Chapter 48 Sonam
She’s making people nervous,” comes a voice. “She won’t let anyone go near him. Damn near bit the head off of one of the palace doctors when he came to change the captain’s bandages.”
“Yue ain’t going to harm no one.” This voice I recognize. Wen speaks with an edge in his tone. “Ain’t that right, Fox?”
“He’s never going to get better if those quacks continue to poke and prod at him,” Yue hisses. “Leave him to sleep or I’ll— What? I am behaving, Sooah.”
“If it means no harm, why does it keep looking at me like that?”
“Ignore her,” Wen says. “She has a staring problem.”
I blink myself awake slowly, listening more to the rhythm of their conversation than to the meaning of their words.
I feel… fine. Sore and stiff, but not in as much pain as I thought I would be.
The right half of my vision is obstructed by several thick bandages, and I can feel a heavy layer wrapped around my chest. My mouth is terribly dry, and my head pounds with a fury, but I tell myself that these are good things.
Discomfort means I’m alive.
I’m not sure where I am, or even what day it is. The heavy smell of smoke still lingers in the air, though it’s not as noticeable as before. The low mumble of chatter fills my ears. It seems to be everywhere, distant conversations that I’m barely privy to. With a groan, I attempt to sit up.
Yue, Sooah, and Wen are at my side in an instant. Yue, I notice, has forgone the use of her mask. It hangs around her neck, tied loosely with bits of ribbon. I wonder whether it was Sooah or Wen who tied it on for her.
“I told you he’d pull through!” Wen exclaims.
I cough, looking up at them through my one unobstructed but bleary eye. “Don’t tell me you were worried.”
Sooah glances down abashedly, signing quickly. Of course we were worried. You should have seen the state you were in.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Nearly a week,” Wen says. “They didn’t think you’d wake at all.”
I take in my surroundings slowly. We’re inside one of the private rooms situated in the inner courts of the Jade Palace.
It feels strange seeing daylight, as unnaturally orange and smoky as it may be, filtering in through the latticed windows.
There’s movement outside. Not just soldiers, but civilians, too.
“His Majesty opened the palace gates to the people for temporary shelter,” Wen explains. “And the army’s helping with rebuilding efforts.”
“Does this mean the shamans were able to seal the gate?”
Yue nods. “It took them a few days, but they managed.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
A few hundred demons managed to escape, Sooah says. Ran off into the surrounding jungles. Maybe even farther.
I press my lips into a thin line. Not an ideal outcome, but I’m hardly in a state to go after them right now. Knowing what I know now about demons, I’m sure a great wave of them will be born of this tragedy. “And what of the Maskmaker?” I ask.
Yue shakes her head. “Dead. I dragged his body to the Gates of Hell and tossed him in before they sealed it closed.”
I study her expression carefully, noting the sourness in her tone. I would have thought she’d be happy now that her tormentor is gone.
The doors to the room slide open. In steps a procession of handmaidens, a few advisors, and then the king himself. My father regards me with such a wide smile that the corners of his eyes crinkle. He’s never looked at me with such pride before.
“I’m glad to see you’re well, my son,” he says before casting Yue a wary glance.
A eunuch steps forward. “Send that beast out. We won’t have it near His Majesty—”
“She stays,” I snap, forgoing the politeness normally reserved for my father’s station.
“It’s fine,” Yue says with a huff. “I’ll be outside.”
She turns on her heels and shuffles out the door, her tails swishing in a wide arc so that she hits the eunuch in the face on the way out.
He sputters but doesn’t dare say a thing about it.
I want to tell her to come back, that she out of everyone shouldn’t have to put up with such disrespect.
If only they knew what Yue had done for them, understood the part she played in saving our people, maybe then they’d treat her with the admiration she deserves.
“That demon can’t stay,” my father says gravely as he kneels by my bedside. “It’s making the soldiers and courtesans nervous.”
“She saved countless lives,” I counter. “Hundreds more might have been spared if my warning had been taken seriously.”
My father’s face is impassable. He sits perfectly still, clearly contemplating what to say next. After a moment, he waves a dismissive hand to all still in the room. “Leave us. I would have a word with Prince Sonam in private.”
Everyone bows, Sooah and Wen included. They leave in a hurry, vacating without so much as a peep. Once the door slides closed, my father arches a brow.
“That nine-tailed fox…” he says slowly. “You seem quite attached.”
“I am,” I say with unflinching pride.
Father’s expression softens slightly. I’m not sure if it means I have his approval or sympathy—or perhaps even his pity. “You’ve grown into a fine man,” he says. “Just and fair and good. I could use more of that in my court.”
I furrow my brow. “You mean to have me stay here at the Jade Palace?”
The king nods. “You’d be a most welcome advisor. What say you? You could help me rebuild Longhao alongside your brothers.”
The offer is tempting. It has been my dream ever since I was a child to rejoin my family here in the capital. I would no longer have to live life in the periphery of the king’s attention, but front and center where I might flourish.
