The Spirit Heir (28 page)

Swallowing, Jinji closed her eyes, picturing the wound beneath her bandage, the cut slicing her shoulder, causing her pain. And then she imagined it gone, picturing unbroken and unscarred skin, weaving away the hurt.

Slowly, the ache began to subside.

Spurred on by the diminishing pain, Jinji continued to weave the spirit threads, reaching beyond them, deeper to the jinjiajanu, the mother spirit willingly bowing to her commands. That was her true power source, her true connection. And then she knotted the threads, tying them off, and opened her eyes.

The world looked the same.

But everything was suddenly different.

Moving her shoulder was easy, caused her no throb. Eagerly, Jinji reached for the knot behind her head, removing the sling, letting it fall onto the deck. Next went the bandages. Below, her copper skin was unmarred. No stitches. No wound. No scar. Nothing but the perfect golden glow of her natural complexion.

Jinji grinned.

Gaze slipping to her wrists, Jinji closed her eyes, imagining the ugly scars circling them away. Moments later, she opened them. Her skin was perfect, just as beautiful as she remembered, and for a moment Jinji thought she might cry. The constant reminder of her weeks spent in captivity, the constant reminder of the dark, of the shadow, gone.

But then she paused.

Closed her eyes.

Opened.

A thin line circled her upper arm, almost like a piece of string but it was dark against her skin. Getting rid of her scars, washing them completely away, was not the answer. Jinji could not just erase the past. Each of those memories was part of who she was, so Jinji wove a new scar—one of her own creation. A reminder, not of her hardships, but of her strength.

"I'm healed," she whispered, voice full of awe. For a moment, she wanted to jump, to shout, to scream to the skies. Instead, she tightened her muscles, watching the new scar flex around her bicep, strong. And that small gesture was victory enough. "What next?"

We must go to my home
, the voice said, tone laced with concern.
I sense that something is not right there. Can you feel it?

Jinji glanced back to the Gates, spirits swirling in her vision. The white spirit strands were bright in her eyes, almost blinding, but buried beneath them was a darkness. Trying to look beyond the ivory, Jinji squinted, but the spirit strands were too strong, too light, and she could not look past them to see what hid out of sight.

"Is it the shadow?"

The voice sighed.
I don't know. But my shadow-self is the only other person who might be able to find the entrance to my home. No human could make the journey without aid.

"We're still at least a day's ride away," Jinji said, shaking her head in frustration.

Then make us move faster…

It was a challenge.

One she gladly accepted.

Knowing that she wove not just spirit threads, not simple illusions, but the actual physical world gave Jinji renewed strength and renewed determination. She commanded the wind to blow against her sails, and it did. She commanded the water under the boat to flow in her direction, and it did. Every ounce of resistance nature might offer was shut down by mere thought. The waves stilled and then surged from behind, pushing one after the other against the back of the boat. For a moment, they were airborne as the gusts ripped into the sails, carrying them almost in flight.

The world began to rush by, a flash of turquoise and blue as it blurred around her. The Gates were the only still spot on the horizon, steady but growing larger and larger with every passing second.

Jinji lost track in the exhilaration. For the first time in a long time, she felt powerful. Useful. Free. What was the shadow against this? When they next met, she would be ready. And the shadow would beg for her mercy.

Enough!

Jinji stumbled, blinking as the world stopped around her. The water slowed. The wind died. The sun had disappeared behind the mountains looming overhead. No more than fifty feet away, the Gates waited.

"What do I do now?"

Follow my command and I will lead you to the entrance. For now, let the winds take you left until we reach a break in the rock. Our destination is in the center.

Jinji listened, blowing winds into the sails, leading them around the rock. So close, Jinji gasped at the colors in the stone, undulating just like the current. Not white as it had always looked, but a combination of every color, as though all four elemental strands were trapped below the surface, moving, waiting to be used, molding together into a crystalline color.

Rough waves crashed against the surface, splashing higher than any castles Jinji could remember seeing, coating the rock in a glistening polish. In the sun, she could hardly imagine how bright and beautiful it would look. Even in the shade, Jinji was mesmerized.

And the more she watched, the more she failed to understand how Rhen's ancestors had ever been able to mine enough rock for Rayfort. How had they managed to bring a boat close enough? Tools? How many men had they lost stealing those stones? Because that’s how it felt to her now, as though these mountains belonged to her, and every piece that was missing, no matter how small, was a travesty.

The stones in Rayfort were dead, but the ones filling her eyes now were alive with the spirits, filled to the brim with power, magnetic as they called to her.

There is the break
, the voice said, calmer than Jinji ever remembered her sounding.

She looked ahead and there it was, the mountain wall came to an end in a jagged, steep cliff and a new peak rose just a few feet away, just as sharp and sudden as the other. Yet in between the mountain walls a little river of water flowed through, bright blue against the surroundings.

Jinji bade the waters calm.

The splashing stopped. The water receded, stilled, until the surface was as clear as glass. The elemental spirit strands screamed to let them go, to be free, but Jinji held tight.

The winds blew forward and soon enough they were surrounded in stone, slipping through a path far narrower than the Straits. Behind her, Jinji slowly let the waters go, let them crash against stone, but before her the canal remained serene.

At every fork, the voice commanded she follow the water left or right and Jinji listened closely, feeling like one with the guardian spirit. Underneath her skin, familiarity began to bubble even though Jinji knew she had never seen these sights before. But in the back of her mind, a millennium of memories waited, untouched but still there, fighting to be remembered.

The entrance is ahead, where the rock rests flat.

