by Resa Nelson
“Yes,” Ti whimpered. She stared at Fiera’s burning eyes in horror. Sweat rolled down Ti’s face.
Fiera came closer. “Does the earth seem to shudder beneath you?”
Ti nodded.
Wendill held up empty hands. “It’s not me. I didn’t make anything shudder.”
“We know,” Kikita said. “So does Fiera.”
Frayka gave GranGran a questioning look.
“There are old texts in the Po Dynasty,” GranGran said. “Texts written by magicians and astrologers who know so little that all they can do is guess. They tell of temporary cures like walking in the light of the blood moon and killing infants to drink and bathe in their blood.” To Empress Ti, GranGran said, “Is that what you did, child?”
“Yes!” Ti said. “And the only real cure is the blood of an infant from the Po Dynasty. Please help me. I don’t want to die!”
Fiera knelt by Ti. “Do hundreds of scents bombard you? Does your skin threaten to rip apart?”
“Yes!” Ti cried. She shuddered.
Fiera stood and faced Frayka and GranGran. “If it isn’t already obvious to you, the girl has gone too far. She will soon turn into a dragon.”
Unsurprised, GranGran nodded her head.
Frayka stared at Ti, remembering another recent portent.
A dragon.
Turning toward Taddeo, Frayka said, “I know how to make amends with the Northlander gods. We need to see them right away.”
CHAPTER 30
Taddeo smiled. “Now? You want to address the Northlander gods now?”
Frayka reconsidered. “The All-Father. We should see him. But, yes. I’m ready now. I know how to appease him. I know how to make things right.”
“As you wish,” Taddeo said.
The air in the cavern shimmered. The cavern floor trembled. The Gate of Water reappeared, its waterfall covering the exit way.
Taddeo gestured toward the gate.
Frayka didn’t know what to expect, but didn’t want to waste time. She hauled the empress from the ground and lugged her through the Gate of Water.
A few steps on the other side of the gate, Frayka relaxed her grip on Empress Ti’s arm while the dragon gods and goddesses, along with GranGran, filled in the space behind the young women.
They stood in the middle of a long narrow hall whose floor, ceiling, and walls were all made of silver.
Forgetting her distress, Ti gazed at where they now stood. “Where are we?”
“I’ve been here before,” Frayka said, recognizing her surroundings immediately. “It’s why I came to the Far East. Follow me.”
Frayka walked down the hall and continued when the silver floor and ceiling ended, replaced by dark wood. The polished silver walls continued, reflecting the women and the dragon gods and goddesses as they walked.
At the end of the hallway Frayka led the way into a dimly lit room.
Although small, it seemed to expand to accommodate however many entered. A fire blazed inside a large black urn. A man sat on a simple wooden chair at a squat round table. He wore a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat cocked to one side so that it covered one eye. He studied a pile of small flat stones carved with symbols on the table.
After all she’d experienced in the Far East, any trepidation Frayka might have once felt toward the Northlander god was gone. “All-Father,” she said.
The All-Father looked up in surprise. “Frayka. Back so soon?”
Taken aback, Frayka thought about all the time she’d spent worrying about running out of time before the All-Father expected her to complete the task he’d given to her. “It’s been almost a year since I saw you!”
“Has it now?” The All-Father’s one exposed eye twinkled. “I hadn’t noticed.”
He’s trying to rile me. I won’t let him.
Frayka took a step toward him. “I’ve done what you told me to do. I found all of the dragon gods and goddesses.”
“So I see,” the All-Father said. “And what do they have to say for themselves?”
Fiera said, “It’s not our fault! None of it!” The hem of her flame-colored dress rustled around her ankles, and wisps of her black hair swirled around her face like smoke.
Before the All-Father could react, Frayka said, “There’s no time for that.” She dared to glare at Fiera. “I don’t care what happened in the past. I don’t care who’s at fault.”
