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Elua’s Companions

This is a continuation of what I started with Elua’s Nightmare, which I now have come to see as a trilogy, oddly enough. It is time to visit Moirin's end of the original series, and I am just going to let it go as long as it wants to. Since El's Nightmare ballooned into nearly 200,000 words, what the hell, right?

Yes, its a big story, this one will be a tale that stretches over years.

  Elua’s Companions

“All sects deserve reverence for one reason or another. By thus acting a man exalts how own sect and at the same time does service to the sects of other people.”
- Ashoka

Part One - Fear and loathing in Bhodistan

 1

The day after we were wed, Bao and I were awoken by the sounds of people shouting and running about as if a war had broken out. As marriages go, it was not the most auspicious way to begin.

Ah, but what a morning it had been until that moment! Dozing, waking to love each other again, one or the other of us petting each other in our sleep as we patiently waited for the other to resume our personal celebration. Against all odds and the efforts of half the world, we were truly together, and not simply in the way our shared diadh-anam drew us. Husband and Wife… I was a wife now! The very concept was two parts delight and one part amazement, even after all the preparations. The fear was gone now, or reduced to a light spicing in the rest of the mix, fading more and more every time Bao touched me… and the touches were constant that night.

Morning was much closer to midday than to dawn when the chaos began, thank the Gods. Bao was sleeping lightly and I was half-awake, just hungry enough to wonder if we should rouse ourselves enough to call for something. Certainly, there was nobody in the Palace who was expecting much from us today, our preparations to leave were not to begin until the morrow. I do not think that anyone would have been upset if we had delayed.

These were my thoughts as I lay halfway across Bao’s body, preferring the smooth hardness of his chest to the softest silk pillows, as the first shouts reached my ears. I was not concerned at first. Aye, we were in a palace, but the palace was in the middle of a city, and people cary on in all sorts of boisterous ways in a City. It was a moment before the tenor of the shouts registered in my mind; panic, and strident pleas for guidance. It was the kind of shouting I had not heard since Kurugiri.

Just as I was coming fully awake, I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed so suddenly that a heartbeat went by before I understood how I had come to be there. Bao had awaken ready for battle, and had gathered me up and set me down in a seated position in the blink of an eye. The speed and the care with which he had done it was unique to him. I had only begun to smile at him when a waterfall-sound passed over the building. Bao was halfway to the balcony with his staff in hand, his other hand flashed to me in a gesture meant to make me stay where I was. Feeling like a Mouse in its burrow while Hawks circle overhead, I needed no such encouragement.

Bao took one look, upwards, and staggered back into the doorway. “Its a…” He checked his words, his head craning to see another corner of the sky. Then he turned his wide-eyed gaze to me. “... a pair, of Dragons!”

That was what he said, and not with fear or awe. What I heard in his voice was more akin to; Damn, wouldn’t you just know it ?

I had to see, and not because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of our friend from Jade Mountain. There was also the child-like glee that came over me when something wondrous showed itself, impossible to resist as bright light is for flying insects… or the smell of raw meat for a Bear, perhaps.

My bad-boy Bao smiled at me with a twinkle in his eyes as I dashed past him. I misunderstood why, and forgot it entirely until many years later, when a print was shown to me that commemorated this event. Part of the palace was shown, and in the lower left-hand corner was a balcony on which stood a pair of disheveled newly-weds, both of whom were completely naked. I have long since forgiven myself for that lapse, as should anyone else who experienced that day.

These were no Dragons as we understood them, no pearlescent coils or other-worldly presence. These were unmistakably predatory beasts with a look that did not conform to Eastern nor Western ideas about how a Dragon should look. They had wings, to start with, and arms as well as legs. The one I saw first was elegant, and covered with Golden scales. I have thought of the Ranni Amrita as living Gold, but here was a creature that looked to be the very thing. Delicate yet moving those wings with real power, it seemed to be smiling, and I swear it winked at me as it passed through my field of vision half a league away.

The other one passed over my head from behind, hidden until the last moment by the roof of the building. The waterfall sound drew my gaze upwards just in time to see the sun and sky blotted out by by something that looked like a granite cliff. It was the second Dragon, easily twice the size of the other. I think I screamed the name of my goddess, the great Bear, and never wished for her living presence so hard in my life. There was a clatter as I looked up at the monster, Bao dropping his staff to reach for me-

PEACE TO YOU ALL.

This was not a vocalization as I understand them. Nor was it a brush with the will of the Gods, this was similar to what I felt in the presence of the Dragon of Jade Mountain… yet something else as well. An appeal to our better nature was being broadcast to us, as if a vast flurry of messages drawn on the finest parchment had been distributed to us all in an instant. Not a command, but an invitation to us all to see reason.

It was coming from the huge stone-colored one.

Bao had his arms around me, ready to haul me back inside. He paused now, awed and silenced by that message, as was everyone else in the city.

The Dragon was quick to take advantage of this new quiet. He reared up and hovered over the city, the wind of his wings stirring my hair from a league away. “WE ARE HERE TO PRAISE THE BRILLIANCE OF THE RANNI AMRITA, IN HONOR OF HER DECISION TO RELEASE FROM BONDAGE THOSE FORMERLY KNOWN AS UNTOUCHABLES. WE WILL REQUET PERMISSION TO ENTER YOUR REALM AT THE GATE TO THIS CITY, THAT WE MAY PAY YOU PROPER HOMAGE."

The voice was a carefully modulated storm of sounds that reached our ears, as words in the language of Bhaktipur. While loud enough to carry from one end of the city to the other, it was clear to me that the Dragon could have been much louder, had he wished to be.

He, yes, there was something very male about the Dragon that spoke, and as he flew off towards the main gates, I saw the Ranni standing on a balcony at the same level ours , in a different wing of the Palace. She saw me as well, and flashed me a mudra that was a request for guidance, a gesture she normally reserved for the temple when before the icons of the Gods. She directed it at me, and my arms started to move in a helpless shrug. Wonder had won out over fear again, but all I had to guide me at times like this was my diadh-anam, which was giving me no guidance at all! One glance at Bao told me his was the same, carefully neutral and shining as if nothing at all was amiss.
Nothing…

I gave the Ranni a swift, firm nod as Bao urged me back inside.

“Something miraculous is happening that has nothing to do with us?” Bao sounded skeptical as we dressed, throwing on the simplest things we had and not bothering with undergarments. for him that meant trousers that ended where they hugged his knees and a simple vest of gold cloth with red brocade. For me, a robe meant for private chambers that was so elaborate that it would serve for public wear, especially where everyone had Dragons to gawk at. Bao had his boots on before I was done lacing my sandals, he helped me finish and pulled me up to my feet. “Could we really be so lucky?”

With no time to do anything else, I flipped my hair into a Lover’s Haste knot and followed him out of the room with one hand on the staff slung over his back. “We are the only two people in all of Bhaktipur that have ever seen a Dragon before, isn’t that-“ I cut myself off and looked down at my robe. People would be looking at us, for advice.

Bao knew what I was thinking, and had to dissuade me from going back for a dress. “We need to hurry to catch up with the Rani!”

“Oh, not so much as you think.” The rich voice of Lady Amrita reached our ears from around the corner of the hallway, followed by the woman herself. She had sounded calm, and faintly amused, and I do believe she was the only person in the city capable of sounding that way. She rounded the corner with Hasan Dar and her son Ravindra at he side. The Rani appeared composed, but I noticed the tension in her hands as she clung to a mudra of serenity.

Ravindra took two darting steps towards us, very excited as he took our hands and urged us towards the grand staircase. “Are they really Dragons? Are they like the one you knew?”

Considering the momentous nature of the situation, we were all glad that his child-like impetuosity had taken us straight to the point. Ravindra was practically beside himself, I had never seen him look so young.

“Yes, Prince, I know of nothing else they can be.” I answered him while glancing at the Rani. “And no, not like any we have seen. They appear as…as different as…”

Bao finished for me; “They are as different from the Dragon we knew as Snow Leopards are from a Boa-Constrictor.”

The young prince nodded judiciously and put his mind to that comparison, and hit upon something that I don’t think Bao had intended. “Snakes are patient, far more so than big cats. We should not keep the waiting.”

The only delay anyone made in approaching the Main gate was the Ranni’s detour to fetch the two of us. Our feet never stopped moving, none of us even paused as we passed out of the palace and down the paved streets. As her palanquin was not ready the moment she needed it, so the Ranni herself walked, walked through her city before her people. She set the pace at a walk so swift that had she gone any faster we would have been running, and running at all would have done no good for the peace of mind of her people. The streets were full of folk who did not block our progress in any way, we are all headed to the same place.

At the gate, we saw soldiers who were preparing to open the gates. Hasan Dar dashed ahead of us, bellowing at them, “No! You dare not!” And then he slowed and looked back at the Rani. “Do they?”

To my relief, Ranni Amrita did not look back at us for advice, but she did think for a moment as her hands ran through a series of mudras for concentration. “No, not yet. I would prefer to confront these strangers at eye-level, to begin with.”

At the top of the wall, an old soldier named Venkarth knelt briefly before making his report; “If they are hostile, they are being very well-mannered about it. See there, they landed one at a time, the female first, avoiding the freshly planted fields that they might stand together on the pasture.”

“The female?”

“Yes, Prince, the Gold one… that is my opinion, sire.”

Venkarth was probably right, he’s had more time to observe the pair, and under calmer conditions than the rest of us had. Bao and I squeezed into a gap in the parapets to see for ourselves. I flinched, the walls of Bhaktipur are tall and formidable, and yet I found myself looking upwards at a slight angle to see the head of the Gray Dragon. The both of them crouched like Lions, or hunting Dogs, before us. Bellies to the ground and propped on their elbows. They were very close together, as they must be, to avoid the planted rows to either side of them. Their tightly folded wings rubbed together and their tails were twined intimately. The grassy lane was directly opposite the gatehouse atop with we stood. and across the main highway. Even so, their size made them seem terribly near, and I could all see that Venkarth was definitely right, there was something feminine about the Gold dragon. Her delicately framed eyes were dark, and her head was held low until she saw us peeking between gaps in the stonework. Her head came up angled skyward, and a trill sounded, trumpet-like... if one can imagine a trumpet the size of a tree. Once the musical note had played out her serpentine neck assumed an s-shape and her head was leveled with ours, eyes looking directly at us.

“Thank you for coming to see us, kind Rani.” The male spoke directly to Amrita with a voice that was far less earth-shaking than what he had used over the city, and just as resonant. “I am Merrin, and this is my mate, Sushulana. May we have your permission to be here?”

The Gold Dragon smiled and bowed her head, and said nothing. She had not spoken at all since appearing, and I thought little of it at the time. In so much of the world, women are subservient to men. A multitude of people had gathered on the wall and on the buildings that allowed them to see over the wall, and I think they took it to be a hint of normalcy in our strange guests. What made the greatest impression on me at this time was how they had avoided the planted rows surrounding them. These Dragons had been careful to avoid ruining the work of humble farmers, even at a time when few people would have made any note of it. 

In answer to Merrin, the Rani inclined her head and showed a bemused smile. She pitched her voice to carry, rather than shout. “Granted, freely. I wish to extend our hospitality to you, however… I find myself at a lose as to how to do so for magnificent creatures such as yourselves. There seems to be a problem of scale. How would it be possible for us to accommodate you?”

“Allow us to solve the problem.” Merrin and Sushulana exchanged glances. “It is what we do, after all.” They began to shrink is size before our eyes. Merrin kept his eyes on Sushulana as they grew smaller, and helped her shrug off a satchel colored as her scales during the process. The long strap and streamlined container had been small enough to attract little notice while the Dragons were huge, by the time they were down to Human size, it was the size of a trunk.

…and then suddenly, they were human in shape, as well as size.

