“You came too, Mishter Dragon,” Angelina said.
“Indeed,” he replied. “Though I was loathe to help Emperor Whelp, I did it for your sake. Fortune can be quite fickle.”
When the Golden Dragon laughed, Feilong clucked his tongue.
Angelina nodded. “Thanks, Mishter Dragon.”
“You needn’t thank me. Simply give me a good, long head pat another time.”
“Okay!”
“Put Lina down!” Ryuho barked, digging his forepaws into Feilong’s thighs. “Put Lina down!”
Ignoring Ryuho, Feilong looked down at the daoshi. In response, they backed away in fright.
“As I suspected, the Heavenly Sovereign Temple needs to be—” Feilong began.
At that moment, the Garuda alighted in front of the imperial forces, interrupting him. “Purity and fortune!” the Kalavinka called out to the soldiers from atop the Garuda’s back. The soldiers’ eyes widened at her electrifying voice.
The Kalavinka turned to face the other side of the river, still astride the Garuda. “Purity and fortune!” she called again as the divine avian spread its large, red wings. Her resolute expression contrasted the discomposure of the daoshi. No one who witnessed her majesty would doubt her status as a young, living goddess. In response to the Kalavinka’s words, the daoshi dropped their bows, which clattered against the craggy surface.
According to legend, the Kalavinka had once ridden on the Garuda’s back while delivering the songs of the heavens. In recent history, however, no Garuda had ever grown large enough to carry a person on its back. The story had been considered an exaggerated myth.
Now, that myth had come to life.
The Kalavinka and Garuda standing between the crowds were a young goddess and divine avian. No daoshi could defy their commands.
Angelina gripped Feilong’s frozen hair and regarded him with upturned eyes. “Fodder…”
Nothing good would come of the temple and the imperial forces waging war. When Feilong realized this, he breathed a quiet sigh. “…You want me to forgive them?”
“The Vinkas didn’t do anything wrong,” Angelina replied. “If you start fighting here, what’ll happen to those girls?”
This is Feilong—the cruel emperor, Angelina thought. If he decides to destroy the Starlight Mausoleum, he’ll crush every temple in the empire, not just Mt. Jinlong. When that happens, the Vinkas will have no place to go.
As a result, the impoverished villages saved by Vinkas would remain destitute. Presently, Jinlong didn’t have another system in place to take over the Heavenly Sovereign Temple’s role.
When Angelina stared down at the daoshi, the women hung their heads awkwardly.
“I don’t want to make the Vinkas sad,” Angelina spoke to the crowd. “I don’t want to see my fodder and the daoshi hurt each other either. I love the Vinkas’ dancing and absolutely adore the Kalavinka’s singing.”
One of the daoshi knelt on the ground and bowed her head.
The Garuda turned towards Angelina and let out a long chirp. “Polaris Princess,” it said telepathically. “Please listen to my request.”
“Mish Garuda…?”
“I shall give you one of my tail feathers. Use it to purify this holy site, and ask your accompanying forces to retreat. Mt. Jinlong doesn’t belong solely to humans. Many creatures residing here couldn’t survive anywhere else. Please—I wish for you to protect this mountain.”
Neither the Garudas nor the silkworms could survive outside Mt. Jinlong. With this in mind, Angelina nodded. “I am Polaris Princess Angelina!” she cried out from atop the Golden Dragon and inside the emperor’s arms. “By order of the Holy Garuda, I will relay her words to you!”
In answer, the soldiers and the daoshi all knelt before the Polaris Princess.
“The Garuda shall use her power to purify this holy site!” Angelina continued. “She asks both armies to retreat!”
Feilong clucked his tongue, his face twisting into a bitter expression. “If Lina says so, I suppose we have no other choice,” he grumbled.
Beating its wings, the Garuda took to the skies again. While soaring across the azure heavens, the divine avian’s large, red wings blocked out the sun, casting a shadow over the earth. When the Garuda performed a grand turn, its tail feathers—long and golden—drew a circle in the air. Angelina could have mistaken that ring for a second sun.
The Kalavinka began singing Blue Skies When the Rain Passes. Laborers often sang this song when doing ground leveling work.
As the Garuda flew in a circle above the dragon, one of her golden tail feathers fell in front of Angelina. The dragon laughed, and the divine avian chirped a song.
“Purify this tainted holy site, Polaris Princess Angelina,” the Garuda commanded her.
“How?” Angelina asked.
“Pray for the land to become pure while waving my tail feather.”
Angelina nodded and did as instructed. Pink light particles appeared from the Tianshi’s Protective Seal on her palm, traveled through the Garuda’s tail feather, and finally fell upon the earth. Within moments, the land, ravaged by rain and troop activity, bloomed again. Seeing this miracle, the daoshi felt ashamed of their outrageous behavior.
The matriarch fell to her knees and pressed her forehead against the ground. “My most sincere apologies, Polaris Princess… No, Princess Angelina!”
She’d never called Angelina by name before. Nevertheless, Angelina was both the imperial princess and the Polaris Princess. In the matriarch’s opinion, only her name—not her title—could express her unique individuality.
Angelina smiled, and Ryuho huffed smugly.
Once Feilong had ordered the army to descend the mountain, the three of them climbed off the Golden Dragon and rejoined the troops. As a young girl, Angelina wouldn’t have been able to withstand traveling on the dragon for long distances at high speeds. Thus, Yuen’s forces left Mt. Jinlong with the kneeling daoshi at their backs.
✦ ✦ ✦
🐅 🐅 🐅
AFTER watching the imperial troops descend the mountain, Nara returned to the peak. Once inside the Starlight Mausoleum, she hugged the divine avian around the neck. “Thank you so much, Holy Garuda.”
The Garuda unfurled its enormous wings and embraced Nara. The divine avian chirped, pestering the girl for a song. Nara obliged. However, she sang one of her mother’s lullabies rather than a song from the Heavenly Sovereign Temple. While listening, the Garuda shrank again. Once finished, the divine avian perched on Nara’s shoulder and nuzzled her cheek.
“That tickles,” Nara said with a laugh.
The Garuda laughed as well.
At that moment, Nara remembered the gift she’d received from Angelina. “Would you like to eat some candied jujubes, Holy Garuda?”
What a wonderful idea, she thought. Eating candied jujubes with the Garuda while singing songs from my home village.
The Garuda responded with a high-pitched chirp. Unlike Angelina, Nara couldn’t understand the divine avian’s words. While feeling somewhat jealous of the other girl, she patted the Garuda’s head.
“Well then, let’s eat them together,” Nara said.
The two passed through the burned-down hole in the wall. Inside her room, Nara looked up at the sky over Mt. Jinlong. White clouds traveled swiftly across the azure heavens. Summer was ending, and autumn was approaching. All the while, birds soared across a blue expanse so clear that it must have been purified.