92Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtvQfVon7ip92Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXg1sXhNT4
Ai Lin woke to silence.
Not from noise. Not from touch. From inexplicable sensation.
She lay motionless for several seconds without opening her eyes, listening. Beside her Leah breathed evenly, deeply, peacefully. Night wind rustled beyond the window. Somewhere far away an owl hooted.
Everything was as it should be.
And everything was wrong.
The temple's magic that same ancient, cold power wrapping this place in a protective barrier had changed. Barely perceptibly, as if someone had drawn a hand across a lake's surface, leaving ripples. Imperceptible. Momentary. But for one who felt every breath of these walls, it sounded like an alarm bell.
The protection had been breached.
From within.
Ai Lin slowly opened her eyes, staring into the darkness of the ceiling. Her heart beat steadily but faster than usual. Instinct that same dragon instinct that had saved her so many times screamed: leave, hide, run.
But she couldn't run. Not from here. Couldn't leave Leah alone.
Maybe a mistake. Maybe just wind. Or an animal wandered too close to the boundary.
She needed to check.
Carefully, trying not to wake the one sleeping beside her, Ai Lin freed herself from the embrace. Leah mumbled something in her sleep, reached toward where Ai Lin had just been, but didn't wake.
Ai Lin froze, looking at her relaxed, peaceful face so trusting in sleep.
She's exhausted. Two days of running, sleepless nights before that. Let her sleep. If it's a false alarm, why frighten her?
Ai Lin stood silently, barefoot, and stepped toward the door.
The door was ajar.
A narrow strip of light from the corridor fell on the floor.
Ai Lin froze.
The door had been closed when they went to sleep. She clearly remembered bolting it from inside.
Cold ran down her spine.
Something's wrong.
She slowly turned, cast a last glance at sleeping Leah.
Quickly. I'll check and return.
She turned and went out into the corridor.
***
The corridor met her with silence.
Too dense. Too heavy.
Oil lamps on the walls burned dimly, casting trembling shadows. Stone floor was cold under bare feet. It smelled of incense and something metallic, barely perceptible.
Ai Lin took several steps forward, listening.
Nothing. No footsteps, no breathing, no rustle of robes on stone.
Too empty.
She walked a bit farther, turned a corner, and froze.
At the end of the corridor, where the passage turned toward the central hall, stood figures.
Five. Six. Seven.
Monks in dark robes with hoods drawn almost completely covering their faces. They stood motionless like statues, staring at her.
Her heart beat harder.
"Master Chen?" she called quietly, not raising her voice.
No one answered.
Ai Lin stepped back slowly, carefully.
The figures moved.
Not all at once. First two on the edges smoothly, synchronously, as if on command. Then the others. They walked soundlessly, gliding over stone as if their feet didn't touch the floor.
"Stop," Ai Lin said louder, and her voice sounded too sharp in the dead emptiness of the corridor. "What's happening?"
They didn't stop.
She turned to run.
And then saw that two more stood behind her.
They'd appeared from somewhere. Soundlessly. As if materialized from shadows.
One of them extended his hand.
Ai Lin recoiled, but didn't have time.
Fingers closed on her wrist hard, painfully.
Ai Lin tried to jerk away, but in that same moment felt something cold settle on her skin. Metal. A thin circlet that snapped shut with a quiet click.
The second monk grabbed her other arm. She tried to break free, but the fingers held firmly, implacably. Another cold, narrow bracelet closed on her second wrist.
Click.
And in that same instant something exploded inside.
Not physically. Deeper.
Magic.
Cold, alien, enveloping. Like an invisible net cast over her whole body. It didn't compress, didn't choke simply was, dense, sticky, paralyzing.
Ai Lin tried to jerk away. Wrench her arm free. Push him away.
Her body didn't obey.
Muscles froze as if filled with lead. Even breathing became difficult air came slowly, with effort, as through thick fabric.
A cocoon. Magical cocoon.
She tried to scream, call for Leah, anything.
No sound came.
Her throat constricted as if an invisible hand squeezed it from outside. Lips moved soundlessly.
Panic struck in a cold wave.
The bond. Through the bond.
Ai Lin closed her eyes, concentrating on that thread connecting her with Leah. Tried to send a call an impulse of alarm, fear, plea for help.
The thread stretched and met a wall.
Not solid. The connection didn't break but was muffled, as if someone had laid a thick layer of cotton between them. The impulse passed but weakened, distorted, barely distinguishable.
No. No, no, no...
Monks surrounded her from all sides. Hands lay on her shoulders, back, arms. Not roughly. Almost tenderly, but implacably.
They led her.
Ai Lin tried to resist with every cell, every nerve. But her body was alien, wouldn't obey, moved only where they led it. Feet walked on their own, one after another, like a puppet's.
