Shunlei had his back to her as he rummaged through his bags, finally bringing one up from beneath all the others. It was lighter, probably only enough to tide her over for a day or two while traveling. As he presented it to her, he regained that energetic delight from before, this time tempered by caution. He kept biting his lip, staying words before they escaped, and he hesitated for a long moment before speaking. Each word was like a paving stone, laying out the path carefully with its utterance. “It won’t take long, that much I can assure you. Ask for me. I will help you. Be honest as much as you can about your goals, and I will work with you to achieve them.”
Mei Li took the pack with both hands, her eyes searching his. He seemed honestly torn and hesitant, a rare state for him. “You’ve already told me too much, haven’t you?”
“Possibly. I have faith you’ll be fine. My younger self makes sure of it, but you won’t meet me immediately.”
“Alright. I’ll be on my guard as I go. Should I change outfits?”
“Yes.” He went to the chest and pulled out a set of women’s traveling clothes in a deep green with sturdy boots. The style was entirely different than what she had on now. Simpler, with less embroidery and lace, and sturdier. Laying them on the bed, he hesitated once more before instructing softly, “You can work the portal from here, can’t you?”
“I can. It doesn’t take a specific location, just the right incantations and sunlight.” With the window to the side, she had plenty of sunlight to use.
“Then go once you’ve changed. Go immediately. I don’t want them stopping you.”
She saw sense in the order and nodded. “I will. I’ll likely return here, won’t I?”
“If we’re fortunate. I’ll have the dragons be on the lookout, just in case.” He turned her, hands on her shoulders, then brought her in for a hug. A low thrum pressed against her skin as he hummed something to her, although she didn’t know what this one meant. She could feel his nerves as well as his anticipation and her own emotions matched those two exactly. Pulling back, he pressed a kiss against her forehead, chaste and lingering. His breath was warm against her skin as he whispered, “Be safe. Return to me.”
This man had already lost too much. Even knowing she went back, it must be hard to send her off again, aware she’d be in danger. There was a chance that while she might safely enter the past, she had no guarantee she’d regain the present in the same state. Her throat closed tight, agitation curling in her gut with an uneasy tug. She hated to do this, to leap into uncertainty, but there was apparently no other choice available. “I promise.”
He left in a flurry, the door shutting firmly behind him. Mei Li didn’t allow time for doubts—she didn’t have any to spare—and quickly shucked off her clothes and dove into the new ones. They were, as usual, a perfect fit. One of these days, she’d figure out how he kept doing that. It wasn’t like she’d ever been measured for these outfits he kept producing. At least, not in the present…huh. Now that was a strange thought. Had he done so in the past? And just when in the past did they meet?
“I guess I’m about to see,” she muttered to herself.
She finished tying the belt in place, yanked on her boots, then reached for the thick piece of chalk in her magical pack. With broad strokes, she wrote out the talisman on the floor, leaving her precisely enough room to stand in and not an inch more. (The instructions of the spell had been quite clear on that.) It felt like it took a decade to draw it all out, but it was likely more along the lines of thirty minutes. She could hear Shunlei breathing and shifting outside the door, knowing he was guarding it so no one could interrupt her.
Sweat dotted her forehead she moved and worked so fast, but finally she sat back on her haunches and looked it over. Despite her sense of impending haste, Mei Li forced herself to look over every line carefully to avoid mistakes. This was the one time in her life she absolutely could not afford a mistake.
She saw none.
Hoping for the best, she shouldered her pack. Mei Li stepped into the circle of the sigil and, much like a cat, hunkered down into it so she was covered completely by the sigil’s footprint from head to toe. She breathed in deep, drawing her magical power to the fore, and channeled her magic directly into it. The sigil lit up with a brilliant kaleidoscope display of color and light, dazzling to the eyes. Not to mention alarming.
Something seized her, a strong force that tapped into her stomach, and yanked sharply. Mei Li had precisely enough time to gasp and flail madly before the light disappeared altogether. Stars and shadow wrapped around her, as if she’d stepped into a galaxy, only she had no time to gather her bearings as she sped through it. In a blink, she was through it, and a patch of ground rushed up to meet her.
