The First Kaiaru Read online

  His eyes were currently yellow, matching one of his ten different personalities—one for each of his kavaru, plus a mysterious tenth one with gray eyes. Turesobei had explained to Enashoma the different personalities, but she had rarely encountered the Blood King.

  A stern expression creased his face as he studied her. The yellow-eyed personality, she remembered, was suspicious of everything.

  “She is not an inheritant,” the Blood King said.

  Enashoma sighed with relief. “Thank the gods!”

  The Blood King scowled, scarlet fires lighting within his yellow eyes. “There was a time when humans lined up and competed for the privilege of becoming a Kaiaru.”

  “Those days are long gone, my lord,” Lady Hannya said. “She did not grow up amongst Kaiaru. And until recently, they were little more than legends to her.”

  His eyes dimmed. “I will soon correct that problem.”

  That was the Blood King’s aim: to restore the Kaiaru to their golden age of dominance over the world. To do that, he needed the power from the eight heart stones, one from each of the eight realms, so that he could view the ancient origins of the Kaiaru. How that would help him, she had no idea. It didn’t make any sense to her, but then he did have a reputation for being mad.

  “I knew there was something unique about you, Chonda Enashoma,” the Blood King said, his eyes returning to yellow. “Something I struggled to figure out. You are most certainly not an inheritant, though. I would have known immediately. There is a tell-tale energy signature that Hannya apparently does not know about.”

  “If I’m not an inheritant, then what am I?” Enashoma asked.

  The Blood King’s eyes shifted to the emeralds of the wizened instructor personality. “Something I have not seen in a very long time—something remarkably rare that usually marks the end of a weakened Kaiaru’s journey through time.”

  “You mean she is a bonded host?” Hannya asked with surprise.

  “Yes.”

  “How can that be? She has never even seen Nāa’s kavaru before, much less touched it.”

  The Blood King shrugged. “Truthfully,” he said, with a hopeful tone in his voice, “that is not what intrigues me the most.”

  He sliced his right hand through the air. A thin cut ripped across Enashoma’s forearm.

  She leapt back and clutched her arm just above the wound. “Ow!”

  The Blood King stepped up to Enashoma, dipped a fingertip into the blood leaking from the cut, and touched the fingertip to his tongue. Then he closed his eyes and chanted.

  “You are, in fact, a direct descendent of Nāa, but the bloodline is weak. Probably, Chonda Lu married some of his own descendants, keeping his bloodline strong while weakening Nāa’s.”

  “Lu Bei would know when the two bloodlines merged,” Hannya said, “if it is of interest to you, my lord.”

  The Blood King stared at her, his eyes fluctuating from emerald to gold and back. He started to say something, then frowned in confusion as the words died on his lips. Then his eyes flared the brightest scarlet Enashoma had ever seen, and they had seen him plenty angry before.

  Hannya grabbed Enashoma’s hand and pulled her back. They waited in silence at the far edge of the room, as the Blood King clutched his temples and chanted one spell after another. Finally, he uttered a growl, which turned into a shout that made Enashoma fall to her knees and clasp her hands over her ears. The ground shook, and dust fell from the ceiling of the Training Hall.

  When it subsided, the scarlet faded from his eyes. Gold again, they raked across Enashoma. She wished she hadn’t dropped her robes in surprise when he had cut her arm. The anger faded from him entirely, his eyes dimmed, and he released a deep sigh.

  “My lord,” Hannya dared ask, “what is wrong?”

  “It is no use asking the fetch,” he said, “the information is spell-locked in the same manner as the spells clouding Turesobei’s mind. Only this knowledge is permanently locked. And I am certain that even if the fetch could cooperate, he would not.”

  “How do you know that it is locked?” Hannya asked.

  “Because just now, having tasted the blood and hearing Lu Bei’s name, I nearly remembered something about Nāa’s bloodline mixing with Chonda Lu’s.”

  “You were there when they merged?” Hannya asked.

