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

by JC Kang

  Tian jumped down and landed lightly in a crouch. Not letting his guard down despite the disguise, he continued on his trek to the south gate. A handful of people ventured out—twenty-seven males, no females for the first li. Those that stopped and talked all repeated the same thing: the Tianzi had been murdered by his sister, the regent, who now refused to repel the occupying army.

  Impossible. According to his Black Lotus brothers and sister’s earlier report, Princess Kaiya had fled the city.

  Others huddled near street vendors, chatting. Apparently, collaborators had started going door-to-door, taking a census for the Teleri and issuing identity papers.

  One citizen held up his own, a sheet of rice paper with a wax seal. “They say that as long as you carry one, they won’t bother you in the streets.”

  Nodding, his larger companion showed off his own. “It’ll be safe again, like before the insurgents started attacking the nobles.”

  Tian wondered. If the Metal Men treated the people from Beyond the Wall like they had the Kanin peoples, safety would be purchased at the cost of dignity. Men forced to work. Women forced to procreate. In any case, if he could procure such an identity paper, he could make it through the city unmolested. He skidded to a halt at a pile of charred stone and splinters. Soot covered the pavestones, blackened nearby buildings. A fire had struck here.

  No, more than a fire. A blast, from the way the debris field spread out. Curious, Tian worked his way toward the epicenter. The scorched frame of stone and wood was all that remained of what must’ve been a fairly large building. The stench of spent firepowder hung in the air. A significant amount of it had been stored here. Perhaps an armory.

  Princess Kaiya had probably had it destroyed to prevent weapons from falling into enemy hands. Or perhaps the enemy had ignited it later. He continued on his way, avoiding patrols until he could borrow identity papers.

  Up the street, a queue of chatting young men looped around a corner building. A promising place to glean information. Tian approached and cleared his throat. “What is this for?”

  Several in line turned around. An exceptionally burly man, almost large enough to be Bovyan, said, “The Teleri are offering work.”

  Tian craned around to see the line entering the stone building. The sign above the door indicated a stonemason’s workshop. He turned back. “What kind of work?”

  “Repairing the east walls.”

  “What happened?”

  “Where have you been?” Another fellow cocked his head. “The regent left two gaping holes.”

  Tian offered him a sheepish smile.

  “Right,” the big man said. “The regent is busy destroying things, and at least the Teleri are trying to fix it.”

  “Is that what happened to the armory?” Tian pointed northeast.

  “Two of them.” Another man waved toward the east. “Before the Teleri even breached the north gate.”

  Before. Why would Princess Kaiya do such a thing? Unless it hadn’t been her. Jie had mentioned something about Teleri Moquan operatives in the city. If they’d destroyed two armories, they must’ve been well-informed and well-organized.

  The larger man’s eyes locked on Tian’s. Insistent. Not unlike the earlier man showing off his identification papers. Could they be Metal Men? Though big, neither was as enormous as the brutes he’d fought in the Wilds. Also, all of those had been fair-skinned, except for one who looked Kanin, in Father’s castle.

  Tian pointed at the man’s identification, clutched in his hands. “Where do I get my papers?”

  “The scribes didn’t come to your home?” The man raised an eyebrow. “What part of town do you live in?”

  Where, indeed? More people had been out north of here, so they had likely already registered with the city’s new owners. Tian jutted his chin in that direction.

  The man nodded, but his gaze shifted past Tian, up, and then back. “Perhaps they haven’t come to your neighborhood yet. You are brave to come out without them.”

  Tian shrugged. “It seems safe enough.”

  “Well, you’d better get your papers.” The man pointed toward the front of the line. “They won’t let you work without it.”

  “Right.” Tian backed up and bowed, then walked east. Once the stonemason’s and the line fell out of sight, he picked up his pace. That large man, and likely the first one with identification papers, were both smaller Metal Men of Hua stock.

  Of course. With only five thousand soldiers to maintain order, the Teleri were now engaging in an organized campaign of disinformation. Seeding rumors and subjugating the city with propaganda alone.

