I tried not to squirm in my seat. I didn’t want to reveal my interest in the artifact.
Luckily for me, Gyeong-Ja asked about it. “Is the Pearl that important?” she asked. “I mean, the stories are two hundred years old. Is it even real?”
Hyosu pursed her lips. “The Dragon Pearl might not be as powerful as the legends claim, but we can’t risk it falling into the wrong hands. Think about it, Cadet. If the Pearl could transform an entire barren world, give it forests and seas and make it suitable for habitation, it could just as easily destroy a world, turn it into a lifeless desert. That kind of magic needs to be controlled by the proper authorities, not sold to the highest bidder.”
I shivered at the thought of someone using the Pearl’s magic to lay waste to a living world. All planets deserved to exist, even one as shabby as Jinju.
“What I’m trying to say here,” Hyosu continued, “is that our cruise around the sector has already proven more dangerous than usual, and it may get more dangerous yet. That unlucky freighter docked in our bay won’t be the last victim of greedy pirates. There could be more rescue missions—missions that involve cadets.”
I felt everyone in the class turn to look at me, but I held my head up high and refused to meet their gazes. I wondered if Jang’s ghost had heard any of this lesson, because it explained a lot.
Hyosu returned to the topic of the meridians and how to protect the ship’s energy flow. We spent the rest of class memorizing the locations where the gi was most vulnerable. While the Pale Lightning had officers who specialized in overseeing the meridians and making sure the gi was flowing properly, we cadets might be called upon to help defend key locations in the event the ship was boarded by hostiles.
My head swam with all this new information. Hyosu was a good teacher, but it was a lot to absorb. I’d taken notes on my assigned slate, which I’d have to review later. After all, I knew from experience that raiders were a real threat.
Had Jun and his friends joined their ranks, hoping for a chance at the Dragon Pearl? Had he turned into a soldier-for-hire? I couldn’t imagine that. I refused to imagine that. No, it had to be something else. But what?
I was too tired to puzzle it out. Pretending to be someone else was exhausting. I knew how I was going to spend my free time that afternoon—conked out on my bunk.
Both Jun and Jang would have to wait.
“Hey!” Sujin whispered just as I closed my eyes.
“Hmm?” I said, not wanting to get up and face the world. I smelled moisture in the air, which meant Sujin had brought Haneul with them. Only a dragon could make it rain in the closed world of a starship. If I annoyed her too much, Haneul could drench me.
“Have you forgotten about our regular game of baduk?” she asked. “You keep swearing you’ll beat me, and you haven’t yet.”
Uh-oh. I’d have to play as Jang, and I didn’t know how good he was. I was decent at the game, and at home I used to watch professional matches on the holonet when I could snatch some free moments. If Jang always lost to Haneul, maybe I wouldn’t have to scare up skills I didn’t have.
“Why?” I asked, keeping my tone light. “What handicap are you going to give me today?” I didn’t know if she typically allotted Jang extra pieces to even things up, but I’d soon find out. . . .
“I’ll give you five instead of four,” she said, “seeing as how you had a tough time on your rescue mission.”
I relaxed inwardly. My question hadn’t raised any suspicions. “Fine,” I said, and sat up. Maybe I could quiz her about my brother while we played. I gestured for her to lead the way, and Sujin and I followed.
Haneul took us to the lower recreation room, which contained equipment for games like table tennis and geomdo, or fencing. Two soldiers were sparring in one of the corners with their swords of split bamboo. I sneaked a glance, fascinated. Both of them wore traditional-style armor and helmets, but I still couldn’t imagine standing up beneath those heavy blows. Foxes were known for cleverness and trickery, not brute strength.
A few other people were playing board games. One unoccupied table had a baduk set atop it, and Haneul slid easily into a chair. I took the seat opposite her. Sujin sat between us and brought out a slate. I glanced at what my goblin friend was reading. . . . A chemistry text? Well, it took all kinds.
