“Your magic is your own,” replied Gen simply. “It’s always been there for you to see, but you probably weren’t looking hard enough.”
I couldn’t unsee it now. I trailed my fingers over the water, and the strands shone, as if beckoning me forward. Slowly, I pulled my trousers up to my knees and approached the Tears of Emuri’en. The Wraith’s pearl followed in my shadow. Once I entered the water, the mirror shard bubbled to the surface.
I reached into the pool to retrieve it, but as my fingers gripped its smooth edges, my reflection vanished. In its place was the Wraith’s pearl, and the waters darkened to match its black and gleaming surface.
Then, in flashes, I saw.
The Forgotten Isles, shaped like long skeletal fingers scraping against the ocean. A tower where the blood of stars fell. A storm that ravaged the oceans.
This was where I’d find Khramelan. The Wraith.
I started to pull away, but the Tears of Emuri’en hadn’t finished. The waters were still as black as the pearl, and roiling. They gathered around me, throwing me forward into the pool—and into the future.
Six cranes flew me over a sea of red, raging demonfire. We were headed for a dark tower silhouetted against a broken moon, and hundreds of paper birds trailed after us—wildly flapping as the flames singed their wings.
There, on the ramparts, besieged by demons, was Takkan. Blood stained his hair and face, and he was hovering in the air, suspended by invisible strings.
“Takkan!” I shouted.
Bandur loomed into view, his rubescent eyes swathed in darkness. His smile curved like a scythe, and he said nothing, gave no warning. In one terrible stroke, he slashed Takkan through the chest.
And, as if my own heart had been struck, I screamed.
The sound of my own scream jolted me back to the present, where I was still submerged in the pool. Water rushed into my mouth, burning down my throat with a raw, searing heat. I thrashed, in desperate need of air.
“Shiori!” Takkan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the surface. “Shiori, open your eyes.”
Kiki touched her wing to my cheek. Shiori?
My paper bird tried slipping into my mind, but I wouldn’t let her in. An invisible fortress walled my thoughts from her prying eyes.
She’s shutting me out, Kiki told Gen in distress. I can’t read her thoughts.
“She’s recovering from her vision,” replied the sorcerer, plucking the mirror shard from the water. “Give her a minute.”
I was still coughing and spitting as I rolled onto my side. Sunlight stung my eyes, the green blur of the forest slowly coming into focus. The pool was crystal clear, and I wondered whether I’d hallucinated its dark waters—and the terrible future they had shown me.
If only.
Gen poked my shoulder. “What did you see?”
My eyes found Takkan and didn’t leave him. I saw you die, I almost said, but the words withered in my throat.
I couldn’t tell him. I knew he’d say something obnoxiously reasonable, like that there was more than one way to divine a turtle shell. Or that the waters were showing only one arrangement of fortune’s leaves.
He’d insist on coming. Then he’d die.
“Draw a map,” I said, my tone subdued. “I know where Lapzur is.”
My own composure surprised me. Inside, my emotions were in turmoil. I didn’t want to go to Lapzur anymore. I wanted to abandon my promise and fling Khramelan’s heart deep into the sea, never to be seen again.
But the pearl inside my satchel weighed on me heavier than ever before. Its time was running out.
Meanwhile, Takkan had taken out his writing brush and prepared the ink stone. At his side, Gen was ripping pages from Takkan’s notebook and laying them across the flat surface of the tree stump. After Takkan sketched a map of Lor’yan, I pointed to a spot in the lower left of the Cuiyan Ocean. “The Forgotten Isles are here.”
“Here?” A frown wrinkled Takkan’s brow as he marked the location. “It’s so close to Tambu. That cannot be a coincidence.”
Gen let out a low whistle. “Impressive, Lord Takkan. You do know your lore. The first demons were indeed born in Tambu.”
I suppressed a shiver. What the waters showed is only a possibility, I reminded myself. If Takkan doesn’t go to Lapzur, he’ll be safe from Bandur.
Takkan and Gen were so preoccupied with their demon lore that neither noticed me shrink away, pulling my tunic tight around me.
But Kiki noticed.
That was rude, shutting me out, she admonished as she landed on my lap. Your soul is my soul, Shiori. You can lie to them, but not to me. What are you hiding?
She dipped into my thoughts again, breaking past the walls I had clumsily constructed. With a gasp, she caught a glimpse of what the waters had shown me: my brothers as cranes once more, flying me through storms and seas to Lapzur.
My walls shot up before she could get any further.
Shiori! she cried.
I ignored her. Aloud, I said, “We’ll have to fly to Lapzur.”
Takkan’s brush drooped. “Fly?”
“Lapzur lies far across the sea, and the island is protected by the enchanted waters of Lake Paduan,” I explained. “They’ll sink any ship. We have to fly.”
“How?” Takkan blew on the ink to dry the map. “How will we fly to Lapzur?”
I flinched at the we.
“There are plenty of options,” Gen said, his pitch rising. Clearly, this was a topic that excited him. “We could conjure wings to make a flying horse…enchant a carpet…summon birds to carry us.” He frowned. “But that would require great magic, magic even greater than what’s available here in the Tears of Emuri’en.”
Kiki poked me. In her driest tone, she said, You know the answer, Shiori. Aren’t you going to say something?
I didn’t respond. Unease stirred in my chest as the image of six flying cranes flashed once more to mind.
“What about a spell the pearl has cast before?” I whispered.
“That could work,” Gen allowed. “If the pearl is already familiar with it, and the formerly enchanted objects are still in your possession…. Think of it like rereading a book.” He chuckled at the metaphor, then raised an eyebrow. “Pray tell, what are you thinking?”
I bit my lower lip. There had to be another way. I couldn’t involve my brothers again. Couldn’t put them in danger again. But it didn’t seem I had any choice.
“Gen,” I said, my voice so small I barely recognized it, “you get some rest. Let me speak with my brothers.”
* * *
I found them congregated in Benkai’s chambers. Since Raikama’s curse, the princes were together more often than not. That was our stepmother’s gift to us. Through our trials and through all we had endured, we were closer than ever. Even Qinnia was here, engaged in a chess game with Yotan.