Page 101 of Cloak of Night
“Just be quick, please,” Empress Aki said. “I’m rather weak.”
Sora cast a spider spell and skittered up the rock face. At the top, she peered over the edge. There was a short cluster of bushes, which would suffice for cover as long as they didn’t stay here long.
She pulled herself up, then leaned back over to get a view of everyone below.Get the empress, she commanded the ryuu particles.
They created a platform and, within seconds, liftedEmpress Aki to the top of the cliff. She crouched beside Sora, concealed from the rest of the island by the bushes.
Sora brought Fairy and Broomstick up, too, while Daemon transformed into a wolf and flew to them. They clambered onto his back.
Before Daemon could take off, though, a voice called from a short distance away. “Your Honor, wait!”
Papa!
Sora took off running. Papa crashed through the bushes and hurled his arms around her, his eyes and nose red from crying.
Sora’s own tears began again as she embraced him. “You’re alive!”
“Y-your sister...” He tried to say something, but he was too choked up.
“Is to blame for Mama’s death,” Sora finished for him. “Let’s get out of here before Hana finds you again.”
“I can’t leave her,” he cried.
“This isn’t the Hana you knew,” Sora said as kindly as she could through her own anger. “She could have stopped Prince Gin from killing Mama, but she didn’t. You have to accept that Hana has changed. She’s a terrible person.”
Papa held Sora more tightly. “That’s not true.”
“No, she’s right,” Hana said, emerging from the bushes. She must have been following Papa. “Iama terrible person.”
Sora pushed Papa behind herself to protect him. Broomstick and Fairy jumped off Daemon’s back and brandished their weapons. Daemon stepped back to move Empress Aki farther away from the fight that was about to break out.
He had returned the soul pearl to Sora after they leftDera Falls. It strained inside her collar, attracted to such a strong source of the prince’s magic.
But Hana didn’t look like the Dragon Prince’s scathing Virtuoso anymore. She had more in common with a willow sapling beaten and bent by too many storms.
Hana held up both hands as if in surrender. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done,” she said, her voice subdued.
“I can’t even look at you,” Sora said, turning her attention to Papa instead. He sobbed softly against her.
Hana kept talking. “We gave Mama a proper burial. We cremated her and—”
Sora’s head snapped up. “Youburied her? What gives you the right? I should have been the one to lay her to rest.”
“Your Honor,” Papa whispered. “Please listen to your sister. She’s trying to repent.”
“How can you believe that?” Sora asked, horrified. “She let Prince Gin murder Mama.”
Tears ran down Hana’s face. “And I’ll live the rest of my life making up for it.”
“You can’t,” Sora said. “There’s nothing you can do to atone.”
“Spirit.” Empress Aki had slid off Daemon’s back and now stepped forward. She laid her hands on both Sora and Hana. “It’s true that your sister can never bring your mother back. But I’ve watched you, and I know you have faith that there is good in the world. That’s why you keep fighting. And if you believe that, then you also must have faith that people can change. Give your sister a chance. Let her leave Gin and Zomuri behind to step into Sola’s magnanimous light.”
“And what if it’s another lie?” Sora asked.
Hana lowered herself to the ground into something like a bow. “I have no incentive to lie. If I still believed in what Emperor Gin—PrinceGin—wanted to do, I could have alerted the other ryuu to recapture you. But I can’t support him anymore. He damned us all, and I just... I’ll do whatever you need.” She glanced up at Papa. “I promised him, and I promise you.”
Papa broke away from Sora and crouched to hug Hana. She threw herself into him as if she was six years old again. “It will be all right, my little one,” he said, stroking her hair. “I have you now. Everything will be all right.”
