by Stone, C. L.
And from what I had been told, there were hundreds of the buildings within the walls. From where I stood, I only could see a portion.
Where was the Taka? Where had he gone?
Yet there were no people. I was alone on this side of the gate. And momentarily, I’d realized that on this side, all had been quiet. The sound the dragons made while they slithered on the wall could only be heard on one side.
I thought to call out, to see if anyone would come find me. I wasn’t totally sure I wouldn’t be killed for entering the Immortal City without the permission of the emperor. How could I explain that I had just...fallen in? Through a doorway that didn’t exist?
A loud crack of rocks suddenly boomed behind me. I turned, spooked by the onslaught of sound in what had been silence. From the dark wall, out slithered one of the dragons. It was as thick as a horse, and as long as several houses. It approached me, its wild face looking fierce, its tongue flickering.
In a deep, rumbling voice resembling rocks tumbling against each other, it sang. It sang the song I’d sung moments ago. I listened, and when it got to the last lines, I found myself humming and then singing along.
To have nothing is to have everything.
And everything is the world at our feet.
At the very end, the dragon seemed to stand up, and then change, shrinking and molding itself like clay in front of me.
A male form appeared, becoming more distinctive and real than the clay shape it had started out in.
He was tall, with common Kuni features, dark eyes and dark hair. He was young, about my age, with smooth skin at his cheeks. His light skin seemed to glow. He was handsome, with thick lips and a kind but powerful expression.
He reminded me of the emperor I’d seen moments ago, but different, like they were cousins.
He spoke in the same deep voice as the voice with which dragon had sung, gravelly and dark. “You are my mistress,” he said. “And I belong to you.”
I didn’t speak for several minutes, shocked at his sudden appearance and still baffled as to how I had gotten here and what he had said. “Who are you?”
“I am of the wall,” he said.
“A dragon?”
He said nothing, but his dark eyes remained trained on my face.
When he didn’t answer, I continued my questions. “What does that mean? Mistress? I don’t understand what I’m doing here.”
“You are now one of the Favored.”
“Favored?”
His robe was as black as the stone wall, reflective but soft-looking, and dotted with gold dragons like the gate. To my eyes, it appeared the dragons moved, much like the wall outside. He nodded shortly at my question. “The royal line of imperial ancestors has selected you to perform the duty of the Favored. You are to serve the will of the gods, support the emperor directly, and to be the defense of the people in this realm. You will seek out the corrupt and slay them to send them into the next world. You will become what is good and right in this world. This world is broken, Mizuki. You will fix it.”
I placed a palm over my heart, and my knees trembled, threatening to give out under me. Slay? Fix the broken? “How could I perform such a task?”
“With my help,” he said. “I am yours.”
“Did the emperor pick me, then? To do this?”
“The emperor does not pick the Favored. He knew this. He sought the help of trusted people to present candidates at the gate, not to choose them himself. You were chosen.”
Overwhelmed, I took a step back, my knees knocking against each other. I held my hand close to my face, wishing to hold my cheeks, yet they were covered in makeup. My hands simply hovered there, without a place to rest.
Favored. The special position.
No one had a choice at all. They were only picking the most likely candidates that the wall would accept.
“But why me?” The question escaped my lips before I had a chance to consider what I was saying.
The dragon motioned to me with a slight flick of his hand under the long sleeve of his kimono. “Join me.”
I followed him down the path of white and gold stones. As I walked, the stones crunched together, but no sound came from the feet of the dragon. He walked, but he seemed to float on air.
He moved to the bridge going just over the stream. I stood beside him. From there, I had a better view of the grand buildings within the walls. In the distance, I could see mountains from the north.
Yet even from this distance, I could see the cracks in the mountains, and the green pillars of smoke that escaped them, turning the clouds in the far distance from white to dark gloom.
“The world needs you. We are being attacked. You will begin training here.” He turned to me, motioning to all that lay before me. “You are the Favored,” he said. “You are one because of your lineage, your character, and your heart. Your stars are glorious. You can’t change who you are, or what you will become. This is your fate.”
His gravelly tone and way of speaking and the words he spoke all had me not daring to question him further on the matter. Somehow among thousands, I was here.
“What does it mean to be...Favored?” I asked. “What happens now?”
“You must choose your companions.”
I blinked rapidly. “Choose?”
Suddenly the Taka appeared. He flew around us, circling rapidly, faster than I could turn my head to keep up. He dropped onto my shoulder and hummed a few notes from the song we’d sung earlier.
“Anyone else?” the dragon asked.
“I can pick anyone?”
“Of course. And at any time, any you choose can join you. But pick carefully. You must be able to trust such people with your life, as well as know that they risk their lives to join you. Your journey will be dangerous.”
His warning gave me pause. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to say their names, then. I’d worried I’d put them in danger before, but without them, I wasn’t sure I would have lived through all that had happened.
What had happened to Mrs. Satsu could have happened to me, too.
However, I couldn’t imagine my life continuing without them. With stress in my heart, I spoke their names.