This was the most astonishing thing I had seen in a very eventful year. Dragons able to change is size and shape of their own volition, and appear human, this was something that even our shared legends had not prepared us for. Alban, Ch’in, Bhaktpur, none of those told of such creatures in this day and age. What made this so amazing, this display of theirs, was that they could have used this power to simply walk into the city any time they had wished… and they had given that knowledge away to us. I had to put one hand on Bao’s shoulder to steady myself. My new husband was as rock-solid as ever, only the look on his face revealed that his thoughts were similar to mine. He whispered to me; “Are they …. Gods?”

I had no answer to that, so I turned to Amrita. She was as close to aw-struck as I would ever see her. Hasan Dar was having a hushed conversation with her, and as I watched his head came up and he said more loudly; “Truly?”

The Rani answered as forthrightly as ever. “I think it would be the worst sort of blasphemy to send soldiers out there, so send no one at all. I must be first at the gate…”  I looked back at the strange creatures, and only then did I consciously realized that they had both assumed human form completely naked. Logical, I suppose, and it balanced the karmic scales considering how Bao and I had greeted the first sight of them on the porch. It also added just one more bit of weirdness to a very weird morning. The crescent-shaped trunk was already open and the female, Sushulana, beat Merrin to the contents and firmly pushed a bundle into his hands. Was she serving him before herself? No so much, I thought, Merrin’s posture suggested he was not as comfortable being bare before a multitude of strangers as she was. Transformed, she was still half his mass, and more alluring than she had been as a Dragon. Dark-skinned with hair the same color as ripe wheat with mahogany streaks, Sushulana was very eye-catching. Merrin was simply imposing, and swiftly dressed himself in trousers and jacket of such severely plain lines that they fit no cultural norm that I had seen… and that is no small thing. Black trimmed with white, and no adornments that I could see from this distance. As soon as he was done, Merrin turned to help his woman, and I revived myself enough to take action. All I had to do was touch the Rani’s arm, and Amrita immediately began to move towards the stairs. “Open the gates, send two unarmed men to see to their baggage. Send my liter away, we will want to walk and talk… make the palace ready for a Royal reception!”

The words came out in a rush as she lead us all down the stairs and to the gate as it slowly cranked open. The changed Dragons were still standing across the street from us. Her arm was around his waist, and his was draped over her shoulders. They started walking towards us as soon as the Ranni stepped through the stone archway. This was when I was able to see clearly what Sushulana was wearing.

Her skirt had a ruffle that accentuated the flare of her hips before falling straight to her ankles. Above that was a form-fitting top that allowed some cleavage showing and would have left her arms and shoulders bare if not for a half-cape that complimented the outfit. The three pieces were orange, yellow and red that accentuated her natural colors, she was a brilliant contrast to Merrin’s plain severity. She also reminded me of something that I could not place yet. The cape came complete with a hood, which she flipped up over her hair. The upper half of her face was thus shielded from the bright sunlight.

Sushulana’s brilliant smile and casual grace also contrasted with Merrin’s calm dignity. Even when his disposition was sunny there was a gravity about him, a presence that was not lessened by the transformation to human size and shape. He wore no adornments of any kind. He needed none, for here was a true nobleman, or perhaps grander than that, even among Dragon-kind. He nodded to the Ranni as they approached, waiting upon her next words, but that was the moment Sushulana chose to remove any doubts that she was able to speak. She softly broke into a brief little song.
“Love and life,
all around,
come my love and see what I have found.”

Her earlier trumpeting in Dragon shape had followed the same rhythm.  She danced up to us and curtsied while speaking. “The Rani Amrita, I presume, and General Hasan Dar.” Calling him General was rather overstating his rank, and a compliment at the same time, as soldiers understood such things. “Ah, and Prince Ravindra, how are…” Sushulana’s eyes strayed to mine, and Bao, and I felt a chill such as I had no felt since we had locked away the Kamadeva’s Black Diamond. Her smile did not falter, but I saw a great tiredness in her, a weariness and sorrow that called out to me for relief. My diadh-anam, timely as ever, flared warmly to dispel the chill as she finished; “…you.”

Ravindra took the opportunity to introduce us. “Yes, may I present Master Shuintan Bao, and his wife Moirin mac Fianche. Heroes and honored guests of… our… realm.” He had noticed Sushulana staring at us, and how Merrin had leveled a measuring look at us as well. “Perhaps you have heard of them?”

"Indeed we have."

“How wonderful.” Bao spoke to me under his breath in the scholar’s tongue of Ch’in. “Our lives have just become more complicated, again.”

“Perhaps so.” Sushulana answered in the same language, and not quietly. “But we are not your enemies.” She smiled and winked at us. “Quite the other thing, in fact, which I suppose is what has lead us to our present difficulty.” She said no more on the matter, and was given no chance to do so by Merrin.

“Rani Amrita, as I was saying, we are most impressed and wish to do you honors. We have brought little of the material sort, as it seems your coffers are rather full at the moment. And again, apologies for the lack of warning, but for reasons we would speak of in private, our time is dreadfully short.”

“Not so short that we would not be able to spare some hours for a tour of this fine city, surely?” Sushulana asked in her musical tones. “This lovely Rani is sure to be wondering what we mean by doing ‘honors’, and how better than going among her people to do what we can for them?” The Lady Amrita smiled in return, one does not deny courtesy to Dragons, no matter how unexpected, yet it was Merrin who appeared to be ready to raise objections. “Considering the boon we would ask, is it really such a bother, dearest? A late lunch, and then we get down to business, yes?”

Merrin let his arms drop, and shrugged in reply. Once his formidable will had begun to bend, there was little that the rest of us could do to avoid being caught up in Sushulana’s whirlwind. No problem stood in her way for long, no complication could not be simplified on the spot. The first thing was footwear, sandals are not likely to protect one’s feet in the tumbledown quarter where the Untouchables still dwelt in some numbers. From her trunk, Sushulana procured fur-lined boots for the Rani and I which she insisted on fitting to our feet herself. Miraculously, they were perfect fits despite the fact that they had looked anything but, at first glance.

People turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of our party, and they received more than they had bargained for, I dare say. Sushulana darted about, making a game of letting the Untouchables touch her and touching them back, but the game soon turned to something very different. Those she touched gasped and shuddered as if they had been dunked in hot water, and staggered about for a moment afterwards. I gasped myself when I saw what was happening. Sushulana’s touch left them, and their clothes, cleansed of all the filth that had been clinging to them for years. In many cases, the rags they wore changed colors, and that was not all. Younger women’s nipples poked at their shirts, and some young men turned away blushing furiously, hands over their livened phallus and grinning sheepishly.

“No, no, its nothing like that.” She said to me as I moved in closer to try to understand what was happening. “Its just a little cleaning spell, nothing more. But the tingle is very… refreshing, on the skin. Would you like to try it?”

“But-“ my answer had to be left for later on, a child of about 7 winters dashed in and slapped Sushulana’s thigh and sprinted away, and the little woman shrieked and chased after the impudent rascal with very youthful abandon. It was delightful and disturbing at the same time, to watch her playing this magical game of tag. Sushulana invariably won by outsmarting her opponents and making them sparkling-clean.

“Take care of yourselves now, you go right back to being dirty as soon as you get careless!”

I turned back to Bao for some guidance here, this was all going too quickly and strangely. He was making his way towards me, with a thoughtful look on his face, and nodded back towards the rest of the party. Merrin was walking along in his stately way, between the Rani and Hasan Dar, and having such a deep conversation that all three barely paid Sushulana any heed. “He’s something of an engineer, that one. He’s telling them how to improve sanitation, how to make this the healthiest city on the continent. Merrin certainly knows what he is talking about, I’ve seen enough cities to know…. but,” Bao looked around us, “one thing is clear, all of this will have to go.”

“Go?” A heartbeat later I knew what he was talking about, and I did not like it. “The neighborhood? Gods Bao, everyone that can leave already has! What are the rest going to do when all of this is plowed up and covered over, make boats and live on the river?” I sent a sharp look Merrin’s way. He was just coming within earshot, but I did not think he could hear my words until he answered;

“Why not? A good raft can last for years, and this river is underutilized. If the city is truly so short of space, these people can build a village of their own in some spur of this valley, I saw several on the way here. Or, any number of other solutions, as the people and rulers of this land see fit. Lady Moirin, this dreary place is not just a threat to the continued health of the city as a whole, it is a psychological anchor that holds these people in place. Some of them may never rise above it unless they leave it physically. For generations, they won’t believe they can. Please, allow them to let it all go.”

“By kicking them out?” I was angry, more than I should have been. I had been wracking my mind for ways to get the last of the people out of this place, and here it was. There would be a place for them, the Rani would ensure that before anything else happened, but even so the thoughtful look that she had while listening to Merrin bothered me. Merrin bothered me. Fantastic beings though they may be, what right did they have to come here and…. and ...

…just what were they trying to do?

I wrongly attempted to keep track of both Dragons, and so was only able to gain basic ideas about them before we reached the Palace. Our next stop was the riverfront area that shared space with temples and commerce. Children followed Sushulana as if they were baby Ducks, and anxious parents followed them and blocked my view of Sushulana as she darted about like a sparrow. She seemed to be trying to talk to everyone, unmindful of all the hands reaching out to touch her. She worked introductions into the conversations, for the benefit of the ‘touched’. I could no more keep up with her than the pair of Guards assigned to her could, so Bao and I fell back and let the little Dragon have her way. Merrin was standing very still at the edge of a retaining wall, he seemed lost in this thoughts for a very long moment, until Ravindra touched his sleeve. “Is something wrong? What would you suggest for us here?”

“Hm?” Merrin shook his head and then smiled down at the Prince. “Oh, I was contemplating the genius of you folk.”

“Our genious?” Ravindra looked about, everything about us did seem rather ordinary.

“Certainly.” He went down on one knee beside the boy and began to point out the sort of things out that I had ceased to notice since I had come to live in the City of Elua. “Have you ever pondered the generations of work and study that went into the placement and paving of this roadway? Those boats, the very shape of them has evolved over the centuries to be just so… and do you know why? Many reasons that go beyond what suits the water best, its also a matter of the materials available, the tools they have to shape them with, and the sorts of things those men understand how to control. The ropes they use, its always fascinated me how people can turn strands of plant material no longer than you are tall into strong rope of any length they desire. Who thought of that, what kind of person first made the idea work?” He rapped the stonework below his feet. “This wall, it feels as if its been here a long time. Nothing fancy, not even very pretty, but its a work of art as surely as the greatest temple here. You see, when people first came here, it was just a dirt bank, and for many generations that was good enough. But the tramping of many feet caused the land to start collapsing in to the river, and so they drove wooden pilings into the muck, but that wasn’t good enough. Then there were walls of stone, some collapsed, some pushed aside by the force of floodwaters, but your distant kin kept trying until they hit upon this solution. You see, the angle is very subtle, but its there, leaning inward to let the weight of the stones press into the soil and keep it in place.”

Ravindra’s attention was wandering, as a child he had thought in much the same ways as Merrin, and then moved on. What brought him back was when he realized that Merrin was fascinated by all these common things. It made him think of a question he had never answered for himself. “All of these stones are the same size and shape, thousands of them. Lord Dragon, how would that have been done? It is as you say, this wall is old, the oldest in the city. How could men who did not have iron work stone this way?”

“One can guess, but I do not know, young Prince. What I can tell you, based on what I have seen of Humanity, is that you would be surprised. Even men wearing rough hides and beards full of bugs can join together and become very well organized, industrious, and amazingly precise when the occasion demands it. They, you, all of you,” he stood and included all of us in his comments, “are capable of things that fill me with wonder.”

“It is interesting, so see one such as you enraptured by we, mere people.”

Merrin smiled back at the Rani. “I have lofty ambitions, one of which is to be thought of as a person by ones such as yourselves.”

