“What is that bowl on your head?”
Andahai shushed everyone with a clap. “Enough, Brothers. I know we’re all excited to see Shiori again, and relieved that she’s alive and well. But maybe we should give her a chance to speak.”
At that, I lowered my head sadly.
“What’s the matter, Sister?” Hasho asked. In the two months since I’d seen him, his hair had grown noticeably longer, as it had with my other brothers. Badly shaven beards sprouted from their chins and cheeks, and mysterious scrapes peeked out from their torn sleeves and pants. There were other changes too. Less obvious ones, like the shadows clinging to their broadened frames, the glassy hollowness in their eyes—as if their time as cranes was chipping away at their humanity day by day.
I couldn’t evade telling them about my curse any longer.
I tapped my throat, then shook my head.
“What’s the matter, Shiori? You…you can’t speak?”
It wasn’t that Icouldn’tspeak. Imust notspeak.
But none of my brothers understood, and I didn’t know how to explain.
Even as I tried, they weren’t paying attention. They were exchanging looks with one another, looks that I could not read. Reiji grunted, his expression darkening. He was the only one who had not welcomed me back.
“Raikama thought of everything,” Benkai murmured. “What about that bowl on your head? Is that also our stepmother’s mark?”
Wandei approached, his head tilted methodically. “Surely there has to be a way to take it off.” He tried pulling it, gently at first, then with more strength. “It won’t budge.”
“Let me try,” Yotan said, coming up behind his twin to try to yank it off. He scratched the mole on his chin, puzzled. “Have you tried cutting it?”
I exaggerated a nod, dipping the bowl low. I’d tried everything—every knife in Mrs. Dainan’s kitchen, and every tool I came across while in Tianyi Village. The bowl was indestructible.
Kiki chose that moment to fly out from behind my hair. Her pale wings flapped crisply, newly dry after our encounter with the waterfall, and my brothers backed away.
All except Hasho.
Kiki landed on his raised hand, resting on the curve of his thumb. She remembered my youngest brother, the only one who’d known my secret.
“Good to see you, Kiki,” Hasho said politely. “I hope you’ve been keeping Shiori out of mischief these last two months.”
My brothers had seen Kiki the day our stepmother cursed us all, but they’d never gotten a chance to ask me about her.
“She has no string,” Wandei marveled.
I’m not a kite,Kiki said dryly, though my brother couldn’t hear.
Reiji’s eyes narrowed with distrust. He put on his usual grimace. “It’s magic.”
“Of course it’s magic,” said Hasho. There was a warning in his tone. “Don’t, Reiji. We’ve been through this before….”
I frowned at my brothers. What was going on?Been through what?
“Magic is forbidden,” argued Reiji. “This…this paper bird is trouble.”
I’ll show him trouble!Kiki nipped his nose.
Reiji lunged to catch her, but Kiki was too fast, shooting up and quickly returning to my shoulder.
“It’s your fault we’re cursed,” Reiji accused me, his nostrils flaring with resentment. “If you hadn’t angered Raikama, then we would still be at home, still be princes, not forced to spend all our days as birds.” He gestured spitefully at his bruises and ragged clothes.
“So you’d rather we never found out that Father married a demon?” Yotan spluttered.
“What good came of it? We didn’t get a chance to tell him. Now he’s alone, withher,and we can’t even protect him.”
