It’ll be easier the next time,I assured her, even though I knew that was a lie.
Pain didn’t get easier. I just had to get stronger.
I ripped off my sleeve and crammed it into my mouth. My voice had shriveled up inside my throat, unused for months, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Any sound would condemn my brothers.
I ignored Kiki’s protests and attacked the second patch of nettles. I pulled at a larger bunch this time, using both hands to rip the roots from the earth. I’d need hundreds to weave a net that could capture Raikama’s pearl.
Every time I tore one of the nettles, I thought of my father, my brothers, my country. I pictured Father torn apart with grief, unable to trust anyone around him, convinced that one of the warlords had captured his children, when it was really the person he trusted most—Raikama.
I couldn’t let Raikama win.
Eventually Kiki stopped telling me to give up and instead reminded me to rest. I had to, even if I didn’t want to. Too many times, I lurched to the side to retch from pain or to cradle my blood-streaked hands.
I stuffed the nettles inside my satchel. I had probably gathered enough fill over a dozen, but the enchanter hadn’t misled us about the satchel’s endless depths.
Crawling away from the bushes, I blew on my hands. The pearl still throbbed in my chest, but I was nearly finished.
“Shiori!”
I stilled. I would have recognized that voice anywhere. But no, it couldn’t be.
“Shiori,” Seryu rumbled. “What are you doing on Mount Rayuna?”
Now I turned, searching among the nettles.
“Behind you. In the water.”
Kiki flittered before the pool, which bubbled with heat and spurted every few minutes with small geysers.
I could not see Seryu, but our minds touched, his words buzzing in my ear as if he were next to me.
“You must leave this place,” he said. “Get out now.”
I can’t. Go away, Seryu. Unless you’re here to help.
“Help with what—why are you here?”
She’s been cursed,Kiki cut in.
“Cursed?” the dragon exclaimed. “What—”
I can’t tell you,I interrupted.She’ll kill my brothers if Ido.
“Who will? Your stepmother? She cannot punish you for your thoughts, Shiori. What is this curse?”
Raikama turned her brothers into cranes,Kiki burbled,and the only way to break her spell is to—
I closed Kiki’s beak with my fingers.That’s enough. I’ll tell him the rest.I swallowed hard, knowing my friend wouldn’t like what I was about to say next.
It’s to weave a dragon net.
I could feel Seryu tense. “So youhavecome for starstroke.” His voice was strained. “Just what dragon are you trying to ensnare?”
Not a dragon. My stepmother. She has a dragon pearl.
“A dragon pearl!” Seryu repeated. “That’s impossible. No human possesses a dragon pearl.”
You gave me a part of yours.
