Sacrifice (29 page)

“I was declared his successor, yes,” Kai Sen said, staring at the ground. “But I haven’t taken my oaths yet.”

“A formality,” Stone said.

“You seem to know everything,” Kai Sen replied, and the wind whipped up once more around them, the air chill against her damp skin. “Yet you don’t know how to swim.” Kai Sen thrust his arms forward, palms out, and a strong gust forced Stone three steps back. “Here’s what
I
know,” Kai Sen said as another gale pushed Stone backward. “For as much as you talk, you’re not as powerful as you once were.” He stalked forward, shoving his palms out again, and Stone staggered further toward the creek.

“Kai Sen, no,” she said.

Frustrated, he paused, and the gravel stirred against the ground. “Why do you protect him? After all that he’s done?”

“Exactly for everything that he knows,” she said. “We
need
him to close the new breach.”

“No,” Kai Sen said, eyes flicking back toward Stone. “We don’t.” He raised his arms to use his magic, and without recourse, she whipped her serpent coil out. Being agile, he jumped, and she missed, but she was still faster. When he landed on his feet, she snapped her coil again and knocked him over. He landed backward on his hands like a crab, then jumped up, but the winds he had conjured died.

“Please, Kai,” she said. “We
have
to work together. These demons that we’ve seen, they’re unlike anything else that has crawled from the underworld.”

Kai Sen crossed his arms, his stance rigid and unyielding. But she sensed him softening, even if mingled with the scent of reluctance. “I’ve seen them myself,” he said. “Appearing almost human. Speaking words.”

Skybright nodded. “With you, we would have a better chance in fixing this.”

He unfolded his arms and ran a hand through his short hair, a gesture that was so familiar to her, like something rising out of a dream; bittersweet.

“I
have
to save Zhen Ni,” she said, her desperation clear despite her coarse voice. “She’s trapped in Bei manor where we believe the new breach has opened.”

“All right,” Kai Sen said, “but I don’t trust you.” He directed his words to Stone. “Or like you.”

“Fair enough,” Stone said.

His expression had never altered during his exchange with Kai Sen. But Skybright knew him too well now, could read the cues of his physical stance, shoulders rigid, chin slightly lifted. Even more telling was his scent: frustration mingled with shame. Ire exuded most strongly from him in waves, acrid as smoke. Yet his features gave nothing away.

A large
thud
startled her, and Kai Sen whipped around, vibrating with magical power. It was a large boulder, the same one that Stone had flung at the demon they had killed. Stone had lifted it again with his own magic, ready to cast it at Kai Sen from behind if necessary.

The way things were going, Skybright thought, Stone and Kai Sen would kill each other before they ever made it back to Bei manor.

Skybright

Kai Sen joining Skybright and Stone completely changed the dynamics of everything. The ease she had felt with Stone disappeared; his defenses went up, as surely as if he had built an actual wall around himself. Things with Kai Sen were even worse—painfully awkward. They needed to speak alone, but there was neither time nor opportunity. She remained in her demonic form, preferring her serpentine speed and power. It allowed her to stay aloof in a way, separate from them. She didn’t want to be encumbered by her human body—or all the aches and overwhelming emotions that came with it.

They stood in an awkward triangle, Stone keeping further away at its pinnacle. It was an uneasy truce between him and Kai Sen, and she wished she didn’t feel as if she were caught in the middle, playing both arbitrator and peacekeeper. Skybright didn’t miss the irony that this was the place where she and Kai Sen had shared so many moments and good memories, where they had been able to talk to each other freely. Now the rushing waters of the creek were a threat, menacing, and the expansive forest behind them dark and secretive. The comfortable familiarity of this place had been replaced by violence and conflict, marred by the charred remains of the demon they had slain.

“We were headed to the monastery to warn the abbot,” she said in her coarse voice. Before, she would have felt embarrassed, ashamed to sound so monstrous. She didn’t feel that way any longer, Skybright realized; this was simply another side of her, another part that made her whole.

“Abbot Wu warned me something was off balance as he lay dying,” Kai Sen replied. “Now I know the divining stone was pulling me toward Bei manor—”

She felt Stone tense, even from a short distance away. An owl hooted in the thickets as if in warning. “What?” he asked. “The abbot knew?”

“Abbot Wu had sensed a new breach opened into our world, a strong source of malevolent power,” Kai Sen said in a tight voice. “He told me the divining stone could lead me to it, if I had enough magic to make it work. I did.”

“But not without consequence,” Stone said.

Kai Sen flicked his eyes toward Stone, his distrust of the other man tasting sour against Skybright’s tongue.

“It takes tremendous power to wield such a strong talisman,” Stone went on.

Kai Sen ignored Stone’s comment, instead saying, “That’s why I couldn’t open a portal into Bei manor when I wanted to see Zhen Ni.”

Stone nodded. “It’s warded by strong magic.”

“You can create portals?” Skybright asked.

“I taught myself,” Kai Sen replied. “And once I learned, I had no issues going anywhere except within Bei manor.”

“There’s but one way to confirm our suspicions,” Stone said. “We see where the divining stone takes us.”

Kai Sen stared down at the black stone, letting out a long silent breath, his shoulders heaving once. He was exhausted—Skybright didn’t need her heightened senses to know. Dark shadows stood out beneath his eyes; compounded with the dried blood smeared across his face, he looked like a drunken madman, barely stable on his feet. She wanted to reach out for his arm in sympathy, to steady him, as easily as she and Stone had done earlier, but she didn’t. She didn’t know how Kai Sen would react.

