The Dragon Gods Box Set

by Resa Nelson

  The one thing that surprised Asu was his fondness for Ti, because he felt fondness for no one else, including his royal magician father and dead mother.

  But he would never sacrifice his own survival for anyone else. Not even an empress.

  Weary and hungry, even though he’d eaten a hearty breakfast a few hours ago, Asu felt sorry for himself while staring at the icicle-laden weeds lining the brook.

  When the discussion among the guards became heated, it caught Asu’s attention. He turned and looked behind at the cluster of guards. One of them stomped on the ground to make a point with enough force to rattle the icicles clinging to the weeds.

  “The Northlander is from the Land of Ice,” the guard argued. “This kind of cold is normal for her. The climate gives us no advantage.”

  In that moment, Asu saw two points and a connection between them.

  I know what to do.

  Asu climbed up on the boulder and shouted, “Listen to me!”

  Startled, the guards stopped arguing and looked up at Asu Chu.

  “I found what I need to help the empress,” Asu Chu announced. “And I need your help to collect it.” He pointed at the icy weeds. “Gather those pieces of ice, but not with your hands. Don’t let them melt.”

  The guards continued to stare at him in expectation.

  “That’s all,” Asu said. “I brought everything else I need.”

  Always one to be prepared, Asu Chu had gone to the Temple of Dark and Light to gather supplies before embarking on this journey. Not trusting anyone else, he wore a pack strapped to his back containing a flat board and all the items he needed to create a magic tableau.

  “But how do we find the Northlander girl?” one of the guards said.

  Asu smiled. “I can take care of that.” He admired his own foresight in finding a shirt that Frayka had worn, left behind in the Hall of Concubines when Ti abruptly sent her to the mountains to fight a serpent dragon. Asu carried that shirt in his pack, certain her scent would locate her once he tore off a strip of that shirt and wrapped it around a small figure representing Frayka in the tableau he would soon create.

  Their company had come upon a port village yesterday afternoon. Exhausted, Asu demanded they find people who would shelter them in their homes, even though enough daylight remained for another few hours of trekking. Sworn to obey Empress Ti, the guards had promised to let Asu Chu command them and to do his bidding. While the guards made arrangements with the villagers for a night’s lodging and food, Asu sequestered himself in a quiet corner of the village where he could rest after a fatiguing day. Once the arrangements were made, the guards came to escort Asu to the house that agreed to host him.

  The night had darkened enough that when Asu followed the guards through the streets, he noticed movement on the mountain above.

  It might have been an animal hunting for food.

  Or it might have been a mortal in hiding.

  Could it possibly have been Frayka?

  One thing at a time. The first task is to create the tableau and ignite its magic. Without the tableau, nothing else will be possible.

  “I need time before we move on,” Asu told the guard. “We must stay here for now.”

  “I see her!” a guard shouted. “Over there!” He pointed across the brook and into a forest of leafless trees.

  Asu followed the guard’s pointing finger.

  The figure of a woman draped in black cloth stood motionless among the naked trees.

  How long has she been standing there? What did she hear?

  The guards ran and leapt over the narrow brook, landing heavy-footed on the other side.

  The woman rushed among the trees, hurrying to escape.

  While the guards chased the woman and spread out in the woods to corner her, Asu Chu became aware of the way they’d left him behind. He remained standing on the boulder, too scared to follow them while at the same time terrified to be left alone.

  CHAPTER 19

  Before dawn, Frayka came awake and opened her eyes. She felt stiff and achy from sleeping on a rocky surface.

  Dagby needs her breakfast.

  Frayka rearranged them both so she could feed her infant.

  Once Dagby was satisfied, Frayka stepped out of the cave. She placed Dagby in the sling keeping the girl bound to Frayka’s chest. But when Frayka tried to arrange the black cloth to hide her daughter, Dagby batted it away with her hands.

  “What?” Frayka said. “You don’t want to stay nice and warm?”

