Dreamslinger, page 15
“If they steal the silver feathers on the wrists or ankles, they get one point each,” Samchon continued. “But if they successfully steal the Golden Heart—that’s the feather around the neck—then the game is won.”
Saemi’s eyes twinkled. “They’re allowed to ride their dreampanions and use their seasonbilities, but not for direct attacks on the feathers. For that they need to use their nightjoys.”
Lion nodded. “The whole game is about showcasing the strength of the dreamslinger–dreampanion bond.”
They all raised their binoculars and settled in as the referee (who happened to be Head Scholar Byun from Summer Palace) kicked off the first round. Immediately, the two competitors started circling each other, and Aria was struck by how similar their movements were to Lion’s when he’d taken Maxwell down. They were constantly moving, their knees bent low, stepping in a fluid triangle formation.
“Those look like your martial arts moves, Lion,” Tui exclaimed, clearly thinking the same thing.
“The basic movements of Battlejoy are rooted in Taekkyon, too,” Lion explained. “Graceful, circular, and almost like dancing.”
Nam Samchon nodded. “Gentle in nature, but strong in spirit. That’s the way of Battlejoy. It’s why they use feathers.”
Just when Aria was wondering if anyone was going to make a move, the Winter Palace competitor formed a globe of energy in her hands and released it above the head of her opponent, releasing a deluge of hail. Little balls of ice fell like stones onto the Summer Fellow’s head, making his solar phoenix shriek angrily. Without missing a beat, the opponent threw a mass of fire from his hands toward the cloud of ice above him, turning the flurry into an explosion of hot steam.
“Whoa,” Aria breathed. “I thought you said they weren’t allowed to use their seasonbilities.”
“Not for direct attacks on the feathers,” Samchon reminded her. “But they can use them to aid their attacks, or to create diversions.”
“Or in this case, just to rile up your opponent,” Lion noted.
The strategy must’ve worked, because the Summer competitor’s phoenix squawked angrily before conjuring a violet orb in its talons. He slung it at his dreamslinger. As the orb reached the Fellow, he began glowing with the aura of what looked like a winged slug before wings started growing on his back. Flapping them, the Fellow propelled himself toward the Winter competitor, one of his slug-suckered palms reaching out for the golden heart feather.
The opponent’s speedy footwork allowed her to dodge out of reach, and the crowd roared to life. The three seedlings were too busy inhaling a second bag of shrimp crackers to even notice.
“That was a leechfly,” Saemi identified. “It’s a nightjoy from Autumn.”
“Saemi is somewhat of an encyclopedia on nightjoys,” Samchon said proudly.
Before the dust had settled, the frost turtle had already conjured a violet orb on her icy shell, its surprisingly long tail chucking it at her dreamslinger. As the aura of a giraffe enveloped her, the Fellow’s neck shot out unnaturally fast toward the Summer competitor, lengthening like elastic.
“A giratongue!” Saemi exclaimed, as the Fellow opened her mouth, revealing a long sharp tongue. It wrapped around the Summer Palace competitor’s wrist, ripping from it a silver feather, before the opponent had even registered what’d happened.
“One point to Winter Palace!” Head Scholar Byun shouted, as the Summer competitor recoiled in anger.
Embarrassed about losing a point, the Summer competitor’s face had gotten as bright as his dreampanion’s fiery tail. Even before the crowd had quieted down, he was jumping on the back of his solar phoenix and soaring into the sky.
The crowd didn’t even need their binoculars to see the Summer competitor riding his phoenix in circles above the ring, around and around, disorienting his opponent in a plume of tail smoke. As the Winter Fellow lowered herself to a protective stance, the Summer Fellow flew behind her, waiting until he was out of her range of vision before releasing a ball of fire to a corner of the ring.
The Winter Fellow jumped to avoid the flame, and using the opening that the distraction gave him, the phoenix swiftly slung an orb at his rider. As the aura of a cobra glowed around him, the Fellow leapt off the bird’s back, the momentum allowing him to skid past his opponent at great speed. Just as he passed the Winter competitor’s back, he opened his mouth and shot out three jets of venom in rapid succession. One after another, burning acid struck both her wrist feathers, as well as one of her ankles, before she’d even had a chance to turn around.
