Oh gods, Spirit and Wolf could have drowned. She imagined them floating facedown among the wreckage of a typhoon, their bodies lifeless.
Broomstick almost crushed Fairy’s hand. He could feel her terror tremoring through their bond. “Whatever is going on in that head of yours, stop it. It’s not true.”
“But it could be.”
“There are an infinite number of possible outcomes. You can torture yourself imagining the worst, but it’s just as likely to be true as Spirit and Wolf being fine. They could be on their way back here right now. Think about that. Think about Spirit and Wolf’s victory as they ride into the Citadel with news about the south, before the navy gets us word.”
Fairy tried to smile. But she couldn’t.
Above them, Empress Aki sighed loudly. “I appreciate the speed at which the Society has mobilized to address this unidentified threat. However, I can’t help but think that we’re approaching this in the wrong way.”
“How do you mean?” Glass Lady asked. “We are doing what has worked for centuries, based on the Society’s experience protecting the kingdom from everything from coordinated pirate raids to full-scale foreign incursions.”
“Yes, but that’s my point. The attack on Isle of the Moon is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. In all those centuries of experience, have the taigas ever faced an adversary who wielded magic stronger than yours? Or have you faced another enemy with magic at all?”
The Council was quiet, seemingly taken by surprise by someone questioning their expertise.
A minute later, the commander recovered herself. “Your Majesty,” Glass Lady said, “we have succeeded in defending this island under all manner of conditions for ages. Despite the novelty of this situation, you do not need to worry. Our methods are proven. We will get to the bottom of this mysterious assault, and you will continue to rule this kingdom as your father and your ancestors have done before.”
“I feel as if I’m being talked down to because of my age.”
“Not at all!” Glass Lady rushed to say. “Your Majesty, we have the utmost respect for you. For gods’ sake, you prevailed in the Blood Rift when you were only fifteen. We have no doubt in your leadership. But what we are asking is that you also have faith in ours. Protecting Kichona is what the Society does. Believe me when I say that we are doing everything we should be. It is my job, and I will die before I watch anything—magical or not—threaten our kingdom.”
Empress Aki sighed again. “My patience is running thin, Commander. I feel like we’re having the same conversations over and over again. Therefore, I want you to start thinking about alternate approaches to what you’ve done in the past. In the meantime, keep me up to date if anything changes, and let me know as soon as the navy sends word on why we’ve no communications from the southern outposts.”
The meeting was over. The empress rose and left the room, with the councilmembers accompanying her out of the building.
Fairy stared at the underside of the floorboards. She was as frustrated with the Council’s lack of progress as the empress was.
“I know they have a way of doing things,” she said, “but why haven’t they found anything yet? It’s like they’re afraid to stray from their tracks, for fear of stumbling into an unknown they can’t handle.” Resigned, she laid her head down, her cheek pressed flat into the dirt.
But then she thought of Spirit and Wolf, out there, brave but alone, in the midst of the unknown.
Fairy lifted her head.
Broomstick looked at her expectantly.
“If Spirit were here, she’d come up with a plan,” Fairy said. “But since she’s not, we’ll have to do it ourselves.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Right now, nothing. But like Empress Aki said, she wants the taigas to start thinking differently. Maybe we can combine your knowledge of the inner workings of the Society with my talent for being in places I’m not supposed to be, and come up with something.”
Broomstick nodded slowly as he considered it. “Work hard, mischief harder, right?”
Fairy was able to muster a small smile now. “Yeah. Let’s mischief harder.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sora was experimenting in the cargo hold again, now with a different sense. On the rooftop of the Kaede City command post, Prince Gin had described ryuu magic as emerald dust. What if, like real dust, it was something that could be touched?
Sora lifted her hand in front of her face and blew gently into the air.
Nothing happened.
She kept blowing.
Nothing.
More air.
Nothing.
More, more, more . . .
Sora was light-headed. She paused so the room would stop spinning.
Daemon hurried in. He was a little paler than usual, and his hair was mussed up. But there was also an electric sort of energy in the way he bounced around the hold, unable to stand still, kinetic and fully charged.
He stopped moving for half a moment to say, “I did it. I broke into Prince Gin’s quarters.” Daemon promptly resumed pacing again and told her what he’d discovered in the maps and notes upstairs.
When he was done, Sora sank down to the floor. “Prince Gin is building an unstoppable army. War is coming.”
“No,” Daemon said. “War’s already here. It’s just that the rest of Kichona doesn’t realize it yet.”
The nauseating image of the tenderfoot nursery on fire flashed through Sora’s memory. She could still smell the smoke and see the charred remains in her head. And then afterward, once the embers had died, she’d wrenched herself away from the arms of the teachers who tried to comfort her, to restrain her, and bolted into the middle of all the ash. It had flown up around like a snow flurry from the hells.
Beneath it, there had been bones. Tiny, blackened bones, the skeletons inseparable from one to the next. The tenderfoots had died huddled together.
Sora bent over, dry heaving.
Daemon rushed to her side.
She shoved the fiery memories aside and tried to breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Breathe.
“We can’t let this ship make it to Tiger’s Belly,” Sora said. “We can’t let him choose more Hearts or take more taigas. We have to poison everyone here, and soon.”
“We really have to kill everyone?” Daemon asked.
Sora felt his unease keenly, not only because it coursed through their gemina bond like milk gone sour, but also because she wasn’t convinced that killing everyone was necessary either. Or at least she didn’t want to do it.
She kept focusing on her breaths as she rethought her plan. She opened Fairy’s pouch and looked through the vials. Then she saw a tiny transparent packet fastened to the inside of the leather flap. Sora gasped. It was kagi powder.
“What if we use this?” she asked, showing the fine white powder to Daemon. “It’s ground kagi leaves, which cause the equivalent of very vicious food poisoning. They’ll retch to the point of passing out.”
Daemon nodded as he processed what she was suggesting. “It’ll debilitate the ryuu long enough for us to isolate and kill Prince Gin. Maybe, without a leader, the rest of the ryuu will stop their advance through Kichona.”