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  Their only hope was to land the straw wing before it disintegrated. Her eyes searched the mountains below for a soft landing spot, but it was one fanglike mountain after another. And then she saw the silvery oval that must be some frozen lake in a bowl formed by the mountains.

  She yanked at the left strap, trying to angle the wing toward it, only to have the strap tear off in her paw. Sometimes all you can do is trust your instincts, her old flying instructor, Sergeant Pandai, had told her, so she threw away the useless strap. Then she dug the claws of her left forepaw deep into the woven material itself and began to pull.

  If she had used all her strength, she probably would have torn a whole section from the weakened wing, but instead she used a steady tugging. Bit by bit, the wing began to point toward the oval.

  All Bayang could do was hope there was enough snow on the lake to cushion their landing and that the ice was thick enough to take their weight.

  Above them, Naue had stopped screaming. Bayang hoped the wind was still alive and had gotten away.

  Unfortunately, the thunder lord could now direct his attention solely at them. A streak of dazzling light sizzled the air near them and her scales tingled with the electric charge.

  Boom!

  The lake rose toward them quickly. It looked about a mile long and about half that in width. Wisps of snow drifted across the top.

  Even as she began to try to ease the nose up, something made her jink to the right. A lightning bolt shot past, just burning the port side.

  Boom!

  Her muzzle wriggled as smoke tickled her nostrils and she felt the warmth as the wing’s edge caught fire.

  Boom!

  “I’ll put out the fire.” Twisting her head, she saw Leech begin to free one gloved hand from the strap. The little fool was making it so hard to keep him alive.

  “Keep hold of the wing,” Bayang snapped. “Leave this to me.”

  And she used her tail to beat at the flames—gently, of course. Too much force and she’d break the wing up herself. As she put out the fire, she felt the flames char her scales.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Lightning bolts shot all around them and somehow she managed to dodge them. But that distracted her from the landing itself.

  Suddenly the lake was looming before them. With no choice, Bayang hauled at the wing, trying to nose it up. There was a terrible ripping sound and then she was tumbling through the air, her feet entangled in fragments of woven straw. And behind her, the hatchlings and Koko were shouting.

  The next moment she was rolling tail over head over a layer of snow covering the lake. As she finally lay dizzily looking up at the sky, she thought, Thank Heaven there was a cushion of snow.

  Then she raised her head to look for her friends. Scirye was a few yards away on her right with Kles fluttering over her as he tried to pull her upright. Leech was rising on all fours as he shook his head groggily.

  Leave it to Koko to land on a bare patch of ice. Every time the badger tried to get up, his paws slipped so that he went muzzle first back onto the lake.

  Of the wing itself, there were only shreds floating about in the breeze. It had served them well.

  Bayang shook the patches of woven straw from her paws and then rose on her hind legs.

  “Lady, are you all right?” Kles asked as he hovered anxiously over Scirye.

  Scirye sat up groggily. “I think so, as soon as things stop whirling around. Did you always have three heads?”

  Her griffin clicked his beak. “That’s a nasty bump you got from the crash. One of these days Bayang is going to surprise us with a soft landing.”

  The dragon rose, shaking off patches of woven straw. “And if you were bigger than a canary, Kles, you wouldn’t have to depend upon me.”

  Kles’s fur and feathers both ruffled so that he swelled half again his size. “I’ll have you know that—.”

  But Scirye had seized his tail and given it a tug. “We should be grateful Bayang got us down alive.”

  Suddenly the air grew dark as a shadow covered them. Bayang looked up at the creature floating overhead, the bones in his hands poised over his drums.

  “What did we ever do to you?” Leech demanded, already reaching for the decorative discs on an armband that would become his flying discs with a simple spell.

  The lord of thunder ignored him as he looked about the fallen comrades. “You’re just as strange a group as Lord Roland described you,” he said in Chinese. “It’s hard to believe you’re a threat to him. But he asked me to keep watch for you anyway just in case he really hadn’t killed you.”

