Page 57 of Night of the Dragon

I swallowed hard, gazing around the suddenly peaceful landscape. “Perhaps he left, after all,” I whispered, knowing it was a foolish hope. “Maybe he got tired of wreaking havoc and went home.”

A ripple went through the surface, and the Dragon rose out of the pale sea, his massive head casting us in his shadow as he spiraled into the air, momentarily blotting out the moon. Hovering over the clouds, the Harbinger raised his head and let out a roar that the emperor in his Golden Palace across the sea must’ve heard. The terrible sound vibrated through my skull and brought tears to my eyes, and I clapped my hands over my ears to drown it out. It didn’t stop, but went on and on for several heartbeats, until I wanted to tear out my eardrums.

Finally, after my head started to throb like it was in a vise, the awful bellow stopped. I slumped against Tatsumi, my ears ringing, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. “What...was that?” I muttered.

Tatsumi went perfectly, terrifyingly still. “Yumeko,” he whispered, and his voice was strangled. Chilled, I looked through the open door frame at the sea of clouds and the ocean below, the moonlight letting me see all the way to the horizon.

The horizon looked strange. Almost like it was moving, rippling. Getting closer even as I stared.

My legs shook, and I would’ve collapsed to the floor if Tatsumi hadn’t been holding me up. The horizon wasn’t moving, but the huge wall of water against it was. I couldn’t tell how far away it was, but it seemed that the ocean itself had risen up and was crawling toward us, getting larger and higher with every second that passed.

“Tsunami,” Tatsumi murmured. “The God of Tides has just doomed the entire island.”

No.Panic and terror crushed me from within. I couldn’t catch my breath, thinking of everyone below us, the kami, yokai and humans, battling the demons who still spilled from the gates of Jigoku. Of Kiyomi-sama, the Tsuki and the family I had never known.

Tatsumi’s hold on me tightened, and he drew in a breath, as if bracing himself for the inevitable. “Take us in, Yumeko,” he murmured close to my ear, and I nodded. “We have to kill him. Now.”

I felt sick, but I set my jaw, steeled myself and sent the carriage into the clouds.

Instantly, a blast of wind slammed into the carriage, yanking it sideways and nearly tossing me out the door. Only Tatsumi’s grip around my waist kept me from plummeting to my death. Though it didn’t seem possible, the storm had grown even wilder, perhaps reflecting the chaotic mind of the Harbinger as the Dragon twisted through the clouds.

“Get closer,” Tatsumi muttered in my ear. “Toward its head.”

“I’m trying,” I gritted out, raising my arm to send the carriage after a disappearing coil. For something so big, the Dragon was incredibly fast. And visibility within the swirling clouds was dim at best. “If you can see its head, tell me which direction to—”

There was a blinding flash, and something struck the top of the carriage in an explosion of wood and fire. I shrieked as splinters and flaming bits of wood fell all around us, flickering where they landed. Wind rushed into the space from the gaping hole in the roof, and the walls themselves seemed ready to split apart.

I swallowed my panic, fighting to bring the carriage under control, knowing we couldn’t survive another hit like that. “Where is the Dragon?” I panted, gazing into the roiling clouds, flinching as lightning flashed close. A coil swept across my view and was gone in the next blink. “Dammit, he’s so fast. If he would just stop moving for a second...”

“Harbinger!”

The shout echoed over the storm, faint and tiny, but perfectly clear. A figure rose out of the clouds, seeming uncaring of the lightning that flashed and seared the air around it. At first, I thought the pale, skeletal figure was a demon—despite its elegant kimono, which flapped and billowed in the wind, the claws, horns and shadowy, bat-like wings certainly indicated a demonic nature.

Behind me, Tatsumi drew in a quiet breath. “Hanshou,” he muttered, sounding both stunned and oddly resigned. “She’s finally given in to the darkness.”

I blinked in shock. ItwasLady Hanshou, but not the beautiful, elegant daimyo who met me in Hakumei castle. This was the ancient, withered crone I’d seen beneath the illusion, only now it seemed she had abandoned any pretense of humanity. She was more skeleton than human, shriveled and bent, nearly swallowed by her kimono. The tattered, sweeping wings seemed made of shadow, and her eyes flickered red as she rose through the storm, twisting her head from side to side, searching wildly.

“She’s nearly gone,” Tatsumi muttered at my shoulder. “Almost swallowed by Jigoku’s taint. This is a desperate act, even for her.”

“What is she doing?” I asked, wincing as a spear of lightning slashed down, barely missing the Kage daimyo. But the ruler of the Shadow Clan flew on, oblivious to the storm, the danger flashing all around her. Her eyes were wild, her hands withered claws as she continued to rise, until she was in the very center of the maelstrom.

“Harbinger!” Lady Hanshou cried again, beating her wings to hover in the gale. “Dragon! I know you’re here! Face me! Come, behold the creature you created!”

For a moment, nothing happened. The storm raged around us, impassive. Then, the Dragon’s enormous head rose out of the clouds below, eyes blazing as he loomed above the pale, once-human creature glaring up at him. Hanshou’s lip curled in an expression of pure hate, and she flung out her arms.

“Look!” she snarled at the huge Kami. “Look at me! Was this what you intended all those years ago, Great Dragon? When you granted me immortal life, did you intend to make me a monster?”

The Dragon said nothing, gazing down with a blank, impassive stare, its long whiskers streaming behind it. At Tatsumi’s whispered encouragement, I raised my hands and sent the battered carriage forward, coming at the Harbinger from the side. Wind howled through the cracks in the timber walls, rattling the whole structure, and I bit my lip, praying a stray lightning bolt wouldn’t hit us again. If we suffered another direct strike, the carriage probably wouldn’t survive.

“Two thousand years!” Lady Hanshou was still raging at the Dragon, her voice echoing above the wind and rain. “For two thousand years, I have been this way! Aging, decaying, growing weak and withered. Watching my youth and my health slip away bit by bit, year after year, but never dying. I had to turn to blood magic to protect myself, to save my sanity and my life.Youdid this!” She pointed a black talon at the Kami, her voice starting to shake. “You said you would grant my heart’s desire, but your Wish was nothing but a curse. And now, you will take it back.”

I had nearly reached the Dragon, coming close enough that I had to avoid one of its long whiskers fluttering in the wind. I ducked under the flapping tendril and gave the carriage a final push, sending it over the Dragon’s horns to soar above its broad head. I felt Tatsumi’s arms release my waist as he moved to the edge of the frame, his jaw set with determination, as Lady Hanshou rose higher in the air to stare the Great Kami in the face.

“You will take it back,” she said again. “Take back your curse and return to me all the years I have lost because of it. A thousand years ago, I tried to summon you again and failed because of Hirotaka’s treachery. But that wish should have been mine.”

The Dragon’s eyes narrowed, as Hanshou raised both arms once more, her voice becoming desperate and shrill. “I will not spend another thousand years in this living hell!” she cried. “Grant me the Wish I should have had, or free me from this curse once and for all!”

The Dragon roared. The bellow made the rain dance and sent the wind into a mad swirl, tossing the carriage like a leaf. From above, below and all around us, lightning flashed, streaked from the clouds and converged on the figure hovering before the Dragon. Lady Hanshou threw back her head and screamed, convulsing like a bug in the center of the lightning web. I bit my lip, unable to look away or cover my eyes, and could only watch as the energy strands tore into the Kage daimyo again and again, making her body jerk erratically in the flashes.

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