Tomes Apprentice Read online

“Right.” She saw a trickle of blood on the top of his head and blinked in surprise. Just how hard had he hit his head? “You’re bleeding. You have anything I can wipe that with?”

  He ignored that and jerked upright again, this time keeping their eyes level. “Do you have any idea how hard we’ve been searching for you?! For two years, without rest, at least one flight of dragons is constantly looking.”

  So they had been looking. Mei Li let out a long breath and felt an anxious knot of anxiety—one she’d carried for two years—dissolve from her heart. “I tried everything I could think of to alert someone. But the villagers kept stopping everything I tried, and I didn’t see any hint of even one ship passing on the horizon.”

  “What are you even doing here?!” he demanded of her shrilly.

  “Shipwrecked.” Even the memory of it made the taste of brine fill the back of her throat. She’d been washed under the waves, fighting for breath and air in murky darkness for long minutes before latching onto a boulder. She still dreamed of it sometimes. Terrifying, achingly real dreams that never ended with a rescue. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t topside when it happened, but I believe the storm blew us off course. We weren’t anywhere close to the route we should have been on.”

  “That explains why we couldn’t find you.” He grimaced.

  “Have you heard anything of my master?”

  “No, he’s still missing too. Or he was at my last report.”

  She blinked. “Wait. Abe’s missing?”

  “Oh. Uh…you didn’t know that.” The dragon ducked his head, manner awkward. “Sorry, could have phrased that better. Yes, his ship went missing too. I understand it safely left Overlook and went north, but that’s all we can confirm. Like with you. Overlook itself is now buried under the ocean. The volcano destroyed it completely.”

  Mei Li nodded, but didn’t lose heart completely. He was in a very remote location, after all. It could be Abe had been found and he just hadn’t heard of it yet.

  “Wind and sea, you know what this means? If I bring you in, they’ll surely promote me, and I can finally be shed of this desolate place!”

  Mei Li laughed. She shared that sentiment exactly. “Then let’s leave together! I’ll put in a good word for you, too. Um. Can you fly with me on your back?”

  He shook his head vigorously from side to side. “You’ll surely slip and fall. There’s nothing to latch onto and my scales are slick. My broodmother said to never try that with a human. Ends with broken limbs.”

  She’d never mounted a dragon so had to take his word for it. “Then I’ll make a harness, something you can strap to your belly. Will that work?”

  “Much better than my back. It won’t interfere with my wings that way.” He straightened himself, trying earnestly to look mature and older and only looking very, very young instead. “I’m Hui, by the way.”

  Meaning every word of it, Mei Li responded, “It’s very nice to meet you, Hui. What do you say we deal with our respective injuries, eat something lovely, make a harness, and try to leave in the morning?”

  A tail thumped happily, making the whole mountain shiver and vibrate. “Yes, please!”

  Mei Li grinned back at him. Well, maybe the villagers had done her a favor by sacrificing her after all.

  Hui, after eighty-six years of being stationed here, had accrued quite a collection of this and that in his cave. He flew down into the forest stretching out along the other side of the mountain long enough to hunt up two deer, which he then brought back up and spit over the fire.

  As he roasted their dinner with careful streams of fire, Mei Li sat nearby with any spare hides and cloth he had in the cave, weaving and plaiting it all together to create a (hopefully) warm and strong net he could carry around his neck. She had every intention of padding it with as much fur as she possibly could—the flight was sure to be brutally cold. He stayed in dragon form instead of switching to the more compact human form so she could measure things against his body. With no real sewing equipment, she had to do this the creative way, which meant constantly holding things up to his neck or shoulders and making sure it was long enough to reach.

  Hui was a young Red—not full size, or even close to it. His body size was comparable to two very large horses, meaning he had a lot of growing still left to do. The overlapping red scales were suited better to warmer climes and made it harder to fend off the chill of winter. His wingspan was large enough to cause trouble in tight quarters, but the cavity of the cave had been carved out enough that he could turn about without any trouble, even rise up onto his haunches if he felt like it without his head hitting the roof. He did occasionally snag a feather up against a rock, but that was only when he got excited and spread his wings out enough to hit a wall.

