Five Kingdoms (51 page)

“Xu Liang!” she called, when it seemed the mouth was sufficiently blocked.

The mystic took steps back while debris continued to fall, withdrawing when the heaviest pieces seemed to be done. A rain of gravel clattered against the floor, but it was neither heavy nor consistent enough to do much harm to anyone. Xu Liang moved quickly toward her and she found herself again holding her hand out to him. Their hands met only briefly. Xu Liang’s hold transferred to her arm instead while he ensured that she fully turned to run after the others.

Just ahead of them, Tarfan and Tristus were already on the slope leading up, the knight and dwarf helping each other to keep their footing. Alere followed with Jiao Ren not far behind. Guang Ci waited at the base of the slope to receive his master, who ushered Shirisae toward the incline ahead of him.

At the far end of the corridor, the earth erupted with force. A tide of shadow rushed in.

Emergence of Chaos

I
t was indeed
a dragon. It had been a dragon the entire time, moving the earth beneath the city. The traps set in the temple had merely been a deception, Jiao Ren felt. All along, Han Quan had been luring the Empress to a trap, one that would bring down the Imperial City.

He urged the outsiders ahead of him to hurry. Though they would not understand the words, the tone would be clear. They could not be caught in the tunnel or within the temple when the beast emerged. As well, he wanted at least a moment to brace the troops for what was coming. He would rely on Xu Liang’s experience and wisdom to devise a strategy, though it could only be a hasty one. A living siege ram verged on coming through the floor of Jianfeng. Both the city and the Empress would have to be protected. He prayed to the ancestors that the spear in his hands would be enough.

Tristus put a
hand out to steady Tarfan while the dwarf scrambled with tremendous haste back to the surface of the temple. Once the dwarf was safely out and moving toward the exit as fast as his stout legs would carry him, Tristus turned to offer a hand up to the next body. Alere accepted and hopped easily onto the broken floor. They stood on opposite sides of the hole and offered assistance to Jiao Ren, who emerged speaking words in his own language, which were passed over his shoulder to Guang Ci, and ultimately down to Xu Liang. The young general hurried from the inner chamber afterward and Tristus and Alere exchanged the merest glances while in the process of ushering Guang Ci from the pit. Shirisae followed with Xu Liang last. The quick succession of hands drawing allies out felt like a first success in the battle to come, no matter how small. The circumstances precluded him from reveling in it.

“Leave the temple,” Xu Liang instructed. “Quickly.”

No one delayed action.

The floor shook beneath their feet. A single, jarring crash threw them from it. Alere dropped and slid to avoid falling outright. Shirisae leaped over him with all the grace of a doe, while Tristus was simply thrown forward. He curled in flight and tumbled against the jade wall, which Xu Liang had managed to avoid altogether. Looking, Tristus noticed the mystic had avoided being thrown at all by casting a spell that allowed him to take several steps over the air itself. In the instants it was happening, it appeared that Xu Liang had manifested an invisible bridge, which arced neatly over the disrupted floor, as well as both Tristus and Alere. The mystic stepped down on the other side of the wrought partition beside Shirisae, and gave his hand to Tristus while Shirisae assisted Alere. Tristus took the mystic’s hand, and felt an unexpected strength in his grip that dismissed any notions that he might harm Xu Liang or drag him down with his own weight. It filled him with optimism, as did the fact that Alere did not blatantly refuse or avoid Shirisae’s efforts to ensure he was able to stay on his feet while the floor continued to quake.

With all of them unharmed, they continued toward the temple doors. Behind them, the floor was careened into again, and there came an alarming sensation of success on the dragon’s part with the sounds of cleaving stone and heavier impacts following. The beast was breaking through. Tristus anticipated it crawling swiftly after them, perhaps accosting them again with its disruptive wailing, only this time there would be no shield from
Pearl Moon
. He imagined that their bodies would be utterly wrent by such an attack. He determined not to look back, only to run with his companions.

The doors were open and waiting for them. Guang Ci had only just passed through. The rest of them followed. On the stone walk, Tristus did look over his shoulder. There was only falling debris behind them, and a terrible rending noise, accompanied by a great shadow.

Someone shouted in Fanese, and everyone began to duck down. Tristus did as well, on sheer instinct. Wood, shingles, and other bits of structure plummeted onto the bridge and into the water, disrupting the growth atop it while it scraped and in some places broke off portions of the bridges. The sound of what could have been canvas tearing open against the wind sent a spasm of terror through his body. He knew it was the wings. A gravelly roar of protest followed, and then the ghastly cry.

A nearby pavilion erupted into mere shreds of its previous form, scattering about the yard. Bodies flew in the wake.

“Dear God,” Tristus murmured, daring to look up when the shadow over the ruined temple moved.

