The Fall of Dragon Haven - A Dragonkeeper Fanfiction

An Offer Anh Can't Refuse

"Sleep." He whispered to himself. "Go to sleep."

Sweat clung to Anh's arms from the thick humidity of the night. He hardly slept a wink. He'd spent the night fretting over the necromancer. What was his name again? Dao? Diao? How he gave his name so freely to Yara when he realised she travelled with dragons made his stomach twist into knots. Anh felt he had long left Mang, but he knew it would be a matter of time before he returned to 'attend' to another person seeking magickal aid.

Seeing the necromancer set Anh on edge. They'd been working and saving money for ages now, but it wasn't enough. They needed more. Worse, they couldn't stay in Mang – it was too close to Wucheng. Yara was due in a few months; they needed a home in a safe place, yesterday.

A clatter of metal hitting the ground spooked him out of his thoughts. He overheard Mrs Zhu cursing outside. Bong's nose wiggled but he didn't wake. Neither Yara nor the dragons were roused. Anh got up and found Mrs Zhu outside with her head buried inside the jianbing cart, surrounded by steel bowls and water.

"Are you okay?" Anh whispered. Mrs Zhu banged her head inside the cabinet, startled. Anh winced and came over to help her. He could smell immediately what she was doing and drew his sleeve over his nose. "Rats?"

Mrs Zhu nodded sadly. "They're notorious in summer. The smell will linger all day." She dipped her cloth in a bowl and rinsed it before wiping the inside again. Anh followed suit and attempted his best to clean the poop from the drawers. He felt a pang of pity for Mrs Zhu. Business was already a struggle for her since her brush with the necromancer. No one would buy jianbing from her this morning if it smelled of rat.

They spent the better part of the early morning cleaning and trying to disguise the smell with ginger. When they were sure the smell was gone, Bong emerged from the house and sniffed about. "Smells like something died out here." He said.

Mrs Zhu groaned and slumped to the ground. Anh cringed as Bong looked on deeply confused. What did I say? Bong asked.

Rats attacked her stand overnight.

Oh! Bong said. Then it dawned on him – no stall, no money. "Oooh..."

Bong sat with Mrs Zhu and tentatively drew her close to him. She wrapped her arm around him. Bong's cheeks were grew crimson. "What am I going to do?" She cried.

Anh leaned against the wall of her home. Indeed – what were they going to do? With Bong and Jiang joining them, their party was now 8. It would be 9 when the stone eventually hatched. They needed money and a larger home if they were going to all live together.

"I'm going to go find Lao and Danzi." Anh said, giving the two of them a moment's privacy. Yara and Lu Yu were both heavy sleepers and wouldn't be up for at least another hour. He walked towards the Sua residence where Lao and Danzi had stayed the night. Anh still didn't feel comfortable around Lady Sua after her lecture about necromancers. Yesterday's close call didn't make him feel any easier. When he reached her villa he stopped in his tracks. There was a horse chained outside the gate. It bore the royal cavalier regalia of Emperor Gaozu.

In the courtyard, Anh could hear Lao and Lady Sua laughing with a stranger. They were friendly with each other then? Given Lady Sua's complaints about the new Han Empire establishment, he found that a surprise.

"Ahh!" Lao Longzi cheered as Anh entered the courtyard. "The man of the hour."

Anh frowned. What pipe had Lao been smoking?

Lady Sua beckoned Anh to sit with them. The Chu man next to her bore a jade seal from his waist, hung by colorful ribbons. "This is Zhu Li, a messenger of His Majesty Emperor Gaozu." Anh and the man nodded to one another. "Zhu Li has a message for you from the Emperor himself."