Page 25

Insufferable, intolerable, absolutely fickle and unpleasant.

Those were the nicer words that came to mind when I thought of Elang the abominable half dragon.

What had possessed me to court his friendship?

To tell him my stupid little moss story?

I should’ve poked him in the eyes with my brush.

That smug yellow one first.

I snatched a sheaf of parchment from under one of Elang’s stacks of books, recorded every detail I could remember of Nazayun, practically ruining the brush with my livid strokes.

In my head, I was warring with myself, griping at how callously Elang had rebuffed me—at how embarrassingly close I’d come to thinking he was…

he was…

Nothing, I snapped, shutting off the thought.

There was no way I’d harbor even an inkling of feeling toward him.

Just why did he have to be such a convincing actor?

That kiss he’d planted on my hand, that offhand good when I’d said I never wanted to change my hair.

I must be lonely, I thought.

If Nomi and Fal were here, I’d never fall for such a monster— I caught myself— a monster’s tricks.

When the door opened again, I shot to my feet, ready to tell him exactly what I thought of him.

Except it wasn’t Elang.

“General Caisan,” I said, my tone coming out flatter than I intended.

“To what do I owe the honor?”

The turtle dipped his head so he could enter through the door, then straightened.

“I had presumed you sought Lord Elang’s affections for the sake of bettering your life of squalor, but now I see that you are too improvident to have such ambitions. My apologies.”

I was taken aback.

Honestly I didn’t know whether I ought to laugh or be offended.

Caisan was a soldier through and through, even in the way he fashioned greetings.

“I most begrudgingly accept your apology. Does that mean you no longer deem me a hoodlum?”

He grunted.

If I’d wondered whether he might have a sense of humor, I had my answer: no.

“You shouldn’t have gone into the Western Fold,” he said, ignoring my question.

“Even a hatchling would have sensed the ambush that the Dragon King had planned for you.”

“A simple thank-you would suffice. I did save your sister.”

“My scouts would have found her in time.”

“Unlikely.”

Caisan clenched his spear, the only visible sign he grew irritated.

“I have not sought you out to argue.”

“Then why have you come?”

Rather than respond, the general barged deeper into the room, settling beside the hearth where Elang had boiled my medicinal soup.

The fire flared at his presence, green flames zapping to life.

“In light of your mistake, you will need additional protection,” Caisan said at last.

“I offer myself as your personal guard.”

Personal guard?

I dropped my brush onto the table.

“Why would you offer to protect me? You despise me.”

General Caisan bored his round, unblinking eyes into mine.

“When have I said I despise you? It is true, I distrust your kind—I find humans covetous and opportunistic.” He pointed his spear at my opal ring.

“But I distrust demons even more.”

“I already have a guard,” I replied.

“That demon will betray you.”

I disagreed.

“If not for Shani, I wouldn’t have made it back from the Fold alive.”

Caisan made a snorting sound.

“Think carefully. How is it that she helped you vanquish Thadu, then conveniently disappeared right before King Nazayun found you?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“We were separated.”

“She was leaving you unprotected! She hasn’t told you, has she, that she once belonged to Nazayun? For millennia, she served him.”

The opal on my ring grew colder.

Shani was stirring inside.

“You disbelieve me, but it’s true. Ask the demon yourself—since the First Era, Shanizhun was King Nazayun’s most loyal servant. Her cruelty is unthinkable. Her crimes, unspeakable. Entire cities have fallen because of her. Countless lives— innocent lives—gone. All to stoke her wicked hunger.”

“It can’t be,” I said.

“Elang would never trust someone who—”

“There are no other water demons in Ai’long,” interrupted Caisan.

“Shanizhun is the last—because she betrayed her own kind.”

At the accusation, Shani flew out of the ring.

Caisan must have been expecting her reaction, for with a swing of his spear, he impaled her fin.

“Behold the last water demon,” he said, swinging her over the blazing hearth.

“There is only one thing that will quell her treachery, and that is fire.”

“Stop!” I exclaimed, wrestling Caisan for his spear.

“Let her go.”

The general blocked me with his shell.

“You did not think twice when you stabbed Thadu in the head. You thought him a monster, an unfeeling beast about to make soup out of my sister’s blood. What if I were to tell you that the demon you harbor at your side is far, far worse?”

I lowered my gaze to Shani.

She’d become a piteous sight, half-melted into a blob as she writhed above the green flames, steam hissing from the edges of her form.

“Elang trusts her,” I said.

Caisan scoffed.

“Do you know why your lord husband was banished from Ai’long? It is because of this demon. She painted herself a victim, a tortured captive—and deceived him into freeing her. Since then, the Dragon King has taken every opportunity to punish the Westerly Seas, and Yonsar has spiraled into the wretched wasteland that you see.”

“If that is so,” I said slowly, “then it is the Dragon King you should be blaming. Not Shani.”

“You don’t understand. We try to rebuild, and Nazayun sends a storm. We try to fight back, and he brings his sharks. Coincidence?” Caisan dropped the tip of his spear deeper into the fire.

“I think not.”

“Stop, you’re hurting her!”

“Am I? Shanizhun is more powerful than I. She could easily free herself from my grasp, but she manipulates you—the way she did his lordship. It is what demons are good at.”

It was true, Shani was suffering from the flames, but she didn’t fight them.

She was watching me.

Testing me, I sensed.

“ I trust her,” I said in my steeliest voice.

“Without Shani, I never could have rescued Mailoh. I would never have survived Thadu. If there is indeed a spy within the castle, it is not her. Release her—that is a command.”

Caisan lifted his spear from the hearth.

As she slid off the crystal shaft, I caught her in my arms.

The demon’s weight startled me.

It was like cradling a cat, she’d become so light and so small.

