Page 39

It was morning when I returned to the world above the sea.

The sun was young, magpies sang in the larch trees, and the garden was white with winter.

As Caisan floated across the pond, I held out my hands, catching snowflakes as they fell.

“Are you cold, Lady Saigas?” asked the general.

“No.” The air was brisk.

My breath came out in swirls of steam when I exhaled, but I wasn’t cold.

Not after my time in Yonsar.

I glanced down at Baba, who lay on the general’s back.

He had slept the entire journey, and a soft wheeze passed through his nostrils.

I raised Elang’s cloak to cover his shoulders.

How many times had I prayed to the gods, begging for Baba to come home?

How many nights had I dreamed of seeing him again, only to wake up to the vicious reality that he was gone?

No more.

My heart ached with joy.

I couldn’t wait until Mama and my sisters saw him.

“Mama!” I shouted.

“Fal! Nomi!”

I started to slide off Caisan’s shell so I could wade closer to the house.

“Mama!” I shouted again.

That was when a warm hand clasped my own.

“Truyan?” came Baba’s hoarse whisper.

“Is it really you?”

Tears welled in my eyes.

I couldn’t speak, so I held his hand, bringing it to my chest.

He was still cold, warmth shivering back to his skin gradually with every second.

But his smile was real.

He was real.

“It’s me.” The words scraped out of my throat.

“It’s me.”

I’d never seen Baba cry before.

His eyes filled as he steadied himself with my arm, his gaze sweeping over my face.

“My little girl, you’ve grown up.” He inhaled.

“How long…how long was I away?”

“Five years.”

I could hear the breath go out of him.

“Five years,” he murmured.

“The last thing I remember was a storm, my ship sinking. The realization that I’d never get to see my girls grow up.”

My throat closed, a lump swelling painfully inside.

“We can talk later. We need to get you inside, get you some warm food and tea. Mama should be awake by now.”

At the mention of Mama, a thousand questions burned in his eyes.

He didn’t recognize the mansion in front of us, and I could see his astonishment when he realized we were floating on the back of a giant turtle.

“Is this your home?” he asked in disbelief.

“Your mother, she didn’t remarry. Did she?”

I had to laugh.

“She didn’t.” A blush rose high on my cheeks as I realized I’d have to tell Baba I was the one who’d married.

That could wait.

“Let’s see who’s awake.” I cupped my hands around my mouth.

“Mama!” I shouted.

“Fal, Nomi! We’re home!”

A door slid open, and Nomi came rushing out.

“Tru!” she yelled.

Then her eyes bulged.

There was a book in her hand, and my ever-sensible sister tossed it into a bush before she not-so-sensibly rushed into the pond.

It was freezing, thin ice crackling from where I stood.

“Don’t rush in!” I warned.

I dove forward, catching her before she skidded across the ice.

I held her close.

“I’ve got you.”

Nomi threw her arms around me, hugging me so fiercely I could hardly breathe.

“You’re back. You’re finally back.” Her loose hair was crimped from yesterday’s braids, the collar on her tunic adorably misbuttoned as always.

I rested my chin on top of her head, finding she was taller than I remembered.

Five months, I’d been away.

For Baba, it’d been five years.

“Don’t I get an embrace too?” he said gently.

Nomi turned to him, eyes shining with tears she didn’t dare let fall.

“Are you real?” she whispered.

“Or are you a dream? I warn you that no matter what you are, I won’t let you go.”

“I’m real.” Baba opened his arms, hugging us both.

“I promise I’m real.”

That was when Falina came running out the door, her jacket unbuttoned and her slippers falling off.

Her teeth chattered as she shouted, “Nomi, get out of the pond! You’ll catch sick—”

She stopped short, her words freezing into a gasp.

“Baba?”

Her mouth still hanging, she leapt into the pond right behind Nomi, chattering teeth and all.

“Baba!”

Baba grabbed her by the arm.

I took her other hand.

“My pine, my plum, my bamboo,” he murmured, words I’d forgotten how much I missed.

Tears glistened under his eyes, freezing before they could fall, and his voice grew hoarse.

“You’ve grown so strong, so beautiful.”

That was all he could manage before my sisters and I hugged him.

We were like fools, laughing and crying and clinging to each other as we splashed toward the bank.

In the end, it was Caisan who ferried us out into the garden.

Aiding him were two merfolk, who threw blankets over our backs and ushered us toward the house, shaking their heads at us while they enchanted our clothes dry again.

The gods could’ve thrown a blizzard at me and I wouldn’t have noticed.

With my sisters at my side, I held him by the arm and brought him inside.

Mama was in the kitchen, cooking.

