The Dragon Saga Box Set

by Nicolette Andrews

  "You lead with anger," Noaki said, unafraid despite being pinned beneath the dragon inches from death.

  The audacity of his statement gave Kaito pause and left an opening for Noaki. The swordsman leaned forward head butting Kaito and knocking him backward and giving him room to escape. Kaito snarled as he followed the swordsman out into the hall and to a desolate garden beyond. When they entered the garden, Noaki was waiting for him, twin blades in hand. The pair of them circled one another. The swordsman was the first to attack, rushing Kaito blades twirling like two deadly stars. Kaito pivoted to avoid the first but the second caught him on the forearm, fortunately for Kaito his layer of scales kept him from penetrating the skin and the only casualty was his kosode. But knowing he had been struck only angered him further. It was better to get this over with quickly as possible.

  Kaito swiped upward, feinting from the right, only to follow through on the left. It caught the swordsman off guard and he knocked one of the blades from his hand. It went flying across the garden, coming to rest in the basin of a drained pond.

  The swordsman returned to circling once more, favoring the side in which he still had a weapon, his right, leaving his left exposed. Kaito knowing on the ground he could not beat him, took to the air flying above him, and using the clouds for cover he would bide his time. Noaki turned in slow circles, searching for Kaito. When his back was turned, Kaito dropped from the sky and knocked Noaki down, parting him from his remaining weapon. Standing on his chest, Kaito pressed his foot against Noaki's throat.

  "Know your place now?" Kaito snarled.

  The swordsman did not miss a beat when he said, "I have never forgotten it."

  His flippant attitude broiled at his temper and Kaito considered tearing his head from his shoulders.

  "Stop, please!" Akira shouted, she came over grabbing a hold of Kaito's shoulder.

  He didn't give a damn what she wanted, he would not have his authority challenged like this. They would obey him or they would perish.

  "This is how it shall be, either you bow to me or you leave now."

  There was a fire in Akira's eyes which could be dangerous in the future. He had not trusted her from the moment they met but he had let her stay. An enemy you could see was better than one you couldn't. He had a decision to make, kill them all now or let them live. Though he would not admit it out loud, they were making progress in teaching Suzume how to control her power although progress was somewhat slow. I could find another teacher. Kaito pressed his foot harder against Noaki's throat.

  "What are you doing?" Suzume shouted, she was trailed by Rin. He glared at her.

  "Noaki challenged me, this is the price."

  "We cannot kill him. He could help us find the pieces of Kazue's soul." Suzume gestured towards Noaki.

  He glared at her. He would not be ordered by a mere human. And yet he hesitated. He did not like the idea of killing the guardian in front of Suzume. There was a strange look in her eyes, for the first time she looked truly terrified of him. It was the same look Kazue had given him the first time he had killed to protect her. Their eyes met and for a moment he thought he recognized something in the priestess gaze that he hadn't seen there before. But he must be imagining things.

  "I will not be challenged." Kaito snarled, preparing to make the killing blow despite her protests. Kazue no longer held sway over his heart.

  "Kazue is not dead!" Suzume shouted at him.

  Kaito looked towards her. "That's not funny."

  "It isn't a joke." Suzume clutched something in her hand, the pink fragments of Kazue's heart.

  All the air seemed to have been drawn from his lungs as he stared at those shards. It wasn't possible, was it? He had watched her disappear. Kazue had given herself up to save him.

  "You're lying," he snarled.

  Suzume lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye, "I heard Kazue's voice. I know where we need to go."

  5

  He can see right through my lie. I just know it. The dragon was a terrifying sight to behold in that moment, more monster than beast. Gone were the parts of him that made him human. Ice crusted his body, spreading from his feet onto the ground. Power radiated off of him in waves, stealing Suzume's breath and raising sparks along her skin. Never before had the divide between them been more apparent. Though most of the time he seemed human enough when she saw him in tattered clothes, his clawed foot pressed against the throat of Noaki, and death in his gaze she realized in that moment their worlds were too different for them to ever mix. This is why Kazue tried to become immortal, to bridge this gap. Hot on the heels of this thought was another: perhaps blurting out the first thing that came to mind was not the smartest idea.

