The Flames of Dragons (15 page)

Iren nodded.

“What will you do now?” Chiyo asked. “You’re welcome to stay here and continue your training. We’ll welcome you with open arms, won’t we Goro?”

Goro looked at his wife, then at Iren. It took him a few seconds to respond, but then he said, “Of course. You’re the best thing ever to happen to this farm. If you hadn’t come along, those samurai would have killed us. You’ll always have a home here, if you want it.”

Iren took a step back. A home. He’d had one of those once, in Ziorsecth Forest with Minawë. It seemed like a lifetime ago. How he longed for one! And here were these farmers offering one up to him freely, not because he was the emperor, but because they felt it was the right thing to do.

But Iren shook his head. “I’m sorry. After what happened today, I can’t stay here anymore. I wanted to escape the world and focus on revenge, but outside this farm, Raa still moves. I won’t let Melwar bring war to Lodia or any other land. It’s my responsibility as the Holy Dragon Knight, and,” he paused to steel himself, “as the Maantec emperor.”

Goro put a hand on Iren’s shoulder. “An emperor needs subjects, son. He needs people who can support him. Let me come with you.”

Iren smiled and returned the gesture. “Thanks, but where I’m going, I’ll be better off alone. You should stay here with Chiyo. You two will have a splendid harvest this year. Use it to grow this farm and this family.”

He walked away from them. He briefly considered taking the slain samurai’s horse, but then he reconsidered. He wouldn’t need it once his magic recovered. “Goro!” he called over his shoulder. “This is a good horse. He’s yours now.”

The farmer’s mouth dropped open a second time. “That’s a samurai’s horse, the finest-bred animals in Shikari. He’s worth gold.”

“Should be useful for building that nursery, then,” Iren said. “See you!”

Iren dropped into a run and left the farm following the hoofprints of the retreating samurai. With luck, he would catch up to the man and wring out a few answers. If not, Iren already had a good idea what his next destination should be.

Hiabi.

Hana prostrated herself in Shogun Melwar’s chamber. In front of her lay the Zuryokaiten. The small metal pipe looked pathetic compared with the other Ryokaiten Hana had seen, but she knew firsthand how dangerous it was.

The shogun stepped forward and picked up the weapon. Like before, when he’d touched the Karyozaki, the weapon didn’t respond to him.

It made no sense. Shogun Melwar wasn’t a Dragon Knight. Why didn’t the weapon test him?

“Rise, Hana,” her master said, “you have done well.”

Hana stood and felt relief at the pleased expression on Shogun Melwar’s face. She had feared her delay while waiting for Faro to die underground might have angered him. Instead, his eyes glittered with excitement. She had never seen him this energetic.

“Only one Ryokaiten remains unaccounted for,” the shogun said, “the Auryozaki.”

All Hana’s comfort vanished. She forced herself not to swallow. She had prepared for this.

“I do not suppose you saw any sign of it on your journey, did you?” her master asked.

She couldn’t lie, but she could tell partial truths. “I did not, Shogun.”

“None at all? Not even a rumor as to its location?”

She’d heard plenty about the Auryozaki’s location from Iren Saitosan and Balear, but she didn’t need to tell Shogun Melwar that. He’d asked about her most recent journey, not ones in the past. “No, Shogun. The Lodians know little of dragons.”

Melwar’s eyes examined every inch of her. She felt naked under that look.

“We could go after Rondel,” Hana offered. “If it’s a matter of overcoming the storms at sea, Okthora would be the dragon to find.”

The shogun’s mouth became a thin line. “As I recall, you had that opportunity once and failed.”

This time Hana couldn’t resist gulping. “I defeated her before. I can do it again.”

“I doubt it. Besides, you know we cannot afford to have Rondel focused on us. For now, we will make do with what we have. Mizuchi is enough to get us what we need.”

“As you say, Shogun,” Hana replied.

In truth, though, she doubted him. Mizuchi was powerful, but could a new Water Dragon Knight really get them through the storms alive?

