Dragon Emperor

by Eric Vall

  “What about those who break the path, what do you call them?” I thought about the dragon painted on Julia’s fan and imagined for a moment that I was the dragon and I had reached the skies.

  I shook the thought out of my head. I didn’t even know how to cultivate, and I had more important things on my plate. Like getting the people of Hatra back on their feet and figuring out a way back home.

  “Celestial Emperors.” Alyona’s hand tightened around mine as she spoke. “It is said that they are sovereigns who rule the different realms and planes and may even create their own.”

  “As scintillating as this explanation is, we’ve yet to explore that,” Julia chimed in as she pointed down into the hole. “And if no one else will, I shall since I’m eager to see what our forefathers hid away. There might even be something which can fight back against the miasma down there.”

  The female Elder of Hatra swept past us in a flurry of orange fabric and toward the staircase that led down into the forgotten library. Ruslan exaggeratedly rolled his eyes as he followed her, and I bit back a laugh. Elder Julia definitely had a spark to her, and I knew that she and Aunt Emma would have gotten along beautifully if they had ever met.

  That or they would have butted heads immediately and hated each other because of how stubborn the other was.

  “Ladies first.” I swept my arm in front of me and motioned to Alyona and Laika.

  Alyona laughed lightly while Laika rolled her eyes at my grand gesture.

  “I’ll follow behind the two of you with Moskal,” the wolf said as she tapped the scabbard of one of her short swords. “It’s better to go in pairs, just in case.”

  “True.” I nodded as I lifted the hand that was still entwined with Alyona’s and pulled her toward the stairs. “I guess it’s just you and me for now.”

  Underneath her face veil, I saw a dark blush spread across her cheeks, and I felt a thrill run through me at the knowledge that I was the one who had made her blush like that.

  I smiled cheekily and laughed as we took the first step down the staircase into the forgotten library and followed behind the two Elders.

  As we descended into darkness, there was a pale white flame in Ruslan’s hands, and smaller orbs of white hovered all around us. Some of the orbs sought out all the sconces on the walls that hadn’t come to life when Laika and I had entered during the night. The other orbs flew down the rows of bookshelves.

  Alyona gasped as the rows upon rows of bookshelves came into view, and I could hear the way her heartbeat picked up as her grip on my hand tightened. She stopped on the staircase and just stared at the beauty of the forgotten space.

  “It’s gorgeous,” she breathed out as her eyes trailed the constellations that decorated the wide expanse of the ceiling and the carvings that covered every inch of the grand columns.

  “There aren’t any booby traps,” Julia called out from the chaise lounge she had commandeered by one of the columns.

  The little priestess glanced up at me with wide eyes that seemed to glow above her face veil, and she nearly vibrated with excitement next to me.

  “Go ahead, you little bookworm,” I laughed.

  In one moment, she untangled her hand from mine, practically flew down the rest of the stairs, and then dashed down one of the corridors. Her sleeves flew behind her, and she looked like a purple cloud.

  Laika fell into step beside me and raised an eyebrow at the sight. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her move so quickly outside of a fight.”

  “Don’t get between a bookworm and their book.” I nodded sagely as we made quick work of the remaining steps.

  The two of us left behind the Elders in the center of the library and followed Alyona’s scent trail down the many rows of books. It took us a while to find her in the maze of bookshelves because she had crossed back on her path many times. When we finally did manage to find her, she had already amassed a small mountain of books.

  Alyona kneeled in a circle of open books in one of the corridors, and she leaned forward to trace the words in a book with her finger.

  I whistled lowly at the sight of all the open books and wondered just how fast she had read them.

  “This is strange,” the priestess murmured but didn’t look up as we approached. “This says that the miasma can be driven away by dragonsblood.”

  “You are not using my blood,” was my immediate reply as I pictured a tap being shoved into my arm.

  “Of course not, it’s a tree, and its resin is blood red,” Alyone sighed in amused frustration. “According to legend, long ago an ancient dragon created it so that his love would be safe even when he would leave her side. He cut his wrist with his claws and from where his blood dropped onto the earth, the trees grew.”

  “How is a resin going to help or keep anyone safe?” I walked into the circle, sat down next to Alyona, and picked up a book that had various drawings of a tree in it.

  I couldn’t read the rune-like language that the book was written in. I was a bit disappointed, but it was just something new for me to learn, and I was sure that I’d be able to pick it up quickly. My mind wandered for a moment, and I thought of how Alyona could reward me if she were the one teaching me the language. My fantasy involved those beautiful breasts of hers that her priestess dress barely covered.

  I shook my head. This was not the moment to have a tent growing in my pants.

  “I thought it was only used to drive away malignant spirits?” Laika kneeled down in front of me and looked through one of the empty books.

  “We do burn this in the temples and use it as an oil to purify and drive away dark energies.” Alyona tapped a finger against her veiled lips in thought. “If this is true, then this is perhaps the true reason why the temples are the safest of places and are rarely, if ever, attacked by the miasma.”

  “The temples haven’t been attacked?” I looked up from the book I had in my lap. “Are there a lot of temples like that?”

