The Moon Temple Read online

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  II.

  Come dawn, those older and wiser rumbled among themselves in dismay when Elsu announced he would fetch for Kai the diamond eyes of the dragon in the moon temple of Angor Drava. He swore that not even the demons down under the sea or in the fiery heart of the earth could stop him. A few brave men tried, including Elsu’s two uncles, who at last gave up and cursed him as stubborn and willful, disavowing his actions. Elsu proved immune to all reason. In his mind, there was a perfect symmetry between the theft of the eyes of the icon and his dragon name. He thought it inevitable the task should be his and he rejected all advice or caution, earning everyone’s stinging pronouncement of him as a fool, causing his determination to harden as if to prove the critics wrong.

  He knew the stories. Everyone did. There was not a parent alive who did not threaten misbehaving children with its name. Angor Drava was once a kingdom by the sea that, because of an angry volcano, became a kingdom in the sea, buried under moving tides. Shunned as doomed and unlucky, no one went there. Those who dove for its treasures seldom returned – and those who did told wild stories. None of that mattered. The single thought, lodged deep in his mind, crystallized as the belief only the prize from the great moon temple could win Kai.

  Despite the unyielding nature of his desire, unease worried Elsu. Unaccustomed to the emotion, he sought out Bane. He found his friend nursing a hangover. Distracted by his own worries, Elsu did not stop to wonder why Bane, who never took alcohol in excess, had a hangover. He sat down beside Bane and stated, “I’ve been stupid.”

  Bane winced, his head still thick as cotton and his stomach queasy. “Really? I can’t imagine it.”

  Elsu explained what happened, overlooking Bane’s sarcasm. “Why couldn’t the girl speak in plain language?” he complained, punctuating his sentences with broad, slicing motions as if attempting to cut the air. “When she said those lines, I panicked. My mind went blank.” Bane craned his neck to look at Elsu, though his head ached from the movement. Elsu sighed. “I couldn’t think of anything. Then it just popped into my head. It seemed so perfect...how was I to know it was – what did that priestess call it? – a metaphor.”

  Bane grunted in exasperation. “That’s the point. Haikus are poetry. You had to use your imagination and be romantic.” Bane rubbed his forehead, trying to erase the dull burning, wryly thinking someone should have foreseen this mess: Elsu always had a lead ear for poetry. “So what will you do? I’m sure if you go to Kai...”

  “I won’t go back on my word. Everyone would think ill of me and call me a coward. I can hear in the voices of all the men telling me I should give it up. They wish to laugh at me behind my back.”

  “You’re making too much of this. I don’t think...”

  “I have to make good on my promise or else I am worth nothing!”

  “Angor Drava is a very dangerous...”

  “Nothing more than overblown tales,” said Elsu, sounding as if he tried to convince himself of it, “Things told to frighten children. No, I won’t be scared and I won’t have anyone say I behaved like a child. I will do exactly as I promised.”

  The harshness made Bane start. “Lord Elsu...” Bane cut off his words, recognizing Elsu’s expression and the way he gazed into the distance, no longer listening, his eyes set on a horizon no other could see. Once fixed on something, Elsu almost never changed his mind. The more others resisted or opposed him, the more he dug in his heels and refused to yield. That stubbornness was the reason his parents sent him on the voyage across the world, hoping experience would temper his impulsive mulishness. Bane wondered if Elsu failed to grasp he had already won Kai. As he listened to Elsu, dazed by the bright morning sun, Bane wondered if his friend knew the meaning of fear.

  Unable to wait, Elsu sought a navigator. The shoals and reefs around Angor Drava were legendary: a maze of shifting sand fragmented by coral and rocks made the area a challenge for even the most experienced sailors. No one dared guide them for any price. For several days, Kai hoped Elsu would change his mind. It tore Bane apart to see her smile converted into a frown that deepened by the hour into sadness. A vague fear or premonition plagued her thoughts and Bane, sensitive to the slightest thing she said or did, felt it gather strength inside of her as each day passed and Elsu grew more short-tempered.

  It took a week for Elsu to find a guide and a ship.