Meilin traced her finger to Zhong. It wasn’t very far at all. No wonder Zhong was the first to be attacked.
Is my father still alive? she wondered. If she closed her eyes, she could still see the general’s face.
Meilin dragged her finger from Zhong to Eura. It seemed like a much farther distance than Stetriol to Zhong.
Why am I here? she thought furiously. Why am I not there fighting? And why do I have such a useless spirit animal?
She wished the others were ready to go. Meilin had selected her weapons and supplies and packed with the efficiency her father had taught her. She wasn’t surprised that the others were slower. They probably weren’t used to having enough belongings to even learn how to pack.
It felt a little better to be going on a mission, but doubt chewed at her. How was chasing down the other Great Beasts supposed to do anything to help Zhong now?
Meilin spun. Jhi sat silently behind her. The black spots around her eyes made her look a little sad. She was so slow. So peaceful. Sure, she had some healing powers, but not enough to save someone mortally wounded. Jhi would be a very useful ally if the Devourer needed to be cuddled to death.
Fury bubbled in Meilin.
The door opened. Immediately, Meilin composed her face. She wouldn’t let anyone see her truly upset. Especially not if it was Rollan.
And it was Rollan, along with Conor, Abeke, and Finn. They seemed in high spirits, apart from Finn, whose youthful face was as masked as Meilin’s. In the lamps of the map room, his gray hair looked nearly white.
“It’s a little late to be studying up on geography,” Rollan said to Meilin. Essix sailed in behind him, tucking her wings to keep from singeing them on the torches.
“I was bored,” she replied stiffly. “I finished packing hours ago.”
“Let me guess,” Rollan said. “You took a class in it. Four tutors taught you how to fold your clothing.”
“For the record, I traveled a lot with my father. I taught myself.” Meilin turned to Finn. “Tell me again why our mission is so important?”
Quietly, Finn explained, “If we truly can find Rumfuss the Boar, we might be able to persuade him to give up his talisman. I understand you four retrieved one from Arax the Ram. The Devourer seeks these talismans to use them in the war, and we must beat him to them.”
“If,” Meilin echoed. “If we find the boar. If we persuade him to give us the talisman. What if we don’t?”
Finn gave her a very long look. “I don’t think we should bank on failure so early, do you?”
Suddenly Tarik flew into the room, cloak swirling, face grim. “I’m sorry to be late, but I have very bad news.”
Meilin’s stomach lurched. She felt like Tarik was looking at her in particular.
Father!
Sure enough, Tarik’s eyes held hers a moment longer. He said, “Zhong has fallen to the Conquerors.”
“No . . .” she whispered.
“I’m afraid so,” Tarik said. “The capital city has been taken over. And, Meilin — your father is missing.”
Meilin folded her arms to hide their shaking. She wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t let herself do so in front of the others, all of whom were trying very hard to look at anything but her. Instead, as devastation burned behind her eyes, she shouted, “I should have never come here! There’s absolutely no point to having me along on a — a treasure hunt across the globe! I should’ve been fighting by his side.” She shot a poisonous look at Jhi. “And you — !” The panda met Meilin’s glare with her own gentle gaze, cutting the girl short. Jhi’s presence was a painful reminder of home.
All Meilin could think of was the colorful roofs of Jano Rion burning. Zhong fallen! Her father missing!
“Meilin,” started Tarik. “I know that this is terrible news, but finding Rumfuss is really the most helpful step you can take right now.”
“I don’t believe that!” she snapped. She thought she could feel some sort of emotion coming off Jhi, but she pushed it away. “There’s no guarantee that we’ll find him, and there’s no guarantee that he’ll give us the talisman, and even if he does, there are more than a dozen left to go! Zhong needs me now.”
“You’re only one girl,” Tarik said. “Here, you’re part of a team.”
Meilin’s cold gaze flitted across Conor, Rollan, Abeke, and Finn. The servant, the orphan, the traitor, and the warrior who had given up war.
Not much of a team, she thought.
“You cannot force me,” she said. “I’m going back to Zhong.”
“You can’t,” Conor said, an unbearable concern in his voice.
“Watch me,” Meilin shot back.
Conor stuttered, “B-but we need you.”
“Zhong needs me.” Turning to Jhi, she added, “You can stay here.”
Storming from the room, she slammed the door behind her. She hurried down the hall so fast that the flaming lamps flickered as she passed. She hoped no one tried to come after her. All she wanted was to get her bag and a horse and go. She’d follow the main trade road back to Zhong.
She was nearly back to her room when a hand caught her arm.
“Meilin.”
She spun. It was Finn. She didn’t know how he caught up to her so silently.
Meilin’s expression darkened. Trundling behind him was Jhi. Slower, of course. Not much louder, though.
“You can’t keep me here,” she said.
Finn tossed her arm away. Almost contemptuously, so she could see how he never intended to physically contain her. In a way, it made her feel better that he wasn’t trying to spare her feelings, like Tarik or Olvan might have. She didn’t want to be coddled.
He said, “I left a place once in anger. Leaving in anger means returning in regret. I don’t want that for you.”
I’m not returning, Meilin thought. So the regret won’t matter. But something about the way he spoke, calm and measured, reminded her a little of her father. So she said, “I’m listening.”
“You did your spirit animal a bad turn back there,” Finn continued. “Has she ever done the same to you?”
Glancing at Jhi out of the corner of her eye, Meilin felt a little stab of guilt . . . but not enough guilt to change her mind. Out loud, she said, “No! She does practically nothing. The bond was wrong. I’m sure she’d be happier with a different girl.” Actually, Meilin thought that Jhi would have been perfect for the girl everyone back in Zhong had thought she was. Very few had known about her combat lessons or her interest in strategy. Most saw only the carefully made-up girl who looked so pretty as she strolled in the tea garden or handled the cocoons for silk-making. Jhi would have looked right at home with that public Meilin.