A Sacred Path {7}

'A Warlock,' Heavenly Golden Dragon repeated. 'Perhaps the Warlock of the Golden Dragons. Dear Huang Lao,' he added, his voice lowering a notch, 'your primitive tribal gestures remain quaint, if somewhat tasteless.'

Huang Lao bared his teeth. 'The Golden Dragons are Mother Dark's first children. You've felt the tremors through the Warrens of Sorcery, Heavenly Golden Dragon . So have I. Ask Duyu about the reports coming down from the North Campaign. Elder magic – Kurald Galain. The Lord of Moon's Spawn is the Master Warlock — you know his name as well as I do.'

'I know nothing of the sort,' the High Lord snapped, losing his calm at last. 'Perhaps you'd care to enlighten us, Huang Lao, and then I can begin inquiries as to your sources.'

'Ahh!' Huang Lao bolted forward in his chair, an eager malice in his taut face. 'A threat from the High Lord. Now we're getting somewhere. Answer me this, then. Why only three other High Lords? We've hardly been thinned out that badly. More, why didn't we do this two years ago?'

Whatever was building between Huang Lao and Heavenly Golden Dragon was interrupted by Duyu, who growled wordlessly, then said, 'We're desperate, mage. The North Campaign has gone sour. The Fifth is damn near gone, and won't be getting any reinforcements until next spring. The point is, the Moon's lord could have his army back any day now. I don't want to have to send you up against an army of Golden Dragons, and I sure as hell don't want the Second having to show two fronts with a relieving force coming down on them. Bad tactics, and whoever this Fiery Hearts is, he's shown himself adept at making us pay for our mistakes.'

'Fiery Hearts,' Caoyu murmured. 'I swear I've heard that name somewhere before. Odd that I've never given it much thought.'

Tan Sangu's eyes narrowed on Heavenly Golden Dragon . Caoyu was right: the name of the man commanding the Golden Dragons alongside the Crimson Guard did sound familiar – but in an old way, echoing ancient legends, perhaps, or some epic song.

The High Lord met her gaze, flat and calculating. 'The need,' he said, turning to the others, 'for justifications has passed. The Empress has commanded, and we must obey.'

Huang Lao snorted a second time. 'Speaking of twisting arms,' he sat back, still smiling contemptuously at Heavenly Golden Dragon , 'remember how we played cat and mouse at Aren? This plan has your stink on it. You've been itching for a chance like this for a long time.' His grin turned savage. 'Who, then, are the other three High Lords? Let me guess—'

'Enough!' Heavenly Golden Dragon stepped close to Huang Lao, who went very still, eyes glittering.

The lanterns had dimmed. Caoyu used the handkerchief in his lap to wipe tears from his cheeks.

Power, oh, damn, my head feels ready to crack wide open.

'Very well,' Huang Lao whispered, 'let's lay it out on the table. I'm sure the High Fist will appreciate you putting all his suspicions in the proper order. Make it plain, old friend.'

Tan Sangu glanced at Duyu. The commander's face had closed up, his sharp eyes narrow and fixed on Heavenly Golden Dragon . He was doing some hard thinking.

Caoyu leaned against her. 'What the hell's going on, 'Sail?'

'No idea,' she whispered, 'but it's heating up nicely.' Though she'd made her comment light, her mind was whirling around a cold knot of fear. Huang Lao had been with the Empire longer than she had – or Caoyu. He'd been among the sorcerers who'd fought against the Wuzhis in Seven Cities, before Aren fell and the Holy Falah'd were scattered, before he'd been given the choice of death or service to the new masters. He'd joined the 2nd's cadre at Pan'potsun – like Duyu himself he'd been there, with the Emperor's old guard, when the first vipers of usurpation had stirred, the day the Empire's First Sword was betrayed and brutally murdered. Huang Lao knew something. But what?

'All right,' Duyu drawled, 'we've got work to do. Let's get at it.'

Tan Sangu sighed. Old Onearm's way with words. She swung a look on the man. She knew him well, not as a friend – Duyu didn't make friends – but as the best military mind left in the Empire. If, as Huang Lao had just implied, the High Fist was being betrayed by someone, somewhere, and if Heavenly Golden Dragon was part of it ... we're a bent bough, Caoyu had once said of Onearm's Host, and beware the Empire when it breaks. Seven Cities' warriory, the closeted ghosts of the conquered but unconquerable ...

Heavenly Golden Dragon gestured to her and to the other cultivators. Tan Sangu rose, as did Caoyu. Huang Lao remained seated, eyes closed as if asleep.

Caoyu said to Duyu, 'About that transfer.'

'Later,' the High Fist grunted. 'Paperwork's a nightmare when you've only got one arm.' He surveyed his cadre and was about to add something but Caoyu spoke first.

'Ang Huilong.'

Huang Lao's eyes snapped open, found Heavenly Golden Dragon with bright pleasure. 'Ahhh,' he said, into the silence following Caoyu's single pronouncement. 'Of course. Three more High Lords? Only three?'

Tan Sangu stared at Duyu's Panyon, still face. 'The song,' she said quietly. 'I remember now.

'Fiery Hearts, the menhired one,

winter-bearing, harrowed and sorrowless ...'

Caoyu picked up the next lines.

'... in a tomb bereaved of words,

and in his hands that have crushed anvils—'

Tan Sangu continued,

' the hammer of his song –

he lives asleep, so give silent warning

to all – wake him not.

Wake him not.'

Everyone in the compartment was staring at Tan Sangu now as her last words fell away. 'He's awake, it seems,' she said, her mouth dry. '"Ang Huilong", the epic song by Fu Kao.'

'The song's not about Fiery Hearts,' Duyu said, frowning.

'No,' she agreed. 'It's mostly about his companion.'

Huang Lao climbed slowly to his feet. He stepped close to Heavenly Golden Dragon . 'Ang Lao, Lord of the Golden Dragons, who are the souls of Starless Night. Rake, the Mane of Chaos. That's who the Moon's lord is, and you're pitting four High Lords and a single cadre against him.'

Heavenly Golden Dragon 's smooth face held the faintest sheen of sweat now. 'The Golden Dragons,' he said, in an even voice, 'are not like us. To you they may seem unpredictable, but they aren't. Just different. They have no cause of their own. They simply move from one human drama to the next. Do you actually think Anomander Rake will stay and fight?'

'Has Fiery Hearts backed away?' Huang Lao snapped.

'He is not Golden Dragons, Huang Lao. He's human – some say with Barghast blood, but none the less he shares nothing of Elder blood, or its ways.'

Tan Sangu said, 'You're counting on Rake betraying Panyon's cultivators – betraying the pact made between them.'

'The risk is not as overreaching as it may seem,' the High Lord said. 'Be Dai has done the research in Geshi, witch. Some new scrolls of Gothos' Folly were discovered in a mountain fastness beyond Blackdog Forest. Among the writings are discussions of the Golden Dragons, and other peoples from the Elder Age. And remember, Moon's Spawn has retreated from a direct confrontation with the Empire before.'