Magical, Qi said.
Something I’ve never seen before, Chen said. Then he added, It won’t take us long—a day or two at most. Don’t worry. We’ll find you along the road.
Then they were both gone, more completely than if their bodies had vanished. Inside my thoughts, Chen’s last words echoed weirdly, like a ghost’s unearthly prediction. “Yún?” I said, uncertainly.
“I’m here, Kai.”
“What do you think?”
“Application granted,” the guard said crisply. “Transport fees paid at the next station.”
“But—”
We had no time to discuss the situation. Two much bigger guards hefted us to the nearest counter, where a wizened scribe laid out the fees we owed: entry fee, overnight residency, stabling fees, import fees, and an even larger sum they claimed was an estimated magic usage tax. Yún handed over the sum, in spite of my arguments. Once we had our stamped visas and receipts, the guards chivvied us through a pair of gates and into the city.
“Now what?” I muttered to Yún.
“We . . . we find a room and wait?”
She didn’t sound all that certain herself, but she was right about one thing. We couldn’t stand in the middle of this muddy road for long.
We headed down the road, into the main settlement of the kingdom. The only settlement. Hundreds of people jabbered at each other in different languages and dialects, all mixed together. Everywhere was the stink of magic and grease and steam. And soldiers. Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers patrolling the streets, or marching in drills in fields outside the city, next to the garrison. Holding tight onto our pony’s lead, we threaded our way through the chaos and took rooms at the first inn we could afford.
Once we had our pony settled, and our bags stowed, it was evening verging on night. Chen and Qi had not returned. Yún and I sat in the common room to plan our next move. We’d ordered a large pot of a strange new drink, supposedly imported from lands across the sea. The drink was strong and face-scrunchingly bitter. I spooned in a helping of honey. Tried it again. Bleh, still horrible.
Yún stared in her cup, the drink untasted. Her mouth was pinched with unhappiness. We hadn’t talked much (at all) these past two weeks, but I couldn’t help asking, “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged. “Worried. About Qi and Chen. About . . . everything. All those soldiers, too.” She shuddered. “There’s trouble between the mountains and the empire. Maybe it’s something to do with Lian, or not. Doesn’t matter if we’re caught in the middle.”
Worry likes the sitting man, the old saying goes. And I couldn’t blame Yún. We’d spent a month dodging mercenaries and thieves and snowstorms, and we still had more than five hundred li to go before we reached Phoenix City.
And it was the first time in two weeks that she’d answered me without frowning or glaring or muttering something afterward. My insides warmed a bit, and not because of the hideous coffee drink. Picking up my courage, I asked, “So what do you think we should do?”
Yún hesitated visibly, as though she weren’t so sure about my reaction. “I think we should go. Right away. And not by horse caravan. We need a wind-and-magic train. We’ll have to sell our pony and all our things, but we should get a good price for both. The second-hand dealers would be glad to buy our gear.”
I eyed her suspiciously. “You planned all this today?”
Another hesitation. “No. Days ago.”
And hadn’t told me until the last minute.
(You told Chen she liked to order you around.)
(And being right is so wonderful.)
At the same time, Yún was right, too. We had to reach Lian as soon as possible.
“What about Chen and Qi?” I asked.
“They’ll find us,” she said quickly. Too quickly.
“Are you sure?”
“No. All I know is that we have to reach Lian as soon as possible.”
I sighed. My head ached and my heart was empty. And yet, and yet . . . As much as I wanted to argue, she was right, curse her. “Okay. We hop on the fastest train tomorrow. What about our passports? Won’t that tell our spy friends what we’re up to?”
Yún looked startled, as if she’d expected me to start a fight. “I don’t think that is a problem,” she said at last. “After all, it’s not the emperor who wants to stop us. It’s someone in Lóng City, in the court. Someone who wants the crown.”