by JC Kang
“How did she get here so fast?” Cyrus exchanged glances with Brehane and Sameer. “She was just with—” He coughed as Brehane elbowed him.
Sameer stepped forward, his naga now glowing bright blue. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Don’t you feel it?” Brehane’s voice tittered in excitement. “The resonance of the world has never coursed through me like this.”
“Nor me.” Jie’s chameleon form darted forward, her blade whirling in a blur.
Sameer engaged, their weapons never touching as they circled and stabbed and chopped in a dance of swords. It looked nothing like Jie’s vicious and efficient style.
Kaiya clasped Brehane’s dress. “Do something!”
The Mystic threw up her hands. “I can’t. They’re too fast, too close.”
“How do you know the Bahaduur arts?” Sameer disengaged.
In that split second, Brehane chortled out several syllables and waved a hand at Jie.
Webbing shot out and entangled the half-elf. Growling, she slashed it away, but at least now she was visible. She pulled the hood down. Her clothing returned to the same storm-cloud grey and she surged forward. Her broadsword caught Sameer in the shoulder, cutting deep. The naga slipped from his fingers. She drove her boot into his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Brehane choked out several guttural words in the language of Shallow Magic. Glowing darts appeared and streaked toward Jie.
The half-elf spun out of the way. “You might as well surrender now,” Jie cackled. She’d always had a disrespectful streak, but never had she sounded so malicious. “I will make your deaths quick.”
Hand on his golden circle, Cyrus chanted a prayer in his language, calling on Athran to do something.
Anything. Kaiya couldn’t tell. Tears, real tears, blurred her vision. “Why, Jie? Why are you doing this?”
Jie ignored her, instead striding toward Cyrus with her sword raised.
A shadow darted between the two. Jie’s weapon clinked, stopping before it decapitated Cyrus.
Fleet. The little madaeri brandished two shortswords, twirling them like a hummingbird’s wings. He snaked toward Jie with quick stabs. Sameer might be fast, but Fleet made him look almost normal. Jie backed away, losing ground.
His eyes tracking the combatants, Cyrus circled around toward Sameer. Brehane grunted out more Shallow Magic.
And here Kaiya was, useless. Pulse racing, she fought for each breath. The taste of panic sat in her mouth, she could barely contain the emotion now bubbling up from under the Tiger’s Eye.
Yet, even with the song of the pyramid coursing through her with energy, the power of her voice still felt pent up. “Please Jie, stop.” Traitor or not, if the Insolent Retainer was seriously injured…
A warm hand rested on her shoulder. Her heart must’ve jumped out of her chest. She turned. Lord Xu stood there, his ever-mischievous smile replaced by a grave expression.
“You said I would get my magic back.” Her voice sounded petulant, like the sixteen-year-old lovestruck child she’d once been.
“You will.” His stare bore into her. “You brought the fallen star. Give it to me.”
Kaiya cast a glance at Jie, whose weapon went spinning to the ground. Maybe now she’d just surrender. Fleet apparently had other ideas. His swords dragged across her body like shears, slashing through the remnants of web, yet never cutting open her clothes. Jie punched and kicked, unrelenting.
“Jie, stop.” Kaiya clenched and unclenched her fists. Surely, Jie would hear reason.
Moving in a blur, Fleet jumped and drove his blade toward her face.
Kaiya’s stomach leaped into her neck.
The madaeri’s blade smashed through flesh and bone. Jie crumpled to the ground, motionless.
“No!” Kaiya choked on the lump in her throat. It couldn’t be.
Her sworn sister was dead.
Tears welled in Kaiya’s eyes. No. She’d lost both her doctor and her friend in the span of a few minutes. She started to run over.
Xu’s grasp on her wrist restrained her. “The fallen star.”
A friend had just died, and all he could think of was an artifact? Hands trembling, she unshouldered her pack and threw it to the ground. The flap popped open. The smooth sphere of the star shined from within.
Jie was dead. Her closest confidante, perhaps her best friend. Kaiya’s chest tightened as she tried to pull out of Xu’s grip.