To the All-Father, Frayka said, “You told me to find them and then make amends for whatever way you think they offended you and the other Northlander gods. I know how to do that.”
Empress Ti shriveled next to Frayka. Ti whispered, “I don’t understand. Where is the Great Emperor? The one who rules all the dragon gods in their realms?”
Fiera laughed.
Taddeo sniffed. “That’s a fairy tale told to keep every emperor in line. Dragon gods exist, as you can see—but there is no Great Emperor who rules us. We rule ourselves.”
Frayka pulled a stunned and confused Ti forward. “It begins with her, the empress.”
Wide-eyed with fear, Ti stared from Frayka to the All-Father.
Frayka continued. “She drank water from the Fountain of Immortality, and that changed her. She thought she was dying. She panicked. Magicians or astrologers convinced her that the blood of infants would cure her.”
The All-Father leaned forward with interest. “The empress is a murderess?”
Empress Ti shook her head violently in protest.
“Yes,” Frayka said. “But it’s complicated. She’s a girl living in a land where girls are in danger and have to figure out how to protect themselves. I’ve met some who were so afraid that they risked their lives to go to a secret island where no men are allowed.”
The All-Father moved the carved stones on his table into a new configuration. “And the empress couldn’t do that? She had to murder instead?”
“She’s desperate,” Frayka said. “And she doesn’t know she’s turning into a dragon.”
“I don’t believe you!” Ti cried. “That’s impossible.”
“That is precisely what is happening,” Fiera said. When everyone turned to look at her, she placed her hands on her hips. “Every dragon god here recognizes that fact. Don’t pretend to be oblivious.”
“Duly noted,” the All-Father said in a darkened tone.
With the other dragon gods and goddess still staring at her, Fiera crossed her arms in defiance. She muttered under her breath, “I’m right, and you all know it.”
“I’m an empress,” Ti said. “And I’m not becoming a dragon.”
Focusing on the All-Father, Frayka remembered what she’d learned in a recent portent. “A dragon used to perch on the roof of the royal palace, and it challenged any undeserved ruling by the emperor. That dragon is gone, replaced by a golden statue.”
Frayka pointed at Empress Ti. “She’s becoming a dragon because being the empress proved to be too much for her. Put her on that roof and let her make amends for all the harm she’s done by letting her make sure that no one in her province will be wrongly punished or harmed ever again.”
“No!” Ti said. “I’m the empress, and I can live forever if I can just be healed.” She pushed her way past Frayka and the dragon gods toward the room’s entrance, now walled up. Ti banged her fists against that wall. “Let me out of here! Now!”
“It’s true, she can live forever as a dragon,” Kikita said. “Frayka is right. This will create balance.”
The All-Father leaned back in his chair and considered all of them. “This solves nothing. It makes no amends that I care about.”
“There’s more,” Frayka said. “Return another member of the Po Dynasty to the throne, but one who can make the Far East a better place.”
“Someone like you?” The All-Father perked up. “Someone who can make them more like Northlanders?”
“No!” Frayka said. She pointed at GranGran. “My great-grandmother!”
“Nice to see you again, Madam Po,” the All-Father
said. “But is this what you want?”
Frayka looked at GranGran in astonishment.
Is there any god she doesn’t know?
GranGran offered a slight smile and brief bow to the All-Father. “No. I approach the final days of my life, and Frayka is my only living descendent. She is the only one with enough royal blood to be called a true member of the Po Dynasty.”
“But GranGran—”
The All-Father interrupted Frayka. “This idea has merit if you take the throne. If your dragon gods return to the place they belong. If you bring the Northlander ways and force them upon the Far East to eradicate their cruelties.”
The dragon gods and goddesses began talking at once until Taddeo took command. “We returned to our realms for a reason. We want nothing to do with mortals again.”
Frayka held her hands up in a gesture meant to silence everyone else. “The dragon gods and goddesses should stay in their realms, but their images could return to the Far East. That way, they will return to where they should be.”
