Cassandra Pendragon
East. Her trail led east. Far above the icy, unreachable peaks we soared, a chessboard of black, unforgiving rock and white, untouched snow far below us. Reia was busy keeping Lamia afloat and Aurelia had a hard time answering all of Viyara's questions. The dragoness had never before left her home world and the reality that mountains were simply mountains, no matter where, took a moment to sink in. Consequentially she was still bursting with curiosity, even though the ransacked temple had dampened her enthusiasm. As for me…
I was struggling to regain my balance. While it was true that I had never met a single one of the monks in my entire life, it still felt like I had lost something precious. No, that's not right, it felt like something precious had been taken from me. In my previous life I hadn't been great at making friends. Truth be told, I had been abysmal at it and the few still living souls I had forged a connection with were rare and far between. Mourning one of them… it wasn't something I could just push to the back of my mind. I didn't want to. But the flight did help. There was something consolatory about seeing the very same mountains I had soared above as Lucifer only a few measly years ago. And I still felt connected to Earth. Intimately so.
With a defiant snort I shook myself free of the grey, pointless musings and focused back on the problem at hand. East. Lamia's mother was somewhere to the East and judging from the increasing strength of her aura she was either somewhere along China's coast or maybe in Japan. If she had been across the Pacific her presence wouldn't have grown with every mile we flew.
Asia… as far as I knew there were no phoenixes left in Asia, but it wasn't a coincidence either that the flaming birds were an integral part of eastern mythology, much more prevalent than they were in the western hemisphere. One of the early emperors, I couldn't quite remember which one, had been a descendent of the divine lineage and he had elevated his magical ancestors to almost godlike proportions. Long story short, if she had made her way here willingly, chances were she had settled in either China or Japan. Unfortunately, if she had been dragged against her will, she'd probably have ended up in the same corner of the world, with shackles instead of designer purses and a warded cell as a substitute for a five star suite.
Which brought me to my next problem. Up until now I had always claimed that saving Lamia's mother was the main point of this trip, but in reality I was much more worried about how she had even gotten here. If there was a portal to and from Gaya I had to know. And if someone had helped her I still had to know. A door once opened could be passed through in either direction and as unlikely as it seemed I wasn't willing to leave a smuggler's route to Gaya open when it stood to reason that my family would be looking for a way in, soon. Really soon.
When the tops of the Karakoram became distant, blurry spots on the horizon and the endless wastes of the Gobi dessert sprawled away below us I forcefully put an end to the meandering chaos my thoughts had dissolved into. Soon we'd near the inhabited part of central China and it was about time to fill my companions in on the dos and donts of the modern age. I couldn't very well have them standing in the middle of a street, mouths agape, while a bus thundered by. For the first time in over an hour I spoke, my voice cracking ever so slightly:
"We'll soon come near the first city. Xian, if memory serves. Usually I'd want to land and stroll through the city, but we don't have that kind of time and I don't want to get spotted. Magic is scarce around here and practiced in secret. Humans are mistrusting by nature and have a tendency to burn and bury everything they don't understand."
"Are… aren't there others like us," Reia asked eagerly, her spirits almost entirely restored after she had flown across an alien planet and I had finally decided to open my mouth again. I had to give it to the girl, she was resilient as all hell. Or maybe just a tad too calloused, even for an immortal.
"There aren't many hybrid races around here and the few I know of live in hiding. Cropped tails, surgically altered faces, the works." She frowned and inadvertently coiled up her tails, but with an, admittedly forced, smile I added: "don't fret. This world has had years to develop and the people here have more than enough time on their hands to indulge in all kinds of crazy hobbies. With a little luck Aurelia and Viyara should be able to hide behind a pair of sunglasses and if we add a hat you should be fine, too. Provided you can bear to hide your tails under a coat." The dragoness only snorted in response. When I cocked an eyebrow she explained:
"Even amongst dragons you're standing out like a sore thumb and ever since Reia's transformation she's starting to look more like you with every passing day. There's no way in hell you can hide in a crowd."
"We don't need to hide. We simply have to avoid any trouble until we've found Lamia's mother."
