The Dragon Saga Box Set

by Nicolette Andrews

  "Suzume?" Makato asked. His face was covered in bruises.

  "Shh, I'm here to rescue you." She hurried around behind him and fumbled with the ropes that bound his hands to a post. Where are the others?" she asked.

  "I don't know he took Rin and the others," he said as Suzume teased the knot loose. Noaki stood just inside the door, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his head titled towards the outside, listening for the soldiers.

  "Noaki can find them." She pulled the last knot free and Makato's hands came loose.

  He shrugged off his bindings and then turned to embrace Suzume. "I thought you were dead," he said, his voice thick with emotion.

  She pushed him away, unaccustomed to such intimacy and also fearing that being too close to him would awaken Kazue within her and hurt Kaito.

  "Now's not the time to be sentimental. We need to get you and the others out of here."

  He nodded in agreement.

  Noaki led the way out of the tent down a series of twisted pathways. All the tents started to blur together and Suzume lost track of which was was which until they reached a tent that looked no different than any of the others. Noaki looked around the corners, but it appeared unguarded.

  "Why aren't there guards?" Suzume asked.

  "There's a barrier," Noaki replied.

  "How do we get past it?" She wondered aloud.

  "It won't allow any yokai inside," Makato said with a frown. "It was made to keep yokai in."

  Suzume looked to Noaki, his gaze was focused on the barrier. She couldn't use her spiritual power, and leaving Noaki here was an unexpected complication to her plan. If Hisato wasn't guarding Makato, he had to be in there.

  "Is it safe?" She asked Noaki.

  He nodded. "I can sense their presence within." He turned to look at her. "Keep your guard up."

  Suzume took a deep breath and then to Makato said, "Let's go."

  Makato led the way. As she approached the barrier she could feel the tingle of energy. Makato held out his hand, testing the interference, but his hand passed through it with only a slight shimmer in the light to indicate there was anything there at all. He went through, and pulled back the tent flap for Suzume to enter.

  She hesitated. With her luck she'd react to the barrier and hurt Kaito in the process. Makato held his hand out for her.

  "Come on, it won't hurt you."

  Suzume closed her eyes. You can do this. She held her breath as she walked through. Apart from an odd tingle up her spine she didn't feel anything at all. She ducked beneath the propped up tent door. Inside was dark, no light permeated except what came through the open door. When Makato dropped it, they were both plunged into total darkness. She had to fumble around with her hands outstretched in front of her to find her way around.

  "Rin? Tsuki? Akira?" Suzume whispered. Her grasping hands found nothing at first then her hands bumped into something soft and fleshy.

  "I think I found somethin,." Suzume said into the dark. Outside the tent Suzume heard a roar. "What was that?" She swiveled in the direction it had come from. There was a loud crashing sound just outside, followed by grunts and running feet.

  But Makato did not reply. Then a light flickered as a match was struck and a brazier was lit. Golden light filled the room revealing not a prison tent, but the general's tent. What Suzume had taken for a body was a plush cushion. She dropped it to the ground and turned to see Makato blocking the entrance.

  "I knew it was a trap. Come on, we have to help Noaki," Suzume said, motioning to move past Makato but before she could he held his arm out to stop her. His eyes werw not looking at her, but looking past her.

  "What are you doing?" She scowled at him.

  "I'm sorry Suzume, I didn't want to do this. But I had to protect her."

  "Protect who?"

  The animalistic roar thundered outside once more, and Suzume scowled toward it before realization dawned on her.

  "I'm sorry." Makato shook his head once more.

  Behind her Hisato laughed, and she spun around to face him.

  "How did you find me?" she asked.

  "What a silly question for a smart woman such as yourself, Suzume," Hisato said, strolling closer to her. She grabbed onto her staff, holding it out in front of her. "The emperor has ears everywhere." He placed his hand on Makato's shoulder and smiled at him. Makato looked like he was going to be sick and all the color had drained from his face.

  "You used the emperor's army to find me?" Suzume snarled.