Without releasing her, his gaze shifted up to the Tear. Xu withdrew the star and looked down at her friends. “Such a coincidence to find you all here.” He turned back to her, even as she tried to pull free of his grip. “But where is Doctor Wu?”
“Here. And I have company.”
Kaiya turned around to see Doctor Wu sprinting out of the trees. For someone so ancient, she ran fast. The Altivorc King loped up behind her. The doctor cleared the tree line, and the King skidded short.
Pointing his wand, he snarled. “I might not be able to get close, but I can still use this!” Energy beams zipped toward them in quick succession.
Without looking back, Xu waved a hand toward the King. The bolts crackled against an invisible barrier.
“What?” The King stared with wide eyes.
Xu turned to the King.
“Aralas!”
Aralas? Kaiya gaped. Certainly the Altivorc King must be mistaken. One too many rocks to the head, maybe. The elf angel had returned to the Heavens a thousand years before.
Xu laughed. “Of course I knew you would attempt something on the Godseye Conjunction.” He held the fallen star aloft. “With all of this energy, the pyramid is very well protected, and now your minion is dead.” He gestured toward Jie’s body and shook his head.
The Altivorc King snarled and stomped off in the other direction.
“The other pyramids are also protected,” Xu yelled at the King’s back.
Kaiya’s stomach clenched. This felt like another deception on top of all the others, this time perpetrated by Xu himself. “Having me bring the fallen star here had nothing to do with saving Hua, did it?”
Xu favored her for a moment with an unreadable gaze. “What did Aralas tell your people before she returned to the Heavens?”
She looked to Fleet, who nodded emphatically. He’d asked her the same question during the escape from Iksuvius.
Kaiya closed her eyes. “Keep well the pyramids, reminders though they may be of your enslavement.”
“Right,” Fleet said. “If the King of the Orcs ever controls all the pyramids again, the Orc Gods will return on their flaming chariots.”
“So you see, this is larger than Hua.” Xu patted her on the shoulder.
Kaiya shook her head. “The Teleri Empire and the altivorcs are allies. If they conquer Hua, they will give the altivorcs the pyramid.”
Xu pointed down into the valley below. Peng’s rebellion and the imperial army faced off against each other, with Lord Wu’s contingent ready to fall on Peng’s flank. “The winner of this battle will have more than enough resources to defeat the Teleri.”
“Not if they annihilate each other,” Kaiya said. “And if Lord Peng wins, he might very well entreat with the altivorcs.” Not likely, but there had to be some way to convince Xu to help.
“Behold!” Cousin Peng’s voice carried through the night.
The dark sky above the battlefield shimmered. An undulating form of sparkling golden scales materialized. A real dragon, though far more graceful than Avarax’s gargantuan form. Its eyes glowed red. Each claw had five talons, a symbol of the Tianzi and the Mandate of Heaven.
Kaiya gawped at it. The Guardian Dragon of Hua, resembling all the paintings she’d ever seen. He’d only appeared a few times in history, during times of great change to anoint a new dynasty. The three hundred thousand soldiers below all sank to their knees in a ripple of kowtows. Perhaps Lord Peng did hold the Mandate of Heaven. All of the strategizing and power struggles of the previous years had all led to this. She
let out a long sigh.
Mumbling what amounted to a curse of sorts, Doctor Wu scoffed.
“Do you feel it?” Brehane pointed. “It feels like Shallow Magic. The pearl is an illusion.”
Shallow Magic…a trick! Anger welled up in Kaiya’s chest, heat flaring in her face and burning off the Tiger’s Eye. This was nothing short of sacrilege. That traitor Peng was trying to steal the Mandate of Heaven, and the sacred Guardian Dragon had fallen for his deception. “How dare he!”
“It is Lord Peng, after all.” Doctor Wu snorted again, then muttered in a barely audible voice, “At least he could do the decency of getting the color right.”
Gazing into the distance, Xu tapped his chin, looking a little like Tian with the gesture. He exchanged glances with Doctor Wu, then searched Kaiya’s eyes. “Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for Hua?”
