by Resa Nelson
“You know that I will help you in any way I can,” Wendill said.
“That means I now have half of the gods on my side: the goddess of air and the god of earth. I can’t go home until I convince the two other gods to make peace with the Northlander gods. I can’t leave here to go to the Land of Ice. But it’s time for me to leave so I can find the next god who can help me.”
When Wendill looked at Frayka, his eyes dimmed with sadness. “The best strategy is to convince the goddess of fire—her approval will be the most difficult to get, and it’s unlikely the god of water will speak to you until you have the goddess of fire by your side. I’ve had my best blacksmiths send requests through smoke and fire for you to meet with her. They’ve been sending those requests ever since you first arrived.” He looked away, and his head sagged. “Fiera’s only response was to say that you must ask her for help in person.”
Unfazed, Frayka said, “Is the Gate of Fire as easy to cross as your gate?”
“It’s different.”
“How is it different?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Frayka’s heart brightened with hope. “Are we going to where the goddess of fire lives? Can we leave now?”
Aghast, Wendill said, “You said yourself that a woman who has just given birth is in no condition to travel.”
“Dagby was born days ago!” Frayka spoke as if insulted.
“It’s a long journey, and you must be strong.”
“I am strong!” Frayka huffed to show how much Wendill’s words offended her.
“I know,” Wendill said. “I’m saying you need to be even stronger than you are now. For your sake. And for Dagby’s sake. You have to get stronger so both of you can survive that journey.”
Frayka huffed again, although softer this time. “So how do we tell the dragon goddess that I agree to come to her?”
“It’s been done.”
“Done?” Frayka’s voice sharpened. “You already sent word?”
Wendill nodded. “In a manner of speaking.”
Distressed that Wendill had taken action on a matter that could determine the life or death of herself and her infant daughter, Frayka said, “Explain yourself.”
“The goddess of fire is temperamental.”
“So?”
“She ignores demands. Pushing that goddess can alienate her. And once she’s alienated, she never forgives. I sent word that you hope to request an audience with her sometime in the near future.”
Wendill’s explanation calmed Frayka, although she still felt out of sorts. “Next time,” she said, “I want to have a say in anything involving me or Dagby.”
“I understand,” Wendill said. “And I will if the situation allows.” He smiled. “Let me tell you how I’ve sent the messenger who brings false messages on a wild goose chase.”
CHAPTER 12
Making his way down the mountainside, Lang followed his favorite fishing brook. Several hours had passed since his last sip of wine, and his mouth felt so dry that he thought his tongue and lips would crack. The thought that more waited for him at the bottom of the mountain made him happy, but Lang didn’t dare smile until he could wet his mouth with wine.
Lang ignored the pang of guilt that struck him every time he admitted to himself that he now colluded with the empress. Like always, he focused on reason.
Who better to work with than a member of the Po Dynasty? Won’t she take care of me if I succeed in helping her? Won’t she make sure my life is comfortable and easy from now on? What’s wrong with that?
When Lang reached the bottom of the mountain slope, he found the magician’s son Asu Chu waiting with a small group of royal guards. “Well?” Asu Chu said.
“The Northlander girl has already left the care of the dragon god,” Lang said. “He sent her and the babe away. We can find them between here and the coast.”
Asu Chu frowned. “That makes no sense. Why haven’t we already seen them?”
Lang gave a brief bow to the magician’s son. “The woods run wide and deep here at the foot of the mountain. They’re riddled with many trails. We came here on the most popular trail, but if the girl wanted to hide, then she took a lesser used trail. I know one that runs straight to the coast from here. I’m sure it’s the one she would use. I’m sure it’s the one the dragon god told her to use.”
Lang then led the magician’s son and the royal guards to a trail barely wide enough for one man to walk at a time. At dusk, that trail opened up to a small glen where they spotted a woman wrapped from head to toe in layers of black cloth huddled asleep on the ground. The abundance of cloth obscured her face and every inch of skin.
“Frayka,” Asu Chu shouted. “The Empress Ti sent us to find you. You’re needed at the royal palace at once.”
The woman roused herself. When she sat up, the shape of a baby rustling beneath the layers of cloth became apparent.
Before the guards could close in on her, the woman jumped to her feet and darted away from them.
Startled by her speed, the guards collected themselves and gave chase until they caught her. Once captured, she stopped struggling and kept her face and head hidden.
Lang guided Asu Chu and the guards escorting the woman and her child to the coast where their ship awaited. After paying Lang in wine for his services, Asu Chu boarded the ship to join the guards and the Northlander woman with her baby, ready to sail throughout the night for Zangcheen.
* * *
The sound of Asu Chu’s whispering voice startled Ti out of a good night’s sleep.
“What?” Ti cried out as she bolted upright in bed. Staring at the pitch blackness around her, she wondered if a nightmare had awakened her. But then she recognized Asu Chu’s voice.
“Come with me,” Asu Chu whispered. “We have the Northlander. And her newborn.”
Ti came wide awake in a heartbeat. Like every morning when she woke up, Ti felt the looseness of her bones and feared that they might fall apart from each other, leaving her to collapse like a bag of rocks. Normally, she would go to a private chamber inside the palace and then perform her morning ritual of drinking and bathing in fresh blood. But there was no time for that now. Not yet. “Where?”
