Naamah's Kiss (96 page)

The two men exchanged a glance.

"I know," Dai said gently. "I have known that for some time. Maybe I always knew it."

"Oh." I felt foolish.

"Moirin" Bao wrapped his arms around me. I clung to him, burying my face against his throat, inhaling the hot metal and forge scent of his skin and ignoring the dragon's displeasure. "Just don't die, huh?"

I laughed through tears. "That's all?"

"Yes." He let me go with reluctance, putting his hands on my shoulders, fingertips flexing hard and digging into my flesh as he gazed down at me. "Afterward, we will talk. Because there will be an afterward."

He said it with such conviction, I believed him. "Stupid boy." Wiping my eyes, I offered him the same parting words he had given me more than once. "Try not to get yourself killed," I said, adding confession to it. "I do love you, you know."

Bao gave me a crooked smile, his dark eyes gleaming. "I know."

It was so very like him, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to kiss him or throttle him; and it was the only response I could have endured without feeling as though my heart were breaking. So I kissed him once, soft and lingering, then pulled away with an effort. Collecting myself, I turned toward the princess. "Are you ready, my lady?"

"Yes." Blindfolded once more, Snow Tiger bowed to Dai and Bao. "Noble companions, I could not have asked for better or more valiant escorts. May all the gods keep you safe until we meet again."

They bowed in reply, too overcome for words.

With that we took our leave. I glanced back only once to find Bao watching me. He raised one hand in a last farewell, and I lifted mine in answer.

It hurt to leave him.

And the princess was right, she would have travelled more swiftly without me. Although she didn't give voice to her impatience, I could sense it. I forced away my weariness, channeling the last of the dragon's dwindling energy into my tired, aching limbs, trying to set the fastest pace I could. Bao and Dai would shout if there were pursuers approaching. Until then, we had agreed I needn't summon the twilight, hoarding my strength for the climb itself.

The thin air grew thinner. I breathed the Breath of Wind's Sigh, drawing the cold, thin air into the space behind my eyes, imagining myself a creature of the airy mountain heights.

Like me , the dragon offered.

"Yes." I frowned in thought. "Do you know why I must come on this journey, treasured friend? You told me something once. You told me to remember the wise-woman when the time comes. Is that it?"

No . He said nothing more.

I sighed. "Dragons and sages."

"It's no use getting impatient with him," Snow Tiger murmured. "I suspect if the dragon were to say too much, it would upset the balance of nature."

Yes , the dragon agreed. There are rules. But there is another thing you must remember soon .

An image flashed through his thoughts, a glimpse as quick and slippery as a salmon's leap, vanishing as quickly in the depths. All I caught was the fleeting impression of a lashing tail and a distant roar.

As if in echo, the Divine Thunder began to boom on the distant battlefield once more. Snow Tiger pressed the heels of her hands against her blindfolded eyes.

"At least it means your father's army is not defeated," I said softly.

"True." She shuddered. "It also means they were not able to retreat. Ah, gods! This battle should not have been fought on open ground. They should have been behind thick walls. And I am the one who chose the battlefield."

"No," I said firmly. "Black Sleeve and Lord Jiang chose the battlefield. When every wall was pounded to rubble and there was nowhere left to hide, it would have come to this in the end. It would never have been otherwise."

"Perhaps." The princess turned her face toward White Jade Mountain. "Let us make haste."

After that, we spoke no more, saving our breath for the climb.

It was not so steep as the climb up the cliffs to the monastery, but it was infinitely longer. Hours passed, and the snow-covered peak seemed to grow no nearer. If Bao and Dai had failed to hold the pass, if there was pursuit coming on the trail behind us, we would have no way of knowing.

Upward and upward, we climbed.

I grew faint and dizzy with exhaustion, gasping for breath. But when Snow Tiger asked quietly once more if she might go ahead without me, my diadh-anam flared in alarm, and I shook my head in silent refusal.

She took the lead, feeling her way blind over the rough semblance of a path more swiftly than I could with eyes to see. She clambered effortlessly up steep inclines, reaching a hand back to haul me ungently after her. I accepted her aid gratefully.

Far, far below us and to the north, the Divine Thunder coughed and boomed. And with every thundering crack that split the sky, I knew there was a cost in carnage, more corpses littering the battlefield, torn and rent beyond recognition.

I prayed.

I prayed to the Maghuin Dhonn Herself, I prayed to Naamah and Blessed Elua and Anael the Good Steward, and the thousandfold gods of Ch'in, the older ones whose names I did not know, and Sakyamuni the Enlightened One, and Guanyin, She Who Hears Our Prayers.