  Koko had managed to crawl from the ice onto the snow. “Speak American, will you?”

  The man frowned. “I don’t know what you said, but I don’t like your tone. Don’t you realize you’re addressing the great and famous lord of thunder?” Annoyed, he brought the bones down upon the center drum. Lightning shot from it toward Koko. The next instant, snow and ice geysered into the air with the cold lake water that had lain beneath them.

  BOOM!

  Ears ringing, Bayang hoped the hatchlings could hear her. “Head for cover!”

  “Oh, you’ll be dead long before that,” the thunder lord sneered and began a rapid tattoo upon his drums.

  4

  Leech

  Leech had just worked the transformation spell for his flying discs even as the first lightning bolt shot down. He felt the lake’s thick surface vibrate beneath him as the bolt smashed in front of him. Blinking his eyes to clear away the spots dancing before them, his groping fingers found the discs and he climbed on. Steam plumed from the crater in the ice, but the drops were quickly freezing. Though each of them had a magical charm to protect them from the cold, it must have been overwhelmed. Leech himself was shivering. “K-K-Koko, you okay?”

  “Y-yeah,” his friend stuttered through chattering teeth as he sprawled on the ice. The frozen drops of spray had transformed his fur into a coat of diamonds. “But I’m going to turn into a K-K-Koko-cicle soon.”

  Suddenly Leech heard an urgent shout in a language he didn’t recognize. Twisting his head around, he saw a girl of about eighteen jumping up and down on the lakeshore and beckoning to them. She was dressed in a robe patched together from dozens of bits of cloth on top of which she had sewn silvery crescent moons and stars. As she bounced about, the moons and stars sparkled so that she looked like a rainbow about to explode.

  Behind her was a wagon even gaudier than her robe, with swirling patterns painted in bright reds, yellows, blues, greens, oranges, and purples. Hundreds of tiny mirror chips glittered even in the gloom. In bright daylight, the wagon would dazzle the eyes.

  “We have to get off the lake,” Scirye said as she struggled to her feet with Kles’s help.

  Leech managed to stand up, but Koko kept flopping on his muzzle.

  Ice crunched as Bayang dug her claws into the frozen lake and shoved herself forward on her belly. “This is no time to clown around!” Picking up the badger, she flung him onto her back like a sack of flour.

  The ominous drumming grew louder as the lord of thunder dove toward them.

  There was no time to think, only time to act if he was to buy some time for his friends. All right.

  As he rose into the air, the Voice complained, How come you’re listening to me now and not when I warned you about the dragon?

  The smell of ozone stung his nose as he pulled off the other armband. Because these are the only times you make sense, Leech responded.

  I’m only saying what you’re feeling in your heart, the Voice said.

  Leech ignored the Voice as he spat on the armband and shouted, “Change!” Immediately it began to tingle as the ring expanded with a musical chime. About twenty inches, the metal ring was as light as a feather and hard enough to smash through walls.

  On the cloud above him, the lord of thunder looked surprised. Perhaps when the dragon had not used her wings, he’d thought himself safe
in the air. The last thing he’d expected was a human to attack him.

  Leech soared higher and faster, the sheer joy of flying temporarily replacing his fear until a bolt sizzled past his ear. His hair literally stood on end in the electrically charged air. And his eyes were temporarily dazzled by the flash, so he could see nothing.

  Loop! Loop! the Voice said urgently.

  Though Leech practiced every chance he got, he was still just learning how to fly. Instead of arching upward in a loop, he began to corkscrew through the air instead, just managing to miss the next bolt that whizzed by.

  He tried to straighten his course but only wound up plunging toward the lake.

  You’re moving through the air, not standing on the ground, the Voice shouted. His frustrated tone reminded Leech uncomfortably of Bayang when she coached him. Make your center of balance lower.

  Leech bent his knees but he still spun out of control toward the lake.

  Lower! the Voice screamed.

  Beneath him, he saw the horrified faces of his friends. And when the lord of thunder was finished with him, they would be next.

