Kumiko and the Dragon's Secret

by Briony Stewart

  ‘Dragons have eluded the Shadow Catchers for hundreds of years, Kumiko. It is only us and the spirits of the earth which have no body or shadow to speak of that remain in any number. They desperately want to add our powers to their collection. The story of the human girl who married a dragon prince is a popular tale, one that only people who understand magic actually believe. Unfortunately, not only do the Shadow Catchers believe it to be true but from it they determined that the life of all dragons was connected by one thing, one power. And they are right. It is this they want more than anything, the power which runs in your family, the magic that keeps all dragons alive!’ I try not to cry as I think of my poor sister somewhere scared and sad in the clutches of the Shadow Catchers below.

  ‘What will they do to her?’ I ask.

  Tomodo looks at me sadly, ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure if they can steal her powers, or what would happen if they tried. I only know that one will not be enough to own the magic of dragon life. Your family is the last of the royal blood line. When they also have you, your mother and grandmother, then they can absorb the power of every dragon in this world.’

  ‘No!’ I shout. ‘We have to find her! We have to get her back!’

  ‘Dragons are searching as we speak but you, Kumiko, must stay here.’ Tomodo says. ‘If there were a way for you to find your sister, it could be a trap to have you both.’

  I stand up with anger beating through me like a drum. I have been terrible to my younger sister, I see that now, but there are some things I know for certain. Arisu might be annoying, but life without her would be like the moon falling out of the sky or spring without flowers. I don’t want to forget her. I don’t want to wonder if I ever did have a sister. I know I have to get her back and I know those Shadow Catchers, whatever their magic, have nothing great enough to stop me.

  Chapter four

  I have never seen this kingdom during the day. The sun shining off each dragon paints different colours on the clouds. It’s like waking up inside a rainbow. Any other time I’m sure I would run excitedly from pink to gold and back again, but after speaking with Tomodo my steps are far too heavy. When I return to the temple I find Obasaan changed back to her old self. She is sitting with Farelli draped across her shoulders and tiny dragons curled around her feet. In front of her is Mother, fast asleep and floating as though on an invisible bed. It shocks me again to see her – I had almost forgotten. ‘What’s wrong with Mother?’ I ask Farelli.

  He raises his fluffy snout. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘when Bertolli went to rescue her she became rather alarmed, started shouting about ghosts and goblins as he flew her out the kitchen window.’

  I lift my mother’s sleeping hand, but it flops back on her chest. ‘And then what?’

  Farelli looks over with mild curiosity. ‘Well, then she fainted, and now ... I’m not sure. We’ve never had someone in this kingdom who doesn’t believe in dragons. Perhaps she can’t wake up here. I’m sure she will once we take her back home. In the meantime, maybe this is all just a dream to her.’

  A dream, I think sadly; if only that were true! Tomodo once told me that all dragons possess different powers. He said that apart from carrying the magic of dragon life, my special power was bravery. But sometimes I don’t believe him. Lots of people, like Arisu, are much braver than I am. Right now I just want my mother to wake up and make everything all right. I stretch my hand towards her invisible bed.

  ‘Bertolli?’ I say. ‘Is that you under there?’ I feel a prickly snout nudge against my fingers. ‘It is you. Bertolli, did you see Arisu when you went to get my mother?’

  A breezy voice replies, ‘No, Kumiko, your mother was in the house, but Arisu was not.’

  Obasaan clutches her hands tightly together and looks at me with frightened eyes. I’ve never seen her so quiet. I wrap my hands around hers and hush: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find her. You stay here and look after Mother and Arisu will be back soon.’

  On the other side of the temple, Tomodo beckons me over to where Ottowan is spread out on the ground. Dragons lean over him spurting showers of rain and fire across his back. It seems to be working, because his face has found some of its blue colour again. His eyes start to twitch.

  ‘I think he’s waking!’ I yell. ‘Oh, Otto-wan, please wake up!’ I sing to him, ‘Wake up, wake up, here is the sun...’ and his eyes open the tiniest bit.

  ‘Arisu?’ I hear him say.

  A tear falls off my nose and onto his cheek. ‘No, Otto-wan, it is me, Kumiko.’

