“Never mind.”
The dragon was acting odd today. Prickly one moment, melancholy the next. I grimaced, fearing that meant I wouldn’t like his news.
The net is finished,I told him, getting straight to business. It was cold by the river, and I didn’t want to freeze.Kiki said you had news.
“Two dragon days is hardly long enough for me to regain my grandfather’s favor,” Seryu said irritably.
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t have news, Shiori. I merely bear a message from my grandfather.”
I turned to ice.What is it?
“He regrets he did not shatter your bones above the Taijin Sea,” said Seryu thinly. “And he assures you that the only reason your brothers—who fly across the sea in search of your stepmother’s name—have not yet been reduced to sea-foam is because of her pearl.”
What is this about Raikama’s pearl?
“He’s ordered me to tell you thatifyou survive your encounter with the Nameless Queen, he demands her pearl. It belongs to the dragons.”
Very well, I’ll give it to him—if he tells me how to break my curse.
“The Dragon King does not bargain,” said Seryu with a growl. “The next time you see me, you will have her pearl.”
His image began to ripple and fade in the water.
Wait, Seryu!
Only his red eyes lingered now, duller than I’d ever seen them. “I can’t help you break your curse. I have already tried. But you’re clever. I’m sure you will figure it out.”
I was tired of needing to be clever. Of needing to figure things out. I just wanted to go home and be with my family, to wake up and find this had all been some horribly vivid dream.
I crouched closer to the river as if to whisper. There was something heavy on my mind that I wanted to test out:I’ve been wondering about my stepmother. What if…what if it isn’t a curse? What if…I touched my bowl, feeling foolish for the words I was about to say, but it was too late to turn back.What if sometimes poison is medicine in disguise?
His full face reappearing in the water, Seryu stared at me as if I had grown horns and whiskers. “You think she had good intentions for turning your brothers into cranes?”
I don’t know what I think. I’m just trying to understand why. Why did she do it?
He sniffed. “Humans, always trying to find the reason behind this or that. What would it change?”
That I couldn’t answer. How could I, without knowing what there was to understand?
“The pearl in her heart is not like any other dragon’s. It is corrupted, and she too must be corrupt for possessing it. That’s all you need to know.”
Seryu was right: her reasons couldn’t possibly justify her actions. What she had done to my brothers and me was unforgivable. Only a cruel heart could yield such a curse.
So why didn’t I believe it?
“Don’t make things complicated,” Seryu said pointedly. “Save your brothers, then bring the pearl to my grandfather. Promise this to me, as one friend to another.”
I gave a numb nod.
“Good.” Relief rolled off his shoulders. “Now I must go.”
I won’t see you before then?
“I wish you could, Princess, but no. You won’t miss me anyway, now that your affections have veered toward that unremarkably human lordling.”
I blushed before I could stop myself.
