Sacrifice (23 page)

“What exactly are we dealing with?” she asked.

Stone tilted his head imperceptibly and grimaced before he smoothed his face. Skybright looked over his shoulder and saw Pearl flouncing her way toward them. She felt her heart leap into her throat—what did Zhen Ni say? Stone stood when Pearl arrived, more to keep a safe distance from the girl than from gallantry, Skybright suspected. The handmaid sat down beside Skybright. “Oooh, my seat is warm,” Pearl said and batted her lashes at Stone.

Skybright managed not to roll her eyes, even as two bright spots of color flared on Stone’s cheekbones. The Stone of old had no human physical reactions or reflexive idiosyncrasies at all, she realized, but they were appearing as if he had been in some long trance or slumber. Instead, she gripped the fool girl’s wrist. “Enough flirting. What news?”

Pearl’s round face lit up, and Skybright’s anxiety eased. The girl must have good news. Pearl opened her mouth, then closed it again deliberately, her eyes fixed on the jeweled ornament pinned in Skybright’s hair. Letting out a huff of impatience, Skybright removed the ornament and gave it to the girl. Pearl took it with a delighted smile, her fingers gliding over the shining emeralds. “Thank you, Skybright.”

“Well?” Skybright asked, tapping her foot.

“I got the job as a servant in Bei manor!” Pearl said, pinning the ornament into her own hair. “You should have seen the estate, massive courtyards landscaped and planted even better than Yuan manor. And Mistress, I mean, Lady Bei was dressed like the empress herself!” The girl clutched both hands to her chest, eyes shining. “I was able to get your note to her without anyone noticing,” Pearl said, dropping her voice.

Skybright leaned in. “What did she say?”

The girl scrunched her face, making an apologetic expression. “I’m afraid Lady Bei says she never wants to see you again.”

Skybright reared back, and if she had been in serpent form, would have knocked Pearl off the bench with a swipe of her coil. It felt like the girl had slapped her across the face. “What?” Skybright whispered.

“Something about all the lies that you told.” Pearl had the decency to appear contrite, but Skybright didn’t miss the gleam in her eyes. “She said she could never forgive you. The lady was very emphatic and—”

Stone hauled the girl up by one arm. “Thank you, Pearl, for relaying that message.”

“Oh,” Pearl breathed, standing now, less than a hand-width from Stone.

Stone let go of the girl. “You can leave,” he said. The order was spoken in the same quiet but unyielding tone he had used to command for the last two thousand years. Even Pearl, in her swooning, heard it.

“Yes.” She swayed from them, like a leaf caught in the wind. “I must pack for my new position at Bei manor. Good-bye!” She left, humming a soft tune, without another glance back, her fingers caressing her new hairpin.

Skybright doubled over when the girl was far enough that her singing couldn’t be heard any longer. The rush of tears came, hot against her cold cheeks. Zhen Ni never wanted to see her again, and could she blame her? Skybright hadn’t known how her previous mistress, her confidante and friend, would receive her after their time apart, but now she knew. The answer was clear and cruel in its finality.

“Skybright.” Stone touched her shoulder, then stooped down so their faces were level and gently swiped her tears away with his thumb. For the first time since she’d known Stone, she truly felt his sympathy—a very human emotion. She took comfort in it. This was the young man whom his little sister, Mei Er, had adored. But Skybright didn’t see him like an older brother. Not at all. A pale green handkerchief appeared in his other hand, and he offered it to her.

Grateful, she took the silk fabric and dabbed at her eyes. “How could she say such things?” Her words sounded muffled.

“Why do mortals ever say what they say to each other?”

She smiled through her tears. Stone doing what he did best, answering a query with another question. “She hates me.” Skybright wiped her cheeks, her chest feeling heavy, yet hollow, as if her body was an empty carapace.

He slipped back on the bench beside her. His physical warmth reassured her in its familiarity. There was no denying it. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

Skybright almost laughed aloud at the pained expression on his face. It was clear that he had never had to utter those words before, not for a few millennia. “I can’t leave her in a manor full of demons, Stone.”

He opened his mouth, then clamped it shut, jaw flexing. Stone was silent for long moments, as if carefully considering his words. “I don’t believe what is happening at Bei manor is a coincidence. We’ll be helping Zhen Ni too if we get to the bottom of why the breach is still open. I
know
the rules of the covenant, Skybright. We both saw the breach close with our own eyes.”

“I think it’s connected too,” she said. “And Zhen Ni is in danger.”

Stone nodded, his expression grim. “We’ll investigate the breach and come back to Zhen Ni as soon as we can.”

Skybright

Skybright and Stone decided to travel through the forest, walking the hidden paths and passing beneath familiar trees, places that she’d wandered with Zhen Ni since they were girls brave enough to escape the manor to seek fun. Her heart hurt to remember it. Stone tried to distract her with small talk, awkward and halting. But the more he spoke, the more at ease his conversation became. He shared random memories that were emerging like bubbles rising to the water’s surface of his life as a mortal. He remembered making mud pies with his youngest sister, Mei Er, and the delicious New Year’s noodles, dumplings, and fish his mother would prepare with the limited coin they had. “I’d always spend my New Year’s money buying treats or a toy for Mei Er,” Stone said with a grin. The distant memory softened his features and the usual sharpness of his gaze.

