The beautiful colours of the water were caused by the different moods of the fire dragon when he breathed on the rocks. Kai had told Ping that the pools had different properties depending on their colour. The yellow one was a healing pool, the purple one cleansing, the white was for strength and rejuvenation.
Jiang came to help her mother into her favourite pool. Ping was relieved that she had a way of communicating directly with the dragons, even if it was slow and laborious. She wondered how Gu Hong had learned to write.
Ping left the dragons to have their afternoon snooze and continued to explore the plateau. She was worried about the cold weather that would be arriving in a month or two. The dragons would sleep for most of the winter. Ping wasn’t sure if they would wake up to hunt from time to time. In any case a lot of their prey would be hibernating as well. The coming winter would be a long and lonely one for her. She didn’t want it to be a hungry one as well. Like a squirrel, she had to collect a store of food. She had started gathering berries and mushrooms and laying them out to dry, but that wouldn’t be enough. She sat in the afternoon sun and made a snare out of dried grass stalks so that she could catch rabbits and pheasants. She practised by throwing it around rocks.
Ping was looking for rabbit burrows on the northern end of the plateau, when she found a cave burrowing into a low, grass-covered hill. Bushes almost hid its entrance. She ducked her head and entered. Daylight filtered through small holes in the roof. It wasn’t as dingy as the caves at the other end of the plateau, and Ping was wondering if it would make a better home for her, when she noticed something at the back of the cave. A large flat rock was positioned in the centre and several objects were arranged on it. She moved closer. As her eyes grew used to the dimness she could make out what some of them were. There were three lumps of jade, not carved or fashioned into any shape. They looked like they had been cut from rock. There was a large stone that had split in half to reveal a forest of amethyst crystals inside. There was a mother-of-pearl seashell and several strings of dragons’ teeth. Ping caught her breath. In the middle of the display were three large oval stones.
“Dragon stones,” she whispered.
They were unhatched dragon eggs.
The thought of young dragons in the haven brought a smile to Ping’s face. When the eggs hatched, she would have a purpose. She could help the females raise the little ones. Kai would be very excited to have other young dragons to play with. She was reaching out to touch one of the dragon stones when the back of her neck prickled. Her stomach ached as if indigestible food lay rotting in it. Her skin turned cold despite the warm air. Ping’s joy at finding the dragon stones drained from her until there wasn’t a drop left. Despair filled the empty space. She gripped her stomach as the pain increased. It was so intense, she doubled over.
Ping hadn’t felt the sense of dread for a long time, not since she’d been in the presence of the necromancer. As they’d travelled, she had expected it. She’d waited to feel it when the imperial guards on the Great Wall had turned nasty. When she first saw the Ma Ren, she’d thought she might experience it. But the sense of foreboding had never come. Not until now.
There was someone outside the cave who meant Kai harm. She swung around expecting to see a necromancer or a dragon hunter or a squad of imperial guards. A deafening roar echoed around the cave. Whatever was outside, it wasn’t human. Ping didn’t know what she was about to face, but she didn’t want to be cornered in the cave.
She staggered outside, still clutching her stomach. The pain threatened to make her lose consciousness. She fell to her knees. A large, dark shape towered over her. It was a dragon. A black one.
The black dragon was big—bigger than Danzi, almost as big as Gu Hong. He crouched on his haunches, ready to spring. His legs bulged with huge muscles. A long puckered scar cut across his belly and the tip of one of his horns was broken off. His eyes weren’t brown like the other dragons, but blood red. The limp carcass of an antelope hung from the talons of his right forepaw. The black dragon bared his teeth and snarled. Ping would never have believed that such a sound could have come from a dragon.
Before she had time to react, his paw swiped her across her face, knocking her to the ground. Her ears were ringing from the blow, but she heard a deep, angry voice in her mind.
“Humans should not enter the treasure cave!”
