The Phoenix Born (A Dance of Dragons #3) Page 5

  "Jin."

  And that one word, uttered by that one voice, was finally enough to break her. Rhen was there. He had returned. Jinji collapsed into the arms she knew would be waiting for her, and wept.

  4

  RHEN

  ~ RAYFORT ~

  Rhen held Jinji while she cried, unable to match the wild-eyed woman in his arms with the confident one he had seen just a few hours before. Her feet left bloody footprints on the grassy field. Her eyes were wide and red, crazed. And she collapsed into him, holding his shirt with tightly bound fists, turning her face into his chest to tune out the world while she sobbed heartbreakingly against him.

  He looked to Janu, who stood a little farther away, watching with gratitude lacing his weary irises.

  "What happened?" Rhen mouthed, trying not to disturb Jinji, to let her have an uninterrupted moment to weep.

  Janu shrugged, brows crunched together as he watched his sister in pain, unable to help. Then he shook his head, silently replying, "I don't know."

  Rhen's gaze wandered farther, searching for answers. Jinji's touch was everywhere. Rhen had seen it hours ago when he and Leena had flown back on their dragons—the center street of Rayfort was cleared, rebuilt, far faster than human hands could work. And standing in this impossibly green grass, Rhen knew Jinji was the only person who could have removed the evidence of his fire's destruction. The scorched earth was regrown. The white walls were restored, no longer marred with soot. The bodies were neatly wrapped, hiding the burns. And many more than he dared hope were healed, walking around to clear their dead and find safe haven. Just looking around, his heart felt lighter. The darkness pinching his gut eased, a little easier to manage now that so much of the damage had disappeared.

  Had she done all of this for him?

  But there was something more. Something Rhen wasn't grasping. Because the woman in his arms now was barely recognizable. Did she take on the pain of others when she healed them? Had she overexerted herself? Was the desolation too much for her mind to handle? But none of those felt right. Not a single excuse matched what Rhen knew of her resilience, her conviction, her courage. Whether she had acted for his benefit or her own didn't matter. What mattered was that something out here had caused the strongest person Rhen knew to lose herself, and he shuddered to think what might have happened if he hadn't come looking for her, if he hadn't found her in time.

  Before Rhen could ruminate any further, Jinji leaned back, wiping the wetness from her cheeks and sniffling softly. He lifted his palm, cupping the back of her neck, forcing her to meet his concerned eyes.

  "Jin, what happened?"

  She stepped back, ducking out of his grip. "Nothing." But her voice was not strong enough to convince him she spoke the truth.

  "Jin," he pressed darkly, stepping closer. He wasn't going to let this go, not that easily.

  She bit her lip, surveying the ground, before finally glancing up. Her golden-flecked eyes shone with honesty. Rhen relaxed. His friend was back. The person who would never lie to him was back.

  "The shadow was here," she whispered, soft enough so Janu couldn't hear. "He killed another potential rider, and I couldn't stop him. Again, I couldn't stop him. And the next time we cross paths, I won't be able to stop him either. I don't know how."

  He wiped the new tear that had fallen from her eye. "Shh," he hushed. "In one day, we've accomplished more than we ever dreamed. Two dragons have been woken. Yesterday, we were completely lost, we didn't even know the dragons existed, and today we are already halfway to our goal. Let's concentrate on finding the next two riders, and by the time that happens, we'll have figured out the rest. I promise."

  She smiled halfheartedly. "You know everything, don't you?"

  He grinned, infusing more confidence than he really felt, and replied, "You should know the answer to that by now."

  "Oh, I do," she teased. "But I'm not sure you do."

  "Hey," he chided, reaching for her.

  But Jinji sidestepped his touch with a giggle, shaking her head. Before he could react, the air around her began to shimmer, the only warning he had that she was using her magic. Before his eyes, the cuts in her feet disappeared. The bloodshot veins in her eyes receded. The shadows darkening her cheeks vanished. The mud and grime covering her clothes and skin disappeared. She was a woman refreshed, the beauty he saw whenever he closed his eyes. But even with her magic, Jinji couldn’t erase the haunt in her gaze, the weariness and hopelessness she was clearly trying to hide.

