Dragon's Cage

by Daniel Potter

  The setting clattered as Risu stood up in the seat. Mitsuo scrambled back pleading with her to be quiet. "I didn't know."

  Risu didn't hear it. "I had my bridal dress all picked out you little rat. It makes me look like the the Queen of Valhalla, breathtaking. And you’re never going to see it. Find someone else to be your stepping stone!"

  Yaki couldn't help herself, she turned sideways in her seat and watched Mitsuo take a few steps back. His copper toned cheeks had darkened to a deep bronze, chin trembling as he was attempting speak but his lips remained sealed. Hurt shone on his face, he blinked as if surprised. Maybe there had been a shed of something beneath the lies but he had realized in the moment it was too late. He spun on one heel and dashed out.

  Leaning back into her seat Yaki allowed herself a private smile. One more good deed in the service of evil.

  A hand clapped down on her shoulder and squeezed like an iron vice. Yaki heard a deep sniff roar in her ear.

  "You're a subtle as a hammer Yaki of Madria. Gypsum? Really who the nine hells wears that much gypsum? What you do? Bathe him in it to make sure I got the point?" Risu hissed, digging her long nails into the flesh of Yaki's shoulder.

  Squirming to get away Yaki found the hand held her fast. "How'd you know I was here." She managed to squeak.

  "You and your bodyguard weren't talking, you were whispering. Nobody whispers in here. We went to school together for six years, it’s going to take more than a shawl over your head to fool me." Risu said. "I hope you got the show you were looking for."

  Guro watched this all with leering smirk. Useless arsehole, Yaki spat mentally as she began to pry Risu fingers off her shoulder. "I needed to be sure it worked. Now let go of me."

  "You’re not half as subtle as you think you are Fl-" Risu coughed suddenly and the momentary distraction allowed Yaki to pull away and push into the back corner of the booth. "-Yaki." Risu finished, spitting.

  "I couldn't let you fall for plagiarized poetry. We're friends." Yaki checked her shoulder, dark crescents of red had blossomed on the white cloth of her shawl. Tithe of Iron and dragon tits, can I go a day without ruining my clothing?

  "Are we friends Yaki? Really and truly?" Risu stared her down, Yaki couldn't quite read her expression, but the other girl wasn't bothering to mask either.

  "Mostly friends. We didn't stab each other in the back much at school. That’s as close as gets. Friends enough that I don't want you involved Risu."

  Risu cocked her head slightly, and Yaki could see the gears turning behind her eyes, working through the possibilities. "And you think being friends will stop me from calling the Steward down on your head."

  Now that threat caused Guro to stir to life. Yaki held up a hand to stop him, not looking away from Risu's eyes. "Yes. What I'm doing shouldn't hurt House Hana." Much Yaki added mentally, Technically Nishamura had purchased the quicksilver.

  "Promise me you won't kill him."

  Yaki blinked, "What? Why? You-"

  "I mean it Yaki. You want to be friends? That's my price. Swear to me on your Death Panther that however this plan goes you will not kill that fool." Risu's jaw set.

  The silence stretched between them as Yaki felt the brush of fur across her shoulders. The knowledge of what would happen if she broke an oath spoken in the name of the spirit blossomed in her very soul. It would be the last promise she ever broke. Her mouth went dry.

  Risu continued, "I want him to live to regret toying with me Yaki. Someday I will get married on my own terms. He'll be invited to the wedding and dragged there if need be. Then he'll see what he almost had. I have plans that go way beyond my pitiful inheritance. Therefore, I need him alive."

  Now what did she mean by that? Yaki pondered, "An oath like that will count as a favor Risu, if not for me, then my sister."

  Risu nodded, dark eyes unwavering. She reached out with her hand, palm up towards Yaki.

  With an exhalation of breath Yaki began, placing her palm as against Risu's. "In the Death Panther's name, whom I honor, I Yaki of Madria will not kill or order the murder of Mitsuo Nishimura." The world flickered out for a moment. Only Risu, her cool palm against hers, remained. Yaki once again felt the hot breath of the deity on her neck. A shiver ran through her and into Risu. The world returned.

