Free Heart and Soul by Sarah A. Hoyt

it, but their fire formed a curtain of brilliance between them and who-ever was firing cannons, thus blocking the carpetship’s view.
    Jade could swear she heard English curses, though she knew, rationally, that she was too far away to hear any such thing. Not pausing to think about it, she steered on a more erratic course, north northeast, perpendicular to the carpetship’s route, which she’d seen clearly in the flight magician’s mind. For a moment, she was afraid they’d turn in pursuit. If there were enough of them alive. If those cannons were fully charged.
    But then she realized she was being foolish. Their carpetship magician was, if not dead, then near it, and they could not pursue the Dragon Boats without his power and his conscious intention.
    Presently, she became aware the carpetship was too far away for the cannons to reach, and that they were flying, at great speed, over the African continent. What a foolish expedition this had been. She should never have embarked on it, so far from the Chinese coast, the area where her family had always raided. If one of her boats fell here, and in the domain of an European nation, she couldn’t trust the friendliness of the locals to get the dragons out of trouble—as they would in China, no matter what the laws said. No, it would be the execution squad and the full power of the foreign-devil laws.
    Besides, Jade’s father had always talked about what he called the balance of power. Jade remembered him, in her earliest childhood, his hand over a disk that floated in midair, a carved wooden disk designed to represent everything under heaven. “There are many people in our world,” he said. “And our dynasty learned early that it wouldn’t do to claim our right to rule—even if we have that right, and even if the life of China is knit to our flesh, our blood, and us to it. But whatever our right, and our magic, we do not have the manpower to resist. By the time our dynasty was overthrown, the usurpers had secured all the people and all the physical power. There was nothing for it but to go into exile. It was the Mandate of Heaven.
    “In the same way, though we know we are superior to all the foreign devils, right now it is they who are the more powerful. They hold their strength over us like a sword poised to fall. In these circumstances, and having lost the Mandate of Heaven, it is necessary that we do as little as possible to force the events. Because, should we do the wrong thing, we’ll find ourselves suffering from the foreign devils’ vengeance. It is acceptable—it is how we’ve always lived—to attack carpetships now and then. But not too many of them, lest we bring on a raid designed to eliminate us. And never outside of our territory. For should we start attacking carpetships on the coast of Europe, the foreign devils’ queen could well look up and say, These sons of heaven grow too bothersome. Let’s uproot them everywhere we find them. And if they notice we are dragons, considering how they feel about weres, they will set out to destroy us.”
    What foolishness had led her to bring her people this far? What madness had prompted her to risk them this way? She must get back to their haunts as soon as she possibly could.
    She looked up from steering the boat, to find a young man about her age staring at her. He was naked, as were those who had been dragons to the last moment. His features were regular. His carefully shaven face showed only a slight flush, and his eyes, larger than average, were open very wide, as was his mouth, clearly in shock at finding her here.
    Indeed, he bowed to her, awkwardly, and seemed to try to regain speech against the turmoil of a disordered mind. When he spoke, it was in a tone of shock, almost dismay. “Lady Jade,” he said. And bowed again, his hands on his knees. “How come you are here? And where is my father?”
    “Your father?” she asked, breathless, feeling all of a sudden all the sweat and strain of her