“No!” half the crowd roared.
“Yes!” the other half yelled.
Even the seedlings let out a cry of surprise.
“Three points to Summer Palace!” the referee screamed, not hiding his excitement that it was his palace that was now firmly in the lead.
“Yeah! You’ve got this, oppa!” Jina Jeong’s annoying voice squealed from their right.
“The dude with the phoenix must be her brother,” Tui guessed.
Aria tried not to get too sucked into the match as she brainstormed the perfect opening question for the mudang. But when the Winter Palace competitor climbed onto her frost turtle’s back and they dived straight into the surrounding lake, Aria found herself leaning forward on the grass and pulling the binoculars even closer to her face.
“What’s happening?” Tui asked. “Why did they jump into the water?”
Saemi clasped her hands together. “I think it’s a strategy to throw her opponent off. Winter Fellows can hold their breath underwater for as long as an hour, as long as they’re physically in contact with their frost turtles. I think she wants to make her opponent sweat.”
Sure enough, as the Summer competitor waited anxiously in the ring for his opponent to reappear, he and his phoenix became increasingly agitated. They both searched the edges of the ring, waiting, and waiting, and waiting, not wanting to be taken by surprise.
Just when Aria thought even her nerves couldn’t take it anymore, the Winter Fellow and her frost turtle rocketed up out of the lake. Everyone gasped as the turtle conjured a violet orb in midair, giving the Fellow the aura of a winged swordfish.
“A swordwing!” Saemi cried.
The Fellow and her frost turtle landed with a rough thud on the ring, but it didn’t deter the competitor one bit. She used the violent landing as a lever to gain flight, fluttering the gossamer wings on her back to shoot toward her competitor.
The phoenix quickly slung an orb at his dreamslinger too, which seemed to weave a protective spidery web around them. But it was too late. The Winter competitor’s nose had grown as long and sharp as a swordfish, and as she propelled herself toward her opponent, she flicked her nose up. It hooked the Summer competitor’s necklace up and over his head with a satisfying jingle, taking the feather clean with it.
The referee raised his hands to the air, his face stricken. “The Golden Heart has been claimed. The game goes to Winter Palace!”
The crowd went wild, and Aria found herself jumping up and down with Battlejoy fever. The seedlings didn’t seem to understand why everyone was cheering, but they joined in with the energetic leaping nonetheless. Aria could see why this was a beloved national sport.
In fact, she was so engrossed in the match that she almost forgot entirely about her plan to question the mudang. It was only when the king stepped out of the box to talk to some of his subjects, leaving the mudang sitting there alone, that Aria saw her chance.
Without knowing what she was going to say, she walked up to the velvet rope and cleared her throat.
“Um, Your Royal Holiness,” she started. “I was hoping that I could—”
That’s when she saw the glint of the blade.
Aria had seen a figure draped in a heavy cloak standing in her periphery. She had assumed it was a Fellow waiting for the king’s audience.
But in the next moment, the cloaked figure had closed the distance between them and the mudang, and pulled a dagger from their cloak.
“No!” Aria cried, as she lunged for the mudang.
But she was too late.
The attacker thrust the blade at the shaman, and she crumpled to the grass as dark red blood pooled underneath her.
“WHAT’S WITH THE EXTRA LEVEL of security today?” Rihaan asked as he chose a recliner in the slumbersanctum. His harvest tiger kept trying to nibble the sequins off his glittery beret.
Aria followed his gaze and saw there were indeed double the usual number of palace guards stationed around the edges of the slumbersanctum.
“Surely it’s because of what happened to the Royal Mudang. She’s lucky she’s alive,” said Mason, skidding into the room with Rico, his frost turtle. “We’re vulnerable when we’re in simulation.”
“I thought the lockdown drills were a bit much, but I get it now,” Zahra commented as she and her harvest tiger, Rahi, found a recliner next to Aria and Tui. “The threat of anti-slinger attacks is real. Even inside the kingdom.”
