The Wandering God

19 Snatch Food From the Dragon's Mouth 2/2

19 龍口奪糧
lóngkǒu duó liáng
Snatch food from the dragon's mouth.
Speed up the summer harvesting before the storm breaks.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I intended to seek out Kageyama and ask if my suspicions about Nakamura were correct, but when I returned, Guang Han's carriage was waiting in the courtyard for me again. All thoughts of kitsune and tanuki fled in the face of an angry dragon.

I had scarcely dismounted from Nakamura's carriage when Guang Han burst from his own.

Before I could think what to do he had grabbed my upper arm near the shoulder and started dragging me toward his carriage. I tried to dig in my heels, but my feet skidded uselessly on the straw covered cobblestones of the courtyard.

"I heard you paid the Second Prince a visit this morning, my dear, followed by the Ambassador..." Guang Han said, his words laced with steel.

He was having me watched! It seemed it wasn't only Zhen who had been following me this summer.

I knew if I entered the carriage with Guang Han, it was unlikely I would emerge whole, or even breathing. So I did what anyone else would do when being dragged by a dragon back to its lair. I started to struggle and cry out.

Around us servants and guards looked on. Many seemed torn, but none dared step in. Cowards. Fools. I twisted in Guang Han's iron like grasp, trying to free myself, so I could flee. If I could get inside Chuanfang, I could find Zakhar, or even Kageyama to help me—

"What are you doing?"

Guang Han and I both froze. Sanli stood there, dressed casually in linen pants and a shirt. Both hands were tucked in his pockets, and his hair was wet. I noticed the salt crusted about his forehead, and realized he had been swimming.

"My betrothed and I are going for a little ride, so we can have a little talk," said Guang Han. The emphasis on 'little' sounded sinister.

"You can talk to her just fine where you stand," Sanli said. The look on his face surprised me. He was not smiling, and his green eyes burned with something like anger.

It was not an expression I had seen on him before.

"You... you're the bastard prince," said Guang Han, mouth quirking in a sneer.

"A pleasure, Lord Guang," said Sanli, inclining his head in a mocking show of courtesy. He nodded toward where Guang Han's hand gripped me, so tight my arm tingled with numbness. "Let her go."

"Do not presume to tell me what to do with my betrothed."

"That may be... but she is still in my employ. And you are on my land," said Sanli, taking a step forward, his hands still in his pockets.

"Careful, little prince. It sounds like you want a fight."

"Careful, dragon. I may be a bastard, but I am still a prince."

Guang Han's smile widened, then he turned from Sanli and leaned forward to speak in my ear. "Play the game both ways, and you lose double."

I assumed his words meant that he knew I had crossed him.

With one final, painful squeeze on my arm, Guang let go, then strode to his carriage and entered without a backward glance. He rapped on the roof from the inside, and the carriage moved off, taking the dragon with it.