Chinese Touch

Chapter 9-Changers

"I'm sorry... What? You want to- What? I'm sixteen!"

"I'm well aware of your age; I'm a mere twenty myself. And I'm doing this for everyone. For the whole of China."

"I don't follow."

"You have a unique power, Ming. With you by my side, we can create an invincible army."

"I'm sorry, but no army is truly invincible."

"An army of stone is."

I laughed, holding my hand to my head. "Emperor Hua, I'm very sorry to tell you this but, for a start, I can't control when I bring them to life. And I don't Bering stone to life; I wake the heart. The stone falls off, revealing what is made around the heart. You've seen Ai, haven't you? He looks just like a normal dragon."

"Tell me how you found out. How you found that you could do this."

"Master Hakua was yelling at me, he always does, but I was sick of it. I walked out of his room and punched his horse statue. Then suddenly he was screaming at me and his guards were chasing me. I looked up, and there was a beautiful chestnut horse where the statue had been. I guess the anger brought it on then, and the fear brought it on for Ailong. Speaking of Ai, where is he?" Fear coursed through my veins as hundreds of possible ideas ran through my head.

"Don't worry, your friend is safe. He is in the courtyard. There's been no need to keep him restrained; he refuses to go anywhere without you. That's true dedication."

"Still, I don't know what to say regarding your offer. It would be an honour, but I require some time to think about it. May I retire to my room to think things over?"

"Of course. You can have as long as you wish. Bao? Please take Ming back to her room."

The door opened, and the same woman from before came in. She had tied her long black hair up at the back. I only then realised she was wearing gloves. "Of course. Please, follow me." I walked out of the door behind her, placing my hand on a statue of a bird. The bird shook its head and flew off, and I turned around to see Hua looking at me, a smile on his face. When we were out of earshot, she dragged me into a room.

"What the-"

"Shh..." She peeked through the crack in the door before finally coming back to me. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you've been dragged into this."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your kind. The Changers. For as far back as can be remembered, Emperors have married female Changers, and if they find a male... They enslaved him if they're generous and killed him if they weren't."

"How do you know all this?"

She pulled off her glove and took my hand. "Because I'm a Changer."

"Why hasn't Hua married you, then?"

She opened the door and pulled me out, running down the hall towards my room. "Because he doesn't know."