The Dragon Saga Box Set

by Nicolette Andrews

  Kaito clutched his wounded side for only a moment before the real anger started to pulse through him. This was his chance for real vengeance against all the yokai who'd been destroyed by his mistake. Kaito pushed forward but his anger only made him stupid, and it left him open to an attack from his opponent. The second strike hit across his chest, pulsed through him, and sent him staggering backward. The man turned from Kaito, perhaps thinking he'd done all he could, when Kaito threw himself around the man's middle and they end up on the ground, wrestling. The man rained punches down upon Kaito, his anger fueling his fists and Kaito, equally enraged, returned each one.

  The air crackled with the clash of their spiritual energy. Each time they collided it created sparks in the air.

  Kaito spun and got the upper hand in their fight. Rain pelted against his back. When he looked into his eyes, it felt like he was staring into a distorted mirror.

  "Who are you?" Kaito asked. He needed a confirmation, because he couldn't bring himself to ask the real question.

  The man answered by butting him in the head and sending Kaito careening backward. Before he could recover from the blow, the man had his weapon in his hand again and had it pressed against Kaito's throat. There was no escaping it, by now Suzume would have lost too much blood. She was surely dead. And he realized he too longed for the release of death.

  "Do it!" Kaito roared.

  But before the man could land the final blow, Kaito heard a roar from his side. Hot flames licked past them and for a fantastic moment, he thought Suzume had lived.

  But when he turned it was not Suzume but Rin in kitsune form. She was growling, not at Kaito who had banished her, but at the man with the blade who was staring at her with a pained expression.

  "I thought you were better than this, Takashi," Rin said.

  The priest, Hikaru, was standing beside Rin, pointing his holy arrows at the man.

  The man bowed his head, as if chastised. Then it was true—this was his and Kazue's son. But furthermore, Rin knew him. And judging from the way she spoke to him, they'd been close.

  Kaito turned toward her. "You hid this from me?" he said.

  Rin's golden eyes flickered in his direction. "I wanted to tell you. So many times, but-"

  "You knew he was out there killing our kind, and you didn't tell me?" Kaito roared. The ground shook beneath his feet. He rushed toward Rin, but before he could attack her for her betrayal both his bastard and Hikaru stood in his way.

  "Leave now," Hikaru said.

  It should come as no surprise that Kazue would be protecting this abomination even beyond the grave. Perhaps that's why Suzume had left him too. In the end, it was this thing that stole all his joy.

  "This isn't over," Kaito said before transforming and taking to the air.

  Kaito returned to his palace and for three days he remained in the same spot, staring out at the crashing of waves in the crumbling portion of his palace. No one dared disturb him. It seemed everything ran perfectly without him. He did not matter. It wasn't until the sun set on the third day that anyone came for him. Ai approached from behind, her footsteps nearly silent.

  "This is enough," she said.

  Rage that had hardly been banked inside him over the past few days burst out of him, and he grabbed the nearest object, some stone debris, and smashed it on the ground. But it wasn't enough and Kaito picked up several more items which all ended up in fragments on the floor. He found himself standing in the center of the chaos, eyes glowing blue and a storm raging in the sky overhead.

  "Will you be satisfied once you've smashed the entire palace to bits?" Ai asked.

  Kaito swung a punch at her that stopped just inches from landing. Ai did not even flinch. And before he could land the blow he turned his back to her instead.

  "Leave me."

  "Your people need you," she said.

  "Go!" he roared without turning to face her.

  "You mourn for a woman who betrayed you? Who is working with the same monster who has been hunting us for centuries? Who within her holds the soul of the woman who sealed you?"

  "Shut your damn mouth." Kaito turned to stalk toward her. This time he wasn't going to hold back. He would knock her through the wall.

  "I have not been idle while you sulked. I have eyes everywhere and they have told me the truth. She belongs to the emperor and they are planning on destroying us."

