“A little, yes,” he admitted. “Nevertheless, I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
“Definitely. If you’re ever in Prand, you should pay Castle Brakith a visit.”
“I will do exactly that. But you have quite the quest to complete before then.”
“Indeed,” I said. “Good luck, friend.”
With a smile and a pat on the back, I sent Zhenwan on his way back to Gongxiong with two Blind Monks to protect him, and I finally journeyed onward as planned with the rest of my party.
Chapter Twenty-Four
On the road, I asked Ji-Ko to tell me more about the Dragon Goddess.
“Ah, to have seen her when she was alive!” he said. “From everything the legends say, she was one of the most beautiful women who has ever graced this world with her presence. But also one of the fiercest, and a ferocious fighter, just like the dragons she ruled over. She was one of the most powerful of the old gods, but like most, she was killed during the Purge.”
“And the Emperor—why is it he hates you guys so much? And why has he gone out of his way to drive any remaining belief in the Dragon Goddess underground? I mean, I heard a lot about the so-called ‘Dragon Cult’ before I got to Yeng, and even from Yengish people who said they were a bunch of crazy but harmless fools, but is it even a thing?”
Ji-Ko laughed. “The Dragon Cult is real, but it is populated by gullible fools. We monks actually created the cult as a distraction, to divert attention away from us real Dragon Goddess worshipers. The cultists are a harmless bunch, and don’t really know anything about the Dragon Goddess. They do serve to keep the Emperor off our back, though. As to why he despises us so, well, it’s because of the very same prophecy that said you would come to us. He knows the prophecy too, and generations of emperors before him have known its words as well. The prophecy says that you, God of Death, will lead the Order of Blind Monks to cast the Glorious Emperor out of his Forbidden Palace. They have always taken this to mean that we will bring about the end of their dynasty, something the emperors of Yeng fear more than death itself. This is why they hate us, and why they have tried for hundreds of years to quash our order; they think we will bring about their downfall one day.”
We kept chatting as we walked, and after a few hours we were high in the mountains, which had grown larger and more spectacular, with the winding road hugging the edges of sheer cliff faces. The cliffs shot a mile up on one side of the narrow track, drops plummeted straight down a mile to rocky valleys below. One false step and you’d have a very long way to fall.
It took us another few hours of navigating these treacherous cliffside paths to finally reach the top of the escarpment. When we did, we were rewarded with awe-inspiring views over the mountains we’d just come through. Only just visible in the distance, the blue rim of the ocean lay beyond them.
Ahead of us was a jungle-covered plateau, and the road led into the heart of the trees.
“We have at least three full days’ travel through the jungle before we get to the outskirts of the capital,” Ji-Ko said. “This jungle is crawling with saber-toothed panthers and all sorts of other dangerous creatures. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times.”
I grinned. “Oh, I will.”
Even though it was late afternoon and the sun was still shining brightly, a few minutes after stepping into the jungle it was as if we’d stepped into night. We had to light torches to guide the way; the tree canopy above and the lush green foliage around us was all so dense that it blocked out most of the sunlight. The heat and humidity were oppressive. You’d sweat standing still. Walking a few steps got you drenched.
Not all of the abundant life here was threatening. Many colorful birds flitted around, and strange, vividly colored lizards crawled up and down the moss-covered trees. Insects buzzed and sang, and made such a racket that we could barely manage to hold a conversation.
Layna was delighted to see all sorts of strange spiders in this place. They were nothing like her horse-sized war spiders, of course, but they were pretty big, some the size of a man’s torso. She made pets of them; I guessed it was some sort of Arachne thing, but the spiders scuttled eagerly over to her whenever she called them, and they would sit like docile pet birds on her shoulders, or walk alongside her like obedient mutts.
When dusk did finally begin to fall, the jungle grew really dark, and we were clearly being watched. Many eyes observed us closely, none of them friendly. In the not-so-far distance, I heard threatening growls and rumbles.
Anna-Lucielle walked over to me, looking nervous. “I wish I’d borrowed Rollar’s Beast Helm. Then I could reach out to these panthers and persuade them that we’re not for eating.”
“Don’t you worry about that, Anna-Lucielle,” I said. “If those panthers do try anything as stupid as attacking us, they’ll regret it. You’re safe with me, trust me.”
Layna came over and joined our conversation. “I’ve heard that once a wild beast gets a taste for human flesh, it will want to eat only humans from that point on.” She smiled one of her dark smiles, hairy red and blue spiders crawling over her busty torso. “I can understand the panthers’ desires, I must say.”
A low growl rumbled close to the edge of the road a dozen yards ahead. It was answered by a snarling bark from some bushes on the other side of the road. This in turn was answered by another growl to our rear right, then one more from our rear left.
“Prepare to fight, God of Death,” Ji-Ko