  Hair prickled on the back of his neck. Something wasn’t right. Somewhere out there, eyes watched. He glanced at the windows in the buildings around him. Nothing. No shutters closed, no faces withdrew. Beyond the distant marching boots, there was no indication of anyone else around.

  Except for that unsettling feeling.

  Another look around. Nothing. Still, the last man must’ve sent a signal to his friends. Now, they followed him. It would only take time to expose them. Tian continued on his way.

  In the city’s vast central square, fourteen merchants stood by their carts while seventy-three citizens shopped. A patrol of twelve Bovyans prowled from cart to cart, but didn’t interfere with trade.

  Ducking low, Tian worked his way through the people. Very few dared make eye contact with each other, let alone the Metal Men. Then, a large Hua man’s gaze fell on Tian for a split second. A bodyguard, maybe? He might not compare to a Bovyan in size, but he was easily the largest Hua around. Like the other two. No weapons to speak of. The weight of his stare…

  Tian stopped at a vendor selling pork buns. He held up a polished silver coin and found the large man’s reflection. Definitely watching him. Likely the source of his disconcertion.

  Chewing on the pork bun as he continued his walk, Tian kept track of the man in reflective surfaces. He continued south along the nearly-deserted main boulevard. For the first two li, he encountered only two citizens heading north, and no Metal Men at all. Only this one shadow, pretending to mind his own business, walking just far enough away to stay in sight.

  Capture him, and chances were he wouldn’t talk. Lose him, and he would stick around to cause more trouble for the young Black Lotus Clan members.

  A quick glance around revealed no sign of anyone watching from alleys or windows. It was time to act.

  Jie listened at the sluice gate for a few minutes, differentiating the various sounds above the lazy flow of the stream. Fish swam, plopping in and out of the water. Crustaceans clawed their way over the paved streambed, undoubtedly enjoying the feast of garbage. No signs of humans, besides the missing lock on the grate.

  She motioned Yuha to help her open it. With her good arm, she pulled herself into the rectangular tunnel. Though wide enough for eight men to march abreast, the passage was just tall enough for her to stand upright. The water came up to her waist.

  Meanwhile, a hunched-over Yuha grimaced. He stared at the refuse with unbridled disdain. White Duck Stream must’ve looked and smelled nothing like the pristine streams and rivers meandering through his homeland. His doeskin pants would stink for days.

  With a snort, Jie waded toward the other end of the tunnel, where the stream passed under the city walls. Like all the waterways in Huajing, the streambed was paved. At the mouth of the channel, she paused and peeked out.

  Noble’s villas and pavilions, along with the occasional temple, formed a dark silhouette against the dusk sky. A stone bridge arched over the stream not far away. In the aristocrats’ section of the city, on such a beautiful evening, there would usually be poetry parties and receptions. Yet tonight, only birds chattered. No sign of any human activity—

  A person moved, ever so slightly, in the shadows of a pagoda.

  Jie ducked back into the tunnel and palmed a biao. Whoever was out there didn’t want to be seen. If not for her elf vision, she might’ve missed him.


  “Master Jie,” a voice called. A male voice. Familiar. But not coming from the movement near the pagoda.

  A Ghost Echo, perhaps? But why? She glanced out again, zeroing in on the source of the voice. A person, not quite grown, crouched by a stone lion. He must’ve been expecting her. The person by the pagoda, however—

  Something whizzed through the air at her.

  Jie stepped back and nearly bumped into Yuha. A dart. Coming from the pagoda. She sprung out and whipped her biao at the large man as he dashed toward the cover of manicured bushes.

  The biao zipped past him. Curse the bad arm, throwing her balance off!

  The boy at the stone lion came out from his hiding place and hurled his own biao. The bushes quivered, and the man, still hunching low, yanked the throwing star from his calf and hobbled toward a nearby wall.

  With deliberate aim, taking into account her new throwing mechanics, Jie flung another spike at him. It flew true, lodging into his right upper back. He tumbled and crashed face-first against the wall. Both she and the boy raced forward, converging on the Teleri at the same time. He turned and reached for a shortsword.

