Dragon Moon (15 page)

“What sort of help?”

“When you were captured by the imperial guards at Ji Liao Garrison I knew there were too many for us to take on. I sent my guide back to Hou-yi for help, while I lit the beacons at the next garrison to throw the guards into a panic.”

Ping looked at Jun in amazement.

“It was you who asked Hou-yi to help us! And then you stopped the guards at Shabian Pass from arresting me.”

He smiled shyly.

“I wasn’t always successful in protecting you. I lost you in the dust storm. You could have become disorientated and died out there.”

Ping turned to Kai. “How come you didn’t see him, Kai? You’re supposed to be able to see for many li.”

“Kai did see Jun.”

“So why didn’t you tell me he was following us?”

“Ping needed another protector besides Kai.” The dragon looked guilty. “Ping can be as stubborn as a horse. Kai thought Ping might send Jun away.”

Because he had been so small and skinny when she’d first met him, Ping had always assumed that Jun was younger than she was, just a child. But now that he had eaten well for a year or more, he had grown to the right size for a young man of 16 years.

Kai ate the last of the partridge bones, then he dug a hole, made a nest and went to sleep.

“He’s very tired,” Ping said.

“He walked all the way from the Ma Ren camp to Shabian Pass,” Jun said. “He has every reason to be tired.”

Though she said nothing, Ping had to admit to herself that she did feel more secure with Jun there.

“Ping, are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” Jun broke into her thoughts. “There must be many places where you and Kai can live peacefully without having to trek to the other side of the Empire.”

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s what Danzi wanted. If you’d known him, you wouldn’t question his wisdom. He might have been an old dragon but he was wise. At first I thought Kai needed more people, other Dragonkeepers to take over when I die. That’s the reason we came to your village. But I was wrong. He doesn’t need other people, just the opposite. He
needs to find a home that’s as far away from people as possible.”

“But you don’t even know where you’re going. You’re just wandering around hoping you’ll come across this wondrous safe place.”

“You’re wasting your time if you think you can talk me out of it. I know I’m doing the right thing.”

“I can see that Kai needs a safe place to live,” Jun persisted. “But I don’t understand why it has to be on the very edge of the Empire. You and Kai could live in my village. You could have your own house. Lu-lin is a prosperous place now and the villagers are so grateful that I restored the mulberry trees to health, they would do anything I asked. They will keep Kai’s presence a secret.”

Ping sighed. “For how long? A year? Ten years? A hundred years?” She was tired of explaining it to people. “Kai has to be safe not only while he’s young, but through his whole life, long after you and I are dead.”

Jun was silent for a moment.

“So you’re taking Kai to a place, but you don’t know where it is. And when you find it, he’s going to be safe but living in solitude for most of his life.”

Ping had known that was the case, but now that someone had said it aloud, it did sound like a lonely life.

“It’s a matter of trust,” Ping continued. “Trusting
Danzi, trusting myself. You don’t always need to know your destination when you set out on a journey.”

“Did you sell all your silk?” Ping asked Jun the next morning. “Are you going home to Lu-lin?”

“Yes, I’ve finished my business, but I’m not going home. If you will allow me, I’d like to travel with you. As a companion, if you’re so sure you don’t need help.”

The sound of wind chimes filled the air.

“Yes!” Kai said. “Jun can come with us. Help us to find the dragon haven.”

“Won’t your family be worried about you?”

“I’ve sent a message along with the gold Hou-yi paid me for the first bolt of silk. My father will arrange the transport of the rest of the silk.”

“You don’t owe us anything, Jun. There is no need for you to stay away from your family on our account.”

“It’s because of my family that I’m here, Ping,” Jun explained. “They want me to make amends for their deception. I’m not a Dragonkeeper, I only pretended to be for a few weeks, but my ancestors were Dragonkeepers. They failed in their duty.”

“It wasn’t their fault. It was Lan and his father who took the job from them.”

“Their job was to protect the dragons, and themselves, from devious people like the Lans. My parents think that their previous bad luck with the mulberry trees was
because of their ancestors’ failure. They told me that as soon as I had arranged to sell the silk, I should try to find you and help you in whatever way I could, so that they can continue to benefit from the dragon’s luck.”