  Let me handle this, the Voice said.

  With dismay, he realized that Bayang had been right: he was still only a beginner at flying … but the Voice was not. The Voice had enough skill to take on the lord of thunder, but if they survived, what would happen afterward? In the Arctic, the Voice had taken over and its violent rage had made him as much a danger to Leech’s friends as his enemies.

  What if the Voice decided to attack Bayang after he dealt with the thunder lord? How do I know you won’t try to attack Bayang after we take care of the thunder lord?

  You don’t, replied the Voice. But if you don’t let me fly right now your friends will die.

  There was no choice. You do it, Leech said and then warned, But I won’t let you harm my friends.

  As he surrendered to the Voice, he felt himself squatting so low that his knees almost touched his chest. Wrapping his arms around his body, the Voice straightened out his legs in a deliberate fashion. No longer out of control, he veered upward again. See? Don’t fight your motion, the Voice coached. Guide it instead.

  Even though it was his ankles that crossed over each other, Leech felt like a spectator. He wondered if this was how the Voice felt sometimes.

  His body twisted around in a violent pirouette, altering his direction just before another bolt zipped through the spot where his old trajectory would have sent him. Smoke tickled his nostrils and with a jolt he realized his clothes were smoldering.

  But as he angled upward toward the lord of thunder, his cloud began to retreat, keeping them out of reach as the lord sent bolt after bolt streaking at them.

  The Voice sent them swerving left and right, up and down to avoid the flashing missiles, until he finally opened Leech’s mouth and yelled in frustration. “Stay still!”

  “Why fight the battle you want to fight?” jeered the lord and sent another jagged bolt of lightning at them.

  “Think you’re safe?” the Voice said defiantly. Leech’s arm whipped around violently and sent the disc spinning in a blur toward the lord.

  “Ai!” the thunder lord protested indignantly as he ducked.

  “Next time I won’t miss,” the Voice boasted as he held out Leech’s hand for the disc returning to them like a boomerang. That was something Leech had yet to learn how to do.

  Electricity crackled from one wart to another on the thunder lord’s bumpy skin until he glowed. His fists beat a quick tattoo on the drums as small bolts of lightning shot like a cloud of arrows.

  The Voice sent Leech’s body swerving to the right. Even as the lightning crackled by, it caught the disc, striking a tinging note. The disc shone as it sparked and fizzled with electricity until it buried itself halfway into the frozen lake.

  What do I do? the Voice wailed in despair. The disc is so full of lightning we can’t touch it right away.

  Leech thought quickly. Better let me take over. I work better with Bayang than you. We have to draw the thunder lord down near the lake where Bayang can reach it. Then we can leave the rest to her.

  You can’t trust her to do anything, the Voice protested. She’ll let us die.

  His own family had killed Lee No Cha, so perhaps Leech could understand why the Voice didn’t have faith in anyone.

  You may be a better flier and fighter, but I’m better at thinking, Leech insisted. It’s your turn to trust me.

  All right, the Voice admitted reluctantly, and as soon as Leech had regained control of his body, he looked over his shoulder as he sped away. “Hey, Ugly. I bet you can’t catch me,” he jeered.

  Even if the thunder lord didn’t understand English, the nearly fatal attack had angered him. He rocketed after Leech, flinging one bolt after another. Leech was nowhere the accomplished flier that the Voice was, so he executed the Voice’s instructions clumsily, somehow always managing to zig and zag just in the nick of time and avoiding being burned to charcoal.

  Back and forth they went through the sky with the pursuit taking them lower and lower to the ground. All the while, Leech kept up a running string of taunts that made the thunder lord fume and curse.

  Finally they were flying only twenty feet from the ground. Leech had planned to take the thunder lord even closer to the earth, but even if Bayang could not fly, she could still leap.

  With a roar of Yashe!, she sprang into the air, paws ripping through the cloud as they reached for the thunder lord.

  And grasped only empty air as the startled thunder lord hopped upward.