  The Moquan boy slashed with a knife, severing the man’s wrist tendons before he could draw his own weapon. A dagger in hand, Jie hooked his ankle with her foot and swept it up, then kicked out the other knee.

  The Nightblade collapsed onto his back. His chest heaved with labored breaths, while blood pooled around his lips.

  “Roll him over,” Jie said. “He’s less of a threat.”

  The boy met her gaze, revealing a teenager with thin lips and narrow eyes. Huang Zhen, if memory and age progression skills served. They’d served in the same cell in Jiangkou during Lord Tong’s rebellion. He bowed and pushed the Bovyan over.

  The Teleri flopped like a sea cucumber. Her throwing spike was now buried deep into him, undoubtedly puncturing a lung. Even if he could talk, he wouldn’t last long.

  Huang rifled through his possessions. “Master Tian told us to be on the lookout for the Nightblades and to triangulate the source of their orders. This one started trailing me at the Jianguo Temple on my way over to meet you.”

  Jie snorted. “You could’ve found a way to warn me. He almost hit me with his dart.”

  “Hit you?” Huang’s eyes widened.

  She used her good hand to hold the other arm up. “I’m not what I used to be.” She beckoned Yuha over.

  Gawking, his head turned left and right, and then down at the stone road, which he stamped on a few times. He mumbled several foreign words which nonetheless conveyed the universal message of awe. The poor man had probably never seen a grand city before.

  “Where’s Tian?” she asked.

  Huang’s lip quivered. “He went after Princess Kaiya.”

  Jie sighed. Yet again, he chose the princess first. “Where is she now? The palace?”

  “No, she fled south to Fenggu Province just yesterday.”

  Jie shook her head in disbelief. The Tiger’s Eye must’ve worn off in order for the princess to do something so emotional and stupid. She’d be safer behind the castle walls, where they could hold out for years. Tian, too, had gone. Had the princess not fled, perhaps they’d be reunited by now. Jie’s stomach knotted. “She has put herself in danger, for no reason.”

  “No, no.” Huang held up a hand as he tried to pry the biao out of the Nightblade. “The regent wanted to draw the Teleri army south, away from the capital.”

  “And?”

  “It worked. Only five thousand enemy soldiers remain in the city, mostly surrounding the palace.”

  Jie sucked on her lower lip. “How many men do we have?”

  “Maybe eight thousand? But they’re holed up in the palace.”

  Choking breaths coming to a stop, the Nightblade stilled.

  Jie tapped him with her foot. No response. Even if he were playing dead, they would likely not get any information out of him.

  Kneeling over him, Yuha placed fingers along the man’s carotid pulse. “Dead,” he said in Arkothi. He bowed and chanted several words.

  She sniffed. “He has a faint flowery smell.”

  “I didn’t notice.” Huang gaped at her. Of course, her elf senses surpassed a human’s.

  She pointed at the shoulder of the man’s black stealth suit. “Gold and silver cosmetic dust.”

  Huang’s brows furrowed, his eyes shifting back and forth. “The Floating World.”

  Jie nodded. Perhaps this operative had already partaken of the Floating World’s pleasures. Or he’d been there for other reasons. “Are there any adepts who gathered information there?”

  “Feng Mi. During Minister Hong’s entrapment of Chief Minister Tan, she was the one who choked him out.”

  Jie sucked on her lower lip. In retrospect, Minister Hong never showed any knack for conspiracy, yet had somehow cornered a master conspirator. “Where’s Chief Minister Hong now?”

  “The regent dismissed him and he’s now unaccounted for.”

  A man’s muffled yell trickled through the air, so quiet Huang Zhen didn’t notice.

  With her elf ears, Jie tracked the source. A villa, not far upstream. She gestured in Moquan code. Over there. A sound. It might have come out unintelligible with only one hand, but Huang nodded and padded lightly in the direction she’d indicated.

  “Dump it,” Jie whispered to Yuha, pointing at the corpse before running after Huang.

  “Spirits not approve,” Yuha grumbled.