The corridor gave way to stairs. Narrow. Stone. Leading down into darkness from which came cold and something ancient.
Leah. Leah, wake up. Please.
But the thread was silent muffled and useless.
***
At the bottom of the stairs opened a hall.
Enormous, with a high vaulted ceiling disappearing into darkness. Torches burned along the walls, casting trembling shadows on stone columns. In the center rose something round a stone platform surrounded by four pillars.
A place for sacrifice.
Ai Lin recognized it from grandmother's stories.
No. Not here.
They led her to the platform. Stopped.
One of the monks tall stepped forward and threw back his hood.
Master Chen.
His face was calm, almost sorrowful. He looked at her with a long gaze, and in that gaze was no malice. Only... determination.
"Forgive me, child," he said quietly. "But this is necessary. For the temple. For the mountains. For all of us. We've guarded this temple for centuries. But protection weakens. Ancient magic fades. We need a new sacrifice. Dragon blood. Dragon pearl."
He paused, looking somewhere aside.
"The hunters came not long ago and offered a deal. We let them in, they help us renew protection. Your sacrifice will save these mountains for centuries."
Ai Lin wanted to scream, spit in his face, anything.
But her voice wouldn't obey.
Master Chen nodded to someone behind her.
Hands on her shoulders increased pressure. And the cocoon's magic squeezed sharply, painfully, like a vise.
Something inside tore outward.
Not by her will but forcibly.
Dragon.
Her dragon essence that always slumbered deep inside, obedient and controlled, suddenly burst to the surface, yanked out by alien magic like a hook from depths.
Pain sharp and tearing. Not the transformation she was used to. Different. Wrong. As if someone were turning her inside out, breaking bones at wrong angles, stretching skin too quickly.
Her body exploded.
Bones crunched. Flesh tore. Scales broke through skin in a wave crimson on head and mane, dark gray on flanks. Wings unfurled, striking stone columns. Tail lashed the floor, leaving a deep scratch.
After several agonizing seconds, where a girl had been stood a dragon.
Large. Flexible. Beautiful even in her fury.
Golden eyes flared.
The dragon roared low, guttural and lunged forward toward the exit.
Monks stumbled back.
She ran to the stairs, but light struck from above.
A blinding flash emanating from somewhere on the ceiling covered her whole body. Agony pierced every scale, every cell.
Bonds.
Glowing lines unfurled in the air like a net cast by an expert hand and fell on the dragon. Wound around neck, paws, wings, tail. Bit into flesh with a hiss.
Magic surged from her body like blood from an open wound.
Ai Lin choked. Her legs buckled. She crashed onto her side heavily, awkwardly body striking stone with a dull thud.
The bonds tightened harder.
Each breath came with difficulty. Each attempt to move brought a new wave of suffering.
Leah...
Monks approached closer. Grabbed the bonds' ends and dragged her dragged across stone floor to the hall's center, to the platform.
She tried to resist. Dug claws into stone, but paws slipped, finding no purchase. Tried to turn her head, bite.
But the bonds bit deeper, and torment became unbearable.
The world swam before her eyes.
***
They lifted her onto the platform seven monks straining under the weight of dragon body. Laid her on cold stone. Stretched paws to the sides, secured bonds to iron rings mounted in the platform.
Ai Lin lay gasping for air in ragged gulps.
Master Chen approached closer. Stood beside her head. Looked down, and in his gaze was sorrow.
"Soon it will be over," he said quietly. "Your sacrifice will save these mountains. Save the temple. You'll become legend, child."
Ai Lin tried to growl, but her voice came out hoarse, broken.
He turned and walked into shadow.
She remained alone.
Bound. Helpless. Dying.
And the bond with Leah was muffled, almost useless.
***
Time dragged.
Without windows, without sunlight only torches on columns slowly burning down. Ai Lin didn't know how long passed. An hour? Two?
Pain gradually dulled didn't leave, simply became familiar, background. Her body went limp. Strength left drop by drop, sucked out by the bonds.
She lay staring into darkness of ceiling.
Thought of Leah.
About how they'd slept beside each other last night. About the warmth of her hands. About peaceful breathing. About how for the first time in twenty years Ai Lin had felt... safe.
I'm sorry. Sorry I didn't wake you. Sorry I was so foolish.
Tears rose to her eyes hot and salty. They rolled down scales, fell on stone.
Where they fell, a tiny green sprout broke through.
***
Footsteps.
Slow. Measured.
Ai Lin with difficulty turned her head as far as bonds on her neck allowed.
From a side door hidden behind one of the columns emerged a man.
Tall. Lean. In an expensive dark suit contrasting with the hall's ancientness. Hair graying at temples, slicked back. Face aristocratic with fine features.
