Page 16

It was still raining when the carriage trundled onto an unmarked path, past a copse of pine trees into a mossy part of Elang’s garden I’d never seen before.

We stopped before a quay of tall reeds, where a pale yellow boat awaited.

It was a narrow vessel, barely big enough for two, and it tilted under my weight as I boarded.

“Take this,” said Elang, giving me the umbrella again.

I didn’t argue.

I’d been anxious all day for what was soon to come.

The moment I’d leave everyone and everything I’d ever known behind—for the realm of dragons.

Some part of me had hoped that my family might be here for one last farewell, but the garden was empty.

No merfolk, no turtles, no fish in the pond.

Only Shani had come, keeping a vigilant distance from the boat.

I dipped under the umbrella as Elang rowed.

Rain drummed the pond, making the water glitter.

A splendorous sight, but I was more focused on what lay beneath.

It was impossible to gauge how deep the pond was, yet there couldn’t be an entire kingdom under Elang’s garden.

Could there?

Then I saw it.

A speck of violet light at the center of the pond, glowing with a burning intensity.

I breathed, unable to contain my excitement.

“Elang, is that…is that Ai’long?”

Elang set aside his oars.

“It’s close,” he replied.

“The light represents the edge of the mortal realm. Beyond is Ai’long.”

The boat rocked in its place, and I gripped my umbrella with both hands.

“So this is it? We jump?”

“Not yet.” He bent, retrieving a lidded teacup he’d stowed inside the boat.

Holding it with both hands, he offered it to me.

I quailed.

“What is this?”

“A potion—so you can breathe underwater.”

Oh.

Right.

I’d been wondering about that.

I peered into the cup.

The potion looked like an herbal soup, darker and thicker than the ones Mama used to make for me when I was little, and those had been vile.

Deer intestines with black fungus, she’d say, deadpan.

I’d never known whether she’d been joking.

“I caution you,” said Elang before I raised the cup, “the taste is foul. The experience after, unpleasant.”

More curious than brave, I brought the teacup to my nose.

A mistake.

The most revolting smell greeted my nostrils, and Elang grabbed my hand before I dropped everything.

The boat rocked as I coughed.

“What is this?” I fanned away the potion’s fumes.

“It smells like—”

“Rotted rat liver?”

My entire face puckered.

That was very specific.

“It’s not.” Elang’s lips twisted.

“You recall the flowers you trampled? They are known as sanheia roses, and this is a special tea brewed from their petals. It’s called sangi.”

He took my umbrella.

“Now, drink before it gets cold. It will burn more when it cools.”

Burn?

Hells of Tamra, I should’ve asked for more money.

I lifted the cup once more.

A thread of sunlight shone upon its porcelain lip.

The last stripe of day I’d see in who knew how long.

This was it.

For Fal’s and Nomi’s futures, I reminded myself.

For Baba.

I pinched my nose with my fingers, then poured the potion down my throat.

The taste was bitter, though not utterly repulsive.

That was as far as I got, thought-wise, before the teacup fell from my hands and clattered onto the bow of the boat.

Elang took my arm, steadying me as I began to shudder.

“Mailoh!” he shouted.

“Mailoh, it’s time.”

“What’s…what’s…happening?” I asked.

Elang tilted my chin up.

“Look at me. Tru, focus on myeyes.”

My fingers curled into his arm.

The world was slipping beneath me, everything blurring into a haze, even Elang’s eyes.

They were two disconsonant blobs of gold and gray, like an egg yolk and a stone, deliriously coming together into a dark eclipse.

“That’s it,” he said.

“Focus on me. Your body is reacting to the sangi. There will be pain, and you’ll feel like you can’t breathe…”

As soon as he said it, a wave of heat scalded my throat, like I’d swallowed a raging fire.

I felt my jaw crack open, muscles stretching into a scream.

Except no sound came out.

I was drowning—on air!

Mailoh arrived, floating alongside the boat.

“We have to get her into the sea,” she urged.

“It’s too soon.” Elang gripped my arm more tightly.

“Focus, Tru! Just a little longer.”

The air had turned thicker than sand, and my lungs pinched with panic.

All my life, I’d breathed without thinking.

Now, suddenly, this most natural act was killing me, and the instincts I’d been born with fled in favor of something entirely new and unimaginable.

Water, I choked in my thoughts.

I tried to inhale the rain.

Water!

Shani dissolved into a splash over my face, giving me the breath I desperately needed.

“She’s ready,” said Elang, tilting my chin to assess the side of my neck.

“Let’s go.”

He lifted me onto Mailoh’s back.

Then, stepping off the boat, Elang spread open his arms.

In a great dizzying tower, water rushed up from the pond.

The force of it knocked me flat against Mailoh’s shell.

As I sat up, breathing in the icy spray, Elang began to part the waters.

Mist swirled above the pond, and thunder ripped the sky, silvery rain falling down in sheets.

A sharp tingle vibrated across my skin.

This was the moment I’d foreseen in my painting.

Shrouded in storm and sea, Elang began to change.

His hair turned a lustrous white, and his scales multiplied across his skin, stippling the bare flesh on his arms and most of his neck.

His horns branched and doubled in length, and most dramatically, a tail swelled out from under his robes.

Only his face didn’t change.

Half of it was dragon, and half was human, his golden eye a glimmering coin against the dark.

“Water brings out the dragon in Lord Elang,” Mailoh was murmuring.

“Impressive, isn’t he?”

He looked more monstrous than impressive, to be honest.

But he could have grown four heads or shrunk into the size of a cockroach for all I cared.

I just wanted to get in the water.

As if she sensed my impatience, Mailoh ferried me to the center of the pond, where Elang was waiting.

“Is she ready?” he asked the turtle.

My throat still burned, but I could answer for myself.

I lifted my chin.

I’m ready.

With a nod, Elang closed his arms.

The tower of water roared, collapsing down in a rushing cascade.

At the heart of the pond, the speck of violet light I’d seen swelled into a glimmering crown.

I braced myself, grasping the rim of Mailoh’s shell.

“It might be better if you rode on Lord Elang’s back,” spoke the turtle.

“The journey can be rough, I wouldn’t want you sliding off my shell.”

I balked.

Married or not, he was still a stranger to me.

I wasn’t about to climb onto his back and fold my arms around his neck.

I definitely wasn’t going to cling to his horns.

In the end, I didn’t have a choice.

Thinking she was being helpful, Mailoh tossed me to Elang.

He caught me by the waist, muscles cording as he set me firmly upon his back.

“I’ll see you in Ai’long,” Mailoh cried before diving into the pond.

Shani vanished after her.

“Now it is our turn,” said Elang as I scrambled up his scales for something to grasp.

He took my arms, folded them around his neck.

“I would hold on tight if I were you.”

That was all the warning he gave.

There came a rhythmic rushing that I mistook for wind, then we plunged.

And before I could even think to say goodbye, I left behind the only world I’d ever known.