The Dragon Warrior

by Katie Zhao

  He let out a short, bitter laugh. “Tell me the truth, Faryn. In your heart, was I ever your family?”

  My brother might as well have twisted a knife into my heart and yanked the whole thing out. “Alex, y-you’ve always been my family.” The tears tumbled out of my eyes, thick and heavy and fast—the opposite of my words, which came out slow and choked. “You’re my brother. M-my dì di. We’ve been through everything together. Bullying. Ye Ye’s training. Ba’s disappearance. You aren’t just part of my family. You’re my only family. Just because we aren’t related by blood doesn’t change anything.”

  “You’re right. It doesn’t change anything. It changes everything.”

  With shaking hands, Alex pulled something out of his pocket. Ba’s notebook. He turned around and chucked it into the waves of the ocean, which lapped it up hungrily. The black leather-bound notebook filled with my father’s research, the clues to his whereabouts, was … gone.

  My heart nearly stopped. “Wh-what have you done, Alex? How are we going to find Ba?”

  Alex’s eyes still streamed tears. But they were cold. Dead. “None of that stuff matters to me anymore. Don’t you get it? I have no relationship with Liu Bo. I don’t care about finding him. No wonder he abandoned me. I’m not his son.”

  He spat out the words with vehemence. So strongly that I almost believed him.

  I picked myself up and sprinted unsteadily toward the waves. Ren got up with me, as though reading my mind. Ba’s notebook couldn’t have sunk too far. I could save it. I had to.

  Something flew down from above and landed between Alex and me, kicking up sand and forcing me to back away. It was the red dragon—with Guanyin on its back. The white dragon touched down right behind the red one, and Nezha slid off its scaly back. Erlang Shen arrived on a black dragon, with his red dog, Xiao Tian Quan, right behind him.

  I thought of Nezha’s “stomachache” at the Lantern Festival banquet. Had he planned to duck out all along, rescue Alex and me from the banquet, and start a fight among the gods?

  “Some rescue you planned, Nezha,” Erlang Shen grumbled. “It’ll be easy,” he said, putting on a high-pitched voice that sounded nothing like Nezha’s. “ ‘We’ll grab the mortals and split. We definitely won’t set anything on fire.’ Weren’t those your exact words? And now look.” The warrior god thrust his spear in the direction of the city beyond the walls, where smoke rose high into the clouds. “We should’ve skipped this whole banquet to begin with.”

  “The point of attending the banquet was to make sure these kids ate the peaches of immortality,” Nezha said defensively. “How was I supposed to know that demons were going to sneak onto the island?”

  Peaches of immortality? Uh-oh.

  “We didn’t eat those peaches,” I blurted out.

  “Clearly,” Nezha grumbled.

  “That Chuangmu,” Guanyin added darkly. “Bargaining with demons now after falling out with Xi Wangmu. Some of the minor deities will stop at nothing for power, especially as the humans slowly forget them.”

  The way she was speaking, it sounded like these deities were aiming to rebel against the Jade Emperor. But before I could ask what exactly their plan was, Nezha let out a gasp. “Oh.”

  His eyes had landed on Moli. Guanyin’s hands pressed to her lips.

  Erlang Shen pointed his spear at Moli. “What’s happened?”

  He must have found the answer in our eyes, because he didn’t press further. At his feet, Xiao Tian Quan whimpered, and his ears drooped.

  Nezha lowered his hand to Moli’s wrist. Guanyin knelt down too, head bowed in respect, and waved her green staff over Moli.

  “Wh-what’re you doing?” my brother demanded, clasping her limp hand more tightly.

  Guanyin murmured something, and Moli’s body disappeared. Just like Ye Ye’s had.

  Alex’s eyes widened. “No.”

  “That girl’s soul will do just fine in Diyu,” Guanyin reassured Alex, but my brother remained stone-faced.

  We stared at the spot where Moli had lain only moments ago.

  After a few minutes had passed, Erlang Shen coughed and broke the tense silence. “My uncle’s reign is coming to an end. I can feel it in my bones.”

  “I think that’s the others coming after us,” Guanyin pointed out. The sand beneath our feet shook. “They must’ve broken past the other dragons.”

