Dragon Pearl(78)

“You can do it,” Jun urged me. “You’ve got me—I can protect you from the ghosts.”

Anxiety seized me once more. Would Jun betray me again? It might be safer to trust my own defenses.

But the fact remained that he was my brother. Sujin and Haneul couldn’t help me now. It was Jun or no one.

I dove for the Pearl. The ghosts shrieked in fury. I could feel them battering against the boundaries of my mind. But they could find no purchase. As the ghosts tried to assault me with images of pox-ridden humans and corpses piled high, Jun created a spiritual shield around me, countering with memories of our life together on Jinju, from watching for falling stars late at night to playing tag around the house.

Cold wind swooshed against my wings. I kept my eyes focused on the orb and my talons outstretched. When they closed around the Pearl, it exuded a swelling warmth that I felt to my core, all the way to my wing tips. The ghosts howled as I snatched it up. I let out a hawk scream of triumph and beat my way back into the sky. I was literally holding on to hope.

Then, with my hawk vision, I spied the captain’s shuttle on the ground. I could see every detail clearly. The shuttle’s hatch opened and several soldiers poured out, followed by a familiar tall figure. Captain Hwan stood silhouetted by the lights within. In his hand was a blaster. And it was aimed upward—at me.





I flapped my wings frantically to gain altitude, then folded them and dove again, this time right for his hand. The one wielding the gun.

I had to give the captain credit for remaining calm. He didn’t blink as I arrowed straight toward him. He had time to shoot once. Fire pierced my right wing—what would have been my shoulder if I’d still been in human form. I plummeted, struggling to keep my grasp on the Pearl.

The pain made me light-headed. It was so tempting to retreat into the shape of some inanimate object, even if it would only be a temporary respite. But if I did that, I’d lose hold of the Pearl.

I landed badly, breaking my fall with my injured wing. The impact jolted me. This time when the cry broke from my beak, it wasn’t one of triumph but of shock.

The captain’s shadow fell over me as he advanced down the shuttle’s landing ramp. In a panic, I shifted back into human form. My right shoulder ached abominably, and I hugged the Dragon Pearl to my chest with my left arm as I tried to shield it from him. Its sweet, changing glow seemed to soothe my pain.

I looked around for Haneul and Sujin. They were now surrounded by the captain’s soldiers. I stood up and attempted to make a dash for them, only to be stopped cold by the voice of a ghost. I recognized it as belonging to the robed woman who had spoken to us earlier. She reared up before me, her hair blowing wildly about her face.

“Not the wisest decision, bringing more of the living down here,” she said. Considering everything that had happened, her tone was distressingly friendly. “Four supernatural creatures, even.”

“The captain brought himself.” I was shaking, sensing that I was missing something important. Maybe more than one thing. But the pain made it so hard to think clearly. “At least tell me your name, honored ancestor.” I figured a little buttering up couldn’t hurt.

“I am Eui,” she said. Her smile thinned. “But your flattery won’t save you, fox.”

More ghosts swarmed toward us, and their presence became suffocating, even though I knew they couldn’t physically smother me. I heard a growl erupt from Captain Hwan.

Together the ghosts spun a vision in the air before us.

An old starship touched down on the promontory formed by the cliff. From it emerged a woman in old-fashioned clothes bearing a small translucent casket that glowed in familiar changing sea colors. I recognized the woman. Anyone from Jinju would have. Hae had been the greatest shaman of her day, and she’d come here to the Fourth Colony instead of going to my homeworld to finish terraforming it. No one knew why.

In the vision, ghosts gathered around Hae. There was no sound, but they were clearly beseeching her. What wasn’t clear was what they wanted.

I was just about to ask, but the captain got there first. “Why didn’t you come to an understanding with the shaman?” he questioned Eui. “Surely she could have assisted you.”

Eui looked down her nose at him. Hwan was tall, but Eui had the advantage of being able to hover in the air above him. “Hae’s only concern was the glory of the Thousand Worlds. The glory of the Dragon Society. Glory for herself. It was all politics to her.” With a bitter chuckle, she added, “She, a shaman, didn’t care about matters of the spirit.”

I frowned. “What matters of the spirit? Why did she come here?”

“She was going to rid the Fourth Colony of its ghosts by singing us into the underworld. Then she would return in triumph with the Pearl. She would take control of the Dragon Society, and after that, who knows? She might have declared herself empress of the Thousand Worlds . . . if it weren’t for us.”

In the vision, the ghosts crowded around Hae turned from plaintive to enraged. But the shaman had strength of will. She eventually broke free of their influence . . . dropping the Pearl in the process. Frantically, she searched the ground for it, but the ghosts obscured her vision. She let out a wail of defeat, and I watched in horror as she flung herself off the cliff.

“Imagine how that must have felt,” Jun whispered in my ear. “Losing the Pearl, along with all her dreams. Cling tightly to it, sister.”