Symphony of Fates: A Legends of Tivara Story (The Dragon Songs Saga Book 4)

by JC Kang

  She then faced the military officers. “How would the enemy strike within the city? And why in the east?”

  “Perhaps the insurgents are in league with the Teleri,” a general said. “Sowing chaos before they strike.”

  “The magazine is well guarded.” General Shan pointed to a map of the city. “We have eliminated most of Peng’s rebels inside the city.”

  Kaiya wondered. She found Weiyong in the crowd, and he looked down. Unbeknownst to her other advisors, Golden Fu manipulated the remaining insurgents, who wouldn’t help the Teleri. From what Weiyong had said, Fu was willing to support her, and even take on covert tasks. Then again, despite his proclaimed patriotism, he had an unpredictable streak. “General Shan,” she said, “where are the firepowder stores?”

  He pointed to eight locations on the map—one in each cardinal directions. His eyes rounded. “They might be trying to neutralize the advantage our guns provide.”

  Kaiya sighed. With so few troops, the capital’s defense relied on their ability to concentrate musket and cannon barrage on the last remaining bridge over the river. It, too, was laden with enough firepowder kegs to destroy it. “Move some of our firepowder reserves to different locations.”

  Another flash flared at the entrance. Kaiya gripped her chair’s armrests, just as another rumble erupted from the northwest. Significantly louder than the previous explosion, the aftershock shook the hall.

  She looked to General Shan. “Another magazine?”

  “I will find out.” The general stood and marched to the doors with several aides in tow.

  Kaiya frowned. The northwest magazine was very close to the north gate. If the blast had damaged the walls, they would have to blow the bridge, cutting the northern fifth of the country off from the rest.

  Deep horns blared in the distance. A series of poofs burst somewhere to the northwest. Cannons.

  Another page appeared at the entrance and bowed low. “The northwest firepowder magazine exploded.”

  Kaiya rose. “Did it damage the walls?”

  “Not that we know of yet, Jie-xia.”

  She pointed. “Those are our cannons firing.”

  As if to contradict her, the deep bursts stopped, followed by the staccato of a thousand rasping pops. Musket fire? Another series answered, and then another. Twice as fast as the typical Hua volleys. That couldn’t be humanly possible. She rose to her feet.

  A panting soldier arrived next, dropping to his knee at the threshold. “Jie-xia, General Shan sent me to report. The Teleri are attacking.”

  She held a finger up. “Listen.” The volleys prattled on in the distance, the initial frequency falling into perpetual shooting. “We do not fire so fast, do we?”

  The soldier met her gaze and shook his head.

  Kaiya gritted her teeth. “Then they have guns.” But how? Likely taken from the embassy in Iksuvius, and Ming’s defeated soldiers. “Our guns.”

  The military men set their jaws and exchanged glances. Many of the ministers moaned and wailed. So pathetic. Even without the Tiger’s Eye, she wouldn’t have devolved into such blubbering. She’d survived assassination attempts, stared down a dragon, been chased by orcs and ogres. No matter how afraid or hopeless, she’d always put on a brave face.

  Except when Geros had raped her. Kaiya’s heart pounded in her chest. Images of him marching into the capital roiled her stomach. Or perhaps that was just the morning sickness. The Tiger’s Eye certainly found inopportune times to weaken. She bit her lip and composed her expression into regal aloofness. “Send word to the gate. They must blow the bridge now.”

  “Yes, Jie-xia.” Bowing, the soldier stood and ran off.

  She sighed. Rebellion and invasion whittled away at the realm. Now, her own decision would cut away the North from the rest.

  Geros watched as his men in the trenches fumbled with the Cathayi muskets. They had gotten better with practice, especially after his ingenious idea of specialization. Unlike the locals, who loaded, fired, and backed off to reload, he had several men reload and pass the guns to shooters. Once they conquered Cathay and learned the secret of firepowder, the musket might be worth integrating into their own armies.

  For now, he just needed the enemy to waste their own firepowder as they shot blindly into the fog. A cannonball pounded harmlessly into the earthworks not far away, sending dirt flying. The three days of preparation and the wait for the right weather had been worth it.

