The Dragon Gods Box Set

by Resa Nelson

  Left alone in the council room with Li Chien, Ti said, “I think the next few days are going to be very important. I can’t make any mistakes. Will you help me?”

  Li Chien bowed. “Of course, my Empress.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Had it not been for her recent experience in the Far East, Frayka’s response to her great-grandmother’s decision would be to argue loudly and incessantly. Knowing that approach would get her nothing but trouble, Frayka strained to contain herself and show respect to her elder. In a calm and even voice, Frayka said, “But I don’t understand, GranGran. Why did you bring us to your house when we need to be inside the royal complex looking for Njall?”

  Before GranGran could answer, TeaTree said, “I have learned it best to trust Madam’s good instincts. We all agreed our intent was to enter the royal complex once we arrived, but Madam has since decided it best to consult the portents first.”

  “Consult?” Frayka looked in dismay from her great-grandmother to her merchant friend. “But that could take days! Weeks! Maybe even months!”

  “For you!” GranGran tittered and looked at Frayka in amusement. “Not me.”

  “But we share the same gift,” Frayka said. “We have portents. I know what it’s like. I never know when a portent might take me over. Sometimes the portents come often, but I’ve gone as long as a year without having one.”

  GranGran reached up to pat Frayka’s shoulder and then ambled out of the room.

  “TeaTree, please!” Frayka said to her last hope. “Surely you can reason with her.”

  “Trust her. Madam knows what she’s doing.” TeaTree also patted Frayka’s shoulder, but he didn’t have to reach as high because he stood so much taller than GranGran. “Just because your portents control you doesn’t mean the same is true for Madam.”

  TeaTree’s declaration startled Frayka. She had experienced her portents for as long as she could remember—but because she lived in the Land of Ice among Northlanders, she’d never known anyone else with her abilities until she met her great-grandmother. No Northlander ever experienced portents, and they found her abilities baffling. No one else in her family had ever seen any inkling of the future. The only help and guidance she’d received came from her father, who told her all the stories he could remember about GranGran and her portents. There had even been one portent made decades ago by GranGran that her father saw come true. Although her father meant only the best, his guidance had been meager.

  Frayka had spent her entire life trying to figure out how her portents worked.

  A recent memory made Frayka shudder. When Emperor Po had sent her to his Hall of Concubines to protect her, Frayka had been frightened when a portent tried to take control of her. She’d been in a public place, surrounded by strangers. Any portent always took Frayka to another realm but left her body behind in the mortal world like an empty shell. Unwilling to leave her body in such a vulnerable place, for the first time in her life Frayka rejected the portent. Worse, she’d yelled at it.

  And since then, no portent had attempted to make itself known to her.

  What if I’ve offended the portents? What if they’ve rejected me?

  More than anything, Frayka wanted to pepper GranGran with questions about her lifetime with portents. Frayka wished GranGran hadn’t left the room, but she knew better than to follow her out of it. When GranGran went somewhere it was for a reason. And when GranGran didn’t ask people to come with her, that also happened for a reason.

  She considered TeaTree’s words. “Do you mean GranGran has the power to control her portents? That she can see them whenever she wants?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  If GranGran knows how to control her portents, then maybe I can learn to do the same. Maybe she can help me find out if my portents are angry with me and if there’s a way I can convince them to come back.

  “I need GranGran’s help,” Frayka said. “I need to learn from her about the portents. How she works with them. How she handles them.”

  TeaTree gave her a brief smile. “Then perhaps you should have taken the advice Madam offered when you first arrived: learn the language so you can understand her better.”

  Frayka ignored her immediate urge to pointedly remind TeaTree that she had done her best with the little time she’d had to spend learning a foreign language. Once again determined to figure out how to navigate her way in this peculiar land, Frayka said, “It looks like GranGran will be busy for a while. Will you teach me more Far Eastern words while we wait?”

