Tiger Honor, page 19
The dog wriggled shamelessly.
Using the food, I lured the Sapsali into the bathroom. I tossed the tray on the floor. Shield jumped toward the contents, shoving his muzzle into the japchae with the air of someone encountering a New Year’s feast out of season. Lucky critter, I thought, as objectively disgusting as the ration was.
Hastily, I closed the hatch behind Shield, trapping him in there. Fortunately, this door was functioning just fine. Hopefully it would keep the dog safe until the action was over.
Time to find Min and offer her my support. As I broke into a run, I tore open the chocolate-marshmallow pie’s wrapper with my teeth and jammed as much of it into my mouth as I could fit. The sweet chocolate coating and gooey filling were the best thing I’d ever tasted. This would have to sustain me in the fight to come.
I expected to find a bloodbath by the time I returned, out of breath from sprinting, to the engine room. The smells of blaster and stunner fire hung heavy in the air. But instead, I found no one—no one but Min and a closed engine-room hatch.
“Min!” I exclaimed, glad to see her there, apparently unharmed. Then I noticed her glum expression.
“Sebin,” she said, and my heart almost seized at the anguish in her voice. Her eyes unfocused for a second.
I wondered if she needed medical attention. Then a fog I hadn’t been aware of lifted from my thoughts, and memories came flooding in. She’d Charmed me again—but to remove the dog that impeded her powers, not to attack my friends, as I’d feared.
Tempted as I was to seize and shake her until she gave me some answers, I had to acknowledge that she had freed me. “You have three seconds to tell me what’s going on,” I growled.
Min lifted her head, mouth firm. “It was the only way I could keep my brother safe from the shaman,” she said. “Once the dog was gone, I was free to Charm Sena.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Where is she now?”
Min made a face. “Hwan figured out the threat as soon as you left with Shield. He turned into a tiger, grabbed her, and ordered the mercs to retreat with him. Unfortunately, I only had time to give Sena one instruction before he made off with her. Jun is safe from her, but the rest of us…not so much.”
Great, so now we had to face a shaman’s magic as well. “And everyone else?”
“Holed up for safety,” Min said. “I figured you’d return here. We need to track down Hwan and put an end to his shenanigans.”
I looked at her steadily. “We could have been working together from the beginning,” I said, “if only you and Special Investigator Yi had trusted me more.”
Min sighed. “You’re not entirely wrong, but we don’t have time for this right now.”
“Are the others okay?” I asked. I choked up for a moment, then added, “Is Jee—”
“I ran a remote diagnostic,” Min said. “The Gate drive’s powered down, although the crystals still hold some charge. Someone’s been working in there—I think it must be Jee.”
I felt myself pale despite my relief at the fact that Jee had survived after all. He must not have been able to drain the crystals yet. “Then Hwan still has a chance to take over the ship, power up the drive, and escape before anyone can stop him.”
Min was right. Our best hope, now that Jee was ensconced in the engine room, was to confront my uncle directly.
“Do you know which way Hwan went?” I asked.
She held up a slate. “We can locate him with this.”
“Then we’ll cut him off,” I said grimly. “One moment.” I had to see if I could reach Jee anyway. “Cadet Sebin to engine room.” The computer chimed to let me know that the intercom was on. “Jee, this is Sebin.”
“How do I know it’s really you?” Jee’s tinny voice responded. “That you’re in your right mind?”
I sagged in relief. Even though Min had told me he had to be alive, it was good to hear his voice. “Min has freed me from her Charm,” I said. “Believe me or don’t believe me, but keep working on the Gate drive.”
“Uh, okay,” Jee said, nonplussed.
We started toward Hwan’s last known location according to the computer.
Unfortunately, the interruptions weren’t over. “Uh, Sebin?” Jee’s voice came from the intercom again.
“Yes?” I asked without slowing down.
“Bad news,” Jee said. “I had some programs monitoring the ship’s systems. Hwan just disabled all the escape pods.”