  ‘Kumiko,’ he says disappointedly.

  ‘I’m sorry, Otto-wan, but you must tell us what happened.’

  He closes his eyes again and says, ‘Arisu ran away. She left the house to try to follow you to your obasaan’s.’ I bite my lip with shame.

  ‘She met an old man. He said he would show her the way so she followed him. The more she walked the more she told him. I have always said, never talk about dragons! But she forgot. She told him about me, about you, about Tomodo. He said he had special powers too, like a dragon. He took her by the hand and changed direction. I flew down as soon as I realised what he was, but when I arrived he cast a spell on the clouds. He created ... a false night. Everything became dark. I tried to help Arisu but I was pinned to the ground. The Shadow Catcher had my shadow in his hands but it was slippery, it wasn’t a real moon shadow. I tried to create a wind that would blow her to safety but the more I tried, the faster I felt my powers drain. I grew weak. Arisu’s voice was fading. My last thread of power brought me here.’ Otto-wan’s words ring like a lonely temple bell, fading into the clouds around. When he turns his head away we leave him to rest.

  Now the moments move like a leaf drifting across an ocean as we stand alongside half the empire, waiting for Arisu’s return. I strain to see a flicker of movement, a wing beat or shimmer of scales from one of the ten dragons that left to rescue her. I look until my eyes hurt, until my legs ache, until ... There! I see something moving in the distance. Dragons ... eight, no, nine of them flying strangely. We draw aside to let them land and they come down staggering, puffing and broken. It is immediately clear that Arisu is not with them and I shake my head in disbelief.

  ‘We have failed,’ puffs a red dragon, trying to stand. ‘The girl is being kept in a cabin on the hill near Kumiko’s home. We saw her but we could not get close.’

  Another dragon croaks: ‘The Shadow Catcher had a way to use our powers against us. We were pushed away by the trees and the wind that we can normally control. Our invisibility was cast over the cabin, our fire used to set the forest around us ablaze. Only nine of us managed to escape!’ she growls. ‘But we heard the Shadow Catcher’s thoughts. He has sent a call to every Catcher in this land. Even now they are moving towards that place. As soon as the Grand Kah-ge of the Catchers arrives, they will try to absorb the power of dragon life from Arisu!’

  Tomodo’s face is grim. ‘This news is worse than we could have foreseen. The Shadow Catchers have never been so powerful before. It first occurred to me, when I heard Otto-wan’s story, that Arisu’s connection to us could be dangerous. But now, your story confirms that it was Otto-wan’s power creating those dark clouds not theirs, and your powers creating the fire, the wind and the invisibility. I think that while they have Arisu they can use our power against us. The more of it we use against them, the more they have to use, which means we put Arisu at risk, the closer we get.’

  The court begins to fill with angry smoke and worried shouts, as the dragons bicker and bellow in panic. It seems they have forgotten all about me. I have to climb to the top of the temple wall and yell as loudly as I possibly can to get their attention.

  ‘Wait! There is still a way to save her!’

  Surprised puffs of smoke mingle with flapping tongues and blinking, beady eyes. ‘There is a way,’ I repeat. ‘If we send someone with nothing they can control we might be able to get Arisu back. We just n
eed someone with basically no powers, someone ... like me. I can’t control the weather, turn people into mice, or make anything invisible, but if they try to use my bravery against me they won’t be able to. You have to be afraid to be able to be brave, and as you see, I am not very frightening.’ The clouds were never so silent, the air never so still as I say the last and most important thing: ‘So I will have to go and I will have to go alone.’

  Chapter five

  As soon as I’ve said it I want to go immediately. But there is a problem. I cannot get down from the clouds by myself. Tomodo and the other guardian dragons pace with their bright glassy eyes fixed in my direction. There was once a time when warriors battled dragons for honour, when kings would beg them for rain, and wise men sought their advice. Now a handful of people know that they exist, and the only one who can help them is just ... me. But I have made up my mind. I march to Tomodo and cry, ‘Enough! There is no more time to discuss it; even now the sun is sinking lower! You’ve always shown me that I can do the things I never thought I could. You told me never to underestimate the power of a dragon and this is something I must do!’