  The Blood King shook his head. “Several times, I ghosted into the past and attempted to observe how Chonda Lu created Lu Bei and Motekeru. But each time, the knowledge slipped from my mind immediately afterward. If I focus, I can remember bits and pieces surrounding their creation, but the knowledge fades too fast for me to make sense of it. Clearly, Nāa figures into this somehow, but that is all I know.”

  “I do not recall ever having met Nāa,” Hannya said.

  “I hardly knew him,” the Blood King said. “He never involved himself in Kaiaru politics or the business of humans. According to reputation, he was a gentle soul and a recluse, like Mokelmot.”

  “So why would Chonda Lu lock away knowledge of their bloodlines merging?”

  “Why indeed?” the Blood King asked in a clipped voice, his eyes turning violet. This was his most impatient personality. “Put your clothes on, girl. It is time for us to seek answers.”

  Chapter Five

  Enashoma scooped up her robes, turned her back to him, and dressed quickly. She was careful to not let him see the Maker’s Brush, which was bundled in cloth and tucked into a pocket of her inner robe. Normally, she kept it hidden under her sleeping mat and wrapped up in case the Blood King spied on her magically. But today, the servants were deep cleaning her room, so she’d had to bring it with her.

  Using the Maker’s Brush, she could animate any paper creation she made, as long as it wasn’t much bigger than her hand. The effect normally only lasted for about fifteen minutes, but with Turesobei’s help, she had made an origami bird capable of flying hundreds of leagues to deliver a message to Iniru.

  She suspected she could make better ones now that she had trained in the mudra arts, but Lu Bei had made it clear their first day here that she should keep the brush hidden from the Blood King. Apparently, that was working, or else the Blood King had sensed it and didn’t think it was worth mentioning.

  Enashoma tied her sash, then turned around. His golden eyes seemed to stare beyond her skin and flesh and into her soul. She shivered.

  “Follow me,” the Blood King said.

  “Where are we going?” Enashoma asked.

  “Somewhere I have never taken anyone before—not your brother, not even Hannya.”

  As the Blood King marched out, a worried frown spread across Hannya’s face. Enashoma cringed. Great, even the scary Earth Dragon was worried for her. Surely, being a bonded host wasn’t worse than being an inheritant….

  When she’d opened her third eye to gaze into the Mirror of the Soul, Enashoma had expected to find out she was nothing but a frightened aristocratic child far outside of her element. She was starting to think that would’ve been a much better result.

  Her heart began to pound, so she took a deep breath and focused on staying calm. She couldn’t let her imagination run away with her. Any worry she thought of now would likely be worse than the truth. If she were patient, she would find out what this all meant soon enough. Keeping her mind on the present, she took one step at a time, as they left the Training Hall and crossed the courtyard.

  “Hold up!” a familiar voice shouted.

  Enashoma waited for the Blood King to stop, then turned to see her brother sprinting across the courtyard.

  Turesobei was tall, leanly muscled, and moderately handsome. Kurine thought he was dreamy. She said so almost daily. Iniru obviously thought the same, though she would never in a dozen lifetimes have said something as silly as that. Enashoma didn’t see what the fuss was about, but maybe that’s because she’d known him her entire life. And of course, the whole “I’m a special wizard” thing didn’t impress her.

  However, as far as brothers go, s
he’d gotten lucky. With a tyrant for a mother and their father gone all the time, Turesobei had been more of a protector than the bullies her friends’ brothers seemed to be. He had always checked in on her, even as he’d gotten older and increasingly busy with his studies. And anytime their mother zeroed in on her, he would step in and take some of the heat. The hardest months of her life—at home, before this adventure—were the ones when Turesobei had gone off to Wakaro with their dad. That was part of the reason why, when she'd suspected he was leaving again to go save Iniru, she had run away, too.

  Turesobei’s amber kavaru dangled from a chain that hung from his neck. He’d had that stone all her life, and she remembered the pulse she’d felt when she had first touched it. She must’ve been about four years old, so he would’ve been six. Most wizards didn’t get a kavaru until they started training at the age of ten, but Turesobei had started much earlier than normal.

