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

by JC Kang

  Her other thumb toyed with the Ayudra ring on her index finger. Its vibration mingled with the lake’s waves, neither synchronized nor discordant.

  “May I?” An open palm, like a beggar’s, appeared before her, blocking the view of her lap. “I would like to see the ring that sings the song of Ayudra.”

  Kaiya’s heart must’ve skipped three beats. She twisted to find Lord Xu sitting beside her on top of the wall, his legs hanging over the edge. His sad smile replaced the impish grin she’d grown accustomed to.

  Angry questions welled up from her heart. “Why didn’t you tell me? When you said someone would hear my song, you knew it would be Avarax, didn’t you? Did you know Avarax was Hardeep? Why didn’t you answer me when I called for you in Vyara City?”

  His eyes searched hers for a few seconds, stirring her impatience. He then lifted the magic mirror and held it up to the skies. With his other hand he pointed.

  She followed his finger, to a spot in the vast expanse of speckled night sky where a tiny red dot blinked.

  “What can you tell me about that star?”

  His question did nothing to answer hers. She responded in hopes of coaxing a reply from the fickle elf. “It represents the God of Conquest, Yanluo.”

  “Or in the language of the orcs, Tivar.” He pointed to another a twinkling blue star. “How about that star there?”

  “Wu-Long, the Dragon Protector of Hua.” Curiously, it shined brighter than usual.

  “She has appeared twice since the War of Ancient Gods, when great generals in Hua’s history reunified the nation.” The elf’s finger shifted to the nine-star constellation facing the blue star. “And who does Wu-Long oppose?”

  “E-Long, the Evil Dragon.”

  “Now receding. Who do you imagine that represents?”

  A spark of understanding dawned on her. “Avarax.”

  “The Powers of Good are on the rise, though Evil always seeks opportunity. The Oracle of Ayudra is not the only one who can divine the future, though he is infinitely better than an Estomari tarot-card reader.” A hint of mischievousness twinkled in his eye. “Or an elf astrologer.”

  Had Lord Xu arranged her meeting with the Oracle? Or set it in motion as Hardeep had influenced the path of her life? “So you can divine the future?”

  Shrugging, the elf laughed. “Perhaps. The dilemma of knowing the future is our desire to change it. Sometimes, an attempt to alter our destiny only hastens its arrival. If you had known you would confront Avarax, would that have influenced your choices?”

  Kaiya twirled a lock of hair. It was one of the many questions which had weighed heavily on her these past few weeks. Even as people hailed her as the heroic Dragon Charmer, she might not have willingly confronted Avarax if she’d truly had a choice in the matter.

  She was no hero. Her hand caressed Tian’s pebble.

  Lord Xu’s eyes were on that hand until he looked up and smiled wryly. “To answer one of your questions, no, I did not know Hardeep was Avarax, though I knew he always watched Hua in hopes of finding someone to sing to him. I told you as much, when you played the Dragon Scale Lute.”

  Yet he’d spared her. Used her. And more troubling, “Is it true that his Lotus Jewel awoke my magic and made me pretty?”

  “You were born with the magic of music, as well as the intuition to face the Last Dragon. That is why I did not respond to your summons. Sometimes, you have to find the answers within yourself.”

  He’d avoided the whole question, specifically the more troubling half. She placed a hand on her cheek. “And my beauty?”

  All mirth disappeared from the elf’s expression. “You were not meant to be beautiful.”

  It sounded a whole lot like destiny again. “So everything that happened, and will happen, is my destiny?”

  Lord Xu shrugged again. “You fulfilled your destiny when you vanquished Avarax. From here, you make your own. The stars just predict it. Resist the temptation to know it, since it may not always unfold as you hope. Worry not about what might be; concentrate on the present, the task at hand. That task now is to demand Lord Peng’s extradition from Rotuvi.”

  With a melodic word, he disappeared, the air popping as it filled in the space he’d departed.

  The future may not unfold as hoped. Ominous words, made all the more so coming from both an enigmatic elf and a mysterious oracle.

