IGMS Issue 44 (4 page)

At the base of jagged blue mountains rising out of the morning mist, Three inspected the new prisoners, who were learning to work in the fields.

Four patrolled the main prison gate, her paws making prints in the dust.

Five sat near the gingko trees on the eastern border, eyes half-lidded, nostrils flaring at the scent of pine blowing down from the mountaintops.

Watching through their eyes, I leaned back in my rickety wooden chair and took a sip of tea.

One of the newcomers in the fields, a woman just out of girlhood, turned in the corner of Three's vision. Something about her chin, the flash of her eyes . . .

My hand jerked violently. Tea splashed across my lap. I set the sloshing teacup on the table and wiped my palms against the rough cloth of my shirt before instructing Three to move closer.

When I was first imprisoned here in the camp, I mistook strangers for relatives or friends nearly every week, but that yearning for the past had faded long ago. This too was probably nothing, just another memory surfacing like a bubble from the bottom of a lake, but I had to make sure.

Three stalked closer until he was only a few feet away. The girl pretended not to notice the wolf, but the muscles on her back tightened as she pulled a bunch of carrots from the ground and shook the dirt loose.

I concentrated on her face until the teacup in front of me faded away, replaced entirely by Three's vision.

The resemblance to my younger brother's wife was unmistakable.

My chest tightened, suddenly finding it hard to inhale. Could this girl be Ah-ni's younger sister? No, she would be too old by now. Maybe a niece, or a cousin?

I instructed Three to keep watch on the girl, and Four and Five to continue their own surveillance. Then I concentrated on the teacup again until my wolves were only dim nudges in my mind and I was back in my tiny, windowless room in the guardhouse, with its single flickering
supai
stone
lamp.

To still my shaking hands, I tried smoothing back my hair and realized it had become matted. My chin was scratchy and unshaven, and my skin had grown furrowed with wrinkles and scars like the hills near the capital where I had once lived. If the girl was anything like Ah-ni, she could forgive my rough appearance. But would she forgive me for becoming a Sneak Lord?

The door creaked open. "Cha-be, check."

"Check," I replied automatically, and the door clicked shut. The guards didn't even bother coming inside my room anymore. I never gave them trouble in all these years.

I let my mind drift back into Three, watching the girl. So strong was my desire to contact her that it bled over into Four and Five, and soon she was encircled by all three wolves. Other prisoners pointed and whispered, but she didn't seem to notice until Five tentatively licked the back of her arm. She sprang back, yelling, and I pulled my wolves away, still keeping her within eyesight.

I needed to talk with her. The yearning was so strong, it felt as if my ribcage would pull me toward her by itself. It had been so long since I'd seen a friendly face.

But what if instead of a smile, I got a sneer? My hopes had been dashed against the rocks so many times, I didn't know if I could take it again.

I inhaled deeply to draw in strength, then coughed, choking on the spicy tang of
supai
stone
dust from the nearby mines. I needed to face this like a man. Or at least the man I had once been, rather than what I had become.

Knocking twice to let the guards know I was coming out, I opened the door, planning on giving a line about needing to use the toilets.

As I stepped into the hallway, the words died on my lips.

I blinked, and all three wolves blinked with me. First the girl outside had looked like Ah-ni, and now the man talking with the guards strongly resembled my younger brother, Giup-yo.

Often Sneak Lords couldn't take the fracturing of their minds; I had seen it happen before. One day they appeared fine, and the next they howled with their wolves.

This man had Giup-yo's eyes and melodious voice. He stood tall like our father, not hunched over as I did. And his face wasn't angry or fearful, but polite and respectful. Could it be Giup-yo?

No. My younger brother couldn't be here.

Because my father had defected to fight for the Empire during the war, the new government considered my brother and me tainted. I made a deal with the Doyen -- he had gotten rid of most of his rivals for power by that point -- so Giup-yo could remain free. All these years in prison were for him, to pay for our father's crimes. The Doyen wouldn't have broken his promise, would he?

My ears finally registered what they were talking about: finding a prisoner. A girl.

"I can help." My scratchy voice surprised me just as much as the guards, but I had to determine if this man really was my brother. "My wolves know all the prisoners."

The master guard cocked his head. "Hero Roo Giup-yo, may I introduce our eldest Sneak Lord, Prisoner C.B."

My little brother, in front of me after all these years. And they hadn't taken away his hero status, so he must not be here as a prisoner. I thanked all of the fates in the heavens.

The master guard continued, "Prisoner C.B. has helped us catch hundreds of misdeeds around the country, and the Kuo Peninsula is safer for his efforts."

I kept my face impassive as my happiness turned into shame. Hundreds of men, women, and children that I had turned in to keep myself -- and Giup-yo -- alive. Old women caught stealing food; children swimming across the Songim Strait to the Empire; prisoners just trying to survive in the mines any way they could. So many sins I had committed by watching through the wolves' eyes and whispering to the guards. I would pay for each one in the afterlife.

"I hope I can be of service." I inclined my head in deference.

"If he'll help me find the prisoner quicker, I'll use all means necessary," Giup-yo said, but no spark of recognition showed on his face. As much as I yearned to embrace him -- my brother -- a small part of me was relieved that he didn't know yet what I had become.

The guards shifted their feet. They had too much work to babysit a Hero of the Revolution, but they couldn't have the Doyen hear that they were shirking their duties. "There's no need to involve you, Prisoner C.B."

"It would be my pleasure," I said, giving them my widest smile. I hadn't made a peep of trouble for them in so many years. Please let it pay off now.

