So that was her little sister’s specialty. No wonder Prince Gin wanted Sora trained. Siblings had the same power, and invisibility would be an incredible advantage over any enemy. If the Dragon Prince could have two ryuu like that . . .
A swipe knocked Sora’s feet out from under her, and she slammed into the floor.
“Use your senses, Spirit!” Beetle shouted.
Sora lashed out to grab an ankle or a leg. Her fingertips touched only air. Hana laughed cruelly, already half the length of the ship away.
Sora jumped back onto her feet. She felt a slight shift in the air a split second before Hana’s head barreled straight into her stomach. Sora flew backward into a mast. It knocked the wind clear out of her lungs, and she crumpled onto the deck.
From the sails above, Hana said, “Get up. You’re an insult to the blood we share.”
So angry. But instead of hurting, the taunt stoked Sora’s competitiveness. I was using magic while you were still in diapers, she thought. Someone needs to put you back in your place.
That was part of the job of being an older sister, after all.
Sora gritted her teeth and pushed aside the ache of the already-forming bruises on her back, and she rose again.
“Find me!” Hana, still invisible, yelled. “Stop flailing like a Kira Lake fish and use the Sight that Prince Gin granted you!”
Sora squinted and remembered what the green particles looked like. A moment later, she saw them whirling in the air, as if a breeze were stirring the magic. Sora followed the disturbance. The specks parted as an unseen force ran through them, then halted at the highest point of the ship—the crow’s nest.
There. That’s where Hana perched.
Sora stared for a few seconds. It wasn’t possible, was it? Had she really found Hana?
But then it began to sink in that she was a ryuu, and that meant she could do ryuu things. Sora grinned, then leaped up the mast, several stories high. It was a movement unimaginable to a taiga, but now it was surprisingly effortless, as if the magic that floated everywhere existed simply to buoy her up and extend her trajectory. Sora reveled in the feeling of being tossed upward, like her legs were made of springs. All she’d done was think about jumping up the mast, and it had happened.
This is incredible. It was the same magic the taigas called up with their mudras and chants, but the ryuu could do so much more with it. How could it be that this power had been there all along, but the Society hadn’t fully understood it?
Because the taigas are limited by their mudras and chants, Sora realized.
She found solid grips and footing on the mast. She looked for Hana but saw nobody.
There was a shout from the crow’s nest above, and suddenly, Hana slammed into her.
Sora plowed into the mast, the wood scraping the entire left side of her face, blood spattering onto her tunic. She rebounded out of the crow’s nest.
She got caught in a sail on the way down, slowing her rapid fall. It was the only way she didn’t die when she hit the deck. Still, the impact slammed every bit of oxygen out of her body.
“Spirit! Are you okay?” Beetle ran up to the edge of the scrimmage ring. She’d nearly forgotten she had an audience. But of course she did. This was, as Hana had put it, a public humiliation.
“I’m all right.” Sora wiped a smear of blood from her cheek. Hopefully it made her look fiercer than she felt, like war paint instead of defeat.
And she would not be humiliated. Not by her little sister. Sora got to her feet.
The last time she and Hana were in the same place, Hana had been so resentful. Sora didn’t want to see that in her sister’s eyes anymore. She wanted both Prince Gin and Hana to be proud of her.
Sora was supposed to have the same power as her sister. But even if Sora didn’t know how to make herself invisible yet, it might still be possible for her to see how Hana did it.
“You’re still thinking like a taiga.” Hana’s voice came from somewhere else on the deck, that now-familiar corrosive condescension returning to burn the edges of her otherwise youthful voice. Sora’s ears were still ringing from the fall and she couldn’t quite place the source. “Magic is like another reality,” Hana continued. “Or rather, one layered on top of the world that ordinary people—and taigas—see.”
Sora remained light on her feet, hands up in fighting stance, while she pondered this.
That was it! Ryuu magic was invisible to taigas. But now that Sora had Sight, she could use it if she focused. She’d seen the oranges in the gorilla, infused with the green of particles. The bats’ wings had glittered with ryuu magic inside them.
If she looked harder at the emerald dust, maybe she’d find Hana, saturated by the magic in much the same way.
Sora bit back a smile, in case it was premature. But that had to be it. Hana wasn’t actually invisible. She’d simply asked the magic to camouflage her from ordinary reality. With that thought, the barriers of Sora’s preconceptions began to fall away.
And there was Hana, like an emerald version of herself, reclining on the edge of the ship’s railing.
Sora pretended to wander aimlessly. But when she was within range, her arm shot out and knocked Hana off the railing. Only because Sora grabbed a fistful of her tunic did her sister not fall overboard.
Hana reappeared.
“Holy heavens,” Beetle said, dropping the last half of his cookie sandwich onto the floor. “No one else has been able to see Virtuoso when she was invisible.”
All the other ryuu stood equally stunned that someone—a recruit, no less—had bested the undefeatable Virtuoso, who now dangled off the side of the ship.
Sora braced herself for Hana’s scowl.
What she got, though, was her sister looking up at her, eyes bright and clear and wide, the exact expression of surprise and awe she used to give Sora when they were young. Sora glowed. This was what she’d wanted. This was what she’d missed.
But the admiration was quickly replaced with Virtuoso’s signature glower. Hana scrambled back onto the railing and shoved Sora aside. She landed on deck and stormed off.
Those two seconds, though, were enough.
I am so glad to be here, Sora thought. Not only to be able to play with magic more powerful than she’d ever imagined possible. But also to be reunited with Hana, even if her little sister hadn’t come around yet to accepting her.
Sora couldn’t wait to spend more time with Hana. She would become the ryuu that Hana had promised Prince Gin she would be. And hopefully, she would permanently earn back that look of love and admiration that had flitted in her little sister’s eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Daemon swam all night. He swam until his muscles cramped, and then he pushed on some more, the magic of his sailfish spell allowing him to continue past ordinary human limits. His lungs burned and his lips cracked from the seawater, and still, he kept swimming. He would never make it to Tiger’s Belly before the ryuu. Their magic could command the sea. Even against an ordinary ship, Daemon’s arms and legs would be no match. But he could do his best and swim ashore on one of the smaller islands nearby.
At the same time, he tried to project the will to resist Prince Gin through his gemina connection. Where was that electric feeling he’d had before, the sharp spark he’d used to shock Sora out of the Dragon Prince’s spell? He needed to send it to Sora again.