Chapter 13
There is no glory in victory, and to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men. One who exults in the killing of men will never have his way in the kingdom.
A new chapter is available every Wednesday at Noon, CST. Begin with Chapter 1
His big-assed gun was in his hand between one blink and another. I raised my word and froze. I really, really, really didn’t want to cut him with it. I am not my grandfather or my father. I don’t know how they did it. I knew Humvee was a monster, or at least worked with monsters, but … I knew he was going to kill me in the next heartbeat, but …
Suddenly broad shoulders in a red jacket blocked my view if the big bad ugly. The room exploded, Derkein jerked and an ugly red hole appeared in his shoulder. Derkein roared. I don’t mean like a man, I mean like a dragon. Red mist billowed. His head grew and lengthened. Red mist poured out of the wound instead of the blood. I was behind him so I could only guess what Mr. Humvee was seeing. There wasn’t enough room in the boat’s saloon for a full dragon transformation, but that giant head on a man’s body was sufficiently scary. Humvee’s eyes went wide and he fired the gun over and over and over. Derkein’s body jerked as a few of the bullets slammed into his body, but no more holes appeared in his back. You just can’t kill a dragon that way.
Derkein opened his mouth which was now as tall as his human body and exposed the giant teeth. Humvee’s finger kept reflexively pulling the trigger on a now-empty gun. Derkein picked up Humvee like a dog snapping up a rag-doll, shook him and then flung him against the far wall. He flopped onto the floor not far from the body of the ambassador. Derkein’s very human hand grabbed me and dragged me out onto the deck and into the rain.
I braced myself for a second look at guts all over the deck, but there wasn’t much of Hatchet Face left. The pounding rain was cleaning up the mess. My stomach heaved again, but Derkein still had hold of me and dragged me down to the hold.
Long-ju was sitting up, but otherwise he still looked as sick as the last time I saw him, though he came alert when he saw what Derkien was carrying in his arms.
Daiyu had become a black mist with nothing solid in the center of it. Her body had completely disintegrated.
“Oh, crap,” I said. I wanted to say a lot more and maybe blubber like a baby, but I just stood there with desperate exhaustion washing over me.
“Put the sword away and take the pearl,” Derkein snapped. I looked down at the sword I till held. The rain had washed off the last of Hatchet Face’s blood. That was something. I had an irrational thought that I needed to oil it down, but I squelched that thought and pushed it into the magic, invisible scabbard. When this was over, I was definitely going to throw the sword into the sea. It needed to go away.
I looked at the pearl. “Should you do this? I don’t have any idea what to do.”
He pressed the pearl into my hands. I wanted it and I didn’t want it. I craved the touch of it and I didn’t want to touch it. It’s complicated. I have a very complicated relationship with this particular piece of once-stolen goods.
“Angie!” It was Poppy’s voice as clear as if she were standing there in the hold with us. Which she wasn’t. I could tell she was about to be.
“Go away!” I yelled. That got the full — and when discussing dragons I mean FULL — attention of both Derkein and Long-ju. “Not you guys,” I said. “Something else.”
“Angieeeee….” Poppy’s voice trailed off.
Then I walked over to the black mist. It wasn’t many steps because the mist was filling the room. “What do I do?” I said over my shoulder.
“Hold the pearl and call her back,” said Derkein softly.
I went to what I guessed was the thickest part of the mist and crouched. “Daiyu,” I said. “Come get the pearl.” Nothing happened.
“Long Daiyu,” I said. “Come back here!” Nothing happened.
My heart sank. She wasn’t going to listen to me. I was a social work project, not a best buddy. I glanced over at the other two. I still had their undivided attention. “One of you should be doing this,” I said. “She’s not going to come to me.”
Derkein didn’t move, his pokerfaced expression didn’t change. Long-ju looked from me to the red dragon and back again. He looked as exhausted as I felt except he looked ancient beyond description. He walked slowly through the black mist toward me and put his hand on my shoulder. It felt like a bird’s claw and was icy cold.
“Long Daiyu,” he said. “I humbly beg you to return to us.” Then he said something in the ancient dragon tongue. The soft syllables included her name.
Then the mist swirled as if a breeze had entered the room. My hopes rose as it became denser and blacker and consolidated down into the rough shape of a human. I put the pearl on the floor of the hold next to where her arm might be and held it there. The ship was rocking gently from side to side, so I couldn’t turn it loose. Then the human-shaped fog just hung there, black like wood smoke.
