Chapter 12
12
I wake up.
And immediately start screaming.
I’m not only in an unfathomable amount of agony, but have suddenly found myself thousands of li up in the air, which is enough of a fright to make me lose consciousness all over again.
Wind screams past my ears, deafening me. It’s difficult to appreciate the beauty of the lands below when I could plummet to my death at any moment. Craning my neck to look up, I discover that I am tightly wrapped in the grip of a creature’s massive claw.
“Please… don’t… eat me,” I wheeze out, genuinely surprised I can speak.
The dragon doesn’t respond, doesn’t give me so much as a glance. I doubt it can hear my pathetic croaking over the rush of air around us anyway. But for the briefest moment, I can feel its fear.
That fear washes over me in waves, pulsating from the center of my back and licking up my neck to weigh heavily in my skull. It’s cold and frantic, mixed with an overwhelming anguish. I wish I could calm its worry somehow, but my body is in rough shape. It’s frankly a miracle I’ve even opened my eyes.
I’m unsure where we’re going or how long we’ve been airborne. All I know is that the winds are terribly hot and dry, which tells me we are no longer in the warm, sticky climate of the Southern Kingdom of Jian. I panic for a moment. Is the dragon flying me to its lair? Will it devour me whole while I’m at my weakest?
Before I can think more on it, sleep drags me under.
I’m in and out of consciousness for Gods know how long. Days? Weeks? Full moons? I have no sense of my surroundings, no idea what time of day it is. I’m barely coherent enough to register the soft blankets upon which I lay, plus the gentle hum of a woman’s voice.
It’s a beautiful sound.
Magical and otherworldly and again so familiar that it causes my chest to ache. I know this voice, and yet I do not. I know this song, and yet I swear I have never once heard it in my life. It’s a wordless tune, pulling directly at my heartstrings. Its sweet notes resonate, vibrating in my very bones.
I’m caught somewhere between waking and a dream. I see them again, visions of myself free and in flight. The clouds are cool and refreshing against my body, the wind warping around me as I move through the skies with abandon. I’m proud and brave and strong, protecting everything between the mountaintops and the Heavens above. And at my side, my beautiful wife.
“Jyn,” I wheeze, delirious.
I don’t know why I say the name. Surely it’s the fever.
And yet it feels so comfortable on my tongue, as though I have said it a thousand times before.
I feel the cool press of a damp cloth on my forehead. My skin erupts with heat, yet my frozen core makes me shiver. The humming ceases, the woman’s song interrupted. Even though my eyes are swollen closed, I can sense movement beside me.
“Drink,” her voice orders, and the solid rim of a cup is tucked between my lips.
I obey but gag around the sharp copper taste now trickling down my esophagus. Surely it must be poison, for it’s so disgustingly bitter that it makes my tongue swell and my lungs seize. The longer the taste lingers, the sooner I begin to realize what it is I’m being fed.
Blood.
I pry my eyes open, then thrash about, my broken body shuddering in protest. “Unpleasant” doesn’t even begin to describe it. This is disgusting, made ten times worse by the fact that I can barely see.
Beside me, I can just make out the silhouette of a woman.
“Relax,” she says, calm but firm. “You must drink every last drop.”
Protests die at the base of my throat.
“Where’s the dragon?” I rasp around a mouthful of her horrifying concoction.
“Be at ease.”
“No, tell me where—”
My caregiver—or perhaps captor?—tilts the cup steeply, dumping the remaining blood into my mouth. My reflex is to spit it out, but before I can, the woman forcefully grasps my face and crushes her lips to mine.
Stunned, I swallow it all down.
I blink several times, desperately attempting to clear my blurry vision. Something strange is happening to me. Not moments before, I was in so much agony I could have sworn I was approaching death’s door. The memories of the roadside attack come rushing back to me. Those soldiers beat me within an inch of my life and would have delivered the final blow, had it not been for…
I sit up abruptly, looking down at myself. I have been stripped of all my clothes and am as naked as the day I was born. What confuses me more than my indecent exposure is my lack of injuries.
