Page 33 of A Forgery of Fate

“Magic paintbrush,” I murmured as I came out of my trance.

At the words, puffs of steam hissed from the phoenix’s outline. Her wings bubbled up from the damp parchment, her crimson eyes blinking alive.

If you want to live,she uttered in my mind,stop gawking and get the ring back.

I nearly dropped my brush. “What in the—” Icy mist clogged my throat, closing it off so I couldn’t speak.

“Time’s up,” said Puhkan. “Alchemist, announce thetiles.”

Nomi’s voice trembled. She could see what I’d painted, and from her expression, I knew it didn’t match the tiles Falina had thrown.

“Only one piece has landed face up,” Nomi whispered, the color leaching from her face. She held up the tile. “Three bamboos.”

“And what did your sister paint?” Puhkan leered, though he already knew the answer.

“Don’t—” Falina cried, but the men pushed her to theside.

Puhkan stalked toward me, a dagger at hand. “A pity,” he said. “Ghosts it is.”

A shock of water burst out of my painting, throwing Puhkan against the wall before he swiped at my throat. Mama and Nomi rammed him from the side, and Fal dropped the nearest brazier onto his head.

Get the ring!the watery spirit shouted in my head. It sliced through the ropes binding my ankles.Now!

Shooting to my feet, I seized the ring from Puhkan’s hand, slid it onto my thumb. Immediately, the opal in the center started glowing, iridescent colors swirling into a mist that soon flooded out.

“What’s that?” Nomi cried.

“I don’t know,” I said, ushering my family out of the kitchen. “Let’s get out of here.”

A phoenix, made entirely of water, peeled off my tile painting. Her every feather rippled with the intensity of a cascading waterfall, and her wings were crystalline, each ridge like a shard of ice. Her red eyes blazed.There’s a carriage outside,she rasped.Get inside. You owe Elang’anmi a debt.

With that, she flew over Puhkan’s men, swiping at them with her enormous talons.

“It’s a spirit,” the men gasped.

“Petty sorcery,” snarled Puhkan. “Cut it down. Burn it.”

His men kicked over the brazier and charged at the bird, slashing through her feathers with their daggers. But no steel or iron could penetrate her, and she hissed at them.

“Run!” I shouted, grabbing Mama and my sisters.

We made for the window in the back of the kitchen, thesame one I’d stared out of when Baba left home for the last time. Countless times I had laid my head against the wooden sills, waiting for him to come home. Now I kicked through the milky paper panes and helped my family escape onto theroad.

At the last minute, I glanced back at the phoenix. Puhkan and his men were waving torches at her. The fiery heat made her feathers melt and flicker, and the phoenix’s red eyes darkened dangerously. Rushing forward, she spread her wings wide, flying through Puhkan and his men and dousing the torches until they were but wisps of smoke.

The air turned cold, and the men grew afraid. “Please, divine spirit. We mean you no harm.”

The phoenix rose high above them, her magnificent wings still spread. A few of her feathers had melted from the fire, and in a dramatic display, she revived them one by one—only this time, each feather was icicle sharp at the tip.

The men tried to run, but the phoenix whipped her tail around them in a loop. Using her wing, she smothered Puhkan’s face, digging into his temples with her feathers. His skin went translucent like the jade disk hanging over his chest.

I climbed out of the window right before he screamed.

As promised, a carriage was waiting on the road. I recognized its gilded wheels and the carved dragons along the roof. My family was already inside, and once I joined them, the horses took off, making for the hills.

Behind, our old house went up in flames. Puhkan’s men fled through the door, yelling and shrieking. While Mama and my sisters stared, embracing each other in relief, my gazewent to the sky. I was looking for the phoenix, but she was gone. All that was left was a cloud of silvery mist floating toward the carriage.

It sneaked inside through the window slats and gathered over my hand. In a blink, it vanished, and I looked down at the opal ring, which had turned suddenly cold on my finger.

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