Orchestra of Treacheries: A Legends of Tivara Story (The Dragon Songs Saga Book 2) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are either fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintended.

  Copyright © 2016 by JC Kang

  http://www.jckang.info

  [email protected]

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work or portions thereof in any way whatsoever except as provided by law. For permission, questions, or contact information, see www.jckang.info.

  Maps by Laura Kang

  Cover Art by Bob Kehl:

  Cover Layout by Laura Kang

  First Edition: June 2016

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Orchestra of Treacheries (Legends of Tivara, The Dragon Songs Saga)

  Map of Cathay | Map of Ayuri Lands

  Who’s Who in The Dragon Charmer

  Prologue: | Rude Awakenings

  CHAPTER 1: | Chance Meetings

  CHAPTER 2: | Love Letters

  CHAPTER 3 | Challenges

  CHAPTER 4 | Theoretical Conspiracies

  CHAPTER 5: | Change of Heart

  CHAPTER 6: | Seeds of Insurrection

  CHAPTER 7: | Dragon in the Room

  CHAPTER 8: | Second Chances

  CHAPTER 9: | Audacity

  CHAPTER 10: | Aftermath

  CHAPTER 11: | Unwelcome Bedfellows

  CHAPTER 12: | Sweat in Times of Peace

  CHAPTER 13: | The Best Laid Plans

  CHAPTER 14: | Resonance

  CHAPTER 15: | Another Foreign Prince

  CHAPTER 16 | Half-Truths and Misdirections

  CHAPTER 17: | Patriot Games

  CHAPTER 18: | Idle Pursuits

  CHAPTER 19: | It Will Be a Good Year

  CHAPTER 20: | Mirrors and Warnings

  CHAPTER 21: | Bait and Switch

  CHAPTER 22: | Song of Ayudra Island

  CHAPTER 23: | What Happens in the Floating World

  CHAPTER 24: | Visions

  CHAPTER 25: | Token from Ayudra

  CHAPTER 26: | Song of Swords

  CHAPTER 27: | A Hot Welcome

  CHAPTER 28: | Stalker in the Shadows

  CHAPTER 29: | For Every Answer, Two New Questions

  CHAPTER 30: | A Position of Strength

  CHAPTER 31: | Even a Carp Dreams of Becoming a Dragon

  CHAPTER 32: | An Audacious Proposal

  CHAPTER 33: | Shifts in Winds

  CHAPTER 34: | The Perfect Dance

  CHAPTER 35: | A Prince by Any Other Name

  CHAPTER 36: | Titles Bestowed, Titles Earned

  CHAPTER 37: | Rogues Gallery

  CHAPTER 38: | Ulterior Motives

  CHAPTER 39: | Interlude

  CHAPTER 40: | Awakenings

  CHAPTER 41: | Victory without Fighting

  CHAPTER 42: | Ultimatums

  CHAPTER 43: | Enemy of My Enemy’s Enemy

  CHAPTER 44: | Pieces of a Puzzle

  CHAPTER 45: | Checkmate

  CHAPTER 46: | Interview with Evil

  CHAPTER 47: | Verbal Jousting

  CHAPTER 48: | Return to Ayudra

  CHAPTER 49: | Journey’s Bounty

  EPILOGUE: | All Good Things

  Threads of a Tapestry

  True Color of Betrayal | CHAPTER 1: | Value of a Dragonfly’s Life

  Appendix

  Celestial Bodies

  Time

  Human Ethnicities

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  To Romain, who planted my geek seeds.