Clenching the stone, he stood silent for a long while, black brows drawn together. Finally, he said in a hoarse voice, “I don’t think I can. Not now.” The way his mouth twisted, it was a hard admission.

“It uses the earth element?” Stone asked, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.

Kai Sen nodded.

“Let me help you,” Stone said. “I can add my magic to yours.”

Kai Sen clutched the stone closer to him.

“It is the one elemental magic left to me,” Stone said. “Let me make some use of myself in this.” He had abased himself on purpose, because Skybright knew Stone was as prideful as Kai Sen could be rash. But Stone was perceptive now in a very human way and shrewd enough to do whatever necessary to close this breach so that he could live.

Kai Sen scrutinized the other man, and said, “No tricks, or I’ll kill you the next chance I get.” He then opened his palm.

Stone nodded. “No tricks. Let me weave my magic with yours.”

They stood silent for a long time, eyes on the divining stone, but their sight turned inward, not really seeing. The tension she had felt like a caustic net around them disappeared while Kai Sen and Stone worked to combine their magic. The stone’s color turned milk white, then revealed the swirling blue at its core. The corners of Kai Sen’s mouth lifted in a faint smile, and Stone looked triumphant.

“It’s pulling me,” Kai Sen said.

He didn’t need to explain. They followed him through the forest, the stone glowing brightly in his hand, his fireball illuminating the path for them. Its light had grown weaker, however, as Kai Sen directed his energy into the talisman. But Skybright needed no light. Rustling with life, the earthy tang of the forest filled her senses, and she took pleasure in feeling her serpent body slither along the soft dirt laden with pine needles. It was well past the thieving hour. Anyone who might see her in town would likely be drunk or could attribute the sight of her to a bad dream or illusion. The pain from the blue spark hitting her shin had receded to a distant twinge.

Stone walked beside her in silence, his pain in working the talisman radiated from him in waves. His face had gone white, and sweat beaded at his brow. She watched Kai’s straight back, the dim fire trailing above his head like some ghostly spirit. He suffered too, barely walking in a straight line. But although weakened, she still felt his magical power. His ability after half a year of study was impressive. She always knew Kai Sen was special and was unsurprised that he would take to magic with such ease, given his natural gift of clairvoyance.

The divining stone was indeed leading them back toward Chang He. They passed the Yuan manor, and she remembered all those dark nights she had sneaked out to learn more about her serpentine side. Shifting and the sensations of searing heat and her lower body breaking and melding had felt so frightening and strange. Now it was the opposite: familiar and so often a relief when she turned. The shadowed streets made the town appear foreboding and unfamiliar, dark silhouettes looming at every corner.

Kai Sen kept guiding them, though his steps faltered a few times, and Skybright could hear Stone’s labored breathing. Both men had begun bleeding from their noses. The talisman was exacting a severe price to divulge its secrets, and she was almost glad when the magnificent Bei manor appeared. Kai Sen slipped through the dark alleyway where she and Stone had tried to climb into the manor, then turned the corner until they were at the very back of the estate. Bei manor was not a long walk from Yuan manor but also bordered the forest’s edge.

The divining stone flew from Kai Sen’s hand and struck the base of the manor wall, the blue light within so bright it appeared white. Kai Sen bent over, his entire body convulsing. The scent of fresh blood was strong, tasting sharp and metallic. Stone conjured a handkerchief for himself and handed one to Kai Sen.

“That was the worst pain,” Stone whispered, sagging against the manor wall. It was shocking to see his bloodied face. She had seen Kai Sen injured before during the Great Battle, but Stone had always appeared untouchable, above mortality. His hand shook as he wiped away the blood. “I’m impressed you got as far as you did working the stone by yourself,” he said.

Kai Sen leaned against the wall too, the whites of his eyes standing out in his face, stark against the blood. He used the handkerchief Stone gave him, then closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “I would be glad never to handle it again,” he said in a harsh tone. “But we have our confirmation. The new breach is within Bei manor, and we have no way of getting inside.”

Skybright slithered to the divining stone and tried to pick it up, but it might as well have been part of the manor wall. “You are still wielding magic?”

“It is glowing of its own accord,” Kai Sen replied.

The stone was so bright, it encompassed them all in its shifting white light tinged with blue. “The entire estate is protected, Stone?” she asked.

“There is no way through the entrances or over the manor walls,” Stone replied.

“But what if from beneath?” she asked. “Look at how the divining stone slammed to the ground, not just the manor’s wall. The breach is underground. I knew I felt it there.”

Stone stooped and touched the glowing rock but could not budge it either. “It would make sense; the one at the base of Tian Kuan Mountain was too.”

“So is it as simple as digging under the wall to get in?” Kai Sen asked.

Stone said something under his breath, and the talisman’s brightness faded, then winked out. “We dig and see what happens.” He handed the stone back to Kai Sen, proffering it with both palms open in obvious reverence. Kai Sen took it and slipped the talisman into a leather pouch at his waist.

“We’ll need shovels,” Kai Sen said.

“I can conjure shovels easily enough,” Stone replied. “But digging this packed earth would take a long time, and it’s hard labor. We’d still be here when the sun rises.”