Orchestra of Treacheries: A Legends of Tivara Story (The Dragon Songs Saga Book 2)

by JC Kang

Kaiya swept out the long sleeve of her gown, entangling his blade before it finished Chen Xin.

  The attacker twirled the sword, wrapping the priceless fabric around his weapon. He jerked her forward, but she spun her way out of the gown and grasped the other sleeve in her hand.

  As he stood and gawked at her bare shoulders, she coiled the gown around his sword and swept it from his hands and onto the street. His eyes widened further for a split second.

  Moving faster than she could see, he lunged. His fingers clenched around her wrist.

  Years of Praise Moon Fist training allowed her contact reflexes to take over. She turned her wrist out of his grip, and he reached with his other hand toward her neck. Without conscious thought, she covered the opening with her free arm, intercepting his hand and guiding it downward. Still, her tactile responses couldn’t keep up with him.

  Ayana’s voice sang out again, closer now, and the man’s speed slowed to almost normal. With this change, Kaiya gained the advantage. She pinned the man’s hands close to his body while delivering an onslaught of punches, strong enough to send him reeling back. He ducked into a roll back toward his sword, still wrapped up in the remains of her outer gown.

  A warm palm pressed on her shoulder at the same time a single, guttural syllable echoed in her ears. Her head swam with blurring colors before all went black.

  The female Scorpion launched another flurry of attacks at Jie, making her give more ground than she had left. She would be bumping up against the princess soon. She started to reengage.

  Behind her, Ayana uttered a foul-sounding word. The air popped.

  Her opponent lowered her sword, eyes wide in the slits of the cloth. Jie shot a quick glance back.

  Princess Kaiya and Ayana were gone.

  Recovering from her surprise, Jie reached down and claimed Li Wei’s dao, easily hefting its balanced weight in her right hand while brandishing the knife in her left. She grimaced at the pain in her flank—only now did she realize she’d been cut across the ribs. Her legs wobbled and her vision blurred for a second.

  She raked her gaze over the area.

  Besides spectators who kept their distance, only the two Scorpions were left standing. The Hua guards and several other attackers lay on the ground, incapacitated, killed or...sleeping?

  Both Golden Scorpions advanced on her.

  Even the improved reach the dao gave her would do little to help her against one, let alone two, of these astounding warriors. She resigned herself to the inevitable. Regrets threatened to break her already-fading concentration. Never learning who her parents were. Never telling Zheng Tian she loved him...

  “Paladins!” The words passed from mouth to mouth among the distraught crowds. When the Scorpions looked past her, Jie glanced back as well. A dozen men in white kurtas with gold embroidered necks ran at astonishing speeds toward them, their curved naga swords drawn.

  The two villains ran off, leaving Jie to curse herself for thinking such silly thoughts. She bent down to check on the closest imperial guard, Xu Zhan.

  He was alive. Thank the Heavens.

  When she started to stand, everything faded to black.

  CHAPTER 39:

  Interlude

  Kaiya was cold, and her head ached. Her forearms stung and her knuckles burned. The soft surface beneath her was cool and damp. Grass. A sweet and nostalgic smell of evergreens hung in the air. Nearby, water rustled over rocks. Beyond the stream, beautiful voices spoke softly in a wondrous, musical language.

  Her eyes complained as she forced them open. Gradually, the dappled sunlight peeking through the spindly tendrils of pine needles came into focus above her. What had happened? Where was she?

  Her head protested at the effort to ease herself up, but she at last managed to sit upright. She looked toward the voices. A stone’s throw away, a short, lithe silhouette gesticulated. The size, her voice... Ayana.

  The ambush, the fight with the Scorpion. Her guards, fallen. Her priceless outer gown, lost. Maybe that’s why it was so cold. Though it certainly hadn’t been so chilly outside before.

  “Ayana,” she called. “What happened?”

  The shadowed form moved toward her, revealing a second thin figure, who remained behind. Ayana stepped into the sunlight, which cast her face in a pale sheen.