  Hisato tutted. "Not his army. Though they do have their benefits." He laughed at his own joke. "No, I only needed one man to report your whereabouts to me." He grabbed Makato's chin and shook his head from side to side.

  Suzume stared at Makato, eyes wide. "You were spying on me?"

  Hisato clapped his hands together. "Oh, how delightful. You really didn't know? Why else would the emperor's right hand join you?"

  She ripped her gaze away from Makato to instead stare at Hisato. "Do you think I am going to fall for that? Makato is hardly older than me. Why would the emperor rely on him?"

  "Makato is much older than he looks." He paced around the pair of them.

  "What is he talking about?" Suzume asked Makato.

  But Makato would not meet her gaze. "He is not human, but a half yokai. And he's been helping the emperor rid the world of yokai for the past twenty years."

  Suzume turned to look at Makato, her eyes darting over her face. "So what?" She jutted her chin at Hisato. She knew the only reason Makato had led her here was because Hisato had manipulated him into it. He'd done the same to her before. It didn't matter what he'd done in the past.

  "That's not all he's done. Most recently he's been looking for something very precious to the emperor."

  "And what's that?" Suzume spat.

  "You."

  44

  "The emperor exiled me and all of my siblings." Suzume scoffed. Hisato was trying to distract her, get inside her head.

  Hisato's smile got wider as he strolled over to the desk and plucked a piece of paper off of it. "It was my error to send her away. Had I realized how vital her return was to you..." Hisato lowered the paper. "If he sent you away, why is the emperor so desperate to find you now?"

  "He's not." But her confidence wavered. The evidence was staring her in the face. She remembered reading the letter Daiki was writing to the emperor. She'd seen it on his desk and remembered Daiki's taunts about her being valuable to the emperor. What if everything she believed was a lie?

  "Why don't you ask Makato." Hisato motioned towards the priest.

  Makato stared at the ground as he replied, "He's telling the truth. The emperor ordered me to spy on you."

  "Then why was I sent away?" Suzume threw her arms out.

  "To hide you from him," Makato replied, looking up to meet her gaze. It looked like he was trying to tell her something but she couldn't be sure what.

  She shook her head. "Even if I was to believe you, what would the emperor want me for?"

  "For his war," Hisato purred, as if the very idea delighted him.

  "What war? The empire is at peace."

  "The war against yokai," Makato said softly. "He is determined to destroy them all, just as Kazue was."

  Suzume felt as if someone had picked her up and had shaken her around and then set her back down on her feet again. She was left reeling. The emperor fighting against yokai? Never in her life had she even had the slightest inkling any of this existed. And the emperor not only knew but was planning a war against yokai?

  "How long has this been going on?"

  "The war has been raging for five hundred years," Hisato said, taking a few steps closer to Suzume. "I told you I needed you to return balance. The humans have grown too powerful, it is up to us to return it to the way it was." He was standing in front of her to obscure her vision so all she could look at was him.

  "And how do you plan to do that exactly?"

  Hisato leaned in close so he could whisper in he
r ear, "We destroy the humans."

  Suzume had to swallow down on the protest that rose up in her throat. She looked into Hisato's eyes; his dark bottomless gaze would swallow her whole if she let it. "Have you forgotten I am human too?"

  Hisato laughed as he cupped her face, rubbing his thumb along her cheek. "You have never been human, Suzume. From the moment you were born you were something so much more."

  Suzume leaned into his touch. "What am I?" she asked.

  "Does this mean you've decided to join me?"

  "Suzume, you cannot be considering this?" Makato shouted in protest.

  "You know what I can give you. Limitless power, everything you've ever dreamed of. Just take my hand, Suzume."

  She looked down at the hand Hisato offered. Makato ran towards her, grabbing her around the middle, trying to force her away from him.

  "Don't do this. You don't have to give in to him."

  She wrestled against Makato for a moment before knocking him backwards with one quick blow to the solar plexus. Air escaped him in a whoosh as he was left doubled over behind her.

