Chapter Five: On the Move

So. This was what Wyndia had become. P'ung Ryong couldn't help but gawk as if he was simple - and in a way, he was. He had seen it transform from up in the clouds, to be sure, but he had never come down to experience the results of the transformations.

Their wings were so small now, bordering on vestigial, and he felt strange with a pair of them attached. To be sure, if he was to be mortal he had wanted to be one of his people, but somehow he had still expected great wings as they were centuries ago, nearly sweeping the ground, wings that would never fit through the doors of a number of these new buildings. But the Yorae Dragon, or the part of him that was in control, was young; he would not remember days when the Wyndians had no need for the device on the roof of the Tower of Wind and simply flew up to see him.

The pavement of the street was a pattern of jade-green tiles, and when his gaze had swept the entire city twice, he occupied himself with that. As he looked and walked the Oracle stopped frequently to give and receive greetings. "Hello, Dana. Morning, Caleb. Good day, Momo. How are things?" When they asked her for an explanation as to what had happened not so long ago, she told them that she must first inform the king. When they asked for P'ung Ryong's identity, as was inevitable, she told them he was an important visitor and left it at that, while he clamped his tongue between his teeth in case he got the urge to shout to all of Wyndia who he was. No. Who he had been.

When they neared the castle a pair of guards rushed out. "Oracle of Wind?" one of them cried. "Thank goodness, you've arrived! The king would speak with you - ah, if it's not too much trouble."

"Yes. I would speak with him as well." She tipped her head in P'ung Ryong's direction. "But he comes with me."

The guard stared at him for a moment before he rallied. "But of course, Oracle."

"I canst not carry this out," he whispered in the lift.

"You most certainly can," she whispered back. "You need to tell the king what's come to pass. Wasn't that what you meant to do all along?"

He clung to the lift railing and leaned over. "Perhaps so. Nevertheless-"

"Nevertheless, nothing. And if you must be sick, try and aim away from the people down there."

He gave her a sour look and turned away, tempted to vomit into the lift instead.

When the lift stopped he paused for a time, getting his digestive system back in order and trying to look like he was only appreciating the view before following the Oracle and their escorts to the throne room.

P'ung Ryong had lived for centuries, kept natural disaster from Wyndia for nearly as long, had even engineered the downfall of one absurdly corrupt ruler when he was far younger and rasher, but as he entered he envisioned denunciation, a severed head on a pike. How can he have been the Wind Dragon? Our Wind Dragon? He was beaten into the ground by forest creatures, he nearly threw up in the lift to the castle and he follows around his Oracle without saying a word for himself!

The current king had stood up and greeted the Oracle, who curtsied, rather clumsily, though he didn't seem to notice or mind. Now they turned and nodded in his direction. He walked toward them because he could not think what else to do. Halfway, his knees began to fail, and a few steps away they gave out completely. He caught himself by his hands. "Majesty," he said, and stopped, unsure of how to proceed. He heard the Oracle step in.

"Your Majesty, this is P'ung Ryong, who was once the Wind Dragon."

Tarhn grabbed the handle and yanked it toward her; the layout of the maze of laser beams changed yet again. "There. That's done."

Ch'o Ryong looked on with interest. "Dost thou pass through often?"

She shrugged. "I used to go through here to Wyndia all the time before I had Cray. Now… not so much."

"I hadst not expected such a bewildering puzzle in our path."

"It's funny, I always thought you were the one to put it in. But I guess not. I think it's rather interesting if you remember to keep out of the way of the lasers."

"I suppose mine priestesses hath a strange bent of humor." Ch'o Ryong, thoroughly mystified, changed the subject. "So thou hast been living on the plains since thine husband's death? Art thou not wanted in thy place of birth? In…" She paused as she recalled the two syllables. "… Worent?"

"Oh, I'm wanted." They set off through the path delineated by the laser beams. "It's just I'm sure Cray'd rather not have his old mother around."

"Why wouldst thy child not prefer to 'have around' that which gave him life? Dost thou… have disagreements?"

"Not severe ones. But really, can you imagine what it would have been like, being Chief of Worent and having his mother forgetting that and reminding him to eat his broccoli in the middle of talking with the Elders - or worse, Alliance diplomats?" She laughed. "They'd never hear the end of it in Ludia."

