Not so soon.
The entire sky darkened, and then the Black Tortoise gazed down upon him, teeth glinting like stars.
I saw it,it said slowly, its voice rumbling through the desert dunes.The Godslayer.
Fear clawed through Zen. In those moments when Lan had conjured the Godslayer, he hadn’t thought to keep his Demon God dormant, had forgotten to put up the mental wall between their minds.
It had seen everything.
“Leave,”Zen commanded the Black Tortoise, but the Demon God just gave a low laugh.
You think those puny seeds can stop me,it mused.You think the mortal girl you love can conjure the Godslayer—that which no mortal has managed in centuries. For dynasties.It hissed, and it plunged to the earth before Zen in a plume of darkness, eyes like brimstone and a maw like a cavern.I am a Demon God. It is futile to resist my control.
But Zen gazed up at the being in the sky, and a realization came to him—one that he held tightly to himself, away from the bond that bridged their connection.
For the first time since he had bound it, the Black Tortoise was angry. Until now, it had watched Zen’s vain, blundering attempts with an air of lazy indifference and mockery. But now fury pulsed from its qì.
It was finally beginning to take Zen seriously.
Which meant it wasafraid.
Zen looked straight into the burning eyes of the Demon God. “You are powerful beyond possibility,” he said, “yet do not forget who your binder is and who holds command.”
The Black Tortoise’s eyes narrowed, and Zen could swear its mouth curved in a wicked grin.And how long do you think that will last, mortal boy? How long can you resist caving in to my power? With every drop of my qì you use, my command over you grows.
“Get out of my mind.”
What will you do with the girl now that she has looked upon the Godslayer, knows its tune? No doubt she plans to use it upon you as part of the mission her mother left her. Will you test whose love has the stronger hold over her: yours or her dead mother’s?
“GET OUT!”Zen yelled, and slammed down the wall to his mind. Even then, he could hear the Demon God’s distant rumble of laughter as it receded back into its core.
The horizon was clear. Desert dunes crested in every direction, sands sweeping over the landscape.
Lan lay crumpled before him, but another person was crouched over her. Yeshin Noro Dilaya’s qì flared as she wove a healing Seal with surprising gentleness. Zen could sense vitality flowing from the Jorshen Steel clan matriarch into Lan.
He pushed himself to his feet. Dilaya’s head snapped up. In an instant, Falcon’s Claw was drawn and pointed at him. Dilaya stepped between him and Lan, planting her feet into the ground in a protective stance.
Zen put a hand on Falcon’s Claw and gently pushed past, ignoring Dilaya’s splutter of shock as he sidestepped her.
“If you think I’m going to let you get close to her—” she began, but Zen cut her off.
“Dilaya,” he said wearily. “I just want to know that she’s alive.”
Something in his tone staved her off. Zen knelt by Lan’s side.Please,he thought, pressing his fingers to the soft skin of her neck.Please—
A pulse. Faint, flickering, but there.
Alive.
The sharp press of Dilaya’s blade was at his back again. Slowly, Zen rose, raising his hands in a placating motion. He allowed Dilaya to steer him away from Lan so that she stood between them again.
“You know now,” Dilaya said quietly, her voice hard with fury. “It is not my duty or my destiny to end your life, Xan Temurezen—nor would I be able to even if I wished it.” She drew herself up, clearly not used to being the underdog. “So I am asking you to leave.”
“Dilaya,” Zen said.
“Do not speak my name.” Her lip trembled. An errant wind blew her loose left sleeve, as though to remind him of the crime he had committed so long ago. “You were a child when you bound your first demon and maimed me, Xan Temurezen. I hated you for it, and looking back, I know I was too harsh. But that hatred I felt wasnothingcompared to how I feel toward you now.” She spat at his feet. “Youknewof the dangers of binding a demon, and yet you chose to do it, regardless. You looked me in the face every day at the School of the White Pines, and you still chose the same path. No, demonic practitioner and binder of the Black Tortoise, do not expect me to tolerate your existence.”
Zen lowered his gaze. Not a day had passed since the incident she spoke of that he didn’t have nightmares about it, waking up in a cold sweat and imagining that demonic presence with blood-red eyes crouched over Dilaya on the floor.
