Shadow Sister (7 page)

“Underworld,” Kai said.

“I thought I had fallen into the realms of hell. But we are not in the underworld, just lost in a cave. If we promise to fulfil the wishes of the dead from the ruined village, they will let us go. We cannot help them while we are trapped in this place. They know that.”

“Not many ghosts. Only one. Gu Hong.”

Kai had spoken about this dragon before. She was an old one who had died while Kai was still at the dragon haven. This was no time to debate religious differences, no time to press him to follow the way of the Blessed One. If Kai believed he had been visited by the ghost of a dead dragon, then that was what Tao would use to convince him to move.

He felt for Kai’s ears and stroked them. They were small and unscaled, velvety to touch. The dragon’s breath grew more even.

“What is it that Gu Hong’s ghost wants from you?”

“She wants me to accept my responsibility, to tend her grave and lead the dragons.”

“As soon as we return to our own world we will pray for her and honour her as an elder. You must promise that you will lead the dragons as she wished. Then, when we eventually reach the dragon haven, we will make a commemoration for her, ensure that offerings are made and the dragons speak her name so she is never forgotten.”

Tao felt Kai pull his nose out from under his paws. “Cannot see,” the dragon said.

“That’s because the effects of the bat droppings have worn off. Use your other senses, Kai. I can feel that draught of air you mentioned. We must find its source.”

Tao could hear the scratchy sound of the dragon nodding in agreement.

“That’s it.” He tickled the dragon below his chin.

Kai got up onto all four paws.

“Can you feel the draught?”

“Cannot.”

“Let me lead you.”

Tao took hold of the dragon’s beard and gently led him into the darkness. With his other hand he held his staff before him to find a path through the stone icicles. He still bumped his head and stubbed his toes, but he did himself no harm. Kai followed. The drips of water were more numerous now. They were finding their way towards each other and forming a trickle.

The ghostly fingers no longer had hold of him, but Tao could feel icy breath on his face, so he knew the ghosts were still with them. His body was bruised, his legs heavy and slow. The darkness threatened to wear down his new resolve, to chip away at his confidence, but he withstood it, fortified by the
qi
within him and the memory of his brother’s smile. Then he thought he saw a faint green glow, but he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. The sound of trickling water was getting louder. He rubbed his eyes, which were heavy and tired from straining to see through the darkness, but the glow was still there, faint as the light from a flame consuming the last drop of lamp oil.

“Do you see anything, Kai? I can see a glow. Is it real?”

“I see it too.”

Then Tao felt space open up around him. He couldn’t see its extremities, but he was sure they had entered a cavern. As they walked towards the light, Tao knew it couldn’t be daylight, but he wasn’t afraid. The sound of flowing water was growing louder. Then he caught his breath as he saw the source of the greenish glow. All those trickles of water had run together to form a lake. They reached the edge of the underground lake. Tao could see that it contained many thousands of specks of light.

“What are they?”

“Perhaps they are tiny creatures,” Kai suggested.

Tao looked closer. The specks of light were darting around. The light they gave off was very faint, but it illuminated the greenish water. After so long in darkness, his eyes drank it in.

He turned to the dragon and smiled. “It is good to be able to see you again, Kai, even though you are faint.”

Tao could make out the outline of the cavern. It was huge. But that wasn’t the wonder of it. He could see the stone icicles that he had only felt before. Hundreds of them hung from the cave roof around the edge of the lake, glowing palest green, like eerie decorations for an underworld festivity. Others grew upwards from the cave floor. Tao and Kai stood in silence, listening to the liquid sound of trickling water echo around the cavern. This was not one of the realms of hell. It was more like a fairy world.

Tao suddenly realised how thirsty he was. He’d emptied his water skin long before.

“Do you think the water is safe to drink?”

Kai dipped a talon into the green water and let a drop fall onto his tongue. “It tastes like the green pool at the dragon haven. It will not harm you, but it might make you sleepy.”

“That’s okay,” Tao said. “Water and rest are what I need most.”