Min and I exchanged glances. She looked as green and ill as I felt. Hwan meant business. This was far worse than just blocking access to the escape pods. If anything went catastrophically wrong on the Haetae—besides a renegade tiger trying to hijack it, that is—none of the crew would be able to get to safety. We were trapped.
It was a monstrous thing to do. I hadn’t thought any captain—or ex-captain—would contemplate such an action. All the ship’s protocols I had learned specified that the escape pods must always remain available in case evacuation became necessary.
“Sebin, are you there?” Jee asked.
I couldn’t smell his fear over the intercom, but I could hear it. “I’m listening.” I’d slowed down a fraction, trusting that Min would keep an eye out for any threats.
“Do I keep working on the Gate drive?” Jee said. “Or do I try to get around whatever Hwan did to the escape pods?”
It wasn’t a choice. “Fix the pods,” I said heavily. “We can’t afford to take the chance that Hwan won’t gas the ship or release a toxin or do something equally horrible.” For all I knew, he was willing to take the rest of us down with him. “After that, counteract the locks on all the hatches. People need to be able to get to safety once they regain consciousness from that knockout gas.”
“Uh, Sebin…” Min said.
“One moment,” I said, trying to figure out what other instructions to give Jee while I had him on the line.
“No, really, Sebin.” She shoved me, hard.
She was too slight to knock me over, so I recovered my balance easily, a retort on my lips—which died when the stunner bolt arced past my ear, missing it by a scant inch and forcing me to fall.
Min was already scuttling backward like a crab. I reflected that it was too bad battle cruisers didn’t feature crates lying around, or rocks the way we had on planets, for cover. I levered myself back up and shifted into tiger form, landing in a defensive crouch.
My gaze immediately fixed on Hwan, who had arrived, maintaining his human shape. Even as a man, he exuded confidence—and danger. My lip curled back in a snarl when I spotted the blaster that he was carrying. He had it aimed not at me, although that could change easily enough, but at Min.
Worse, Hwan was accompanied by six mercs, all armored, all wielding stunners. Chief among them was Captain Uchida with her ogre helmet. There was no sign of the shaman, Sena. Hwan must have decided that he couldn’t rely on a Charmed ally.
“We don’t have to settle this through fighting!” Min yelled at Hwan. She ducked around a corner.
Hwan gave no sign of having heard her. Instead, he fired over me toward Min’s last location.
My eyes narrowed, and I stared at his ears. Aha—he was wearing earplugs. Real ones, not like the headset I had tried to use against Min’s Charm not so long ago.
Jun materialized in his human form and launched himself at Hwan, fingers extended like talons, lips peeled back from sharp, distended teeth. Even though he had no substance, the icy wind that unfurled before him and the otherworldly menace he exuded were enough to foul Hwan’s aim as he fired again toward the corner where Min had retreated. Jun passed through Hwan, causing him to shake his head as ghost-substance momentarily clouded his vision.
“It’s up to you now, Sebin!” Jun cried. “I can’t stray far from Min.” Indeed, he was already withdrawing to the same corner, mists billowing around his nowhere feet.
Time to take advantage of the opening the ghost had given me. I roared as I sprang at Hwan, determined to wrest the blaster from him before he hurt Min or me. I had a scant moment to feel foolish. If he couldn’t hear Min’s voice, I doubted my roar was getting through, either. Besides, an adult tiger was unlikely to be intimidated by me of all people.
Hwan didn’t take on his own tiger shape, to my disappointment. A primal part of me wanted to fight him for dominance—for control of the ship. Never mind that I had forfeited all hopes of a future captaincy. The part of me that was a tiger knew only that it had a challenger, and that I had to defeat him to save everyone.
Instead, Hwan rolled out of the way, unbelievably agile for such a large man. He came up firing, this time at me. Worse, his mercs kept up their stunner fire. They, too, seemed unaffected by Min’s shouted pleas, and I guessed that they’d also protected themselves with earplugs.
