But what did she make for a happy smile?
Cakes, cakes, with coconut and sugarcane.
I staggered back, unable to believe it. Stolen mornings in the kitchen laughing with my mother as she taught me to make fish soup. All of them were with Raikama?
“You missed her so much you wouldn’t eat,” said my stepmother softly. “You’d cry, quietly, and refuse to speak.” She paused. “For months, it went on like this, and your father didn’t know what to do. I was new in the palace, and I had just lost someone dear to me. Making you happy made me happy.”
“You used your magic on me.”
“For a short while,” she admitted. “I wanted to give you memories of your mother. Memories that would make you smile, even when you came to despise me.”
Even when you came to despise me.The sadness in her voice made it impossible for me to be angry with her. I squeezed her hand tighter. She was the only mother I had known.
“What does Channari mean?” I asked when I finally found my voice again.
“It means ‘moon-faced girl,’ ” Raikama said, touching her ridged skin. “Poetic, isn’t it? And fitting. Vannawasthe sun to my moon.” She stared at the fading stars. “I’ll see her soon.”
“No,” I urged. “Don’t go.”
Dawn blossomed across the sky, and my stepmother averted her eyes from the sun. She let go of my hand. “Your brothers will soon be turning into cranes. Let us spare them another change. Let us end what I began.”
I nodded numbly in agreement. Then, taking Raikama’s pearl in one hand, I whispered, “Channari.”
The pearl began to spin on my palm, its light enveloping my entire being. On its dark, gleaming surface, I could see my brothers. They were running through the forest, searching for me, shouting, “Shiori, Shiori!”
It was Hasho who spotted the sunrise first. The rays of dawn stretched through the trees for my brothers’ limbs, and they braced themselves for the change.
But the ribbons of sunlight took on the shape of snakes. They shone, wrapping around my brothers’ arms, whispering in Raikama’s voice: “Your sister has set you free. Go well, sons of my husband.”
The vision of my brothers faded, and the pearl came to a halt, lying heavy and silent on my palm.
“And now it is my time,” Raikama said, letting go of my hand.
“No. Stepmother, you—”
“The magic I worked upon the mountains will not hold forever,” she interrupted. “You must go somewhere the demons cannot follow, at least for a little while. There, you will do something for me.”
For one last time her voice turned imposing, a reminder that she was my stepmother. But no longer the Nameless Queen.
“Anything.”
“Return the pearl to its owner. This you must do before it breaks completely. The Dragon King will know of whom I speak.”
“But he wants it for himself.”
“Yes, and the net will protect you from his wrath, but only for so long. Do not let him trick you, Shiori. The pearl will be dangerous in the hands of anyone other than its owner. As you have seen it, with me.” Raikama swallowed. “Promise me that you will only give it to the dragon with the strength to make it whole once more.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” Her voice became distant, filled with regret. “It is something I should have done long, long ago.”
Then, ever so tenderly, she cupped my cheek with her hand. “Tell your brothers I’m sorry. For my deceptions, and for what I’ve put them through.”
She tipped her head against the tree. “Tell your father that I care for him very much. In my life before him, I knew little love, and my greatest joy was that he gave me a family to cherish as my own. Tell him I’m sorry.”
She stroked a tear that trickled down my cheek as I shook my head, begging her not to go on. “And I apologize to you, Shiori. For all the pain I have caused you, but most of all, for saying that you would never be a child of mine. You are my daughter, not of my blood, but of my heart.”
I couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. “Stepmother, please…”