  * * *

  Although Frayka gave her attention to TeaTree and learning more of the Far Eastern language, she kept worrying about Njall. The strange events in Zangcheen, including Emperor Po’s unexpected death, put her on edge. Njall would be in danger by himself in the city of foreigners under normal circumstances. The Far Easterners of Zangcheen had already proved their hatred of Northlanders—or anyone else that didn’t look or act like Far Easterners.

  But now things had become far worse, which made Frayka believe her husband risked losing his life at any moment. Although GranGran appeared intent on finding Njall and helping him, her insistence on waiting until tomorrow could mean Njall would already be dead once they found him.

  Frayka wasn’t willing to take that gamble.

  Once Frayka learned enough new words and phrases to make her feel more confident, she feigned sleepiness. It took little effort to convince TeaTree to leave her be for the night. He took the sole lantern from the front room with him and left Frayka in darkness.

  Frayka collected her thoughts. A royal guard had stolen her dagger away, so she had no weapon.

  There’s nothing in this room but pillows, a table, and the birdcages hanging over my head. But I remember seeing a sharp rock or two outside the front door. A rock would make do for a weapon.

  Frayka eased the front door open and shut it behind her when she stepped outside. Although she lacked a lantern, the bright moon and stars made one unnecessary. Within moments she found a rock the size of a dagger and tucked it under the belt around her cotton pants.

  Zangcheen looked different in the dead of night. The road, bustling with activity during the day, now reminded Frayka of a dragon lying quietly in wait for its next victim. But light from lanterns glowed like fireflies from other houses lining the road.

  For a moment, she considered the possibility that Njall had managed to free himself. What if she was about to embark on a fool’s journey that could create more trouble?

  Frayka shook that thought away.

  If Njall escaped, he would try to find me. He would have come back to GranGran’s house or maybe gone back to where I was captured. Our paths would have crossed.

  A new possibility occurred to Frayka.

  Or he might have found out I was taken to the Hall of Concubines. That’s the first place I should look, just to make sure we don’t wander in different directions. If he’s not at the Hall of Concubines, I’ll find a way into the other buildings in the royal complex. If I can’t find him, I’ll come back to GranGran’s house by dawn to see if he made his way here.

  Frayka kept a steady pace while she walked briskly along the dirt road that wound around and over the hills surrounding the outskirts of Zangcheen. The night and the solitude gave her time to think about all that had happened in the past few days. When taken to court by the man who claimed he had rightfully captured Frayka to be his bride, Emperor Po ruled in Frayka’s favor but banished her to the Hall of Concubines, presumably to protect her.

  Grinding her teeth in frustration, Frayka remembered being surrounded by concubines in the main hall when her portents beckoned to her. She’d refused her portents out of fear of being vulnerable among strangers. If she’d accepted the portents, her mind and spirit would have gone to another realm while her disengaged body stayed behind in the mortal world.

  Now Frayka wondered if the mistake of rejecting her portents was a far greater blunder than she first imagined.

 
I thought the portents would come back when I found a safer place. That never happened.

  What portent wanted to show itself to me? And why hasn’t it tried again?

  Sometimes Frayka wondered if she depended too much on her portents. Because they’d been with her since childhood, Frayka thought of her portents as her closest friend and greatest ally, more so even than her husband Njall. The portents had never betrayed Frayka or led her astray. The portents always helped her and those she loved.

  Since the day she’d rejected the portent, the world felt empty and hollow. Being connected to her portents had been like being wrapped in a blanket on a cold winter’s night, safe and warm.

  But Frayka noticed that feeling of safety and warmth had disappeared. She detected a certain kind of emptiness all around her that she couldn’t explain. It felt as if a friend had died in a faraway land.

  I’m simply a mortal now, like all other mortals.

  Even as a young girl, the portents had delighted Frayka. They gave her special knowledge that no one else had.

  The portents made Frayka unique.

  They gave her power.

  Without them, she felt plain and ordinary.

  A small rock skittered down the road in front of her, and Frayka realized she must have kicked it.

