Page 108 of Cloak of Night
Sora seemed to feel it, too, because she kept looking straight out onto the ocean, even after the ship was far enough away that it looked like a toy in the distance.
Finally, she turned inland, and dread filled Hana at the questions and accusations that were sure to tumble forth.
Instead, Sora smiled kindly and said, “Want to make some dinner for Papa while you tell me what you know about the bloodstone castle?”
It was as if she knew that Hana couldn’t say all her apologies, couldn’t handle all the regrets and tears right now. And instead, she gave her this gift—just to be with her family for a little while, and to work together, as she’d always dreamed.
The next day, Hana and Sora left Papa safely hidden in the hollowed-out tree, then swam across the channel, back to the main island of Kichona. As dawn broke, they decided to make camp outside of Shima, since it would be wiser to rest during sunlight hours and travel at night. They’d easily be able to make it to Jade Forest and the Imperial City tomorrow to begin scouting and to wait for the empress to return, hopefully with reinforcements from the mainland.
Once Hana and Sora had settled into a cave in the hills just beyond Shima, Hana summoned her magic and conjured a three-dimensional, glowing, green model of Prince Gin’s palace. Small figures paced around the perimeter and stood watch on the pointed towers. “I know every passageway, where the ryuu are stationed, their alarm and guard protocols... everything,” she said.
Sora studied it. “It’s less daunting than the actual castle. Still a challenge, though.”
“Yeah,” Hana said. “And even though we’ll be invisible, we need to know where the ryuu are positioned because we don’t want to run into them. They know you can make yourself unseen, so they’ll be on guard for unexplained movement. Even if you brush one of their uniforms or dart out of sight but stir the air around them, they might notice.
“Emperor Gin...” Hana noticed Sora frown, and she quickly corrected herself. “PrinceGin isn’t easy to pin down. Sometimes he’s in his study mapping out attacks, sometimes he’s at the Citadel inspecting and coaching the new ryuu, and sometimes he just sits on his throne, staring at the mural on the ceiling.”
“He stares at the ceiling?” Sora asked. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“The mural is of the moment he stole ryuu magic from the afterlife and came back from the dead,” Hana explained. “He thinks it was a message from the gods that he was given a second chance at life—with even greater magic—in order to shepherd his people and his country to the future they deserved.”
Sora grew painfully silent. Hana stopped, too, when she realized what else that mural represented—the moment Prince Gin had damned their souls.
A ship sank in Hana’s gut. She had grown up thinking he was a visionary. He was wrong, but it would still take her time to fully process that he wasn’t the gods-blessed leader she’d been told he was since she was six years old. She couldn’t say this out loud, though. It would seem likelingering loyalty, and that wasn’t it at all.
They had to cram that soul pearl back into his body and kill him. He was too powerful, too much of a threat, to be allowed to survive.
“When this is all over,” Sora said quietly, “we’ll blow up that mural.”
“I’ll help,” Hana said.
After a moment, Sora pointed back at Hana’s 3-D model of the castle, getting back to business. “Given how hard Prince Gin is to find, we’ll have to be flexible in our approach. But maybe the soul pearl can act as a guide. It seems to be attracted to his magic, and it went crazy in my pocket when he was actually right in front of us at Dera Falls. Good thing it’s small, or he might have seen it moving.”
“It would be really good if the soul pearl can help lead us. So”—Hana pointed to one of the towers—“if Wolf is back in time, he’ll drop us off up here, and we’ll either follow the pearl or make our way through to the most likely places in the castle.” She shifted the model to highlight where the ryuu were stationed—there were more guards now since Wolf and Fairy sabotaged the shipyard and broke into the prince’s study.
Sora studied the map. “And you know the patrol schedules, you said?”
“Yes. I came up with them.”
“Good. Depending on what time it is and how long it’s taking us to track down Prince Gin, we can change our path inside to avoid the ryuu with the most difficult powers.”
They spent a few more hours poring over the map, plotting the best paths, making contingency plans.
When they were finished, Sora rubbed her fist into Hana’s hair, like she used to do when they were kids. “Nice work, stinkbug.”
Hana lit up. It wasn’t as intimidating as “Virtuoso,” but it was suddenly clear that that wasn’t what she needed anymore.
All she wanted was this.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
It shouldn’t have taken long for Daemon to get anywhere when he flew at the speed of light. But he didn’t know where exactly Celestae was located. He’d figured that it would be obvious when he saw it. Who could miss an entire floating island in the sky?
Apparently, Daemon could. He’d been flying for several days now—stopping only when he needed to eat or take a quick nap on a cloud—and exhaustion strained his muscles.
“Liga! My lady, Luna!” he shouted, his voice hoarse from the endless yelling. “Can you hear me? It’s Wolf. I need your help!”
As before, there was no response, as if the vast emptiness of the sky was just absorbing Daemon’s entreaties. Where was everyone? There were hundreds of gods if you counted both the major and minor ones, plus who knew how many demigods like Liga there were. In order to give all those enormous personalities enough space, Celestae must be bigger than the entire Kichonan archipelago. Andyet it was nowhere to be seen.
