“But . . .”
The little boy began to cry. The old woman cooed at him, then drifted away, forgetting her conversation.
Sora almost went after her.
And then she saw a girl with an abalone comb in her hair. Sora stopped moving.
It was the girl from the marketplace at Kaede City who had tried to get Daemon to go out with her on a date. But the flirtatious glimmer was gone from her eyes. She moved as if in a trance, humming a chirpy melody, like a soundtrack to her own dream.
Seeing a Heart whom Sora had known before, now completely dispossessed of her boldness, was like a bucket of ice water in Sora’s face, a reminder that it was useless to try to talk the Hearts out of what they were doing. Sora had had too much experience with Prince Gin’s magic, from the taro-pastry-loving woman in Paro Village who was overjoyed at being chosen as a Heart, to the indomitable taiga warriors who’d fallen prey to hypnosis. Even Sora herself. Talking would do no good. Sora had to push forward with her plan. The only hope was fighting against Prince Gin with the rest of the Society and putting a stop to him before he asked these two hundred souls to cut out their own beating hearts.
She tiptoed toward the northern edge of the ryuu camp, where most of the warriors had turned in for the night. Fairy’s body was in a covered wagon, a small distance away from the rest of the ryuu, because the cart had been enchanted to a chilly temperature to prevent the empress from decomposing. Sora hoped it wasn’t too cold for an actual, living body.
When she got closer to the wagon, though, she made herself invisible and stopped to survey the situation. There were a dozen ryuu ringing the cart.
Did Hana suspect anything? Was she herself here? If so, that would be trickier, because she’d be able to see Sora, even in invisible form.
Minutes ticked by. The ryuu guarding the wagon may have been numerous, but they were also tired from marching all day, and most were sitting or reclined on the ground, keeping sleepy watch in equidistant posts around the wagon. Only a couple of them bothered to actively patrol the area, but even they kept a wide berth from the cart itself to avoid its cold.
And there was no Hana in sight—ordinary or invisible.
Satisfied with this, Sora began her approach. She waited for one of the patrolling ryuu to pass, then slipped past him silently, taking care to move cautiously and not stir the air, a blade of grass, or a speck of dirt. She slinked between two of the reclined guards, one actually asleep and snoring, and crawled up into the covered wagon bed.
Sora shivered as she inched herself inside. The beams of wood were icy to the touch, and perhaps it was her imagination, but the air seemed tinged blue from the chill. She leaned over Fairy’s body and nearly let out a cry.
Frost tipped her roommate’s dark lashes. That heart-shaped face, usually so lively, was deathly pale and unmoving, like a statue carved of marble. Her hair had taken on a sheen not caused by the gold of her disguise but from the slick layer of ice that coated each strand. Sora touched a trembling hand to Fairy’s cheek, afraid it would confirm there was nothing there but a corpse.
But despite the cold, Fairy’s skin was still soft. There was no blush to it, no warmth, but it wasn’t stiff like it would have been were she dead. Sora collapsed in relief on Fairy’s chest.
“I’m sorry I did this to you,” she whispered. “But you are so brave, and I’m proud of you. I’m proud of us. Just hang in there a little while longer. We’re going home tonight.”
She tucked a loose gold curl behind Fairy’s ear and brushed the frost away from her lashes.
Then Sora took a long, deep breath and focused on the emerald dust currently making snowflakes in the cart.
Stop, she commanded. Make her invisible instead.
The snow stopped falling. It began to lift Fairy lightly off the makeshift bed of uniforms. Then it began to absorb her. Sora watched as Fairy’s body turned sparkling green, invisible to the ordinary eye.
She directed the magic to carry Fairy out of the cart. It should have been an easy task, but Sora wasn’t just steering a barrel of oranges. Fairy was a live person, and if she bumped into anything, she would get hurt. Sora asked more magic to bundle itself around Fairy, like a protective blanket.
She waited for the pacing ryuu to pass. Then Sora slid out of the wagon, and Fairy’s levitating body followed.
A mere minute later, though, a ryuu behind her cried out, “The empress’s corpse is missing!”
Dammit.
The ryuu’s voice had been muffled—he must have been inside the cart itself—but in just a few seconds, the alarm would be raised.
Sora commanded the magic to tie itself like gags around the patrolling ryuu.
“Mmr rmph rroh!” The closest one tried to shout as he tore at his mouth.
Sora kicked him and slammed the heel of her hand into the back of his neck. He passed out immediately. She slid into the guard next to him, taking out his legs, and similarly knocked him unconscious.
The ten other ryuu on patrol came running, even though they couldn’t see her. They knew that the empress was being kidnapped, and they’d seen their fellow guards fall. That’s all they needed to dive into the fight headlong.
Sora drew her sword. She didn’t want to kill them if she could help it, because some of these were new recruits and could hopefully be uncharmed in the future, restored as taigas. But she also didn’t have the time to gently spare everyone. She needed to end this, quickly, before the rest of the camp woke up.
She had the benefit of invisibility, though. The ryuu had rushed to the spot where the other guards had fallen, but they didn’t know where to attack next.
Sora smashed the butt of her sword into the heads of four ryuu, one right after the other in rapid succession. They tumbled to the ground.
The remaining six ryuu pinpointed her location. They didn’t bother with fighting the invisible gags around their mouths anymore. Instead, they focused their efforts and surrounded Sora, drawing their blades. They began to rush forward, some swords held high, some low.
Another second, and Sora would be skewered half a dozen ways.
She called on the magic to buoy her, and she leaped into the air as the swords impaled the space she’d just occupied.
The warriors ran the blades straight through each other. For a horrified moment, they stood there, eyes wide as blood spilled from their bodies, soaking their uniforms. Then, with muffled cries, they toppled over.
Five of them had been new recruits from Paro Village, Kaede City, and Tiger’s Belly. Now they were just dead ryuu.
What have I done? Sora thought, landing on the ground beside them.
But this, as Prince Gin had pointed out, was the cost of war. No matter which side of right she was on, there would be inevitable wrongs.
Still, she staggered backward at the magnitude of what she’d done. She bumped into something and fell into the mud.
It was Fairy, her body still levitating but visible, pale and cold, defenseless and vulnerable. Her roommate’s face wrenched Sora from her shock. She had to pull herself together. Her friend’s life depended on it.
As did the lives of all the Hearts. And the entirety of Kichona’s future, actually.
Sora gritted her teeth and pulled herself up from the mud. She kept her eyes on Fairy—refusing to look at the dead ryuu anymore—and refocused herself.
Make her invisible again.
Emerald dust rushed into Fairy’s body and made her disappear.