His voice carried a ring of authority, a gravity that pulled Rin toward him. Right then, Chaghan could reach into the center of her mind and extract every thought she’d ever had as casually as if he were flipping through a book, and she would let him.
“You will go back, Nüwa.” Chaghan raised his voice. “Return to the darkness. This world no longer belongs to you.”
The darkness hissed in response. Rin braced herself for an impending attack. But Chaghan uttered an incantation in words she did not understand, words that pushed Nüwa’s presence back so far that Rin could barely see the outlines of the snake anymore.
Bright lights flooded her vision. Wrenched down from the realm of the ethereal, Rin staggered at the sheer solidity, the physicality of the solid world.
Chaghan stood doubled over beside her, gasping.
Across the courtyard, Daji wiped the back of her mouth with her sleeve. She smiled. Her teeth were stained with blood.
“You are adorable,” she said. “And here I thought the Ketreyids were only a fond memory.”
“Stand back,” Chaghan muttered to Rin.
“What are you—”
“Run on my word.” Chaghan tossed a dark circular lump onto the ground. It rolled forward several paces and came to a rest at the Empress’s feet. Rin heard a faint sizzling noise, followed by an awful, acrid, and terribly familiar smell.
Daji glanced down, puzzled.
“Go,” Chaghan said, and they fled just as Ramsa’s signature poop bomb detonated inside the Autumn Palace.
A series of explosions followed them as they ran, ongoing blasts that could not have possibly been triggered by the single bomb. Building after building collapsed around them, creating a wall of fire and debris from behind which no one could pursue them.
He yanked her behind a low wall. They crouched down, hands clapped over their ears as the last of the buildings erupted mere yards away.
Rin wiped the dust from her eyes. “Daji’s dead?”
“Something like that doesn’t die so easily.” Chaghan coughed and pounded at his chest with his fist. “She’ll be after us soon. We should go. There’s a well a block down; Aratsha knows we’re coming.”
“What about Vaisra?”
Still coughing, Chaghan staggered to his feet. “Are you crazy?”
“He’s still in there!”
“And he’s likely dead. Daji’s guards will have swarmed the council room by now.”
“We don’t know that.”
“So what, you’re going to go check?” Chaghan grabbed her shoulders and pinned her against the wall. “Listen to me. It’s over. Your coup is finished. Daji’s going to come for Dragon Province, and when she does, we’re going to lose. Vaisra can’t protect you. You need to run.”
“And go where?” she asked. “And do what?”
What did Vaisra promise you? You must know you’re being used.
Rin knew that. She’d always known that. But maybe she needed to be used. Maybe she needed someone to tell her when, and who, to fight. She needed someone to give her orders and a purpose.
Vaisra was the first person in a long, long time who had made her feel stable enough to see a point in staying alive. And if he died here, it was on her.
“Are you insane?” Chaghan shouted. “You want to live, you fucking hide.”
“Then you hide. I’m fighting.” Rin wrenched her wrists from his grasp and pushed him away. She used more force than she’d meant to; she’d forgotten he was so thin. He stumbled backward, tripped on a rock, and toppled to the ground.
“You’re crazy,” he said.
“We’re all crazy,” she muttered as she jumped over his sprawled form and set off at a run toward the council room.
Imperial guards had swarmed the council chamber, pressing steadily in against the two-man army that was Suni and Baji. The Warlords had scattered from their seats. The Hare Warlord huddled against the wall, the Rooster Warlord crouched quivering under the table, and the young Tiger Warlord was curled in a corner, head pressed between his knees as blades clashed inches from his head.
Rin faltered at the doors. She couldn’t call the fire now. She didn’t have enough control to target her flames. If she lit up the room, she’d kill everyone in it.
“Here!” Baji kicked a sword toward her. She scooped it up and jumped into the fray.
Vaisra wasn’t dead. He fought at the center of the room, battling both Jun and the Wolf Meat General. For a second it seemed like he might hold them off. He wielded his blade with a ferocious strength and precision that was stunning to watch.