“It was never like this, you know,” Jina sneered as she and her tall, freckled henchman, Eugene Cho-Fisher, walked past with their fiery-tailed phoenixes. “You realize it’s only because they let you outsiders into the Trials this year that this is all happening.”
Rio hissed as Jina’s phoenix purposely swished its flaming tail in Aria’s vicinity.
“Yeah,” Eugene echoed. “It’s people like you who’ve brought risk and danger to our heritage community.”
“We were always at risk,” Lion argued from his chair, looking a little jumpy and off-color. “But at least now our numbers are growing. And that makes us stronger.”
Jina looked like she wanted to say something to Lion, but then thought better of it. Instead she turned to Aria and smirked. “We may be growing, but we’re not stronger. We’re weaker because of the offcuts we’re letting in. Just look at your poor excuse for a bloom dragon. It’s deformed.”
Rio stilled, and Aria felt the words like a dagger. She knew she should defend her dreampanion, but instead, she just stared at her feet, not knowing what to say.
Luckily, Tui did. “You’re a poor excuse for a human, Jina Jeong.”
“And we all deserve to be here, regardless of where we came from,” Zahra added defiantly. “No one asked for your opinion.”
Some days had passed since Chuseok, and the members of the royal sanctum had been tight-lipped about the mudang’s attack. But it was clear to the everyone that anti-slingers had gotten through the borders and targeted a high-ranking member of the kingdom’s leadership. The extra security in the slumbersanctum had confirmed their suspicions.
Aria had half thought the severity of the incident would’ve warranted a break from Endearing training. But far from delaying them, the trialeers had been pushed to work even harder.
“The show must go on!” Head Scholar Tak had remarked the day after Chuseok, fiddling with the gems on his mustache. “In fact, this provides greater motivation to get you trained, so you can defend yourselves!”
This was not good news for Aria. Over the past week, she had watched with growing frustration as her fellow trialeers mastered the art of mounting and then gaining air. Jina had taken to flying on her solar phoenix like a duck to water, as had Zahra, who was already traveling at breakneck speed on the back of her leafy harvest tiger. Mason had easily learned how to stay on the icy shell of his frost turtle, breaking previous trialeers’ records of holding his breath underwater. Even Blessica, the short Filipina trialeer from Autumn Palace, had managed to take her first ride after struggling to mount her tiger for ages.
Everyone seemed to be on track with their training. Except Aria.
Naturally, she blamed Rio’s lack of tail for their lack of progress. But Head Scholar Bobby-Uma had studied Rio’s stub with her sharp, two-colored eyes, and confirmed it was still possible. The problem wasn’t physics—it was trust.
Rio had zero interest in letting Aria jump on her back, let alone in getting off the ground. And today was the day the cohort would be attempting the simulation Journey for the first time. It felt like make-or-break. Aria’s stomach churned.
“All right, my delightful trialeers!” Head Scholar Kim sang as she parked her chair and locked the wheels. “Please uncork your vials and we’ll see you at the Heartsglade momentarily.”
The Spring Palace gajok drank their vials and reassembled inside Treehenge. They followed Head Scholar Bobby-Uma toward their Season archway as Aria leaned into her seedling.
“Hey, Rio, can you at least try today? Just a little? Please?”
Rio’s long whiskers billowed as she ignored Aria’s plea. Instead, her coral petals rippled down her body in annoyance. Then she began snapping playfully at Tweak, who was walking in front of them. Aria sighed.
“Hey, Lion, you okay?” Aria asked, throwing a worried glance at her friend. “Your eyes are bloodshot. Rough night?”
He didn’t answer.
“Earth to Lion,” Aria echoed. “Anyone home?”
Still nothing. It was only when Echo nudged him that he blinked.
“Sorry, Aria, did you say something?”
Aria raised a brow. Something was definitely up with Lion.
“Who would like to do the honors and be the first to attempt the Journey?” Head Scholar Bobby-Uma asked when they’d reached the eastern edge of the Heartsglade, which overlooked the East Sea of Poisonous Plants. To illustrate, she leapt onto her silvery bloom dragon and gracefully flew toward the Season archway suspended high in the sky. She made it look as easy as breathing.
