I opened the apartment door and Annie threw herself into my arms. ‘Nanna!’
‘Come in, darling Annie,’ I said, and she wrapped her arm around my waist as we went in together.
She looked around and saw the soulstone in the glass bowl on the shoe cupboard next to the front door. ‘Is that your soulstone? Just sitting there? Why?’
‘It’s Haruka’s,’ I said. ‘If he ever wants it back, he knows where it is. I’m keeping it safe for him.’
‘And he has yours?’
I nodded. ‘Neowra?’
‘Green dragon tea, please,’ she said, and gasped when I went into the little kitchen and put a very old-fashioned kettle onto a similarly old-fashioned stove. ‘That’s archaic!’
‘Marque makes terrible tea, and gets it wrong every single time,’ I said, pulling out the teapot.
‘That is your imagination and you know it,’ Marque said. ‘I duplicate the flavour of the tea exactly.’
‘And potatoes?’ I asked.
It was silent.
Annie sat on the couch and I brought the tea to her. ‘So, now that Daf’s moved out – what are you doing all day?’ she asked. ‘You never seemed to have any hobbies; it was always work and home for you. I hope you’re not just moping around . . .’
She didn’t say ‘waiting to die’.
‘I mostly watch documentaries. The Empire never ceases to astonish,’ I said. ‘Even seeing the same environmental types generate parallel evolution in species – the diversity is still remarkable.’
‘You don’t want to travel to the galaxies and see for yourself? You don’t even have a dog to keep you company.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s no fun travelling alone.’
‘Take Great-Nan?’
‘My mother’s in a relationship with a new dragon and doing the dragonspouse thing.’
Her ears pricked up. ‘Coloured or gold?’
‘Humph. Coloured,’ I said. ‘You’d think she’d know better.’
‘Don’t you have any friends . . . ?’ her voice trailed off.
‘Mostly guard members, who are on call or have their own families.’ I leaned in to speak more intensely. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Go travelling with Haruka; he’s moping too. You’re still married, you two should get back together.’ She pointed at my wedding ring, gold with green stones on it that Haruka had made for us when we shared our vows. ‘You should—’
‘No, and that’s final,’ I said. ‘Leave it!’
She opened her mouth and closed it again. ‘Then why not divorce him and find someone new?’
‘No point,’ I said, and poured the tea. ‘Let’s talk about something more enjoyable, shall we? How’s work? Anything fun happening you can share with me? Are you still dating that sweet golden dragon? She was lovely.’
She clasped both my hands in hers, the fur soft against my skin. ‘I’m having two babies, Nan.’
I ripped my hands free and pulled her into a huge embrace, burying my face in her fur. ‘Oh, Annie, that’s wonderful news.’ I pulled back. ‘Who’s the father? Is it that golden dragon?’
‘Yes. My children will be the first second-generation goldenscales dragons. Every other goldenscales is a child of the Empress. Mine will be special.’
‘As special as you are.’ I pulled her in again so she couldn’t see the pain on my face that the thought of goldenscales brought to me. ‘That is the best news.’ I kissed her fur. ‘You look after yourself, you hear?’ I put the smile back on and pulled away to wipe my eyes. ‘Oh, this is the best news.’
‘Come for a walk, this place is too small,’ she said, and rose, holding my hand. ‘Let’s go check out the icosapod district, they’re planting native aquatic plants and they’re pretty.’
‘Sounds like fun,’ I lied, allowing her to pull me to my feet and following her out the door. I knew I was severely overweight from sitting and brooding so much, and the family were taking turns dragging me outdoors and making me exercise.
We wandered through the human district towards the icosa one. Humanity had always had a thing for building towers, and the habitat on Sky City was no different. There were only ten towers, but each was massively tall and soared into the clouds. Many wide walkways joined the towers at different levels, providing sky markets and parks. Ground level was divided into three major Earth habitats around the base of the towers – tropical, desert, and forest. We walked along a path through what appeared to be a wild forest. A clearing in the undergrowth beneath the tower contained a small market of stalls providing Earth-specific artisanal goods, produce and regional food delicacies. We passed an Indian stall and Annie took a butter roti, nodding to the stall holder, who waved back.
‘I’m always hungry,’ she said, munching on it as we walked. ‘At least we cats don’t get morning sickness. That would be awful.’
