The Immortal Words (The Grave Kingdom), стр. 20

“The coldness within me came from your betrayals. If I have the winter sickness inside me, it is you who put it there.”

He gave her a mocking look. “We will rule for another thousand years. I will see my designs fulfilled this time. The world will kneel before the Iron Rules. Even you, wraith wife.”

“I’ve already knelt before you, Husband. And not even that satisfied you. Play your games. Prolong your dominion until the deserts of Namibu are fertile. When I grow bored of it, I will kill you again. Then I will rule for a season alone.”

Echion gave her a spiteful look, but still he smiled. “You will try. Your empires always collapse so quickly. Mine are the ones that last.”

“Did you say something? You’re like this brook, always babbling on and on.”

“You grow tiresome. Begone.”

Bingmei felt her eyes shutting. Her fingers began to tingle. Blackness took over.

Bingmei awoke to the sensation of drowning. Water rushed into her mouth, into her lungs, and she began sputtering and coughing. Unable to breathe, she panicked and tried to move, but her side seared with pain.

“Quiet, quiet!” came the murmured words.

She opened her eyes and found Quion holding a flask in one hand, cradling her shoulders with the other. It was dark, but the sky was streaked with the rainbow lights of the Woliu directly overhead.

She sensed the dragons then. Hundreds of them.

She and Quion were nestled in the trees still, hiding from the hunters. Her entire side burned with pain, and the skin felt unnaturally tight.

“Did I stop breathing?” she whispered to him.

“No. You were very weak, though. I stitched your wounds closed.”

“My back,” she said, stifling a groan.

“There were claw marks all across your side, your back,” he said. “After Xisi and Echion left, I got to work. You’ll have scars, Bingmei. I’m sorry. It’s the best I could do.”

“I don’t think scars will matter very much,” she said. “I won’t have them for long.” The quiet sound of the stream was soothing, but she heard distant shrieks in the skies as the dragons continued hunting. The snow leopard lay nearby, eyes closed in rest, head cradled on its paws.

She gingerly sat up, wincing as she did. He had sewn her wounds closed with thread and needle. It was so painful, breathing hurt. She lifted part of her shirt and saw the ugly red gashes, revealed by the light of the Woliu.

“I’m glad you weren’t awake for it,” he said apologetically. “It would have been very painful.”

“I’m glad too,” she said. “Thank you.” Only then did she notice she was wearing a different shirt. It was the red one, her favorite. She gave him a quizzical look, and he turned his face away.

His embarrassment smelled of ginger. She breathed it in gratefully, relieved the horrible stench was gone. Even if it had required Quion to change her. “Is there any food?” she asked him.

He nodded and rummaged in his pack for some of the peppery dried meat. She was ravenous and quickly tore it into strips small enough to chew. Some of the awkwardness lifted, the silence between them becoming more companionable, and an owl broke the stillness as it landed in a tree near them.

Bingmei gazed through the trees at the stream where they’d seen Echion and Xisi confront each other.

“Did they keep arguing after I passed out?” she asked.

“I don’t know when you passed out. But they both transformed into dragons and flew away to continue searching for us.”

“Did you hear all that they said?”

“I was more worried about staying alive than listening in. I just wanted them to go away.”

“I think it was important,” Bingmei said. “Echion wasn’t always a king. It sounded like he was an advisor to the king of Sajinau, like Jidi Majia. But then all the kingdoms came under the authority of the empress of Fusang, and he served her. From what Xisi said, the empress was the phoenix. That must have been when Echion bonded with the dragon, because he somehow stole the throne, with Xisi’s help.” She rubbed her bottom lip, thinking. “That tree with the butterflies. You heard what Xisi said about it giving them immortality. I don’t understand it—the butterflies are poisonous—but the tree had something to do with it.” She clenched her fist. It was so frustrating not knowing the full story. “You heard what they said about the Reckoning, didn’t you?”

“They both seemed terrified of it, but I don’t know what that word means.”

“It is a business term. The reckoning happens at the end of the trading season. When a merchant tallies up all his earnings and debts. The process is called the reckoning, and it will reveal if he’s made or lost money. Whatever agreement Echion and Xisi made to achieve immortality must have included something about a reckoning.”

“Or maybe that they’ll only stay immortal until something happens. An event.”

Bingmei nodded to herself. “Maybe until the phoenix comes again. Based on what Xisi said, she and Echion are both affected by the poison of those butterflies. They’ll become mortal if they eat one of them. They’d revive again just the same, but maybe we should go back and get a couple.”

“No,” Quion said firmly. “I lost my mind in there. Neither of us should go back.”

Although Bingmei wanted a weapon to use against the dragons, something told her Quion was right. There was a deep wrongness to that tree, and they’d been lucky to escape it once. The second time, they might not be so fortunate. Besides, the tugging of the phoenix shrine was pulling her in a different direction.

It struck her that Echion had told Xisi they needed to stop Bingmei before she bonded with the phoenix. What, exactly, did that mean? Was she supposed to sacrifice herself so the phoenix could come back to life? A life for a life?

She knew there was a stone sarcophagus inside the phoenix shrine. She’d seen it in her