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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XII
The Silverwing
I won't forget
this special night.
My friend and I,
We touched the sky -
And saw a thousand stars aglow.
We saw the Great Wall, awesome sight
Ancient cities, Dragon's Pass,
A lake all filled with shining stars
And timeless mountains capped with snow.
It was
dark, and Harry could hardly see where they were going, but Shan
led the way
confidently. They were approaching the bamboo grove when she suddenly
stopped.
"Someone's coming," she whispered.
They waited where they were, holding the Cloak firmly around
them. Presently, two figures
came toward them, from the direction of the Moon-Gate. Their wands
were lit, and Harry
had a glimpse of their faces as they passed.
"It's Jeanne and Professor Lupin!" he whispered, startled.
He felt the Cloak shift as Shan leaned forward to look.
"Is that Chien-Mei's husband?" she whispered, sounding interested. "What is he doing here?"
Jeanne and Lupin disappeared into the grove, obviously making for Mrs Chen's hut.
"WellI guess he's come to see her. After all, they
haven't been married that long," said Harry,
as they continued on their way. But he felt doubtful; it was the
middle of the night, and Lupin's
face had looked too serious for this to be a mere social visit.
Harry wondered if something had
happened; but he had no time to think about it, because they had
reached the Caverns.
The Silverwing had lodged itself in a cave one level above
the one where the old male Bronzeback
had been. It was dark within, and Harry could hardly see anything
inside; the cave appeared to be
empty. He stood at the entrance, the Invisibility Cloak around
him, watching as Shan went confidently
to one corner, and spoke to something nestled against the wall.
He thought he could see something long and sinuous, moving
slightly in the gloom. Then Shan came
back, looking pleased.
"He has agreed to let us fly him," she said, "including you. You can take the Cloak off, now."
Harry, the memory of the old male Bronzeback still fresh in his mind, removed the Cloak off his head.
"Are you sure you know what it's thinking?" he said
suspiciously. "Maybe it just wants to make an
easy meal out of the both of us."
"Don't be silly," she said, laughing. "I
tell you, I know what's in a dragon's mind. This one is really
intelligent. He said he would give us a good ride."
At this moment, the sinuous figure detached itself from the
wall and came over toward them.
Harry instinctively pulled the Cloak back over his head, and retreated out of the cave.
The Silverwing emerged from the cave entrance. It was large,
with a fringe of fine spikes around
its face. Its scales were silver, and glittered in the faint moonlight.
It paused just outside the entrance,
and seemed to know where Harry was, its yellow reptilian eyes
staring at the spot where he was
standing.
Shan went over to the Silverwing, and it turned its cold stare on her.
"He says you can take the Cloak off, Harry," she
called out, rather impatiently. "Do hurry up; we
don't have the whole night, you know."
Harry removed the Cloak. It was embarrassing - she was a girl,
and younger than him, but he was
the one feeling apprehensive. He tucked the Cloak into his robes,
and went over to the dragon.
Shan had mounted the Silverwing. Harry hesitated a moment,
then climbed up and seated himself
behind her.
"Put the Cloak over both of us," she said, "so
that no Muggles will spot us. The Silverwing won't
be seen by anyone - its camouflage will make it look like part
of the sky. And hold on to the spike
in front of you."
Harry covered both of them with the Cloak, then took hold of
one of the blunt spikes that protruded
from the dragon's back. As he did so, he happened to look in the
direction of the school. For a brief
moment, he thought he saw a figure in the distance, coming toward
them; but then, the Silverwing
launched itself into the air.
The school and the grounds were dropping away, getting smaller
and smaller. They were soon flying
over the Celestial City, and over the sea of swirling cloud. Then
all at once the Silverwing dived
downward, and through the clouds.
Harry blinked. They seemed to have entered another world altogether.
He looked up, expecting
to see a layer of swirling cloud above, but the sky was clear,
and filled with stars. Harry had never
seen so many stars before; there were millions of them. They hung
above him, sparkling with a fire
that seemed almost alive, so large and bright that he thought
he might be able to reach a hand out
and touch them.