‘Is it a clone like the usual cat first-born?’ I asked.
She was silent, lowering her head and eating the bun. ‘The first one was,’ she eventually said. ‘Tokiko objected to having a clone made of her, and I was a little freaked out by the idea, so we terminated that one. These ones are a proper mix of me and Tokiko. Two little goldenscales dragons of my own, with parts from both of us.’
‘Oh, Annie,’ I said, and pulled her back in to wrap my arm around her again.
‘It’s okay, we did it very early on, it was just a tiny clump of cells,’ she said. She nodded. ‘We did the right thing.’ She pushed the bun at me. ‘Want some?’
‘No, and finish it quickly before we reach the water, I don’t want crumbs in my bubble,’ I said.
She shoved me with her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, my fur catches them all.’
I stopped and pushed her behind me. A walker stood on the path in front of us. These creatures had been the cats’ disposable army and had attacked Earth before, detonating nuclear weapons and nearly destroyed the planet. The walker wasn’t wearing its armour, and it was naked, with its genitalia hidden in a slit in its body. Without its armour, its semi-aquatic nature was more pronounced; it really did look like a cross between a hippo and a killer whale, with two massive hind legs, smaller front ones with nasty claws, a short snout with many peg-like teeth and smooth, black-and-white skin. The nostrils on the top of its head wheezed as it took a deep breath.
‘Captain Jian Choumali,’ it said.
‘Marque, let the Guard know this thing is here and set up a perimeter,’ I said. ‘Clear the area—’
‘I challenge you to a test of martial skills,’ the walker said.
I stepped forward and glared up at it. ‘Why do you challenge me? What did I do to you?’
‘They’ve joined the Empire,’ Annie said behind me. ‘Didn’t you know?’
‘I don’t follow the news,’ I said.
‘Dad did the negotiating, he’s been working with a few Republic species who want to escape from cat control,’ she said. ‘The walker won’t kill you, it just wants a test of skills. But please be careful! You have no stone.’
The walker carefully settled onto one knee so that its small back eyes were level with mine. Its spout wheezed again as it spoke. ‘You are widely regarded as one of the greatest warriors in the Empire, yes?’
‘I’ve never heard that,’ I said.
‘Liar,’ Annie said from behind me.
‘You are not helping,’ I said.
People were beginning to notice and were gathering around us in a circle. I heard my name and Annie’s mentioned as they discussed what was happening.
‘Marque . . .’ Annie said.
‘I’m here, I have it, you’re both protected,’ Marque said. ‘I promised.’
The walker wheezed again and exhaled a small fountain of spray from the top of its head. ‘I wish to fight the greatest of the Empire’s warriors. Your spouse Prince Haruka is also one of the greatest. I would like to challenge both of you.’
‘There’s a new hobby for you, Nan,’ Annie said. ‘Put your stone back in and fight with the best.’
The crowd around us grew more excited.
I spoke to Marque on comms. ‘Give me the polite refusal words, Marque.’
Marque gave me the words and I said them out loud. ‘You are too small and weak and worthless for me to waste my time with. Go and train with your betters and learn to be good enough to face someone as skilled as me.’
The walker swung its head from side to side in recognition of my refusal. ‘I don’t want to waste my time with you, I’ll find someone worthwhile to fight.’
I nodded to it. ‘Honoured sentient.’
‘Sentient,’ it replied, then rose and turned, nearly hitting me with its long-finned tail, to walk away.
The crowd dispersed, disappointed, and I rounded on Annie. ‘Did you set that up? Looking to find me a “hobby”?’
‘Marque, confirm that I didn’t,’ Annie said.
‘She didn’t,’ Marque said. ‘Being near walkers is a risk that a pregnant mother shouldn’t take. If you hadn’t used the correct words when you said no, it may have been insulted and attacked you.’
‘I see.’ I sighed with feeling. ‘I don’t need a hobby, I’m content.’
‘But not happy.’
I shrugged, and we headed to the icosa district.
We were sharing the tea back in my apartment when Marque spoke. ‘I have a message from Aki, she says it’s about Miko and extremely important.’
I felt a stab of pain at the mention of Miko.
‘Put her through,’ I said.
Aki sounded excited. ‘Jian, we dug it up, and we opened this jar and it has Miko’s soulstone and—’
I shot to my feet. ‘What?’
