The Dragon Star (Realms of Shadow and Grace: Volume 1)

by G. L. Breedon

  “You stay quiet, and you live.” The commander repeated his threat as a promise. “I’ll spare you seeing the girl die. Dian-Vang. Take her.” As he spoke, one of the other men grabbed Lee-Nin and tried to forcefully turn her eyes from Sao-Tauna as the warden commander approached the girl with his dagger drawn. Lee-Nin fought against the hands pulling her head, straining the muscles of her neck.

  She saw the blade in the warden commander’s hand glint in the firelight as it approached Sao-Tauna’s tender flesh, her eyes wide with silent fear. As the blade neared the girl’s neck, she raised her hand, finger extended and traced an invisible pattern in the air. The night around the campfire broke open, a ribbon of dazzling luminescence unraveling around the man that held her and his nearby companions. The swirling darkness within that gaping fissure grabbed at the men, sucking them from their feet. The man holding Lee-Nin, the one called Dian-Vang, abandoned his grip on her to lunge at the airborne legs of his nearest comrade. He missed his target and flew upward into the brilliant dark cleft in the air, screaming with the other men as they tumbled up into an unseeable oblivion.

  The warden commander cried out and reached for a nearby tree branch to anchor himself against the pull of the dark vortex above as it devoured his men. Lee-Nin pulled the knife blade from her belt, rolling to her feet even as she saw the commander smash the hilt of his dagger into the side of the Sao-Tauna’s head. The girl crumpled in unconsciousness, and the scar of light tearing open the night air collapsed to nothingness.

  As the commander held back Sao-Tauna’s throat and made to slice his blade across it, Lee-Nin screamed and launched herself at him, driving her knife into the gap in his leather armor under his raised arm. The warden cried out, dropping his dagger and slamming his elbow back into her face. She fell to the ground, her nose bleeding, a lightning storm of pain shooting up into her brain. She blinked back tears and swung the blade in her hand wildly, trying to reclaim her footing and stand to attack again. A boot slammed into her stomach, kicking the wind from her lungs. She dropped the knife as she doubled up in pain, her legs weak beneath her. Another booted blow crashed into her head, sending her to the ground once more.

  As she lay gasping, trying to force her body to fight rather than merely shudder in pain, she cried out, hoping Sha-Kutan might hear so he would return and kill the man who now stood above and grabbed her hair.

  “I don’t need answers. I see now why she must die.” The warden commander yanked back Lee-Nin’s hair to expose her neck as he held up his blade. She raised her hands in an attempt to block the blow that would slit her neck. She looked once more at where Sao-Tauna lay defenseless, her foot near the fire, the leather of her boot smoking in the heat. Lee-Nin knew she herself would die, but still held out hope that Sha-Kutan might return in time to save the girl and end the life of the man who so ruthlessly hunted her.

  “Release the woman.”

  Lee-Nin’s eyes sought the sound of the voice she at first mistook for one she knew well, only realizing it belonged to someone else when she saw the tall, dark-skinned woman in a long, black cloak standing at the edge of the clearing.

  “They must die.” The commander brandished his dagger at the mysterious woman. “Leave or I’ll kill you as well.”

  “You will not kill me.” The woman walked calmly toward Lee-Nin and the commander, spreading her arms wide. “You will run screaming.”

  Lee-Nin’s head spun with pain and wonder as she watched the woman smile wide and begin to glow, a light that seemed to come from within and rapidly expand outward, a cascade of shimmering brilliance, a small sun set down in the forest night, whiter than any forge fire, its winged form taking shape and reaching out to…

  Lee-Nin closed her eyes and held her arms above her face as she screamed, her voice lost to the shriek of the man above her. She heard the commander cry out in pain and stumble back from her as he rushed into the woods, his voice a blend of babbled words and animal moans. As the light gradually faded, Lee-Nin lowered her arms and opened her eyes. She saw the woman walking toward Sao-Tauna, drawing a sword from beneath her cloak.

  “No.” Lee-Nin’s voice cracked as she tried to form thoughts and words to make sense of what her eyes beheld. The woman, the creature of light, had saved her only to now kill Sao-Tauna? For what purpose?