The corners of Shogun Melwar’s mouth rose. His eyes warmed in a way that would have been reassuring had anyone else made the expression. “Relax, Hana,” he said. “In truth I appreciate your efforts. In fact, I would like to reward you for your success.”

Hana rocked back. Shogun Melwar didn’t bestow favors upon his servants. You did what you were told because he was in charge, and because the punishment for disobedience was unpleasant.

The Maantec leader’s smile widened. “It is a small thing, and yet, it is the rarest gift I could bestow. I want to tell you a story.”

Curiosity replaced surprise. What was he planning?

Shogun Melwar sat in his high-backed chair at the room’s far end. “Until now this tale has been limited to members of my clan,” he said. “It is passed down among the family’s main line with the strictest confidence that no one outside the clan may learn it.”

He paused and smiled. “So, Hana, it is with great pleasure that I induct you into the Melwar clan. You are no longer Hana Akiyama. From now on you shall be Hana Melwar. As shogun and head of the clan, it is my right to grant you this status.”

Hana was spellbound. The Akiyama clan had some minor nobility to it, but it was nothing compared with the Melwar clan. Before the Kodama-Maantec War, the Melwar clan had been the strongest of all the Maantec families save the royal Saito household.

“I am the last of my clan,” Shogun Melwar said. “We are about to embark on a great mission, one I have spent a thousand years contemplating. I take no risks in anything. When you live forever, why rush and chance a mistake? Still, war thinks little of plans. I do not anticipate anything happening to me, but if something did, someone must know. There is no one else suitable.”

He paused again to clear his throat. “Hana, how many dragons are there?”

Hana’s brow furrowed. So far the shogun’s story wasn’t much of a story. It was an honor to be named one of his family, but practically speaking, it meant little. Her Dragon Knight status conferred as high a rank, and it wasn’t like she had married him.

She didn’t want to question him though, so she answered, “There are eight, Shogun.”

The Maantec leader smiled. “Ah, in that you would be wrong. There are nine.”

Hana blinked twice. She couldn’t stop herself. “Every Maantec child knows the tale of how Juusa the Creator built the world and left eight dragons to keep its balance of nature intact.”

“And that tale is true, but it is incomplete. Juusa did create eight dragons, but in his haste to preserve the world’s balance, he almost destroyed it. He created Divinion, the Holy Dragon, to oversee all that was good in this world: light, healing, and kindness. But what are these things without their opposites? For balance to occur, another dragon was needed. So in secret, Plutanis the Destroyer created a ninth dragon: Shadeen, the Darkness Dragon.”

Hana was shocked. She had never heard of Shadeen.

“No one knew Shadeen existed,” Shogun Melwar continued. “He disguised himself as a man and worked to disrupt the dragons’ unity. It was Shadeen who provoked the other eight dragons into warring with one another and ultimately sinking Teneb ten thousand years ago.”

Shogun Melwar gestured at Hana. “You know what happened next,” he said. “The Maantecs and Kodamas feared the dragons would destroy Raa as well. To stop that, a hundred mages from each race combined their magic and cast the spell to seal the dragons into gems. But when the spell finished, there were nine gems, not eight.”

“No one noticed that an extra gem had appeared out of nowhere?” Hana asked.

“Remember your history. The spell the mages cast consumed their biological magic and killed them. No one was around to see the results of their handiwork. It was only later that one of my ancestors happened to be the first person to arrive at the site of the spell. He had been instructed to locate the gems and turn them over to the emperor. But the emperor only expected eight gems, and that is how many he received. The ninth my ancestor kept for himself.”

Hana’s curiosity about Shogun Melwar’s supposed gift had disappeared. The man was rambling like an old fool. What was the point to all this?

Something in her boredom must have shown on her face, because the shogun gave one of his subtle smiles. “You wonder what this has to do with you. That is fair. But you must know the beginning in order to understand the end. For instance, did you know that it was a Melwar who first proposed the Ryokaiten? He wanted to know more about this mysterious ninth gem. He convinced the emperor of the idea, and a team of mages went to work. When the mages finished, the Melwar clan used what they had learned and made their own Ryokaiten for Shadeen. It was only then that the clan discovered Shadeen and learned his history. We have sworn ourselves to him ever since. We keep his secret, and in exchange, the strongest Melwar clan member becomes the Darkness Dragon Knight.”

