Night of the Dragon

by Julie Kagawa

  My friends. Wherever you are, I hope you are happy. I have not had the fortune to meet any of you again. Though I have searched the empire over hoping to see you, to catch a glimmer of recognition, it seems fate will have us meet when it is ready and not before. So be it. I truly believe we will all meet again someday, and when we do, it will be as if we never left. Though you might be shocked to learn your naive, reckless fox is now the daimyo of the entire Moon Clan. I have so many tales to tell you, my friends, but until our souls meet again, I will wait. I am kitsune, after all. I have time.

  * * *

  I put down my brush and stared at the paper a moment, watching the lines of ink dry on the page, before carefully closing the journal and returning it to the shelf above my desk.

  A respectful tap sounded outside my door. “My lady?” came the voice of Hana, one of my ladies-in-waiting. “Yumeko-sama, it is almost time. Have you been made ready?”

  I sighed. “Yes, Hana-san.” I stood, turning to the door. “Please come in. Stop lurking outside my door like a yurei. The last time Misako startled me, I nearly set the shoji on fire.”

  The door slid back, revealing a young, pretty girl who bowed quickly and then stepped through the frame. “My lady, I have been sent to inform you your guests have started to arrive,” she said, her gaze scanning my outfit as she rose. As my clan colors dictated, I was dressed in a black kimono with a gray underrobe, and the silk was decorated with hundreds of swirling silver leaves. But if you looked hard enough, you might also see a few brightly colored leaves among the swirls of silver. Five in all, each representing a different soul. I found it fitting for today.

  Hana smiled, and by the wistful look on her face, I assumed I appeared presentable. “Thank you, Hana,” I told the girl. “Now, stop worrying about me, and go enjoy yourself. No one is going to need their hair combed or their floors swept until tomorrow. I know Misako has already gone into town. Go join her, eat a mochi ball, fly a paper dragon. This is a day of celebration, and tonight we will honor the heroes of one hundred years ago. Do you have a lantern to float down the river?”

  She bobbed her head. “Yes, Yumeko-sama! My great-great-grandfather was one of the ashigaru soldiers that stood against the demon horde. He died, sadly, but we’ve never forgotten his sacrifice.”

  “Good.” I nodded. “Honor him tonight. Let him be remembered always. Now, go on.” I motioned to the hallway. “Have fun. I don’t want to see you back here until tomorrow morning.”

  “Hai, Yumeko-sama!”

  Hana bowed and scampered off, her sandaled feet slapping against the wooden floors as she hurried away. I smiled at her excitement, then turned to give myself a last glance in the mirror.

  A kitsune with pointed ears and golden eyes stared back, making me nod in satisfaction. The envoys and representatives of the other clans were always surprised when they met me. Not by my fox nature, which few could see. They expected an older woman, a crone, one whose face was lined with years and experience. Not a girl who could be someone’s granddaughter. I refused to wear my hair up, hating the way the combs pinched and the hairsticks stabbed my scalp, and so my hair hung unbound to my waist. I did not look like a wise, revered ruler of the Moon Clan, and much like Lady Hanshou’s legacy, rumors were starting to circulate. For now, given the Tsuki’s isolation from the rest of the empire, they were just rumors, but eventually, it would become known that the daimyo of the aloof, eccentric Moon Clan wasn’t completely human.

  I didn’t care. Let the empire know that the Tsuki family daimyo was a kitsune. It wouldn’t make any difference as to what I did, or my vow to keep my people, my family and the kami who lived here safe.

  Turning from the mirror, I stepped to my desk and carefully picked up the paper lantern sitting on the corner. Unlike the round, red chochin lanterns that hung on strings and above doorways, this one was boxy and rectangular. Its thin paper walls were white instead of red, and on each side, a handful of names had been written in the blackest ink. The five names of those dearest to me, the souls I never wanted to forget. Hino Okame, Taiyo Daisuke, Reika, Suki.