She hadn’t heard the commotion in the garden, so when our footsteps came pattering in, she said, “Falina and Nomi Saigas, didn’t I tell you two to wash the rice….”

The words died on her lips.

“Devils of Tamra,” she whispered, stunned.

She spun to my sisters, raising a rice paddle at them.

“What manner of illusion is this?” she demanded.

“Are the merfolk at their jokes again? This isn’t funny, Falina—”

“It’s really them,” Nomi spoke over her.

“Baba and Tru—they’re home.”

Mama lowered the paddle, her face paling.

She stared at Baba.

“Arban?”

“It’s me,” he said softly.

He bowed.

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”

The paddle dropped from Mama’s hand, and Baba caught her in his arms as she fell back.

“Weina,” he started.

“Look at you.” She tapped his cheeks, pinching his earlobes.

“You haven’t aged at all.” Her voice hitched.

“You should’ve given some warning you were coming back. I would’ve braided my hair, put on some powder.” She sniffled, wriggling out of Baba’s arms onto her feet.

“Gods, what must you think seeing me like this? These gray hairs and wrinkles under my eyes—all from worrying about you!”

There came a wheezy laugh under Baba’s breath.

“You haven’t changed. Still exaggerating like you used to.”

“Exaggerating!”

He swept a loose hair from Mama’s temple.

“You know what I think? I think today is my most joyous day. My children have bloomed into young women, and my wife has never looked more beautiful.”

It was true, I thought.

I’d half expected to find Mama dressed in silken finery, enjoying all the luxuries Elang’s manor had to offer.

But she wore simple twill robes and an apron, and the only jewelry was the same jade bangle she’d worn for years.

The one Baba had given her as a wedding gift.

Mama crossed her arms, but a flush reddened her cheeks.

“You and your silver tongue. All these years, and not a single letter? You’d better have a good reason for it.”

“Mama…,” I started, but Baba silenced me with a touch.

He reached into his pocket, handing Mama the wooden toy boat he’d once carved for me.

“I was captured by the Dragon King.”

Mama’s arms fell to her sides.

Her lower lip trembled.

“What?”

“This is the boat I carved for the girls,” Baba said, trying to keep his tone light, despite the shadows that had fallen over his face.

“I was trapped inside for years. It wasn’t so bad. I didn’t feel any pain—or anything, really. The next thing I knew, Tru was there to save me.”

“Tru saved you?” Mama turned to me then, pinching my cheek.

“Thank Amana. I always knew that mole of yours was lucky.”

There was a crack in her voice, and she sniffed, trying to hide it.

“You must be hungry, the both of you. Breakfast is nearly ready. This weather makes me famished. It’s the coldest winter we’ve had since I was a girl, and all this ice came about last night. Will you look outside—my persimmon trees are doomed!”

“You’ve been gardening?” I asked, surprised.

I noted the oil stains on her apron.

“And cooking?”

“Every day,” chirped Nomi.

“Miracles do happen.”

Mama glowered at her youngest, then she began scooping congee into an assortment of wooden bowls.

I hadn’t seen her so busy in years.

Here was a glimmer of her old self, strong and boisterous and always moving.

It warmed me to see.

“The clapping magic got tiresome after a while,” she said.

“The congee was always too salty.” Her eyes were bleary, her voice cracking as she spoke, but she was doing her best to hide it.

“Anyhow, there’s nothing else to do around here. So I cook, Fal makes clothes, Nomi tinkers with ways to destroy the manor.”

She set three bowls on a tray.

“Your contract is done, I take it. Where is Lord Elang? He said he’d bring you back, but he’s nowhere to be seen. A good son-in-law should keep his word.”

“Son-in-law?” Baba repeated.

“Does that mean…Tru?”

“She hasn’t told you?” Fal asked slyly.

“That’d be the Demon Prince. Oh, don’t worry, he’s not an actual demon, he’s just—”

“My husband,” I said thickly.

I touched my chest, remembering the butterflies that sat over my heart.

“We married right before I left for Ai’long.”

“You should have seen the wedding,” gushed Mama, who seemed to have forgotten her disdain for the event.

“It was a grand affair. Even the governor came! And I combed Tru’s hair the night before like how your mother combed mine. She was so beautiful.”

Mama dabbed her eyes with her sleeves.

“Oh, damn these onions. They’re hurting my eyes.” She blinked, and I noticed that there were no onions in the kitchen, only watercress, carrots, and snow peas.

Baba saw right through Mama’s ruse.

He touched her arm.

“I’ll stay and help you. Let the children eat first.”

My sisters and I quickly excused ourselves.

We shuffled down the long hallway, carrying bowls of congee and huddling together as though we were children again, picking up from that last morning Baba was home.