And so it went, district by district until we arrived back at the palace. Merrin was alternating between asking questions and making suggestions that were all more gentle than the one he had started with. Despite my earlier misgivings I was starting to respect him. Sushulana continued to flit about, and I saw the pattern become clearer as we went. She wasn’t just helping those she had touched meet the people of the rest of the city, she was making new friends for them, connections. As she went, the knots of the 'touched' following her gradually diminished, and then vanished altogether. When the crowds around her abated Bao and I approached her, I could not take my eyes off her dress.

“Ah, you like it?” She asked, and slowly turned.

“There is something familiar about it.” I had to admit. “It is lovely, as if it was made for you, but it does not appear to belong to this setting, nor any other I have known.”

“Ah, but it did, not so long ago.” She switched languages, speaking D’Angeline as if born to it. “Favrielle made it as a peace offering.”

“That can’t be-“  I had to touch the fabric to be sure, and Sushulana did not seem to mind any more than she had the many hands that had been on her that day. Our fingers can tell us much beyond the reassuring solidity of what they encounter. “It is, but… not. This cut, the style, I have never seen anything like it worn there.”

“No, I don’t suppose so, outside the Hall of ancestors. This sort of thing went out of style ..... hmm, over a century ago, I would say.” There was no merriment in her eyes, nor any other sign she was joking with us.

“This was made… by Favrielle herself?” I gasped.

Sushulana smiled at me. “Yes, young Moirin, we-“

Guided by an impulse I cannot name, I reached up and flipped the hood back. “Sidhee!”

Bao was alarmed by the tone of my voice, yet Sushulana’s only reaction to my move was to cease speaking. Her combination of dark skin and yellow hair was now the least exotic thing about her. Those blue-black eyes were not only large and slanted, but had a sweep to them that was not exactly human. Her ears were not just large, they were sculpted in a unique way that lead up to distinctive points, and marked her as a very different sort of mystical being, something out of the myths about the realm of Faerie.

I let my hands drop and took a step back, nearly bumping into Hasan Dar as I did so. The rest of the impromptu procession had caught up with is, and bystanders were looking at the Sidhee woman with a mix of awe and trepidation. Sushulana linked her hands behind her back and faced us with an easy grace as onlookers pulled back or froze in place.

“As I was trying to say, Moirin of the Maghuin Dhonn, we need to talk.”

  * * *

Bhaktipur is not a large city, we were all in the Palace and seated around our midday repast just over an hour after the normal noon setting would have taken place. Our Lady Amrita’s hands flashed in calming mudras when she was not eating or drinking, for my benefit more than any one else. I had seen something unfathomable, deep and ancient in Sushulana’s eyes when she had addressed me directly. When I held Bao’s hand, our diadh-anams had twined, calmly as they ever could be, yet I was still afraid. What new peril was this, what delay did it betoken for our journey back to Terre D’Ange?

“First of all, we should tell you about ourselves.” Merrin began, once the room was cleared of all but a pair of servants and two sets of guards, one at the door and another out on the balcony. “But before I do, I have to ask of Bao and Moirin… you have never heard of us, never seen any reference to us or our works, anywhere in Terre D’Ange or anywhere else in your travels?”

“You, specifically?” Bao shook his head emphatically and looked to me. “The only other Dragon we have ever encountered was-”

“Yes, the Pearl, never mind that.” Sushulana interrupted impatiently. “The City of Elua, you were inside the Palace, did you ever see paired images similar to us, or hear of Sidonie’s books?”

“No.” I answered, feeling as if I was dissuading a treasure-hunt for some reason. “Sidonie? Queen Sidonie, mother of Anielle… you knew her?” That question would have come out with a disbelieving tone, yet before I could finish speaking the question I could see the truth all over her face. Yes, she had, and very personally. Sushulana answered me by shrugging off her cape, and revealing a bauble that I had barely glimpsed earlier. A Gold star, artfully done with many rays and some oddly cracked crystal in the center. I went to her side and crouched, eying it closely, and saw Elua’s sigil impressed into the rays of the star itself. “It looks D’Angeline as well. A gift?”

“A boon. This is the Companion’s Star, given to me by Sidonie de la Courcel herself.”

I fell back into the pillows I had been sitting in, head spinning. “How, when?”

“At the Midwinter Ball the year she married Imriel. She pinned it to me moments after I launched into a tirade that sounded the death-knell of arranged marriages in the Kingdom… and made something of an ass of myself in the process.”

We were all amazed, Bao most of all. “Arranged…. forced marriages, in that place?”

Sushulana and Merrin exchanged broad, knowing smiles. “What a difference time itself can make, yes?” His words made them think of other things, and soon the smiles faded. They held hands, and Sushulana’s other hand covered the Star while the quiet moment stretched out.

“So… you have chosen to appear Sidhee, or is this something to do with your race?” I asked, boldly perhaps, and because somebody had to break that silence somehow.

“Sidhee… how cute, but I think that makes me sound rather grander and more sinister than is the case.” Sushulana threw her head back and passed a hand through her unruly curls. “Elf is what I know myself as, it is what I was born as and I have learned to change my shape from my mate, as he learned eons ago to change from Dragon to Human. Oh, yes, we look like such an unlikely couple when you see it from that point, but in fact we were something far more likely than so many other couples. However, we never would have understood that, or lived to see the day… were it not for the Grace of the D’Angeline Gods and the strenuous efforts of some very special people. Would you like to hear about how it all came to be?”

For the remainder of that memorable day, Merrin and Sushulana told their tale. They took turns revealing their past, their lost home world, and the mad path that brought them here. Sushulana tried to be gentle about it, Merrin took a more firm, stark angle as he painted a picture that would ensure that we did not look upon Sushulana as weak or addled. Sushulana had no such reservations, she was devoid of shame or mercy when it came to herself… and the story itself made me very glad that I was living my own life, and not hers.

For seventy-two years, Merrin had played at being insane in order to prevent Sushulana from loosing her own mind. She put aside the horror and soul-crushing grief of loosing her family and friends and everyone else she had ever known to pursue the Dragon, and save one world after another from the threat he had pretended to be. At the same time, Merrin himself had begun to crack under the strain, although he could not admit it, even to himself. “I reveal to you now, that you may understand this more clearly, I am psychic. Fear not, I have locked myself away inside my head since arriving here, and I won’t open myself up again in your realm without your permission, Rani. When I am using my powers, I am exposed to the psionic emanations from all sentient beings. Thus the fear and misery I inflicted was reflected back at me. I myself did not understand the damage this was doing to me, but Sushulana did.”

“I suspected, there is a difference.” Sushulana corrected him. “And I was becoming tired of the whole thing myself, being reactive isn’t really my sort of game.”

“But, two and seventy years!” Bao had known Lo-Feng for longer than I, and so had touched longevity in a way none of the rest of us had. “How long do you people live? More than that, you don’t look like a fool, Sushulana, were you under some sort of spell?”

Far from offended, she smiled. “I am now 660 years old. Merrin is, what is it now, love… 5 times that, or closer to 4 these days?”

Merrin could not withhold a smile. “Something like that, and now we have a Birthday to share.”

“Yes, the day Sidonie and Imriel saved our lives.” She stroked his arm with the back of her hand. “And started the process of bringing us together.”

“Wait please, what?” As careful as they were being, I was still getting lost. “Together? You must have cared for each other immensely to have spent all those years chasing each other…. and, they saved you? When? After they were married there are no more great events recorded in their lives.“

Sushulana, not Merrin, drover her fist into her palm with a whip-crack sound. “So, you have never heard of us, our names, what happened in Cytheria, the Unseen Guild, none of it?”

“It is as we thought.” Merrin put his arm around her. “They never even peeled the roof back. Lady Moirin, you have been to the University in the City of Elua, yes?”

“Yes.”

“There is a steeply pitched roof of common copper over one of the halls, faded to a nice white-green patina now. I see you remember it, do you remember if the patina was imperfect? As if someone had worked at it, or tried to pry it up recently?”

“No, and I’m sorry, I did not look very closely. Why? What’s this all about?”

“They never found her book.” Merrin groused. 

“Or they did, and they don’t want us back.”

“Please!” Lady Amrita was becoming as annoyed as I was with the way they were talking back and forth. “Sushulana… could you tell us… why you lured a Dragon to this world when you thought he was dangerous? And if it’s not too much trouble, could you clarify your relationship, then?”

“I brought him here because this is the best one. Best world, I mean. Half a hundred did we pass through, and this was the one that I thought could cure him.” She rolled her eyes and leaned into Merrin. “As if he was the one who was in danger of loosing his mind, instead of me! Ah, yes…. I was looking for a miracle, and as it happened, we both found one.”

“Shared one, I would say.” Thankfully, Merrin took over the narration and swiftly came to the point; They had both been kidding themselves about what they really meant to each other, and what they had found here was a way to accept each other. That has come after the Prince and Princess had rescued them from some wicked men who had used the same foul sort of chains that had been used on me in Vralia to imprison them. Sidonie had brought Sushulana through her grief, aided by a well thought-out trick engineered by Phedre of Montreve and Melisande Sharizai herself. The two of them working together should have made it a famous story, and not just in Terre D’Ange. Then Merrin explained about the secrecy, and the offer the Gods had made to them. “We wanted to be D’Angeline, and we wanted to protect the place. So, we assumed the role and for 100 years we were the ones that would take the place of the ‘heroes’, provided we work in secrecy. This was not only for our protection, but it was also because the pair of us were a bit… much. Too many radical ideas, too many things that the beautiful little kingdom simply wasn’t ready for yet. The fear was that we’d damage the very thing we loved, and so we accepted the separation.“

“But… how could you become D’Angeline if you could not live among them?” I was indignant, yes, but it was sympathy that now drove the words from my mouth. It all sounded so familiar, and unjust.

Sushulana favored me with a smile that would have made even Jehanne weak in the knees. “Oh no, sweet witch, we did live among them, in disguise and flaunting none of our abilities. We could visit those dear to us, for a season at a time if we wished, and we did. My first set of twins came along in the middle of Sidonie’s little Horde, and we shared so much in those days…”

Merrin took over again as a shadow crossed Sushulana’s face. “There were limitations, of course. We could not own property inside the Kingdom nor claim any of the rights a citizen could until the century had passed. Yes, we had developed an intimate friendship with Sidonie and Imriel… some more intimate than others.” He smiled indulgently at Sushulana. Bao caught his meaning instantly and managed to keep his face composed as he made a tiny, strangled noise deep in his throat and glanced back and forth between me and the Elf. For her part, Sushulana was far from embarrassed. Her eyes were half-closed and a nostalgic sigh came from her parted lips. I found myself wishing that I would appear the very same way in the future when people mentioned Jehanne; shameless and deeply appreciative.

The Rani bit her lip, and smiled. “Another D’Angline tradition? You, and the Queen?”

“And her Prince, at the same time.” I had been reaching out to the Elf, but when she said that my arm dropped onto the low table between us. She took my hand in her warm, satin-smooth grasp, and cleaned a bit of humus from my forearm as she continued. “We learned much from each other, communicating without words, and celebrating each other’s uniqueness. Very briefly, they made room for me in a relationship so perfectly close that even the most dire magic couldn’t drive a wedge between them.” She scraped a little dollop of cherry cream from the heel of my hand and popped it straight into her mouth. “And once Merrin and I were formally joined, I was able to be the monogamous and perfectly focused mate he desires and deserves.” The pair of them shared a moment, something passing between them as they looked into each other’s eyes. “Without the help of those heroes, we might never have gone beyond the point where we saw each other as living artifacts to be saved. Ah, but once they were gone…”

“You drifted away from the Kingdom, after everyone you knew had passed on to Terre D’Ange beyond.” It was not a question, even if the Rani was trying to be gentle.

“Yes, and there were other reasons.” Merrin didn’t even have to glance at Sushulana for her to stand and walk to a wall that was clear of decorations. She waved her arms and an overhead view of the city appeared, the memory of a Dragon’s eye-view. “Hold a moment, love.” He turned to us and gave us time to take in what we were seeing.

