20. UNMASKED

Mask, tilted up.

Wind skims my cheeks, swirling dust across the expanse between us. The ravine, tall on either side of us. The ribbon of blue sky, arrowing above.

Cry of a hawk.

I can almost feel Plum's heart stop. Her face has gone bloodless. She should be grateful. If I were atop this horse as Qilin? Then I'd really be a ghost risen to haunt her.

As it is, I warned her. She's come to the end of a nearly two thousand l journey only to face the unthinkable she sought to debunk. Her mouth gapes, and I know the feeling. The mind shuts down, leaving only the scent of prey and muscle instinct.

Plum trots her horse forward. I trot mine back.

We repeat this dance twice.

Take a good look, Plum.I lower my mask. I am the one you hunt to prove your loyalty.

Don't let me get away now.

I wheel my horse around and dig in my heels.

"After him!"

I pound through the gorge, limestone ablur. Past a crag, I raise my arm. From atop the cliff, Cloud's soldiers pull on the ropes. Fences snap out of where we've buried them in the dirt, closing behind Plum's riders. Deeper in, I raise my arm again. Boulders crash down. Horses whinny in panic. Rocks smash into earth behind me, then pots. Jugs of oil break, splattering onto the dried brush we've lashed to the sides of the cliff.

Final phase.Arrows soar downward, streaking fire. I speed toward the narrow ledge of stone carving up the gorge. I'll reach it before the brush catches. When fire and wind are our weapons, a breath is the difference between life and death. Plum and her crew will be trapped—

Everything flies in reverse. The sky. The hawk.

For a split second, I'm just as airborne.

I hit the ground and roll over and over from the force. Grit in my teeth. Against my face.

My face, fully unmasked to Cloud. The thought lances through my mind, brighter than the pain. I lurch to my feet. My mask—my mask—

—rests concave side up, several ch away.

I scramble for it—fingers closing around the clay. Back on my face. I limp toward my horse. In the few seconds I've lost, the fire is everywhere. I started it, but I can't control it. Can't contain it. It has a will of its own. The wind blows, and fire rips through the gorge. My horse rears as I reach for the reins. She's terrified, naturally. There's the fire—

And there's Crow.

I didn't think twice of being thrown off the saddle, but now I realize I fell for a reason.

Now, finally, I notice Crow.

He passes through my horse, weaving in and out of the animal like a needle, spooking it with his chill.

He did this.

Behind me, the fire is growing. Its heat presses into my back like a giant hand. Move.

But I can't. Crow stills in his administrations, and we stare at each other through the smoke. I can feel his intentions as if they were scraped into my skin. The fall didn't kill me, but the fire will. Rather than try and fail to secure his body again, he would destroy it all, just to protect Cicada. This is his final play.

I admire him for it, for a perverse moment.

Then I see Cloud. I see Cloud, and all feelings of admiration evaporate, along with all thoughts of Crow, as she and her horse ride down the ledge, into the flames.

"Get back—!"

"Remove your mask."

No—I put it on quick. She didn't see. Couldn't have.

"I said remove it!" Cloud advances, swinging down from her horse. I back up—but there's nowhere to go. Fire behind me—and Cloud in front. She seizes me by the collar.

Tell her. I have to tell her—I'm Zephyr.

"Release him!"

At first, I can't tell whose voice it is, or where it comes from. The roar of the flames and the screams of the soldiers addle my senses, their panic my panic. Is it Ku? No. Ku would come from behind and this person—rides down the ledge before me, urging their horse to leap over the fire. They land in the gorge, and Crow freezes as I stare.

How—what—Cicada? Is that really her? She should be east. Why—doesn't matter. It's Crow's lordess, I tell myself as she rushes toward us. Not mine.

But then another shout cuts through the screams and strikes me like an arrow to the back.

"Cloud!"

And though fire surrounds us, my blood turns to ice as I see the rider behind Cicada.