“In my father’s room.”
The magician and his son had quarters on the opposite side of the royal palace. Ti hoped her bones would hold together long enough for her to walk there.
Although she wobbled with every step, the empress made her way to the magician’s room with the help of his son. Once there, she collapsed onto a floor pillow.
In the pitch black of the early morning, hours before the sun would rise, only a small portion of the magician’s quarters was illuminated by a circle of flickering candles on the floor. Ti thought she was alone in the room with Asu Chu until she heard his father speak in the darkness.
“Your messenger succeeded,” Tao Chu said, stepping out of the darkness to face the empress. “He met the dragon god, who claimed that Frayka already made the decision to return to Zangcheen with her child. The messenger guided my son and your guards, and they found her before they reached the coast.” The magician paused and looked away.
“What?” Ti said. “Why do you hesitate?”
“She won’t speak to us,” the magician said. “The dragon god told your messenger that he wrapped her in the robes meant for a woman making a sacred trek to the Temple of Dark and Light.”
Ti caught her breath. “The Temple of Dark and Light is where the emperor talks to the highest god.” She then remembered what her father taught her many years ago.
All things are either dark or light. Dark brings confusion and chaos to the people of the Far East. Light illuminates everyone, including all people of the Po Dynasty. Sometimes one must make a sacrifice to the Dark in order to bring about the Light.
“Does Frayka mean to make a sacrifice?” Ti said. “How can she do that in a temple meant for the emperor? Rather, the empress?”
Tao Chu sat on the
floor across from Ti. The circle of candles on the floor between them cast a disturbing shadow across his face. “Although it is mainly the emperor—now, the empress—who worships in the Temple of Dark and Light, the law states that any Far Easterner has the right to journey to the temple for the sake of requesting a favor from the Great Emperor who rules the realms of the dragon gods.”
Ti knew the story of the Great Emperor. She understood the idea that another world paralleled the mortal realm, and a Great Emperor ruled that parallel world just like Ti now ruled Zangcheen and the Wulong Province. Unlike the Far East, where each province had its own emperor, only one emperor ruled the dragon gods.
But only the emperors of each province in the Far East were allowed to communicate directly with the Great Emperor of the dragon realms.
“If anyone can come to the Temple of Dark and Light, then how are they supposed to request their favor?” Ti said. “I’m the only one allowed to talk to the Great Emperor.”
Tao Chu bowed his head at the mention of the Great Emperor. “They must speak through you. Anyone wishing to make a request of the Great Emperor must ask you to speak on their behalf. Part of that tradition requires anyone with such a request to wear cloaks so that no one other than the emperor—the empress—will know who makes that request.”
Ti scrunched her nose in confusion. “Why? I don’t see why it matters.”
Tao Chu waited a few moments before responding, appearing to compose himself. “It matters because making a request of the Great Emperor is a very serious matter. Often, the Great Emperor demands payment, and that payment can be as high as the life of the one making the request.”
So that’s why it doesn’t happen very often.
The information gave Ti new strength and resolve.
I’m the one who will know what Frayka wants from the Great Emperor. I’m the one who can pass that request on to the Great Emperor.
Ti knew her father had claimed to converse with the Great Emperor, but she assumed such a thing boiled down to her father’s imagination. Either he believed the Great Emperor spoke to him because her father wanted or needed such a thing to happen—or her father lied to maintain control of the people he ruled.
And Ti would do the same.
All I have to do is tell Frayka that the Great Emperor’s payment is the life of her child.
“I see,” Ti said. She relaxed on the floor pillow, feeling as if the weight of the entire Wulong Province had just been lifted from her shoulders. “I will be happy to go to the Temple of Dark and Light to make a request on behalf of my distant relative Frayka. When can she tell me what she wants?”
The magician climbed to his feet and reached into the darkness behind him. He pulled his hand forward into the light, holding onto a black gloved hand followed by a figure wrapped entirely in black cloth.
Ti stared at the foreboding figure. Even though she knew it was Frayka, the sight of the woman layered in black frightened the empress. Movement along the woman’s chest revealed the outline of her arms cradling an infant beneath the cloth. Gathering her composure, Ti said, “Tell me what request I can make on your behalf.”
The cloaked woman faced Ti as if staring directly at her. The figure pulled her gloved hand from the magician.
Instead of speaking, the layers of cloth enrobing the woman fluttered.
The sound of a howling wind filled the room, and the candle flames flickered violently.
The magician recoiled and then leapt over the candles to join Ti’s side. With a shaky voice, he said to the figure, “Speak!”
The candle flames extended almost as high as the ceiling and created bars of fire that separated the empress, the royal magician, and his son from the woman cloaked in layers of black cloth.
A gale of wind ripped the layers of cloth away to reveal a figure made of hundreds of twigs weaving together to form legs, a torso, arms, a neck, and head. Instead of a child, it cradled an armful of white flowers.
Instead of eyes, two red-hot coals glared like eyes.
A scratchy voice whispered, “Find yourself before it’s too late!”