  She had always assumed that was because he was the high wizard in training and was supposed to succeed their grandfather who was getting old. But given what she now knew about the spells on the kavaru, she wondered if maybe he’d had it since birth and no one had realized that was unusual. The powerful spells on the kavaru could have made people believe any number of things.

  Before, Enashoma had always viewed Turesobei’s kavaru with a sense of wonder and potential. She had often dreamed of being a wizard herself, even though the Chonda, like most clans, did not believe in training girls to become wizards, regardless of talent. The Maker’s Brush was all they allowed her to have, and only because it was viewed as nothing more than a novelty. More importantly, it wouldn’t work for male wizards.

  Enashoma’s grandmother had taught her how to use the brush and passed it down to her when she died. She had said nothing about its origin, about birthmarks or about Kaiaru lineages. Enashoma knew only how to use the brush. And that Lu Bei held it in the highest regard. His demeanor turned worshipful whenever he laid eyes upon it.

  Now, the sight of Turesobei’s kavaru made Enashoma’s stomach turn. Someday, Chonda Lu would take her brother away. That in itself was horrible, but to have him replaced by a demented Kaiaru was even worse.

  Along behind Turesobei flew Lu Bei, one of her favorite things in all the world. The fetch had two forms. In his natural state, he was a diary with a polished leather cover, bound in silver wire and embossed with strange runes. In his fetch form, he had amber skin that matched Turesobei’s kavaru and batwings of a darker shade. He was as big as a house cat, but only because he had grown after absorbing storm energy when Turesobei had destroyed the Storm Dragon’s Heart. That was also why Lu Bei had the Mark of the Storm Dragon on his chest: a lightning bolt spiking through a storm cloud in a circle of black, matching the symbol on Turesobei’s cheek.

  Enashoma wanted to be angry with Lu Bei, knowing he was a part of her brother’s destiny. But having been created to serve Chonda Lu, the fetch probably didn’t have any more choice than Sobei in the whole special destiny plan. Besides, she didn’t want to make things awkward between her and Lu Bei. She dearly loved him, and he had more than earned her trust.

  Turesobei reached them and bowed. “Is everything okay, master? I felt a pulse of magic and then the ground shook and—”

  “How could anything in my realm be amiss?” the Blood King asked.

  Turesobei hesitated. “I was just concerned because Enashoma was taking her test. I figured it was okay, but the others were worried, so I told them to stay in the Dining Hall, while I looked into it.”

  “It was nothing…just a moment of anger about…” scarlet lights danced through the Blood King’s emerald eyes as they locked on Lu Bei “…something your ancestor did long ago. Do not concern yourself with it.”

  Turesobei scanned Enashoma and frowned. Her appearance was obviously disheveled, and there was no way she couldn’t look frightened, given that it took every scrap of discipline she could muster not to break down into tears and run back to her room.

  “Did something go wrong with your test?” he asked.

  Before she could answer, the Blood King said, “That is yet to be determined.” He gestured. “Follow along. You should see this as well.”

  Turesobei started to ask a question, but Hannya hushed him with a small shake of her head.

  “I’ll let the others know everything is okay,” Lu Bei said. He darted over and whispered something to one of the servants, who then dutifully trudged toward the Dining Hall.

  They entered the Throne Room and marched up the steps to the jade throne. Enashoma had been this way several times before. There was an invisible door that led into the Workshop, and if you walked straight through the wall, you appeared on a staircase that led down into the Workshop where Turesobei studied with the Blood King.

  They rounded the throne and stepped through the hidden doorway as normal, but they didn’t enter the Workshop. Or at least, Enashoma didn’t.

  She found herself…somewhere else. The ground was firm beneath her feet, and warm air brushed across her skin. But otherwise, there was only a dark, silent emptiness. She could neither see nor hear anything around her. But there was a tangy, almost metallic smell that she’d come to think of as the scent of magic, and it was potent enough here to make her dizzy.

