Dragon Rebellion

by M. Lynn

  Heat burned down the Nagi’s arms as she called on her strength while the Kou streamed through the fields in a never-ending flow.

  Bodies littered the ground, blood spattering over the once-golden wheat. Horses ran free, sprinting away from the ensuing battle and chaos.

  “We have to keep going,” Jian yelled to no one in particular as he looked to the army that was bigger than any they’d expected.

  A Kou warrior ran for them, his dao aimed for Jian. Without thinking, the Nagi jumped in front of him, batting the dao away and spearing the enemy with her own.

  The palace guard thundered into the battle, their horses crashing into those of the Kou. It provided a momentary distraction from what the Nagi already knew.

  This battle had been doomed from the start.

  “Hua,” Jian yelled, his pleading eyes meeting the Nagi’s.

  “You have to keep him safe,” Hua begged. “Please.”

  Jian ducked another attack before ramming the blunt edge of his dao into a Kou warrior, driving him down to his knees. “Hua.” His turned to face the Nagi as Zhao covered his back. “We can’t do this without you.”

  “No,” Hua whispered in her mind. “I can’t do it.”

  “You have to let go.” He reached out, his thumb brushing the Nagi’s—Hua’s—cheek.

  “I can’t.”

  Jian couldn’t hear Hua’s words, but whatever he saw in her eyes made him press his lips to hers as the battle raged on around them. The Nagi felt the kiss in every cell, but not for the action itself. As Jian backed away to face another attacker, Hua’s remaining control slipped away, sending energy through the Nagi, a burning, breathing energy.

  “Don’t hurt him.” Hua’s voice grew weak. “I need you to promise…”

  And then she was gone. The Nagi searched her mind for her constant companion, finding only emptiness where Hua’s presence had been.

  There was no time to worry over her as the Nagi focused inward, letting heat sear through the heart that now fully belonged to her.

  A scream rose up from the depths of her soul as muscles tore and stretched. Jian and Zhao fought with renewed vigor as the Nagi sucked in flaming hot breath, letting her body return to her true form.

  In the place Hua Minglan once stood, a beast rose from the ashes of her soul, ready to fight.

  The flap of giant wings ripped through the air as the dragon rose above the fray, surveying the army that had come to tear Piao apart.

  Flashes of another battle came back to her, one where she had wanted to hurt Piao, to take her revenge.

  But that was before.

  Before she saw the lengths a single girl would go to for Piao’s salvation.

  Before she felt the connection between two people who gave up their own ideas of revenge.

  Now, the fire building in her throat had a new purpose, protect the empire. There would be time for revenge when the battle was won.

  Her scaled body twisted through the sky over the Kou army before barreling down on them, cutting through their ranks with a swath of fire. The screams of burning men echoed in the Nagi’s mind as she turned to carve another path through, trying to avoid burning the horses if she could. There was a kinship between all beasts of burden.

  That was what a Nagi was after all.

  A vessel for the humans.

  For centuries they protected Piao, and she had thought it was time for that tradition to end. But the Nagi would no longer punish the people of Piao for the deeds of a few men. People like Hua and Jian, Luca and Zhao.

  Their hearts deserved to be preserved.

  The Nagi spiraled through the sky like a winged serpent finally set free. The Kou foot soldiers scrambled out of the way of their burning comrades, causing the lines to break as they sprinted toward the fight.

  And still, the Kou pushed the Piao warriors closer and closer to the northern gates of the city.

  The Nagi circled above, catching sight of the vast Kou army below.

  Something had to be done.

  One man on the ground caught her eye. Bo Xu Wei, emperor of Piao, fought a man twice his size as another ran for them.

  It happened in slow motion. Others saw them. Luca. Prince Duyi. They tried to fight their way to the man they loved above all else, but they wouldn’t make it in time.

  If the emperor died, the Nagi’s mission would be complete, and he’d spare Hua the struggles of taking the man’s life with her hands.

