The rat could be deceiving us. I’d expect nothing less. But I think back to all the times I’ve asked Yue questions. She’s always answered truthfully. At least, I believed her to be truthful. It didn’t go unnoticed, the way Yue grew quiet as she chose her words carefully, oftentimes begrudgingly. Perhaps there’s some merit to what the rat is saying, though I’d prefer to err on the side of caution.
“Fine,” I say. “Where’s Yue?”
“In the Court of Dreams.”
“What does the Maskmaker want with her?”
“To have her join us, I suspect. Another pair of fangs for his army.”
I frown steeply. “What— Ease up, Wen. What army?”
“There’s more of us,” the rat croaks. “Thousands and thousands and thousands. He promised to take us to the surface. We’ve been waiting in the shadows for his signal.”
“Why?” I say through gritted teeth. “What is he planning?”
“I’m not sure. But I know that we want to eat.”
The hairs on my arms stand on end. I imagine it, the chaos that would ensue if even a handful of demons managed to make their way to the surface. An entire army’s worth of demonic hunger is all but guaranteed to wipe humanity from the land. My goals are shifting. Yue wanted the Maskmaker dead.
And now, so do I.
Sooah signs.What do we do now?
I look down at the map Kelai seared into my palm. We have two options. The logical thing to do is head straight for the exitand leave this blasted place behind. I’ve seen enough of Hell to last my next three lifetimes. I feel especially bad for dragging Sooah and Wen down here with me. We’ve managed to survive each new horror, but there’s no telling when our luck will run out. I want to leave and never look back.
Yet the thought of leaving Yue behind fills me with guilt. Before, I wouldn’t have thought twice about abandoning her. Just another demon, another shadow in the night. I’ve killed thousands of her kind without batting an eye. Grown numb to it, in fact. Killing monsters comes as easily to me as breathing.
But Yue is not quite so monstrous as I once believed.
She’s frustrating, yes. Rude and distrustful and sulky. In the beginning, I was worried that she’d eat us in our sleep or betray us at the first possible opportunity. Not to mention I’ve never met anyone with such an irritating need to have the last word. Yet, for all her glaring faults, there’s good in her, too.
She saved Wen at risk of her own life. She never once treated Sooah poorly nor differently for her lack of speech. And when she looks at me, I swear she reminds me of an old friend—one I can’t quite recall, though their impression still lives with me.
I have my doubts, of course. She’s still a demon. I vowed all those years ago to rid the world of her kind. If she escapes from Hell with us, I’ll be condemning my people to her hunger.
But it’s as the old Albeion monks used to teach: there is good in evil, and evil in good. We’ve come this far, and in no small part thanks to Yue. To leave her behind would be to doom the sliver of goodness I see in her.
“Kill him,” I say, pocketing my last poisoned needle. “We have to go after her.”
34Sonam
Hunting Log #395:
Morality is a human affliction.
We climb the carved stepsof the pavilion and approach the heavy main doors easily. Too easily. For someone with a supposed army at his beck and call, there doesn’t appear to be anyone around. It isn’t until I hear something whimper, heartbroken and weak, that I realize this place is anything but abandoned.
Over here, Sooah says, crouching down low beneath the sill of a latticed window.
The three of us peer inside and find Yue, constricted and bound in the vise of the jade snake from the garden. Her mask is gone, revealing the truth beneath.
Yue is horrifically mesmerizing. The first time I laid eyes upon her in Longhao, I was frightened. In all my years of hunting, I’d never seen a creature more nightmarish. I care not for the sweeping length of her nine tails or the overgrown curl of her yellowed claws. What unsettles me most are her six obsidian eyes and those haunting gray pupils that remind me of crumbling midnight moons.
And then there are her burns, hideous and cruel. I can’t help the ache in my heart each time I catch sight of them. I wonder what happened. I caught myself wanting to ask a handful of times but thought better of it. When I’m on the hunt, I always aim for the quickest, cleanest kill. Even I am not hateful enough to torture a beast so. What, or perhaps who, could have done such a thing?
“Killing you is too merciful a punishment,” comes the sound of a familiar voice. Far too familiar. I hold my breath, staring at the back of a familiar silhouette. A man stands before Yue, her mask in hand. He wears my clothes, carries my weight, and even the manner in which he speaks perfectly replicates my own.
The Maskmaker. He’s wearingmyface.