The dragon’s red eyes were glowing with anger. She heard another more familiar dragon cry. It was Kai’s. He ran and stood between Ping and the black dragon. He spoke in the dragon voice Ping couldn’t understand, but she could tell he was trying to defend her.
Ping clutched Kai to her. When she had confronted the necromancer and the dragon hunter, the foreboding had felt full of greed—greed for gold, greed for power. This time the sensation was laced with hatred for her. When Kai had appeared, the sensation had grown even stronger. The black dragon hated Kai as well. Ping couldn’t understand how he could feel such malice towards another dragon.
The other dragons were gathering around. The yellow and white dragons seemed intimidated by the black one. Gu Hong was slow to arrive. She hobbled forward with Jiang cowering behind her. Gu Hong was the only one who wasn’t afraid of the newcomer. She raised herself up and roared at him. The black dragon’s muscular legs rippled and Ping thought he may leap at the old one, but he didn’t. He lowered himself onto all fours and growled from deep in his throat. The old red dragon might not have been able to fly or see well, she probably couldn’t walk very far, but like the others, the black dragon had respect for her.
“Humans are not permitted in the treasure cave,” the black dragon said to Kai. “Make sure your servant stays out.”
“He says—”
“You don’t have to tell me what he said, Kai. I heard him in my mind.”
Kai fussed around her and she leaned on him as she got to her feet.
“I am no one’s servant,” Ping said. “I am Kai’s Dragonkeeper.”
The black dragon snorted. “A female can’t be a true Dragonkeeper.”
“Did Ping hear him?” Kai asked.
Ping nodded. “Who is he?”
“His name is Hei Lei.”
Gu Hong roared again. The black dragon snarled back. He threw the dead antelope at her feet, then walked away towards the white pool. Hei Lei meant Black Thunder. It was a good name for him. The two yellow dragons crept forward and picked up the antelope. Carrying it between them, they took it into one of the caverns.
Ping touched her right cheek and examined her hand. There were four lines of blood from where Hei Lei’s talons had raked across her face.
“He means you harm, Kai. My second sight told me.”
“Hei Lei is not friends with anyone,” Kai replied, “But he wouldn’t hurt another dragon.”
“I felt the sense of dread. It was stronger than ever before.”
“Hei Lei is very angry,” Kai said. “But with Ping not with Kai.”
Ping watched Hei Lei crouch at the edge of the white pool and drink the water. The pain in her stomach was fading. It was now no worse than the discomfort she’d felt after eating too much at an imperial banquet. She went to the falls and washed her face. Kai followed her.
“Perhaps one day Ping will understand all the dragons,” Kai said hopefully.
In the past, intense anger had improved Ping’s second sight. She wondered if it was Hei Lei’s anger that enabled her to understand him. Perhaps at first she would only be able to comprehend the dragons when they experienced strong emotions. She hoped that gradually her mind would be able to hear more and more of their speech.
The dragons didn’t sleep as soon as it got dark, like birds and other creatures of the earth. Every evening so far, they had gathered together at the orange pool at twilight. The beginning of the gathering was heralded by the sudden spurt of boiling water as the fire dragon sprayed hot water into the evening air. The females waded into the water. The males sat on the surrounding rocks. They spoke in low dragon voic
es. Sometimes one or two chose not to take part. Some might decide to go to the sleeping cave before the gathering was finished, even while another dragon was still speaking. Kai never missed a moon gathering. He soaked up every sound the dragons uttered.
That night the fire dragon’s jet of water sprayed into the air, but none of the dragons moved. Ping went over to Kai.
“Why isn’t there a gathering tonight?”
“There is no moon,” Kai replied.
Ping looked at the black sky. There were thousands of stars, but no moon. On moonless nights the dragons went to their caves as soon as night fell. Left alone in the darkness, Ping thought again of the winter to come. She had no lamp oil to bring light to the long hours of darkness. She wondered if she would be permitted to light a fire after dark, but she wasn’t sure the dragons would allow it.
Ping went to the falls and had a warm bath with only the stars watching her. At least she wouldn’t be cold during the winter.
