by CK Dawn
The Dragon Scale Lute.
How did he come by it? Hadn’t the Maduran agents taken it?
“Do you like it?” A grin formed on his lips. He gestured toward a cushion in front of him. When he spoke, it sounded like rocks rattling in a sack. “My agents retrieved it. Please, Your Highness, sit.”
My eyes must have betrayed me. Brushing my shredded inner dress to my shins—well, the hem didn’t reach that far anymore—I knelt. “Lord Tong—”
“Master. You may call me Master.”
His men chuckled. Heat flared in my cheeks. Not like we were even married yet. I opened my mouth to protest.
“We will be wed at midday, before your brother’s wedding. I will marry into the Wang family and invest my ancestral tablet into your family temple.”
In less than two hours. Why so urgent? And why would a powerful lord wish to forsake his ancestors and take on his wife’s name? I raised an eyebrow.
“You are wondering about the immediacy, wondering why. Before your brother speaks his vows before Heaven, my allies will slaughter him, the Crown Prince, the Emperor, your paternal uncle and his sons. The old Lord Peng and his heir are dead, and the current Lord Peng is in my custody. All heirs to the Jade Throne will be dead, leaving only you, a girl, with imperial blood.”
My head spun. How could this even be possible?
He grinned “You will obey me. Otherwise, your men will die. The imperial expeditionary army is trapped, and we will crush them.”
My blood ran cold. Not because of his threat, but because his finger rested on one of the lute strings.
My shoulders froze; my heart hurt so badly it must have stopped. If he strummed…
He did. The finger flicked across the string.
The sound came out flat, lifeless, even duller than a regular musical instrument. How could that be? When I’d played, its song had radiated out in eerie desolation and sent warriors into a panic. Now, it merely vibrated, perhaps only loud enough for my keen ears to pick up. Maybe its magic had been depleted.
“I fail to see what is so special about this.” He grinned so the edge of his lips nearly touched the flabby crinkles in the corner of his eyes.
Straightening my spine, tilting my chin, I locked gazes with him. The lute string still buzzed, lending me strength I didn’t have on my own. Like the interplay of my music teachers’ duet, I’d merge the lute’s frequency with Lord Tong’s heartbeat.
Rooted to the ground, your spine aligned, let your heart impel your voice. Listening for Lord Tong’s pulse, I rose and gripped my feet to the floor. Where was his pulse? In this room, with poor acoustics, it hid among the other sounds. Still, I had to try, had to guess. I hummed to the frequency of the lute string.
His fingers quivered. His men rocked on their feet. It was working! The rebellion, put down by a girl!
My vitality guttered. My already depleted spirit wavered, unable to sustain the hum. It began to crack.
Then my energy failed. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the floor.
Lord Tong straightened. He lifted his chin to one of the soldiers. “Start the attack. Crush the imperials.” He then turned to me. “Let me show you where you will be spending most of our married life.”
Twenty-Four
Songs of Despair
The cannons boomed and musket fire crackled in the distance as I pressed my palms to the floor and tried to push myself up. With supreme effort, I brought a hip under myself. Trying to channel magic into my voice had left my limbs languid, my core as flaccid as egg custard, and my head muddled like heavy fog.
And I’d failed.
Now, loyal men died at the castle gates because of my vanity, my belief that I could sing Lord Tong into submission. Instead, he devoured me with his eyes, his pig face contorted into a feral expression reminiscent of a wild boar about to feast on truffles.
His cushion hissed as he rose from the gaudy chair and set the Dragon Scale Lute onto the seat. He knelt down beside me. “What’s wrong, my slave? No magic on your lips?”
I gawked at him. How did he know?
He placed two fingers under my chin and lifted it. “Of course my spy told me about your efforts.”
Spy…no wonder he knew about the music. About the trap. And the lute.
“I am just glad you didn’t give yourself to that foreigner. I will be your first. Your only.” He withdrew his hand. “Now, kneel before me. Show me you have at least a remote semblance of grace.”
No. No matter my shortcomings, I still had my dignity. I glared up at him.