  By now the Voice had grown shrill with frustration and attack. Turn!

  Leech crossed his ankles and spun in an awkward pirouette that sent him darting back toward the thunder lord like a human rocket. If he could knock the thunder lord down to the lake, Bayang could take care of him.

  The thunder lord was so surprised that his drumsticks paused in midair.

  Kill him, the Voice shrieked.

  Adrenaline pumped through Leech’s body as he aimed himself at the lord’s chest, but in the last moment the creature leaned backward. Leech missed him, but his fists struck one of the drums.

  Crack!

  As he shot past, he had just enough time to glimpse hairline fissures spreading across the body of the drum.

  Boom!

  The drum exploded in a huge fireball that sent Leech plummeting through the air into a drift of snow.

  Get up, get up! the Voice screeched.

  Rolling over, Leech shot back into the air.

  The thunder lord was still alive but rising into the air. He’d dropped the bone sticks and was slapping at the flames that had spread to the rest of the drums around his body. There was a second explosion as another drum blew up. The next moment, the thunder lord rocketed out of the cloud of fire and smoke, trying to pull off the fiery drums.

  He was still trying to do that as he disappeared above them.

  5

  Bayang

  Bayang found it faster to wriggle on her belly across the ice and snow than to try to walk as she made her way over to where Leech was hovering on his discs, struggling to tug his weapon ring free from the lake. The electricity seemed to have discharged, and though it was no longer hot, it was stuck in the ice.

  As she neared him, the dragon noticed that the tips of his hair had been burned by lightning bolts, but at least he had survived yet another of Roland’s traps.

  “Let me help you get that,” she said, relieved as she stretched out a paw. “You had me worried there. I can’t figure out your flying. Sometimes you’re as clumsy as an amateur and other times you’re as polished as a dragon.”

  Leech’s head jerked up, startled, and the faces of Lee’s young victims flashed through his mind. In each re-incarnation, Lee No Cha had looked different, and yet the fear in their eyes had always been the same.

  Bayang’s paw stopped halfway between them. She thought she had overcome his mistrust, but humans were such complicated creatures
. What had she done wrong?

  “Hey, buddy,” Koko called from her back. “Did you get your brains fried?”

  “I just want the ring,” Leech mumbled and bent over again to pull at the disc embedded in the ice.

  When Bayang heard the thunder, she looked up in alarm at the sky, but there was no sign of the lord of thunder. Then she felt the vibrations beneath her, followed by a volley of what sounded like rifle shots. She whipped her head this way and that trying to see the threat, but saw no one but her friends.

  The girl in the gaudy robe began shouting frantically to them in the New Tongue, which had evolved over the centuries from the many different people and cultures in the empire. “Alarm! Alarm! Danger! Peril!”

  A feline creature about twice the size of a cat shouted, “She means the ice is breaking! Get off it now!”

  There was a loud crack behind Bayang. Twisting her head, she saw the snow fall into a crevice in the ice. The lightning bolt must have cracked the surface. The crevice snaked toward them almost as fast as one of the thunder lord’s lightning bolts.

  Bayang knew how important the weapon ring was to Leech. When he’d been abandoned at the orphanage, the weapon ring had been left along with the armband with the flying discs. “Get to shore,” she said to Leech. “I’ll get the ring for you.”

  But Leech went on tugging frantically as if he hadn’t heard her—or didn’t trust her. With an exasperated grunt, Bayang stretched her long serpentine body forward and grabbed the ring in one paw and Leech in the other.

  The ice shattered as she yanked the ring free. The metal was already starting to freeze as she handed it to the hatchling. “What’s gotten into you, Leech?”

  Leech clutched the ring as if his life depended on it. “Nothing.”

  The lake was no place to argue now. “Take Koko to the shore. I’ll get Scirye.”

  Bayang’s sinuous body was already twisting around as Leech floated behind her. The next moment Leech sped through the air with Koko on his back. Bayang watched them as she wriggled toward the Kushan hatchling.