Ravindra was open-mouthed as he clapped his hands together, and smiled. “Mother! You see, it is as he said… generation after generation, building and improving and leading each other to a greater whole!”

I myself saw a tangle of streets, an irregular city wall and a perspective that threatened my hold on my stomach. Yet Lady Amrita was smiling and nodding to her son, equally appreciative. They were looking at their home, and their life’s work, they could name every building and street. For the first time, they could see exactly how it all fit together. The Rani turned to Merrin; “I’m glad you came here. Could that image be made permanent on the wall?”

“Oh, for measurements and so on?” Sushulana answered her, facing the image. “Yes, of course, I’ll see to it on the morrow. Meanwhile,” She changed the image, making the city shrink as if we were drawing back, higher and higher. I gripped the table hard, and closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them, we were looking at an impossibly vast view, one that included Kurugiri.

“We have turned a blind eye to evil. After 100 years of constantly searching for it, and battling it, we old crusaders finally needed a break from it all. We changed our focus, looking for the good instead. So, for the last quarter of a century, we have had a very different experience, this is why we became aware of you and your Kingdom after you freed the Untouchables. We regret to say, this is also why we were unaware of your struggles.” Sushulana stepped forward and pointed to the area where the Falconer and his wicked Queen had held sway. “What exactly came to pass here?”

“What?” I had nearly lost track of what we were talking about. One hundred years, for a full century these two people had taken on the roll of those the Gods used hard, they had volunteered for it. Having been used myself, I had some feeling for what they had gone through, and they had done it to earn something that I had been born with, the favor of the Gods. The number more significant to me was twenty-five… the number of years since they had ended their service. Just a handful of years after that century had passed, a certain Priest of Naamah had begun his journey to Alba, met my Mother, and I had been conceived. In a sense, I had taken over for them, and now Sushulana had questions for me.

I wondered what she, and Merrin, would think of how I and Bao had taken up their duties.

We explained, very briefly, about the Kamadeva’s Black Diamond and the havoc wrought by the assassins. We did not have to explain how Bao and I had come to be involved, they already knew about us, and promised to explain why later on. We did not press the matter just then, because the more we explained about this past year, the angrier Sushulana became. She stalked towards the balcony until Merrin rose and spoke to her rapidly in a language none of us could make any sense of. I had the feeling that if he had not stopped her, Sushulana would have launched herself into the sky and obliterated the Falconer's Castle. She hesitated, then shrugged and returned to the image of the kingdom as seen from the clouds. “What of this valley?”

“The lands beyond the fort are being left to their own devices. We are giving them a chance to govern themselves without any interference ….” Sushulana looked to Merrin with glittering eyes. The Rani’s voice great firmer; “You cannot be thinking of claiming it for your own!”

Sushulana ignored us, so intense was her line of thought. “Imaging it! Self-governing, no aristocrats, no bureaucrats or taxes that the people paying them can’t understand. None of that… perhaps. If they can do that for themselves-“

Merrin cut her off by speaking to us. “You must forgive my mate’s Republican idealism.” And to her; “Themselves, that is the key word here. Observe and make note of their progress, yes, but let them make their own mistakes. We should be as students in this, as often as we are teachers…. now, if you would continue with the map?”

“Ah, yes of course.” The view seemed to drop away, until the world was so distant that it became abstract. All trace of vertigo gave way to wonder. We could see the lands of this world as they truly lay, from Ch’in to the Umaiyyat, from the southern tip of Bhodistan to a lake that could have been the one I crossed with Alexi. Then, the ‘map’ began to creep in a southeasterly direction. The large view had been provided to give us a sense of scale, now we could see a series of huge islands previously unknown to us. Sushulana pointed to the northerly tip of a pair of Islands at the lower right. “Here, this is close to the polar opposite of Terre D’Ange. We made a home for ourselves here, and found people there too. Not many, and with so little of what you would call culture that they had few misconceptions to overcome regarding us. They proved more needful of help than Terre D’Ange did, and we formed an attachment with them… and the perfect place for troubled d’Angelines to escape to.” She turned her intense gaze on me. “Are you familiar with a certain little chapel dedicated to star-crossed lovers in the neighborhood of Night’s Doorstep?”

“My Father is a Priest that can be found there, as often as not.”

“Did he ever take you to a secret room in the sub-cellar, one with a doorway in what appears to be solid Stone? I see ... no… and it’s alright, Moirin, there would have been no reason for your Father to show it to you unless you needed to disappear from the Kingdom. I constructed a magical gate there, leading to our hideaway. In the Chapel dedicated to oppressed lovers, I gave them a way out. Also welcome are other people in difficulty, and orphans… good people dealt a poor hand. Refugees, if you will, and they were welcome by the islanders. So much so that our little Empire is called Nova Angelica, in celebration rather than suzerainty.”

“Empire?” Bao, ever skeptical, asked out loud what the rest of us were wondering.

Sushulana looked to Merrin, who smiled and nodded to her before taking up the narration. “The co-mingling of peoples, ideas and bloodlines, was so beneficial that what we have wrought has spread.” While he spoke, Sushulana waved a hand and spread a pink highlight over part of the map. It began at the point indicated and spread over all the islands around the one they had started with, rushing back towards us until only the islands nearest to the continent we called Asia were free of it’s influence. “Yes, Empire. As one cannot simply set aside an old title, I have grown into a new one. You have not heard of this place, and that is all to the good. Ours is a remote part of the world, only gradually entering into trade with the rest of it, and not at all anxious to involve ourselves in the turmoil that seems so routine. We also have generations of intermingling still being sorted out, although this has been more of a source of joy than anything else.”

Sushulana laughed enchantingly. “It certainly has! Joy to you as well, yes Merri?” She walked to his side and knelt on the floor, leaning into his crossed legs and putting her head in the crook of his arm. “Your mate is a halfbreed, as are our children and our people …. in a way none could have imagined before it came to be, and look at these adorable heroes seated across from us! It is as the Chowatti told us; the strongest and most flexible materials are alloys.”

All this talk of half-breeds prompted me to say “Your children must be a ceaseless source of joy to you.”

The reaction told me that this was the worst thing I could have said. The stricken looks they exchanged made me wonder how many had died, or something equally dire. Merrin found the composure to speak first, he even smiled at the soothing mudra that Amrita held up to him. “By and large yes, each of them is a wonderment unique unto themselves that make me puzzle over why I withheld my seed for so long, and thrilled that Sushulana found a way to make me want them come to be, at last.”

“It was the only reason I learned to shift my shape to one that matches his, to tell the truth.” The Elf was forcing herself to smile and be casual, which I took to be a very bad sign indeed. “Three of the four thus far, have turned out to be wonderful additions to our lives, and their attachment to our little Empire in preference to Terre D’Ange is another factor that keeps us away from Europa. However… it is the fourth one that brings us here, and with an offer.” She glanced at Merrin, unsure of how to present the offer, or perhaps unsure of herself.

“This is our offer to you; we can carry you across the Mountains ahead of you in a day, saving you the two weeks you would need to reach the border of Bhodistan proper.” Merrin carefully annunciated each word, and spoke in no hurry. “At some point in the future, say 10, 15 or 20 years from now, we could bring you here for a visit, and the travel time would last only a day or less as well. Conversely we could take you, Rani Amrita, to see Terre D’Ange with your own eyes. Once your son has taken his place as the ruler of this realm, it would be nice to travel about, would it not?”

The Rani just barely held on to her composure, instead of flashing mudras she had her hands flat on the table and smiled with many teeth showing and her head angled slightly down. “Oh, that would be glorious thing! Moirin, can you imagine, taking me on a tour of your fabled City of beautiful treasures? Emperor, could you take me to Galanka?” Her ancestral home, a place she had not dared to think of seeing any more than she had thought the City of Elua within reach.

“Alas, no. We have a rather… touchy, understanding with the Goddess Kali. Taking these two to the border of Bhodistan by dint of our own sweat is the farthest we dare press matters. Using our powers within her realm, a land where temples stand that are dedicated directly to her… no, we cannot. I am sorry.”

“Sorry?” Amrita’s grace was as perfect as ever in accepting this disappointment. “You offer the moon & stars, and I seem dismayed that what lies over the next hilltop is not to be had? Hah!” She turned to me and leaned over to look at Bao at the same time. “I would be your guest in your homeland! Who could have foreseen such a thing?”

Bao’s lack of levity made her cease talking so happily, and my breath caught in my throat as he asked Merrin; “And what must we do to earn this boon, Dragon?” his tone did not make the word ‘dragon’ sound entirely complimentary.

Merrin smiled. “Never let it be said that I do not admire courage.” He spared Sushulana a glance. “Very well, Bao, A decade or two hence, the Lady Amrita will have her boon, regardless of what you decide. As for the rest…”

“We... decide?”

“Oh yes, Bao, you and your wife. We have a boon of our own to ask, and one you must consider carefully. You must certainly not give any answer until tomorrow evening, after you have met her.”

“Who?”

Our fourth child, Rilrae, Rae….” Sushulana sighed heavily and stared at the floor. “Teenage daughters are never to be taken lightly, I suppose, but this one… I am at my wits end.”

“Which is saying a good deal more than you would be prepared to believe at this point.” Suddenly, Ravindra became the focus of Merrin’s eye. “Prince, it is late and I am sorry that we are no longer covering very exciting ground.”

The Prince was more than intelligent enough to play along. He stood with a slight smile playing on his lips as he bowed to his mother. “If I may be excused?”

Once he was out of the room Merrin did not even give the Rani a chance to ask any questions. “That boy is at exactly the wrong age, I beg you to keep him away from our meeting tomorrow. For his own sake, it would be a far better thing if he does not see Rilrae. There is a chance that he may remember her, fondly, in the years soon to come. If she imprints on his mind as he enters puberty he may develop more than a fondness for her, at exactly the wrong time in his life. She has just entered a marriageable age, we really need to spare him the possibility-“

“You are actually trying to protect my son from your daughter?” The Rani interrupted Merrin. Not sharply, as I would have done, nor with an offended tone, as I certainly would have been using at that point. Instead, she leaned forward, keenly interested in Merrin’s attitude. “By all the stars, you truly consider your own daughter so unworthy, and such a threat to my dear son?”

“You are absolutely Goddamned right we do.” All eyes went to Sushulana as she crouched at Merrin’s side, her poise as uncompromising as the look in her eyes. “And you will know why when you see her tomorrow. You will have to meet her." Her gaze turned to me. "And our request is simple; we want to put her in your hands for a while. Months, a year or more, or only a few days if that is all you can stand of her. My, our hope, is that you can do something that is beyond us. Help her grow up!”

I nearly fell off my pillow. “You want to foster your daughter, a hellion, with us?” I barked out a very inappropriate laugh, and practically shouted “Why?”.

“Because she has been watching you, and has developed a fixation on you.” Merrin smoothly resumed his narration, dropping one arm over Sushulana’s shoulders. Not protectively, it looked to me more like he was holding her in place. “She considers you to be her Heroes.”

It was Bao’s turn to laugh. “What? What has she heard, that would make us so admirable to someone like her? What tales of us have reached your ears in your distant Empire of islands?”

Merrin shook his head, weary for some reason, and his gray eyes were apologetic. “No stories about either of you, so far, and I don’t know what exactly it was that made her fixate on you, we only learned of all this recently. It was not a matter of hearing, but seeing. I have talents that will sound incredible to you, such as my ability to locate people or places from anywhere else in the world… and to see and hear what is going on in that location. Rae has this psychic talent as well, we call it Clairvoyance. Before I took it away from her, I dare say she was becoming better than I at this sort of thing.”

Bao flushed nearly pink, and his reaction made me think of several reasons I should be humiliated as well. I was too d’Angeline, and too shocked, to have the same reaction. “Just barely old enough to wed, and already so powerful?”

