She puffed up her chest and considered shouting at him, but Zakuro and the other shrine maidens were staring. She didn't want to reveal even a small weakness to them. She lifted her chin and turned away. "We will speak to the head priestess now," she said.
Zakuro bowed again and showed them the way to the high priestess' room. Zakuro kept a few steps ahead of them as if she were eager to put distance between herself and them.
When they arrived at the high priestess' rooms, Zakuro and Suzume knelt by the door. The Dragon stood over them, shaking his head. Zakuro slid the doors open. Inside, the head priestess sat at the far end of the room on a cushion upon the floor. Suzume entered and walked with her head bowed before taking a seat across from the head priestess. The Dragon, adversely, declined to sit and loomed above the two women.
"I am glad you came, Lord Dragon," the head priestess greeted him.
He nodded in response.
Then to Suzume she said, "I called you here to speak about what happened yesterday. I am writing a letter to the head of the temple at the White Palace, but I wanted to hear your side before I send it. "
Suzume's heart beat faster. She had been caught out in her lie! They would banish her for sure, or worse. She panicked; there was nowhere left for her but here. It would have been wise to confess the truth and hope for mercy from the head priestess, but she was too prideful to admit to a lie.
"What do you want to know? I am an open book," Suzume replied.
The Dragon snorted. "That is an understatement."
She shot him a glare, but he only smiled at her and extended his palm, indicating she should continue.
The high priestess glanced between the two of them and sighed. "I did not ask before, given the circumstances under which you were brought to us." She cleared her throat.
Suzume stared past her, pretending the words and the judgment behind them did not sting.
"Given recent developments, I think it bears investigation. Have you been tested for spiritual sensitivity?"
This, Suzume could answer honestly. "No. Because I am a descendant of the Eight, it was always assumed I had some spiritual powers. Though perhaps they underestimated just how much ability I had." Well, partly honestly; no one would have assumed Suzume, the fifth daughter of the emperor's second wife, would have anything remarkable about her. She had been lucky enough to have such a fortuitous marriage arrangement, but that was all in the past now.
"I suppose you are right," the high priestess said while scratching her chin.
Suzume sighed. She had accepted her lie so easily. Then again they would not have taken me into the temple if they did not think I had some spiritual sensitivity.
"Perhaps you can answer a question for me, Chiyoko?" the Dragon asked the head priestess. "How does a woman with previously no indication of spiritual power break a five-hundred-year-old seal? I know it could not have been weakened because the priestess who made it would not let such a thing happen. I suspect that is why she built this shrine. Your prayers should have kept me sealed for another five hundred years and beyond. Nothing but the fall of mankind would have weakened it, and even then perhaps it still would have held and locked me in eternal slumber."
Chiyoko, the high priestess, glanced between Suzume and the Dragon, her mouth working as if she were trying to give him a reasonable explanation, but she had none.
"I cannot say, my lord," she said.
He waved off her response. "I did not really expect you to. Instead, tell me, the first priestess of your order, did she have any descendants?"
She went to shake her head no but paused. She held up a wrinkled finger. "There is a myth that when High Priestess Fujikawa began our order, she was great with child, but there is no proof of this. It is probably superstition or allegory. She is often called the mother of our order; she is said to have traveled all around the empire, building shrines and temples wherever she went."
"Is there more to the legend?" the Dragon pressed.
Suzume squirmed under the force of his spiritual pressure, which seemed to be bearing down upon her. She laid her hands down flat on the reed flooring and tried to steady her labored breathing.
Chiyoko frowned and looked at Suzume, who struggled to breathe. The Dragon stood above her with an intense gaze that seemed it could burn her just with a look. The high priestess continued, though her voice too had become strained, "Some say High Priestess Fujikawa died bringing that child into the world…" She took a deep breath. Beads of sweat bloomed on her forehead and she wiped them away with the back of her hand. "Others say she lived and raised the child, who became a great spiritual leader. Other tales claim that she gave birth to the first emperor and that she is the mother of our empire, but these are all just legends without recorded evidence." She paused, inhaled and exhaled. "A fire one hundred years after her death burned the temple to the ground and the historical records were lost."
The Dragon paced about the room. Only Zakuro seemed unaffected by the release of his energy. Chiyoko was doing her best to maintain control, but her hands were pressed firmly onto the table in front of her.
"There must have been copies somewhere. Are there any great places of learning?" the Dragon said, oblivious to the priestess' suffering.
"Just the records at the White Palace, but—" The priestess stopped to catch her breath.
Meanwhile, Suzume panted and clutched at her neck; it felt like her throat had collapsed.
"What is wrong with the girl?" Zakuro asked.
The Dragon noticed Suzume lying on the ground, forced down by the weight of his spiritual energy. He pulled it back and she gasped a breath. The weight disappeared in an instant and she felt as if a ton of bricks had been taken off her chest.
"Your energy is pouring out of you unchecked. She is particularly in tune to your energy, my lord," Chiyoko remarked. Her hands trembled as she hid the effects the spiritual energy had on her.
"Yes, she is." He stared at Suzume, who perspired and glowered at him. Then he said to Suzume, "You will take me to the palace. I would investigate these claims about that woman's offspring and together we will find them and kill them."
