Dragon Moon (26 page)

A loud noise had woken her. She could still hear it. Two dragons were roaring. Arguing. One of the voices was more familiar to her. It was Kai’s. The other belonged to Hei Lei. The dread had returned. The black dragon wanted to hurt Kai. He wanted to do more than hurt him—he wanted to kill him.

She had so little control over her second sight. What was the point of knowing that Kai was in danger, if the warning was so painful it left her unable to protect him? Ping focused her mind and tried to concentrate her
qi
. She had to use it to reduce the pain. Previously, she had always directed her
qi
power outwards at someone or something else. She had never used it to attack something within herself. The dread felt solid in her stomach. She surrounded it with a sphere of qi, squeezing it tighter and tighter until all the pain and discomfort was in one small, concentrated lump. It still hurt, but she could move. She staggered to the edge of the pool.

Kai and Hei Lei were face to face in the orange pool. They glowed in the moonlight—Kai, bright green, Hei Lei, glittering grey. Tun and the female dragons had all climbed out and were watching from the rocks. The two dragons were still arguing. None of the others were trying to stop them.

“What’s happening?” she asked Jiang.

“Kai disputed something that Hei Lei said.”

Ping knew that was a serious breach of the rules. The dragons never interrupted each other at a gathering.

“What? What did he say?”

“It was about Dragonkeepers. Hei Lei said that dragons would have been better off if they’d never made an alliance with humans. Kai said that wasn’t true.”

Ping concentrated hard. She desperately wanted to be able to hear what Kai and Hei Lei were saying. But it didn’t work. The sounds they made were still unintelligible.

As Kai glared at Hei Lei, Ping saw hatred in the little dragon’s eyes. She’d never seen that before. He spoke again, but this time she heard his words in her head. He was allowing her to listen.

“Father believed that if it wasn’t for the bond with Dragonkeepers, dragons would be just like oxen and goats. They would have no wisdom.” He was repeating what he’d heard Ping say. She wished she’d kept her mouth shut.

Hei Lei made a sound like bells ringing. He was laughing, but it wasn’t a happy sound. Ping felt his red eyes drilling into her.

“The humans who want to kill dragons are not Dragonkeepers,” Kai continued. “They are bad people, greedy and stupid. Dragonkeepers are special people.”

Hei Lei snorted. This time he too spoke so that Ping could understand him.

“Your father was deluded,” he spat. “He couldn’t make a decision unless he consulted his keeper. Without
a human he was like a sheep without a shepherd, an ox without a boy with a switch. He was just a beast.” “Father was wise and good.”

“He was weak. Danzi was the leader of this cluster once,” Hei Lei said. “I challenged him, but he was too cowardly to fight me. After one swipe of my talons he gave in. That’s why he left Long Gao Yuan.”

Kai stood in stunned silence.

“You didn’t know that, did you?” Hei Lei gloated. “He left to save his own scales. He was too weak to stand up to humans, and too spineless to accept my challenge.”

Kai reared up on his hind legs.

“Kai will challenge Hei Lei!” he said. “Kai will fight to defend Father’s name.”

Kai was so small, even on his hind legs, he didn’t reach Hei Lei’s shoulder. Ping would have smiled if the situation hadn’t been so serious. She was waiting for Gu Hong to put an end to the argument, but the old dragon was silent.

Ping turned to Jiang. “Gu Hong is the leader. Why doesn’t she …”

“She is not our leader,” Jiang interrupted. “She is our elder. We respect her, but she doesn’t lead us. We have been without a head dragon since Danzi left. Hei Lei wants to take the leadership, but we females don’t want him as leader.”

“But you’re not going to let Kai challenge Hei Lei …?”

“No one can stop him,” Jiang said.

Ping felt her insides dissolve.

“You must. It’s not fair! Look at him, he’s a baby.”

“We don’t have the power to stop a challenge once it has been laid down.”

Ping was aghast. “But he has no horns, no wings. Hei Lei will kill him.”

Jiang spoke to the other female dragons. They all shook their heads firmly.

“Hei Lei must accept the challenge or leave. Those are his only options,” Jiang told Ping. She then turned to the black dragon. “Do you accept?”

Hei Lei nodded his great head. Ping tried to run to Kai, but Tun stopped her.

“Can’t I just say something to him?” She desperately wanted to put her arms around the little dragon.

Tun took no notice of her plea.

“Kai,” Ping called out. “Tell them you didn’t mean it. Withdraw your challenge.”