  Map of Cathay

  Map of Ayuri Lands

  Who’s Who in Orchestra of Treacheries

  Imperial Family:

  Wang, Zhishen: Tianzi (Emperor)

  Wang, Kai-Guo: Crown Prince

  Zhao, Xiulan: Crown Princess, of Ximen Province

  Wang, Kai-Wu: Second Prince

  Wu, Yanli: Second Prince’s wife, from Zhenjing Province

  Wang, Kaiya: princess

  Kaiya's Friends

  Lin Ziqiu Kaiya’s cousin, from Dongshan Province

  Wang Kai-Hua Kaiya’s cousin, married to the heir of Jiangzhou Province

  Han Mei-Ling Kaiya’s handmaiden

  Kaiya's Mentors

  Lord Xu Elf Lord of Haikou Island

  Doctor Wu Taoist from Haikou Island

  Expansionist Lords

  Jiang Lord of Nantou Province

  Lin Lord of Dongshan Province

  Peng Kai-Long nephew of the Tianzi, Lord of Nanling Province

  Royalist Lords

  Han Lord of Fengu Province

  Liu Yong Lord of Jiangzhou Province

  Wu Lord of Zhenjing Province

  Zhao Lord of Ximen Province

  Zheng Han Lord of Dongmen Province

  Zheng Ming Kaiya’s main suitor

  Zheng Tian Kaiya’s childhood friend

  Ministers and Officials

  Fen Council Minister

  Geng Treasury Minister

  Hong Jianbin Minister of Household Relations

  Song Henglin Minister of Foreign Affairs

  Tan Han Chief Minister

  Conspirators

  Leina half-Ayuri from Ankira

  Liang Yu former Moquan

  Song Xingyuan Liang Yu’s apprentice

  Soldiers

  Chen Xin captain of Kaiya’s imperial guard detail

  Li Wei Kaiya’s imperial guard

  Ma Jun Kaiya’s imperial guard

  Xie Shimin mounted archer from Huayuan Province

  Xu Zhan Kaiya’s imperial guard

  Yan Jie Moquan spy, Kaiya’s bodyguard

  Zhao Yue Kaiya’s imperial guard

  Zheng Jiawei General of the Imperial Guard

  Foreigners

  Aelward Corivar Prince of Tarkoth

  Ayana Strongbow Prince Aelward’s bodyguard

  Benham Levastyan Empire ambasador

  Devak Paladin elder

  Dhananad Prince of Madura

  Gayan the Oracle’s apprentice

  Hardeep Vaswani Prince of Ankira

  Mehal Paladin elder

  Piros Teleri ambassador to the Ayuri Confederation

  Sameer Vikram Paladin apprentice

  Sabal Paladin master

  Thielas Starsong elf prince

  Legendary figures

  Aralas elf angel

  Avarax Last Dragon

  Celastya Guardian Dragon of Hua

  Yanyan founder of musical magic

  Prologue:

  Rude Awakenings

  Waking up without wings perplexed Avarax even more than the purple light that flashed at the entrance to his cave. The glimmer danced among the precious metals and gemstones, which towered above his uncharacteristically small size. A rumble shook the cavern walls, punctuating the rude awakening.

  It had been a pleasant nap. Now someone would die for disturbing him.

  Uttering a word of magic, his bipedal form morphed. His size swelled as arms bent into forelegs and wings sprouted. Hands and fingers became talons, while his tail thickened and elongated.

  Ah, it felt great to be a dragon again! He stretched his limbs and spine to work out tight muscles. Sufficiently limbered up, he snaked towards the cave opening to investigate. Night hung over the land, cloaking the world in darkness.

  Another flash lit up the sky. He tracked it to its source, hundreds of miles to the southwest. A column of purple fire streaked
down from the heavens, annihilating stretches of a sprawling port city of domes and minarets.

  A city that had not been there when he went to sleep.

  How long had he slumbered? Shrugging his shoulders a few times, Avarax loosened his wings. His claws tore into rock as he coiled his hind legs and then vaulted skyward. Higher and higher he flew, reacquainting himself with a land drastically different from the one he remembered.

  Cities and towns. Hundreds of them within his far-reaching sight, oases in wide expanses of farmland. Not ghastly Tivari orc outposts, which glared out from the mountains, nor even the graceful spires of elven citadels melding with their surrounding forests. But rather, the centers of human populations he had seen as a younger dragon, back when their civilization was nothing more than a collection of mud huts.

  They must have overthrown their Tivari masters while he slept. Like all bottom feeders, humans had a way of proliferating when left unfettered.

