Sacrifice (39 page)

Stone taught her the simple incantation to transport herself anywhere within the mortal realm and the more challenging task of creating a portal until she was able to with his guidance, taking Stone with her back to Tian Kuan Mountain.

There, they parted ways.

For four months she stayed in serpent form, traveling alone, her sole possession Kai Sen’s carved figurine which she wore on a leather cord around her neck. She used her magic to roam from one province to another, exploring different forests, sliding across unfamiliar peaks—some barren, others lush with life—and vast deserts. She didn’t give a thought to those she had left behind because she had always been able to count them on one hand, and that number, she realized, could dwindle in an instant. Mortal lives were lost within a breath, yet she would remain, outliving all of them.

She wanted to sing in these vast, empty spaces, but she couldn’t bear to sing in her rough, demonic voice. So instead, she neither spoke nor sang for all those days she was alone.

In the beginning of the eighth moon, when the Ghost Festival had come and gone, she thought about Zhen Ni and missed her and wondered how she was doing. Was she still caring for that strange demon child who ate corpses? And to be truthful, she also wondered about Stone. Where was he now?

She used her magic to return to Chang He, near the Yuan manor, but her keen senses told her that Zhen Ni no longer lived there. It was late at night, and she stayed in serpent form, avoiding stragglers who were wandering through the small town, and followed her senses to find her friend.

The journey took her through more narrow streets, not the grand roads that the Yuan and Bei manors were built on. She finally stopped at a modest home, a fraction of the size of Bei manor but well constructed. The double wooden doors were painted a deep blue, and two bronze handles with bats holding a ring pull were set in each door. Feeling feral and completely lacking in decorum, Skybright simply slithered over the tall wall into a square courtyard. It was not grand in size but beautifully planted. Water pattering from a fountain made a pleasant, peaceful sound. But before she could glide to one of the quarters, where she sensed Zhen Ni sleeping, she heard a deep growl from behind a plum tree, echoed by another.

Two giant mastiffs stalked out from the shadows. Skybright recognized them as the massive hellhounds in disguise. The two beasts bared their fangs, not quite as long as their demonic ones, but long enough. They both poised to spring, and she gathered her own coil, hissing deep, demonic beast against demonic beast.

“Fluffy!” a childish voice said from some dark corner. “Cuddles! Heel!”

Blossom emerged from the darkness, attired in a pink sleep dress. She wore two long braids and her round face was like a cherub’s. Skybright still could not detect her presence.

“It is only Auntie Skybright,” Blossom said. “Mama will be so pleased. She has been so worried over you.”

“She is in bed with someone else,” Skybright said, her voice even more coarse from months of silence. When she had found Zhen Ni with her senses, it briefly touched on another person, and without thinking more, she had assumed it had been Blossom. Now she was reminded that Blossom was hidden to her serpentine magic.

The little girl approached her, fearless, her amber eyes wide with curiosity. The two mastiffs trailed beyond the small child, protective and loyal. Blossom reached out a hand and stroked Skybright’s serpent coil, marveling at her scales. “Mama is asleep with Auntie Sun. She lives here with An An—it helps Mama feel less lonely.”

“An An?” Skybright asked.

“Auntie Sun’s son. He is six and a troublemaker,” Blossom replied matter-of-factly. “But he does not bother me.”

Skybright laughed; it sounded low and unnatural. She hadn’t laughed in so long and hadn’t expected the strange demon child to elicit laughter from her. Skybright was certain that little An An left Blossom alone indeed, guarded as she was by two fierce mastiffs and her own powerful magic. She lowered herself on her coil so she was eye level with the child. The girl had grown a little taller since she last saw her, and prettier, if that was possible.

“Your scales are lovely to touch, Auntie,” Blossom said admiringly. “So smooth and glittery.”

Skybright smiled, revealing her long fangs, but the girl wasn’t afraid. “Thank you, petal,” she said, remembering Zhen Ni’s pet name for her. “Could you wake Mama and ask for her to meet me in the courtyard? Alone.”

