What did that mean?
“They’re safe,” he said, interrupting my thoughts. “I’m here to protect them. Once I rid our town of the liar’s son, things will return to normal. Now, I won’t repeat myself again:Move aside.”
“No.” I gripped my staff with both hands. Smiling grimly, I added, “You do understand the concept of no, don’t you, sir?”
Enraged, he took control of a nearby crate and hurled it at my head. I ducked, and the box shattered against one of the scaffold’s columns, drawing a groan from the already compromised structure. My eyes dropped to Ren. We couldn’t stay there for much longer.
But before I could grab him, Master Zhang pitched another stray object at me—a dented wok. I blocked it with my arm, the metal slamming hard against my bone. The impact vibrated up to my hairline, making me wince. I had the morbid thought that this journey might cost every one of my limbs.
“I drowned an entire army,” he said, stamping his foot in a puddle. The water rose from between the cobbled stones, attracting the other liquids in the vicinity until it became one massive brown wave beside him. “Do you think I won’t do the same to you?”
“You killed those men in self-defense,” I said, my arm throbbing. “If you kill us today, your soul will be condemned to heavenly punishment.”
“I’ll do what I must.”
I flung myself on top of Ren’s body as Master Zhang’s wave enveloped us. The water was heavy enough to press the air from my lungs, the world suddenly silent and cold and dark. Though I flung out my arms, the weight never abated, trapping us fully. I waited for it to end, for the water to pour past me.
It didn’t.
Whatever Master Zhang was doing, he was keeping his promise to drown us. And if I didn’t figure out a way to escape, he’d succeed.
I shoved my hand into my bag, feeling for a round, smooth gourd. I pulled it out, my arm moving slowly in the water, and yanked off the cork. Chicken’s blood spilled from the opening, the nauseating taste of iron sliding past my lips.
But the unnatural energy holding the water together evaporated, causing the liquid to crash back down to the ground. I breathed greedily, grateful for the frigid air filling my lungs.
Ren coughed in my arms, both of us soaked through. I pounded his back to get out the remaining water, then turned to glare at Master Zhang.
“That’s enough!” Fury simmered beneath my frozen skin. Ren had nearly died—again—because of him. I stood and marched toward the spirit, reaching into my bag once more.“I’ve tried to reason with you, to give you a choice. But since you’ve chosen to behave like the evil spirit others believe you to be, I’ve no option but to purify you—willing or not.”
I brought out a purification talisman, prepared to slap it on his chest.
But I was interrupted by a voice crying, “Mistress Kang, please don’t!”
I looked away from Master Zhang to see Li Feilin kneeling near Ren, hands pressed together in supplication. She looked as if she’d just shoved her way through the wreckage. A cut scraped her cheek, and her clothes were stained with dirt, but she appeared otherwise uninjured.
“Please,” she repeated, locking eyes with me. “Master Zhang isn’t evil. He’s only concerned about our town. Please don’t hurt him.”
I stared at Feilin, the pieces in my mind shifting again. I glanced at Master Zhang, who was also distracted by the interruption, then turned back to Feilin. The anguish I’d noticed before wasn’t only similar—it was all from the same source. I gazed around at the town once more, noting the deepened exhaustion on the residents’ faces, an exhaustion that had grown worse during Master Zhang’s onslaught. The answer to my suspicions became glaringly obvious.
“I don’t want to hurt him,” I said. “But he’s hurtingyou, in more ways than one.”
Master Zhang scoffed. “What nonsense are you spouting now?”
“Look at her!” I blurted, gesturing at Feilin. “Look at all of them! See how thin and weak they are? It’s all because of you, Master Zhang! You’ve taken advantage of their grief and usedit to sustain your own power. You’re killing the very people you profess to love.”
The spiderweb lines of his face darkened. He surveyed the people watching from the edges, then met Feilin’s bewildered gaze. Shaking his head, he muttered, “No, you’re wrong, priestess. You’re lying again, to get what you want.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “I’m not lying. Spirits are trapped—and strengthened—by their pain. When you died, you not only used your anger to kill those soldiers, but you also fed off the anger and grief of the people around you. Perhaps you didn’t know it, but surely you canfeelit.”
“Enough!”
An unseen force knocked me aside, and I crashed into a stall selling jewelry. As I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, limbs aching with newly blooming bruises, my head swiveled around to see Ren hovering in midair. He winced as he strained against the invisible hand at his throat. From the ground, Master Zhang studied him with black-abyss eyes.
Fear choked my own throat, stealing the breath I’d fought so hard to keep. I was brought back to the forest in Fuzhou when I’d recklessly fallen into Liu Chunhua’s trap. But I’d been unprepared then, impatient. This time, I’d taken more care, planned out my methods, and even approached the spirit with respect.
So why had I failed again?
“Please,” I gasped, reaching toward Master Zhang. I didn’t care that I was begging. All I could think of was Ren.