“Kai must defend Father and defeat Hei Lei.”

Whether that was because of the dragons’ rules or his own stubborn pride Ping didn’t know.

The female dragons were speaking together.

“Hei Lei, please don’t hurt him,” Ping begged.

“I wasn’t the one who challenged,” the black dragon said. “I have to defend myself.”

The females finished their discussion.

“Teeth, talons and tail,” Jiang told Ping. “Hei Lei is not permitted to use his horns or his wings.”

Ping could find little consolation in that. She suddenly remembered the sixth line of the
Yi Jing
reading.
When a dragon is arrogant, there will be cause for regret
. She had always thought Hei Lei would be the arrogant one. But it was Kai. She had no doubt there would be cause for more than regret. There would be cause for pain, death and despair.

“Kai must choose where the challenge will take place,” Jiang said.

Kai didn’t hesitate. “There,” he said, pointing a talon at the rocks alongside the yellow pool.

Ping thought there would be some ceremony to start the fight. She thought that one of the dragons might speak, but if there was a signal to start the combat, Ping didn’t see it.

Kai leapt at Hei Lei. He was still in midair when Hei Lei’s tail swiped him. The tail caught Kai in the chest and knocked the breath out of him. He fell into the pool with a splash. Hei Lei peered into the opaque water, waiting for Kai to appear. Minutes passed, but Kai didn’t resurface. Hei Lei gingerly climbed into the shallow end of the yellow pool. Then he yelped and leapt up onto the rocks again. His right hind leg was bleeding. Kai had bitten him while he was underwater. The surface of the water broke and Kai reappeared.
Despite her revulsion at the sight of dragons fighting, Ping felt a surge of pride. The first blood was Kai’s.

Hei Lei had been calm so far, confident of an easy defeat but Ping sensed that his anger, never far below the surface, was about to erupt. He hadn’t been expecting Kai to be a real opponent. The black dragon waded back into the pool. Kai lunged at Hei Lei, raking his talons across the black dragon’s shoulder. Purple blood sprang from deep cuts. Ping was now glad that he’d been sharpening his claws. Hei Lei dug his talons into Kai and picked him up by the scruff of the neck. Kai dangled from his talons as if he were a rabbit or a fawn. Ping sensed Hei Lei’s savage strength. She fumbled for her pouch and took out the dragon-stone shard. She wanted to be ready to go to Kai’s aid, and if she took on the black dragon, she would need every
shu
of strength she possessed.

Hei Lei raised Kai’s small body, ready to throw him against the surrounding rocks. Ping cried out. The sound distracted the black dragon. He hesitated. In that moment Kai twisted around and whacked Hei Lei in the face with his tail. Hei Lei let go of Kai in surprise. Kai disappeared beneath the water again. It was no accident that the contest had ended up in the yellow pool. It was Kai’s favourite environment, and one where Hei Lei was completely uncomfortable. Kai had lured Hei Lei there.

Hei Lei’s anger exploded. He had kept his temper
under control until then, but he was no longer a reasoning dragon. He was a wild animal. He swept his front paws through the water trying to find Kai, then jumped and growled angrily. Kai had bitten him again. Hei Lei’s grasping talons found Kai and dragged him up out of the water. This time he hurled him against the rocks, but his anger made him rush the throw. Kai was winded, and bruised, but not seriously hurt. Hei Lei pounced on Kai, sank his teeth into his flank and tore off a hunk of Kai’s flesh. Purple blood, bright in the moonlight, splashed on the rocks.

Ping tried to rush to Kai, but Tun and Jiang held her back.

“You have to stop him!” she yelled. Hei Lei dug his talons into Kai’s wound. The little dragon howled with pain. Hei Lei threw Kai again. This time his aim was better, and Kai screamed as his body was dashed against the rock. The pain weakened the shield around Kai’s mind. Clasping the dragon-stone shard, Ping saw into areas of his mind that she’d never had access to before. Reading his raw thoughts that hadn’t formed into words, she knew he’d broken a bone in his left foreleg. He sank back beneath the surface of the water with a groan.

Hei Lei waded around the pool. The more Kai evaded him, the more furious Hei Lei became. Ping realised that Kai had chosen to fight in the yellow pool for another reason. It was the healing pool. He had
known Hei Lei would hurt him. He was gaining time, allowing the healing waters to soothe his wounds. But the yellow waters couldn’t mend bones, not in a few minutes anyway.