  “Get on your chariot, warriors,” Nezha snapped. “The Jade Emperor is going to send out a search party for you four—” He caught himself, with a sad look at the empty space where Moli had been. “Three, I mean. You need to leave.”

  “The Jade Emperor is going to call a search party for a couple of mortals?” Ren asked in disbelief.

  Nezha shook his head. “Not mortals. He’s looking for his powerful weapon. The … Heaven Breaker.”

  “Powerful weapon?”

  “The Jade Emperor’s looking for this, right?”

  My brother crouched over in the water, the waves lapping at his ankles. His hands closed around something shiny that had washed up on the shore.

  Alex turned his eyes toward me. They looked empty, but his lips curled up into a smile.

  My heart lurched. “But … I threw it away.”

  Only the Heaven Breaker was supposed to be able to pick up Fenghuang. But my brother lifted it as though it were featherlight and twirled it in the air. He caught it easily, as though the weapon had been made for him.

  Alex was the Heaven Breaker now, not me. But how?

  “Hand that over, boy,” Erlang Shen said, his hand outstretched, a greedy gleam in his eye. But Nezha flung his arm in front of the warrior god’s chest and shook his head firmly.

  “Put that down, Alex,” I pleaded. “We’ve got to leave. Now.”

  “What a shame,” Alex said. “This spear deserves a better owner—one that appreciates it. Don’t you, Fenghuang?” He twirled it in another circle, his eyes following its movements with wolfish pride.

  I swallowed hard with a realization. Xi Wangmu’s voice. Of course. The evil goddess controlled the weapon, and she’d chosen my brother to be its next master. The next Heaven Breaker and leader of the Jade Emperor’s army.

  “Fight it, Alex,” I urged. “You’re stronger than that voice. You know becoming the Jade Emperor’s general is wrong. Remember Moli. She wouldn’t have wanted …”

  “We don’t know what she would have wanted. Moli is dead.” Pain, raw and unfiltered, flashed across Alex’s face. “Moli didn’t deserve to die,” he whispered.

  “No. And neither do any of the other people the Jade Emperor will ask you to kill for him.”

  Alex’s grip around the spear relaxed. I was so close—so close—to convincing him; I could tell by the anguish that pulled his eyebrows together.

  Please, deities, let my brother return to me.

  But I had no powerful spear—not anymore. No prayer notes, incense sticks, or offerings. The voices of the gods had deserted me.

  Alex’s rage shifted into pain. “Don’t you dare speak Moli’s name. You’re the reason she’s dead.”

  The words slammed into me. “I’m just …” I swallowed hard. “I’m trying to protect you.”

  “I don’t need a stranger’s protection.” He spat out the word stranger as though it had left a foul taste in his mouth. “I’m the new Heaven Breaker, chosen by the gods to lead Heaven’s army into glory with Fenghuang.”

  As he spoke, his outline glowed, causing all of us to shield our eyes. When I peeked out from under my arms again, the dragons had frozen. Their huge, now-blank eyes fixed on Alex.

  “H-hey, good dragons. Eyes over here,” Nezha said, snapping his fingers.

  Instead, the three dragons flew over to my brother and settled around him. Even with his glow, Alex appeared tiny sandwiched between the great beasts.

  “What’s wrong with the dragons?” Erlang Shen asked. Xiao Tian Quan barked.

  I knew, with a sinking heart, what had happened. The dragons had only obeye
d me, their former master, because the position of Heaven Breaker had been vacant until I picked up Fenghuang. But not anymore. Now, Alex was the Heaven Breaker, and master of the dragons.

  Beside me, Ren jolted. A flash of pain passed over his face, and his body began quaking. His eyes flashed blue once more.

  “No, Ren. Fight it. You’re human enough to stay with me. Look at me,” I insisted. If Alex took command of the dragon inside Ren and wrenched him from my side, I’d be completely, utterly alone. No Alex. No Moli. No Ren.

  Ren’s body stopped shuddering. He shook his white hair. His eyes cleared, reverting to their green and black colors. Had my plea worked?

  Alex’s golden eyes met mine across the sand. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought they looked sad. He gave a small nod. And then I understood. He’d let Ren stay by my side.

  Why? Why, after siding against me, against humanity, would my brother still be looking out for me?

