The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 by K. S. Villoso

  Excerpt from The Jasmine Throne copyright © 2021 by Natasha Suri

  Cover design by Lauren Panepinto

  Cover illustration by Simon Goinard

  Cover copyright © 2021 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Map by Tim Paul

  Author photograph by Mikhail Villoso

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Orbit

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10104

  orbitbooks.net

  First Edition: May 2021

  Simultaneously published in Great Britain by Orbit

  Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

  The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Villoso, K. S., 1986– author.

  Title: The dragon of Jin-Sayeng / K.S. Villoso.

  Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Orbit, 2021. | Series: Chronicles of the Wolf Queen ; book 3

  Identifiers: LCCN 2020034293 | ISBN 9780316532723 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780316532747 (ebook)

  Subjects: GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.

  Classification: LCC PR9199.4.V555 D73 2021 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034293

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-53272-3 (trade paperback), 978-0-316-53273-0 (ebook)

  E3-20210408-JV-PC-COR

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map

  The Story So Far…

  Act One: The Approach Chapter One: Where the Ashes Lie

  Chapter Two: Old Wounds

  Chapter Three: The Witch and the Wolf

  Chapter Four: Blood Will Tell

  Chapter Five: The Trial

  Chapter Six: Hard Truths

  Chapter Seven: A Queen’s Gamble

  Chapter Eight: The Baraji Civet

  Chapter Nine: Old Games

  Chapter Ten: Wilted Roses

  Chapter Eleven: The Court of the Mad Prince

  Chapter Twelve: The Caged Wolf

  Chapter Thirteen: The Baraji Exchange

  Chapter Fourteen: The Ruse Reversal

  Act Two: The Play Chapter One: The Wilds of Oren-Yaro

  Chapter Two: The Acolyte

  Chapter Three: The Sword

  Chapter Four: The Echoes of Burbatan

  Chapter Five: Turning the Pages

  Chapter Six: The Key

  Chapter Seven: The Gathering Clouds

  Chapter Eight: The Sougen Deliberation

  Chapter Nine: The River Caverns

  Chapter Ten: The War Camp

  Chapter Eleven: The End of the Road

  Chapter Twelve: The Dance of the Living

  Chapter Thirteen: The Usurper’s Domain

  Chapter Fourteen: Blood of the Brother

  Chapter Fifteen: The Dragonriders of Jin-Sayeng

  Chapter Sixteen: The Mirror

  Chapter Seventeen: The Siege

  Chapter Eighteen: What Cannot Be Killed

  Act Three: The Rope and the Breakdown Chapter One: The Mad Prince’s Court, Reprised

  Chapter Two: The Courtship

  Chapter Three: Prenuptials

  Chapter Four: The Wedding

  Chapter Five: The Sacrifice

  Chapter Six: Beyond the Setting Sun

  Chapter Seven: The Noose

  Chapter Eight: The Confidence Man

  Chapter Nine: The Siege, Reprised

  Chapter Ten: The Victory Feast

  Chapter Eleven: The Reckoning

  Chapter Twelve: The Chronicles of the Bitch Queen

  Interlude: The Send and the Touch

  Act Four: The Blow-Off Chapter One: The Yu-Yan Ruse

  Chapter Two: The Memory Chain

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Discover More

  Extras Meet the Author

  A Preview of The Jasmine Throne

  Also by K. S. Villoso

  Praise for K. S. Villoso and the Chronicles of the Wolf Queen

  To Mikhail

  Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.

  Tap here to learn more.

  THE STORY SO FAR…

  The chosen lie on a bed of nails.

  Trapped across the sea, a long way from home, the queen of Jin-Sayeng finds herself not-quite a prisoner of the slumlord Han Lo Bahn. Everyone is wrestling with the aftermath of the ill-fated visit to the Anzhao government office, which ended in the deaths of both the Anzhao governor Zheshan and the emperor’s Fifth Son, Prince Yuebek.

  Or so Talyien is convinced. In the political upheaval that follows, she is captured by the acting governor, Qun, who seems to want to find Talyien’s husband, Rayyel, as much as she does. Qun is an ambitious, opportunistic rat, but she senses other forces at work. She is broken out of prison by a woman claiming to be from the Shadows, a group of assassins once employed by the Ikessars. Now led by a rich merchant, Dai alon gar Kaggawa, they have come to bring Queen Talyien home.

  Talyien distrusts them, knowing this aid will come with a hefty price. She refuses. Ditching her guards Nor and Agos, she heads on to her husband’s last known location with only the con artist Khine Lamang at her side. Their journey is fraught not just with danger, but also with Talyien’s feelings of dread over meeting her husband yet again. She is reminded all too often that she would rather be free than chasing after the very shackles that had imprisoned her all her life. Yet to turn her back on her duties would be to turn her back on her son, whose life is at increasing risk the longer she stays away.