Ch'o Ryong paused and duly imagined it. "'Twould be a humiliation?"

"Exactly."

They left the shrine and walked north, toward the Fen and Wyndia.

"Ah. It's you."

Ryu nodded. "We've done what we… what we went to do, and I wanted to say thank you, Bunyan. Your training helped a lot."

Bunyan shook his head. "Don't mention it. I'm glad to do what I can."

While they talked, Nina stared upward. They had first met Bunyan when they became lost in the foothills south of Kwanso and stumbled onto his hut. He had given them a place for the night and directions to Chedo, as well as consented to train them in some of the techniques he had picked up in the Imperial army.

As she turned round idly to examine the clouds in the other half of the sky Ryu blurted, "But… I haven't repaid you for your earlier ministrations."

Bunyan looked surprised and Ryu even more so. They both recovered quickly, and Bunyan lifted an eyebrow. "I wouldn't call them ministrations, exactly."

"I mean - you see, I caught up with my brother in Chedo, we talked, and he said you'd helped him out after he was injured. He fell off a bridge, or something, washed up on a riverbank, and you found him, he said." Ryu paused and added, "His name's Fou-Lu. Does that sound familiar?"

Bunyan nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah… I remember him. I remember thinking it was an interesting name. Same as the First Emperor, you know."

"I know."

"He brought a good deal of excitement with him."

"Excitement? How do you mean?"

Bunyan leaned forward; his voice lowered but Nina still heard it. "A bit after he'd gone I got a visit from one of the generals. Yohm, I think it was. He told me your brother was a wanted man. Top-secret army matters, he said, but I pushed him about it, and he mentioned usurping and desecrating the First Emperor's tomb."

"Usurping and desecrating?"

"Mm-hm. That last I thought was strange, considering his name. Though I thought for a while he'd given me a fake one. But it's not a fake, is it?"

"No."

"They had soldiers stationed up here for a week before they decided he wouldn't be coming back."

"Er, yeah, about all that…" Ryu looked down. "It turned out to be a misunderstanding. So please don't think he's a - a criminal or anything."

"A misunderstanding, eh? I see."

"Thank you. One question."

"Go on."

"Did you see any dragons around at the time?"

"Well, come to think of it, I did. Flying southward, I think, and then one of those new creatures the army uses took off after it. You think that's got something to do with your brother, then?"

"Yes, probably."

"You must have an interesting family."

Ryu cracked a slight smile. "You have no idea. Thanks again, and if there's anything I can ever do for you-"

"I'm doing fine. You take care of yourselves."

"We will. But if you ever need us for anything, anything at all, just ask."

"Oh, I will if you're in the area." Nina got the distinct impression he was only saying it to appease Ryu. "Good luck."

"Same to you." They shook hands.

Ryu didn't start laughing until after the hut was out of sight.

"Nothing I can do for him," he said in between harsh yowls. "Nothing I can give him. He's happy the way he is. I can't even promise to be there for him or anything. All I can do is say thank you."

She clasped his hands between hers. "Please, Ryu, don't worry about it."

He stopped laughing and stared at her. "I just want to be able to repay him. Is that so much to ask?"

One of the newer recruits stared out the window. "Sergeant sir, there's a crowd gathered up near our station. What should I do about it?"

Norris groaned. It was all well and good for General Rhun to have made a point of remembering all his soldiers' names and being constantly fair and courteous, but a week spent attempting to train this young man would have had even him looking for a height to fling himself off. "Oh, I don't know, maybe you could offer to give them a guided tour of the Carronade?"

The sentry gaped at him in horror. "But the Carronade is a secure military-"

"Private, go get yourself a sarcasm detector and don't come back until then."

"Understood, sir." The sentry opened the door and marched out. As the door closed Norris caught a sudden rush of angry muttering. Someone called out, "You bunch of lousy-"

"How's things?" asked Pasho as he came up the stairs. In response, Norris reopened the door and peered out. Pasho joined him.

Someone in the robes of an Imperial Thaumaturgist stood on a platform of crates, being observed and listened to by what seemed to be half or more of the population of Astana, none of who were throwing things. Considering the apparent content of his speech, this was not good. Heads in the crowd were still turning to glare at the soldier as he passed by on his quest for a sarcasm detector.

