by Ellen Oh
Samena snapped her fingers, and the silence spell was lifted as the queen’s scream suddenly filled the room.
“It’s no fun if I can’t hear you scream,” Samena said. “Now, Micah, the dagger.”
Micah slowly pulled out a strange dagger. Its blade was black and not straight but wavy, with a wicked point. The guards held Koko’s arm over the staff as Micah approached with the dagger held high.
“That blade has been made with dark magic,” Master Zaki whispered to Jiho. “It is going to hurt the princess terribly.”
Samena chanted in an ancient, unrecognizable language. The lights flickered and mist formed in the room all around them. She chanted louder, and Jiho could swear he heard the echo of voices chanting along. The moonstones began to pulse in rhythm. Samena then nodded at Micah, but the bandit leader froze.
“Now, Micah, you must release her blood!”
“Don’t do it, Micah! You’re not that evil,” Jiho yelled. “Please don’t hurt Koko!”
Micah’s hand was trembling so hard she dropped the knife and gasped.
“I can’t, I can’t,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry, Princess.”
With a furious howl, Samena blasted Micah across the room, where she crumbled to the floor in a heap.
“You fool, I should have known you’d be too weak.”
She turned to the others. “Which one of you will prove their worth to me tonight?”
It was Kai who leaned down and grabbed the dagger, approaching the frightened princess. Samena began to chant again. This time there was a wildness to the response. Jiho could hear the echoes of many voices, but he had no idea where they were coming from. The moonstones pulsed frantically, and Samena screamed, “Now!”
Kai sliced Koko’s palm, and blood poured onto the top of the staff and formed the shape of an egg. Koko moaned in pain.
“Great earth goddess, she has resurrected the staff of ki,” Aeria whispered.
“We have lost,” Diana cried.
On top of the staff was a perfectly formed dragon’s egg made of blood.
The staff of ki rose in the air and landed on the floor with a loud bang. Everyone but Samena fell back as a hurricane-force wind emanated from the staff. And then an answering explosion sounded from outside. They all turned to look out over the veranda and were stunned to see that Mount Jiri was erupting. Lava spewed from the top, and a figure could be seen flying out of the erupting volcano. The figure had large wings and began flying toward the castle at a rapid speed.
“Here comes the empress,” Samena crowed.
“It’s Luzee,” Diana said.
Jiho crawled over to Micah. “If you can hear me, please help us.”
Micah didn’t move.
While everyone was absorbed in watching the coming figure, Jiho next crawled over to Koko and dragged her away from the staff of ki.
“We’ve got to get you out of here,” he whispered.
Koko looked dazed and sick. “It’s too late,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do.”
“That’s not true,” Jiho said sharply.
Something poked at him, and Jiho turned to see that Micah had snuck over.
“Cover me while I pick this lock,” she said. She held two long thin metal pieces in her hands, and she immediately began to work on Koko’s manacles. Within seconds, she had Koko’s arms free and then her legs. As she worked on Jiho’s locks, he stared anxiously at the princess.
“Her wound won’t stop bleeding,” Jiho whispered.
Micah pulled a bag from her pocket and rubbed a thick green paste on Koko’s palm. “I was going to give this to you for your dad,” she said. “It stops the bleeding.” She then wrapped a fresh bandage over Koko’s hand.
“I know it’s late, but for what it’s worth, I’m real sorry,” Micah said.
“I know,” Koko said. “And thank you.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Jiho interrupted. “Koko, you need to find your dragon magic now. This is your chance.”
Koko looked terrified, but she nodded. “I’ll try.”
But before she could do anything, the flying figure landed with a large thud on the veranda. It was tall with a tremendous wingspan, and its shape was caked in volcanic ash. Every step it took, it left a pile of soot and dark residue on the ground. It walked into the room, and its piercing silver eyes fixated on the staff of ki floating before the frozen figure of Samena.
“What is wrong with Samena?” Micah whispered, before being quickly shushed by Jiho.
