She’s more like Raikama than me,I thought. The contest for Imurinya’s hand reminded me of my brother’s tale of Vanna and her suitors. Raikama never liked hearing about the lady of the moon. I felt a twinge of sympathy for her. Could it be because Imurinya reminded her of herself?
I pushed aside the thought. Tonight was for celebrating new beginnings, not dwelling on the past.
Led by Takkan, everyone in the chamber raised their lanterns and lit them, until the light of Imurinya herself seemed to smile upon the theater. The attendants opened the doors so we could see that the lantern lighting had begun outside, too, casting a golden glow upon the river and on the slope of Rabbit Mountain.
And with the gentle snow gusting through the open doors, fresh and white against the theater’s vermilion poles, I realized Takkan had been right all along.
Iro was the most beautiful place in the world.
When I found Takkan, he was putting on his armor while his sister stashed festival food in Admiral’s saddlebags. Megari tugged at his sleeve when she saw me.
“There she is,” she cried, nudging Takkan with a wide grin. “Now aren’t you glad you stayed here instead of going off to search for her?”
For some reason, the look of chagrin Takkan shot his sister made my stomach flutter.
“Takkan was so thrilled you came,” Megari pressed on, oblivious to her brother’s growing mortification. “He wrote the song, did you know? Well, only the words. I wrote the music.”
I touched my heart.I loved it. So did everyone else.
“I thought you’d like it.” Megari smiled slyly. “The lantern walk has just begun—you two should go and see it. Don’t wait for me—performing always leaves me famished.”
She ran off before either of us could stop her.
“Now I suppose I know how my mother feels when I run off to battle,” Takkan joked.
You’re leaving already?I gestured toward Admiral.
“Soon,” he replied, regret thickening his voice. He cleared his throat, lowering his lantern so it was level with mine. “I wasn’t going to without saying goodbye.”
That made me happier than I wished to admit.
We walked together, the laughter and drumming from the festival buzzing in my head as our steps synchronized. We passed a row of ice sculptures. They were as magnificent as Megari had said: tigers and butterflies, dragon boats and empresses wearing phoenix crowns, even a replica of the imperial palace. I couldn’t choose a favorite.
For once the food didn’t entice me. I was floating, just like the lanterns on the river. They all looked like little moons, round and full. Each had a red string tied to the top, something I had never noticed in all my years of celebrating midwinter in Gindara. I stopped and pointed.
“It’s a local tradition,” said Takkan helpfully. “If you tie a red string to your lantern and place it on the river, the sacred cranes will carry your strand of fate to the person you’re meant to love.”
A beautiful story, but quite implausible. If that were so, everyone in the kingdom would journey to Iro and set their lanterns on the Baiyun River.
Perhaps the point of such legends was simply to bring hope.
“The Winter Festival is Emuri’en’s celebration,” Takkan went on. “Not just to revere the moon; it used to be an evening for people to meet, and perhaps to fall in love.”
I kept my eyes on the water, watching the icy surface glitter under the lantern light. Ignoring the slight quickening of my pulse.
“Did you ever get to see the full moon over Rabbit Mountain? We say that’s when—”
Imurinya’s watching,I mouthed. My shoulders sagged with regret. No, I had never seen it.
“She might not be watching tonight,” Takkan said, lifting his lantern toward the mountain, “but I still say that’s quite a sight.”
I looked where he was pointing, and my breath caught. There was no moon, but the light traveling from the shimmering Baiyun River illuminated its two peaks, and the wind had carried off a few of the lanterns so they floated in the sky, like tiny suns against the mountain.
He knelt beside the river, and I did the same. “I must be drunk on moonlight to tell you this…but after I left you at Sparrow Inn, I…I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I didn’t know anything about you, and yet I had never met anyone so determined—or brazen. Not even Megari.” He laughed, then his expression turned serious once more. “Somehow, I knew I would see you again. It was as if I could feel our strands crossing. Yet when you came to Iro, you seemed different. Sadder, more withdrawn. I’d look for you in the kitchen as Pao and I walked around the castle. I wanted to make you smile.”
I remembered. Every time I caught him walking the grounds, I’d slow down my work, heartened to see him getting stronger with each passing day.
“I quickly learned I couldn’t compete with food.”
