Chapter 16
16
I awake to the sound of… nothing.
Exhausted from my travels, I wound up falling asleep by the fire shortly after Jyn’s departure. The fire has long since gone cold, and there’s not a trace of movement anywhere within the oasis. It appears that the dragon has not returned.
I sit up slowly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes with the heels of my palms. As I blink away my grogginess, I anxiously rub my little finger and stare mindlessly at my gray thread. Pressing questions sit on the tip of my tongue, threatening to crush me down. I force myself to remember the reason why I agreed to set out in the first place.
My mother is no doubt waiting for my return.
She was a force to be reckoned with back in the day. At least, that’s what A-Ba used to tell me. She was one of the prettiest girls in all the North, and as the daughter of a successful silk merchant, her dowry was said to have been so immense that it filled twenty heavy coffers. The line of suitors waiting to ask for her hand in marriage stretched across the Five Kingdoms and back. A-Ma turned away every single one.
Except for my father.
One look was apparently all she needed to know he was her Fated One. She described it as a feeling, like coming home. My grandfather was furious that she’d chosen a penniless commoner with no proper education or steady job. If she went through with this match, he said, he would cut her off. Without a coin to her name, she was no doubt dooming herself to a hard life. But A-Ma defied him all the same, content to have found true love.
I think of her now, sitting alone in the teahouse A-Ba built for her with his bare hands, all because she happened to mention her love of Longjing tea, and my heart aches. If I can convince Jyn to part with a few of her scales to be used for A-Ma’s medicine, then at least I have one fewer problem to concern myself with. If Jyn decides to return, that is.
But what of Emperor Róng? He’s a thorn in my side that I can’t dislodge. He has me in a chokehold. If I return without Jyn, will he harm my mother? That, or let her illness take her. But if I do bring Jyn back to Jiaoshan, there’s no question that he will harm or perhaps even kill her. I let out a frustrated sigh. No matter what I do, someone will get hurt. What I need right now is time to think. As long as I remain with Jyn, I’m sure I can come up with a plan.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
The boisterous call of a crow pulls me from my thoughts. I look up to find a curious sight among the large palm trees. The black bird rests on a long branch, but even from this distance, I can tell there’s something peculiar about the creature.
It has three legs, and its eyes glow red.
“Hello, friend,” I say, rising to my feet, watching the little beast curiously. “How did you come to find yourself so far from home?” We are surely nowhere near a crow’s nest here in the desert.
The crow swoops down and lands just before me by the water’s edge, its movements jerky and abnormal. It drinks greedily from the pond, then grooms its black feathers and taps its third foot on the soil.
“What a strange little thing,” I mumble to myself, making a quick study of the creature. “Come for a bit of rest, I see. Well, that’s all right. There’s plenty of space for the two of us.”
The three-legged crow continues to tap its middle foot on the ground. It squawks at me, red eyes glued to my form with unusually rapt attention. The longer I watch the crow, the colder and darker the feeling in my gut grows. Its eyes are too… aware. I don’t like it one bit.
As the minutes tick by, the crow stares and stares and stares—
And then flies right at me.
It pecks at my forehead, my nose, my eyes. It scratches me with its talons, mincing my forearms when I bring them up as a shield. The bird screeches at me as it goes for my jugular, but I manage to grab it by its wing and tear it away. I throw the blasted thing to the ground with a sharp cry, my torn flesh searing.
The crow recovers, hopping to its three feet and stretching its wings to their full span. It’s there beneath the creature’s primary feathers that I spot a thin piece of yellow parchment marked in red ink.
A talisman?
My heart lodges in my throat. What in the nine suns could that mean? I can’t allow this creature to escape. Something tells me that could spell disaster, and I’m frankly very tired of having things go wrong.
I hastily throw off my tunic and charge the little beast, tossing the fabric over it before it has a chance to fly off. It frantically struggles against my makeshift net, crying out loudly as it tears at the linen with its sharp beak and even sharper claws. For something so small, it’s terribly strong. I have a difficult time keeping it contained as I gather up the fabric in my clenched hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I turn just in time to see Jyn descending from the sky, transforming back into a woman before my eyes. The shift is seamless and takes not even a full second, her body shrinking down and her features morphing into those of the heartbreakingly beautiful woman I still yearn to know. I probably look a fool with my jaw on the ground as I hold out my catch.
“It attacked me,” I mutter lamely. “And where did you disappear to?”
“Kept watch while you slept,” Jyn grumbles flatly, avoiding my gaze.
I smile, still struggling to keep my fabric parcel down. “Were you worried about me?”
Jyn ignores me outright and reaches into my tunic, grasping the crow by the neck with one hand. She frowns deeply when she spots the talisman beneath its wing. Jyn swiftly yanks it off and studies the red-ink markings.
“What is it, my lady?” I ask. “Can you read it?”
She doesn’t need to speak for me to get my answer. I can sense her mood turning frightfully cold over our connection. It’s almost like taking a deep plunge into a cavern, no light or hope to be found.