He clucked his tongue. “My, my, you do have some spirit, after all. I will have to break you of that. Now kneel, and maybe, just maybe if you are fast enough, I’ll spare the foreigner.”
My chest scrunched. I brought my knees up under me.
“Avert your gaze. You will not make eye contact with your master.”
All the better to hide the tear forming in my eye.
“Now, kowtow before me.”
I shook my head. An imperial princess could only show such complete submission to the Emperor himself.
“Hurry, and I will call off the attack. Think of the lives you will save.”
What choice was there? He held all the leverage. I pressed my forehead to the floor, completely defeated by this vile traitor. To think he’d use marriage to establish a legitimate claim to the Jade Throne. Tears trickled down my cheeks and plopped onto the floor.
He snapped his fingers and one of his men shuffled over, then waddled back. Kneeling over, the closeness of his large body muffled the sounds around us. His breath tickled my ear. “I am your master now.” Something cold and smooth wrapped around my neck. It tugged and twisted at my nape.
A collar?
“You belong to me.” He stood and laughed; a taunting chortle, reducing me to something small and insignificant. How mortifying.
But maybe there was a chance. Head still to the ground, I eased open the fingers of my tightly balled fist, forced my tired legs to relax. Every nerve fiber tingled. Ready to spring.
“Now,” he said. “Your decoy is an exotic little treat. A true beauty compared to you. You will watch me to do her what I will do to you. Come.”
His feet treaded past me.
He was making it easy! I leaped forward towards his chair.
“Foolish girl,” he said. The collar around my neck wrenched me to a stop. He gave it a tug and I stumbled backward onto the floor. “Apparently you aren’t so compliant after all. Captain Zhu, go to the dungeons and cut out the foreigner’s right eye.”
No! What had I done? Tearing at the collar, I scuttled back from him, toward the lute. The soldier marched toward the doors.
An explosion rumbled from somewhere not far in the distance, rattling the walls.
Lord Tong yanked the leash again, forcing me to my feet and nearly twisting my fingers. With another jerk, I staggered toward him.
A second blast swelled out from near the front of the main keep, underground. The floors quavered and rocked. Lord Tong slipped, and I bowled into him. We tumbled to the floor, with me landing on top of him. Rafters cracked and splintered above.
Ears ringing, I set a hand down to the floor to push myself back up, but found his dagger instead. Pulling it from its sheath, I cut the hand that held the leash. He grunted and let go, and I snatched up the frayed end and backed up. The soldiers closed in around me. I spun and ran the last four steps to the chair. My hands wrapped around the Dragon Scale Lute, which, like before, seemed to throb with heat. I placed my fingers over its strings. Perhaps I could coax the last of its magic out.
Lord Tong lumbered to his feet. “Go ahead. It is a useless piece of junk. I regret wasting the resources to bring it here. If you even try it, I’ll have your foreigner tortured before your eyes.”
My hand froze. What if it didn’t work? Hardeep would suffer even more. No, Lord Tong couldn’t be trusted to keep his word. I strummed out a few notes. Just as when he’d plucked it earlier, only
a barely audible sound came out.
He shrugged. “I told you so. Now I will have to deliver on my promise. Guards, go stop Captain Zhu, so my bitch can watch her lover lose an eye. Then his fingers, one by one. Then his skin. I’ll have the tanners turn his brown flesh into a suit of armor for her.”
My stomach roiled. My failure was complete, and Hardeep would die an agonizing death because of it. To think I’d resented my fate as a political tool; now I was a rebel’s pet, his means for gaining power. This was the most dismal moment of my life.
My eyes strayed to the dagger, blurry through my tears, which I’d left in the chair. One last choice. Die here, and Lord Tong would have no reason to harm Hardeep. He’d lose his tool for gaining the throne. All it would take is a stab to the—
Let your heart impel your voice. The words of the book sounded suspiciously like Hardeep’s voice in my head.
