Page 55 of Night of the Dragon

“Yumeko.” Tatsumi knelt in front of me, and I collapsed into him, pressing my face to his haori as he pulled me close.

“We did it.” My voice came out choked, and I closed my eyes. Beneath my hands, Tatsumi was shaking, too. “Genno is gone, Tatsumi. It’s really over.”

I felt him take a deep, steadying breath. “What about the Wish?” he mused. “What will happen to it, now that the summoner is dead? Will the Dragon disappear, or will he give it to someone else?”

“I don’t know.” I swallowed and peeked up at the huge Dragon god, still coiled around the mountaintop, uncaring of mortals and their short existences. “Maybe we should ask him.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

The low, familiar voice echoed behind us. I peered up to see Seigetsu standing at the edge of the circle, his hair and tails whipping behind him in the gale. He wasn’t looking at us, however, but at the Great Dragon looming overhead, endless coils flowing in and out of the clouds.

“There will be no more wishes,” the ninetail intoned, and raised a great yumi longbow, aiming it at the God of Tides overhead. The arrowhead pointed at the Great Dragon was white, streaked with veins of crimson, and flickered with a malevolent darkness that seemed to corrupt the very air around it. I could suddenly smell salt and tears on the wind, and the taste of ash clogged the back of my throat, as Seigetsu gave a triumphant smile. “Not tonight, or ever again.Thisis the final play.”

With a scream from the arrow that turned my blood to ice, it flew through the air in a streak of light and darkness and struck the Great Dragon between the eyes.

A terrible roar rang out, causing the rain to spiral and the clouds to swirl even faster as the Harbinger convulsed like a snake that had been jabbed with a spear. It thrashed, huge coils slamming against the mountainside, causing the peaks to shake and huge rocks to tumble into the ocean. Rain beat painfully against my skin, stinging like needles, and the wind shrieked like an enraged yurei in my ear.

I whirled on the other kitsune, clenching my fists, my heart hammering a panicked rhythm in my ears. “What did you do to the Dragon?”

Seigetsu raised a hand. “As I said before, all living things can be corrupted. Even Kami. The Great Dragon is no longer the God of Tides and the impassive Harbinger of Change. Kiyomi-sama’s madness is now his own—the arrow has twisted his mind and corrupted his spirit and he is a force of rage, sorrow and destruction. He will flatten this island, and everything on it, if he is not destroyed.”

Another roar rang out, the sound bordering on madness, and the Dragon appeared through the clouds. My breath caught, my stomach twisting in horror and fear. The Harbinger’s moonlike eyes now glowed purple-black, his huge jaws gaping in an animalistic snarl. A baleful crimson glow surrounded him as the massive creature coiled and thrashed in mindless fury, lashing out at invisible enemies. The ground under our feet shook, and I stumbled, nearly falling into Tatsumi, as the whole mountain trembled with the rage of a god.

Throwing back its head, the Dragon screamed, and threads of lightning, hundreds of them, streaked from the clouds, raining over the entire island. Tatsumi grabbed my wrist and yanked me to him, shielding me with his body, as a sizzling bolt of energy slammed into the circle mere yards from us, sending stone shards flying. Rocks pelted us, and as the brightness faded, we looked up to see the Dragon’s huge body uncoil from around the mountaintop and fly away. Back toward the valley and the armies of Shadow and Moon, still at its edge.

“He will destroy them all.” Seigetsu’s voice held a terrible ring of finality. “Every living soul on this island will be consumed by the Dragon’s fury and sorrow. And when he is done, he will sink the other islands, and then move on to the empire itself. Nothing will be able to stand against him, unless he is stopped here, tonight.”

“You say that like you expectusto kill him.” I shook my head wildly, my heart fluttering around my chest like a panicked bird. “Even if we wanted to, it’s the Great Dragon! A Kami. Agod.”

