Jade Fire Gold(59)

My muscles tense as the soil and sand form a spiral above her palm. My eyes don’t leave the funnel. Inexplicably, she reaches over, showing me her miniature sandstorm.

A fog of images rush through my head as the sand whirls around her fingers. I hear screams. Their screams.

“What’s wrong?” says Ahn, noticing my discomfort. She drops her hand and the miniature sandstorm collapses onto the ground.

Get a grip, Altan. Breathe. Breathe.

My lungs release.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine,” I manage.

She doesn’t question me further, hugging her knees close. “You wanted me to tell you about myself, but I’m not sure if you’re ready for it.”

“I already know you’re the Life Stealer. Nothing else could be worse.”

“The Life Stealer!” she says dramatically, waving her hands with a flourish. “What a horrible name.” She makes a funny face and the tension disappears.

The knots in my shoulders relax. “It is awful.”

“You’re not afraid of me?” She looks almost shy.

“Terrified,” I reply.

She pretends to glower. “I am rather terrifying.”

“Then I’ll have to stay on your good side, I guess.”

“I thought you Tiensai want me dead. Maybe I should be afraid of you.”

“Not this Tiensai.” I lean back on my hands, trying not to acknowledge how comfortable it is to joke with her.

“Ha! So you are a Tiensai.”

She looks so proud of herself for getting confirmation out of me that I can’t help but smile.

“Why do the Tiensai hate Life Stealers so much?” she says in a very small voice.

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m a good listener.”

I stretch my legs out and shake the dust off my boots. “I’ll summarize. Over a century ago, there lived a Life Stealer. His name was Yuan Long—”

“The emperor?” She is shocked.

“Yes. He’s the most esteemed emperor in Shi history, but he was nothing but a paranoid and power-hungry tyrant.” My harsh words for my great-grandfather mask my own guilt over my family’s legacy.

“That’s not what I was taught.” Ahn frowns. “Didn’t he save Shi from the Mengu invaders?”

“The north never attacked, or rather, all they did was to defend their territory,” I say, remembering what Mother told me. “The Shi eventually left Mengu alone because, magic or not, it’s too difficult for battalions to cross the steep mountain range that borders the two nations.”

“Magic was used in the wars?”

“Yuan Long wanted to rule the world, and since he had magic himself, he started to recruit others who had magic, too. He formed an army of magical elite who were loyal to the throne, fashioned them as holy priests, and formed the Diyeh cult. But some who had magic didn’t want to fight. They opposed Yuan Long, so he maligned them. Branded them traitors and heathens, dangerous to society. He hunted them down, a hunt that continues today. The Tiensai weren’t the ones who cursed the land—it was Yuan Long. I don’t know exactly what he did, but the desert that keeps growing and killing everything in sight? It was a Life Stealer who did that.”

“A Life Stealer? I thought—Leiye and my father said . . .” She trails off, staring at her hands, eyes wide with horror. “Of course, they lied.”

“Because of what happened, it’s not surprising that some Tiensai would hate a Life Stealer,” I say.

“Only some?”

“Tiensai aren’t a monolith. There are some who fear the Life Stealer and others who believe that the Life Stealer represents hope.”

“Because of the White Jade Sword?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not going to be like Yuan Long.” She sounds so earnest that I want to believe her. “How do you know so much about the Shi Empire anyway?”

I hesitate. She still thinks I’m a foreigner. Best to keep up that charade. “I read a lot. You should, too, if you know how to read.”

“Of course I do,” she bites back.

I groan inwardly, realizing I may have insulted her without meaning to.

“The Shi believe education is a stepping-stone for the Empire’s progress,” she continues. “Even women are taught sums, but I guess you don’t know that since you’re from the north.”

“What’s the point in education if everything you’re taught is false?”

“But you can’t deny that education is the only way for a woman to find equal footing in this world.”

“Education is only one way,” I correct her. “If women aren’t allowed positions of power, it doesn’t change anything.”

“There’s the empress dowager.”

I scowl.

Ahn lifts her chin. “What’s wrong with a woman with ambition?”

“Ambition is not the quarrel I have here.”

“Then what do you have a quarrel with?”

“Historians,” I say through clenched teeth. “They distorted Yuan Long’s legacy, covered up the truth. Why do you think the smear campaign against the Tiensai works? Their magic isn’t cursed. It’s similar to what the Diyeh have. But war and conflict are good distractions. Who should a farmer blame for his failing crops? His gods? His emperor? Or an enemy nation and others who are different? It’s easy to find scapegoats and to create new ones if you appeal to the baser aspects of humanity. That is how the emperors of this nation have ruled.”