by JC Kang
Sameer’s naga looked grey and lifeless. Cyrus frowned, in a rare show of emotion.
At her side, Brehane’s hands quivered as she chanted several guttural words. The air around them cracked and shimmered.
“Interesting, Mystic,” the altivorc said. “You are drawing power from somewhere. Still, your shield never stopped me before. They say trying the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result is madness.” A bolt of red buzzed out from his wand. The light fizzled and cracked in a hemisphere around them, and faded.
Brehane coughed and wobbled. “The shield can’t take another hit. Scatter!”
Taking Kaiya’s hand, Sameer pulled her off the path to a tree. “I can’t feel the energy of the world!”
“Nor can I.” Cyrus huddled behind another tree with Brehane.
The altivorc nodded at Jie. “Go. I will handle them.”
With a bow, the traitorous half-elf raced toward the pyramid. He turned back and grinned, baring fangs. Wand spinning around his finger, he strode toward Cyrus’ tree. “Give me all your pyramid gemstones, and I will let you go.”
Coming out from cover, Brehane barked several foul syllables and pointed her fingers at the altivorc. Nothing happened.
“You are powerless.” The altivorc laughed. With his back to Kaiya, he made for a vulnerable target. If only she had a weapon. He spun and pointed the wand at her. “Which means you must have a power source.” A flash of red streaked at her.
Doctor Wu stepped in front of the pulse and settled into a low horse stance. Energy fizzled through her and into the ground. Webbed wisps of red streaked through the soil, then up the tree trunks and into the buds. The doctor staggered to one knee, her beautiful luminescent eyes fading to a light blue.
Kaiya blinked. What had just happened? It should’ve been her, not beloved Doctor Wu.
“Run! To the pyramid.” Pressing a hand on tree roots, Doctor Wu looked up. Her eyes glimmered, feebly at first, then building. “The Altivorc King can’t get past the tree canopy while the Tear of Guanyin sits at the pinnacle.”
“Something that my half-elf will take care of soon enough.” The Altivorc King— King?—laughed.
Kaiya gaped. She’d heard of him, of course. On the rare occasions he appeared among humans, a dozen elite altivorcs protected him. From what she’d heard, the altivorcs had a personal vendetta against Jie. Yet here she was, working for him.
“Run, fool!” Doctor Wu staggered to her feet.
Shaking the confusion from her mind, Kaiya bolted down the path. Toward Jie, who even asleep could probably kill her. She hazarded a glance back.
The Altivorc King pointed his wand at her. Then a rock popped him in the side of the head, which jerked like the lash of a whip.
“Run, Princess!” Fleet yelled from somewhere.
A hand clamped around hers. Sameer’s. He pulled her along the path. Behind them, Cyrus and Brehane gave chase. The King’s wand flashed again in repeated staccato buzzes, which flashed red on the tree trunks.
The edge of the grove lay close ahead. Kaiya’s belly cramped. Just a few more steps. She stumbled to her knees as she reached the clearing. Her ears roared from blood coursing through her...no, from the low, primal drone of the pyramid itself. Like the Ayudra pyramid.
At her side, her friends stared up at the Tear of Guanyin. Like the Lotus Crystal she’d returned to the Temple of the Moon, it sparkled atop the pyramid in myriad rays of light blue. Just a few degrees behind it, the nearly-full iridescent moon swirled in soap-bubble colors, not far from the full white moon, with the fully-open blue moon forming a backdrop. The Golden Flock constellation, an omen of great change, hovered above them.
Together, the moons resembled a light blue face with two mismatched eyes, crowned with a halo. It was so beautiful that Kaiya’s heart stirred from beneath the Tiger’s Eye, and she let out a gasp.
Jie turned from where her gaze had been locked on the Tear and glared at them. Her form-fitting clothes shined dark grey, like lightning flaring along the underside of a storm cloud. She pulled a hood over her head, leaving only a slot which revealed the bridge of her nose and the cruel glint in her eyes. The rest of her body disappeared like haze on a hot day.
“How did she get here so fast?” Cyrus exchanged glances with Brehane and Sameer. “She was just with—” He coughed as Brehane elbowed him.
