as she stuffed it down beside her cloak and other food. “For later,” she whispered.

  Rika opened the stall door and led him out into the starry night, her heart thundering in her chest. They walked towards the side entrance of the palace, Rika cringing as the iron shoes on Michi’s hooves clanged against the stones of the courtyard. The sound seemed deafening—she was sure her mother would come running any second. But no one did. At the gate, the guard nodded to her but didn’t inquire where she was going. She could hardly believe her good fortune. It took all her restraint to keep the smile of glee off her face as they walked under the arch of the high palace walls. On the other side, the smile broke out in earnest as she swung up onto Michi, nudging him forward with her heels. She had done it. She was on her way!

  THOUGH RIKA WANTED to urge Michi into a gallop, she reined him in when they were a few streets away from the palace, settling into his rocking gait. It wouldn’t do her any good to attract attention by trampling some innocent Yoshian citizen in her haste to get out of the city. Rika almost never traveled anywhere without at least one or two guards, and so it felt strange to be alone. Strangely freeing.

  It took her about half an hour to make her way through the winding streets of the city, past street vendors offering fragrant vats of spicy noodles, people drinking sake at sidewalk cafes, shopkeepers blowing out lanterns and locking their doors for the night. Yoshai was by no means a perfect city—it had its share of crime, poverty, and unrest—but Rika loved it. Everything felt so deliberate, as if some divine hand had planted the buildings where they sat. From the colorful tile roofs to the fragrant blooming vines clinging to sandstone walls, right down to the ornamental grates covering the storm drains. There was a loveliness and care about it that she hadn’t seen when she visited Kyuden or Kistana, the other seats of her parents’ rule. According to Kai, Yoshai had been buried under the desert for most of her childhood, and it had only been the act of Taiyo, the sun god, that had raised it again. So perhaps there had been a divine hand in the city’s original creation.

  Rika was headed for the Dragon Gate, a small pedestrian entrance in the southwest corner of the city. It was named for the elaborate carving of a serpentine dragon that slithered around the arched opening—so lifelike, its scales seemed to ripple as you walked beneath. Hiro and his soldiers were leaving through the main southern gate—the Sea Gate—and she planned to follow them south on a parallel track. Close, but far enough to stay out of sight. Once Hiro had made camp and it was too late to send her back, she would present herself. She’d have to take whatever punishment her father saw fit to give her, but whatever happened, it would be worth it. She would be right in the thick of things, the perfect spot for her powers to come to life.

  The land south of the city walls was made up of rolling farmland that gave way to tall, sweet-smelling grass. Here, the cloudless sky stretched wide, a velvet blanket dotted with glittering stars. With no walls to keep them at bay, it seemed as if the heavens stretched down low, reaching out to touch her. The constellations winked cheerfully at her—the black tortoise that guarded the northern star, the red phoenix standing in the south, the white tiger in the west. Her favorite constellation, the clever fox, seemed especially close, starlight wagging the cluster of five stars that made up its bushy tail. She stretched a hand up, imagining she could scoop him up and bring him down to Earth, to ride on her saddle like Quitsu. When her neck began to ache, she finally looked back to Earth, giving the fox a little wave goodbye.

  She rode for an hour or so in silence, listening to the clicking of the wild koumidi, the little bats whose tame brothers they used to send messages. The air was warm, but a wind blew from the south, bringing the tang of salt and something else. Something that tasted bitter on her tongue. She shivered, her skin prickling, her senses roaring to awareness. It was then that she realized that she was being followed.

  She wasn’t sure what first clued her in. The nervous swiveling of Michi’s ears, perhaps, as if he were searching for something. Or maybe it was the sound of the grass slipping past the muscular legs of a beast. Beast, or man? Rika resisted the powerful urge to turn about in her saddle and confront the interloper, knowing that it was hard to defend herself on horseback. Should she kick Michi to a gallop and put distance between them? But that might alert her father to her presence. The road wasn’t far from her current position, and he likely had at least one man scouting around their position as they traveled. No, if this person intended her harm, they would be doing a better job of stalking her. If they were here to fetch her back to the palace, they would have announced themselves. That left just one person it could be.

  She reined in Michi, making a show of yawning, stretching her arms wide. She swung down from the saddle, her knees popping. She opened one of her saddlebags, rummaging around for a piece of dried salmon. She actually was hungry. A break couldn’t hurt. She stood, munching, watching the dark horizon where she knew the ocean to be. She took a swig from her waterskin. A twig crunched behind her. She whirled and darted for the noise, tackling it into the thick grass.

  “Oof!” Her follower went down like a sack of rice, landing flat on his back. Rika’s knee pinned his chest, her belt knife held aloft in one hand.

  “Ow, Rika, get off me!” Koji said, squirming beneath her. “Are you going to stab me?”

  “I should,” she said. “I’d finally be rid of you.”

