by JC Kang
With Li Wei’s assistance, Kaiya boarded the assigned boat. She turned back toward the quay, where Meixi bowed. When the girl rose, her lip quivered. “Dian-xia, it has been an honor to serve you. I wish I could accompany you.”
The girl’s dedication—and bravery—was heartening. Nonetheless, failure meant condemning a thirteen-year-old to death by dragonfire. “I thank you for your service here in Vyara City. Your knowledge of the local customs provided invaluable expertise to our mission. Not to mention much needed help with my hair and make-up when I had none.” She ignored Jie’s poke in her back and continued. “I will require your aid again when we return from this quest.”
Meixi flushed a scarlet that would have made the setting sun jealous.
Holding the image of the girl in her heart, Kaiya took a seat toward the front, looking inland up the river. The boat slid forward, imperceptibly building speed as the lizard tacked in effortless zigzags through the waters. The hitching mechanism barely whispered, its mesmerizing undulations converting the beast’s swaying into forward momentum. Dwarf-made, in all likelihood.
After two hours, during which Kaiya paid more attention to the scenery than deconstructing Rumiya’s song, they stopped at a small port upriver. Without coming to a complete stop, the pilot unharnessed the lizard, which dockworkers guided into a corral, while other workers hitched a fresh lizard. The whole process took just a few minutes.
Time to focus. Kaiya pulled the pages of the song from her pack. With her head clearer, the music made much more sense than any time over the last two days. At times she would hum it, only to stop when the Paladins’ nagas began to glow.
A sluggish but powerful surge, like a deluge held back by a weakening dam, emitted from the Paladin sitting in front of her. She looked up as he turned around and lowered his hood.
Rumiya.
He still wore the scaled armor, and his eyes glowed blue.
Kaiya sucked in her breath, while at her side, Jie whipped out a knife. Paladins rose with drawn nagas. Whatever good that would do.
He grinned, sending snakes writhing across her skin. “Greetings, Your Highness. I come in peace. I thought you might need help with the song.”
In peace? Not likely. Kaiya motioned the Paladins back. She lowered Jie’s hand and forced herself to smile. “Thank you for your offer. But first, may I ask a question? About you?”
He laughed. “Come now, princess. Do you still have feelings for me, even though you now know I am Grand Vizier Rumiya of Madura, and Girish, the Dragon’s Envoy?”
Heat pounded in her cheeks. “Where have you been all of these years? Not from when we last met, though I would like to know, but from the time you left Madura.”
As he considered the question, Rumiya’s hypnotic gaze seemed more like snake’s eyes than those of the beguiling beauty from two years before. “Control of nations and men was of little consequence when the power over cosmic laws lay at my fingertips. When I had a chance to learn from the most knowledgeable and powerful being on Tivara, I took it. For years, I gleaned his secrets. In return, I went where he could not, in search of the one who could please him with her voice alone.”
His boasts coiled around her like a serpent, forcing her to choke her words out. “And in all of your travels, I am the only one who saw you in the last thirty-two years?”
He cackled like metal on flint. “I have more than one face, though this is the one I grew used to. I am ironically quite fond of it.”
“What will you do to advance your power once your mentor sleeps? Assuming I am able to accomplish that.”
His eyes searched hers. “I have learned all I can from him, and he only has one thing left to offer. Let me tell you a secret about dragons. Do you know how in your people’s depictions of dragons, they are always chasing a flaming pearl?”
Kaiya shook her head, not to answer his question, but in denial of his comparison between the harbinger of death and destruction and the auspicious protectors of Hua. “Our dragons are creatures of good. They are nothing like Avarax.”
Rumiya growled, a low rumble that shook the boat. “Ever seen one to make a comparison?”
Kaiya lowered her head, chastised. Though she’d never seen Avarax, either.
Vindicated, he continued in a smug tone. “Though only legends, your images hold a grain of truth.”
Rumiya’s rough hand took her chin. He held her in the slits of his terrifying gaze. No! Not again!