  Dagby looked at their surroundings and cooed.

  “Do you want to see the world? Is that it?”

  Dagby giggled.

  Frayka examined the landscape around them. The path stood nearby, flanked by tree skeletons whose fallen leaves piled around their trunks like dead skin. The trees were tall and thick enough that while she could see between them, whatever stood beyond them looked like a blur.

  The trees give us enough cover. We’ll be safe.

  “Alright,” Frayka said. “Let’s go down to that village and see if we can find someone willing to sail us out of here.”

  With Dagby’s face peeking between the edges of the black cloth covering them, Frayka made her way down the path. Thanks to good footing and a gentle downward slope, she made rapid progress. The lower she descended, the sparser the trees became, allowing a better view of the surrounding mountainside.

  Dagby gave a sharp cry.

  Like learning a foreign language, Frayka knew every noise Dagby could make and what it meant. Based on the tone and inflection of Dagby’s voice, Frayka could tell when the girl was hungry or tired or needed sleep.

  This cry was like no sound Dagby had ever made before, and that fact brought Frayka to an immediate stop. Standing still, she looked down at her baby’s face. “What’s wrong, Dagby?”

  Looking up, Dagby showed eyes full of apprehension and a face twisted in fear. The infant panted in soft huffs.

  Something’s wrong. Dagby senses something that I don’t.

  In that moment, Frayka remembered the portents and how they used to warn her.

  Maybe Dagby has portents, too.

  The realization hit Frayka like a blow.

  Of course, all of my children are destined to have portents.

  Although Frayka’s mother denied it vehemently, Frayka’s father claimed that her first portent had come before she could speak. He insisted that while everyone had been bundled up on a cold winter’s night inside their home, she’d babbled and pointed repeatedly at the door. Not expecting any visitors, no one had paid attention. But a short time later, Njall’s father had pounded on the door, seeking help for his son’s impending birth.

  “I trust you, Dagby,” Frayka said. “Don’t be afraid if you can see the future. It’s normal. It happens to me, too.”

  Dagby responded with a soft by high-pitched whine of despair.

  “There’s nothing to fear,” Frayka said. “We are warriors. We are Northlanders. Whatever it is that frightens you, I can fight it.”

  Dagby stared into her mother’s eyes. The expression in the baby’s eyes relaxed.

  “What troubles you, Dagby? Can you show me? Can you point at it? Or is there any other way you can tell me what’s wrong?”

  Dagby huffed rapidly again. She looked from her mother’s face toward the woods and then back at her mother.

  “Good, Dagby! Well done!” Frayka crept toward the direction in which Dagby had looked until she reached the edge of the path. She hunched down and peered between the tree trunks.

  First, Frayka heard a man shout, “I see her! Over there!”

  With both arms around Dagby, Frayka sank to her knees. She moved slowly to avoid drawing attention.

  Through the forest of leafless trees, Frayka saw a group of men standing on the opposite side of a brook. Although far away, she thought by their posture and identical clothing that they might be royal guards from Zangcheen.

  The men leapt over the brook. Frayka thought she
could feel the reverberation of the earth when their heavy feet landed on the other side.

  A loud rustling through the trees made Frayka look uphill.

  A woman draped in black cloth hurried to escape the men by rushing among the trees. She headed upward and away from Frayka.

  It’s one of the twig women that Wendill crafted.

  Frayka remained crouched when the guards chasing the twig woman spread out in the woods in an attempt to corner her. She waited until they climbed high enough that she’d escaped their sightline.

  “You saved us, Dagby!” Frayka whispered. “Good girl!”

  Dagby’s huffs came slower and softer.

  “Don’t worry, my Northlander warrior,” Frayka said. “We can slip away into safety.” Sensing no resistance from her baby, Frayka eased up and crept down the path. She looked back repeatedly to keep an eye on the guards, who continued to chase the twig woman high up the mountain slope. When they disappeared over a crest, Frayka stood up and sped down the mountain.