Ping didn’t say anything.

“It’s all about trust, Ping, just as you said. Can you trust me?”

Her second sight wasn’t giving her any warnings. She had few enough friends.

“I can trust you.” Jun smiled.

“Good.”

“I’m not wandering around completely without a plan,” Ping said.

She took out the silk square and showed it to Jun.

“I can see the Great Wall and the Yellow River,” he said, peering at the map, “but where are you meant to go?”

“It doesn’t say. Not directly anyway. It’s written in a secret code. See here,” she pointed to the characters that said Dragon’s Lament Creek. “That’s not a real place. It’s directions. You have to say it aloud to find its true meaning. It really means ‘seek westward’.”

“And this one,” he read out the words aloud, “Qu
long xiang
. What does that mean?”

“It means ‘go to the
long
village’. But until yesterday I didn’t know which
long
it was supposed to be. It could have been Bright Village, Hazy Village, Basket
Village, Rising Moon Village. All I knew was that it was somewhere in the west, probably in the mountains.”

Jun still didn’t understand.

“The jade jewellery was made in a place called Long Xiang,” Ping explained.
“Long
also means the sound that jade pendants make when they clink together. Tinkling Village, that’s where we’re going now.”

“Does that ‘we’ include me?”

“Kai wants you to come,” Ping said. “And I still haven’t fully deciphered Danzi’s map. Two minds are better than one.”

“Three,” Kai said. “Three minds.”

Ping laughed. “Three minds.”

They soon left behind the irrigated fields that clung to the Yellow River. The countryside became dry again. Few people seemed to live in that remote part of the Empire, so Kai only occasionally had to use his mirage skill or create a cloud of mist to conceal himself. The narrow road was little more than a track which wound along a valley between meadows that should have been carpeted with green. Instead the fields were parched and brown. It was more than two months since Ping and Kai had left Yan. It was now early summer. The spring rains had failed again. There was no chance of rain for many months.

“Does Jun want to play?” Kai asked. “Remember how we played together before?”

Ping told Jun what he had said.

“I can’t think of a game we can play while we’re walking, Kai.”

“Hide-and-seek?”

“What did he say?”

“He wants to play hide-and-seek.”

“That would slow us down too much.”

“Play ball?”

“We haven’t got a ball, Kai,” Ping said. “He loves to tell the story of our adventures. It’s a pity he can’t talk to you.”

Jun blushed and Ping wished she could have taken back her words. They had only reminded Jun of when he had pretended to understand Kai.

Straggling, dried-up melon vines were growing alongside the road. They were last year’s crop. Since they hadn’t been picked, Ping suspected they wouldn’t be any good to eat, even if they weren’t months old. Jun had in mind a different use for the melons.

“Perhaps one of these would do as a ball, Kai. We might be able to kick it to each other.”

He pulled a melon from the vine and gently kicked it along the ground. Kai immediately raced after the ball and kicked it with his left front paw. They kicked the melon back and forth as they walked, until the melon hit a rock and smashed. The flesh inside was rotten and smelt terrible.

That night Ping cut a piece from the corner of
her bearskin and, with the fur on the inside, fashioned it into the shape of a ball. She used dry grass to fill it and laced it together with a leather thong.

The next day Jun and Kai spent hours kicking and tossing the ball back and forth. Kai never tired of the game. Whenever Jun tried to stop, the dragon begged him to keep playing.

“Let Jun have a rest from the game, Kai,” Ping said. “I’d like to talk to him occasionally.”

Kai’s spines drooped.

“Tell me more about your family, Jun,” Ping said. “How are your sisters?”

Jun started to tell Ping how four of his seven sisters had received offers of marriage. As he talked, he absently tossed the ball up in the air and caught it with one hand. Suddenly, Kai launched himself at the ball, trying to grab it while it was in midair. In his enthusiasm, he crashed into Jun and knocked him over.

“Kai!” said Ping. “That’s too rough.”

“Sorry,” said Kai.