The ash-covered figure grasped the staff between both its hands, crooning to it. “I have missed you, my love.” Its voice was deep and hoarse from centuries of neglect. “Now let’s make things right again.”
Holding the staff high in the air, it began to chant, “Staff of ki, change my fate, return me to my beauteous shape.”
A blinding light flashed across the room and then a rippling wave of prismatic lights shot out from the staff. The wave of light undulated between Samena and the ash-covered figure. Samena began to glow, as if a small sun was within her. It grew brighter and brighter until she exploded in a shower of light particles that flew into the ash-covered figure, where it was completely absorbed and pulsed from within.
“By my ancestor’s grave, she is Samena!” Micah said as she, Jiho, and Koko watched the transformation. “Quick, we must hide!”
She pulled Jiho and Koko toward the back of the room and out onto the veranda.
“What do you mean by that?” Koko asked.
Micah kept gazing back at the scene behind them. “I always thought it was odd how Samena could never touch anything. And she would flicker, as if she were not real but a mirage of some kind. But now it’s clear. She was never real. She was just a projection of—”
The figure slammed the staff against the floor, and the light that filled it began to pulse, brighter and brighter, until it too exploded into a shower of electric sparks and revealed a new being. A fairy with bright silver hair and steel-gray eyes and skin the color of fallen snow. But her large, feathered wings were jet-black, and no longer the pale gray they once were.
Luzee had returned.
Her glorious wings spread behind her and flapped down hard, letting out a powerful gust of wind that knocked everyone off their feet. She threw back her head and laughed, her voice hoarse and full of malevolence. Her glittering eyes stared at the masters and she smiled.
“I’m back!”
Chapter 26
“WHERE IS SAMENA?” Roku asked peevishly. “And who are you?”
“I am your ruler,” Luzee replied. “Bow down to me.”
Roku looked offended. “I am a king! I do not bow down to anyone. I had a pact with Samena. Where is she?”
“Samena is no more, there is only Luzee,” the fairy remarked. “Now bow down to me, little man.”
“I will do no such thing,” Roku sniped. Before he could say another word, Luzee threw out her hand toward him, shooting out a large bolt of electricity that killed him instantly. Roku’s body fell to the ground, his blackened face and staring eyes on display for everyone to see. An instant lesson of Luzee’s power and ruthlessness.
Those who were not already on the floor fell down and genuflected. Only the Nackwon Council masters rose to their feet to face Luzee fearlessly.
“I knew there was something familiar about that Samena character,” Diana said with a smirk. “She reeked of a familiar foulness.”
“Hello, sister,” Luzee said with a toothy smile identical to Samena’s.
“You are no sister of mine,” Diana spat.
“Well then, it won’t hurt me to kill you.”
Luzee summoned her magic to drag Diana into the air by her throat, her feet dangling as she pulled her toward the staff. The blood egg glowed a dark red as the moonstones pulsed rhythmically. “Your power is mine,” Luzee hissed. She touched the egg to Diana’s forehead, causing her to scream. From her open mouth, a blue amorphous light appeared. It was long and cur
led like smoke above Diana’s head. Luzee’s eyes lit up with avaricious delight, and she breathed in the blue tendrils. Diana began to choke and fight, but the light continued to drift slowly out of her body. With every breath Luzee inhaled, Diana’s form grew limper, and her once-vibrant complexion turned sallow. Her cheeks hollowed out and her eyes bulged out of their sockets, leaving her like a skeletal version of her former self.
“Ah, fairy essence, how I hungered for it!” Luzee breathed. Blue veins the color of Diana’s light popped out of Luzee’s pale face, pulsing as it soaked in the fairy’s power. She pointed her staff at Remauld. “I will take your essence next.”
Ducking under the stone protrusion that hid them from Luzee’s view, Jiho pleaded with Koko to try to harness her dragon magic.
“We’re running out of time!”
“I don’t know what to do!”
“Whatever you do, do it fast,” Micah said. “She’s killing your friend.”
Koko sobbed.
“Don’t think, just concentrate,” Jiho said. He shot Micah a warning look. They all knew what was at stake.