I didn’t dare let any of the shots land, but a tiger makes for a large target. What am I going to say to Aunt Sooni and my parents? I wondered as I dodged by the expedient of shifting from tiger to human, human to tiger, combined with unpredictable movements so they couldn’t tell where to aim. Aunt Sooni had trained me in this technique, and I was good at it. But it had the unfortunate disadvantage of burning up energy reserves. If I survived this fight, I was going to need to sleep for a year. Too bad that meal tray had only contained a single chocolate-and-marshmallow pie. I resolved never to complain about rations again.
As I weaved and dodged, I considered my options. Sooner or later, Hwan and his mercs were going to wear me out. The edges of my vision were already graying ominously. I can’t give up now, I thought.
Even so, tempting visions flashed through my mind. I imagined feasts of barbecued pork, and a sunlit bed to sleep in. My stomach growled. I wouldn’t be able to ignore the distraction of hunger much longer. I caught myself swaying dizzily. How could I defeat Hwan if I gave in to weakness?
My uncle had the advantages of height, mass, and years of experience. Not to mention numbers, since he had the six mercs on his side. He’d even neutralized Min—
That wasn’t entirely true. Hwan had ensured that neither he nor his mercs could be Charmed. Which was fine as far as that went.
He hadn’t thought about what Min could do with me.
I shifted back into my human form and nipped around to the corner opposite Min’s. I only had seconds to convey my message. “Min,” I whispered. “Charm me.”
Her eyes widened. “What? Sebin, I—”
“Order me to win the battle. No matter the cost.”
I was grateful she didn’t argue. Her eyes glowed fox-amber, and that woodland smell wafted from her again as her fox nature asserted itself. “The only thing that matters,” she said in a voice that rang like bells, “is defeating Hwan. You won’t feel anything else.”
In a dim corner of my mind, I doubted that magic would overpower the effect of the stunners. But it was worth trying. Energy filled me from the heart outward as Min’s magic took hold.
On the past occasions, Charm had resembled a fog creeping over all the crevices of my mind, dulling thought. This time, though…This time was different. I had put myself under Min’s influence willingly, as part of a mission I needed to fulfill.
This is what duty should be, I thought in the moment before I rejoined the fight. Loyalty freely given, rather than obedience coerced. It was something I’d had to learn for myself, because my family had never taught it to me.
This time I did not roar, or pounce. Instead, I marched out from behind cover at a steady pace. Not slowly, but not quickly, either.
Hwan could have taken me down easily. Instead, he gestured with his free hand, and the mercs’ stunner fire ceased. He continued pointing his own blaster at my head. If he hit me there, squarely between the eyes…Well, even a tiger spirit’s hardiness had limits.
I didn’t bother growling at him in the language of tigers. Even if he’d been able to hear me, it wouldn’t have mattered. I raised my head.
Look at me, I willed him. I didn’t crouch down in a submissive or placating posture, but neither did I threaten to attack. Just gave him that look, inviting him to remember that we were family.
If he really wanted the Haetae, he was going to have to go through me to get it.
Captain Uchida signed at him, her annoyance evident, then raised her stunner threateningly.
Hwan snarled, lips peeling back from his teeth.
I shifted back to human form, then pointed at my ears. Take out the earplugs and we’ll talk.
He scoffed.
“Min,” I called, “I can take it from here.” I wondered if Hwan could read lips, even if I hadn’t been trained in the skill.
“Sebin…” Min’s voice from behind me was distinctly worried.
“Let Sebin handle this,” Jun said. “They’ll be fine.”
“Retreat,” I said, confident that this was the way to reach Hwan. I couldn’t talk him down while he was wary of being mind-controlled by a well-meaning fox spirit. “Walk past us and out of hearing range so he can see you doing it.”
Min emerged, scowling, with Jun drifting in her wake. Her hands were up, which struck me as funny until it occurred to me that maybe she could Charm people by using sign language and not just her voice. I decided not to ask her about it in front of our enemies, earplugs or not.
Min kept walking, shooting wary glances behind her at the tableau as she did so. Her footsteps receded into the distance, like an agonizing countdown. I waited until I couldn’t hear her anymore, then gestured at my ears again.
