Li dove down, the tip of her wing just brushing the top of Kaz’s ear. The closer they got to the mountain, the more he found it difficult to look away, or even think of anything else. It was like he was being called by something he had known even longer than he had known Li, and his dragon didn’t like it.
“What?” he asked absently, looking up at her. It was just growing dark, with gray shadows softening the edges of everything, and for a moment she seemed more silver than gold, a figment of his imagination rather than a very real person.
Lianhua laughed softly. “You’re not supposed to tell him what to do,” she said. “It’s his vote.”
Kaz looked around, trying to figure out where they were. He knew, of course, knew every foot that brought him closer to whatever it was that called to him. But they could have been wading through mud for all he was aware of his surroundings.
The mountain was ahead of them, occupying his entire field of vision beyond the tall trees. The road along which they were riding had become little more than an overgrown dirt track, though he could still see that it was once a well-trodden road, just not important enough to be paved in cobblestones.
“How far is it to the portal?” he asked.
Raff huffed a sigh. “Y’ didn’t hear anything I said, did you, Blue? There’s a nice clearing ahead with a deep overhang that’ll provide us some cover in case it decides to rain.” He pointed up, where Kaz could see that gray clouds partially obscured the equally gray sky. “The portal’s a little over two hours away, but there’s clean water at the campsite there, so the horses can get a drink and Lianhua could take a bath. Nothing over our heads but trees and tents, though.” He tilted a brow at Lianhua, who shook her head at him.
“I bathed just two days ago, and while I admit it would be good to be properly clean, it’s going to pour soon. I don’t want to set up camp in the mud and rain, and somehow, no matter how much ki is used, tents always leak, at least a little,” she said.
Raff shrugged. “If you say so. I think the rain’ll hold off till midnight at least, so if we go on now, then we don’t have to tear down and slog th’ last bit over muddy ground in the morning. But I’m also willin’ to hope I can talk you all into just staying at our nice, dry campsite until the rain clears and the ground starts to dry, even if that takes most of the day. If Kyla can’t figure out how to get the chiefs to open up, then we’ve got a few days to wait, so no great loss.”
Kyla glared at him, and he gave her a shrug and a half smile. She and Mei had dismounted at some point, and the fur around Kyla’s mouth was stained a deep purple from the sweet berries she’d been pulling from the bushes. She had small, shimmering shields covering only her hands, since the bushes had long, wickedly curved thorns protecting their bounty, and Kaz was impressed at how much her strength and control had improved since they left the mountain. The shields weren’t exactly flexible, so she crushed as many berries as not, but neither she nor Mei seemed to mind overmuch.
“I know the howls,” she told him fiercely. “We should go on. What if they open the portal to check, just in case I return early? Father and Ija will definitely be worried enough to push for that, and it wouldn’t take that much power to just glance through.”
Kaz wasn’t so sure. From the little he’d seen, most of the ki involved was required to open the portal, not keep it that way, though that wasn’t easy either. “Can anyone with enough power use the knives, or does it have to be the chief?” he asked, thinking of Idla and her damaged core.
Kyla’s ears twisted to the side, flattening slightly. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think it has to be the chief or one of her daughters. Or sons, I guess, in the Woodblade tribe. Only someone very strong can open the portal at all, and a chief wouldn’t want-”
She stopped, but Kaz knew what she meant. If someone else was strong enough to open the portal, then they were probably also strong enough to challenge the chief, or at least her heir. No chief wanted factions forming within their tribe, so it was best not to acknowledge anyone but her own heir.
He shook his head. “They won’t be able to check that often then. Idla won’t allow it.” Because if she did, everyone else would see that she couldn’t recover as quickly as the other chiefs, and Kaz was certain that she wasn’t so well-liked that she could afford to show weakness.
“I’d like to go on,” he said, staring at the mountain again, and felt a rush of triumph through his bond with Li. “But I’d like to stay dry more. There’s nothing we can do tonight, and I hate having wet fur.”