Chiyoko gasped and Suzume sat up and swayed in place. "My lord, she is the daughter of the emperor. What if the legends are true and High Priestess Fujikawa is the mother of the emperor?"
"Then I shall kill her and her entire family," he replied in a calm voice that gave Suzume chills. He meant what he said, of that she had no doubt.
"What if she had no children, if she died without descendants? Will you hunt down her sisters' legacy or her brothers'?"
"There was a child, of that I am certain," he said, and the thunderclouds seemed to gather in his eyes once more. He kept his spiritual energy in check, but the sparks were racing up and down Suzume's back. Suzume stood up and a bright red aura hung around her like a shroud. She lifted her hand, staring at the energy that twirled around her fingers.
"How can you be so certain?" she challenged, and the red of her aura shot towards the Dragon.
He pushed it aside as he would a fly. "I know because it was mine."
5
The Dragon's proclamation was followed by silence. Is this another trick? She scrutinized his expression, searching for a hint. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared past Suzume at the wall behind the head priestess. His dark eyes were rimmed with blue—something Suzume had learned indicated his temper was rising. She clutched at her chest, waiting for the release of the pressure that would surely suffocate her. Though his anger made a lot more sense now, she would be pretty upset if her lover locked her away for five hundred years too.
"Are you saying…?" Chiyoko prompted.
The Dragon bared pointed teeth at the high priestess. "Yes, your beloved founder was pregnant with my child when she sealed me away for eternity! Though I suspect she was not aware of it at the time. I had only just realized myself."
Suzume shook her head. Just like a man to think he knew more about a woman than
she did. "You must be joking! How could you know before she did?"
He turned towards Suzume; his face had transformed along with his teeth. The handsome young man was gone, replaced by a terrifying hybrid of human and dragon. His skin had a faint blue sheen, and scales overlapped the flesh along his cheeks, which were sharp and angular. His pupils were large and just the barest hint of his iris ringed the outside in an icy blue. His cheeks were sunken and his hands were tipped with claws.
"Do you question me, mortal? I could squish you like a bug. Do you know what I am? I can see each beat of your heart within your chest. I can see the river of energy of life that flows in your veins. I watched humans climb their way from being ignorant animals to the pestilence you are now upon the land. I know more about you than you know about yourself."
Suzume should have been cowed by his posturing; perhaps a smarter woman would have been. He had done nothing but flaunt his power from the moment he woke. She had seen his type before. Every season when the young lords came to make their petitions to the emperor, there was always one among them full of hot air and of his own greatness. She suspected the Dragon was the same. He had done nothing but make threats since his arrival; she had yet to see him make good on any of them. Suzume squared her shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.
"But you were defeated by a human," she said.
He smiled; it was a terrifying sight. His daggerlike teeth gleamed and the threat hinted at there made her stomach flop.
"You've outworn your value to me, Priestess," he said. His voice was deadly calm.
His spiritual energy poured out of him. Suzume saw it spiral out of him like a thick mist. It reached for her, grasping like tentacles; it prodded and poked the air around her but did not touch. It coalesced into a river of shimmery blue light that spun around her, creating a sphere of energy that covered her. Before the energy closed around her, she saw the high priestess fall over, grasping at her throat while Zakuro rushed to her side.
Inside the bubble of energy, Suzume felt her skin prickle. Small jolts ran up and down her skin as the red sparks leapt at the Dragon's energy, keeping it at bay. The pressure mounted, and though she felt it growing, it was not overwhelming as it had been before. Suzume's bright red energy flickered out of her from unseen pores, leaping like flames to create a secondary ring that enclosed her and shielded her from the Dragon's energy.
When she was fully encased in her own bubble, the building pressure ceased entirely and she stared up at the colliding of their energy. Fire and ice met, causing small explosions. Clouds of vapor and sparks blended together. When I unleashed him, this is the energy that broke him free, and now it is protecting me.
As a test, she imagined the energy reaching out as if she had her own tentacles of energy. But instead of a graceful probe, one section of her shield burst forth, burning a hole in the Dragon's energy. Smoke curled away and the Dragon stared down at her through the hole it had created.
He had transformed from the monstrous half dragon back to a man. His brow furrowed as he stared down at her. He examined her as if trying to puzzle out a mystery. She would like to know where these powers came from as well. The Dragon's energy receded, wrapping around him like a shimmering cloud of frost. Then when Suzume blinked, it disappeared. Her own energy flickered and faded like a candle snuffed out and her knees gave out beneath her as she collapsed to the floor. She felt drained, her arms were too weak to even lift, and holding up her head to watch the Dragon came with a great effort.
"How?" He shook his head. "We leave in an hour's time. Meet me at the gates."
He turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the sliding door on his way out. The force of it shook the building. Suzume considered shouting a parting insult, but decided to let things be. She was too tired to even speak. She looked down at her hands; they felt like a stranger's. What just happened here?
The high priestess had lost consciousness when the Dragon unleashed his powers on Suzume. Zakuro had her head resting in her lap. The high priestess moaned and Zakuro looked down on the elderly woman with a surprising amount of tenderness. It's good to see she is not entirely heartless. When the head priestess tried to sit up, Zakuro said, "Do not rise. You will hurt yourself."