He walked unhurriedly as if strolling through a park.
His steps sounded soft leather soles on stone. But each echoed in the hall's silence like a heartbeat.
Hunters standing along walls in shadow parted. Without words. Without command. Simply the path opened before him.
He stopped at the platform.
Looked down at the bound dragon.
And Ai Lin saw his eyes.
Dark. Almost black. Bottomless. Without a trace of sympathy or curiosity. Simply an appraising gaze. The gaze of a collector looking at a new acquisition.
"Beautiful specimen," he said quietly in Chinese. His voice was even, almost soft. "Red Flame Clan. Last of them."
He paused, tilting his head as if studying a painting in a museum.
"The pearl has reached maturity," he continued thoughtfully. "Perfect time. Perfect place." He smiled without warmth. "Master Chen has done well."
Ai Lin tried to growl. Only a wheeze escaped her throat.
The man looked into her eyes, and she recognized him though she'd never seen him. Shen Yuanlong. The one who killed her family.
"Don't be afraid," he said almost tenderly. "Soon it will all be over. You'll simply... sleep. And won't wake."
He turned, made a gesture with his hand, and the bonds squeezed.
Sharply. Unbearably.
Ai Lin choked. Her back arched. Agony pierced her chest where the pearl was forming the focus of all dragon magic.
Something inside cracked.
The magical cocoon that had held her in isolation for hours, blocking the bond, suddenly burst under pressure.
A critical moment. Death was so close that dragon magic exploded in a last desperate attempt to survive and broke through the barrier.
The thread between her and Leah flared.
Brightly. Agonizingly. Desperately.
Ai Lin didn't think. Simply gathered everything that remained every drop of strength, every spark of magic and screamed.
Not with voice. Through the bond.
LEAH!
The call broke through walls, through stone, through distance. Pure. Desperate. Full of suffering and fear.
Please. I'm here. Below. Help me.
And for a second one short, precious second, she felt response.
Hot. Furious. Close.
Coming.
***
Leah woke to a scream piercing her chest.
Not sound. Imprint.
The bond between them exploded with sharp, icy, desperate pain tearing from within. She jerked upright, gasping. Her heart pounded so fiercely her ribcage ached.
The bond blazed.
Didn't pull. Didn't ache. Burned with unbearable fire that pain that comes only when the one you're bonded to is dying.
Ai Lin.
Her hand shot to the side, where she should have been lying.
Empty.
The mattress cold. Blanket thrown aside.
"No," Leah whispered. "No, no, no..."
She jumped up, legs buckled had to grab the wall. The room tilted.
Below. She's below. In danger.
The door flew open.
On the threshold stood Teng the young monk with a frightened face. Lips trembling. Hands clenched into fists.
"She..." he began in Chinese, stammering. "They took her. Master Chen. Hunters. They... I heard footsteps at night. Went down. Saw them leading her away. Wanted to stop them but... there are few of us. Twenty with Master Chen. The rest... didn't know."
"Where?" Leah cut him off. Her voice sounded hoarse, alien.
"Below. Old hall. Place for..." he hesitated, swallowed. "For sacrifice."
Leah looked at him for several seconds.
Then turned, grabbed her backpack, pulled out the knife the only weapon she had. Shoved it in her waistband.
"Lead," she said.
"There are guards," Teng breathed. "Two at the doors. And in the hall... many. More than twenty hunters and ours... about twenty."
"I don't care," Leah cut him off. "Take me to her. Now."
Teng looked into her eyes and something in that gaze broke. Or conversely, hardened.
He nodded.
"Follow me."
***
They ran through corridors soundlessly, barefoot on cold stone. Teng ahead, Leah behind.
The bond blazed in her chest, pointing direction. Down. Lower still.
Hold on. I'm coming. Hold on.
The corridor ended at a narrow door reinforced with iron.
Teng stopped before it.
"There," he whispered. "Behind this door, stairs down. Then another door. The hall. Two guards at the second door."
Leah nodded.
Then turned to him.
"Leave," Leah said. "Right now. Take those who aren't with them and leave the temple. Don't look back."
Teng shook his head.
"I'll stay."
"Teng..."
"This is my temple too," he said quietly, and in his voice was steel. "And what they're doing... is wrong."
Leah looked at him a thin youth in monk's robe with trembling hands and icy gaze.
She nodded.
"Then step back. Far back."
He retreated to the wall, pressed his back to stone.
And his eyes widened when he saw what began happening to her.
***
The transformation was quick and agonizing her body still remembered the exhaustion of recent days, wounds not fully healed. But fury gave strength.
Bones crunched, restructuring. Shoulders broadened. Spine lengthened. Clothing tore and fell in tatters to the floor.