  Threads of a Tapestry

  Hong Jianbin stroked sleeping Leina’s cheek as they lay in her new Floating World abode. He had purchased the single-story wood building with his greatly increased stipend as Chief Minister.

  It was well worth it.

  The secret entrance from the adjoining Jade Teahouse allowed him surreptitious access to his mistress, away from prying eyes.

  To think, without the encouragement of a foreign refugee and the help of a renegade spy, this fishmonger’s son would have never risen to the exalted position of Chief Minister.

  His native Nanling Province now lacked a Tai-Ming lord to rule it. Once the imperial armies rooted out minor lords loyal to Peng and pacified the countryside, the Tianzi would replace the province’s leadership with those he could trust. Faithful generals and ministers would be elevated to hereditary lords.

  Which would be better? To become a hereditary lord would improve his chance of marrying Princess Kaiya. As Chief Minister, he would have plenty of influence beyond the reach of a single province.

  He gazed at Leina. Perhaps he already had everything he needed.

  Leina feigned sleep, hoping old Hong would soon unwrap his leathery arms from around her. His proposed celebration for his promotion to Chief Minister was something she did not enjoy.

  He’d been particularly virile tonight, and she feared his old heart might not be able to keep up with his manhood. His death, just when she’d gotten him to a position where he could influence national policy, would be disastrous. Everything she'd endured in her assignment as his mistress would have gone to waste.

  As always, he surprised her. Just like when he outlasted Peng in their game of power. Or talked his way into Prince Kai-Wu’s good graces.

  The Chief Minister, hers to manipulate.

  At the cost of her body and pride.

  It was too much to bear.

  Besides the herbs which poisoned the Tianzi, she knew of others that would kill quite quickly. One of those, hidden in her nightstand drawer, would be tempting to take right now.

  But then there was her mother, trapped in Ankira, relying on Leina to succeed in her mission to undermine Cathay from the inside. The house’s secret entrance would allow her to covertly meet with the surviving insurgents and other lords and ministers she could bend to her will.

  The most important key was to keep the imperial armies bogged down in Nanling Province. Then, the northern borders would be less defended once her employer was ready to invade. But how to sustain a provincial uprising without good leadership?

  Peng Kai-Long.

  She would think of a way to sneak him out of exile in Rotuvi Kingdom and back home where he could cause the most damage.

  Geros Bovyan XLIII, First Consul of the Teleri Empire’s ruling Directori, paced back and forth. The stone floors of his stark quarters in Tilesite were cold beneath his feet, in contrast to the anger which raged hot in his head.

  The unlikely alliance of Eldaeri Kingdoms had recaptured some of the lands his armies occupied in Serikoth. The Bastard Prince Aelward of Tarkoth had broken his ingenious blockade of Bullhead Lake, allowing the cowardly Eldaeri to harass Teleri supply lines from the safety of the waters.

  Apparently, Geros’ commanders could not win a war without him.

  The face of one such incompetent appeared at his door and thumped his fist against his chest. “Your Eminence, an official message from Cathay.”

  Cathay was a pig he planned to roast later, after sufficient marinating. He ripped the folded rice paper out of his underling’s hands and whipped it open with a flick of his wrist.

&nbs
p; To the Directori of the Teleri Empire:

  Your vassal state, the Kingdom of Rotuvi, currently harbors the criminal Kai-Long Peng, former Great Lord of Nanling Province, within its borders. We will be dispatching Princess Kaiya Wang to meet with you and discuss terms of his extradition and continued trade between our great nations. We would request this meeting to take place in the port city of Iksuvius at your earliest convenience.

  From Zhishen Wang

  Son of Heaven, Emperor of Cathay

  Geros harrumphed. How ostentatious a title for a pathetic nation of merchant princelings. Nonetheless, it would be a chance to meet the Dragon Charmer herself, who had foiled some of the Altivorc King’s plans. Princess or not, Dragon Charmer or not, she was just a girl. And supposedly a beautiful one at that.

  Geros turned to his lieutenant. “Have the rest of the consuls seen copies of this letter?”

  “Of course not. You were first.”