He looked down. The Silverwing could hardly be seen; only a
faint outline was visible. It was
almost as if they were riding on the crest of a wave of moonlight.
It was cold now, and far below,
he could see wisps of cloud, and through that, land. He could
see a large city to his right, and
farmland to his left, separated by hills in between.
He couldn't see Shan in front of him, because of the Cloak, but he suddenly heard her voice.
"Hold on, he's going to Apparate!"
Harry heard a soft Pop! and for a split second, he couldn't
see anything before him. He felt as
if he himself had become nothing, formless and non-existent. Then
another slight jerk, and the
world re-appeared. He looked down. Mountains were below him: huge,
snow-covered mountains,
with jagged and cruel peaks. They stretched out below him, in
a never-ending mass of snow and
rock, the snow glowing luminous in the moonlight.
It was very cold. He drew his normal cloak closer to himself,
and heard Shan's voice coming
from the front.
"He says these are part of the Himalayaswe are near Tibet."
They flew over the mountains for a while, coming quite near
to some of the jagged peaks, then Shan
called out, "Hang on!" and the Silverwing Disapparated
again.
This time, they reappeared over desert. Sand dunes stretched
away in all directions. Harry looked
down, and saw the beginnings of what looked like a large stone
wall far below, crumbling and
ruined, which snaked away before them, disappearing into the horizon.
He heard Shan's voice coming from the front.
"That is the beginning of the Great Wall of China,"
she said. "The Chinese built it, more than a
thousand years ago."
They were flying high up, following the Wall. It snaked on
and on before them, always
disappearing into the horizon.
"How long is it?" Harry asked Shan.
"Very long," she answered. "Hundreds of miles. It stretches almost the entire length of China."
The Silverwing suddenly swooped lower, so that they could see
the Wall more clearly. The
country surrounding them was deserted; no villages or towns were
visible. But on the Wall itself,
Harry saw many figures moving. All along the Wall, the figures
were visible, walking in an aimless
manner. He wondered what so many people were doing there in the
middle of the night. A great
sadness seemed to emanate from them.
Shan must have been looking at them too, because Harry presently heard her voice.
"Those are the ghosts of the people who built the Wall,"
she said softly. "Thousands of them died,
building it. They died cruelly, and cannot rest now. They are
always there, every night, wandering
along the Wall. But the Muggles can't see them; only we can."
Harry looked at the ghostly figures. He was glad they weren't near enough to see their faces.
As if the Silverwing read his thoughts, it suddenly climbed
upward, and Disapparated again with
another Pop!
They were over a deserted city, lying in a valley surrounded
by mountains. Part of the city seemed
to be in ruins, but there were still many graceful buildings left
standing. Harry thought he was
imagining it at first, but as the Silverwing flew closer, he saw
that it was true : most of the city
seemed to be made of jade.
The Silverwing landed in a square in front of a large palace
with walls of pale green jade. Shan
pulled the Invisibility Cloak off them, and turned to Harry.
"This is the City of Eternal Spring," she said, "which
one of the Dragon Emperors built hundreds of
years ago. The wizards who lived here left long ago - I don't
know the reason why - and it lies here,
forgotten. The first Silverwing I flew brought me here, some time
back."
She handed the Cloak to him, and then dismounted.
"Come on," she said, grinning up at him, "let's have a look around!"
Harry dismounted, but as he followed her toward the jade palace,
he glanced back at the Silverwing
which was lying there in the square, beginning to doze off.
Shan seemed to read his thoughts.
"Don't worry," she said, looking amused, "he
won't fly off. He'll still be sleeping when we come back,
wait and see." She went up the palace steps, and went in
through a large, circular door.
Harry flicked another glance at the Silverwing, then followed her.
It was quiet within, and Harry had the oddest feeling that
time had stood still, in this place. They
went through rooms and corridors and halls, all strangely dust-free
and elegantly furnished. The
floors were of polished marble, and porcelain vases and celadon
bowls lay on carved tables, made
of a hard, black wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Each room had
a name, set in Chinese characters
carved over their doorways.
"This is the Hall of Celestial Purity," read Shan,
as they entered a large hall with floors of black
marble. They had lit their wands, because it was dark inside.