Without taking his hand off my shoulder, Long-ju pushed the pearl into the densest part of the smoke. For about the count of three, nothing happened. Then the pearl disappeared in the thick black mist. It should have rolled around, but the pearl stayed in place and Daiyu consolidated around it.
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath but when she opened her eyes I gasped. There was no transition from being unconscious to conscious. There was no moment of confusion. She was fully and completely present.
“Thank you,” she said.
Long-ju removed his cold bird-claw from my shoulder. I knelt and then sat back on my heels.
“Where is the demon?” she said.
“Dead,” I said. “Up in the salon.”
“Not dead,” she contradicted. “Did you find the ink stone?”
Yes I did. I’d forgotten about it for a couple of minutes. Now that she’d mentioned it I just wanted it away from me. The bag was still slung over my shoulder. I pulled it off and held it out to her.
She shook her head and stepped back. “No,” she said. “None of us may touch it. You will be the one to — ”
Then a couple of things happened at once. The door blew open like a bomb blast and Daiyu threw herself into dragon form without any fussy mist transition. Her sudden change in size blew the roof off the hold. The deck shattered into flinders and the rain pounded the pieces back down to us.
The ambassador — blood coating his pig-piranha face — stood in what used to be the doorway. He had sick red smoke pouring out of him.
I tried to scream but my throat suddenly closed off. Panic rose and overwhelmed me. I wanted to scream and scream and couldn’t make a sound. Could barely move. A claw-like hand grabbed my arm and jerked me back. Long-ju pushed me in the direction of Daiyu’s midnight-black coils. When Long-ju touched me, the pressure on my throat vanished and I gasped in raw air. Then, frail, with a nimbus of white hair around his head, Long-ju approached the demon, his hands becoming small versions of his dragon-talons. The demon smiled, a ghastly parody of humor.
The red pouring from his hands congealed and wrapped around Long-ju’s neck.
“No!” The word tore out of my already-sore throat. “Get back!” I looked up at Daiyu’s head high above me. Rain pelted down and splashed off her shiny black scales, her enormous eyes were focused on the old man, the Silver Dragon, not on me. “Do something!” I shrieked.
I whirled to Derkein. He also watched Long-ju with that focused expression that didn’t seem to hold fear, anger, or anything else. I punched him in the shoulder, hoping to wake him up. “Do something!” I yelled again.
The red whip around Long-ju’s neck tightened and dragged the old man toward the maw of the demon, which opened wide, but still smiled somehow as if anticipating a delightful treat. Long-ju sank his claws into the demon’s face. Where he touched, flames flickered out and the demon’s smile turned into something that wasn’t a smile, more like agony. It didn’t scream. That noise you could hear was me screaming.
Daiyu’s prehensile whiskers flew out like a collection of whips, long ones. They curled around Derkein and me. Hauling us up like fish dangling on a line into heart of the storm bursting above us.
The demon roared. He and Long-ju burst into flames, sparkling and flashing silver streaks of light. Then they exploded. The boat was on fire and from that conflagration a tongue of flame shot up after us and brushed Daiyu’s feather tail.
Her human-sounding scream tore at my heart. For a soul crushing moment she was on fire and then the rain put it out. We flew up into the heart of the clouds with lightning flicking all around us. I assumed the pearl or dragon magic kept us from getting fried. I didn’t really care. A dragon was in the middle of that ball of fire that used to be a boat. He’d died saving us. It was more than I could bear at the moment.
I expected the demon to fly up after us. Dragons can fly, why not demon dragon-killers? But he didn’t. He must have been satisfied with Long-ju’s sacrifice. The flames still flickered after us and actually seemed to draw the lightning, but Daiyu outran it.
Then with a clap of sudden, aching silence we were above the storm, between boiling clouds and cold, pristine stars.
***
If you don’t enjoy hanging by your ankles, you should try hanging by your armpits. The same laws of physics apply. I was in pain. I hurt in pretty much all the ways you can hurt. Therefore I was only dimly aware when we dove down through the clouds again. We swept into a wide cave mouth and I choked back a sob when I recognized it as Long-ju’s lair.
