The Immortal Words (The Grave Kingdom), стр. 19
There were enough gaps for Bingmei to see as the massive black dragon flew into the ravine.
She recognized him at once, except she couldn’t smell him.
Echion had come.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dust from the Past
The dragon Echion descended like a setting sun, bringing darkness in his wake. Bingmei felt a spasm of dread shoot through her heart. She was bleeding, dying, but unable to move for fear of alerting him that she was there. The dragon landed by the remains of the green-black one she’d killed. A clicking noise came from his throat.
A whorl of shadows expanded from the great dragon, engulfing it, only to sink into smoky mist and reveal the man Echion crouched by the carcass, his hand atop the scales. He stared at the beast impassively. Her inability to smell his emotions required her to read them in other ways. The death of the dragon didn’t seem to bother him. There was no look of grief or mourning. Perhaps all dragons were rivals to him. Perhaps he didn’t have a friend in all the world.
She sensed the approach of another dragon moments before Xisi appeared, the white dragon swooping in like an arrow shot from a bow. A silvery mist surrounded her, and when it lifted, she, too, was her human self. Echion rose to his full height, and the two glared at each other.
“Where is she?” Xisi asked, her nostrils flaring. “Did you devour her already? Impatient brute.”
“She has fled,” Echion replied. “But I see her blood in the water.”
“I’ll taste it, then!” Xisi said hungrily, striding forward.
“It’s already wasted,” Echion said with a smirk, seeming to enjoy her rage. “Befouled by the waters. But she’s wounded. Now we chase the doe while she bleeds. It’s almost over.”
“I want to be the one to devour her,” Xisi said. “Her gifts would be useful to me.”
“Do you not already have enough ways to torture me, Wife?”
“There are never enough,” she shot back spitefully. “Every moment bound to you is a torment. I must find what solace I can.”
He glared at her. Bingmei hoped they were so fixed on each other that they wouldn’t realize their quarry was so close and so vulnerable.
“You agreed,” he said. “You accepted this willingly.”
“That was before I understood that immortality with you is a curse. When the Reckoning comes—”
“Do not speak of it!” Echion screamed at her, his face livid. His hand shot out, fingers hooked like claws, as if he intended to rip her heart out of her chest.
What was the Reckoning? Bingmei leaned a little closer, intent on listening. Anything that struck fear in the heart of the Dragon Emperor could only be to their benefit.
Unafraid, Xisi stepped closer to him. “You cannot hurt my body, Husband. I cannot be wounded.”
He was breathing fast, his face a mask of anger. “Speak not of it,” he warned.
“Are you genuinely worried that a pale salamander of a girl might defeat us?” Xisi said, her voice tinkling with laughter. “Don’t lose your nerve, Echion. We can postpone the Reckoning for another thousand years. And then another.” She held up her hands, gesturing at the giant pillars of stone surrounding them. “Until these are nothing but piles of sand and this valley is a desert. We will find her. And kill her.”
“You should have killed her in Fusang!”
“It prolongs the game,” Xisi said mockingly. “Sihui will fall. You are piqued because you don’t like losing. I will confess that this generation has proven a trifle more . . . devoted than the warlords we’ve faced in the past.” She stepped even closer, her voice like silk, and lifted a pointed finger toward his chin. “How many have we defeated over the eons, you and I? Were any as cunning as our combined wills? Even the empress you once served? I suspect the phoenix came to rue the day she overthrew Sajinau and accepted your allegiance.”
Bingmei watched in growing revulsion as the two gazed at each other. Xisi’s finger claw, the very same one in which she’d hidden the butterfly, was close enough to trace the line of Echion’s throat.
Echion suddenly grasped her wrist and wrenched it away from his neck.
His voice was hard, venomous. “If I thought for a moment that you were really trying to seduce me, I would eat a butterfly and kill myself.”
Her face twisted with rage. She tried pulling her hand away but couldn’t. He squeezed harder, but there was no look of pain on her brow. She spat in his face.
“Let go of me,” she snarled.
“If only I could,” he said with a bark-like laugh. “But we are entwined, you and I. Irrevocably. That is what we agreed to back when I was nothing more than a counselor. Surely your betrayal was greater than mine. The empress lifted you up from being one of a thousand concubines, yet you were ever so eager to steal her empire. If the Reckoning comes, I won’t be the only one to suffer the consequences. We must prevent it from happening. Whoever finds the girl first, let us agree she must be killed. She cannot be allowed to fulfill the prophecy. We cannot allow the phoenix to return. It doesn’t matter which of us claims her power. Are we agreed?”
Bingmei hungered to understand what they meant, but it was hard to think clearly. The loss of blood was making her faint. Her eyelids began to droop.
“Let go of me!” Xisi said, struggling again.
“Are we in agreement?”
“Yes!”
Echion released her wrist. She tried to strike his face, but he stepped out of range. She didn’t rub her wrist, for there was no pain.
“You are so cold when I touch