  Koji’s seishen, Enzo, emerged from the darkness, leveling his long horn at her. It wasn’t close enough to be threatening, but she took his point well enough.

  She pushed off Koji before standing up, causing him to wheeze out another breath. She sheathed her knife and offered him her outstretched hand. “Happy?” she asked Enzo.

  The seishen straightened. “Very,” he said.

  Her eyes opened in surprise as Koji took her hand and hauled himself to his feet. Enzo didn’t often talk to her, not like Quitsu or Ryu. He and Koji kept to themselves, a secret friendship of whispered confidences and jokes. A friendship she wasn’t welcome in.

  She shook off her surprise and resumed glaring at Koji, her hands on her hips. “Ko, what in Tsuki’s name do you think you’re doing here?”

  “Same thing you are,” he protested.

>   “You’re confronting a threatening darkness that your powers were prophesied to defeat?” she asked.

  “Okay, not exactly the same thing. I don’t want to miss the action,” he said. “I’m fourteen. I’ve been training my whole life with Armsmistress Emi and the other sunburners. This is the first exciting thing that’s happened in…our entire lifetimes. I’m not going to miss it!”

  He had a point there. There had been war and strife when her parents had been young, but her own childhood had seen nothing more exciting than tavern brawls and villagers grumbling about taxes. Things had been remarkably peaceful. Still. “I’m not here to be part of the action. I’m here so my moonburning powers manifest. Because according to Roweni, if they don’t, we’re all screwed. You’ll just get in the way.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “Enzo and I will…observe. I want to see these foreigners. Do you think they have three eyes and blue skin? That’s what my friend Jino said.”

  “Jino’s an idiot,” Rika said. “I bet they look exactly like us.” She sighed. “Is there anything I can say to convince you to go back to Yoshai?”

  “No,” he said, sticking his chin in the air. Rika grimaced. She recognized that stubborn look. She was the one making it most of the time. There would be no convincing him to return. “Fine,” she said. “You and Enzo can ride with me. But when it’s time to tell Father I’m here, you’ll hide. I have a good excuse for why I’ve come. You’re just nosy.”

  “But then I won’t get to see the foreigners!” he protested.

  “You can watch from a hillside. You’ll be able to see how many eyes they have and everything. And then you won’t get in trouble with Dad for sneaking out.” At least until you get back to Yoshai, Rika thought, and Mother flays you alive. But Koji wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Typical boy, she thought. He clearly liked the idea of having this adventure without getting in trouble with their father. “Agreed,” he finally said.

  “You have to do exactly what I say, though,” she warned.

  “Unless it’s stupid,” he countered.

  “Fair enough,” she said. “Let’s go. Father should be nearing Antila. He’ll set up camp soon. If we get to a good spot nearby, we can get some sleep.”

  Koji seemed content to let her lead, and they mounted up, riding in silence. Rika tried not to stare at Enzo, but it was still disconcerting to see her brother riding a golden unicorn. She still hadn’t gotten used to his seishen.

  They slowed to a stop as the lights of Antila came into view. Rika could just make out a tent going up by the light of four orbs the moonburners must have cast. In the distance, along the black line of the sea, hundreds of green lights glowed. No, not hundreds. Thousands. They stretched as far as the eye could see, floating eerily in the air.

  “Look at all of them,” Koji whispered.

  “What’s making that green light?” she asked, more to herself than to Koji. The illumination was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Her mother was right. Whatever had borne these ships here, whatever made that light, it was magic unknown to the burners of Kitina.

  “Maybe they’re here to trade,” Koji said weakly. She glanced at him. His face was drawn, pale. It seemed the reality of this adventure was coming home to roost for him. Who was she kidding? For her too.

  “Father will be able to reason with them. He faced demons from another realm, remember?”

  Koji gave her a grateful smile and she felt a twinge of fondness for her brother. “You’re right. If he and Mother could free the gods, destroy the tengu…he can handle these guys.”

  “Now, I just have to figure out how to let Father know I’m here with minimal yelling.”

  “Good luck with that,” Koji said. “Remember when that litter of chinchillas got loose in their chambers, and he didn’t realize his pants had a hole in them until halfway through that royal dinner?”

  Rika cackled at the memory. “There couldn’t have been a worse place for a hole.” She laughed. “Remember how red his face got?”

  “And that vein in his neck started to bulge? I thought it was going to explode, and a spurt of blood would come out of the side of him!” Koji pantomimed the explosion, and Rika held her stomach as she laughed. She had never seen her father so furious. But he couldn’t say a word, not until the dinner was over and his guests had left.

  “I can assure you”—a deep baritone voice sounded before them—“that his fury over the trouser incident will pale in comparison to the rage you two will face tonight.”

  Koji and Rika froze as Ryu, their father’s seishen, stalked out of the tall grass as silently as a wraith.

  “Both of you. Come with me.”