The figure flung its armful of flowers at the bars made of flame, and the flowers exploded like fireworks.
The red coals set the twig woman on fire, its body sizzling until it fell into a pile of black ashes.
When the last ash settled, the wall of flames lowered until a final breeze extinguished the candles.
While Tao Chu scrambled in the dark, Ti sat in stunned silence.
Later, she would wonder if the twig woman’s warning had been intended for the empress and if so, what the warning could possibly mean.
CHAPTER 13
Weeks later, Frayka prepared for her next step. Standing with Dagby balanced on her hip, Frayka frowned at Wendill. “This is peculiar.”
Wendill sat on the floor of her quarters in his house while putting the last twig woman together. “It wasn’t peculiar before. Why is it peculiar now?”
Dozens of twig women cloaked in black cloth filled the room.
Although she still had a belt with a dagger tucked beneath it, Frayka wore the same type of black cloth. “I feel lost in the crowd.”
Wendill grinned. “That’s the idea.”
Frayka understood. When Wendill released all of these phantasms into the mortal world, she would be among them. The group would split in all directions so that each would end up walking alone, but the idea was to have so many identical figures walking in the mortal world that anyone looking for Frayka would have a difficult time finding her.
Wanting to pace, Frayka took a step but then stopped when her shoe crunched the twig foot of the figure standing next to her. Recoiling as if she had unexpectedly landed in mud, Frayka withdrew her foot. “It’s still very peculiar.”
“Would you rather stay here instead?”
“Of course not. I’m saying it’s peculiar, that’s all.”
Frayka understood the plan. Ever since the messenger had called out Wendill, who then gave the messenger false information, Frayka became more and more impatient to move on in search of the goddess of fire, whether that goddess would be willing to see her or not. Birds had witnessed and reported to Wendill how Asu Chu and the royal guards captured the twig woman Wendill sent as the first decoy, confident they would assume the twig woman to be Frayka. Since that day, Wendill had sent multiple twig women into the mortal realm, instructing each to take a different path toward Zangcheen.
But now the time had come to send the twig women in multiple directions. Frayka dressing as one of them accomplished two purposes. First, any Far Easterner who saw her dressed in such a manner would leave her alone out of respect for the costume of one traveling to the Temple of Dark and Light. All Far Easterners considered such a pilgrimage to be sacred, and everyone understood that a man or woman covered in black cloth must travel without being disturbed.
At the same time, if anyone seeking to bring Frayka back to the royal city still wandered in search of her, that person would have to investigate dozens of decoys, which would give Frayka more time to increase the distance between her and Zangcheen.
Wendill completed the final touches on the last twig woman. To Frayka, he said, “Bind Dagby to your chest, cover yourself, and make sure you’re the last to leave this realm so I can recognize you easily.”
To the enchanted women made of twigs, he said, “Follow me.”
Wendill led the twig women out of his home and through the burrows.
Following his instructions, Frayka brought up the rear. She held Dagby underneath the cloth covering them both. Only a slim gap allowed Frayka to see where she walked.
After winding their way through the burrows, Wendill led the group through the forest toward the jade Gate of Earth. He stood within his realm at its threshold and gave detailed directions to each twig woman before she crossed into the mortal world. After the last twig woman left his realm, Wendill faced Frayka. “When you set foot in the mortal realm, head right. You’ll find
a path leading to a mountain peak. Follow it. When you reach the peak, the path splits in three directions. Stay to the left. That path tracks the mountain ridge and then drops down to the sea.”
“What about the men looking for me? Didn’t they find the first decoy near the sea?”
“Yes. But you’ll reach the sea far to the south of where they will look. You’ll be safe.”
“And what about you?”
Wendill smiled. “I’ll be nearby. It makes no sense for us to travel together. Everyone who treks to the Temple of Dark and Light makes that journey alone. We can’t do anything to raise suspicion. But have no doubt I’ll be close at hand if you need me. Call my name, and I’ll come to you.”
Holding Dagby close beneath the cloth that covered them, Frayka steeled herself and then crossed the threshold from the dragon realm that had kept her safe into the wilds of the mortal world.
* * *
At the end of each day, Madam Po paced. She had never been one to pace or fret until the Empress Ti had locked her up—now along with TeaTree—in the equivalent of a high-end prison cell sequestered deep inside the recesses of the royal palace.
The lack of freedom to come and go maddened Madam Po.
TeaTree, however, took the imprisonment in stride. Watching the pacing woman, he leaned against a wall and said, “They can’t keep us in here forever. Sooner or later they’ll let us go home.”
“And what will become of Frayka by then?” Madam Po said. “And Njall?”
“You have done your best.”
“They’re family,” Madam Po said. “And quite possibly the only family I have left. Other than Frayka, I’m the last member of the Po Dynasty who sees portents. What will happen if she or Njall dies before she can continue our line?”
TeaTree sat on the mattress where he slept on the floor. “But Empress Ti showed you the note. Frayka has a daughter.”
Madam Po snorted. “So says Ti. We both know she can’t be trusted. For all we know, that note was fabricated in an attempt to get information from us or control us.”