THE DRAGON'S RETURN

The Split-Second Leap

The cold wind screamed like a dying beast as the glider plunged into the empty sky.

Chen Lan felt his stomach drop into his boots. The world was a spinning blur of grey ash, dark green treetops, and the brilliant orange fireball of the exploding airship above them. He clutched the wooden frame of the glider, his knuckles turning white. His left arm was completely numb, the black scales cold and lifeless against his side.

"Keep us level!" Chen Lan shouted over the roar of the wind.

"I am trying!" Ruo Xi yelled back, her hands white as she yanked on the wooden steering bars. "The wind is too strong! We are carrying too much weight!"

"We are falling too fast!" Chen Lan squinted through the rushing air. The canopy of the forest was rising to meet them like a green wall. "Pull up, Ruo Xi!"

"I cannot pull up any more!" she screamed, her face red from the effort. "The left wing is dipping! We are going down!"

"Hold on!" Chen Lan braced himself.

The glider clipped the top of a giant pine tree. The impact was loud, a sharp cracking sound that shattered the left wing of their wooden craft. The glider spun out of control, throwing them sideways. Chen Lan felt a branch whip across his face, cutting his cheek. The ground rushed up in a dizzying swirl of black dirt and wet leaves.

They hit the forest floor with a bone-jarring thud. The glider broke into pieces around them, the wooden ribs splintering like dry twigs. Chen Lan rolled through the wet brush, his shoulder slamming into a thick tree root before he finally came to a stop.

For a long minute, there was only the sound of his own ragged breathing and the distant, dull thud of the burning airship settling into the mountain.

"Ruo Xi?" Chen Lan gasped, his voice barely a whisper.

"I am here," a muffled voice came from a pile of ferns.

Ruo Xi pushed herself up, coughing and shaking dirt from her hair. She looked bruised and scratched, but she was still holding onto her satchel. She limped over to where Chen Lan lay, her eyes wide with worry.

"Are you broken?" she asked, kneeling beside him.

"My shoulder is out," Chen Lan grunted, his face pale as he stared up at the purple sky. "And my heart... it is not beating right, Ruo Xi."

"What do you mean it is not beating right?" she asked, grabbing his wrist.

"It is too slow," Chen Lan whispered. "Long Ye. The fire. I used too much."

"No, no," Ruo Xi said, her voice shaking as she felt his cold skin. "You are not allowed to die here. We have the key. We are supposed to get rich!"

"The key," Chen Lan muttered, his eyes rolling back. "Keep it safe."

"Chen Lan!" Ruo Xi shook him. "Stay with me! Do not close your eyes!"

"I am so cold," Chen Lan said.

His eyes shut, and his head slumped to the side. The faint golden light in his left eye went completely dark, leaving only a dull, dead brown.

"Wake up!" Ruo Xi yelled, slapping his cheek. "Chen Lan! Speak to me!"

The forest was silent around them, save for the crackle of distant flames from the crash site. Ruo Xi pressed her ear to his chest. There was nothing. No thud, no flutter. His heart had stopped.

"You idiot," Ruo Xi whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "You absolute idiot."

She scrambled to her feet, her hands flying over her belt as she searched her packs. She dumped her tools, her daggers, and her coins onto the dirt, tossing them aside until she found a small, velvet-lined box at the bottom of her bag. Inside was a tiny glass vial filled with a thick, glowing purple liquid.

"This is going to hurt," she said, her voice cracking. "It is going to hurt a lot."

She uncorked the vial with her teeth and knelt back down beside him. She did not hesitate. She drove her small silver dagger shallowly into his chest, right over his heart, making a small cut. Then, she poured the purple elixir directly into the wound.

For three agonizing seconds, nothing happened.

Then, Chen Lan’s body arched off the ground. He let out a silent, choking scream, his fingers clawing into the dirt as his eyes flew open. The golden eye did not just glow; it burned with a fierce, unstable light.

"Breathing!" Ruo Xi gasped, falling back onto her hands. "You are breathing!"

Chen Lan collapsed back onto the leaves, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. He looked down at his hands. His human hand was shaking, the skin dry and covered in age spots. He reached up to touch his hair. It felt coarse. He pulled a strand in front of his eyes.

It was white. More than half of his dark hair had turned the color of winter snow.

"What did you do to me?" Chen Lan croaked, his voice sounding ten years older.

"I saved your life," Ruo Xi said, wiping her face with her sleeve. "It was a dark elixir. A forbidden medicine. It restarts the heart, but it takes a toll."

"The toll is my life," Chen Lan said, looking at his reflection in a small puddle of water. "I am running out of time."

"We both are," Ruo Xi said, pointing toward the sky.

High above the trees, the clouds were turning a deep, oily purple. The air felt thin, and a strange, cold wind was beginning to blow from the north. The sky itself seemed to be cracking, tiny lines of dark light spreading across the horizon.

"The barrier," Chen Lan said, his voice trembling. "It is failing."

"The Inquisitors are using the other keys," Ruo Xi said, helping him sit up. "They are draining the dragons to power the capital. If we do not find the Silent Blade soon, there will be nothing left to save."

"Where is the vault?" Chen Lan asked, his golden eye locking onto hers.

"It is in the capital city," Ruo Xi said. "Hidden deep beneath the palace. But we cannot walk through the front gates like this."

"We will find a way," Chen Lan said, his jaw tightening. "We have to."

"Can you stand?" she asked, offering her hand.

Chen Lan grabbed her hand, his bones groaning as he pulled himself up. He leaned against a tree, his legs shaking, but he did not fall.

"I can stand," he said.

"Then let us get out of this forest," Ruo Xi said, picking up her satchel and checking the brass sphere inside. "Before Wei Lun finds the crash site."

"He will be looking for corpses," Chen Lan said.

"Let us make sure he only finds wood," Ruo Xi replied, turning to lead the way into the dark, tangled trees.