all right.
Sora left with Daemon, Fairy, and the others.
But Hana was not all right. While Sora was eating empress cake in the dirigible, Prince Gin’s warriors launched their attack. The skirmish with Princess Aki’s soldiers lasted only two hours, but in that short amount of time, friends brutally killed friends. The prince’s warriors slaughtered innocent palace servants and decapitated taigas, leaving their heads on spears. They took the headless bodies and set them aflame on a pyre.
Then they set the Citadel on fire. The southern part of the headquarters burned to the ground. And the nursery—with Hana and many other tenderfoots inside—perished in the flames.
Eventually, Prince Gin was wounded gravely in the battle. Princess Aki’s taigas took advantage of that, and they forced the rebellious soldiers to retreat. They fled to the sea, casting the prince’s body into the waters in an ancient Kichonan funeral rite, and then never returned. The entire kingdom heaved a sigh of relief.
Except Sora. She’d never forgiven herself for that night. If she’d been with her sister, Hana might still be alive.
And now the Dragon Prince had returned, on the tenth anniversary of that horrific battle. Sora could practically feel the weight in the air, like humidity composed of blood.
Her knees buckled beneath her. Daemon caught her.
The men and women in the eerie, taiga-like uniforms bowed in unison to Prince Gin.
“We need to go,” Daemon said. “Now.”
Sora touched the pearl on her necklace and clung to the memory of Hana to help her summon strength. She climbed down from her perch. Moments later, Daemon appeared beside her, and they slinked between the tents. Behind them, the wordless music and dancing had started again.
Daemon scaled the cypress where their escape wire was tied. He slid off his belt, slung it across the wire, and zipped down it like a clothesline.
Sora climbed onto the wire, choosing to run it like a tightrope. She put one foot in front of the other, again and again, methodically making her way across.
Almost there. Almost there.
Across and over the log wall.
Before the line ended, Sora dropped fifteen feet to the ground. She took one more look at the camp behind them, the bonfire lighting up the night as though the hells had opened a rift from the canyon floor.
“We definitely have something to report to the Council now,” Sora said, trying to make a joke because she couldn’t fully process what they’d just seen.
But what she did know was that if Prince Gin was back, things were about to change for Kichona, in a really bad way.
Chapter Eight
Sora and Daemon raced back to the Citadel as fast as their horses could gallop. When they arrived three days later, they immediately ran toward Warrior Meeting Hall.
Sora heaved open the heavy black doors and burst into a dark corridor.
Broomstick, Fairy’s gemina, rounded the corner from the direction of the Council Room, where he helped with administrative tasks.
“Thank the gods you’re back,” he said. “Fairy and I were worried about you.”
Sora looked at him quizzically. “You already know what happened?”
Broomstick stared at her for a second, as if she were dense. “Um, yes . . . everyone knows about the attack on Isle of the Moon.”
Daemon gaped. “What? The Council was attacked?”
“Yes, although by whom or what, we don’t know,” Broomstick said. Then he paused. “Wait a minute. I thought you said you knew what happened.”
“Not that part,” Sora said, “but we saw something else, and I have a suspicion it’s related. Tell us about Isle of the Moon.”
Broomstick filled them in on the strange typhoon attack. He didn’t know much—the Council was keeping information close to their chests while they tried to understand what they were up against—but being part of the Society’s administrative office staff, he’d gleaned enough to know this was formidable magic the Society would be up against.
“Stars,” Daemon cursed, as he leaned against the corridor wall for support. “I’ve never heard anything like it. Magic to control something outside of our own bodies?”
“We’ve seen magic like this, remember?” Sora said. “The fire at Takish Gorge.” She turned to Broomstick. “We saw Prince Gin. He’s back.”
Broomstick blinked at her. “What?”
A door opened and closed in the distance. A few moments later, Glass Lady turned in to the hallway. She walked quickly past the apprentices without even nodding to acknowledge them.
“Wait, Commander,” Sora said.
Glass Lady stopped and peered over her shoulder at her. “What is it?”
Sora’s insides nearly froze just from the commander’s stare. But she managed to speak. “Wolf and