  The first explosion in the east had been the signal to deploy, the second in the north to start shooting. Now, a third explosion roared from the gatehouse, followed by screams and shouts. Enemy cannon and musket fire stuttered to a trickle. Feiying had worked hard in the rain and dark, cutting the barrels of firepowder from the bottom of the bridge so that his men could collect them downstream. He also jury-rigged some explosive device connected to the Cathayi’s fuses. They apparently assumed the Teleri didn’t know much about firepowder, since as expected, they had just destroyed their own gates instead of the bridge.

  “The gates are open!” one of his men yelled.

  Geros straightened out his uniform and turned to his signaler. “Order the assault.”

  The man blew the sequence on his horn. His riflemen continued shooting as they cleared a space for his heavy infantry to pass through. With shields angled up at the walls, the staggered column marched quadruple-time in perfect precision, as only trained Bovyans could.

  A runner approached and thumped a fist on his chest. “Your Eminence, a message from Viceroy Zheng in Dongmen Province.”

  Geros hazarded a glance at the bridge. The enemy had resumed its volley fire, albeit at a slower pace. He needed to join his men now. “Report.”

  “An army of two thousand soldiers from Linshan Province have crossed the Jade River and plan to sabotage our supply lines.” He pointed to a map on the table. “The Viceroy has mobilized ten thousand of his provincial soldiers to combat this threat.”

  Geros frowned. With that blank expression, Viceroy Zheng Han could bluff Fortuna herself in a game of mahjong. All reports spoke of his staunch sense of honor and loyalty; but then again, he had betrayed the Tianzi. Geros motioned for one of his aides. “Leave five hundred men at the north gate once we take it. Make sure that the Viceroy’s son leads them.” Ready to take the first arrow.

  “Yes, Your Eminence.” The aide thumped his chest.

  Geros’ heart soared. Grabbing a Teleri flag, he jogged toward the bridge. The head of his column had already entered. “To me, men. The capital of Cathay is ours!”

  Soon, very soon, he would be reunited with Kaiya, who according to his spies now ruled as regent of her crumbling homeland. This time, he would prove his love by bringing peace and stability to her nation.

  After the third explosion, Kaiya shuffled in the regent’s chair. The sound of cannon fire trailed off to intermittent bursts, though musket volleys continued in diminishing numbers and frequency. Perhaps Geros had withdrawn out of range.

  The military officers all met her eyes, many smiling and nodding. Of course, with the bridge destroyed, the threat on the capital had ended for now. The Teleri would have to build bridges, and they were no engineers. Their only other choice was to head far upstream and wait for the spring melt to end, before fording the Jade River and fighting through forested Linshan Province. A victory, for now.

  At what cost? The great bridge, a marvel designed by the Founder’s consort herself, perhaps irreparably damaged. Her people in the north, now under Geros’ boot. Her stomach roiled again, the pent-up emotions pushing up against the Tiger’s Eye dam. It might burst any time now, reducing her into a quivering sack of feelings and doubts.

  She leaned back in her chair. No, she had made the logical decision. Leave the bridge in place, and the Teleri would soon occupy the North and the capital. “General Tang,” she said, “send someone to check on our firepowder stores. We must maintain vigilant watch along the banks to make sure the Teleri do not find some other way to cros
s.”

  “Yes, Jie-xia.” General Tang bowed and started to stand.

  A pale, sweating foot soldier rushed into the hall and dropped to a knee. “Jie-xia, the enemy has breached the gates. General Shan—”

  Kaiya leaped to her feet and raised a hand. “The bridge?”

  “Intact. When we went to blow it, the gates exploded instead. General Shan holds the gate tower, while General Sun defends the northwest quadrant.”

  Chest tightening, Kaiya sunk into the chair and gripped the armrests with sweaty palms. Because the Founder mandated that nothing above one story could be built north of the palace, much of that area was parks and temples. Very little defensible terrain. Outnumbered and apparently outgunned, they didn’t stand a chance. Emperor Geros would be there soon, ready to take her again.

