Spheres of Influence-eARC Read Online Free Page B

clouds, where you can fly up to touch the suns or sail a ship off the edge of the sea into that infinite sky.” He heard his words, heard also the deep voice of Orphan as he tried in his own way to tell them of the Arena. “A place that’s called the Arena, where challenges given and received can determine the fate of a hundred, a thousand worlds. Where there’s magicians, and priests and…and everything you could imagine, Wu. And things neither of us can.”
    He became aware of a massive gray-green figure, taller than he was, at the edge of the forest. Horned, half-concealed in a cloak woven of river-mist, Sha Wujing of the Seven Hells watched them with an unreadable expression on his broad, leather-skinned face. This version of the river-ogre of the original Journey West had been a king of the underworlds, one of Wu’s first opponents, eventually—after a long time—an ally and finally friend, though a grim and rarely warm one. Sha stood silently, listening and watching.
    Wu stayed kneeling on the ground. DuQuesne saw tears falling on the grass. “Sounds…amazing…But I have to stay here, DuQuesne. My family needs me. My friends…this world has its own dangers that come to it, that I have to protect it from…”
    “I didn’t joke when I said I needed you, Wu. This is it , Wu. This is the place…we were meant to be. A place where we can make a difference. Where there’s everything at stake…and every day hides an adventure.”
    But Wu shook his head, unable to say anything. DuQuesne looked down and realized it was too much to ask. He had hoped…
    The shadow of Sha Wujing fell over him. “Go.”
    DuQuesne didn’t like being ordered by anyone…but he knew that there was nothing more to be said. “Yeah.” He turned and started off, glanced back at the still-immobile form of Wu Kung. Goodbye, Wu.
    With the decision, he found himself once more sitting by the bedside of the warrior Hyperion, near the form which hadn’t moved for five decades. He closed his eyes, feeling once more tears that he hadn’t shed for so long coming to the surface. Goodbye, Wu. I’ll let you…stay where you belong.
    But he couldn’t make himself leave Wu Kung’s bedside. Not just yet. Seeing that smiling face, full of mischief and innocence and wide-eyed wisdom, had made it far harder. Wu hadn’t been one of the first group, the five of them who had seen through the lies and begun the downfall of Hyperion, but he had become the heart of their group, the one all of them looked to for a smile or reassurance or the certainty they needed to continue. And DuQuesne just could not leave that behind.
    He sat there quietly, trying to let go, to leave it all behind, but it was much harder than he had thought it could possibly be. He would start to move, and then he’d see K’s delighted face, laughing as Wu kept DuQuesne always just out of reach during a supposed sparring match. Or, more often, he’d remember that last look of hopeless determination on the Monkey King’s face as he prepared to make his last stand against the invaders.
    The door opened slowly. “Marc?”
    With a start he realized he had been sitting there far, far longer than he’d thought. An hour, maybe more. Don’t really want to check. “Sorry, Ariane. Looks like this is a bust.”
    The look she gave him said more than words could have. He returned it with a faint smile.
    He took a shaky breath, then rose and started to turn.
    A hand caught his wrist.
    A shock of adrenalin and hope shot through him and he looked back.
    Through eyes barely open, Wu Kung looked up at him, tears trailing down his cheeks. “…an adventure, huh?”
    A great morning sun of joy seemed to explode from his heart, and he threw back his head and gave a booming laugh that echoed in his own ears, feeling chains of guilt and fear decades old just fading away into triumph and relief. “The biggest you can imagine,” he said, kneeling down and taking both of Wu’s hands, grinning from