The surface at the other end of the pool rippled. Hei Lei plunged into the water. He thrashed about. Kai had lured him into the deepest part of the pool. Hei Lei tried to find a footing, but the water closed over his head. He flailed and splashed. He couldn’t swim. Kai dived under again. Ping knew dragons couldn’t drown, but Hei Lei hated the water. He was trying to stop himself from sinking. Ping couldn’t see Kai, but she knew he was darting around underwater like a fish, biting and scratching the black dragon as he floundered like a drowning man. Hei Lei finally found his feet and pulled himself into the shallower water again.

This time he used his huge tail to sweep the pool. Ping held her breath. The dragons’ attention was fixed on Hei Lei trying to find the little dragon. Kai could have hidden in the deep part of the pool where Hei Lei couldn’t reach him, but that wasn’t his plan.

Ping had penetrated the shield around Hei Lei’s inner thoughts as well. She glimpsed a young man and a younger black dragon on Long Gao Yuan. She grasped the shard with both hands. Her second sight was growing stronger. She saw deeper into Hei Lei’s mind. She knew why he hated humans so. Lao Longzi had told her about a young Dragonkeeper. He had
been Hei Lei’s keeper. The black dragon had loved and trusted the young man. Together they had flown off on adventures that the other dragons disapproved of.

Hei Lei’s trust had been misplaced. His Dragonkeeper had left him, run away after a pretty young woman he’d met in an inn on one of their escapades. Hei Lei had learned that humans couldn’t be trusted. The betrayal had left him bitter. His anger had turned hard and sharp and had lodged in his heart like a splinter of steel. He’d decided that dragons were better off without humans. He couldn’t trust his Dragonkeeper to keep the secret of their hideout. He decided he had only one choice. He had tracked down his Dragonkeeper and killed him.

Ping was roused from this second-hand memory when the black dragon suddenly spoke.

“The contest is over,” he announced. “Proclaim my victory.”

The other dragons stood in stunned silence.

But Ping could read Kai’s thoughts. He wasn’t defeated, not yet. Beneath the surface of the water, he was calming himself, getting rid of his anger so that he could shape-change. He shape-changed into a rock and then slowly raised himself out of the water, a hairbreadth at a time. His movement was so slow that even the keen-sighted dragons didn’t notice it. When Hei Lei’s back was turned, Kai took on his true shape and pulled himself up onto the rocks on the opposite side of the pool. He made a rude sound with his lips
that sounded like someone farting. He waggled his head and stuck out his tongue like a cheeky child. Hei Lei was incensed. The black dragon had many skills, but shape-changing wasn’t one of them. The huge dragon suddenly launched himself across the pool towards Kai. It was too far for him to leap and he didn’t want to fall into the water again. He unfurled his wings and flapped them once. The other dragons, who had been perfectly silent until now, all cried out together. Hei Lei had broken the rules of the challenge.

The black dragon fell on Kai, digging his talons into the little dragon’s neck. Ping shook off the other dragons and ran around the edge of the pool. This time no one stopped her. She launched herself at Hei Lei but he knocked her aside with a sweep of his tail as if she were no more than an irritating fly. Hei Lei still had Kai in his talons. But Ping’s charge had given Kai time to think. He suddenly shape-changed into a vase. Hei Lei wasn’t expecting it. The shock of unexpectedly touching a shape-changed dragon made men pass out, and though it wasn’t enough to knock Hei Lei out, it made him stagger. His grip on Kai loosened.

Kai ripped himself from the dragon’s talons, tearing his hide. He dropped to the ground, landing on all four paws. As soon as his paws hit the ground he ran behind Hei Lei. Blood was pouring from his fresh wounds, but he didn’t falter. The black dragon shook his head to clear away the dizziness.

Kai ran up Hei Lei’s huge tail and clambered up his back. The moonlight reflected off his scales in a way Ping had never seen before. The tips of the scales were glowing with a new iridescence, like the feathers of a peacock. They gleamed green, red, white, black and yellow. All the colours shimmered, even the black, which flashed like polished ebony. The dragons cried out in wonder. Ping couldn’t believe this magnificent creature was her own little dragon. She moved closer.

Hei Lei reared up on his hind legs and struck out with both front legs. But he couldn’t reach behind him. Kai clamped the talons of his hind legs around Hei Lei’s neck. No matter how much he shook his head or reared up, Hei Lei could not dislodge Kai. His front paws could swipe at him and his talons could dig into Kai’s hide, but he could do little more that scratch him.