  But rational thought flew from the Nagi’s mind as she remembered the measured tone of the emperor offering his life if the Nagi helped Piao.

  “Hua, I need you.” But the Nagi hadn’t ever needed anyone. “Tell me the right path.”

  She didn’t respond.

  Without thinking, the Nagi soared through the skies as the Kou warrior drove the emperor to his knees and prepared to strike one final time.

  Gathering flames in her throat, the Nagi released them in a desperate burst, drawing a circle around the emperor before reaching out and pulling the burning Kou warrior into her grasp. The emperor lifted his chin, meeting the Nagi in an unflinching stare before the Nagi rose higher and higher, spiraling toward the clouds.

  “You saved him.” Relief washed through the Nagi as Hua’s voice returned.

  But that relief didn’t last long as her muscles weakened, and she dropped the Kou warrior. The man sailed through the air, but by the time he hit the ground, he was already dead.

  Energy receded from every cell, every scale of the dragon’s form as pain seared through her, and she flipped through the air.

  “What’s happening?” She searched inward, needing Hua to give her the answers. Was she somehow taking control?

  Those thoughts grew faint, and she couldn’t hold them in her mind as the world went hazy, like a fog encompassing the earth.

  She couldn’t stop her descent as her wings drew in, folding back into her skin.

  By the time the Nagi hit the earth, no scales covered her skin.

  The last thought she had before retreating into darkness was that she had been wrong.

  So very wrong.

  37

  Hua

  Heat.

  That was the first thing Hua felt as the fire encroached upon her when she opened her eyes. The battle raged on around her, but a ring of fire protected her and one other from any who’d do them harm.

  She blew out a breath as a shiver traveled up her spine. She thought she’d lost, that she’d finally faded from the Nagi’s mind when she gave over that final control.

  “Nagi!” someone yelled, but the clash of daos and the popping of the fire drowned out the rest of his words.

  Flames licked her arm, and a searing pain traveled along her skin. Her eyes widened, and she sat up, pulling her arm in. The flames burned her. The pain was real.

  “Nagi!” The other person trapped in the ring of flames scrambled toward her, and she met the emperor’s panicked gaze. He tore off the robe covering his chain mail and jerked his arm toward her. It was only then Hua realized no clothes covered her body.

  She yanked the robe over her head, thankful it fell almost to her ankles. But her armor… she didn’t have any armor. Or weapons.

  And they were locked in the flames. She reached out again before jerking her hand back as the fire scorched the air.

  “It burned,” she said.

  The emperor took her hand, examining the red blister forming.

  A smile curved her lips, and she repeated herself. “It burned.”

  An arrow sailed through the air, and she dove, tackling the emperor to the ground as it flew through the space they’d occupied moments before.

  Hua searched her mind for another presence and only found herself.

  “We have to get out of here.” The emperor rolled to his feet. “You trapped us.”

  Hua shook her head, lifting her eyes to the smoky sky. “She saved you.” She remembered it all. The Nagi saved the emperor, but now the beast was gone. “She completed her
mission.” The Nagi’s mission had never been to kill the emperor, only save him.

  Hua searched the ground near them. Just outside the fire, a Kou warrior lay dead, her eyes staring up at the sky. Reaching her arm through the flames, Hua gritted her teeth against the white hot pain. “Help!”

  Together with the emperor, she dragged the warrior through the fire before kneeling to remove her leather armor.

  “What are you doing?” The emperor tried to pull her back.

  Hua slid a helmet onto her head, her eyes focused on the battle ensuing without her. “Piao is my home. It is time Hua Minglan joined this fight.”

  As a gust of wind blew through the fields, lowering the flames, Hua took a running start, leaping into the air to sail over the ring of fire.

  As she landed on the other side and waited for the emperor to join her, she realized she was a prisoner to fire no more.

  Because her mind and her heart were her own.

  Hua jumped into the fight, joining Prince Duyi in keeping two Kou warriors at bay.

  The Kou overwhelmed the Piao forces, and soon they’d breach the gates of the city.