Skybright might have thought he was painting himself in a generous light, but she had seen and felt his past through her own eyes and knew that he spoke truth. He had loved Mei Er especially and spoiled her as a big brother would.

After a few leading questions from Stone, Skybright slowly began reminiscing about her many misadventures with Zhen Ni—the time they got caught in a storm and returned to the Yuan manor looking like drowned cats, or the time Zhen Ni decided to rescue an abandoned “kitten,” only to be told it was a juvenile red fox by Nanny Bai, but not before the animal had given Zhen Ni’s older handmaid, Ripple, two scratches on her forearm that would scar for life.

They also walked often in companionable silence. She knew that Stone took as much pleasure from the wilderness as she did. Stopping by the flowing creek in the late afternoon, the sun slanted like liquid gold across the rippling water and thick foliage. They settled on a large rock alongside the creek and ate the vegetable buns they had picked up from a roadside stand in town. Skybright savored them; they were like the ones Cook used to make at Yuan manor, and it filled her with nostalgia. And try as she might to cast the thought aside, seeing this creek reminded her of Kai Sen and their time together. Being back in Chang He was more bittersweet than she’d imagined.

She hadn’t realized until she returned here that her heart had let the thought of ever being with Kai Sen again go. Skybright knew she was practical to a fault, and that Kai Sen was the dreamer, the romantic, but being away from him, from Zhen Ni, from everything and everyone she had ever known, had laid her circumstances out very clearly—returning to a normal life, a human life, was something she couldn’t imagine now.

How long had she been away from Yuan manor? Her life there felt like something lived by a former incarnation—by a girl who didn’t know yet who she truly was. She didn’t mourn her old life, the old Skybright, as much as she missed Zhen Ni and Kai Sen. But even then, she didn’t dwell on the sadness because she knew she could never again be a part of their lives. Parting, loss, sorrow: these were the ways of the mortal world.

Skybright kneeled by the stream to wash her hands when a foul odor assaulted her, so discordant with the crisp earthiness of their surroundings. She snapped her head up, body tensing, ready to fight. Stone stood beside her testing his magic ability again, his shoulders tight with frustration. He had built a pyramid of rocks in front of him, moving them with his earth magic.

“Stone,” she said in warning.

In an instant, he wielded a giant bronze axe, the blade gleaming with a dangerous edge. The weapon was so hefty he gripped it in both hands. It was as if he knew instinctively the saber strapped to his waist would not be enough.

Leaves rustled and stirred at the tree line, and the silhouette of a tall man emerged from the forest. Even from this distance, Skybright could see how big he was, how thick and broad. The man stalked toward them, but there was something inhuman about the way he moved, the motion of his legs and arms blurring with speed.

“I am lost,” he said, his low voice as deep as a gong.

Skybright shifted, rearing high on her serpent coil so she was taller than Stone, hissing deep. Stone flung an arm out toward her in warning. Too late, she had already slithered away from him, taking a wide circle around the man who obviously was not a man. Its stench was overwhelming, even from a short distance, reeking of rancid sweat, vomit, and feces, but beneath it all, something much more sinister and menacing. The forest had gone silent around them, as if all its inhabitants held their breaths.

The thing looked enough like a man from far away, giant, a half head taller than even Stone, but as her serpentine vision scanned him for weaknesses, she saw the ways in which it was
wrong
. It wore a brown leather vest, revealing muscular arms, but it had two elbow joints, jutting out like shoulder blades. This allowed it to swing its forearms in a full circle, the joints making sick, popping noises. It had eight fingers on each hand and a face with features so scrambled, she didn’t know where to focus. Its gaping mouth was where its nose should have been, and its pointed nose perched right above its squat chin. The eyes, deep set and beady, were the only feature that were in the right place, reminding Skybright of a mean pig.

“My hunger burns!” it shouted this time.

Before she had a chance to react, it had convulsed toward her at inhuman speed, closing their gap faster than she thought possible. And she was fast. This thing was as fast as Stone when he was at his most powerful. She barely escaped it throwing its trunk-like arms around her, as if it was trying to catch a stray hen. It caught the tail end of her serpent coil and held on with astonishing strength. “You would make a nice meal,” it said.

She tried to twist from its grip, but the thing was too strong, and it began pulling, as if to reel her in. Stone charged at that moment, axe raised, ready to hack into the beast, when it knocked him down with one huge fist, so fast that Skybright couldn’t follow the movement. In one instant, Stone was ready to attack, and in the next, he was flat on the ground, gasping.

Goddess.

But the creature had let go of its double grip on her, which was enough for Skybright to use all her strength to wrench herself away, snapping her coil to knock the demon off its feet. The thing tripped, gaping at her, surprised, but managed to stay upright. It was agile for its lumbering size. Stone had risen, scrambling back. “It’s too fast,” he said, sounding out of breath.

“Fast to kill.” The thing leered, its thin mouth stretching wide in the middle of its face. “As my master wished.” With that, it roared and was a smear of motion aimed at Stone this time, when a giant boulder flew from behind Stone, smacking the creature square in the chest.

It toppled backward.

Skybright stared, not understanding who had thrown the boulder; then she saw three more rocks floating behind Stone’s shoulders. He was breathing hard, a sheen of sweat on his pale face, but it was obvious that
he
was controlling the rocks. The demon was pinned beneath the boulder, massive enough that if she wanted to sit at the top, she’d have to make an effort to climb it. But the thing clasped the boulder and tossed it as if it were a pebble.