Hwan’s dark eyes searched mine. Then he nodded slowly and removed the earplugs. “Sebin.” He said it like a curse.
I couldn’t see the mercs’ faces from beneath their helmets, but I could smell their confusion and distrust. They continued to hold their fire, though, much to my relief.
“Min’s out of range now,” I said, which I hoped was true. I had as good as promised that she wouldn’t involve herself further, and honor still meant something to me. “If you want to take the Haetae, you will have to kill me.”
“Sebin,” Hwan said, and this time he sounded weary. “If you had ambushed me, it would be one thing. But you are alone and outnumbered. You’ve foolishly sent away the one ally who could have made a difference—if you can count on a treacherous fox at all. I know how you were trained, because it’s how I was trained. It would be trivial for me to take you apart in a fight.”
Ordinarily his words would have caused me to tremble, for they were true. But the resolve that Min had given me burned in my heart. Hwan was measuring victory in the language of claw and fire. Those weren’t, however, the only weapons I had against him. And I could tell from the fact that he hadn’t yet shot me—that he was still talking—that he knew it, too.
As he spoke, I took one step toward Hwan, then another. Daring him to attack me. If he failed to stop me, I would subdue him and bring the fight to an end.
It didn’t take a tiger’s senses to detect Hwan’s agony. He had tensed up, despite his earlier relaxed arrogance. His lips were compressed into a flat, unhappy line, and he reeked of frustration and another emotion I couldn’t quite identify. Regret, maybe.
Hwan’s finger moved to the trigger of his blaster. My heart sank. I knew he wouldn’t do so unless he were willing to fire. I’d been trained the same way in firearms usage. He was too far gone for me to reach him after all. My gambit had been for nothing. I was going to die at my uncle’s hand.
“I admired you for so long,” I said to my uncle. “All I wanted was to follow you into the service and become a captain like you. Maybe an even better one.”
His finger shook, then steadied. His stare bored into me, implacable, unreadable.
“Every time I trained with Aunt Sooni,” I went on, trying not to fret about the blaster pointed at me, “I thought about how hard I needed to work to make you proud of me. You were my guiding star. The Matriarch told me once that ‘the compass that guides you must be the way of the clan.’ For me, that compass was you.”
I took a deep breath. Hwan still hadn’t budged. “We’re family,” I said, so that at least I would die with those two words lingering in his ears like a curse. I had never heard that tiger spirits could curse people, but it seemed worth a try.
Hwan hissed a particularly vile oath under his breath. His finger withdrew from the trigger. He holstered the blaster.
“I can’t do it,” he said bitterly. “Of all the people they could have sent to stop me, it’s not the damned gumiho. I had ways to deal with her. It had to be you. My own blood.” His eyes were haunted.
I stepped forward, ready to take him into custody.
I’d been so intent on Hwan that I had allowed his mercenaries to slip my mind.
Captain Uchida, seeing the threat to the man who had spared her life before, raised her stunner to fire at me.
Hwan, displaying his unbelievable reflexes one more time, shifted into his tiger shape. He wasn’t quite fast enough to prevent me from taking stunner fire. But he roared so loudly I thought the entire ship would vibrate with it, and he took out all the mercs—including Uchida—with swipes from his mighty paws.
For a second, my dazzled eyes saw not Hwan, but a different, immense white tiger, its pelt glowing like star-fire—the White Tiger of the West, coming to my defense. My scar throbbed in response.
I thought I heard the White Tiger speaking to me, in a voice like storms. “Pay the price for breaking your oath,” it said, “but pay it willingly.”
It’s over, I had time to think before the darkness claimed me.
For a long time I drifted in pleasant dreams. I was drowsing in a sunbeam—what feline doesn’t like a hospitable sunbeam?—at the estate. My dreams never had much in the way of smell, curiously, but I could hear the splashing of the carp pond and its fountain, and the wind rustling teasingly through the azalea bushes and the grass. It would have been pleasant to linger there forever, even though I had the vague sense that I had work to do.