  They venture to the Ruby Grove, an area known for its vast quantities of featherstone, a volatile substance that enhances magic spells and is used to strengthen spell runes on structures, even when the raw material is deadly to those who live among it. Talyien meets up with Nor and Agos again, and is gravely injured during an encounter with white dragons when she falls into a patch of the toxic featherstone. She wakes up in a crumbling village in Phurywa, where she is nurtured back to health by Khine and his mother, Mei. Here, she learns that the elders have been freely giving blood to the local priests under the guise of helping find a cure for the ailments that plague them from living in the area. Talyien’s husband has been seeking these same priests. He and Talyien agree on an uneasy truce after he reveals that his desire to kill their son if he’s a bastard stems from fear of what his mother will do to the boy if she finds out. Because he is a bastard himself, it positions the boy even further as a proper successor. The meeting leaves Tali feeling more hollow and raw than ever before.

  The
y travel to the temple up the mountain to meet with the priests, only to realize they’ve walked into a trap orchestrated by none other than Prince Yuebek, who is very much alive despite looking less so. Held together by magic, he reiterates his offer of marriage to Queen Talyien while pointing out that her father would have never wanted a bastard to be her husband.

  They are attacked by walking effigies and mages. The effigies, for some reason, all fall to the ground, and Tali and her companions barely escape the temple with their lives. Rai is gravely injured. Tali learns from Agos that the Shadows have extended the same offer to him back in Anzhao and that he has led Lahei to her. The agent reiterates her offer.

  While Talyien processes the events, she finds out the reason why the effigies stopped working—the elders, whose blood had provided a connection that gave the effigies life, all committed suicide, sacrificing their lives to free themselves from the taint of blood magic.

  In the wake of Khine’s devastation over his mother’s death, Tali agrees to accept the Shadows’ assistance. They scheme their way out of the embargo from the city of An Mozhi. The Shadows take Tali straight to the Kag, instead of Jin-Sayeng, where she meets Dai Kaggawa himself.

  Dai’s term is simple—her son’s hand in marriage to his daughter. Tali wants to refuse, but Dai won’t give her that opportunity yet, and instead takes her straight into the Sougen that she might see Jin-Sayeng’s troubles with her own eyes: The people are turning into foul, bloodthirsty monsters. The same phenomenon that occurs in the dragons in the area is now affecting the locals, and if an answer isn’t found soon, Jin-Sayeng will be overrun. But the threat of civil war prevents Dai from doing anything. The region’s warlord and his sons seem adamant in embracing the mad dragons, consequences be damned—instead of finding a cure, they want to tame the beasts instead.

  Talyien visits the Anyus in their city of Yu-yan, and is attacked by a mad dragon. During the fight, Eikaro Anyu is taken, and she chases after him into the mountains. She manages to find him, alive but gravely injured. With no choice left for survival, Eikaro Anyu decides to trade places with the mad dragon, allowing its corrupted soul to go into his body while his own rides the dragon instead. His body falls from the sky and dies; Eikaro lives on as a dragon.

  The tensions in the region escalate as Dai Kaggawa blames the Anyus for his daughter, who was injured in the dragon fight. A proclamation from the east declares Talyien Orenar’s claim on the throne as void until she can clear her name and prove she hasn’t planted a false heir. When Talyien explains to the Anyus that she thinks it is a foil created by the Zarojo prince, they decide to retaliate against the Kaggawas.

  The timing of a civil war, right at the mention of the Zarojos’ arrival, strikes Talyien as odd. But Huan, Eikaro’s brother, claims he knows nothing. She returns to save her companions from Kaggawa’s growing fury; during the process, her cousin and Captain of the Guard, Nor, defects, claiming that Talyien’s mismanagement of her affairs has jeopardized the nation and her own daughter’s life. Dai Kaggawa reveals his secret: that he is two souls in one man. One is the son of a merchant, the other the son of a would-be king—despite his words assuring Talyien otherwise, his lust for power is suddenly evident. Tali wants nothing to do with it.

  Down to three companions, Talyien escapes Kaggawa’s clutches, only to land in Qun’s. She is taken to Kyo-orashi, where the warlord San sends her to battle a dragon in his arena to prove her might to the people. He is working with Qun, who still wants her to be queen—Yuebek still needs to claim his prize. Tali fights the dragon and realizes it is Eikaro, who seems to have grown mad and no longer responds to her voice. Before she is fatally injured, Khine arrives, provoking the dragon as part of Warlord San’s show—if he sacrifices his life for the queen, the people will see her as truly worthy.

  Tali manages to set the dragon free before he kills anyone; she faces the crowd in defiance, killing a smaller, weaker dragon from the dungeons to end Warlord San’s show. Qun’s plans to use the Zarojo soldiers to save her in front of the crowd is foiled, and he leaves in a huff.

  Khine almost dies from his injuries. Furious over his antics and fearful over what else he might do to protect her, she decides to set him, and his feelings, free by sleeping with Agos.

  Her actions, once enough to drive Rayyel away, don’t work on Khine. He insists on following her anyway. They journey to Oren-yaro, hampered by Qun’s attacks that are meant to slow them down so he can arrive in Oren-yaro first, where he claims he will kill Talyien’s son if she doesn’t submit to his prince. They are also attacked by assassins.