‘Miko’s soulstone?’ Annie asked. ‘She’s alive?’
‘In order, Aki,’ Hana said. ‘Organise your thoughts.’
‘You do it,’ Aki said, sounding breathless. ‘This is too exciting!’
‘All right,’ Hana said. ‘We think we have found Miko, Jian. We were—’
‘Alive or dead!’ I shouted.
‘Neither. Just her stone, and a message for you.’
I flopped to sit. ‘Where? You said a jar?’
‘We need to see you in person,’ Aki said. ‘May we come?’
I waved my hand in the air and spoke at the same time, my words and thoughts tumbling together in my excitement. ‘Come! Come!’
A gate appeared on the other side of the room and Annie held my hand as I rose to greet them. Aki, still short, round, and cute as anything, came through accompanied by Hana, who was as tall as me, muscular and intimidating.
‘The message is for either you or Haruka—’Aki started.
‘Marque, where’s Haruka?’ I asked, interrupting her.
‘On the surface, in his house, giving one of his swordsmanship lessons.’
‘He’s still teaching a lost art to old people?’ Hana asked, amused, and Aki thumped her.
‘He’s preserving our heritage,’ Aki said.
‘Find me a goldenscales—’
A goldenscales I didn’t know popped into the room. ‘You found Zhanko-Miko’s stone?’
‘I have it, with a message for Jian and Haruka,’ Aki said.
‘This is so exciting!’ the goldenscales said. ‘We’ve all stopped work to hear the message and find out what happened. I will take you anywhere you need to go.’
‘Can you take us all down to Haruka’s residence?’ I asked.
‘It’s been ages since I saw Grandpa,’ Annie said wistfully. ‘Now that I’m on maternity leave, I’ll spend more time with him.’
‘You know he hates being called that,’ I said.
She smiled her cat smile, all teeth and whiskers.
‘Maternity leave?’ Hana asked Annie, and Annie started to tell Hana. I approached Aki to speak to her.
‘Where did you find her stone?’ I asked her. ‘Is it still attuned?’
‘It’s too old, it’s not attuned. It was in Empress Himiko’s tomb in Nara,’ she said. ‘You remember we were doing the Yayoi archaeological excavation? And when I opened Empress Himiko’s tomb, we joked that it was Miko’s namesake? Well this is unbelievable. One of the Yayoi burial jars – their version of a coffin – had a message from Miko on the outside, and a soulstone and scroll inside. Don’t get too excited, there was no body, just the stone and the message, but Marque confirms that it is her stone.’
‘What does the message say?’
‘It’s sealed, and an inscription on the outside of the jar says that only you or Haruka can open it.’
‘It just about killed her to leave it closed,’ Hana said, grinning.
‘How the hell can an ancient jar have a message for me on it?’ I asked, thoroughly confused.
‘We’d like to know that too,’ Aki said. ‘Let’s go see Haruka.’
The goldenscales created a gate and we stepped through onto the grassy lawn outside Haruka’s residence. It was a small, two-storey house in traditional Japanese style – white walls with dark brown timber accents, paper-covered windows, and a roof of cedar bark. He had a small manicured garden attached to it, a lawn that spread for some distance all around it to discourage unwelcome visitors, and a separate tatami-matted outbuilding that he used to teach – as Aki said – ‘swordsmanship to the old people’. The old people – all appearing from their early twenties to their mid-forties – filed out of the room across the lawn to the gating service terminal, then milled around when their requested gates didn’t happen.
‘I’ll talk to them, you go to Haruka,’ Marque said.
We went inside. Haruka was wearing a traditional jacket and hakama pants with the golden chrysanthemum motif of the royal family on the shoulders. The clothing was obviously old, threadbare and hanging off him – he had lost a great deal of weight in the years since we’d lost Miko and had stopped dying his hair green – it was now black and streaked with grey. He wasn’t even wearing make-up.
He placed his two swords on the stand then turned and strode to us to hug me and then Annie. ‘A message from Miko?’
‘You need to come to the site where we opened the jar, everything is still in place and we’re cataloguing it,’ Aki said.
‘Let’s go let’s go!’ Annie said, jumping up and down. She stopped and clutched her stomach. ‘Oops.’
