Chapter 9 #5
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.
“Ramsa,” Chaghan explained. “Kid doesn’t cut corners.”
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.
But he was still only one man.
“Watch out!” Rin screamed.
The Wolf Meat General tried to catch Vaisra off guard. Vaisra spun about and disarmed him with a savage kick to the knee. Chang En dropped to the ground, howling. Vaisra reeled back from the kick, trying to regain his balance, and Jun took the opening to push his blade through Vaisra’s shoulder.
Baji barreled into Jun’s side and tackled him to the ground. Rin ran forward to catch Vaisra just as he crumpled to the floor; blood spilled over her arms, hot and wet and slippery, and she was astounded by how much of it there was.
“Are you—Please, are you—”
She prodded frantically around his chest, trying to stanch the blood with her palm. She could barely see the wound, his torso was so slick with blood, but finally her fingers pressed against the entry point in his right shoulder. Not a vital spot.
She dared to hope. If they acted quickly he might still live. But first they had to get out.
“Suni!” she shrieked.
He appeared instantly at her side. She pushed Vaisra into his arms. “Take him.”
Suni slung Vaisra over his shoulders the way one might carry a calf and elbowed his way toward the exit. Baji followed closely, guarding their rear.
Rin picked her way past Jun’s limp form. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive, but that didn’t matter now. She ducked under a guard’s arm and followed her men out, over the threshold and toward the closest well.
She leaned over the side and screamed Aratsha’s name into the dark surface.
Nothing. There was no time to wait for Aratsha’s response; he was there or he wasn’t, and Daji’s guards were feet away. All she could do was plunge into the water, hold her breath, and pray.
Aratsha answered.
Rin fought the urge to flail inside the pitch-black irrigation channels—that would only make it harder for Aratsha to propel her through the water—and instead focused on taking deep and measured breaths in the pocket of air that enveloped her head.
Still, she couldn’t ward off the clenching fear that the air would run out.
Already she could feel the warmth of her own stale breath.
She broke the surface. She clawed her way up the riverbank and collapsed, chest heaving as she sucked in fresh air. Seconds later Suni exploded out of the water, depositing Vaisra on the shore before climbing up himself.
“What happened?” Nezha came running up to them, followed closely by Eriden and his guard. His eyes landed on his father. “Is he—”
“Alive,” Rin said. “If we’re quick.”
Nezha turned to the two closest soldiers. “Get my father on the ship.”
They hoisted Vaisra up between them and set off at a dash toward the Seagrim. Nezha pulled Rin to her feet. “What just—”
“No time.” She spat out a mouthful of river water. “Have your crew weigh anchor. We’ve got to get out.”
Nezha slung her arm over his shoulder and helped her stagger toward the ship. “It failed?”
“It worked.” Rin stumbled into his side, trying to keep pace. “You wanted a war. We just started one.”
The Seagrim had already begun pushing away from its berth. Crewmen at both ends hacked the ropes keeping the ship tethered to the dock, setting it free to drift with the current. Nezha and Rin jumped into one of the rowboats dangling by the hull. Inch by inch the boat began to rise.
Above, deckhands lowered the Seagrim’s sails and turned them toward the wind. Below, a loud grinding noise sounded as the paddle wheel began to churn rhythmically against the water, carrying them swiftly away from the capital.