“Sorry,” Micah mouthed back at Jiho.
Leaving Koko, Jiho crawled over to whisper in Micah’s ear.
“We need all the help we can get. Is there any chance you can get close enough to free Master Zaki?” Jiho asked. He pointed to where the little namushin master stood off to the side, closer to where they were hidden out on the veranda.
Micah measured the distance between them, Zaki, and Luzee.
“I can try,” she said. “But please, make her hurry.”
Taking a deep breath, Micah crawled away.
Koko swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I’m going to try to transform now,” she said.
She sat with her back to the veranda wall and closed her eyes, trying to focus on her inner magic. A scream of pain jarred her, and she lost her focus.
“Don’t pay attention to anything but your magic,” Jiho urged. “Cover your ears. Listen only to your voice inside.”
As Koko breathed in and out, Jiho kept an eye on Micah. He could see when she reached Zaki’s side. She was quietly unlocking the manacles on his feet as Luzee was finishing with Diana. When the last blue light was sucked out of the once-powerful fairy, Luzee released her. Diana fell to the ground in a heap of skin and bones, more dead than alive. Luzee then dragged Remauld through the air and into her grasp.
“Now it’s your turn, wizard,” she breathed.
Remauld fought hard, lashing out at Luzee with his iron manacles and refusing to open his mouth, no matter how punishing the magic she unleashed on him.
Micah was now working on freeing Zaki’s hands when suddenly Kai yelled out.
“My lady, my sister is trying to free the prisoners!”
Luzee dropped the exhausted wizard and surged forward to where Kai stood, pointing to his sister. Micah froze, stunned at her brother’s betrayal.
“Micah dearest, whatever are you doing?”
The bandit leader ignored her, instead staring in shock at her brother.
“Kai, I’m your sister. How could you betray me?”
“Easy,” Kai replied with a sardonic smile. “Besides, it’s not the first time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t kidnapped by Roku. I agreed to go along with his plan because I was sick of the clan. And you.”
“Kai . . .” Micah was heartbroken and yet grimly unsurprised.
“You’re my little sister, Micah, you’re not supposed to be my chief,” he snapped. “All because of a stupid gender law.”
Kai turned to Luzee. “You can’t trust her, but you can trust me. I will serve you loyally.”
Luzee brushed him aside, all her attention on Micah.
“Micah, my child, you are confused. Come to my side. Come to me right now and all will be forgiven.”
Tearing her eyes away from her traitorous brother, Micah stared into the fairy’s cold silver eyes, and suddenly they flashed into Samena’s icy-blue ones, before turning back. This fairy was playing with her. Micah’s expression hardened. She was angry.
“I don’t answer to you!”
One moment she was next to Zaki, and the next she was floating high in the air, gasping for breath.
“Tsk, tsk. Such insolence toward your master,” Luzee said.
“You are not my master!” Micah yelled defiantly.
“Oh, but I am,” Luzee said as her face morphed smoothly from Samena’s to her own. “She is me, and I am your lady, who you swore allegiance to. Yet you dare to betray me. Just like the dragon queen Nanami did before you.”
“I’m not Nanami!”
Luzee’s face grew dark with anger. “You’re just like her! You were supposed to be my loyal servant. My trusted confidant. You were supposed to be by my side forever. You were supposed to love me.”
“I hate you!” Micah shouted.
Scared for Micah, Jiho urged Koko to hurry. “We don’t have any more time!”
He could see she was trying—her skin kept shifting and stretching and bubbling.
“Hate me?” Luzee asked with a cruel smile. “You don’t know what it feels like to truly loathe someone. But I will show you.”
Micah started screaming in pain.
Jiho couldn’t take it. He couldn’t let her suffer when it was his fault that she was dying. He jumped to his feet. He had to do something. But before he could make a move, something shoved him hard from behind. He turned to see a huge dragon with shimmering golden scales, a thick blue-black mane, and big fierce eyes. It roared so hard it shook the entire castle and growled deep and low in its throat.
“No, it can’t be!” Luzee shouted. “I killed all of you.”
