Then Zhokka, Harbinger of Night, came.
He was jealous of the sky’s brightness. Zhokka was originally an earth god, and he hated how he could see the sky gods dancing high up above, bathed in light. He wanted that light for himself, but also to take it away from them. So he gathered an army of creatures from the darkest parts of the earth and brought them to the sky.
The battle is supposed to have lasted over a hundred years. The sky gods fought valiantly, but Zhokka and his dark army finally defeated them, and as a victory prize Zhokka swallowed all the light of the sky. Now there was only darkness.
But Zhokka had been careless. With no light left, he didn’t see Ahla, the Moon Goddess, creeping up on him. She’d fled when she saw he would win the battle, and had been waiting for the right moment to return. Taking her powerful crescent-form, she lanced herself through the darkness at Zhokka and split a huge, grinning gash through his face, blinding him in the process.
Some of the light he’d swallowed managed to escape through this tear, and these returned to their beloved sky as the stars. And for the rest of eternity, Zhokka is doomed to roam the galaxies, searching blindly for Ahla to take his revenge.
The story comes back to me now as Wren and I hold each other. I always wondered what that night-filled abyss looked like before Ahla cut Zhokka open. I could never quite picture it. But tonight I finally understand how it would have felt.
The King is Zhokka, swallowing everything. And Wren is Ahla—the moon, the light, the only one who knows how to bring the stars back to my sky.
“I’m going to help,” I tell her when we finally draw apart. “I’m going to help you kill him.”
And this time she agrees.
THIRTY-ONE
THERE IS AN OLD PROVERB IN our kingdom: “He who seeks revenge should dig two graves.” I’ve already prepared to dig the Demon King’s. The other is for the girl I used to be. The girl who was sleepwalking through her time here until she fell in love, until she had her eyes opened to the world beyond her walls. The girl who accused Aoki of falling for the King, for being seduced by palace life, when she, too, was embracing it.
Well, no more embracing.
No more sleepwalking.
I don’t want an easy life. I want a meaningful one.
Now that I know what they’re planning, Wren involves me in her secret meetings with Kenzo. It takes some convincing on Wren’s part, especially because Kenzo narrowly missed getting caught when he went to the King’s chambers to retrieve the poisonous herbs I’d left there. But the wolf eventually concedes, deciding that my role as a Paper Girl can be useful as a distraction while Wren gets the King alone. While it’s not much, I’m pleased to be able to do anything to help. The smoother everything goes at the ball, the better Wren’s chance to come away safely will be.
Every few nights, we wrap up in furs and overcoats and head into the forest, listening to news Kenzo has brought from the court—changes to the guest list for the Moon Ball, more signs that the Sickness is worsening, outbursts of rebellion in more of the provinces. Anything that could affect the plan. And though our everyday routine as Paper Girls continues as normal, I float through it with a kind of absent focus, tired from our midnight excursions but also too fixed on the approaching New Year to concentrate on much else. It’s taken the form of a color in my mind—the brightest, sharpest white, like light catching the edge of a blade.
In a few weeks’ time, I’ll be at the Moon Ball, distracting the King’s guards as best as I can while Wren steals him away to bury a knife in his heart.
One morning Lill says, “Not long now, Mistress.”
She’s in the middle of fixing my hair into its usual bun. I start, causing her fingers to tangle.
“What—what do you mean?”
“Your Birth-blessing pendant,” she clarifies with a frown. “Isn’t it your birthday on the New Year?”
I follow her gaze to the shrine in the corner of my room. Because we’re not allowed to wear jewelry during our lessons, ever since coming to the palace I’ve kept my Birth-blessing pendant there, hanging from an unlit stack of joss sticks. It seems like another thing from the life of the girl I used to be. Something else to bury with her.
“Is there something you’re hoping for?” Lill asks.
“Anything involving cake,” I reply, and she laughs.
But the truth is I know exactly what sort of fate I hope to find within my pendant, and it’s one that life within the palace walls could never offer me.
Freedom.
When there’s less than two weeks to go, Wren and I sneak out to the clearing in the woods. I’m expecting for us to meet Kenzo as usual, but he isn’t here.
“He’s not coming tonight,” she tells me. “This is something for just you and me to work on.”
It’s a still winter’s night. The forest is wrapped in silence, the trees towering around us, shifting drops of moonlight filtering in through the canopy overhead. The air is cool with the promise of snow. The screech of some night bird cuts suddenly through the quiet, and I start, grabbing my fur shawl tighter around me.
“That,” Wren says with a smile, “is what we’re going to try to deal with.”
“What do you mean?”
“You need to be prepared in case there’s any trouble on the night. Kenzo’s going to get a weapon to you—something small, easy to conceal. But in case you lose it, or for whatever reason he can’t get it to you, you’re going to have to know how to defend yourself without it. Have you ever had any martial arts training?”
I arch a brow. “What do you think?”
“Well, we only have a couple of weeks. We’re just going to have to dive in.”
Wren shifts into position, knees bent, arms raised, palms open. I’m just about to copy her because it seems that’s what I’m supposed to do, when she lunges forward and strikes her right hand at my head.
I clamp my eyes shut, expecting a flare of pain. When it doesn’t come, I inch my eyes open to find her hand hovering by my head. She draws back.
“How—how did you do that?” I gulp.
The corner of her lips tuck up, but her face is serious. “I’m one of the Xia, remember? I won’t hurt you, Lei. I promise. But you have to act like this is a real battle.”
“Sure,” I mutter. “Let me just recollect the last time I was at war.”
“It’s a bit like what Master Tekoa teaches us,” Wren continues, ignoring my quip. “You want to access your most natural instincts and allow them to control you without you having to think about it too much.”
“If someone is coming at my head with their fist, my natural instinct is to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.”
After a moment, she asks, quiet, “Is it?”
The stillness of the forest seems to draw in. Wren moves closer, boots crunching on the frosted grass. Our breaths form clouds in the air.
“Think about all the times you’ve fought against what’s been happening to you. I told you that night when the King had you locked up. You’re brave, Lei. Braver than you think. You fought him then, and you’ve fought him since, and I know you are strong enough for whatever is coming next.”