  Dagby made another sharp cry.

  Frayka paused and looked down to see her daughter stare back into the woods again.

  Following the child’s gaze, Frayka now had a clearer and closer view of the spot where she had first spotted the guards.

  On the opposite side of the brook, a lone boy stood on top of a boulder, staring at the place where the guards had vanished. Gangly and awkward, he appeared as if he might lose his footing and tumble to the ground at any moment.

  Instead, he turned his head and looked directly at Frayka.

  A chill ran through her.

  Dagby whined again.

  “Don’t worry,” Frayka said. “That little boy can’t hurt us.” With heightened determination, Frayka steadied her baby with one hand while sprinting down the path, mindful to look out for tree roots that might trip her.

  She ran as fast as she could toward the village below.

  CHAPTER 20

  When Asu Chu let his attention drift away from the guards chasing the black-cloaked figure, the sight of another woman made him wonder if he was seeing double. Draped in black cloth, she stood in stark contrast to the sparse woods. Unlike the figure being chased up the hill by the guards, the cloth fell away from this woman’s head to expose her surprised face as she stared back at him across the distance separating them. With a start, Asu also caught a glimpse of the face of an infant in her arms.

  It’s Frayka and her child!

  Empress Ti had sent Asu Chu and several royal guards to these mountains with the goal of finding Frayka and the child, and Asu assumed it to be a fool’s errand. He thought she’d left the Far East long ago to go back to her homeland, because it’s what he would have done. Asu had promised Ti a decoy to flush out Frayka, pretending to agree with Ti that such a thing would be possible even though he didn’t believe it.

  Surprised by Frayka’s presence, Asu Chu stood still on top of his boulder while his thoughts raced.

  Frayka bolted downhill and wound down the path toward the port village where Asu Chu and the royal guards had slept last night. When she disappeared from sight, Asu stared at the empty space she left behind in bewilderment.

  Did I imagine her? Was she truly there? Or did I see her ghost?

  Asu looked back uphill in search of the royal guards and the dark figure they pursued, but he saw no one. He turned in place, careful to keep his footing on the boulder. Looking at the entire landscape in all directions, Asu found himself utterly alone.

  That realization paralyzed him.

  Asu Chu had spent his entire young life in the royal complex, never setting a foot outside the city of Zangcheen until now. His father’s status as the royal magician and friend to the emperor protected Asu, despite the fact that everyone considered the boy to be odd. The other children who lived in the royal complex included the emperor’s daughters as well as the offspring of the emperor’s advisors, his concubines, and the palace servants. Not even the sons of the servants wanted anything to do with Asu.

  He didn’t care. He found them all off-putting.

  With the sole exception of Ti, who Asu found quite interesting. He liked her because she appeared to enjoy his company. Even better, he quickly discovered they were like-minded.

  Asu wished Ti were here to comfort him. Or tell him what to do. Seeing no other mortal in sight, Asu felt cut off not only from his home but the entire world. He felt as if he were lost and would never be found.

  Overwhelmed by panic, Asu Chu shouted, “Guards!”

  He stood perfectly still, afraid that if he made the slightest movement that the sound it caused would block out a faint response.

  But silence surrounded him.

  “Guards!” Asu shouted. “Come back to me!”

  His breath quickened, and his heart pounded against the wall of his chest. Despite the chilly air, sweat beaded his forehead.

  Where have they gone? Did the figure they chased kill them? Are they all dead?

  Will it kill me next?

  “Please,” Asu whispered. “Please help me.”

  The boy kept shouting until he became hoarse. Still, no one responded.

  Asu sank onto the boulder, shaken to the core. He didn’t know what to do.

  In despair, he looked down at the ground.

  The icicles clinging to the weeds by the brook sparkled in the sunlight.

  Asu remembered the idea those icicles had given him before the guards gave chase to the figure that ran uphill. That idea made him feel as comfortable as if he were back in the royal complex.