Aria avoided the scholar’s gaze as she stared into the sea. Despite being simulations, the carnivorous flower heads looked as hungry as ever, as they released their noxious gases and snapped their sharp teeth.
“As you know, you will only get one attempt to make the Journey to your archway in the real Endearing,” the Head Scholar reminded them. “If you fall into the sea, you will have failed the Trial. However, there’s no need to worry about that today. If you fall, I will retrieve you and you may try again. This is, after all, just a simulation.”
Hiroto Günther volunteered himself, taking a big breath before jumping on his chocolate-hued dragon.
“Let’s show them how it’s done, Toto,” he declared.
The dreampanion leapt into the air, but the jump was so high and the movement so sudden that Hiroto’s grip on the seedling’s neck slipped. He managed to hold on for a few more seconds before he slithered off the side of the dragon, plummeting down to the snapping mouths of the plant sea below.
Aria gasped as Head Scholar Bobby-Uma thrust her hands into the air in an upward motion. Immediately, thick green vines shot out from the poison sea, like extensions of her arms. She seized the air, and the vines wrapped themselves around Hiroto and Toto, catching them and returning them safely to the ground.
Tiare Taina was next to step forward, and she adjusted the star-shaped white flower behind her ear before jumping on her sleek black dragon. The seedling leapt into the air—but not as high as Hiroto and Toto—and they hovered awkwardly as she tried to find their balance. Aria and her gajokmates held their breath as Tiare shifted her body to help the distribution of weight. And after some precarious tips left and right that made her two braids flap haphazardly, she finally found her rhythm. As Tiare held on tight to its long neck, the bloom dragon corkscrewed its serpentine body shakily up toward the archway.
“I touched it!” she cried, as they made a wobbly landing. “I actually touched the stone!”
“Well done!” Head Scholar Bobby-Uma exclaimed as Tiare did an impressive flip off her dragon before wrapping her seedling into a hug. “A little more work on syncing your weight distribution and coordinating your aerial balance, and you’ll be mastering flight in no time.”
Tui went next, then a still-distracted Lion, followed by four other trialeers in the gajok—none of whom made the full Journey, but all of whom at least hovered over the sea. Even Jaxon managed to take flight, despite turning back when they got too high (a problem with the structural integrity of his mullet mohawk, he claimed).
Finally, it was Aria’s turn.
“Don’t be nervous, Trialeer Love,” the head scholar encouraged, running her hand through her blue streak. “Just relax and let your seedling take the lead.”
“Yeah, right,” Aria muttered under her breath as she tried to approach Rio from the side. She calmly placed her hands on her back so that she could push off and hook her right leg over the seedling’s body. But as soon as she shifted her body weight, Rio shuffled out of reach.
“Come on, Rio,” Aria pleaded, aware of her gajokmates’ eyes following their every move. “Can we just give it a go. Please?”
If Rio heard Aria’s desperation, she chose to ignore it. Instead, the seedling loped toward the edge of the sea and playfully pawed a snappy flytrap. The plant released a thick gas in her face, but Rio just sneezed and swatted it again—this time with a wag of her stub.
A wave of irritation washed over Aria. The frustrating thing about all of this was that she knew Rio could do it, if she just put her mind to it. The scholar had said so. The problem was that Rio just didn’t want to. And Aria was sick of being embarrassed in front of all her gajokmates.
Before she knew what was happening, she was clenching her fists and shouting at the top of her lungs. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why won’t you even try?!”
Rio recoiled and let out an indignant whimper, which was followed by a deadly silence from Aria’s gajokmates. Realizing what she’d done, Aria dropped her head in shame. Way to make things a hundred times worse.
“Don’t be downtrodden, Trialeer Love,” Bobby-Uma later said to Aria on the way back to the Heart of the Heartsglade. “Bubba Holiday was also a late bloomer.” The scholar’s dragon poked its tongue out at its dreamslinger. “But look at her now. Some seedlings just take a little longer than others to warm up, and you still have time.”
“The Endearing is less than a week away,” Aria reminded her.
