“Thank you, but no. I must see Yuánchi.”
I triedto steady my voice. “Can you fly?”
Yuánchi stretched his wings, filling the clearing where Lucy and I stood. There were uneven ridges where tears in his wing membranes had healed. On his breast, a two-foot-long scar was mending to a line of misaligned scales. Ugly as they appeared, the injuries were vastly less frightening than his condition when he fled London.
I flew last night. Launching from flat earth hurt, but in the air, I was only stiff. I will jump from a ridge next time.
“Please be discreet. Lord Wellington has spread false rumors that the scarlet dragon lives in a watery cave in Wales. He even added some story about their flag. But Mr. Tinsdale is a traitor, and he knows you and I are bound. Neither your presence at Pemberley nor mine can be known.”
In the past, Yuánchi responded to such cautions with an overconfident snort. Now, he shifted warily, muscles rippling.
“We’ve been feeding him well,” Lucy piped up, so intrigued that her carefully practiced lady’s grammar faltered. “Three sheep a day. The gardener brings them up.”
“Thank you.”
Peevishly, Yuánchi thought,I do not like sheep in winter. His recovery had eased my concerns enough that I laughed.
“What is it?” Lucy asked.
“He does not like the fleece in his teeth.”
“Oh.” She looked up at those black teeth, eight feet above her head. “A cow, then? Snap once for yes.”
Yuánchi showily bit the air.
My eyebrows rose, and I thought bemusedly,Snap once for yes?
You were not here. This one is helpful.His gaze turned to where the house lay, hidden by forest and a rise of hill.They come.
“You can see through that?”
I sense great wyves.
Wyves, plural. Emma. She had insisted on continuing Nessy’s care, and returning to her home south of London seemed dangerous, so she had joined us. Certainly, Pemberley had room.
Three great wyves together. It seemed a portent.
To Lucy, I said, “Would you go to the house and tell Mr. Darcy where I am, please?”
She planted her fists on her skinny hips. “I must stay to keep you safe!” I cocked my head toward Yuánchi, and she relaxed sheepishly, then trotted off.
Yuánchi settled to the earth, his motions lithe and powerful. Any stiffness was too subtle for my human eyes. He ended with his belly and chest buried in the scraggly winter grass, but he did not sprawl sideways to relax. One massive foot landed firmly at each side, his posture alert.
Ask your questions.
Each day since the battle over London, I had pressed him for information. Each day, I was rebuffed. Now, facing his bulk and surrounded by towering, ancient trees, I felt suddenly small.
“Is there some rule I break by asking these things? Some law or custom of draca?” He waited. “Very well. Humans call the black dragon Fènnù. It means Fury. Why is she called that?”
That is her human name. A dragon nameis a song.
“Then who named her? The word is Chinese. So is your name. Do you know what China is? What a country is?”
A country is a houselike your war castles, but the walls are imagined.He huffed dismissively.Countries change like clouds, and they vanish when I sleep.
I sighed. “I asked a poor question. I will try to be specific, but you must explain things in human terms. Otherwise, we shall not get anywhere. I wish to understand the black dragon.”
Why?Yuánchi’s tone was simply curious, even though he had fought the black dragon twelve days ago.