  A slight tremor passed through Risu as she pulled her hand away. The skin on her cheeks paling to a light olive brown.

  Yaki smirked, "There, now you won't mind terribly if I maim him a little though?"

  Risu's stunned expression quickly stirred into a grin, "Now we're talking. And while we're here, let’s talk House Hana's investment in your mother's pirate fleet."

  Chapter 37

  "I guess I'm impressed. If I wasn't so F-F-freezing." Ishe grumbled to herself. It been impossible to not watch Yaz'Noth reduce one of the most fearsome Vahallan ships to a floating salad bowl. Flashes of light were signs of resistance but the battle was over. If she had been standing up there she would have told them about the wound in his stomach. But she was trapped in this cage.

  Not for much longer however. Ishe's fingers had gone entirely numb from cold as she had dug through the snow until she had pried a narrow piece of slate from the mountain. With another rock as a hammer she finally wedged it into crack Coyote had gifted her with. Now she pulled the rock back and forth grinning as the metal seam split. Finally, the plate came free. It fell down to the cage floor with a sharp ting! The shiny guts of the lock exposed, a simple strike disabled the bits that held the latch in place and the door swung open without a sound. She stepped out onto the snow and breathed a breath of free air.

  Now to get off this mountain.

  "Chrrik! Chrrik!"

  Ishe turned to find the eight eyes looking up at her. "Blinky! What are you doing here?"

  The arachnid was doing a little dance in the snow. "Chrrik!" He clicked happily. Ishe sank to her knees to scratch the spider's head. "How in the nine hells did you get here?"

  "We climbed." A gravel like voice said before Hawk herself scrabbled up over the edge. She wore a gray parka that looked like it had been made for a man half her size, a spear with a metal point strapped to her back and pants that looked like they had been hastily sewn together.

  Ishe's jaw dropped, Hawk coming back for her hadn't even crossed her mind. She had assumed the warrior woman would wash her hands of the Fox Fire and wander off to new conquests. Hawk regarded her with her cool gray eyes, expression as still as stone and just as hard to read. Still as they took in the strew guts of the lock they gained a glint of amusement.

  "There, where your sister now?" Hawk cracked her knuckles. "Inside?"

  Ishe struggled not to wince as her legs protested as she walked for the first time in nearly a week. "Golden Hills. She's acquiring the quicksilver that Mother stole."

  The corners of Hawk's mouth twitched downwards. "Then we must hurry. Come along." She walked toward the edge.

  In the wind, something snickered.

  Glancing over at the Odin's Sphere it sagged in the sky now, listing. Laughing as a pale green enveloped his body, even at this distance, she could tell from the shake of his wings. A thought occurred to her. She had gotten away free and clear last time, he had known exactly where she had been hiding. Had known precisely how many of the crew members had escaped. Had cut down over half the crew without needing to see them.

  And he had seen through solid rock to detect that ship. Could he see everything? Or only something?

  Ishe whipped off her jacket. Instantly the cold slapped though her thin shirt and the occasional shiver became convulsions. Still, she gave the coat a critical eye. A well made, double layered wool coat. It had a thick panel in the small of its back. Pinching the panel, she found a tiny bit of hardness in the center of it.

  "We ditch that at the base of the mountain." Hawk said. "You need it now."

  "If I don't ditch this now, he'll know I'm free in a moment." Ishe's fingers probed the patch on either side and found something small and har
d sandwiched in fabric. "Do you have a knife?"

  "You should have done this before I came." Hawk handed over a small hunting knife.

  Ignoring the comment, Ishe sliced through the fabric and was rewarded by a soft glow within the threads. A shard of a power crystal shined back at her, smaller than the buttons on the jacket. A totally useless crystal. It took a few tries to grab it with her numb fingers and then flick it back into the cage.

  "We will go down the back side of the mountain and circle around. Hurry now." Hawk peered down the opposite slope and leapt.

