SKY OF PAPER: AN ASIAN STEAMPUNK FANTASY

CHAPTER 12

When Paya returned and told Master Lu that his daughter was indeed gone, he looked at me accusingly, as if I was the one to blame. At that point, I didn’t care about what he thought or how he felt. Like a bird, whose cage had just been opened, I darted out of the shrine and ran as fast I could back to my own temple.

I scurried into the dorm, forgetting to take my shoes off and tore open the door to Han's room. Startled from his sleep by my sudden entrance, he shot up from his futon and peered in my direction with half-opened eyes.

"Han," I blurted. "Our village is in trouble."

"Our village?" he said drearily.

"Yes. Our village. There's a plague and it's killing everyone there. Your family, my sister, they're all in danger. We have to have to tell Kidou."

Han was wide awake now. He got up from his futon and gripped me by the shoulders, while his eyes looked squarely into mine.

"Terr, calm down. It doesn't help to overreact," he said.

"Overreact? How can you say that? Master Lu told me the island’s been quarantined. No one can go in or out. We have to do something. We have to save our families."

"Master Lu told you? You mean, all this time and you didn't know?" Han gave me a worried look. "How could you have not known? Miss Nishio should have told your sister, just as she told my family. She’d already arranged for both mine and Kidou's family to be moved to another city before we left."

"She didn't tell me anything. She told my sister there was a storm coming. She didn't say anything about a plague. She lied to me. How could she have lied to me?" I pulled away from his grasp and ran out of the room.

I traveled from one end of the temple grounds to the other, searching desperately for the Boar. I finally found him strolling outside one of the pagodas. He must have noticed my worried expression, because he stopped to face me, emptied his pipe and put it away into his sleeve.

"Master Ichiro. Please, I need to go back home. I need to go back to Rune."

"Rune?," he said, immersed in thought. "Ah. One of the restricted villages. That’s no place worth going. Not anymore. There is a sickness there. And besides, for as long as you are a student, you are forbidden from leaving."

"My Sister. She's in trouble. Please, there has to be some way to have her taken from that island."

"You worry too much. I’m sure she is safe. She must have left along with Han and Kidou's families."

"How can you know that? Has she sent any letters? Has she told you that she's safe in another village? Tell me that you have proof."

"I have none," the Boar said matter-of-factly.

"Then help me. If I can’t go, send someone else to find her. Please, I have to know where she is. I have to know if she's safe."

He reached into his sleeve and took out his pipe again as well as a small pouch, holding his smoke leaves. It was a gesture that he was finished conversing with me.

"Report to class Terr," he said in a tone that seemed so uncaring, that in a fit of frustration, I grabbed his pipe and threw it across the grounds as hard as I could.

Surprisingly, he did not raise his voice or shout terse words at me. Instead, his face grew cold and bland and his green eyes seemed to glow slightly, adding to the growing discomfort I felt from his gaze.

"Terr, go get my pipe," he said.

"No," I blurted. "Not until you prove to me that my sister is safe."