Subterfuge: A Cultivation Academy Series (Bastion Academy Book 3)

by J D Astra

  “You’ve created the same polarization field below you as used on the flying trains!” Mae declared with excitement.

  ‘Analyze as much of it as you can,’ I thought with a smile.

  “You can feel it?” Yin asked, beaming.

  Excitement overtook me as the feeling of lightness filled me. There was no equivalent. I’d done air manipulation before, but never around my own body. This was a completely new sensation that left my hair standing on end.

  I smiled at Yin. “I can.”

  Kago stepped up to the shielding glass. “When you’re ready place your hand here—” he set his palm against a faintly glowing red light I hadn’t seen before—“then say tsuro.”

  Whistling wind ripped past the opening that appeared in a blink next to Kago’s hand. Ko-nah swirled his hands around him and created the same barrier under his feet. The three of us stepped up to the edge, and I looked to Kago and Roku.

  “You aren’t coming?” I asked over the rushing air.

  They shook their heads. “We need our second band,” Roku said, looking downtrodden.

  I turned to Yin, then Ko-nah, then over the edge threshold. It was bright all the way down, but I couldn’t see the bottom from my angle.

  “I don’t really like this,” Mae said with apprehension.

  I shook my head and stepped a little closer. ‘We have to learn more about their technology, and this is a piece of it.’

  “See you at the bottom!” Yin said as he pushed past me, leaping out into the abyss as if he were jumping into a calm lake. He zipped upwards and disappeared for a brief second, then dropped with an excited howl.

  Ko-nah stepped up next to me. “Can you trust us?”

  I gritted my teeth, and my gaze snapped to the two excited students waiting by the open doorway. I could back out. I could pretend I was afraid.

  Ko-nah jumped and shot upwards. He dropped back down into view, holding his arms and elbows out as a forty-degree angle. He hovered, wiggling about as if he were balancing on a ball, then found his equilibrium. This was my chance. Just a flick of ma munje to dispel his shield and Ko-nah would be ejected into the sky.

  He looked at me, the fear in his eyes revealing that same knowledge.

  “Running out of shield, here!” Ko-nah yelled. “Are you coming?”

  I stepped close enough to feel the wind pulling me. It was now or never.

  I jumped off and felt my body buckle under the force of being blasted straight up. The zo in my muscles held fast to the shape I’d created with my arms. I rocketed through the top of the building and up past the tree’s canopy.

  The sun was just setting, and the horizon was painted in orange and pink. The colorful hues reflected off the towering glass buildings of the city and bathed the land and sea in golden light. Wonderful.

  “Jiyong, go down!” Mae yelled.

  I looked down to see I was at least ten meters above the pagoda. I pulled my arms and elbows in, dropping me back through the wind tunnel and into the school. I blew past Ko-nah with a whoop, then raised my arms to slow down. I could see the individual floors as I passed, and slowed further when I saw Hana.

  She ran to the glass and mouthed my name with a panicked expression. I smiled, then lowered my arms once more. Ko-nah caught up to me, and we dropped in time.

  “There’s a lot you need to hear,” Ko-nah yelled at me.

  A red banner reading Slow Down repeated over and over against the wall. I slowed my descent and looked down to see the glowing floor. I drifted down uneasily as the strength in my muscles waned. I passed a bubble of aqua munje, and the wind died down to nothing just when I reached the bottom.

  Ko-nah landed next to me and brushed his hair out of his face. “Fun, right?” he asked with a friendly smile and excitement in his voice.

  I scowled. I’d never seen this façade. How was he faking this so well? I’d seen fear and longing... I’d seen everything he’d wanted me to see, but never this. It was as if he was actually happy. He didn’t deserve happiness after what he’d done.

  “So glad you’re enjoying your sentence,” I said with cold detachment, leaving him behind in the fūdō. If it had been a true hearing and sentence from Busa-nan he would’ve been beaten in the streets and left rotting in a cell. He’d made out a lot better here.

  “You’d understand if you’d just listen,” Ko-nah said with pained frustration.