"Sure… that's what you're really good at, isn't it?"
"She's got a point," my fiancée interjected, the first coherent words we had shared, even though she had never left me alone ever since we had fled from the frozen tomb in the mountains. Without her support I'd still have been beating myself up, over and over again.
"Don't I know it," I groused without any real heat, "but I've managed to walk away once. I can do it again." I was waiting for a reply that never came and when I cast a glance backwards I understood why. My wings had swelled and power was leaking from me as if I had turned into a sieve. Which wasn't only embarrassing, it was dangerous. A few more moments like this and I could just as well have put up a sign for my siblings to follow.
"Sorry," I muttered, "I didn't mean to scare…"
"You didn't," Viyara replied immediately. "We're scared for you, not of you. I… is there something we can do?"
"Don't leave me alone…" I paused when Reia accelerated to reach my side and her small fingers slipped into my mine while she was still balancing the phoenix on her shoulders. The scent of snowdrops enveloped me and the knot in my stomach loosened. "That might also help," I added with a pinched but grateful smile and focused on the horizon. The vast, yellow and grey expanse was already tinged with a hint of green and the endless, sprawling fields at the heart of China would soon appear. "Now, where was I? Right, cities. The country we're in is huge, but luckily most, about eight tenths, of the population live along the eastern coast. At this speed it'll take us a few hours, but come nightfall you'll be able to wet your feet in ocean water. Not that I'd recommend it. Pollution is a real problem, but it doesn't matter for now. Chances are we'll find Lamia's mom in one of the larger cities. And when I say large I mean huge beyond your imagination. The more developed ones all number in the tens of millions."
"How many humans live on this planet," Viyara asked reverently.
"Several billion. But that's nothing…"
"In comparison to other planets," Aurelia finished my sentence. "I think I remember a world that had turned into one single habitat. Concrete and moving masses wherever I looked."
"Yes, thank you," I cut her short. As much as I was interested in the parts of the galaxy she had explored, now was hardly the time. "Now, while we're this far out it doesn't really matter, but we'll soon have to land and wait for nightfall. We're too small to be detected by radar, the technological equivalent of a scrying spell, but we can still be seen with the naked eye. Which means one of you will have to carry me. My wings are much too bright to go unnoticed."
"And then what," my sister asked. "Land in the middle of a town square and hope no one's looking?" I shook my head.
"Architecture has come a long way. Some buildings are taller than Boseiju ever was. With a little luck we can set down on a roof without anyone being the wiser. Preferably on the roof of the very same building where Lamia's mom is… either living or being held prisoner."
"What are the chances she's come here willingly without her daughter," Reia breathed.
"Not as poor as you might think, but still abysmal. It's plenty likely that we'll have to… negotiate to take her with us."
"Negotiate," Aurelia interjected, "I hope that's a euphemism."
"That's entirely up to you. You needed me to get you here, but you sure as hell don't need me to get her out. If a crystalline dragon, a half transcendent vampire and an immortal can't deal with a handful of mundane thugs, our future indeed looks dire. No… I'll stay with you until we know where she is, but I have my own errands to run and time is ticking. There are a few people whose day I have to ruin. I really hope the girls haven't been slacking over the last years."
"You do know that half of them had the hots for you when all they had was a blurry image from Lucifer's mind, don't you," Ahri complained.
"Are you jealous? Now? Seriously? After the monastery? You do realise that I simply want them to organise a proper burial for the monks and help me find a place to plant the seedlings don't you?"
"I do, but Lucifer was much better at saying no then you are and when you're down you're usually much more cuddlesome."
"True, but I can promise you, the only ones I'd want to… cuddle with right now are you or Reia. Mom would also be alright, but she isn't here. Satisfied?"
"Not really, but it'll have to do." I shrugged, which didn't even earn me any peculiar stares. Instead they looked… excited. Geez, was I really that controlling? Verbally I continued: "Viyara and I can stay in touch. If you're in trouble, you will call me. In fact, it might be a good idea if we simply bought a couple of phones the first chance we get, but…"
"We don't have any money," Aurelia mused. "Give me a few minutes once we've landed. I think I can get us everything we need quickly enough and without any trouble." I thought for a moment.
