Page 8 of Cloak of Night
“Ready. Focus on the torchlight.”
It took them thirty minutes to cross, although it felt twice as long. When they finally reached the base of the Citadel gates, Daemon and Sora hurried to where Fairy and Broomstick were pressed against the fortress walls to avoid being seen by guard patrols.
“We have a problem,” Fairy said when Sora joined them. “How do we get in?”
The looming gates were meant to admit only those who were supposed to enter. Which, at the moment, did not include the four apprentices trying to take down everyone behind said ten-story gates.
Daemon looked up, and up. Even with the stone staircase the ryuu had built in their attempt to breach the Citadel during the battle here, there was too much distance left tothe top of the fortress. The walls were as slick as if they’d been greased with oil. They couldn’t just cast gecko spells to scale them.
It’d be awfully helpful if he could fly. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember what it was like the moment he’d turned into a wolf, how the magic had coursed through him like rivers of electricity and how he’d hurled himself into the air on instinct and managed to stay there. But try as he might, Daemon couldn’t recall the exact moment of transformation. In fact, he hadn’t even realized he’d changed from human to something else untilafterhe’d rescued Sora from plunging to her death. So it was impossible for him to re-create the feeling now.
At the sound of Sora’s voice, Daemon’s eyes fluttered open.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already thought of how we get in,” she was saying. “With ryuu magic, I can jump the distance from the highest stair to the top of the fortress wall.”
Oh. Right. She didn’t need his help for a mere four-story leap.
“And the rest of us?” Fairy asked.
“I’ll float you over,” Sora said. “I couldn’t risk doing something that conspicuous to get us across the Field of Illusions, but this will be quick. I’ll go first and make sure we’re clear of any ryuu guards, and then I’ll bring you up, one by one. Okay?”
Fairy and Broomstick nodded. Daemon lagged, but then he kicked himself in the proverbial ass and got himself together. So what if he’d been a magical wolf for one brief, glorious night? Sora had always been better at this stuff thanhe was. Things were no different now. He could handle this.
Daemon, Fairy, and Broomstick kept watch from the base of the Citadel walls while Sora ran silently up the stone steps. When she was near the top of the staircase, they triple-checked that there weren’t any ryuu in sight.
She took the last steps at a full sprint and jumped.
Sora landed on the parapet, disappearing from view behind the crenellations of the wall. Daemon’s heart stopped. There could have been ryuu hidden there, waiting to ambush her.
But a moment later, Sora popped up.
“Thank the gods,” Daemon whispered.
She pointed to Fairy.
“Here I go,” Fairy said as Sora began to float her up, just as she’d done with the piece of Rose Palace. Hopefully, though, she wouldn’t drop any of them. Like the piece of Rose Palace.
Daemon remembered then that Rose Palace was now a pile of rubble. What stood in its place was the Dragon Prince’s bloodstone castle. His stomach turned.
Sora deposited Fairy successfully beside her and began to work on Broomstick. It was a more wobbly effort, since he was twice Fairy’s size, but a minute later he, too, was safely posted on watch at the top of the Citadel’s entrance.
Daemon stepped forward. He thought he might feel something at the touch of ryuu magic, but other than levitating off the ground, nothing was different at all. Ryuu magic was even subtler than taiga magic, at least as far as he could tell. Or maybe it didn’t affect him because he was essentially a parcel being transported from one place to thenext, like the citrus crate Sora had hidden in when they were on Prince Gin’s ship.
She set him down carefully on the battlement. “Everyone all right?” Sora asked.
“Yes and no,” Broomstick said.
Daemon crept up to where his friend was peering through the crenellations at the Citadel below.
“Daggers,” Daemon cursed. The ryuu weren’t up at the castle anymore, as they had been after the battle. They were swarming here at the Society’s headquarters, at least a thousand of them taking it over as though the Citadel was theirs. Sharpening swords in the armory courtyard. Training in the sparring arena. Meeting in the outdoor amphitheater. They just hadn’t been guarding the entrance because there was no one—other than Daemon, Sora, Fairy, and Broomstick—to attack.
And the ryuu seemed more organized than Sora had accounted for.
“We need to split up now,” Sora said. “Rendezvous in Jade Forest in three hours. But whoever finds Empress Aki first, don’t wait. Grab her and get out. All right?”
“All right,” Fairy said.
“And remember, if you can kill Prince Gin, do it. His death ends everything.”