‘You okay?’ I said as everybody clustered around her. ‘Marque?’
‘No damage whatsoever; she may have felt the extra weight for the first time.’
‘I think all six of my breasts have grown,’ she said. ‘It feels really weird.’ She waved her hand between chest and waist level. ‘Everything in front is protruding. I feel top-heavy.’
‘Your breasts are slightly enlarged,’ Marque said.
‘I don’t know how you humans deal with having those engorged front-asses all the time,’ she said to me, cheeky.
‘At least we only have two,’ Aki said.
‘I’m fine, so let’s go find Miko!’ Annie said.
‘You’re pregnant?’ Haruka asked Annie as the goldenscales created the gate.
‘I am,’ she said.
He embraced her. ‘That’s the best news.’
‘Good enough to put your stone back?’ she asked.
‘Let’s go see this jar,’ Haruka said.
We arrived in the Japanese countryside. We were in a bowl-shaped valley, surrounded by hills covered in trees. A road cut through the middle of the valley with a few traditional houses – similar to Haruka’s – along its edge. The fields were green with rice, and what looked like sorghum. A low hill, covered in trees, stood in front of us, with a high chain-link fence around it. The fence was covered in a curtain-like banner that had symbolic apologies for the inconvenience and warnings about safety on-site.
Haruka looked around. ‘Where is it? This looks like a construction site.’
Aki opened the gate. ‘Take care, it’s deep. This is it. This used to be right at the edge of the ocean and the government put a dyke around the tomb to keep it dry. We were very lucky it wasn’t inundated.’
We went inside. There was a deep, keyhole-shaped hole that looked like a building’s foundations in front of us with labelled numbers on the artefacts.
‘They look like construction trash,’ Haruka said with wonder.
‘The jars are still where we found them, they’re too big to move without special equipment – even Marque doesn’t want to handle them as they’re extremely fragile. We’ve put them under cover while we catalogue them.’
We followed her along a scaffold walkway to the other side of site, where a makeshift roof had been placed over a hole the size of an old-fashioned garage. There were more holes in the ground here, and one of the coffin jars was visible.
‘How did they make them so big?’ Annie asked with wonder.
‘Special kilns,’ Aki said. ‘They were very skilled at them – but they only did it for senior officials and the priesthood, putting everyone in one of these would have been impractical.’ She took us to the end of the hole where a jar had been half-revealed. ‘Here.’
The jar was up to my shoulder, the same around, and made of fired red clay. It was still perfect, without a crack in it. Its stone lid had been removed and I checked inside: empty. It smelled of damp earth.
‘Very skilled,’ I said.
Aki gestured for us to follow her around to the other side of the jar. I followed her and then stopped.
‘Holy shit,’ Haruka said softly.
There was an inscription the height of my hand on the outside of the jar, cut deep into the clay, in modern dragon script: The message inside is for Jian and Haruka, nobody else is to open it. – Miko.
Haruka reached for me without looking away from the jar and I fell into him. We clutched each other, the tears running down our faces. I shook with a sob, and looked in my pockets for my tissues, handing him some as well.
‘Don’t break down yet!’ Aki said, concerned. ‘We still have to open the message. Pull yourselves together, and come with me.’
Haruka gave me a squeeze and I nodded. We followed Aki to a transportable building at ground level next to the site.
The Empress was waiting inside and Haruka and I both stopped to glare at her.
‘This is none of your business, Silver,’ I said.
‘She was . . . is my daughter, Captain,’ the Empress said.
‘Not your Captain.’
‘. . . and I love her. I want to see this as well.’ She gestured towards the lab benches, covered with tools and pieces of pottery, at the end of the room. ‘I respect your priority here and will stay back – but I desperately want to know how a message from my beloved daughter ended up in a three-thousand-yearold jar.’
Aki guided us past the Empress to the lab benches. She pulled a bin towards her, took a soulstone out and passed it to me. ‘This was in the jar with the message. As the Empress said, it’s nearly three thousand years old.’
‘It’s definitely Miko’s,’ Marque said, and I almost dropped it.
‘So she was on Earth three thousand years ago?’ I asked the Empress. ‘Serving a coloured who was introducing humanity to things like tea? Why didn’t you tell me she was more than a thousand years old, I would have looked further for her! I need to go—’
‘No,’ Marque said. ‘According to the information stored in the lattice, I fabricated this stone thirty years ago.’