“In certain, narrow ways. She pursues paths that intrigue her and ignores broadening her base of understanding. She will appear younger than yourselves, yet she is somewhat older, and her level of maturity is…. “

“Nonexistent.” Sushulana finished for him. “Bao, Moirin, you have something we do not; her respect and admiration. She will listen to you, things are at such an impasse that I can’t speak to her without getting into a fight, and even Merrin’s immense patience is at an end.”

“What do you want us to say? What did she do that was so awful?”

“Moirin, you have such a grand heart, I can’t tell you what to say, but I do trust you to do what’s right. I just… hope…” Sushulana looked to Merrin. Before he could say anything, Bao spoke up.

“How can you ask this of us? We have traveling and some important business to attend to. Our lives tend to be dangerous and we are being pulled by mystical forces through a land that you cannot enter and towards a kingdom you indicate that you have no desire to go to. We have no experience with this business of juvenile delinquents!” Sushulana and Merrin both gave him knowing smiles at that point. Bao cleared his throat and continued; “I don’t see how she can become our responsibility, what if she is killed while she is with us?”

“We absolve you in advance.” Merrin stated cooly, as if he had practiced that line. “And should she survive, we will bring the two of you back and forth to Ch’in from anywhere in the world, thrice in your lifetimes, on demand.”

Sushulana pounced on the breathless silence that followed that announcement. “Should you ever want me to do so, I will come to your homeland of Alba. My command of spell-magic is considerable and I am willing to share it, Moirin. Or I can walk about, be seen by your folk and clear up any misconceptions about what you have been calling Sidhee. I don’t know why, but seeing me as I am seemed to give you a greater fright than seeing us both as Dragons. Tsk, it would appear that the Maghuin Dhonn are not the only ones with an undeservedly fell reputation, yes?”

With these incredible prizes being dangled before us, I still somehow found the wit to ask the question once again; “What has she done?”

The smile that Sushulana had been trying to muster fell away, and she looked down at the table as she answered quietly. “In a fit of pique, she started a war. A big one. That is why we must go… tomorrow night?” This she asked of Merrin.

“Yes, the first skirmishes may happen as early as the day after tomorrow. We have not even made ourselves known to anyone involved yet. We have much to do-“

“She started a war!” I had meant to shout, but my words barely cleared my throat. “By herself?”

“Yes, using powers that she no longer has. In this case, she thought she was doing what needed to be done, or so she says. In fact, we will make her explain all of this.” Sushulana gasped and threw a pleading look at Merrin, who held up his palm to her. “She will explain it, and how she did it, to you good people. After that, you must decide if you want to take her with you on your journey. Rilrae is not without her merits. She has much of the speed and strength you would expect from the Dragon-blooded and can shrug off wounds that would cripple ordinary humans. Our daughter has a respectable knowledge of Geography and a sense of direction that has me convinced that she cannot ever loose her way… in relation to the physical world. And, taking after her mother, she knows a few simple spells and can fight passably well with sword or spear, should you be willing to allow her such things.” He stood, pulling a reluctant Sushulana upright along with him. “Rae will be a trial, but she will not slow you down. If you will consent, we will bring her here for you to meet and decide on in the morning.”

Bao and I both looked to the Rani, who looked back at us with a bemused expression. She would not guide us in this, and our shared Diadh-anam was giving us no help either. “I am… curious.” Bao admitted.

I was as well, and so I nodded.

“What we would like to do is come tomorrow, at about the same time we did today.” She nodded at the doorway to an anteroom. “If you could keep that doorway clear, and the space around it, we can leave and return without raising a fuss as we did today.”

“That would be a welcome thing.” The Rani rose smoothly. “You will come and go, through that door, and go no farther than this room?” She answered Merrin’s questioning look; “This palace has had to endure many unauthorized comings and goings.”

“Oh, yes. Tiring, isn’t it?” Merrin had the unusual ability to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Rani's point, and still cast a teasing glance at his mate. He was barely smiling, but I saw something of a rascal in his poise.

“Hey now!” Sushulana reacted as if Merrin had been making a joke. “When we are there, people have every right to come to us with their concerns! What, would you like to hang a sign over our home that says ‘None but the brave need apply’? That’s not my way, and you knew that from the start.”

Now Merrin did smile. “You will forgive us, Sushulana designed and built a wonderful Palace for us that sprawls along, and inside of, a seaside cliff. There are sleeping chambers that suit us in either shape, many fine offices and apartments… and not a single door that can be closed and locked, anywhere.”

“Well, it gets very hot down there, the air must circulate.” She retorted.

“Clearly you have no fear of assassins there.” The Rani did not appear to believe what she was hearing.

“Let them come, if they dare.” Sushulana said, not Merrin, and the way she said it allowed for no misunderstanding. She seemed to savor the notion as a gourmand would look forward to a rare treat. And, lest we assume that she was blustering, she looked to Bao and added; “Taras wept.” Those two words made Bao tip his head forward, brow furrowed as he tried to place that reference.

“Dear, if you wouldn’t mind spelling the door?” Merrin asked her, and Sushulana immediately turned to weave a complicated enchantment on the doorway that I would have loved to observe, but there was little I could see or hear with her back to me. Merrin was also speaking to us; “Please know this; we love our daughter and have tried our best to do what is right for her. However, we have come to the conclusion that what is best for her is no longer … us.”

“You truly think that we are?” I asked, standing next to Bao. “Why? Why us, of all people?”

“I am not certain, but Rilrae seems to believe it. We will make her explain herself to you. Once she is done, I think she will be surprised if you decide in her favor.”

“Ready.” Sushulana announced, standing before the doorway, its framework now had a subtle silvery glow.

Merrin bowed to us. “On the morrow, then.” He turned and joined Sushulana, putting his arm over her shoulders as the walked to the doorway. At the last second, Bao shouted after them;
“Fang!?”

Sushulana turned her head and nodded at him, a wicked little smile playing on her lips. And an instant later, they vanished before our eyes.

Bao was pale and unsteady on his feet, I’d not seen him this way since he had left his opium habit behind. I did not like seeing him that way, and eased him back to a seat among the pillows. Lady Amrita was alarmed as well, and knelt in front of us. “What troubles you. Bao?”

“Yes, what is it? That name, it sounds like many others in Ch’in. Who is that, who is Taras and why did he weep?”

“She killed him.” Bao took a deep breath, his eyes narrowed and he nodded to himself, his eyes were far away. “There was a threat to your Terre D’Ange that was more than just intrigue or assassins. Once, about 80 years ago, the Tatar were poised to take Europa, all of it. All of the Tatar were there, families and all, fleeing a plague in Ch’in and determined to take control of everything they could reach. They were stopped in Skaldia, and that was there the Khan of all Khans, the Il-Khan Taras, met his end. I heard the tale last winter… you know how it is, Moirin, telling tales to pass the time. In this take, the great Khan fought a duel with this tiny woman that fought with a curved sword.”

“Her?” I could no more imagine a sword in that woman's hand than I could imagine the wheel of the Greatship in my own hands.

“What she said, ‘Taras wept’, its a saying among Tatar, and a warning. What she did was…” He glanced at the Rani.

“If that women is coming back into my home, I want to know what you have heard about her.”

“Of course. She defeated him in a duel, Phaing cut Taras to pieces. It happened so quickly that his head was still alive. That woman went stomping around, making some sort of speech demanding that the Clans go back east, but it was the head she held up, shaking at them that everyone remembered… and the tears. Khans aren’t supposed to do that. They are not supposed to show remorse, or fear. He should have been smiling at the end, even if it was a foreign woman who did that to him. He died fighting, not falling from a horse or of the flux or a hundred other things. Taras still wept, and everyone took that as a sign that he had gone too far. He had pushed himself and his people beyond where they should have gone. No, it didn’t matter what she said after that, turning back was the only option... for the whole of the Tatar people.”

  2

The next morning, we found a new table and chairs in that same room, and Sushulana already there.

There were also a pair of the Rani's Guards in the room, and they had helped arrange the new furniture. There was a table and 8 chairs, harking back to what I had left behind in Europa. The table looked heavy, its legs were thick and made of some purple-black wood that supported a slab of sparkling red stone. The chairs were much lighter, made of a white wood with yellow bands that reminded me of the Yew wood of Alban bows. The seats had red cushions and the backs were an open wicker-work that one would expect of hot climes,  I would be seeing more of that in Bhodistan soon.

Sushulana had her back to me as I entered the room with Bao, working on keeping a promise. Using a silver spike to make marks on the wall through the softly colored light of her illusory map, or using a spell to cover a small area with a certain color, it looked like exacting work. She was imprinting the map of the city on the wall in a painstaking and frustrating process, if her curses were any clue. She cursed in D’Angeline when the map faded, which was often, and I wondered at her choice of languages. “I would have thought you would use the tongue of your Empire, when upset.”

She turned to glance at me, and then back to her work. “This is the common tongue of that place. Previously, dozens of different dialects, and all those immigrants I told you about. We had to choose something that didn’t favor one clan or tribe over the other, but this would not have been my first choice… had the other been available.”

“What other?”

“Long ago, I asked Phe'dre no’ Delauny to create one, a new language that would be easy to learn, simple to pronounce, and was above all, likable. She agreed at first, but after constant delays and excuses, I had to accept that she never would do it.” Sushulana fired off a spell that colored the drawn boundaries of the River and the space in between a bright blue, and the illusion collapsed for good. She signed and turned about again, giving up on her project for now. “Phe'dre was complex, brilliant and a fantastic human being, but she had her limitations. I don’t think she ever trusted herself enough to deliberately make her mark on the world, as if she was afraid of what her creation could do. I think she was afraid that the music of the tongues she knew and loved would be erased if she created a common language... if she did her work well. She always did something well, or not at all. Phe'dre spoke 14 languages, all very fluently, did you know that?”

“I have heard the name.” I allowed as we approached the table. Sushulana went to the opposite side, brushing her palms on her skirt. “The Montrevan scholar, yes?”

“She was a scholar, yes, and an adventurer, a servant of Naamah, and an aguisette. To my mind the most remarkable thing she did was to assume the roll of foster parent, and raise a broken child to be the finest Prince Terre D’Ange ever knew. Imriel … yea gods…. you have heard of him, yes?”

“Tales of his doings are famous everywhere, even Alba. I know the legends well.” I said confidently, and was promptly shown the limits of my knowledge.

“Truly? Did you know that he talked the Cruach out of the wholesale extermination of he Maghuin Dhonn, just days after Berlick’s attack? He could not sit up yet, his wife and unborn baby just barely in their graves, and that man requested leniency for your ancestors. That was the Imriel I knew.”

I staggered forward, palms going flat on the surface of the table and Bao’s hands going to my shoulders. My diadh-anam pulsed within me, showing me the truth of her words. This only increased my vertigo, the knowledge of what a slender thread my very existence once hung by. There had been an imprisonment of my people, well remembered and a warning forever to be heeded, but the loss of the gifts Berwick had misused were what we remembered more keenly. Was I the first of my kind to know of this near-extinction? I must be, I must…

I could say nothing for the moment, and the material that the tabletop was made of was distracting me badly. Bao was there to support me, emotionally as well as physically. It was he that said; “Cleverly done, if you are trying to convince us that taking your Rilrae under our wing would balance some sort of Karmic debt.” I could not see his face, but I could hear the sneer that must have been on his lips. “And here, you are supposed to be the one that is so shy of subterfuge?”

“Hah!” She laughed in his face. “If any words of mine could influence what is coming one way or the other, I’d have had a fine speech prepared. No, messier Bad-Boy, there is nothing on Earth or the Overworld that can prepare you what you are about to see and hear.”

“One teenaged girl? Half Dragon and half … whatever you are. I think that once we get to the core of the matter, what we will find is far more mundane than you mystical beings allow for.” Bao was not taunting, not exactly. I think he was testing her, either to discover if she truly was this Phaing of Tatar legend, or to make her reveal some flaws that would explain her current difficulty.

