Page 45

The sea had become a stage for this last act of Nazayun’s curse.

Thunder pounded.

Cords of lightning stung the sky.

The tides rolled like drums, and as the new moon rose, the sun knelt before heaven.

No time could be riper for a god tofall.

The Dragon King was no longer alone on his gleaming crystal ship.

Shani had returned, perched in the rigging with her wings spread wide, feathers crackling.

It was almost an affront, how gracefully Elang landed us on the deck.

As if to show his grandfather, Once more, you have failed to end me.

Despite it all, Elang bowed in the god’s presence.

He would not dishonor his grandfather.

I couldn’t say the same.

Now that our act was done, I could be myself.

A piddling con artist from the slums of Gangsun.

Rather than bow, I made a point of standing tall and raising my Scroll so Nazayun could see it.

“Shall we try one last time, Your Majesty,” I proffered, “to kill each other?”

The Dragon King’s gaze narrowed.

All he said was “Shanizhun.”

The demon dove, icy wings cutting the air with a wet hiss.

Just before she hit the deck, she slid into the form of a watery tiger and rebounded into an ambush on Elang.

A sword materialized in Elang’s hand.

Shani’s momentum made him stagger, but he wrestled her, dragon against tiger.

Dragon won.

She flew back, charged again.

He swung, hard.

The demon splashed to the deck before the blade struck.

She knew how he moved.

Knew how he thought.

She angled her teeth into his claws.

Her fangs were dagger-sharp icicles, the hairs on her head a thousand frozen needles.

As she jammed her head against his, blood trickled down Elang’s face, catching along the rims of his scales.

I was used to seeing Shani on Elang’s shoulder, two unlikely friends, both the last of their kind.

She must have been there when he was Gaari.

Invisible at his side, making dry quips and unwelcome commentary about his life choices.

There was something heartbreaking about seeing these two as enemies.

I wondered if Elang felt it too.

If that was why he withheld the full power of his strikes, and wrestled her with the flat of his blade instead of its edge.

Or maybe the demon was simply too strong.

Half of the sun remained.

Night was falling fast, and every minute we wasted fighting tilted the battle in the Dragon King’s favor.

Of course Nazayun understood this.

He remained at the prow, unmoved by the violent winds and thrashing waves.

Smiling as more blood was spilled.

Little by little, I stole toward him, holding on to Caisan’s short knife.

The Dragon King looked different than he had just minutes before.

Underneath his storm of white hair, the number of scales around his missing eye had visibly increased.

The wiry hairs of that side’s brow had also grown thicker, curling up at the ends like they did when he was a dragon.

I clenched my knife.

Could this be a rip in the cloak of magic that gave him human form?

Could it be torn further?

If I needed confirmation that I’d discovered something, it came from Queen Haidi’s arrival.

From across the deck, she sprang toward me, the spikes of her hair launching over the ship’s rail like deadly grappling hooks.

It was inhumanly fast, how Elang knocked Shani to the side, then spun to parry the barbs.

They were faster than arrows, tipped with fiery white magic.

One shot sniped past his blade, poised to strike him in the chest.

I didn’t think twice.

I released the Scroll of Oblivion.

The barb ricocheted off the parchment, which was still tumbling free of its bindings.

Elang sent me an astounded look.

I shrugged.

“You told me the Scroll can’t be destroyed.”

“So I did, Saigas.” His mouth split into a grin.

“But I don’t think anyone’s tested it that way before.”

I pushed him back to attention.

“On your left!”

A new volley of barbs fired our way.

I raised the Scroll again, while Elang lunged to engage Shani.

With a snarl, she came charging at Elang.

She feinted a blow at his face before vaulting high.

In midair, she morphed back into a phoenix.

Down she swooped, but Elang was no longer her target.

Her claws came slashing at my throat, the rush of air from her wings scalding my cheeks.

I rocked back on my heels.

The Scroll went careening, and I barely hung on, sending it back into my red string—just before Shani crashed into me.

“Tru!” Elang shouted.

I couldn’t move.

My blood had turned to ice, my thoughts numbed.

Was this what it was like to have my soul devoured by a demon?

Your soul would be too disgusting for me to devour, Shani retorted.

She wrangled me still.

Now watch.

This is how it all ends.

On the deck, Elang barreled past Haidi’s barbs, not even bothering to shield himself.

The merqueen changed tactics.

She clubbed at him with her tail, with her tentacle arms and her spiked hair.

Her blows were hard and ruthless.

She clipped him in the shoulder, tearing a hole in Elang’s black robe.

He wore the color often enough, usually as a belt or an inner robe or even as armor paddings.

The only other time I’d seen him clad entirely in black was when I’d met him as the Demon Prince.

So you wouldn’t see the blood, he’d told me.

Oh gods.

Now I saw clearly.

He fought differently than he had against Shani.

He was favoring one side, blocking and dodging more than hitting.

Haidi was ferocious, yes, and no mortal would stand a chance against her.