  “Good. Draft my response, to be presented for the Directori’s approval. I will personally meet with Princess Kaiya, on the occasion of the Northwest Summit.”

  His crowning moment, and one rife with underlying messages. To have her meet with him, in front of the eyes of foreign friends and foes, would symbolize Cathay bowing before him.

  Now he just had to find out why he had not heard of Lord Peng Kai-Long seeking asylum in Rotuvi. And also get an update from his spy in Cathay.

  Stirring the dying embers of his fire, Peng Kai-Long gazed out onto Guanyin’s Tear Lake. After a month of travelling disguised as migrant farm workers with two of his most trusted guards, he’d reached the halfway point home in Nanling Province. To avoid a checkpoint in the staunchly Royalist Fenggu Province, they had veered off the main roads and now camped in the shadow of the old orc pyramid.

  Despite what his officers aboard the Golden Phoenix had confessed under the Tianzi’s agents’ persuasive techniques, he never slipped over the border into Rotuvi. He hadn’t even gone to Jiangkou, instead revealing himself to the insurgents in the capital as their anti-imperial benefactor. After a month of letting his hair and beard grow roughshod, he headed south, trailing the expeditionary armies meant to quell any resistance in his province.

  The lake stretched for several li, glowing a light blue. Legends claimed it was the single tear of the Blue Moon Goddess Guanyin, shed when the Sun God Yang-Di presented the mortal world to her as a gift. Many people visited each day in hopes that the holy waters would cure their ailments.

  Kai-Long snorted. The Tianzi had drunk twice his bodyweight in the water over the years and still never recovered from his poisoning.

  Yet Kai-Long did believe one legend.

  Hua’s guardian dragon once appeared somewhere in this valley. Though one local legend reported her sighting during the Hellstorm, most stories said she hibernated through the orc’s Dragonpurge and would serve whoever woke her.

  Kai-Long spat into the water. Who was to say hateful Cousin Kaiya couldn’t charm that dragon as well?

  No, he would have to rely on his own wits if he were to reconsolidate his power. The satisfaction of watching the Dragon Charmer suffer a slow death was motivation enough.

  Liang Yu leaned against an Eldarwood tree, keeping watch over the funerary potter’s shop. The rhythmic clanging of metal in the nearby blacksmithy all but drowned out the spring chirping of songbirds.

  His search for Lord Peng, which had taken him to the border of Rotuvi and back, had proved fruitless. The devious lord had sunk so low as to feed his own loyal men disinformation. Despite what everyone believed, Peng had to be somewhere in Hua.

  Which brought Liang Yu here, to one of the information relay points for his former clan. Even with a Moquan renegade at large, they didn’t think the location was compromised. Of course. They never considered that the Architect, one of the few masters who knew of this drop spot, might still live.

  The latest message he’d intercepted accused the renegade—him—of treason, for helping the Teleri Empire train spies.

  Treason!

  He clenched his fists. He was no traitor. If the ruling elite weren’t so corrupt, they’d recognize his patriotism. And the only two people whom he’d trained in Moquan ways were Young Song and—

  There was a light tug on his pouch.

  Liang Yu spun around, curved knife ready to slash the young lady’s throat.

  She raised a metal hairpin, stopping the arc of his cut, and then bowed her head. “Master.”

  His special pupil, Lin Ziqiu, daughter of a Tai-Ming lord. Her skill had improved so much. She had tracked him here, and even succeeded in sneaking up on him. Used the noise of bell-making to mask her approach. Clever. Or maybe his hearing declined with age.

  Though she was still not smart enough to realize his deception. He smiled. “Have you tracked Chief Minister Hong’s mistress?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Yes. He bought her a house in the Floating World.”

  The Floating World! It might be a better place to gather information than even the bell foundry. Liang Yu reached over and brushed hair out of her pretty face. “Pose as a Night Blossom, get close to her.”

  Her lip curled. “But I wanted to accompany Princess Kaiya on her mission to demand Lord Peng’s extradition.”

  It was a pointless mission. A dangerous one, too, since the barbaric kingdoms to the north might not take kindly to accusations of harboring criminals.