  Hua thought of her parents, Nainai… Ru, and it reinvigorated her. Wearing a dead enemy’s armor and carrying weapons that were not her own, she fought with a renewed sense of everything she had to lose.

  Everything she refused to give up.

  For so long, her actions had not been her own. She’d done things she’d never forget, but she was in control now.

  If she had to face her death, at least the end would belong only to her.

  Duyi grinned as they fought, enjoying the fight in a way Hua didn’t understand. She didn’t want to kill the Kou warriors. She didn’t want their families to mourn their deaths.

  But she’d do anything to protect the people she cared about.

  Yan and Zhao bulled through the Kou to get to her.

  “It’s you.” Yan grinned as he twisted out of the way of an attack.

  “How did you know?” Hua ducked low, cutting at a woman’s legs.

  Zhao knocked his man away, and for a moment, it was just the three of them feeling the absence of Chen. But there’d be time for mourning once this was through.

  Yan finally answered her question. “Because no one fights like Hua Minglan. Not even a Nagi.”

  She didn’t have a chance to think about what he said because Jian’s voice cut through the fight. “They’ve reached the gates.”

  Her relief at knowing he was still alive was quickly replaced with fear. She scanned the remaining Piao forces as more and more Kou warriors pushed into the fray.

  “Keep fighting!” she screamed to the surrounding soldiers. “Do not let them defeat you.”

  Jian’s eyes snapped to her, and everything after that happened in slow motion. A Kou warrior took advantage of his momentary distraction, running for him. Jian didn’t see him in time, but the prince did. Duyi jumped in front of Jian, blocking the first arc of the dao. The man’s knife flashed as sunlight glinted off the blade before he swiped it at Duyi’s stomach.

  For a moment, as the prince stumbled back, Hua’s heart rose into her throat. She couldn’t breathe again until he righted himself.

  Jian whirled around, killing the Kou man effortlessly before pushing Duyi behind him. The emperor sprinted through the battle to join them, and the hopelessness of this fight sank into Hua.

  They could not defeat the Kou, not when the true Piao army lay dead in the Liudong Valley.

  But then she saw the one thing she needed for her faith to return. Her father. He fought with a fierceness she’d never known he possessed. Even with his bad leg, he didn’t stop. He couldn’t.

  Because if they did, everything would truly be lost.

  Hua sucked in a breath as she joined her father and Luca, forming a barrier with them. Her father looked into her eyes for a brief moment before nodding in acknowledgement of her return, of her status as a warrior, worthy to stand and fight for her home.

  They advanced on a cluster of Kou together, her father on her right, Jian and Luca on her left. The emperor joined them to form their final stand. If this was the end, they’d fight with everything they had.

  Hua thought she imagined the sound at first, a horn ripping through the air. But then it sounded again, and she knew. Piao was about to lose the city.

  They were about to lose everything.

  Lifting her eyes to the horizon, she caught sight of a single rider sitting atop a lonely hill.

  But then, even louder than the horn.

  The flap of giant wings.

  Rising over the stranger was a black dragon, so large his shadow blocked the sun when it fell over Hua.

  Reinforcements had indeed come.

  For Piao.

  38

  Jian

  Chaos.

  It was Piao’s best friend.

  The Kou warriors they’d been fighting stared to the skies as the beast circled overhead, joined by the remaining Piao warriors who didn’t yet know this dragon was on their side.

  Jian met Hua’s eyes, seeing the emotions swirling in his chest mirrored back at him.

  His lips tipped into a grin as he lifted his voice. “Hold the lines.” His smile widened. “It’s on our side.”

  A single rider thundered toward them, cutting his way through the Kou in his path. Jian raised his dao in greeting, because Master Delun hadn’t come alone. Khenbish fought with a ferocity rarely seen. But he didn’t only come for the people of Piao. Jian spared a quick thought for the camp of Kou in the mountains.

  They too wanted to save their empire from Batukhan Altan.

  This Kou warrior was on their side, and he was a sight to behold.

