by Dave Gross
An unshakeable grip caught my robe and pulled me back from doom. Arnisant butted my face with his massive head. The stench of Hell was on his breath from fighting. I welcomed its awful pong, for it shook the confusion from my brain.
Nearby, Master Wu groaned as he struggled to sit upright. Blood streamed from his ears and nose, and he held a broken arm against his chest. He drew in a rattling breath and bellowed, “Burning Cloud Devil!”
The object of his cry was the one-armed man. The Shadowless Sword was in his hand. Not only had he batted me away as if I were a child, but he had stolen the blade that Princess Lanfen had entrusted to me.
Burning Cloud Devil bent his thick legs and flew toward the Celestial Dragon.
Every surviving monk ran toward him, but not even Kwan could come within striking distance before the peerless blade descended. It sliced through the scales as if they were no stronger than paper. The dragon’s chest parted to reveal an iridescent orb within.
Its heart was the size of a man’s head, its pebbled surface radiant with the holy energy contained within. It pulsed, and I felt my own heartbeat match its rhythm.
Excepting only the dragon and Burning Cloud Devil, everyone screamed in sympathetic pain. Two voices rose high above the din.
Princess Lanfen floated above the center of the platform, suspended by some invisible power. Exquisite light radiated from her breast as an unseen force slit her chest and pulled open the wound to reveal her beating heart. All the sinews and arteries of her mortal body withdrew from the life-sustaining organ, which pulsed in synchronicity with the dragon’s own.
Jade Tiger also rose from the court floor. As the cloth wrapping the eunuch’s breast parted, it flew away to reveal the secret I had never suspected.
Jade Tiger was a woman.
The dragon’s voice was thunder. What virgin offers her heart for mine?
“I do!” cried Jade Tiger. “My wish is to rule as the Queen of Quain.”
With her robes in disarray and the heavy cloth that had bound her breasts torn free, the truth was suddenly obvious. Her voice, always soft, was now undeniably feminine, as were the smooth jawline and perfect skin I had mistakenly taken for evidence of youthful castration.
It made sense. No one approaching a royal court—let alone a member of the royal family—could ever hope to shroud herself in illusions. Such magic would be revealed in an instant by the magical wards and guardians common to such places. Yet to disguise one’s self through purely physical means would be so simple as to be—
“I offer my heart.” The voice of Princess Lanfen rang out clear and strong, despite the dreadful vulnerability of her body. “My wish is for peace among all the warring states of Lung Wa.”
Two virgins— The dragon’s voice faltered as its heart cracked in half, forming two perfect hemispheres.
“Be silent, both of you!” Burning Cloud Devil pointed the Shadowless Sword at each of the women in turn. “I am the one who opened your heart. These girls are but the sacrifice. Grant my wish, or I will kill them both and send you down to Hell.”
“He can’t,” croaked Master Wu.
What is thy wish?
The sorcerer’s eyes flashed in triumph. “Reunite me with Spring Snow, my beloved wife!”
The dragon raised its face to the sky, its brilliant blue eyes casting beams through the clouds and beyond. All on the platform stared in wonder as it communed with the Court of Heaven. Around us, the fighting subsided as mortal and kami and devil alike stared in awe at the celestial emissary. It hovered there for minutes that crawled like hours.
Black Mountain ...Burning Cloud Devil, Heaven grants your wish.
“Do not toy with me, wyrm.” The sorcerer stepped toward Princess Lanfen. Kwan and I put ourselves in his path. “If I destroy these mortal hearts, you die, if only until the next ceremony.”
The dragon’s head slumped, its strength spent. The twin hemispheres of its heart spilled out of its chest and clattered to the court floor.
Released from the dragon’s magic, the maidens floated down as well. Kwan and I caught Lanfen. The mouth of her bloodless wound trembled and began to close. “Take me to the dragon quickly. It must not perish.”
We carried her to the dragon, but Burning Cloud Devil stood in our way.
Kwan struck first, moving with incredible speed. He leaped past the point of the Shadowless Sword and struck Burning Cloud Devil before his foe could respond. The bearded man’s expression belied his surprise, but from his open mouth boomed his terrible laughter. The sound battered Kwan down to the platform and pummeled my hearing. I felt the warmth of blood fill my ears and nose.
I threw a flying scroll and felt an inferno swell within my belly. With a mighty shout, I let the fire rush out of my mouth and into the sorcerer’s face. The blast set fire to his clothes and hair. He slapped at them with his arm, but he refused to relinquish the Shadowless Sword.
“I have seen your face in dreams,” he growled at me, still hovering above the platform. “Your meddling cost me my disciple and my revenge.”
Before I could comprehend his meaning, his face was only inches from mine. He displayed a horrible grimace of pain and triumph. I smelled his sour breath and felt the heat of his sweating body.
I felt the blade of the Shadowless Sword where it transfixed my chest.
“Brother Jeggare!” Kwan and the princess cried out. I heard the shriek of the last devil as one of my brothers cast him back to Hell.
Burning Cloud Devil pulled back the sword, but I gripped his hand tight. He tugged again. I knew my failing strength could not defy his a third time.