  The clattering sound made by the rock snapped her back to reality. It reminded her of a day when she’d stood on the black sand beach in the Land of Ice. A day that she had shared with her father while they skipped stones into the lapping waves of the ocean. She remembered what he told her that day.

  You be my special girl, Frayka. You be like no other. But don’t count on them portents too much. Like everybody else, you got perfectly good instincts. Portents be fine and got their place—but use your instincts, too.

  “My intuition,” Frayka whispered into the empty night around her. “I still have my intuition.”

  In that moment Frayka decided that until her portents returned, she would pay especially close attention to what her intuition told her.

  When the walls surrounding the royal complex came into sight, Frayka practiced the Far Eastern words that she believed would convince the guards to let her enter.

  While the walls had been built low enough to allow the citizens of Zangcheen to admire the royal complex, those walls offered little protection. For that reason, guards stood alert alongside the walls day and night. When Frayka walked toward the main gate, several guards pointed and shouted at her.

  Frayka showed her empty hands and shouted in the Far Eastern language, “Po Dynasty! Madam Po! Child!” She repeated the words until the guards became quiet and seemed to listen to her. She recognized the one that took charge because he had stolen Frayka’s dagger away from her.

  He probably still has it.

  The guard in charge directed the others to surround her, effectively forming a mortal wall. He then gestured for Frayka and the guards around her to follow him.

  Has someone already reported that I escaped from the Hall of Concubines? Or have the guards been too busy with other things like the murder of the emperor to notice I wasn’t there?

  They’ll take me back to the Hall of Concubines. Once I’m there, I’ll search the building to make sure Njall isn’t there. Then I’ll slip out and search the entire complex. It’ll be easier at night.

  But the guards guided Frayka past the Hall of Concubines and toward the royal palace, leaving her confused. Once more, she spoke in Far Eastern. “Po Dynasty! Madam Po! Child! Madam Po child!” Frustrated, she reverted to her native Northlander language. “Don’t you understand? I’m related to Madam Po. I’m the one you saw in the court. The one sentenced to live in the Hall of Concubines because I’m a member of the Po Dynasty. Take me to the Hall of Concubines!”

  Ignoring her, the guards forced Frayka toward the palace. For a moment she wondered if she might have to go to court again but then realized with relief that the court was in another building on the opposite side of the complex.

  Maybe Njall is in the palace. Maybe they’re taking me there so we can be together again.

  Worry gnawed in Frayka’s stomach. Why wouldn’t these horrible people do what she wanted?

  What if this has something to do with the emperor’s death? They know GranGran is a member of the royal dynasty, and that means I’m a member of it, too. Do they expect me to live in the palace now? Will GranGran move in, too?

  Frayka’s worry remained.

  When they reached the entrance to the royal palace, panic seized Frayka. She wished she’d listened to GranGran and never left her side.

  “Child,” Frayka said in Far Eastern to the guard in charge. She pointed at herself and then beyond the walls surrounding the complex. “Madam Po. Go now. Madam Po.”

  That guard bowed to her and then looked into her eyes. Repeating the words she’d said earlier, he said, “Po Dynasty.” He pointed at Frayka and then at the palace. When he entered the palace, the other guards forced Frayka to follow him into a chamber while they remained outside.

  Frayka stared at a girl who appeared to be just barely old enough to consider marriage standing in the center of the chamber. The girl wore the bright yellow robes of an emperor.

  The guard gestured toward the girl and said, “Empress Ti.”

  Even though she’d met the empress once before, the first notion that struck Frayka was how much the girl looked like Emperor Po.

  I was related to Emperor Po. She’s his daughter. I’m related to her, too.

  “Frayka,” the girl said. Although much shorter than Frayka, the girl stood as tall as she could, seeming to stretch every part of her body to its maximum. Her face appeared calm and serene, but the hardened and calculating look in her eyes made Frayka’s blood run cold.

  Frayka concentrated on remembering what the guard had called the girl and repeated those words. “Empress Ti.”

