Chapter 16
My breath caught, the Diviner’s words swirling.
A wish of extraordinary magnitude.
The world slipped away. Heat and smoke and the delicious scent of ripe fruit wrapped around me.
I opened my eyes and stood barefoot on warm stone, in an elegant city that shimmered in the sunlight.
The winding street was alive with music and laughter, the flap of sandals, the lazy ring of a temple bell, and, in the distance, the palace.
A boy laughed behind me, tossing a ball high into the air. A woman carried a full basket of colorful fruits to market. An old man dozed in a doorway with a carved flute resting on his knee. Somewhere down this street, my family was waiting for me.
Home.
Couscous rubbed against my legs, purring wildly. I picked her up and clutched her close. I wasn’t hiding. I wasn’t being hunted. I knew my name, my blood, my place. I belonged.
The Diviner’s voice spoke in my mind:
“The winds of fate shall reveal all that was lost.”
The light thinned and the air cooled. I squeezed Couscous harder, desperate to stay, but the vision was already slipping, and when I blinked, it was gone, leaving only the echo of it in my chest.
I looked around at the others. Next to me, Jace’s face was lit with something fierce and bright, smiling, a wild light burning behind his eyes. He looked like he had seen a future worth fighting for, and nothing in the Three Kingdoms would stop him from reaching it.
Malissa stood perfectly still, but her eyes shone with a mist, like she was holding back tears at whatever she’d seen. She flickered her gaze toward the throne, longing and wonder evident in her face.
Unlike everyone else, Blake stood frozen, his hands clenched into fists.
His face was drawn tight with something that looked almost like grief.
His eyes burned, wide and unblinking, as if he were still trapped somewhere far away.
For a moment, he looked younger, stripped of all the heavy armor he usually wore, and his mouth pressed into a hard, bloodless line.
He was in pain.
Slowly he blinked, as if coming up from far away, and turned his head toward me. For a breath, the emotionless mask he wore slipped. I saw it then: something raw and vulnerable in his eyes as he looked at me.
Then it was gone, shuttered back into the ruthless Twin Blade.
“Assemble your bravest, your deadliest, your finest. At the end of thirty-six days, the gods will choose from your warriors, in the Culling,” the Diviner said.
“Then the Raveling, the restoration of the seal, begins. A combination of all four dominions’ magic is required to heal each one.
Every Anchor must be repaired before the solstice in the twelfth month.
If not, the seal to the Demon Realm will break and hell itself shall be unleashed. ”
The room stirred at her words. I thought of demons feeding on Edith and Couscous. And it would begin with this very dominion.
The Diviner turned to the king, her mask gleaming with light. “Mistake Us not. What We offer is power beyond anything you have ever known.”
The Diviner’s form flickered, caught between worlds. Her crimson robes rippled like liquid light, dissolving into the air. For a moment, she was both there and not. Then, in an ethereal shimmer, she faded into mist, vanishing, leaving only a faint ripple in the air where she had stood.
For a heartbeat, there was only the sharp intake of breath as nobility and warriors alike processed the implications. Then shouts and eager whispers erupted.
“The Dominion of the Silver Tyger shall lead this fight.”
The king’s face was alight, flushed with emotion. His hands clenched, knuckles white with feeling while his eyes burned as brightly as the writhing jade tygers of his throne.
Voices rang out from the crowd, emboldened by the promise of power.
“The tyger strikes true!”
“The Dominion of the Silver Tyger shall have not a king but an emperor!”
“It is the Will of the Tyger!”
The crowd roared in triumph.
Ire’s eyes flicked to the king, just for a fraction of a second, and I saw it.
The cold assessment of a man just a few steps removed from the throne, waiting for his opportunity.
“The Diviner said every dominion’s magic was needed to repair the Anchors,” Malissa murmured, her voice thoughtful. “She didn’t say anything about one dominion ruling.”
The words had barely left her lips before the king turned, his joy snapping into fury. Without hesitation, he struck her across the face with the back of his hand, the crack echoing through the throne room like a whip.