The next evening, there was just the thinnest sliver of moon floating in the star-spangled sky, but the dragons gathered again. Kai had told Ping that the female dragons acted as a council. It was they who made decisions, settled disputes and decided on punishment if any dragon ever did anything wrong.
The fire dragon heated the water in the orange pool when he was in a thoughtful mood. The dragons believed that this helped them make just and correct decisions.
“Ping must not drink from the orange pool,” Kai had told her.
“Is it poisonous?”
“No. The dragons think that if humans touch it, the properties of the pool will be disturbed.”
The dragons’ glow was barely noticeable in the light of the slender moon. Hei Lei crouched on the rocks with Tun. Kai seemed reluctant to join them while the black dragon was there. Hei Lei spoke in his deep dragon voice, using the sounds that Ping couldn’t understand. As he spoke, the females, one by one, turned to glance at Ping.
“What is he saying?” Ping asked.
“Hei Lei wants Ping to leave the haven,” Kai said calmly. “They are listening to his argument before they make a decision.”
Ping’s heart started to race. “What argument? What have I done wrong?”
“Hei Lei thinks that because Ping is a female, Ping can’t be a proper Dragonkeeper,” Kai told her. “He thinks female humans are even more untrustworthy than males.”
“But Lao Longzi said that Dragonkeepers were welcome in the dragon haven.”
“Not anymore,” Kai said.
“Not since the massacre?”
Kai nodded, then clambered over to the rocks and sat next to Tun.
Ping had imagined that her right to stay with Kai was beyond question.
Hei Lei answered the female dragons’ questions at length. Ping was not invited to speak on her own behalf. She longed to know what they were saying about her. She listened to the chinking sounds, hoping that they would start to make some sense. She searched for some way of reaching inside the dragons’ minds with her second sight. It didn’t help, but within the minds of the dragons, she could feel a shield preventing her from hearing their thoughts. She caught Gu Hong’s eye. The red dragon was aware of her probing.
After Hei Lei had finished speaking, the six female dragons sat in the pool in silence. There was no discussion—or none that Ping could hear. If there was any debate it was by thought. But a decision was made. Gu Hong said a few words. Kai came back to translate her pronouncement.
“Ping can stay,” Kai said. “For the moment.”
Hei Lei snorted and walked away. Ping felt weak with relief, but she wished the female dragons hadn’t found it necessary to take so long to decide.
“You didn’t seem worried that they might have sent me away,” Ping said to Kai.
“Kai trusts the dragons to make the right decisions.”
Ping wondered what Kai’s reaction would have been if their decision had been different. She wasn’t convinced he would have objected.
Ping’s cheek was sore. The talon scratches on her face weren’t healing. She fetched the pot of red cloud herb ointment from her cave and smeared a little on the scratches. The female yellow dragon was standing at a distance.
“Sha wants to know if you are all right,” Kai translated.
Ping had never been able to get close to the shy yellow dragon before.
“Sha is our healer,” Kai said. “She thinks water from the healing pool will help Ping’s wounds.”
“Tell her I have red cloud herb ointment.”
Ping could see that Sha was interested in what she was doing, but was too timid to come closer.
“Come and have a look, Sha,” Ping called out, even though she knew the yellow dragon couldn’t understand her. She smiled and beckoned to her.
Slowly, shyly, the yellow dragon came to Ping.
“Tell her I used this ointment to heal Danzi’s torn wing and his arrow wound.”
Kai explained to Sha. The yellow dragon moved closer and sniffed the ointment.
“Tell her I also used it on your dragon stone before you were born.”
Kai hesitated.
“Go on, tell her.” Ping wanted the dragons to know what a good Dragonkeeper she’d been.
Kai started to tell Sha, but before he finished, the yellow dragon darted away and disappeared into her sleeping cavern.
“What’s wrong?” Ping asked Kai. “What startled her?”
“Sha and her mate, Tun, would like to have a family,” Kai said.