Kyla, who obviously didn’t mind being wet, glared at him, but it was Li’s frustration that bothered him the most. She wanted to go, and not just because she hated waiting, but because…something. Something she didn’t want him to see, at least not yet. It didn’t feel like something bad, at least, so Kaz wasn’t too worried about it.
“Good,” Chi Yincang said, stepping from a particularly deep shadow near Lianhua. Kaz had seen him there, of course, and Lianhua had no doubt sensed him as well, though Kaz didn’t know why Yingtao didn’t react. Did she also have a way to sense her brother? Raff and Kyla both jumped, with Kyla letting out a short, high-pitched yelp. The corner of Chi Yincang’s mouth twitched up minutely before he continued speaking.
“Elder Long has arrived,” he said, before dropping to one knee, touching the knuckles of one fist to the ground while the other pressed against his chest. Yingtao instantly moved to his side and mimicked the posture, her longer robes flaring out around her before they settled gracefully to the ground.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Lianhua turned, her eyes searching, before her face lit up in a broad, welcoming smile. A dark speck was flying through the sky toward them, and at first Kaz thought it was a dragon, until he realized that what he saw flapping was clothing, not wings. As the figure drew closer, Kaz could tell that it was perched atop something, and though he couldn’t tell what it was, both the figure and its ‘mount’ blazed with ki.
It took over a minute from the time the figure became clear until he reached their group, and neither Yingtao nor Chi Yincang moved during this time. Chi Yincang didn’t even look like he was breathing, though Kaz could see Yingtao’s ribs expand and contract periodically. He had never seen her look truly nervous before, but now there was a tiny crease between her brows, and the fist she touched to the ground was clenched tight.
Elder Long had white hair that reached past his waist, and a beard and mustache that were almost as long. His fuulong silk robes were gold and white, and the thing he balanced on was a sword, almost as long as Raff’s, but much finer. The blade held the sparkling sheen of mithril, but Kaz had the feeling that was the least of its strength, since it was filled with so much black and white ki that it was difficult for Kaz to make out any further details.
“Granddaughter,” he said, as he stepped down from his sword, which continued hovering obediently. It seemed to take a moment for him to remember that his slippered feet were supposed to touch the earth, but Lianhua didn’t appear to notice. She threw herself at him, their white hair mingling as the old male shifted from a power-soaked monster to a relieved grandparent.
Everyone waited awkwardly as the two hugged, though Kaz noticed that Raff slid off his horse on the side away from Elder Long, and Kyla sank deeper into the brush, her yellow-gold eyes gleaming from the shadows. Mei vanished so completely that if Kaz hadn’t been able to see her ki not far from Kyla’s paws, he never would have known she was there. Even the distinctive scent of fuergar faded until he would have sworn it had been days since one of the creatures passed by. Kaz followed their lead and slid as quietly as possibly from his own horse.
Eventually, Elder Long clasped Lianhua’s shoulders and set her away from him gently. Her cheeks glistened with tears, but she sniffled and pulled herself together, turning to the rest of the group. Her eyes scanned over them before coming to rest on Kaz.
“Kaz,” she said formally, “may I introduce my grandfather, Elder Long of the Long clan?”
Kaz didn’t know what to do. Why had she introduced him first? Shouldn’t they have spoken with Chi Yincang or Yingtao before him? Even Raff might have given him a hint to the correct response. As much as the large male tried to pretend otherwise, he had been born into a high-ranking family, so surely he must know how to answer.
With no other option, Kaz bowed over his own fist, giving a soft yip of greeting. Then, remembering the kinds of things humans said to each other, he ventured, “It is my honor to meet you, Elder Long.”
The old male’s lips curved into what looked like a genuine smile, and he bowed slightly in return. It was only a bare dip of his head, little more than a slight bending of his neck, but Lianhua gave a gasp that she barely managed to turn into a soft cough when her grandfather flicked an amused glance in her direction. His eyes were as black as Chi Yincang’s, and honestly, he looked more like that dark warrior than he did his own granddaughter. Their only similarity was in the pure white color of their hair, which might just be the result of Elder Long’s advanced age.
