Early in the morning on the appointed day, I bade farewell to Bao and Master Lo. They would depart Shuntian before me and leave a false trail for any pursuers to follow before doubling back in disguise to await us at the designated meeting place, an empty farmstead some leagues southwest of the city.
With great regret, Master Lo Feng had resolved to sacrifice all but three of his Camaeline snowdrops, hanging them to dry in the courtyard we would be abandoning. The remaining three were nestled in a small, tight-lidded porcelain jar. I stored it carefully in the bottom of my satchel.
Bao was unhappy, dark eyes worried. "I do not like leaving you, Moirin."
"I know." I tied my satchel closed. "Nor do I like being left. But Master Lo is well known, and you to be his pupil. You're the ones they'll follow. No one else can leave the trail."
"And I fear no one else can take Moirin's role in this, my magpie," Master Lo added. He had regained his customary serenity, though it was more strained and careworn than before. "We have set this thing in motion. Now we must let ourselves flow with the events as they unfold."
Bao sighed and kissed me, cupping my face in his hands. "Try not to get yourself killed."
My eyes stung. "You, too."
They left.
A few hours later, Snow Tiger's eunuchs came with a palanquin to fetch me. They looked askance at my battered satchel and yew-wood bow, but offered no comment. I was the foreign witch who soothed the dragon, and the Son of Heaven himself had ordered it so. My barbarian ways were a strangeness to be tolerated.
I found the princess wound tighter than a child's top, pacing her encaged quarters. "All is in readiness?" she inquired abruptly.
"Yes." I set down my satchel. "Peace, my lady. Attendants come and go. You must not be seen to be restless in my presence."
She shuddered to a halt, wrapping her arms around herself. "He is restless."
I didn't need her to tell me. I could sense the dragon's eagerness, its essence spiraling and cavorting throughout her being. In its excitement at the prospect of home and freedom, its thoughts were an inchoate jumble, vibrant and joyous, with a deluge of images and single spoken refrain.
Home, home, home, home!
"Aye." I smiled at its happiness. "But it is a long and dangerous journey, treasured friend, and nothing is certain. You can help best by remaining calm that the Noble Princess may do the same."
It quieted.
"Thank you." Snow Tiger unwrapped her arms. "Although it wards off his madness, the blindfold is no longer as effective as it was. Ever since you came, I sense his thoughts and presence more clearly. Each day, it grows."
"I'm sorry, my lady."
She shook her head. "Do not be. It is better this way. Better to know it is a being of such beauty and majesty that dwells within me, and not a demon. It is only that he is so very powerful, and he does not know his strength."
I am trying. Insofar as a dragon's voice could sound small, his did. He says—
The princess smiled. "I heard. We are learning, I think, he and I. Will you call your magic, please?"
I did.
While the dragon drifted and dreamed in the mirror, we waited. As was our wont, I released the twilight and Snow Tiger donned her blindfold when a servant came with the midday meal, placing it fearfully on the table and hurrying out, the iron bars clanging shut behind her, a key turning in the lock. I breathed slow and deep and called the twilight back. A musician sat in the courtyard, playing a haunting, plangent melody with a bow on a two-stringed instrument that was unfamiliar to me, notes shimmering in the gloaming light. The Emperor had sought many ways to ensure that his daughter's life was not without pleasure.
Snow Tiger listened, not touching her food. "I hate that I am doing this."
My heart ached for her; and yet I did not think this was the time for kindness and comfort. "You needn't do it. But if it is your will to choose otherwise, tell me now. If it is not, my lady, I suggest you eat. We cannot afford weakness."
She inclined her head and picked up her chopsticks. "As you say."
After we had dispatched our meal of steamed fish in a ginger sauce with rice and crisp slices of lotus root, the servant returned to take away our dishes. Snow Tiger tied her blindfold in place and I banished the twilight. The musician bowed and took her leave.
"Now?" The princess' voice was fierce.
The dragon cavorted in joy. Now?
"Now," I agreed, summoning my magic.
It came in a rush, dusk descending for the third time that day. I would need to hold it for a very, very long time. Mindful of the fact, I breathed the Breath of Earth's Pulse, grounding myself.
"Come." Driven by the dragon's excitement, Snow Tiger surged to her feet and extended one hand. "Moirin, now!"
"I am here," I said softly, letting her tug me upright.
In the courtyard, the iron bars of her cage bent and screeched beneath the pressure she exerted on them. I winced, knowing the sound was audible in the physical world. Still, no one came. We slipped through the bars, and then the princess straightened them with no visible effort.
"Your letter—" I began.
"It will be found." She caught my hand once more. "Come! We seek the Armory of Distinguished Blades."
Those are not hours I would wish to relive. The Maghuin Dhonn are a solitary folk. So we have been time out of mind; and my gifts were meant to serve a solitary existence in the wild woods and hills of Alba.
Not this.
Not this cloistered labyrinth of humanity, filled with people hurrying to and fro. Servants, attendants, councilors. Time and time again, I was forced to flatten my back against the crimson walls and let the world surge past us. For the first time in many months, I found myself breathing hard at being confined in a man-made space. Only the discipline of Master Lo's teaching let me keep a grip on the twilight.
"Here!" Snow Tiger darted past a pair of guards into the chamber beyond.
I hurried after her. "My lady, please! Go slowly and do not leave me behind."
She nodded briefly, scanning the room. There were swords in elaborate scabbards displayed on a multitude of tables, each one with an etched stone tablet beside it. One sword was more slender, more delicately wrought than the others, with gilded filigree on the small round guard and a tassel on the hilt.
That was the one the princess seized. She withdrew it a few inches from the scabbard of lacquered wood, gazing at the blade. Shimmering coils were reflected in the steel.
My anxiety was rising. "My lady, we must go."
"Yes." Snow Tiger shoved the blade home. "Follow me."
It felt as though it took hours longer to navigate a path out of the Celestial City, although I daresay it was less. We eased our way around corners, dashed through brief openings in busy doorways. My heart was pounding the entire time. Again and again, I nearly lost my focus in the midst of a close encounter. When at last we gained the vast outer courtyard, I could have wept with relief.
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.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
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. Idid 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 us—mine 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.