An Du-Ku's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The council left the chamber, but An did not sleep. He held his light high on the peak. Below the threshold, the dragon waited. It watched for the moment his arm would tire and his glow would dim. Then it would climb and drag him from the mountain. An knew he could not stand and shine forever. He had to end the dragon, or lose the peak he had won. He looked for a weapon. He remembered a chamber cut into the mound, where the herds and grain had first been made. He climbed to the sacred purification place. Its stone walls were carved with old signs. Inside stood a great machine of metal and stone. Rings turned around its spine. Blue light crawled along its ribs and cracked like small storms. Beside it stood crystal vessels, each holding trapped lightning that pulsed behind glass. Ashnan found him there. She had followed his light up the slope. The goddess of grain stopped at the doorway, her wheat-colored hair loose. "You touch what the council never dared to wake," she said. "That storm-engine made the first seeds. It also breaks what stands too close." "The dragon means to break me first," An said. "I need its fire." Ashnan studied him. She remembered the seed he had ripened in her hand, heavier than any she had grown. She stepped inside. "Then I will help you carry it," she said. "But if you spill it, nothing on this mound survives." Together they drew two vessels from the machine. The crystal burned cold in An's grip. He carried them to the threshold's edge. Ashnan stayed back, her hands tight. An set the vessels down and let his light fall low, on purpose. He made himself look weak. The dragon rose to the bait. It surged up over the edge, jaws wide, hungry for him in the dark. An lifted both vessels and threw them into its open mouth. The crystal shattered. Trapped storms tore loose inside the beast. Lightning ripped through it from within. The dragon screamed once. Its body split in white fire and fell, burning, down the far slope into the deep. Silence held the peak. Then An raised his own light again, and it filled the whole threshold. Two guardians were gone now. Only the fish-sage remained below, somewhere in the waters under the mountain. Ashnan came to his side and looked at the empty edge. "You spent the storm well," she said. "But the machine is drained. The council will ask why." An watched the dark where the dragon had fallen. He had killed the beast that hunted him. He had also emptied the engine that fed this whole mound with life. The peak was safer, and the source of its grain was dry. Somewhere below, the last guardian would learn how his brother died, and hate him more.