Eyeing the door to the prison yard, the head guard said, "Well, if you insist. We have a group of new prisoners to settle into camp, and as you can imagine, we're needed outside. Please shout if you need anything, Hero Roo Giup-yo. There'll be a guard within earshot at all times."

I led Giup-yo back to my tiny room, my mouth dry. Now that I had him here with me, the words flew away faster than a deer spotting one of my wolves. I'd never imagined I'd see him again.

As soon as the door closed, my brother began pacing around the tiny space, barely looking at me. "I need you to find a girl . . . I mean woman . . . who arrived in the past few days. Delicate face, small stature . . ."

I swallowed, thinking of the girl pulling up carrots outside. "Does she look like Ah-ni?"

Giup-yo froze in place. "How do you know my wife's name?"

I held my hands towards him, palms up. "Do you not recognize me? Brother?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "The only brother I have is Roo Cha-be, and he hasn't written in many years."

When I was younger and my mother was feeling well in the evenings, she would pull me aside and say, "Look after your brother, Cha-be. That's the duty of an older brother, to look after the family. Always do what's best." Revealing my identity would surely cause him pain, but it would be "what's best."

Whispering so the guards outside couldn't hear, I said, "Our mother fell sick when we were very little, but didn't die until the year we left to fight in the war. In the fall, we gathered wild ginseng in the mountains behind our home. The trader in the market never gave us a fair price for it, but we thought we were rich. We grew up in the same village as the Doyen, and you used to call him 'Beaky' because his nose . . ."

The purple flame of the
supai
stone
lamp danced in the whites of Giup-yo's eyes. "How do you know all of this? Did the Doyen tell you?"

Part of me wanted to confirm the lie; it would be easier. But he deserved the truth. "I'm your brother. Cha-be. Although I've been called 'Prisoner C.B.' for most of my life."

He clutched my wrist, his fingers hard as iron. "How did you get here, in prison? Why didn't you tell me?"

The words tasted like rotted fish in my mouth. "Father fled to the Empire. He fought against us in the war. The Doyen needed someone to punish."

Releasing my arm, Giup-yo rocked back on his heels, eyes searching somewhere far away. I poured more lukewarm tea from the kettle, then offered my teacup to him. He took it and drained the cup instantly.

Five's vision suddenly overlaid my own: she had caught a woman stealing from the prison kitchen. The woman clutched a tiny bag of rice to her thin chest, tears running down her cheeks as she faced the snarling wolf. Her lips moved in a prayer, too fast for me to catch the words.

For the first time in many years, I had something more important to do. I commanded Five to walk away, letting the woman go free. Once she realized what the wolf was doing, the woman stumbled past, bowing and thanking me for my kindness. If the guards found out what had happened, I would be whipped, but today I didn't care.

"What was that?" asked Giup-yo. He stared at me. "Your eyes, they glinted silver for a moment."

I gazed down at the bare wooden boards of the floor. "I was tending to my wolves. I've disgraced our family by becoming a Sneak Lord." Father would surely have preferred death in the mines to spying for the prison guards.

"Oh, Cha-be." Giup-yo squeezed my shoulder until I looked up. His expression was kinder than I had expected. "I had no idea the Doyen would use my research like this."

"What do you mean?"

He poured himself another cup of tea. "Ah, you've missed so much. After the war, the Doyen asked us to concentrate our
supai
stone
research on defense rather than weaponry. Replacing the wolves' eyes with the
supai stones
and linking them to human minds, that was only supposed to be a temporary measure. To watch for an invasion from the Empire. It was never supposed to be used here in the prison camps, against our own people. I can't tell you how sorry I am, Cha-be."

After a minute, understanding dawned on me. My little brother's research had created the Sneak Lords, and I had become one to save him. Sometimes the fates have a sense of humor.

He misinterpreted my expression. "Please don't be angry with me. I couldn't have imagined this would happen."

There were no words to tell him of my past few decades as a Sneak Lord: the searing pain after the procedure, when no amount of screaming or vomiting could bring release; the extra minds overlaid on mine, thoughts and sights and sounds swirling so fast I felt like I was spinning; and the exhilaration when the wolves ran through the dark mountain forests, swift and tireless as the falling snowflakes that collected on their fur. I closed my eyes briefly, remembering the calmness of having just one mind, before changing the subject. "How is Ah-ni?"

Giup-yo's face darkened. "She has grown close to the Doyen. Too close." He didn't have to say more: the Doyen had always been a handsome man.

He continued. "Our daughter, Henge-sa, has disappeared, along with her husband. I found him in another prison camp, his mind taken away by the
supai stones
, just like your wolves." His fists clenched and unclenched. "So many ways the Doyen has twisted my research."

"And you think Henge-sa is here?" Three continued to watch the girl who looked like Ah-ni, keeping just out of eyesight.

"I hope so. I need to find her before the Doyen decides I'm also a threat. It seems anyone can disappear these days."

I sucked in a breath. "But the Doyen promised me you'd be safe."

"He also promised that my family would be safe."

Hatred hot and feral burned through me. Four howled into the blue sky outside.

Giup-yo clutched my hand, eyes wide as the howl dissipated. "Please, Cha-be. Do you know where she is?"

I fell into Three's vision and nudged the girl with my nose. She scrabbled away across the dirt of the field -- Three padding after her -- until one of the nearby women said, "The Sneak Lord wants you to come. I'd follow his orders if I were you."

The girl nodded, and soon I heard footsteps in the hallway. Three stopped in front of the door and motioned for her to open it before I sent him back to his rounds. Seeing myself through his eyes was always disconcerting.

When the girl opened the door and spotted Giup-yo, tears formed in her eyes, but she held herself back, glaring at me.