  No one but Rahzoo, the ancient dragon, moves. He rises to his yellow-clawed feet and huffs. ‘The child is right. She carries the blood of the thousand dragon kings before her. To doubt her is to doubt them.’ He turns to me, ‘Very well, Kumiko, we will send you to save your sister. But...’ His voice bends like a long lonely reed, ‘please exercise the greatest caution. It is not just for our sake that we are frightened, we love you too.’

  I press a tight hug against his grey fur.

  ‘This is all I can do to help,’ he says as his wise whiskers start to spurt fountain-like out of his snout. They grow and grow, long and silvery, they spill over the edge of the clouds and tumble to the world below. ‘I am magical but my whiskers are not. As we cannot let our magic get too close, you will have to use these to climb down.’

  After Rahzoo, Farelli hovers over with a strange shining blue fabric in his mouth. He places it at my feet. ‘Three hundred years ago this kimono was made for an ancestor, to come and go with her dragon secretly from the emperor’s court. From above you will appear the same colour as the sky, from below, you will become one with the shadows. Wear it well, Kumiko.’

  I am wrapped tightly in the kimono ready to leave, but before I do there are four other gifts. From the red dragon, a large scale; it is ruby coloured on one side, and I flip it over to find the underside is clear and bright like a lady’s mirror. ‘Turn this towards the sky and we will know you are ready to come back. Good luck, Kumiko.’

  From a blue dragon I am handed a feather from her side. ‘Stroke it from the bottom to the top.’ Curious, I do as she says. It is as silky as an ordinary goose feather.

  ‘Now rub it the wrong way across my feathers.’ I draw the feather across her and instantly hear a metallic zip. Bits of blue flutter to the ground and I gasp, ‘I’m sorry!’

  ‘It’s all right.’ She smiles. ‘When pulled along the grain my feathers are soft, but against it they are sharper than any knife. Take care, Kumiko!’

  I don’t know what to say, my fear and gratitude are all mixed up together. I place the scale and the feather with care inside the folds of the kimono. Two last dragons stand beside the rope of silver whiskers. I can hardly look at them in fear of seeing the worry in their eyes. Otto-wan shuffles over and puts his great big head over my hands. He begins to cry. Tears splash over my palms and roll down my fingers.

  ‘Oh, Otto-wan, please don’t be sad!’

  But he lifts his head and grins weakly at me. ‘I am not sad, Kumiko. For ordinary humans, the touch of dragon tears burns terribly, for you they may offer some protection. Be careful, and please, find your sister for me.’

  I finally step towards Tomodo, perched on the very edge of the clouds. No words can say how much I want him to come with me, how scared I feel not to have him by my side. He places a necklace over my head. It is his smallest claw, threaded on a single whisker.

  ‘It won’t do anything, I’m afraid, but remind you of me,’ he says.

  I throw my arms around his great snout and hug him for the longest time.

  ‘I’ll be back, Tomodo. I promise!’

  ‘And I will be here waiting,’ he says. ‘Now go, hurry!’

  I grab Rahzoo’s whiskers in my hands. There is a moment when I feel my legs dangling in the empty sky and I think perhaps I can’t do it after all. But I think of my sister and let myself slide into the emptiness. Once I’m holding tightly with both hands and feet, I look down. Below is a sight I have seen a hundred times, but without Tomodo it makes my insides squirm around like eels. The world is flung out beneath me like a great patterned cloth and the rope of whiskers seems to fall forever. It’s going to be a long, slow slide down. With the wind flapping at the sleeves of my kimono, I ease my grip a little and begin.

  Chapter six

  Like a spider on a thin silver thread, I slide cautiously down the rope of whiskers towards the earth. When I reach the top of a dark and quiet forest, I stop. I can hear the sound of my breathing and I don’t feel brave, I feel scared. I squeeze Tomodo’s claw between my fingers and let the pink of the afternoon wrap around me like a hug from my mother. I think of Arisu too, and pretend they are all with me as I lower my shaking legs to the ground. I let go of the rope.

