“DOWN!” a voice bellowed.
Mei Li found herself under Shunlei’s wing in seconds, and she ducked on instinct, her hands over her head.
Something hit the ground with a resounding thud, screeching, but it didn’t stay down. It shrieked in ear-piercing agony and then apparently got back up. Or at least, everyone in the vicinity that could see started swearing like a stevedore, so Mei Li had to assume it had gotten back up.
“What is it?” she called to Shunlei.
“Wraiths,” he answered grimly. “I see a good dozen of them, and that’s just what I can see from here. I hear more.”
“Wraiths…in broad daylight?!”
“It’s overcast enough today that they’re not burning. Mei Li, can you cast a shield over everyone? Only Tengfei and I have a chance of battling these things.”
As if to make his point, a wraith dodged out of the alley, screaming as it came, the ungodly sound ringing in everyone’s ears and making their nerves skitter along their skin. The wraith targeted one of the dwarven soldiers, its hands extended to scoop him up. The dwarf, not about to be outdone, met it head on in a charge, blades swinging.
Mei Li’s heart was in her throat. Oh no, oh no, blades would do nothing to a wraith—!
Shunlei was suddenly there, quick as lightning, a wing up as a shield over the soldier, spitting enough fire to make the wraith draw back, hissing. It dodged back into the shadows, another scream trailing in its wake.
The soldier did not look shaken, just peeved to have been protected.
Mei Li quickly explained, “A wraith’s touch is death, and no amount of steel in the world can touch it. Please, fall back to me.”
He blinked at her, eyes growing wide. “Is that right, Tomes?”
“Dragon fire is the only thing that can harm it,” Shunlei pitched in over his shoulder, but his attention was on the shadows between the buildings. “Hence why I had to step in. Mei, the shield?”
“Absolutely, I have more than a few barrier talismans made up. Thirty seconds, I’ll have a protected area for us all to sit in.”
“Do it.”
Her hands were confident and sure as she whipped out four talismans, putting them down in a large square so that people had room to get in without being squished together.
As soon as it stabilized, she said, “Done!”
“Excellent. Everyone, into the barrier. The wraiths can kill humans in an instant; you have no immunity against them.”
Captain Jacobs was quick to hurry people in. As he did so, Mei Li turned in place and yelled at the others still working on the dockside, “SCOTT! PUT UP A BARRIER, WE HAVE WRAITHS!”
There was swearing, but he was quick to do as she said, chivvying people to drop their tools and come in closer.
Dolan came in closer to stand next to her, laying his own magic against the talismans and reinforcing it. “I could have done without the wraiths,” he said sourly.
“Trust me—meeee too.”
“Master Shunlei, don’t battle the wraiths without me!” Ling Ling called with a distinct pout, like a child denied the right to play.
“Get over here, then,” Shunlei said with exasperation. “We’ve got a good dozen. There’s more than enough to go around.”
She squealed with delight before launching straight toward him.
“At least the dragons are having fun?”
Dolan just rolled his eyes and sighed.
Which was rather how she felt about it.
Yup. Construction at the docks would absolutely take all day at this rate. Maybe two.
Mei Li looked all around the city with a sort of resignation settling into her bones. This was definitely going to take at least three months. No question.
After a long, very harrowing day, they dragged themselves back to the camp. Mei Li was absolutely exhausted. Mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. Dodging wraiths, deinos, and who knows what else while trying to build rather complex seals was not an exercise she would wish on her worst enemy. And here she was demanding it of her colleagues and herself.
Not fun.
The sun was setting well past the horizon when Shunlei landed, a little heavier than he normally did.
Mei Li flipped herself out and immediately put a hand to his neck. “How are you?”
“Tired,” he said with a sigh, turning his head to look at her. “As are you. We might want to rethink this approach, my love.”
“Believe me, I’m not interested in doing that again. At the very least we need to bring in more manpower.”
Mei Li’s true goal right now was food and to sit down. That was it—the sum total of her goals for the immediate future.
But first, she unfortunately had to report in.
She turned, greeting people as they got out of their carriers, and urged them to rest. She’d send word out if they were going again tomorrow, but she doubted it at this point. They were too exhausted and bound to make mistakes and lose people. But she had to figure out how to reorganize things, too. And that meant time.
People went in their own directions, hunting for dinner and beds. Mei Li trudged toward the red tent, slapping the side of it to announce herself before ducking through the open flaps.
Two braziers guarded the door, mostly to ward off the cold and keep the occupants inside warm. Prince Cavanaugh was sitting upright, looking better than he had the day before. Then again, with the amount of healing magic being poured into him, that wasn’t much of a surprise. Prince Pari sat with him in front of another brazier with furs wrapped around his shoulders.
And then there was Liasa of Kovel. The lady of the city did not look her pristine self. She normally wore flowing white dresses, her greying blonde hair in elaborate updos. But she reflected her city in this moment, her clothes dark and durable, her hair back in a working man’s plait. She looked a decade older than she was, like a grandmother that should be sitting at a hearth, not out here fighting ancient evils in her city.
When Mei Li entered, Prince Cavanaugh greeted brightly, “Tomes! How did it go?”
