The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng

by K. S. Villoso

  “What the hell are you saying, Kaz?”

  “You,” he said, “are a liar.” He pointed at me. “You have no intention of ruling by the prince’s side and he knows it. He knows you’ve tricked him, and I do believe he intends to lay it out on your boy when he gets the chance.”

  “You son of a bitch. You know where he is.”

  “I do,” Jiro said with a smile. “But first, tell me, Queen Talyien, how did my wife die?”

  He came at me with his spear so fast I didn’t have time to dodge. But his intent wasn’t to kill. He simply struck the wall behind me, leaving the spear lodged in there. Still grinning, he wiped the sweat off his face.

  “You and your wife…” I whispered. “You walked into something well beyond your capabilities.”

  “That may be,” Jiro said. “We’re all just looking out for ourselves, in the end. Me. You. Lamang.” He smiled. “Your son,” he continued with a bow, “will be delivered to the prince’s hands soon enough.”

  “What the hell do you mean by that?”

  “Is that a note of surprise?” He clapped his hands together. “That’s right. They said you were close. Too close. But you did say so yourself. Lamang is one of us. He’s always been one of us. Did you expect a tiger to change his stripes? The man conned his own lover’s father. You didn’t know that, either, I suppose.” He licked his lips. “Poor baker. Coffers cleaned out, and there wasn’t much in the first place. Why else did you think he moved to Kyan Jang? You never thought to ask—maybe you didn’t care. Maybe you thought he would change. Ask him when you see him. Ask him why he still carries that guilt around like it was the whole world.”

  You want them to put the noose on themselves, and thank you for it.

  There was a movement from the top of the steps, so fast it looked like a blur. Out of nowhere, Lahei threw herself at Jiro. She drew a sword, spinning low and managing to graze him along the belly. It was as if she had forgotten she was injured; the crutch remained firmly embedded under one arm like it was part of her. Watching them fight, I almost forgot, too. Jiro lumbered after her like a blinded buffalo, huffing and swearing.

  She spun again, sweat pouring down her face. Lacking the power to strike him with one blow, she was whittling him down, tearing at him with small wounds where she could. He tried to grab her crutch and she rewarded him by jamming it up his windpipe.

  He staggered back just as her men arrived. They took over, driving him back to his own soldiers.

  “Tali,” she said, whirling around to meet me.

  “Tell me you know where my son is, Lahei.”

  “If Lamang didn’t bring him to you…” she started.

  “You knew? And you didn’t warn your father?”

  “I did the opposite. I looked the other way.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I was the one who told my father we could trust Lamang. His decision to wage war on behalf of the commoners is misguided. We don’t win Jin-Sayeng over by force. Especially not with a foreign army! He knows this. But his arrogance got the better of him. If I was stronger, I would’ve tried to put a stop to it.” She glanced at the fighting in the distance. “Well, it’s over now. I don’t think my father will ever forgive me. If he survives the night. But I think he’s going to die soon. I think we all are.” There was sorrow in her voice, as if she had already started grieving.

  “You don’t have to die with him.”

  “Most of your soldiers are gone,” Rai broke in. “This camp will fall, whether you want it or not. The Zarojo are unforgiving. Defeat these ones, and it won’t matter. More are riding to the plains as we speak.”

  Lahei gave a nervous smile. “I knew that. It seems difficult to act when it’s all laid bare like that. Defeat was not… on the table.”

  I gently placed my hand around her wrist.

  She glanced down and smiled. “You know we’re not enemies.”

  “I’ve never considered you an enemy,” I murmured. “Go, Lahei. It’s not too late for you.”

  She hesitated. The terror in her eyes at the thought of abandoning her father and defying his orders was so clear that I felt a tremble of it within myself. But she was stronger than I was. She broke it easily. “Until we meet again, Beloved Queen,” she said. She took my hand in hers and bowed before she limped down the path. Her men came up to protect her from the Zarojo.

  A dark shadow crossed the sky, blocking the moonlight.

