Samurai (22 page)

Momentarily calm, Najikko wondered,
Was she disgusted by my artificial leg?
But his eye followed the path of her tail, and he saw the trap in the floor. His head shot forward, snapping at her face. “You wretch.” He hissed.

She pulled back, yanking out a silver fang that had lodged in her snout, and with a sweep of her arm, knocked the Japanese Serpent to the ground. But the distraction caused her trance-spell to fail; her hissing snakes quieted.

For an instant, Simon could see the Japanese Creature squirming, winded, trying to get up, but the Tiger Dragon struck once more, driving his head down and pulling out one of his horns. She had broken his crown. Howling, the Japanese Serpent unfurled its steel wings, slicing her as they emerged from his back.

With a flash of desperate strength, the Dragon of Japan launched into the air and flew out the great open windows, disappearing into the storm.

The Tiger Dragon roared, lifting the crescent-shaped horn she had taken from him.

Simon took a breath.
New plan. Time for action.

The Tiger Dragon waited for the other Serpent’s return, but it did not come.

There was only a blast of arrows from two young boys, huddled in the rafters of her immense room.

Simon’s first arrow slammed into her arm, his second into her side, and his third, into her great clawed foot. The bolts fired by Key missed their mark, and studded the wall behind her.

The Tiger Dragon roared. She moved deeper into the room, angrily trying to get a look at them, her mind going wild.
Boys? They sent boys against me?
She crouched and prepared to attack.

Suddenly, black fire rolled out of a dark corner, and the river of flame carried her out of the room, sending her out of the window toward the courtyard.
Instantly, she recovered and clawed around the building, entering through another panoramic window.

Simon cursed. By using fire, the Black Dragon had revealed himself to her. He’d be vulnerable to her trance-spell now, if she could attempt it. Instead, she shot forth her fire, catching the Black Dragon by surprise. Her tigerlike flames, ribboned with orange and black, forced the Black Dragon to dive behind one of her statues of herself. His little canary flew for cover, terrified.

“Traitor…” hissed the Tiger Serpent. “You will die for your betrayal.”

“Their world is worth living in,” said the Black Dragon, crouching tighter behind the statue. “Yours is not.”

The words stunned Issindra. She had not realized he had entered the human world, been welcomed into it. She did not know it was possible.

Suddenly, Key threw one of the ceremonial lances from the wall, and because he was close, he hit the target. The Tiger Dragon howled as the shaft stabbed into her chest. She stumbled back in shock, pulling at the long handle.

The Black Dragon tried to throw fire again—but his energy was gone. Simon jumped down from the rafters to the marble floor, where puddles of flames were flickering, circling, and devouring furniture in
long, curling wiry strands. Fire climbed the jungle vines, the trees began to burn. With smoke for cover, Simon rushed at the Tiger Serpent, but she kicked him back. He went sliding across the floor, directly into the pouncing form of—
the Japanese Serpent!

T
HE
J
APANESE
D
RAGON SLAMMED
its claws into Simon’s arms, pinning him down. “I will not unsettle my mind with you,” the Creature hissed. “I will gently cut you open, quick and quiet.”

“Kill him, my sweet,” said the Tiger Serpent, sneering. “My gift to you before you die.”

Eyeing her cautiously, the Japanese Creature lifted a sharp claw, but Key began firing his crossbow, and an arrow hit the Dragon’s arm, yanking it back.

Najikko screeched, and then very calmly pulled out the silver arrow so it was pointed at Simon, ready to stab him, and down came the blow—

But suddenly he screeched again.

A sword slashed into his armored back, releasing a spray of sparks. Aldric burst into the chamber! He
slashed the arrow out of the Japanese Serpent’s claw, and it skidded across the room. Furious, the Dragon of Japan blew fire at Aldric, but the Knight lifted his shield, and the flames were sucked
into
the shield and vanished.

The Japanese Dragon leapt at Aldric, knocking the shield loose, and rolled with him onto the floor. Simon snatched up his sword, but the Tiger Dragon had her sights on him. She lunged at Simon and carried him into the wall, banging his head roughly.

Dizzy, Simon fell.

Above, Key fired another shot. The arrow went right into her shoulder.

He shouted with joy.

The Tiger Dragon leapt high, snatching the boy from his spot in the rafters. Key landed hard on the floor. Simon heard him yell in pain. The Tiger Dragon grabbed hold of Simon, throwing him beside Key, and then she paused, preparing to burn them both in one terrible jet of fire.

Instead, she felt a new spray of arrows thud into her hide.

A war cry filled the chamber.

Crawling in from the night were the other Samurai.

In from the giant open windows they came, in full battle gear, a surprise assault from behind.

Taro and Sachiko led the charge, calling orders to
the other Samurai, who leveled their crossbows at the Tiger Dragon.

