The Dragon's Gate by Barry Wolverton

Author:Barry Wolverton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

15

THE TEMPLE OF THE FIVE LORDS

Bren got up before dawn to watch the sun rise over Bantam. He had read that the Far East was called the Land of the Rising Sun by old sailors, and he wanted to see what they meant. What was so special? He could see the sun rise just fine from his hovel in Map, couldn’t he?

He walked north from the factory, from the barracks where they’d been quartered, past the rice fields and the stilted houses of the fishermen, until he reached the eastern end of the harbor, where he waited. He chewed on a handful of coffee beans that the clerk of Bantam had given him. They were painfully bitter, but Bren had never felt more alert this early. Despite being exhausted he had tossed and turned in bed, unable to stop thinking about the adventure that awaited them.

And then the first glow of light appeared on the horizon, like a lamp from someone unseen coming up a darkened hill. The light grew in area and intensity until Bren was convinced some great fire was about to consume the earth, a fire that reminded him of that night in the cavern, when he had to shield his eyes from the heat. . . .

He blinked. Just for a moment, but when he opened his eyes again, the sun was right there, not so much rising as poised at the edge of the ocean, as if it were about to roll across the waves. It wasn’t beautiful; it was terrifying, and Bren shut his eyes again, as hard as he could.

“I know what you’re thinking,” came a voice, and Bren spun toward it, still sitting, his eyes still closed. When he opened them he saw Lady Jean Barrett, bathed in light, her arm cocked to shield her eyes.

“What am I thinking?” said Bren.

“That it all seems so close, that the world can’t possibly go on and on beyond the horizon. Like the sun is popping up out of a slot between the sea and the sky.”

She sat down next to him.

“The emperors saw the same sun, the same close horizon,” she said. “Remember Yaozu’s theory about the map of the Hidden Sea? That it came from a fruitless search for an island of immortality? Well, Emperor Qin was convinced that the island must lie this way. He sent a naval captain named Xu Fu sailing toward the rising sun. Qin had also once employed a magician named Anqi Sheng, who was already a thousand years old when Qin reigned, and some think it was Anqi Sheng that Xu Fu went in search of, after the magician disappeared.”

Bren perked up. “Did the magician look like a catfish?”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing. Did Yaozu tell you all this?”

“Some,” said Barrett. “Some I may have read on my own. I stole a glance now and then at those rare books I used to fetch for Mr. Black.”

She smiled at Bren, and any doubts about his decision to go with her evaporated.

“Come on,” she said, standing and offering a hand to Bren.

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