A Dance of Dragons: Series Starter Bundle (33 page)

But it was that very connection, deep and
only strengthening by the day, that made Jinji uneasy. No one could
ever take the place of her people in her heart. She wouldn’t allow
it, not when their legacy depended on her—she owed them at least
that.

"Do you think we will find any answers in
your home? Any word of the shadow I mentioned?"

It was a stretch, a faint hope, but she had
to ask the question.

He tore his eyes away from the land laid out
before them, looking down at her in sympathy.

"I don't know, Jin. I don't even know what
to look for."

Her heart sunk, dropping an inch deeper into
her chest.

"In Roninhythe," her mouth stumbled over the
long word, still not comfortable on her tongue, "I heard sailors
talking. They said two of their own had died, one with a slit
throat just like…like Maniuk," she forced the name out, taking a
deep breath. "And two children were found dead by the wall. The
lord said they fell, but one of them had a slit throat too. It
can't be coincidence, it—"

"I heard the same, Jin," Rhen said, reaching
down to pat her shoulder, "my friend, son of the Lord of
Roninhythe, he told me something similar. But what would the shadow
want with all of those people? The Arpapajo, children, soldiers,
sailors? They have nothing in common. It is more the act of a thief
than a ghost."

"I—"

"And even if it is this shadow, what do you
mean to do, Jin? How can you catch something that does not exist,
that jumps from body to body, that ensnares the mind? How could you
even fight it?"

"I don't know," she said softly, chin
sinking down into her chest.

Rhen knelt.

"I know it hurts, but your family is gone,
Jin. It would be better for you to move on and live your life."

And there it was. The very thing she had
been dreading Rhen would say, would believe. He wanted her to
forget.

Janu's face flashed before Jinji's eyes.

Had she forgotten?

Never.

Jinji turned to Rhen, eyes narrowing as her
heart started to pound. "Move on?" Her nostrils flared. Her lips
quivered. "Move on? As if you have any right to tell someone else
to move on, Prince Whylrhen."

"Jin, I didn’t mean—"

"Didn't mean what?" She stood, meeting him
as close to face to face as her small size would allow. "That they
are dead? That they are never coming back? And that means I should
just let them go?"

"No, but—"

"Do they not deserve to be avenged? To be
cared for, even in death? Someone must remember, and I am the only
one left who can."

She stopped, panting, not used to talking so
aggressively. Rhen looked on shocked, a little hurt.

"Jin, why are you so angry?"

She took a deep breath, trying to control
the swell in her chest, but it was no use. The floodgate had
opened. And Rhen was the only person around to take the hit.

"Ka'shasten. Do you know what that
means?"

Rhen scrunched his forehead,
dumbfounded.

"It means family, loved ones, and so much
more than that. It is unexplainable, it is part of my soul, just
like my people were—are."

"Kayashastian," he tried, mumbling the
word.

"Ka'shasten," she repeated, her heart
melting and breaking at the same time. He had tried, tried to
understand her, to help her. But the failure was all the more
bittersweet because of it, all the more noticeable.
Differentiating. "Do you know what it feels like to be the only
person in the world who understands what that means? I cannot just
let it go, let them go. We are one people, something a newworlder
would never understand."

"So now I'm a newworlder?"

"You always were," she said, a hard edge in
her voice. "It is not my fault that you cannot see it."

"Maybe you're the one who can't see." He
pointed at her, defensive. "A sword? Leather pants? A fine silk
jacket? You don't look like an oldworlder to me Jin, not
anymore."

She looked down at herself, the breeches
sticking to her legs, the shirt billowing over her chest. Where
were the animal hides? The skins bleached soft in the sun?

A lump caught in her throat. Her eyes began
to sting.

Before she knew it, she was running,
stomping over wooden boards. Rhen called her name, but it was lost
on the wind. She kept fleeing, not wanting to face his words, or
hers.