  Several times a day, for the rest of his curse-shortened life. Those hands, the anger…

  Kaiya took a deep breath. Hold it together, she had to hold it together. This wasn’t about her, but the nation. Twenty million young women alive today, and untold girls yet to be born, would share her fate. Reduced to playthings and breeders for a depraved race of rapists.

  She loosened her fists and stood. “General Tang, what is our contingency plan now that the Teleri have gained a foothold in the city?”

  From where he knelt, General Tang bowed. “We will fall back and defend the palace. We have enough munitions and food stores here to last a year.”

  Kaiya clenched her jaw again. Such a strategy would mean leaving a million souls in the city to predation by the Bovyans. After a year, the Teleri would be thoroughly ensconced, with more and more reinforcements streaming through the Wilds.

  With a shaking voice, the chamberlain announced a visitor at the door. How strange that anyone would come at such a desperate time. “Lady Lin Ziqiu brings a message from her father, Tai-Ming Lord Lin of Linshan.”

  Kaiya lifted her gaze from the generals to the seventeen-year-old who had deceived her for so long. She walked with a purposeful stride between the rows of men, her serious expression so different from the carefree flightiness that had defined her for years.

  “Jie-xia.” Brushing her brown travelling skirts to her knees in typical court fashion, she pressed her forehead to the ground. She looked up and grinned, her capricious mask showing for a split second before returning to dignified serenity. “My father sends his greetings. He is mobilizing twenty thousand of his men to help repel the invaders.”

  “Thank you for coming,” Kaiya said, though Linshan was five days away. By the time they arrived, Geros would occupy the city and could repel them at the east gate. In front of her, the military officers’ dire expressions confirmed her worries. There had to be some way to spare the capital from the ravages of Bovyan indiscretion.

  What would Father have done? Nothing, perhaps—he had never gone to war. No Tianzi from her bloodline had, except the Founder himself. What would he have done? She had no way knowing, but… She turned to the military advisors. “What did the Founder say about facing more powerful enemies?”

  An officer bowed. “Create the illusion of weakness where you are strong, enticing the enemy to attack.”

  Kaiya nodded. But still, with nothing save for weakness, there was little need to create any illusion of it. She beckoned another general to speak.

  “If the enemy is on the march, dangle out bait and keep him moving. He will tire.”

  Not likely for Bovyans, but it gave her a thought. Kaiya rose. The imperial armies remained strong in the central valley. There was one piece of bait which Geros had thrown caution to the wind in order to pursue, but it would mean the regent fleeing the capital. “Emperor Geros will pursue me to the Eldaeri Isles and back. I would be the bait to lure him into Fenggu, where our main army can crush him.”

  A soldier cleared his throat. “Or be crushed by him. Our army would be caught between the Teleri and the traitor, Peng.”

  Kaiya sighed. Chief Minister Hong’s machinations had drawn so many men away from the capital. It was so clear. Maybe even now, he was responsible for the sabotage of the armories. He would need to be tracked down and—

  “And, forgive me, Jie-xia.” Chief Minister Song pressed his forehead to the floor. “The regent should not abandon the capital.”

  “Shed your skin like a cicada,” General Tang said, “and while the enemy is distracted, you can escape in secret.”

  Kaiya shook her head. “The point is to make him chase me. There can be no secrecy.”

  “If I may, Jie-xia.” General Tang bowed. “It works the other way, too. You have a double.”

  A very pregnant double who would have difficulty travelling. However, it appeared they had exhausted all other options, and even this plan carried significant risks. Kaiya nodded to the assembled ministers. “Chief Minister Song, inform Meiling of this task. General Tang, prepare an escort. What else needs to be done to create the illusion?”

  “Spread disinformation among the populace,” an officer said, “that the regent has fled Huajing to join up with the remnants of the imperial army in Fenggu. Enough men to get the Teleri to commit the bulk of their own solders to pursuit.”

  Lin Ziqiu cleared her throat. “Blow holes in the city’s eastern walls so that my father’s army can reinforce your men here when they arrive.”

  Kaiya nodded. It was the logical choice to protect as many people as possible. Even if it meant putting Meiling through more hardship, and risked the utter obliteration of the imperial armies caught between Cousin Peng and the Teleri. Maybe even Peng would put his ambitions aside to save Hua from a foreign invader.