  "What did you say?" Akira said the first to break the silence.

  "I heard her voice again," Suzume said looking straight at Kaito. Ready to face him head on if she had to. Backing down now would be admitting that he was stronger than her. She'd stepped onto this path intent on proving to Kaito that she was not to be messed with and she would see it to the end, no matter how ill-advised her plan was.

  "That's not possible," Kaito said, but his tone was saturated in hopeful desperation.

  Heart hammering in her chest, she did the only thing she could think to do, continue lying. "She told me to tell you that the day the spider lilies were blooming, she was going to tell you she was pregnant." It was a gamble. Kaito knew Kazue had shared visions of her past with her but just not which ones. The memory of those bright red flowers was burned into Suzume's mind, sometimes even appearing in her dreams. It had not only been significant to Suzume but to Kaito as well. Whether he realized it at the time or not, that was the moment Kazue had decided to become immortal. Suzume knew that without having to be told, as if a bit of Kazue's memory were bleeding into her.

  Kaito's reaction was not what she expected. Instead of challenging her and calling her bluff, he looked down at Noaki.

  "Will you bow your head to me?"

  The swordsman did not react at first and Suzume thought things would take a turn for the worst, but after a few tense moments he nodded his head.

  "I'm glad you've learned your place." Kaito snarled, removing his foot from the guardian's throat.

  Noaki stood and when he was eye level with Kaito he said, "I never forgot it."

  Kaito bared his teeth at him, but gave no further reply. He looked over the assembled group, his gaze suspiciously avoiding resting upon Suzume. "We leave at dawn." Then he turned and walked away, not a word said. As he marched away, Suzume felt as if her knees might give out beneath her and she had to lean against a nearby pillar or else she was going to collapse onto the ground.

  Akira rushed over to Suzume, her face alight with excitement. "What else did Kazue say? Where do we go from here?"

  Suzume looked at Akira's hopeful face to Noaki's cautious stance who stood not far away with his arms folded over his chest. Rin remained on the veranda, her expression unreadable, though her ears were titled in Suzume's direction waiting on her answer. She had not thought much beyond this. What would Kazue do in this situation? Grasping for answers, Suzume said the first thing that came to mind.

  "We need to go south, to the palace."

  Rin frowned, the Kitsune had seen through Suzume's lies, she just knew it. The kitsune knew how much Suzume had wanted to return to her home at the White Palace. It was a stupid answer and if she had more time to craft a better lie she never would have said that. The problem was she woefully ignorant of the kingdom of Akatsuki, and her entire life had only ever been within the walls of the palace until recently. There was nowhere else she could think of.

  "The White Palace?" Akira's dark brows knit together in confusion.

  "Why would we go to the white palace?" Tsuki asked, using his sister's face to speak.

  Suzume shook her head to deflect their questions and pressed her fingers to her temples. "I'm not sure, I think it has something to do with..." Suzume scrunched her face as if trying to thin
k very hard or listen to a very faint voice. She knew hardly anything about Kazue. But remembering Kaito and Rin's conversation from the night before, she said the only thing she could think of. "It's her son..." she trailed off, not certain any of them would believe it.

  "Takashi is at the white palace?" Rin asked, taking a step towards Suzume with an eager look upon her face. Suzume's suspicion was correct: Rin knew Kaito's son.

  Hearing the name of Kazue and Kaito's son struck her with a weird feeling of melancholy. Suzume had no real desire to see the physical embodiment of Kazue and Kaito's relationship. Besides it was not like Kaito would ever agree to a search for his long lost son. She did not see the prospect of a warm family reunion any time in their future. This lie was getting more and more unruly but she didn't know how to reign it in other than admitting she had lied - and that was something she wasn't prepared to do.

  She screwed up her face as if she was concentrating on the imaginary words Kazue was trying to relay. Then after a few moments she shook her head.

