by M. Lynn
This was hard Luca, General Luca, the man marching into battle. He stared at Jian for a moment longer before rushing forward and pulling him up into a hug. “When we didn’t hear word of you, we thought you’d died. Again.” Luca pulled back. “You were supposed to go to Kanyuan to seek Qara and then meet us here.”
Jian lowered himself back onto his seat. “I went into Koulland.”
Luca’s jaw fell open. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Neither was I. There’s a place far in the mountains called Lóng Bǎolěi. I did not set foot inside, but my search brought me many answers. I know what the Nagi wants, where she has taken Hua.”
Luca held his gaze. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Jian closed his eyes and hung his head, swinging it back and forth. “None of us will.”
Jian didn’t know how long he slept. After telling Luca everything he’d seen, everything he’d learned in their time apart, he’d nestled into the pallet bed Luca prepared for him in the room attached to the barn. He’d laid there for the longest time listening to farmhands rub down horses and oxen at the end of the day before he’d let himself rest.
Luca promised they’d find Hua, that nothing would happen to Bo, but Jian heard the uncertainty in his voice.
And still, he’d forced Jian to sleep, to gather the threads of his strength, a strength he’d need in the coming days.
While Jian slept the next morning, Luca sent Song and a retinue of servants to Dasha under the guise of buying wares for the house. But Song sought information instead, knowledge of dragon sightings or strange events.
Light spilled into the barn as a door opened, and Ru appeared with a bowl cradled in his hands.
“Has Song returned?” Jian sat up, his mind clear for the first time in weeks. He’d barely slept on the road through the mountains.
Ru extended the bowl toward Jian. “No. Luca says it takes over an hour to ride into the city from here. She left at first light.”
Jian gripped the bowl, finding fluffed millet with a whipped egg overtop. “Thank you, Ru.”
“Chichi tried to eat it, but I scolded him.”
“I’m glad I have you watching over me.” He offered him a tiny smile.
Ru’s cheeks reddened in pleasure, but his eyes dipped to the ground. “You’re going to find her, aren’t you, Jian? You’re going to bring her back?”
Jian dropped the wooden spoon into the still-full bowl and set it aside before standing. He put a hand on each of Ru’s shoulders and bent so they were eye to eye. But what could he say? A promise was meaningless when Jian didn’t know how possible his mission was. He didn’t want to give Ru empty words. He couldn’t make him wish for something Jian might not be able to deliver.
Wasn’t that what Jian had been doing himself? Seeking hope, searching for the girl who could give it to him?
“Ru, I will do everything in my power to save Hua.” That was all he could give.
“Don’t die, Jian.” Ru’s eyes glassed over. “Everyone dies.” He sniffled. “Luna… Hua—”
“Hua isn’t dead.” He pulled the boy against his chest, letting the boy’s tears soak his robe.
“She might be,” Ru whispered.
Jian couldn’t let himself think that. He couldn’t fathom a world in which Hua Minglan’s angry eyes never settled on him again. None of them knew if Hua lived inside her own body still.
Horse hooves pounded into the road outside the barn. Jian released Ru and went to the door to peer out into the cloud of dust kicked up by Song and her companions. He couldn’t leave the barn in case the rest of the household were to see him, so he waited like the useless soldier he’d started to feel like.
Ru ran past him to greet Song with a hug, and Luca appeared from the house. When his father and Gen Minglan walked out behind him, Jian retreated into the barn. Picking up the discarded bowl, he ate absently, barely tasting the food. For the first time since he’d left Kanyuan, he was rested and well fed. It was time to set out again. He wasn’t made to sit around in hiding.
“Leave your horses,” Song’s voice called to her servants. “You’ve all been very gracious traveling to Dasha so early for the opening of the shops. My brother will care for your beasts while you go get cleaned up.”
There was a smattering of praise for the kind lady.
“You could help me, you know,” Luca grumbled as he led two horses into the barn.
Song skipped ahead. “Quiet, brother. I am a married lady now. I answer to my husband, not my brother.”