“I sincerely hope so, Master Lightning-stick, I really do. But have a care, don’t mistake anything mundane for that which must also be simple.” If he had been wanting a contest, she let him have his victory without a second thought. My own thoughts were elsewhere at that moment.

“What is this?” The red surface of the table had gone from being a curiosity to unfathomably strange once I had touched it. It was rock, had and smooth despite innumerable tiny imperfections. There was also the memory of life in it, somehow. Despite how perturbed I was to learn of that Prince Imriel’s status as the savior of my kind, I could not turn away from this mystery.

“Coral.” Sushulana said helpfully, turning from her verbal contest with Bao to being the kindly instructor to the country girl. “You may have caught glimpses of it under salty oceans. It is not a plant, it is what vast colonies of infinitesimally small animals made to shelter themselves. Look more closely, or use your talents, the material is like an antler but much harder-“

Her hand brushed mine, and this time I used a talent that I had been too shy to use the day before. I looked at her memories.

Bao has his ways of testing people, and I have mine.

I have prayed many times since then, that the Great Bear will help me never be so impetuous again.

It was not just the centuries, it was the content of them. The horrors of a childhood that would have broken the Spider Queen, set aside with a combination of great willpower and encouragement from some remarkable people. Disillusionment with the very concept of evil, her wars and reckless courage tempered by being able to find joy at last… 

Sushulana slapped me hard across the face and pushed me away from her. “Have you gone mad?” She shouted, and was saved from Bao’s staff byt the concerned look on her face, and the fact that she spoke her question as a frightened inquiry, not an insult.

“Everything, everyone?” I asked, stupidly. “All of them?”

The Elf sighed and tapped my forehead with one finger, and suddenly I could not remember what had flustered me so badly and left my heart racing. The bulk of what I had seen was still there, a vast sweep of life and troubles that left me gasping, ready to weep, ready to flee. And then that tap, that left me bereft of the fragment that made it so terrible. As the rest settled into place, I pulled back from her.

“You… you stole a memory, just like that?”

“Not at all, I merely covered it, you may have need of it someday. Ahh… you have seen me as I am, and it repulses you.” While I shook my head and tried to deny it, she pressed on. “Good, you have something in common with my Daughter already.”

“You spied on her memories?” Bao was ready to scold me and apologize to Sushulana, but the Sidhee held up her hand.

“Its alright, Bao. I don’t mind people looking at me like that. Do I, Moirin? No, sweet girl, and how could I be otherwise?.” She smiled indulgently, and also appreciative of us. “There is nothing to forgive, my own privacy has always been the least of my concerns... and now you know why. T’was a lot to take in all at once, wasn’t it?”

It was, but more than that, it deepened my confusion, “How? This estrangement from one of your own child, how could that have happened?”

“I think that will do for now.” Merrin’s voice came to us from the doorway. My eyes went to him, and next to him I beheld Rilrae for the first time.

She was like nothing I could have imagined, before or since, there is nothing I could compare her to.

In general terms, she appeared to be about 16 years old, as Humans reckon such things, and in general outline she appeared to be human in shape. Her skin was perfectly black, such a deep hue that she had a slight blue sheen to her glossy skin. Her eyes were a reddish brown, and the lower the light the more red they appeared to be. Her hair was Gold. Not simply the color sgold, but the actual material for all intents and purposes, a mass of shiny wire somehow drawn so thin it appeared to be hair… that is how I saw it. The tips of her ears poked out through the hair, smaller than her mother’s elegantly sculpted ears. In all other ways, she was larger in every dimension than her petite mother. Straight shoulders, broad hips and generous bust combined in a way that made her appear very solidly there. Rilrae wore red lace-up boots, a dark blue skirt with red pleats and a dark blue jacket with subdued red pipping… not a very original color, but one that de-emphasized her starkly black skin. She held a traveling pack in one hand and a large floppy hat in the other. The hat was the right size and shape to hide her ears from view.

Rilrae herself looked at us as if Bao and I were the answer to her prayers. This hero-worship was unnerving, despite all her parent’s warnings to us. She was a restless young animal, chaffing at the nearness of the overbearing elders that happened to be her parents. It is not to demean her, calling Rilrae an animal, it is for honesty’s sake. There was a power about her, and a lack of depth. Primitive and straining at her bonds… she wasn’t a lesser being. As a half-Dragon in the flesh, she had an undeniably potent presence, yet Merrin overshadowed her. He was still vastly intriguing, despite that fact that we’d had a day to get used to his aura.

“So real.” Rilrae said in D’Angeline, and then switched to Bhodistani. “It is a thrill be meet you at last!” She carelessly dropped her hat and luggage behind her and her curtsy dipped her so low that she knocked a knee audibly on the stone  floor. “I am Rilrae of Velikaluria, and please know that nothing I did was out of malice, especially towards you.” She bounced right back up, demonstrating the dragon-blooded resistance to pain and damage I expected. The smile she flashed us showed me that Rilrae viewed us as a way out of an unsatisfying life.

Merrin glowered down on her, and Sushulana rolled her eyes, I don’t think this was the introduction they had wanted her to make.

“What, exactly, is it that you have done?” Bao asked as he clasped on hand over his fist and dipped his head slightly at her. A more formal introductions were a waste of time with Rilrae, she already knew us.

“You didn’t tell them anything?” The black-skinned girl turned to her Mother with real anger, and then towards her Father with righteous indignation. “Well damn, so much for all those lessons on-“

“Shut … your … mouth.” Merrin intoned, carefully yet forcefully. “You will speak only when spoken to in this room, is that clear?” I myself would not have thought of defying the Dragon, such was the impact of his command. Rilrae turned away from him and looked to her mother, a childish trick that got her nothing but a cold shrug in return. We received our first taste of what we would be dealing with when Rilrae turned back to us and imitated that gesture. perfectly. Bao grimaced at her, his culture never looked kindly on disrespectful children. I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t know very much about them yet aside from Sushulana, and the look she gave her own daughter at that instant made me wonder who was truly the most dangerous person in the room.

“Kali?” From the doorway at the other end of the room, not the one that Merrin had just passed through, the Rani stood with the most shocked expression I had seen on her face since the night we had made love. Kali… I remembered the images in one of the temple, the Goddess with the indigo skin and muscular build. Yes, had I lived here and worshipped these Gods, I might have thought the same thing.

“Not so, Rani Amrita.” Merrin was swift to disabuse that notion. While he spoke he snapped his fingers and pointed to the floor, and Rilrae knelt and stayed low. “Her Grandfather on her mother’s side was of a race called Dark Elves. The exact shade of skin you see is common to those people. Much of the rest of her comes from my side of the bloodlines. We have looked into any possible connection with your Kali over the years and found nothing of that sort.”

“I see.” Lady Amrita stepped up and knelt in front of Rilrae, gazing straight into her eyes and taking the strange girl’s hands in her own as the two of them flowed to their feet as one. “Welcome to my home, I hope you find what you are looking for.” I have mentioned the power of the Rani’s grace often enough. The rebellious young Sidhee/Dragon was properly subdued, and I saw how beautiful her strong features were when she allowed herself to relax. Long familiarity with Lady Amrita showed me something in her own poise not normally present. She was wary of this young woman, and she was glad for the warning that had allowed her to exclude her son from this meeting.

I shared both sentiments in full measure.

“And what is this, a gift?” The Rani asked, nodding at the table.

“Yes.” Rilrae answered before her parents could. “Something modeled after Lady Moirin’s part of the world, with Nova Angelica’s materials and improvements. I think we are meant to sit three on each side, yes Father?”

“That would seem appropriate.” Merrin and Sushulana maneuvered Rilrae to sit between them on one side of the table, Bao and I ended up flanking the Rani, with me seated opposite Sushulana, and Bao facing Merrin. The chair was a pleasing little luxury, softer than it appeared yet firmly supporting our bodies. I could relax completely without any fear of sliding out of it.

The Rani was impressed and smiled to those seated opposite her. “As I understand it, you wish to foster Rilrae here with Bao and Moirin, and Rilrae wishes this too?”

Even spoken as smoothly as the Rani did, the term ‘foster’ seemed to rankle the young woman. “Wouldn’t a coming-of-age be a more correct term?”

“That would depend on the level of maturity being brought to this table, Rilrae.” Bao spoke next, taking the Dragon by the horns, as it were. “Your parents spoke highly of your abilities… ah, that surprises you? We were also informed of other things, such as you starting a war, on your own? Would you be so good as to tell us about that little disaster, and how it is being resolved?”

Rilrae instantly looked ill, and was temporarily saved from answering Bao by the arrival of servants bearing refreshments. They were confused by the table and the unusual configuration of our seating arrangement. Sushulana leapt to her feet and not only instructed them on how to place everything, but helped them do so with her own hands. Technically, she could have been called an Empress, yet she did not hesitate to help with the most mundane tasks. Rilrae, on the other hand, barely moved all through the setting and waited until the servants were gone to speak. Her only comment was “Must I?”

“Only if you want your side of it to be known,” Merrin admonished her, and when she hesitated he took up the telling of the tale himself. “My insolent daughter has, or had, many of the same talents I do, and something unique to her. She is a Dreamspeaker, able to intrude into other people’s dreams and take part in them, or implant suggestions. She has been watching you for some time now, Moirin, and last year she became incensed by what happened to you at the hands of the Khan and that so-called Patriarch. Over the course of the last winter, Rilrae engineered the overthrow of the Khan and has caused the Princess you know as Snow Tiger to leave Shuintan with an Expeditionary Corps that is already deep in Tatar territory.”

“What!” I half rose from my chair, making a poor contrast to Merrin’s dispassionate revelations. “How? Why would you send Ch’in and Tatar to war with each other?”

Rilrae had flinched back from me, shamed, but she rallied and said to me; “No! Not with each other, but as allies, against Vralians.”

“That’s….” I looked over at Bao, who was just as surprised as I was. “Isn’t that impossible? Has anything like that ever happened?”

“No.” Bao said, firmly.

Merrin nodded in agreement. “Not in the past, but then there has never been… well, Rilrae, would you care to explain yourself now?”

“I… I just told them the truth about what had happened to you. I fed them their enemies's secrets and intentions, and when they saw I was always right they had to do something. This is about righting a wrong, not about me!”

“Why would they listen to you? Snow Tiger suffered greatly because of a Dragon, I can’t see her accepting what you were telling her, even less marching out at the head of an army because of you.” Bao was not being insulting, but too perplexed to phrase his words another way.

Rilrae hesitated, even as her Mother nudged her under the table, and so it fell to Merrin to continue. “She was wearing your face when she intruded on Snow-Tiger’s dreams, Moirin.” The Dragon Emperor’s gaze fell to the table. “You have my sincerest apologies for my Daughter’s actions.”

I fell back into my seat, limp and dismayed. This mad brat had sullied my memories with that Princess more utterly than Pyotr Rostov could have. I spoke the only words that came to mind at that moment. “You bitch…”

These were quiet words, drowned out by Bao’s disbelieving bark and fierce scowl. “What others have you done this with?”

Rilrae was still holding back, humiliated and unable to look at anything but the Rani’s mudra. Again, her Father answered for her; “Vachir the archer, Batu, and Princess Erdene.”

“They all headed my call to war?”

“No, no your’s.” Merrin looked to Bao. “Your’s.”

Up until this point, Bao had been amused at a certain level, but no longer. He slapped on hand to the table and the other went to his staff where it leaned on the chair he was sitting on. “You… you used your powers to trick people into killing each other, and you dare to call it ‘making things right’? In our names!”

“Yes!” Rilrae shouted back at him. “Do you want that Preacher and his Duke sending assassins into Terre D’Ange? Do you want them taking over the rest of Vralia with their evil? Luba drove-“

Sushulana hissed and held up a hand to cut off her daughter’s words. “So you have driven two people’s to make war on a third and call that justice?”

“I didn’t lie about anything!”