  I managed to look up and shield my eyes just as a shot of fire hurtled down towards the fighting, burning Zarojo and mercenaries alike. “Eikaro!” I called to the dragon as it settled on the roof of the lodge.

  “Huan,” the dragon corrected me with a roar. He stretched his wings across the sky before he glided down, smashing into the soldiers, tearing them limb from limb. Almost before I could blink, it was over, and we were two lone figures standing in a sea of fire.

  The black dragon gracefully landed beside us. Rayyel looked terrified, but he didn’t move. I had warned him about the brothers before, and somewhere in the back of his mind he must have remembered. Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe I was the one who didn’t know how to listen.

  “Why are you here?” Huan asked. He shifted his head towards Rayyel, steam rising from his nostrils.

  “We were looking for my son,” I replied.

  “I’m sorry, my queen, but you can’t worry about him now. You’re needed there. Prince Yuebek is slaughtering everyone in his path, ally and enemy alike. He’ll kill everyone before he steps foot inside the city.”

  I turned to Rai. “He’s still attacking Kaggawa’s forces,” I said. “Why is he still doing it? If he knows I’ve tricked him, he wouldn’t dare.”

  “Who knows how that man thinks,” Rai said.

  “I have to go there.”

  He didn’t argue. Too many lives had been lost to get us here. If I faltered now, would it all have been in vain?

  I stepped on Huan’s proffered leg and hoisted myself on his back. There was a look on Rai’s face that I, as always, couldn’t read. “You are the first true Dragonlord in centuries, do you realize that?” he asked.

  “Some Dragonlord,” I murmured. “Does it sting that it’s not an Ikessar?”

  Rayyel shook his head. “No, my queen,” he said, bowing as we took to the sky.

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE SIEGE, REPRISED

  Huan wasn’t lying when he said slaughter.

  We reached the fringes of the battlefield. As soon as we passed the trees, a wave of arrows came flying for the dragon. Huan roared, shifting to the side. An arrow pinned itself into the scale between his shoulders, right below my knee. I directed him behind a hill, where he managed an abrupt landing, huffing smoke and steam into the air.

  I kicked myself off him just as three Kag soldiers came for us. Huan snapped his jaws, taking two down mid-stride. I struck the third man across the elbow, and then again, the heavy blade tearing chunks out of the cheap armour. Before I could finish him, Huan swept his tail low into the ground, sending the soldier toppling forward; he stepped on him and snapped his head off.

  “I’ll cut through the lines,” he roared.

  “The risk to you—”

  He ignored me and went barrelling around the field, crashing into a group of soldiers. I kept myself behind his shadow, taking down stragglers in my path. Battlerage, bloodlust, desperation—call it what you will. I felt like a dragon myself, tearing hunks of flesh off bone before turning for the next. In a fair battle I might’ve only felled a handful before exhausting myself, but there was nothing fair about what was unfolding in front of us. Not anymore. I lost count of how many died at my blade, sinking to their knees while screaming for their mothers. I couldn’t even breathe anymore—it seemed as if nothing but blood and piss and excrement went down my lungs.

  We were creatures of death, us warlords of Jin-Sayeng.

  Arrows blotted out the sun as we tore through the field. Huan shielded me with his wing as a well-timed volley landed on the
Kag soldiers in the distance, pinning about half to the ground. The rest scattered, so frightened they barely offered a second glance at the hulking dragon nearby. I let the stragglers run past us, killing those who lay writhing on the ground. Don’t you ever pretend you can look away.

  We reached a low embankment. I heard Huan roar and turned. Before I could take two steps, a shadow crossed the sky. A large net flew from the cliff, trapping him mid-flight. The weights tangled around his feet and he stumbled forward, wings crashing into the boulders ahead.

  Huan reared as he attempted to bite through the net. Mercenaries appeared behind the trees, rushing to bind the ropes around his feet before he could get up. Huan thrashed with one wing, knocking a man aside. Two quickly rushed forward to replace him, throwing hooked chains that looped around the dragon’s mouth. He went down in a cloud of dust as more mercenaries piled on top of him. “We’ve caught the dragon!”