  RIKA COULDN’T HELP the feeling that she was walking to the gallows as she and her brother followed Ryu towards their father’s tent. Koji, for once, was silent beside her. Even Enzo’s head was down, his horn skimming the ground. This was going to be much, much worse than the trouser incident.

  She had wanted to present herself to her father on her own terms, to prepare her case for why she should be allowed to stay. This wasn’t at all what she’d imagined. How had Ryu even found them? As if he had heard her thought, Ryu rumbled, “Seishen can sense each other’s presence. Even communicate telepathically across short distances. Something you might want to keep in mind for future rebellious acts.”

  Rika glared at Koji and Enzo. They had given them away! If she had come alone, she would have been fine. Koji seemed to shrink under her gaze, and Enzo looked away. She’d deal with them later. For now, she had to brace herself for the gale force winds of her father’s anger.

  The burners who had accompanied Hiro were still finishing erecting the tent, tying the sturdy bamboo poles to the crimson fabric. Hiro stood in the middle, stock still amongst the flurry of activity. Even from behind, Rika could see that his muscles were tensed, his fists balled in fury. Her heart hammered in her chest. On a whim, she seized her brother’s hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back—his palm sweaty.

  “So,” Hiro finally said, after the silence stretched so long she thought she would scream. He turned, his eyes pinning them like arrows. His face was red—thunderous. “Instead of performing valuable reconnaissance, Ryu has had to waste his time bringing my errant children to me. Do you think this is a game we’re playing here?”

  “No,” they both murmured, their eyes glued to the ground.

  “Do you think it is sport?”

  “No.”

  “Do you think I forbade you to come because I am a spiteful father, intent on depriving you of fun? Do I forbid you to do things without good cause?”

  “No,” they both said, though at this point Hiro was getting going, and Rika thought his questioning was more rhetorical.

  “I forbid you to come here because what we do is dangerous. And I do not want to put my beloved children and the heirs to this nation’s future at risk. Does this seem so unreasonable? So intolerable for you that you must disobey me?”

  “No—”

  “And now you put me in the impossible position of deciding whether to send you home with an escort, depriving me of valuable burners whom I need here, or allowing you to stay in this dangerous situation.”

  Rika looked up at that. “You must let us stay,” she blurted out. “We’ll stay out of the way. Watch from afar. But you might need my power…”

  “I am a sunburner and a king!” he thundered. “I do not need my teenage daughter’s assistance with affairs of state!”

  “But the prophecy…” she said weakly, his words stinging as surely as if he had slapped her. She felt her chance to see her powers manifest slipping through her grasp like sand.

  “Prophecy be damned. I will not be ruled by a few words uttered a decade ago by an unhinged Oracle! Now, I have made my decision. You will return to Yoshai at once. One of my sunburners will escort you, and if you give him a peep of trouble, you will both be locked in your rooms for a year. Do I make myself clear?”

  Rika’s face flushed
with anger and shame as she nodded, looking at the swirls on the carpet that had been laid over the grass. This was all Koji’s fault! If he and Enzo hadn’t given them away, she’d still be tucked away out of sight, ready to present herself at the perfect moment. She could kick herself. Why had she agreed to let them travel with her?

  Hiro heaved a massive sigh, deflating a bit. “I do this because I love you and I fear for you here. If anything happened to either of you, your mother and I—”

  “Your Majesty!” Master Tato ducked inside the tent, his eyes wide as full moons. “There’s movement from the beach. Something…someone is coming.”

  “Now?”

  Master Tato nodded, wringing his thin hands.

  Hiro turned to Rika and Koji. “You two will sit in the corner and say nothing. Ryu and Enzo will guard you. Am I understood?”

  They both nodded eagerly, Rika’s heart fluttering in her chest. This was it. The shadow would be revealed, and if the invaders tried anything, her powers would manifest to save them. She wanted to dance with glee, but she kept a serious expression on her face, forcing her shaking hands behind her back, so her father wouldn’t see them. She would be quiet. Until he needed her.

  As Rika, Koji, and the seishen retreated into the corner of the tent, Hiro quickly donned his jacket and buckled on his sword belt. He flipped open one of the saddlebags they had brought and pulled out his golden crown, resting it atop his head. Rika knew that the crown was more than an accessory—it was a well for sunlight, catching and holding it so the wearer had something to burn at night. The other sunburners, who had no similar relics, were as helpless as ordinary men at night, though they all had extensive weapons training. Except poor Master Tato. Rika didn’t think the librarian was particularly handy with a sword. At least the group had the two moonburners to defend them—their power was most deadly at night, when they could pull light from the moon and burn it into heat or fire or lightning. Plus, the seishen could be deadly if cornered. Though Rika had grown up treating Ryu like a pet, she knew she wouldn’t want to cross him in a fight. There was plenty of firepower in this tent. They would be able to face whatever came through that door.