  "Crick!" Blinky clicked and scuttled over to where Hawk had been standing. He raised himself up on his legs to peer downward. Chittering, he shook a leg like an angry fist. When Ishe looked she found Hawk looking impatiently up at her from a long way down. Blinky, still grumbling in the way only a spider can followed after, trailing a silk thread that Ishe had to assume was meant for her. Ishe bit back a whine, lowered herself down, grabbed the line and started climbing downwards. The silk thread was tacky to the touch but not to the point of being sticky. Still by the time she reached Hawk her arms felt as someone had shoved hot coals beneath her skin.

  "Too slow." Hawk said as Ishe found the ledge. "You did not tell me you're injured."

  "You didn't as-AHHH!" Ishe exclaimed as Hawk scooped her up like a child.

  "Quiet." Hawk commanded as she stepped off the ledge and they plummeted that Ishe felt entire seconds pass before her body was jarred by the impact. Ishe did not even have time to lodge another protest before the falling sensation gripped her again. Hawk descended mountain by jumping or more accurately, falling between flat bit to flat bit. Once they reached the tree line Hawk found herself on her feet, although her brain felt like one of those fizzy drinks she'd learned to mix at Mistress Mana's school.

  She leaned against a tree and massaged her eyeballs. To her surprise they had not popped out from the jarring descent. "Now what?" She asked, fearing she already knew the answer.

  Hawk's eyes scanned the sky. "We run."

  Chapter 38

  Yaki felt much better with her own purse of gems in her satchel. House Hana's investment in Mother's nonexistant pirate fleet would make everything much easier going forward. Perched in the back of The Thirsty Koi Yaki watched Mitsuo slide through the doorway. He looked tired, not the sort of exhaustion that he'd shown up to talk to Risu but he moved as if he labored under great weight on his shoulders. His face broke into a relieved grin as his scanning eyes found her.

  He came up to the booth and recoiled slightly, no doubt from the sheer amount of perfume Yaki wore. True to his word, Passing Night's charm had begun to smell of rot and she'd rather stink of flowers than let anyone catch a hint of the putrefying charm. Still he slipped besides her eagerly, thigh pressing against hers.

  "I was getting worried," Yaki purred, "Two days and not a peep." He didn't resist her touch as she leaned against him. Rather he encircled her shoulders with his arm.

  His eyes looked over her and Yaki could almost see his thoughts behind them. This is worth leaving for. I don't have to settle for Risu. They said. "Well it took a day of thought and then a day to get my hands on the apology for those priests." He whispered.

  "An apology for the priest’s?" Yaki pulled back and let her eyes glitter with curiosity. Her Lady Cat mask betraying her eagerness. His gaze slid down her neck to the hint of cleavage below. Mistress Mana would have called the dress to prudish for today's task but the neckline plunged as low as it could go without revealing her scar. Still Mitsuo's eyes lingered there for a long moment before he fumbled with his satchel.

  "Something I believe you would appreciate." He said as he palmed something in his fist. He glanced nervously about the restaurant, nothing caught attention. Bring his fist to the table slowly turned it over and revealed a small glass vial cupped in his palm. Silver shined from within.

  "Is that?" Yaki's breath caught as she realized that the silvery fluid actively struggled against the glass. Plucking it from his hand Yaki held it up to her eye. The vial contained no more a thimble full of the quicksilver. And the quicksilver was not happy about it. Silvery tendrils climbed up the glass walls, trying to reach the glass stopper that trapped it. It appeared to be a futile struggle, as the tendrils lost their strength and fell back into the silver mass halfway to the cap.

  "Don't worry it can't get out." Mitsuo tapped the stopper which had wrapped with a paper seal bearing tiny characters of containment. "Sealed it in myself. Little bugger tried to bite me."

  Yaki swallowed back a flood of saliva that threatened to leak out the corner of her mouth. "Is it always so... active?" Yaki reached out her mind toward it and brushed its tiny awareness. The quicksilver recoiled, pulling itself away from glass into a solid silver bead that huddled at the bottom of the vial.

  "No, but it has something against glass. Put it in an iron barrel or a stone cask and it will sit there like normal mercury. Try to put it in a glass bottle and it will fight you. That’s how alchemical switches work apparently." Mitsuo said.