  “I must.” The woman looked sad as she angled the tip of the blade toward Sao-Tauna and raised the hilt to strike.

  “Stand away from the girl.”

  Lee-Nin gulped back the sigh that came from hearing that voice. She turned, still dizzy from exposure to the woman’s light and the impact of the commander’s boot, seeing Sha-Kutan stride from the forest to stand opposite the fire from the woman.

  “You know what she is.” The woman held the sword hovering in the air above Sao-Tauna’s chest.

  “No one knows what she is.” Sha-Kutan’s eyes did not move from the woman and the sword.

  “She is a danger beyond all imaginable dangers, and she must die.” Authority and conviction filled the woman’s words.

  “She is but a girl, and she is under my protection.” Sha-Kutan’s voice boomed throughout the clearing.

  “Do you seek to destroy this world as well?” The woman glared at Sha-Kutan. “You are ever the same.”

  “I am not what you think, nor are we all that very different.” Sha-Kutan lowered his head slightly as he looked at the woman.

  “Abandon your host now, and I will send you back alive.” The woman glanced down at Sao-Tauna. “Regardless, the girl must die.”

  “No.”

  Lee-Nin saw a glint of steel as Sha-Kutan leaned forward, his arm whip-like as it snapped out. The woman gasped, looking to see a knife hilt protruding from her shoulder. He must have hidden it in his hand at his waist, the fire flames blocking it from the woman’s view. As the woman yanked the blade from the flesh of her shoulder, Sha-Kutan pulled his sword free of its sheath and leapt across the fire. The woman jumped to meet him midair, their bodies and blades crashing together, their true natures exploding outward at the contact, a wall of winged shadow blossoming as a pinion of brilliance burst into being in opposition.

  Lee-Nin crawled along the forest floor, dried pine needles digging into her palms as she sought to reach Sao-Tauna and pull her to safety. Sha-Kutan and the woman fought around and through the campfire, striking at each other with their swords even as their alter-beings of light and shadow battled above, the branches of the trees whirling in the maelstrom. The wind of that elemental conflict drove down the flames of the fire. The woman, impossibly strong even with a wounded shoulder, threw Sha-Kutan into the coals at their feet.

  Lee-Nin grabbed Sao-Tauna by the wrist and pulled her back as she watched the woman withdraw a silver medallion from beneath her shirt. Sha-Kutan gasped at the sight of the medallion and rolled, pushing the woman away. As they stood, Sha-Kutan lunged, grabbing the woman around the waist and lifting her into the air. A roar of lightning against rock escaped his lungs as he hurled the woman across the clearing and into a tree. The trunk of the tree cracked beneath the impact of the woman’s body, the light winged creature above, tethered to her by a vaporous trail of brilliance, wavered under the impact, losing ground to the shadow-being it fought.

  The woman rolled to her feet, screaming with a rage that terrified Lee-Nin and froze her as she pulled Sao-Tauna into the forest. Shaking with fear, she saw a shard of white lightning rent the night air above the woman. Looking down, she could see Sao-Tauna, eyes open wide in fear, her tiny finger extended toward the growing light-edged chasm pulling the woman from the ground and into its swirling black maw. The woman screamed as she tumbled upwards, pulled by an invisible and irresistible force, the winged being of light collapsing back into her frame of flesh and bone as a whirlpool of blackness sucked at them.

  “No!” Sha-Kutan rushed toward the woman, his shadow-self remerging with his body as he grasped her arm in a massive hand, pulling at her with all his weight and strength — a kite tethered t
o a rock in a storm of wind and light and blackness. He turned to Lee-Nin and the girl as he struggled to hold the woman from disappearing into the darkness churning above them. “Sao-Tauna! Stop!”

  Lee-Nin looked to see Sao-Tauna’s face constricted in confusion. Lee-Nin understood her dismay for she, too, did not know why Sha-Kutan attempted to save the woman that wished to kill them. Sao-Tauna bit her lip and lowered her finger. The woman dropped to the ground as the light riving the air beneath the trees faded away. Sha-Kutan released the woman’s arm, retrieved his sword from the ground, and held its tip to her chest.