  Looking up the mountain slope, Asu confirmed no guards were in sight. He no longer cared if they were alive or dead.

  He had magic to do.

  Asu searched alongside the brook until he found a large, flat stone with a slanted surface where he could work. After removing his supplies from the bag he carried, Asu shut out the world around him and gave all his attention to the tableau he needed to create.

  Asu Chu first collected dirt from the bank of the brook and then spread it to cover the slanted surface of the rock. From the supplies, he un-wrapped an item from a strip of white cotton cloth. Before leaving the royal complex, he made a clay figure of Frayka, which he now held. He looked at her name, which he had written on the soles of her feet in the tiniest characters he could create.

  He selected a bottle containing a slurry of feather-stone clay from his supplies. Asu poured some into his hand and then used it to bind the figure of Frayka to the lower end of the slanted rock. Searching through the scraps of cloth he’d brought, Asu found a small square of black cotton and tied it around the figure representing Frayka.

  Next, Asu turned his focus to setting up the event. Unlike the tableau magic he created at Ti’s request, this event would happen immediately, not in future days.

  That presented a challenge, because it would be difficult to tell the magic when to begin.

  I don’t have to figure it out until the tableau is complete.

  Asu put his effort into making the tableau on the slanted surface of the rock look like his surroundings. Working quickly, he combined the clay slurry he’d brought with more dirt to shape houses and placed them around the figure of Frayka. He found twigs and secured them on the tableau to form the woods to his left where he had spotted her. He picked up pebbles and put them on the upper side of the tableau to represent the boulders and ridge.

  He took a quick look at the landscape around him and compared it to the tableau.

  This looks right. But how do I show the tableau what to do? How can I make it happen?

  Previously, he’d used cloth to draw stormy weather, but that kind of thing required days of preparation. Asu had no time to waste.

  The icicles!

  If this many icicles had formed along the brook, he imagined there must be more icicles up the slope. All Asu had to do was draw them out.

  Working quickly—before the warmth of his hands could make them melt—Asu gathered a handful of icicles. First, he
used the clay slurry to attach them throughout the upper part of the tableau. Then he worked even faster to shape a figure made from clay and dirt. After securing it at the low end of the tableau near Frayka, Asu covered its surface with more icicles until it looked like a man made of ice.

  “Find this woman,” Asu Chu commanded the tiny figure covered in ice. Asu pointed at the figure representing Frayka. “Kill her. Bring her baby to me.”

  Asu waited patiently, but nothing happened. He walked around the tableau he’d created, seeing nothing wrong with it. Apparently, words weren’t enough to incite it.

  Other nearby icicles sparkled. Asu knelt on the ground and poked a finger at them. They made a distinctive tinkling sound when they bumped against each other.

  Asu wondered if a sound made by nature—rather than a sound made by the words of a mortal—might be better suited to inciting a tableau to take the action it portrayed.

  He scooped the icicles into his hands and placed himself at the middle of the tableau. He dumped the icicles onto the tableau, transfixed by the sound they made when breaking upon the dirt-covered rock, tumbling down the slanted surface, and crashing to the ground below.

  Asu looked up the mountainside with hope, only to be dashed when nothing happened.

  He picked up the fragments of the broken icicles from the ground where they’d fallen. This time, he set them on the high end of the tableau and held them in place with one hand. In the firmest voice he could muster, Asu Chu commanded, “By the power of the Temple of Dark and Light, heed my order! Let the ice come forth from wherever it lies on the ground and fall below! Let that ice form a man who obeys my will!” Asu removed his hand from holding the ice fragments in place and then used both hands to push against the rock, even though it failed to budge.

  Asu cried out in determination, continuing to shove against the rock bearing his tableau. When the ice fragments toppled down the tableau, Asu felt the earth tremble beneath his feet.

  Looking up to see the slope of the mountain above him break apart, Asu felt awash with joy until he realized that the avalanche he’d created now headed not only toward the village below but that he now stood directly in its path.