Bones that I felt break are no longer broken.
Deep cuts and open wounds inflicted upon me have healed over without a trace.
My fever is gone in an instant, along with the ache of my muscles and general fatigue. I feel like a new man: my vision is clear, my breathing steady, my strength returning in full force. I am healed, almost as if by—
Magic.
I take in my surroundings. We appear to be beneath the shade of a rocky overhang in the middle of a glittering oasis. On all sides, we are surrounded by luscious plants and tall palm trees, a deep pond at the center of it all. Beyond our little paradise are the endless dunes and hot golden sands of what I can only assume is the Western Wastelands. The merchants of Jiaoshan always speak of how taxing it is to go around the desert plains rather than endure a straight path and subject themselves to the unforgiving climate.
I look to my side, marveling at the radiant woman kneeling beside me. It’s the same woman I saw on the roadside, though I was so sure I imagined her. Now that I have my wits about me, I can appreciate the full extent of her beauty.
I can’t place her age—A-Ma used to tell me it was a rude thing to ask a lady—but if I had to venture a guess, I would say she’s no older than five and twenty. Her long black hair is silky and thick. Her skin is as fair as porcelain, rivaling the elegance and grace of the most expensive tea sets we have at the shop back home.
She is by no means delicate or dainty. Her body is strong and lean, the hard curves of muscle evident beneath her pale skin. It’s her eyes that do me in. A vibrant, stunning emerald green that sparkles in the noonday sun. They leave me breathless, my heart skipping with unbridled glee when I find myself the object of her gaze. I can’t explain why looking at her makes me feel so wonderfully at peace. Like Emperor Róng, she has an ancient quality about her. Wise, but troubled with an indescribable burden.
And then I glance down at her hand.
It wasn’t a dream, then. We really are connected by the same gray thread. It has shortened in length with our proximity, but it still hangs loose, lazily dragging down like a boat tied to a dock with too much slack, rather than changing in color or tautness, as is normally the case when two Fated Ones draw near to each other.
“You,” I whisper, at a complete loss for words. My Fated One.
Very slowly, I reach for one of the blankets beneath me and place it over my lap to cover my indecency. This woman has seen me naked and kissed me in a matter of two minutes, and I am, to be perfectly frank, overwhelmed.
“Are you feeling better?” she asks me, her tone and expression flat. A far cry from the person I heard humming just a while ago.
I nod. “Yes, thank you.”
“Good.” She stands and turns to stalk away. “Now, please leave.”
Her sudden about-face leaves me winded. I’m so full of questions that I may well fall apart.
“Wait!” I gasp, clambering to my feet like a newborn colt. “Please, wait—”
“Now!” she bellows. “I will not be saving you from your recklessness again.”
I give chase, no longer concerned by my state of nudity. I’m desperate to know more about her, desperate for answers.
I attempt to take her hand as I plead, “My lady, please—”
She lunges at me with ferocious speed, her sharp nails grazing past my cheek. I barely have time to pivot out of the way before she backhands me across the side of the head and sends me flying to the sandy ground.
The woman leaves no time to breathe, to think. She throws all her weight behind her next strike, missing my head by only an inch. The rock wall behind me crumbles beneath her mighty blow, pulverized dust billowing into the air.
I stumble out of the way, heart pounding in my throat. “I’m not trying to hurt you! I only wish to talk! I think you might be my—”
Faster than I can blink, the woman whips around and sends me flying with a hard kick to the chest. I land on my back, wheezing for breath, though I’m surprised I’m not as tender as I could be. Considering her inhuman strength and speed, she could decimate me within seconds.
She’s holding back her attacks… They’re only a warning.
But why save me, only to harm me?
Holding my hands up in surrender, I glance at our weak gray thread. This certainly was not how I imagined meeting my other half, but I refuse to let the opportunity pass me by. I have spent all my five and twenty years wondering if I would ever find her, and now that she’s here, I’m equal parts terrified and in awe.
“Please,” I rasp. “I think you’re my Fated One.”
“I know I am,” she says. Her green eyes are cold. “Now leave me the fuck alone.”