The Dragon Gods Box Set

by Resa Nelson

  “But Madam Po—”

  The old woman slammed the end of her cane against the floor. The loud cracking sound echoed throughout the courtroom.

  Startled, Ti considered Madam Po’s request to evaluate where Ti had gone wrong. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

  “I thought I could catch you by surprise,” Ti said.

  “Why did you think that?”

  Ti hesitated, not wanting to offend her distant relative.

  Madam Po’s tone became sterner. “This is no time to be polite. The only way to improve is through honesty. You must tell the truth!”

  Ti blurted out the words before she could stop herself. “Because you’re old!”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.” Madam Po walked to stand on the other side of the throne. “Why did you think my age would be a disadvantage?” She gestured for Ti to take a seat on her father’s throne.

  “Young people are stronger than old people,” Ti said, taking that seat and settling into it. “I thought I could overpower you.”

  Madam Po chuckled. “And what happened instead?”

  “You fooled me. Before I knew what was happening, you were behind me. You knocked my legs out from under me. I lost my balance. I fell.”

  “And if I were your enemy, you would be dead.”

  Ti knew Madam Po spoke the truth, and it hit the empress hard. “I know,” Ti said. “I don’t know how you did that.”

  “I already told you: decades of learning and practice.”

  Ti considered Madam Po’s advice about evaluating failure and success. “What did I do wrong?”

  “First,” Madam Po said, “you underestimated your opponent. You made assumptions. You looked at me and assumed you are fast enough to attack me and succeed. What have you learned from this failure?”

  Ti ventured a small smile, hoping to win the old woman over with a compliment. “That you’re more agile than you look.”

  Madam Po’s expression turned grim. “Try again.”

  Ti reviewed her actions in her mind, remembering the decisions she made and the actions she took. “I thought that when I delivered a blow, you wouldn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.”

  “And what happened instead?”

  “Everything happened so fast.” Ti remembered little more than a blur before she ended up on the floor. “But I think I’m the one who didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.”

  Madam Po nodded her approval of Ti’s answer. “And what do you think that means?”

  Ti worked it out by talking out loud. “I assumed I could take you by surprise, but you’re the one who took me by surprise. You must have read my mind.” Ti looked at Madam Po in wonder. “Is that what happens with your portents? Do they help you read people’s minds?”

  “No,” Madam Po said. “I did not read your mind. I read your actions.”

  Ti frowned. “My actions?”

  “The expression on your face. The way you held the staff. The way you moved toward me.”

  Madam Po’s words made Ti nervous.

  Does she pay attention to everything so closely? Does she do it all the time?

  Ti thought back to the way Madam Po had looked at Ti a few days ago, when the empress insisted the old woman give her the water from the Fountain of Immortality intended for Ti’s step-sister.

  Does Madam Po know I drank the water after I dismissed her? Does she suspect it’s making my bones fall apart?

  And does she know what’s required to make me well again?

  Ti steadied herself and hoped her face didn’t reveal her thoughts. “You’re telling me that everything you noticed about me told you what I planned to do.”

  Madam Po’s eyes darkened. “Yes.”

  Her answer terrified Ti, making her feel vulnerable and exposed. Ti had been empress for only a short time, and now she worried that the challenge of maintaining her position might be impossible.

  How many other people can read me the same way Madam Po reads me?

  Madam Po tilted her head and studied Ti’s face. “What frightens you, child?”

  “I am the first empress,” Ti said with a trembling voice. Desperate, she decided her best choice was to tell as much of the truth as she could bear. “My father changed the law to protect me, but I feel like everyone is against me. If everyone can see what I plan to do, they will defeat me just like you did!” Before she realized it, tears spilled down Ti’s face. “I will never be safe.”

  Madam Po pulled out a handkerchief from her sleeve and encouraged Ti to wipe away her tears with it. “No girl or woman is ever truly safe in the Far East. But that is no reason to cry or despair.”