Mei Li felt disoriented, much like a drunk who couldn’t find either equilibrium or balance, and she landed with a thud against hard-packed dirt, grass tickling her nose. Gasping, she flopped onto her side, struggling to catch her breath. She panted for a moment, eyes blind to her surroundings. Was this what a fish felt like, when thrown onto the bank? Winded, disoriented, and weak? She had more sympathy for their plight if that was the case.
The weakness quickly passed and she struggled up to her knees first, getting a good look around. Nothing looked familiar. Not that it said much, as Mei Li hadn’t really traveled much in her life. She’d been all over the modern world, but she knew the world’s geography and landscape had changed a great deal through the years. She could be anywhere in the world and not be able to recognize it. For that matter, how much of the land had changed over the years? So much so that she, a modern woman, wouldn’t deem it familiar?
She looked to the road nearby, hard-packed red clay and wide, with wagon ruts in it. That was promising. Mei Li was a very firm fan of roads, seeing as they led places. The area was lovely, rolling green hills dotted with trees and what looked like farms in the distance. And the weather was fair, that was also good, barely a cloud in the blue sky. At least she wouldn’t have weather to contend with.
All good points, but it didn’t solve her immediate question: just when and where was she?
Dusting herself off, she got to her feet and started walking east. She kept up a good pace, because without knowing her location, she had no idea of where she could rest for the night. It would behoove her to make tracks as quickly as possible. Still, Mei Li paced herself. She knew she didn’t have the stamina to run all day. Or even a quarter of it.
As she walked, her ears perked up. Was that…it sounded like the sounds of battle ahead. Not with clashing swords, per se, although something metal was striking hard. Mostly incantations, and yelling, and substantial thuds as heavy objects hit the ground. What was going on ahead? And did she want to get into the middle of it?
Frowning, Mei Li picked up her pace. Better to know what it was and avoid it than to blindly strike away from the road. She didn’t want to go cross-country if she didn’t have to.
As she rounded a bend, going down a slight hill, the scene came more sharply into definition. There was indeed a battle—right in the middle of the road, no less. Three mages, one warrior, and something that looked very fierce and straight out of a nightmare.
Mei Li shielded her eyes with a flat hand as she ran, the sun at the perfectly wrong angle to mess with her vision. When she finally got in close enough, she groaned in realization. Not that she’d ever seen this particular beast in person, but she’d read of it. It was the manifestation of the Red Lantern, a powerful, fiery beast that was part lion, part fire, and mostly rage. Red Lantern was supposed to light the path toward Heaven, but being denied that privilege, it went mad and instead sought to destroy the gates leading onto the path. It now wanted to destroy any road it saw.
But hadn’t that been sealed…oh dear. Oh no. Surely she wasn’t that far into the past?! No, calm down, Red Lantern did escape its seal once, about two thousand years ago. It was possible she was there instead of at the first sealing, which was over five thousand
years ago.
Mei Li had no chance to speculate or ask questions. The group was formidable, but they hadn’t figured out how to subdue Red Lantern yet, and it was growing fiercer with every attack. Someone kept throwing wind attacks against it, and that only fueled its ferocity. Groaning at the idiocy, Mei Li rushed forward, rummaging in her pack as she did so, praying Shunlei had put in talismans—bless that man, he had. Her hand closed over the thin strips of paper and yanked four out.
“Not wind!” she called as she ran up to the group. “Earth or water, but not wind!”
One of the mages, a woman with singed brown hair, turned sharply to stare over her shoulder. “You know how to subdue this?!”
“I do!”
“Tell us how!”
Mei Li came to a stop, sliding a bit on the slick grass, and panted out, “Follow my directions. I need a four over four—”
“A what?” the burly soldier with the fur around his shoulders demanded impatiently.
“A mage in each directional corner!” Sand and stars, they didn’t know what a four over four meant? Just how modern of a term was that?
