Kichona. It looked like he was starting at smaller outposts, which he could easily overwhelm with his existing ryuu. Then, as the ryuu ranks swelled, he would begin to take on bigger targets to grow his army and collection of Hearts even faster.
Other than that, though, the ribbon traced an unpredictable path around the kingdom, such that it would not only take the Society a little while to catch on to what he was doing but also make it impossible for the taigas to know where he would strike next.
Finally, the ribbon ended at the Imperial City. The Citadel and Rose Palace would be the biggest prizes of all.
“Stars. If we don’t stop him soon, he’ll have so much momentum and power, we’ll be as good as dead.” Daemon sank into Prince Gin’s chair. “We have to poison him and every ryuu on this ship. And we have to get the list of targets to the Citadel, just in case Sora and I fail.” Saying the plan out loud somehow made him feel better. It gave him a bit of confidence—however unjustified—in the face of this daunting enemy.
There was a knock on the door.
Daemon jumped out of the chair. Then he hastily stuffed the false bottom of the drawer back in place, closed up the desk, and dove under the futon.
Gods dammit. His lock picks were still on the desk chair.
Whoever it was knocked again a minute later. Maybe this was the ryuu who had actually been sent to inquire of the Dragon Prince’s dinner preferences.
After no response, however, the person left. Daemon exhaled.
Time for me to go too. He’d lingered too long anyway. Prince Gin might come back any second.
Daemon grabbed his lock picks and slipped out the captain’s quarters door. He had just stepped back into the dark corner nearby when he saw legs descending the ladder. Daemon dove behind some boxes and buried himself beneath the coils of rope on the floor.
“Your Highness?” someone above said.
The prince stopped on the ladder. “What is it?”
“I was sent to ask what you would like for dinner.”
“Do we have fresh fish?”
“Yes, Tidepool swept up a section of ocean and had the waves deposit a school of mackerel for us.”
“I’ll have that then,” Prince Gin said. “Oh, and wine. Not just for me, but for everyone on the ship. You’ve all worked hard today. We deserve to celebrate.”
“Thank you, Your Highness!” the ryuu hurried off to report to the galley.
Daemon waited until the prince went inside his cabin. Then he ran for the ladder and scrambled several levels down to Sora in the bottom hold.
Their grumbling stomachs would have to wait.
Chapter Thirty
Fairy crawled through the narrow space beneath the floorboards of Warrior Meeting Hall. Broomstick followed, but he was bigger and had to scoot on his stomach, which made him lag behind.
“How did you even know this was here?” he whispered, even though they’d cast moth spells to keep from being overheard.
“My boys and I have use for secret nooks and spaces,” Fairy said.
Broomstick groaned.
She laughed.
But she quickly grew stern again. The Council was holding another meeting and Empress Aki was going to be in attendance. The apprentices had not been given any updates about the Isle of the Moon attacks, and even worse, Fairy and Broomstick hadn’t heard a thing about Spirit and Wolf. Broomstick had leveraged all his relationships in the office but learned nothing.
So Fairy had decided to take matters into her own hands and eavesdrop on the source.
The space beneath the Council Room was tighter than that below the rest of Warrior Meeting Hall, and Fairy also had to get onto her stomach. She used her arms to crawl forward, stopping every so often to blink away the dust puffing up from the dirt on the ground. Despite what she’d just told Broomstick, this was not one of the places she brought her boys; she’d tried it once and never again, because it really wasn’t much fun to mess around with someone when there wasn’t space to do said messing around.
Finally, she reached a pinprick of light that shone down through a minuscule hole in the floorboards.
“I barely fit here,” Broomstick said. “One less inch, and I’d be stuck like a cork in a bottle.”
“Good thing you passed on that second helping at dinner then,” she said.
“Ha-ha.” He punched her in the arm.
Above them, the Council filed in. The only reason Fairy knew that was because shadows passed over the tiny beam of light. Otherwise, there was