  "It's gone. But I heard her voice. She wants Kaito to find his son. But how can we convince him?" She shrugged her shoulders in a helpless gesture, perhaps her lie would die here without any pursuit because of Kaito's stubbornness. Everyone knew how adamant he was about never seeing his son.

  Akira searched her face as if she was looking for a hint of Kazue there and a snake of guilt slithered around inside her gut. "That's all? Do you have any of her memories, perhaps something that might help separate us?"

  Suzume shook her head again. "No, I'm sorry. But maybe she will come back again?" She needed to get away before they started asking more questions and she made this an even bigger mess than it already was. Suzume side stepped away from Akira, but Noaki's unflinching stare held her in place. The swordsman made her nervous in normal circumstances. Right now he was looking at her as if he could see straight into her soul. Or was that just a guilty conscious talking?

  Akira covered her mouth with her hand as she looked at nothing in particular, perhaps lost in thought. Meanwhile Noaki had continued to stare at Suzume keeping her from slithering out of the conversation as she wanted to.

  "I'll talk to Kaito. I think I can convince him," Rin said.

  Suzume's stomach sank, the last thing they needed was to go on a hapless quest in search of Kaito's son - that could only end badly. Either Kaito found out she lied: the worst possible scenario, or they did find his son. And she couldn't even imagine what that would look like. Would he be like Kaito: all arrogance and temper? Or more like Kazue, thoughtful and wise? The thought led to a vision of Kaito as a scholar, which was much too ludicrous to consider. She shook her head to dispel the thoughts.

  "Are you sure it's a good idea?" Suzume said, waving her hands in front of her. "You know how he gets when we bring up his son."

  Rin nodded. "We thought Kazue was gone, and clearly telling Kaito about his son is important to her. I think it warrants investigating. Maybe he knows where the artifacts are."

  "You seem to know a lot about Kaito's son," Suzume countered, trying to distract from her terrible plan.

  Rin looked away. "We met once, many years ago."

  She's lying.

  Before Suzume could expose her and draw attention away from the subject, Akira interrupted. "I think Rin is right. We should convince Kaito, even if we have to leave out some of the details."

  "I'll go talk to him. If I can convince him right now, he won't have time to second guess himself"

  "I don't think that's--" but the kitsune had already scurried away, leaving Suzume with Akira and Noaki, and the pair of them were watching her with a strange expression.

  "We need to stop her. She's clearly hiding something about Kaito's son." Suzume gestured after the retreating kitsune. Having seen the full extent of Kaito's anger, she was not eager to get in the middle of that conversation. What have I done? He's going to kill me for sure this time.

  "She's not the only one," Akira said, arms crossed over her chest.

  The swordsman continued to stare at her without speaking, further unsettling her. Rather than own up to the lie, Suzume built upon it instead. "When I found Kazue's heart she told me all kinds of things. I didn't think they were all important. Honestly, I think she just wants Kaito acknowledge her son. I mean, wouldn't you? What is a woman's worth other than bearing sons?"

  Akira narrowed her eyes as she looked at Suzume. "You did make it up."

  This was her chance, admit she had lied and everything would go back to normal. But a lump formed in her throat, as if her confession had gotten lodged there.

  "It's sad that he won't acknowledge his son. If we find him, it might create even more problems than what it would solve. I mean, really, what could he know? He was a baby when Kazue broke her soul apart." The excuses kept pouring out of her.

  Akira just stared at Suzume, her expression unreadable.

  When Akira didn't respond Suzume burst out, "Would someone say something?"

  "I was with Kazue when she gave birth to her son," Noaki spoke up. Suzume turned in his direction there was a rock in the pit of her stomach. Why hadn't she thought this through better? She thought for certain she was going to vomit.

  "Then you know he's at the White Palace? Did Kazue really give birth to the first emperor like they say?" Suzume laughed, but the others stared back at her with blank expressions.

