fear. I’m not like Father or Olugbade. I’m better. I’m different.”
“Then anoint me.”
She stiffens, then brightens. “I can’t. Not yet, anyway. You have to love me first, remember?”
“That’s all right then,” I say. “Because I do.”
Her breath catches as she stares, features shading with wonder and grief. “Am’s Story. You mean it, don’t you?” I nod and she laughs bitterly, kissing my forehead. “No wonder the Kunleos have always anointed children. Love is so uncomplicated at your age.”
She stands and paces for several minutes, avoiding Hyung where the beast sits nearby, cleaning its paws and baring its teeth at her. Then she stops, murmuring to the air.
“Isoken blood would balance it. Several strains from different realms … It’s a risk, but it could work. There’s still room on my council. I need only find the right ones. Yes … it’s worth a try.”
She draws a vial out from under her cloak, and it swings from a chain on her neck. Her full lips harden with resolution, then blossom into a sweet smile as she turns to me.
“Come, child.” I run into her outstretched arms, and she wets my brow with oil as her Ray engulfs me. I wince as she draws a knife and slashes her palm, then mine, letting our blood run together. Then her words drip into my ear like beeswax, deafening and sweet. “Receive your anointing.”
WHEN I DETACHED FROM WOO IN’S MIND, I shivered, shaking off the phantom of my mother’s embrace.
“For all her efforts, The Lady never did get Songland’s army,” Woo In murmured, smiling ruefully at the schoolroom floor. “I tried to convince Mother for years, but Min Ja always managed to talk her out of it.” He chuckled. “Out of the two of us, my sister always had the brains. She tried to warn me about The Lady, but I wouldn’t listen. So Min Ja washed her hands of me. I don’t blame her.”
After a tense moment I asked, “Kathleen isn’t the only isoken on Mother’s council, is she?”
“Of course not. They’re all isokens, all except for me and the first three.”
“So by strengthening her own blood—by representing Arit realms multiple times through mixed-race council members—”
“The Lady hoped to cancel out my blood, stacking the dice against Songland again. That’s why she still hadn’t anointed her last member. She had to find the perfect blend of isoken.”
I shuddered. “It’s so callous. Like choosing breeds at a market.” My head spun in confusion. “And wouldn’t isoken blood be weaker? A pure-blood council member represents their realm fully, whereas an isoken represents each realm by half—”
“Or their blood represents each realm fully. No one knows for sure how the magic of Enoba’s shield works. But The Lady had to try. She knew Arits would rebel if their children were born as Redemptors. She would never have risked losing her throne.”
A lump grew in my throat, so large I couldn’t swallow. My mother was dead, and I didn’t even know what to feel. Should I cry for the Kunleo princess, a child disowned by her father, exiled by her brother, and abused by the world? Or should I curse The Lady, a tactician who would willingly kill thousands of innocents? Perhaps it was wrong to choose. In any case, I had run out of time for tears.
“I can stop it,” I said, gripping Woo In’s arm. “The Treaty Renewal isn’t until tomorrow at sunset. Take me back. I can stop Dayo.”
His face brightened, and then dimmed to gray. “I’m too weak to fly,” he said. “The arrow wound is bad enough, but my body is weakened, still adjusting to the loss of the Ray. I’d never make it to Oluwan. You could ride Hyung. But the only way to reach An-Ileyoba in time …” He broke off, glanced at the map on the wall, and avoided my gaze.
On the map, I counted the eleven realms between Sagimsan Mountain and Oluwan. The world around me grew cold.
The only way to reach An-Ileyoba by sunset tomorrow was to ride through twenty-six lodestones.
After four crossings, my body would begin to disintegrate. If I was lucky, my lungs would start failing at ten. A man had once been known to survive fifteen, but had spent the rest of his life deformed and bedridden.
But twenty-six?
I would die within minutes of reaching Dayo. And that’s if I made it to Oluwan.
“It’s over,” said Woo In. “At least, for these Redemptor children. Ae Ri. Jaesung, Cheul, and the rest. Maybe in a hundred years,