  I stopped at the door and looked back. “Sympathetic ears are for friends.”

  Ko-nah took a deep breath, then brought his knuckles to his chest.

  Heat raged in my chest and exploded out my mouth. “Don’t you dare!”

  He stopped short of knocking and swallowed, then dropped his hand to his side.

  I stepped away from the noisy wind tunnel, hoping the rushing sound had covered my anger. Yin was on the other side of the opening, clapping for me with a grin.

  “How was that?” he asked.

  “It was alright.” I shrugged with a playful smirk, though I still felt the tempest of rage in my chest.

  Yin laughed and I did too, though the fire in my veins threatened to make my hands tremble. Ko-nah stepped from the tube with a smile, ready to get on with the tour. We took the elevator back to the top for relaxation time before lights out. I unrolled my bed and unpacked my few belongings. Ko-nah didn’t attempt to talk to me again, and we came to lights out with an uneasy sense of dread building.

  Ko-nah could easily be doing Dokun’s bidding. The whole thing could be a setup designed to force me to reveal our intentions and allow Dokun to murder us righteously with one of his Enjiho. Or Ko-nah could be playing a different game entirely. I hated the lies, the doubt, the second guessing...

  But there was something about the fear in his eyes and the desperation in his tone.

  “You still need me.”

  Perhaps Ko-nah had gotten himself in deeper than he’d intended and was looking for yet another way out. Well, it was time for him to live with the choices he’d made. I wouldn’t be his salvation today, or any day.

  Chapter 13

  MAE WOKE ME AS MORNING broke, and I sat up quietly. It had been a week of integrated living with Long River—an insufferably long time to be separated from my team. We were promised by Ena that the integration period would end in another week, but that it was important to complete. Moon Shadow had found it invaluable in getting the exchange students comfortable with the cultural shift. I could see the truth in it, but we were wasting precious days when we could be making our new plan without the picture frame. What could we accomplish without it? We wouldn’t know until we put our heads together and figured it out.

  I pulled back my blankets and came to a cross-legged position to meditate. It was still dark in the small room, and no one else roused at my movement. The nip of fall was in the air despite the window being shuttered from the elements, and I shivered.

  I breathed deeply and checked my energy reserves—low, of course—but I could spare some for a little warmth. I cycled the muscle-boosting zo through my first band. With a moment of quiet, I took a second to review the progress on the third, larger band.

  My core came into view in my mind like a glowing gold hexahedron. The black crystal nestled in the center of the two completed rings pulsed gently, as if it were hungry for energy. The third band, held in place by tiny support beams to the second band, floated darkly. Without a connected ring, I couldn’t force energy through it. The third band was significantly larger than the second since it had to encompass the core and the two bands that preceded it, but it was useless until it connected at least once.

  I had high hopes I would be able to get it nearly completed by the end of the exchange, but if Ko-nah was going to interfere at every step, I would have to put special effort and attention into keeping him out of our business instead of working on my core. Everything else would have to go on hold to ensure the completion of the mission and the safety of my friends.

  I spent a bit of energy on building the
third band out a little farther. If I had the time now in the early mornings, that was when I would have to work on myself. The third band would open up a new world of spells. The triangular configuration that could be designed through the bands would create very stable munje that could travel long distances and stay in effect for weeks at a time.

  ‘Is Ko-nah awake?’ I asked Mae while I knitted the recycled zo munje into my third band.

  “They all seem to be sleeping,” she reported.

  That didn’t mean he wasn’t awake. I’d learned long ago that Ko-nah was a master of hiding himself from detection. It seemed his choices in life had made him just as formidable as mine had, but in different ways. He was certainly better at this business than I was.

  I slipped out of the blankets and rolled up my bed, then changed into the Moon Shadow provided uniform. It was heavier than I expected, but the material flowed and stretched with ease. The pants were tight, but flexible. I wiggled my legs around some to get the fitting waistband to sit comfortably on my hips.