  It is already dark inside the forest. The season’s last fireflies glow between the trees, and a thin mist slinks over the ground. The dragons told me to find the Shadow Catcher’s cabin at the top of the hill. They said be invisible, be silent and be quick. I try to silence the sound of my feet by stepping on stones and moss and mushrooms. I try to hide behind the trees and move quickly but I stumble. Something’s caught the back of my kimono, a tree or rock ... I give a tug, but when it doesn’t come free I turn around to see how I have been tangled. But it’s not a tree or a rock. A black boot is clamped tightly over the silk and from it rises a leg, a cloak, a woman with a face as pale as moonlight.

  ‘What have we here?’ she hisses in a thin, cold voice.

  All over I feel a prickling of pure fright. Before I can blink, she grabs me under the arms and lifts me, without effort, into the light. She wears strange black clothing, and a piece of red fabric tied around her waist, which is printed with symbols of the moon.

  She croons: ‘Why, child, what are you doing? It’s far too late to be out in the forest.’

  My ribs squirm in her grasp as I stagger for something to say. ‘I – I’m looking for m-mushrooms...’ I lie.

  ‘Oh, I see...’ she remarks. ‘But why would you do that in such a beautiful kimono?’ Her mouth twitches as her eyes run over its strange dark silk. ‘A beautiful dragon-silk kimono?’ At the word dragon, her face splits into a wide, dangerous smile and something inside me explodes. I growl like a dragon and pounce at her with Tomodo’s claw in my hand.

  The woman drops me to the ground with a yell and I run away through the trees, my legs trying madly to keep up with my feet. Then somehow, like magic, the woman appears in front of me. She glides down from the treetops like an autumn leaf. When I change direction she leaps three houses high into the air, soars above the trees and again lands in my path. I twist back and sprint as fast as I can – my feet barely skim the rocks and the logs, my eyes dart wildly for a place to hide. I reach a dark grove of overgrown willows, pull my kimono over my head, and sink deep into their shadows. I don’t dare move. A few moments pass then the sound of feet comes rustling over the tops of the trees.

  ‘You can try to hide,’ I hear the woman pant. ‘But when I can’t see you the power of the shadows fills my other senses. My ears can hear you, my nose can smell you. I can leap higher and move faster than a crow can fly.’ As she slowly moves towards me, nose sniffing at the air, I look all around for some way to escape. When I look up a fat drop of water hits me in the face, followed by another, then another. The sky c
racks into a heavy downpour of rain and I seize my chance to run.

  Out of the shadow of the trees I fly and the faster I run, the faster the rain falls until the sound of it beating down drowns out all other sound and the blur of it hides even my own hands in front of me. I hear the woman slip and fall, but I keep going until I am certain she has lost me, until I am far, far away. Until I am out of the grasp of a Shadow Catcher, for that is what she was.

  As the rain begins to stop, I fall, gulping and sobbing, onto the leaves of the forest floor, tired, frightened and cold. I have made a mistake, I think to myself, I can’t do this alone. I feel for the dragon scale in my kimono, wondering if I should go back, what Tomodo would tell me to do. I look up at the sky between the trees. Giant purple clouds roll in the twilight, and I realise I am not as alone as I thought. Without magic, it takes a thousand stamping feet to make such heavy rain. The dragons must be watching, they must be listening and helping if they can. Tomodo would tell me not to give up.

  I stand and brush the leaves off my kimono and decide to try again.

  With the ground now wet and soggy, it is easier to slip quietly from tree to tree. This time I look in all directions three times before each step. When I hear a murmur to my left I step back and cling to the back of a tree. Two Shadow Catchers pass as silent as the wing-beats of a moth. They each have small green balls of flame floating in front of them, lighting their way through the dark.

  When I am certain they are far enough ahead I follow with feather-light steps up the hill until the ground underfoot becomes warm and ashen and steam rises from the surrounding trees. This must be where the forest was set on fire, where the ten dragons fought and failed. Ahead is the cabin, innocently glowing with the light from a lamp. At the door of the cabin a Shadow Catcher stands guard in the same black clothing as the others. I squat down behind the bushes. What now? I try to shake some ideas into my head, but nothing comes and I begin to panic. How can I get any closer?