“Oh, and what about the other?” Merrin turned towards Rilrae with one elbow on the table. “You were rather proud of that clever little addition to your schemes. You know, the fellow that is supposed to provide an escape for the less fanatical of the Duke’s people. Those that would renounce the Patricarch would be saved by this Alexi and guided out of the war, isn’t that his name?”

“No” I whispered, in denial. “You …. him too? My face, again?”

“Oh, no no, I used the face of the Nailed God to persuade him.” Rilrae answered blithely, in an asinine attempt to reassure me.

“The Nailed God… “ It took me a moment to understand what she meant by that, but when I did I felt as chilled as I would if someone had dumped a bucket of icewater in my lap. “Yeshua?”

Sushulana made a sour face as she repeated her daughter's words silently, and leaned froward to look past Rilrae at Merrin. “She gets that from you, you know.”

I was dumbfounded, as was Bao. Amrita’s mudra faltered as she asked. “You used the face… of a God?”

“Well, why not? He wasn’t doing anything with it at the time, aside from letting some very nasty people use it for their own gain.”

In the face of Rilrae’s irreverence, Sushulana steepled her fingers under her chin, and then cracked her knuckles in a subtly menacing way. “Darling daughter, fruit of my loins, let me speak plainly. If you ever disrespect a God, any God, like that again, it will require all of your Father’s healing ability to remove my boot from your ass without scarring your for life. Are we clear on that?”

“Whatever.” Rilrae was not impressed with what sounded like a deadly serious threat to my ears. She spoke to us, and most earnestly to the scandalized Rani, who’s hands lay limp on the table; “It will all work out, you’ll see. The whole thing was set up perfectly, I learned a lot from my war-dog of a mother-“

“REVELYAYRAX KIRIN !” Merrin thundered, making everyone in the room flinch, even Sushulana. Hasan Dar, hovering behind the Rani, looked as if he didn’t know if he should draw his sword or fall to his knees. Rilrae ducked her head, but only for a heartbeat. She looked up at us, horrified, and then turned to her father meeting outrage with surprisingly hot anger. If I was reading it correctly, those strange words Merrin had shouted were some sort of secret she had wanted to keep… true name, perhaps? Yes, something like that, because Sushulana was looking to Merrin with shocked eyes, not at her incredibly rude daughter, who was now shouting back at her own Father;

“What? You humiliate me in front of my favorite people in the whole world, you turn them against me and you want me to be nice while you are doing it?!”

“Stop!” It was my own voice, begging for a respite and slapping my palms to the hard tabletop. “Rilrae, please, can you tell me just one thing. Have you ever intruded into my dreams?” She looked honestly perplexed by my question, so I continued. “Have you ever come to me as the late Queen Jehanne?”

“What? Oh eww ! NO, I’d never, not like that!” My relief, and it was considerable, was canceled out by Rilrae’s girlishly immature expression of distaste for the nature of my relationship with Jehanne. My eyes flashed to the Rani, dreading the idea that she would be embarrassed or upset. She was neither, yet we were both profoundly disturbed by this fractured family before us. Bao, however, was another story. I saw the muscles in his face bunch up, head down and both hands clapped to his jawline. I thought he was in a mighty struggle with himself, struggling to hold back laughter that would have the worst possible effect on our relationship.

Sushulana was not amused. Her head swiveled toward Rilrae and repeated the word “Eww…?” in a low and heavy voice. “Would you care to explain that little remark?”

This time, Rilrea drew back and said nothing, shaking her head fiercely. I did not know what ‘war-dog’ meant, but it sounded wrong. It had upset Merrin far more than it had Sushulana, the Sidhee was more angry with her daughter’s distaste for female physical relations. Or rather, how she expressed it. No follower of Naamah, this Rilrae.

“Once again, I apologize for all of this.” Sushulana said to us without looking away from Rilrae. “Her apology will come later.”

“Look at me.” Merrin told Rilrae, and every eye in the room went to him. “The real problem here, and I do hope you find this to be a learning experience, is that things are NOT fine. The Khan departed for Riva with one-seventh of the chieftains and their warriors. Just under half of the remainder are loyal enough to Erdene to join in her pursuit of him.”

“So many? And so few with Erdene?” Rilrae did appear disappointed. “Well, that’s still enough to assure victory for the right side.”

Her mother was fuming now, but she held her peace while Merrin continued; “You think so? Those men the Khan took with him were the oldest, most corrupt and some  the canniest of his people. They do have a chance to win.”

“No, no… the Ch’in are coming, from a different direction at the same time, and with more-“

Sushulana let her wrath out, in a small way. “Her twenty-thousand won’t be enough to make any difference once you count the Vralians! Riva has an army too. Not much of one, but enough to keep the ratio exactly the same. You have failed to do anything but set them all up for a bloodbath!”

“No.” Rilrae’s voiced sounded small and uncertain, at last.

“Yes! Your father and I have been looking over the situation very carefully. Your friends… no, their friends,” She pointed at Bao and myself, “barely have the 3-1 advantage in numbers that are needed to guarantee success. And even if they did, they could still be killed.” Sushulana grabbed Rilrae’s chin and pulled her head around to force the girl to meet her gaze. “The leaders and heroes, I mean, not just the thousands of ordinary people that are certain to be killed as a result of your actions.”

Rilrae jerked her chin free with an ease that confirmed that the daughter had a measure of her Dragon Father’s strength and toughness, and Sushulana did not when she assumed her natural form. “Maybe this, maybe that, I’m sick of worrying over every conceivable variable. The Duke of Riva will fall, and his whole disgusting little cult will fall with him before they can take over the rest of Vralia.”

“Made martyrs in the process, possibly.” Merrin growled. “Didn’t that possibility ever enter into your calculations? You should have learned more about that religion before you hijacked its Godhead.”

“Oh stop, if it wasn’t for me Aleksei wouldn’t even know his mother was dead.”

My shout sounded odd even in my own ears. “Valentina!” That brave, wonderful woman I owed my life to, was gone? Oh, I wanted to go north myself now. My diadh-anam flared in a firm negative, but I was nearly of a mind to defy it. Bao was of a similar mind, I knew, and destiny be damned.

“You promised!” Sushulana back-handed Rilrae right across the mouth, and shocked Rilrae most of all. "I asked you to hold one thing back, just one thing!"

“You hit me.” Rilrae said, face stupidly blank, and making it clear that this was something new in her life.

Sushulana saw my stricken face, Bao’s rising anger, and Lady Amrita’s dismay. The Rani had known of Valentina since I had begun telling my tales when I had first arrived in Bhaktipur. The Sidhee took it all in at a glance and said to her daughter; “No.” Her hand flashed out again, fingers curled tightly as the edge of her hand cracked into Rilrae’s forehead, leaving the rude half-breed dazed and cross-eyed. Before she could recover, Sushulana rose and upended the chair with her leg, dumping Rilrae onto the floor where we could not see her. “That is what being hit by me is like, see the difference?” She then turned to us with her rage fading to sorrow. “Moirin, I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am - GNAHH!”

From the floor, Rilrae kicked her fallen chair into Sushulana’s backside. The light chair carried enough energy to slam the petite woman into the table with bruising force and bent her over forward briefly. Rilrae rose behind Sushulana with a vicious grimace that showed all her teeth, towering over her mother. Her voice was a mocking parody of a pleading child, and showed how aware she was of her physical advantages. “Oh pwease mommy, doan’ hurt me!”

Merrin sat there gaping at his daughter, doing nothing except looking at her as if she was the stupidest thing he had ever seen. He did not look to his mate, and too late I realized that it was not Sushulana's health that he feared for at that moment, but Rilrae.

An instant later, we found out why.

Sushulana, also the Phaing of Tatar legend, spun about as if the battering she had just taken was as nothing. There was a grimace on her face as well, one more disturbing because of the more focused power behind it. She held one hand out, I felt a pulse of her strange Sidhee magic lift a pitcher off the table behind her, and pull it towards her daughter very quickly. It was a heavy thing, made of thick ceramic to hold heat for the tea contained inside it. Rilrae brought up her own hand, prepared to bat it aside with a gesture showing contempt for such an attack. It would have been easy for the Dragon to slap the thing aside, but Phaing caught the pitcher by the handle without even looking at it and tipped it towards Rilrae. The contents of the Pitcher rushed onward, and three pints of hot tea splashed past Rilrae’s hand and into her face.

This half-Dragon was not harmed by the hot liquid, but she was sensitive to pain and temporarily blinded. Rilrae had barely begun to cry out when Phaing landed a devastating series of blows. Falling into a crouch, Phaing banged the heavy pitcher across Rilrae’s kneecaps, bam-bam, and then jerked the pitcher up, still crouched and bracing her elbow on her own knee. Her agonized Daughter began to wail, and automatically bent forward under the pain, hands reaching down for her knees, with hot tea still blinding her eyes. Rilrae drove her own face straight into the pitcher, shattering the thick ceramic and leaving Phaing holding little more than the handle. The old Sidhee Warrior had already turned away from the impact to protect her own face, and she barely spared a glance at her foe. Rilrae fell to the floor again, moaning and barely sensible to the shards embedded in her own skin.

Phaing had used the Half-Dragon’s own speed and strength against her with such ease and precision that everyone was frozen in place while she stood up. Hasan Dar had taken only three steps in the time between Rilrae’s kick and Phaing’s counter-attack. Now he stepped back while the woman he had thought to protect cast a baleful eye down at her daughter. “Well, you stupid cunt, if you can’t learn to respect your elders, then you must learn to fear your betters.”

Her voice was not triumphant when she said that, but disappointed and hollow. She left us at the table, striding swiftly towards the door. Not the one she had come through, but the closer one which happened to lead out to the hallway. The only other people in room that moved were the guards at the door, who leapt out of her way holding their spears defensively. Once Phaing was gone, I pulled my eyes away from that doorway, and saw Merrin leaning over Rilrae as he tended to her wounds and softly but firmly admonishing her to “stay still” over and over again.

I did not want to hear Merrin try to explain what had gone wrong here, I could not trust myself to look at Rilrae again so soon, and I could not bear to face the Rani. In my mind, the only thing left to do was to go after Phaing, and hope that she was Sushulana again. Bao appeared to be of the same mind, he imediatly followed when I dashed past him.

Sushulana was just ten paces ahead of us, and was not going any further. She leaned hard against one wall with her left arm, the right dangling and still holding the handle of that pitcher. The Sidhee did not seem to notice our approach, shaking and with her back turned to us until I came as close as I dared and rounded her right side. Bao was backing me up with his staff at the ready and wearing a face that hid his doubts that he could win a fight with this woman. I had my doubts as well, until I saw her face, and then her hand. Her face was a very dark red, eyes shut tight, a grimace exposed her teeth with her breath whistling between them. Her hand was bent, purple swellings showed me that she still had that handle because she could not let go of it. Her wrist was twisted, perhaps fractured, and several of her fingers were dislocated.

Any notion I’d had that the Sidhee’s posture was a result of any physical pain was disabused when she thumped her head into the wall and said in a bleak whisper; “why?” Naturally, she became more human to me in that instant. Despite the brutal beating and even more brutal words to her daughter, she was devastated by what she had just done.

Call me impulsive if you must, I knelt at her side and set about tending to her mangled hand. “Lady Sushulana? Let me try to help you.” Making my voice as soothing as I could, I implored her “Please relax,” and eased the handle out of her grip. I felt her slim wrist, found the problem, and with one firm jerk, put he hand back in proper alignment with her arm. So far so good, but Sushulana’s yelp and her wide-open eyes told me that she had become aware of her injuries now. I can’t say if I was emboldened by my success, or panicked that her faculties were returning. Hastening to put her fingers back in their joints, I misjudged my grip and what Sushulana was made of, and I broke her middle finger.