  Her voice sounded weak. “Princess Kaiya, you are finally awake. You fainted and have been unconscious for three hours. It is a typical reaction, the first time you travel through the ethers. I imagine your head must feel as if it were split by a dwarf’s axe.”

  Travelled through the ethers! Like Lord Xu, though she had never expected to ever do it herself. They could be anywhere. “Where are we? Where are my guards?”

  Ayana pursed her lips. “I have sworn not to reveal our location, and in fact I am not entirely sure. I used an emergency spell that transported us to an anchor held by a friend of mine. Suffice to say, we are safe for now.”

  Safe! But what about... “The guards, Jie...we need to get back to them.”

  “I don’t have the energy.” Ayana sighed. “The Shallow Magic incantation is very taxing, especially when I transport someone else. Not to mention all the energy I used to protect you in your ill-advised escapade.”

  “We need to get back.” Kaiya’s voice sounded like a petulant child’s to her own ears, but her retinue was her responsibility. Her fault.

  “I am sorry, Princess Kaiya, but it is just not possible. We will have to wait until this evening, after I have rested.”

  The second shadow spoke in a mellifluous male voice. The words sang like a chorus of nightingales, reminiscent of Lord Xu.

  Ayana shook her head adamantly, but he protested. She harrumphed. “My friend has agreed to send us back to Vyara City, although not to the same spot. He can only transport us somewhere he has been before. I would advise against it, since I am too weak to protect you now.”

  “I cannot just wait here and do nothing.”

  Ayana’s brows furrowed. Despite the angry expression, her tone remained calm. “It is that self-assured attitude, that foolhardiness, which got you into that ambush in the first place. How many people have died because of your vanity?”

  Kaiya’s face flushed hot, partially from anger at the audacity of the rebuke, but mostly from shame. The elf was right. Kaiya placed too much faith in her own abilities of persuasion, never considering that that alone might be insufficient.

  Ayana continued, merciless. “Do you realize what could have happened? Had I not been able to get back to you in time, the Golden Scorpions would have captured you. Prince Dhananad would be deflowering you right about now.”

  Kaiya shuddered. She pushed the image of the musky prince’s leer out of her mind.

  The other elf emerged into the clearing. A longbow hung over his shoulder, and a thin straight sword, similar to Xu’s, dangled at his side. Handsome, with fine features and shiny golden hair, he wore a poncho of forest-green.

  No, not handsome; he was gorgeous. Kaiya straightened out her inner gown and ran a hand through her hair.

  When he spoke in Arkothi, it was tinged with a sensually exotic elvish accent: “Ayana does not speak out of maliciousness. You will not find a more caring person.”

  Ayana’s eyebrows sunk into a scowl. “I—”

  He flashed a devilish grin at the matronly elf. “She has been alive since before the time your ancestor General Shyaotian established the Wang Dynasty, and carries three centuries of experience on her shoulders. She knows the human strengths that lead to the rise of nations, and the human weaknesses that have led to their collapse. Take her wisdom to heart.”

  Kaiya shuffled in place. “I understand. But my retainers are my responsibility. I cannot just sit here and do nothing.”

  He held her gaze. “Think carefully about what you can do in your condition. I can tell you firsthand that Vyara City is not as safe as you think. You should know this already. But if you believe it is that important to go back, I will send you.”


  Kaiya nodded. Still, she had to do something. “It is. Please send me back.”

  He shrugged. “Very well, if you are so insistent.” He chanted several whimsical words of elven magic.

  Kaiya’s eyelids grew heavy, her head faint. Just before she slipped out of consciousness, he reached over with elegant grace and caught her.

  Ayana frowned at Thielas Starsong for a dozen reasons, past and present.

  He was too busy admiring Princess Kaiya to notice her scowl.

  “Always a fool for a pretty human face,” she said.

  Thielas lowered the foolish girl to the ground at Ayana’s feet. He then looked up with the grin that had disarmed so many in the past. Herself included. “The ephemeral nature of their beauty makes it all the more precious. I don’t think you would understand.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t. Are you chasing that redheaded princess now? The fetish for headstrong human girls runs in your family.”

  His lips twitched. “You almost broke me of it, so long ago.”