Kaiya’s chest ached, as if he’d ripped her heart out. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jie jump to her feet. Swords rasped from scabbards, where the imperial guards stood behind her.
Leaning in, the wizard let go and thankfully broke eye contact. His hot voice burned in her ear. “The pulsations of a magical dragonstone in a dragon’s belly are the source of his power. When Avarax falls asleep, I will slay him, cut him open, and take his.”
Kaiya shuddered. If he were telling the truth, her actions would replace one evil magical being with another. At least the Last Dragon was ostensibly predictable. There was no fathoming what a human with so much power would do.
Metal snapped with a clink. Beside her, hand shaking, Jie gawked at her knife, broken at the guard.
Rumiya laughed as he stood and raised his right hand. A blue flame flared in his palm, burning without a sound.
Kaiya rose and interposed herself between him and Jie. “Please. Stop. She won’t do it again.”
The wizard seized her shoulder in his left hand, sending heat searing into her body. He shoved her back into her seat, even as he glared at Jie. “Foolish girl, a mortal weapon has no chance of penetrating my armor. Now die.”
“If you harm her,” Kaiya shouted, spreading her arms, “I won’t sing for your master. You will have to resume your search for someone with the right voice.”
Rumiya stepped back, again locking her with his serpent eyes. “Would you sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives and Cathay’s mutual protection pacts for one stupid girl?”
Kaiya pulled the black-lacquered hairpin from the base of her pony tail and pointed the tip at him. “For my blood-sister, yes.”
He’d seen through her bluff in the Crystal Citadel; or rather, tested her with his magic. Yet this time, he closed his hand, snuffing out the flame. He sat back down. “You, half-elf, are of little consequence. If I killed everyone who tried to slay me over the years, their bodies would litter the length and breadth of the Shallowsea. Now, princess, tell me how the song escapes your puny intellect.”
Kaiya let out the breath she held. “I understand how the notes’ modulation can affect the resonance of things. I just don’t know how to magnify it to impact something as immense as Avarax.”
Rumiya’s brows furrowed. He spoke as if the answer was childishly simple. “Focus not on the dragon, but on his dragonstone.”
What was that supposed to mean? Kaiya shook her head. “What if I don’t have enough energy? How do wizards use powerful spells? How is it that magic which drained them when they first learned it becomes easier as time goes by?”
He gave her a blank stare. “Power is innate. The more you need, the more you draw from your surroundings. But I see now that even though you have the right voice, you just aren’t talented enough on your own. Perhaps Avarax will consider loaning you the Lotus Crystal.”
A chance to see her future. If she survived. She bowed at her waist. “I thank you for that.”
“I shall be off. In the meantime, practice well.” With a harrumph and a scathing glance at her, Rumiya blinked out of existence. The air popped as it filled the space he’d departed.
Kaiya slumped in her chair. If she never saw him again, it would be too soon.
Ayana sidled up next to her. “I have never heard such an explanation for how magic becomes easier to use. It just takes time and practice. And I have never seen anyone teleport without using words to manipulate magic.”
Jie held up her shattered knife. “I stabbed into the bare spot on the back of hi
s neck. I am sure I was nowhere near his armor.”
When they’d first met, Jie didn’t take the princess’ talk of blood-sisters seriously. Hairpins or not. Yet time and time again, from shielding her from Prince Dhananad’s rage to allaying Rumiya’s threats, the princess proved herself a liege worth serving. Two years ago, she’d offered herself as a bride to Lord Tong to avert a civil war, and then later secretly joined the expeditionary force tasked with capturing the rebel’s castle. Perhaps a moral compass, and not mere flightiness, guided her impulsiveness.
Now left undisturbed, the princess immersed herself in two days of meditation and study. Convinced she could deconstruct and alter the song to really sing Avarax to sleep, she experimented with the sounds to see the effect on Paladin nagas. She paused only to eat, drink, and rest. Her dedication rivaled that of a Moquan trainee.
In spite of all the effort, it was unlikely the princess could actually succeed. Their journey to Palimur could very well be a one-way trip.
