The Jade Dragonball (eBook)

CHAPTER 10

An icy coldness seized him. It burrowed and burrowed into his bones, all the way to the marrow, and when it got there, it did not let go. His mind began to float. He wanted to wake up at dawn, go to the land beyond, continue searching for the retainer. But he could not. He did not have the strength. Night became day with nothing in between except Shan Tuo’s face – thin, scared, crying – sometimes hovering above him, sometimes not…

The fever had started two days after his mother died. At first, Shan Mu was almost happy – he no longer felt hungry, no longer ached to fill his belly. But then his muscles and bones turned to water so that he could not stand or even raise an arm. And he sweated. It dripped from his brow like rain and drenched his body.

I will not die! I will not leave my brother! he told himself.

A flash of lighting clutched the night for an instant before it was snatched away by the dark. The thunder and lashing rainstorm roared outside the hut. The icy wet wind slipped through the slits in the walls and under the door as Tian Lan struggled to keep a small fire going. It was hopeless, even for him. The wood gave forth more smoke than light, and no warmth. He shivered and tried once again. Hopeless.

Shan Mu, lying in front of him, moaned softly. His body was often gripped by intense bouts of shivering, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. Tian Lan knew that this was a door the boy must pass through alone; still, his fear and love for the boy made him draw near. He bent over to wrap the boy’s robe more tightly around his frail body.

Tian Lan had never before encountered someone as powerful as this boy, someone with the same gift he had been granted: the power to walk in the other world, to see the warnings and advice it offered to the observant. This boy could do so much, could be so great a sage…

Tian Lan reached into his robe and took out the amulet. All these years he had carried it, but never had he needed its power as he did now. He placed the dragon-shaped stone disk on the boy’s chest and laid his hands over it. Tian Lan closed his eyes and felt the light grow within his own chest. The light was transformed into sound, a song that he began to sing. The song echoed in the hut, growing louder. The amulet began to glow, growing brighter as Tian Lan continued his song.

The boy would need guidance: anyone with so great a power would. It was his task to guide the boy to the better path, to set him on the road he too had taken.

Tian Lan leaned over and whispered to the boy.

‘Only by knowing temptation can we know ourselves. Only by knowing weakness can we know strength. Only by knowing nothing can we know everything.’

Shan Mu’s limbs had stopped thrashing and he had begun to breathe more soundly. Tian Lan placed the amulet back inside his robe and thanked the gods for their help. Then he took his place at the boy’s side once more and closed his eyes.

Despite the darkness, Tian Lan’s body told him morning had come. He rose again, shuffled to the door and inched it open. Even as the wind and water drenched his flapping cloak, the rain seemed to be abating. But still dark clouds stretched to the horizon like a dirty shroud, blocking any sun. It stayed murky and overcast all day until the pitch black of night.

Tian Lan fought the urge to sleep, but the last four days had been too much. He slumped against the wall of the hut and closed his eyes. Shan Mu’s loud moan woke Tian Lan. He quickly stepped over to Shan Mu’s side and tried to enter the boy’s mind but found it closed. With a pang of concern, he drew back, leaving Shan Mu to confront his inner demons. His own heart heavy, Tian Lan turned his back on the boy and added wood to the fire.

The sun rose the following morning, the sky a playful blue that only comes after it has been torn apart in a storm. The cheerful and busy twittering of birds ended Shan Mu’s fitful sleep. Eyes still closed, his first thought was: I am alive. How long he had lain fighting the illness, he did not know. He would have to ask Shan Tuo. He rolled onto his side and opened his eyes. Sunlight from the open door fell across the hut’s earthen floor with a dazzling, dizzying brightness. He shielded his eyes, and saw feet – an arm’s length away, bound in wet leather.

Shan Mu slowly raised himself onto his elbow and stared up at the figure standing in the doorway. ‘You!’ he exclaimed.

Tian Lan nodded.

Shan Mu looked around the hut. ‘Where is my brother?’ he asked, pulling off the blanket. ‘What have you done with him?’

Tian Lan did not reply.

‘I want to see my brother,’ Shan Mu said. Pushing past Tian Lan, he stood in the doorway and gazed out at the silent village, at the slushy snow piled against the huts.

