Page 88 of Dragon 7

“You and your promises. You treat them like blood oaths, Yoichi.”

“Why are you here, Yoichi?” Toma crossed his arms. "You should be with our Tiger."

"I would not worry about our Tiger tonight." Yoichi lifted the gold mask and settled it over his face. The kitsune stared out at all of us, golden, expressionless, and ancient. "In fact, all of Tora’s enemies should worry about her. She is safe."

I thought about the rage I could still feel burning in my chest—hot, precise, aimed and then I considered that my dragon-shadow had said she smelled like another’s death.

I hope she has not killed anyone.

She has.

No. . .

And she is happy about it.

I closed my eyes and shuddered.

Tora. . .

It is done. She is safe.

I opened my eyes.

WAR!

Yes, Goryū.

Yoichi went over to the twins and said something to them, but this sound arrived before the plane did, and I could not focus on their exchange.

The sound was a low drone that started at the edge of hearing and grew, thickening the air, pressing down through the canopy until the leaves shook and the ground answered it.

The trees trembled.

Loose dirt lifted off the path in thin brown clouds.

The drone became a roar that sat on my chest and would not move.

I looked up.

Akiro’s plane cleared the tree line. It was enormous. The belly of it passed so low that the wind of its engines flattened the brush around us, tore leaves from the branches, and sent them spinning in tight vicious circles.

The landing lights swept the forest floor like two cold white eyes dragging across everything they touched.

The roar of it filled every space in my skull and left no room for thought.

Every man around me went still.

Even Hiro did not move.

I turned to Goryū. Tell me who is in there.

He was already moving.

Goryū uncoiled from the dark above us in one fluid motion. Black smoke poured off his body as his wings spread wide, and he rose toward the plane without sound.

He climbed fast, faster than anything with that much size had a right to move, and then his body folded and he drove himself straight up through the belly of the plane and disappeared inside it.

I watched the sky.