  Rhen kept his mouth shut.

  He would let her pretend that the weight of the world could be stripped away with the wave of her hand. At least for now.

  "We need to get back to the castle," Jinji said with a sigh. The two of them started to walk toward the wall. Janu followed behind, not really trying to catch up.

  "That's why I came to find you," Rhen replied. "Whyllem is in an uproar. Two of the traitorous lords who helped lead the rebellion were delivered at the front gate an hour ago, bound by their own men. And a man of Ourthuro is there as well. Apparently, they were summoned by the magic dragon lady?"

  Jinji glanced over apologetically, the corners of her eyes crinkling with nerves as she bit her lip yet again. "I sent for them."

  Rhen raised his brows playfully. "What happened to my friend Jin, the woman who barely said two words to anyone other than me?"

  Jinji shrugged. "She found out she had to save the world."

  Rhen stopped, tugging on her arm. He placed a finger beneath her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. "She doesn't have to do it alone," he whispered. She smiled. A real smile, one that lit up her whole face, making it seem as though the sun shone beneath her skin. "Besides," he continued, dropping her chin and stepping forward, "I quite enjoy seeing my brother put in his place. You've always been strong, Jin. It's time the whole world saw that too."

  They spent the rest of the walk in a comfortable silence. Sometime during the journey, Janu caught up, moving to the other side of his sister. Rhen still didn't trust him, but Jinji did—that much was obvious. Yet something was wrong about the entire situation. Something didn't make sense. How had Janu found his way to the Gates? How had it taken so long for the two of them to be reacquainted? What was he hiding?

  By the time they reached the castle, Rhen's mind was crumbling from all the unanswered questions swirling in his thoughts—about the phantoms, about the shadow, about Jinji, about what happened in those few hours they had been apart, about Janu, about his family, about the fate of the world. Every time he tried to sort out an answer, he was just led to another doubt. Knots upon knots upon knots he wasn't sure he would ever be able to unravel. And they continued coming until he feared his head would explode from the pressure.

  "My dragons!" Jinji exclaimed by his side, excitement breaking through Rhen's sinking mood. At first, he was perplexed by the use of the word my. Firestorm felt like his dragon, and his alone. But a moment later, it was clear that wasn't the case, as both dragons landed softly in the courtyard, unfurling their wings protectively and leaning into Jinji's outstretched hands.

  Rhen jumped forward, already pulling the heat of Firestorm's skin beneath his own, trying to protect Jinji from the fire always burning in the pit of his stomach. But as her fingers landed on Firestorm's scalding scales, no wince of pain crossed her expression. Her smile remained unbroken, and her palm continued to rub the dragon's skin, lovingly, without hurt. Her other hand went to the crystal blue dragon that couldn't have been any more opposite his own—scales as smooth as the sea on a calm day, skin so cold it froze the air around it, wings and tail tipped with shards of ice as sharp as broken glass.

  Her dragons? Rhen thought, watching the affection between the three of them—affection that had history behind it, like old friends being reunited. How? When? And then he glanced up at the sky, exasperated. More questions. He sighed, hoping that these ones at least would have easy answers. Though he doubted it.

  A moment later, Jinji lifted her
hands, shooing the dragons away. They listened, pumping their wings, once, twice, three times, lifting into the sky and soaring out of reach.

  "Sorry." She shrugged, meeting Rhen's baffled gaze. "I didn't have time to really see them before. I was too focused on sending you and Leena away, on waking the water dragon and finding more riders. But they're marvelous, aren't they?"

  Rhen nodded, shock stealing the words from his mouth.

  "Oh." Jinji swallowed suddenly, eyes flicking between Rhen and her brother, finally noticing the blatant confusion in their gazes. "Um, I remember them. From, well, a previous life. I sort of created them." Rhen's jaw continued to drop farther toward the ground beneath their feet. "It's too much to explain now…" Jinji trailed off, pausing. And then she straightened her shoulders, making for the castle. "Come on, the king is waiting."

  Both men glanced at each other then shrugged, chasing after Jinji as she disappeared through the castle door. At least we've found some common ground, Rhen thought, mentally grinning. He didn't trust Janu. Janu clearly didn't trust him. But they could at least bond over a shared bewilderment of this new woman Jinji had become.