  The black shirt was also form fitting, highlighting Mae’s disc imbedded in my chest. The silky robes of silver and black felt like wrapping myself in luxury rather than a uniform. It tied at the waist and flowed past my hips to my shins. The sleeves were wide and short, ending at my elbows, but the form-fitting shirt went all the way to my wrists.

  I dropped into horse stance without the typical clothing restriction at the thighs. I dropped even lower, chuckling at the incredible flex in the material.

  “Like wearing a second skin, isn’t it?” Ko-nah whispered from his bed, and I spun toward him.

  “It’s comfortable,” I replied flatly, trying not to appear startled. Once again, Ko-nah had outsmarted Mae’s detection, and I’d been unprepared.

  “I hope you’re comfortable with butchering animals,” Ko-nah said. He rolled up his bed and placed it next to mine.

  “What does that mean?” I asked. I smoothed out the folds of the new robes, then grabbed my Bastion pin and affixed it to the breast of the tight shirt.

  “We’re one of the hunting teams today.”

  Ko-nah turned away from me as he dressed. He was skinnier than I remembered, and there was a litany of fresh, pink scars across his back. I looked for the telltale signs of ry manipulation, but there were none. He’d been brutally beaten by someone, but who?

  I scowled and dismissed the thought. I didn’t care who’d done this to him. He deserved worse.

  Yin, Roku, and Kago roused and dressed without much conversation. We traveled together to the dining room where a small offering of rice porridge, eggs, remnants of last night’s dinner, and some fresh fruits were set out at each table.

  When we sat, Roku and Kago went to work dishing out portions to each of us and brewing a fresh pot of tea that smelled of roasted rice and fresh herbs. It was savory and potent. They explained more of the academy’s ways as we ate.

  Moon Shadow was one of six schools in Kokyu that still practiced the old ways of being completely self-sustaining. The only purchases they made were for rice, parchment, and metals. They earned enough money to do so by completing tasks and chores for the residents of Sonma—chores that were becoming sparse due to the Enjiho filling that need. Everything else was grown, foraged, or built by the students and instructors of the school.

  They all spoke of the traditions with reverence. They felt lucky they’d been accepted into the school where they honored the ways of their fathers and mothers. Even Ko-nah seemed to be at peace in his new world, which I couldn’t trust for a second.

  “I’ve hunted before, and butchered an animal,” I said, looking to Ko-nah.

  Yin chuckled. “I wonder if there will be anything at all we can teach you.”

  “Of that I’m certain,” Ko-nah said. “You’ve told me of your interest in machina. We have a very special method of connecting with our ma in Kokyu I know you’re sure to be intrigued by.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “You like machina?” Kago asked and refilled my tea. I noticed his eyes darting to my chest, then back to the teacup as he worked. I wondered if he could sense the ma in my chest or if the protrusion was so obvious it couldn’t be avoided. It was going to come up eventually, especially if there was a group shower situation like Bastion—which reminded me I hadn’t seen showers anywhere.

  I pulled the fitted shirt and robe aside to show off the disc imbedded in my chest. “I have an interesting relationship with machina. I also fight battle bots, so anything to give me an edge against my enemies would be greatly appreciated.”

  Ko-nah’s lips flickered up to a smirk, and the younger students gasped in shock.

  “Did that hurt?” Kago asked.

  “Immensely.”

  “What happened?” Roku asked.

  I told them the story that we’d told everyone at Bastion and watched Ko-nah from the corner of my eye. When I concluded the story, including the bits about my family, Hana’s involvement, and the coma, they all bowed—thanking me for the interesting tale.

  Yin touched my shoulder, a pained look pinching his brow. “Sounds like you’ve had it rough.”

  “Not as bad as some. I wasn’t poisoned last year like my friend Cho,” I said, gesturing across the room to the tall, golden-haired boy. When all the others looked, Ko-nah stared at me. His expression was unreadable and still.

  “Well, it’s time for us to get under way,” Yin said and stood, leaving his empty dishes at the table.

  Moon Shadow was so different from Bastion. Each living unit like Long River was assigned rotating tasks. They employed no staff to help clean or cook and did everything on their own. It was not so unlike my own home when we’d lived on the farm, something I’d tried hard to get away from.