“Well, it wasn’t a disaster. But we didn’t achieve the progress I was hoping for, either.” She gave a nod to the woman huddled under a blanket. “Lady Liasa, it’s been a while.”
“So it has, Tomes.” She gave Mei Li a tired smile. “Thank you so much for coming. I know you’re being pulled in a dozen directions at once, so it means something that you came as quickly as you could.”
A gracious way to put it, and Mei Li appreciated that. “Seeing how bad things are, I wish I could have come sooner. If not for Zaffi and Odom, I would have. You’ve met my husband?”
Proving she had already heard about this, Liasa didn’t bat an eye. “I have, many times. Well met, Shunlei.”
“Well met,” he returned, already pulling a chair up for each of them. “Here, Mei.”
“Thanks.” She dropped into it, feeling the exhaustion in her bones. Mei Li was absolutely taking a vacation after this.
Liasa sat forward eagerly. “You said that you succeeded, at least in part?”
Bless the woman for trying to find any ray of light. Then again, she’d probably done nothing but cling to hope for months now.
“My goal this morning was to put in at least one sea channel and revive the six seals along the docks. We didn’t do even half of that. As it turns out, the renovation removed the seals completely. We had to dig into the area and start afresh. The sea channels are going to take even more manpower than we anticipated. We demolished the area easily enough, and the base foundation is set, but it’s only half done. We ran out of daylight before we could finish properly. And it’s not even connected to the seals nearby.”
“Our construction experts tell us this should have been done by the end of the day,” Shunlei pitched in. “Especially since we used so much magic to hurry the matter along, it should have been feasible. But the problem we encountered was the danger of the area itself. We thought we brought enough fighters to keep the danger
at bay while people worked, but we were forced to stop several times and take shelter behind a ward. It slowed our progress considerably.”
Fire warm. Pretty fire, dancing fire, so warm. Mei Li let the heat dance along her outstretched palms with a smile of pleasure.
Oh, right, she should be paying attention. Mei Li dragged her brain back into the present conversation.
“So, you need more fighters.”
“We do.” Shunlei indicated the sky above with a flick of his fingers. “I have a flight of dragons incoming. It will help with our manpower, but I don’t know precisely when they’ll arrive. Tomorrow, we should pause and regroup, I think. Gather more fighters and mages, organize a little better, then tackle this again.”
Liasa nodded, promises tumbling out of her mouth. “I can help you with that. I have an idea of who all to call. But once the seals are active, that means the docks are safe. We’ll regain them.”
Mei Li held up a hand of warning. “It means the seals will prevent Kovel Below from rising in that area. But it doesn’t automatically guarantee safety. Remember, anything already roaming the streets can still reach the docks.”
Her mouth opened, closed, and she slumped a little with disappointment. “Right. Of course. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“We’ll win this, I promise you. It’s just going to be a battle of attrition.”
Liasa wiped a hand over her face. “At least I’m no longer losing my city by inches. I’m regaining it, instead. I imagine the need for fighters will only grow as we cover more territory?”
“I don’t want to start at the docks and expand in every direction. We’ll take the city one chunk at a time. It’s the only sane method. It’s not like we have unlimited manpower or resources, after all.”
Mei Li looked at Shunlei, not sure who should say this. She found herself strangely reluctant to do so.
He caught her look and gave her a little nod. “I’ll explain it.”
“Thanks.”
“Lady Liasa, I’m afraid I did catch wind of something very, very dangerous today.” He clasped his hands together, a grimace teasing at his face. “We spied from the air the remnants of a shrine, long abandoned, and the deity that was once housed there is…unfortunately still there. You have a fallen deity that has risen into Kovel Above.”
Liasa turned completely white, like she was turning into a ghost. “Those are incredibly dangerous. They’ll consume all flesh and raze everything they touch to the ground. Where is it?”
“It’s a little north of the docks, toward Temple Walk, I believe.”
“Of course it would be there. The oldest section of the city by far.” Liasa winced. “I can’t imagine what kind of damage it’s doing roaming around there. Can you defeat it?”
“I can, yes, but…well, there aren’t many good options.”
Mei Li held up two fingers. “There are two, in fact. Either I can capture and seal it in place, which means you’ll have to maneuver around it forever and pray some fool doesn’t mess with it. Or Shunlei can burn it. These things don’t have much immunity to dragon fire.”
Her expression rose with hope for just a moment. And then, as realization dawned, the hope was replaced by horror. “But doesn’t that mean you’ll be unleashing dragon fire in my city?”
“Damage will be inevitable. Even if it’s a controlled fire fight.” Shunlei spread his hands helplessly. “If we block her escape routes in all directions, I can at least limit the damage. That’s about all I can promise.”
The poor woman looked stressed enough to cry.
Prince Cavanaugh put a hand to her shoulder, expression sympathetic. “Things can be replaced, dear lady. But not people. And you don’t want this thing roaming about your city.”
“No,” she agreed with a long sigh. “No, that I do not. I guess there’s not much choice. If you would, please.”
