The Power and the Glory

Book 3 Chapter II: The Game Begins

Shizuki continued to look mutinous. Irímé raised his head and growled very faintly. Siarvin glanced warily at him. He didn't think Irímé was the sort of dragon that would breathe fire at anyone who annoyed them, but he also wasn't quite at ease being so close to something ten times bigger than him with very sharp teeth.

Shizuki turned and pouted at Irímé. "Why do you wanna turn back? There's nothing great about immortals."

Irímé growled again.

"All right," Shizuki mumbled, sounding like he had just agreed to make a great personal sacrifice. "I'll teach you if you want to know so much. But you have to take me flying some day! A really high flight! I want to see if clouds are as solid as they look!"

Irímé looked at Siarvin. Siarvin looked at Irímé. Both of them understood exactly what the other was thinking: Over my dead body!

~~~~

Kiriyuki arrived at Gihimayel Palace just in time to run into a large crowd of disgruntled tourists coming through the gate. There were so many of them that they filled the entire road. No one could possibly get past unless they wanted to literally fight their way through. Kiriyuki squeezed herself against the hedge and waited for the herd to go past.

All of them were busy complaining to each other. She couldn't help overhearing parts of their conversations, even though their accents combined with the sheer volume of so many voices at once made it difficult to understand everything.

"So rude--"

"Why can't we see it?"

"--most excitement since the Prime Minister broke his neck--"

"Where did it come from?"

"Mummy, can we get a pet dragon?"

At last they passed by. Kiriyuki approached the gate. She was promptly stopped by the guards.

"Sorry, Your Highness, no one's allowed in. Her Majesty's orders."

Kiriyuki only just suppressed a groan. "What's happened? Is there really a dragon?"

Both guards nodded emphatically.

"It's as big as a house!" one of them said.

"No, you idiot, it's as big as a castle!"

Kiriyuki watched in mild bemusement as the two of them got into an argument over just how big the dragon was. Of all the things they could be worried about, that was really at the bottom of the list. There were much more important questions to ask. Questions like "where did it come from" and "who brought it here".

~~~~

"It's very easy. You just think of being an immortal and then you become one." Shizuki turned himself into a snake, then into a boy, then into a snake again to demonstrate. "See? Now you try!"

It was all very well for him to say it was easy. He'd never had to learn how to change forms. Irímé followed his instructions without much hope of success. He'd been wishing to become an immortal again for ages and it hadn't worked yet. Nor did it work this time. He was still a dragon.

Shizuki blinked up at him in confusion. "What went wrong?"

Irímé tried to shrug and almost fell over. Suddenly having wings had a very bad effect on his balance.

The only thing preventing this from being a complete catastrophe was the fact Shizuki was now the only witness. Everyone else had politely decided not to watch Irímé's attempts at shapeshifting. They'd all gone to the main entrance hall of Gihimayel Palace. His pride would never have recovered if they were still here to watch this.