  Clapping her hands together in delight, Empress Ti turned toward the guard in charge and said, “Jojen!”

  The guard gave a slight bow of acknowledgment.

  That’s the guard’s name. Jojen. Jojen is the one who has my dagger.

  Empress Ti then babbled so quickly in the Far Eastern tongue that Frayka couldn’t recognize anything she said. The empress then looked around Frayka and beckoned.

  Glancing back, Frayka jumped in surprise to see another girl of the same age sitting on a carved chair by the chamber’s entrance.

  Responding to the empress’s gesture, the other girl stood and approached.

  Empress Ti pointed at Frayka and said her name. The empress then pointed at the other girl and said, “Luan Lu.” When she launched into a long discussion, Luan Lu paid rapt attention, but Frayka understood little until she recognized the word “serpent,” one of the words TeaTree had taught her hours ago. He said the Far Easterners sometimes used it as another word for dragon.

  Frayka interrupted Empress Ti by repeating the word in Far Eastern: “Serpent?”

  The empress giggled and spoke rapidly, seeming to forget or not understand that Frayka didn’t know what she said. The empress’s eyes never lost their hard and calculating expression.

  Although concerned that she might be showing a lack of respect, Frayka agonized more about failing to comprehend a conversation that could affect her plans. Once again, she dared to interrupt Empress Ti. “Serpent?” Struggling to figure out how to ask her question, Frayka pointed at the ground and said, “Zangcheen? Serpent? Zangcheen?”

  Empress Ti clapped her hands together as if being entertained by a group of dancing ponies. She pointed at Frayka and spoke more incomprehensible words.

  Luan Lu watched Empress Ti with care. Once the empress stopped talking, Luan spoke up with quiet dignity. She pointed at Frayka.

  Empress Ti shrugged as if unconcerned and said the word that Frayka recognized as “yes.”

  Luan Lu turned her attention to Frayka and spoke in a hushed and gentle voice. She spread her hands away from each other as if smoothing out fabri
c on a tabletop. “Zangcheen,” Luan Lu said. Behind the space she’d described as the city, the girl undulated her hands in the shape of mountains. She then shaped one hand by gathering her thumb and fingertips together to form a snake-like head that struck between the mountains she had just shaped. “Serpent.”

  There are dragons in the mountains outside of Zangcheen?

  Luan Lu turned her serpent-head hand toward herself and made it strike. Letting her hand return to its normal shape, the girl feigned terror and covered her face with her hands.

  Looking from Empress Ti to Luan Lu, Frayka said in Northlander, “Well, this can’t be good.” She drew herself up with pride. “And it’s not why I came here. I came here to find N—”

  Frayka hesitated when Empress Ti’s gaze became intense, as if searching Frayka’s words for some clue that could be her undoing.

  The empress’s gaze made Frayka’s intuition kick in.

  Don’t say Njall’s name. She might recognize it. Emperor Po protected you, and presumably Njall. But Emperor Po is dead.

  Frayka pressed her lips together as if she’d said all she meant to say.

  Empress Ti cocked her head to one side and prattled in Far Eastern. Luan Lu looked confused by the empress’s words, while the royal guard Jojen perked up and paid close attention. Empress Ti then gestured as if encouraging Frayka to keep talking.

  Frayka’s intuition spoke up again.

  Careful.

  “N—nothing,” Frayka said.

  Empress Ti smiled and peered deeply into Frayka’s eyes, seeming to search for the truth.

  Frayka stood fast, determined to reveal nothing.

  I was stupid to come into Zangcheen alone. I don’t feel right telling her about Njall. It feels dangerous. I could be putting him in danger.

  But no matter what happens to me, GranGran and TeaTree will look for him. I’m sure they’ll find him.

  Empress Ti looked Frayka up and down, appearing to be satisfied. She spoke briskly to Jojen and Luan Lu, who then exited the chamber and joined the guards still standing outside. Jojen indicated that Frayka should follow.