  Kage Tatsumi.

  Kiyomi-sama’s name wasn’t on the paper lantern, though I had briefly considered adding her to the paper walls, as well. But this festival was to honor those who had fought and died on the Night of the Dragon, who gave their lives to save the empire. There were other celebrations that honored the departed. Every year, on the night of her death, I traveled alone to a certain grove in the forest of the kami. There, along with hundreds of kodama, spirits and sometimes, though very rarely, the Great Kirin, we would honor the memory of the Tsuki daimyo, and I would pray for her wisdom to continue guiding me down the right path. So far, she had never led me wrong, and I didn’t think she would mind if her name was absent from the paper lantern. Tonight was for other souls.

  Satisfied, I left my chambers, and found Tsuki Akari waiting for me in the hall, along with a pair of armed samurai. My chief adviser and closest friend was a beautiful young woman with the intelligence of a sage and the wit of a monkey god. She looked like she could be my sister, and sometimes she acted like it, though I remembered when she had been a dirty-faced child running around the palace gardens. She didn’t really advise me on much, but Akari had informants everywhere and knew everything that went on inside the walls of the palace; I relied on her to tell me the things I needed to know.

  “Yumeko-sama,” Akari said with a reverent bow and a less reverent smile that only I could see. My chief adviser was the epitome of charm and grace in public, which was also the only time she called me Yumeko-sama. “The sun is beginning to set. Everyone is waiting for the Moon Clan daimyo to send the first lantern down the river.”

  I nodded and raised the lantern before me. “I’m ready. Let us go. But first...” I gave her a shrewd look. “Were you able to obtain what I asked for?”

  She gave a despairing sigh and held up a stick with three brightly colored rice dumpling balls shoved halfway down the length, a popular festival snack. I grinned and plucked it from her fingers, as the guards pretended not to notice. “When you’re finished, Yumeko-sama,” Akari said, putting emphasis on the “sama,” as if to remind me that daimyo of great clans should not indulge in common festival sweets—at least, not in public... “Kage Haruko is in the main hall, and wishes to speak to you before the sending of the lanterns.”

  “Oh?” I bit off one of the rice balls and motioned us down the hall with the rest of the stick. “Her health has been poorly lately, or so she said in the missive apologizing that she couldn’t be here tonight. I wonder why she changed her mind?”

  “I’m sure you can ask her.”

  We walked in silence through the palace until we came to the main hall, which was emptier than normal. Most everyone was either at the festival or on the banks of the numerous moats running through the city, paper lanterns in hand.

  But a group of people waited for me as I stepped into the chamber, men and women in the distinctive black and purple of the Shadow Clan. The woman in the center, surrounded by nobles and samurai, was a distinguished older woman whose hair was threaded with silver, but who was still quite beautiful despite her years. She sat cross-legged on a cushion, her back straight and her eyes closed, but they opened as I stopped in front of her, and she looked me over with a sharp black gaze.

  “Haruko-sama.” I nodded respectfully, and she returned it. “I will admit to being surprised to see you here. Your note said you were not well enough to travel.”

  “I’m not.” The Kage daimyo held up a hand, and immediately the young samurai standing beside her offered his arm to help her to her feet. “I’m here,” the daimyo went on through gritted teeth as she stood, “because my thrice cursed grandson would not stop pestering me to make the journey, and since we came all this way, I thought I would pay my respects.” She gave me a tight smile. “You haven’t changed since I saw you...thirty years ago? Be
fore the war with the Hino that took my son.” She shook her head, as if dissolving those memories. “My apologies, I am being a rude old lady. I don’t believe you have met my grandson?” She motioned to the man beside her, who gave me a solemn bow. “This is Kage Kousuke.”

  “It is an honor to meet you, my lady,” Kousuke recited.