  There was no time to feel sentimental as we geared up for the hunt. Yin was armed with a long bow and arrows while the rest of us were given ropes, nets, and packing equipment. We left on foot through the back gate and headed straight into the mountainous terrain.

  The scent of industry was on the air from Dokun’s factory, and it took us nearly an hour to escape the smell. We stopped at a babbling stream, and Yin paused for a quick break. He showed me the li spell for tracking to expose animal footprints and movements that had damaged branches or disturbed grasses.

  We cycled a few breaths for li, and I kept a lesson from long ago in mind. Sung-ki had helped me focus my attention on the life of the plants, even though they were just... well, plants. But finding damaged plant matter with Sung-ki’s suggestion methods was easy. Connection with Jigu was much simpler when I blocked out everything else.

  When I had enough li stored, Yin showed me the motion to cast the spell. He spun in a gentle circle with his arms out, releasing the yellowish-green munje from his fingertips as he did.

  The munje fell and settled on the grass next to the river and, after a moment, soaked into the ground. After another minute, teardrop-shaped hoofprints glowed up from the thick blades of grass.

  Yin knelt at the lit-up tracks. “The munje gets into the root system, finds the broken blades, then activates the plants’ own munje to create the glow. This can keep the trail lit for many kilometers, as long as the roots aren’t interrupted.”

  “We used to track them with another spell that detected the prey’s essence,” Kago said, excited, and Yin cut him short.

  “Yes, but Grandmaster has recently frowned upon us using our fourth and fifth band abilities,” Yin said with a grumble. “No matter. This way is also effective.”

  We took a moment to refill our flasks at the stream, which was another lesson in water movement and purification for the younger students. I could see how this integrated way of learning was superior to Bastion’s narrowly focused classroom setting. I wondered why so many schools in Busa-nan followed that model?

  When we were all well refreshed and prepared for the hunt, we hurried on our way. The Moon Shadow students were silent as ghosts and lithe as cats as they navigated the rocky ter
rain of their home. I slipped on the mossy rocks like someone had oil-slicked the soles of my shoes. I certainly wasn’t representing Bastion very well to these foreign friends—who could turn enemy at any moment.

  Yin called us to stop and whispered, “Our prey is close. Roku and Kago, you will take a wide berth west. Stay downwind of them. Prepare your nets and your ry glimmers to cage them in. Aki and Jiyong, follow them, then take to the north and do the same. I will follow the tracks to the center. I’ll be able to hit one or two before the group scares, then I’ll run them into your traps. Got it?”

  I didn’t want to be paired with Ko-nah, but Yin was the elder of the group and gave the orders. If I had a problem with something he said, I’d need to have a good reason to oppose it, which I didn’t. It made me miss Mae’s presence.

  If it’d been safe enough for Mae to speak more often, she would’ve had something smart to say that would get me away from Ko-nah. But we had to keep chatter to a minimum in case my shield failed.

  We dispersed as ordered, casting ry dampening spells around us to quiet our footfalls. I hunched down, making my profile small among the tall grass and bushes. I tried to keep Yin and the highlighted tracks in my sights as we moved, but at some point, Yin disappeared. Likely getting ready to spring the trap.

  Kago and Roku stopped and began setting up their nets, leaving Ko-nah and me to go on alone. After another minute of creeping through the forest, I lost sight of the younger boys too.

  “I was trying to save my mother,” Ko-nah said.

  I hushed him, then whispered, “You’ll scare our prey.”

  Ko-nah tutted. “The ry dampening is so thick you could fart into the wind and not scare a badgermouse.”

  I scowled, adopting a tactic of bluntness from Yuri. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “Your father didn’t know it was you. I told him who you were.”

  Heat burned up my chest into my cheeks. My heart pounded away, and I glared daggers into the back of Ko-nah’s skull. That was what he wanted. He wanted me angry so I would act foolishly. Was Ko-nah going to turn on me out here?