Next the ground began to shake. I crouched instinctively, not wanting to be bowled over. The tremors didn’t get too bad where we were standing, but all around us gravel and soil geysered up where the old settlement had stood, where the ghosts had once lived and breathed and died. If not for the clear sweet billows of wind that buffered us, we would have been suffocated by the stinging dust and loose dirt.
My heart threatened to pound its way out of my rib cage. Light from the sky now took on a red-orange tint thanks to all the dirt in the air. I wondered if the ghosts intended for us to be buried with them.
“Steady, little sister,” Jun said.
I glanced sideways, and there he was just outside the circle, the pale flames of his face flickering and unaffected by the windstorm. He was smiling. My heart ached, thinking of having to say good-bye to him soon. But for now he stood with me, and I had to treasure whatever time we had left.
Just beyond Jun, Jang smiled at me as well. We exchanged solemn nods. He was also facing the end. I’d miss him, too.
The Dragon Pearl blazed even brighter, which I hadn’t thought possible. Within the light I saw a vision. Rather, I saw it in the afterimages that danced behind my eyelids after I shut my eyes to avoid being blinded.
Volcanoes vomited forth fire, and ash clouded the air. Streams of lava rolled over the old cities with their decaying spires and domes, then hardened into shapes just as beautiful and eerie. Lakes flashed up in lethal gouts of steam, while rivers ribboned in new directions. I could see how the Dragon Pearl, in the wrong hands, could be used to destroy whole worlds and their populations.
But we were the only living people on the Fourth Colony, and the Pearl was keeping us safe. All the ghosts wanted was rest, a proper burial. The entire world would be their tomb.
And it wasn’t only destruction we witnessed. Slowly the land stopped churning, and I dared to open my eyes. Trees of all sorts, from pines to sycamores and maples, grew from the mountainsides, and speared toward the sky. Flowers blanketed the hills and plains, and fringed the rivers like necklaces. Grasses swayed in the winds. For their part, the winds grew gentler, caressing the landscape rather than buffeting it.
The ghosts shimmered, and I could sense their joy. Eui didn’t smile, exactly, but she made a point of meeting my eyes, and she bowed slowly and solemnly to me. Then she and the others began to fade.
Jang looked longingly at the others, then turned to me. “It’s time for me to go,” he said softly. “I stayed too long. I realize that now. But I want you to do one final thing for me.”
I nodded, a lump in my throat.
“I want a proper military funeral,” he said. “I died in the line of duty, after all.”
“I’ll make sure you get one,” I said. If we got off this planet safely, I would find a way.
“We all will,” Haneul said. A damp cloud hovered over her head, reflecting her mood. Sujin nodded, their eyes sad.
Jang smiled back at them, then reached out for my hand. His ghost-wind brushed against my fingers one last time. Then he was gone, and the cold breeze with him.
Tears streamed down my face. The Dragon Pearl had finished its work. “It’s over,” I said.
“Not yet,” said my brother’s voice.
I yelped.
Jun stood—floated—next to me. The other five ghosts from Captain Hwan’s mission had also materialized. I’d forgotten all about them.
Hwan, who’d been mesmerized by the Pearl’s terraforming, now snapped back to reality. He took a few steps back as his former crew members bore down on him menacingly.
“You,” Lieutenant Seo-Hyeon said to Hwan. No sir, no Captain. Her smile split her face grotesquely, as though it was on the verge of cracking open. “It’s time for you to pay for leaving us here.”
Haneul summoned a bolt of lightning, but it had no effect on the ghosts.
“Stay back, little sister,” Jun said in my ear. “This is going to get ugly.”
I almost laughed. After I’d just faced down thousands of angry ghosts, he was warning me about this pitiful group? Still, I moved closer to him.
Seo-Hyeon and the four other ghosts—all except Jun—now surrounded Captain Hwan. Their hair blew wildly about their faces, and their mouths stretched in ghastly, impossible grimaces.