  The two stared at each other, their breath loud in the sudden quiet of the forest. Lee-Nin watched them, holding tight to Sao-Tauna, her mind spinning out of balance in an attempt to understand what had transpired and what now took place before her eyes. Sao-Tauna breathed heavily in fear, and Lee-Nin raised a hand to gently touch her shoulder. Sao-Tauna did not recoil from the touch, a fact that pleased Lee-Nin as she found the gesture as calming for herself as she intended it to be for the girl. A voice brought Lee-Nin’s eyes across what remained of the fire to where Sha-Kutan held the woman at bay with his blade.

  “I do not understand.” The woman looked up to Sha-Kutan, her voice ragged.

  “I told you, Ogtankaa, I am not what I appear.” Sha-Kutan stepped back slightly, but held the sword extended. “I am a willing host. I am not possessed. We are one.”

  “How is that possible?” The woman frowned as she stood to her feet.

  “Through great effort.” Sha-Kutan sounded weary. “Is your host willing?”

  “Yes.” The woman, Ogtankaa, looked away briefly before returning her gaze to Sha-Kutan. “This one.”

  “Then we are similar, if not the same,” Sha-Kutan said. The woman glared at him.

  Lee-Nin looked between the two. Sha-Kutan spoke the truth. She sensed it. The two beings were alike, although opposite in nature. But what were they? Where did they come from? How had they entered this world?

  “The girl is a danger to everyone and everything.” The woman glanced at Sao-Tauna.

  A shiver of fear passed through Lee-Nin, more intense than any she had felt even in the presence of Sha-Kutan’s dark essence. The woman’s aspect of light did not mean she held less danger than his nature of shadow.

  “No matter what she is, she is still a girl, still a sentient being, and still entitled to life.” Sha-Kutan lowered his blade as he looked to Sao-Tauna. “Look at her, Ogtankaa. Have you forgotten your purpose in being here? Do you not remember the oaths that have bound you to this world?”

  “What she can do might break the seals once more and void the very reason of my being here all these years hunting you and the others.” The woman looked away from Sao-Tauna.

  “You do not know what the girl is, or why she is, or what her future may hold,” Sha-Kutan said. “These are mysteries for her to discover. And I will protect her as she unravels the riddle of who and what she is.”

  “Why would you do that?” The woman seemed genuinely confused.

  “Because I was fortunate enough to find someone who helped give me the time to reveal who I was and what I could be.” Sha-Kutan sighed as he spoke. “We all deserve that. The girl. Me. You. Everyone.”

  “I cannot let you go. You and I do not belong here.” The woman stepped closer to Sha-Kutan, but he did not raise his sword or retreat.

  “This is your belief, and I believe you are wrong.” Sha-Kutan sheathed his sword in a single elegant motion, indicating with the action that he could withdraw it again even quicker. “We are following the pilgrims to the Forbidden Land. The girl is drawn to it. Come with us. Help me protect her. Protect them.”

  He looked briefly at Lee-Nin. She sensed something odd in his expression. Concern? Contentment? A mixture of both?

  “Swear an oath to protect her,” Sha-Kutan continued. “Help us discover the meaning of her mystery. And if, by that time, you are still not convinced that I belong here, I will go with you willingly.”

  “No.”

  That word also came from Sha-Kutan’s mouth. Lee-Nin watched as he looked away, seeming to argue with himself as she had seen him do so often, some internal dialog playing out in his mind. The shadow conversing with the man, she suspected. Which had spoken first, and which had replied in contention?

  “That is my offer.” Sha-Kutan looked back to the woman, his voice firm.

  “And if I refuse?” The woman pushed her shoulders back, standing to her full height.

  “Sao-Tauna will send you somewhere far away and filled with darkness.”

  Lee-Nin’s voice rang more loudly in the quiet of the clearing than she had expected. She pushed herself to her feet and pulled Sao-Tauna up to stand beside her. She glared at the woman. What bargain had Sha-Kutan made, and how did he think he could trust this Ogtankaa? The woman stared at her, and the muscles of her stomach tightened in response, but she did not look away. The woman’s gaze lowered to behold Sao-Tauna, her eyes narrowing as her face hardened. Lee-Nin looked down to see Sao-Tauna pointing her finger at the woman.