But Elang was half dragon, and he had a dragon’s strength.

That he didn’t use it against her meant he couldn’t…

because…

Haidi flew at him with her tail raised.

A feint.

Her hair came swinging instead, slamming down from above.

Her spikes hooked into his chest precisely where, mere days ago, I’d wrenched her harpoon out with my bare hands.

It ripped through his flesh with a whipping sound I knew I’d never forget.

I was the one who crumbled.

ELANG, I tried to yell, but Shani tightened her grip around my throat.

Elang crushed his jaws and fell on one knee, growling against the pain.

“Well done, My Queen. Well done.” Nazayun clapped, his pleasure amplified by thunder.

“Now kill him.”

“No!” This time my voice boiled out of my throat.

I twisted free of the demon, claiming my body as my own.

Caisan’s knife was still in my hand.

I threw.

The blade went soaring.

High and true, it arced squarely for the place where the Dragon King’s empty eye socket had once been.

I’d never know whether it was fated to hit him, though, for Shani snagged the knife out of midair.

Faster than I could get to my feet, she pinned me back down.

She trapped my arms and dug her talons into the small of my back.

“Let me go, Elang—”

“Shut up,” she barked.

She dangled Nomi’s firecracker over my head, and I stopped, my breath cut short by the acrid fumes of sulfur.

“It’s time to finish this.”

“Don’t,” I cried.

“Shani, listen to me. You could have killed me many times over by now, but you didn’t. You left the sangi for me. You held back fighting E—”

“I said shut up.” Shani struck the back of my head, sending me face-first into the ground.

I bit my tongue as I fell, and the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.

Still I didn’t give up.

I turned to our thoughts.

If you have any honor left in you at all, help Elang.

Please.

Against my ear, the demon pulled the firecracker string.

The explosive sizzled.

My vow was never to help Elang’anmi.

Taking the cracker with her, she evaporated into a cloud of mist.

It was to kill the Dragon King.

Just as Haidi was about to deliver her final blow, Nomi’s firecracker fell from the sky.

My sister was right, it was no ordinary New Year’s popper.

Boom!

In a white and blazing blast, the merqueen was thrown from the deck, shreds of red paper fluttering past her.

Amid the ensuing smoke and disarray, Shani stole into Nazayun’s missing eye socket and vanished with a snap.

The change in him was immediate.

A violent shudder rolled over his body, as though he had swallowed the wind itself.

He tore at his face, trying to pluck the demon out, but it was too late.

As if he were being painted by a divine brush, sapphire-blue scales plated his human flesh, and his white beard billowed into a cloudy mane about his head.

Silvery horns stabbed out above his eyes, and his neck stretched long and thick until it became part of his body, serpentine and winding.

I stumbled toward Elang.

Nazayun’s head was already looming by the mast, his body uncurling like a snake’s.

It wouldn’t be long before the ship sank under his weight.

We had to get out of here.

“Get on my back,” Elang said.

Together we sprang, diving underwater a moment before Nazayun’s head came smashing against the deck, his horns rending the ship in half.

Crystal shards caught the gleam of the sun as the great ship sank.

From a safe distance, Elang and I broke the surface.

The Dragon King was once more in the sea, his fingernails curled into talons, his whiskers piercing out of his cheeks.

His tail grew out from under the hem of his silk robes; the threads hardened into ridges, and its lustrous sheen became the glow of a celestial hide.

When he opened his remaining eye, it was red.

Like Shani’s.

The demon had done it.

Nazayun was returned to his dragon form, and the sky, the sea, the storm—everything was just as I had painted.

The portrait of a god’s fall.

It was time to send him into Oblivion.

I started to let go of Elang’s horns, but he caught my hand.

In a tone that would brook no argument, he said, “I’ll take you.”

We leapt into the air, swooping over the mountainous waves that rose from the sea.

We had to be swift.

Nazayun was stronger as a dragon.

Already his powers were multiplying, and the color of his eye flickered unsteadily, red to blue, blue to red.

Shani was struggling.

Blue again.

With a blink, Caisan and the merfolk were turned to stone.

I let out a furious cry.

Just bear it a little longer, Shani said weakly, her thoughts straining to make contact with mine.

He’s almost there.

Almost where?

Then I remembered: Dragons are supposed to be creatures of wisdom and protection, not rampant destruction.

That goes against their nature; makes them lose control.

Red, barely.

Blue.

Bluer.

Then finally—

Elang and I were gaining ground, only a leap away, when I saw the change.

Nazayun’s eye, whiter than the moon!

His whiskers flashed, his hair began to hiss, and in a tumultuous burst, lightning crackled up his spine, sparks spitting from his scales.

His body came ablaze, turning the sea silver.

There was no way I could get near him.

I couldn’t even look at him without my eyes watering.

Crafty tyrant, I thought.

So much for this being his moment of weakness.

If I so much as touched him, I would die.

Then again, that was what he wanted, wasn’t it?

For me to die.

