The Tale Of The Ghost Eyes - Chapter 93 The Dark Daytime (5)

It happened the second day that Zhao Yuan was home, just at the end of harvest when everyone was working the crops. Practically the whole village was in the fields or the granary itself, even Master Liu and Sima Jie.

Zhao Laohei and his wife were outside with everyone else, leaving Zhao Jie and Yuan at home.

Around midday Master Liu and my parents agreed that I could have the day off after lunch. The masters were going to search for the frozen ghost, and my parents would work until sundown. I made up my mind to go see Zhao Jie while I could, spend some time playing or running around town while the adults were busy.

When I got to Zhao Jie’s house he stumbled out of the front door in a blind panic. He rushed down the porch steps like he was on fire and nearly took me down when I tried to stop him. “What? What is it?” I half screamed into his face. His eyes were wide and rolling in fear.

“She’s talking nonsense! Xiao Yong, I think she’s enchanted or something!” He yelled back.

“Who?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Zhao Yuan!” He yelled, “Her skin is cold to the touch and she’s mumbling like a lunatic!”

“Did you use Tong Mei?” I asked, running a mental check that I still had my protection on me.

“Yes!” He screamed, grabbing my arms. “It didn’t work! It hit her skin and shattered in two!”

“It broke?” I asked in surprise. “Tong Mei can fend off a red spirit, how did it break? What- What’s gotten into her?”

Then I saw her. She stepped out of the front door with a distant look on her face. The skin around her mouth and cheeks was a pale blue-ish white that seemed to emit frost as she walked. Her discolored mouth cracked open to reveal elongated canine teeth. Her jaw craned open to show off every centimeter of the newly formed fangs. Zhao Jie and I stepped back in fear.

Then she moved. It was lightning fast and impossible to track. I grabbed Zhao Jie’s arm and hauled him to the left as she circled to the right. “Go!” I yelled, shoving Zhao Jie towards the house with all of my might. Zhao Yuan darted towards as and we trailed into the open door. She followed, slamming the door behind her. We were trapped.

“No, no, no!” Zhao Jie said, his voice shaking. “It’s me Zhao Yaun, your brother!” He held his hands up and backed away from her.

I took a deep breath and concentrated on everything I’d learned. Grabbing the jade amulet around my neck, I stepped in between the siblings and held it towards the girl.

The once beautiful girl in front of me emitted a hissing that sounded like water hitting a forge. A wave of cold swept out of her and over us, but she didn’t advance.

I watched the frost on her face ripple like it was melting. It dripped and flooded down her neck, turning the skin blue as it went. She raised her hands and shone that they too were changing as she stood.

“Zhao Yuan!” I shouted, trying to sound more concerned than scared.

Her expression quirked, but the grimacing scowl remained. She bared her teeth again and rumbled a deep low growl.

“I won’t let you” I said, speaking to whatever was infecting her. A hot determined anger flowed through me, but I pushed it aside. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the invitation incantation. “I can’t do this alone.” I thought and moved my hands in the ritual.

The familiar warm weight settled into my mind and the rumbling voice followed it, shaking me to the core. “Boy” It said, the deep voice coursing through my mind. “It’s been some time.” I felt the consciousness thrust itself into my senses and pivot my eyes. I saw what he saw as we took in the glistening frozen girl before us. “Our frozen friend” It said using a version my voice. I sensed Zhao Jie tense beside me. “You’ve changed haven’t you? I warned you to stay away from us” I felt the muscles in my legs and arms bunch without my consent. “Maybe I’ll take you this time” It whispered through me. “I can almost taste that power”

“No!” I pushed through, the word coming out in my voice, not his. “You’re here because I called you!” I forced a smile that must have looked like a snarl because I felt Zhao Jie step away from me. “Get that spirit out of my sister!” I told the being inside of me.

A flash of green lit in my eyes and I felt the spirit within me stir like it wanted out. “Fine.” It said through me.

My body jumped, bolting towards whatever was inhabiting Zhao Yuan. She dipped to the side, but the spirit using me was faster. My hand wrapped around her wrist. I watched as the ice on her skin began to grow over onto mine. Cold penetrated my right hand with impossible agony. I tried to scream, but the spirit wouldn’t let me. Instead I felt my face curl into a grin. “Pathetic.” He whispered through me.

The freezing pain was gone as soon as it’d come. I felt my hand warm until it was burning. The ice forming on my hand melted. The patch of Zhao Yuan’s arm that I was holding began to warm beneath my grasp.