“Ryuu,” I said quietly. “Sota. Shima.”
Behind us, the gate glowed. The dragon turned beside me. I stood, looking toward the light.
From it, three people emerged. They were a shadowy spot in the light, and then the light dissolved.
They’d all covered their faces. When they lowered their hands, they blinked, looking around.
Ryuu was the first to spot me on the bridge. He motioned to me, said something to the others. They turned, finding me and starting on the path to get to me.
The dragon stayed by my side. I wondered if he appeared to them as a dragon or a human, but as the others approached and their eyes turned to him, they were not startled enough by his image to look afraid.
Sota seemed just as surprised to see him as the others. “Hello,” he said and bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. Or why we’re here...”
“You’ve been called,” the dragon said. “By the Favored.”
The men became quiet. Shima inched forward, taking me in with wide eyes and looking around. “What does it mean? Favored?”
“You will all find out,” said the dragon. “Your job is to keep her safe, watch her back, and do what she asks, even at the risk of your own lives. Do you accept your fates?”
“We can choose to be here?” Ryuu asked. He looked to me. “Is that how we ended up in here? You told him about us?”
Sota elbowed him in the ribs once sharply. “Mind what you say.”
Ryuu folded his hands in front of him. “I don’t mean any disrespect. I’m just trying to figure out what happened.”
“You’re the dragon,” Shima said quietly. “From the wall. You spoke to me before.”
The dragon nodded.
I turned to him, as did as the others. “You know him?” I asked
.
Shima nodded. “When you sang to the wall, and they sang back—he spoke to me after.”
“You could talk to him?” I asked. “I didn’t hear him speak before. Just the song.”
Ryuu spoke. “When did this happen? The other night? When we went for that walk? I didn’t hear anyone talking.”
“I speak to who I wish,” the dragon said. “To continue on, you must accept.”
“I don’t think we can get off this bridge unless you agree to his terms,” Shima said.
“What terms?” Ryuu asked. “Is this where we negotiate?”
Sota shook his head, monitoring me and the dragon. “You called us,” he said. “What do you want of us?”
“I’m to become the Favored,” I said softly. “But it’s a dangerous position. We have to fix...” I pointed to the mountains and the green smoke. “Corruption.”
They looked where I had pointed.
I continued. “But I’ll need help. He asked me who could join me. I don’t know what I’m doing, or what will happen. It will be dangerous. This is more than I expected would happen.”
The dragon spoke. “You must choose.”
I held my breath, seeing their eyes register that this choice they were making affected me as well as them. Taels and power aside, the task seemed huge and unreachable from where we stood. We were a few people, and the road before us was unclear.
Would I have agreed if I hadn’t been chosen in such a way? I wasn’t sure I had much choice now.
Yet before I could phrase any sort of counterpoint, they all stepped forward, closer to me.
“I’m in,” Ryuu said.
“I’m behind you,” Sota said almost at the same time.
Shima waited a few couple of moments, but he nodded. “I’m with you.”
I swallowed a thickness that suddenly formed in my throat. I couldn’t have been more grateful to them. Even if our path wasn’t completely clear, I found comfort in knowing they would be beside me.
“I will be with you as well,” the dragon said. He motioned with his hand. “Come. There’s more to see. More to do. Always.” He urged us toward the buildings.
I turned in that direction, looking on at the Immortal City, at the buildings, and beyond, to the smoking mountains in the distance. I’d no idea how my life would change, or what it all meant. All I knew was that things would never be the same.
LOOK FOR PART TWO OF the Among the Favored story. The sequel, Ancient, will appear first in the As I Write newsletter in the near future.
CHECK OUT A SNEAK
PEAK OF ANOTHER FANTASY BY C. L. STONE
SNEAK PEEK: THE GIRL IN THE BEARSKIN
CHAPTER ONE: THORNE
IN MY LAND OF CLARIMEL, there were valleys with witches and mountains with monsters, but none were worse than men.
When the Dark Wall came down twenty years before I was born, our people were free to explore the greater world outside. Unfortunately there were those who sought to wall us back in, to live isolated again.
War consumed the country when I was very young. Our people fought for the freedom to remain free. Taxes were raised to pay the soldiers, and my father’s farm suffered, much like other trades throughout the country.
Father was often away from the house after his wife died. My brother blamed me, because it was my birth that caused his mother to pass on. I was his burden to care for while our father was gone. My first few years of life, I toiled under my brother’s constant belittlement over the memory of a woman I never knew.
So when I was seven, I ran away from my father and brother and joined the army.
It was like a rebirth for me. The army became my family, one that kept me fed, told me what to do, and never once left me behind.
For three years, I did nothing but cook food, clean our camps and tended wounded soldiers. They wouldn’t let me fight until I was older.
Our Captain often shook his head sympathetically at me. “You’re far too in a hurry to prove your bravery, daughter of Yousef.” He’d cross himself repeatedly, and say a prayer.
And he was right. Perhaps because I was young, or perhaps because I was a woman, but I wanted to prove I was as worthy of the army uniform as anyone else there.
