Page 61 of Whispers of the Dragon
Ryu folded his hands behind his back as he continued to walk. “How? By using my dragon’s existence to inspire fear? The fear wouldn’t create wealth; it would lead to the downfall of our people.”
“So says our weak prince,” his sensei mocked.
“I am not weak. My ancestors were not weak. We are simply not greedy,” Ryu spat back, unbelieving of the change in the man who had taught him everything he knew about combat. “How have my father and I not seen you despise us so?”
“Because my ancestors and I did not want you to see. It’s not like we could steal the dragon away from your family—it was gifted.” Kage put his hands up to the sky to curse whoever that had been. “Unless one of your ancestors had a child with one of mine, then that child could assume the dragon heritage without being stolen. Unfortunately, females aren’t often born in our family, and when they were, your ancestors had already mated and birthed the next heir. Yuri is the only female in my lineage who’s been born during a time period that could have bred a dragon and heir.”
“So, you were prepared to kill anyone I mated with?”
“Yes.”
Ryu couldn’t believe the brazenness of Kage’s admission. “You don’t deny it?”
“I said you were weak, not stupid.” His backhanded compliment didn’t go missed. “Of all the mates you could’ve had, she was quite easy to want to kill. You should be thankful I have gone to such lengths to rid you of that girl. Eira is a frightened mouse; she doesn’t deserve to be queen. The prophecy has been fulfilled. The tree is no longer dying, and nothing has ever been written in history that says only a fated mate can bear a dragon and heir. My daughter will mother excellent children. She will give you a strong warrior, a son to be proud of, not a son afraid of his own shadow. And I guarantee you the tree would restart life again.”
“You underestimate Eira. Regardless of whether Eira is in my life or not, I would have never touched Yuri. I feel nothing for her.”
“You cannot love Eira. Her beauty does not compare to that of my daughter’s.” Kage practically laughed. “You would willingly have children with a woman whose relatives have been a source of humiliation since their arrival here?”
“As opposed to having a child with a woman whose father is a murderer?” he mocked.
Unperturbed, Kage didn’t even bat an eye. “I have done what is necessary. Whatyoushould have done yourself.”
Ryu stopped dead center in front of Kage. “You are aware I cannot let you go unpunished for your crimes?”
“I am prepared to be banished.” He nodded. “It was a price I was willing to pay to have the dragon lineage for my family, which is more than you or your family have done. The dragon was gifted to a line that none of you have done anything to deserve such honor.”
Ryu’s head fell back in maniacal laughter. “You don’t get it, do you, Kage? If you had confined yourself to murdering the villagers, you could have asked them for the mercy of banishment. But you allowed yourself to strike out at Eira—my mate—and then attempted to kill hertwice. She is of the royal house; therefore, the punishment falls onto my shoulders.” He let his words sink in for a moment, then continued his taunting, “I am not as merciful as the villagers. There is only one punishment I find acceptable for the crimes you have committed—”
“You think you are capable of killing the man who has trained you since you were a boy?” Amusement filled Kage’s expression, which Ryu didn’t take personally. Kage made a habit of underestimating others. “You will not be able to best me in your human form. You will have to call forth your dragon. It will be seen from the palace and the training area. How do you think the villagers will react to the dragon killing their beloved sensei? You will only find yourself becoming the outcast.”
Ryu’s dragon-like gaze didn’t waver. “I do not need to call forth my dragon to beat you.”
“You cannot beat me in a real battle,” Kage scoffed.
Unafraid, Ryu assumed his position. “We shall see.”
“We shall.” A smiling Kage assumed his own.
Ready to fight to the death, neither bowed to the other, showing their lack of respect for each other.
Readying himself for Kage’s attack, the hot-blooded dragon in him demanded him to make the first move. Filling his mind with cold reason, Ryu ignored the dragon’s demand. Kage was a master of his art. His family line had trained dragons for centuries; therefore, they were granted the small gift of living a longer life as well, as only when they grew too old to fight were the Teis able to best Kais in combat. Kage had never been beaten, which had only added to his arrogance.
Ryu might be younger, but the master was far from being an old man. His body moved as fluidly as a much younger man’s, and he spent hours and hours training students.
Kage came at him, lunging at him like a pouncing tiger, hitting at him like claws aiming for his lungs to drive the oxygen out and to get him to expend his energy on defensive moves. Like a predator, he wanted to weaken his prey before moving in for the killing blow.
However, Ryu blocked the blows, using chi when Kage managed to land a strike. For every strike Kage made, Ryu stomped forward, making strikes of his own.
The two combatants parried blows back and forth. While the two fighting styles allowed Kage to reserve his strength, Ryu had to expend more energy to land harder blows. Kage was banking his defense that he didn’t have the stamina to defeat him.
But what Kage didn’t take into account was Ryu had started training students, also, and would often become bored in the evenings, deciding to spend them training to become a better instructor. He had actually set himself a goal to become an instructor as good as Kage.
When his sensei had moved the target from his lungs to his arms, pain filled him as one of Kage’s moves had him biting back a grunt of pain as the master tried to rip his arm open. Blocking the pain with his chi, Ryu struck at Kage’s own arm with a heavy blow at the weakest part.
A distinctive sound of bone snapping had Kage losing momentum for his next strike, his arm hanging uselessly at his side.
Automatically, the master switched his fighting tactics to that of a crane, using his one arm to defend himself and attack. Ryu didn’t let Kage switching tactics faze him, sticking to the dragon, sweeping from one side of his opponent to the other. His blows became harder. Fiercer. Determined to beatKage into the ground for daring to hurt any of the islanders under his protection. Those were the blows he was receiving in punishment. They might hurt a hell of a lot, but they did not kill.
