The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(105)

“What of the wolf she was with?” he asked. “That couldn’t have been an ordinary animal. I thought we killed all of that slipskin Kith—whatever they were called.”

“The Ashina,” supplied Brother. “And yes, their Kith was destroyed. A few of their children made it into the labor camps, but none of them retained their cauls. I tried to find some way to rebind the Pact, discover where in their bodies that linkage was hidden, but to no—”

“You appear to have missed something.”

“It’s possible that this wolf the scouts saw was an escapee or a deserter. Or perhaps it was only a dog, and the men were confused.” The monk shrugged. “Of course, there is always the notion of an original slipskin. A Pactmaker, according to their myths.”

“Yes,” Set said irritably. “Myths.”

“Myths are what common men call history distorted by time.”

“No matter.” Set shrugged, throwing his shoulders back and sniffing. “Whatever it was, I’ll find and kill it, too. Myth or not.” Then he put his foot into a stirrup and gracefully leaped back into his saddle.

“It may be of use to me alive,” Brother said thoughtfully. “For my research.”

But Set was already riding restlessly down the shore.

Min looked out across the water, searching again in vain for some hidden sign that her sister had stood there.

Lu, where are you? I’ve come to bring you home, she thought, but the words felt hollow somehow. Even if Min was able to convince her to surrender, then—what, exactly?

As long as there’s breath in her body, she’ll come for me. The echo of Set’s words chilled her now.

Her sister would never be content to spend out her days in court with no hope of ruling, Min realized. To Lu, that fate would be no different from death. Worse.

But perhaps . . . Min frowned at the still water. Set might not allow Lu to return to court, but perhaps he would allow her to live the rest of her days in exile or sequestered somewhere well outside the capital.

She could stay at the Eastern Palace, Min thought with renewed hope. She always loved it there, swimming in the lake . . .

Min was the key, Brother had said. Set needed her. She could use that, surely, leverage herself to win clemency for her sister.

But was she enough? What was she here, in this barren and desolate place, all on her own? Without a city. No mother, no shins, no ammas to train her, to shame her. Here, she was just a girl—flesh and blood and bone. A body.

And locked within that body, a secret. Her curse, her gift.

I’ve brought you here, she thought. It’s your turn. We had a deal, so where are you?

“You already have all you need, silly girl.” The shamaness’s voice was fainter than it had been before. She sounded almost tired. Min found it somehow frightening. “Don’t you see? I’m already here, already in you.”

Min frowned. But I don’t know what to do.

“You will.”

When? She demanded. You’re the one with the magic, you’re the one who does . . . everything.

“I am just an echo, girl,” said the voice with a sigh, thin as mountain air. “I am what she chose to leave in you. You control me, not the other way around. I suppose it’s easier for you to pretend otherwise . . .”

Min turned at the sound of footsteps crunching over the stones and met the eerie piercing eyes of Brother. The old man’s face slid into an oily smile.

“You look well, Princess,” he told her. “Each step we draw farther north, you seem to grow stronger. Surer of yourself.”

She didn’t feel strong, just stiff from riding all night. She stepped back, a hand going to the bandage plastered to her throat like a choker.

The monk smiled, all understated sorrow and manners. “I do apologize again for that—you must know I would never have actually hurt you.”

But you did hurt me. You made me bleed. And Set . . . Set had told him to do it. But, no. Hadn’t she already decided not to think about that?

Brother stepped closer and she smelled the stink of his sweat. None of them had slept more than a few hours at a time since they left the capital, and there had been no opportunity for washing. “There was once a physical gate here—you can see the remains of it if you look closely at the ground,” he told her. “My research suggests the Yunians placed these gates at points in the earth where the barrier between our world and the next is thinner, more penetrable. Do you sense something?”

“No—I don’t think so,” Min admitted. She didn’t even know what she was meant to feel.

Set approached astride his stallion, followed at a distance by a small group of his men. “Well?” he called out.

Min’s body relaxed at the prospect of no longer being alone with Brother. But she recoiled as Set drew closer. His handsome face was strained and sweaty, and his eyes wilder than she had ever seen. She’d been wrong earlier; despite his outward restraint he looked even worse than he had the night before. Loose hairs fell from his normally immaculate plait. But something else was wrong, too, something deeper than all his frayed trappings. He was changed—changing—as sure as she was.

It’s Lu, Min realized at last. She’s not obsessed; he is. The thought made her stomach tighten with anger . . . and an odd twinge of jealousy. If only Lu wasn’t so difficult. Min was trying to help, but how could one help someone so set against helping herself?