In the oldest, oldest prayer of my people, I prayed to stone and sea and sky, and all that they encompassed.

Moirin.

I was startled at the touch of the dragon's voice in my thoughts, half imagining I'd been addressed by a god. I didn't recall the dragon calling me by name before. "Aye?"

/ need to see. I think we are nearly there .

I glanced up at the snow-covered peak looming above us. It was still very, very far away. "But"

"We seek the reflecting lake, not the mountaintop itself," Snow Tiger reminded me, sounding hopeful for the first time in many days. "No human has ever scaled the heights of White Jade Mountain. Ah, gods!" An edge of dismay crept into her voice. "The reflecting lake."

"At the very end, he would have seen his absence and gone mad," I murmured. "That's why I had to come."

She put her hand on my shoulder. "Do you have the strength to summon your magic?"

"I will find it."

I sat cross-legged on the mountainside and breathed the Five Styles. I called upon memories that lent me strength. My enigmatic mother who loved me with all her fierce, taciturn pride. My kin among the Maghuin Dhonn. My gentle D'Angeline priest of a father, who trailed grace in his wake. Others I had loved. My lost Cillian, still my first and best friend. My lady Jehanne, her star-bright eyes sparkling at me with unstinting affection. Master Lo Feng in all his kind, generous wisdom. My peasant-boy Bao, whose infuriating rudeness could no longer hide the vastness of his impossibly romantic heart.

The dragon.

The princess, too.

And stone and sea and sky, and all that they encompassed.

I loved them. I loved them all. I drew strength from it, finding a place within myself where I could spin it into magic. I breathed the twilight deep into my lungs, exhaled it gently around us.

Snow Tiger sighed with relief, and lowered her blindfold. "This way."

Weary beyond weariness, yet strangely exalted, I followed her darting figure through the forest of spruce pines that dotted the mountainside. Now that they were awake, they sang fine songs to themselves, those vibrant spruces. The three long-neglected Camaeline snowdrop bulbs at the bottom of my satchel roused to answer with a thin, feeble chorus.

HERE ! the dragon roared. HOME !

Ahead of me, I saw the princess check herself violently, recoiling as the spruce forest opened onto a new vista.

I hurried to join her.

We had gained the lake. True to the dragon's vision, it reflected the snow-capped peak of White Jade Mountain in its depths. The water was very pure and clear and still. In the unaltered daylight, it would have been a translucent shade of green. The reflected mountain barely wavered on the surface of the waters, suggesting a placid, enduring eternity. Even in the twilight, it was a beautiful sight, a sight I could have gazed at for a thousand years.

And it lay in a valley far, far below us. There was no path to descend, only a sharp overhang, the sheer drop from which the princess had recoiled.

Snow Tiger glanced at me, the dragon reflected in her eyes. "I will have to jump," she said calmly. "Tell my father"

I interrupted her. "You can't swim, can you?"

She didn't answer.

"I can." I held out my hand to her, trying to ignore the vertiginous drop before us. "I grew up in a cave alongside a river. I can swim. My lady, I have not come so far to help you die. Are we not friends? If you must jump, then I must jump with you."

She took my hand.

We jumped.

And fell, and fell.

How long does it take to die? As long as it took us to fallor at least, that was what it felt like. I lived and died an entire life in that fall.

Until we hit the water.

The impact and the utter shock of the cold mountain water was so vast, so unimaginable, that for the span of a few heartbeats, I didn't know if I were alive or dead, didn't know if I were broken or whole.

Cold, so cold.

I felt the breath burning in my lungs and opened my eyes. I was underwater in a glimmering green world. The princess was sinking slowly opposite me, trails of bubbles rising from the air trapped in her robes. Her wide, terrified gaze met mine.

I had lost the twilight, and there was no dragon reflected in her pupils.

She opened her mouth, and nothing emerged.

Only in the lake where the snow-capped peak is reflected can she disgorge the pearl . That was what Master Lo Feng had said. But he hadn't said how , and none of us had thought to ask. We had been so concerned with the multitude of obstacles that lay in our path, we hadn't thought about what would happen once we reached our destination. If I had thought about it at all, I had supposed that the dragon's essence would simply spill out of her, returning to its natural habitat.

But that was not happening, and the dragon's panic was rising. I grabbed Snow Tiger's robes with both hands and kicked strongly with my legs, intending to propel us to the surface. In the grip of the dragon's madness, she fought me off.