“Hurry, Prince Tengfei,” said Lanfen. “Give my heart to the dragon.”
“But Princess—”
She cut off his protest with a gesture. He reached into her chest and lifted her heart.
Burning Cloud Devil jerked the sword from my own.
Kwan leaped up to the dragon and placed the princess’s beating heart in its breast. As he fell back toward the platform, Burning Cloud Devil raised the Shadowless Sword to strike.
“Husband.” A calm voice called from the center of the platform.
“Snow!” The sorcerer dropped the sword. I fell back hard upon one half of the dragon’s sundered heart. I turned my head toward the new voice.
She was a young woman, yet her eyes spoke of decades of sorrow. Her simple beauty spoke of peasant origins, but there was a charm about her overlapping tooth. She held her head with the perfect equilibrium of a woman devoid of pride and pretense.
She held her hand out toward Burning Cloud Devil. “Come, Black Mountain. The dragon grants your wish.”
“It is no illusion.” The sorcerer stared in disbelief. He ran to her and knelt at her feet.
She placed a hand upon his head as he embraced her. She stroked his hair, but her gaze swept over the ruins of our battlefield. When she looked upon Radovan’s body, an expression of mourning darkened her eyes. At last she looked upon me, and I felt an apology in her face. Still she said nothing.
The mists at her feet parted, revealing an abyss ringed with black clouds and indigo lightning. Her skin crackled and blackened, peeling away to reveal the ravaged flesh of a damned soul.
“No!” howled Burning Cloud Devil. His flesh blistered. Flames sprang up in his hair.
“Hush, darling,” she hissed through lipless jaws. The dark vortex sucked them through the platform and down toward Hell. “Together ...forever ...”
The last moment of their tragedy might have been touching had I a few more moments of life to imagine its previous acts. But beside me, the princess was dying. With my waning strength, and against all hope, I tipped half of the dragon’s heart into her chest.
Upon touching the princess, the protoplasmic contents of the half-pearl slid out like an oyster, leavi
ng the empty shell behind. The celestial substance wriggled and formed branches reaching out to her veins and arteries, molding itself to the cavern of her chest. I watched as the wound sealed itself once more, and the color of life returned to her skin.
“Not her,” croaked Jade Tiger’s voice. “Me ...”
I watched helplessly as Jade Tiger flicked her deadly fan at Lanfen.
Swiftly Kwan put himself in the path of the darts. They barely bruised his skin as the blunt ends struck.
Jade Tiger hissed her anger as she realized what had happened. The first thing I had done with her stolen fan was to invert the darts in its spine.
She gasped an order to the royal guards and snapped the fan open to cover her mouth.
The resulting blast destroyed her face even as it snapped back her head to break her neck.
Kwan stared at the gruesome death of the false eunuch before he turned to me, a mixture of horror and appreciation on his face. Apart from me, he alone knew that I had painted the explosive sigils upon her fan.
I smelled Arnisant’s breath and reached out to stroke his fur. “Good dog.”
Kwan knelt beside me. He pressed his hand upon my wound, but there was no stanching the flow of blood.
Another hand touched me, this one small and warm. It was a gesture for which I had often longed, but I felt no thrill in it now, only a waning regret.
“Brother Jeggare, you must live,” said Princess Lanfen. The pearlescent glow of the dragon’s magic suffused her skin. She appeared to me to be an angel come to collect me for Pharasma’s judgment.
“Bury me beside ...the one who defied ...Burning Cloud Devil. All honors to him.”
“To that devil?” Kwan’s voice was incredulous.
I tried to shake my head, but Kwan gripped my face and held it fast. The white light grew brighter, and I felt Lanfen’s hands intruding upon my wound. Whatever she did there felt warm for an instant, but then all warmth drained away.
“Not a devil,” I said. “My brother.”
Chapter Thirty
Return to the West
Nowhere had I encountered so many different smells as in Lanming, the city we visited after the terrible day at the Gates of Heaven and Hell.
My master had taken me to towns and cities before, but only one was so big, and it was not nearly so full of people. There were parades with music on every street, and the corners crackled with fireworks. The Goblin would have loved it.
None of the other kami dared to enter the city. We said our farewells outside the gate.
“Come with us,” said Judge Fang. “I will appoint you Marshal of the Northern Kami.”
“A dog marshal of kami?” the Goblin snorted. “That’s stupid. He’s not even really one of us.”
“Arnisant is a great hero among the beasts,” said the Whispering Spider. It had taken a long time, but she had woven casts around her six broken legs.
The Hopper peeped agreement.
“Well, I’m a great hero among the kami.” The Goblin puffed out his chest and leaned on his mighty sword. We all agreed he was right, but Gust wet him with her laughter.
“We will send your regards to the Phoenix and the Four-Winds Turtle,” Judge Fang promised.
Those most powerful among our army had left us as soon as we emerged from Iron Mountain. The phoenix seemed sadder than ever after the battle. The Turtle was anxious to resume his vigil over his treasure trove.
I saw Stone Guardian Chu and Bronze Sentinel Wing again, too. They were among the defenders of the Dragon Ceremony. Afterward they remained at the Court of Heaven and Hell, taking the places of two of their brothers who had died.