  Noaki ignored her question. "Kazue begged the priest who she entrusted him to never tell him who his father was."

  Suzume deflated a little. "Well maybe she can see he's changed and--" She gave up, she couldn't cover up the lies anymore. "I made it up, alright? Are you happy?" The shame of it left a bitter after taste in her mouth.

  "I'm impressed to be honest," Tsuki interjected once again, using his sister's face.

  Suzume glared at him in response. Is this a joke?

  "This is to our advantage, actually." Akira tapped her chin in thought.

  "To what advantage? When Rin gets there and tells him we need to look for his son, he's probably going to go on a murderous rampage."Do they really not see how serious this is?

  "If the dragon thinks you can communicate with Kazue..."

  Suzume stomach did a little flip. She knew that look all to well. It was the face of someone plotting, and she thought Suzume was going to be her pawn. Well she had another thing coming.

  "You want me to pretend to be Kazue to get Kaito to do my bidding. I may be desperate but I'm not stupid. You saw what he almost did to Noaki." She threw her arm towards the swordsman.

  "And you stopped him."

  Perhaps she had brought this upon herself, but her only intention had been to show Kaito he wasn't the only one who could play with other people's emotions. Now she had dug herself a hole too deep to get out of.

  "I refuse to pretend to be Kazue," Suzume said, crossing her arms over her chest. It was bad enough that everyone kept mixing them up, she wasn't going to perpetuate the problem.

  "You don't have to give up your identity, just make him think that you can speak with Kazue."

  She hesitated to agree. She was slow to trust most people. What was their motivation? But On the other hand, Kaito had been throwing his weight around a lot lately. Maybe it was time to turn the tables on him, and let her take control for once.

  "And what do you want, to stay here? Because as much as I don't want to be out there, I don't want to grow old trying to master powers here. This mountain palace was worse than an exile."

  "Staying here is out of the question at this point. If we want to appease the dragon," Akira said. " But you can influence Kaito as to where we go."

  "And where is that?"

  "When we were at the monk's shrine we heard rumors of an island north of here, an island guarded by an enormous monster who sank any ship that tried to approach."

  Suzume felt a cold shiver up her spine at Akira's words. Shortly after she'd found Kazue's heart, she had dreamed of an island surrounded by ocean. Though she had nev
er seen the ocean before, the place felt familiar to her. It had made reoccurring appearances in her dreams ever since. Perhaps this place Akira had heard about was the same. Considering Kazue had set Noaki to guard her heart, and Akira and Tsuki to protect the staff, maybe she had put some monster to guard the artifacts.

  "I get what you're after, but what's in it for him?" She nodded towards Noaki who remained typically stoic in the corner.

  "My freedom," he said without inflection.

  "No one is keeping you here," Suzume countered, feeling defensive for reasons she could not explain.

  "When I left it was with the intention of never returning, but my attempts to escape were unsuccessful."

  "Why couldn't you leave?"

  "Because I am bound to you."

  "I thought you were bound to Kazue's heart?"

  "I am."

  Suzume looked down at the fragments of Kazue's heart. Strangely enough she had gotten attached to the damn things. She'd been carrying them around as if Kazue's really would come back and guide her. But of course that was nonsense.

  "Then why don't you just take it from me?" She held out the stone to him.

  Noaki shook his head. "That is nothing but a piece of rock. Her power is no longer inside it."

  "Then you should be free to go."

  "But I am not, because her heart is in you now."

  6

  Going down the mountain was much worse than going up. The sheer drops and dizzying heights she'd been able to ignore going up were unavoidable on the way down. Each step she took had to be carefully navigated. At the onset of the journey Kaito had attempted to assign Rin to watch over her on the climb down, but she had loudly protested against it, even threatening to not leave the mountain. As a result she was left to cling to the smooth rock face and scoot along arm's-width ledges on her own. Cursing herself for her pride, Suzume's gaze slid more than once to the clouds that were beneath her. That had to be against some law of nature. Looking down only made her head spin and she decided she was better off just ignoring it.