‘Shan Tuo!’ Shan Mu called.

‘He is not here,’ Tian Lan said. ‘There is no one here.’

Ignoring him, Shan Mu slipped and slid across the melted snow and rain puddles and entered every hut in the village. And in each one, he found the same thing: nothing. Where was everyone? What had happened to the rest of the village? Had they all died? Had someone taken them? When he struggled back towards Tian Lan, he was breathing hard, anger and exhaustion squeezing his lungs. ‘Where is everyone?’ What happened?’

‘I don’t know. But they are in a safer place.’

‘How can you know that?’

‘I feel it,’ Tian Lan said.

‘You feel it?’ Shan Mu scoffed. His brow creased. ‘Why would my brother leave me? He wouldn’t do that!’

‘Perhaps he had no choice. Perhaps he was ill, too, and was taken.’

Shan Mu’s legs trembled and threatened to buckle. ‘Shan Tuo…’ he said.

‘You are still weak,’ Tian Lan said. ‘But we must go.’

‘I can’t leave. My brother will come back here. I will wait for him.’

Tian Lan shook his head. ‘Your brother follows a different path. We must go,’ he said again, but this time more firmly.

‘Go where?’ Shan Mu asked angrily.

‘There are armies to the north and south. If the weather improves, they will fight.’

‘You did not answer my question!’

‘We must go wherever the way takes us. Out of the valley,’ Tian Lan said, pointing west.

Shan Tuo’s worried, skeleton-thin face flashed across Shan Mu’s mind. He felt a fathomless sadness. ‘If I go west with you, will I find my brother?’

‘I’m not sure. It depends.’

‘Depends on what?’ Shan Mu cried, suddenly furious again. Was this man playing games with him?

‘On fate. On decisions made. On you!’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about. You make no sense.’

‘I don’t expect you to understand. Not yet, at least.’

Shan Mu glared at Tian Lan.

‘Will you come with me?’ Tian Lan asked, swinging the stick that carried his sack onto his shoulder, and without waiting for an answer, he strode away, his leather shoes splashing through the slush and puddles.

Shan Mu watched Tian Lan stride past the last hut. Shoulders drooping, he looked around his village. There was no food here. His mother and father were dead. The villagers and his brother were gone. Even if he remained, waiting and hoping that his brother would return, how long would he survive on his own? Even if he did not starve, what if there really were armies on either side of the valley? Wouldn’t soldiers come and force him to join their army?

Tian Lan was nearing the first of the village’s fields. This man had appeared in the world beyond… it meant he had power. Perhaps he even had the power to find his brother.

‘Hey!’ Shan Mu cried.

Tian Lan continued walking.

‘Hey!’ Shan Mu cried again, but when it was clear Tian Lan would not stop, Shan Mu ran after him. As he passed the near fields, his eye fell on one corner of them. Fresh mounds of earth. Shan Mu stopped. He counted twelve of them, each the size of an adult. He thought of his mother and father lying in the cold earth… He clenched his jaws together, refusing to shed a tear. Others would cry before he did, he told himself.

Exhausted and panting, he caught up with Tian Lan. Tian Lan’s hand reached out, and Shan Mu accepted the rice ball he offered. He ate it without thanks. The taste he did not care about. It filled his stomach, nothing else. He gulped down the water Tian Lan gave him from a leather flask. Tian Lan wrapped a warm cloak around Shan Mu.

They walked in silence. After some time, Shan Mu asked, ‘How far are we going?’

Tian Lan interrupted his whistling and said, ‘As far as we need.’

‘As far as we need,’ Shan Mu repeated, mimicking Tian Lan’s voice. ‘Your words are like mist.’

Still striding on, Tian Lan turned briefly and grinned. ‘Mist?’

‘They hide more than they reveal,’ Shan Mu said.

Tian Lan grunted. ‘You will know more soon. As will I,’ he replied.

‘Who are you?’ Shan Mu cried. ‘Why did you come to my village? Why did you appear in my world beyond? Why are you helping me?’

Tian Lan stopped so suddenly, Shan Mu crashed into his back. Dropping his...