Sameer stepped forward, his naga now glowing bright blue. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Don’t you feel it?” Brehane’s voice tittered in excitement. “The resonance of the world has never coursed through me like this.”
“Nor me.” Jie’s chameleon form darted forward, her blade whirling in a blur.
Sameer engaged, their weapons never touching as they circled and stabbed and chopped in a dance of swords. It looked nothing like Jie’s vicious and efficient style.
Kaiya clasped Brehane’s dress. “Do something!”
The Mystic threw up her hands. “I can’t. They’re too fast, too close.”
“How do you know the Bahaduur arts?” Sameer disengaged.
In that split second, Brehane chortled out several syllables and waved a hand at Jie.
Webbing shot out and entangled the half-elf. Growling, she slashed it away, but at least now she was visible. She pulled the hood down. Her clothing returned to the same storm-cloud grey and she surged forward. Her broadsword caught Sameer in the shoulder, cutting deep. The naga slipped from his fingers. She drove her boot into his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Brehane choked out several guttural words in the language of Shallow Magic. Glowing darts appeared and streaked toward Jie.
The half-elf spun out of the way. “You might as well surrender now,” Jie cackled. She’d always had a disrespectful streak, but never had she sounded so malicious. “I will make your deaths quick.”
Hand on his golden circle, Cyrus chanted a prayer in his language, calling on Athran to do something.
Anything. Kaiya couldn’t tell. Tears, real tears, blurred her vision. “Why, Jie? Why are you doing this?”
Jie ignored her, instead striding toward Cyrus with her sword raised.
A shadow darted between the two. Jie’s weapon clinked, stopping before it decapitated Cyrus.
Fleet. The little madaeri brandished two shortswords, twirling them like a hummingbird’s wings. He snaked toward Jie with quick stabs. Sameer might be fast, but Fleet made him look almost normal. Jie backed away, losing ground.
His eyes tracking the combatants, Cyrus circled around toward Sameer. Brehane grunted out more Shallow Magic.
And here Kaiya was, useless. Pulse racing, she fought for each breath. The taste of panic sat in her mouth, she could barely contain the emotion now bubbling up from under the Tiger’s Eye.
Yet, even with the song of the pyramid coursing through her with energy, the power of her voice still felt pent up. “Please Jie, stop.” Traitor or not, if the Insolent Retainer was seriously injured…
A warm hand rested on her shoulder. Her heart must’ve jumped out of her chest. She turned. Lord Xu stood there, his ever-mischievous smile replaced by a grave expression.
“You said I would get my magic back.” Her voice sounded petulant, like the sixteen-year-old lovestruck child she’d once been.
“You will.” His stare bore into her. “You brought the fallen star. Give it to me.”
Kaiya cast a glance at Jie, whose weapon went spinning to the ground. Maybe now she’d just surrender. Fleet apparently had other ideas. His swords dragged across her body like shears, slashing through the remnants of web, yet never cutting open her clothes. Jie punched and kicked, unrelenting.
“Jie, stop.” Kaiya clenched and unclenched her fists. Surely, Jie would hear reason.
Moving in a blur, Fleet jumped and drove his blade toward her face.
Kaiya’s stomach leaped into her neck.
The madaeri’s blade smashed through flesh and bone. Jie crumpled to the ground, motionless.
“No!” Kaiya choked on the lump in her throat. It couldn’t be.
Her sworn sister was dead.
Tears welled in Kaiya’s eyes. No. She’d lost both her doctor and her friend in the span of a few minutes. She started to run over.
Xu’s grasp on her wrist restrained her. “The fallen star.”
A friend had just died, and all he could think of was an artifact? Hands trembling, she unshouldered her pack and threw it to the ground. The flap popped open. The smooth sphere of the star shined from within.
Jie was dead. Her closest confidante, perhaps her best friend. Kaiya’s chest tightened as she tried to pull out of Xu’s grip.
Without releasing her, his gaze shifted up to the Tear. Xu withdrew the star and looked down at her friends. “Such a coincidence to find you all here.” He turned back to her, even as she tried to pull free of his grip. “But where is Doctor Wu?”
“Here. And I have company.”
Kaiya turned around to see Doctor Wu sprinting out of the trees. For someone so ancient, she ran fast. The Altivorc King loped up behind her. The doctor cleared the tree line, and the King skidded short.
