Page 31

CHAPTER 31

REN

The Floating World

The Mithril Labs

REN SPRINTED BACK the way she’d come. The corridor appeared longer, now that she was desperate to reach the end. After that initial roar, no other sounds had echoed down the hall. What if Sunho was hurt? What if the worst had happened? She gripped the box that held Little Uncle’s cure. She didn’t want to think about the blood she had traded for it. She couldn’t shake the image of the scientist’s gleeful expression behind his cracked lenses, or the liquid shifting in the tank behind him. She rounded a corner, her boots skidding across the ground.

“Sunho!”

He was leaning halfway down the corridor, with one hand pressed against the wall.

He was alive . He was safe. Then she noticed his blood-drenched torso.

She cried out and Sunho looked up. “It’s not mine,” he reassured her. “Did you find the cure?”

“I did.” She hurried over, scanning his body for wounds, regardless. When her gaze finally lifted to his face, she saw that his eyes were rimmed in blue, as if he’d been weeping.

“What happened? Was the demon…?” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

He shook his head. “It… he wasn’t. The demon was a boy I knew, but he wasn’t my brother.”

Relief tore through her, and she threw her arms around him. She heard a thump as his sword hit the ground. And then his hands came up, sliding along her back to grip her shoulders. She felt a tremor go through his body.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, as he lowered his head over hers. A boy, he’d said. A boy he’d wept for. Not his brother, but a friend. Her heart ached, knowing he was in pain. If only she could heal him, like she had his physical wounds. But this pain he had to bear himself—she could only be there with him.

He held her with such strength she could hardly breathe, but it didn’t matter; she held him just as fiercely.

After a few minutes, he loosened his hold, though he didn’t let go of her. She leaned back to gaze into his face. She saw the tracks his tears had left upon his skin and raised her fingers to trace them. He shuddered, closing his eyes.

Perhaps it was witnessing this terrible place, knowing the horrors that had been committed here, but a powerful feeling rose within her. “There is so much awfulness in the world,” she said, and he opened his eyes, revealing that startling spark of blue—it was always there now. “But not when I’m with you. I feel like I can overcome anything, as long as you’re by my side. I want you to be happy. I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted.”

He laughed softly. “I think you’re just a good person.”

“No!” she said, and his eyes widened at her raised voice. “It’s you. I only want for you .”

This feeling was too big to express in words. It felt as large as what she felt for Auntie and Little Uncle, but different, a feeling she’d never felt before, one that made her feel reckless and afraid, yet joyous. Because whether the days ahead were full of darkness or light, Sunho would be there. He was in her heart, and she was in his, and nothing would break them apart.

“Come back with me,” she said. Her limbs tingled, and she felt a fluttering of excitement in her chest. “You’ll want to search for your brother, I know, but you need time to recover and figure out next steps first. Until then, come home with me.

“There’d be plenty of work for you there,” she continued. “Though perhaps not what you’re used to…” She glanced at his sword, which remained on the floor where he’d dropped it. “But you have other skills. I never asked, but can you hunt or fish? Never mind, you’ll be well received regardless, especially by the village elders. It doesn’t hurt that you look the way you do—”

“Why can’t I be a performer?” Sunho asked.

She blinked at him.

His expression was wide-eyed. “I could do that job you gave me, when we were with the outlaws in the mountains. What did you call it? Sword… dancing.”

“I mean…”

Sunho looked so serious. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

His lips quirked, and then he started laughing. “You should see your face,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes.

She would have laughed, too, except that she was caught by the sight of him.

He appeared as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He looked lighter, and so handsome it took her breath away. She wanted to tell him, it wasn’t just that she wanted him to come back with her, she wanted him to stay with her, because she—

A massive boom shook the laboratory.

The explosives. She’d forgotten. Sunho picked his sword off the ground. She reached for his hand, and he took it, his hand wrapping around hers.

They raced back the way they’d come. How much time had passed since they’d parted from Yurhee and Tag? The two of them had warned Sunho and Ren they’d have an hour to get out before the explosives detonated. The ground rumbled, the walls crumbling around them, as rocks fell into their path.

“Ren!” Sunho shouted, his eyes darting upward. She let go of his hand and they both jumped apart as a massive boulder dropped from above, cleaving the ground in two. Skidding back, Ren hit the wall.

“Ow.” She rubbed her backside.

Sunho was beside her in seconds, helping her stand, and then they were racing off again. They entered the room where Sunho had fought the demon. Boulders poured like water from the ceiling. In the far corner, she saw the figure of a boy lying still upon the ground. She looked away, and together, they left the chamber behind them.

They ran until at last they found the corridor with the door they’d come through. They barreled toward it, bursting outside.

Light blared into their eyes. Sunho raised his arm, shifting his body in front of Ren.

A dozen aircraft loomed above the laboratory. Emblazoned on their sides were the wings of Sareniya. At first, she thought they were military aircraft, but then she noticed the silver diadem above the wings. Imperial airships.

When her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that a line of soldiers had already disembarked, waiting for them on a narrow platform.

A grunt of pain sounded from behind the soldiers, and they moved to reveal Yurhee and Tag bound and on their knees.

“Secure the boy,” said a uniformed captain standing nearby.