Nazayun had been so focused on my being the Painter, had he forgotten I was also destined to break Elang’s curse?

My heart pounding, I glanced at the horizon.

Only a quarter of the sun remained; there were minutes left until dusk.

“When an immortal breaks their promise”—I nudged Elang—“what did you say they suffer?”

“Divine consequence,” he replied.

“Why?”

A smile took over my face.

“I’m going to jump.”

“Wait,” said Elang.

I was worried he’d protest, but from his sleeve, he gave me a slender paintbrush.

“I’ll bring you closer.”

He rode the waves to the highest crest, bringing me level with the Dragon King’s brow.

The wind was fierce, and Shani’s red glow grew dimmer with every second.

“Go now, my love,” Elang said before kissing me on the cheek.

“And—may you have the luck of the dragons.”

I fell for the sea, the wind hollering in my ears.

As loud as I could, I let out a cry: “NAZAYUN!”

Just as I’d predicted, just as I’d hoped, Nazayun turned.

Through the blur of the sea’s icy spray, I saw him rise before me, taunting me with how close I’d come.

His very presence was enough to singe my hair, scald my bare skin, and strangle my breath.

But I was undaunted.

Gripping my paintbrush, I summoned the Scroll of Oblivion from around my wrist.

With a hiss, the great dragon I’d painted unraveled across the sky and beat against the wind.

It was like putting the Dragon King to a mirror.

What I had painted was equal to him in every measure, and as I fell onto the Scroll, landing between a pleat of blue-painted scales, it was as though King Nazayun himself had caughtme.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” I shouted.

“It looks just like you.”

I raised my brush, as if to make one last stroke.

A killing blast brewed in the real Nazayun’s eye.

I felt its heat before it came hurtling at my heart, lashing out in a whip of fiery steel.

I had the Scroll, I could have raised it to save myself.

But that wasn’t my plan.

Through Elang’s curse, Nazayun had sworn not to kill me.

Breaking that oath would bring divine consequence upon him, but nothing had been said about protecting me.

It was a gamble, putting myself directly in the line of certain death.

Thunderbolts of Saino, I prayed, grant me courage.

This was my only chance to get close enough to Nazayun to effect the Touch of Entrapment.

I had to take it.

The light was dazzling.

It turned my world white, so bright I had to shield my eyes.

I waited for the blast to strike, for all of me to explode into a firework of flashing embers.

That end never came.

The blast entered my brush with a shudder.

Its hairs came aglow, charged by the lightning of Nazayun’s wrath.

The Dragon King let out a roar of disbelief.

His eye flickered red one last time, and in a cloud of smoke, the fire blazing from his scales went out.

With one divine sweep, the sea turned dark once more.

“An immortal is bound to their promises,” I strained through my teeth, “and you have broken yours not to kill me. Truyan Saigas, the Heavenly Match.”

I leapt onto his head, wrapping my long sleeves around one of his horns.

My whole body was shaking, I couldn’t tell whether from the cold of the sea or from the gravity of the fate I was about to deliver.

It didn’t matter.

Pushing back my sleeve, I leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Rest well, Your Majesty, in Oblivion.”

Then, with one bare and unflinching hand, I pressed my fingers upon his brow.

From the Scroll came a great wind, surrounding the Dragon King.

It howled, or perhaps that was the sound of Nazayun himself, I couldn’t tell.

The world was swaying, every second thundering forward, the past and future colliding as a violent tremor came over me.

I slid down his horn onto his brow, clutching his mane.

He was writhing, his claws thrashing against the sky and sea.

Little good it did him.

Stroke by stroke, my portrait of him was fading from the Scroll, and he, too, began to vanish.

A whirlpool formed at Nazayun’s belly, swirling with ink as it wrenched him from this world—into Oblivion.

If I didn’t get out of here, it would consume me too.

“Jump, Tru!” Elang cried over the clash of sea and wind.

“Jump, I’ll catch you.”

I lurched toward him—until I saw Shani.

The demon clung to the Dragon King by her stingray fins, hanging just under his eye like a teardrop.

I couldn’t leave her.

“Shani,” I shouted.

“Take my hand.”

She was too weak.

You fool, she whispered.

Save yourself.

Not a chance.

I climbed down Nazayun’s temple, using the ridges in his scales as holds.

Wind hammered at me from every direction, threatening to knock me into Oblivion too.

I stretched my arm, scrabbling for the end of Shani’s tail.

One good yank, and the demon flew up into my grasp, her wings nearly throwing me off balance.

But I had her.

Slinging her over my shoulder, I spun toward Elang.

He’d followed as closely as he could, but he still couldn’t reach us through the battering winds.

Fortune finds those who leap, I thought as I took the biggest jump of my life.

Straight into his arms.

Against the hollering wind, the Dragon King let out one last cry.

He was fading fast, drowning in the vast tides of Oblivion.

The last thing I saw was the pale light of his eye going dark, before the Scroll snapped to a final close.

And the God of the Seas, and ruler of the dragons, was no more.