  "Don't try to stop me," she said and turned back towards Hisato. She grabbed a hold of his hand.

  "You've made the right choice." Hisato wrapped his hand around the small of her back, pulling her close to him.

  Their bodies flushed against one another. Suzume's heart was hammering in her chest as Hisato dipped his head down to press his lips against hers. As soon as they did, lightning shot through her body. It ignited every fiber of her being. His arms clung to her, holding her in place, preventing any escape. Then his power poured into her, and like water from a jar it filled every inch of her. And it burned. It scorched her down to her very core, to the point she thought she would rather die then feel this pain. Suzume cried out in agony. Her eyes felt as if they would burst from her skull.

  And then the memories flooded through her: flashes of images running all together, blurring into one unrecognizable stream. All that remained were the spells, songs of power, of binding and unbinding. But just as his thoughts and memories had flowed into her, so had her own thoughts flowed the other way. They were united, without any way to say where one of them started and the other ended.

  Hisato pushed her away, breaking their connection. He was panting for breath and his hair was a tousled mess. Even with the connection broken his dark energy continued to course through her like thousands of needles scraping on the inside of her veins.

  "I should have expected such a clever trick from you, Suzume." He pushed his hair back on his head. Once more that evil smirk slipped onto his face. "But you will not be able to save him, even with my power."

  "Watch me," she said equally gasping for breath. When she had gone over her plan in her head she had not thought it would hurt quite this much.

  "Perhaps I should give you a taste of real power."

  A dark mass uncoiled from him, blacker than night, it shot into her stomach. The pressure of it squeezed at her heart and every breath was a struggle. When the pain became too great she could not keep it inside her. Her body rejected it as it was destroying her from the inside like a canker in her gut, gnawing away at her insides. It brought her to her knees and she doubled over, preparing to retch.

  Hisato stood over her. "Have you had enough? Perhaps you'd like some more?" He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to face him as he filled her with even more of his dark energy. Suzume threw her head back and screamed. Her entire body felt as it was being undone, ripped down to her seams and ground to dust. "You wanted power, well I can give you power, Suzume. More than you could ever have dreamed."

  She had to fight it if she could bend it to her will the way she had used Ai's power. She could stop him. Fire purifies. That was what Makato had said. With sheer force of will, Suzume grabbed onto Hisato's wrist, wrapping her hand around it.

  Fire sparked along her fingertips.

  "If you use your power, it will kill Kaito."

  Suzume hesitated, afraid of the power inside her, afraid of what it could do to Kaito, but also fearing for her own life. He would destroy her, she could see it in Hisato's eyes.

  Just then vines burst out of the ground, wrapping their way around Hisato. Suzume looked up as Makato ran over to her.

  He held out his hand to her help her to her feet. "Come on." He dragged her towards the door.

  Outside Rin, Tsuki, and Noaki were finishing off the general's army, leaving a route for their escape.

  "I thought you were working with Hisato."

  "That's what we wanted him to think," Rin rumbled. She loomed well above Suzume's head in her kitsune form. Suzume was glad she was still on her side.

  "It was Rin's idea. She knew he'd try and lure you here," Makato panted as they ran down the rows of tents.

  Rin shot a blast of flames in front of her, clearing their way of tents and soldiers. Just when they thought they were home free, Rin and Makato both stopped. Makato doubled over while Rin was brought to her knees.

  "What's wrong? We have to go."

  Rin lifted her head and growled. "Run."

  Before she could follow through with the command, she was surrounded by a half of a dozen copies of Makato. The clones surrounded them all: Suzume, Tsuki, and Noaki as well.

  "What's going on here?" Tsuki asked, raising his sword up and his eyes scanning the copies. Rin had gotten back to her feet and was stalking closer to them, closing in.

  Rin unleashed her flames upon them, showering them in fire. Noaki and Tsuki fought the copies while Suzume hid beneath a barrier that burst around her without her meaning to. She tried to destroy the barrier to avoid doing any more harm to Kaito but it remained stubbornly in place.