At least Jie could learn something during their travels. At times, the enthusiastic Paladin Sameer would point out places of historical or architectural interest along the riverbank. They passed famous temples, battlefields, and even a maharaja’s old palace. His happy-go-lucky nature hadn’t diminished in the last two years, despite all that had happened back then.
The moons rose and set, though it was Guanyin’s Eye that Jie watched the most. If only she could slow its inevitable approach, to delay their confrontation with Avarax. Perhaps with more study and practice, the princess would actually be able to accomplish the task at hand.
Early on the second day, their travel upriver slowed. Boats clogged the waterways as refugees fled Palimur. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who doubted the princess’ abilities. A torrent of people crowded the riverbank highway; some in horse-drawn carts laden with all their possessions, some on bare feet with babies slung across their backs. Many stared and pointed at the princess and whispered.
By midday, the hill of the Temple of Shakti in Palimur loomed into view.
Kaiya turned to Ayana. “I can hear the energy radiating from the hill.”
Sameer nodded enthusiastically. “Palimur is a holy site, built on the delta where the Kaveri River washes into the Palimur River. The former is fed by several other rivers, including three flowing out of the Elf Kingdom of Aramysta, the valley of the old Kanin Pyramid, and Avarax’s mountain. The area resonates strongly with the vibrations of the world.”
Ayana added, “The hill is one of the Glittering Caves sites. During the Twilight of Istriya, our ancestors uncovered a Starburst there. Starbursts magnified the power of elven magic and turned the struggle for supremacy over Tivara in our favor… until the Year of the Second Sun, when the Orc God Tivar appeared in the heavens as a Red Sun, burning day and night, and rendered our magic useless.”
Jie realized her mouth was hanging open. Elven legends had never interested her, yet she dwelled on Ayana’s every word. She rearranged her expression into detached boredom and stared at the hill ahead.
They docked not far from the temple. The procession of a hundred Paladins marched through broad avenues of block buildings with domes and spires. It would’ve made for an impressive sight had anyone been present to watch.
The hill sloped up on a gentle incline. Its rocky ground harbored a few sparse shrubs and short grasses, but was otherwise devoid of trees. Jie scanned the flat, oval top, which she estimated to be a third of a li wide, one li long. A single mound rose some thirty feet above the rest of the hill near its east end.
The Temple of Shakti stood opposite the mound. Made of white marble, its multilayered steppes formed a dome supported by arched columns. As Jie understood it, Shakti represented the female energy of healing and creation. Though her own dismally flat chest was far from the perfect specimen, the symmetrical domes perhaps symbolized the female form.
She turned a jealous eye toward the curvier princess, who somehow made a squat appear graceful. Her eyes were closed, and her hand touched the hallowed ground. She opened her eyes, her previous look of doubt gone. “I hear it. The energy of the world bubbling in this point. I might be able to do this.”
Jie flashed her an encouraging smile she didn’t believe. This was such a lost cause.
Then, the hairs on the back of her neck stood rigid and her legs began to shake. Around her, Paladins and Priestesses of Shakti gathered, pointing toward the north. Jie followed their gazes.
An ugly blotch of red marred the horizon, floating inexorably toward them.
Avarax.
CHAPTER 47:
Verbal Jousting
Kaiya winced as the air roared with the slow bursts of Avarax’s beating wings, even at a distance. Perhaps the dragon was in no hurry to hear her sing, since he was taking his time. Or maybe his enormous mass could only travel so fast. His slow approach gave her several minutes to listen to her surroundings.
The priestesses of Shakti chanted mantras to their goddess, their voices cracking under the fear Avarax evoked, even from so far away. The Paladins breathed in unison, slow inhalation followed by a slow exhalation, balancing out the priestesses’ trepidation. Jie’s heart beat calmly, palpable through the half-elf’s hand on her shoulder. Ayana hummed to herself. The hill itself droned a serene, steadfast canticle.
Kaiya drew strength from the others, calming her own nerves. She could do this. After these last couple of days, Rumiya’s song made sense, and altering it should be easy. If Lord Xu had ever contacted her, he would’ve surely confirmed that her alterations to the music would send Avarax into a deep slumber.