Running off to enlist during the war gave me solace. I was no longer a burden. I gave of myself to our country.
Despite this need, Captain never understood me. He asked questions of me when I brought him his breakfast of oat mash with whatever ingredients I could gather from near camp. I filled it with wild mushrooms or occasionally berries to make it sweet. He liked what little bit I could scrounge, and it gave me a purpose while so young. It was my way to bribe him to let me wield a sword.
While he’d shave his face with the straight edge of a razor as I placed the bowl beside him on the table, he’d gaze over at me. The razor would hover over his skin. “I don’t dare put you on the battlefield,” he said. “Your small frame would have you trampled in seconds.”
“I can do it. Have someone teach me.”
“You shouldn’t be so eager. Death is no dream.”
“I wish to support the cause,” I said.
“Learn the bow.”
And I did.
I learned to wield a sword as well. I was given a smaller one, lighter than the others were given, but I was faster with my strikes.
And by the time I was twelve, I had slain men twice my size, by arrow and by the tip of my blade.
The year I turned sixteen, our unit was sent orders by carrier to meet at Hemlock Point, a hill that overlooked the sea, where the enemy was reported to have camped.
Our Captain ordered us to drive them into the sea.
It was a cool early morning. The mist lifted from the grass field behind me. I was on a hill, at the crest. Arm to arm with other archers, I pulled back on the string of my bow, aiming from into the line of men in the distance. I only released when I could predict where they may be, and I was sure my shot would make its target. Nothing distracted me from my task, not the thwap and whistle of bow strings releasing, or the heavy breathing of my brothers, or the screams that erupted from the beach before us.
When the fighting got too heated, that launching arrows would likely kill my own people rather than the enemy, I switched to my blade, running down behind the line of soldiers.
They met with another unit sent in to assist. They carried light weapons, and raised heavy body shields.
Any enemy that looked to overtake one of my brothers, those of us lighter than the others would jump over and hurdle a blade point into their faces.
The chaos echoed in my ears. The enemy could either be trampled or they could go where we herded them, into the ocean.
The line ahead of us had closed in, continuing the onslaught. The men continued their push onward, walking over bodies if any fell. One of our men was overpowered by a brute from the other side. I ran swiftly from my position to assist.
His bloodline was of dwarves, and as such, he was stout in nature. His shield was bigger than him, and when I pierced the enemy and he fell, I turned to him. His helmet had fallen away.
He’d a mop of curly dark hair, as long as his shoulders, and he tied it back with a bit of rope. His nose was as broad as his lips and his eyes were a piercing coal darkness.
And he’d no beard. His cheek bones to his chin was all smooth.
I’d never heard of a dwarf without one, and it was a surprise to me.
He snarled at me when I offered a hand to help him up, until he met my eyes, squinting up at me. “You’re a girl?” his grumbling voice was like when rocks fell off the mountain, deep and threatening.
“I’m a solider,” I said.
His dark eyes fell from my face to my body, to the leather uniform I wore, and the boots, all strapped to my body with rope to make it fit. He shook his head slowly. “I’ll never understand your people.”
I continued to hold my hand to him. “Will you join us again?” I asked.
He slowly took
it, getting up to check himself out. “Just winded.” He picked up his shield, checking for damage. “What’s your name?”
“Yousef. Adelina Yousef.” I took my blade into my other hand and offered it to him to shake. “What’s yours?”
“Thorne,” he said.
We took position back in line with the rest of the men, and it was there we discovered, because of my height taller than he was, and how light I was, I didn’t push him forward like other soldiers usually did. He propelled himself, with me using his shoulder to jump and attack.
By that evening, with the enemy drowning in the waves, and our victory fires lighting up the beaches, Thorne sat beside me on a log he dragged over.
We sat just far enough outside the flames to still feel the warmth. Thorne brought out a water skin from his pack he had put on the ground behind himself.
He took a sniff of the contents, took to drink, swished the liquid in his mouth and then swallowed. He smacked his lips after. “The finest...”
“Water?” I asked.
He roared with laughter and offered me the skin.
I put it to my mouth without sniffing, not daring to back down from what I thought was a challenge.
The burn on my throat had me coughing and sputtering before I finished the swallow.
He collected the water skin from my hands before I could drop it, laughing. “That face,” he said, continuing his chuckling. “Well worth the cost of you wasting it.”
I licked the inside of my mouth. I’d been around alcohol before, as the men bought it any time we came across an inn or market. It was never my favorite. I didn’t like waking up with a headache. “There’s something wrong with it.”
“Don’t insult it,” he said. “It’s fire spit. Created from berries found deep in the earth, near the molten core.”
I waved him off in disbelief. “You can’t fool me. Berries don’t grow in caves.”
He smirked at me. “You think you’re so smart, Ade? Think you know everything about the world?”
I couldn’t answer him. I knew I didn’t know. There was little I knew outside of war and survival. I wondered if the berries were as fiery as his cheeks when close to the fire. “How do you find them?”