The All-Father shrugged. “As long as you turn their mortals into Northlanders. If you’re empress, you can show them what a Northlander is.”
Everything that Frayka had experienced since leaving her home in the Land of Ice crashed inside her at once.
She felt the horror and fear of being charged with meaningless crimes and then punished without reason.
She remembered the bravery of Luan Lu, who dared to travel to Zangcheen and ask for help in freeing her sister from a serpent dragon when her village feared losing that dragon’s protection.
She felt warmed by the memory of how Wendill had cared for her when she was pregnant with Dagby, possibly saving their lives by locking the Gate of Earth to keep Frayka from traveling.
Looking at GranGran, Frayka didn’t see a Far Easterner. She saw family.
“I’m not just a Northlander,” Frayka said. “I’m a Far Easterner, too. I would no longer force Far Easterners into becoming Northlanders than I would force Northlanders into becoming Far Easterners.” Frayka paused. “But I think each land and its people can learn from the other.”
The All-Father shifted his position in the chair. “What do you propose?”
“If I ruled Zangcheen and the Wulong Province,” Frayka said, “I would make the laws more like Northlander laws. Those laws would make it difficult for people to hurt or take advantage of each other. In return, the Northlands, Midlands, and Southlands must become open and safe for Northlanders to resettle. They can then travel easily to the Far East, trade with them, and learn from them.”
The All-Father laughed. “Why would any Northlander want to do that?”
“No land is perfect,” Frayka said. “And no people of any land are perfect. They all have strengths and weaknesses. That means they can learn from each other.”
“And you think they will?” the All-Father said.
Frayka shrugged. “I think it’s worth a try.”
Shaking his head as if not convinced, the All-Father turned over each carved stone so that its blank back showed. He rearranged the stones, shuffling them around on the tabletop. Finally, the All-Father closed his one eye and let his hand drift down to choose one stone. Opening his eye, he flipped the stone over and grunted.
Frayka leaned forward to see it. “I recognize that symbol,” she said. “It’s the symbol of a gateway.” She paused, straining to remember what her father had taught her about this symbol. “You have to let go of your past to claim your power.”
For a moment, panic seized her.
All I’ve wanted has been to go home with my daughter and husband. Now I can do that. How can I give it up?
Empress Ti shrieked in agony.
Frayka and the dragon gods turned around to see the empress collapsed at the base of the wall behind them.
“She begins to turn into a dragon,” GranGran said. “It’s happening now.”
“Help me!” Ti screamed. “Get blood for me. Now!”
Empress Ti doubled over in pain, and her body trembled.
Frayka knew what would happen if she left. She had no doubt that Ti would soon transform into a dragon and saw no possibility for the girl to regain her mortal form. Once that happened, chaos would reign. Although Frayka knew none of the royal advisors, she knew of them. She doubted anyone who could be trusted would gain control of the throne, and Ti’s step-family had no legal claim to it.
If the Far East falls into disaster, what might happen to my own people? The Far East is vast and powerful. What if one day they invade my homeland and try to control the Northlanders who live there?
The All-Father palmed the stone whose symbol he revealed. “I accept your solution. But Frayka, are you ready to step through that gateway?”
Frayka let go of her own hopes and dreams for her little family of Njall and Dagby. The larger family of Northlanders—and Far Easterners—mattered more to her. “I’m ready.”
“No!” Ti said. “I’m the empress!”
“You’re a murderess,” the All-Father said. “You killed your own father. You had infants murdered.”
Ti’s face screwed up in agony. “Lies! Nothing but lies.”
The All-Father’s voice resonated in the chamber. “Do not question me!” He stood and walked toward Ti until he towered over her. “Your people have only the dragon gods, elemental things that abandoned your country and then vanished into their own reclusive realms. I am the All-Father, the god of all gods! I see everything. I saw what you did.”
Wrapped up in pain, Ti cried.