“Married?” Jian leaned against a stall door as Song walked past him.
Luca spared a glance for Song, but she seemed distracted by Heima. “To a soldier.”
Jian’s heart sank. That was why she lived with her father still. If her new husband was a soldier, he was away with the Piao army, keeping the Kou at bay. He stepped up beside her and rubbed Heima’s nose as Luca busied himself removing tack and saddles from each of the horses before retrieving the others from the courtyard. “Did you learn anything in Dasha?”
She pulled her hand away from Heima. “This horse is special, isn’t she?”
Jian shrugged. “I don’t know.” Although, he did. Heima was more than an animal, she was a part of Hua, and they loved each other.
“I think she is. I can sense it.” A sad smile curved her lips. “I always wished you’d love me one day, Jian.”
“Song—”
“Let me finish. I know about the Kou woman. Luca told me of her long ago to dispel me of any notion that we might marry. In truth, I’d already given up. I didn’t believe the great Jian Li would ever love anyone more than his empire.”
“I am not a great man.”
She touched his arm. “I know you will always see yourself as the unwanted son of a consort, a ward of the emperor who was not welcome, but try to look through my eyes, through Luca’s or Bo’s. We see a noble warrior who will protect us and never fail us. A true commander.”
Jian’s stony expression didn’t change. She said the same words Bo had been spewing for many years, but they were lies crafted by their love for him. It was impossible to see every fault when love was involved.
Song wasn’t finished. “What does Hua see?”
He stepped back away from her. “The same man as everyone else.”
“I do not believe that. Does she see your love for her?” Song’s tone held a sad note, but she covered it with a smile.
Jian continued to stare.
“She does.” Song nodded in confirmation. “Love is hard to hide, Jian. You have the same problem with words you have always had, but your actions do the speaking for you. She no doubt fell in love with you the moment she showed up to train at your camp.” The Kai’s must have heard the stories of soldier Huan Minglan from Luca. “But not you. Men are always a little slow.”
“I didn’t know she was a woman. For months, she deceived me.”
Song covered her mouth as a laugh escaped. “You must have been confused by your feelings. Answer me this, Jian. Does she challenge you? Because the Jian Li I knew was always a little too demeaning. He needed someone who’d turn his world upside down.”
He pictured Hua standing among the men with her chin lifted in defiance, how she’d fought with him and spent all night training on the course in the dark. “She challenges everyone.”
Luca finished unsaddling the final horse and wiped sweat from his brow. “I don’t know why father doesn’t hire stable hands.”
Song lifted a brow. “Because it is almost time to harvest the winter wheat. All the men are busy in the fields. Something you’d know if you spent as much time here as you did with the army.”
He ignored her barb and dropped onto a hay bale. “Tell us what you learned in the city, sister.”
Song sighed. “There have been no sightings of a dragon, but you should have seen the looks shopkeepers gave me when I asked. It was as if their greatest fear had been realized—that Dasha will suffer the sam
e fate as Kanyuan.”
Jian wouldn’t voice the possibility aloud, but if Hua was in the city as Master Delun claimed, that very thing could happen.
Leaning his head against the wall, Jian groaned. “So, we’re back at the beginning with no news of Hua?”
Luca, looking just as forlorn as Jian felt, shook his head. “The Nagi is not just an animal waiting for the will of a human to be made clear. She thinks for herself. If she is here to cut out the heart of Piao, she wouldn’t have landed within eyesight of the city. That would have only incited terror in the streets.” He scratched his cheek. “Tell me this, though. Why wouldn’t she want that? We both saw the Nagi lay waste to Kanyuan. Why not do the same to Dasha?”
Jian pushed away from the wall, hope filling him for the first time in weeks. “Because Hua is still in there. She wouldn’t let that happen twice.”
Song pursed her lips. “That’s a far conclusion to reach.”
“Can you tell us anything else?” Jian pleaded. “Any news from the city.”
