Reiji spoke up, his nostrils flaring. “We need to tell her. It’d be wrong for us to leave for Mount Rayuna without her knowing.”
“Reiji,” Andahai cautioned. “We agreed—”
“Youforced us to agree. She has to know.”
I grabbed Hasho’s arm.Tell me.
Hasho’s eyes were trained on the ground, not a good sign. “We…,” he stumbled, “we told you that we need to weaken Raikama with a dragon net and t-take her pearl to break the curse.”
Yes.I was growing impatient.Yes, I know all this already.
“We haven’t told you what to do once you have the pearl,” said Andahai, his narrow face becoming tired and drawn.
Now he had my attention.
“You must hold it in your hands,” he said slowly, “and speak our stepmother’s true name.”
Her true name?I furrowed my brow. That was easy enough. I could simply ask Father once we returned to the palace with the net.
Realization dawned. I had tospeakher name.
I couldn’t break their curse if I couldn’t speak. So long as this wretched bowl rested on my head, any word I uttered would bring death.
The air squeezed out of my lungs. One of them would have to die.
I stabbed my dagger into the mud, staggered by the cruelty of Raikama’s curse.
“If it comes to that, all of us are willing to take the risk,” Benkai said quickly. “Aren’t we, Brothers?”
I’m not!I shouted by shaking my fists. I shot to my feet, only to sink to the ground once more.I’m not.
“Now isn’t the time to despair, Shiori,” said Yotan, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. But even his eyes, which so often danced with merriment, looked resigned.
Thinking to cheer me up with food, he passed the remainder of last night’s stew to me, but I only stirred the bowl numbly.
“The six of us will gather what information we can about her name,” said Andahai, taking my silence as a cue to move on. “You focus on crafting the net. In the spring, we will fly to Gindara again and break our stepmother’senchantment.”
In the spring?I blinked, scraping the end of my spoon into the mud.
Will we be ready by then?
“We have no choice,” said Benkai grimly. “We are at war, Shiori. With A’landi.”
The words thudded in my ears.At war?
“Father has no more heirs now that we are missing, and Raikama has no child of her own. The khagan of A’landi’s northern states has declared Kiata’s throne ripe for the taking, and he has been bribing some of our most powerful allies to turn on Father. Father’s called all the great lords to Gindara to repledge their fealty.”
I glanced at my younger brothers, all solemn-faced. Only yesterday we had been hugging each other with joy. How quickly that joy had been replaced with a cold and terrible dread.
No one would betray him. All the houses are loyal.
Benkai’s expression did not inspire confidence. “Greed is a great motivator,” he said thinly, “and there’s talk of the khagan having an enchanter.”
“He’s called the Wolf,” Andahai said, and I started, recognizing the name. “You’ve heard of him?”
Only from a letter I found. It must have been intended for the khagan.
I wrote what I could remember, except the words I hadn’t been able to translate. “Do you know who it was from?”
