Time didn’t exist in Celestae, and neither, apparently, did distinct seasons. The gods could create and do whatever they wanted.
The rush of brooks, like giggling children, and the melody of crickets creating music that sounded a lot like Kichonan songs to the gods stirred something in Daemon’s memory. He didn’t remember anything specific, and yet he could feel that he’d been here before, that this place lived inside him, even when he was gone. He sped up, bursting out of the last of the torii arches and eager to see what else his first home would trigger.
A voice like thunder boomed across the sky and stopped Daemon short.
“My wayward son. How dare you return?”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Two days after Fairy, Broomstick, and Empress Aki left, Sora received a simple message via glittering eagle ray: Emperor Geoffrey has committed the Imperial Caldanian Navy to help us fight.
The next day, she received this message: Ria Kayla has agreed to send the Royal Navy and Marines of Brin.
And on the fourth night after they’d left, the last eagle ray flew into her hideout and landed on Sora’s pillow: Fale Po Tair will fight. Queen Meredith is leading the Faleese Navy herself. We are on our way.
Goose bumps prickled Sora’s skin. Things were falling into place. The only piece missing was Daemon.
Hopefully, he’d return soon.
Chapter Sixty
It was time. A day after the last of the eagle rays arrived, Sora and Hana stood at the edge of the Field of Illusions, outside the Citadel’s western fortress walls. The troops from Caldan, Brin, and Fale Po Tair were hidden just outside the Imperial City, ready to fight. Soon, they would try to overwhelm the ryuu by sheer numbers, while Sora and Hana slipped into the castle, reunited the soul pearl with Prince Gin, and killed him.
And then there was the question about Sora’s soul and whether it could be purified . . .
Daemon, where are you?
Sora and Hana needed to get into Prince Gin’s castle, but their original plan to fly in would no longer work without Daemon. The quietest way in, then, would be down through the secret passageway that Empress Aki had shown Sora.
“You’re sure the tunnels are still there?” Sora asked as they approached the spiraling swirl of black-and-white sands that hid the entrance.
“Yes,” Hana said. “Prince Gin built his castle on the foundation of Rose Palace and left the escape routes that had been dug into the mountain.”
“All right, then the center of that spinning illusion marks the entrance. It’s a short fall. I’ll go first.”
Sora checked to make sure patrol on the Citadel wall hadn’t returned yet, then stepped into the middle of the swirling sand. It sucked her in like a whirlpool and spit her out eight feet below. She landed on the ground of the tunnel and rolled out of the way so Hana could join her.
A few seconds later, Hana fell through, touched down, and rolled effortlessly to her feet. She coughed in the sand dust, though.
“How is that supposed to be an escape route?” she asked when she’d finally finished coughing.
Sora glanced up at the ceiling, which gave the illusion of being solid, albeit in a moving pattern of black and white. Then she saw a ladder propped against the tunnel wall. “I suppose they move that over and climb up and out.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Hana coughed again. “Let’s get out of this dust.”
The soul pearl tugged in Sora’s collar desperately, sensing that its owner was near.
Lead us to the Dragon Prince.
Sora set off through the tunnels, trying to interpret the minuscule movements of the pearl. The red streaks in the black stone seemed to glow more ominously than ever as they wound their way through the storage rooms.
In the distance, explosions sounded.
“Broomstick, Fairy, and the empress have begun their assault,” Sora said.
“That means the ryuu here in the castle will be on high alert,” Hana said. “Why didn’t we have them wait until after we’d tried to kill Prince Gin?”
“Because this way, the ryuu will be focused on the attack, not on us,” Sora said. “The castle will be mostly empty, because the warriors will all go outside to deal with the assault. And don’t forget we’re invisible. If we play it right, they won’t know we’re here until it’s too late. You just have to get close enough to Prince Gin to get the pearl back down his throat.”
“You never did like doing things the easy way.”
Sora cocked her head. “No, I suppose not.”
They slipped out