Sunho allowed the guards to surround him, his eyes darting toward Yurhee and Tag. They tied his wrists with heavy ropes and pressed him down until he was on the ground.

Ren was so preoccupied with the soldiers that she didn’t realize there were other people on the platform. They were dressed in elegant clothing, which seemed incongruous with the soldiers and ongoing destruction of the labs. Standing among them was a noblewoman with piercing gray eyes.

“My dear, do you remember me? I am your aunt, your mother’s cousin. My name is Lady Maya. My father was your mother’s uncle. We share blood, you and I.”

Ren searched her memories, vaguely recalling a line of brightly dressed people peering down at her over gilded, outspread fans. If Lady Maya had been among the group, she couldn’t remember.

Still, she had claimed they were family. “Please,” Ren appealed to her, “let them go. They’re my friends.”

But Lady Maya was already shaking her head. “I cannot. They are dissidents, rebelling against the empire— your empire.”

Ren wanted to scream. How could the empire belong to her when she wanted nothing to do with it?

“Beloved niece, allow me to escort you home.”

“My home…” Ren’s home was a village in a valley. It was with the people in the caravan, with Sunho—

“Your home is the Floating World,” Lady Maya said, as if reading her thoughts. She stepped closer to Ren, lowering her head so her next words were for Ren’s ears alone. “A queen is better equipped to make decisions than a renegade princess. Take back your throne, and you’ll have the power to make your own choices.”

Lady Maya’s eyes were sharp. Ren understood what she was saying. As Ren was now, she was at Lady Maya’s mercy, but as queen , she could protect the people she cared about.

“I’ll go with you,” Ren said, “but you have to release my friends.”

Lady Maya held Ren’s eyes a minute longer. “I will agree to those terms.” She nodded at the captain, who moved to untie Yurhee and Tag. “Now, come with me.”

“Wait, let me speak with them. Alone.”

“Very well.”

“Damn Sareniyans,” Yurhee growled, rubbing her wrists as Ren approached. “I’m sorry, Ren. They followed us. There must have been a spy at Hagye—”

“It doesn’t matter now. I have a favor to ask.” She pressed the box into her hands. “This is the cure for my uncle. Go to my village and deliver it to him, please. I know it’s a lot to ask—”

“Leave it to us,” Yurhee said. “We’ll make sure to get it to him.”

“Take Sunho with you. If you explain how he protected me”— Ren swallowed hard—“how important he is to me, then they’ll accept him as one of their own, I’m sure of it.”

Sunho wouldn’t know the words to express himself, but Ren could trust Yurhee to relay to Auntie and the others what had happened.

“He won’t go,” a soft voice said, with a cough. Ren’s gaze shifted to Tag.

“Tag!” Yurhee hissed. “Could you refrain from ruining Ren’s self-sacrificing moment?”

“He won’t leave you,” Tag said, ignoring Yurhee, and Ren understood that he understood Sunho.

“You’ll have to convince him,” Ren said. “You heard Lady Maya. She’s related to me by blood. She won’t harm me. Tell him I’ll come to the village soon. I’ll find a way.”

Tag bit his lip, but he didn’t argue further.

“Be safe, Ren,” Yurhee said.

Ren nodded, turning away from them. She started to walk across the platform toward Sunho.

A hand shot out, blocking her path. “Not the boy.”

Behind Sunho, a soldier raised the flat end of his sword.

“No!” Ren screamed as he brought it down upon the back of Sunho’s head and he slumped over.

Ren whirled to face the noblewoman. “You promised not to hurt him!”

“It’s for your own protection,” Lady Maya said. “He’s a criminal. He was seen boarding a train with a group of mercenaries sent to murder you.”

“He wasn’t a part of them,” she cried out. “He saved me!”

But Lady Maya had already turned away. The captain grabbed Ren by the arms, dragging her toward the nearest airship. Once inside, Ren broke away, scrambling toward the railing.

She sobbed in relief when she saw Tag and Yurhee hurry across the platform, lifting Sunho by the arms and carrying him to their own aircraft, docked on the side. Tag must have managed to repair it in time.

All across the platform, explosions went off. She wondered, briefly, about the man in the spectacles, and whether he’d escaped. She leaned forward over the railing, straining her eyes for a glimpse of Sunho and the others, but the imperial airship accelerated, leaving the laboratory behind until it was only a bright flame in the distance. It was much larger and faster than Yurhee and Tag’s aircraft, moving through the violent winds with ease before shooting out of the mines into torrential light.

Ren squinted her eyes against the brightness. It didn’t make sense. Where was the light coming from? They should still be in the Under World.

Small and large aircraft floated in the air above the city, and Ren thought of Yurhee’s words the night before. At that time, hundreds of aircraft will flood the sky.

The Festival of Light had begun.

Gripping the railing, her eyes trailed upward. Moonlight flooded through a great aperture in the rock. Like a waterfall, it poured from the world above.

The ship moved toward the pillar, submerging into that silvery glow until the light was all around them, until it was all that she could see.

Slowly the ship began to ascend.

She was going back to that place she’d fled ten years before, a place of incredible beauty, with memories steeped in blood and tragedy.

She was going back to the Floating World.