Then I think it over. Yes, it would be lovely to live in a palace where my meals are provided for me at all hours. To wear lavish clothes and jewelry and want for nothing.
But that isn’t who I am. I have no interest in the internal politicking of the courts or the formality of palace life. Everything I truly want can’t be found within these jade walls. What I want is out there—beneath the jungle canopy, the endless skies, and the soft grass beneath my feet.
“I must thank you for such a generous offer,” I say slowly. “But I cannot accept it.”
Father nods, as if expecting this answer. “Then I must ask you to continue your hard work, Hunter of Jian. Have you been informed of the demons who escaped?”
“I have. Rest assured, I’ll deal with every last one.”
“Every last one?” he asks, glancing out the latticed window toward a pair of pointed white ears poking out just above the windowsill. They twitch at his words. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yue’s been listening this entire time.
“Maybe not every last one,” I say.
He places a hand on my shoulder and nods with approval. “Then I hereby task you with ridding our kingdom of its plight, though the Jade Palace will always welcome you, should you require rest.”
I dip my head in lieu of a proper bow. “Thank you, Father.”
The king stands and turns to leave, sliding the door open himself to step outside. He looks to his right at someone just out of view. “Take care of him,” he says before walking away altogether.
Yue rounds the corner, padding across the wooden floor at a leisurely pace.
There’s a bounce in her step and a wag to her tails.
She makes her way to my bedside and allows me to reach out, lifting her mask to place it gingerly upon her face.
Once she’s transformed, Yue takes a seat on the edge of my bed with a mischievous smile.
“How much of that did you hear?” I ask her.
“Only all of it,” she replies coyly. “Personally, I think you’re a fool to pass up an opportunity to live in the palace.”
I laugh softly. “Between you and me, I’ve seen enough jade to last a lifetime.”
“So, you’re rather attached to me, hmm?” she says softly.
“Eavesdropping is rude, I’ll have you know,” I say, though my words lack any real heat.
Yue snorts. “To be fair, you were speaking very loudly.”
“Was I? I can hardly hear myself beneath all these bandages.” I reach up to touch the linen covering the right side of my face. It’s terribly itchy. “We should call for a doctor to change them.”
“Allow me,” she says.
Yue moves with grace, unwrapping the bandages with an intense concentration.
Little by little, the pressure eases. I can finally open both my eyes, and though there’s a noticeable tenderness to my skin, there’s no pain.
The heavy smell of ointment and herbs hits my nose.
The palace doctors must have tried their best to heal the burns, but to no avail.
I don’t have to look in a mirror to know the true extent of my injuries, but that doesn’t stop my morbid curiosity.
“Is it terrible?” I ask her with a grimace.
She stares at me for much too long. I can’t discern what she’s thinking. After a while, she brings her fingers to the line of my jaw, making sure not to touch the burn itself. Yue doesn’t seem alarmed or disgusted by what she sees. Instead, she slowly breaks into a smile.
“We match,” she whispers.
Two simple words, and yet they mean more than the entire world.
She sees what I am, just as I see her—despite our flaws, or perhaps even because of them.
I comb my fingers through her hair and let her lean in close, kissing her as tenderly as I dare.
It isn’t long, however, before things give way to an uncontrollable heat.
She kisses like she fights. Fast. Aggressive.
I can’t say that I mind. I enjoy it, in fact, because it means I can be just as rough and greedy in return.
My hand roams, coming to rest at the nape of her neck as she nips at my bottom lip.
Too hard. I pull back with a hiss, the taste of iron coating my tongue.
“Sorry,” Yue says quickly, her eyes wide in mortification. She shakes her head, begins to pull away. “I’m so sorry, I—”
“Do it again.”
She stares at me, stunned. Her smile returns, delightfully mischievous, before she hooks her arm around my neck and pulls me back to her.
Logic might dictate that this is hardly the time nor place for such a passionate embrace, but I might argue that it is, in fact, perfect. I was foolish for not kissing her sooner.
An exaggerated groan disturbs the moment. Wen leans against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. He looks as though someone fed him some rotten fruit.
“If this is how you two are going to act around each other from now on, I’m going to have to start paying Sooah to knock me out,” he says.
No need to pay me, Sooah says. I’ll do it for free.
Yue laughs. “I’ll help.”
Wen rolls his eyes. “So, when are we heading out? We’re getting reports of demon sightings as far as that new settlement in the North. Jiaoshan, I think it’s called. A little village by some big old lake.”
My eyes widen with surprise. It sounds like we have a great deal of ground to cover, and likely countless targets to track. I look at Yue and grin.
“Feel like joining me on a hunting campaign?”
“Do I get to eat what I kill?”
I nod. “Of course.”
She grins, too, and I already know her answer. Just as the moon follows the sun, and the sun follows the moon—where she goes, I will most assuredly be.