She placed her hand over her belly. She bore the shame of possibly carrying Geros’ twins, not to mention all the other things she’d done over the last month to ensure Hua’s safety. She nodded.
“Very well, Dian-xia.” He turned to the Southerners. “Do you have a pyramid Greystone?”
“Whatever for?” Sameer’s eyes must’ve been wider than tea cup saucers as they darted to Cyrus.
Cyrus clutched a pouch to his chest.
Xu’s gaze lifted from the pouch. “So you do. I could take it from you, but I give you the choice. With it lies the opportunity for the princess to save her country.”
The three exchanged glances. Cyrus shook his head, but then relented under Brehane’s glare. He opened the pouch and withdrew a fist-sized gem, which resembled solid smoke.
“Madaeri,” Xu said. “Take it and swap it with Guanyin’s Tear at the pyramid’s font.”
Fleet’s mouth gaped open. “That’s what the Altivorc King wants!”
“And what about our magic?” Cyrus kept shaking his head. “We will lose it, too.”
“Technically, the King might be able to approach the pyramid.” Xu looked back toward where the orc had disappeared. “However, I don’t sense him, and with the Fallen Star and Doctor Wu, we can all have a tie to magic and can block his path.” He pointed toward the moons. “At the conjunction, swap them out. Follow me, Dian-xia.”
Kaiya trailed Xu up the steps to the pyramid’s sealed entrance. She looked at it, then at Fleet, who scrambled up the structure’s side with effortless grace. She turned back to Xu. “Nobody has been in here since the War of Ancient Gods.”
Xu nodded. “Aralas took this pyramid’s Greystone on the day the Dwarves sacked the Temple of Tivar, and then placed a magical ward on the entrance.” He pointed near the middle of the pyramid, where large gashes ripped into the smooth stone. “Do you know what that is from?”
“Damage from the Hellstorm.”
“No.” Xu shook his head. “You might as well know the truth. Avarax awoke during the Hellstorm. That night, he clashed with Hua’s Guardian Dragon. He left those scars in the pyramid.”
Kaiya’s thoughts spun. The legends and histories never spoke of such things. Avarax had awoken thirty-three years before…unless he hadn’t replaced Rumiya, but had been Rumiya the whole time. “Why?”
“He wanted the Guardian Dragon’s Flaming Pearl.”
Her legs wobbled. She shot a hand out and clasped him for support. “When he took the form of the Dragon’s Envoy, he told me something about the Flaming Pearl.”
“I helped your ancestor hide the Pearl where Avarax could never reach it.”
One shock after the other. Muscles she did not even know she had cramped her face. “The Founder?”
“No, his consort.”
She took several deep breaths. Either Xu lied, or the histories she knew so well were false.
“Easy, Dian-xia.” He placed a reassuring hand on the small of her back.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I am going to open a portal to the Flaming Pearl.” He grinned. “If you bring it back, perhaps you can win the Guardian Dragon’s approval.”
“Where is it?”
“So many questions.” He looked up at the moons and yawned. “Great Peace Island.”
Great Peace Island…where her ancestor had come from. Still, it didn’t make sense. Thielas Starsong and Ayana Strongbow had whisked her all around the world with just a few words, and Xu needed a rare conjunction to pull it off? And from what Brehane had said, the Greystone had created a magical deadspot around the pyramid in Selastyas. “How will you use magic if a Greystone blocks the pyramid’s font?”
“Silly girl; you may have learned a lot about Artistic Magic, but it is still just a drop in the ocean.” He pointed up. “The Godseye is upon us. You will not live to see the next time it comes.”
Kaiya followed his finger. The three moons lined up, the larger blue moon forming the backdrop for the white, and inside the white, the smallest iridescent moon. The pulse of the world sounded louder and more jubilant than ever.
Xu lifted his voice in song. The world hummed around her, and the door into the pyramid swirled in a rainbow of lights. A gaping hole opened, and bright white light poured out.
It looked nothing like the inside of a pyramid.
Wind danced through the green leaves of a single cherry tree, in front of a dark stone road. And the light spilling from the pyramid entrance…was sunlight in the land beyond.