The All-Father continued. “You bring your own fate upon you. The water you stole and drank will either destroy your mortal body or transform you into a dragon.”
Ti peered at him. “I’ll become a dragon god?”
Fiera snorted in disgust.
“No,” the All-Father said. “The water you drank gives you immortality, but you will become a simple dragon, not a god. You made choices, and now you must pay for them. You will lose your mortal form and the life that goes with it. You will never have a mate or any offspring. You will live your eternal life as the sole dragon serving the dynasty to which you belong. You will right your wrongs through proper action.”
“Let me die!” Ti said, wracked with pain.
The All-Father knelt and softened his voice. “Few who have harmed so many ever receive the opportunity to right their wrongs. Your cousin—this Northlander—grants you a tremendous gift. This gift is your chance to become something grand and good. I suggest you take it.”
CHAPTER 31
Months later, Frayka woke up to the sound of Dagby’s wild giggles. Frayka squinted in the early morning light and saw the baby held high in the air above her father’s supine figure. Keeping his delighted gaze on Dagby, Njall said, “Good morning, my empress.”
Frayka rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”
Dagby giggled louder.
“Our daughter thinks I am,” Njall said. “How did she grow so much when I was gone for such a short time?”
“That’s what babies do.” Frayka stretched. “And you were gone longer than you think. When did you get back?”
Njall’s outstretched arms guided Dagby as if she were a bird flying through the sky. “Just now. I stayed overnight in a coastal village. Had an interesting talk with a fisherman who says more Northlanders might have survived than we think.”
Frayka turned toward Njall and propped herself up on one elbow. “What? How? Where?”
Njall guided Dagby to dive onto a safe landing on his chest. The little girl reached up and patted his face. “The fisherman says he’s heard rumors for years. He says some Northlanders sailed to the most remote islands off the coast of the Wulong Province. Maybe more settled on islands near other provinces. The trick will be finding them so we can let them know it’s safe to go back to the Northlands.” Njall grinned.
“You’re going to have fun looking for them,” Frayka said. “But I’ll miss you while you’re gone.”
/> Njall snuggled Dagby between them. “I won’t be gone for too long a time. My family and your father will be here in a few days, along with some young families like us. Your mother and sisters think they’ll stay in the Land of Ice. Some of their neighbors, too. They don’t want to leave home.”
“I’m not surprised.” Frayka thought about the strain she had always felt with her mother and sisters. Knowing her father would join her side soon cheered her up. “Our fathers must be excited at the thought of a new adventure.”
Njall nodded. “They want to lead the exploration. The rest of us will take turns on expeditions so no one’s away from their children for too long.” He winked at Frayka. “And a concubine like me shouldn’t wander too far from the empress he services.”
Frayka snorted. “You are hilarious.”
Njall grinned again. “I know.” He yawned.
“I’ll feed Dagby,” Frayka said. “And then I’ll get started on my day. You sleep.” She paused. “We’ll discuss your duties as my concubine later.”
* * *
After handing a well-fed and content Dagby to a trusted servant, Frayka met GranGran and TeaTree outside. They walked through the royal complex and its main gate, and then followed the city streets of Zangcheen to the park where Frayka first met her great-grandmother and her merchant friend.
An angry middle-aged man wielding a large knife approached them. “How dare a mongrel like you pretend to be empress? You ruin everything!” He lunged forward to attack.
Dressed in a combination of Far Eastern and Northlander garb, Frayka kept a dagger tucked under her belt at all times. She withdrew it and stepped into the man’s attack, surprising him so much that he hesitated.
Now within his open arms, Frayka slammed both arms against his weapon hand. Failing to knock the weapon away, she saw the man still gripped his knife with a tight hand. Holding onto his arm, she sped forward, carrying him so far backwards that he lost his balance and fell onto the street.
Frayka stood on the fallen man’s weapon hand until he shrieked and let go of the knife. She leaned down and picked it up. To the man, she said, “This belongs to me now.”