A painting of the Eight Immortals hung on the wall, and as I passed it, my chest tightened.

Falina linked arms with me, oblivious to my thoughts.

“He’s really back,” she breathed.

“And you, Tru. Just in time for the New Year.”

“It’s perfect timing.” Nomi clapped.

“I’ve been making my own fireworks, but Mama thinks they’re too dangerous to test in the garden.” She plopped onto a chair in the dining chamber.

“Now that you’re back, we can finally go out again, right? I can smell the festival food from Bading Street.”

My smile wavered.

How did I tell her I couldn’t leave the manor?

“Let’s wait awhile,” I said, dipping my spoon into my congee.

“Baba’s just returned. He’ll need his rest.”

“And Mama will want news,” added Fal.

“We’ve wondered what you’ve been doing in Ai’long.”

“Yes.” Nomi leaned forward, wearing a devious arch in her brow.

“Especially whether you’re going to stay married to that dragon prince.”

Nearly six months away from home, and I could no longer read the inflections behind my sister’s words.

“Why would I stay married to Elang?” I asked, hoping I sounded indifferent.

“I thought we all hated him.”

Fal and Nomi exchanged looks.

“I don’t hate him,” Nomi started.

“I mean, I did, but then he gave me the key to his library with all the potion recipes. He’s quite clever, for a fake demon prince.”

“Potions! I thought you were studying for the National Exam?”

Nomi shrugged, stirring peanuts into her congee.

“Who would turn down magic lessons from a dragon?”

“I don’t hate him either,” Falina said.

“He showed me the flowers in his garden and asked the merfolk to teach me how to weave silk. And from the way he was talking about you when he visited, I assumed that he…” She let her voice trail.

“He what?”

“That he loves you,” Nomi said softly.

The pinch in my heart vanished, and suddenly my pulse was thudding in my chest.

I value Truyan’s life more than my own, Elang had told Queen Haidi.

Any spell will prove this as truth.

Had everyone known—my sisters, Queen Haidi, even the Dragon King himself—Elang’s true feelings?

Was I the only one who hadn’t seen?

Until it was too late, I thought miserably.

Nomi touched my shoulder.

“You’ve gone pale, Tru. Did we say something wrong?”

“I’ve got a headache,” I said.

More like a heartache, but Nomi didn’t get the chance to correct me.

Mama and Baba entered the room, shoulders touching.

“Who’s got a headache?” Mama asked.

“Tru,” supplied Nomi.

“We were talking about Elang, and the medicines he taught me how to brew. Remember how he cured your cough, Mama?”

“Yes.” A faint smile touched Mama’s lips.

“At first I was upset Truyan hadn’t come too, but…we got along very well, the dragon and I. He was much more charming than the first time, but not so good at tiles. It’s a good thing we weren’t gambling.” She chuckled to herself.

“We took our meals together, pruned the sanheia from the gardens, exchanged stories about Tru. I almost forgot they weren’t really married.”

Heat rushed up to my eyes.

I remembered what an oddly good mood Elang had been in when he’d returned to Yonsar.

“You sound as if you like him.”

Mama spooned a heap of congee into her mouth.

“You know, I’ve two minds about the Demon Prince,” she said, chewing.

“Part of me thinks he might actually be a good son-in-law. But you can never trust these dragon sorts; I warned him he’d better bring you home safe, or I’d skewer his eyeballs and flay his scales into a new coat.”

Only Mama would dare heckle a dragon.

“What did hesay?”

“He said you’d be safe, and if there was even the barest scratch on your skin, he’d cut his scales out for me, so I wouldn’t have to dirty my hands.” Mama pinched my sleeve, admiring the crystal beads inlaid into the silk.

“And he kept his promise, didn’t he?”

“He did,” I said solemnly.

“Trust me, Tru, when you come across a man like that, half dragon or not, you keep him. Especially if he has a house such as this.” Mama tapped the table.

“What a good day this has been. My husband is back from a shipwreck, and our daughter is married to a prince. Didn’t I tell you fortune would turn in our favor?” Though Mama’s voice was high, her eyes were still moist.

She cleared her throat.

“Now, who wants crullers?”

Baba laughed, and my sisters hid smiles behind their spoons.

I was happy for them, but under the table, I worried the red string around my wrist.

I only want you to have the choice, Elang had said, to forget me, if you will.

At first I’d been confused, indignant even.

How could he suggest such a thing, as if the last month—the last three years —had meant nothing.

Yet now that I was home, slowly putting the broken pieces of my family back together again, I understood.

It would be so easy to end things, to divorce myself of Elang and his war with the Dragon King, and mark this as the beginning of the rest of my life.

The only problem?

I was starting to realize I loved himback.