"Fine. Let's hurry. Everything else has to wait until we know where our troublesome birdie is hiding."
Far below our shadows raced over coarse, cracked sand, sprinkled with the occasional, prickly shrub, and then over dried yellowish earth. Plants began to fight against the desert with the help of a myriad of irrigation channels, carved into the inhospitable land by legions of workers, but as soon as they had finished their tasks, the desert already reclaimed what they had wrestled from its grasp. A short while later patches of grass appeared and the sturdy, undemanding shrubs turned into trees and endless wheat fields. Large roads crisscrossed the landscape like grey, half forgotten rivers and for the first time in my life the suffocating smell of burned rubber and gasoline filled my lungs.
Honking lorries and smaller cars, with the same amount of cargo strapped to their roofs, made their slow, meandering way through the flatlands. Trucks full of chickens drove side by side with lumber and steel loads, commuters honked their horns in a desperate attempt to make it to the next city before sundown, families hustled towards their distant homes in the smaller provinces and herds of half domesticated animals watched the chaos from the side as cattle and poultry enjoyed their first row tickets to the Truman show.
"Lunacy, utter lunacy," Viyara commented as we soared over an accident site where a bunch of onlookers were excitedly taking photos as a middle aged driver mourned the loss of his income.
"It's only going to get worse," I mumbled darkly. "Just wait until we reach the first city, you won't know which way is up."
"Do you know where we're going," Aurelia interrupted. I shrugged.
"More or less. Judging from the fluctuation of her aura she should be around 1500 miles away from us to the southwest. If memories serves that's Shanghai. Which still doesn't answer your question. I haven't got the foggiest if she's there willingly or not."
"Should I try reaching her," Viyara asked but I immediately shook my head.
"The earliest records of magic being used around here date back 6800 years. Only because there aren't many practitioners alive today it doesn't follow that the ones who are can't bother us. If she's held prisoner or, god forbid, being sold, it stands to reason that her captors know what she is. Which means they know the arcane world. I don't want to alarm them before you have a chance to knock on the door."
"And if she's simply… renewed," our timid bloodsucker interjected haltingly. She was referring to the innate resurrections phoenixes went through. In their younger years they usually lost their memories upon rebirth. A bit like us, come to think of it, without the spoon fed tidbits of information immortals regained throughout their lives.
"Then this will all be over in a trice. You simply have to convince her to come with us, or, if she doesn't want to, at least give us a day to cleanse her daughter. I don't need anything to break the curse. Just a bit of time and a place to work."
"Provided we're not forced to run after you and pull your tails from the fire," my sister piped up. I cocked an eyebrow and she added: "you haven't been awfully clear on where you're going and up until now that always meant trouble."
"True… you know what, change of plans. Give me a moment." My outline flickered and vanished and the last image that reached me was Reia rolling her eyes.
Luckily traffic was slow and for several stretches the roads were entire congested. Add the cacophony of honking horns, cursing Chinese and cantankerous chickens it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that my next words, spoken to a young girl with pink ribbons in her hair, weren't heard by anyone except her: "I'll need that. Cute pigtails."
With a friendly smile I took her hello kitty mobile and left a sparkling gold coin on her seat. As her eyes widened I put my finger against my lips, winked and vanished again. "That's a phone," I explained to my exasperated audience. "It's a communication crystal, only better. Watch."
It took me a moment to navigate through a bunch of headache-inducing icons before I managed to punch in a number I could barely remember. It rang three times until a crisp, some would say haughty, voice answered:
"Who is this? How did you get this number?"
"Hello, Jane. It's been a while. I know I sound a bit more girlish, but I'm sure you can recognise my voice." For a few moments only her chopped, increasingly shallow breaths rasped through the line.
"Lucifer," she finally whispered.
"Not quite, but close enough. How's life? Still an aristocrat by day and a cat burglar by night?"
"I… much has changed. Where are you? Can we meet in person?"
"You want to meet with me? Voluntarily and in person? Jane… what's wrong?"