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Fifty-Four

Pin watched in horror as the kuei on which the Emperor rode rose up from the ground, its legs writhing. It rose up and up until its hindquarters left the ground and it was airborne. It shot past the great bronze-green dragon with a snap of its pincers. The dragon coiled away, but just a little too late: a pincer tore open a strip along its flank and sent boiling green blood spattering over the assembled troops below. A cheer went up, even from those who'd been scalded. But the dragon was turning. It roared down out of the sky, coming so close over the observation tower that everyone standing on it ducked, and struck the kuei a glancing blow. The kuei spun, momentarily out of control, and the end of its spiny tail flicked the observation tower. It was as though the tower had been struck with a giant hammer. It did not collapse, but reverberated, catapulting everyone who stood on it either down into the compound or out among the troops.

Pin, light spirit that he was, floated down like a leaf and landed on the hood of a tank.

"Off there!" shouted a voice from within. Pin scrambled down. Above, both kuei and dragon had surged off toward the mountains, readying themselves for another battle. Pin backed away from the tank.

"You're familiar!" a voice said. Pin turned and saw a pair of golden eyes in a severe and beautiful face.

"Jhai Tserai! I mean—I'm sorry, madam, I—"

"Jhai will do," she said. "Under the circumstances." She frowned. "You came to one of my parties."

"You've got a good memory," Pin said.

Jhai smiled. "Oh, I remember people. It's often useful. I'm looking for someone. A demon, the man you met at my party. Have you seen him?"

"Yes, he's here. I saw him in the compound. He was running toward the reactor."

Jhai exchanged glances with her companion who looked, Pin thought, too ethereal and pale to be a denizen of Hell. "What's he up to?" Jhai said aloud. But Pin did not know.

The ethereal person—surely she could not be a Celestial?—was looking up.

"That's the King of dragons!" she said. "Wherever did he come from?"

"From Heaven, I assume," Jhai said.

"No, he could not have done so. That's the whole point. He was exiled from Heaven."

Jhai frowned again. "Exiled?"

"Yes. I never found out why. I just heard rumors that there had been a terrible argument between Cloud Kingdom and the Celestial Palace, and that the Dragon King had been sent away, or had chosen to leave."

"He might have been sent into exile," Jhai said, shading her eyes with her hand as she stared into the skies, "but it looks as though he's come back."

 

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Framed