“Bleed me,” Yerin muttered. When she did, she realized that was an unlucky choice of words.
But she still took the Archlady’s hand.
Their attack on Redmoon Hall began that night.
All of them would have rather waited longer, but Red Faith was insistent that they were out of time. The exchange of power with the Phoenix had already begun, so before the sun was high the following morning, the cloud fortress would be gone.
As the Sage had put it: if they didn’t strike with the moon, they couldn’t strike at all.
Yerin and Red Faith sat veiled on a mountainside so far from the Hall that they could barely see it floating on its crimson cloud. If they got too much closer, the Herald might sense them, even through their veils.
With the security scripts in the cloud fortress active, no one could transport themselves inside. Of course, with his ritual to gather power for the Phoenix, Redmoon had the scripts running at full power. There would be no using the Moonlight Bridge to get inside until Kahn Mala dropped the circle.
Yerin checked a tiny clock the Archlady had given her. “We’re an inch from ready.”
“I sense nothing.”
“If you did, he’d feel us.”
“My connection to the Blood Icon is beyond what you can comprehend. My intuition is more reliable than that working of iron and copper.”
Yerin sent her spiritual sense inward to check on Little Blue, because if she didn’t concentrate on something, she was worried she’d roll her eyes so hard they’d pop.
Blue had no interest in emerging with the Sage around, so Yerin gave up immediately. She was just trying to distract herself.
Her heart pounded so hard she could feel it in her throat. With her Herald control over her body and spirit, she could slow her heartbeat as she wanted, but it kept speeding up on its own.
Yerin didn’t know why she was so afraid of sneaking into Redmoon Hall. She figured the Sage would keep his word, she was prepared for the mission, and Lindon’s worrying had left her with about fourteen backup plans.
Only now, sitting and waiting, did she feel the burden of what they were about to do. She still had her preparations, but what if they weren’t enough? What if this whole thing was a trap? Just because she couldn’t see a way around a soul oath didn’t mean a Sage couldn’t. Yes, she had several ways to escape and a few to call Lindon, but what if those didn’t work?
This was why Yerin hated sitting and waiting.
Red Faith saw her and must have noticed something, because he spoke to her. “Yerin. We have not gotten much chance to speak to one another.”
“You haven’t stopped your tongue moving in a week.”
“I mean a personal conversation, as master to disciple.”
Yerin choked. She couldn’t form the right words to respond to that.
“I have combed your experiences thoroughly,” the Sage went on. “I know you now, and I can offer you some insight into your journey.”
The words “please don’t” were on Yerin’s lips, but she cut them off. This was advice from a Sage, after all, and one that was older than steel. She couldn’t pass this up.
“You are too soft-hearted,” the Sage said.
Yerin thought she must have heard wrong.
“Your compassion holds you back!” Red Faith clawed at the sky. “It is a vulnerability, a weakness that will one day destroy you! Only in cold logic and reason can the future be found, and only thus can you unleash your full power!”
“How bad is breaking a soul oath?” Yerin asked.
“It can lead to a full spiritual collapse, which is even more debilitating for one such as yourself.”
“Might be I deserve it for thinking you’d give me good advice.” She looked up at the moon. “If I called Mercy’s mother and asked nice, you think she’d blow us both to pieces?”
Red Faith sneered. “Malice could not destroy me. She has tried, in ages past. I have skills and tenacity you could not imagine, in your—ah, the time has come.”
The Sage disappeared.
Yerin’s clock clicked.
“Would it count against my promise if I let him go alone?” Yerin asked no one in particular. She hadn’t specifically promised to go with him, and she thought she might be able to loosen her oath by focusing on that.
But that wouldn’t be worth it, and she gripped her sword. A cloud passed in front of the moon, leaving all in darkness. To the beat of her pounding heart, she tore off her veil and activated the Moonlight Bridge.
She appeared in the middle of a war on the deck of Redmoon Hall, a Netherworld of flashing blood madra. Shadows roared in the shape of monsters, slamming into one another as half-liquid nightmare creatures. Crimson aura blazed everywhere.