Page 45 of Whispers of the Dragon
But he was clearly just as confused as Eira. “Something tells me I’ll find out later.”
25
Wake the Dead
Ryu had taken Eira straight to the palace. There was a tingling of uneasiness that pricked at his mind … That flower had been meant for her, not Jun.
Kasumi Island and his people were peaceful. It was an unmarred place of violence, and it was why they had kept the island secret for an eternity. Rarely, its people left, and even rarer were they banished, like Kenshi had been. Yet Eira had barely escaped death today.
With her now safe, Ryu wasted no time slipping back out to where the old man had given her the flower earlier. The house that was closest to the spot, he was certain belonged to the man, so he didn’t bother to knock. It had been strange to know exactly what he would find before he even opened the door.
With the old man lying cold on the floor with a dried-up flower in his hand, Ryu only had one thought in his mind.
Good riddance.
Ryu found himself at Itako’s later in the night, just like she had said. Of course, he hadn’t known earlier why he would be here, and it wasn’t until Eira had fallen asleep, crying over how their day had gone, that he’d realized what must be done.
Eira felt all alone on a foreign land, but it wasn’t her home that she missed, as it had done nothing but betray her … it was her grandparents.
And as much as Ryu didn’tparticularlywant them to come over, he knew it needed to be done if Kasumi Island was going to begin to feel like home for her.
Itako sat in her rocking chair next to her empty fireplace, smoking her pipe. She didn’t even bother to wait to hear his voice, knowing exactly who had entered.
“Is he dead?”
“He is,” he confirmed. “But shouldn’t you know?” She was a seeress, after all.
She didn’t miss a beat, having no love lost at the islander’s death. “I speak to the dead, but I cannot speak to the ones where he went.”
Ryu’s skin turned icy at her words.
“Ask your question …” She could sense there was something on his mind, and it was true. He had been wondering something all day.
“How come nothing happened to me and Eira? We both touched the flower.”
“The flower isn’t deadly by touch butby smell,” she answered all knowingly.
“So, Jun smelled the flower when she left,” he mumbled the obvious under his breath. Now it all made sense, and why he had found the man dead by the second flower. “But why would he want to kill Eira?”
“People only harm for two reasons”—her grave voice echoed her wisdom—“either to attain power or to feel powerful.”
Ryu knew she was right. He highly doubted the old man could possibly think he could attain power. Therefore, he must’ve wanted to feel powerful, like Kenshi, and so he hoped his problem was already solved.
“Now”—the old witch got to the point of why he had really come, using the sucking end of her pipe to point to the table where the little girl had lain on earlier—“what you seek is over there.”
Ryu went over to find two little bottles full of shiny, golden elixir. “Why didn’t you give these to me earlier?”
“Who’s to say you would have come to the same conclusion if I gave them to you earlier?”
All this made his brain hurt, so he decided to leave it. He’d never understand why Itako did the things she did in the order she did them.
“Will this work?”
She simply shrugged. “I suppose you’re going to find out.”
“So, you don’t know if it will?” The frustration over her riddles was evident in his voice.
“My ancestors have told me they have tried to bring lovers over before, but nothing worked.” It happened from time to time; an islander would leave to see the outside world only for them to fall in love. It always ended cruelly, as they could never bring their lover over to their homeland and were then forced to choose between the love of their life or love of their home.