  "She's dead now, so what does it matter?"

  She could not understand the pain inside him that threatened to shatter him into pieces. His brother was right, he was too soft on humans. He let his affection for them blind him time and time again. Perhaps even their meeting had been his son's way of getting revenge. In the same way he had plotted to use her, he had been used. What a cruel irony.

  "Ai does not like to see you this way," Ai said, quietly, reverting to her more childish tone. She never could hold onto her former self for long. The tenderness of her words almost reached him, but not quite.

  "Then get out," Kaito said, but with less venom than before. He was so very tired.

  But Ai crept closer to him, kneeling down beside him and took his hand in hers. He wanted to shake her away, to growl, to bring ice down from the sky and flatten the entire island under his grief. Suzume was dead. Gone, killed by his own anger and fear. She was going to seal you. You had no other choice.

  "It is better this way," Ai said, stroking his hand.

  Kaito knocked her away. "Yes, it is better that I saw the truth before it was too late." Just thinking about the time he spent sealed in stone awakened his anger all over again. He should never have trusted Suzume. She had made threats since the beginning but he had thought them only that. Idle threats. How could he have been such a fool to not see it from the start? And Kazue's son, right there under his nose the entire time. Suzume's father.

  He curled his hand into a fist. But Suzume was gone now. Dead. Just like Kazue. And with the both of them gone so was the piece of his heart that held onto the hope that humans might be of value, that they might bring him happiness and peace.

  "I want to be alone," Kaito said.

  This time Ai didn't argue and she slipped out of his chamber, leaving him in silence. Kaito stood by the window for a while longer, he wasn't sure how long. Time ceased to have meaning. When he finally turned away from the window, he went straight to the audience hall. He knew what must be done.

  The dragons and the yokai who had gathered in the hall were more hushed than usual. There wasn't any of their usual revelry. Perhaps they all sensed the mood he was feeling and feared him. Well, good. There was no more doubt left in him now. There was only one way to return his kingdom to the way it had been.

  When Kaito entered the audience chamber, they all turned toward him. He took his place at the front of the room, standing on the dais and gazing out across at the crowd.

  "For too long the power of the yokai has been in the shadow of humans." His words rang out around him. All eyes were glued to him. "They have bred like vermin and slaughter our friends and loved ones. But that ends now."

  There was a sudden hush, as if everyone was holding their collective breaths.

  "I am going to kill the human emperor and extinguish all human life."

  42

  The first thing she felt was pain—an intense, throbbing pain in her left shoulder. It pulsed down her entire arm and rippled through her upper body. It felt as if someone had torn open her chest cavity and scooped out what was inside. If I could stop waking up battered that would be great. Suzume groaned as she tried to sit up. What strange place would she wake up this time?

  "Don't sit up, you'll reopen the wound." Suzume blinked and tilted her head toward the person sitting beside her bed.

  The room's only light was a brazier burning in the corner. The person sitting by her bed was backlit and their face was hidden in shadows. Through the fog of waking and the lingering pain, she thought it might be Kaito. And that maybe the last thing she'd remembered was all a bad dr
eam. For a brief second, she let herself indulge in a fantasy where she never left him behind, and she never went to the White Palace. None of it was real.

  A gentle hand pushed her to lay back down, and as his face got closer, Suzume saw it was the emperor staring down at her with a concerned expression.

  "The healer said you should not sit up yet."

  Suzume stared wide-eyed up at the emperor, the ruler of Akatsuki, sitting at her bedside like a nursemaid. Suzume frowned as his words filtered through her mind in a hazy fog. If the pain in her shoulder was any indication, Kaito trying to kill her hadn't been a nightmare, but her reality.

  "How did I get here?" she asked with a dry, cracked throat.

  "Drink first." The emperor gave her a cup to drink from and Suzume gulped it down as if she had never drunk anything so delicious in her entire life. The emperor watched her drink from her cup for a few minutes. When she had drained the glass, he took it from her and set it to one side.