The mages tried to follow her direction, but of course Red Lantern could hear her shouting as well as they could, and the fiery beast moved to counteract them. He bellowed fire at them, and the mages were quick to cover the warrior with their own shields, protecting everyone from being set aflame. Mei Li quickly used one of the talismans in her hand to create a rough and ready protective shield, and the fire flared harmlessly around her, although it had been a near thing.
Her heart beat loudly in her ears as she panted for breath. Battling things with people she didn’t know wasn’t ideal, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Withdrawing long enough to come up with a strategy wasn’t feasible in this situation. And it didn’t solve her problem of how to get a talisman above Red Lantern’s head. Unless she figured that out, they’d not be able to seal it, much less subdue.
One of the warriors turned his head, spotting something in the sky, and abruptly cursed. “Dragon incoming!”
Mei Li’s heart lifted in relief. With a dragon’s aid, they might win this yet without losing someone in the process.
Everyone else cursed as well, looking alarmed, and they put up defensive barriers over their heads as if…no, surely not. Were they actually preparing defenses against a dragon?
Just how far back in history was she?! Dragons hadn’t been humanity’s enemy in thousands of years. Over four thousand years, in fact.
With their attention divided, Red Lantern almost caught one of the mages unawares, and he had to duck and roll to avoid becoming barbeque. Mei Li reached for the nearest mage and warrior, slapping them on the shoulder. “I’ll deal with the dragon. Use these talismans, get in the directional corners, link the talismans! It’ll create a box-shield around it.”
They nodded toward her sharply, taking the talismans, and immediately followed her directions. Or tried. Red Lantern made it difficult for anyone to hold their ground.
Mei Li quickly backed off, buying herself some distance. She needed to see if she could make the dragon an ally or if she’d have to fend it off. It was red, so a young dragon. That wasn’t entirely promising in and of itself. Still, there was something about this dragon that seemed oddly familiar. It took her a minute to place it, but the body shape and the curve of that wide wingspan reminded her of Shunlei. Was this perhaps an ancestor of his?
Tossing caution to the wind, she put both hands around her mouth and belted in Long-go, “Dragon! I require aid!”
That great head turned sharply downwards, eyeing her, and he dropped with two hard flaps of the wing, coming in closer to her. As soon as he did so, Mei Li’s mouth went dry. She’d recognize that elegant, elongated bone structure, the high curve of his eyes, anywhere. It wasn’t that he looked like Shunlei. He was Shunlei.
Shunlei the Red.
Mei Li’s knees went weak and she almost dropped to the ground. Was she really five thousand years in the past?!
A burst of flame from Red Lantern scattered in all directions, like a whip seeking a target, and Mei Li dropped heavily to the ground to avoid it. She swore viciously as she threw her shield back up and around, strengthening it. Red Lantern was getting stronger. She wouldn’t be able to protect herself at all in a minute, not at this rate. Her magic wasn’t up to the task.
Red Lantern bellowed fire again, the sound so hot it sounded like a damned soul screaming at her. The heat of it flashed over her skin, and she flinched at the feeling. Although it had fortunately mostly missed, it was still hot enough to be painful, forcing mages and soldiers alike to leap clear. Mei Li had no room to maneuver, trapped as she was still on the ground. She ducked her head down and threw her full magical strength into the barrier.
Something heavy landed over her, the wind rushing and throwing her hair around wildly, rustling her clothes. She smelled the warm scales, the sunlight still radiating from his skin, and peeked up to discover Shunlei had landed protectively over her, his wing thrown ahead to block the fire. A being of fire himself, the Red Lantern couldn’t harm him, and its attack bounced harmlessly off.
Something in her unwound, and she grinned up at the feathers in front of her. Shunlei the Black was right. If she asked Shunlei the Red for help, he’d grant it.
“Fair mage, you know how to defeat this?”
“I do,” she answered in Long-go. “We need talismans on all four corners and one above to seal him in place. If I give you a talisman, can you carry it above him and hover in place?”
