Naamah's Kiss (80 page)

We had to wait for a procession to exit. I tried to use the time to calm myself, cycling through the Five Styles, but I was growing drained. Not the way I was when I let Raphael channel my gift, not the kind of drained that caused my life force to ebb, but drained nonetheless. I wished I hadn't agreed to help the princess retrieve her sword. I could feel the twilight beginning to waver, hints of color seeping into my dim, shadowy dusk.

"What is it?" Snow Tiger asked in alarm.

"I'm weakening," I murmured. "My lady if they do not open the gates soon, we may have to turn back."

No! The dragon's voice surged in volume, then softened. I can help .

The princess shot me an indecipherable glance, but she moved without hesitating, putting one hand on the back of my neck and pulling my head down to kiss me.

I panicked at the first touch of the dragon's energy slithering between my lips, into my mouth, deep inside me. It was too like what the spirit Focalor had done, breathing poor Claire Fourcay's stolen life force into me. I would have pulled away if I could, but Snow Tiger's grip on my neck was as strong as iron. She kissed me relentlessly, and the dragon sent such a surge of fondness and affection into my thoughts that I ceased to struggle and found myself responding instead.

It was like stone and sea! Like my first taste of joie multiplied a thousandfold. The dragon's essence was wild and joyous, moonlight over clouds, snow-covered peaks reflected in deep water. Its silvery brightness coiled in my belly, infused my limbs. And it was being gentle, so very gentle, but it was still so unimaginably vast, it made my head spin.

The princess released me abruptly.

I gasped, catching my breath.

Better?

"Aye." I gazed around in wonder. With no conscious effort on my part, the twilight had deepened. All at once, everything was brighter and darker, almost as it had been on the far side of the stone door. The memory made my heart yearn with longing. "Oh!"

"Moirin." Snow Tiger pointed at a formation of soldiers marching across the square, led by a man on a horse. "Pay heed. They will be opening the gates soon."

"I see, my lady. I am ready." I was filled with inhuman strength and energy, so much I could barely contain it, my diadh-anam singing inside me. I couldn't imagine how the princess lived with it day after day without bursting out of her skin.

And I couldn't imagine how she had ever mistaken it for aught other than somewhat glorious and majestic.

It was different when I was afraid , the dragon offered. Very, very different .

Snow Tiger glanced at me, then away, still unreadable. I wondered whether I ought to thank her or apologize to her. Once again, I hadn't the faintest idea. Not even D'Angelines had a protocol for such circumstances.

She did not find it as distasteful as she pretends . Unlikely as it seemed, the dragon's tone was smug. You are very beautiful, and you have an agile tongue for a human .

Her back stiffened.

I cleared my throat. "Well, then. Let us fall in behind them, shall we?"

The massive gates swung open to allow the phalanx of soldiers to depart. Unseen in the brilliant twilight, the princess and the dragon and I slipped through the gates in their wake.

The gates closed behind us.

We were free of the Celestial City.

Snow Tiger and I made our way to the marketplace. It should have been every bit as terrifying as our escape from the Celestial City, but the dragon's essence yet blazed in my veins, rendering me fearless. This time, I led the way, slipping and twisting through the crowded streets of Shuntian, dodging passersby, feeling stronger and quicker than I ever had in my life.

It was a good feeling.

It ebbed, though. And I felt bereft and drained once more when it did.

/ am sorry , the dragon murmured. I did what I could .

"You did enough," I assured him.

"Do you know," the princess remarked in a deceptively casual tone. "If the two of you are intent on carrying on this very strange romance, I would rather it be done through someone else's person."

Despite everything, I laughed.

She spared me a glance, rueful humor in her dragon-reflecting eyes. "Are they here? Your ruffians?"

"There." I pointed at a modest single-horse carriage laden with such fabrics and goods as a countrywoman of means might purchase in the markets of Shuntian. Tortoise, Kang, and Ten Tigers Dai were lounging alongside it looking bored.

We hurried across the square, and I leaned in close, willing my voice to carry beyond the twilight. "Tortoise. We're here."

He jumped. "Lady Moirin?"

"Aye, and the Noble Princess," I said softly. All three of them glanced around at the empty air before them, a bit wild-eyed. I sighed. "Remember the plan?"

It took a moment, but they gathered themselves, huddling to block the carriage from view while I plucked out a green silk robe of modest quality for the princess to wrap around her crimson finery and wide-brimmed conical hats with veils for both of usmine sheer, hers dense and opaque.