The instant Daiyu released me, I ran out into the rain and stood there, letting it wash me down. I didn’t cry. I thought I was going to, but the tears didn’t come. I just stood there and let the rain pound me. I could see a few lights below me from the city. Somewhere down there was my room and the cold comfort of stuff I’d taken from other people.
The evil paint brush was down there too. As much as the thought twisted up my insides, I was going to have to go down there and get it and put it together with the evil ink stone in my bag. I had a bad feeling that one evil plus another evil equals more than two evils, but it was the only way out of this mess.
I knew Daiyu was beside me before she said anything. I think I was sensing the pearl. “Come inside, Angie,” Daiyu said softly. In spite of the dark, I could still see the outline of the dragon tattoo that coiled around her neck and covered half her face. It was darker than the ordinary dark of the night.
“If we put the brush and the ink stone together can we get him back?” She knew who I was talking about.
I think she may have shrugged. It’s hard to say. “The demon may not have taken him yet, but if he has descended to the Hell Realm we can not get him back.”
“Shit.” I wasn’t really expecting a better answer but I had had a flicker of hope.
She nodded. “Yes,” she said. She put her arm around me and I let her. “Come.” She steered me toward the cave mouth.
I noticed she was limping. That was puzzling until I remembered the demon fire brushing her tail. But limping! It was amazing. Daiyu was the Black Jade Dragon. She had strength of will that could bend an iron bar. If she was in enough pain to be limping it would probably put anybody else in a coma.
When we got back to the shelter of the cave, Derkein was talking rapid fire into a chunky, rectangular cell phone. He sat beside a puddle of molten rock that glowed red. His clothes were steaming and almost dry. Steaming clothes and melted rocks are dragon tricks. They don’t breathe fire, exactly, like in fairy tales, but they have a relationship with fire and melting things, even stone, is a specialty.
I sat down beside the glowing, liquid rock. I was saturated, soaked and dripping. It wasn’t cold temperature-wise, it never was. But evaporating the way I was made me shiver, the heat from the rocks felt good.
Daiyu joined us around what would have been a fire if these had been people and not dragons. She was making tea.
“So what happens when we get the brush and the ink stone together?” I asked her. It would have been an effort to follow Derkein’s conversation so I didn’t bother.
“You will draw a circle which will become the doorway to hell. The demon must return through that doorway and then the brush and ink stone must be destroyed.”
“And then he’ll never come back?”
She handed me a steaming cup. “He will come back eventually, but not for a long while. Eventually another sorcerer will emerge who is able to summon him and … will.”
“They want to study you,” I said a little numbly. The cup was warm. I hadn’t drunk any of the tea yet, just wrapped myself around the spark of heat.
“Yes. To a certain kind of human we represent power. Ultimate power. They lust for it.” She handed a cup to Derkein and he nodded at her. He had stopped talking into the cell phone and was listening to someone talk to him. He looked haggard. His handsome features were drawn. I think there were streaks of gray in his hair I hadn’t seen before but melted rock doesn’t give off much light. I could have been wrong about that.
I thought over the last thing Daiyu had said. “They lust for it.” A lot of lusting going on. That was what Long-ju had said about the pearl. Humans lust for it. I had lusted for it. I glanced over at Daiyu. It was still somewhere in her belly or her chest. I could sense it in there. I was never going to be free of my connection with it. The pearl was radiating out through her. Compared to her, Derkein looked like a zombie version of himself. His brush with the demon hadn’t been good to him.
Then I had a thought. Maybe if they, whoever “they” were, wouldn’t let the demon take Long-ju. Maybe they would keep the sad old dragon for study.
Eventually Derkein thumbed the phone off and downed his tea in a couple of gulps. He grimaced like he was wishing it was whiskey.
“The troop ship is still at sea but will be here only a couple of hours after the storm breaks.” He addressed this to Daiyu. “When they land, the island will be lost.”
“And if they don’t land?” I said. He stabbed an irritated glance at me.
Daiyu was crouched beside the teapot and the fire. She refilled his cup with easy grace. It was like having a leopard as a waitress.
“Could Chen-li stop this?” I asked.
“You said Chen-li was dead,” he said, a flicker of fire in his eyes. Fire? Or hope?
“Oh, he’s dead all right.” I had a sudden vivid memory of the prime minister sitting at his desk with his throat ripped out.
“Are you sure he’s dead? Did you see his body?” Derkein said. He still had that flicker.