  Lost in hopelessness, Ti said, “But what I am to do?” She accepted the handkerchief and buried her face in it, determined to hide anything else that Madam Po could read.

  “What we all do.”

  Peeking over the edge of the handkerchief, Ti saw Madam Po ease her way to sit on the floor next to the throne.

  Madam Po sighed. “Living in this country is like fighting. You must evaluate every opponent.”

  “Every man, you mean,” Ti said.

  “Not necessarily. Many men try to control women, but there are also good men who will help you. Like your friend Asu Chu.”

  Ti kept her face covered with the handkerchief, afraid that the truth of how she asked Asu Chu to work the magic that killed her father would show on her face.

  Madam Po continued as if she noticed nothing different in Ti’s eyes. “By the same token, there are women who take the side of men. Such women are your worst enemies. Therefore, it is foolish to assume that all men are your enemies and all women are your allies.”

  “Assume,” Ti said, finally allowing the handkerchief to fall away from her face. “Like the way I assumed it would be easy to deliver a blow at you.”

  “Now you understand,” Madam Po said. “It is especially important because you are empress. Everything you do will set precedent for all people of Zangcheen, the Wulong Province, and even all of the Far East. It is why you must strive to act with wisdom with every decision you make.”

  Ti thought she detected compassion in Madam Po’s voice.

  She knows.

  Ti wondered what that meant. Even though Madam Po was a distant relative, she had spent most of her life outside of the royal complex and separate from the rest of the Po Dynasty. Why had that happened?

  Madam Po spoke in such a way that Ti suspected the old woman knew the truth about how Emperor Po died. And yet Madam Po advised Ti not to assume all women are friends. The advice surprised Ti. She’d experienced such troubles with women and girls inside her own family, but that came about because her step-mother and step-sisters envied Ti’s relationship with her father. Everyone knew Ti to be the most favored Imperial Daughter. Ti had known for a long time that she could trust no one in her family other than her father, and now he was dead.

  Could she trust Madam Po?

  Or was Madam Po trying to weasel her way into Ti’s good graces in order to bring her down?

  “Will you help me?” Ti said.

  Madam Po bowed. “It would be my greatest pleasure.”

  Ti kept a sharp eye on Madam Po, making a silent resolution to make no assumptions about her.

  CHAPTER 21

  Wendill taught Frayka how to tend to his garden and gave the responsibility of caring for it to her. “This garden is unlike any you’ve known before,” Wendill said. “Its roots run so deep and far and wide that they connect to their counterparts in other gardens throughout the Far East. You must take care to harvest only what we need to eat and no more. You must take care to make sure every plant is healthy and has what it needs to thrive. Whatever fate this garden experiences will reverberate through its roots to all other plants. Harvesting too much in this garden will cause crops to fail throughout the Far East. Neglecting any one plant in this garden will cause all plants like it to die. Overlooking the needs of this garden could lead to
famine throughout the nation.”

  Although Frayka itched to ask Wendill why he gave this task to her, she realized she already knew the answer.

  Wendill is giving the responsibility of this garden to me because he wants to know who I am. He won’t agree to help me until he knows what kind of person I am.

  Frayka understood. If their situations were reversed, she would do the same thing.

  During the next several weeks, Frayka spent every day working in the garden. She loved the sensation of sinking her hands in the dirt to pull weeds. She enjoyed learning what each plant needed and when to bring water from the pond to nourish its roots.

  Every day she thought about Njall. She hoped GranGran and TeaTree had found him. She hoped they all were safe.

  Every day she also thought about the child Wendill claimed she carried. Frayka found it peculiar that she felt no different. She’d known some pregnant women who were nauseated every morning. She’d known some who struggled through their pregnancies. But Frayka also had known some women who breezed through their pregnancies with ease.

  She wondered if she might be one of those women.

