to mix together an antidote to genka for Wolf.”
“It might not work, since he didn’t actually get shot with genka,” Broomstick said. “Spirit is the one with the genka in her system. Wolf only has the effects.”
Fairy frowned. “It’s still worth trying. If we’re going to battle the ryuu, we’re going to need all the taigas we can get, and Wolf is one of our best fighters.”
Broomstick put his fist over his heart. “Cloak of night.”
She shook her head. “Wrong salute.”
“You’re right.” He pounded his fists to his chest again. “Work hard.”
“Mischief harder.”
Fairy let herself look at her gemina for a few more seconds, while at the same time basking in the fierce, brotherly love Broomstick sent through their connection. Heavens, it felt good to be back.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Your Majesty,” one of the Imperial Guards said, “I’m sorry to bother you in these early hours, but there is an apprentice here to see you. She’s not on your schedule, but she insisted it was urgent. She has news of Prince Gin.”
Aki rose from the meditation cushion. “Who is this apprentice?” she asked.
“She says her name is Spirit.”
“The one the Council arrested? Interesting.” Aki nodded. Spirit was the chief rogue, the one who’d plotted the fireworks at the palace. Some of the councilmembers thought she might be a traitor, but Aki thought they were shortsighted, limited by how they understood the world. Spirit saw and did things differently than tradition dictated. It was precisely what Aki needed, and she’d judge for herself whether Spirit was loyal or not. “Please send her in.”
Spirit entered the room and laid herself on the ground in the requisite bow. When she rose, she said, “Your Majesty, thank you for meeting with me. I don’t have much time. I came to ask permission to break off part of your palace. It’s the only way to defeat the ryuu.”
Both of Aki’s brows shot straight up. “I knew that you were creative, but this was more than I imagined.”
“I know I’m asking a lot. More than a lot. You don’t even know who I am, and—”
“You are asking for a great deal, but you’re wrong about one thing: I do know who you are.”
“Oh.” Spirit looked around nervously, as if anticipating guards jumping at her.
“Some of the Council believe you’re working for my brother,” Aki said. “But I don’t. If you were, I’d already be dead, wouldn’t I?”
Spirit nodded carefully. It must be strange—scary, even—for the empress to talk about assassination. “Yes, Your Majesty. If I were a ryuu sent to kill you, you wouldn’t have even known I was here.”
“All right,” Aki said, settling back onto her meditation cushion and surprised even at herself for feeling so calm and sure about Spirit. But now was the time for action, not overthinking. “Explain to me why I should let you demolish part of my palace. The Council has a battle plan. How is yours better?”
She didn’t say anything. Instead, Spirit held her arms out in front of her. Almost immediately, they disappeared from view, as if they’d been sliced off at the elbow.
Aki gasped. “How . . . ? What did you do?”
“I can make myself invisible,” she said, her arms reappearing. “I’m not the only ryuu who can. There are others who can make blood boil. They can form hurricanes. Cloud the sky with an army of locusts. Bend steel to their will. The Council doesn’t comprehend the full power of the ryuu. But I’ve trained with them. I know what they can do, and we don’t stand a chance fighting them the old way.”
The old way, Aki thought. That was, indeed, how Glass Lady and the others at the Citadel had been operating. In the busy lead-up to confronting Gin, she’d forgotten her frustration with the Council. But it was because of their inability to adapt, their sticking to traditional methods of warfare, that Aki had taken matters into her own hands and asked Fairy and Broomstick to go to Copper Bluff.
If it was true what Spirit said about the ryuu, then following the Council’s strategy of simply fighting Gin’s warriors head-on was a prescription for death. Not only for the soldiers themselves, but also for Kichona. Once the Ceremony of Two Hundred Hearts was completed, Gin would turn their peaceful kingdom into a war machine. Tiger pearls and whispering maple leaves would be replaced with blood and destruction. And the people would no longer be themselves at all once he hypnotized them. They’d just be extensions