Sushulana cursed wickedly and slumped into the wall, tears now flowing freely, those tears all the more disturbing as they fell from unblinking eyes looking straight at me. I flinched back in horror at what I had done, while Sushulana began to tremble and make odd sounds in the deepest part of her throat. Bao instantly pulled me back and held his staff out in front of my body, thinking to protect me. There was no need; a heartbeat later we could see that the Sidhee was, incredibly, laughing at me through her tears.

“Yea fucking Gods, Moirin, haven’t you ever made something better without first making it worse?”

My face went red and hot, and it was of no help at all that Bao could think of nothing to say before Merrin shouldered us aside and ministered to Sushulana himself without even looking at us.

“Is she…?” The Sidhee, the Elf, gasped as Merrin worked.

“She’s fine, just be quiet a moment.”

Fine? Rilrae had been hurt far worse just a moment ago. I turned to look back just in time to see the black-skinned girl come out into the hallway. Aside from a slight limp and a puffy face she looked unharmed. Merrin's healing power made Raphael's teamwork with me look pathetic by comparison. Hasan Dar was struggling to hold the girl back, and having little success until Rilrae saw her parents. She took it all in at a glance and whirled about to run the other way down the hallway. Rilrae showed shame at last, and I felt a flash of satisfaction before she was out of sight around the far corner, Hasan Dar lumbering after her. I felt something different once they were gone, and I also heard Sushulana groan through clenched teeth behind me. I moved to follow Rilrae and nearly ran into the Rani as she stepped out into the hall.

The Mudra the Lady’s hands formed was one she had not taught me, one that somehow proclaimed ‘Here I stand, and will not be moved from against my will’. Every bit of her body and facial expression matched what her hands were telling us. She stood squarely in our way, and looked past us at Merrin and Sushulana. “Will she be alright?” she asked tMerrin.

Sushulana answered for herself. “I’m just terrific!” Merrin must have given some sign, and she looked at him, doubtful now. “Aren’t I?”

“Just stay right where you are, until the Rani of this land gives you leave to go anywhere.”

“Very well.” She said, still leaning against the wall. Sushulana half-turned so she could face the Rani, and as her battered backside made contact with the wall, her eyes rolled back and she sucked in a shuddering gasp.

“I told you not to move!” Merrin picked her up by the shoulders and set her on her feet facing the rest of us, Sushulana holding herself up by dint of her extraordinary willpower while Merrin tore the back of her dress open and laid his hands on her injuries directly. She crossed her arms above her breasts to hold the front of her dress up and nodded to the Rani to continue. Merrin nodded as well, glancing up over his mate’s head at us while he continued to work his healing magic. He was good at that, Sushulana’s hand looked perfectly functional already, only a slight discoloration marring her fingers.

“You are leaving tonight because of what your daughter has done, I see what you meant now. This war, can it be stopped?”

“No.” Merrin said coldly. “It’s gone too far for us to simply swoop in and stop half a dozen armies in their tracks.”

“But you stopped the Tatars at the River Hyas!" Bao protested. "You, Phaing… Sushulana, you put an end to the movement of their entire nation all by yourself.”

Sushulana laughed, winced as Merrin’s hands tool hold of her hips, and then laughed again. “Is that how they tell it in the Yurts? No, Bao, it wasn’t me. My involvement was limited to some very intricate planning and one duel. Merrin and Rennenkampf did all the important things… nyngh!” The effect of the healing was making her face do contradictory things, pain and pleasure and a strengthening of her body all at once. Her eyes were terribly dark as she continued; “And its named the Hyas River because the great mage Hyacinth died in it, and the local Bumpkins could not wrap their tongues around his proper name. No, it wasn’t me, but now there is work aplenty for me up north. I have to go make sure the right people win this war, and that only the right people die in it… as much as I possibly can.” She looked straight at me. “I am so very sorry about Valentina, you should not have had to find out that way.”

It was a touching moment of decency, all the more considering the fact that Merrin had his hands on the backs of her thighs and her buttocks at the time. Involuntary shudders still racked her body as he finished his work.

“You are right about that, but thank you.” I said. “How did she die? She wasn’t… stoned to death?”

“No, driven out in the dead of winter. She froze, an easier way to go.”

Driven out, by the brutal Luba no doubt, with Pyotr Rostov’s ‘blessing’. I would remember her to my own mother someday. Should I ever have a daughter that I think capable of the such kindness and courage, I would pass her name on as well. My qualms about that war faded, but did not vanish. “How long? How much time will you have to spend up there?”

Merrin answered as he finished his work and attempted to tie Sushulana’s dress back together. “The war itself should be over by the onset of the next winter, if we can head off involvement from the rest of Vralia. Trust in the General of Generals to see that it does come out that way.” He laid his hand on Sushulana’s shoulder to make sure that we all knew who he meant by that.

“She is the more military of the two of you?” the Rani asked softly.

Sushulana glanced back over her shoulder at Merrin. “Why does that always surprise everyone, even after they have seen me fight?” She looked back at Lady Amrita and smiled. “Yes, I seem to have a knack for it. But the hard work comes after the fighting is over, it always does. We have to win the Peace too, and that may take years. That is where Merrin’s talents will be needed, badly. Ch’in and Tatar will have fought a war on the same side, lead by women. The outcome of this needs to be positive, and lead to some lasting good.” She smiled at the Rani and I. "Men have lead the Tatar people to disaster and misery, mayhap its time for a change. Mayhap a matriarchy is in their future. This Erdene, for instance."

That was a tantalizing prospect, but once again my diadh-anam warned me that I was not to be a part of it, my fate was calling me westwards, not north.

“What of your own Dominion?” The Lady Amrita was a Rani, and she thought of this before I would have. “You can travel quickly. yet, as you said you cannot be in more than one place at a time.”

“That will be left in the capable hands of Rilrae’s siblings.” Merrin spoke with a casual confidence, and Sushulana did not pick up on the significance of it until she saw the Rani and I exchange looks. It became clearer to me now, Rilrea’s attitude and restlessness. Not only did she have to live in the shadow of her legendary parents, she also had to deal with brothers and sisters that lived up to their expectations in ways she could not. 

Hasan Dar returned to us, and not in a way we liked to see. He stopped at the intersection with a perplexed look on his face, and glanced down the other hallway as well as the one he had just come down, with Rilrae nowhere to be seen.

Sushulana turned to Merrin. “Where?”

The Dragon walked past her slowly, his eyes still open but seeing nothing of his immediate surroundings. “Someone found her, brought her to a small room. He’s with her now…. Ravindra!” Merrin sounded, and certainly looked, more horrified by the prospect than the Rani was. He took one swift stride forward, and then vanished right before our eyes.

The Rani did not waste a word on recriminations, nor did she hesitate to lead us towards the hidden room she has slept in for so many nights. We moved at a jog, Sushulana up front with the Rani, Bao and I right behind them. Hasan Dar had been caught flat-footed and followed behind me. I caught hold of Bao’s arm and spoke to him in the Tatar tongue; “We are getting that girl away from these people!”

It spoke much about our relationship, that he smiled to hear me say that, nor was I overly surprised by his response. Bao winked and said softly in D’Angeline; “I’m glad to hear that, for a moment I was afraid we were going to have an argument about this.”

  ***

The sounds of a renewed argument greeted our ears well before we reached the hidden room, or even the room where the tapestry had been displaced to reveal the doorway to it. Ravindra came out of that doorway, pleading with his eyes and motioning for us to hurry. “I think he’s going to hurt her!”

By He, the prince meant Merrin, we could hear him bellow clearly now. “Hate you? No, but I am very angry at you Rilrae, and why not? Your behavior is abominable, you are making the woman I love hate herself!”

Sushulana made a sound very much like the one my botched attempt at healing her had caused, and she spun away from the Rani with a red face and eyes gone wide. She started to flee back the way we had come with swift steps. Guided by naught but impulse, I caught her up in my arms and held tight, guiding her towards the balcony instead of the maze of hallways she had been heading for. Bao winced, remembering what the little Elf had done to her own daughter moments ago. I was not afraid, Bao could not feel her shaking, the tremors reminded me not of her violent past, but how the Dove I had released in Naamah’s Temple had trembled in my hands. This time, my instinct told true, and Sushulana clung to me instead of resisting in any way.

It was not over yet. We could not hear Rilrae’s words as she stammered out a reply, only the tones of her voice. Merrin thundered right back; “Yes, very much like her. But you have done nothing, NOTHING to earn it. You can’t imagine where any of that comes from and it makes you look ridiculous! Find your own way, find yourself-“

Bao clapped his hands with a crack that echoed like a Bullwhip. “Dragon! It is enough, we accept your offer. Leave her to us now, if you please.”

Rilrae ran from that room and threw herself to the floor in front of Bao, hugging him about his knees with no regard for propriety. Merrin emerged a moment later, looking as if he had a mouthful of salt and no idea where to spit. He had been caught flat-footed in a dreadful moment, one that would have humiliated a being of any kind.

Fortunately, Sushulana was there also. She pulled me in for a quick kiss and then went to Merrin’s side. She took her mate’s arm and said something reassuring to him, and full of gratitude to Bao and the Rani.

“Would you mind leaving us, now?” This was from the Rani, and her words cut straight through the fog in my mind. “For just a…. how long will you need to fly this party over the mountains?”

“Two hours.” Sushulana responded confidently. “if they limit themselves to 4 horses, in total.”

“So quickly? But wait,” Bao thought of something I would not have. “Two, no, three horses to ride, and just one pack-horse?”

“If you are placing them at the edge of civilized lands, that will be fine.” The Rani took over the conversation and guided Merrin and Sushulana past me toward the balcony. “Instead of things for living in the wilderness, they will be loaded down with valuable things to trade for the money they will need. Now, if you will return at mid-afternoon, all will be in readiness. We look forward to seeing you then.” Her tone made it clear that seeing either of them a moment sooner than that would not be a welcome thing.

Sushulana nodded, smiling . “Be sure and wrap them in the warmest things you have. Rilrae can tell you about that… and… thank you.” Merrin did not have anything to say, he was looking back at his daughter until the moment Sushulana pulled him over the railing, transforming into a Dragon as she went. He had no choice but to follow her, clothes shredding and wings beating at the air as they sailed away into the clouds.

Our ears were deaf to all the shouts of wonder at the flying Dragons from outside, nor did we even look. All eyes were on Rilrae.

“Let … go!” Bao said through clenched teeth. Rilrae’s grip must have been tight indeed.”Sorry.” She muttered and massaged his legs as she pulled back a little, trying to help the circulation return. It may have looked somewhat odd to the others, the Rani was not amused. She stepped up and clapped her hands, nodding for Rilrae to rise. The black-skinned girl did so quickly, and held her head low in the face of the lecture she had been expecting. Lady Amrita did not keep her waiting long.

“I cannot say I am surprised by what Bao and Moirin have decided to do for you. It is the courageous thing to do, and the right thing to do… for the sake of your parents. I find myself liking them, more than I do you… look at me.” Rilrae raised her head, clearly wondering how much more of this she would have to endure. “You could be likable too, once the true you is found. I don’t think that you or your family are wrong, you are just wrong for each other at this time.” The Rani touched her chin lightly. “At this time. Once you have spent time away, you will grow to be something you can’t yet imagine. You will remember good things about those you leave behind, instead of what now dominates your thoughts. If you allow yourself, you will become something that you can respect. You can’t learn it by being a burden to those you admire, they have only just found their way themselves, and will need some time to find your admiration of them a believable compliment. Now, we have but a few hours…” She turned to me, and then to Bao, “… and so much to do. Ravindra, please see that the best horses we have are properly packed for their journey. Rilrae, please come with me. Your hair and your clothing need some work, unless you would rather appear hopelessly outlandish where you are going.”

Bao and I gave each other a lingering look. The languorous months we had spent in Bhaktipur were over, a few days before we were ready for them to be. That was not such a problem, but now we had a Companion that was likely to be a problem for us.  I asked him; “Do you think that child was ever as round as a dumpling?”

“Oh no,” he smiled at me, “in her case, round like an egg.”