Dragon Pearl(76)

“Then why did you lead us into a trap?”

“I wanted the crew to think I was still one of them, rather than abandoning them for my sister,” Jun said. “I thought it would give me more control of the situation so I could protect you.”

Protect you. That sounded like the Jun I knew.

“Thank you,” I said softly.

“Besides, you did need shelter. Cadet Sujin isn’t looking so great. You don’t want them to come down sick, not on this planet.”

I winced, hoping we’d all avoid the plague like, well, the plague.

“I was going to help you escape eventually,” Jun went on, “but you did it before I could.”

“I didn’t want to stick around to be meat for the captain’s quest,” I retorted.

Jun’s rueful smile flickered so quickly I almost wasn’t sure I’d glimpsed it. “If I’d really wanted to hand you over to him,” he said, “I wouldn’t have let you slip off like that. The other crew members might not recognize when they’re being Charmed, but I certainly do.”

I couldn’t argue that point. “Good to know,” I said. “I’m still learning about . . . er, you know . . .”

“Ghosts?” he finished. “It’s okay, you can say it. I know what I am.”

There were a hundred things I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t think where to start. So I just said, “Someone came to our home on Jinju and said you deserted. I knew you hadn’t, though.”

His smile returned, lasting longer this time. “I appreciate that,” he said. He didn’t sound like a bitter, vindictive ghost at all. “That means a lot. So does your coming here. I thought I’d never see you again.”

My throat closed up. When I was able to speak, I said, “I wanted to find you and the Dragon Pearl, to bring you both home. I failed. . . .” Tears pricked my eyes.

“We’ll figure it out, Min. I promise,” he said in that reassuring older-brother way he had. “Right now, we have to deal with the fact that Captain Hwan is on the way.”

Once Jun and I were done talking, I woke Haneul and Sujin. When Haneul saw Jun, she started, and her eyes clouded.

“My brother came to help us,” I explained.

“Why should we trust him?’ Haneul asked suspiciously.

“Lots of reasons,” said Jun. “First, I can Charm the other ghosts. They are bent on getting revenge on Captain Hwan by driving him mad. But that isn’t going to bring rest to anyone.”

Sujin wore a thoughtful expression. “So you’re going to help the captain?” they asked. “After all, you were willing to work with him once before. . . .”

“That was a lifetime ago,” Jun said with macabre humor. “Now he’s threatened my sister and her friends”—he made a sweeping gesture to indicate Sujin and Haneul—“and he wants to use the Pearl as a weapon. If it comes to that, I’ll do everything I can against him. I haven’t been a ghost for very long, but I might be able to bring him bad luck.”

“Useful to know,” Haneul said in an undertone. She was frowning. I wondered if she was worried about facing court-martial.

“Second, I can lead you to the Pearl,” Jun said. “I know where it is—the exact location.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s get going before Hwan beats us to it. If we reach it first, we’ll have a bargaining chip.”

And with that, we broke camp and headed into the moon-silvered night.





When the rain returned, trudging through the mud and sodden underbrush felt worse than before, maybe because we’d had a chance to rest and dry off a little. Every time I accidentally splashed into a puddle, I was reminded of the threadbare comfort I’d found not long ago in the emergency tent. But the others didn’t complain, so neither did I.

Jun floated ahead of us. I envied his lack of legs and the fact that he didn’t have to care about getting wet. Almost as soon as I had that thought I realized how stupid it was. It couldn’t have been fun to be a ghost on a deserted planet. My face burned with shame.

The winds rose around us again. “They’re coming,” Jun said quietly.

Haneul turned toward me. I had mistaken the beaded moisture on her brow and nose for rain, but some of it had to be perspiration, considering the smell that was rolling off her. Was she getting sick, or struggling to keep the storm in check, or both? “I can only do so much with my weather magic,” she said, her voice quavering just slightly. “Here the ghosts rule. I think—”

She never got to finish, because the darkness lit up in a cascade of white fire. At first I thought we were under attack, some kind of bombardment. But the fire brought no heat, only waves of chill that sliced to the bone. Then I remembered: White was the color of the dead.

Soon we were surrounded by the glow of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of ghosts, unnaturally bright in the last hours of the night.

Jun stopped. Haneul, Sujin, and I banded together behind him, as if he could shield us from the spirits’ anger. As they stared accusingly at us with their blank, dark eyes, I felt the weight of their judgment.

Voices rose and ebbed in the wind. I quelled a surge of despair. How were we going to get past all those ghosts? They might not have any physical presence, but they could confuse us with hallucinations. I’d heard stories of ghost-crazed people running off cliffs or jumping into rivers. As long as the spirits could reach into our minds, we were in danger, especially on unfamiliar terrain.