Chapter Two: The Carousel at 00:13

Lu Chen walked into it. His father's illusion seized his shoulder, and old terror rose like heat. “I know you are not him,” Lu Chen said. The illusion shattered. He removed the trap from the fawn's wound. Its teeth bore the emblem of a burning arrow—the mark of beast hunters. “Will you let me take you somewhere safe?” The deer touched its forehead to the door-mark on his palm. Cool wind passed through him, and suddenly he could see every path through the fog. Beyond the carousel was not a baggage tunnel but a black plain beneath two moons. A gigantic shadow approached. Lu Chen lifted the deer and found the single seam in the mist. Blackbean leaped onto his shoulder, silver mark shining. “Say entry denied.”