"Will it suffice?" I asked the dragon.

For now.

Snow Tiger twisted the crimson scarf in her fingers. "I would feel more certain with the blindfold," she said in a low voice.

"We cannot have a blindfolded young woman seen leaving the city," I reminded her. "And I am losing strength again. Unless you wish to"

"No." She raised one hand to forestall me. "No, it is a long journey. I must learn to accustom myself to this. It is well. Release your magic and let us depart."

I let the twilight go with regret and relief. Color returned in a rush to the sky above, the broad backs of the stick-fighters shielding us from view. Ten Tigers Dai peeked over his shoulder and turned beet-red at the sight of the veiled princess.

"Noble Princess?" he whispered.

She inclined her head.

"No, no, no!" I paled to see Tortoise and Kang turn with awestruck faces, all three of them preparing to kneel without thinking. "From this moment onward, it is only Lady Chan Song and her maid. You may give her a respectful bow, but you do not kneel to her!"

"Forgive us," Ten Tigers Dai stammered, still red-faced. "It is only it is only that that"

"It is only that we will be late if we do not leave," I said firmly, ushering Snow Tiger into the carriage. "And my lady very much wishes to be home before nightfall. So." I climbed into the carriage beside her. "Let us go."

Kang leapt into the driver's perch and took up the reins, and Tortoise and Dai settled into positions on either side of the carriage.

With that, we were off.

No one looked twice at us as we proceeded through the bustling streets of Shuntian. We were a wholly unremarkable sight. Still, I didn't relax until the guards at the southern gates of the city waved us through with barely a cursory glance.

The road opened before us. Beside me, Snow Tiger shiveredand I realized that for all her courage and strength of will, she was still a young woman leaving behind everything she had known, abandoning all her filial duties to leave home in the company of strangers.

I took her hand in mine, squeezing it gently. She startled, her veiled head swinging in my direction, but she didn't pull away. "My lady, I know how you feel," I said gently. "I have done this twice. The first night on the ship that took me from Alba's shores, I was so scared and lonely that I wept myself to sleep. I think perhaps you are one of the strongest, bravest people I have ever met. But it is all right to be afraid."

The dragon crooned in my thoughts, urging me to offer greater comfort, but I did not think she would accept more than this.

After a moment, the princess squeezed my hand in return. "Thank you."

It was a journey of several hours, but for a mercy, it was a dull one. For the first part of it, Snow Tiger was quiet and withdrawn. I left her in peace, content to gaze out the latticed window at the passing countryside, listening to the sighs of late harvest wheat growing in the fields. I was happy to be out of the city, happy to have the scent of soil and growing things to breathe.

In an hour or so, the princess returned from wherever her thoughts had taken her. "Tell me, Moirin of the Maghuin Dhonn. What is the punishment among your people for defying the Son of Heaven?"

"We have no Emperor," I said.

She made an impatient gesture. "Your king, your ruler."

I shook my head. "The Maghuin Dhonn have no ruler."

Beneath the hem of her veil, Snow Tiger's mouth fell open. "How do you live?" she asked in astonishment. "How?"

"Oh" I shrugged. "We are a solitary folk, preferring to live in the wilderness. If there is a thing to be decided, it will be discussed by the oldest and wisest among us. But I do not think that there have been any great decisions made in my lifetime," I added. "We made a very bad choice a long time ago, and the Maghuin Dhonn Herself punished us for it."

She stirred. "The gifts you spoke of that night. The ability to see the paths of the future, to change shape. Is that how you lost them?"

"Aye, my lady."

"It must have been a very bad choice."

I thought of the green burial mound in Clunderry, the ring of standing stones in the forest. "It was. Would you hear the tale?" She nodded, so I told her the story of the D'Angeline prince and his Alban bride, binding magics, oaths made and broken, the babe who would have grown up to destroy us slain in the womb.

Snow Tiger listened without a word, exhaling softly when I finished. "It is a terrible tale," she mused. "And yet the magicians redeemed themselves in the end. The sacrifices they made saved their people."

I nodded. "That is why we remember them in grief and sorrow, and honor the bitter lesson that their history teaches us."

"Then I will try to do the same." She cocked her head. "Master Lo Feng said you were descended from the royal blood of two lands. How can that be when your mother's people have no ruler?"

"Alba has a ruler." I smiled. "It's just that the Maghuin Dhonn don't exactly acknowledge the Cruarch's sovereignty over us. And since the time of Alais the Wise, the Cruarchs of Alba have been content to leave us alone."