‘Three thousand or thirty?’ Haruka asked.
‘Definitely thirty years ago. That’s the time stamp on it.’
‘She went back in time?’ Haruka asked, holding his hand out to take the stone. He glanced sharply at the Empress. ‘You dragons can travel through time?’
‘We don’t do it,’ she said.
‘That’s not a “no”, Silver,’ I said.
‘Regardless of whether we are capable, we don’t do it,’ she repeated.
‘The message is here as well,’ Aki said. ‘It’s on a bound bundle of bamboo strips – be careful, it’s fragile and handling it roughly could destroy it. It’s sealed with dried clay and as the message says – you two are the only ones who can open it.’
‘Was her body in the jar as well as the stone and the message?’ Haruka asked. ‘Tell us. Did she die in the past?’
‘No,’ Aki said. ‘Just the stone and the message.’ She held the bundle of bamboo slats out to us, and Haruka took it. ‘Open it.’
‘Protect it, Marque,’ Haruka said, breaking the seal of greyish clay holding the roll closed. The clay crumbled quickly into dust.
‘I have it,’ Marque said.
Haruka unrolled the slats and shifted so that I could see it as well. The message was a single simple line of text burnt into the bamboo and faded almost into illegibility by age.
My mother must free the Nameless.
Both of us looked up at the Empress.
‘Free the Nameless?’ I asked her.
‘What does it say?’ she asked, coming closer to see.
‘It says you must free the Nameless,’ Haruka said, handing the scroll to her.
She looked at it and her eyes widened. She checked the back of the scroll, then the front again. ‘Why didn’t Miko provide more information so we could find her? Like where she’s located, or when, or anything? This doesn’t make sense.’
‘I just searched my index for “the Nameless” and alarms are going off all through my memory,’ Marque said. ‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s seriously important. Accessing.’
‘What is the Nameless?’ I asked the Empress.
‘I have no idea,’ the Empress said. She saw my face. ‘I’m telling the truth. All I know is that it is in secure storage somewhere, and it must never, under any circumstances, be freed. That’s the totality of the information . . .’ She switched to private comms. ‘Passed down from silver to silver.’ She gestured towards the ceiling and switched to out loud. ‘Marque knows more about it.’
‘That knowledge is in offline storage. Accessing.’
‘That’s all I have for you, there was nothing else,’ Aki said. ‘We’ve opened all the jars and every other one had a standard burial in it. The most interesting thing is that they were all women, all wearing court garb, and all over the age of fifty. One of them even had a Chinese iron sword.’ She quirked a small smile. ‘It looks like your Miko was the shaman Empress Himiko after all. I know we joked about it, but the idea that a dragon was the Empress of Japan all that time ago is . . .’ She searched for the word.
‘Hilarious,’ Hana said dryly.
‘I need to access offline storage,’ Marque said.
‘You said that could take years,’ I said.
‘If Miko time-travelled – and we follow her – when we leave is immaterial,’ Haruka said. ‘Regardless of when we leave, we will arrive at the right time.’
‘. . . And if we can time-travel back – we can return here and . . .’ I took a deep, gasping breath. ‘Have our Miko back.’
‘If she can’t return, I will stay with her in the past,’ Haruka said.
‘Me too.’
We shared our joint feeling of determination.
‘We will find her,’ Haruka said. ‘Can I have my soulstone back, Jian?’
‘Sure. I’d like mine as well, please.’
‘Yes!’ Annie said under her breath.
‘You’re okay with this, Annie?’
‘Are you kidding?’ she asked. ‘To have you back to what you were? Both of you wanting to live again?’ She paddled her hands with excitement. ‘Go! Find your dragonspouse.’
‘We need to check the records for the Nameless,’ I said, now really enthused. ‘Marque needs to search its offline storage.’
‘How about we ask the goldenscales themselves?’ he asked, equally excited.
‘I’ll look through the records of my predecessors,’ the Empress said on private comms.
‘You should tell the archaeologists that you’re just the most recent silver and there have been others,’ I replied on comms.
‘Not unless the need is dire. The constant, reliable existence of the Dragon Empress adds to the mythical power of the Empire and its appearance of eternal stability.’