Free Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson Page B

baskets are made, or one that is often hidden in mist,” Kai suggested.
    Ping sighed. “It could mean many things. I’ll have to think about it when I’m not so tired.”
    She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid. “The dragon haven is a secret place. I should have realised Danzi wouldn’t write it on the map for anyone to see. The silk square could have fallen into the hands of enemies.”
    “Trust Father,” Kai said. “He will lead Ping and Kai to the secret dragon place.”
    “At least we know where we’re heading. West.”
    Another group of villagers blocked their path. It was three weeks since they had left the palace. Ping and Kai looked at the villagers’ unsmiling faces. The elder stepped forward.
    “We need rain,” he said pointing to the withered seedlings in the fields. “We need it now or our children will starve.”
    Kai, in the shape of a small boy, huddled close to Ping.
    “I can’t bring you rain,” she said.
    “You
can’t,” the elder replied. He grasped Kai’s shoulder. “But your dragon can.”
    Other village men armed with rakes and spades surrounded them.
    Kai had been shape-changed for most of the day. Hewas tired and frightened. The small boy shimmered, faded, and Kai’s true shape was revealed.
    “My wife has just returned from her family in Yan. She passed through several villages that you had been to. They told her how the dragon was withholding the rain.”
    “He isn’t withholding rain,” Ping protested. “He can’t make rain. There are no clouds. He has no wings.”
    They wouldn’t believe her. “You’ll stay here until we get rain,” the elder said.
    Some of the village children were ill. Kai gave them his bearskin, but it was food the villagers wanted, not warmth.
    No one wanted Ping to tell them stories that evening. There was no banquet. Ping and Kai were led to a barn. Villagers took it in turns to guard them. Kai wasn’t feeling well. He tossed and turned all night. When Ping got up to find out what was wrong with him, she discovered small pieces of iron hidden in his bedding straw.
    “This is to punish you. They think you’re withholding the rain on purpose.” She hurled the iron pieces out of the barn door. “It’s only a matter of time before villagers start attacking us with weapons.”
    It was easy enough for them to escape from the barn during the night. Kai made his scales seem as black as the night. Ping left a bag of grain in the barn and flashedher mirror in the eyes of the sleepy guards. Just as she suspected, they let her pass.
    By dawn they were many
li
from the village. As soon as she was sure that no one was following them, Ping turned off the westward path and headed north.
    “Wrong way,” Kai said. “Father said we have to travel west.”
    “I know. But I have an idea.”

• chapter eight •
T HE W ALL
    The crumpled peaks of the mountain range
stretched in all directions.
Ping felt as if she were striding across the sky
and could see as far as Kai
.
    Just before they had been taken to the last village, Ping had caught a glimpse of something on a distant mountain. It snaked across the peaks like one of Kai’s pythons, like a line of embroidery on the billowing hem of a lady’s gown. It was the Great Wall.
    Ping had read about the Great Wall in the Duke’s library. Hundreds of years ago, different warlords across the land had built high walls to keep out their enemies. When Emperor Qin conquered all the kingdoms, he decided to link the walls to form a single line of defenceacross the entire northern border of his new Empire. It had taken many years and tens of thousands of workers to build it. Thousands had died from exhaustion. Others had been buried alive by rockfalls. Emperors had come and gone, and the task wasn’t complete. The wall was still inching its way eastward and westward as the Empire expanded.
    It took four days for Ping and Kai to reach the wall. It had seemed small from a distance, but when they finally