  Ayana paused to think back on her middle years, when the strapping elf prince had reminded her of what it meant to be young again. A smile quirked on her lips, unbidden.

  He locked his gaze on her, then looked away. “I have not been to Vyara City in thirty-two years. I don’t have fond memories. It’s the site of one of my two greatest mistakes in life. However, I will send you back to the Crystal Citadel. It is the safest place I know there.” He studied the silly girl. “She is strong-willed and has a lot to learn. She may or may not remember much of this brief interlude, though I hope your lecture sticks.”

  Grinning, he sprinkled flower petals in a circle around her and the princess. His eyes flashed up to meet hers. “It was good to see you again, Ayana. Don’t you find it interesting how often our paths have crossed in the last year, after a hundred years of separation?”

  She shrugged. “Our involvement in human affairs has led to these unexpected reunions.”

  “We elves are too few. We must guide the humans so they can prevent the Tivari from reconquering Tivaralan.”

  “Nonetheless, I never expected nor hoped to see you again.”

  Thielas laughed. “You would hold the indiscretions of my youth against me?”

  “No, only that I would hope you always remember me when I was as beautiful as she.” Ayana lifted her chin toward Kaiya’s sleeping form.

  He laughed again. “You have always been older than I, and although you were wildly stunning then, I was mostly attracted to your wisdom.” He winked suggestively at her. “I have to admit, that has seemed to grow only more in the last century.”

  Despite her many years and resistance to such charms, Ayana still felt the flush in her cheeks. She stared down at the ground, and then lifted her eyes to speak.

  Thielas began a long chant in the flowery words of elf-magic. She knew not to interrupt his song, lest they reappear before the Altivorc King’s throne or a Teleri breeding site. She fell silent, waiting patiently for the scenery to shift around her.

  As he inflected the last syllable, her body began to slip through the ethers. The colors coalesced and reformed into an enormous chamber of marble with light blue streaks of istrium. A magnificent dome above swirled with color, like the iridescent moon itself. Princess Kaiya slept peacefully at her feet.

  Gasps of surprise echoed through the Crystal Citadel’s audience chamber, followed by the rasping of a dozen swords sliding from their sheaths.

  CHAPTER 40:

  Awakenings

  Birds chirped in harmony with the low hum around her. Cool and light, the soft touch of fine linen sheets brushed across Kaiya’s bare skin. The refreshing sensation stood in stark contrast to the humid heat hanging in her lungs. Muffled sounds of a distant conversation coaxed her into consciousness.

  Though feeling fully revitalized, she eased her eyes open tentatively. They focused on large windows from which sunlight streamed in at a low angle, casting long shadows across the white, undecorated room.

  Kaiya bolted up into a sitting position on a soft, unfamiliar bed. Her chest tightened. There was something eerily familiar about waking up in a strange place. Her brow scrunched up as she tried to recall her last memory...the ambush.

  Guilt flooded over her. She looked frantically around the white-walled room. First locating the heavy wood door, her gaze then settled on a red sari draped over a simple wooden chair. The only other furnishings were the bed and a basin of water.

  The breeze on her skin... She was naked, save for underpants and some musky-smelling gauze wrapped around her forearms. Kaiya pulled the sheets up to cover herself. Had she been captured? An image of Prince Dhananad’s foul hands on her sent a cold shiver up her spine. Quickly banishing the notion, she eased herself from the bed, pulling the sheets along to stay covered in the event some rogue barged in through the door.

  The window would give an idea of where she was, but it would also give anyone walking by a good look at her bare skin. She went to investigate the red fabric on the chair. Unsure of how to drape the sari correctly, she put on the choli shirt and langa petticoat first. Its open back, low neckline, and bare midriff was too immodest, resembling undergarments, but it was certainly better than exploring a strange place in nothing more than bandages.

  Now dressed, if it could be considered dressed, she walked over to the window. She gasped. The red sun perched not far above the Shallowsea, which in turn merged into a bustling waterfront far down in the distance. The canals and streets fanned outward in a tangled web, cutting through flat white buildings cast in the setting sun’s red sheen. Without a doubt, this was Vyara City. Given the vantage point, higher than anything else, this was the Paladins’ Crystal Citadel.