No one saw what became of the Dancing Courtesans. I was afraid they had gone searching for the Phantom Virgin and couldn’t find their way back. Not even Judge Fang could explain why the Virgin dragged the old man down through the Gate of Hell. When I asked, the Phoenix shed a tear. The others looked away. I knew better than to ask again.
I nuzzled the faces of the nine little kits. It would have been good to see the Fox again, but it would have been harder to say goodbye to her. When I thought about it, I felt like running away.
I would miss all of them, even the smelly Goblin. But it was time to go.
I had another job.
The trail was easy to follow, even though the streets were crowded and he had not been on fire. Men and women jumped away as I ran into the house and up the stairs. A naked man ran out of one of the rooms shouting that he had been robbed, but I could smell that he was lying.
My quarry sat at a low table with three women who smelled of perfume.
“Arnie, this ain’t a good time, pal.”
One of the women screamed when she saw me. She spilled a pot of tea all over Radovan’s lap. He jumped up, slapping his scalded legs and shouting curses. Then he froze and squeezed his brows together.
“That really hurt.” He turned slowly toward the woman with the teapot. “You burned me!”
The women recoiled, but Radovan grabbed their hands and danced around the table. He whooped and hollered.
Radovan had been acting strange ever since he woke after the battle. He kept looking around and touching his chest. He seemed surprised to be alive.
“It burned!”
The women smelled more and more frightened. I took Radovan by the hand and pulled him away. He followed, resisting only long enough to throw a few golden coins to the women, and then to everyone else we passed on the way out.
“I got burned!” He shook a fist at the sky. “The damned thing is gone!”
Outside the brothel, Radovan didn’t need pulling anymore. Instead he followed me through the streets of Lanming. He paused a few times to give coins to beggars or to buy firecrackers. He lit some and gave the rest to children.
I had never seen him so happy.
He stopped before a cart full of trinkets and bought a little mirror. He studied his face for a minute, frowning and thinking.
“I don’t look any different,” he said. “Huh.”
His good cheer returned as we continued down the crowded street. He kissed a few girls and knocked down a man who objected before throwing a coin at his feet and continuing on our path. His mood changed when he saw where we were going.
Radovan looked up at the sign and groaned. “Aw, no, boss.”
Maybe he could smell the wine from here, too.
I led him upstairs to the second floor of the tea house. My master sat by himself at a table full of wine flasks.
He also had been different since the battle.
After the princess put the other half of the dragon’s heart in his chest, he slept for a long time. The surviving defenders wanted to kill Radovan. Judge Fang objected, holding up his spinning prayer rod that glowed with divine light, but the humans could not hear him.
I told them to stay back. They didn’t listen until I showed them the big smile. They looked at the fingers on the floor of the Court of Heaven and Hell and backed away.
When my master awoke, the other survivors had bandaged their wounds and were ready to leave. Master told them that the devil Burning Cloud Devil had slain was Radovan, but Radovan was not the devil who killed their friends. It was too difficult for me to understand, but the surviving monks accepted his explanation. They knew as I did that my master is wise.
While he was glad to see Radovan alive, my master kept looking at the princess. She leaned on the arm of another man as they descended the long stairway. Wherever they went, my master watched. The longer he looked at them, the sadder he became.
He became even sadder when we reached the city. The monks begged him to come back to the temple. Their leader said that my master could become their master, but he still refused. One stout monk looked especially sorry to leave him behind. I s
aw him weep as he looked back one last time.
“Come on, boss. The party’s outside.”
My master looked up at Radovan, but he did not smile. “I am disinclined to celebrate this particular occasion.”
Radovan called for a servant and ordered food. He moved a chair close to my master and sat beside him. He touched three flasks of wine before he found one that wasn’t empty. He filled my master’s cup and poured one for himself.
Radovan lifted his cup. “To the ones who got away.”
My master frowned. He began to correct Radovan, but then he closed his mouth and raised his cup. They drank. When my master reached for the flask, Radovan moved it away. For a moment I thought they might fight. If they did, I wouldn’t know what to do. I would have to help my master, but I did not want to bite Radovan. He might bite me back.
“You want to hear some good news?”
My master pretended he did not care, but he is always curious. Radovan told him about being burned by the hot tea, and my master pinched the bridge of his nose and thought.
“It seems plausible that the devil whose form you have taken is no longer connected to you.”
“Burning Cloud Devil killed him,” said Radovan. “He thought he was killing me, but I was too slippery for him.”
“Too lucky, you mean.”
“Desna smiles on handsome devils.” He drank the rest of the wine from the flask.
“Or semi-devils, as I’ve heard some of the Tian call you. I prefer that to the pejorative ‘hellspawn.’ But this list of names you say the Phoenix Warrior divined from your blood—that is fascinating. It sounds as though she somehow divined every infernal branch of your family tree. It is a pity we never learned the name of the one who has been, if you will pardon the expression, pruned.”
Radovan snorted wine through his nose. “Was there a master of puns at this temple?”
“I don’t suppose you would be amenable to a few simple experiments to determine—”
“Forget it.”
“You see how miserable I am. You could at least humor me.”