  In between puffs of fire, Hui answered any question Mei Li posed, very obviously relieved to have someone to converse with. He wasn’t the only one starving for intellectual conversation, for that matter.

  “I got the message that we needed to search for you, and Abe of Tomes of course,” Hui told her, hunched over the firepit. “I was alarmed—we all were—that you were both missing. There’s a lot of demons and things that need to be re-sealed, right? I’ve gotten sporadic reports about them.”

  “I’m sure there are, although that’s not all the Tomes are responsible for. The Sea Walls of Tanguay, for instance—we instruct mages how to build those. It’s not all about re-sealing demons, sometimes it’s creation magic too.” Although the demons did worry Mei Li something dreadful. She knew very well certain seals should be on the verge of failure by now. For that matter, were the Sea Walls of Tanguay even still standing?

  Hui accepted this with a thoughtful hum, a frown of confusion gathering on his face. “Mei Li. I have something of a stupid question.”

  “I promise you, after where I lived for two years, I doubt you can say something that compares,” she drawled.

  He snorted. “Fair point. Still, explain something obvious to me. No one’s really told me why the Tomes are so important. We have mages aplenty in the world, right? Couldn’t they solve these situations on their own?”

  That was actually quite a valid question. Hui was young, barely more than an adult, and dragons didn’t understand human magic at all. They couldn’t perceive anything more than the most blatant of magic. Mei Li pondered a moment, trying to put this into layman’s terms. “You’re not wrong, we do have plenty of mages. The problem is that magic’s changed drastically through the years. Do you know about the types of magic?”

  “No, not at all,” he denied, perking up with interest.

  “There’s three branches. I Xing, which is the basic foundation of the world—fire, earth, water, air, wood. Then there’s Wu Xing, which still uses those elements, but in a more complex manner. Wu Xing uses the nature of the elements against each other in order to gain the right result. For instance, if I want to put out your dragon fire, I would draw upon water—because water overcomes fire. That’s very simplified, mind you, but you understand the concept.”

  Hui nodded, head bobbing. “Sure.”

  “Third branch is Evocation. Evocation draws upon the elemental spirits in order to complete a task. The mage offers use of their power to the spirits with instructions of what they want done, and the spirits choose to comply. It’s by far the easiest branch of magic to use. Now.” Mei Li held up a pointer finger on each hand to indicate the two magics. “It used to be that everyone used Wu Xing. But really, it’s complex magic. Wu Xing means knowing the strengths and weaknesses of all the elements, calculating that force, and writing talismans with precise instructions of what you want done. That’s even before activating anything with your magic. It’s time consuming and not something you can generally use quickly. Sometime around four thousand years ago, people got tired of using it and gradually started using Evocation instead. It’s faster, easier, and you’re not carrying twenty pounds of paper and ink around just to work basic magic.”

&nb
sp; “So what you’re saying is,” Hui’s head slowly cocked, “that current mages don’t know the old system of magic at all.”

  “It’s not taught anywhere. And really, there’s no need for it about eighty percent of the time. Most tasks can be accomplished by Evocation. I mean, really, most magic doesn’t really require mages linking up to work with each other, either. A mage might need to do it once a year, that’s how uncommon the need is.” Mei Li sighed, as that reality was not her life. “But for the very complex things—things like building Sea Walls for an entire harbor or sealing a demon—Evocation is not sufficient. It has a simple, direct approach. Most of the problems we deal with require hideously complex magic and it takes a great deal of calculation and preparation. It has to be done by Wu Xing.”

  Hui was so fascinated by her explanation that he nearly forgot he was cooking the deer. With a guilty start, he blew another breath of hot flame over it. “Tomes are taught that magic, obviously. You know the other two as well?”