  “I would introduce you to my other grandson, the baka that convinced me to make this ridiculous journey, but he has apparently decided that greeting the Moon Clan daimyo in her own palace is not important and disappeared as soon as we reached the docks.” Kage Haruko made a hopeless gesture with both hands. “That boy. If he wasn’t such a skilled warrior, I would have sent him off to live with monks long ago. Maybe they could make sense of his dreams.”

  I pricked my ears, about to ask what she meant, but from the open doors of the palace, a low murmur seemed to run through the entire city, hundreds of breaths being released at once. I turned and saw.

  “The sun has set,” Akari said beside me in a soft voice. “Yumeko-sama, it is time.”

  I nodded and bowed my head to the Shadow Clan ruler. “Forgive me, Haruko-sama,” I told her. “I must go.”

  “Of course.”

  Twilight had fallen over Shinsei Yaju as I walked down the steps of the Moon Clan Palace, the air cool and tinged with anticipation. It was a perfect evening. The sky was clear, the temperature mild and the breeze carried the faint, sweet smells of the festival: dango, yakitori, grilled octopus on a stick and more.

  Dozens of people clustered along the water’s edge as I came to the arched bridge, then carefully made my way down to the riverbank. As I knelt at the edge of the water, I could see my reflection on the surface: a girl with pointed ears and golden eyes, who looked nearly the same as she had one hundred years ago when she fled the Silent Winds temple with a scroll that would change the world.

  She wasn’t the same, though. She had grown up. She had loved and lost, found a family, discovered what was important. She had wandered the land, traveled to the corners and hidden places of the empire, only to find that home was where she had wanted to be all along. She had people who needed her, a whole island to protect. And, except for one tiny, nagging doubt, the smallest of holes in her heart, she was content.

  The lantern in my palm glowed softly, illuminating the names written across the surface. I smiled and carefully lowered it into the water, then gave it a tiny push. The paper box bobbed on the ripples a moment, drifting lazily downstream, glowing brightly against the inky water, until the current caught it and pulled it smoothly into the center of the river.

  Somewhere behind me, a drum began to sound, deep and booming. All up and down the riverbank, the crowds bent down, releasing their lanterns into the water. They floated into the river, spinning or drifting lazily, carrying the names of all the souls whose sacrifice allowed us to be here. I lost my own lantern in the flood of others, and soon the entire river glowed with soft orange light, reflected above and below like glimmering stars. I closed my eyes, sending up a prayer to the kami, and to the names drifting down the river, that they would never be forgotten.

  And then, I felt eyes on me, an oddly familiar sensation, and raised my head.

  Across the river of lights, a figure watched me, his eyes a brilliant purple in the hazy lantern glow. A young samurai dressed in black, with the crest of the Kage on one shoulder. He appeared to be a noble, and bore a striking resemblance to Kage Kousuke, the daimyo’s grandson, but was perhaps a few years younger. He stared at me, open wonder and amazement on his face, and for just a moment, it was like we were there again, on the cliff overlooking the valley, right before he whispered his promise and faded from my arms.

  My heart began an erratic beat in my chest, and my eyes filled with tears. Somewhere deep inside, part of my soul leaped up in complete, unrestrained joy, dancing, cavorting, flitting wildly from side to side. It knew him, recognized him, just as he had said it would.

  Across the river, bathed in light, the samurai smiled.

  “I’ve finally found you.”

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Iron King by Julia Kagawa.