  “They’re attacked very rarely, since there’s always many priests, priestesses, and cultivators in every temple,” the priestess laughed bitterly. “It was thought that the strength of that combined purity was enough to keep them away. And all this time it was the incense. We could have saved so many.”

  “Then let’s go and get it.” I stood up immediately. “Spread the word and all that jazz.”

  “Jazz?” Both the wolf and priestess repeated the word at the same time with curiosity in their voices.

  “It’s a saying from where I’m from.” I ran my hand through my hair out of habit and thought of the easiest way to describe the slang term. “It means everything else like it. So, spread the word and get it planted everywhere.”

  “In the forest, there’s a village where the tree grows.” Alyona traced the drawing of a sapling. “Some of the purest dragonsblood is harvested in the Asuras’ village.”

  “Asuras?” I tested the word on my tongue.

  “Ah, I suppose they can be considered Demi-Humans,” the priestess replied as she closed the books in front of her. “They tend to shun large settlements and prefer to live surrounded by nature.”

  Alyona raised her right hand and slid it through the air. Her hand suddenly disappeared, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I let out a hiss. She pulled her hand out, and she had a stack of papers in her hand. She repeated that same action and pulled out from literally thin air a handful of jade rings and bracelets, along with an inkwell and an ink brush.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” My eyes went wide. “Scratch that, what did you just do?”

  The priestess laid the papers and jade jewelry out on the floor in front of her. She uncapped the inkwell, and I could feel a shift in the air. The smell of lightning and purity filled the space around us as the air thrummed with power.

  “We need something to trade with them.” Alyona blinked back at me, and her eyes had shifted in depth. Now, bits of silver sparkled through the amethyst hue. “We cannot just take the dragonsblood fr
om the Asuras without giving something back to them in return.”

  I looked over at Laika, and the wolf seemed nonplussed by what had just happened. She was still looking through the book that was in front of her.

  “I still don’t know what you’re doing.” I blinked again. “Or how you pulled that out.”

  It had to have been some sort of storage space, except I had no idea how it worked.

  But I wanted one.

  “It’s space magic,” Alyona laughed lightly as her fingers trailed over the jade jewelry. “It’s a pocket dimension that I can use as storage. Most adventurers and cultivators have interspatial items that allow them their own storage space.”

  “Like this one.” Laika patted the belt that she wore low around her toned hips. “I can’t use space magic, but this was enchanted to have a storage space. I can store things inside of it and pull them out with a thought.”

  That settled it. I was going to learn space magic, and if I couldn’t learn it, I was getting an interspatial item.

  “And what are you doing to the jewelry?” I shuffled forward and sat down in between the two women.

  “Talismans and enchantments to offer in trade.” Alyona’s full focus had shifted back onto the items in front of her, and her voice had begun to trail off. “For good health and protecting, for invoking guardian spirits to exorcise malignant spirits and so on.”

  What she was doing to those trinkets was like what she had done with her face veil to trap the miasma only this time she was prepared and wasn’t exhausted. With the face veil, she had chanted what I considered to be a spell, but this time she didn’t chant anything. I was fascinated by the way she wove her power into the objects before her, and I wondered if she could enchant something so I would be able to read the languages of Inati.

  Having a storage space would be amazing, but I didn’t have anything to store in it, and right now being able to read was a bit more important. I needed to learn as much as I could about Demi-Human biology and human biology in this world. And now I had to take into account any possible biological differences caused by the path of cultivation.

  I ended up dozing off between Laika and Alyona for however long it took the priestess to prepare the trade items and slip everything back into her storage space or whatever she called it. Laika was the one to wake me, and she did so by dropping a pile of books a foot away from me. I was startled by the sudden noise and hissed in warning.

  Laika bit back a snort, and Alyona let out an aborted laugh while I halfheartedly glared at them.

  “Alright, alright ladies, fun and games are over,” I muttered as I stood up and dusted off my clothes. “We have things to do and a schedule to keep, chop chop!”

  “I’ll meet the two of you by the outer wall in fifteen minutes, is that fine?” Alyona asked as she tugged at the hem of her dress. “I need to set a barrier up before we leave.”

  “That’s cool with me.” I looked at Laika and shrugged. “I don’t really need to grab anything.”

  “Nor I.” Laika patted the swords at her side. “These will serve me well for today.”

  “Perfect.” Alyona smiled and let go of the hem. “I’ll see you both then.”

  The priestess dashed away in the direction of the entrance, and I stared at her bare feet. I had easily kept pace with Laika and her comrades when we came to Hatra, but I didn’t know if Alyona would be able to keep that fast of a pace. I was worried about her feet getting injured on top of how she was faring after the barrier incident. A long day of travel might prove too much for the priestess.

  “Are there any horses in Hatra?” I asked the wolf next to me.

  Laika stared at me for one long moment and shook her head. “No.”

  “Shit,” I winced, but then a thought occurred to me.

  This would be the perfect opportunity to carry the priestess.

  I could already see her in my arms as I carried her bridal style and how she would look up at me with loving eyes.

