Трой Деннинг: The Veiled Dragon

A moment later, the witch stepped into the sunlight and found herself staring at Hsieh’s blood-spattered back. The mandarin reeked of ylang oil and still carried his burst sack over his shoulder, and in his hand he held the dark knight’s black sword. Ahead of him, the shadowy sorceress was groaning feebly and staggering through the deserted market plaza toward a looming, black-winged shape.

* * * **

After a hundred tries, Tang managed a flawless hurl. Flying sideways, the golden necklace hit Yanseldara’s staff, and the heavy amulet at the end whipped around and swung over its own chain. The choker slid down the shaft and stopped at the red-glowing pommel, which hung over Tang and his mother’s heads like a strange, ruby-flamed chandelier. The prince carefully pulled his rope taut, then walked around the ingot island to twine the line more securely about the shaft.

“This no time to stretch legs, Brave Prince.” Lady Feng positioned herself directly beneath the staff. “Pull!”

Tang climbed to the center of the island and hauled on the rope. The staff popped free and plummeted straight toward the head of the Third Virtuous Concubine, who stepped aside and plucked it from the air without allowing the topaz to strike the ingots. Before the prince could comment on her catch, she slipped the rope off the shaft, then took a small bundle from her mahogany chest and started down the slope.

Tang gathered up his rope and empty waterskin and followed. “The passage is long one, Esteemed Mother. It would be better if you also had air.”

“Cypress does not provide prisoners with sacks for air.” She opened her bundle and sat at the edge of the water. “But not to worry. With you doing work, I do not need breath.”

Lady Feng began to breathe quick and shallow, forcing her body to absorb as much extra air as possible.

Tang sat at her feet and tied her ankles together. “What of your spellbook?”

“Even small amount of water ruins it.”

“Your chest is waterproof.”

Lady Feng glowered at him. “You already pull too much. Spellbook is safe enough here, with my other treasure.” She snatched the rope from his hand, then untied the jewelry he had used to weight the end. She tossed the necklace on the ingot pile. “With all my treasure.”

Tang sighed, resigning himself to a return trip after Lady Feng recovered her senses and wanted her spellbook. He snatched his rope back, finished binding his mother’s ankles, and fastened the other end of the line to his waist. The prince filled his waterskin with air and tied it around his neck, then helped the Third Virtuous Concubine seal her mouth with a gag of waxed silk. She picked up Yanseldara’s staff, and soon they were in the water. Tang helped her out into the lake and swam over to where the treasure vault’s ceiling sloped down to meet the water.

“Are you ready, Esteemed Mother?”

Lady Feng took a few more breaths through her nose, then nodded and mumbled something that might have been, “No dawdling.”

She plugged her nostrils, and Tang dove beneath the surface, dragging the Third Virtuous Concubine behind him. The light from the glowing spirit gem in Yanseldara’s staff illuminated the watery cavern in shimmering scarlet light, revealing a huge, winding passage that was not so much a single corridor as a confluence of smaller tunnels arriving from all directions. Despite the labyrinthine appearance, there was no doubt about which passage Cypress used; even if the other tunnels had been large enough to hold him, his stony scales had scoured hundreds of shallow furrows along the proper route.

Although Tang could not be certain, the trip out of the treasure chamber seemed to go much faster than it had coming in. A slight current carried him forward even when he did nothing, while the light from the spirit gem made it much easier to find handholds. The prince drew himself yards at a pull, and he had just drawn his second breath from the air skin when the first brown hints of bog rot began to cloud the water. The rope grew slack as Lady Feng drifted toward him.

Tang glanced back and saw his mother’s pop-eyed stare locked on his kicking heels. Her waxed gag and nostril plugs remained in place, but her cheeks were puffed-out and her face was crimson with the desire for breath. She scowled and waved him forward, then clamped her free hand over her mouth and nose.

The prince looked ahead and pulled through the passage with renewed vigor. To his dismay, the water did not grow any murkier. The gentle current that had been pushing them forward died away. He started to worry that he had somehow lost his way, but that could not be. They had passed no side tunnels large enough to hold Cypress, and the walls in this passage still showed the deep scouring marks left by the dragon’s scales.

Tang began to sense a dark presence ahead. For a moment, he feared it was their foe swimming up the passage; then he saw a curtain of gray stone at the end of the tunnel: Cypress had blocked the exit. The prince did not waste any of his precious breath lamenting the dragon’s foresight. He simply pulled himself to the boulder, then turned to take Yanseldara’s staff from his mother so he could search for gaps around the edges.

Lady Feng’s pop-eye was fluttering in its socket. Her cheeks were no longer puffed out and her face had turned more purple than crimson. Though she still held her free hand clamped over her mouth, a small stream of bubbles was rising from between her fingers. Tang knew she had pulled her gag aside to expel her breath and was struggling not to fill her lungs with water. Only one gulp of air remained in the air skin. The prince’s own lungs were burning with the desire for another breath, but he pushed the sack toward his mother’s mouth.

Lady Feng caught his arm. Her squinty eye rolled forward and looked Tang up and down, and the Third Virtuous Concubine smiled. She shook her head and pushed the air skin back toward the prince’s mouth, then pointed from his lips to hers.

Tang nodded and expelled his breath, then sucked the last of the air from the skin. He held it in his lungs only a moment before placing his mouth over his mother’s and blowing a long gasp into her lungs. It was the third time the air had been used, and he did not know how much good it would do her, but he hoped that it would at least reduce the temptation to open her mouth.

Lady Feng accepted the gift, then pushed Yanseldara’s staff into his hand and pulled his dagger from his belt. Tang scowled in confusion. Before he realized what she was doing, the Third Virtuous Concubine grabbed his free arm and drew the blade across his empty palm. As blood clouded around his fingers, she opened her mouth and spoke. Water rushed into her lungs, and her body began to convulse instantly as it instinctively tried to cough. Horrified at the sight of what he took to be his mother’s fast-approaching death, the prince reached out to draw her close.

Lady Feng pushed him away and pointed at the bloody cloud in the water beside them. To Tang’s surprise, it was coalescing into the shape of a man’s head.

Suddenly, the Third Virtuous Concubine threw her arms around the prince’s neck. A series of powerful convulsions racked her chest; then her body went limp and her lips fell open. Tang clamped his hand over her mouth and tried not to think of the terrible burning in his own chest.

When the prince turned back to the crimson head, he was amazed to see the familiar grim face of General Fui D’hang floating in the water beside him.

Fui’s head tipped forward, as though bowing, and floated toward a small side passage. Tang jammed Yanseldara’s staff into his belt, then grabbed a handhold and pulled himself after the loyal general.

* * * **

Cypress stood in the heart of the sunlit plaza, towering high above a sea of tent-roofed stalls. His empty eye sockets turned in the direction of Ruha and Hsieh. The dozens of lances and arrows hanging from his thick scales hinted at the fight Vaerana’s Maces had put up before—before what? The witch had no way to guess whether the dragon had killed the Lady Constable and all her men, or had simply discovered the ruse and flown away.