  Still far in the distance, another blast of energy pulsed down on the city, obliterating the levees restraining the Western Ocean. An inexorable tide crawled across the low-lying lands and swallowed up towns and villages.

  Hell rained down from the heavens. Destruction and suffering. Avarax laughed, belching blue sparks from his nose. He accelerated towards the source of the blasts to get a better look.

  Flight! The cool night air streaked over his wings. The last time he had flown, he held the black-haired, honey-skinned slave girl in his claws. Given to him by a weaker dragon as tribute, the human was to have been his snack, for him to devour after a few days of torment. But before the torture began, she offered to sing.

  Her voice had resonated with the universe, harmonizing with the vibrations of his own life force. Its vibrant tempo, like the torrent of river rapids, lulled to the dripping of a melting icicle. Heavier and heavier...

  The human whelp must have sung him to sleep!

  Avarax growled and wrapped his consciousness around the gemstone in his core, the almost-infinite source of energy all dragons had. Its pulsations meandered lazily, like a winter stream before the spring melt.

  He bellowed in rage. With his energy pent up, and no telling what threats could have arisen while he slept, he’d need to regenerate. Investigating the devastation would have to wait.

  Veering northward, he streaked towards Celastya’s lair. Even if he could only draw on a trickle of energy, he was more than a match for her. He would rip her open and swallow her Flaming Pearl. The thought had crossed his mind over the millennia. Instead he had regularly mated with her and ate her clutch of eggs to gradually increase his potential power. He did not have the luxury of time now.

  Ignoring the sporadic flickers of purple in the skies behind him, Avarax scanned the landscape below. The plains first rose into rolling hills before vaulting higher into mountain crags. Nestled in a valley, Teardrop Lake glimmered a pale blue, even in the dark of night. The light from the three moons gamboled in its ripples, the reflections dancing across Celastya’s hidden cave entrance.

  He hovered by the opening. Stronger or not, it would be foolish for him to fight in her lair. He would have to coax her out. His voice echoed across the valley, shaking the mountains. “Celastya, out with you! It is time to mate again.”

  She was inside. Avarax could hear her shrink back, smell her fear. He would roast her alive and pick through her charred remains for her Pearl. He took in a deep breath and belched into the cave.

  Only a few sparks fizzled out— enough to incinerate a human, but only a tickling to a dragon. His frustrated wail sent the mountains shivering. He clawed at the cave mouth, ripping rock away.

  A burst of reds and oranges erupted high in the heavens, just above the iridescent moon. A roar tumbled across the lands, the shockwave pushing him back from the cave.

  Celastya darted out. She glanced at him with her luminous blue eyes. Her wingless, slithering form undulated past as she levitated close to the ground. Light from the White Moon sparkled off of her silvery scales before dark clouds billowing out from Mount Ayudra blotted out their sheen.

  Avarax gave chase, the gusts from his wings splintering trees below. He barreled into Celastya, sending her careening into the loathsome Tivari pyramid still standing by the shores of the lake.

  Its stones cracked as she rebounded off the walls. He drove his claws toward her, but she darted away, and he ripped into the pyramid’s stonework instead. His talons lodged into something deep in the rock, sending a searing shock through body. Curse the Tivari for ever building the vile structures!

  Avarax tore his claws free and resumed his pursuit. Celastya flew over the mountains and towards the shore, and then skimmed the ocean as she streaked towards Jade Island.

  The fool thought she could channel the island’s latent energy. Of course, he could, too. Perhaps it would energize his gemstone, reinvigorating it a little more.

  Mountains along the closed end of the horseshoe-shaped island shielded a port town at the head of the bay. A smooth metal arch, engraved with runes of elf magic, spanned the mouth of the harbor. Celastya coiled herself around the arch. Her eyes glowed a brilliant blue.

  As he approached, she unwrapped herself, freeing herself just in time to avoid a swipe from his foreclaw. With a graceful spin, Celastya twisted around him and tangled up his wings. The air dropped out from beneath them. Wind roared past as the ground rushed up to meet their tumbling bodies.

