As enthralled as Friya and Yumo-Rezu both were, weariness soon overcame them. After marveling at the dragon skeleton for a while, they both went to sleep wrapped in their bearskin bedrolls, while I watched over my Jotunn as they dismantled the skeleton.
My party set off at first light, with the Jotunn bringing up the rear as we navigated the treacherous mountain passes. My senses were on full alert, and I was fully expecting another blizzard attack from the Hooded Man, Elandriel. I couldn’t be utterly certain that those two were one and the same, but I was ninety-nine percent sure. No attack came, however, and the weather was clear all the way down. Perhaps Elandriel had realized that he couldn’t beat me with his weather attacks, or maybe he was trying to build up his strength for an attack that would have a higher probability of hurting or killing me; he was a master strategist, and I wasn’t about to get lax or underestimate him just because he was giving me a period of respite.
We made good time and reached the Warlock’s tower by nightfall. My party gathered all the looted artworks and stolen treasures and rested there for the night.
That night, Rami-Xayon and I combined our powers, as we had prior to the battle with the Warlock, to create a monster tornado to carry the kraken from the lake near the tower back to Gongxiong Harbor. When we slipped the kraken back into the murky depths of the bay, I looked through its eyes and saw that Yumo-Rezu had been right; most of the ships in the harbor had been destroyed by a gigantic conflagration. Much of the town had been burned down too. I knew I would have to come up with an unorthodox method of getting my army back across the ocean to Prand, since building or even buying a new fleet would take months. As for the assholes who’d started the inferno and destroyed my ships, I would make them sorely regret the day they ever struck flint and steel to kindling.
The march from the Warlock’s tower to Gongxiong Harbor would take my army about a week, as long as they didn’t run into trouble on the road, so I would have plenty of time to come up with a plan. I left Rollar and his undead direbear, which was immensely powerful but slow, to take control of the army. Drok stayed with the army too while I rode ahead, mounted on Fang, with the rest of my party.
Isu, Elyse, Rami-Xayon, Friya, Yumo-Rezu, and Ji-Ko and his monks rode the fastest of my undead beasts: the saber-toothed panthers.
Anna-Lucielle still had her live panther; the savage apex predator was as loving and playful as a puppy with her. With her Charm powers, which extended to beasts thanks to Rollar’s helm she now wore, she could turn the panther back into a vicious killing machine with a snap of her fingers. Layna rode an undead war spider; she felt much more at home on it than any other mount.
Talon, my harpy, flew ahead of my party, and I shot my spirit into hers every half hour to get a bird’s-eye-view of the landscape ahead. I needed her to do some reconnaissance, just to make sure we weren’t walking into any ambushes. The Blood God still had some allies here, and I wasn’t about to let my guard down.
Everything ahead was safe and clear when my party split from the army, and it stayed that way for a few hours.
Later on the first day of the journey, a sparrow from the Emperor came to Ji-Ko. The monk traced his fingertips over the raised characters on the paper, and a look of concern crossed his face as he read the message.
“God of Death, the Emperor humbly asks that you visit him at once,” he said. “There is a matter he urgently needs your help with. The reward he can give you will assist you greatly in your quest against the Blood God.”
Helping the Glorious Emperor would mean a delay in getting to the coast, but I was intrigued by the promise of a reward. We had to pass the City of Jewels anyway, so I figured I could stop by the Forbidden Palace and find out what the Emperor wanted me to do. I could always politely refuse and continue on my way if the reward didn’t merit a delay.
“Send a sparrow saying we’ll go to the Forbidden Palace,” I said to Ji-Ko.
“As you command, God of Death,” he said with a sweeping bow.
We headed straight there, and due to the speed of our mounts we arrived at the Forbidden Palace that evening. The palace was still in something of a state of disrepair. The emperor had hired hundreds of craftsmen, landscapers, and artists to restore the buildings and grounds to their former glory, and they’d already made a lot of progress. Tens of thousands of candles burned with many colored flames, giving the sprawling grounds a surreal, dreamlike beauty, while thousands of paper lanterns bathed the corridors in gentle light. Our second entry into the Forbidden Palace couldn’t have been more different to our first one. This time we were welcomed as heroes, and the feast the emperor laid out for us in his dining hall was fit for a king, with hundreds of exotic, delectable dishes.
The Emperor and I exchanged pleasantries, and I told him about the battle with the Warlock. I also described the treasures and artworks we’d salvaged from the Warlock’s tower. As it turned out, many of the artworks and treasures we’d taken from the Warlock’s tower had been stolen from the Forbidden Palace by traitorous soldiers and servants who had deserted the Emperor. I offered to return