The dragon was in the air.

Xu Liang was crouched down not far away, also watching it. The beast appeared enraged and looked to be making a wide path away from the temple. That in no way meant it would not circle back. Still, in the moments it was distant, the mystic turned back to them, hurriedly instructing them. “Cross the bridges. Gather with Jiao Ren and his men!”

Tristus nodded, though it went unseen by Xu Liang while the mystic moved to act on his own orders. The four of them hurried away from the sundered temple. Partway across, Guang Ci had been hovering over Tarfan’s crouching form. The guardsman rose and headed for the stone yard when he noticed the rest of them coming.

Jiao Ren motioned for them to hurry with his free hand. The other had a grip on the Sun Blade which Tristus found familiarly urgent, if not desperate.

The shadow of the dragon slid across the city, like a storm cloud pushed by the winds of a hurricane. It made a low path, dark wings outstretched. The beast drew back at the neck, mouth opening…

Tristus planted his feet the moment there was stone beneath them. He started
Dawnfire’s
spin, raising the weapon up while it formed its disk of gold. The dragon was bearing down, the intensity of its wail beginning. Beside Tristus a great light came into being. It swelled beside him, as if a fire had been struck. In the corner of his view it appeared oddly as a bulb of flame, which blossomed fantastically, seeming to join with the Dawn Blade’s spinning heat. It could almost have seemed that the disk plucked up the bulb—coming, he realized from the
Spear of Heaven
—and twirled it open. Petals of flame spread outward with the motion, catching the physical force of the dragon’s cry, shooting both it and the combined fires of the Dawn and Sun Blades at the dragon.

The beast of shadow disliked the assault. It flinched back, adjusting its path to avoid the full force of the fire. Light and smoke plumed off its form, trailing after the great length of its tail as it carried itself upward.

Tristus had only a moment to glance at Jiao Ren, who seemed somewhat stunned. Tristus reached a hand out and briefly clasped the young general’s arm before moving off to keep the dragon within his sights.

“Stay with him,”
Xu Liang instructed Jiao Ren, directing the general after Tristus. Their combined tactic was unexpected, but effective. They would all rely on it for the moment.

He quickly gave order to the soldiers present in the yard to form a tight phalanx as a defense against the dragon’s assault and to otherwise ready their pikes and spears. “Strike when it passes low, only if its assault isn’t imminent.”

The men began forming their lines. He turned to Shirisae and Alere—one elf lingering nearer than the other. “I’m going to prepare a wind spell to aid the soldiers,” he said to Shirisae, since she was closest to him. “You and Alere observe it. Work to bring it toward us, if you can.”

“We’ll do what we’re able,” Shirisae said, vouching for Alere as well.

The mountain elf must have heard the instructions, or anticipated them, for he moved with Shirisae when she went in his direction and they appeared to mutually understand each other without an exchange of words.

Xu Liang left them to their task. He looked for Guang Ci, finding the guard nearby with Tarfan beside him. “Take Tarfan back to his niece, and see to it that the Empress is well protected. Return to us afterward.”

Guang Ci gave a quick bow of acknowledgment.

Xu Liang looked to Tarfan. “Protect Taya, and yourself.”

“I’ll be fine, mage!” Tarfan proclaimed. “You children watch yourselves.”

Xu Liang nearly smiled at the dwarf, briefly watching him depart with Guang Ci. There was time for no further sentiment. He placed himself behind the lines of soldiers and began to pray to his ancestors and the Spirit of the Winds. In the peripheries of his concentration, he felt the Phoenix move with his spirit, poising itself to strike.

Alere ran through
the structures and bodies of the Imperial City, toward the nearest wall. Many of the people had intelligently put themselves into hiding, but there were some who, for whatever their reasons were, could not bring themselves to move from harm’s way. Others were soldiers moving in hasty units toward the damage already done and to various points that may have been strategically sound, though he doubted any of them had experience with an attack of this nature.

The first and most approachable staircase was taken to the top of a wall that overlooked a garden on one side. The ruined temple was in view, as were the soldiers under Xu Liang’s immediate command. Jiao Ren appeared to be instructing others while simultaneously trailing Tristus. The knight looked to be tracking the dragon from the ground. Alere would attempt to do the same from a higher vantage.

Shirisae was behind him, fast behind him. He doubted he could have outrun the fire elf, had that been his intention. They moved quickly along the battlement, behind a line of archers who had formed to defend the city against the beast. It was circling high overhead. Directing it toward Xu Liang would be no easy task.

The sounds of many feet rushing over stone walkways filled the air. There were none of the typical clashes of metal that came with any battlefield. There was no opposing army, only a dragon—and one whose circling was rapidly becoming eerie to witness.