I could read the anxiety in his expression.
Don’t do anything too reckless, it said.
I wished I could summon a smile. I’ll try.
“His Eternal Majesty has deemed Princess Shiori worthy of taking the Oath of Ai’long,” said Solzaya. “In this hour, she shall leave behind her mortal life and reawaken as the companion to my son, First Prince of the Easterly Seas, Seryu’ginan.”
“Hold out your hands,” Lady Nahma said, “so Lady Solzaya might bestow upon you the elixir of immortality.”
I glanced at her, apprehension roiling in my gut. How far into the ceremony would I have to play along?
She provided no answers. She’d closed her mind to me.
Woodenly, I held my hands out.
Solzaya placed the abalone bowl between my outstretched palms, murmuring words in a tongue I could not understand.
Inside was the elixir. A tiny cerulean bead, small enough to balance on my thumb.
I almost sighed with relief. I’d expected a soup or even a tea, but the elixir was no more substantial than a pill one took for a stomach ailment. It looked like jelly, wobbling as my hands shook.
While Solzaya spoke, I lifted the bowl, pretending to press it to my lips.
Invisible fumes tickled my nostrils, sweet and bitter at the same time. One sniff, and all the doubts and fears I’d buried bubbled high, but I kept my mind focused on seeing Takkan again. On going home.
How are we going to do this? Kiki said, leaping into the bowl and using her wing to block me from accidentally drinking.
Roll it down my collar quick, I said. Can you manage?
Using her wing, Kiki tried to scoop the elixir toward my neck, but the potion was too slippery. It isn’t as easy as it looks!
“Is something the matter, Shiori’anma?” Lady Solzaya asked, floating into my periphery. “Do you need help drinking?”
I was never given the chance to respond. Solzaya’s hand shot out and tipped the bowl against my mouth.
Panic surged in my blood as Kiki fell back in the bowl. All too quickly, the bead of liquid slid down to my lips, and Kiki bolted out of my collar into the bowl.
With one gulp, she devoured the elixir.
Kiki, no!
It was too late. The potion had lodged itself into her paper throat, making her long neck gleam blue. The silvery-gold flourishes on her wings faded, like blotted ink, as she teetered on the edge of the bowl and fell back into my sleeve. Against the crook of my elbow, I felt her go still.
Heat swelled in my throat. Kiki!
No answer.
My heart thundered in my ears. I wanted nothing more than to scoop her up and hold her close, but King Nazayun and Lady Solzaya were watching me intently.
Lady Nahma took the bowl. “Shiori’anma has drunk,” she announced before anyone else could speak.
Through our minds, she warned, Blank your face. Try to look tired.
I relaxed my muscles. It was easy to make myself go cold, to make my body deflate. I could barely move, let alone think straight. All I could think about was Kiki, crumpled against my elbow.
“Bow and present the pearl,” instructed Nahma.
“I am ready to proceed with the ceremony,” I said, bowing deeply. My voice sounded flat, any sign of rebellion vanquished. But inside my chest, anger stirred. “Allow me to present the Wraith’s pearl.”
I opened my satchel. Elang was nowhere in sight, and I couldn’t count on his arrival to save me from the rest of the rites. Kiki had sacrificed too much for me to fail.
My fingers closed around the broken pearl. I won’t be any good to you if I’m bound to Ai’long forever, I told it, praying it would hear me. If you want me to bring you back to the Wraith, help me get out of here. Help me defeat the Dragon King.
I rose from my bow. The pearl tingled in my grasp, a promising sign.
“Wait!” Nazayun barked.
Wait? I struggled to keep my face blank, to keep playing along. The jewels hanging from my headdress tinkled, but I didn’t dare look up from my feet.
“Search her.”
To my relief, it was Lady Nahma—not Seryu’s mother—who stepped forward. Help me, Nahma. I reached out to her as she searched me. Kiki’s unconscious. She drank the elixir. Help me. Please.
Nahma raised my sleeves, looking inside. The edge of Kiki’s wings grazed my elbow, and I held my breath, certain that Nahma would pretend she had seen nothing.
But she gave my sleeve a shake and plucked Kiki by the beak. “What have we here?” Nahma murmured. “A paper bird.”
I went numb with betrayal. What was she doing?
“An enchanted paper bird.” Nahma held Kiki high for all to see. Kiki’s beak still glowed blue from the elixir, and her neck drooped limply.
“Give her back!” I cried.
Nahma did no such thing. She pinched Kiki by the neck, squeezing the elixir from the bird’s throat. Then she crumpled Kiki in her fist.
“No!” I screamed.
I launched myself at Lady Nahma, but the dais gave a tumultuous shudder. It tilted, and I slid uncontrollably toward the Dragon King.
His eyes clouded with fury. “If you will not complete the ritual of forgetting, then we must find a punishment you will remember for the rest of your days.” He flung me onto Seryu’s cloud and barked, “Bring the boy.”
The boy?
My anger at Lady Nahma vanished, replaced by fear.
In the center of the chamber, surrounded by sharks, my fellow prisoner Gen arose on a stream of bubbles.
In the hours since I’d last seen him, Solzaya’s curse had progressed quickly. He was unconscious now, his eyes closed and his bottom lip already turned to stone. His cheeks looked sunken in, as if he’d been trying to gasp before the curse overcame him. The fingers that had hurled glass to wake me were completely gray, still outstretched in a gesture of defiance.
“Let him go,” I appealed to Nazayun. “He’s only a child.”
I might as well have pleaded with the sharks.
“Soon he will be new gravel for the bedrocks,” Nazayun responded, the fair hairs of his beard crackling with lightning. “If you will not forget your past, then you will remember the pain you inflicted on this boy. It will be a scar you bear forever.”
Splotches of grisly gray appeared on Gen’s face, spreading fast, like spilt ink. As the lightning in Nazayun’s beard rippled, the boy’s eyes bulged and his temples convulsed with pain. He was seconds from turning entirely into stone. Seconds from being blasted into a pile of rubble.
“Stop!” I cried.
Seryu held me back, but I threw up my satchel to release the pearl.
“Help Gen!” I shouted to it. “Help him!”
The Wraith’s pearl didn’t even float out of my bag. It was a deadweight in the satchel.