Free Shadow Sister by Carole Wilkinson

walled city. His heart sank inside him.
    “Kai!” he called out. “Kai! Come here!”
    The dragon came up behind him. “Have you found something to eat? Do you want me to pee with you?”
    Tao was still staring out over the plain. He pointed into the distance.
    “It’s Luoyang.”

Chapter Eight
T OO M ANY D EAD
    Anger bubbled inside Tao.
    “We’re south of Luoyang. You’ve led us around in a circle. You told me we were heading west, getting closer to the dragon haven, but we haven’t made any progress at all!”
    Kai didn’t say anything.
    “Dragons are supposed to have a good sense of direction. How could you make such a mistake?”
    Kai kicked a stone with his left forepaw and avoided looking Tao in the eye.
    The truth was suddenly obvious to Tao. “You haven’t been heading to the dragon haven at all, have you?”
    If Tao had better navigation skills, he would have realised before.
    A trail of mist issued from the dragon’s nostrils. “Do not want to go to the dragon haven.”
    Tao thought of the many
li
he’d walked, all those uncomfortable nights sleeping on the cold ground, and the terrible time in the underground darkness. It had all been for nothing.
    “We
must
go to the dragon haven! You are the leader of the dragons.”
    “Do not want to be leader.”
    Tao stood in front of Kai, so angry he had a strong desire to punch the dragon in the chest. He didn’t, but that wasn’t the point. He’d lost his temper and wished to hurt another being. Kai looked down at him. His bulk was probably five times Tao’s. There was nothing Tao could do to force the dragon to do his duty.
    He sank miserably onto a rock. “Then there’s no point in us being together.”
    “You have nowhere else to go.”
    To the east, Tao could see the mountains where his old monastery was hidden among the trees. Fo Tu Deng was no longer there. He could beg to be readmitted.
    “I could return to Yinmi. I could find another monastery. I could go to Jiankang and be with my family.”
    “You do not want to do any of those things.”
    Tao wished his thoughts were private.
    “The dragon haven is a boring place,” Kai said. “It is small. I could walk from one side to the other in less than an hour. There is nothing to do. Nothing to see but the same rocks, the same pools, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. I escaped from that prison. I do not want to return.”
    “But you have the other dragons. Your own kind.”
    “The other dragons were lazy and … boring. All they did was sleep, and hold meetings and talk endlessly about rules. The winged dragons could fly away and visit other places, but I was stuck there. There were no other young dragons like me, none who enjoyed adventure.”
    “But it’s your home.”
    “You have left your home. So have I.”
    “What were you planning to do? Walk around in circles forever?”
    The dragon sighed. A trail of mist rose from his nostrils and dissolved on the breeze.
    “What about the bond we made before we left Yinmi?”
    “We pledged that we would be brothers,” Kai said. “I have not broken that bond. You are the one who is thinking about going back to your old life. On your own.”
    “What about your vow to the ghost of Gu Hong?”
    “I promised I would go to the dragon haven and lead the dragons. I did not say I would go there immediately.”
    “You said we were going as soon as we escaped from the darkness.”
    “I was speaking in terms of dragon time. I will go. I will honour her every day. And I will take up my role as leader. But not now. Perhaps when I have wings like the others.”
    “But that won’t be for another five hundred years!” Tao knew that dragons didn’t grow wings until they were around a thousand years old. “I’ll be long dead. You said you were going to give me the dragonkeeper mirror. Was that a lie too? You don’t really want me to be your dragonkeeper, do you? You want me around to amuse you and … find worms.”
    Tao’s