"Vaerana, if you value your life-or at least Yansel- dara's-do not move," Ruha advised. "Allow me to explain the situation to Minister Hsieh, and I'm certain he-"
"You don't have to explain anything," Vaerana snarled.
"All Minister Hsieh needs to know is that Pierstar's wait- ing outside with a hundred Maces. If I don't join him with a cask of ylang oil in the next twenty minutes, there'll soon be another two thousand-and they won't be in a patient mood."
Hsieh rose, very slowly.
Ruha said, "Minister, let me explain-"
The mandarin waved her silent, a command that was
instantly enforced as his guards touched their halberd tips to her throat. Hsieh stepped over to Vaerana and peered down at her supine form.
"Since you know nothing but threat, we converse in manner you understand. First threat: If you try to touch me again, I snap offending arm. Second threat: If we do not find Lady Feng, you do not receive ylang oil, and
Lady Yanseldara dies. Final threat: If Maces do not with- draw from grounds of Ginger Palace immediately, my guards slay them all. Then they slay your family, your servants, and everyone inside Moonstorm House."
Vaerana met the mandarin's icy glare with one of her own. "No one threatens Yanseldara or Moonstorm House.
One way or-"
"Vaerana, you have the manners of a jackal!" Ruha barked. "If you say another word, I swear by the name of my father that I shall let the Shou cut your throat, and save Yanseldara without you!"
The Lady Constable looked at Ruha with the stunned expression of a sheikh being dressed down by the tribe beggar. Before Vaerana could recover from her shock, the witch turned her attention to the angry mandarin.
"And Minister Hsieh, your guards will not slay anyone inside Moonstorm House-or Elversult." Several hal- berds pricked Ruha's skin menacingly, but she ignored them. "There is no time for a battle-at least not now. If you wish to see Lady Feng or Yanseldara alive again, you must work together."
"I have no need to work with this woman," Hsieh snarled. "Lady Feng is in no danger."
"I am sorry to tell you she is-and also everyone inside the Ginger Palace." When Hsieh scowled, Ruha hastened to add, "I do not speak of Vaerana's Maces. I am speaking of Cypress. We must take the ylang oil and flee before the dragon discovers his spy's mistake."
"Do not lie to me," Hsieh said. "I see you destroy dragon."
"You saw me destroy his body, not his spirit," Ruha
said. "Do you not remember that he was undead? He has taken a new body."
Hsieh glared at the witch. "How long do you know this?"
"That does not matter." Ruha saw no use in lying; the mandarin had already guessed the truth. "What is important is that we leave before Cypress comes. If you allow him to have the oil now, you will never see Lady
Feng again."
It was Yu Po who posed the question Ruha had been anticipating since they left the Night Castle. "Forgive me for speaking, Esteemed Mandarin, but perhaps we make bargain with dragon for return of Lady Feng?"
Ruha was spared the necessity of pointing out the sug- gestion's folly when Hsieh shot the adjutant an impatient glower. "Only fool bargains with angry dragon."
Yu Po's face reddened with embarrassment, but he was determined to redeem himself. He puffed out his chest. "I
am not afraid, Worthy Minister. When I explain how witch deceives us-"
"If Cypress promises to return Lady Feng, who will cast the spell?" Ruha interrupted. "And after you give him the ylang oil, why would he return such a valuable hostage-and one who may well have the power to undo what he has worked so hard to do?"
Yu Po scowled at the witch and started to reply, but
Hsieh raised a hand to silence him. "Say no more, Yu Po.
Perhaps Lady Ruha neglects to tell us about dragon's new body, but that does not make her wrong now. Go now, and prepare my guards to ride!"
Tang stopped well back in the cramped passage, where it branched into three smaller tunnels. The limestone felt almost slimy beneath his sodden boots, and the trill of the tiny stream echoed surprisingly loud in his ears. Stooping over so he would not hit his head on the low ceiling, he
turned around and kneeled, his legs straddling the rivulet. The mouth of his hiding place was wide enough that he could see most of the ingot island, where Lady
Feng stood beside Yanseldara's staff, calmly awaiting
Cypress's arrival. Though the prince judged no man could see him hiding so far back in the passage, he had no idea whether the darkness would also conceal him from the empty-eyed dragon. He would find out soon enough, for it seemed unlikely the beast would waste much time before searching out the slayer of his pet wyverns.
A tremendous sloshing sounded from the treasure chamber; then Cypress's head rose into view beyond the island. The dragon appeared larger than even the night before, with horns as long as lances and a snout the size of a horse. He spread his wings, concealing the entire far wall of the cavern, and water poured down the dull scales in cataracts. He waded forward, rising high above the island as he climbed the beach of tinkling coins. Tang could see that Cypress carried a brown-cloaked figure in the talons of one hand.
The dragon paused beside the island and lowered his claw to the summit of the ingot heap. A plump, wide-eyed man clutching a small wooden cask crawled off, then col- lapsed to his knees and stared gaped-mouthed at the sparkling chamber around him. Cypress turned his vacant-eyed gaze on Lady Feng and dropped Tang's rope at her feet.
"I see some of your son's men survived." The dragon's booming words echoed off the stony walls like drum music. "Where are they? I would repay them for the pain they caused my pets."
When he heard Cypress assume it had taken a whole party to kill the wyverns, Tang's heart swelled with pride. Then it occurred to the prince that his mother's captor had spoken aloud, and the air inside his inflated chest turned cold and sickening. If the dragon could talk again, he could speak spell incantations and, no doubt, breathe acid. The prince felt as if he had chased a
chameleon into the brush and found a crocodile waiting instead.
The Third Virtuous Concubine studied the rope at her feet, then craned her neck to fix her outward-looking eye on the dragon. "I know nothing of Prince Tang's men."
Cypress snorted wisps of black fume into the air, then dropped his head and held one gaping eye socket over
Lady Feng's head. "Why are you lying? Perhaps you think these men can steal my treasure for you?"
Lady Feng's bulging eye looked as though it might pop from the socket. She slipped away from the dragon and started toward the man with the cask, clearly anxious to change the subject.
"Who is this fool? I do not ask for company."