“You will be on your own in a strange land,” Xu said. “Use the lessons you have learned. Listen for the Flaming Pearl’s call.”
“I still don’t have the power of my voice.”
“That could be a problem.” He tapped his chin again. He then spoke a single word, and a shiny metal tuning fork appeared in his hand. “Wang Yuxiang left the Dragon Pearl in the well of a burning temple. When you are near it, strike this on something hard.”
So many things to remember. Kaiya’s mind swirled; her knees felt like jelly. She took the tuning fork.
He studied her face. “Hurry. The portal will close behind you. I will open it again when the conjunction ends, in about a half-hour’s time. If you are not back by then, you will be trapped there forever.”
For Hua, she would have to succeed. With a deep breath, she stepped through the portal.
Chapter 40:
Stranger
The low whir of cicadas droned in Kaiya’s ears, and oppressive, humid heat hung in her lungs. She shielded her eyes from the bright sun, which seemed larger than usual. The iridescent moon…nowhere to be seen. Gauging the half-hour time limit would require plenty of guesswork. She looked around, taking in the bizarre surroundings of her ancestor’s homeland. If Xu was to be believed, this was indeed Great Peace Island.
It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. The smooth black road warmed her feet through her shoes’ thin soles. Perfectly square pavestones, all white with some bright flecks, lined either side. The buildings were blocky and unsightly, made of metal and stone, with windows of actual glass. Not like the beautiful stained glass the Estomari craftsmen made, but plain and clear.
A loud horn blared behind her, making her heart leap into her throat. She turned around. A cart moving of its own accord glided toward her. A handsome man, whose fine features and skin tone suggested Eldaeri blood, leaned out from the front and yelled at her, in a language which made no sense. Then he gaped. With arms covered in sleek blue sleeves, he gestured her to the stone-paved roadside.
Bowing, she moved to the side while the cart floated past her, its bottom not even touching the road. Magic, perhaps. Supposedly, as the gods’ haven in this world, Great Peace Island was full of it. She stared at the man as it passed, and he stared back.
She turned around and gawked again.
A brown wooden gate with pitched tiled eaves rose before her. Though the architecture might have belonged in her own homeland, it looked ridiculously out of place with everything else around her. The plaque above, in white lettering, read Original Mastery Temple.
Kaiya’s mouth hung open wid
er. This was the gate which the Founder himself had passed through, at least according to all the Imperial Family histories. A stone obelisk at the side of the gate had some sort of inscription, a bizarre mix of the Hua language and some other unintelligible scribble—like Xiulan’s handwriting, only much uglier.
She read what she could. It mentioned her ancestor, Xinchang, though it used the symbols Zhitian, Woven Field, for his surname. Something about death and fire and ruins.
“Ahr yuu oukei mihss?” a man called from behind her.
She spun around to find the cart driver. Tight blue clothes, smooth as a sharkskin she’d once seen, covered his entire body. She took several steps back.
“Ihtz oukei. Ai wount hahrt yuu.” He held up both hands.
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
The man cocked his head.
Perhaps it was a waste of time. She searched for the iridescent moon, still not there. “I don’t understand,” she repeated in Arkothi, Ayuri, and finally, on a desperate whim, the secret imperial language.
His eyes and mouth widened. “How you talk sun origin speech?”
“How do you speak the imperial language?”
His brow furrowed. “Im-Pe-Ri-Al language?”
She nodded.
“I learned in big study. Long ago, everyone speak it here.” He opened his arms wide.
Wherever the big study was. Perhaps Great Peace Island had been conquered in the three hundred years since the Founder left, so much so that his language had fallen into obscurity. She forced a smile.
“So you okay?” He reached for her sleeve and rubbed the fabric between his fingers.
Such poor manners. She pulled away. “Yes, just a little lost. I am looking for a well.”
His head cocked again. “A we-ll?”
She pantomimed drawing water out of a well and drinking.
“You thirsty?”
Kaiya started to shake her head. But no, her mouth was dry. She nodded.