“I can.” Shunlei turned his head toward her for just a moment. “After, we must talk.”
“Trust me, I want to talk more than you do.” Mei Li scrambled to her feet and grabbed more talismans from her bag. She scraped hair out of her face with her free hand as she moved, using his wings for cover as she made quick preparations. “Here, take this one. On the count of three, I’m rolling free. You can lift into the air then.” Switching languages, she yelled at the rest of the humans, “Dragon is an ally! Don’t fire at him!”
Shunlei hunkered down, readying himself to leap into the air. “Three, two, one, go!”
Mei Li threw herself off to the side, giving him space. As soon as she was clear, she scrambled up and ran for the mages again, this time trying to stay low and keep situationally aware of Red Lantern.
The beast tried to run free now—not just attacking but charging different areas, testing the defense. The sight of a dragon had panicked it, as well it should. Its attacks would have no effect there. The humans blocked it with talismans, sword and spells, and finally they were able to get into the right positions.
Mei Li scrambled toward the northern direction, the only one left untaken by a mage, and lifted her talisman. She ran her eye over the rest of them as she got into place, found them ready and grimly watching Red Lantern like a hawk. “Link on three! One, two, three!”
It wasn’t seamless—no magical linkup with relative strangers ever was—but there were at least three powerful mages in this group and it was enough to cover the gaps. The magic raced to each talisman like blue lightening, and once it hit all four directions, it shot upwards toward the talisman in Shunlei’s grasp. The spell cemented with that and solidified into thick chains that glowed with blue fire.
“Release!” Mei Li snapped out the order.
Everyone let go of the talismans. The paper, unable to withstand the power of the magic, burned up immediately to a crisp. But the spell on the talismans glowed and stayed in place, locking the seal. Red Lantern tried to rage, to fight free, but the seal used every bit of magic it had to subdue its prisoner. The glowing lion faded slowly, shrinking in on itself, and finally it lost the animal form. Under her watchful eye, it resumed the form of a paper lantern once more, its raging fire no more than an ember.
A ragged cheer went up and the mage nearest to her reached out a hand to clap her on the back, a bright smile on his face. “M
age! You’re a stranger to us, but welcome. I’m Hawes. Tell me your name and let me treat you to a feast tonight.”
She smiled back at him, glad he had taken her orders so well. They’d have all been in trouble if anyone had tried to argue with her. “I’m Mei, from Demarest. I’m more scholar than mage, and sorry I couldn’t be of more help. My magic isn’t very strong.”
“Don’t apologize. You told us how to defeat it neatly,” the female mage of the group denied. She came in closer, absently pulling on her singed hair and clothes with a faint grimace. “And just in time, too. We were not winning. But how did you know the dragon was friendly?”
“I recognized him.” Mei moved through the humans and to Shunlei, who had landed nearby and was watching them cautiously. “Shunlei the Red, well met. Thank you for your help.”
He lowered his head so that they were more on speaking level, sparing her from craning her neck upwards. “Well met, Lady Mei. I was surprised you called out to me, and in my own language. Most humans fear the dragons. They have good reason to. Not all of us are rational.”
“No, they are not.” Apparently. Mei Li silently bemoaned her luck. Of all the times, why did the time-traveling spell dump her here? Had everything she needed records for even been sealed yet? Somehow she doubted it. Shaking her head, she brought her attention back to the present conversation. “But I know of you. You’re trying to get the dragons to recognize laws, to behave and be humanity’s allies. I knew you’d help if I asked.”
His tail thumped happily, a wide grin on his face. Which, with the five-inch-long incisors, was a bit alarming to the uninitiated. “You’ve heard of me? Truly? The humans know of my goals?”
“I do, at least. Others surely do, as word spreads quickly.” It was so very strange, speaking to this younger Shunlei. His expressions were more open, more inherently innocent. He had none of the caution or the mantel of confidence of his older self. He was, what, perhaps eighty at this point? So incredibly young. When had this wide-eyed innocence and puppy energy faded?
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