They wandered around the hall for
a bit, looking at the ornate carvings of birds and animals on
the walls, then left through a door at
the opposite end; this led to a library, with thousands of scrolls
neatly lodged in little alcoves.
"Hall of Quiet Thoughts," read Shan, looking at the
inscription above the door, which, like most
of the other doors in the palace, was of the folding kind, intricately
carved and finely latticed. The
scrolls were all dust-free and in good condition, but Harry, of
course, couldn't read any of them.
They noticed another set of folding doors at the far end of
the library, and sliding these open,
found that they led out to a large garden. A stream was running
through it, the water falling
among rocks and stones and producing a pleasant tinkling, musical
sound. A pavilion, made
of white jade, stood in the middle of the garden.
"The garden is called The Garden of Cheerful Melodies,"
said Shan, reading from an inscription
on the pavilion, "and the pavilion is The Pavilion of Tranquillity."
Harry could see why this place was called the City of Eternal
Spring. Although it was already
November, and some of the surrounding mountains looked as if they
had snow on their peaks,
it was not cold where they were. Flowers were blooming in the
garden, rhododendrons and
peonies, and the trees all had pale green foliage, as if it were
springtime.
They stood listening to the music of the stream for a few minutes.
Then, something else caught
Harry's attention: he thought he could hear the faint murmur of
voices, in the distance.
"Listen!" he said, "Do you hear something?"
Shan paused, frowning, then her face broke into a smile.
"I know what that is," she said, chuckling, "Come and have a look."
She started off in the direction of the voices. As they came
closer, Harry saw who the speakers
were : tortoises. There were at least fifty of them, scattered
around one corner of the garden,
some gathered in groups, others trundling about on their own.
There were all sizes : large ones,
measuring two feet across, and small ones the size of a teacup.
They came in a variety of colours,
some a rich chocolate brown, others olive green, while the little
ones tended to be pale cream.
And many of them were talking - in Chinese!
Shan looked amused when she saw Harry's surprised face.
"We have some of these in Tian-Long," she said, "only
you haven't met them yet. They live in
a peach orchard near the lake."
"What are they saying?" asked Harry, feeling in his
pocket for the Translator. Two small tortoises
had lumbered up to him, and were looking earnestly at him with
their boot-button eyes. One
began speaking, in a squeaky voice.
Harry found the Translator, and put it on.
"Why choose to live here,
in the recess of high mountains?
For an answer, a serene smile
from the depths of my heart.
Just like the flowers drifting
downstream
to remote places unknown,
Here, under another blue sky,
is a remote space of mine
Far, far away from human lives."
Harry blinked. The tortoises looked at him solemnly, and then
the second one began talking
as well.
"A bright moon rising
above Tian Shan Mountain,
lost in a vast ocean of clouds.
The long wind,
across thousands upon thousands of miles
blows past the Jade-gate Pass."
Shan was still laughing at Harry's astonished face.
"They are reciting Chinese classical poetry," she
said. "They can go on and on forever.
Goodness knows where they learned all of it."
"Thousands of feet high tower the Yellow Mountains
with their thirty-two magnificent peaks"
"Don't they ever say anything else?" asked Harry, fascinated.
Shan shook her head.
"They'll sometimes sing a bit of Chinese traditional music,
but I've never known any to
speak normally."
"blooming like golden lotus flowers
Amidst red crags and rock columns"
"I wonder if they know what they're saying," said Harry.
Shan was conjuring up some strawberries with her wand. The
tortoises stopped talking
when they saw them, and came lumbering determinedly toward her,
their small club feet
thumping on the ground.
"Here, take some," she said, handing Harry several
of the plump fruit. They sat there for a
while, feeding the tortoises, watching them mumbling the strawberries
in their mouths, the
juice running down their chins. After a while, the other tortoises
noticed what they were
missing out on; they came converging onto Harry and Shan, who
promptly decided it was
time they made an exit.
To Harry's relief, the Silverwing was still sitting in the
square outside, fast asleep. Shan
went over to it, and gently woke it up.
