Page 120 of The Dragon's Promise

Lapzur.

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The pearl dropped me on a promontory overlooking the thrashing sea. I turned away from the water, only to find myself face to face with an army of ghosts, all standing silent as tombs. Something told me that they’d been awaiting my arrival.

My knees scraped against the ground as I pulled myself up. Behind the ghosts were the ruins of Lapzur: cracked walls and battered roofs, roads that came to ragged ends like broken bones, cemeteries of headless trees. Its skyline was low, except for one tower in the center, so violently tall it looked like a sword staked into the island’s heart.

It was the same tower as in my vision. At the top was where I’d seen Takkan die.

I ran to the edge of the cliff. “Takkan!” I cried. “Kiki! Brothers!”

Only the pounding waves of the ocean answered. Kiki, Takkan, my brothers—they were nowhere to be seen.

The wind susurrated against my neck, and I whirled at the sound, trying to hold on to my courage despite the sinking feeling in my gut. More ghosts had gathered on the cliff.

Their presence turned the air sour. Strips of dead flesh dangled off their skeletal frames, white hair matted against their spines. Those with eyes greeted me with smoldering glares. Those without stared vacantly ahead through holes gouged in their skulls.

They began to soldier forward until I was cornered, steps from the edge of the promontory.

I didn’t dare fight. I knew what would happen if they touched me: I’d become a ghost like them. Trapped here without a soul. For eternity.

“Khramelan!” I shouted, scanning the swarm of hollow faces for the half demon. Where was he? He’d just tried to kill me over Lake Paduan. He had to be here somewhere. I held the pearl high. “This is what you want, isn’t it? Come and take it.”

As my words echoed into the hollow night, the ghosts came to a halt. They craned their necks.

At first I thought Khramelan had come. But when I looked up and saw the smear of red light in the sky, a chill came over me. The color was strident—a gash in Lapzur’s monochromatic landscape—and it was our only warning before the demons descended.

They took the form of many different beasts crudely patchworked together: gray-furred bears with lizard tails and webbed bat wings, tiger heads with snake bellies and shark fins. Some even had distortedly human features. But unlike the demons of Tambu, they were made of shadow and smoke, turning to flesh only when they touched the earth. They were bound to Lapzur the way the demons at home were bound to the Holy Mountains.

I dropped to my stomach and scrabbled for my knife. But the demons ignored me and rushed for the ghosts—spearing their throats and clawing at their eyes.

High-pitched screams broke the island’s silence. This was my chance to escape, but I couldn’t look away. The demons and ghosts were at war, ripping at each other’s heads and throats. What was happening?

I swear, Shiori, it’s a miracle your curiosity hasn’t gotten you killed. Kiki shot into view with the seven paper birds trailing. What are you doing, gawping like that? Come with me—this way!

Following her lead, I raced into the city, instinctively using the tower as my compass. Road after road led to a dead end, and I swore the buildings moved. I set one with sloping clay roofs and arched windows as my target, but try as I might, I couldn’t reach it.

The city was a labyrinth, one that shifted so I could never find my way.

Only the tower never changed. Each time I saw it, I cowered, thinking of the fate it held for Takkan. But finally I looked at it head on. Really looked. At the top there loomed a winged demon, partly submerged in darkness. He was as still as the parade of statues that surrounded the tower’s base, only I knew he was no statue.

“Khramelan,” I whispered.

Kiki wailed. Just give him his vile heart so we can find the others and get out of here!

I was trying. I shouted his name and charged toward the tower, but I couldn’t get past the God of Thieves statue guarding the stairs up to the base. Whenever I approached it, whorls of smoke misted out of his eyes, and the island’s dark enchantment would take me back into the outskirts of the city.

It was as if Khramelan didn’t want me to reach him. As if he wanted me trapped here, to be devoured by ghost or demon, whichever got me first. Now that the pearl was on Lapzur, it would find its way to him regardless of whether I lived or died.

My blood heated. Well, I certainly had a preference.

I leapt over a crumbled moon gate into an alleyway, ducking behind the half-crumbled wall to avoid detection. Hands shaking, I crossed my satchel over my body and took inventory. My mirror shard, the pearl—which had gone numb since bringing me to this accursed place—two dull knives I’d taken from Sundau.

I stole a glance at the tower. Was it safe to make another run? It wasn’t. The demons were winning the fight, and now they stalked the streets, stomping on broken skulls that still moved and clutching clumps of white hair in their jaws like trophies.

A winged pair glided overhead. “We have our orders,” they announced to all below. “Track the human. She can’t be far.”

The demons nodded their assent in unison. I had to move. Now.

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