  “Jie-xia,” a voice called from the entrance.

  Kaiya looked.

  Doctor Wu held up a familiar mirror. “Lord Xu wishes to speak.”

  Lord Xu! Kaiya’s heart leaped through the Tiger’s Eye. With his formidable magic, perhaps he could find a solution to this problem. She searched the room. “Where is the councilor?”

  His image materialized above the mirror, much larger than life, perhaps as large as his ego. He didn’t bother to bow. “Jie-xia, it is you who must personally go to Fenggu and rally the imperial armies. Only you can do it.”

  Kaiya snapped her gawking mouth shut. “The regent cannot—”

  “—do anything of consequence hiding behind the palace walls.” Xu flashed that annoying smirk, the one she hadn’t seen in a year.

  “Can’t you do something to destroy the Teleri?”

  He shook his head. “My magic has faded. It is your time. In twenty days, a rare conjunction of the three moons and the energy of Teardrop Lake will allow you to draw on far more power than when you confronted Avarax. Enough to defeat the Teleri yourself.”

  The famed Godseye Conjunction. It had heralded the start of the Founder’s dynasty. Still…Kaiya stared at the floor. “I have lost my magic.”

  “You will find it again. I have foreseen it.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest. She would regain her power. More importantly, the realm would be safe. She nodded. “Very well.”

  “I will meet you there,” the elf said. “Bring the fallen star from the Temple of Heaven.”

  Kaiya looked down at the city map. The Temple of Heaven would soon be behind enemy lines, and even if the Teleri didn’t know its significance, she had no way of getting there. In any case, an attempt to remove the artifact, even on order of the Tianzi himself, would be met with firm resistance from the priests and monks. She met Lin Ziqiu’s gaze. “Find your master. I have a mission that only he can do.”

  Chapter 30:

  I Spy

  Jie flexed her fingers, but try as she might, her arm wouldn’t budge. Sighing, she looked up from her horse, to where Ming rode at the head of six thousand men under fluttering green banners. Tian and Ma Jun rode beside him, with Yuha clutching Tian tightly enough to make her jealous. They discussed what could only be described as a monumental logistical risk.

  Ming had sent horse couriers out to the Yu-Ming lor
ds, announcing his ascension as Tai-Ming and ordering them to join the main provincial army as it marched down the highway. Supply lines would come later. In all, they hoped to muster fifteen thousand men. Still, they would be lucky to acquire a thousand muskets, since the Teleri had plundered the provincial capital’s armory. The firearms Ming’s army had salvaged were left in the hands of a castle garrison, to fend off any minor lord whose loyalty went only as far as the range of the weapons pointed at him.

  Horse hooves rapidly clopped in the distance, making Jie’s ears twitch. She spurred her own mount to meet up with the brothers. “A horse approaches.” She pointed down the highway.

  Unslinging his bow, Ming nocked an arrow. How gallant he looked in his armor and green surcoat, like a member of the Founder’s cavalry. Despite his many shortcomings, he would make a fine lord.

  If he survived.

  She squinted at the cloud of dust up ahead. A green pennant fluttered above the rider. “One of ours,” she said.

  Once he got closer, the rider leaped from his saddle and sank to a knee. “Jue-ye, news from the capital.”

  “Speak.” Ming beckoned the man up.

  “Emperor Geros received your message and welcomes your arrival. Also, there were explosions inside the city, and the Teleri breached the walls.”

  Explosions. Potentially from lightning strikes, but more likely an act of sabotage, given the timing. Jie sucked on her lower lip. As much as they hated the Jade Throne, the insurgents wouldn’t work for a foreign invader. Perhaps Teleri Nightblades had infiltrated.

  Surely the Black Lotus would be able to root them out. The Nightblades were such amateurs by comparison. Unless the Moquan were otherwise indisposed. She turned to Tian. “There are enemy spies inside Huajing, I’m sure of it. Our own army is still seven days away at this marching pace. You and I must go ahead.”

  And hasten their reunion with the princess.