  Shouts came from behind the wall, followed by a bang. The guards burst through the doors of the circular entrance. Behind them came a palanquin that could only belong to the Jade Emperor. The swarm of guards pointed their spears at us and yelled.

  “We need to leave—now,” said Nezha.

  He dove over the side of the chariot and took the reins. Took Moli’s place, I realized with a jolt. The horses calmed in seconds under his control.

  “Fleeing feels like cowardice,” Erlang Shen grumbled, but he leapt into the chariot, along with Guanyin.

  “Come, Faryn.” Guanyin’s kind eyes crinkled as she smiled at me. She spoke in a soothing, motherly voice that made it nearly impossible for me not to do as she asked. “You’ll be safe with us.”

  Alex stood there, surrounded by the dragons. I extended my hand to him. The chariot lifted a few inches off the ground. The wind whipped my hair around my face until I could barely see. Alex remained where he stood, glowering, his curly hair, now golden, rising around his head, shining in the night.

  “Alex, you’ve got to come,” I shouted.

  The horses climbed higher into the air at Nezha’s urging. My brother shook his head. He might have been crying. I was now too far away to see, and tears blurred my vision.

  “Alex!” I screamed, the wind whipping away my words. He turned his back to us and walked toward the Jade Emperor. Golden footsteps trailed behind him in the sand. The Emperor welcomed him with a strong clap on the shoulder. Xi Wangmu waved at the guards who’d begun flying after our chariot, as if calling off their pursuit.

  I tried jumping out of the chariot—but hands pulled me back. Ren’s.

  I slapped them away. “Don’t touch m—”

  “Let him go, Faryn,” Ren said.

  “But he’s my b-brother,” I choked. “I don’t care if we aren’t related by blood. We’ve done everything together. Everything. And now—now he hates me.” My voice came out so small I barely heard it myself.

  Ren tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. His eyes, when they held mine, shone with conviction. “Alex isn’t saying he hates you, Faryn. He’s saying he needs to find his own path.”

  Numb with disbelief, I sat back in the chariot as the Jade Emperor slammed the door shut, blocking Alex from view. The palanquin departed, and with it, the boy I’d called brother for eleven years. I watched until the palanquin became a speck in the night.

  Then nothing.

  CHAPTER

  27

  We rode on in silence, leaving Peng Lai Island far behind. The horses charged forward at Nezha’s coaxing. Erlang Shen and Guanyin pulled up on either side of us on their clouds, with Xiao Tian Quan right on the heels of his owner.

  I’d saved the minor deities, but I’d failed everything else. I’d lost Ye Ye—twice. I hadn’t found Ba. I’d even lost the one person who’d always stuck by me—my brother. Numbness settled in my chest.

  “You’re sure the warriors have prepared suitable quarters for us, right?” Erlang Shen asked Nezha. “We better not be squatting in a pathetic hole with a bunch of sniveling humans.”

  “All I know is that they’re expecting us,” Nezha said. “They’ve been praying for our help for ages, anyway.”

  It sounded like we were on our way back to San Francisco. If there was even a San Francisco to go back to.

  Erlang Shen sighed into his hands. His dog barked and chased its own tail in excitement among the clouds.

  Ren kept staring at his picture of his mother, which was now frayed and burned around the edges. I winced in sympathy. Right after he’d found her for the first time in his life, Ren’s mother—or at least, who we thought had been his mother—had turned into a demon lord and tried to burn down Peng Lai Island.

  “Hey.” I nudged Ren. “We’ll keep looking for Cindy. The real Cindy. She’s gotta be out there somewhere. Your real mom, I mean.”

  His lips twitched upward in the first smile of the day. “Yeah. We’ll find her. She’s a celebrity, after all. I just … I hope the Red Prince didn’t do anything to her. I hope she’s okay.” Ren’s eyes fell upon me. “Did you get to talk to Ao Guang, or …?”

  My heart thudded. I shook my head, staring down at my toes.

  “It’s okay,” he reassured me. “I’m sure we’ll see him again. Besides … I’m beginning to think that having this dragon with me isn’t such a bad thing, after all.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I used to be scared of transforming, but now I’m not. Not as much as I was at first, I mean. I’ve begun to trust this dragon a lot more—ever since I met you.”