Fur surged in a wave silvery, almost glowing even in the corridor's darkness.
Muzzle elongated. Long fangs emerged from gums sharp and capable of crushing bone.
In a few agonizing seconds, before Teng stood a she-wolf.
Enormous, silvery with golden eyes full of cold fury.
Teng pressed palms to his mouth, holding back a scream.
The she-wolf turned to the iron door.
And struck with her shoulder.
Metal shrieked, hinges burst, the door tore free with a crash and flew down the stairs, striking steps.
Echo spread through the temple like an alarm bell.
But the she-wolf didn't stop.
***
The stairs were narrow and steep. She raced down, claws scraping stone, leaving deep furrows. Each leap echoed with pain in her ribs.
Ai Lin. I'm coming. Hold on.
At the bottom, a second door wooden.
Before it stood two monks.
One held a staff. The second, a knife.
They saw the she-wolf and went pale.
Leah didn't slow.
The first tried to bar the way with his staff, but she crashed into him with all her weight, knocked him down. The monk's head struck stone. He went limp.
The second swung his knife.
A growl tore from her throat low and full of fury. The monk recoiled, knife falling from trembling fingers.
The she-wolf leaped.
Didn't kill simply stunned.
He collapsed and lay unconscious.
Ahead was a passage wide and low. From it came cold and the smell of ancient magic.
Agonizing and alien.
That same kind that bit into flesh through glowing bonds.
The bond exploded with pain.
She's there. Right there.
The she-wolf lunged forward and burst into the hall.
***
The hall was enormous.
High vaulted ceiling lost in darkness. Stone columns stood around the perimeter, covered in ancient carvings. Torches burned dimly, casting trembling shadows.
And in the center a platform.
On it lay her.
Ai Lin.
As a dragon large and beautiful, with scales shimmering crimson and gray even in dim light.
But the dragon seemed small and shrunken. As if strength had abandoned it.
Bonds covered the body in a solid net of glowing lines. Wound around neck, paws, wings so tightly the scales beneath them were barely visible. Each line pulsed slowly, rhythmically, and with each pulse the body flinched.
Golden eyes were open.
Clouded. Full of suffering.
They found the wolf slowly, with difficulty, and something trembled in them.
Leah.
In the hall along walls, between columns, stood people. Many people.
Hunters in dark clothing, with weapons. Twenty, maybe more.
Monks in brown robes. Also about twenty.
All stared at the she-wolf.
And in the hall's center, between platform and entrance, stood a man.
Tall and broad-shouldered in black hunter's uniform, with scars on face and hands. He leaned on his left leg, right slightly twisted, crippled. Trace of that night a year ago when the she-wolf had torn his tendons.
Zhang Wei.
Leah recognized him instantly. That same hunter she'd crippled in the forest. When she'd saved Ai Lin the first time.
Their gazes met.
In his eyes splashed hatred cold and absolute.
"She-wolf," he said quietly, voice hoarse. "Finally."
From shadow behind a column emerged another man.
Older, lean. In an expensive dark suit, graying temples, aristocrat's bearing. He moved unhurriedly as if strolling through his estate.
Stopped beside Zhang Wei.
Who immediately bowed his head in respectful bow despite his crippled leg.
"Lord Shen," he said.
Shen Yuanlong nodded barely perceptibly and looked at the she-wolf.
Bottomless black eyes. Without emotion. Without surprise. As if everything went according to plan.
"Ah," he said calmly. "The she-wolf woke too. How predictable."
Leah stood at the hall's entrance tense, ready to leap.
Twenty hunters. Twenty monks. Zhang Wei with thirst for revenge and a crippled leg. Shen Yuanlong with his cold gaze.
And Ai Lin on the platform, in bonds, dying.
The dragon's golden eyes found the wolf.
Full of agony. Despair.
And fear.
No, a voice sounded in Leah's head weak, broken. No, Leah, don't. Leave!
Ai Lin tried to lift her head, straining her last strength. Bonds bit deeper, preventing movement. A hoarse roar tore from her throat not words, only sound full of despair.
Leave! she screamed through the bond, and the voice in Leah's head trembled with pain. Run! Don't save me! Leah, please, leave!
Bonds squeezed harder and she choked, body convulsed.
Run, she whispered mentally, and tears flowed down scales. Please...
Leah looked at her at golden eyes full of despair, at body bound by glowing bonds, at the one she'd searched for a whole year.
Something inside snapped.
Fury. Pure, white, all-consuming.
Never, she answered mentally, and the bond between them flared. I won't leave you. Never.
She lowered her head, bared fangs.
And lunged forward straight to the platform where Ai Lin lay.92Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIlFeYKu1qf
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