Koko bellowed and leaped forward to attack Luzee.
“This time I will make sure you stay dead, Nanami!”
Electricity surged between Luzee’s hands and formed a white ball of current, which she launched at Koko.
“No!” Jiho grabbed Koko by the leg as the lightning ball hit her in her dragon chest. It lifted her up in the air, away from Jiho, and sent her soaring over the walls.
“Koko!” Jiho stumbled to the wall and looked over. But he could see nothing but the broken treetops where Koko’s body had crashed through them.
“And just like that, dragons are once again extinct,” Luzee drawled.
Jiho sobbed. His mind filled with images of Koko laughing and crying. His friend was dead. Grief was swept aside as rage filled him. His friend was dead. The last dragon in the world was gone. Evil walked the world again.
Anger that was lava hot threatened to choke him. His chest heaved painfully, and his thoughts were chaotic and violent. He saw Luzee pick up Remauld again. It reminded him of Koko and riding the clouds, her face laughing at him.
She was gone.
Jiho screamed in fury. He pulled out his slingshot and flung a large rock right at Luzee’s nose.
“Ow!” Luzee was stunned. Black blood dripped from her nose. “How dare you!”
She threw a lightning bolt at Jiho but it missed him completely, cracking the floor at his right foot. Another rock hit Luzee square in the forehead.
Howling with rage, Luzee shot bolt after bolt at him in rapid-fire order, but they all missed him. One hit Kai as he tried to reach for Jiho’s slingshot. Another ricocheted across the room and lit up Brock Murtagh, who was trying to escape.
Jiho shot rock after rock as he methodically closed the gap between him and the evil fairy. Black blood dripped from open wounds on Luzee’s face inflicted by his shots. She threw Remauld to the floor.
“Your deflection power is strong,” Luzee gritted between her teeth. “I will have it.”
She leaped forward and slammed the blood egg on Jiho’s forehead. Dazed, Jiho opened his mouth in pain, letting out a purple strand of light. Luzee pounced on it and began to inhale the light.
“Your essence tastes so strange,” Luzee said.
Jiho tried to grab t
he staff to nullify the magic, when he realized something.
“My essence nullifies magic,” he whispered to himself.
He looked at Luzee’s wild silver eyes as she greedily sucked in his magical essence. Something within him seemed to be collapsing. He felt weak in a way he’d never experienced before. As if she was sucking his bones dry. But he knew he had to let her have his magic, take it into her core. The veins of her face, under the black blood, popped out and turned purple, like Jiho’s essence.
Taking his last rock from his pocket, he punched Luzee hard in the eye. Stunned, Luzee dropped Jiho and stumbled back. This time, the blood that coursed from her head was red, not black.
Jiho smiled through his pain and shouted, “Luzee has lost her power, she can be killed now!” Hoping that someone, anyone would hear him.
Hissing in fury, Luzee tried to strike Jiho with a lightning bolt, but could not conjure up any magic.
“What’s happening?”
“My essence nullifies magic,” Jiho shouted. “It is my greatest power!”
“That can’t be! I am the strongest fairy in the world!”
“Used to be,” Jiho taunted. “You’re not so tough now!”
“You tricked me!” Luzee screamed, then lurched for the long jagged black dagger that lay on the ground before her and stabbed Jiho through the stomach.
Searing pain, blinding and horrifying, overwhelmed Jiho. He fell to his knees. He had failed.
“Who’s laughing now?” Luzee shouted fiercely.
Looking at the fairy’s nightmare-like face, Jiho wondered why he’d ever thought she was beautiful.
A familiar bellow filled the air, and a golden blur of motion launched itself on Luzee. Jiho fell hard to the ground and saw Koko grasp Luzee by her claws and throw her across the room onto the veranda.
“Koko,” he whispered. “You’re alive.”
Koko slowly stalked the fairy, anger vibrating every scale of her body, so that they let off a metallic thrumming sound that was menacing to hear.
Luzee pointed the staff at Koko. “Stay back, dragon! I command you to stop!”
Koko growled as she closed the distance between them.