  Something about how the metal shivered gave Yaki the strangest urge to drink it. She mentally pictured herself ripping off the seal and dumping the living metal down her throat. And then I would die of the worst case of mercury poisoning the city had ever known. Yaki chided herself, but the urge didn't disappear. Her heart, which had been strangely well behaved for the last couple days now awakened with a burning hunger that spread through every corner of her body with each mechanical clang.

  Mitsuo reached over and turned the vial over, revealing a loop at the back of the bottle. "You said that quicksilver shines more than even gold. You wear this little piece instead of that Torii pendent."

  "Thank you," Yaki had to do something with her tingling lips so she kissed him instead.

  "Do you have a room nearby?" He asked as Yaki gathered her things. His tongue pushed back aggressively and this kiss became a battle that left them both gasping and hungry. She shoved the little quicksilver pendent into her own satchel as he grabbed her hand.

  "Yes." Yaki said. This hadn't been the plan. She was supposed to coax things along slowly. Get him to agree to small things, tease him along. Instead words were strangely distant. They would have to come later. Slamming down an entire gem as payment Yaki pulled Mitsuo upstairs to her room. At least she thought it was her room. She was too busy kissing him to give it a look. Everything burned with hunger, her loins, her lips and her heart. His skin was marvelous, smooth and nearly unblemished as the Flower's had been. It tasted of salt, iron and soot. The scent of the Foundry clung to him. He pushed back at first, trying to prove he could match her hunger for him. She let him hold her down and make her back arch with pleasure once before overwhelming him entirely. She tasted every inch of that skin, loving the way his muscles twitched beneath it, against her.

  Only after he pleaded for rest did she stop. They fell apart. Him with a groan of exhaustion, her a sigh that ached for something more.

  "Seven heavens and seven hells," he moaned after they both had spent a long moment staring at the ceiling. "You are amazing. I feel like I've been devoured."

  Yaki turned and winced at the teeth marks along his shoulders. While devoured might be an over statement, He had been nibbled very thoroughly. A giggle flowed out of her. "Apology accepted."

  "I will make a note to apologize as often I can if this is the result." He smiled.

  Yaki cuddled up to him. "I want more though."

  Panic lit up his eyes. "Now? I'm not I can move."

  Yaki pecked him on his cheek. "Not sex. You silly man. I want more quicksilver."

  "I nicked that bit from my father's office. He'll notice if I take anymore." The fear lessened in his eyes but he watched her warily.

  I really did this out of order. Yaki mentally smacked herself but she maintained her mischievous smirk. "I don't want the quicksilver in your father's office. I want all of it in the foundry. There's a buyer in the northern kingdoms. He'll triple the price if
I deliver it in quantity.

  Eyelids closed as he ran the numbers, greed shone in them as they reopened. They focused out beyond her, seeing things that one could do with that sort of money. With a third of it, Madria had planned on buying her family into Lyndon nobility. But the same amount would purchase half a dozen cargo ships or build a ship to rival the Mitsuo Fire.

  "I have a ship that will smuggle it out if we can get it to the docks. If you help me get it out of the foundry, I'll give you a 15% cut." She laid a kiss on his shoulder.

  He only hesitated a moment. "Sixty percent. You won't get a drop of it without me. And I'll have to leave the Golden Hills forever."

  "Foundry extraction is only one third of the job. We have to get it out of the foundry, transport ten tons of unruly metal to the docks and then get it to the buyer through Lyndon's blockade. Twenty percent."

  "Fifty percent then." He smirked.

  "I have to pay cuts for everyone else, that’s how pirate works." Yaki raised an eyebrow. "And is leaving the Golden Hills really such a hardship?" Her thumb brushed his dark nipple and enjoyed the way he shivered.

  "Forty percent?" He countered.

  "Thirty-five and if you need more help than me at the foundry it comes out of your cut."

  "Deal."

  They sealed it with a kiss.

  Later Mitsuo breathed the deep breaths of sleep as Yaki stared at the ceiling, listening to her heart Ka-clinking as attempted to resort her feelings back into her mental boxes. Guilt ate at all of them like an acid. She turned to study Mitsuo. Mother had never been concerned with right or wrong. You did what you needed to do to protect the ones you loved. Mother's loves had not been hard to figure out. She loved her daughters, her ship and at a distant third, her country.