  I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across my lips, or my heart from giving a strange little leap. “That’s great to hear. But no more breaking stores, okay?”

  Ren returned the smile with one of his own. “No more breaking stores.”

  “No more what?” Guanyin popped up before Ren and me. She took the seat in front of us—the one Alex had vacated—and pressed a warm hand over mine. “Worried about your brother, Heaven Breaker?”

  I knew Xi Wangmu had been influencing my brother. Twisting his mind with her vile words. But how much control did the goddess have over him, really? How many of Alex’s parting words were his own?

  “I’m not the Heaven Breaker anymore,” I mumbled.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You saw what happened just now,” I said dully. “Alex took Fenghuang. Alex took the dragons. And here I am, weaponless and dragonless. It’s pretty clear who the Heaven Breaker is now.”

  Guanyin nodded slowly. “I won’t lie. Xi Wangmu controls Fenghuang, which means she effectively chooses and controls who the Heaven Breaker is. Now she has decided your brother will take that role.”

  “I knew it,” I groaned.

  The goddess held up her hand. “It would seem as though you’ve lost your power. But you’ll do well to remember this, warrior—power isn’t measured only by the size of a weapon. You have at least three deities on your side, and we deities don’t bother with mortals who lack potential for greatness.”

  Guanyin winked. She flew out of the chariot and joined Erlang Shen and Nezha in the front.

  The silence stretched between Ren and me as we rode on, over oceans, cities, and greenery. Then the scenery below shifted as we approached a city located on an island populated with impossibly tall buildings and surrounded by towering bridges. I recognized a few striking landmarks from afar, like a statue holding a torch high into the air. The Statue of Liberty. I’d never been to New York, but I knew enough from the news and some American history textbooks to recognize the landmark.

  As we edged closer to the ground, Nezha slowed the horses. We’d come to another ruined Chinatown. Red paper lanterns had been strung, though halfheartedly, on the few buildings that hadn’t been seriously damaged. The streets were filled with rubble, and cars were upturned and parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. Smoke and an air of gloom hung over the city.

  The gods were silent as they took in the scene. I couldn’t speak, either.
<
br />   “Is this Manhattan’s Chinatown?” I asked.

  “It was,” Nezha said grimly.

  More like Manhattan’s ghost town. There was almost nobody out on the streets.

  “What is this, Nezha?” Erlang Shen narrowed his eyes at the boy god, betrayal written across his face. “You promised me the mortals would be falling over themselves to welcome us. And instead you take me to this—this—this barren wasteland?”

  “I promised you a place where mortals would send you all the prayers you could ever want, you power-hungry fool,” Nezha snapped. “This is it. If you don’t like it, you can go back to being your uncle’s puppet. The Jade Emperor’s plan will guarantee the destruction of humans—and of us. But go on.”

  Erlang Shen must’ve hated that idea, because the warrior god fell silent. His stiff shoulders told me he wanted nothing better than to pummel Nezha, though.

  Guanyin shook her head. “You’d better straighten out your attitudes before we meet the New Order warriors.”

  “New Order warriors? Have you heard of them?” Ren whispered to me.

  I shook my head. Moli’s death and Alex’s betrayal weighed on my shoulders like a mountain. “Why are we here? Why did you save us back there at the Lantern Festival banquet?”

  Erlang Shen rolled his three eyes. “Haven’t you mortals caught on already? We saved you two because we—the little boy, the goddess of mercy, and I—are raising a rebellion against my senile uncle the Jade Emperor, before he plunges us into a war unparalleled by any before.”

  Ren let out a breath, the air whistling past his teeth. “Let me guess. You want us to join your cause.”

  Erlang Shen’s grin stretched across his face as the chariot dipped. “That’s right. As much as I hate to admit it, mortals, if we deities are to save the world from the Jade Emperor’s stupidity, we’re going to have to team up with your kind, along with the forgotten deities. And we’re going to need the help of the Heaven Breaker.”

  I sighed. “I already told Guanyin. I’m not the Heaven Breaker anymore.”

  Before the warrior god could respond, we landed on the rocky ground with a jolt. “Ow! Are you sure you have your charioteer’s license, Nezha?” Erlang Shen growled.