Naamah's Kiss (97 page)

I hadn't thought about that, either.

If only I could breathe , I thought in despair, I could concentrate. But the water was so, so very cold. It was leaching my life and my wits away with every heartbeat. The weight of my sodden robes dragged at me. If I abandoned the princess and made for the surface, I would be abandoning her forever. I caught one of her arms with both hands and tried again.

Again, she struggled wildly, her braid lashing around her head in the water like

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An image flashed before my eyes. A black-maned lion with yellow-gold eyes pacing in the innermost circle of an etched star, its tufted tail lashing. A hint the dragon had given me in a fleeting glimpse.

The spirit Marbas, summoned by the Circle of Shalomon.

It had offered me a gift, the gift of shape-changing, the gift the Maghuin Dhonn had lost before I was born. And although I hungered for it, I had refused.

Wise child , it had said. For that, I give you a gift unasked .

And then ah, gods! My chest ached and my lungs burned. More than anything, I wanted to breathe. But I remembered, I made myself remember, I remembered that the black-maned lion had opened its fearsome jaws and roared without sound, and something like a bright topaz jewel, as yellow-gold as the lion's eyes, had made a home inside my mind, and I had cried aloud at the strangeness of it, at being given this unexpected gift that Raphael and his companions so coveted.

The charm to reveal hidden things , the lion Marbas had said to me. Yours and yours alone. The words will be there if you need them .

What was the dragon's spirit if not a hidden thing? Hidden first within a pearl, hidden twice within the princess.

The topaz jewel nestled in my thoughts sparked to life, dazzling. I reached for it and found myself speaking unfamiliar words in an unfamiliar tongue. A series of round, shimmering bubbles rose from my lips, ascending through the green water as I spent the precious air in my lungs to speak the charm.

The dragon roared in my thoughts, an exultant, triumphant roar wilder and louder than any lion's. The water around us shivered.

Snow Tiger's lips parted helplessly. Her face was transfixed and rapt as translucent brightness spilled out of her mouthat first a trickle, then a rushing stream. It came and came endlessly, pouring out of her, taking immense shape in the depths of the jade-green water.

Coils, familiar coils, elegant and twining. Legs with pearly claws.

A noble, long-jowled, whiskered face.

I caught a glimpse of my own reflection in one enormous eye; and then the lake erupted around us.

We shot upward like corks. My head broke the surface of the churning water. I took a deep, gasping breath of air. Kicking my legs to keep afloat, I reached out blindly and grabbed a fistful of the princess' robes, hauling her toward me, treading water and turning her face toward the sky.

"Lady, don't fight me!" I gasped.

She made a ragged sound of assent.

The lake erupted again. In the once-placid depths, a wave like a giant hand gathered beneath us, lifting us and carrying us toward the shore. I kicked my legs frantically and kept a tight grip on Snow Tiger, my icy fingers frozen in the folds of her robe, trying not to let either of us drown.

The wave cast us ashore on a rocky ledge. Beginning to shiver violently with the profound effects of the cold, I dragged the princess to safety.

The dragon was not finished.

The dragon was only beginning.

The wave retreated, gathered again. It tossed up a gift, two gifts. My satchel and my bow and quiver, forgotten in the fall.

I retrieved them weakly.

And then there was a stillness, a gathering stillness. Shivering, I breathed the Breath of Embers Glowing, wrapping my arms around the princess to share what little warmth I could conjure with her.

I had a sense of the dragon's essence coiling and coiling unto itself in the depths of the reflecting lake. Forming a ballan enormous pearland descending slowly through the green waters, settling gently onto the lake's floor, coming to rest in the place from which it had been stolen by a younger Master Lo Feng.

HOME , the dragon thundered. I am here and awake and I am HOME !

The entire valley shuddered.

The shudder began in the lake, stirring its waters. It rippled up the cliff from which we had leapt. It rippled up the snow-covered flanks of White Jade Mountain, all the way to the peak.

The peak stirred, coming alive.

The dragon raised his immense head from its resting place. His coils unwound from the peak, sun-gilded snow turning to pearlescent scales. Mighty claws were extracted from the snow-covered rock. I stared in awe, too awestruck to feel the cold, to feel the ache of the jarring impact of the fall in my body. In my arms, Snow Tiger had gone utterly still with the same wonder.

"HOME!"

With a deafening, joyous cry, the dragon launched himself into the blue sky, his coils gleaming in the sunlight, casting a vast, moving shadow over the mountain below. And all at once, I was laughing and crying and babbling, because it was the most beautiful, glorious thing I had ever seen.