Pointing his wand, he snarled. “I might not be able to get close, but I can still use this!” Energy beams zipped toward them in quick succession.
Without looking back, Xu waved a hand toward the King. The bolts crackled against an invisible barrier.
“What?” The King stared with wide eyes.
Xu turned to the King.
“Aralas!”
Aralas? Kaiya gaped. Certainly the Altivorc King must be mistaken. One too many rocks to the head, maybe. The elf angel had returned to the Heavens a thousand years before.
Xu laughed. “Of course I knew you would attempt something on the Godseye Conjunction.” He held the fallen star aloft. “With all of this energy, the pyramid is very well protected, and now your minion is dead.” He gestured toward Jie’s body and shook his head.
The Altivorc King snarled and stomped off in the other direction.
“The other pyramids are also protected,” Xu yelled at the King’s back.
Kaiya’s stomach clenched. This felt like another deception on top of all the others, this time perpetrated by Xu himself. “Having me bring the fallen star here had nothing to do with saving Hua, did it?”
Xu favored her for a moment with an unreadable gaze. “What did Aralas tell your people before she returned to the Heavens?”
She looked to Fleet, who nodded emphatically. He’d asked her the same question during the escape from Iksuvius.
Kaiya closed her eyes. “Keep well the pyramids, reminders though they may be of your enslavement.”
“Right,” Fleet said. “If the King of the Orcs ever controls all the pyramids again, the Orc Gods will return on their flaming chariots.”
“So you see, this is larger than Hua.” Xu patted her on the shoulder.
Kaiya shook her head. “The Teleri Empire and the altivorcs are allies. If they conquer Hua, they will give the altivorcs the pyramid.”
Xu pointed down into the valley below. Peng’s rebellion and the imperial army faced off against each other, with Lord Wu’s contingent ready to fall on Peng’s flank. “The winner of this battle will have more than enough resources to defeat the Teleri.”
“Not if they annihilate each other,” Kaiya said. “And if Lord Peng wins, he might very well entreat with the altivorcs.” Not likely, but there had to be some way to convince Xu to help.
“Behold!” Cousin Peng’s voice carried through the night.
The dark sky above the battlefield shimmered. An undulating form of sparkling golden scales materialized. A real dragon, though far more graceful than Avarax’s gargantuan form. Its eyes glowed red. Each claw had five talons, a symbol of the Tianzi and the Mandate of Heaven.
Kaiya gawped at it. The Guardian Dragon of Hua, resembling all the paintings she’d ever seen. He’d only appeared a few times in history, during times of great change to anoint a new dynasty. The three hundred thousand soldiers below all sank to their knees in a ripple of kowtows. Perhaps Lord Peng did hold the Mandate of Heaven. All of the strategizing and power struggles of the previous years had all led to this. She let out a long sigh.
Mumbling what amounted to a curse of sorts, Doctor Wu scoffed.
“Do you feel it?” Brehane pointed. “It feels like Shallow Magic. The pearl is an illusion.”
Shallow Magic…a trick! Anger welled up in Kaiya’s chest, heat flaring in her face and burning off the Tiger’s Eye. This was nothing short of sacrilege. That traitor Peng was trying to steal the Mandate of Heaven, and the sacred Guardian Dragon had fallen for his deception. “How dare he!”
“It is Lord Peng, after all.” Doctor Wu snorted again, then muttered in a barely audible voice, “At least he could do the decency of getting the color right.”
Gazing into the distance, Xu tapped his chin, looking a little like Tian with the gesture. He exchanged glances with Doctor Wu, then searched Kaiya’s eyes. “Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for Hua?”
She placed her hand over her belly. She bore the shame of possibly carrying Geros’ twins, not to mention all the other things she’d done over the last month to ensure Hua’s safety. She nodded.
“Very well, Dian-xia.” He turned to the Southerners. “Do you have a pyramid Greystone?”
“Whatever for?” Sameer’s eyes must’ve been wider than tea cup saucers as they darted to Cyrus.
Cyrus clutched a pouch to his chest.
Xu’s gaze lifted from the pouch. “So you do. I could take it from you, but I give you the choice. With it lies the opportunity for the princess to save her country.”
