The Immortal Words (The Grave Kingdom), стр. 10

“Do you want to keep going?”

“Not yet,” she said. “I haven’t gone through the forms in days.”

“Good. I like watching you do them.”

She’d offered to teach him before, but he’d always declined. He was a fisherman at heart, not a warrior. His calm demeanor and cleverness with knots and woodland skills had made him very useful to her ensign. But he’d never seen himself as a true part of it.

She quickly did a salute and began flowing through forms, a series of moves mimicking combat situations. It made her heart pump faster, invigorating her muscles and her mind. After doing several of the basic forms, she tried to remember the phoenix form that she’d done while she was a prisoner in Fusang. She could remember parts of it, but several gaps in her memory emerged. In Fusang, she had executed it perfectly, feeling a tingling of magic as she moved her body. She hadn’t felt the magic when she had done it in Sihui. Was there something about Fusang that had triggered it?

A little frustrated, she stopped her exercise, then retrieved her pack and slung it over her shoulder, pausing to strap the short sword to her waist. She thought about the Phoenix Blade, feeling its pull from a distance. The magic was tainted, but she still wished she had it. Whenever she held the Phoenix Blade, she felt whole. She’d need all the help she could get if she had to face her enemy before arriving at the shrine. Was Echion still searching for her, or had he unleashed his dragons from the Woliu to take up the hunt? Would he be lying in wait for her at the shrine, or was its location somehow hidden from him?

Quion readied his pack as well, but he carried the whittled staff in his hands. It looked nothing like the one she’d lost. At least not yet.

As they continued on their journey, trailed by the leopard, Quion asked her about the forms.

“What was the last one you did, Bingmei? That one looked really hard.”

“Because I struggled so much with it?” she asked dejectedly.

“Well, you did struggle with it.” He was unfailingly honest. “Did Kunmia teach it to you?”

Bingmei felt a pang of regret. If she’d accepted her destiny sooner, perhaps Kunmia would still be with them. But there was no fixing the past. Only the future was unmade.

“No. It’s a strange story, Quion.”

“I think we have time for strange stories,” he hinted.

She sighed. “Do you think our souls used to live before, Quion?”

“I have no idea,” he said. “Do you think I’ll be born again as a fish? I don’t think I’d like that very much.”

“Human lives, I mean. The first time we went to Fusang, I kept feeling like I’d seen it before. It was so . . . familiar. And the same thing happened after Echion captured me and brought me back there. When I sat in the concubines’ garden, I felt as if I’d been there before. As if I’d sat on that very bench. And then . . . and then it felt like someone’s hand went over mine, and I drew a glyph on the stone.”

He gave her a sidelong look. “Do you know what you drew?”

She nodded. “It was the name Xisi. Echion’s queen. I don’t know how to write, Quion, but I knew it in that moment. Maybe it was knowledge I had in a past life. I felt like I should bring Xisi back. Every part of my mind rebelled against the thought. But my heart told me it was all right. And it was. Echion was going to kill me, but Xisi stopped him.”

“Why would she? She knows you’re the phoenix-chosen.”

“Yes. But the two of them really do hate each other. You’ve seen Mieshi and Damanhur argue. It was much worse than that. Echion and Xisi have known each other since they first became immortal. They made some pact together. Some bargain. They both would have preferred absolute power, but they couldn’t claim it alone.” She breathed out sharply. “I don’t remember everything they said. I was afraid for my life most of the time. But I did that form while I was their prisoner. As if I’d known it all my life. And doing it . . . summoned part of the phoenix’s power to me. Yet I can’t remember all of the steps now. And I don’t know why. My memory keeps betraying me.”

Quion was silent for a while, absorbing the information she’d given him.

“I don’t know if we have past lives or not, Bingmei, but Echion rules the Grave Kingdom. Maybe that’s why you connected with your lost memories in Fusang. Because it’s his city. That could explain why the memories aren’t as strong anymore.”

That made sense. The phoenix had also warned her that it would not come to her again until after she reached the shrine in the middle of the gorge. Perhaps her memories would be restored once it did.

Another memory surfaced in her mind, making her flush with embarrassment. Although she’d never been kissed, she remembered the pressure of someone else’s lips on hers. Someone she loved but did not now remember. The memory had come to her during a lesson with Kunmia Suun, when she’d wielded the Phoenix Blade one of the first times.

Later, as more partial memories began to come back to her, all from some other existence, and Rowen confirmed the same thing was happening to him, she had started to wonder if perhaps it was Rowen she’d kissed in that vision. If both of them had been reincarnated again and again to fight the dragon. If their connection was the type that had spanned lifetimes. But it didn’t matter now. She was unlikely to ever see him again. The thought pierced her with surprising pain, but she buried it.

“What’s wrong?”

Curse his sensitive nature!

She kept walking, plodding through the brush, dodging trees. Quion didn’t ask again, but she smelled his concern. Her cursed nose