Baduk was played on a grid of nineteen by nineteen lines, and the stones—black for me, because I was supposedly the weaker player, and white for Haneul—were placed on the intersections of those lines. The object was to capture the most territory by setting down pieces to form boundaries. Since Haneul had given me a handicap, I started with five stones already in play.
Haneul frowned, then picked up a white stone, gripping it between her forefinger and middle finger in the proper manner. She snapped it onto the board. I responded after a moment, and we exchanged moves without speaking for a time. I was starting to get rattled, because even with the handicap stones I was struggling to keep up.
“You’re doing better than usual,” Sujin said at last. I hadn’t realized they were paying attention in between reading about chemistry.
I laughed nervously. “Lucky today, I guess.”
“Haneul never gives me a handicap,” Sujin muttered.
“You don’t need one,” she retorted. “As for you,” she said, turning back to me, “never count on luck. You used up almost all of yours in surviving that attack!”
I didn’t want to talk about that—it was too dangerous, because I didn’t know what had happened during Jang’s last moments. I decided to distract her by asking questions, which I needed to do anyway.
“It could be worse,” I said. Time for some more Charm. “At least I didn’t end up missing, like Jun and the rest. . . .” I apologized mentally to Jun for bad-mouthing him. But how else was I going to find out what was going on?
Haneul glanced around the room. The air grew crackly with static, as in an electrical storm, and the players nearest us scowled and got up to leave. I was starting to understand why dragon folk rarely went into spy work. She lowered her voice and asked, “Do you believe the rumors?”
I pounced on the opening. “Which ones?” I asked.
Haneul squirmed. “It wasn’t like any of us younger cadets knew Jun well, but he seemed solid enough. I was surprised when the captain declared him a deserter. Some of the others, like Corporal Hyun-Joo, sure. She was always so sour-faced, I’m not surprised she was up to something. But Jun was a good soldier.”
At least Haneul remembered my brother. That was a start. “I bet pirates got him while he was on a mission,” I said, because gossip about mercs was so common no one would think twice of it.
“Well, from what I heard, he and his comrades weren’t on a regular assignment,” Sujin said in a whisper. “They really did leave on their own.”
I tried not to reveal my shock. So Jun actually was a deserter!
“I wonder whose idea it was, and why they were all so desperate to get away,” Sujin went on.
Haneul studied the board, narrowing her eyes at a pattern in the center. Finally she placed her stone. “It can’t have been Jun’s idea,” she said in a hushed tone. “I mean, one of the people with the group was a lieutenant. And everyone said she was loyal. Even if it’s true what people are saying—that they decided to chase after the Dragon Pearl—it doesn’t make sense.”
So my theory that Jun had been forced into going might be right. I remained convinced that Jun’s motives were pure. He’d never cared about money. . . .
“I don’t know about that,” Sujin said, cynical. “A lot of people are eager to get their hands on that thing. I know you don’t like hearing about it, Haneul, but the Dragon Society in particular would pay handsomely for it. If they control all the ways to do terraforming magic, they can raise their fees as high as they want and no one can do anything about it.”
“The Dragon Society wouldn’t stoop so low,” Haneul said stiffly. “Besides, it’s a wild-goose chase. The Pearl probably got destroyed long ago.”
Sujin shook their head but didn’t press the point.
I forced myself to relax. I couldn’t let them see how much I cared about this. “Let’s say a soldier deserted and somehow retrieved the Pearl,” I said. “What would they do? They’d be a fugitive the rest of their life.” I glanced over the board, then placed my stone to keep one of my groups from being captured. Haneul might be beating me, but I was determined to make her work for it.
“That bothered me, too,” Haneul said. “Maybe they have debts we don’t know about and are really desperate.”
I thought of Captain Hye at Nari’s gambling parlor and grimaced at the memory.
“If so, Jun, for one, hid it well,” Sujin said. “He worked hard. Even when some of the other cadets made nasty remarks about his steader heritage, he kept his cool.”