  Had the Paladins rescued them from the ambush? And if so, why had she awakened almost completely undressed?

  Kaiya padded across the room to the heavy door and pulled it open a crack. The muffled sounds transformed into conversations in the Ayuri language; talk about the Hua wounded.

  Her men, injured because she insisted on a trip that could have waited.

  Without hesitation, she strode out of the room to find herself in a hallway, dimly lit through several windows by late afternoon sun. A dozen feet down the hall, a Paladin and an older Ayuri man stopped their discussion and turned to face her.

  The young maid, Meixi, was sitting quietly on a wooden chair just outside the door. Her eyes widened. The girl dropped to the floor and into a bow. “Dian-xia, I’m so glad you are awake. I was so worried.” The girl stood and adjusted Kaiya’s sari. “I’m so sorry about your outer robe; it was lost in the attack. Your inner gown was filthy, stained with grass and dirt. I sent it back to the embassy.”

  Grass and dirt? Kaiya cocked her head.

  The Paladin approached and pressed his palms together. “Good afternoon, Your Highness. I am glad to see you awake.”

  Forgetting her manners, Kaiya blurted, “How did I get here? Where are my men? How long have I been asleep?”

  “About seven hours ago, your procession was ambushed. By all accounts, the elf woman Ayana Strongbow sequestered you away through time and space, reappearing almost three hours ago in the audience chamber of the Crystal Citadel. You have been asleep this whole time, unresponsive to the healer’s attempts to wake you.”

  Time and space? How was that even possible?

  The older man added, “We received an anonymous tip about the attack. The Paladin patrols came to your rescue, but we were too late to save all of your guards. Several were killed, and most of the rest received wounds of varying severity. Because of your status as a foreign dignitary, the Paladins took the extraordinary measure of bringing the wounded here for treatment and protection.”

  Several killed! Kaiya bit her lip, feeling a pang in her chest. She pressed her hands together. “Thank you for your kind consideration. Please take me to them.”

  “I will take you to the half-elf.” The Paladin gestured for her to follow.

 
As they walked down the hall, she asked, “Who was behind this?” As though it wasn’t evident.

  “We captured several of the assailants who were put to sleep by the elf’s magic. They claimed to be hired mercenaries, but we are investigating their backgrounds.”

  Kaiya had a good idea where that trail would lead. “Two of the attackers were Maduran Scorpions.”

  The Paladin shrugged. “Perhaps, but witnesses did not see the telltale mask and sting. There are also some disaffected former Paladins who work as independent mercenaries.”

  Kaiya fell silent, mulling over his words as they came to another door. An Ayuri woman emerged from the room just as they were about to pass, pulling up short before she ran into them.

  The woman’s voice sounded too cheerful. “Your Highness! I am glad you are finally awake! Let me look at your arms.” Without waiting for permission, she took Kaiya’s wrist and unwrapped the bandages, revealing yellowing splotches. She rewrapped the gauze. “Good, good. You are healing quickly. You had no major wounds that I saw, just bruises on your arms that the liniment is taking out nicely. Are they painful at all?”

  For the first time, Kaiya considered her own physical condition. Her arms did hurt a little, but the pain was a minor compared to her guards’ injuries. She shook her head.

  “Good. Your other maid and the elf are inside.” The woman gestured toward the door she’d just exited. “Won’t you come in?”

  Kaiya nodded.

  The woman guided Kaiya into another plain room. Two beds with simple wooden frames flanked a single window. Beneath the sheets of one, Ayana slept peacefully; on the other, Jie laid with her bare shoulders and arms above the sheets. Like Kaiya, her arms were wrapped in gauze, though black splotches peeked out through the white mesh.

  Jie bolted up, holding the sheets up around her. Her face contorted into a wince. Kaiya’s fault. “Dian-xia, I heard that you had been brought here, but they wouldn’t let me visit you. Or even tell me where you were. Where did you go? Ayana didn’t say anything, she just came in and tumbled into the bed.”