Down in the city below, horns blared, their low keen a background to the percussion of heartbeats and breaths around her. People who lacked the means or foresight to flee Palimur ventured into the streets, only to run back into their homes upon seeing the dragon. Her stomach tightened. Their lives, and the livelihood of all those who had escaped, depended on her.
Avarax loomed closer, a shard of cinnabar flashing in the blue sky. He grew unbelievably larger each minute, the slow pounding of his beating wings threatening to drown out all other sounds.
Around her, even the Paladins began to shuffle, the synchronicity of their breaths choking into disarray. Jie’s hand pulled back. Ayana’s hum faltered.
Her own heart gathered speed, cold fear crawling up her back and turning the blood in her arms and legs to ice. She shook her hands out, fighting the primal urge to panic. Death. She, and everyone else would die today.
Of all the sources from which she drew strength, only the hill’s resonance remained.
Now, focus on your breathing, anchor yourself with the energies of the earth. Doctor Wu’s words, repeated over and over again throughout her childhood, rang in Kaiya’s mind now. She straightened her spine and gripped the ground with her toes.
It wasn’t working! Her eyes locked on the dragon in dread fascination. His red scales and white talons came into focus. The glinting claws and teeth promised death. Every fiber in her body screamed at her to flee.
Close your eyes. Focus on the sound. Lord Xu’s first lessons on the magic of sound repeated in her ears. The chorus of the hill rose into her soles, chanting in slow rhymes to her heart. With a deep inhalation, she sucked in the energy of the air. When she let the breath out, the Paladins’ breathing lurched back into harmony.
The sounds around her slowed. The presence of Avarax loomed above. She opened her eyes.
His immense size blotted out the sun. From snout to tail, he might be even larger than the grounds of Sun-Moon Palace. His eyes glowed bright blue, boring into her soul. Death on wings, able to kill her a dozen different ways with less effort than it took for her to draw a breath.
Keeping her toes gripped to the ground, Kaiya bowed her head. “I am here, as you commanded.”
“Then sing for me.” Avarax’s voice bellowed slow and powerful, his breath hot and reeking of charred flesh. “I have waited a thousand years to hear you.”
Had she deconstructed Rumiya’s music correctly, rearranged it to repeat Yanyan’s feat a thousand years before? If not… No, better not to sing at all. Avoid the risk. She dared to meet the Last Dragon’s gaze. “I do not think you want to hear the song your envoy provided. He seeks to betray you.”
Hovering high above, Avarax regarded her for a few seconds. “All this is known to me. Little did Rumiya know that I tricked him and he gave you the correct song. He will suffer his due punishment soon enough. Now sing.”
Hardeep…Rumiya, evil as he was, didn’t deserve that. And what punishment she might face if her plan failed? She summoned all her courage to make her own demand. “Only after you deliver what I asked for.”
The weight of a hundred stares fell on her. The priestesses and Paladins must think she was insane. Maybe they were right.
Avarax echoed the sentiment. “Foolish girl. Sing, or you will burn in fire hot enough to melt stone.”
Could he see her legs trembling beneath her gown? Hear the anxiety in her voice? Smell her terror? Drawing on the energy of the earth, Kaiya forced herself to project confidence. Now if only her queasy stomach would play along. She laughed. “Then you will have to wait another thousand years to hear the song you requested.”
The dragon snarled. The slow vibration shook the ground, which resisted with its own tune. Around her, several priestesses and Paladins struggled to keep their feet.
Avarax opened his maw and bared his teeth, each sharper than a dao and as large as the imperial guard who wielded it. He extended a claw and flicked something from his jaws.
Though only a flake of snow compared to its enormous dragon backdrop, the object pulsed with a deep sound, stronger than any Kaiya had ever heard. It glittered as it escaped the shadow of the dragon and caught the rays of the afternoon sun, growing larger in its descent.
Jie stepped forward and caught it in two hands, her eyes wide with wonder. She knelt and proffered it.