The high priestess sighed but lay still with her eyes closed. Suzume's strength was returning and she looked to the door, wondering if now would be a good time to make a graceful exit.
"What shall we do about this?" Zakuro asked Chiyoko before scowling at Suzume as if accusing her for the Dragon's actions.
"We must do as the Dragon asks," said the high priestess. Her voice was thin as a reed.
"He threatened to kill the entire royal family," Suzume protested.
"Do not question the will of the gods," Zakuro snapped back.
Suzume glared at her. "You wouldn't be saying that if it was you he was threatening."
Zakuro glowered back.
"Enough," Chiyoko said. Despite her current fatigue, her voice commanded them both. The two women turned to the high priestess.
"Suzume, you must go with the Dragon. Whatever he asks, you must do."
Why? she wanted to ask, but she knew the answer without speaking. Because he would kill her otherwise. For whatever reason, he had chosen her, and now it seemed she was stuck with him.
"You are dismissed," the head priestess said with a lazy wave.
Her casual dismissal riled Suzume, but she took her cue to leave. She dipped a hasty bow before skittering out of the room.
When the door closed, Chiyoko sat up. Her old bones creaked and her head pounded with the beginnings of a headache. She rubbed her temple as Zakuro fussed over her. She waved away her concerns. Zakuro sat across from her, hands flat on her knees and intense dissatisfaction written on her features.
"You are displeased?" Chiyoko asked. She knew the answer, but she also knew Zakuro did not know her emotions were so transparent.
"Why send that girl along with him? She is likely to incite his anger again, and who knows what will happen if he is not in a holy place then." Zakuro jabbed a finger towards the door.
Chiyoko did not answer right away. She looked down at the beginnings of the letter she had been sending to her friend at the palace. It had been a long time since she had been in the presence of a Yokai like the Dragon, and the last time she had been a young woman. Few people had spiritual sensitivity and for this girl, with undiscovered powers, to come to this shrine was either a coincidence or by design. Only Chiyoko's family's long history with this shrine had kept her here. When her abilities were discovered, she had already learned about the shrine's secret and it was too late to send her away. Had life been different, she would have been trained at the Sun Temple at the White Palace. She had never expected someone with that level of spiritual sensitivity to show up at her shrine. Who is this girl? She cannot be a mere disgraced princess. How could her powers have lain dormant until now?
"Chiyoko!" Zakuro said.
She glanced up at Zakuro; her pinched mouth accentuated the lines around her eyes and mouth. She still remembered the young girl who had come to her shrine, without a family but desperate to please. She had not even a fraction of the raw power that Suzume did. But she was loyal and she would lead the shrine well when Chiyoko was gone. Only years of training allowed Zakuro to see the world of the Yokai. Because Zakuro had not lived with the knowledge of that other world, the Dragon and his threats scared Zakuro more than she would ever admit aloud. He had threatened the entire royal family—and it was no idle threat. He meant every word; if he could sate his desire for revenge by killing hundreds of innocents, he would do it. Yokai were different than humans; they had no sense of honor.
"We cannot stop him from going, and the girl can withstand his energy if she can learn to control her own. I only wish I had time to train her. But he will not wait. She will have to learn about her powers alone."
"Then why do we not seal him once more?" Zakuro suggested. "Surely it will be a small feat for th
e princess."
Chiyoko shook her head. "No. Fujikawa Kazue was a powerful priestess; Suzume does not have the strength to do what she did." It really is a shame. Had I known, I would have been able to begin her training at least, but I did not suspect. Now I can only hope she survives.
"Then what shall we do? We cannot let him run wild."
Chiyoko stared down at her letter once again. She had only to make her mark and send it out. She knew this was the right thing to do, but knowing that her entire life's work was coming to an end left her feeling empty. She had kept the temple's secrets so long, even now that the end was near she found it difficult to loosen her tongue and speak the truth. I should tell Zakuro everything. I do not know how much time is left to me. She folded her hands on the table. Not yet but soon, when she is ready to take my place, I will tell her about Priestess Fujikawa's final wishes.
The head priestess stood and walked over to the window. She could not stare at the paper a moment longer. Seeing it in black and white felt too final. She looked out into the garden beyond. A pair of shrine maidens who were meant to be sweeping the courtyard were chatting and giggling behind their hands. Another girl was peeking through the door that led to the Dragon's chamber. Their lives had been rocked when they found out the God of the Mountain was not real, what would they think when they learned the entire shrine was a lie? How would they react when they found out she had known from the start that there was no god and this shrine had been built with the intention of keeping the Dragon sealed, all to keep their founder's secret. These girls carried on, oblivious to the fact that their entire order's purpose was preparing to leave and never come back. I never thought I could come to care for a stone so much.
She turned around, and Zakuro watched her, brows furrowed. Shall we carry on, find a new god to worship, or do I risk them all to put him back?
"I am writing to the head priestess at the White Palace. I will inform her of the Dragon's intentions," she said, answering Zakuro's question at last.
The Dragon Saga Box Set Page 4