fell there only a day before.
The priest stopped when he got as close as he dared to the wall. He could see Shou archers training their arrows on the Tuigan procession. Only the presence of the Shou prisoners prevented them from firing. Koja lowered his head, took a deep breath, and then looked up. He felt calm, too preoccupied to be afraid. 'Spirit of the Dragonwall,' he called out, 'hear me! Yamun Khahan, Illustrious Emperor of All People, gives to you a sacrifice of blood. Accept it and go in freedom and peace.' Koja whispered a prayer beseeching Furo's forgiveness for what he was about to do. The priest gave the signal as soon as the prayer was done.
Knives in hand, one hundred guards reached out and slashed the throats of one hundred horses. The death screams of the beasts rang in Koja's ears. His own horse pranced and reared, forcing the priest to open his eyes. He could barely keep the mount under control. All around him the mares stumbled forward or lashed at their grooms, blood streaming down their white breasts, soaking the ground. Quickly they fell, one by one, into the dirt.
Koja was dazed. He heard a roar. At first the lama thought it was the war cry of the two hundred thousand men lined up behind him. Then, suddenly, the ground trembled. The shock waves built in strength, and Koja's horse reared and bolted, throwing the priest to the ground. All around Koja the guards struggled to keep their mounts under control.
Scrambling to his feet, the priest looked toward the Dragonwall and stopped in amazement. It was buckling, heaving upward, the foundations tearing from the earth. The brick masonry fell away in sheets, sweeping guardsmen off the battlements. The nearest watchtower heaved outward, rising up before settling into a crumbled heap. Koja looked to the gates. The huge wooden doors groaned against each other. The tall gatehouses swayed. There was a piercing crack as the span between the two towers shattered, raining stone onto the Shou garrison below.
Koja, surprised and terrified, sprinted for the safety of the khahan's banner. The guardsmen around him were also galloping for the safety of the Tuigan line. The ground heaved again, hurling the panting lama into the dirt. Sweat and dust running into his eyes, Koja stumbled to his feet and reeled forward. Unexpectedly, a hand thrust under his arm, squeezing his chest. With a jerk the priest was pulled from his feet and hauled on the back of a galloping mare.
'Hold tight, little lama,' Koja's rescuer announced. The Kashik looked back at the priest with a snaggle- toothed grin.
Gasping, Koja clung to the man's waist. Behind him he could still hear the rumbling crash of masonry. 'What's happening, priest? What did you do?' shouted the rider over his shoulder.
'More than I thought,' Koja shouted back. The guard reined the hurtling steed to a stop just in front of the khahan's banner. Koja tumbled to the ground, and the horseman easily swung his mount around and galloped to his position in the battle line.
'We cannot fight in this madness!' Yamun shouted over the building noise. 'Hold the signal for the attack until the wall stops moving!' The khahan sprang from his horse and stormed over to where the lama was sprawled.
'Look!' Koja cried as he glanced back toward the Dragonwall. He pointed to the great fortification.
A great, taloned claw burst through the soil, then another, gouging into the dirt along the structure's foundations. The wall split and cracked, revealing a spiny, scaled back arching and pushing upward. The scales glistened blue and brown along the length of the reptilian hide. Far to the right, away from the gate, the fortification exploded, scattering shards of brick and granite across the plain. Broken men hurtled off the battlements and fell, crushed, to the ground. A coiling tail, forked and pointed, thrashed free of the shattered battlements. Clouds of dust began to roil away from the stone wall, driven forward by the collapsing stone.
The grinding roar of cracking stone and the faint screams of men and horses were overwhelmed by a new sound, a howling cry of tremendous volume. It was part animalistic roar, part shouted cry. Koja wondered if this was the true voice of the dragon spirit.
Suddenly, the great gate shivered. Wood shrieked as the massive doors warped and bent. There was a popping crack as the hardwood valves split, the force of the sudden release blowing the wooden gates outward. The stone gatehouses to either side twisted and heaved. The immense gate of the Dragonwall was shattered.
'Standard-bearer! Get ready,' Yamun shouted, barely heard over the destruction. 'We ride forward now!' The khahan ran back and mounted his unruly horse.
Koja also ran to a horse. Over his shoulder, he looked back at the wall. There, in the yawning gate, the lama saw a pair of eyes, glistening with a lambent blue fire, fringed by the ornate carapace of a great dragon. It was the same set of eyes he had seen last night.
The vision lasted only a second. Driven by the sudden rush of wind, a column of dust spiralled into the air, explosively pushing the gatetowers to the side. The blockhouses splintered and fell, crashing onto the remains of the wall to either side of the gate. The banners of Shou that once adorned the tower peaks were snatched away by the wind and carried into the sky. Koja watched, too numb to be amazed, as the writhing column solidified to become the twisting serpentine shape of a majestic dragon. Before the priest could see any more, a choking cloud of dust and sand swept over the Tuigan line.
The whirling sandstorm passed in no more than a few minutes. Even before the dust cleared, the thunderous crashes of rock died away. After the chaos that came before, everything now seemed still. Coughing and gagging, Koja struggled with his horse.
'It worked, priest! Better than you promised!' Yamun shouted. Koja turned and looked where the khahan pointed.
Ahead, where the Dragonwall had been, with its imposing gate and towering walls, was a gaping breach. The gatehouses were shattered, the heavy wooden doors in splinters. The towers had fallen away from the road, leaving the opening clear. At other points to the left and right, the wall was also breached, tumbled into rough piles.
Yamun barked out commands as he gestured toward points along the wall. 'Standard-bearer, signal Chanar. He is to take the Kashik through the center. He will lead the attack! Hurry! Hurry, before they can recover!' Yamun yelled at the dazed khans around him, shouting them into motion.
It dawned on Koja that he stood in the path of two hundred thousand warriors. Quickly he tried to move his horse to the side, but there was no safe escape. He could either charge forward into battle or risk being trampled where he stood.
'Signal the khans to be ready!' Yamun ordered. The white yak tails dipped, giving the signal the warriors waited for. As the command was relayed through the army, the men of each tumen raised their war cry. Once again the air thundered with the voice of destruction.
'Attack!' shouted the khahan, nodding to the drummers.
The war drums sounded, signaling the Kashik to move. Chanar, for a second, reined in his horse, almost refusing to charge. The Kashik began to advance behind him anyway. Finally the general stood in his saddle and whipped his horse forward. The mount leaped into motion and behind it swept the black-robed mass of the Kashik, eight thousand strong. Before the first men had even reached the crumbled wall, Yamun was shouting orders for the other tumens to charge and whipped his own horse forward.
Yamun charged at full gallop, surrounded by his khans. Koja rode in their midst, dragged along by the wave of men around him.
In a moment the Tuigan reached the shattered gate; in another they poured through the breach. The Shou garrison that once manned the walls and filled the towers was shattered. Generals and troopers alike had been lost. Those who survived were already streaming back from the broken fortification, some forming ragged units of several thousand, many more fleeing the mounted doom that poured through the gaps. With a howl of triumph, the Tuigan horsemen swept down upon the routed enemy. The great battle of the Dragonwall was won before it had even begun.
Epilogue
Koja sipped on a cup of tea brewed in the Shou style. On his throne, Yamun drank the vile salted brew