  “Leave me, Queen Talyien,” Huan roared.

  “You heard him,” Dai said. He appeared on horseback, his armour dented in several places. The heat and exhaustion was plain on his face, but he regarded the dragon with an expression that bordered on amusement. “What have you royals done?” he asked. “You’re playing with powers beyond your understanding.”

  “This power is Jin-Sayeng’s oldest secret,” I said. “Let him go.”

  “That’s one of the Anyus, isn’t it?” He tapped his head. “One of the sons. I can hear him, too.”

  “An abomination has no right…” Huan began.

  Dai threw his head back and laughed. “You call me that, and yet look at you!”

  “One body. One soul.”

  “A pot calling the kettle black,” I broke in. “You can argue about the details later. Kaggawa, if you truly care about this land like you say you do, you will withdraw now. The Zarojo are here.”

  “A paltry force,” Dai said.

  “They outnumber you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ve got my soldiers intercepting that foreign prince of yours. Cut the head off the snake and the body will follow.”

  “You can’t possibly think you can kill him.”

  He crossed the field towards us and pointed at Huan. “Dragons,” he said, “are creatures of the agan. Their bodies and souls are open doorways. People have to accept a corrupted presence—the barriers of those blind to the agan make it difficult for them to invade. Dragons don’t get that choice.”

  “We don’t have time for your lectures, old man.”

  He gave a small grin. “Old. I guess I am. It feels odd, having lived so long to be called that.”

  “You’re not… you’re the other one, aren’t you? Myar.”

  “Dai detests warfare,” the man admitted. “He would rather wait it out.” He placed his hand close to Huan’s nose. Huan snapped at him and he pulled away with a grin.

  “Let us work together,” I said. “You and Dai. Your talents are wasted when we’re against each other.”

  “You must’ve asked Ryia Ikessar the same thing. I hear her army is behind us as we speak.”

  “I did. She refused. Will you see the sense she didn’t?”

  He gave a soft sigh. “The Ikessars are weak. If we break through the siege this morning, we’ll be able to mount defenses against them without too much trouble. And I have every intention of doing just that. We—”

  “Are you listening to yourself? That city is crawling with those creatures!”

  “We know. Your General Nor is impressive. How she’s been able to defend the city from both within and without will be the talk for centuries. But even the strongest pillar will fall, if you chip at it long enough. And she’s chipped. They’ve been throwing corrupted bodies into the river since last week, and many are in armour.”

  “He laughs at our sorrows,” Huan sneered. “This man pretends to be righteous, but he’s just like the others.”

  “Your sorrows are mine, too,” Myar said. “I’ve been in Jin-Sayeng too long.”

  I shook my head. “You can’t possibly understand.”

  “Perhaps not. But I am willing to do what none of you are.”

  “Why do you think I’m heading back to Yu-yan now? We’ve found a way to stop this plague and this war.”

  He looked amused. “No, you haven’t.”

  “Prince Yuebek—”

  “Let me stop you right there, Queen Talyien,” he said. “Whatever you think you’ve found, you have absolutely no guarantee it will work. Don’t you think I’ve heard rumours of Warlord Yeshin and his obsession with agan -addled children? Of what your fathers have been up to? His father? Look at him.” He nodded towards Huan. “Listen to me, children. Everything is an excuse to seize power. Everything. Words are easy to shape and intention is hard to see.”

  “You’re doing the same thing.”

  “I am, at least, not lying about it. I showed you what you were up against. Made the effort to bring you out here so you could see with your own eyes and understand. And what do you do? You cling to your old ways. You marry a foreigner in an attempt to seize control, a known madman—”

  “That’s not what’s happening here.”

  “War is in your blood. It’s in all your blood.”

  “Says the man with an army at the city gates.”

  “We are here to liberate the people.”

  “And how, pray, are you going to do that?” I asked.

  “Dragons are creatures of the agan,” he repeated with the patience of a tutor. “They hold the key to ending this madness. But first we need a blank slate. We cannot do anything in this chaos. The corrupt must be taken care of. And since we don’t know who is or who isn’t—”

  “You’re going to kill everyone.”

