doubled in the time that Sora had been gone. It was no longer just ryuu now, but also an adjacent camp of pilgrims, the Hearts that Prince Gin had chosen in Paro Village, Sand Mine, Kaede City, Tiger’s Belly, and the Striped Coves. Two hundred boys and girls, men and women, from one to a hundred years old. Sora stopped short and looked at them.
A boy just a couple years younger than her, arms and legs still lanky because he hadn’t had the chance to grow into them. A woman with wrinkles as thick and heavy as a shar-pei dog’s. A little boy cradled in her arms, on the cusp of toddlerhood, squirming as he sucked on his thumb. And 197 more, all people who’d had their own minds not that long ago, but who now milled around with the distant, contented glimmer in their eyes that Sora was all too familiar with.
She started in their direction.
“Great-grandmother,” Sora said, as she approached the old woman holding the baby. “You shouldn’t be here. Bad things are about to happen. You have to flee.”
But the woman smiled, the corners of her mouth lifting the heavy curtains of the wrinkles around it. “My dear child, this is exactly where I need to be. I am honored to be chosen by the Dragon Prince. You are a taiga. You should understand the joy of giving yourself in service to your kingdom.”
Sora shook her head. “No. He’s controlling you. This . . . This isn’t what you want.”
The woman continued beaming as she cuddled the wriggling child. “Yes, Your Honor, it is. I was nothing but a seamstress before, but now I get to be something more.”
“But . . .”
The little boy began to cry. The old woman cooed at him, then drifted away, forgetting her conversation.
Sora almost went after her.
And then she saw a girl with an abalone comb in her hair. Sora stopped moving.
It was the girl from the marketplace at Kaede City who had tried to get Daemon to go out with her on a date. But the flirtatious glimmer was gone from her eyes. She moved as if in a trance, humming a chirpy melody, like a soundtrack to her own dream.
Seeing a Heart whom Sora had known before, now completely dispossessed of her boldness, was like a bucket of ice water in Sora’s face, a reminder that it was useless to try to talk the Hearts out of what they were doing. Sora had had too much experience with Prince Gin’s magic, from the taro-pastry-loving woman in Paro Village who was overjoyed at being chosen as a Heart, to the indomitable taiga warriors who’d fallen prey to hypnosis. Even Sora herself. Talking would do no good. Sora had to push forward with her plan. The only hope was fighting against Prince Gin with the rest of the Society and putting a stop to him before he asked these two hundred souls to cut out their own beating hearts.
She tiptoed toward the northern edge of the ryuu camp, where most of the warriors had turned in for the night. Fairy’s body was in a covered wagon, a small distance away from the rest of the ryuu, because the cart had been enchanted to a chilly temperature to prevent the empress from decomposing. Sora hoped it wasn’t too cold for an actual, living body.
When she got closer to the wagon, though, she made herself invisible and stopped to survey the situation. There were a dozen ryuu ringing the cart.
Did Hana suspect anything? Was she herself here? If so, that would be trickier, because she’d be able to see Sora, even in invisible form.
Minutes ticked by. The ryuu guarding the wagon may have been numerous, but they were also tired from marching all day, and most were sitting or reclined on the ground, keeping sleepy watch in equidistant posts around the wagon. Only a couple of them bothered to actively patrol the area, but even they kept a wide berth from the cart itself to avoid its cold.
And there was no Hana in sight—ordinary or invisible.
Satisfied with this, Sora began her approach. She waited for one of the patrolling ryuu to pass, then slipped past him silently, taking care to move cautiously and not stir the air, a blade of grass, or a speck of dirt. She slinked between two of the reclined guards, one actually asleep and snoring, and crawled up into the covered wagon bed.
Sora shivered as she inched herself inside.