Dragon Pearl(82)

Seo-Hyeon and the four other ghosts—all except Jun—now surrounded Captain Hwan. Their hair blew wildly about their faces, and their mouths stretched in ghastly, impossible grimaces.

Hwan drew his gun and fired wildly, even though he must have known it would do him no good.

“No, Captain, don’t!” Sujin warned. “You’ll just make it worse!”

Sujin, Haneul, and I scattered, not wanting to be hit by stray blaster fire. In a shaking hand I held out the Dragon Pearl, hoping it could help in some way, perhaps send these ghosts to their final rest, too. But it was spent. Its swirling had ceased, and it was now just a dull metal-gray color.

I watched in horror as the ghosts snatched at Hwan’s eyes and hands. Even though their fingers passed through him, his face contorted, and I wondered what visions were tormenting him. He bellowed in rage, then flung the blaster aside as if its grip had burned him.

Hwan swung his fists in vain at the ghosts. I winced at his wordless shouts. He careened several steps before regaining his balance, only to lose it again.

Or had he? Hwan’s form shimmered as it lengthened and expanded. Automatically, I froze as his scent reached me. He’d always been a predator, but now he was shifting into his true form, that of an immense white tiger. I stood transfixed by the sharp fangs revealed when he roared. He almost seemed to flow as he circled, swiping at the ghosts with his paws.

Hwan’s amber eyes met mine for a single moment. No trace of the man remained in them. A tiger looked at me, cunning only in the way that an ordinary animal predator—rather than a supernatural one—is cunning. Haneul tried to approach, to calm him down, but he roared and lunged at her, swiping the air with a huge paw. The ghosts kept him at bay, hissing and howling. He shrank back, snarling, and in this way they herded him away from us and toward the woods in the distance.

It was the last I would ever see of them.

Only one ghost still lingered. Jun. I opened my mouth to ask why.

He anticipated my question. Of course he did. “Every ghost is a different person,” Jun said quietly. “Sometimes we want different things, too.”

He was going to make me ask. “What is it you want, Jun?”

“I still want to visit every one of the Thousand Worlds.”

I hadn’t expected that answer. A traveling ghost—was that even possible?

I wasn’t sure how to talk about this. “Um, don’t you have, uh . . . limitations? Like only being able to linger near where you . . . ?” I hoped he’d catch on without my having to say it.

“I could haunt you instead of the shuttle,” he said with a shrug. “If you don’t mind, that is.”

“I don’t mind,” I said quickly. I’d gotten used to having Jang around; this would be even better. “But won’t you, um, affect our fortunes wherever we go?”

“Bring bad luck, you mean?” he asked with a gleam in his eye. “Seems to me, Min, you make your own luck.”

That would have to be enough. He was family, after all.

“Works for me,” I said with a curt nod. “We can see the Worlds together.” I caressed the orb that was still warm in my hands and whispered, “I swear it on the Dragon Pearl.”

It pulsed a glow in response, and I knew that it approved.





Now that the ghosts were gone—either to their final rest or to exact their revenge on the captain—I had hoped for a brief respite, perhaps even a nap under a tree. But my work wasn’t over.

The soldiers who had accompanied Hwan looked dazed and disorganized, as if unsure what to do next. The most senior of them, a lieutenant, finally pulled herself together and focused her attention on me. She drew her gun as she advanced.

I held the Pearl out before me, and she flinched from the way it flared, splashing the entire area with multicolored light.

“You need to hand that over to the proper authorities,” the lieutenant said. She tried to sound authoritative, but her voice shook.

The Pearl emitted a piercing silver glare. Ominous thunder crackled above, even though the sky was completely clear. She cowered.

“The Pearl stays with me,” I said.

She didn’t argue the point after that. “You’ll still have to come with us,” she said. “Unless you want us to leave you here. Your fate will be determined once we get back to the Pale Lightning.”

Haneul mouthed to me, Just play along.

Had she and Sujin forgiven me? I was too tired to care at that point. Or so I told myself.

I could have used Charm on the lieutenant to make her think I was an ally, but why bother? Instead, I hefted the Pearl and said, “Fine. But don’t try anything stupid. I’m not your enemy. I just want to go home.”


When the shuttle docked in its bay, the head physician, two medics, and a pair of shamans, all wearing hazmat suits, cordoned off the entire area in case of disease. They eyed the Dragon Pearl warily when we told them what had happened on the Fourth Colony. I refused to let it out of my hands, even when they disinfected us with a spray so acrid that it burned my nostrils. Then they examined us and declared us clean. Haneul and Sujin were taken to Medical for rest and rehydration. A medic gave me first aid for the blaster shot I’d taken in the shoulder.

I thought I’d be ushered to the brig next, but instead Captain Hwan’s XO, Lieutenant Commander Ji-Eun, requested that I report to her quarters. Jun directed me there, then flickered out of sight.