  Mei Li shook her head. “Not really. I know roughly how they work, but we have so much to study that trying to learn three magical systems at once is too much. We choose to only learn Wu Xing and the records we’re in charge of.”

  “I suppose that makes the most sense. You’ve got quite enough on your plate as it is. Thanks for explaining. It now makes more sense to me why people are so desperate to find both you and your master.”

  Mei Li forced a smile. “I bet. Speaking of, what do you know about our current situation?"

  “I’m not sure of the state of things outside, not really. I’m here as a watchman more than anything, to give them an alarm if the Darkels try coming in by sea. This mountain is a good vantage point for that, at least. But it does leave me out of touch, and I’m not sure what’s happened since my last communication. That was a month ago. Last I heard, you and Abe of Tomes were still missing, and only some of his records were intact.”

  Mei Li grimaced at this news. Some of the records gone? She’d barely read a quarter of them before they’d been forced to evacuate!

  All of that was bad enough, but her heart was heavy with worry for her master. Abe was not exactly the most cognizant of men. He didn’t possess much in the way of common sense. If he were shipwrecked somewhere, like she was, would he be sensible in rescuing himself? Or do something outlandish and get himself in worse trouble? Assuming he was even alive…her heart twisted painfully at the thought of his death. Unless she had proof otherwise, Mei Li chose to believe him alive and lost, as she had been.

  Hui turned his head and gave her a sympathetic look. “Hopefully he’s in a similar situation to you, just missing in a really obscure place. We’ll find him eventually.”

  She managed a smile somehow. “Hopefully you’re right. And hopefully the lost books are the ones I’ve already read. That way we don’t have as much knowledge lost.”

  Blinking those golden eyes at her, Hui asked curiously, “Aren’t there duplicates?”

  Mei Li shook her head no in a grim manner.

  Shocked, Hui’s voice rose into the range of screeching cats. “Why aren’t there duplicates?!”

  “For a variety of stupid reasons that boiled down to no one took the time to copy them,” Mei Li grumbled. “Master was supposed to take the most time sensitive tomes with him, to safeguard them properly, but…that plan clearly didn’t work out. I just hope he took the ones that I read.”

  “You still remember it all? Two years later?”

  “I retain anything I read or hear,” she said, going back to her weaving. “It’s a requirement of being a Master of Tomes. Your memory has to be unfailingly sharp.”

  “Oh. That does make sense, I suppose. I understand the records you have to know are extensive.”

  “A prince’s library is beggared in comparison,” Mei Li said, not at all joking. “I fortunately don’t have to memorize all of it, as each Tomes is responsible for only the things that will happen in his or her generation. Meaning this era is very much my business. I guess I’ll see the situation once I’m there. Hui, two years ago I was supposed to go to Tanguay. Is that still where I’m supposed to be?”

  “I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t want to fly that far with you,” Hui answered and pulled his head back to eye the meat critically. “I think we should go to Dragon’s Peak. It’s a much shorter flight, and that way Master Shunlei can escort you where you need to go.”

  The Master of All Dragons was indeed the dragon who would know. “Fine by me. It’s what, a day’s flight from here?”

  “A full twelve hours, yes. So we’ll need to leave early in the morning for me to have light to land by.”

  Mei Li nodded in understanding. She didn’t have anything against Hui’s cave—it was dry and certainly warmer than the outside—but to be frank, it was a mess and more than a little musty. She did not want to stay in it more than a night.

  “I think the deer’s ready.”

  Absolutely starving, she lost no time in going to his side and carving off a hunk of meat. Even with no seasoning it was still the best thing she’d eaten in eons. The villagers below subsisted on fish, vegetables, fruit, and fish. And did she mention fish? Having deer was wonderful. She sat on the floor, using Hui’s tail as a brace to lean against, eating with a happy smile on her face. The scene was somehow a familiar one, and she couldn’t help but wonder, had Hui done this before?

  “Hui? What did you do with the previous sacrifices?”