  Glossary

  amanjaku: minor demons of Jigoku

  arigatou: thank you

  ashigaru: peasant foot soldiers

  ayame: iris

  baba: an honorific used for a female elder

  baka/bakamono: fool, idiot

  bakemono: monster

  chan: an honorific mainly used for females or children

  chochin: hanging paper lantern

  daikon: radish

  daimyo: feudal lord

  daitengu: yokai; the oldest and wisest of the tengu

  Doroshin: Kami; the god of roads

  furoshiki: a cloth used to tie one’s possessions for ease of transport

  gaki: hungry ghosts

  gashadokuro: giant skeletons summoned by evil magic

  geta: wooden clogs

  gissha: two-wheeled ox cart

  gomen: an apology; sorry

  hai: an expression of acknowledgment; yes

  hakama: pleated trousers

  hannya: a type of demon, usually female

  haori: kimono jacket

  Heichimon: Kami; the god of strength

  hitodama: the human soul

  inu: dog

  ite: ouch

  Jigoku: the Realm of Evil; hell

  Jinkei: Kami; the god of mercy

  jorogumo: a type of spider yokai

  jubokko: a carnivorous, bloodsucking tree

  kaeru: copper frog; currency of Iwagoto

  kago: palanquin

  kama: sickle

  kamaitachi: yokai; sickle weasel

  kami: minor gods

  Kami: greater gods; the nine named deities of Iwagoto

  kami-touched: those born with magic powers

  kappa: yokai; a river creature with a bowl-like indention atop its head filled with water that if ever spilled makes it lose its strength

  karasu: crow

  katana: sword

  kawauso: river otter

  kijo: female oni

  Kirin: sacred beast of Iwagoto; the Kirin has the body of a deer, the scales of a dragon, and a single antlered horn that emits holy fire

  kitsune: fox

  kitsune-bi: foxfire

  kitsune-tsuki: fox possession

  kodama: kami; a tree spirit

  komainu: lion dog

  konbanwa: good evening

  koromodako: yokai; an octopuslike creature that can grow to an enormous size

  kunai: throwing knife

  kusarigama: weighted chain with a sickle attached to one end; shinobi weapon

  kuso: a common swear word

  mabushii: an expression meaning “so bright,” like the glare of the sun

  majutsushi: mage, magic user

  Meido: the Realm of Waiting, where the soul travels before it is reborn

  miko: a shrine maiden

  minna: an expression meaning “everyone”

  mino: raincoat made of woven straw

  mon: family emblem or crest

  nande: an expression meaning “why”

  nani: an expression meaning “what”

  neko: cat

  netsuke: a carved piece of jewelry used to fasten the cord of a travel pouch to the obi

  nezumi: rat yokai

  Ningen-kai: the Mortal Realm

  nogitsune: an evil wild fox

  nue: yokai; a chimerical merging of several animals including a tiger, a snake and a monkey that is said to be able to control lightning

  nurikabe: yokai; a type of living wall that blocks roads and doorways, making it impossible to go through or around them

  obi: sash

 
; ofuda: paper talisman possessing magical abilities

  ohiyou gozaimasu: good morning

  okuri inu: yokai; large black dog that follows travelers on roads and will tear them apart if they stumble and fall

  omachi kudasai: please wait

  omukade: a giant centipede

  onikuma: a demon bear

  oni: ogre-like demons of Jigoku

  onmyoji: practitioners of onmyodo

  onmyodo: occult magic focusing primarily on divination and fortune-telling

  onryo: yurei; a type of vengeful ghost that causes terrible curses and misfortune to those who wronged it

  Orochi: yokai; dragon serpent with eight heads and eight tails

  oyasuminasai: good night

  ryokan: an inn

  ryu: gold dragon; currency of Iwagoto

  sagari: yokai; the disembodied head of a horse that drops from tree branches to frighten passersby

  sake: alcoholic drink made of fermented rice

  sama: an honorific used when addressing one of the highest station

  san: a formal honorific often used between equals

  sansai: edible wild plant

  sensei: teacher

  seppuku: ritual suicide

  shinobi: ninja

  shogi: a tactical game akin to chess

  shuriken: throwing star

  sugoi: an expression meaning “amazing”

  sumimasen: I’m sorry; excuse me

  tabi: split-toed socks or boots

  Tamafuku: Kami; the god of luck

  tanto: short knife

  tanuki: yokai; small animal resembling a raccoon, indigenous to Iwagoto