"Where to, now?" asked Harry, as they mounted the
dragon and covered themselves with
the Invisibility Cloak.
"I don't know," Shan said. "I'm just letting him bring us wherever he wants to go."
As they soared into the air, Harry glanced down for a last
look at the jade palace. He was
just turning away when he thought he saw a dark figure suddenly
materialising in the square
below. He turned back for a closer look, but at that moment, the
Silverwing Disapparated.
When they re-materialised, Harry saw that they were following
the Great Wall again. Ghosts
were still wandering around on top of the Wall, and watchtowers
could now also be seen at
intervals along it. They flew on, then the Silverwing Disapparated
again, reappearing over water.
"We have reached the sea," Harry heard Shan's voice
saying. "We've gone from one end of
China to the other. Look, you can see where the Great Wall ends."
Harry turned back to look. He saw land behind him, and the
remains of the Great Wall. The
Silverwing swooped around a bit, then began flying inland. They
came to a rugged, deserted
stretch of country, and saw another city in a valley, deserted
but not in ruins, the magnificent
buildings, which had roofs of gold and silver, all perfectly preserved.
The Silverwing swooped low over the city, but did not land.
Harry heard Shan speaking to
the dragon.
"He says we can't land here," she called back. "This
is another city of wizards, the City of
Supreme Elegance. He says that it's enchanted, and death will
come to anyone who sets foot
on the soil here."
They flew on, the country becoming wilder and wilder. They
went through a narrow gorge, a
river snaking its way below. Then the gorge widened, and Harry
saw that at its head, the rocky
walls of the mountains had been carved into enormous dragon heads,
one on either side.
"This is called Dragon's Pass," Shan's voice said.
"There is a legend that two brothers lived here,
both great sorcerors. Both fell in love with a princess of a nearby
kingdom. But she only loved
one of them, and the rejected one, in anger and out of jealousy,
turned her into a dragon, and
she flew away and never returned. The heartbroken sorceror killed
his wicked brother, and then
carved the dragon heads into the mountain, in memory of her."
They flew on, and presently came to a lake, high up in the
mountains. The water was so still
that its surface was like a mirror. The Silverwing flew low over
the water, almost skimming it.
Harry took the Cloak off, and looking down, could see their reflections
clearly. Surrounding
them were the images of bright, sparkling stars, reflected from
the sky.
Then the Silverwing flew up and away from the lake, landed
on a level stretch of mountainside,
and folded its wings.
Shan dismounted.
"He wants to rest here, for a while," she told Harry. "I guess we can walk around a bit."
They left the Silverwing, which had already fallen into a doze,
and walked around the side of
the mountain so that they could get a view of the lake.
"I've never seen the stars so bright before," remarked Shan, looking up at the sky.
True enough, the stars were really bright. The lake lay like
a sheet of glass, reflecting the clear
sky and its twinkling stars.
They sat at the edge of the cliff, looking at the lake. Shan
seemed to have fallen into a reverie,
and was gazing unseeingly into the distance. It was extremely
quiet; all seemed still, except for
the sound of the wind, blowing over the mountain-tops.
Harry had been looking for an occasion to ask Shan why she
didn't want to visit Mrs Chen,
but seeing that her mind was elsewhere now, decided not to bring
it up. He looked away from
her, and tried not to think of Cho Chang. He found himself thinking
that it was strange to be
sitting at the edge of a cliff in the middle of nowhere, next
to a girl who liked talking to dragons,
and with a sleeping wild dragon lying somewhere around the corner
of the hillside behind him.
He felt far removed from the world of Privet Drive and his life
with the Dursleys, and the
comfortingly familiar world of Hogwarts. He thought of Ron and
Hermione; he would have
asked them to come along, but Shan had said that she wasn't sure
if she could talk the
Silverwing into carrying more than one non-dragon-language-speaking
person.
The wind over the mountain-tops was blowing more strongly now.
It sounds strangely human,
thought Harry, almost like someone's voice.
Shan had noticed it as well. She started, and sat for a while,
listening, then suddenly jumped
to her feet.
Harry looked up at her, startled. "What's wrong?"
She was looking rather pale.
