He recalled his meeting with Daichi, the hushed voices over the chessboard as he outlined the plan that would spell an end to everything. Kin almost felt pity when he looked into the old man’s eyes, when he considered what was coming. He almost felt afraid of what it would mean. Where it would lead.
Almost.
Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk.
But he pictured Ayane curled bloody and beaten in the corner, the way she’d trembled for hours after the earthquake ended. The way she woke screaming in the night and stared at nothing at all until dawn lit the sky. And he realized that he’d known all along how this would end. The Inquisitors had shown him after all.
Thirteen years old. Breathing in sweet blue-black, the What Will Be laid out before him. A future that, try as he might, he now knew he could never escape. No matter how fast he ran. No matter how deep he dug. No matter how hard he prayed.
Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk.
Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk.
Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk.
Ayane refused to let go of his hand.
The Shadows stepped off the train at Kigen station, Kin among them, fading amidst the crowd and wreaths of fumes. The rail yard was a series of broad concrete platforms, stained beneath black rain, encircled by razor-wire fences and corroding boxcar skeletons. The majestic figure of the Phoenix’s Floating Palace loomed over Kigen like a second sun, the Dragon tall ships swaying in the blackened bay. The refinery could be heard in the distance; steam whistles and hissing smoke, boiling into the sunset sky.
Kin and the Kagé fighters moved swift through the streets, shadows within the throng. Kigen’s citizens were already caught up in the festivities, the sounds of drunken revelry spilling from every saké bar, bedhouse and brothel in Downside. A royal wedding—even a hastily arranged one—would last several days. Tradition held that bride and groom would gather with family and friends to bid a ceremonial good-bye the eve before the ritual. Vows would be exchanged the following morning, just as the Sun Goddess crested the horizon.
Presuming, of course, nothing interrupted the occasion.
“You are well, Kin-san?” Daichi asked over his shoulder, his new walking stick clicking upon the cobbles.
“We’re fine, Daichi-sama.”
“Stay close,” he rasped. “The local Kagé may not look on you kindly.”
Kin glanced into Ayane’s wide and frightened eyes.
“That will be a switch,” he muttered.
They doubled back several times to ensure nobody followed them, Kaori and the other Kagé splitting off on different routes. But eventually, they came to a grubby house in Downside’s western slums, close to the pipeline. Daichi knocked four times, coughing, lifting his kerchief and spitting black on the cobbles, rubbing at his ribs. Kin watched the street around them, every beggar, every corner courtesan, every drunkard stumbling from a tavern or bar. Iron butterflies in his belly. Sweat on his palms, fingers entwined with Ayane’s, her hand trembling.
The door opened, and a small, wiry woman motioned them inside. She was dressed in dark cloth, hair tied in a single braid. She had no eyebrows, and the skin on her face was pink and shiny, as if she’d been recently scalded.
“Daichi-sama.” A low bow. “You honor this house with your presence.”
“Gray Wolf.” Daichi covered his fist and bowed. “This is Kin-san and Ayane-san.”
Kin felt like the old woman looked right through him.
“The Guildsmen…”
“I vouch for them,” Daichi said. “They have risked more than most to be here tonight.”
The woman chewed at the inside of her cheek, turned and walked down a narrow hallway. The trio followed, Daichi limping hard, past a cluttered kitchen, corpse-rats strung up and bleeding over a cast-iron sink, descending twisting wooden stairs into the cellar. A broad oaken table dominated the space, spread with a map of Kigen city, the pieces from three or four different chess sets arranged across the labyrinthine streets. Kaori stood near the stairwell, speaking with a man the size of a small house. They were surrounded by dozens more people; young and old, men and women and children. As Daichi entered the room, everyone stopped and stared, placed palms over fists, eyes filled with unveiled adoration and relief.
“My friends,” the old man smiled. “My brothers and sisters.”
“Father.” Kaori motioned to the big man beside her. “This is Yukiko’s friend, Akihito-san.”
“Daichi-sama.” The big man limped forward and bowed low. “We heard you were wounded. It gladdens us all to have you with us.”
“Akihito-san.” Daichi clapped him on the shoulder, a fragile tremor in his voice. “Yukiko-chan spoke of you often.”
“How is she? I’m surprised she’s not here.”
Murmurs around the room. Nods of agreement.
“The Stormdancer is entangled in business to the north.” Kin noted Daichi phrased the statement so it wouldn’t be an outright lie. “I am certain we are in her thoughts. But it is not for her alone to pull this country back from the brink.
“When you place too much faith in one person, in me, in the Stormdancer, whomever, you lose sight of the power within yourself, my friends. Each of us must risk all. For each of us has as much to lose if we fail.” He coughed, wiped his knuckles across his lips. “Everything.”
Daichi looked around the room, caught the eye of each man, woman and child. Kin saw uncertainty in them to match his own. Desperation. Even fear. They saw the old man’s weakness. The new frailty. The walking stick. The hand pressed to battered ribs.
“Take heart, brothers and sisters,” Daichi said. “You will tell your children you were here. Tonight, as we take one step closer to throwing off the chi-monger’s yoke and freeing this nation once and for all. We bring the dawn after blackest night. We bring fire to all the dark places of the world. They say the lotus must bloom. We say it must burn.”
“Burn,” came the scattered reply, a soft murmur from a few uncertain voices.
Daichi licked his lips. Eyes like cold stone roaming the Kagé members.
“Say it again,” he said, his voice growing louder. “The lotus must burn.”
More voices now. Stronger.
“Burn.”
Daichi shook his head, his voice harder still, steel ringing in his tone. “Speak it as if your lives depended on it.”
Every voice in the room now, raised in unison. All save Kin and Ayane.
“Burn.”
Daichi was shouting now, drawing strength from them, they from him, a perfect circle of flame and will and rage. “Say it as if you and you alone stood between this nation and utter ruin!”
“Burn!”
“The slavery of your children!”
“Burn!”
“The end of everything you know and love!”
“BURN!” they cried, roaring from the bottom of their bellies, fists clenched, teeth bared, spit flying. “BURN!”
“And that is exactly what we will do.” The old man nodded, surveyed the chess pieces on the map. Picking up a black empress, he placed it in the chi refinery. “Burn it all. Right into the ground.”
Kin watched silently as the old man split the Kagé into groups; street ambushers, palace assault, bridge gangs. He watched the locals issue weapons; kusarigama sickles, iron tetsubo, staves, crude knives, even an old katana in a battered sheath for Daichi. Kerchiefs tied over faces, hats pulled low over narrowed eyes. Embraces and kisses of farewell, hands clasped, hollow bravado ringing in their laughter. He looked at the people around him, folk from every walk of life, united in their hatred of the thing he used to be.