  Liang Yu shook his head. He couldn’t expose his student to needless danger. But if he told her Peng was still in Hua, she might warn the princess. “Hong’s mistress is more important. My control over him is nominal at best, but if we can find a way to manipulate her, it might give us extra leverage.”

  Her expression lit up and she clapped her hands together. Always in search of adventure, this one.

  Colors flashed in the corner of his eye. He pulled the girl back behind the cover of the tree and peered back toward the potter’s shop. The mute worker from the bell foundry dropped several messages into a worn funerary urn.

  Within a quarter hour, a Moquan trainee, hypnotized with the Tiger's Eyeto forget his task after completion, would retrieve the specially-folded messages. Which gave Liang Yu a quarter hour to send his student on her way, and then find out what his former clan knew.

  For what must’ve been the hundredth time, Jie opened the small magic pouch Ayana had given her, marveling at the massive interior space. If only she could fit Zheng Ming through the opening, she wouldn’t have to listen to his constant complaints about the heat and humidity.

  She looked up from the pouch and toward the back of the river skiff.

  The imperial guards sat back in their seats, their rigid discipline softened in the princess’ absence. They chatted and joked with Sameer, revealing actual personalities. The belligerent Levanthi mercenary, on the other hand, sat apart, always staring ahead toward the homeland he hadn’t seen for two decades.

  The chocolate-skinned Askumi Mystic Brehane, with whom she’d shared an adventure two years before in the Teleri Empire, also kept to herself. She ostensibly studied her sheaf of magical scrolls, but was more likely trying to avoid Zheng Ming’s flirtatious banter in his ever-improving Ayuri tongue. By now, he must’ve heard a dozen different ways to say no. Rounding out the motley crew was the dwarf Ashler Blackhammer, who constantly tinkered with some contraption he planned to market.

  Rumor had it that Avarax, now limited to two legs, was making his way to Selastya. With the repairs to the Golden Phoenix expected to take much longer than the initial estimate, she’d convinced the imperial guards that the princess’ future safety relied on foiling whatever nefarious plans the dragon had.

  They now travelled with Sameer, on his quest to investigate the magical dead zone surrounding the Levanthi Pyramid.

  Seven Hua warriors, an Ayuri Paladin, a Levanthi mercenary, an Askumi sorceress, and a dwarven weaponsmith in a boat. There had to be a punchline in there somewhere.

  Avarax huddled among the beggars near
the docks of some river city. It had taken him weeks for his two legs to bring him here, and he was not sure how much farther he had to go to reach Selastya.

  Princess Kaiya’s music still reverberated through his gemstone, holding his immense reserves of energy in check. Though he was still virtually invulnerable, his magic remained locked away. Somewhere in her song, the tapestry of musical notes had destructively interfered with the frequency of his gemstone.

  Two years of planning, only to have a naïve girl grow into an insightful woman and deconstruct the fake song he’d given her. No, she could not circumvent the magical ward designed to protect a human voice from singing him to sleep. But she had reverse-engineered the other ward, the one set to prevent an elven voice from forcing an involuntary transformation.

  Xu had done so during the Hellstorm, trapping him in human form for nearly three hundred years. Only when he tricked one of Aralas’ descendants into playing the Dragon Scale Lute had he been able to regain his dragon form, if not all his power.

  Never did he imagine that a human whelp could accomplish the same as Xu. It should not have been possible.

  Though fond of Rumiya’s form and all of the entertaining adventures it afforded him when he chose, he was not pleased at the prospect of being stuck as a human for another three hundred years.

  Decades were not long for an immortal. Another chance would present itself. Maybe not today, maybe not in a century. But it would happen. If one thing was reliable, it was that mortal beings had failings which his fifty-thousand years of experience could find ways to exploit.

  The first step would be tapping into the energy of the pyramid to restore his magic. Now if only he could find his way to the closest one, in Selastya. It wasn’t that easy. Everything looked a lot different at ground level.

  It didn’t matter. Soon he would look down on the world again. And now there was one more person to exact vengeance on.