Song started to shrug, but her shoulders stopped midway. “Well, I tried to go see the city healer this morning. A man named Liqin. But his shop was closed up, strange for mid-week. So, I asked about him at the baker’s and then the smithy. Both recounted the same story. Yesterday, there was a commotion near the bottom of the palace steps. A young girl collapsed and Healer Liqin forced a crowd to disperse so he could help a woman back to his shop. They say even the young prince was involved.”
“Duyi?” Jian shared a look with Luca. Duyi was the only one of Empress Yanyu’s children who didn’t despise Jian. “What does Duyi have to do with anything?”
Song finished her shrug. “Nothing, I think. He was just there. But here’s the thing, no one has seen Healer Liqin since he left the square with the girl.”
20
The Nagi
He came for her.
The Nagi perched atop the flat roof of the healer’s shop in human form, letting the darkness hide her as she watched over the square throughout the night.
Few people walked the cobblestone paths and fewer still came anywhere near the healer’s shop.
Except for him. Or rather, them. Two men peered into the darkened window, searching for something they wouldn’t find. Hua. She wasn’t here right now.
One of the men was Jian Li, the soldier Hua forced the Nagi to carry from the battlefield after the destruction of Kanyuan. And the other? Luca Kai, Hua’s betrothed and another dragon blooded.
A smile curved the Nagi’s lips.
“Dearest Hua, did you know two men love you?”
Hua didn’t respond. She’d been silent since that useful healer gave her the sleeping tea. What other reason would Jian and Luca have for seeking out a Nagi than love? Their mission would only end in their deaths, and they had to know that.
The Nagi didn’t consider herself cruel or unkind. Only determined, focused. She was no different from all the people down below in their homes who wanted the Kou dead for what they’d done to their people. The dragon blooded hadn’t had anyone protecting them. They hadn’t had armies going to war to defeat their enemies because their enemies were the army, the emperor, everyone meant to keep them safe.
The Nagi breathed in deeply as she focused on the fear, the pain those people must have felt. Their screams echoed in her mind, stealing away her peace. There would be no peace until Piao paid for what they’d done. The empire tried to take away any chance of the Nagi returning. By killing the blooded, they erased the vessels in hopes they’d never witness the work of a dragon again. The Nagi didn’t want to feel for the people, but their fear was intertwined with her species’ plight.
“You can’t do this.” Hua finally woke, but her thoughts were weak.
The Nagi sighed. She didn’t want to hold one of the dragon blooded hostage. She didn’t want to erase Hua Minglan from this world and the next. But what choice did she have? “Why do you protect them?” It was the question plaguing the Nagi since she first awoke within Hua. Why did she serve her enemy? Why did she protect those who would not protect her?
Hua didn’t respond for a long moment, and the Nagi assumed she’d fallen asleep once more. She shook her head and straightened out of her crouch to get a better look down below.
“Because I am better than them.” Hua’s voice was little more than a whisper in the Nagi’s mind. “For centuries, they have hunted my ancestors and all those like me, but I believe in change. I believe what has happened does not have to happen again.”
“Those in power always repeat the mistakes of the ones who came before them.”
Hua sighed. “Sometimes, we have to have enough faith to know the stars can change. The sky does not remain dark unless you close your eyes.”
The Nagi didn’t believe in change. Each time they came into this world, they found people very much the same as they’d left them. Selfish. Cruel. Illogical.
They warred with each other, killed each other, and for what? A kind of power humans could never hope to possess? To rule over all humans?
The Nagi lifted her face to the sky, letting the starlight wash over her skin. Above, guiding stars created the points of a dragon, only visible to those who were willing to see it, those open to the possibilities of the Nagi.
“Do you see the stars, Hua?”
“Yes.” Hua went quiet for a long moment. “I see them.”
Movement down below had the Nagi jerking her head toward the square. Jian and Luca were halfway across now, heading toward an inn.
“Don’t go after them,” Hua begged. “Please.”