Zhao Yaun let out a screech. A red light shot out of her open mouth and shone onto the ceiling. My legs bunched and sprung under the spirit’s control. I slapped my hands onto the spot where the red light was, but it vanished. I landed with a thump in a running position, but my body didn’t move. The green light that glowed in my eyes pulsed like a heartbeat. “He’s gone.” It said through me.

I calmed the wave of frustration that was boiling deep inside me and forced my hands to move in the dispelling incantation. “Be gone.” I whispered in my own voice. The emerald light pulsed one last time and I heard a deep laugh rumble through my mind before the spirit was gone.

My legs went out from under me as he left and I collapsed onto the floor. Down the hall Zhao Jie ran to his sister’s crumpled body. The ice on her skin had all but melted and soaked into her clothes. Her teeth were chattering like she’d been in a blizzard.

Zhao Jie cast me a terrified look. “What do we do?” He asked.

Forcing the exhaustion to the back of my mind I told him to take her to her room. “Get her into dry clothes,” I said. “I’ll call Master Liu.”

He did so, dragging her into the room down the hall. He wasn’t out of sight for a second before bolting back into the hallway. “What if it comes back?” He asked, eyes bulging.

I thought for a moment and then handed him my jade necklace. “Give her this. The spirit was afraid of it. I’ll get the masters here as soon as I can!”

I left him there looking shocked and terrified. I got to my home and told my mother everything that’d happened. She listened silently and then said, “I’ll look after them. Get in contact with Master Liu.” She rushed out the door without a second glance.

I went to my room and grabbed a communication amulet. According to the book Master Ge left, this kind of amulet could send messages through supernatural means. The yellow grade ones that I’d made could only work within a small radius though. I said a silent prayer that Master Liu was nearby.

I followed the incantation movements from the book and lit the amulet on fire, whispering my message to Master Liu and praying. A single leaf of the paper didn’t burn, but caught in a sudden wind and circled around the room. I watched it in amazement until it fluttered out the window to the east. “Find him.” I told it.

Not knowing what else to do, I sat down on the bed and prayed. “Please find him, please find him.” Then a thought hit me. “What if it didn’t work? What if I screwed it up?” I shook the thought out of my head for a moment before it returned, then decided to double down and repeated the process. Again, a burning slip of paper flitted in the air and spun outside the room.

I finished the ritual, grabbed a safety amulet and an expelling amulet, and then ran out the door.

Zhao Jie and his father were in the yard when I arrived. “What’s happened?” I called.

Zhao Laohei answered, “Your mother is with Zhao Yuan.”

I nodded.

“Are they coming?” Zhao Jie asked.

I shook my head and said, “I don’t know. I used a communication amulet, but I don’t know if they got it.”

We waited for what felt like hours until my mother came out of the front door. “She’s calmed down and back to normal temperature.” She called across the yard.

The four of us sat in the yard and waited. One by one we’d go in to check on Zhao Yuan. When it was finally my turn I stood in the doorway and looked at her. A sadness flowered in my stomach at what I saw. She was tucked beneath several blankets all the way to her chin. Her face was red, but her lips were a very light blue. She shivered and twitched in her sleep.

I took a deep breath and murmured the safety incantation over her, pasting my amulets on the quilt.

When I came out of the house my mom asked, “Xiao Yong, what’s wrong with her? Why is she sweating, but so cold?”

I shook my head, “It’s not sweat. The ice is melting.”

Her eyebrows cocked upwards, “It’s summer Shi Yong. That can’t be”

Master Liu’s voice bellowed from across the yard. “He’s right. This is beyond natural means.”

He marched past us and into the house. “Where is Master Sima?” I called after him.

“Looking for the frozen spirit.” He called back over his shoulder.

“The frozen spirit?” My mom asked, “You mean that guy who died last winter?”

Master Liu nodded, “Perhaps, although I was not here when he died. Judging by who he’s antagonizing, I believe the two are one in the same.”

I followed Master Liu into the house to Zhao Yuan’s bedroom. He sat beside her and checked her pulse, glancing at the amulets on her blanket.

“Those aren’t strong enough to help her.” He said, not looking at me. He lifted the blanket and saw my jade around her neck. I watched his face crinkle in displeasure.

“Xiao Yong,” He said, shaking his head. “You’ve wasted your treasure. Why would you throw away five years of cultivation for a girl?”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his face in his hands. “Five years.” He said.