“And you carry a sword namedGodslayer.” Those cold yellow eyes slid to Tatsumi, and a chill went up my spine at the realization. “Even the Harbinger is not exempt from his own rules,” the ninetail said gravely. “You are the only one that can stop him, Hakaimono. The only one with the power to slay a god. You and the fox of dreams. It is time to fulfill your destiny and bring the game to its conclusion.”

He raised a hand, sleeves billowing in the wind, and a polished horseless carriage floated up to perch at the edge of the circle. It was a simple but elegant vehicle, a box made of dark wood, the entire back consisting of two doors that opened outward. I could see the faint outline of foxfire engulfing the entire carriage, and something in the pit of my stomach surged up, as if drawn to that light.

“Take the carriage,” Seigetsu ordered, as if he were sending us on a simple errand. A task to deliver a letter, not to kill an enormous ancient Kami who was now mad with grief and rage. “Use it to reach the Dragon. You have the means to control the carriage, just as I do. It will respond to your magic as it does to mine.” His smile was ghastly in the flickering light. “Go now, and slay the Harbinger, little fox. If you cannot, he will tear this island apart and destroy everything that you’ve come to care for.”

Kiyomi-sama.

I didn’t want to. I couldn’t kill an ancient Kami, even one driven mad. But if I didn’t dosomething, the Dragon would turn his wrath on Kiyomi-sama, the Moon Clan, the Shadow Clan, everything. Everyone on this island would be destroyed in the wake of the Kami’s rampage, and I couldn’t let that happen. I could not lose the family and the home I had just found.

“Tatsumi...” In desperation, I glanced at the demonslayer, wondering what he was thinking. I didn’t know what I could do if he refused to help me stop the Dragon, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone.

Tatsumi’s violet gaze met mine, and he gave a single solemn nod. “Go, Yumeko. I’m right behind you.”

Grateful tears rose to my eyes. Sprinting to the carriage, I braced myself as I leaped inside, half expecting the wooden floor to either burn the soles of my feet or for the entire vehicle to lose whatever magic held it up and plummet down the side of the mountain. But the carriage, though it bobbed a little when I entered, continued to hover in the air. Despite the elegant outward appearance, the interior was plain, the floor polished wood with no seats or cushions to sit on. Except for the nimbus of foxfire flickering through the open doors, everything was cloaked in darkness.

I had no idea how I would make it work.

Tatsumi leaped up beside me, one hand against the frame, and gazed around cautiously, as if he’d expected the carriage to be filled with demons. “There’s a body here,” he said quietly. I jumped and spun around, and he nodded to a shadowy corner. “Yokai. It’s dead.”

I gazed past him to where a small form lay crumpled against the wall, a single enormous eye staring up at nothing. The front of its shirt was dark with blood, as if it had been stabbed through the back. The final expression on the round little face seemed to be one of confusion. For some reason, I felt a twinge of sadness as I stared at the body; I had certainly never seen this yokai before, but he was obviously another pawn in Seigetsu’s endless game, one that had been used and thrown away.

Swallowing, I turned from the body and gazed out the front of the carriage, at the wheels outlined in foxfire, floating several paces above the ground.It responds to your magic, same as mine, Seigetsu had said. So, how did I control this thing?I glanced to where I had last seen the ninetail at the edge of the circle, only to find he was gone. No help from him, then.

The flicker in the pit of my stomach intensified. On impulse, I opened my palms, igniting a flame of kitsune-bi within each of them, and felt the carriage under my feet respond.

Okay, I think I’m onto something.With Tatsumi watching, I shrugged and lifted a flame-shrouded hand toward the ceiling. “Rise?”

The carriage shot upward, like it was being yanked by invisible ropes. I yelped, nearly toppling out the open doors, and felt Tatsumi grab my arm and yank me back. I fell into him, and the carriage pitched to the left, rocking sideways and slamming us against one wall. Tatsumi grunted with the impact, somehow keeping both of us on our feet, as I desperately tried to find my balance to stop the carriage from bucking like a wild horse.

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