A pang of sympathy struck the Nagi, a new sensation, but she shook it off. There was a mission to complete, and Jian Li and Luca Kai were standing in her way. They had to be dealt with before the Nagi could move on to the Imperial Palace.
This would have been easier if she could shift, but just like before, Hua had found a way to prevent that.
The Nagi leaped off the roof, sailing through the air until her boots slammed into the stones. Vibrations rocketed up her legs, but she felt no pain as she took one last look back at the healer’s shop. As a reward for unknowingly helping the Nagi regain control, she’d left healer Liqin alive. He laid on one of the cots at the back of his shop, unconscious. Tomorrow, he’d wake with no knowledge of where his patient had gone.
Jian and Luca reached the inn across the square, so the Nagi picked up speed, keeping to the shadows of the buildings as she sprinted through the inky blackness.
As she ran, she pulled a knife free of the belt on her waist. One of the men had already entered the building by the time the Nagi slammed into the other, knocking him to the ground.
A curse flew from the man’s mouth as the Nagi pinned him to the stones and looked down into the wide eyes of Luca Kai, a man she didn’t want to kill.
“Hua,” he wheezed.
The Nagi bent, holding the knife inches from Luca’s throat. “Wrong.”
“Let him go.” The tip of a dao flashed in front of the Nagi’s face, and she lifted her eyes to the broken expression twisting Jian Li’s features.
“Jian.” Hua’s whisper sent a tremor through the Nagi, but she gripped the knife tighter, turning it so the silver light of the moon reflected off the flat blade.
This body no longer belonged to Hua, but in that moment, the Nagi realized there was one person in this world who could aid Hua. It wasn’t another Nagi. Not the Kou general or the emperor who had armies at his disposal.
Jian Li was more dangerous than any of them, because he gave Hua strength.
21
Hua
He was here.
The man Hua hadn’t known if she’d ever see again.
And her body prepared to fight him against her will.
The Nagi pinned Luca to the earth and lifted a fist. Hua tried to scream as she brought it down, and Luca’s body went limp.
The Nagi climbed off him and turned to face Jian. He’d changed in the months since she’d seen
him last. His eyes, once stern, now held a wary sadness. Stubble coated his normally clean-shaven cheeks. He looked like he’d seen too much, worried too much.
She wanted to reach out to him, to smooth the crease between his brows.
Instead, her stance widened, and she drew her dao, brandishing it in one hand with her knife in the other. Her actions were not her own, but she still felt the betrayal enter her heart at what her body was about to do.
In a fight, Jian Li would have beaten Hua Minglan almost every time.
But the Nagi?
“Please don’t.” She had to make the Nagi see reason, make her understand vengeance against Jian wouldn’t bring her peace.
Hua knew that better than anyone. Fighting the Kou didn’t take away her grief over losing Luna.
“This must happen, Hua. If we are to fulfill our true purpose.”
Hua’s sobs echoed in her own mind, not pushing past the lips she couldn’t control. Weakness thrummed through her, aftereffects of the sleeping tea.
Jian held his dao aloft, reluctance in his gaze. “I do not want to hurt you.”
“Then you will lose.” The Nagi’s voice held no emotion, only logic.
“If that is what must happen.” Jian flicked his eyes to Luca once before lowering his dao, letting it clatter to the ground. “I won’t hurt Hua.”
“No!” Hua battered against the walls in her mind. “Fight, Jian. Don’t let her win!”
The Nagi cocked her head. “Hua wishes you to fight.”
His jaw tightened, his eyes going wide. “She’s there?”
“Fight!” the Nagi roared, heat searing through her throat. She advanced, forcing Jian against the side of the building and slamming the dull side of the dao into him.
Jian released a grunt, but still, he didn’t move to lift his dao.
The Nagi flipped her knife and jabbed the hilt into Jian’s shoulder with jarring force.
Jian cried out in pain, but he didn’t waver. His eyes remained on the Nagi’s as if searching for something in them. “I won’t hurt you, Hua.”