Only when the cabin was locked behind her
did the tears start to fall. She bit them back, crawling onto the
bed, closing her eyes tightly and imagining a different time, a
different life.

She was a little girl. It was the night
before Sanjiju—their most beloved ceremony. The next morning the
tribe would wake at sunrise to celebrate the spirits in prayer and
dance. For the first time, she and Janu would partake in the fast.
Already her stomach was rumbling. But there was an excitement in
the air that only came once a year, when the winter was shed and a
new spring was arriving, a time for renewal.

Jinji could remember lying in that bed as
though it were only yesterday, counting the minutes as they went
by. But the next morning was not her favorite part of the memory,
it was seconds later.

Jinji
, she could remember Janu
whispering. He tapped her arm and she flipped to face him on their
shared pallet.

From the other side of the small cabin,
their father shushed them both, reprimanding their disrespect. It
was time to sleep. Tomorrow would be a long day. They would need
energy. And everything else a parent said to a disobedient
child.

Jinji covered her mouth, giggling. Janu did
not try to cover his laugh. She pinched his arm, but it only made
him louder.

Be quiet
, she remembered
whispering
. Father will move you to the longhouse and then we
won't be able to play
.

He sighed heavily, but quieted himself and
moved closer. The starlight filtered in through the smoke hole at
the top of their home, just enough to see the glisten in each
other's eyes.

Then Jinji reached out, grabbing Janu's hand
and flipping it face up. Using her fingers, she tapped a beat onto
his palm.

One. Two. Three. Very fast with her pointer.
Then one slow with her pinky. Then two fast with her thumb. Then
three slow, each a different finger.

Janu watched, straining to see her fingers
in the dark. When she was done, he flipped her palm, trying to
copy. But at the end, he only tapped slowly twice. She shook her
head, grinning, and made a new beat.

They played for an hour before falling fast
asleep mid-tap, fingers holding onto each other in the dark—almost
as though the spirits knew that it would be their last Sanjiju
together, that they would need that extra time. By the next year,
Jinji would be dancing for him, and not with him, during the
ceremony.

Jinji sighed, rolling over as her head
returned to the present day, to the ship—to her loneliness. Her
heart had slowed, as had her tears. But she was still curled in a
little ball, clutching her knees.

Someone was outside the door. She heard the
unmistakable creak of footsteps, pacing back and forth. The
doorknob jiggled. A curse filtered through the wood. And then…

"Jin? Did you lock the door?"

She didn't respond. She just closed her
eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean, of course
you shouldn't forget your family and your people. I would never
suggest that. And I shouldn't have said that about you being a
newworlder—because believe me when I say you most definitely are
not."

A thud hit the door, likely his back as he
shifted his weight.

Jinji remained silent. She owed him an
apology as well—she knew it. There was no reason for her to yell at
him, no reason at all, except that she was starting to say goodbye.
And it would be easier to say goodbye to someone she hated. Not a
friend. Especially not the only one she had left in this world.

"I'll help you find this shadow, I will. As
soon as the Naming is complete and I've warned my father on the
Ourthuri treachery, I'll devote all of my time to the search. And
we'll figure out how to destroy it together."

He paused, waiting.

Jinji pictured him, leaning against the
door, fists firm over his head, his expression pleading.

"Why?" She didn’t mean to say it out loud,
but it happened. And words were like that. Once said, you could
never take them back—no matter how much you wished you could.

"Because," he said, thinking, "you saw the
part of me that I keep hidden from the rest of the world, and it
didn't scare you. We're brothers, Jin. Somehow, someway, a Son of
Whyl and an Arpapajo became brothers."

She took a deep breath, ignoring the sudden
heat warming her chest, and sat up.
At least he doesn't know I'm
a girl
, she thought, smiling to herself before standing.

Midway up, she frowned, quickly inversing
her features.

This changed nothing. She was still leaving.
All it did was ensure that Rhen would hate her all the more once
she left.

"Now will you come open the door? I feel
like an idiot talking to myself."