"Do you hear that?" she whispered, her eyes wide,
"It's a voice! Someone's voice, calling
among the mountains!"
Harry listened. The wind did, indeed sound like a man's voice.
"It's only the wind, Shan," he said, trying to calm her down.
She looked agitated.
"It's not!" she hissed fiercely, "I tell you, I've heard that voice in my dreams. It's real!"
Harry looked at her, feeling rather perplexed. She was trembling slightly.
"It's a ghost," she said. "I always hear it in my dreams. It's coming after me."
She took a few steps back, looking frightened. Harry got to his feet.
"Shan," he said, trying to think of something to
calm her, "it's just the wind. What's up? You're
not afraid of fire-breathing dragons. What's to fear from a dream?"
The voice of the wind was even louder now. It sounded as if
it was coming toward them. Shan
looked very pale. She turned, and started walking back toward
the Silverwing.
"We have to get out of here," she said, not looking back, or waiting for Harry.
Harry followed her, still feeling perplexed. The wind continued
to blow. Harry could hear it better
now; it really sounds like a voice shouting, he thought. He could
hear it, over the sound of the
wind. It sounded angry. He wanted to turn around and look for
its source, but with Shan so agitated,
decided not to.
They found the Silverwing fast asleep. Shan leapt up onto the
dragon's back, and impatiently patted
its neck, to wake it up.
Harry hurriedly mounted, in case the dragon took off without
him. He wondered if Shan had gone
slightly mad. The Silverwing stirred, then settled back again;
it didn't seem to want to wake up.
The voice was coming loud and clear now. It didn't sound like
the wind any more. It really is
someone, thought Harry. Someone who sounds angry. Someone whose
voice also sounds
vaguely familiar
Shan, still trembling slightly, gave the Silverwing a slap,
and said something urgently to it. The
dragon shifted irritably; two plumes of smoke curled upward, out
of its nostrils. It raised its
head briefly, then lowered it again, obviously wanting to go back
to sleep.
The owner of the voice was coming round the side of the mountain.
A tall, dark figure appeared.
Harry started; he knew that figure.
"Shan," he whispered urgently, tugging at her sleeve. "It's not a ghost, Shan. It's Yang-Kang!"
Shan turned her head to look, an astonished expression on her
face. Yang-Kang, on seeing
them, let forth a roar of wrath. All at once, the Silverwing stirred.
It raised its head, and turned
to look at him.
At the same time, Yang-Kang, who was now about twenty feet
away from them, took hold
of the onyx tiger. To Harry's alarm, he raised it high in his
fist. A beam of brilliant white light
shot out of it, directly at him and Shan.
"Get off, Shan!" he shouted, grabbing hold of her
and pushing her off the Silverwing, so that
the dragon was between her and Yang-Kang. He then jumped off himself,
and found himself
rolling in the dust.
The beam of light smashed into the Silverwing. It let off a
bellow of rage, and a stream of fire
erupted from its jaws, heading straight for Yang-Kang.
Harry threw the Invisibility Cloak over Shan and himself, so
that Yang-Kang wouldn't be able
to see them, and they retreated a distance away. Yang-Kang had
lowered the onyx tiger, and
had erected a glowing Shield around himself in time; the flames
engulfed him, but could not
penetrate the Shield.
Yang-Kang raised the tiger again. Another beam of light shot
out of it, through the Shield,
and smashed once more into the Silverwing.
"He's not after us," said Harry, startled. "He's after the Silverwing!"
He couldn't see Shan, but he could feel her leaning forward to watch.
"Look at the beam of light," she whispered. "The
onyx tiger really is a Devil's Curse. That's
what hit our wild Bronzeback during the tournament. It was Yang-Kang
- he's the one who's
been killing the dragons!"
The Silverwing was screaming in agony, the beam of light still
burning itself into it. It released
another stream of fire at Yang-Kang, who still had his Shield
up.
"He's killing the Silverwing!" said Shan, sounding
agonized. "We've got to stop him!" She
started forward.
Harry held her back.
"You're crazy, Shan," he said. "Look at Yang-Kang.
He's gone completely madhe'll kill us
before we take two steps forward."
