Dragon Moon Read Free Page A

into words in her mind. She had gotten into the habit of speaking aloud to Kai whenever they were in company. It seemed polite.
    Ping rearranged the pieces.
    She made a passable fox and a rabbit. She created a dog, a goose and a bat.
    She sighed impatiently. “It’s impossible. There aren’t enough pieces. Do you know how to make a dragon, Lady An?”
    “I have never heard of a dragon shape,” Lady An said, “but there is a dragon’s head shape.”
    “I don’t know how to make that.”
    “That’s the whole point of the game, Ping,” Lady An laughed, “to work out how to make the shapes.”
    “You show me,” Ping said.
    Lady An rearranged the pieces. With a few moves she made a dragon’s head.
    “There,” she said.
    Four of the characters now lined up in a vertical row. Ping read them out from top to bottom.
    “Hui dao mi jia.”
Ping frowned. “Return to the secret home. I don’t understand what that means.”
    “Perhaps Father means Ping’s family home,” Kai suggested.
    “No, there’s nothing secret about where my family lives.”
    “Must mean Father’s home.”
    “But he never mentioned any home to me. When he spoke to you in your dreams, did he say anything to you about his home?”
    Kai shook his head.
    Ping looked at the silk square again. She read out the names of the places Danzi had marked on the map—Dragon’s Lament Creek, Quiet Dragon Ridge, Blazing Dragon Valley.
    “These places all have good dragon names,” Kai said.
    Danzi’s meaning was suddenly clear to Ping.
    “He means a secret dragon home. He wants me to take you to a place where you could live safely. A secret place where no one who means you harm can ever find you. A place where you can be free, just as Danzi was when he was a young dragon. A dragon haven.”
    “Father didn’t want anyone else to read the message,” Kai said.
    Ping nodded. The square might have fallen into other hands, so Danzi had written a coded message, just for her.
    “There are three places marked on the map,” she said. “How do I know which one we should go to?”
    “Perhaps you can choose any one of the three,” Lady An suggested.
    “Yes!” Ping exclaimed. “There’s a choice. There were once many dragons in the world. There would be more than one place where they sought refuge. Danzi didn’t know where I would be when I discovered the silk square.”
    Dragon’s Lament Creek was closest to Yan. It was difficult to tell from the rough map, but it looked like it couldn’t be more than 300
li
to the west.
    “It sounds like a rather sad place,” Lady An said.
    “I know,” Ping replied. “But I have to trust Danzi.”
    Ping didn’t know what she would find at Dragon’s Lament Creek, but she knew she must follow the old dragon’s advice. He had lived in the wild for over a thousand years before he was captured for the Emperor, alone at first, then with Dragonkeeper companions. Who else would know better where Kai would be safe?
    Lady An went off to arrange the menu for the evening meal.
    “It’s time for us to start our journey,” Ping said to Kai. She felt like leaping up and leaving immediately.
    Kai’s eyes sparkled. “Yes,” he said. “Time to follow Father’s silk.”
    Ping smiled at him. Over the winter months, he hadn’t only grown in size, he had matured as well. His speech had improved, though no one knew that but her. Other people could hear the metallic sounds he made, but in her mind these sounds were translated into words. His eyes had changed from the green of an infant, to the brown of a mature dragon. He wasn’t a dragonling anymore. He was aware that they had to leave the comfort of the palace. He knew from experience that the world of men wasn’t a safe place for dragons.
    Ping had only meant to stay at Beibai Palace until the weather had improved, but somehow more than a year had slipped by. After Ping and Kai had escaped from the Emperor with the help of Princess Yangxin, it had taken the Duke less