38
"Let them hurt me?"
The person standing by the window shook his head.
"No."
His gaze settled on the distant figures gathering and scattering like ants.
"Go destroy Angel Island."
A soft rustle of leather came from behind him.
"Only when the old houses collapse will the people living in the ruins crowd into the same shack."
He turned, the backlight leaving his face in shadow.
"Hidden Cloud Village is already gone. Angel Island should shatter too."
After a brief silence, he added:
"Oni and Gary will stay here."
"One isn't ruthless enough, and the other is too obsessive-just right."
He walked toward the doorway, his fingers brushing the cold metal frame.
"As for me... we'll see when they make it to me."
Before the door closed, his voice drifted out:
"If you're going to hold back, you have to make it convincing."
The morning light grew brighter and brighter, almost blinding.
The young archer narrowed his eyes and checked his bowstring one last time.
He remembered the dried nut his fiancée had pressed into his hand when they said goodbye the night before.
The rough feel of its shell seemed to linger in his palm.
The man in camouflage pressed the pocket over his chest.
A gap-toothed smile burned against his skin through the fabric.
The man with a knife tucked into his clothes looked toward the edge of the sea of clouds.
There was nothing there, only an empty, dazzling expanse of white.
The Shandia warriors raised their spears.
The sunlight reflected off the spearheads like tiny sparks suddenly bursting into life.
Wind swept across Sky Island, carrying away the last chill of the night.
The whole world began to turn.
Above the clouds, a boy pressed a necklace strung with beast teeth into a girl's hand.