“Yes. Hatchet Face did it.”
“Who?”
“The guy, I uh…” I gulped. “The guy on the deck.”
“Oh,” Derkein said. The hint of fire dimmed. He seemed to sink into himself.
I didn’t like being reminded about Hatchet Face. I think I had mercifully repressed it. My father and grandfather both had this Masked Avenger vibe going on. Not me. I’m not a Masked Avenger, Batman, Green Hornet type of person. I’m not even Cat Woman. If I was a gun slinger I’d be the one who shot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand and brought him to justice. Nah, actually I’d shoot the gun out of his hand, steal his pocket watch and then melt into the crowd. The justice thing is none of my business.
Then I had another thought. If they were studying Long-ju and he wasn’t dead then they had him locked up somewhere nearby. A dragon can be locked up in a cage made of the bones of imperial dragons. That was about the only way to keep them from turning into smoke and drifting out of whatever jail you’ve put them in. If they were trying to catch dragons, they’d have cages like that for them. It was a very nice plan. Use the demon’s special evil toxic rays to weaken the dragons and then shove them in a bone cage.
Hmmm. I’d never tried to steal something as big as a dragon. But there’s a first time for everything. I wondered where you would keep cages like that. Lots of places, dammit.
I glanced over at Derkein who was staring dejectedly at his cell phone. I imagined he was wondering who he should call. Naturally Daiyu was sitting with legs crossed, meditating on a fascinating spot on the ground about six feet in front of her.
I became aware that the ground was trembling a little. I heard the sound of falling pebbles in the back of the cave.
“What the hell is that?” I said.
“It’s just a tremor,” said Derkein dully. “They happen all the time.”
I’d been on Shaolong about three months. They hadn’t happened all the time. Or ever. Neither of the dragons looked concerned, so I shrugged it off. That was probably a mistake.
“We have to do something,” I said.
Derkein looked up at me. “Yes, you are correct. I must stop that troop ship or the island is lost.”
My stomach tightened. “To hell with the island, what about Long-ju?” I said.
“He is already lost,” Derkein said.
“So we aren’t going to try to save him.” My hands curled into fists.
“No. His duty is to protect the island and so is ours,” he said. There was no wavering or pity or even regret in that sentence. No room for debate.
“So friendship doesn’t count?” Okay, so I can always make room for debate. My hands were still clenched tight.
“No.”
Ouch. I glanced at Daiyu. She was as still as one of the cast iron statues in her meditation hall. The dragon tattoo was on the other side of her face, so I couldn’t even imagine a reaction from it.
Then I had a thought and relaxed my fists. “I know a way you can stop that ship,” I said.
Derkein gave me a piercing look. A dragon’s piercing look is almost a physical stab. “How would you do that?” He said the words as if they were wasted on an insect like me. All the dragons have their little flaws. Derkein was sometimes a jerk.
I shook my head. “Nope. You agree to help me get Long-ju back and then I tell you.”
“An attempt like that would be suicide to no purpose,” Derkein said.
I shrugged. “That’s my price.”
Daiyu rose to her feet, liquid and yet strong. The sense of a predatory cat reasserted itself.
“I agree to your price,” said Daiyu.
“Our first duty is Shaolong,” Derkein growled.
She turned her full attention to him. When dragons turn that focused gaze on each other, you’d expect sparks or a shock wave or something.
“I agree our first duty is Shaolong,” said Daiyu. “Therefore you must accept the bargain.”
Derkien glanced at me and then back at her. I could tell he was going to agree to it. He wasn’t such a big jerk that he wouldn’t admit he was beaten. “Very well,” he said. “How do we stop the ship?”
“Right,” I said. “Good. Daiyu gives you the pearl…” I noticed Daiyu already held out her hand and a luminescent glow was solidifying in her palm. A really gorgeous pearl was emerging from that glow. I had a sudden suspicion that Daiyu had already had the same idea and was just playing along.
She didn’t say anything, so I continued. “You turn yourself into Chen-li. Find the ambassador and convince him having a monster tear out your throat wasn’t fatal. Tell him the peace keeper deal is off.”
Dragons are not exactly the most expressive of creatures, but Derkein was obviously having a bit of an internal battle. Then one side of the battle won. He held out his hand for the pearl.
Jump to chapter 14 (when it is available)
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