  On one bright, sunny day, Frayka carried a bucket to fetch water from the pond when a sudden movement on a sloping hillside at the edge of the valley caught her eye. Pausing in mid-step, Frayka looked up to see a serpent dragon slithering its way down toward the valley floor. When it looked at the bounty of crops, the creature’s eyes gleamed with delight.

  Frayka eased the empty bucket to the ground.

  If she were home in the Land of Ice, Frayka would have sprung into action immediately. She would have her dagger in hand to charge at the beast. Memories of fighting back against ice dragons that attacked her village of Blackstone echoed in Frayka’s mind.

  I’m not in the Land of Ice. And this is not an ice dragon.

  Frayka stared at the serpent dragon and its slow but steady progress down the slope. Although its torso was shorter and slimmer than Frayka’s, its long tail made her think the animal’s weight matched hers. She remembered other types of dragons she’d seen in other lands.

  If this were a swamp dragon, she would use caution while staying aware that the dragon might mean her no harm.

  If this were a true dragon—like the fabled ones from the Northlands—she would attack and kill it at once, because a single bite from a true dragon meant death.

  The serpent dragon’s gaze wandered, and it noticed Frayka staring at it. The creature paused and looked back at her.

  I’ve seen only one serpent dragon like this one before. And that serpent dragon saved Ling Lu’s life when it could have killed her easily. Instead, it died trying to protect her.

  At the same time, Frayka remembered the responsibility she’d accepted for protecting this garden and all it contained. She remembered Wendill’s explanation that all roots from this garden connected to the roots of all similar plants throughout the Far East.

  That serpent dragon looks hungry.

  Frayka knew from the stories her father told that dragons in the Northlands used to devour entire crops, leaving the nearby farmers and villagers to starve.

  I can’t let this dragon touch anything in the garden.

  For a moment, Frayka envisioned famine rippling through the Far East. She thought about Ming Mo, the man who had captured her as his bride. She thought about Emperor Po condemning a woman to death by boiling. She thought about the way an entire village had given Ling Lu to a dragon as a sacrifice.

  These people are so willing to let girls die. Maybe I should let the serpent dragon into the crops so those people can find out what being on the receiving end of cruelty feels like.

  The serpent dragon took a step forward, its gaze still fixed on Frayka.

  Grudgingly, Frayka pushed that thought away. As much as she longed to see the cruel people she’d met suffer, causing their suffering would make her no better than them.

  As a true Northlander, Frayka wouldn’t hesitate to fight to protect herself and her people when need be. Her father told stories about people who once wreaked havoc due to their greed and longing for power.

  Those stories had taught Frayka that she must never be like them.

  That’s why the dragon gods destroyed the Northlands. Because of the people who destroyed what that country once stood for.

  Had the dragon gods failed to destroy the Northlands, Frayka imagined the whole world would be like the Far East today.

  The serpent dragon advanced a few more steps.

  What do I do? How do I protect the garden?

  Keeping her eyes on the serpent dragon, Frayka inhaled the scents of the food nearby, surprised because she had never thought they had much of a scent until now. She recognized the sweet scent of grape leaves and remembered bunches hung behind her. She detected the earthy scent of carrot tops to her left. The flowery aroma of rabbit-foot peppers drifted on the breeze from the right.

  Frayka drew her dagger and cut a few bunches of grapes from the vines. She dropped them into the empty bucket and quickly pulled up a few carrots. Tossing the carrots into the bucket, she hastened to pick a handful of peppers and added them to the mix.

  Lifting the bucket, Frayka cut through the circular rows of crops while the serpent dragon hastened its pace toward the valley floor. They reached the edge of the valley at the same moment.

  Frayka blocked the serpent dragon’s path and poured the contents of the bucket in front of it. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m the guardian of this garden. This is my peace offering to you. Eat it and then leave this valley forever.”

  The serpent dragon considered her for several long moments. It then nosed the carrots and devoured them whole. It took each bunch of grapes in a single mouthful. Finally, the serpent dragon swallowed the peppers and looked up at Frayka for more.