Her fins went flat against me, limp as sackcloth, and her eyes were two hollow eggshells.

She was shaking from the heat.

“You’ve made a grave error today, Lady Saigas,” he said.

“I pray you will not regret it.”

With a lurch, he swam away.

Once he was gone, Shani squirmed out of my arms.

Life was returning to the demon, and a glower spread across her translucent face.

Still, she was shaking, even though she tried to hide it.

“Are you hurt?” I asked worriedly.

“You think that overgrown croaker could injure me?”

“Why did you stay in that fire? Why let him hurt you in that way, when you could have fought back?”

“And what would that achieve?” she snapped.

“His kind and yours are not so different. You’ll seek any reason to vilify demons. If you provoke us and we attack, we are the ones called monsters. But we have something to lose, just like everyone else.”

I was only beginning to see the demon for what she was, behind those flinty red eyes and the sharp bite of her words.

“You’re not a monster,” I said.

I nudged her with an affectionate poke.

“No monster would blot out my bad paintings as cleanly as you do, and no monster would have helped me find Mailoh.”

A harrumph.

“You’d have gone off on your own and gotten yourself killed if I hadn’t.”

“Probably,” I acknowledged.

I gave her a small smile.

“Then again, I swim slower than a seahorse, so maybe I wouldn’t have gotten very far.”

“At least you know it.” Shani flexed her tail, sticking out her spikes.

They’d regained their usual gleam.

“You saw Nazayun in the pit. Was he as grand as you thought? Or was he a colossal eyesore?”

She was as petty as ever, and my smile widened.

“A colossal eyesore. I’m going to be painting until my fingers fall off.”

“You’d better get started, then, or Elang’anmi will have both our heads. The water tells me he’s in a bad mood.”

So he was, but I wouldn’t disclose why.

Instead, I changed the topic, asking something I’d been wondering for some time.

“Why do you use the honorific anmi ?” I asked.

“I’ve never heard it before.”

“It’s a title demons use when they’re bound.”

“Bound,” I repeated.

“Like a contract?”

“It’s not a contract,” she said sharply.

“It is a debt of honor, one that cannot be refused.”

“Because he freed you from the Dragon King.” I understood.

“I didn’t know demons had honor.”

I hadn’t meant it as an insult, but Shani’s face contorted with displeasure.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about demons.”

Fair enough.

“How will your debt be repaid?”

She leaned close, sending a chill deep into my bones.

In her lowest voice, she whispered, “With vengeance.”

Vengeance.

I, too, was acquiring a taste for the word.

It was bitter like poison, and I could taste it even in my dreams.

It was spring, and we were strolling through Gangsun’s Central Gardens.

The air smelled green and oily, and the wind scattered peach blossoms across the cobbled paths.

I walked, feeling the grass prick at my ankles and watching the butterflies dance from flower to flower.

The gardens were never this empty in the spring.

They were crowded and loud and full of pickpockets hiding in the peony bushes.

But the air was fragrant, the sun doted on Baba’s dark blue hair, and my skirt flared at my ankles as I walked, a happy bounce in each step.

Just for a few minutes, I wanted to believe this was real.

“Your mother tells me you’ve been living in the dragon realm,” Baba said at my side.

“How long are you visiting home?”

“A week,” I replied.

“A week with my daughter.” He exhaled.

“I’ve missed you.” From his jacket, he drew out a cloth-wrapped figure.

“I finished it, like you asked.”

It was my wooden ship, completed.

The mast was fresh and smelled of cedar, the sails fully battened with thick, woven linen.

Its figurehead was a bird, its wings spread wide.

“Birds always know where home is,” Baba said, repeating something he often used to say.

“This one will find her way back to you.”

It felt so real in my hands, the weight of it, the smooth wood, the creases in its sails.

I fell deeper into the dream.

“It’s beautiful.”

“You should see the ship they built from this model,” said Baba, nodding when my eyes flew up to him.

“It’s real, my Tru. My next voyage is in a week. Come with me.”

I set down the wooden ship.

“No. I can’t.”

“Why not? Nomi and Fal are coming too.”

“I can’t. I have to go back.” I touched the opal on my ring; it was warm.

“To Ai’long.”

“To Ai’long,” repeated my father.

“Let me guess, your mother put you up to it. I hope not for the money.”

Baba was teasing, but still the words made my ears burn.

“No,” I said.

“Not for the money. For you.”

“Then you’re in luck.” Baba gave a hearty laugh.

“HereI am.”

His hand was extended to me, and my fingers twitched, longing for his warmth.

But in a hundred dreams, I’d taken his hand.

And a hundred times, I’d woken up alone.

“What’s the matter, my Tru?”

“Tell me where you are,” I whispered.

“Tell me, and I will find you.”

The smile on Baba’s face faded.

Tears carved tracks down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t cry.” I wiped his face with my sleeve, but the tears came down faster.

Everywhere they touched, his skin turned gray.

Panic leapt into my heart.

“Baba!”

The flowers under my feet withered, the gardens vanishing.

The sky started to fall, devoured by the raging sea.

And there was Baba, standing on King Nazayun’s palm, looking as small as the wooden figurines he used to whittle for me.

He’d been turned to stone.

Nazayun closed his fist around my father, his laugh echoing in my ears.

“NO!” My body convulsed, writhing itself into consciousness.

“You were screaming,” said Shani, misting into view.

Her fins enveloped my shoulders, holding me still.

She let me go, but her voice was gentler than I’d ever heard it.

“Bad dreams again?”

I bunched my blanket in one hand, haunted by what I’d seen.

Baba turned into stone.

Baba shattered into a thousand pieces.

For five years, my family and I had feared he was dead.

This entire time, he’d been a prisoner in Ai’long.

And for what?

Gods help me, I was going to find out.

And I would make the Dragon King pay.