  He wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Something must be done.”

  “Gods in heaven, you can’t be serious!”

  “I am,” he said. “The time for flimsy decisions is long gone. Someone has to take up the burden of change.”

  “They’re right,” I murmured. “You either die a hero, or…”

  He smiled. “So you said yourself. I’ve lived long enough. Old.” He laughed and turned back to the dragon. “Come, Anyu. Your sacrifice will be heralded by the gods. Be proud.”

  Huan flamed as he approached. In the same instant, the sky darkened, turning everything pitch black. I felt the now-familiar sensation of agan in the air and knew something was happening. The rift? Yuebek? Did it matter?

  If we didn’t kill each other here, the rest would kill us anyway.

  I dashed for the last thing I saw—the dragon’s bright snout, snapping through the net. I reached him just in time. In the darkness, I managed to grab hold of the webbing, which was made of thin wire. Too strong for the dragon to break easily, but so light I could lift it over his head. I untangled the weights from his feet.

  That was all he needed. As soon as his legs were free, he wedged himself through the opening, nearly knocking me back with a wing in his attempt to extract himself from the net.

  “It’s escaping!” a mercenary screamed. Huan silenced him with a quick crunch. And then he arched his neck and lit the brush on fire.

  The branches were wet, so they didn’t burst into flames immediately. The embers burned low, the red crawling against the darkness like veins. But it gave enough light for me to tear off the rest of the net from Huan’s body.

  Myar reached us before he could take flight, his sword sinking into Huan’s leg. The dragon turned to strike him.

  “Don’t!” I screamed.

  Huan balked. “What? Why?”

  “Wake up. Myar, Kaggawa, whoever you are. It’s not too late. We can still work together.”

  “It is too late, my queen,” Huan roared. “He said so himself. He, too, is just using this opportunity to seize power.”

  “He doesn’t know he can’t do that anymore,” I said. “My son. He’s not in your custody. Your camp has fallen.”

  Myar’s face flickered. “Our daughter?
”

  “She’s safe. But you don’t have my son—you can’t use him. And this siege? My father wanted this civil war to happen to bring Prince Yuebek out here. You were used, just like the rest of us. Win this one and it will be for nothing. You think I don’t know the insanity of what we intend to do? That we are going to rely on that man to make this go away? I’ve barely slept in weeks because I know this is a fool’s errand. But we have nothing else, Lord Merchant! We have absolutely nothing else!”

  He drew back, hesitating.

  Huan’s temper flared. He struck the man with his wing, sending him flying across the field. Myar—Dai—roared back. I recognized the sudden change in his expression. The warrior, not the scholar. He drew his sword and charged. I watched helplessly as they circled each other, my screams lost in the wind.

  Around us, men continued to die.

  Is this what you wanted, Yeshin? All of this? Needless death, needless destruction…

  But no. He would have never believed it to be needless. Cleansing fire, Rai had said. They all believed it. The land was too far gone, there were too many edges to be filed off, and all we had to go on was despair. I didn’t know if my son was still alive, or would be by the end of the day.

  Trumpets sounded in the distance.

  The light returned, seeping through the clouds like blood. I thought for a moment the air had settled at last. But then the screams changed, rising to a timbre that reached into my spine.

  Dai struck a blow across Huan’s chest. As the dragon staggered back, Dai swept an arm across the ridge below. “Do you see that?” he called. “Look down below, Queen Talyien!”

  I narrowed my eyes. Dai’s army was cut between the city walls, with the Zarojo and Oren-yaro at his flank. And there, off where the sun was rising, men fell around a single, shining figure, like toy soldiers struck with a broom. Huan had it right—he no longer discerned between friend or foe. He walked through their midst, feeding on everyone in his path the way he did back in that first village. Every soul that fell made the air pulse black and blue, leaving his own body dripping with black fluid, like he’d been drenched in a vat of oil. His presence alone swallowed the morning light.