  It was strange to see him perform actions that were more suited for a servant than the ruler of an entire country.

  "There was a yokai attack and you were nearly killed," the emperor said. She didn't need that part recounted. The battle played out in her mind—vivid images of Kaito's eyes, the betrayal she saw in them when he pierced her chest with a shard of ice. Suzume pressed her hand to a hard lump on her chest. The wound was bandaged, a hole just above her heart. He'd almost killed her—he had intended to kill her. But by dumb luck she had survived. By all rights she should have been angry. The only emotion that was left within her, however, was an aching sense of helplessness. This wasn't over. Hisato wasn't done with her yet.

  "We're lucky Ryuu got to you in time, otherwise you would not be with us now," the emperor continued.

  "Ryuu saved me?" She wasn't sure why that surprised her so much.

  The emperor nodded. "He would not want me to tell you, but he fought very hard to get you away from that beast." The emperor reached out to push a lock of hair behind Suzume's ear. "I thought I had lost you when you wouldn't wake. But Ryuu assured me that it would take time but you would come back to us."

  The emperor looked at her with the concerned eyes of a father. It was strange to see him that way. Since she'd arrived at the palace she'd convinced herself that he wanted nothing but to use her and her power. But if that's all she meant to him, why would he be sitting by her bedside tending to her?

  He grabbed Suzume's hand and squeezed. "You should rest."

  He stood up as if he was about to walk away. Before he could, Suzume grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Thank you."

  "Why are you thanking me?"

  She wasn't sure how to express her feelings. At her darkest moment, when she'd been betrayed by someone she thought she trusted, it warmed her to know that her father cared. Suzume hesitated to put her thoughts into words. She'd never been good at expressing these sorts of sentimental feelings. "Just because."

  The emperor leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Rest and get better soon."

  The following days proceeded much the same. A fussy healer with a long gray beard came to check on the progress of her healing. He smelled of incense and medicinal herbs. He snapped at the maid, ordering more blankets and to keep the room as warm as possible. He poked and prodded at Suzume, checking her pulse and feeling her forehead.

  It had been several days since she had awoken and was bored to tears with bed rest. She'd started to look forward to the healer's visits. At least it interrupted the tedium of bed rest. Tsuki and Akira had done their best to keep her entertained but there was only so much she could do lying in bed other than sleep and read.

  The healer came in blustering about this and that, but she'd learned to mostly ignore his diatribes.

  "Well, sit up then. Let's change those bandages."

  Moving in bed was getting easier with each passing day and Suzume scooted into a seated position. The room was toasty warm even without the layers of blankets. The healer had already chased out the others, demanding privacy for his patient. Suzume stripped down to almost nothing, leaving her bare shoulders exposed. The healer unwound the bandages around her chest. As he drew back the bandages, he paused and stared at her shoulder.

  "What is it?" Suzume asked. That couldn't be a good sign.

  The old man leaned in closer, his nose almost pressing against her skin. "I've never seen anything like it," he muttered to himself.

  "What?" Suzume demanded, sudden fear gripping her. She couldn't see past the top of his head.

  The old man pulled back, shaking his head and Suzume got her first glimpse of her wound. If it could be called that at all. The hole, which had pierced her through to her shoulder blade, was gone. All that remained was a faint scrape, as if she'd gotten a small scratch.

  "The skin is healing well, but the insides will take longer," the old man said. He was still staring at her scabbed chest.

  "Is this normal?"

  The old man's dark eyes flickered up to her and then he turned away to fiddle with his bandages and poultices. "Perfectly normal." But she couldn't believe him. She wasn't an expert on serious battle wounds, but she thought something that had almost killed her would look a bit more gruesome. How could I be healing this quickly? It was just like her broken arm.

  "You can sit up, but no leaving your bed."

  "But I feel fine." Suzume lifted her arm to show her full range of motion had returned.