The three exchanged glances. Cyrus shook his head, but then relented under Brehane’s glare. He opened the pouch and withdrew a fist-sized gem, which resembled solid smoke.
“Madaeri,” Xu said. “Take it and swap it with Guanyin’s Tear at the pyramid’s font.”
Fleet’s mouth gaped open. “That’s what the Altivorc King wants!”
“And what about our magic?” Cyrus kept shaking his head. “We will lose it, too.”
“Technically, the King might be able to approach the pyramid.” Xu looked back toward where the orc had disappeared. “However, I don’t sense him, and with the Fallen Star and Doctor Wu, we can all have a tie to magic and can block his path.” He pointed toward the moons. “At the conjunction, swap them out. Follow me, Dian-xia.”
Kaiya trailed Xu up the steps to the pyramid’s sealed entrance. She looked at it, then at Fleet, who scrambled up the structure’s side with effortless grace. She turned back to Xu. “Nobody has been in here since the War of Ancient Gods.”
Xu nodded. “Aralas took this pyramid’s Greystone on the day the Dwarves sacked the Temple of Tivar, and then placed a magical ward on the entrance.” He pointed near the middle of the pyramid, where large gashes ripped into the smooth stone. “Do you know what that is from?”
“Damage from the Hellstorm.”
“No.” Xu shook his head. “You might as well know the truth. Avarax awoke during the Hellstorm. That night, he clashed with Hua’s Guardian Dragon. He left those scars in the pyramid.”
Kaiya’s thoughts spun. The legends and histories never spoke of such things. Avarax had awoken thirty-three years before…unless he hadn’t replaced Rumiya, but had been Rumiya the whole time. “Why?”
“He wanted the Guardian Dragon’s Flaming Pearl.”
Her legs wobbled. She shot a hand out and clasped him for support. “When he took the form of the Dragon’s Envoy, he told me something about the Flaming Pearl.”
“I helped your ancestor hide the Pearl where Avarax could never reach it.”
One shock after the other. Muscles she did not even know she had cramped her face. “The Founder?”
“No, his consort.”
She took several deep breaths. Either Xu lied, or the histories she knew so well were false.
“Easy, Dian
-xia.” He placed a reassuring hand on the small of her back.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I am going to open a portal to the Flaming Pearl.” He grinned. “If you bring it back, perhaps you can win the Guardian Dragon’s approval.”
“Where is it?”
“So many questions.” He looked up at the moons and yawned. “Great Peace Island.”
Great Peace Island…where her ancestor had come from. Still, it didn’t make sense. Thielas Starsong and Ayana Strongbow had whisked her all around the world with just a few words, and Xu needed a rare conjunction to pull it off? And from what Brehane had said, the Greystone had created a magical deadspot around the pyramid in Selastyas. “How will you use magic if a Greystone blocks the pyramid’s font?”
“Silly girl; you may have learned a lot about Artistic Magic, but it is still just a drop in the ocean.” He pointed up. “The Godseye is upon us. You will not live to see the next time it comes.”
Kaiya followed his finger. The three moons lined up, the larger blue moon forming the backdrop for the white, and inside the white, the smallest iridescent moon. The pulse of the world sounded louder and more jubilant than ever.
Xu lifted his voice in song. The world hummed around her, and the door into the pyramid swirled in a rainbow of lights. A gaping hole opened, and bright white light poured out.
It looked nothing like the inside of a pyramid.
Wind danced through the green leaves of a single cherry tree, in front of a dark stone road. And the light spilling from the pyramid entrance…was sunlight in the land beyond.
“You will be on your own in a strange land,” Xu said. “Use the lessons you have learned. Listen for the Flaming Pearl’s call.”
“I still don’t have the power of my voice.”
“That could be a problem.” He tapped his chin again. He then spoke a single word, and a shiny metal tuning fork appeared in his hand. “Wang Yuxiang left the Dragon Pearl in the well of a burning temple. When you are near it, strike this on something hard.”
So many things to remember. Kaiya’s mind swirled; her knees felt like jelly. She took the tuning fork.
He studied her face. “Hurry. The portal will close behind you. I will open it again when the conjunction ends, in about a half-hour’s time. If you are not back by then, you will be trapped there forever.”