Blossom nodded and toddled off, the mastiffs padding after her. The child obviously had the beasts as well trained as puppets pulled on strings.

She slithered to an alcove near the pond beside a stone bench nestled between plum trees. The lotus flowers were blooming on the water, adrift among full lush leaves. A rustle sounded, and Zhen Ni emerged from behind an ornamental pine. “Skybright!” she said, and flung her arms around her neck.

For the first time in months, Skybright felt at
home
, her heart at ease. She hugged her friend back, feeling the pressure of tears that could not be shed.

“Are you all right? Where have you been? I’ve been so worried for you. And Stone, he has been visiting every few days. Finally, I had to tell him to stop coming because it appeared so improper, my being a grieving widow,” Zhen Ni paused for breath. “I said I’d tell him as soon as I received news of you. But I still see him lurking around town—I think he’s as worried for you as I was.”

Or he’s keeping an eye on Blossom
, Skybright thought,
and those hellhounds.

Zhen Ni gripped her shoulders and shook her. “Never do that to me again, Sky!”

Skybright smiled and let herself be reprimanded. “I’m sorry, Zhen Ni. I really needed to be away—to think and be alone.”

Her friend dropped her hands and wrapped her green silk robe more closely to herself. “I know, Sky.” She reached over and touched her cheek.

“This is your manor?” Skybright asked.

Zhen Ni’s expressive eyes swept the courtyard. “It is. It was chaos after Bei manor collapsed. The entire town banded together to clean up the rubble. My large chest of gold and silver coins was recovered, along with a few other very valuable items. I was able to buy this small manor for myself so I can properly take care of Blossom.”

“She’s dangerous, Zhen Ni.”

“More dangerous than you?” her friend countered in a sharp tone.

“It’s impossible to know,” Skybright paused. “She eats corpses.”

Zhen Ni let out a sigh. “She did. That’s what Master Bei wanted. I realized that it made her magically more powerful, if she consumed dead human flesh. It also helped her to grow very quickly, many months in just one day.” She lifted her chin, a prideful movement that Skybright had missed. “But I’ve found a way to suppress her power and growth—she simply eats raw animal flesh and organs. It is enough for her.”

Her friend said it so casually that Skybright knew it had all become normal for Zhen Ni, raising a beautiful demon child who preferred raw liver to dumplings and steamed buns.

“She is obedient?”

“She is a perfect child,” Zhen Ni replied. “I couldn’t ask for a better daughter.”

“Blossom’s love for you is the one thing I can sense from her when you are together,” Skybright said. “Nothing else.”

“Her charm does not work on you then.”

“The girl has charmed you to love her?”

Zhen Ni smiled. “Yes. But I believe I have charmed her back. She loves me truly. Something she never felt for Master Bei, who was incapable of love.”

“And this Auntie Sun who shares your bed?” Skybright arched an eyebrow.

Her friend gave a low laugh and blushed. “Li Jing, another young widow I met. We are both prime examples of virtuous wives who refuse to ever marry again after losing our husbands. The entire town is quite taken with our sacrifice and speak highly of us. They like that we are able to take … comfort from each other.” Zhen Ni’s mouth quirked with mischievous amusement.

“I see.” Skybright couldn’t help but smile back at Zhen Ni, seeing her eyes shine with joy.

“Oh, she is wonderful, Sky. I can’t wait for you to meet her.”

“I cannot wait either.” She couldn’t be happier for her friend, that she’d found love and made a home for herself.

“Remember when Madame Lo said that I would have two children? Between Li Jing’s son An An and my Blossom, that is two.” Her friend reached for both Skybright’s hands and held them. “And she said that you were
strong
, Sky. She was right. I’ve never known anyone stronger than you.” Zhen Ni stared at their interlocked hands. “I’m sorry that I ever doubted you in my mind. But Kai Sen never did. Not even when—” She paused. “Not even when we saw you murder a man.”