The Silverwing, writhing in agony, tried to take flight, but
the beam of light from the onyx tiger
was still driving into it. It gave an ear-splitting shriek, and
thrashed about, fire pouring out of its
jaws and shooting in all directions. Harry and Shan hurriedly
backed away, out of range of the
flames.
"That's one tough dragon," said Harry, remembering
how the wild Bronzeback had died almost
immediately.
"But why? Why go after the dragons?" said Shan hopelessly,
and then, even as Harry himself
realised the answer, he heard her catch her breath, and knew she
had realised it too.
They watched as the Silverwing writhed in agony, flames still
pouring from its jaws, setting the
grass and bushes around it alight. Yang-Kang, an almost maniacal
light in his eyes, was still
holding the onyx tiger aloft, concentrating the bright beam of
light onto the dragon. But the
effort was taking its toll on him : his shoulders were beginning
to sag; his Shield was starting
to dim and weaken.
"Yang-Kang's putting too much of himself into the Devil's
Curse," murmured Shan. "It's
sucking all his power out of him."
All at once, the Silverwing let forth one last, wailing scream,
and then slumped onto its side,
its head hitting the ground, which seemed to shake at the impact.
It lay there, motionless.
Abruptly, the beam of light vanished. Yang-Kang had lowered
the onyx tiger. He stood
there, watching the Silverwing, as if waiting for something to
happen.
Harry and Shan stood where they were, holding their breath.
The dragon lay there,
unmoving. Then, it started to shrink. It was changing shape; its
wings were growing smaller
and smallerits scales were disappearing
Yang-Kang, swaying unsteadily on his feet, gave a roar of triumph.
The Silverwing was gone;
Master Liu-Pei, in his pale grey robes, lay there instead, his
eyes wide open and staring, an
agonized expression on his face.
"Liu Pei must have transformed into a dragon that night,
when he escaped through the
window," Harry said quietly. "Only he flew away too
fast, and Yang-Kang couldn't tell
what type of dragon it was. That's why he went after all the different
types."
"And only the wild ones," murmured Shan. She sounded
rather sick. "The tame ones we've
had for years, and they were all accounted for. He knew Liu Pei
would come back, to get
the onyx tiger."
Yang-Kang lurched forward suddenly, dropping the onyx tiger.
He sank to his knees, then
fell to the ground and lay still.
Harry took the Invisibility Cloak off himself and Shan, and
saw that she was looking worriedly
at Yang-Kang.
"He has put too much energy into the Devil's Curse,"
she said. She went forward, knelt next
to him, and felt his pulse. "I think he's dead."
Harry looked around. The landscape, which had seemed so beautiful
a short while before,
now suddenly looked grim and forbidding.
"What are we going to do now?" he said.
"We must bring both of them back to Tian-Long, and tell
Lady Wen-Li what happened," said
Shan, with a dutiful air, looking at the two bodies on the ground.
"Oh, right, Shan," said Harry, a bit distraught,
and feeling rather exasperated at her obtuseness,
"and how are we going to do that? In case you haven't noticed,
the Silverwing's gone, and we're
in the middle of nowhere, miles away from Tian-Long!"
Shan did not reply immediately. She continued kneeling next
to Yang-Kang, staring at his body,
a rather odd expression on her face. Then she stood up, and looked
at Harry. She seemed to be
considering something, trying to make up her mind. Finally, she
spoke.
"There is a way," she said, looking directly at him,
"but if I tell you, you must promise never to
tell anyone."
Harry stared at her.
"What is it?" he said. "Don't tell me you know how to Apparate."
She returned his gaze, frowning.
"Promise me, first!" she said insistently. "Swear you won't tell anyone!"
Harry looked at her, feeling rather perplexed again.
"All right, I promise."
She took a few steps back, still looking at him. Then, slowly, she began to change shape.
Harry watched her, startled. She was growing bigger and bigger,
and her body was lengthening.
Scales were appearing on itwings were sprouting
Harry took a step back himself, and stared in amazement. Shan
had disappeared; instead, a large
green dragon stood in her place, wings extended, head raised,
eyes staring balefully at him.
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