  From behind the fighting crowd, Hisato approached. The group of copies moved out of his way so he could reach Suzume.

  "Did you think I did not anticipate your betrayal?" he said, looking to Rin and Makato. "You belong to me now."

  With a flick of his wrist, Rin lunged forward to attack Noaki. The swordsman held up his blade only to have Rin bite down on it, blood dripping down the sides of her mouth. The other copies of Makato surrounded Tsuki. All that was left were Suzume and Hisato.

  "I can see now you will never listen to reason. You leave me no choice."

  Hisato stalked closer to her and she swung her staff to defend herself but he knocked it out of her hand. She backed up to get away from him. Each step he took towards her sent pain rippling through her body, and it only grew stronger the closer he got.

  Out of sheer desperation, she grabbed onto his shoulder. Fire sprung from her hands and made its way up Hisato's arm, sinking into his flesh. He pulled his arm back and snarled at her. She felt the pain echoed in her own body and she clutched her arm that felt as if it was on fire.

  Whatever spell Hisato had on Makato was broken and he managed to shout, "You have to get rid of his energy before it kills you."

  Hisato's breathing was heavy, and the sleeve of his haori had been burned off as he stood up to face them.

  "I have been patient with you, Suzume. But now it is time I take your power for my own."

  The song Hisato sang had no real notes, it was nothing but agony. She thought it hurt to have his dark energy forced into her. Having it and all of her own spiritual energy ripped from her body had to be a hundred times worse. It felt as if someone had the end of a thread and was pulling it, unraveling it, and with each pull she lost more and more of herself. It started with old memories, things she would not even miss, then more recent, the face of her mother and siblings, then her friends. Until nothing remained but her name, and even that he tried to take from her. She clung to it, desperate to mantain herself if nothing else.

  Before Hisato could complete his task, everything stopped. Suzume was lying on the ground, a shimmering red barrier surrounding her. Everything came back in a tangled rush, for a moment all she could remember was the intense pain, but then time and memories trickled back in.

  "You think you can stop me
, Kazue? It is too late for that." Hisato stalked around the outside of the barrier.

  Suzume looked at her hands. They were calloused, dirty, and scarred, they were not the hands of a princess. She massaged her temples. I am not a princess anymore. I am a priestess. Suzume stood up inside the barrier. She knew what she had to do. Outside the barrier Makato's copies were keeping Tsuki and Noaki from reaching her.

  The copies might all be identical but Makato shown brightly in front of her, a beacon in the dark. She lunged for him, just as the barrier collapsed. She grabbed onto his hand and as soon as they touched she felt the power spark within her. It shattered Hisato's spell and Makato's copies dissapeared one by one. He turned to Suzume, understanding in his eyes. The power was flowing through both of them now, building upon one another. They were growing stronger together.

  A song was ripped from her throat, as if it had been burning inside her desperate to get out all this time. It vibrated through the air, echoing around her and Hisato who turned to face her.

  In his hand Hisato had a black sword dark as midnight, ready to rend her in two. Suzume continued to sing, letting the notes give her strength. Her voice melded together with Makato's. The song took its shape, using Hisato's very energy against him. He froze in place, doubled over in pain as the song's effect took hold.

  He looked up at Suzume through the curtain of his dark hair and smiled.

  "You are not strong enough to stop me."

  The song was already starting to lose power. Suzume felt the fatigue overwhelm her as all of Hisato's and Makato's energy faded out of her. He stalked closer to her with his hands out, as if he would take her into his arms. But already he was reaching for them both, preparing to take their spiritual energy as his own.

  Just as she felt the first pull of his power, however, a blade was pierced through Hisato's chest from the back. Hisato looked down at the bloody point which dripped onto his hoari. He turned to look at Noaki and then at Suzume surprising her with a smile.

  They had so little energy left, but she could not going to let this chance pass her by. And without needing to tell Makato, they switched the song to one of binding. If she could not destroy him, she would seal him away. Not even two notes had left her lips before Hisato opened a portal behind him.