“It is my honor to meet you, Kaz,” Elder Long said with no hint of irony. Then his eyes landed on Li, who still perched in the tree where she’d landed what seemed hours ago, but was actually less than ten minutes. This time when the old human bowed, it was even deeper, his back bending at the waist just a little.
Seeing this, Lianhua bit her lip, then managed to say, “Li, may I introduce my grandfather, Elder Long of the Long clan?”
Kaz could feel Li’s apprehension. She, too, could tell just how strong this human was. He was the first person Kaz had ever met whose inner light wouldn’t be utterly eclipsed by that of Heishe or Fengji. If Lianhua’s grandfather fought one of the Divine Beasts, the Divine Beast would win, but it would be a battle hard fought, and there would probably be nothing left of the surrounding area.
His dragon had her dignity, however, and she settled the long line of her body into an exquisite curve, stretching and turning her neck and wings just so, until she was all that was grace and beauty. she said, and only Kaz knew about her surge of apprehension when she realized that she hadn’t repeated the words Kaz used.
Elder Long’s brows lifted, very slightly, and he sent a glance toward Chi Yincang, who flinched. Had Chi Yincang failed to inform his elder that Li was now able to speak for herself?
Lianhua continued with the introductions, though she seemed unsure whether to move on to Kyla or Raff. In the end, she chose Kyla, who stepped out of the brush and executed a perfect bow, high-ranked female to chief of another tribe, before saying, “It is my honor to meet you, Elder Long of the Long clan.” She flashed Kaz a tiny, triumphant glance at this improvement on his choice of words, and Kaz didn’t think Elder Long missed it, though he responded solemnly enough.
This was repeated with Raff, who responded more formally than Kaz had ever heard before. Even Mei was introduced, though she refused to emerge from her hiding place, which was now several feet away. Only when all of this was done did Elder Long turn his attention to Chi Yincang and Yingtao. The siblings still hadn’t moved, though Kaz thought he could see Yingtao’s heart pounding. She had the least ki of any of the group, but it was usually perfectly ordered, flowing in controlled cycles that wasted nothing. Now it churned through her, small amounts leaking into her body, where it was absorbed or drifted away as mana.
“Stand,” Elder Long said, looking at the two. Chi Yincang and Yingtao came to their feet so smoothly that the movements in between were all but lost. They both stared into the distance, as if looking directly at the elder was unthinkable. At least they did until Elder Long reached up to place a hand on Chi Yincang’s shoulder, making Kaz realize, to his shock, that the old male was only a little taller than Lianhua, which made him shorter even than Yingtao.
“Chi Yincang,” Elder Long said, “I thank you for your service.”
For the barest instant, Chi Yincang’s black eyes met those of the elder, and then he was down again, bowing so deeply that his hair brushed the ground. “You honor me,” he said hoarsely, and Elder Long smiled before laying his hand on Chi Yincang’s black hair. Kaz half-expected that hair to have turned white beneath the force of the old male’s ki, but when the hand was lifted, Chi Yincang’s hair was as obsidian as ever.
Then Elder Long turned to Yingtao, but before he could speak, Lianhua stepped up beside her. The smaller female lifted her chin, face pale and lips pressed together tightly. When she reached for Yingtao’s hand, the taller female hesitated only briefly before twining her own fingers through Lianhua’s.
Kaz suddenly understood something he should have seen some time ago, and could have nipped his own ear for it, if that was possible. If he hadn’t been so busy worrying about himself and his situation, he never would have missed the fact that what Lianhua and Yingtao felt for each other wasn’t simple friendship, or even sisterhood.
Elder Long looked between the two females, then let out a sigh and shook his head. “I’m old,” he said. “But not so old that I can’t see when I’ve made a mistake. I wished for you to have an easy life, Lianhua, but that was never what you wanted.” Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to his granddaughter’s forehead. “I wish you happiness.”
Lianhua’s expression changed to one of such heartfelt joy that Kaz felt a sudden, deep surge of envy. He was pleased for his friend, but he wondered; had he ever felt that happy?