They both drank from the pool. It was cold but it didn’t chill Tao. He found a dry place at the edge of the cave. There was a thin layer of moss, brought there by some animal. He lay down. It was like lying on a bed of silk floss.

Tao woke. He had slept soundly, for how long he couldn’t tell. Kai was still snoring. He knew exactly where he was. He was trapped in an eerie green underground cavern, with his only friend in the world, and he’d eaten nothing for a long time. Yet Tao felt confident that everything would work out well. He’d had no nightmares, just one dream where he was in his own bed at his family home, covered by a thick quilt of silk floss pulled right up to his chin.

As he lay there remembering the childhood comfort and warmth, he realised the feeling was not fading. He still felt that delicious warmth, though he knew his blanket was lost with all his other possessions.

As if he had read his thoughts, Kai suddenly let out a cry. It was not one Tao was familiar with. It was a shrill sound, like the clash of small cymbals.

“Beetles!” the dragon said.

Tao opened his eyes. He
was
covered, but not by a blanket or a quilt. He sucked in a breath. He was covered from chin to toe in beetles – hundreds of them. Each beetle was about the length of his little finger, shiny black with white markings. They were all waving their antennae, which were striped with black-and-white bars and almost twice the length of their bodies. Tao felt strangely calm, not repulsed as he might have expected. He let out his breath and the beetles opened their wings and took off. They flew together in a cloud over the lake.

“Did they bite you? Were you terrified?” Kai didn’t like beetles.

“No. They were friendly.”

“How do you know?”

“I could tell.”

Tao got to his feet and carefully brushed off two or three beetles that had been reluctant to leave.

“We must find our way out from under this mountain.” Kai’s stomach made a loud growling sound. “Or we will starve to death.”

Tao watched the last beetles fly off into the darkness. “I think we should follow them.”

It was Tao who saw it first as he kneeled at the lake’s edge and filled his water skin. Kai was still drowsy. Something glittered in a recess of the cave wall. It was different to the green glimmer of the lake, so he knew it wasn’t a pool of water. Tao went over to it. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Kai, come and look.”

It was a pile of treasure. A mound of precious things. Tao could see a gold necklace and a finely carved jade pendant.

“Some rich person must have hidden all his wealth here, so that the nomads couldn’t find it.”

“Or it might be the hiding place of a thief,” Kai suggested.

Among the precious objects, there were things of little value – a length of blue ribbon, a piece of broken pottery with a pretty pattern, an iridescent bird’s feather. Kai peered closer. He took something from the pile.

“I do not think a thief would bother to steal this.” It was a worn shoe.

Tao picked up a lump of black crystalline rock.

“Let me see that,” Kai said.

He held it up against the glow of the lake. It was not a single crystal, but a clump of smaller crystals. They were not symmetrical and polished like gems, but irregular shapes and dull. As he stared at the crystal in the dragon’s paw, Tao began to distinguish some colour in it.

“It isn’t black. It’s more of a very deep red.”

“I know what this is,” Kai said. “It is cinnabar.”

Tao took the crystal from him. “Is it?”

The dragon nodded. “But how did it get here?”

“It doesn’t matter how it got here. Remember the glowing red embers in my vision? It was telling me we would find cinnabar here. I wasn’t clever enough to work it out.”

He handed the cinnabar to Kai. “You keep it safe. I’m afraid I’ll lose it. I lose everything.”

The dragon put the crystal behind his largest reverse scale. It was a tight fit.

“Perhaps it was a gift from the ghost of Gu Hong.”

Kai still believed that it was the ghost of the old red dragon who had visited them in the cave. Tao didn’t try to convince him otherwise. He was glad that the dragon was on his feet again and keen to find the way out.

“I must think of a way to thank her,” Kai said.

“Why didn’t you honour Gu Hong when she died?” Tao asked.

The dragon sighed. “She left the haven when she knew she was dying. She wanted to go to the place that she had decided would be our burial ground. She tried to fly, but she didn’t get far. Hei Lei and Tun, other male dragons, carried her the rest of the way. The other dragons escorted them. Except me. I could not fly. Hei Lei came back to get me, but I was too proud to let him carry me. So I did not help bury her. I did not sing for her.”