  When they reached the throne room, the tension was palpable, heavy in the air. Whyllem sat on the throne with one of his father's former advisors by his side. Leena and Cal stood to the side, close together but not too close, not speaking either. An Ourthuri with black tattoos roping up his muscular arms watched the princess with daggers in his eyes. And two former lords of Whylkin stood in the opposite corner, hands still bound, shoulders sagging under the heated gaze of their king. Rhen recognized them as the Lord of Lothlian and the eldest son of the Lord of Airedale, a man who may very well have inherited his father's title overnight for all Rhen knew.

  "Thank you all for meeting with me," Jinji said when they entered, voice confident and light, betraying none of the fears or the weaknesses in her heart.

  "Are there any other enemies of my kingdom you've invited to my castle, to meet in my throne room, Lady Jinji?" Whyllem asked, poison on his tongue.

  Jinji turned with a smile. "No, King Whyllem. This is everyone."

  It took all of Rhen's strength not to burst out laughing at the sour look on his brother's face. Whyllem wasn't used to being put in his place, well, by anyone other than Rhen of course.

  "I have asked you all here because we must end this war between you. Another war is coming to the kingdom, a far greater threat than you could even imagine, and we must fight it together. There is no room for petty quarrels between kings, not anymore."

  Whyllem, the Whylkin lords, and the Ourthuri nobleman all began talking at once, voices rough and angry. Not a single word could be made out in the chaos, just the cacophony of men shouting over one another to be heard, arguing incoherently, a history of rivalry brimming to the surface.

  Jinji held up her hand, summoning a burst of wind that swept through the room, ruffling the tapestries along the wall and stealing the sounds of voices from the air.

  "Enough," she said, oozing authority. Rhen watched with raised brows, amazed at his friend. She was Jinji, and yet she wasn't—she was something more. A queen without a kingdom. No. A queen with the whole world as her kingdom. "You." She pointed to the two Whylkin lords. "You have lost the fight against Rayfort. Surrender your cities and your men to King Whyllem, rejoin the Kingdom of Whylkin, and continue to prosper as you have done for hundreds of years. You," she said, turning to Whyllem. "Accept these men and their people back into your kingdom with open arms, treat them as enemies no longer. Seek no vengeance. And you." Jinji turned to the man for Ourthuro. "Go back to King Razzaq and tell him what you have seen here. Tell him his war with Whylkin is over, and it will not start again as long as I am alive to witness it. If he so much as sends a warship into the Dueling Sea, I will send the dragons to Da'astiku. I will level his city and his people to the ground."

  Out of the corner of his eyes, Rhen saw the princess step forward, opening her mouth. But then she thought better of it, pressing her lips tightly together, watching Jinji with a mix of trust and concern. He wanted to ease Leena's fears, to tell her the threat was an empty one, that Jinji would never harm innocent people just to prove a point. But listening to her now, he hardly recognized her voice. It was as unbreakable as iron.

  "That goes for all of you," she continued. "I know you question my authority. You ask yourselves why you should listen to me. And the truth is, I don't have a specific answer to that. Should you listen to me out of fear? Should you listen to me because I could kill you with just a thought?" she questioned. A moment later, the air shifted. Out of nowhere, knives appeared at the throats of all five leaders, points pressing gently into the soft skin of their necks, just shy of drawing blood.

  "Or," she continued, letting the weapons disappear. "Should you listen to me out of respect for the powers I wield? Because the world bends at my command?" The ground beneath their feet shook. Through the open window, the clear-blue sky disappeared as storm clouds gathered. Thick lightning bolts flashed and thunder cracked, loud enough that everyone in the room besides Jinji flinched. Even Rhen. But as quick as it came, it was gone, leaving them all breathless.

  "Or should you listen to me for the greater good? To help save the world from the enemy I am about to show you?" As the words left her mouth, the room around them disappeared, flickering, growing fuzzy, replaced by an open field. Immediately, Rhen recognized the scene. He had been here before, in the vision his dragon had sent. "This is a memory of a battle long ago," Jinji said, sadness finally breaking through the hard tone of her words. "Of an enemy that has been gone for a thousand years, but is about to return. An enemy even I don't yet know how to fight."