The blow sent her crashing to the floor, her platinum hair fanning out around her like a spill of molten silver. She lay still, blood sliding from the split in her lip, and for a breath, she stared up at him, something dark beneath the surface.
“If I wanted an opinion,” the king snarled, “I would speak to another yang. No one wants to hear what a yin has to say. You would do well to remember that. The Diviner said all dominions were needed to fix the Anchors. She never said anything about them ruling equally afterward. It is difficult to rule when you are dead.”
The king turned to the court, his voice booming once again, commanding the attention of everyone present.
“The Dominion of the Silver Tyger shall prevail after the Raveling! Metal is the strongest of all elements, not found but forged. Fire may burn, wood may grow, water may carve its path, but metal endures. It is beaten, remade, and through suffering, it becomes unbreakable. The tyger was born to rule.”
The court erupted in wild chants, the walls trembling as the people began to drum and stomp in rhythm. “The tyger strikes true! The tyger strikes true!”
I watched as Blake quietly crossed the dais and pressed a small shiny object into Malissa’s hand. Her fingers closed around it, and for a moment, all the sharpness drained from her face. She looked up at Blake, her eyes unguarded for once.
Blake returned to the king’s side, and Princess Malissa pushed herself to her feet and opened the object he had given her. It was a small mirror.
She held it up before her face, her bleeding lips reflected back at her.
But as I watched, the wound on her mouth began to close, the split skin knitting itself together.
Her once-bloodied chin was clean. Her skin cleared, her hair fell back into place, and her looks were restored to the same cold perfection she always commanded.
Only lifebark from the Azure royals could heal like that. It had to be something else. A beauty glyph?
Malissa slipped it into the folds of her gown, her face once again serene and unreadable.
I watched as she moved, positioning herself with her back to the window, letting a shaft of sunlight gild her hair, turning it into a crown of light. Beauty, I realized, was one of the weapons she wielded.
“What about her?” she asked, her tone almost dismissive, as she pointed at me.
I started, my pulse quickening as the attention of the room shifted.
The king’s gaze followed her hand, his eyes narrowing as they landed on me.
“Anything that might give our dominion an advantage must be deployed,” he said slowly, his voice a low rumble. “And the Diviner said she was intrigued by the Flame Rider. The Azure will join the Culling for the Dominion of the Silver Tyger.”
“But…but…” I stammered, every eye in the room fixed on me. My mouth went dry as I struggled to find my voice. “I am not powerful. Truly—look at my Marks—”
“She would perish immediately,” Jace added, his voice cutting through the tense air. “Most likely during the Culling.”
“Thanks a lot,” I muttered. Jace winced.
The king’s expression hardened. “You shall cooperate,” he said, his words final, “by order of your king.”
“I shall also serve my king by participating in the Culling,” Malissa said.
Her father looked at her for a long moment. “So be it.”
Malissa turned and locked eyes with me. Her ambition was a living thing behind her eyes. If she could not have her father’s love, she would have his power.
King Uzar turned then to Blake with the first bit of warmth I’d seen in him.
“You are my leader of the ambush of Tyger Warriors. The Zenith son of Clan Axefire of the Silver Dominion. The strongest metal mage we’ve known. My remaining Twin Blade. You must lead our dominion to victory.”
I waited for some show of emotion from Blake, some reaction to the praise of his king. And yet none came. Ire glared.
“I will,” Blake swore. The stoic face of a warrior headed to battle.
The other tyger riders volunteered, one after another, their voices filling the hall.
A cold understanding settled over me like a shroud.
The Raveling was an opportunity. No matter what the Diviner might intend, the boon promised to each survivor was not just a reward.
It was a key to power beyond measure. And what greater boon could a man or woman claim than the right to name themselves emperor?
“Send an announcement across the entire dominion!” the king roared, his voice reverberating through the hall. His expression was exultant. “Assemble all of our strongest Tyger Warriors. The Culling begins!”
This was a battlefield for the throne of the entire world.
And I was caught up right in the middle of it.