Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Author:Xiran Jay Zhao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

A horrible feeling plunged through Zack. Too late he noticed the fury in the mermaids’ glares.

“Uhhhh, you made lamps out of them?” he accused Qin Shi Huang.

“Just go faster!” Qin Shi Huang waved his arms. “Go, go, go!”

Zack pumped the boat to full speed again. But the moment they sped over the mermaids, their glowing arms splashed out of the water. Their fingers clawed, scratched, and grabbed for the boat’s sides, rocking it. Zack bit back a scream.

Wu Zetian summoned her spirit whip and lashed at the mermaids’ hands. Tang Taizong also tried to push them back, but the strain of sustaining Li Bai clearly prevented him from doing much.

“Xiānsheng, can you help?” he yelled, meridians seething red beneath his skin.

“I shall try, Your Majesty!” Li Bai smacked the knuckles of one mermaid climbing up the boat.

“With your sword!” Tang Taizong pointed to the scabbard at Li Bai’s waist.

“Oh!” Li Bai looked startled to find it there. He drew it in a flash of red, which would’ve looked very cool if he hadn’t immediately wobbled afterward.

“Please don’t tell me you forgot you were one of the greatest swordsmen of our dynasty!” Panic edged into Tang Taizong’s voice.

“Apologies, Your Majesty.” Li Bai slashed drunkenly at the mermaids. “Penglai is not a place of conflict. I have not wielded a weapon in over a thousand years.”

Wu Zetian threw a glare at Qin Shi Huang while swinging her whip. Her ponytail flew over her shoulder, rustling against her bright neon life jacket. “Why did you even want good lighting in your tomb? It’s a tomb!”

“Yes, shouldn’t the priority have been to prevent tomb robbers from finding their way?” Tang Taizong shuffled left and right to offset how the boat was swaying.

Qin Shi Huang threw his hands up. “All right, I’ll admit, the mermaid lamps were pure vanity! A terrible and unnecessary decision in hindsight!”

“Half your life decisions were terrible and unnecessary!” Wu Zetian chided, face lit from below by the mermaids’ iridescent glow.

“I know, and this isn’t even close to the worst thing I’ve ever done! I don’t know why we’re being punished for it!”

“Ugh, just shut up!” Sweat glistened on Wu Zetian’s forehead as she struggled to beat the mermaids down like a horror movie version of whack-a-mole. They crowded around the boat like giant writhing sardines, so densely packed that goose bumps rattled out of Zack’s skin. Whenever one scattered to spiritual dust under Wu Zetian’s whip strikes, another took its place.

“Kid, sink them!” Qin Shi Huang commanded.

“Uh—” Zack threw his arms out and then swirled them back in, willing the seawater to flood over the mermaids. It pushed them down, but the boat dropped as well, plummeting between two rising tides. Everyone yelped as water poured over its sides. Zack rushed to hurl it out, but that let the mermaids return, emerging from the abyss like a hundred comets.

“Never mind!” Qin Shi Huang said. “No more of that!”

“Xiānsheng, can you switch your qi source to the islands yet?” Tang Taizong shouted.

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