“A tracking spell,” she hisses. Jyn stares the crow dead in the eye. “Like the one on your scroll earlier.”
My breath catches in my throat. “Was that what that was? But how did you even know it was there?”
“I could smell his scent.”
I frown. “Whose scent, my lady?”
“Come after me again,” she says not so much to the bird, but through it to its sender, “and I will devour you. Don’t forget—a heart for a heart.”
The crow pecks at her hand, its sharp beak piercing her flesh. Jyn grunts as blood drips from the shallow wound. Overcome with fury, she snaps the crow’s neck without hesitation, squeezing it tight in her fingers, and tosses its corpse to the ground.
I stare at her, alarmed. “What was that for?” I demand. “Who were you just talking to? Who’s tracking us?”
Jyn turns her head to the sky, looking out for something my mortal eyes can’t comprehend. She sniffs the air, her tongue flicking out subtly at the corner of her mouth to taste the breeze. “We can’t stay here any longer. I don’t know how, but he’s coming for me.”
“ Who is coming for you?”
She grits her teeth in a snarl. “The man you call Róng.”
My heart rails against my rib cage. “The emperor is coming here? How is that possible? I was led to believe he didn’t know the location of the dragon—”
Swift as lightning, Jyn whips around and grasps me by the shoulders. “You’ve spoken to him?” she growls.
“That I have, my lady, but I swear I meant you no harm. He sent me to find you, that’s all.”
Pure fury spreads across her features. “And you agreed to work for that monster?”
“I wasn’t given much of a choice,” I reply.
“I thought it odd when I sensed you passing the mountain border, and now I know why. What did that beast offer you?”
“He didn’t—”
“Do not lie to me,” she seethes, digging her fingers into the flesh of my shoulders. Her hand hasn’t stopped bleeding, the red staining not only her palm but my skin as well.
“My mother’s sick,” I blurt out. I can’t bring myself to lie to her. “My mother is sick, but once I fed her a dragon’s scale, her condition immediately improved, and—”
“A dragon’s scale?” Jyn rasps. “What color?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What. Color?”
“Green. It was green, my lady. Why does that—”
Jyn pulls away, hiding her eyes, but I already see the edges are red with the threat of tears. “Oh,” she whimpers, choking on the sound. Her torment screams at me through our thread, so raw that it almost makes me sick. Her agony is my agony, her sorrow my sorrow. I’m suddenly overcome with a vast, terrifying emptiness that nearly tears me in two.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, clutching my chest. I fear that my heart may burst. “I didn’t mean anything by it, Jyn. I was told it was medicine. I would never do anything to harm you.”
She takes a deep, shaky breath. “No, I… I know that.” Jyn wipes at her eyes. “So, this is what he promised you? The promise of medicine?”
I nod slowly.
“So you led him to me.”
“Not knowingly. Believe me, my lady, I would never have—”
“Does he know who you are?” Jyn asks.
“Who I am?”
“Yes. Does Róng know who you are?”
I stare at her blankly. “I’m afraid I don’t understand your question.”
Jyn stands still as stone, her thoughts a mystery to me despite her emotions pouring into mine. What new map is unraveling inside her head?
After a moment, she clicks her tongue. “Make haste. Grab what you can.”
“We’re leaving?”
She busies herself about her home, hastily grabbing what few supplies she can—canteens filled to the top with water, dried fruit, a bit of spiced jerky—throwing everything into an old supply bag. Her urgency is so contagious that I find myself helping her, anxiety buzzing between us like an army of ants crawling on my skin.
“Where shall we go?” I ask.
“Far from here.”
I pause. “But my mother… I need to return to her.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Jyn, I beg of you—”
“Your mortal mother is of no concern to me, Sai. She will pass on, just as all humans do.”
I swallow hard. I can’t abandon my mother, but I can’t abandon my Fated One, either, no matter how hard she endeavors to keep me at arm’s length.
“She needs me,” I say firmly. “I must return.”
Jyn pauses her gathering and narrows her eyes at me. “Then you will do so on your own. I will not join you in that monster’s lair.”
“What do you know of the emperor?” I demand, fed up with her roundabout way of telling me things.
“What do I—” She stares at me as though I have stabbed her in the heart. Jyn throws her hands up with a frustrated huff. Something untamed ebbs across our bond, a feeling so heavy and ancient I feel it crushing down on my shoulders.
Then her expression hardens. “I can’t do this anymore, Sai. I cannot. All mortals die, and your mother is no exception. Either go to her, or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me.”
My jaw drops open, but no words come out to rebut her cruel ones. As I stand there in stunned silence, Jyn grabs her things and rushes out into the desert alone.
My head tells me to return home. I’ve been gone too long, and venturing any farther into the Western Wastelands could spell my end. It’s easy to die of starvation and thirst out here.
But my heart tells me to follow. I must know more: about Jyn, my Fated One, our fraying gray thread. All my life, I have wondered about her. Now that she’s within reach, how can I possibly let her go?
Choosing my heart, I set out after her beneath the unforgiving sun.