Hwan drew his gun and fired wildly, even though he must have known it would do him no good.
“No, Captain, don’t!” Sujin warned. “You’ll just make it worse!”
Sujin, Haneul, and I scattered, not wanting to be hit by stray blaster fire. In a shaking hand I held out the Dragon Pearl, hoping it could help in some way, perhaps send these ghosts to their final rest, too. But it was spent. Its swirling had ceased, and it was now just a dull metal-gray color.
I watched in horror as the ghosts snatched at Hwan’s eyes and hands. Even though their fingers passed through him, his face contorted, and I wondered what visions were tormenting him. He bellowed in rage, then flung the blaster aside as if its grip had burned him.
Hwan swung his fists in vain at the ghosts. I winced at his wordless shouts. He careened several steps before regaining his balance, only to lose it again.
Or had he? Hwan’s form shimmered as it lengthened and expanded. Automatically, I froze as his scent reached me. He’d always been a predator, but now he was shifting into his true form, that of an immense white tiger. I stood transfixed by the sharp fangs revealed when he roared. He almost seemed to flow as he circled, swiping at the ghosts with his paws.
Hwan’s amber eyes met mine for a single moment. No trace of the man remained in them. A tiger looked at me, cunning only in the way that an ordinary animal predator—rather than a supernatural one—is cunning. Haneul tried to approach, to calm him down, but he roared and lunged at her, swiping the air with a huge paw. The ghosts kept him at bay, hissing and howling. He shrank back, snarling, and in this way they herded him away from us and toward the woods in the distance.
It was the last I would ever see of them.
Only one ghost still lingered. Jun. I opened my mouth to ask why.
He anticipated my question. Of course he did. “Every ghost is a different person,” Jun said quietly. “Sometimes we want different things, too.”
He was going to make me ask. “What is it you want, Jun?”
“I still want to visit every one of the Thousand Worlds.”
I hadn’t expected that answer. A traveling ghost—was that even possible?
I wasn’t sure how to talk about this. “Um, don’t you have, uh . . . limitations? Like only being able to linger near where you . . . ?” I hoped he’d catch on without my having to say it.
“I could haunt you instead of the shuttle,” he said with a shrug. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
“I don’t mind,” I said quickly. I’d gotten used to having Jang around; this would be even better. “But won’t you, um, affect our fortunes wherever we go?”
“Bring bad luck, you mean?” he asked with a gleam in his eye. “Seems to me, Min, you make your own luck.”
That would have to be enough. He was family, after all.
“Works for me,” I said with a curt nod. “We can see the Worlds together.” I caressed the orb that was still warm in my hands and whispered, “I swear it on the Dragon Pearl.”
It pulsed a glow in response, and I knew that it approved.
Now that the ghosts were gone—either to their final rest or to exact their revenge on the captain—I had hoped for a brief respite, perhaps even a nap under a tree. But my work wasn’t over.
The soldiers who had accompanied Hwan looked dazed and disorganized, as if unsure what to do next. The most senior of them, a lieutenant, finally pulled herself together and focused her attention on me. She drew her gun as she advanced.
I held the Pearl out before me, and she flinched from the way it flared, splashing the entire area with multicolored light.
“You need to hand that over to the proper authorities,” the lieutenant said. She tried to sound authoritative, but her voice shook.
The Pearl emitted a piercing silver glare. Ominous thunder crackled above, even though the sky was completely clear. She cowered.
“The Pearl stays with me,” I said.
She didn’t argue the point after that. “You’ll still have to come with us,” she said. “Unless you want us to leave you here. Your fate will be determined once we get back to the Pale Lightning.”
Haneul mouthed to me, Just play along.
Had she and Sujin forgiven me? I was too tired to care at that point. Or so I told myself.
I could have used Charm on the lieutenant to make her think I was an ally, but why bother? Instead, I hefted the Pearl and said, “Fine. But don’t try anything stupid. I’m not your enemy. I just want to go home.”