I shook my head with regret, imagining now it must have been from the lord who had betrayed Father. I dipped into my stew and ate a spoonful, swallowing hard.Tell me about the Wolf,I mouthed.
“Master Tsring warned us about him,” said Andahai. “The Wolf was his student before he revealed his true nature. He is treacherous and cruel, and very clever.”
But why come here? He would have no magic if he stepped into Kiata.
“One doesn’t need magic to be dangerous, Shiori,” Benkai replied. “A reputation is all it takes to spread fear. And fear is a mighty weapon.”
“Or,” said Wandei slowly, “perhaps the seams that keep magic from Kiata are fraying. The gods have been silent for centuries. It could be they’ve decided it is time for magic to return to Kiata. Look at our stepmother—and you.”
I felt immediately ill. My fingers stiffened around my spoon, and I set down my stew. I had lost my appetite.
“Don’t worry yet,” said Hasho, trying hard to comfort me. “If luck is on our side, A’landi’s states will fight among themselves, and the khagan will forget about us. At the very least, winter will give Father more time to prepare.”
And me time to break our curse,I thought.
If anyone was a seer, perhaps it had been Mama—for naming me Shiori, meaning “knot.” A symbol that I was the last of her seven children, the one who would bring my brothers together, no matter how fate conspired to pull us apart.
We were seven, and seven was a number of strength. An uneven number that could not fold unto itself, large enough to withstand many threats, yet small enough to stay devoted.
I looped the satchel’s strap over my shoulder and looked each of my brothers squarely in the eye.
Whatever it took to stop Raikama and break the spells she’d cast upon us, I would do it. Even if it took months or years, even if I incurred the gods’ wrath and made enemies of the dragons.
Take me to Mount Rayuna.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next day, we left for Mount Rayuna.
With Kiki securely tucked inside my sleeve, I clung to the edges of the wooden basket Wandei had designed for transporting me. It was more secure than holding on to their necks, but my stomach still swooped whenever we dipped through the clouds.
Four of my brothers bit ropes attached to the basket, while one flew ahead to navigate, and one stayed in the back to keep watch. We were so high that the rivers looked like ribbons and the mountains like wrinkles across the earth.
Along the way, my brothers told me all they had learned of starstroke and the dragons that kept it, with Kiki translating. Dragons had not always been omens of good fortune, nor had they always been infrequent visitors to land. They were mercurial and violent, often indulging in their power to wreak chaos in the seas. Worst of all, they had answered to no one—not even the gods.
To temper their strength, the gods forged starstroke from a trio of magics: strands of fate from the goddess Emuri’en’s hair; the blood of stars from Lapzur, the source of an enchanter’s power; and demonfire scoured from the Tambu Isles, birthplace of demons.
As starstroke grew wild all over Lor’yan, the dragons retreated into the sea, hiding there until the gods pleaded for their help in divesting Kiata of magic and sealing the demons within the Holy Mountains. In exchange for their help, the Dragon King demanded that the starstroke be contained to the summit of Mount Rayuna. There, he kept a watchful eye out for any who might try to steal it.
Thieves, such as my brothers and me. By the Eternal Courts, I prayed that we were so insignificant—six cranes and a magicless girl—that he would not notice us.
There!I cried, pointing ahead.I see it.
Steam curled from Mount Rayuna’s summit, as thick as the clouds. Molten rivers hissed, streaming down like liquid gold, and powerful winds gusted, forcing my brothers to drop me off lower on the mountain.
I scanned the summit, taking inventory of the glimmering bushes of starstroke. There had to be hundreds, if not thousands, studding the mountaintop. I would have to work quickly and finish before dusk—before my brothers turned back into men. Mount Rayuna was not a place I wished to be stranded.
Hasho approached. The black edges on his wings were the thickest, like broad strokes of ink under the fold of his snow-touched feathers. His eyes were most like mine even when he was a crane. Brown with flecks of amber.
He says that if at any time you change your mind, Shiori, to tell me. Kiki glanced down at Mount Rayuna, askance, before she relayed the rest of Hasho’s message.I’ll find your brothers, and they’ll take you home.
I shook my head. I wouldn’t change my mind.
He also wants to know if you want one of them to stay with you.
Here on Mount Rayuna, where wild magic grew rampant, I did not dare have anyone accompany me to fetch the nettles. Certainly not my brothers.
I shook my head firmly and passed Kiki to Hasho. If a paper bird could have scowled, she would have. She flittered back onto my shoulder, hissing,I’m coming too.
