Six Celestial Swords (15 page)

Yes, to share the pointy ends of their spears with an offensive little barbarian. Tarfan recalled the looks they’d given him, then just as easily forgot the alcohol when his gaze settled on the remarkably detailed map spread before his foreign friend. He caught motion in the corner of his vision and was forced to notice the simple, yet elaborate sketch that had drawn his niece away from the tent’s entrance. The landscape was one of several modest, but beautiful paintings upon curling parchment, laid out along the wall of the tent. “

You’re a man of many talents, Xu Liang,” Tarfan said.

Xu Liang’s attention stayed with the map he was altering. “It may never be as accurate as yours, I fear. There is so much yet to be seen and learned of this realm.”

A cloud of dismay moved across the scholar’s fair features with his last statement. Tarfan had never seen such an expression on his friend’s face and asked firmly, though not without some delicacy toward the potential of unhappy subjects, “What brings you to Stormbright?”

Xu Liang closed his eyes and set down his writing brush. He said quietly, “A great evil is stirring in Sheng Fan. It threatens to destroy all that the Emperor, and now the Empress, have struggled to build and maintain.”

Tarfan went to the small table and sat down opposite of the mystic. “I’m listening.”

“I thought you might,” Xu Liang said with a nod. “I came to Stormbright to call upon your services, Tarfan. You know this region and those neighboring it far better than I. My knowledge of the land would not be so dire an issue, as I am always willing to expand it and to take my time doing so. However, time is a thing I do not have in abundance now. As we speak, Empress Song Da-Xiao is under constant attack.”

“Attack? From what?”

Xu Liang opened his eyes again, indicating how uneasy this discussion made him. It may have been some years since Tarfan had last seen the man, but they’d met twice in the time Xu Liang had spent outside of his homeland. On one occasion they’d embarked together on a lengthy journey to the cold mountains of northern Andaria in search of an ancient city. They had come to know each other well and, being that Tarfan could claim no other Sheng Fan allies, he had mastered this one’s mannerisms of speech and expression, and they had not changed at all. Tarfan could tell that this was not one of those trifling matters Xu Liang had already come up with a half dozen solutions to before it had even truly become annoying. This was serious. Tarfan could tell also that the man was blaming himself for something.

“For many years there has been a state of civil unrest in my homeland,” the mystic said. “As you know I have dedicated much of my life to assisting the Song family in its struggle to maintain a peaceful and unified Sheng Fan. Mostly that has been done through my scholarship. An unwise advisor cannot hope to advise wisely. Neither can an absent one, and I fear now that I have been absent too many times when my Emperor has needed me. I tried not to make the same mistake after his death. I limited my travels and even formed a bond with the young empress that goes beyond my office. I did this all to be certain that there would be no challenge she would have to face alone. And yet, she faces her most dire threat...and I am not where I belong.”

Tarfan gave his friend a space of silence, then said, “You’ve got uprisings in your empire and here you are agonizing about not being there. A fair guess would be that you’re not here to draw maps and paint landscapes.”

The faintest smile drew to Xu Liang’s lips. “No, my friend.”

In the brief silence that followed, the uncharacteristic look of chagrin overshadowed the mage’s calm mien once again. “As much as I have dedicated my life to supporting the Song family, I have surrendered it to the study of artifacts. There are six in particular that I must find for the Empress, as quickly as possible. You see, it is not the uprisings that I fear, but the Dragon.”

T
HE STORY OF the dragon Chaos unfolded in all its culturally preserved wonder, excluding no detail, even as the storyteller was forced to take pauses when considering Calliprian words that would satisfy the Fanese legend. The language being spoken was not exclusive to Callipry, and was perhaps better known as the common tongue of men and dwarves in the region expanding farther west and into the south. It had a broad range of words to choose from, but Xu Liang hadn’t quite grasped how to use all of them appropriately and as well the slower—for lack of a better word—tongue of the western world seemed to extract much of the grace from the telling of the ancient story.

