It was still dark out when Yuelan woke up. She felt like something was calling to her, but it was only a faint, pleading whisper. As she sat up a pair of golden tiger eyes opened and studied her in the dark. What is it? Byakko’s voice sounded in her head.

Something’s calling me. But it’s faint. Yuelan sat up and looked around, searching for the direction the call was coming from.

Guangfeng was on watch and he turned to look when he heard the rustling of movement. “Yuelan? What are you doing awake?” He sounded concerned and stood up to walk over to her.

Yuelan looked up at Guangfeng, then back out to the forest around them. “I can feel something calling me, but I don’t know where from.”

Byakko nuzzled her. You won’t find it by looking with your eyes. Search with your mind.

“Can I help with anything?” Guangfeng asked.

“Not right now, but I’ll let you know if you can,” Yuelan told him. “Are you keeping watch right now?”

The third prince made a noise of confirmation. “I’ll be right over there. If you need something just call.”

“I will. Thank you, Guangfeng.” Yuelan closed her eyes and tried to focus on the faint calling, but she fell asleep again before she could find it.

***

Guangfeng woke everyone in the gray light of predawn. They ate dried meat and crackers that had been brought along and the prince helped Yuelan up onto Byakko’s back, in spite of her protests that she could walk.

“Please, Yuelan. You need to conserve as much of your energy as you can,” he coaxed. “The whole point of doing this is to get you where you need to go so that you can do whatever it is to fix the problem. It was hard on you in Zhongshu and getting there wasn’t so difficult.”

Yuelan sighed and submitted. “Alright. I’ll ride on Byakko. Sorry for making you worry about me.”

“I don’t think he minds worrying, Priestess,” Leila chuckled. “My fiance mentioned that was all the prince did on the boat.”

Guangfeng kept a straight face that wouldn’t admit whether Leila was right, but he did reach up to brush Yuelan’s hair back behind her ear. “Just rest and let Byakko carry you.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

If you find what was calling you last night let me know. I will take you to it. The tiger turns his head and studies Guangfeng. “Can you recognize blue tourmaline if you see it?”

The prince looked confused. “What? I’ve never heard of that.”

“I can,” Leila said, raising her hand. “I actually have a piece of it.”

“Let the priestess borrow it.” Byakko didn’t seem to care about asking permission or being polite.

The Hechuan woman looked a bit confused. “What for?”

Byakko didn’t answer and just looked at her with golden eyes. Leila seemed unsettled by it and pulled the stone out of a pouch at her waist and held it up to Yuelan.

Yuelan took it and looked at her contracted divine beast. “What does blue tourmaline do?”

Helps you focus and communicate across distances. Use it to find who is calling you. Byakko kept looking at Leila, waiting.

“What?” Leila’s hand moved to the whip on her belt. “Why are you staring at me?”

“You are the one who knows where we are going. Lead.” Byakko snorted.

“Grumpy and demanding, aren’t you? This is why males shouldn’t be in charge.” Leila sighed and started walking.

Guangfeng frowned at the last part of Leila’s statement, but said nothing.

“Leila, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make statements like that,” Yuelan said from Byakko’s back as the tiger and the others started to follow. “Men and women are both capable of the same things and one way isn’t necessarily better than another. They’re just different.”

“You’ve got an odd point of view there, Priestess. I thought you’d hate a place like Longuo and the other empires where women are treated like objects.” Leila glanced over her shoulder and then back to where they were going.

“I don’t really like it, no, but Guangfeng is already working on making it more equal for men and women. But can you really say that men are less than women when you have examples like the empires?” Yuelan answered.

Guangfeng chuckled.

“Something amusing you, Prince?” Leila snapped.

“Just that you are getting the same lecture that Yuelan gave me not too long ago,” he answered. “Only she didn’t know about your people yet.”

Leila snorted. “We should be quieter. What if we attract more beasts like yesterday?”

You should be focusing on that call, Byakko reminded Yuelan.

Yuelan fell silent and rubbed the blue tourmaline in her hand. She closed her eyes and settled herself comfortably between Byakko’s shoulder blades. With the others having fallen silent after Leila’s terse response to Guangfeng it was easier for the young priestess to concentrate and feel the sensation of being called like she had during the night. She still couldn’t find where it was coming from at first, but it became clearer as the group moved on. The whispering call was coming from the direction they were headed.

As the sun was starting to set and the forest darkened, an ancient, worn group of buildings came into view. It looked larger than the temple in Zhongshu and curled around it was an enormous, azure blue, serpentine body with fur running down the spine.