But it was the Japanese Serpent who threw his fire, breathing it out in a great silver-gold flood. The Samurai lifted their shields, but the Warriors were tossed back as if from a firehose blast.

The silvery, gold-lashed flames slapped them backward. The fire tumbled through the palace, and outside, growing in the night, swirling and rising as it flew outward, away, through the square of palaces. The Japanese Serpent began chanting.

Yes
, called the burning in his core,
Now is the time, now is my moment. Now. Now.

The spinning plume of fire, like smoke from a factory, began to rise quickly in the night, until it stood the height of skyscrapers, a huge funnel cloud made of silver-and-gold fire. Terrific winds whipped around it.

This was fire like nothing on earth; a grand, twisting, sinuous lifeform; a single, thinking, eating, hating destroyer. A colossal tornado made of fire.

The Japanese Serpent calmly smiled. “There is no escaping this,” he said calmly. “You witness the power of the ancients. The firespinner will devour all things in its path. I alone shall live through it.”

Issindra glared at him, hissing vengefully in the Dragontongue, and blasted him with her black-orange flames.

Her tigerfire was met on the floor by a tide of nearly formless men made of metallic flame. Najikko’s fire was coming to life, combatting Issindra’s blaze! Serpentfire hates Serpentfire, and Simon feared their contact.

But the two fires actually
merged
, melding into one, the flames married together. Then the burning figures seemed to drift, carrying all the flames outside through the open windows, into the path of the returning cyclone of fire.

Simon watched in wonder as the huge twister, now burning its way back toward the palace, sucked up the flames, joining with them, as oxygen was pulled away from the chamber and into the burning whirlpool.

The sound the cyclone gave off was of millions of roaring tigers.

Everyone fell to the ground. Simon could see in dreamlike splendor the silver-gold light flashing on the awed face of his father.

But he could also see the most astonishing thing of all: Key had run toward the levers rising from the floor, and, seizing his chance, shoved them back.

The Tiger Dragon screamed as she was sucked down by a trapdoor and fell into her own trap. The glass shield slammed shut, and, although she blew fire at it, the flames helplessly burned away, starved of oxygen. She was caught.

Her own trap held her now.

But the Dragon of Japan was in his glory. Leaning back, his sterling tail flashing in the light of the cyclone of fire, he closed his eyes and fell into a meditative state.
The beauty of it all,
he was thinking.
The cyclone shall burn away all but my own life….

The beauty of it all,
thought the Ice Dragon.
The Japanese Dragon must be teaching her the ancients’ secret power. Their unity is sealed. And once the offspring are created and hatched, the Tiger Dragon shall surely destroy her Japanese mate, and I shall be here, ready to raise the children, advise them, make them do as I wish. As I die, they will carry my history books out into the world. I will never be forgotten.

He sat perched on a ledge outside the palace, watching the cyclone of fire grow and gyrate, whipping up new cyclones in its wake. Perhaps he should be leaving now; perhaps the Tiger Dragon should stop this fire from going too far. The people down below were getting sucked into the flames. They were so small, so very small. He was staring, eyes wide, his freezing hands scribbling down everything he could think of…

Meanwhile, the Chinese Dragon fired a slender, careful beam of blackfire at the Serpent of Japan, but the fire simply twisted away, shooting off
toward the cyclone, which was now traveling backward, almost playfully, taking in the ebony burn with a scream of joy.

Simon took hold of Key and pressed him against the wall, grabbing onto the curving iron base of a light fixture, desperately resisting the howling tornado.

Amid the whipping winds, Taro charged.

The Japanese Serpent saw the motion and, with a wave of his hand, simply cast Taro down.

Seeing her husband had fallen, Sachiko closed her eyes. Using a mindspell, she drew the shattered glass from all the surrounding buildings—thousands of glass shards swirling around outside—all together. To Simon’s wonder, the shards formed into dozens of animal-like beasts, vague wolflike creatures all loosely held together, which flew toward the palace with a vengeance.

Alaythia saw what Sachiko was up to, and closed her eyes. Working in unison, she and Sachiko pulled the glass predators into the palace to slam furiously into the Japanese Serpent. The jagged glass creatures began snarling and biting at Najikko.

There were so many.

Simon watched in awe as the glass predators rushed at the Serpent in waves, throwing themselves against him, tugging at his metal leg with teeth made of shards.

The Dragon began tossing the glass creatures
away, spinning with his blade-wings, cracking their clear flesh apart.

Seeing an opportunity, Aldric threw his sword, which spun around and around before the Dragon’s unconcerned eyes, before being pulled into the firestorm and melting in the air.

Simon’s father was disarmed.

Without thinking, Simon yelled, catching the Japanese Serpent’s eye, and it moved for him, reaching out past the glassy creatures around him.

Shocked, Simon’s hold weakened, and he nearly slipped away—but he was shoved back into place by Akira.