Jinji rolled her eyes.

As she neared the door, her heart began to
flutter, sending chills down her arms. She twisted the lock. Her
heart skipped a beat, waiting, watching the entrance.

It opened.

Rhen took up the entire frame, and he was
looking at her expectantly.

Jinji stifled the urge to run into his arms,
to throw her hands around his neck, to seek the comfort she so
earnestly desired. Instead, she planted her feet, silently waiting
like she always did.

"Well?" He asked. His left cheek twitched,
his lip rose and a crooked lazy smile gathered on his face.

Jinji shrugged in response, not trusting her
body to listen to her.

"Don't you want to see my home?"

"We've arrived?" She asked, perking up.

"It speaks!" he teased, reaching out to
tousle the short hair on top of her head. She missed his touch when
it was gone, leaving her colder.

"Come, Rayfort awaits."

Jinji followed him back on deck, emerging to
a scene that stole her breath.

Rhen pointed to the side, where a pile of
dull gray stones sat in ruin, overgrown with moss and speckled
green. "Over there is where the original castle once stood. But
when Whyl the Conqueror united the lands, he rebuilt Rayfort on the
peninsula and to show his strength, they mined rocks from the Gates
to build the castle and its walls."

Rhen pointed again, this time to the exact
spot that had originally drawn Jinji's attention—a gleaming,
pristine ivory castle, like something out of a dream. Similar to
Roninhythe, the castle was built from sturdy stone, rising from a
surrounding wall with tall circular pillars stretching high into
the air. Against the blue sky and speckled colors of the
surrounding city, the castle seemed almost magical. Something
within her felt pulled toward it, connected to it, almost as if it
were made of jinjiajanu—of the spirits.

Jinji pulled her eyes away to take in the
rest of the sprawling city—the largest she had ever seen, even
greater than Da'astiku. The castle sat on a hill in the center,
rising above everything else, but the sea of rooftops never seemed
to end. They were in front of the castle, behind the castle, to the
left, to the right. More stone, some wood—grays and reds and
browns—stretching until the very edge of the sea where an outer
wall stood, white stones sinking into the water.

Beside her, Rhen took a deep, satisfied
breath. His shoulders relaxed, and his whole body seemed to shed
the weight of worry that had been holding him down.

He's home
, Jinji thought.

"The city has three layers of defense," Rhen
said, excitedly moving his hands around, "the outer wall is the
first layer, then there is an inner wall, if you can see the white
towers cutting out from the rooftops—there and there—and finally,
the castle wall. It's never been sacked and not for lack of trying.
Built on the peninsula, land attacks are near impossible because
the enemy can only approach from one side, and it is somewhat of an
uphill battle for them. And by sea, though you might think Rayfort
is easily surrounded, the Straits give an early line of fire. The
only time the Ourthuri tried to attack our capital, the ships were
set ablaze in the Straits using flaming arrows and oil. The enemy
never even reached the White Stone Sea."

Pride shone through his voice.

"Is there no other way than through the
Straits?"

Rhen shook his head. "The other rivers are
too shallow for warships. They only carry small merchant
vessels."

"Then how do you think the Ourthuri king
plans to win this war?"

"I don't know, Jin, I really don't." He
shook his head. His tone lifted. Just seeing his home had made his
spirits rise higher than Jinji had seen them in days.

She looked back out at the fast approaching
city. Rayfort. The guards on the outer wall were starting to come
into focus. Rhen waved—his red silken coat and auburn hair
unmistakable, even from that distance. A horn sounded, happy and
jubilant. On the docks, everyone paused, watching their arrival.
People started to gather at the edges, observing with smiles on
their faces.

There was no mistaking that Rhen belonged
here. He was their prince. And already Jinji could tell that these
people loved him.

But would they ever love her? Could she ever
love them?

Her palms began to sweat on the wood.

It didn’t matter, she reasoned with a mental
shrug. In a matter of days, she would be gone.

And she would never be coming back.

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