  During their escape, Tali—in a moment of weakness—admits to Khine she thinks she is growing mad. Her vision from Yuebek’s dungeons felt all too real, and her own exhaustion is pulling her from both ends. They share a kiss, one that is over quickly. Khine takes off with an assassin after him; Tali takes care of the rest. She reunites with her husband, Rai, once more, and finds out that Kaggawa must have sent the assassins. At the same time, they sort out their feelings over their marriage and Tali’s son, whom Rai is still not sure is his. It is revealed that he was crushed by the revelation that he might not be his simply because he loved the boy.

  They reach Oren-yaro and reunite with Khine, who finds a way to Tali’s castle from the tunnels underneath Old Oren-yaro, where her brothers had died after dealing with the last Dragonlord’s mad dragon. While dealing with the last assassin, she has visions of what happened to her brothers, and finds the truth lying at the bottom of a staircase: Her father was, indeed, responsible for bringing the dragon to Oren-yaro. His hands are drenched with the blood of his own sons.

  Her son is missing when she arrives in the castle. She encounters Qun, who claims to know where he is if she would just follow him. This is revealed to be a plan to get Tali to sacrifice herself. Qun wants her to jump and break her body, so Yuebek could stitch it back together and she would stop running away and become dependent on him. Not knowing what else to do to save her son, and echoing Mei Lamang’s sacrifice, she jumps.

  But a woman like her doesn’t break easily; she catches Qun off guard when he jumps down to check on her, and kills him with a rock. She returns to Rai, and they find their son in the great hall. Before they can have a proper reunion, the Shadows arrive, and Tali learns that Agos was working with them and had let them into the castle. He says he had worked out a deal with Kaggawa where he would spare Tali’s life. The only price he wants now is Rayyel.

  Agos and Rai fight in the throne room. Tali knows that Agos can kill Rai, who isn’t a fighter, but he refuses to listen to her order to stop. Just before Agos can deal Rai a fatal blow, the Ikessars arrive and shoot him with arrows. Agos falls to the ground and dies.

  The story ends with Tali being taken as prisoner in her own castle, awaiting a trial while the fires of civil war begin. With no one to save Jin-Sayeng, the whole nation hovers at the precipice of destruction…

  ACT ONE

  THE APPROACH

  CHAPTER ONE

  WHERE THE ASHES LIE

  Courage is overrated, or so cowards like me say.

  Courage implies choice.

  Magister Arro used to lecture me about the nature of things: how a tree must remain a tree, for instance—straight and stalwart, branches spreading to the sky, roots reaching down below. Build a fence around a sapling and the tree will break it as it grows—swallow it, even, wire and wood sinking into the trunk like it was quicksand. “And so,” my father said once, interrupting such a lecture with a sweep of his arm, “a wolf must remain a wolf, no matter what. Never forget this, Talyien.”

  Presumptuous, pious, arrogant Oren-yaro. No wonder we were hated and feared. Hated more than feared, if you learned to read between the empty smiles and polite gestures. I once took pride in the fear I wielded, cloaking myself in my father’s rhetoric like a child wrapping herself in a blanket to ward away the cold. But if I remained a wolf, I was now a lone wolf, one yearning to break free as hunters tore after her with spea
rs and arrows. No pack to be part of, no cave to hide in, no moon to howl at… it wasn’t courage that kept me running. They had branded my son a fugitive, and a trial was hanging over my head like an executioner’s axe; to stop would be to entertain a fate worse than death.

  It made me wonder what my father thought of me, holding me as an infant. Did he see a girl-child, no more than a babe that carried his eyes and his smile? Did he count my small, delicate fingers one by one, or stroke my hair with his thumb while a part of him swore to change his ways? The servants used to say that the old man doted on me. Without a mother in the picture, I was irrevocably Yeshin’s, and they said he guarded me with the same ferocity he murdered his enemies with. He didn’t like the nursemaids leaving me alone in my crib—I was a bad sleeper, and he insisted they carry me in a sling at all times. And if I woke up in the middle of the night, he would tear down from his quarters to snatch me from my wet nurse’s arms and sing me back to sleep himself.

  Tall tales, people say. This could not be the same Warlord Yeshin of the War of the Wolves, the same man who once drove his horse into an unguarded Ikessar hamlet, fifty men behind him, and cleared the way to the village square with his spear. By the time he was done, his horse was red from the neck down. But I could believe it. I could remember his smooth voice, the way his chest rumbled as he pulled my blankets up to my chin and sang me to sleep. On summer nights, he would use a paper fan to chase the warm breeze away, long and furious enough that his arm must’ve stung from the effort. I was his, and nothing in the world could change that. I never doubted what he would do to protect me.

  A girl’s naivety. Even before I learned of my father’s dealings with Yuebek, a part of me always knew that the truth could be as complex as a shaft of light through a cut gem. Turn it, view it from another angle, and it shifts. Sometimes it is telling, a burst of clarity on a dark streak, brightness to chase away shadows.