The fiercest Samurai fighter had managed to fight the winds and step in, raising his sword to protect Simon. He rushed forward, straight for the Dragon and the orbit of glittering glass around the Creature. The glass-shard animals, now completely out of control, were ripping into everything in their path. And they found Akira.

Sachiko screamed.

Fighting the crackling shards, a savaged Akira managed to block the Dragon from reaching Simon and Key, striking it twice. But now caught in the swarm of flying glass, Akira fell to the ground, his armor pierced by the glass splinters, his body unmoving and lifeless. He lay in a heap, rattled by the wind.

Key and Simon clung to the wall, watching in horror.

The other Samurai called out in shock, but amid the spinning glass shards, the Dragon’s glare turned to Key.

“They have to hit the Dragon’s heart, weaken him—we can still get him into one of the traps,” Key said, his voice drowned in wind and chaos. Simon was already yelling to the other fighters. “Fire at the Serpent’s heart!” he shouted. “Everyone fire! Aim for the heart!”

But Taro was getting back on his feet and shouting over him, “Don’t fire—it’s a waste, move in, move in!”

Aldric was hollering at the same time, “Fall back! The fire’s too strong! Fall back and regroup!”

“Fall back! Get out while we can!” Alaythia echoed him. “We’ll get another chance!” The air was getting thinner as it was pulled into the fiery cyclone, all sound dimming and becoming absorbed.

If either side had trusted the other, either plan might have worked.

Instead, the Dragon of Japan calmly stalked through the wind-blown hail of glass toward Akira.

His gold-clawed foot kicked the Samurai’s body out of the way, heading relentlessly for Taro. The beast threw out its hands with renewed energy, and under its spell, the shards of glass separated like chaff and
blew away into the cyclone. Taro braced for a one-on-one attack.

“They’re not listening,” cried Simon, and he exchanged looks with Key, the two realizing what needed to be done. Key let go of the wall, and was dragged upward, clinging to a chandelier of molded brass—a tiger’s claw.

The Dragon of Japan immediately moved toward him, his eyes excited by the easy kill. The Samurai instantly rushed forward in defense, but their bodies were pulled and scraped across the floor in the wild winds. They grasped for anchors, or stabbed at wood with their blades to avoid being sucked out of the building by the growing twister.

Key dangled above them, as Aldric reached out to help him.

All attention was riveted on Key, up high.

Simon saw his chance, kicking free of the wall, and sending himself rushing into the Japanese Dragon from behind. He landed at the Creature’s back, and the Serpent tripped, his wounded leg giving in. Simon took advantage. He reached around the shocked Serpent and locked his hand directly on its heart.

If he had forgotten the words, the split second would’ve cost millions of lives.

But he did not.

Simon called out the deathspell, and the Japanese
Dragon’s heart seized up.

The Serpent’s body went limp and flew backward, its shocked eyes collapsing into resignation as it was pulled toward the cyclone of fire. Simon screamed in exaltation. Suddenly afraid he’d be sucked out of the palace, he tumbled end over end, and found a hold at the top of a pillar. He watched as the Serpent clawed desperately, on all fours, fighting the vacuum, snarling, roaring, jaws gleaming, teeth gnashing. With no energy left, it spat—and a silver-black residue splatted onto Simon’s face, burning him. Simon cried out, but he had won. The Japanese Dragon’s claws scraped across the floor as it was suctioned away, exploding in silver-gold energy, pieces of its body spinning, burning, in the twister of flame.

Meanwhile, the glass-shard animals turned into a glassy liquid, their bodies fusing together and then dripping apart in the dizzying fire.

The Ice Dragon saw it all happen. He realized his masterpiece of horror had turned into a complete failure. He watched his books, laid beside him on the ledge, sixteen magnificent volumes, get pulled into the cyclone and burn. He could not believe it. He had enchanted those pages
never
to burn. He could not be this weak.

He could see the Black Dragon staring at him from
the Tiger Palace, an angry smile on his face.

The Ice Dragon did not react. He had only one power left in the world. To choose his moment.

He stepped forward off the ledge, and let the cyclone pull him into oblivion.

Fire, loss, death and flame, burn the bones, end of game….

He died instantly, though the hellish whirling pillar of fire was losing strength. Its master had died, and so the cyclone began to fall apart, becoming mere flashes in the night, horrible flames turning into tiny wisps of fairylight in a cascading, spinning fall to earth.

Air rushed back into the palace.

At the top of the pillar, Simon breathed. His arms were wrapped around the coils of a Serpent statue. Small areas on his cheek and neck had been burned, but he could hardly feel it under the shock of victory.

Aldric stared at his son.

Simon stared at Key. The boy still clung to the vine-wrapped chandelier, his knuckles white. Beneath him, Issindra remained locked in a very small cell, staring up out of the glass. Trapped.

The Dragon was in terror.