  “Flew them to the village on the other side of the ridge,” he answered with a sheepish grin. (Which looked alarming to the uninitiated. Lots of teeth on display, there.) “Didn’t know what else to do with them. The village ombudsman over there knows a bit of Long-go, enough to get by, and translated for me. Even over there, the villagers’ accents are pretty thick, I can barely make out what they’re saying. When the girls learned they were being sacrificed to a dragon instead of a god, they always got so mad. Bad enough to be sacrificed, but it was insult to injury that the villagers sent them to get eaten by something not even a deity. The ignorance was too appalling, I guess. Or maybe they saw a chance to leave and took it. They chose to stay there instead of going back home. And of course, I have no way of talking to the villagers here to explain that sacrificing anyone to me doesn’t do any good. They start worshipping the second they see me and I can’t get a word in.”

  “And so the cycle perpetuates.” After a moment, Mei Li added, “Fortunately for me. Well, that does explain things. I didn’t think you were eating them.”

  Hui rolled his eyes plaintively towards her. “Don’t even joke. Do you know what Master Shunlei would do to me if he even heard a rumor of that?”

  According to the records, when the dragons were still wild creatures six thousand years ago, first formed by the goddess of creation, they were ruled by their appetites. They ate when and what they wanted, humans included. They burned things for the fun of it. They stole herds and people alike. Only a few of them had any sense of discipline, but they either chose to ignore their fellow dragons’ behavior or lived in such secluded places that their opinions had no effect on the race as a whole.

  It was one dragon alone who rose to the top, subdued the rest, and enforced laws and order upon them. Shunlei the Black—although he’d been Shunlei the Red then, being a young dragon—had cut any rebellious dragon down without mercy. Of course, that was thousands of years ago, when the world was chaotic and mad. Mei Li had never met the dragon, but she’d heard good things about him and found it hard to believe he was still the same five thousand years later.

  “He’s really that unforgiving?”

  “Don’t even joke,” Hui repeated with a shudder. “Do you think we’re stupid enough to test him? He’s one of the Elders. There’s few older than he is. He’d squash me like a bug if I even thought of breaking the rules.”

  That sounded more like fear of punishment than fear of the dragon himself. Mei Li shrugged and let it go. “
Well, you’re likely to get rewarded for dragging me in. So you have nothing to fear from him.”

  Hui rolled his eyes again, looking like a young child in trouble. “You really think so? But you’ve been right here under my nose for two years. And he’s been desperate to find you.”

  True, Hui should have seen the shipwreck and asked questions. And if he’d just flown by the village and looked, he’d have seen her, a child so obviously foreign in this place. Mei Li bit her lip, weighing the facts back and forth. In that perspective, it didn’t look promising. “Oh dear.”

  “You see?” Hui let his head down to the cave floor and sighed a great, gusty sigh that warmed the immediate area. “I might be stuck here for the next five hundred years as punishment.”

  “It won’t be that bad,” she promised him bracingly. “I told you I’d put in a good word for you, didn’t I?”

  “It might take more than one.”

  She patted him on the tail, the scales smooth and cool under her fingers. “It’s alright. I’m very persuasive when I need to be, and you’re still the one who found and is bringing me in, aren’t you?”

  “True.” He perked up again, enough to go back to his dinner. “Mei Li, I’m really happy you came up the mountain.”

  “Me too, Hui. Trust me, me too.”

  Mei Li was ever so glad for all the furs the next morning. The sky was barely a light grey, the sun not even making a proper appearance over the horizon as they left. It was bitterly cold. Air bit at the exposed skin of her hands and face, her breath fogging in great white puffs. Even wrapped up in four furs as she was, Mei Li felt the winter right down to her bones. She wouldn’t freeze to death while flying, but it wasn’t going to be a pleasant trip.

  It said something that she still willingly strapped herself in against Hui, despite the shivers already racing over her skin.

  As Hui spread out his feathery wings, each primary bristling under the cold, he gave a worried look toward the sky. “That doesn’t look good.”