Somehow Xu Liang managed to get through it and when he opened his eyes at the end of his tale, he saw that his audience sat enthralled. Either that, or they were utterly befuddled.

Tarfan’s mouth hung open and his brow furrowed while he pondered the legend, or the words themselves. His niece sat wide-eyed beside him, seeming uncertain whether to smile wistfully or frown skeptically. A humorous amalgamation of both expressions adorned her round face.

And then, finally, Tarfan said, “You can’t be serious!”

Xu Liang gently asked, “About what?”

The dwarf seemed shocked by the return question. He looked to his niece—who shrugged—then back at Xu Liang. He shook his head tersely. “You can’t sit there and tell me that you—a highly educated man—believe some prehistoric lizard is going to stir awake under the earth, tear his way out, and send us all into oblivion!”

Xu Liang raised his eyebrows in amusement, and with some relief. “I don’t believe that I did.”

Flustered, the dwarf folded his arms tightly across his chest. “Well, what are you saying then?” he grumbled.

“There are truths in legend, but all legend is not to be taken as truth,” Xu Liang said, and he selected his next words carefully. “I know that the Celestial Blades exist, that they are magical and connected to one another, even if they were not delivered to us by the Ancient Gods.”

Tarfan nodded gruffly. “All right. I follow you. You want the Swords, but what about the dragon attacking your empress? You did say dragon, if you’ll recall.”

Xu Liang inclined his head. “Yes. And the legend spoke of Spirit Dragons, shadowy guardians of the Infernal Regions. Perhaps what threatens Sheng Fan is an entity without physical form, an ancient spirit trapped and looking to escape after a long sleep. I know that there are living dragons in the world. I have seen one now myself, and felt its majestic presence.” Xu Liang closed his eyes and held the memory for a moment when it surfaced. Then he sighed. “In Sheng Fan, I have felt another great presence, though it is of no mortal creature. Something awakens, and while I may not know precisely what it is, I know that it must be stopped and that the Swords are the key to its undoing.”

The dwarves stared at him for a long, silent moment.

And then Tarfan asked, “What makes you think they’re here?”

Patiently, Xu Liang said, “Lend me one of your maps and I will show you.”

Tarfan reached into his haversack cooperatively and eventually fished out a rolled parchment, one of several. He leaned forward and spread it across the small table as Xu Liang slid his own map aside. As expected, it showed a detailed illustration of the western continent and a portion of a southern one as well. Xu Liang made a few precise folds on his own map, which displayed what he knew of the east. It included Neidra and the southwestern continent of Dehura, which was separated from Sheng Fan by a small sea, as well as Aer to the north and also the uppermost continent to the west of Aer called Yvaria. After making the careful folds, he slid his map over Tarfan’s, bringing the known world together. The dwarvish characters beside those of the Fanese writing system presented an encouraging contrast.

“There,” Xu Liang said quietly. “What do you see?”

The dwarf squinted and considered. At length he said, “I see a deformed horseshoe.”

Xu Liang suppressed a laugh. He turned the map around so that it faced the dwarf right-side up, then traced the outer edges of the continents with one finger, connecting them where the oceans kept them apart, beginning with Dehura. “Look closely, my friend, and see here, the snout...and the edge of its crest as its head is turned just so...its neck curled with its body…” He traced the northern continents. “The back arcing here...”

“I don’t see it,” Tarfan grumbled.

“I do!” his niece spoke up proudly. She leaned over the map. “Here’s where its leg would be tucked.” She bit her lip, then stabbed southeastern Xun and southwestern Neidra respectively, connecting the two with an imaginary line. “The eyes would be here and here, and the brow would come across like this.” She lifted her hand and studied the image she was creating in her mind. “But it doesn’t have a tail, unless it’s under the ocean.”

Xu Liang lightly touched her small hand as it jabbed at the southern Sea of Kryden, and slid it to the beginnings of a land labeled Cadihn on Tarfan’s map. “Or unless it begins here and curls just below the body, and we simply haven’t discovered it yet.”

Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she slipped her hand away. “Oh,” she said softly and sat back, looking at the small rug beneath them and the table.

“That’s as vague as the constellations,” Tarfan complained.

“And yet,” Xu Liang argued patiently, “the constellations hold significant meaning to almost all peoples.”

“So what’s your point? I thought you weren’t taking that legend literally.”

Xu Liang thought a moment, then said, “Remember that the dragon was referred to in the legend as Chaos. The Swords are weapons against chaos. Weapons against the dragon.”

Tarfan kept his green eyes on the map, and slowly shook his head. Finally, flustered, he threw his hands out. “Confound it, mage! Are you going to explain all of this to me, or are you going to make me figure it out myself? If it’s the latter, get me a large ale and I’ll see you in the morning!”

Xu Liang sighed. There were times when the dwarf’s patience proved as stunted as his frame. “It is my theory that the legend not only explains how such impressive items as the Celestial Swords came into being, but that it might also suggest where they can be found, using the dragon as a map and the map of Dryth as the dragon. Supporting the theory is ‘
Pang Xiu’s Manual for Slaying a Dragon
’.”

Both dwarves looked at him.

“Whose manual for what?” Taya blurted.

Xu Liang waved his hand dismissively. “It’s an obscure manuscript, I know, but even the strangest writings can be useful when regarded properly.” He pointed to the map again. “According to the manual there are six vital points to every dragon; the heart, stomach, spine, lungs, and each of its eyes…and these points are where one must attack it.”

“Hey! You said there were six swords,” Taya recalled, smiling again as her enthusiasm returned.

Xu Liang nodded and continued. “As the manual reads: ‘
Stab through its eyes and it cannot see. Cut open its stomach and it cannot eat. Severe its spine and it cannot move. Puncture its lungs and it cannot breathe. Impale its heart and it must die
.’ By coincidence or intent, the
Spear of Heaven
and
Pearl Moon
were acquired, one in Xun and one in Du…which lies just to the north and east of Neidra.”

“The second eye,” Taya pointed out.

“Yes,” Xu Liang said. “And both were brought here, to the Imperial City.”

“Which is just above where the first eye would be,” the young dwarf said.

Finally, Tarfan joined in. “If those are the eyes, then that would make Upper Yvaria the spine,” the dwarf said, stabbing the Northern Continent with one stout finger.

Xu Liang hated to contradict him, now that he’d decided to become involved, but… “Recall that chaos has returned to the world. The Dragon is awakening. As it uncurls its body the different parts move. I know this is drastic, but I believe the spine is rather here.” He touched Tarfan’s illustrated line of rigid mountains curving through the lands of Lower Yvaria and Andaria.

“The Alabaster Range,” Tarfan mumbled thoughtfully. “I suppose it does have a certain spinal look about it. Well…what about the organs, then? The beast’s midsection seems to be submerged.”

“Chaos was considered a creature of evil,” Xu Liang said. “Perhaps the heart would be cold. Upper Yvaria?”

Tarfan shrugged. “What about Aer?”

Xu Liang shook his head. “I have searched Aer for many years and found nothing. I believe, if any of the other Swords had been discovered they would have been mentioned in local legend or rumors.”

“And the lungs? As I hear it, dragons breathe fire. The deserts of Cadihn are about as hot as hot comes.”

“Perhaps so, but the lungs and the heart are close to one another in the body. Again, I will look to the Northern Continent.”

“That leaves the stomach,” Tarfan said. “The stomach relates to food. I imagine a dragon would require a lot of it. Maybe a lot of mutton.” He pulled at his thick whiskers for a moment, then stabbed the map.

Xu Liang, whose ideas on the location of the stomach had been faltering, looked eagerly.

The dwarf explained the large nation he’d selected. “You’ll find no place that raises more sheep and sustains more pastures than Treska, the land of the ignorant, aggressive, self-deluded, common man.”