  Jian turned to jump into the fight once more, searching for Altan himself.

  He had yet to see the general as he’d fought to stay alive, but as he turned toward Khenbish once more, he caught sight of the man who’d haunted his waking hours. There was a time Jian wanted nothing more than revenge on the general sitting atop his horse at the edge of the battle.

  And now? He couldn’t make himself move from Hua’s side, not when he finally saw life in her eyes, not when she’d come back to him. In armor that wasn’t her own and clothing belonging to his brother, her appearance told little of the true story of Hua Minglan.

  Hair hung in her face as she turned to battle a Kou woman. Speckles of blood dotted her pale skin, and he couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder as her skill took over, her drive.

  She was a true warrior.

  Heat blasted through the air as Master Delun unleashed his fire, separating the larger part of Altan’s army from the remaining bedraggled Piao men.

  A cheer wound through the warriors as elation replaced the fear in their eyes.

  Jian whipped his head around as Master Delun swooped low.

  “The Nagi have finally come to protect Piao.” Gen Minglan wiped sweat from his brow.

  Jian couldn’t take his eyes from the beast the stories said was always meant to protect Piao. Just like the Nagi inside Hua he’d fought to defeat.

  An arrow sailed through the fight, and Jian’s eyes tracked it for what seemed like a moment stretched into eternity as it carved a path through his heart right toward Hua. He didn’t move fast enough, knowing it couldn’t hurt her, not while the Nagi lived inside her.

  So, why did her cry echo in his mind? Why did she stumble forward, her face twisting in agony? Why was there an arrow shaft protruding from her arm?

  “Hua.” His eyes widened as he reached for her, catching her against him. Blood seeped out past the arrowhead.

  Her father and Luca created a protective circled around them, soon joined by Yan and Zhao, their daos ready to keep Hua safe at all costs.

  “Jian.” She lifted her blood-spattered face, meeting his gaze.

  In that moment, he knew. The arrow. The burn snaking down her arm. The clarity in her eyes.

  Hua was back, fully and completely.

 
And now he might lose her again.

  “Jian.” A voice roared over the din of battle as General Altan charged through the fire atop his muscled steed.

  Jian looked from the fading light in Hua’s eyes to the man he’d once sought despite the consequences. This was the moment he’d waited years for, the fight he’d wanted.

  “Fight me!” Altan yelled, sliding down from his horse, his boots pounding into the earth.

  Jian looked behind him where Altan’s forces had started retreating across the fields, horses and footman stampeding through the high wheat as fire rained down on them.

  “It’s okay, Jian,” Hua whispered. “You need to fight him. It is the only thing that will bring you peace.”

  Jian’s jaw clenched as the desire for revenge he’d once had came back in full force.

  Hua went limp in his arms, and he realized the act of killing Batukhan Altan held no promise of peace. “I need to save her.” He was the commander in this fight, but none of this would have any meaning without Hua. Piao would have fallen if not for her, and he’d be dead on this field.

  “Luca.” He looked to his friend. “I need a horse.”

  Luca pointed his dao at Altan. “He has one.” Almost as one, their friends approached Altan, their weapons ready.

  “Are you a coward, Jian?” Altan yelled. “Sending your men to fight me?”

  Jian gathered Hua into his arms, ignoring the psychotic yells of the man who’d controlled so much of his life.

  Before he could reach the horse, large scaled black feet slammed into the ground and serpent-eyes settled on Jian, communicating without words.

  Knowing it was the only way to get Hua into the city quickly enough, Jian nodded, trusting Hua to the beast before him. Master Delun wrapped long claws around Hua’s body, taking her from Jian before lifting into the air.

  Jian settled his gaze on General Altan. Around them, the battle had waned with Altan’s remaining forces either dead or fleeing from Dasha altogether. Master Delun had made masterful work of defeating them.

  “Don’t kill him.” Jian couldn’t believe the words coming from his own voice. “Batukhan Altan, you are now a prisoner of Piao.”