The Bird and the Wyrm-Chapter 60

Bran felt off as he returned from the meditation. As he opened his eyes a sudden dizziness overtook him and he keeled over to one side, barely reaching a hand out to stop himself from smacking into the ground.

"Bran!"

Bran waved a hand. "I’m fine," he said. "Just... something’s off." That dread that had started during the meditation hadn’t gone away but was instead only getting stronger.

Aunt Yeung clicked her teeth. "Everything’s off tonight," she said. "It’s not just the intruders. There’s this fog as well. Unnatural all of it." She drummed her fingers on her knee. Both she and Bran were sitting cross-legged on the floor on either side of an ornate censer.

Had this been a few years ago, Bran wouldn’t needed to be here, but it had been too long since he greeted his fairy stones and this was the fastest way, though it would have been better if Bran could visit them in person. Perhaps he’d bring Misha along. He’d probably find it interesting.

"Say, Bran," began Aunt Yeung. "You don’t think this has something to do with Misha Long, do you?"

The candle flames dotted around the room flickered wildly.

Aunt Yeung raised a hand. "Alright, don’t get all irritated now. I’m only asking a reasonable question."

Another time she would have argued but right now she was mostly spent from raising the manor’s defenses. And Bran knew that she was right about the question being reasonable. He sighed.

Cloud Flame Manor hadn’t avoided conflict for the last how many years only due to the reputation of its leaders. Its exact location was also shrouded in mystery forcing most to rely on being personally invited. While Bran was still regarded as a resident here, Misha was not and yet he’d been able to find the place all the same.

Misha had explained how he’d used a compass jar spell and a handwritten letter of Aunt Yeung’s to track her down, which was reasonable enough, but the timing of their arrival here and the attack just seemed too coincidental.

"He hasn’t betrayed us," said Bran flatly. "He doesn’t have the character or the means to. He knows next to nothing about the jianghu."

"I know," replied his aunt. "I do not think it possible for the boy to do something knowingly."

"Even unknowingly, he’s not stupid-"

"I do not mean that he has done anything," cut in Aunt Yeung. She knew Bran was as tired, if not more so than herself, so she held back her irritation borne from fatigue. "I merely think we should exercise the proper level of discernment when it comes to the dragon. You’ve heard of the disappearances, yes?"

Bran rubbed his face with his hands. He wanted to go find Misha then sleep, preferably in the same room. "Yes, I think so. Why?"

"Today I received a missive from..." There came a knock at the door and Aunt Yeung paused and went to it. She made a quick spell gesture to unseal the door then opened it. "Yes?"

Outside Cheungyi, her personal guard, stood with one of the young men from the nearby village behind her, Ah-Boon or Ah-Beng or something.

Cheungyi made a quick, respectful salute. "Ah-Boon has just informed me that the dragon Misha has gone outside the barrier in order to find Bran and..." her voice trailed off as her eyes caught sight of Bran inside the room. She rounded on Ah-Boon. "I thought you said you saw Bran outside the barrier?!"

Ah-Boon, who had also just spotted Bran, gaped. "I... No, I didn’t. Misha said he heard him from outside, like he was in trouble."

Bran sprung up and came to the door. "Where did Misha go?" he growled.

Ah-Boon pointed shakily toward one side of the building. There was a side door along that way, Bran knew, but it had been one of the first to be sealed. "He went-"

Bran didn’t wait for Ah-Boon to finish and pushed past him and Cheungyi.

"Bran!"

He turned and caught the sword that his aunt chucked in his direction.

"A temporary replacement," she said.

Bran’s jaw and throat was too tight to speak so he gave his aunt a grateful nod and headed out.

--

It was difficult to traverse the mountainside with all the mist but I didn’t want to transform into a dragon, at least not right now. That form was big and too easily spotted. Best to remain a human and hide in the shadows. If something was giving you trouble, making you call on me of all people to help you, then they had to be a powerful enemy so I’d better gain every advantage I could.

But even as I went over in my head different strategies (mostly ones I’d learned from video games) I started to worry that I’d been duped.

Your voice had sounded not exactly near but not all that far off and yet I’d been walking for a while and found nothing. Not just no you but no enemies either.

I was about ready to turn around and head back when I heard a twig snap.

I whirled around and quickly searched for some cover just in case.

Then the voice came again.

"Misha..."

It was you.

"Where are you!" I shouted. I know I shouldn’t have but couldn’t help it.

A fine metal chain shot out from the mist and wrapped around my wrists. I cried out and instinctively yanked back against them, falling to the ground in my efforts.

It was the handsome librarian and that thieving bell boy! It had to be! Who else used chains like...

My mind ground to a halt as the white mist morphed and revealed my attackers.

"No..."

My father’s grin grew wider and he gave Colin next to him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Long time no see, son," he said. "Tell me, whose voice do you hear when Colin speaks, mm? Is it your mother? I think it must be. She’s the person you want to see the most, after all..."

I scrambled to my feet then slipped and fell again. The chains burned into my skin but the pain paled in comparison to the fear rounding my body with my every heart beat.

Why was he here?

"You’re dead..." I croaked. "I... I saw your body..." Images of the morgue flashed before my eyes as my brain automatically recalled those memories. They felt like they were from an age ago.

Artemis nodded and folded his arms, clearly pleased. "That was all thanks to Colin here," he said. "Useful puppets, hungry ghosts. Give them a goal and the promise of satiety and they’ll go to the ends of the earth for you. But of course, you know all about that."

My father has always been a gloater and a monologer. Before his business relocated him to Hong Kong, he’d come home each evening and regale me stories of his great exploits of the day. At the time I’d been impressed, but now I just felt sick.

I tried to clear my mind and find that cool spring of ice that lived at the nape of my neck, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t find it. I’d faced worse things than this arrogant man, had done so just a few days ago, yet why did my terror now far eclipse anything from before? I felt like I was a small child again being scolded, not a powerful dragon.

"W-what are, are you t-t-talking... about...?" I stammered. I kneeled on the ground and stealthily picked up a sharp stone. Maybe I could wedge it between the chains and get them off. Perhaps it was just the chains that was stopping my ability to transform... fгeewebnovёl.com

"Oh, listen to the little boy stammer." Artemis laughed. "Chuut lei!" He ordered.

There was a small rustle to the side and another figure walked stiffly out of the mist.

Mini Colin.

The stone in my hands dropped to the ground.

It was my fault. All this was my fault. My hands shook and my vision started to go black at the edges.

Run, run, run! a voice in my head demanded, but I couldn’t. The chains that bound me still held me, the ones around my wrist and the ones encircling my life. When my father decided something, it was all that I could do to go along. I was powerless to do anything else.

Seemingly sensing my destitution, my father dropped his arms and pulled something from his pocket. As he stepped toward me, I saw that in his hand glinted a crystal. Dread filled my lungs, turning my insides cold and my breath white.

Death was coming for me.

"Hold him steady, Colin," instructed my father. He held the crystal out in front of him and began to chant.

I didn’t know the words nor their meaning, but their purpose was clear to me.

I looked away from him and tried to weakly crawl away. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to die, my mind didn’t have room for any real thoughts like that, but it was my fear instead that kept me moving. Anything to be away from here, be away from him, but even as I struggled I felt the strength bleed out of me, bleed down my arms and along the chains. In a sort of distant way I suddenly understood that my own power, my qi, was being used to restrain me.

How ironic...

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