"- and for what have they seen fit to sacrifice one of our citizens? For a well-deserved blow against, let us say, Ludia, or indeed any country of the Eastern Alliance at all? No - a hex was fired against the Soma Forest, less than two day's journey from the Imperial Capital! Clearly it was a place swarming with enemy influence." Even the just-departed sentry would be hard put to miss the sarcasm that dripped from the speaker's words.

"Eh," said Pasho. "That's not good. I know him, I think. One of Lord Yuna's assistants. You think he's out for a walk?"

"One hell of a walk." Norris turned to the remaining sentries, who hastily saluted. "Get everyone together, we've a brewing riot to squelch." Hex on Soma Forest? If it's true I've got to wonder what for. But this is hardly a time to get everyone angry!

The speaker's voice climbed. "I'm sure you're all wondering who is at fault for this. The answer - Lord Yuna, the Minister of Thaumaturgy." Cue not-very-surprised muttering. "Once I served him with gratitude for the privilege, but those days have long passed. It is he who so disgusted the gods that they abandoned us! He even created a weapon specifically for the killing of them! And he confided to us that now that the true gods are gone, he can create as many false ones as he wishes!

"And his crimes do not stop there! He also arranged to bring Alliance royalty into the Empire in the guise of a sacrifice for the Carronade and then transformed said royalty into one of his false gods! Were it not for the expeditious action of Captain Ursula-" Norris began grinding his molars to stubs. How dare he drag the Captain's name through his mud? "-his monstrosity might even now be the Alliance's newest weapon! The traitor!"

Norris glanced behind him. A reasonable troop had been assembled, some with their boots on the wrong feet, some rubbing their eyes, and a single unfortunate with his armor on backwards. It would have to do.

"I have done what I could to sabotage his newest foul project before leaving the Base. But now - I must beseech you, good people of Astana, for your help to truly put an end to this treacherous madman and his schemes! For now that the Emperor is gone and the army laid low, who else but the people can stand against him?"

Norris opened the door and marched outside, quickly followed by Pasho and the other soldiers. He gestured with his pike. "All right, this's gone on long enough. Break it up."

From the looks trained on him as effectively as any firearm, it seemed the people weren't interested. Before him the speaker lifted his arms and began to chant, and behind him he could hear the frantic exchanges of the city boys.

"That pipsqueak over there with the blue bobble hat's my brother! What in the name of the First Emperor's he doing here? I'm gonna kill Mom, letting him run about like this!"

"Isn't that your mom standing next to him? Her with the knitting?"

"Hey, there's Celia! Why's she listening to subversy types? And I thought we were getting off so good together!"

"I told you! I told you she went to meetings, and you just said she was a free spirit!"

"Now, all of you," Norris began. "You're disturbing the peace. You all step on home and you won't be-" The incendiary magic went off inches before his eyes; he jumped back and managed to save his eyebrows. The speaker lowered his arms; it was impossible to discern an expression with the cloth fastened over his face, but Norris would have bet his last zenny he was smirking behind the cloth. "All right then, it looks like we'll have to stop with the politeness." He looked over the troop. "Disperse these people. Is there something wrong, Privates?"

One of them shifted from foot to mis-shoed foot. "Er, I don't know about that, Sergeant. Didn't think this job called for putting weapons to civilians."

"Don't get me wrong, Sergeant," said another. "I'm no traitor but I'm not piking my brother."

The speaker continued. His voice retained its furious tone and did not evince that he was likely grinning ear to ear. "First, we shall take over the Carronade! Until we can be sure it shall not be used against our Empire, it shall not be used again! To the Carronade!"

A thing with a hundred voices roared back, "To the Carronade!"

Pasho tapped Norris on the shoulder. "Shall we run for our lives?"

Norris prepared a scathing retort - something involving an assertion of the might of the Imperial Army - but the sight of massed angry civilians standing before him and the thought of semi-mutinous soldiers - with relatives and sweethearts among the aforementioned massed angry civilians - standing behind him gave him pause long enough to give the proposal due consideration. "Yes," he said at last. "Let's."