  The old man looked away again. "Do not lift your arms above your head. You could do further damage."

  Suzume lowered her arm to the bed once more. So this wasn't normal, but the healer wouldn't admit it. He gathered up his things in a hurry after that and scurried out of her room.

  After the healer left, Akira came and sat down on the bed beside Suzume while she inspected her fingers which flexed with ease. In just a couple days she'd gone from the worst pain imaginable to the faintest twinge when she flexed.

  "You're healing has been quick," Akira commented.

  "I guess so." She kept her tone light and indifferent while on the inside panic had started to grip her.

  Akira shook her head. "It isn't normal for a human to heal this quickly."

  When Suzume didn't respond, Akira said, "You never healed this fast before. Has something changed?"

  Suzume swallowed past a lump in her throat. She knew what had changed. Her body wasn't her own. Hisato needed her whole to kill Kaito. And perhaps she was slowly turning into that monster she had seen in the guardian's palace. Suzume shook her head. She wanted desperately to tell her the truth, but Hisato's spell was too strong. Instead lies poured out of her. "Nothing has changed, I've always healed quickly."

  Akira stared at her for a moment, but didn't press her. How many more lies would she have to tell her friends? She had to find a way to escape Hisato's control.

  It took several days of arguing with the healer before he would let her out of bed. By the time he had agreed, there was barely a sign she had been injured at all. Her victory was only half—the healer forbade her from leaving her chamber and she was forced to stalk around her bedroom while she puzzled through how to stop Hisato. It finally came down to asking the old man for help.

  She couldn't ask Souta outright to help her, but she hoped if she wrote it down it might work as a sort of loophole. She requested a brush and parchment from a maid, and set out to write what was happening to her. But try as she might, Suzume couldn't get her arm to cooperate. All that resulted from her work was smeared streaks on parchment. Frustrated at her lack of control, she crumpled up the paper into a ball and flung it at the nearby wall.

  "Did I come at a bad time?" Souta, the old man, asked. She hadn't even heard him enter.

  "It's fine," she said through ground teeth. She was anything but fine. She knew that the time was coming closer. Any moment Hisato could take her body and use her to go and finish what she'd started.

  "I heard you've been recovering well."

  Suzume placed her
hand on the shoulder which she had thrown the paper with. It was the same one she'd been stabbed through. She dropped her hand to her side.

  "I'm making progress," she said with a lift of her chin, to stop any further questions.

  The old man smiled in a conspiratorial way, before making himself comfortable across from her. Did he know why she was healing so fast? He groaned as he got comfortable and then after a few moments, he said, "I know you've completely healed."

  She held his gaze. The truth was right there on the tip of her tongue.

  "It means things are progressing faster than we thought."

  Her stomach dropped. Was he working for Hisato too? Did he know what he'd ordered her to do? Flames erupted along her skin, sparking against her in response to her fear.

  The old man eyed her burning hands and the sparks flying off her hair.

  "What can I do, just kill the dragon?"

  The old man grinned at her.

  "Is this funny? I can't control my own body! He's using me to kill Kaito!"

  "You seem to be in control right now."

  It occurred to her she had fought against Hisato's command. "But how?"

  "Nothing can be the darkness of Kazue's soul but Kazue. Those are the facts. She will not obey his command."

  "How did you know?"

  "Because he's come to me already. He tried drawing me to his side, but I saw him for what he was and I banished him. But he hasn't given up. I know he'll be back." The old man sighed.

  "Tell me how I can stop him." Suzume fell onto her knees, practically begging the old man.

  "There is only one way—you must embrace Kazue's power," the old man said.

  "But that means I could lose myself to her. You're saying I have to die?" Suzume asked, her voice just barely above a whisper. What was worse, giving herself over to Kazue or Hisato?

  "Don't think of it as dying. The person you are now may very well be the same you will be once you come into your power. You were born with the power after all."