  On the opposite side of the field, a human army waited. Men who looked very much like those in Rayfort, armed with cruder shields and swords, but nearly the same. They held their weapons aloft, shifting on uneasy feet, waiting with a cloud of terror hanging overhead. Before a single man could even raise a sword to protect himself, a black mist descended, circling the entire army in shadow, taking over the field in an impenetrable ebony haze. Fire roared down, a heated blaze, and Rhen recognized his dragon, accompanied by his last living rider. Shards of ice and water came next, the water dragon. Hurricane winds blew into the mist, shifting it but not removing it entirely—the air dragon, nearly invisible in the sky. The ground shook and shifted, earth and rock moving as an evergreen dragon stomped heavy claws and breathed rock and dirt to life.

  And even with the force of all four dragons, the phantom army held on just long enough. A few moments later, the black haze dissolved just as quickly as it had come, leaving utter devastation behind. The entire army of men was destroyed. Bodies littered the field, terrifyingly twitching as foam spilled from open mouths. Another second and the whole world was still.

  The scene shifted.

  The stillness did not.

  Back in the throne room, not a single person spoke. Not Whyllem. Not Rhen. Not the Ourthuri. Not the lords.

  Until finally, voice heavy with concerns Rhen could only begin to imagine, Jinji whispered, "That is what is coming for us. So whatever your reason for heeding my orders, fear or respect or courage, I don't care. All I care is that you listen without question because my riders and I are the only hope you have for survival. And no one and nothing can stand in our way."

  "How do you know this demon is coming for us?" Whyllem asked, leaning forward. But the accusation and judgment was gone from his voice. Instead, his tone was that of a concerned leader. Rhen breathed a sigh of relief—his brother believed. His brother was going to listen. His brother finally understood who the real enemy was, what the real war was.

  Jinji paused, unable to explain in simple terms.

  Rhen stepped forward. "I have seen this vision too," he said. Jinji looked to him with relief, a thankful gleam in her eyes. And for the first time, he realized what a toll all of this leadership was taking on her. Being commanding, being demanding, it was not in her nature. Not i
n this way—she was gentler than that. He held her gaze for a moment, taking on some of the burden. "My dragon sent me a vision in fire. He showed me who the real enemy was, and that enemy is not in this room. He is out there, biding his time. The Lady Jinji speaks the truth, and you must listen to her."

  "I have seen it too," Leena said, stepping forward, away from Cal. Her shoulders were back, her voice as calm and cool as any royal's could be, oozing the authority of her previous station in life. "Mine was a vision in the deep, dark depths of the ocean, but it showed the same. An enemy we must be united to defeat."

  Whyllem glanced to Rhen, brows knotted in question. The poise of a king regent was gone from his face. Instead, his expression was open and honest. Just a brother seeking advice from the only other brother he had left. Rhen drew his lips in a thin line and nodded once, gravely.

  He stood from the throne, bowing his head ever so slightly. "The King of Whylkin stands by you, Lady Jinji. I speak for the city of Rayfort and all of the people loyal to my crown. We will heed your orders for peace and will only respond to an attack if provoked. We will seek reconciliation rather than vengeance."

  The Lord of Lothlian stepped forward next, bowing deeper—to Jinji and to Whyllem. "We rebelled against our king and lost in overwhelming defeat. I speak for myself as well as the other lords who fought by my side, we will surrender to the crown and end this war. We will pull back our remaining forces and will go home humbled, seeking no retribution."

  All eyes turned to the Ourthuri on the far side of the room. "I am a nobleman of Da'astiku, but I speak only for myself and not for my king. I will return home with any other men of Ourthuro who survived the fires and will tell my king of everything that happened here. I will fight for peace, but I can make no promises."

  "My father will not surrender willingly," Leena said quietly. Though the tone was soft, it was edged with steel. "But his fleet has been destroyed. Even if he wanted to fight, there are not enough warships to pass over the Dueling Sea. For now, he will be restrained by his lack of resources. And I plan to have a talk with him before his strength has returned. King Razzaq will not be a problem. The people of Ourthuro want peace as well."