  A pure, high-pitched note rang out. It was the most beautiful tone she’d ever heard. Her heartbeat increased and goosebumps spread across her skin. Another note sounded. This one was deep, warm, and familiar. Then thousands of varied tones rang out, like a vast collection of wind chimes clattering and clinking in a strong breeze.

  The pungent scent of magic broke apart into more than a dozen smells: cardamom, lavender, lemon, overturned earth, rain-cleansed air, cold steel…. Before she could recognize them all, an array of numbers and mystical symbols flashed before her eyes, glowing in various hues.

  In a blink, nearly all the sounds, notes, colors, symbols, and numbers disappeared. Only a single tone now rang out—kind and melancholy. It was accompanied by the aroma of fermented tea leaves, specifically the kind Lu Bei prized above all others. And a calligraphic symbol hovered before her. It was one she knew well, for it was the activating mark required to bring her origami creations to life.

  The mark faded away, and an amethyst light pulsed ahead: eleven flashes and a pause, then eleven more flashes and a pause, repeatedly. Before she even realized it, her feet shuffled her toward the light. She reached out and grabbed its source.

  Suddenly, the pale Kaiaru man appeared again, standing before her, bathed in the amethyst light. He smiled warmly.

  “Hello, Chonda Enashoma. I have waited a long time to meet you.”

  Chapter Six

  Enashoma gasped, closed her fist around the light source, tumbled backward, and fell onto the floor.

  The Blood King spoke a word, and thousands of small, brightly-hued lights illuminated a long, narrow room elaborately paneled in rich, rare woods. A waist-high shelf ran around the perimeter. Small, open-topped boxes filled the shelf. The lights were shining from inside them. Enashoma was at the far end of the room, while Turesobei, Hannya, and the Blood King remained at the entrance.

  Turesobei's amber kavaru glowed, casting strange shadows on his face. He blinked in confusion and muttered something unintelligible.

  Hannya’s kavaru blazed scarlet light from her navel. Eyes wide, she shook her head in disbelief. “Is this…is this all of them?”

  “Almost,” the Blood King said. All nine of his stones glowed as well. “A few were lost to the sea and buried in earthquakes. Over the centuries, the Keepers gathered all they could find. After creating the Ancient Cold and Deep, I went to their Forbidden Library and stole their collection, which was not an easy feat, even for me. They do not even know that it is missing.”

  With a warm stone still clutched in her fist, Enashoma stood and peered into the boxes on the shelf. Each contained a different kavaru. There were thousands of them.

  “Why are they all glowing?” Turesobei asked.r />
  “The spell of revelation,” the Blood King said.

  “It’s really rude to use that spell,” Lu Bei said.

  The Blood King shrugged.

  “When did you gather all these?” Hannya asked.

  “Not long after you left me. And until now, no one else has ever known that I had them. Of course, you would have learned it soon enough. These stones are an integral part of my plan.”

  Enashoma opened her hand. In her palm was the round amethyst kavaru of Nāa—its pulse matching her heartbeat. Her eyes locked onto the glimmering stone, not with fear or dread but complete fascination. She could not have looked away if she had wanted to.

  Lu Bei glided along the shelves toward Enashoma, naming Kaiaru whose stones he recognized. Then he squeaked, crashed into the wall, and zoomed up to Enashoma. He gazed lovingly down at the stone in her hand. Tears welled in his eyes as the most melancholy of smiles stained his face. He reached out and touched the kavaru lightly with one finger. He snapped his hand back, his eyes wide as saucers.

  “It’s alive!”

  She nodded. “He spoke to me. That’s why we’re here.”

  His large eyes locked onto hers. Tears rolled down his cheeks and through his now broad smile. “Nāa spoke again…and to you?” He started to say something else, but then chewed his lip and choked back his words.

  Enashoma nodded. “Apparently, I’m a descendant of his.”

  “Of course, you are.”

  “You knew?! And you didn’t tell me?”

  “Until today, it was a secret.”

  “You are not going to enlighten us further, are you?” the Blood King asked.

  “I would not if I could, but I can’t.”