"Moirin, Moirin!" The princess was shouting at me, tears streaking her face. "Listen!"

I was bewildered. "To what?"

"Nothing!" Her tear-bright eyes shone. "The Divine Thunder! It's gone quiet!"

I gazed at the dragon spiraling overhead. "They can see him from the battlefield."

She laughed. "I imagine they can see him from Shuntian! Come, we've got to find a way out of here." I dragged myself to my feet. Snow Tiger rose, stumbling. She caught herself and swayed, the dragon's loss hitting her for the first time.

I put out one hand to steady her. "Are you all right, my lady? We very nearly drowned, not to mention the fall."

"Yes." She bowed her head a moment. "Just sore and aching, and weak." She held out her hands, gazing at them. "I had forgotten what it was like to feel human. So very vulnerable, so very weak."

"I know," I said softly. "Perhaps perhaps we might rest and wait for rescue. If my satchel is not soaked through, I may be able to kindle a fire."

Do not fear , the dragon said in my thoughts. I will come for you . Startled, I glanced skyward. High overhead, the dragon was heading for us like a gleaming arrow.

"You still hear him," Snow Tiger murmured.

"Aye, I do."

She gave a short, broken laugh. "A year ago, I could never have imagined it would hurt so much to be free of him."

"I know," I said again.

And then the dragon in all his glory descended, settling over the landscape as gently as an enormous cloud. The wonder of his presence drove away all sorrow, at least for the moment. His vast, whiskered head dipped to the princess.

"Noble Highness," the dragon said in a low rumble. "Granddaughter of Heaven. I beg your forgiveness for the pain I have caused you. I thank you for the gift of my freedom and your extraordinary valor. There are no words fit to praise your courage. If there were, I would speak them." One massive foreleg shifted forward, rotating to offer a cage of glistening claws. "Please allow me to carry you both to safety."

In silence, Snow Tiger raised one hand to the dragon's face, caressing the pearly scales. His body shifted again, almost imperceptibly, curling around her with great tenderness. She leaned her brow against the hinge of his jaw, letting herself relax against him. His opalescent eyes closed briefly.

What they had truly shared, no one could know.

Not even me.

"Thank you." Her back straightened. "Your generosity is appreciated, Celestial One. I am grateful to accept."

The princess stepped into the cupped palm of the dragon's claw and held out her hand to me. Her eyes met minemortal, grave, and dark.

I gathered my things and took her hand, climbing into the dragon's palm. Glistening claws clicked shut around us.

The dragon launched himself skyward.

It was like Ah, stone and sea! It was like nothing anyone else in the annals of history had ever known.

The ground fell away beneath us.

We were airborne.

Snow Tiger and I clung to the thick columns of the dragon's claws, peering out between them.

His energy surged through us. It was not the same as it had been when he was trapped within her. It was more distant and secondary, a mere affect of physical nearness. But it warmed and strengthened me, and drove the shivers from my bones; and I think for her, too.

We soared above the mountain.

"There!" I shouted, pointing. Two figures in a narrow pass clogged with dead men's bodies jumped up and down, waving to us. "It's Bao! Bao and Dai! Can we not rescue them, too? Please?"

Grumbling deep in his chest, the dragon descended.

Bao and Ten Tigers Dai scrambled aboard his outstretched claw, eyes stretched wide with wonder.

The dragon launched himself again.

I eyed Bao, reassuring myself that he was still in one piece. Although his staff was broken into two pieces, Bao appeared to be intact. "Are you all right?"

"Uh-huh." He gazed in awe at the receding ground. "Moirin we are riding in a dragon's hand."

I laughed aloud for the sheer joy of it. "I know!"

Dai stole shy glances at the princess, almost as awed by the sight of her bare face as he was by the dragon.

The journey that had taken us two days on horseback and foot was a matter of minutes' work for the dragon. He glided effortlessly through the sky, and wind streamed through the protective cage of his claw. I should have been frightened, but I was exhilarated instead. I daresay all of us were.

At least until we reached the battlefield.

From such a height, nothing looked real. It looked like a child's game of toy soldiers and horses one might find spread out across the floor of a nursery, littered with broken pieces. But I knew all too well that each of those broken toys had once been a living, breathing being, and that the red smears on them were blood, not paint.

All the fighting had stopped. Men who had been locked in mortal combat only moments ago stood side by side, gazing at the sky and the impossible glory of the celestial creature soaring above them. The bronze tubes gleamed silently in the sunlight.