Cloak of Night (Circle of Shadows #2) - Evelyn Skye Page 0,71

again, but before she could answer, Whiplash ushered them out to a deck that overlooked a lake.

“What’s going on here?” Broomstick asked. There was another dozen children out there, some wading in the brackish water, some sitting on the pier with fishing poles. Despite the late autumn chill, some of the boys had their shirts off. Sora could see their ribs beneath their mud-crusted skin.

At the presence of more children, the pearl began pushing against her collar pocket again, this time as if trying to get into the lake.

“We’re catching frogs and fish to help feed the emperor’s navy,” Whiplash said. “And only a handful of us have drowned so far,” she added proudly, pointing to four lifeless bodies on the far shore.

“What?” Sora rushed to the edge of the deck in alarm. “Kids have died? You have to stop. How are the adults letting this happen? You’re just children!”

“We are not just children!” the little commander shouted. “We have sworn our lives to His Majesty, and we won’t rest until he has what he wants!”

All the blood drained from Broomstick’s face. “Um . . . Commander Whiplash, do you mind if I have a moment in private with my colleague?”

The girl eyed him suspiciously.

“To explain to her why what you’re doing is important,” he lied, turning on his easy smile so Whiplash would feel like they were on the same side.

She scrutinized him, as if she could see whether he was telling the truth.

“Permission granted,” she said. “But only for a minute.”

When she’d gone inside, Broomstick stepped up to the deck’s edge next to Sora. “When you and Wolf were in Paro Village before, Prince Gin had already been here, hadn’t he?”

She nodded, still staring in shock at the corpses of the Little Ferals who’d drowned. “This was the first place he came to gather Hearts.”

“So these villagers—the grown-ups and the kids—were hypnotized?”

“Yes.”

“I think that’s why they’re so devoted to sewing sails and catching fish,” Broomstick said. “Prince Gin brainwashed them into absolute loyalty. It’s different from how Zomuri’s influence made your parents and the dumpling maker irritable. This is actual hypnosis, like what Prince Gin did to the taigas, which means the citizens of Paro Village will do whatever he needs. But unlike adults, the kids don’t know how to balance that with taking care of themselves.”

Sora tore her gaze away from the lake. She couldn’t look anymore. “Stars. The kids would rather starve or die than stop working because of the Dragon Prince’s magic.”

That’s when it hit her. The pearl moved toward the Little Ferals not because they were children but because Prince Gin’s magic had touched them. His soul was attracted to his magic, to traces of him. Which made sense—a body and soul were meant to be together while on earth, and the soul was trying to get back to the Dragon Prince. Right now, these kids, with his magic in them, were the closest thing to the man himself.

But Sora had also been touched by Prince Gin’s powers—she had Sight and the use of ryuu particles. Why hadn’t the pearl reacted to her?

Maybe it had. She thought back to when she’d opened the jewelry box in Zomuri’s vault. The pearl had rolled off the green satin pillow right into Sora’s hands. And come to think of it, her chest felt a little tender where the soul pearl’s pocket was, as if it had been burrowing against the collar to get as close to her as possible. Only now, surrounded by other traces of the Dragon Prince’s magic, had it started moving toward them.

She pressed her hand to her collar again. The pearl was still moving, but her pocket was secure; the soul shouldn’t be able to escape unless Sora let it out.

But this could serve as an excellent warning system if any ryuu came near.

Broomstick was still staring at the Little Ferals. “We need to convince them to take care of themselves.”

Sora shook her head sadly. “If it were that simple, we could have talked sense into the other taigas after Prince Gin took their minds. We wouldn’t be the only ones left fighting him.”

“What about your ryuu magic?” Broomstick said, pacing the deck. He waved his arms in the directions of the kids at the lake and inside the tree house. “You can’t cast some kind of counterspell? They’re all going to work themselves to death soon.”

“There’s nothing I can do to alter Prince Gin’s magic,” Sora said, “other than kill him to