I almost wished I’d relented. But it was best if I spoke with the priestess alone.
The guards dragged her into the room and thrust her upon a black cotton sheet laid on the chamber’s floor—placed there to protect the parquetry from her blood. There were no windows, but lantern light illuminated the welts and lashes on her sallow cheeks.
Yet beneath her hard gaze, I somehow felt like I was the prisoner.
“My father has sentenced you to death by a thousand cuts,” I said coldly. “Answer my questions truthfully, and I will see to it that you are granted a merciful fate.”
“I’ve been waiting to see you, Shiori’anma,” rasped Janinha, completely ignoring my offer. “What is it you wish to know?”
I wouldn’t let her dark eyes chill me. I said: “You possess knowledge about bloodsakes. Have the ones before me always been able to hear the demons?”
A whistle leaked from the gaps between the priestess’s teeth. It took me a while to realize she was laughing. “Do not speak as if you can fight your fate,” she replied. “Princess or not, you are prey, Shiori’anma. Either you die for us, or you die for them.”
“Answer the question,” I said harshly.
“Yes, all bloodsakes are drawn to the mountains. Do you think you are the first to spill blood for the demons?”
Wasn’t I? My lips twitched with curiosity. She had my attention.
“The last time was forty years ago. The bloodsake before you was a silly girl who had no idea what she was until it was too late. When the demons lured her to them, she thought they were the gods speaking to her, promising her wealth and power and beauty. She gave her blood to them, creating a breach. A much smaller one than yours, but all the same…We let her do it. People were beginning to forget the wickedness of demons, and nothing prods the memory like a bit of blood.
“We lit her entire village on fire while she was sleeping. We told her it was the demons she had freed, and unlike you, she knew she had to atone.” The priestess’s face glowed. “We were only too happy to help.”
“You monsters…,” I whispered.
“With her ashes, we sealed the mountains before a single demon could escape.” The priestess dipped her head. “Such we can do again—with you, Shiori’anma.”
I ground my teeth. “You murdered an innocent girl—an entire village! And framed the demons for your own sins—”
“If not for what we did, many more would have perished,” Janinha said, cutting me off. “My order understands that sacrifice is necessary. We are willing to die for the good of Kiata. Are you?”
“The good of Kiata,” I said. “What would you know of that?”
The guards wrenched her off her knees to take her away, but she reached into the back of her mouth and made a sharp twist. Out came a blackened tooth, covered in blood and rot.
She crushed it between her fingers. My heart gave a lurch as it crumbled in her palm, like dark sand. “Stop!” I shouted.
The guards unsheathed their swords, but the priestess tossed the ashes high, and their blades froze midswing, the edges clinking against her chains.
“No need to get up, Princess,” she croaked as I sprang. “I am nearly finished.”
One by one, the bronze lanterns nodding along the walls went cold. And as darkness wreathed the chamber, she spoke her last words: “If you will not enter the fire, then, come the dawn, Kiata will burn in your place. Only your ashes will save us.”
With that, the guards were released. A second before their swords sank into her flesh, the priestess fell dead.
“Maybe she was bluffing,” said Reiji when I reported what had happened. “It wouldn’t be the first time the priestesses tried to deceive you.”
“She cast an enchantment,” I insisted. “There was power to her words, like when Raikama cursed us. She gave her life for it.”
“You think it’s a curse?” Benkai asked.
I nodded.
Benkai believed me. “Her order has recruited many followers since Khramelan’s sighting yesterday,” he said. “They blame any destruction on the demons, so it’s likely that whatever malice they have planned will start near the breach. I’ll ride out and warn my men. We’ll search the area and evacuate the nearby villages.”
“Be careful,” I warned him. “They still have ashes from the last bloodsakes.” Ashes that gave them magic, enough that I worried Janinha’s promise to make Kiata burn would come true.
“Noted, sister.”
Wandei leaned forward, setting down the paper he’d been folding into a fan. “If it really is a curse, then finding the other cultists won’t prevent the inevitable. What can we do if Kiata does catch fire like she warned?”
I hesitated, nervous to speak what was on my mind. “Magic is what fuels her curse, so only magic can stop it.”
“But how?” asked Wandei.
I turned to Benkai. “When you are at war, who do you seek to be your ally?”
“The enemy of my enemy,” he replied easily.
“Exactly,” I said. “The priestesses’ enemies are the demons. I’ve…I’ve been thinking I should talk to them.”
I expected my brothers to disagree, to argue with me and tell me it was a dangerous idea. My expectations were met. All six of them began talking at once, but I could hardly hear what they were saying. For they weren’t the loudest voices in my head. That belonged to my bird.
What are you possibly going to say to them? Kiki trilled. “I’m sorry, but would you mind slaying all of my enemies for me? As a thank-you I’ll bring you cakes for the next thousand years while you remain imprisoned in the mountains. Oh, and please stop making the earth quake whenever you feel angry about being locked up—it’s frightening the villagers and waking them up in the middle of the night.”
It did sound ludicrous when she put it that way, but still…
“What will you say to them?” Hasho echoed Kiki’s question.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I thought I’d have more time to think about it.”
Wandei swatted his fan at a fly buzzing over Yotan. “According to the priestesses, you have one day. If you insist on this course of action, I’d say you better get thinking.”
* * *
I went for a walk to clear my mind. Autumn had arrived overnight, yellow crowns staining the trees and frosty dew clinging to the eaves of the Cloud Pavilion. Takkan was supposed to be waiting for me, but I heard him laughing with two children beside the carp pond. Both hung at his sides, pulling his arms and speaking so quickly I could only catch the words princess and story.
When they saw me, they jolted. Their eyes went first to my hair, loose and unpinned and entirely silvery white, then to Kiki, who sat on my shoulder, her paper wings beating as vivaciously as a real bird’s. They waved shyly before remembering to bow.