  They crashed into the shore with a jolt that shook the island. Her strangling grasp around him eased. She seized his forelegs in her own claws, but Avarax was still much stronger. He raked a talon across her neck. Bright blue blood spurted out. They struggled for dozens of minutes, toppling statues and buildings as they thrashed around.

  “Avarax!” A bold voice called his name, and he turned to see a puny elf. He radiated power far out of proportion to his size.

  Though smaller than one of Avarax’s fangs, the golden-haired elf dared to lock gazes with him. He began to chant. The vibrations of his voice, similar yet different to that of the slave girl from before, rolled over him.

  The power of the gemstone lurched inside of him. A dull ache blossomed into searing pain as his bones broke and reformed. Hulking muscle shrank and impenetrable scales softened. His forelegs and claws withered into arms and hands, his hindquarters transmuting into legs.

  Several excruciating minutes of transformation later, Avarax rose on wobbling humanoid legs, a scant head above the elf whom he had dwarfed just minutes ago. He looked down at his naked, frail body.

  A human! The most pathetic of sentient beings.

  Avarax scoffed. The silly trick might buy them time, but he would pay them back tenfold. He uttered the words to restore his dragon form.

  Nothing happened.

  What? His morale melted away. Instead of a roar that would compel a mortal to obey, his voice merely shouted. “What have you done?”

  “Made you wish you had stayed asleep for another seven hundred years.” The elf whipped out a narrow longsword.

  Avarax felt its power, knew that it held a magic enchantment. His new tiny heart rattled against the narrow confines of his scrawny chest. Was it in fear? He had not experienced that emotion in several millennia.

  He closed his eyes as the tip pushed into his chest. The blade made a divot into the thin flesh covering him, not even cutting the skin.

  It barely tickled.

  A magical elvish blade should have stabbed through a human with ease. Avarax held the elf’s shocked gaze. In that second of silence, Avarax sensed the gemstone inside of him. It pulsed as feebly as before, yet it still held all the potential energy of a dragon. He spoke a word of power, sending the elf hurtling back into the sand.

  He spun to see Celastya bearing down on him. He slammed his fist into her swiping claw. She recoiled and winced.

  Avarax laughed. Even in this pitiful form, he was still a dragon. He punched again, hitting nothing but air.

  Celastya, the elf, and the h
orseshoe island were all gone, replaced by wind-driven snow on a mountain top. Ice sizzled and melted beneath his feet.

  He evaluated his gemstone. The elf’s ward dammed it up. The trickle of vitality would not sustain his dragon form, at least not for more than a few minutes.

  Condemned to be a human!

  No matter. Find opportunity in disaster, the tribe of black-haired, yellow-skinned humans said. Before him lay a new world infested by inferior beings. Even without his dragon form, his superior intellect would allow him to rule over a weak-willed, borderline intelligent species.

  Celastya snaked her head around. A second before, she had been ready to rip Avarax’s human form apart; the next, he and the elf were gone. Before she had time to consider what had happened, the elf reappeared out of thin air. He collapsed into the sand.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  The elf staggered to his feet. “We were lucky to take him by surprise. I froze time and transported him to the other side of Tivaralan. Though I forced him into human form, he still has all the vitality of a dragon. It took all of my energy to move him.”

  Celastya scratched her whiskers. She never imagined a mortal could be so strong. “He will return.”

  “Yes, but he will have to walk. It will take him years, unless he finds a way to unlock his gemstone.”

  A shudder sent ripples down her serpentine form. Nothing left in this world could stop Avarax at full strength. “And when he does?”

  “Let us hope I have time to teach someone with the right voice to sing him back to sleep.”

  CHAPTER 1:

  Chance Meetings

  Princess Kaiya fled Sun-Moon Palace, hoping to escape the dragon’s imminent arrival. Not Avarax, who supposedly heard the magic in her voice from afar; but rather General Lu, a human who could pass as a cold-blooded lizard. What the Guardian Dragon of Hua lacked in height, he compensated for with an ego that cast a long shadow over her mood.

  Her identity hidden by a hooded cloak that roasted her on this unseasonably warm day, she wandered through the busy city streets. Well, not exactly wandered, since she had a destination in mind.