  “If you’re worried about my Lady, then you’re worrying needlessly,” Laika yawned and walked away in the direction of the staircase.

  “What do you mean?” I followed after with more than a little curiosity in my voice.

  “When we traveled to Hatra, she was the one who set the pace,” the wolf Demi-Human replied as she rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms above her head languidly. “She’s a wandering priestess, and she crossed Rahma to reach Hatra, and then again to find the Blue Tree Guild. A little journey into the forest won’t hurt her.”

  The swordswoman hadn’t lied to me yet, but I was still skeptical. Alyona had a softness to her body that complemented Laika’s muscled one when they stood next to each other, but it wasn’t a body that could stand harsh travel. Logically, I knew that appearances were usually deceiving and that was especially true in this world where nine hundred-year-old grandmas looked like they had just turned thirty three.

  Still, I worried.

  The beautiful little priestess had awoken a protectiveness inside of me that I wasn’t sure how to explain or pinpoint. I just didn’t want her to suffer or be uncomfortable, and I wanted to be the one to help her.

  I had felt some of the hoarding tendencies and gold lust that dragons would always suffer from in the movies I’d watched and the games I played, but it wasn’t an uncontrollable lust for treasure.

  Well. Not yet at least.

  What did course through me was a deep and unbridled desire to hoard Alyona and Laika, to keep them safe and always by my side so they would be mine. While I felt something similar for the people of Hatra and the other adventurers from the Blue Tree Guild, it just wasn’t the same depth as to what I had begun to feel for the two women. I really didn’t even know how to describe it and would do my best to ignore it until things with the miasma had settled.

  A barrier of shimmering blue rose up around the city of Hatra before fifteen minutes had passed, and then Alyona met us by the outer wall.

  “There!” Alyona stood on tiptoe as she smiled up at the barrier. “That’ll hold under anything the miasma can throw at it.”

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” I stepped closer to her, and her hair swayed in a slight breeze, so I reached to move the loose strands that had crossed her face. “Laika and I can go by ourselves. Or I can carry you.”

  Behind me, Laika snorted.

  “Thank you, Evan, but there is no need.” Alyona placed her hand on mine, and her smile grew gentler.

  Then the priestess took off running. Laika smirked at me and sprinted after her.

  I had no choice but to chase after the two of them.

  I regretted the missed opportunity to carry Alyona, but this was even better. My instincts screamed at me to chase her and bite at the flesh that peeked from underneath her dress. I wanted to press my mouth against every inch of her and learn the deepest tastes and secrets of her body.

  Between the trunks of thick oak trees, I would catch glimpses of Alyona and Laika as they ran ahead of me. Even though my stamina had increased thanks to becoming a dragon, the two women lingered just out of my reach due to the head start they had on me.

  I passed by a large oak tree and stopped on its moss covered roots as I looked at the forest. The plant life was larger than anything I had ever seen. It would take forty or fifty men holding hands to circle any of the trees. I drew in a deep breath, and I could smell the life of the trees around me. Everything smelled of a clean freshness full of the promise of growth and new life.

  Then my eyes slid closed as I listened closely to the sounds around me, and I could hear the gentle song of small creeks and rivers inside of the forest and the way the wind rustled through the branches and leaves.

  After all of that running between the trees and their roots, I didn’t feel tired. I ran faster than I had back on Earth and for longer, and it felt natural to run through the forest.

  A bright light flickered in front of my closed eyes, and I opened them to see Alyona standing on tip t
oe in front of me. The priestess giggled and took off at a run again, and the desire to chase after her and pin her against a tree while I explored her body rose up inside of me again.

  One minute, my instincts were driving me insane with thoughts of Alyona, but then the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I felt a pit of unease settle into my stomach. I skidded to a stop, and so did the two women with me. There was something wrong, but I wasn’t sure what. I glanced to my two companions, and I could almost see the anxious energy come off them in waves.

  Laika fingered her short swords and sniffed the air. I followed suit and smelled nothing but the forest.

  Alyona stared off to the east. “There’s something foul in the air.”

  The wind shifted as soon as she said those words, and the scent of ash and death filled my nose.

  I heard Laika’s low growl, and we broke into a run again.

  Our fears were confirmed when we reached the clearing in the middle of the forest.

  The village in the center of the clearing was a smoking ruin.

  “No.” Alyona had come to a jarring stop at the edge of the village, and her voice wavered with horror. “This village has always been here, it can’t be gone. The people … oh gods have mercy upon their souls.”

  My heart dropped at the sight of the destruction, and I swallowed heavily. I had gotten used to the ruins of Hatra, but this was fresh destruction.

  A sob came from the center of the ruined village, and Alyona immediately dashed toward the sound.

  Laika and I followed close on her heels.

  There was a girl with pale silvery blue hair and ivory horns, maybe around the age of five or six, kneeling in the village square. Her clothes were charred, and she was covered in soot as she buried her face in her hands as she sobbed.

  The second I laid eyes on her, I instantly went into EMT mode and glanced over her for injuries. A moment later, words flashed across my vision.

  Classification: Asura