Skybright pulled away from her friend. “You witnessed that? Stone forced me—he threatened to kill some innocent bystander if I didn’t obey him.”

“That brute!” Zhen Ni said with vehemence. “If I had known, I’d have shut the door in his face for all those times he came to ask after you.”

Skybright thought about Stone when he was immortal, truthful, but so out of touch with feelings and what it meant to be human. The Stone she had left behind was still honest but struggling with learning about his mortal past and dealing with all the emotions that came with refusing immortality. In the end, he had chosen to
feel
, to be able to empathize. “He was used to being obeyed,” she said. “But he believed he was helping me learn about my demonic side. That man you saw me with lived.”

“He did?” Zhen Ni let out a small breath.

Skybright was touched that her friend was willing to accept her wholly but knew that Zhen Ni was relieved she had not murdered someone after all. “Yes, and I refused to ever try again,” she replied. “Stone respected my wishes.”

Zhen Ni nodded.

“But how did you find me in that alley?”

“Kai Sen,” Zhen Ni replied. “He used his magic to search for you in all the provinces. I told him he was mad, but he was determined.”

Kai Sen had never mentioned what he saw to her. And no matter how uncomfortable he had been with her demonic side, he had never lost faith in her, had never doubted her
goodness
. Skybright drew a hand across her face, feeling wrung out.

Sensing her sadness, Zhen Ni grabbed her hand again and squeezed her fingers. “Sky, know that you will always have a place in my home. Just as you always have a place in my heart.”

“As you are in mine.” Skybright lifted their joined hands to touch her own heart for a moment, then rose on her coil. “Thank you. I’ll return again soon.”

Zhen Ni stood and hugged her once more. “Be well, Sky.”

Skybright left Zhen Ni’s manor, sliding over the wall in the same way she had entered. A single growl erupted from behind her but was quickly silenced, no doubt by its young, demonic mistress.

Not knowing where to go, Skybright slithered toward Bei manor, compelled to see the site one more time. The persimmon trees and carved stone benches still lined where the entrance of the grand manor had been, but the estate was leveled and cleaned out. The town folk had worked hard to remove the rubble and fallen trees, but it was still in ruins, roped off to warn people from straying too near and falling into its gaping foundation.

She slid to the back, so she was more hidden from prying eyes, casting her senses deep below the grounds.

Nothing.

But she didn’t give up, sending her keen serpentine magic deep, where the second breach had been and where Kai Sen was lost, lingering there.

A flare of familiarity, bursting bright then gone, like a luminous flame snuffed.

Skybright tried over and over to grasp it again, but everything below was dead now. Silent.

Then her senses did touch on someone alive and near.

Stone.

She almost spun around to avoid him, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave. Not after feeling his cautious hope and his concern for her. He stood, a lone figure in the back of the former estate, near the tunnel he and Kai Sen had made together.

“You’ve returned to us,” he said, his smooth face not belying all the emotions he hid beneath the surface.

She stopped an arm’s length from him. He looked well, handsome, and immaculately dressed in a dark blue tunic and trousers, his black hair pulled into a topknot. His earthen scent had not changed, and he smelled like
home
to her too, as much as Zhen Ni had. “How did you know?” she rasped.

“Blossom told me,” he said. “She sent a bat, like I taught her to do.”

Skybright laughed for the second time that night, the notion was so ludicrous. “A messenger bat? And the demon child as your spy?”

Stone smiled and shrugged. “She’s very smart and does not sleep.”

“But how did you know to find me here?”

He followed her gaze to the fallen estate, and his expression grew serious. “A hunch. I’ve returned to this site many times. Some of the monks survived, more than we had hoped, and I helped to pull a few men out myself. Zhen Ni’s three servants managed to escape in time, too.”

“But Kai Sen?”

Stone shook his head. “They plan on filling this hole soon and building a park over it. The caverns are buried too deep below, they’re impossible to reach. It’s safer that way.”