Ping could feel his sadness.
“She has laid three dragon stones.”
“The ones in the treasure cave?” Ping asked.
“Yes.”
“Then she is blessed. They will have a family when the eggs hatch.”
Kai shook his head. “The dragon stones were grey when they were laid.”
Ping had thought it was the dim light in the cave that made the stones look grey, but that was their actual colour. The dragon eggs were dead.
• chapter nineteen •
NINE IS BETTER
“You may leave the haven if you wish,” she said.
“But we will not let Kai go.”
It didn’t take long for the news to spread among the other dragons that Ping had upset Sha. Gu Hong sent for her. She scratched more questions in the dirt. She wanted to know who had raised Kai and why his dragon stone had been ailing. The questions Gu Hong asked always seemed to prove what a bad Dragonkeeper Ping had been.
“Didn’t you tell the dragons that I raised you?” Ping asked Kai when Gu Hong had finished quizzing her.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They think it is wrong for a dragonling to be raised by a human—especially a female. They think Kai must be …” He searched for the right word.
“Tainted?” Ping suggested. “Like food cooked with rancid oil.”
Kai nodded slowly.
“I didn’t know they felt that way,” Ping whispered.
Ping couldn’t sleep that night, she was so angry with the dragons. She’d raised Kai well, considering she’d had no training. All she’d had to guide her was the little information Danzi had given her before he flew away. The dragons didn’t know about the months she’d spent on Tai Shan caring for baby Kai with no help. It hurt Ping to know that Kai was ashamed of his upbringing. He was a strong and intelligent young dragon. He was eager to learn, and his shape-changing skills were better than any of the other dragons. He was fearless when he played the rough games with the older dragons. Ping could have stayed in the comfort of Beibai Palace, but she hadn’t. She’d risked her life and brought Kai to them. What more did the dragons want? They didn’t realise how hard she’d tried to replace Lu Yu, his dead mother. Ping also felt guilty. She’d upset Sha, reminding her of events she was trying to forget. It was almost dawn when Ping finally fell asleep.
She slept later than usual and came out of her cave just in time to see Hei Lei fly off on a hunting expedition. Kai w
as already training with Tun. Even Gu Hong was up.
Ping’s dread had faded completely, but she was relieved Hei Lei had left. It was wonderful to see Kai living with other dragons, learning from Tun, being fussed over by the females. But she knew that they thought he was unnatural in some way. She could watch over him for her lifetime, but then what would happen? Could she trust the dragons to treat him well? Or would they always consider him to be an outsider? Ping wished she could glimpse Kai’s future. She wished she had a bundle of yarrow stalks and the Yi Jing, so that she could ask it what she should do.
Danzi had once told her that Dragonkeepers could read the future. Long ago when people had first tamed dragons, they had noticed that after many years of close contact with dragons, young men developed the ability to foretell coming events. That’s why Emperors had decided to keep dragons, so that their carers could predict the future for them.
Ping hadn’t tried to develop that skill. She’d never really wanted to know what the future held. If there was nothing but sadness and misery ahead, she didn’t want to know. Even if the future was full of happiness, she thought it was best not to know. How could she concentrate on the present? Perhaps she would neglect her duty while hungering for what lay ahead.
Ping’s mind tied itself in knots whenever she thought of this. People hadn’t learned to read the future for the good of their dragon charges—it was a skill they had cultivated for their own advantage. Her second sight told her when her dragons were in immediate danger and that was all she’d needed to know. Foretelling the future was a skill she’d thought she could do without. Until now.
She needed to be sure that the dragon haven was the right place for Kai to live. She had done what Danzi thought best, but he hadn’t known how the dragons’ lives had changed. She had to know if Hei Lei was a threat to Kai. Ping sensed his anger hadn’t disappeared, but was seething inside him. One day it would burst out, like over-fermented wine exploding out of a sealed jar. One day Hei Lei would fly into a deadly rage, Ping was sure of it.