Of course, Lord Tong had plucked the string while gloating. When I’d used the Dragon Scale Lute before, it had been under times of duress or fear. Guilt-ridden for strong-arming Minister Song’s son. Scared of assassins. Worried about trespassing in the Temple of Heaven.
And now, resolved to end my life. His attention on the knife, Lord Tong took a step toward me.
I thrummed out a chord. The bass strings keened like a beast led to slaughter. The treble notes wailed like a mother mourning her dead baby.
Lord Tong’s next step faltered. The fingers of his hand, outreached to do something horrible to me, slackened. Then, his rounded eyes squinted. Maybe it wouldn’t work. He didn’t care for music.
Unlike me, who had received a lesson from the mysterious Lord Xu. It is not the strength of the pluck that matters, but the intensity of your emotion, the elf had said. Only the power of your intent can compel the sound beyond its physical limitations.
Gripping the floor with my toes, straightening my spine, I grasped my sense of hopelessness and despair and plucked out the few bars Hardeep had taught me. Beneath my fingers, the lute emitted a chorus of screams, like horrified children fleeing Avarax’s fiery breath.
Lord Tong stilled, his lips quivering. His breath rasped through his thick nose.
My next chords moaned like a man trapped beneath a collapsed building as Avarax descended. Stuck, unable to flee. Only able to watch.
Covering his ears, Lord Tong stumbled. His quavering men backed away. Then, they clawed at one another to reach the entrance first. I continued the song, with the change in pitch now moaning like souls rising from their graves on Ghost Day.
The power of the world coalesced through me, and again, my belly felt like hundreds of thousands of worms writhing over each other. My energy flagged. The room spun around me, fading at the edges and closing into blackness.
Twenty-Five
Sunset over Wailian
Punctuated by sharp twangs and a loud crack, timbers splintered and walls groaned in a song just as doleful as the one I had played on the lute. My body rocked to its rhythm.
No, someone was shaking me.
“Wake up!” The voice filled me.
Energy trickled into my limbs. My eyes fluttered open. Blue irises encroached on my visual field, for the third time in as many days. Hardeep’s soot-covered expression melted from concern to relief.
I bolted up into a sitting position. “Where are we?”
“Thank Surya.” Hardeep smiled at me. His cape was gone, and his armor was singed. “We have to get out of here. The castle is burning.”
No wonder it was so hot. With his help, I scrambled to my feet. “What about the Dragon Scale Lute?”
“Ruined.” He pointed at the smashed resonator. The strings sprawled unwound in a tangled mess. Even the scale soundboard lay shattered from the center out, looking much like a spider web, though a few pieces were missing. “Ruined beyond repair.”
I cast a last glance at the cinnabar-red scale, the instrument of a rebellion’s undoing. “We should take what’s left of the scale.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Leave it buried beneath the rubble. Now come.”
I searched his eyes. Perhaps he was right. Better to leave it here, forgotten, lest it fall into the hands of someone with less-than-noble motives. I took the hand he extended.
Limping along, he guided me through the smoke-filled halls. The soot in my lungs forced out ragged coughs. Flames leaped from side passages. Burning beams crashed in our path. Each time, Hardeep with his Paladin skills pulled me out of harm’s way. Still, my energy wavered.
“Up ahead!” He pointed to where the castle’s entire outer wall had collapsed.
Behind us, more columns and beams cracked and fell. We didn’t have much time.
Eyes dry and aching, throat singed, my energy guttered. I could never pick my way through this rubble. My vision faded, and my wobbling knees gave out. I would just hold him back. “Go…on. Save yourself.”
He swept me up into his arms and staggered through the debris. How comforting it felt to be held, protected. I closed my eyes. If I died today, at least it would be in his embrace.
First, he needed to hear my song. The one I’d composed for his lute music. Heat seared my throat, choking back my words. With no other way to share the melody, I hummed.
Not breaking stride, he looked down and met my gaze. His beautiful blue eyes sparkled. A smile formed on his lips. “Your song invigorates me.”
Fire erupted just behind him, flames licking us. Heat weighed down on me. My hum faltered. Muscles clenching, I nestled into him. This was it.