  Kneeling by a wall, Huang motioned for Jie to halt. He pointed.

  With barely a sound, a dark human shape in the shadows of a nearby villa wall dragged a body toward an evergreen hedge. Undetectable without elf vision.

  Investigate, Jie signaled.

  Huang nodded, and then crept up on the interloper. He reached in.

  The stranger let go of the body and grabbed Huang’s arm. With a graceful spin, he dumped Huang on his back, mounted him, and placed a short blade to his throat. He was good. Nightblade good.

  Jie whipped a throwing star at the Nightblade’s back, but he twisted out of its path.

  “Stop.” He stood and held his hands up. “It’s me. Tian.”

  Jie’s heart skipped a beat. It was Tian’s voice, though perhaps the Nightblade had learned the Mockingbird’s Deception. Still, whoever it was helped Huang to his feet. She dashed over.

  Up close, it was clearly Tian. She careened into him, wrapping her good arm around his back. “I thought you’d run after the princess again.”

  “I’d planned to. But something puzzled me.” He pointed at the body. “This Teleri tried to trail me. I evaded him. And stalked him instead. He came here. He started making notes. About the mansions in this district.”

  “The nobles’ quarter,” Huang said.

  Jie shuddered. “Standard operating procedure for the Teleri as they subjugate a land. They will kill all male royalty and take all women of childbearing age to breed the new ruling class. No doubt they’ll be sending troops here once they’ve accomplished more pressing objectives.”

  “They already know so much,” Tian said. “About the city and its defenses. They were able to capture a well-defended city. While taking minimal losses. They must have had someone in the city. For quite a while.”

  Leina stared at the Weiqi board, continuing the game with her only worthy opponent. She placed a black piece down right next to where she had set the white, closing off an escape route. Cathay was doomed, and if they saw the board as she did, they would just surrender and spare their soldiers brutal deaths.

  A tear formed in her eye. News out of the far south had come to a sudden halt once Emperor Geros had captured Huajing and proceeded on his mad pursuit of Princess Kaiya. He had promised the release of Leina’s mother from the Madurans, but... Practically speaking, an old woman with a small escort would have little means of making it first through Peng’s rebellion and then Cathay’s imperial army.

  If her mother made it to the capital, at least, she would
find it pacified. Leina was seeing to that, even with her limited resources. Five thousand heavy infantry, with nearly six hundred injured and unable to fight. Thirteen Nightblades, though their leader Feiying had disappeared and two had not reported back. The enemy might outnumber them two to one, they might have a handful of the mysterious Moquan at their disposal—but she kept them plugged up in Sun-Moon Palace and tricked the populace with rumors.

  Leina stood and stretched out her tired legs. The stress of strategizing weighed heavily in her neck and shoulders. How ironic that a nation of rapists, who saw women as a vagina and womb, now relied on a female to spearhead their occupation. How ironic that she did so. Cathay might be a hateful nation of greedy, immoral merchants, but they probably didn’t deserve absorption into the Teleri Empire. Regardless, as long as there was hope for her mother, she would do Geros’ bidding. Her home would serve as the brain center for the occupation, with the Nightblades coming and going in secret, relaying her orders to the Teleri officers.

  She walked through the sitting room, avoiding the spot where Old Hong had died. Even though the Nightblades had disposed of the body, it seemed like his spirit still lingered there, gazing at her through those sad eyes. Shuddering, she came to the pantry and released the dwarf-made trigger to the secret door into the Jade Tea House.

  The common room was empty, save for pretty little Purple Autumn sipping tea at a bloodwood table with the proprietress. The silence felt so different from the Floating World’s heyday, when Night Blossoms entertained rich patrons at this late hour. The tea house’s high-class clientele had fled the city, and the Bovyans were not allowed to partake of women until they set up the mating compounds. Leina shuddered again at her own experiences in a rape camp in Madura.

  With a sway in her hips, she sauntered over to the table. “May I?”

  “Please.” Purple Autumn nodded and extended her hand to an open seat. The poor girl had spent so many days here, wearing a simple dress instead of one of her extravagant gowns.