Quion looked at her nervously. “We’d better walk farther apart from each other,” he suggested, and they did.
The ice held as they entered the gloomy chasm. The steep walls on each side dripped constantly from the melting snow. She could feel the thrum of the river beneath her boots. The current came from behind them, going through the chasm ahead. Some boulders stood above the ice, but they were easy to pass on foot. The ice provided a road to travel down. A few winter squirrels with huge tails appeared in trees and scolded them.
No dragons threatened them.
By nightfall, they had passed through several winding gaps that were nearly blocked by boulders. Huge sentinel peaks, layered in snow and ice, rose on each side. Bingmei was so tired, she felt herself staggering at times. Quion had the basket in his arms since his back had grown weary. She had tried taking it back to save him the labor, but he refused her entreaties.
They stopped to camp beneath a huge boulder for the night. She went to help clear out the space, but Quion told her to feed Shixian instead, and she fell asleep three times doing so. When she awoke, it was to the motion of Quion taking the baby from her and settling him in the basket beneath the boulder. She found herself waking up again when Quion picked her up and carried her to the shelter as well. She let him do so without argument and fell into a deep sleep despite the cold.
No sound of dragons disturbed her in the night. Birdsong awoke her at dawn, and she saw Quion had set one of his blankets over all of them. They lay on either side of the basket, crushed together for warmth.
The rest had done a great deal to replenish her strength. Bingmei practiced her forms again, feeling energized, and the practice eased the little pains in her body.
It was at midday, with the sun shining directly down on them, that the dragons attacked them in the chasm. She felt them come rushing down from the skies, and when she looked up, she was blinded by the sun.
“What is it?” Quion asked, seeing her expression.
“They’re coming!” she gasped in worry.
Something huge and black blotted out the sun, dropping down on them with its foul reek. It was Echion himself. Her heart spasmed in terror. Quion had the baby strapped to his back in the basket.
“Hide!” she told him, grabbing the meiwood staff from him.
But there was nowhere to hide.
As the Dragon of Night came swooping down at her, Bingmei unfurled her spiritual wings and launched herself at him with the staff. The dragon snapped its maw at her, but she swerved around it, invoking the power of the staff as she struck one of the wing joints on his back. The awful stench of him filled her nose. She’d forgotten how horrible it was, seasoned by the memory of his many murders, his evil intentions, his fathomless greed. As she swept past him, the tail tried to swat her from the sky, but she pitched down. The dragon turned and gave chase, just as she’d hoped he would.
She rose from the lip of the canyon, and two dragons lunged at her, both swooping down from the upper walls where they’d tried to blend in. The meiwood staff sizzled with power, and she struck one on the snout hard, stunning it, and managed to fly away before the other could bite her. She moved quickly enough that the second dragon collided with the first. Echion rushed out of the canyon, yellow eyes blazing at her, snarling and snapping. She glanced down into the canyon but couldn’t see Quion anymore.
Arching her back, she flew higher, directly into the blinding light of the sun. Now, it would be difficult for them to see her. But she couldn’t go far, not with her baby and Quion so helpless below.
She changed directions and came rushing down again, only to find Echion had almost reached her. Although she managed to evade his next bite, his great wings buffeted her as she passed, knocking her off her course. Another dragon charged at her as she righted herself. Then she sensed Xisi coming.
Help me! she pleaded in her mind to the phoenix.
Bingmei felt a dragon closing in on her back, and she tucked and dived, letting it whoosh over her. Now that she was in the sky, she saw a huge column . . . not of smoke but an enormous cloud. Lightning streaked from it, followed by the distant pop of thunder.
The chase made her weary, so she dropped to the top of the canyon wall, holding the staff before her. She breathed fast, trying to think. Where was Quion? Where was her baby? If she’d been carrying the basket, she would have flown away with it, choosing to flee the area in order to protect her baby. But she was the capable fighter.
Once she landed, she immediately began doing the phoenix form. The wind howled around her, and the storm drew closer. More lightning. More thunder. She continued in her stance, waiting for her enemies to draw near.
One of the other dragons reached her before Echion. It was a colorful thing, bright violet with shades of ruby along its eyes. Its fangs dripped with saliva as it snapped at her, close enough she could see the pink of its mouth. Bingmei felt as if she were made from the wind. She leaped up at the last moment, and when it charged toward the empty space where she’d been, she slammed the meiwood staff on its head. Thunder boomed from the staff as it struck. She’d carved a word of power to that effect and activated it at that moment. The dragon slumped down, seemingly stunned by the sound and the violence of the strike. It tried to get on its feet, but it couldn’t. She swung the staff