Tao was glad Kai couldn’t see a tear roll down his cheek. He was beginning to understand that there were reasons why Kai wasn’t in a hurry to return to the dragon haven.

They couldn’t fly across the lake as the beetles had. Instead they made their way slowly around its edge, zigzagging through the forest of stone icicles, until eventually they reached the other side. The cavern narrowed and then divided into two passages.

“Which one will we choose?” Kai asked.

“The beetles took the left passage.” Tao was confident they would find a way out. “We will too.”

Once out of sight of the lake, the green glow faded with every step. More darkness loomed ahead of them. Tao kept glancing back until the last faint glimmer of green disappeared and there was nothing but blackness again.

He could no longer rely on his eyes, but he knew he could trust his other senses. He reached out. His hands felt the shape and the texture of the passage walls on either side. They were hard, rough and cold. They were real. It looked as if there was another black wall in front of him, but when he reached out, his hands passed through it. It wasn’t solid, it was darkness. He moved forwards. Kai followed. The dragon was silent, still contemplating what he believed had been an encounter with his dead leader. Their progress was slow. Tao had drunk more of the green water before they left the lake, and he needed to stop for a nap often.

“I can feel air on my face,” Tao said. “Can you feel it, Kai? I think this must lead to another way out into the world.”

The dragon didn’t respond.

After a while Tao thought he could make out the faint uneven surface of the passage walls, imperceptible at first but becoming clearer. Finally, there was pale light. Not eerie green light, but warm yellow light.

“Can you see it, Kai? Light.”

Tao took a step towards the light and stumbled over something. He thought he must be seeing things.

“It’s my bag!” he said.

“How could it have got here, when you dropped it before we reached the lake?”

“I don’t know.”

He picked it up, feeling the coarse weave of the willow twigs that he had woven himself. It was real. He felt inside, smiling as he touched his few possessions – the vial of oil, his firesticks, gourd, blanket and the stolen bronze bowl. Then his smile faded.

“What is wrong. Is there something missing?”

“Yes, the most important thing. My dragon-stone shard.”

Tao’s brief happiness disappeared like mist in sunlight.

“The ghosts,” he breathed. “They have taken it.”

“Why would they steal your shard? It has no value to them.”

“It is payment. They have taken it in exchange for the cinnabar, and for showing us the way out of the realms of hell.”

The loss of the shard sapped Tao’s energy and confidence, but Kai had found a new store of strength.

“We must get out into daylight,” the dragon said. “Everything will make sense when we are out of the darkness.”

The dragon hurried towards the pale light. Tao found it hard to keep up with him. Then there was a bright circle, too dazzling to look at. Tao shaded his eyes. It was daylight. They hurried to it and stepped out into the world again. The day was dull and overcast, but it took several minutes to get used to the glare of the light. Tao breathed the fresh mountain air, and his eyes drank in every detail of the world – delicate fern fronds, the feathers of a bird’s wing, even the grey rock had texture and shades of colour that were beautiful to behold.

While Kai went in search of food, Tao considered how he could do his duty and honour the dead.

The villagers hadn’t deserved to be slaughtered by nomads. There was no one left to say prayers for the souls of the dead, so they hadn’t moved into another plane of existence, into new lives. Tao couldn’t return to the site of the villagers’ grave on the other side of the mountain, but he could create a memorial where he was. He selected the face of a large boulder, and although weak with hunger, he began immediately. Using the iron nail as a chisel and a stone as a hammer, he carved characters on the rock, commemorating the destruction of the village and the deaths of so many innocent people.

Kai returned. He had trapped birds, and found taro roots and mushrooms. Tao hadn’t finished the carving, but he needed to eat. He collected firewood and lit a fire. He cooked the food and they ate in silence, each with their own thoughts about their own ghosts.

It was late afternoon, so they decided to stay where they were for the night. Tao worked on his carving until dusk. He wondered how long they had been underground. It had seemed such a long time, but now that he was back in the world again, he wasn’t sure. It could have been several days, it might have been only one.