Jinji saw it almost as soon as the words filled her mind, a flat slab of rock, no larger than the size of a room. The floor was smoother than anything Jinji had ever seen, free of even the slightest bump. Three sides were surrounded by water and one held a flat wall of stone, marred by no door or visible entrance, but it was obviously her destination.

Using the winds, Jinji drew as close as possible, until she felt the gentle thud of the wood hitting rock. And then she wove an icy weave, freezing the water around her boat, securing it tightly to its location before she jumped over the rail and onto the solid ground below.

Stepping up to the wall, Jinji pressed her hand against the rock. It was warm, breathing into her palm as though it sensed her touch. Sliding her fingers along the flat surface, Jinji walked across the space until she felt a shift below her skin.

This rock was hollow.

No spirits moved beneath her palm.

It was just an illusion.

Jinji stepped back, sensing the woven strands, finding the knot and unraveling it. When she opened her eyes, a circular alcove greeted her, leading to a narrow staircase disappearing up. Hesitating, Jinji looked back at the boat, surrounded by ice and utterly still.

Rhen.

The fact that he slept was a testament to how much he needed to rest, how close to the brink he had pushed his body.

Should she leave him?

Jinji looked up through the break in the rocks to the blue sky waiting so far away, just a sliver in her eyes, hidden by the white walls around them. He would be safe here, far away from wars and fights, almost frozen in time.

My shadow-self waits
, the voice interrupted,
I can feel him
.

Jinji's heart stopped.

Her gaze shifted to the staircase once more. Then back to the boat. Torn.

Leave the fire spirit. We can come for him after.

Though she worried Rhen would be confused if he woke before her return, angry that she left him, Jinji knew she needed to listen—she needed to face the shadow alone. So, hard as it was, Jinji stepped forward, one foot at a time, slowly, fighting the urge to turn and beg for his help.

Being alone terrified her. Sent a cold chill down her spine.

But she didn't stop.

Step after step she climbed. The rocks around her glowed in the dark, creating a light all their own, different from the sun but just as warm to her. Comforting. Empowering. When she reached the top, muscles straining with exertion, the scene grew slightly more familiar.

A flat clearing spread out before her, circular and open. The view held endless sky to the left and right as the mountain diverged into two separate peaks, one behind her and one across. Jinji stepped on the flat rock, looking up and then sweeping her gaze in a wide circle, turning on her spot.

Straight ahead, another archway was carved in the surface of flat stone, framing a new set of stairs leading upward. But something nearby pulled Jinji, made her want to explore. So she walked to the edge, grabbing onto the rail, looking down to the choppy waters below. No land was visible. Just endless water and endless sky, reminding her of the vision the voice had accidentally given her, of the man and the dragon flying toward her, gliding across the sky.

This was that spot.

The moment the memory popped into her head Jinji recognized it. Remembered the dragon’s sweeping arc of fire as it descended, landing in the wide-open space, allowing the man to slide from its scales.

Jinji turned away, looking back from where she came, to the staircase she had just crested. Beside it, another archway waited with more steps.

She stopped in the middle, unsure of which staircase to take.

Left or right.

Left
, the voice commanded.
That is where my shadow-self waits.

Jinji paused, still looking over her shoulder to the other door, but relented. There would be time to ease her curiosity later.

Direction set, Jinji made her way across the platform and up the remaining steps. Running. Sprinting. The higher she climbed, the more familiar the entire scene became.

The white walls.

The windows.

The steps.

In her mind, Jinji saw them covered in blood. In her heart, a sense of dread bubbled to life. Though the memory was not her own, in this moment, Jinji felt like it was. All of the bodies. All of the death. Crystal clear, the images flashed before her eyes, horrifying. The voice whimpered, but did not tell her to stop.

When she reached the top, Jinji knew one thing for certain. Just like the last time, they were not alone.

"Where are you?" she yelled.

Her voice echoed through the silence, bouncing across the smooth walls surrounding her. The room resembled the entryway at Rayfort, lined with columns, speckled with different hallways leading to various other rooms. But Jinji was certain that the shadow waited here—not down a random hallway, hiding in an empty room somewhere in the maze.

He was here.

He was watching her.

Eyes burned her skin, setting the back of her neck on fire with awareness. So she spun, but there was nothing and no one there.

Suddenly soft laughter filled the room. Low. The voice was weak but the tone itself was strong, menacing.

"You don't have control," a man said, mirthful, disbelieving.

Jinji tried to locate the source but in this cavernous room, the sound came from everywhere at once.

"Your human still owns you," the man continued, laughing softly again. His voice was scratchy. "Even better than I expected."

"Show yourself," Jinji commanded, holding her feet in place. She cleared her mind, shooed the voice away, gathered her strength, and then imagined a wall of arrows floating behind her, frozen, waiting for a target. One by one, the wooden spears shimmered to life beside her, a deadly frame.

"You won't need those," the man called.

I'm going to kill you
, Jinji silently whispered, not wasting her breath, strong in her conviction. The arrows around her began to buzz, to hum with the need to move as she suctioned them taut, pulling back on the air as though it were a bow.

A shuffling step broke the silence.

Jinji held her breath.

This is for my mother, my father, Leoa, my people.

Another step.

For Rhen. For countless others you've killed across the kingdom, unnamed. For those you killed in the past.

Another step.

For me.

A bare foot appeared from behind a column, stepping into the light. Not waiting, Jinji released. The arrows sailed.

The man walked into the open.

Jinji stopped. Fell to the ground. Her arrows did the same, raining down against the stone, clicking across the silence.

She couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t speak.

And then one word broke through. Barely a whisper.

"Janu?"

18