shook herself out of her surprise. After all, she had come up with the plan, and it was a good one. Good enough, she hoped. “Yes, Commander. It’s right over there.” She pointed at the slab of Rose Palace propped a short distance away, against the inside of the Citadel’s walls.
Glass Lady actually took a step back at its size. “That’s the weapon? The Ora imperial crest?”
“Yes, Commander,” Sora said. “Do you like it?”
A small smile actually crept onto Glass Lady’s face. “I do, Spirit. Very much.”
Sora grinned at Daemon. See? She’d been right. The road to becoming legendary didn’t have to be without irreverence.
Glass Lady grew serious again. “Everyone in your places. Let’s get to the top of the fortress walls.”
From there, they looked down on the main gates. The ryuu were indeed nearly upon them. As they marched, their fire, bone, insect, and other magic was on full display. Glass Lady inhaled sharply as wasps swarmed above the ryuu in a noisy storm cloud, flames licked toward gates, and stones rolled up to the walls and began piling themselves to form steps.
Sora frowned. Something was wrong. The realization shot through her gemina bond like an arrow.
“What is it?” Daemon asked.
“This isn’t all of the ryuu,” Sora said.
“Maybe they’re going to attack other parts of the fortress,” Fairy said.
Broomstick peered through a spyglass and shook his head. “No signs of approach from the other sides of the Citadel. And we haven’t heard alarms from the perimeter.”
Where’s the other half of the army? Sora wondered. Were they so arrogant that they thought they could defeat an entire fortress full of taigas and decided to use only a fraction of their forces?
“It’s better for us,” Daemon said. “After you blind them, there will be fewer for us to fight.”
Sora kept shaking her head, though. “I worry what the other half is doing. If—”
Hana rode forward. Sora froze. She couldn’t remember what she was going to say. All she could focus on was her sister and the seething hatred in her eyes, so intense, it felt as if they burned a hole straight through Sora’s heart.
She had to look away.
“Commander,” Hana said, raising her voice and sounding ever Virtuoso. “We have come home to mourn Empress Aki’s death, and to usher in the reign of Emperor Gin. We bring with us the gift of new magic to the Society. Open the gates, and let your returned warriors in.”
Glass Lady nodded subtly at Sora to set her plan in motion.
“What is your name, child?” Glass Lady said to Hana.
Hana scoffed. “I am no child. I am Virtuoso, and I am second in command of this army.”
“Well, child,” Glass Lady said, her voice oozing the same venomous disdain as Hana’s, “I may be old-fashioned, but I think current etiquette still dictates that it is rude to try to force one’s way into another’s home.” She gestured at the stone staircase the ryuu were building with their magic, and the flames that had begun to heat the iron of the gates orange. “You claim to come here respectfully,” Glass Lady continued, “and yet you begin from a position of utter disrespect. Therefore, we must treat you in kind.”
She waved her hand, and taigas appeared from their hiding places just below the top of the fortress walls. Others waited on the foot- and handholds below them, ready to pounce on the ryuu once Sora blinded them.
She focused the emerald particles around her. Make the crystal invisible. Bring it to me.
With Sora keeping the wall invisible, the ryuu wouldn’t know what was blinding them. They wouldn’t be able to shoot it down. The only one who could understand—who could see invisible things—was Hana.
Sora’s entire body trembled with the effort of moving the crystal. She’d forgotten how much energy she’d already used to cut the wall from the palace and transport it here. There wasn’t much in her reserves.
Daemon noticed. He placed his hands on Sora’s shoulders, the heat of his touch steadying her. It was like when the Imperial Guard had bandaged her wounds while she was working on cutting the crystal from the palace walls, except tenfold, because this was Daemon.
Sora’s hold on the magic strengthened, and the slab of crystal rose faster from the ground where she’d left it, soaring through the air toward them.
Hana sneered at Glass Lady, her attention, at least for now, on the commander. “Your old-fashioned view of the world is exactly why I’ll replace you as leader of the Society