“We will not die today. Look.” Still cradling me, he pointed.
We were close. Close to the collapsed wall. Close to safety.
Another explosion sent Hardeep staggering. Still he twisted to the side, avoiding a falling plank which would have hit me.
Two more steps. The blazing heat gave way. My lungs gulped the cool, fresh air.
My body shook and shifted as he picked his way through the ruins of the wall.
He set me down. My legs protested, but I managed to keep from an embarrassing tumble to the ground.
Blinking away the blurriness, I looked.
Bodies littered the courtyard. Imperial soldiers took provincial men into custody.
Cousin Kai-Long stood tall, a dashing figure casting an equally dashing smile. At his feet lay Lord Tong’s unmistakably bulky form.
Headless.
My stomach churned. I choked back the bile.
Hardeep rubbed a palm between my shoulders. “Lord Peng basks in glory today, but it is you who won the battle with the Dragon Scale Lute.”
Me? I raised an eyebrow.
He swept his hand across the courtyard. “I was here, fighting with Lord Peng. We were nearly defeated when the lute’s wail keened. It sent the rebels into a rout, allowing Lord Peng to recover and turn the tide.”
What was it in his eyes? Admiration? Nobody had ever validated me, certainly not with such a gaze.
Rising to my tiptoes, I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward him.
“Your Highness!” A chorus of familiar voices called.
I opened my eyes and turned.
My faithful imperial guards each knelt on one knee, fist to the ground.
Heat flared in my cheeks, and it wasn’t from the burning castle. I’d almost stolen my first kiss, in front of everyone.
* * *
.
Epilogue
Diverging Paths
I listened to the songbirds warbling outside the Hall of Bountiful Harvests, my hands trembling. This was where my unlikely adventure had begun, when I first greeted Prince Hardeep.
Here too, it would end. Father had allowed one last meeting with Prince Hardeep, a reward for my role in subduing the North and for his in saving me.
Servants opened the doors. Chen Xin and Ma Jun snapped into a salute.
Secretary Hong bowed and extended a hand inviting me to enter. “The Emperor will allow you to meet Prince Hardeep alone.”
Alone. I smoo
thed out my court gown. If only I had a mirror. I’d spent hours preening, in hopes of giving Prince Hardeep a perfect last memory of me. Taking a deep breath, I stepped over the high threshold.
Prince Hardeep pressed his palms together and bowed his head. Dressed in a ceremonial kurta, he looked so handsome. So perfect. It was hard to imagine that just two weeks before, his face had been covered in soot. Though even then, his hair never seemed out of place. He smiled at me. “Princess Kaiya, thank you for seeing me off.”
He made it sound so…trivial. A simple parting, after everything we’d been through. I bowed my head. “It is my honor to do so. I am sorry I could not do anything for your homeland. The treaty with Madura remains in place for one more year, and the remains of the Dragon Scale Lute are buried beneath Wailian Castle.” Not that Father would allow me to go to Ankira, anyway.
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You have given me something more precious. Hope.”
Tears threatened to ruin my make-up.
“Will you sing for me? As a memory of our meeting.”
An audacious request under normal circumstances, but there was nothing normal about the two of us. He had guided me to the power of Dragon Songs, made me find a purpose beyond political marriage. I cast a glance out of the Hall, where my guards and Secretary Hong stood. Who cared what they thought? I owed Hardeep this courtesy. “I’ve put words to your lute song.”
His eyebrow lifted and his lips quirked into a smile. I’d spent the last two weeks composing the lyrics. Toes gripping the floor, spine straight, I let my spirit guide my song about an uncertain girl who’d found purpose beyond the circumstances of her birth. Jubilation coursed through me, sending each nerve tingling. Even if he wouldn’t understand the words, he would feel my intent.
“So much emotion,” he intoned.
I drew inspiration from his voice, pouring my soul into words. With each note, my spirit floated higher until it reached a crescendo. His irises sparkled back at me. No matter what anyone else thought, I felt truly beautiful in his eyes. Finishing my song, I looked up at him through my lashes.