  None of them spoke for a long time as the woman gazed at Sao-Tauna. She appeared to be weighing her options, not appreciating any of them. Maybe she, too, held an internal conversation. Lee-Nin counted her heartbeats in an effort to slow them as she waited for the woman to speak. Finally, the woman turned to look at Sha-Kutan, her chin raised slightly.

  “I swear by the eternal light to protect the girl until she reveals her purpose and not to move against you until that time.” The woman raised her hands and lifted the metal chain holding the silver medallion from her head. She lowered the chain to coil it in her palm and handed the medallion to Sha-Kutan.

  Sha-Kutan took the necklace and placed it over his head without ceremony. As the four stood in the wavering light of the remains of the campfire, Lee-Nin wondered how her life had become so unrecognizable. She had not imagined that she might step, in a single night, from a man’s slave to the tutor to a tahn, but such a night had come to pass. Nor had she envisioned that she would need to flee the palace and hide as a fugitive to protect Sao-Tauna from being murdered by her own father’s wardens, but this had transpired as well. She could never have conceived that she might stand in the middle of a forest at night with two beings from other realms, one of light and one of shadow, to bargain over the future of a child who could open doors between worlds, but there she stood.

  She swallowed as she realized she could not fathom what might come next and could only assume that whatever happened would escalate the danger around her once more, taking her farther and farther from the safety she had always told herself she desired. The thought frightened her, but not as much as the realization that a part of her looked forward to the unknown future filled with danger, protecting Sao-Tauna, Sha-Kutan at her side, and the strange, dangerous woman of light traveling along beside them.

  The laughter that cut through the silence brought the eyes of the other three to Lee-Nin’s smiling face. One could not but laugh upon realizing the depths of one’s madness.

  “Don’t stand around looking bored.” Lee-Nin gestured to the forest. “I’ll rebuild the fire while you find something to eat. Should be twice as easy with two of you.”

  Lee-Nin continued to laugh lightly as she gathered wood and stoked the coals, handing Sao-Tauna a stick to amuse herself with in the flames. Sha-Kutan and Ogtankaa watched her a moment, before the woman muttered about supplies and led him through the forest toward the road. Lee-Nin threw another broken branch on the fire and watched the two beings fade into shadow, her laughter catching in her throat, her trembling hand reaching up to wipe a tear from her eye. The danger in her life had changed, but not lessened. She understood that she would need to work just as hard in different ways to keep Sao-Tauna and herself alive. She blinked as she realized that circle of protection now included Sha-Kutan. How odd to feel protective toward him now that she knew his true nature. Probably because his true nature resided in his actions rat
her than in the manner of his physical being.

  She rebuilt the fire, straightened the camp, and sat down beside Sao-Tauna to await the return of Sha-Kutan and Ogtankaa and whatever the future held.

  THE THRONE

  TIN-TSU

  “O GREAT one.

  Preserver of all.

  Wondrous provider.

  Care for this poor soul.

  Shelter and guide her to the Pure Lands.

  Embrace her in your endless and bountiful love

  Until I, too, am sheltered beneath the wings of your eternal grace.

  Oanan Djen.”

  Tin-Tsu wrapped his warm hands tightly around the ever-cooling fingers of his once bride. He sat at her bedside as he had for two days and nights, praying constantly for her recovery. While the shaft that punctured the flesh of her upper arm did little damage, slicing through more silk than skin, it had not taken long to realize that the arrowhead held a venomous poison. She collapsed from weakness only a few minutes after Tonken-Wu and his wardens rushed them out the back of the temple and into a small clerical room the priests used for ceremonial preparation.

  “I am so sorry,” she had said to him, her eyes fluttering with confusion.

  “All will be well,” he had promised her.

  He had thought that promise easy to realize. He had prayed for salvation with a ceiling crashing down around him, and Ni-Kam-Djen shielded him. Surely his prayers could provide the cure to a single poisonous arrow.

  As Rin-Lahee fell into unconsciousness, Tin-Tsu began praying. He had not ceased since that moment, only changing his tone and intention in the last hour as he reluctantly admitted that his bride’s cold body could not be revived, that her breath would not return, that she had passed from this world into the caring arms of The True God to live again in the Pure Lands.

  He ceased his whispered prayer as he sat back on the stool beside the bed, still holding Rin-Lahee’s hand.