Ping decided that since Jun was sitting down, it was a good time for a rest. She sat down too. They drank some water and ate a handful of nuts.

“We must be getting close to Xining now,” Ping said as she inspected the holes in her shoes. “I think it’s time I got out my spare shoes.”

Jun lay back in the sunlight, enjoying the rest.

“Look at that,” he said, pointing up into the sky. “I’ve never seen a bird that size before.”

Ping shaded her eyes. A white bird was circling above them. It had a huge wingspan. Kai, who had been snuffling through the bag looking for jujubes, leapt to his feet. He stared at the bird and made the strangest sound, as if he was happy and scared at the same time.

“What’s wrong, Kai?” Ping said. “The bird can’t hurt us.”

“It’s not a bird,” the dragon told her.

“What’s the matter with him?” Jun asked.

Kai made the same strange sound.

“What did he say?”

Ping’s heart was racing as she peered up into the sky and translated Kai’s words for Jun.

“He says it’s not a bird … it’s a dragon.”

“A dragon,” Ping said. “Another dragon.”

She hugged Kai.

“Are you sure, Kai?” Jun asked.

“He’s sure,” Ping whispered.

“Did you know there was another dragon?” Jun asked Ping.

“Not until now,” Ping replied. “But now I’ve seen it, I feel like I’ve always known.”

It seemed so blindingly clear she was amazed that she hadn’t realised it before. Kai would live for more than
a thousand years. He didn’t need to spend the rest of his life alone after she died. He needed another dragon. One of his own kind to share his long life with.

While she was at Ming Yang Lodge, she had thought that Kai would need other Dragonkeepers to care for him, when she could no longer do the job.

She had searched for the Dragonkeeper families, hoping to find a man with the three characteristics, young enough to have sons who could take over when she grew too old for the task. Jun had turned out to be an imposter. She’d not found anyone.

Now she knew Kai wouldn’t be living by himself in the centuries after she died. Her heart soared.

“Do you think the dragon saw us?” Jun asked.

“Of course it saw us,” Ping replied. “It saw the holes in my shoes, it knows how many nuts we ate.”

“So why did it fly away?”

“I don’t know,” Ping said. “It’s probably wary of people. I hadn’t dared to hope that we would find another dragon in the world. Now we know there is one!”

She took out the calfskin on which the seer had written the
Yi Jing
divination. She had been so focused on deciphering Danzi’s map that she had almost forgotten about it. She read aloud the fifth reading. “A flying dragon in the heavens. See the great man.”

Jun peered at the calfskin. “What does that mean?”

“It means everything is unfolding as it should. When
I first read that line, I thought it referred to Kai. I didn’t expect him to suddenly sprout wings, but I thought it was like one of Danzi’s sayings—something that said one thing but meant another. I thought it was a way of saying that Kai would mature, that he would ‘fly’ in the sense of succeeding, achieving something. I didn’t realise it meant there would be an actual dragon.” she laughed, “.flying in the sky!”

“But who’s ‘the great man’?” Jun asked. He was a farm boy, not used to riddles and divination.

“I don’t know,” Ping said. “One step at a time. First we must find the Tinkling Village.”

“Perhaps the great man will be there,” Kai said. Excitement radiated from Kai like heat from a brazier.

She nodded. “Yes, he’ll know where this white dragon lives.”

“It can teach Kai how to be a proper dragon.”

Ping fondled his ears. “Yes.”

They arrived at Xining the next day, stopped at an inn and ate a good meal. The traders and travellers staying at the inn were all either on their way to or returning from the Tinkling Village. The jade was mined thousands of
li
away on the other side of the Kun-lun Mountains, but for more than a century, this one small village had specialised in carving the finest, most beautiful jade jewellery in all the Empire.

Long Xiang was just half a day’s walk from Xining. Kai wanted to leave immediately and walk through the night.

“We’ll wait till morning,” Ping said. “You must be patient. There’s no point in arriving in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep. Tonight we’ll stay at this excellent inn.”

But Ping was just as excited as Kai. Despite the fact that she lay on a mattress for the first time in weeks, she barely slept.