The shogun held out his left hand. Black smoke appeared from nowhere and curled around it. The smoke condensed in his palm, and a katana appeared there. The weapon seemed as insubstantial as the smoke that had created it, but Hana remembered it from a sparring bout between Shogun Melwar and Iren last year. It was both solid and not at the same time. It would pass through an enemy’s blade and then slice that enemy in half.

“Everyone believes I am not a Dragon Knight, but I am,” the shogun declared. “I am the Darkness Dragon Knight.”

Hana couldn’t help but tremble. She knew Shogun Melwar was powerful, but the man had held back his true strength all this time, more than a thousand years, to keep Shadeen’s existence secret.

That begged a question. “Forgive me for asking,” Hana said, “but why reveal Shadeen now? You aren’t the type to do anything without purpose.”

“I needed you to know so you would understand what I have to show you next. This strength is the true key to our victory. Hana, have you guessed why I sent you looking for Ryokaiten these past few months?”

“I assumed you wanted to create Dragon Knights to aid us.”

Shogun Melwar shook his head. “For a thousand years I have used others to achieve the long task of restoring Maantecs to glory. I believed the best I could do was direct the plan from the shadows. Now I see that was foolish. I put my faith in Iren Saito and his son to serve as our figureheads, but they abandoned their people. I expected the Fubuki to conquer Lodia, but they lost. I relied on Azar to kill the Aokigaharan Kodamas, but he was slain. The time to watch has passed. It is time the Maantecs had a leader they can depend on, a shogun with power so immense no one would dare resist him.”

“What does that have to do with the Ryokaiten?” Hana asked. “How are they useful to you if you won’t give them to others? You’re already a Dragon Knight.”

The excited glitter returned to Shogun Melwar’s eyes. “That is the real secret I wanted to share today. You needed to know Shadeen’s past in order to understand it. Now, let me show you why we will triumph where even Iren Saito failed.”

He stood and removed both his shirts so that he stood bare-chested before Hana. She gasped; both the Burning Ruby and Frozen Pearl were embedded in Shogun Melwar’s torso. A pair of kanji rings were tattooed around each of them.

“Do you understand?” he asked. “This is the power of a shogun. This is the Melwar clan’s genius. We who proposed the Ryokaiten have now perfected the design.”

He pointed to the two rings encircling the Burning Ruby. “The Ryokaiten have three rings. The first lets you use the dragon’s power. The second lets the dragon test would-be Dragon Knights. The third prevents the dragon’s will from escaping except when you draw on its magic. It was the second ring that was the problem. It gave the dragons a choice in who could use their magic, and it prevented a person from wielding more than one dragon at a time. I removed it, so now both Feng and Yukionna have no choice but to accept me as their master.”

Hana dropped to her knees. With three dragons at his command, Shogun Melwar was invincible.

Then Hana panicked. It wasn’t three dragons. It was four. She had brought him Mizuchi’s Ryokaiten. The Aqua Sapphire now belonged to Shogun Melwar.

And if he had four dragons, why stop there? He could kill Hana at any time and take the Rock Topaz. Then he would have a majority. Even if every remaining Dragon Knight assaulted him at once, he would still have them outnumbered.

Shogun Melwar must have read her fear. “Worry not, Hana Melwar. Your Ryokaiten is safe. Even with all this power, I am but one person. I can only be in one place at a time. I will need another leader to help me win this war.”

Hana thought back on the people she’d killed, the destruction she’d unleashed in the name of Maantec restoration. A few years ago she would have enjoyed it. Now it appalled her. She’d become a monster, just like her master.

But maybe it was worth it. There was conflict in Raa because it lacked a strong ruler. Once Shogun Melwar was in charge, there would be peace. No one would dare oppose him after they saw the dragons’ gems embedded in his flesh.

There was only one response Hana could make: “How may I serve?”