“And do what?” She crossed her arms.
“Um . . . try to see those green ryuu magic particles?”
“I don’t have Sight.”
“But you’re good at magic.”
She shook her head. “As a taiga, not as a ryuu.”
Daemon frowned. “Well, unless you’re planning to knock on the Dragon Prince’s cabin door to turn yourself in, which I doubt, we need to find another way to learn about their magic. Prince Gin might grant Sight to the recruits, but he had to have discovered the particles the first time, right? What if it’s possible to use ryuu magic without Sight, but it’s just harder than with it?”
“You mean, if knowing the magic is there is half the battle?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “To be honest, I’m making it up as I go along.”
Sora nodded. “Me too.”
They stood there by the trunk for a minute, contemplating the recklessness of their plan. They could be caught at any minute and either executed or hypnotized into service. Daemon may have been able to fend off Prince Gin’s charm once, but there was no guarantee he could do it a second time, and Sora was certainly susceptible to it.
But they hadn’t really had a choice. Or, at least not a choice that Daemon and Sora wanted to pick. Before the ryuu left the Kaede City outpost, they had destroyed all the taigas’ dragonfly messengers, just as they had at Paro Village. Even if Daemon and Sora had stayed behind, they wouldn’t have been able to communicate with the Citadel. At least on the ship, they could attempt to gather more information so that the next time they landed somewhere with a Society post, they’d have more to share.
Plus, there was Sora’s plan to poison the ryuu. They had originally plotted to target only Prince Gin, but now that they knew how loyal his soldiers were, it seemed wiser to take them all out. And frankly, they were more likely to succeed if they aimed for all of the ryuu instead of specific ones.
He shuddered to think about killing everyone on board. Many of them had been loyal taigas just a day ago. And all Daemon had was the taigas. He didn’t have family. The Society was it.
But he also thought about the rira disks that he and Sora had stashed away. Taigas would rather die than allow themselves to be captured. If the ryuu recruits knew what had happened to them—that Prince Gin had made them prisoners within their own minds—they would prefer Daemon and Sora poisoning them over continuing as mind-controlled tools of the enemy.
Poisoning all the ryuu on board really was the best option for everyone. There was no other way that two apprentices were going to be able to stop them.
Daemon’s stomach interrupted the downward spiral of his thoughts by growling again.
“You were on your way out to get us some food, right?” Sora asked.
“Um, yeah,” he said, coming back to the present. “I’ll go now.”
“While you’re at it, why don’t you break into Prince Gin’s cabin and find out all his plans too?” Sora asked. It was supposed to lighten their mood, but given how much was at stake, the joke came out a bit flat.
Daemon appreciated the effort, though, and tried to play along. “Is that a challenge?” he asked.
She smiled grimly. “Work hard, mischief harder. You break into the Dragon Prince’s quarters, and I’ll find a way to access ryuu magic without Sight.”
He nodded. “Challenge accepted.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sora sat cross-legged on the ground. She was hidden by the cargo nets, so if someone came into the hold, she could dive into the trunk.
How do I find this godsforsaken magic? She stared intently at the air in front of her, brows knit together and eyes narrowed. All she saw was nothing.
Prince Gin had said the particles were everywhere, and the only reason taigas didn’t see it was because they didn’t know the magic was tangible.
But now I know, Sora thought. “Magic . . . come out, come out, wherever you are.” There was a beam of light coming in from a hairline crack in the wall. She focused on it. Maybe it would be easier to see the ryuu magic there.
And then . . .
Aha! A particle!
Sora smiled.
When she looked again at the beam of light, though, the particle was gone. And come to think of it, it had been white, like ordinary dust, not green like Prince Gin had said.
There was an awful lot of dust swirling around in that sliver of light. Sora sighed.
Concentrate, she told herself, squinting harder. Where are you, you little green things?
She stared and stared until her eyes crossed and actually began to ache.
She thought she saw the particles, and she jumped.
Her head smacked into the ceiling. Crow’s eye. Sora rubbed the spot she’d bumped.
She sat down again, allowing her eyelids to flutter closed for a minute.
Think, Sora, think. There must be something.
Maybe she wasn’t looking hard enough.
Or maybe she was looking too hard.
What if I tried a different sense?
People could smell sea salt in the ocean air and feel dampness before a storm. If the ryuu particles were floating everywhere, wouldn’t there be other ways to find them besides seeing them?
Sora inhaled slowly and deeply. And gagged. She’d gotten used to the stench of mold and wet rope and dank air, but a giant lungful all at once was a wallop to her chest.
She took a moment to recover, then took another breath. A smaller one.
This one still stank, but she pushed that into the background and searched out more subtle smells. The lingering scent of paper from the books piled nearby. Dried algae from the broken buoys.
This was too general. Sora’s nose needed something more specific to home in on. But what did magic smell like?
She got on hands and knees and started sniffing around.
Iron.
More stale water.
Dirt.
And the slight hint of rotting food . . .
“Ugh.” Sora found herself directly in front of a rat’s nest of random things: scraps of old cloth, soggy bills of lading, and bits and pieces of partially consumed food, some to enjoy soon, others to be saved until they ripened to the rat’s liking.
She got to her feet, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Sora couldn’t quit, though. Right now, she and Daemon were the only things standing between Prince Gin and his superpowered army.
Sight and smell weren’t working for finding ryuu magic. But there were still other senses.
All right, she thought. A short break, then another try.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Virtuoso stood with arms crossed on the main deck of the ship. Above her, the sails filled with wind, like puff-chested flag bearers hurtling the ryuu around Kichona to Tiger’s Belly, a trading port on the island’s eastern side. The air was bitter and sharp, and salt spray leaped over the railings, dampening her hooded cloak with coldness.
She was not on deck because she enjoyed the abuse of the sea, however. She was here because she had been tapped by Prince Gin to give the recruits a crash course on ryuu magic.
This was important. She was one of the youngest of the original ryuu, but she’d proved herself more adept with magic than any of the others, and she’d become the Dragon Prince’s protégée. Training the new army was the biggest responsibility yet. Her stomach knotted at the possibility.