Shunlei gave her a nod and promised again, “I’ll do everything I can to defeat it with minimal damage. I propose we stop here for the night. We’re all exhausted, Mei and I are half-starved. We’ll meet again in the morning to discuss what we need and rethink our approach.”
It was wise counsel. Mei Li couldn’t even think straight at this point. She didn’t have the brainpower or the energy to sit and strategize for another hour. She stood up immediately.
“I’ll be back here after breakfast. Everyone, sleep well.”
“Sleep well,” the other three returned.
She stepped out again, shivering as the winter air brushed over her. The braziers had done a very good job inside that tent. She’d almost forgotten how cold it was out here.
“Food,” she told her husband seriously.
“Food,” he agreed just as seriously. “My stomach was rumbling in there. I think there’s a tent over there that’s offering plates. I can smell sizzling meat, at least.”
“Follow the nose.” Mei Li linked arms with him. It may have looked like a sweet gesture, but really, it was for balance. The black ice patches were thick.
“You no longer wince,” he commented as they made their way down.
Mei Li blinked up at him. “What?”
“When someone addresses you as Tomes. You no longer wince. You used to, in the beginning.”
“Ah. That’s true, I did. In the beginning, it just felt so odd. I was the apprentice, not the master. I still hadn’t read most of the tomes I needed to in order to be really considered a proper Tomes. It felt like a disservice to Abe, too, to assume his position. To do it without his blessing.”
Shunlei’s face was filled with compassion. “You still worry about him.”
“I really don’t know where he could have gone.” Mei Li’s heart ached whenever she thought about her master. So much time had passed since his disappearance, and he wasn’t the most collected of men even at the best of times. Common sense was not Abe’s strength.
“I suppose the odds of him being shipwrecked in some remote region aren’t high.”
“The thought has crossed my mind more than once. But you sent dragons out to check the obscure places after I showed up, right?”
“I did, multiple thunders, in fact. No one spied any hint of him or his ship.”
“I think I have to face it.” Mei Li’s mouth turned bitter with the words; it almost pained her to say them. “I think he may have been lost to either ocean or volcano. But I don’t think he made it out.”
“I fear you’re right. But don’t give up hope completely. Stranger things have happened in this world than someone disappearing for a few years. Look at us, for example.”
“A time-traveling mage who fell in love and married a dragon?” Mei Li turned her face up to share a grin with him. “It is a pretty strange thing, when said like that. Actually, I’ve meant to ask you this. Are we the only ones?”
“The only dragon and human couple? If there’s another, I’ve not heard of them.”
Mei Li took that as a no. Her husband knew all of the dragons, after all, and that had been the case for many thousands of years.
Abe still alive…it would be a miracle if that were the case. Mei Li hoped he was, somewhere. And that he’d eventually come back to them. There was so much that he knew, so much she still had to learn from him. And she missed him. Before Overlook had succumbed to a volcano, they used to sit in front of the fire in the evenings and talk magic, history, what-ifs. The conversations had never been dull.
Shunlei leaned in to kiss the top of her head, trying to comfort her. “Wouldn’t it be interesting to have two active Tomes? In the history of the world, we’ve never had that before. Usually, one retires after the next Tomes is fully trained. If they don’t fall in battle first.”
“Two, eh?” Mei Li’s lips curved up at the thought. “Two would be truly interesting, indeed. It would mean we wouldn’t have to prioritize our troubles quite so much. We could divide duties, not drive ourselves ragged. Actually, come to think of it, why don’t we have two? Why has everyone always insisted on having ju
st one?”
Shunlei thrummed a moment, his tone thoughtful. “You know, I’ve never questioned it. Because you always said that there’s only one?”
“I said there’s only one because there’s always been just one.”
They looked at each other.
“This is one of those time paradoxes, isn’t it?” Shunlei finally said.
“It sure smells like one.”
“Why don’t we break the cycle? I don’t see any reason to adhere to tradition.”
“I’m all for it. Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people, anyway. How many Tomes do you think we should have?”
“Well, you’ve always maintained that there should be multiple records throughout the countries. Shouldn’t there be at least one Tomes per country?”
Mei Li considered that seriously for a full second.
“Wow, that would cut down so much on travel time. But do you really think that we can find that many people who have enough memory power and mage power to become a Tomes? Just finding one every generation has been a struggle.”
“You don’t need to find someone with that kind of memory, though,” he pointed out. “If you’re dividing the duties between countries, the records are cut by a good fifth. And didn’t you tell me that some of the records are only kept as a teaching method? That the problems they detail are already taken care of? If something does happen, they’d have the time to go and find the right record, read it, and then respond.”
He did have a point there. Most of the records were only a few pages, after all. Not full-length books.
She ruminated on it some more. “Maybe still have a main Tomes, but put them in an advisor capacity. And have branch offices throughout each country?”
“That would be a good way to do it, yes.”
It really was the better method. Mei Li could say that without hesitation after doing this for a full decade. Really, she should have thought of it before. Her only defense was that she’d been so busy focused on other problems, she hadn’t the time to really think of a better method.
There was only one challenge. “You realize that means I’ll need to train a half dozen people. And set all of this up. And convince every country leader to fund and maintain an office.”
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