“Dragons grant this,” he said. “Transport will be arranged.”
“If Your Excellency would rather not take the time to make arrangements,” Kest continued, because obviously surviving one ballsy move wasn’t enough for her, “I have a smuggler on call who would gladly return us to Sarca. He’s the one who picked me up and smuggled me onto Van Diemann—”
“And further legitimizes story,” Emperor Takeshi said impatiently.
“He’s also close enough to pick us up tonight rather than waiting until tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes, make arrangements.”
“Thank you, Almighty Emperor,” she said, kneeling and touching her face to the floor again.
“Selkens,” the Emperor muttered. He turned to me and Warcry. “You two, human smash-em-up brothers. Dragons have teams on Sarca searching ruins and attempting to stay ahead of Technols, but this takes time and is much trouble because ruins are full of ferals. Team can’t begin searching until ruins are cleared, and many are dying to stealth Technol attacks. Only answer is to send muscle to pave way for them. You will join ruins delving team on Sarca, do pre-search work, clear ruins, kill Technols who attack. Get operation moving forward at speed, yes?”
“Yes, Emperor,” Warcry answered.
I kept my mouth shut. I was hung up on the “kill Technols” part. I hadn’t one hundred percent figured out this moral killing code yet, but slaughtering dudes to keep them from finding some ancient artifact before we could didn’t sound very honorable.
“Is good.” Takeshi-ketsu didn’t leave room for any other conversation, probably because he’d had enough of that with Kest. “Transport leaves in two days. You will be sent for when is time.”
The Emperor waved a scaly hand at Sanya-ketsu. She opened the door, and a servant in a silk yukata bowed in.
“Show newly arrived Dragons to guest lodging,” Takeshi-ketsu told the servant.
The servant bowed again, then gestured for us to follow him. We started to retreat toward the exit to avoid showing disrespect by turning our backs on the Emperor.
“Not Death cultivator,” Takeshi-ketsu said, pointing at me. “You stay.”
Charge of Justice
MY FRIENDS SHOT ME worried glances as they shuffled past. I picked at a thread on the leg of my pants so I wouldn’t do something stupid like cross my arms or put my hands in my pockets and get executed.
As soon as the door was shut behind them, the Komodo Emperor got straight to the point.
“We know you have aversion to killing, Death cultivator.” Obviously, he wasn’t big on small talk and posturing, unlike the Shoguns I’d met so far. “To meaningless killing.”
I frowned. It was true, I’d learned the hard way that there were some enemies who would keep coming at you until they took out you and everybody you cared about. Those people couldn’t be left alive. But I didn’t get how the Emperor of the Eight-Legged Dragons knew that.
At the look on my face, Takeshi-ketsu bared his sharp teeth in a grin.
“Sown Dreams,” he said. “Very useful.”
“I live to serve the Eight-Legged Dragons.” Sanya-ketsu bent her flat body into a bow.
“Is important to note, Death cultivator,” the Emperor said, shaking a clawed finger at her. “Sanya serves Dragons, not Emperor Takeshi. You? You serve Dragons, not Takeshi. When you kill, you kill for Dragons, just like in Van Diemann Heartchamber 2. Did you kill for Grady Hake? No, you kill for Rali, you kill for Warcry.” He put his hand over his heart. “For friends.”
He gestured at the papers and books stacked on his desk.
“Grady Hake does not care for artifact weapon,” he said, and I started to wonder whether this dude’s affinity was Mind Reading Spirit. “Takeshi does not ask Grady to kill for artifact weapon he cares nothing about. Each kill Takeshi asks of you, it is for justice, for protecting weak, stopping evil. This is ultimate goal of Dragons, but Dragons alone cannot achieve this. Dragons must have artifact weapon to stop Technols from using it to prey on weak. You know Eight-Legged Dragons are originally created as vigilante group?”
I shook my head. “No, sir.”
“Is truth. Confederated Planet Authority refused to bring bad persons to justice. Many reasons—bribes, nepotism, laziness. They let murderers, rapists, traitors, scum of galaxy go. First Dragons rose up, avenged wrongs, protected the weak, brought justice.” His reptilian irises glowed with amber light as he spoke. “Just like Grady Hake tries to do. You want to kill for right, not for meaninglessness. For justice. This is terrible burden, but someone must bear it. Only Death cultivator is strong enough.”
Something stirred inside my chest at that, rearing up like a black cobra. Something close to the righteous anger I’d felt in the Contrails’ Beauty vs. Beasts fighting pits. A certainty that I’d been given this second shot at living for a reason. That I had Death Spirit for a reason.
Hungry Ghost’s laughter whispered through my skull. Devil corruption is cleverer than Hungry Ghost was.
Thanks to the entry door, I didn’t have any Spirit to bury him with right then, and even if I did, I couldn’t use it in the Emperor’s presence without getting executed, so I just ignored the ancient khan.
“Sanya tells Takeshi you came from place of unfairness, Death cultivator,” the Emperor said. “Growing up, you are seeing much injustice, like I do. Those who do evil are rewarded, those who do good are trampled, used, forgotten. Is infuriating, yes? Very definition of wrong.” He raised a scaly fist. “But Takeshi knows the solution for injustice: you become justice. Right these wrongs. Can you do this, Death cultivator? Not for Takeshi, not for Dragons—” He sliced a hand through the air. “—but for Grady Hake. Can you defeat evil, avenge wrongs, protect weak?”
It was like being cut up on the inside, like every word was exactly what I’d been waiting to hear my whole life and I should’ve known it all along. I could stop all the evil crap in the world from happening,
