A breeze ruffled pink and purple balsam on the opposite side of the river; here the bank was black sand, and the warrior sighed softly. He’d almost died here once.
“Hello, Selegan River,” he said, widening his fingers to allow the water to play around his fingers. “Do you remember me? Last year I arrived with desperation and vengeance, but this summer I come with respect in my heart.”
The surface of the river flickered silver-white under the sun, and a tiny flip like a fish’s tail splashed water up at the warrior.
He smiled and wiped at the water.
Then the Selegan River spirit leapt up, snapping out its wings. It grinned as water streamed through its curved teeth and lashed its tails in greeting. The demon-kissed warrior held out his hand again, and the dragon licked it, wiggling happily, and fell again into the water with a massive splash.
The young man laughed, though he was soaked and dripping.
Behind him, he heard a low rumbling, like distant rockfall. He stood, turning, in time to see a hill of grass-covered lava tremble, heave, and then open like a mossy stone mouth.
A young woman climbed out, and behind her, the earth knit itself back together.
She stared at him blankly for a moment, seeming like nothing more than a goblin or a strange meadow spirit in scraps of a tattered gray silk dress that might’ve been woven of spiderwebs or clouds. Her hair was longer, but still chopped in uneven layers, the ends lifting out as if they’d been charged by lightning. Her skin was suntanned and her cheeks too pink, with freckles and a small pink mouth. Her eyes were round and dark now as obsidian caverns.
She wasn’t wearing any shoes.
The demon-kissed warrior smiled. “Shine.”
In answer, she smiled back: wide and wild. “Hello, Sky!”
Shine danced eagerly toward him, her bare toes pressing down the thick grass that popped upright immediately.
He held out a hand for her, but she ignored it, jumping up into his arms.
Sky staggered. She was as heavy as if her bones were made of quartz. He grunted and reframed his stance to stay upright, holding her tightly because now he knew she wouldn’t break.
“It is good to see you,” she said in his ear.
But Sky stared past her: bright, white summer air darkened into shades of gray and black as if a raven blotted out the sun. The shadows coalesced slowly, elegantly, drawing out of light itself, until a beautiful lady stood with them in a complicated black-and-pink gown, edged in mint green and embroidered with scarlet peonies. She smiled too, showing sharp teeth; one of her eyes was summer green, as green as this fertile lava field, while the other was as white as ivory.
Shine let go of him, hopping down, and she said, “How are you?”
Sky nodded to the sorceress and said to Shine softly, “He asked me.”
The young woman gasped and held her breath. Sky could see tiny shards of light in her big black eyes; they turned slowly, like stars. “First?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“And what did you say?”
“That I will answer when I return to him.”
Shine looked over her shoulder at the sorceress, who lifted one of her elegant eyebrows and drifted gracefully toward the Selegan River. Then Shine touched Sky’s chest. “What can I do for you? Invite you here instead? You are welcome here, with Shadows and I, if you would rather. Here you can be anything.”
“If I say yes to him, I can’t return here. I could never visit you.” Sky took her hand off his chest and held it. “And since his investiture ritual, he has been confined to the palace forever.”
“That is the destiny he wanted,” she said sharply. But her eyelashes fluttered, and again she glanced at the sorceress. “I have not forgiven him.”
The warm breeze blew, bending the flowers and bright-green grass. It smelled sweet, and a little bit charred, like a fire burned just past the next rise. At the river, the sorceress knelt, her skirts spreading in perfect arcs against the gleaming black sand.
Shine licked her lips. She put her hand over her own heart.
Sky said, “Would you make a bargain with me, Night Shine of the Fifth Mountain?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe.”
“Try to forgive him. For me, and yourself. And the whole empire.”
“What would you trade for my efforts?”
“What do you want?”
Suddenly, the sorceress was behind him. He stood trapped between Shadows and Shine, growing cold as ice even under the afternoon sun, and the sorceress said softly, “We like hearts.”
But Shine laughed, as if it had been a brilliant joke. She laughed and shook her head, gleefully saying, “Sky, we are so full of our own hearts; she is teasing you.”
The warrior shivered, stepping out from between them.
Shine said abruptly, “Say yes to him. Become his First Consort. That’s what I want.”
“Good,” he said, relieved. “And you’ll try, and because everything you try you eventually manage to do, someday you will forgive him and come to us.”
Sneering a little at the complimentary trap, Shine crossed her arms. Little sparks of shadows puffed away from her body, as if she shook off magic when she shook off her mood. They curled like wisps of fog. She nodded. “It might take until you have children and they’re grown tall as him.”
Sky said, “All right,” because he thought, as he looked at her, that it was already done. She’d done it the moment he asked. Sky couldn’t help the slow smile that spread over his mouth.
She saw it and narrowed her eyes. “You’ll stay for a few days on my mountain and tell me everything.”
“Then the Selegan will take you home,” said the sorceress. “As fast or as slowly as you like.”
Sky nodded, looking forward to the mirror lake and the strange mountain, to being entertained by Night Shine and the Sorceress of Shadows. He wanted to hear what they’d become together, what they’d discovered. He wanted to fall asleep with her head on his shoulder.
But Shine stepped close to him. She lifted her chin to stare up at his eyes. “And when you return to Kirin Dark-Smile, you will give him this message from me.”
“Yes,” Sky said, waiting.
Shine put her hands on his face and leaned up on her bare toes; she kissed him.
Surprised, Sky caught her at the waist and kissed her back, gently.
“You will say,” she whispered, barely pulling away, “that it is a kiss from the great demon of the Fifth Mountain and a promise to the entire empire. Kiss him, from me, in front of whomever you like, or nobody at all. Your choice. That is my message.”
He put his forehead against hers, smiling at the choice, and then he kissed her again, soft and warm, because it would be better to give Kirin two kisses than one.