  “It’s my responsibility to take care of this garden,” Frayka told the beast. “If I give you more food, people all over the Far East could starve.”

  The serpent dragon hissed at her.

  Dagger still in hand, Frayka pointed it at the animal. “Do not mistake me for a weak Far Eastern woman. I might look like one, but I’m a Northlander. I come from a long line of warriors. Do not test my patience.”

  When the serpent dragon tried to dart past her, Frayka hurled herself at the creature and caught its shoulders. Frayka scrambled to straddle its back and use her weight to pin it down.

  Surprised, the serpent dragon wriggled beneath her.

  Now what?

  Frayka looked around for anything she could use to subdue the animal. Her wooden bucket stood nearby, but what could she do with it? The scales that covered the serpent dragon felt tough and hard against Frayka’s skin. Even if she hit the beast in the head with the bucket, Frayka imagined it would be more likely that the bucket would break than knock the animal out.

  Then she spotted some wayward grapevines that had pulled loose when she’d cut the grapes. Frayka wrapped her legs tightly around the serpent dragon’s body and lunged toward the grapevines. She gripped them firmly with one hand while using her dagger to cut them free.

  The serpent dragon seized the opportunity and thrashed its way closer to the crops.

  Still keeping a tight grip with her legs around the serpent dragon’s torso, Frayka dropped her dagger so she could use both hands to wind a grapevine around one of the animal’s hind legs, even when its claws slashed her clothing and skin. When the creature continued forward, Frayka grabbed its other hind leg, wrapped the grapevine around it, and then pulled both hind legs together and bound them with the remaining length of the grapevine.

  The serpent dragon looked back and snapped its jaws at Frayka.

  Awash with confidence, Frayka pulled another grapevine free and held a length of it taut between her hands. Grinning at the serpent dragon, she said, “Come and get me.”

  The beast twisted and squirmed until it faced Frayka. With its hind legs bound, the serpent dragon heaved itself forward with its front le
gs.

  Frayka took advantage of the animal’s sluggishness to pounce on its back once more.

  The serpent dragon writhed beneath her. It whipped its tail, which struck Frayka across the face.

  Undeterred, Frayka struggled with the creature until she saw the chance to take hold of one of its front legs and wrap another grapevine around it. With sudden and swift action, she took its third leg under control.

  Enraged, the serpent dragon hissed and snapped at her.

  Frayka rolled onto her back and kicked at the animal’s face, still kicking even after she felt its teeth scrape her skin. When she saw her next opportunity, Frayka clutched the serpent dragon’s last free leg. She jerked it toward the other front leg and fastened them together.

  Now infuriated, the serpent dragon twisted violently on the ground, whipping its tail at Frayka while trying to pull its legs free.

  Exhausted and covered in dirt, Frayka stood and collected the last of the grapevines she’d cut loose. She picked up the dagger she’d dropped. When the serpent dragon tried to strike her with its tail, she pinned the tail with one foot and then drove her dagger through the tail to impale it to the ground.

  The serpent dragon howled with pain.

  Taking it by surprise, Frayka moved in to thread the last grapevines between its bound legs and tie all four legs close together, despite the beast’s protests.

  Frayka sank to the ground, unsure what to do next.

  Wendill will know what to do. But if I leave the garden to find him, I’ll be leaving it unattended and unprotected. That’s not what I agreed to do. If I fail to do what Wendill wants, he won’t help me with the Northlander gods—and I can’t succeed without the help of all of the dragon gods, including Wendill.

  Besides, what if the serpent dragon discovers a way to free itself? What if it chews off its bindings?

  Frayka suddenly became aware of a sensation of warmth covering her skin. Looking down, Frayka saw her clothing ripped apart by cuts and bites. Her own blood turned her clothing red at those rips, and she realized the warmth she felt came from her blood spilling across her body.