Page 1 of The Wind Dancer
CHAPTER 1
Ordinary people who didn’t know anything about Shadow Walkers thought they loved the dead of night for their exploits. My mentor, Feng Shen, would’ve chuckled at such naivety. He taught me long ago that the best time for our work was right before dawn.
Imperial soldiers called this time the hour of the wolf, when even the most experienced men would fall asleep despite their best efforts. The darkest hour struck fear into the hearts of even the bravest, because all manner of things could be lurking in the dark: a changeling, a ghost, or even a demon. To me, these were just stories for kids and fools. I knew that what really should’ve scared them was other humans.
It had been a week since my mentor’s ashes were scattered over the calm waters of the harbor. He had always wanted to be put at rest like this, so that no corpse collector or deranged cultist could get his body. It drove me up a wall that I didn’t know how it had happened because I was away for the past few months. He was cremated before I could even take a look at his body. But I didn’t have the time for grieving now, I had a job to do.
Without the patronage of a mentor, I had very few options. I had to either leave the Shadow Walker’s guild and do something else, have another master Shadow take me under his wing, or become a master myself. I chose the last option without hesitation, and the elders didn’t like it, as they had already forgotten the fine art of breaking and entering.
I was given a week to break into the home of a high-ranking noble, a descendant of the great dragons, and steal the contents of his most guarded safe. My mentor always said that you had to either be a fool or an extremely skilled thief to even consider robbing a dragonblood. I hoped I hadn’t overestimated my skills.
Cloud City was a deadly place where fools didn’t last long. But for those who knew how to navigate it, it was an infinite source of wealth and fame. It seemed that now was the perfect time for me to make a name for myself here.
The walls of the Middle City weren’t an obstacle for a semi-decent Shadow, but getting to the Upper City required far more effort, especially if you wanted to avoid the automaton guards, who had no problem immediately disposing of Lower City trash. But those at my level found ways in that even the wind would miss.
I chose a clocktower in the Upper Town as my temporary base. It provided a great view of the estate that I was about to break into. With the help of a spyglass, I tracked their patrol routes, studied the shift changes, and looked for weaknesses in the estate defenses. Far below me, the ebb and flow of life in the city continued — servants went to the shops day in and day out, and in the evenings, the sounds of celebrations and merriment echoed from one estate or another.
Feng Shen had always told me, and I remembered his lessons well. Of course, I’d remember the words of the man who raised me. He was smart, sarcastic, and very dangerous. Even the head of the guild tried not to get on his bad side. My old man had quite the reputation.
I remained in the tower for a couple of days, hidden from view. It wasn’t easy to get into the Upper City, but it was much harder to leave unnoticed. Any attempt to go back and forth was a huge risk, so it was best to stay put, stay hidden, and wait for the right moment. After all, my future was on the line.
Cloud City didn’t forgive even a moment of carelessness. This evening as I was returning to my temporary base, on my last sweep of the area before starting, things went wrong. There was the sound of heavy, confident footsteps in a nearby street. A patrol Claw. I took a sharp turn into an alley and hid in the shadows, but it was too late. I could hear voices getting closer.
“I swear I heard something. Check behind those boxes!” Naturally, I had to run across a patrol Claw. Just one of these Upper City guards could take down an entire patrol from the Lower City... and there were ten of them. Damn elites and their high security.
Cursing through gritted teeth, I darted up, grabbing onto a ledge. Some of the plaster crumbled down; I’d be in trouble if they noticed it. One guard stepped forward, raising his lantern...
With a light click, spikes came out of the sole of my boot, giving me the necessary foothold. Pushing off, I launched myself to the neighboring house aiming at its roof edge. The air whistled in my ears as I moved, my heart stopped for a moment, and then I landed, softly rolling across the roof. Curses rang out from below, but I was already gliding over the tiles, clingingto the edges of the roof. Though I had escaped, luck wasn’t on my side today. Now that the guards knew that someone was prowling the roofs of the Upper City, they wouldn’t rest till they found me, which meant I’d have to rush things. I headed back to the tower.
I whispered a prayer to the Great Dragons as I prepared the Heavenly Wing. I was taught that those who didn’t master magic and instead relied on enchanted objects and artifacts to get into a dragonblood’s house were as good as dead. Everyone who managed to rise above being an ordinary person felt the magic around them. So you either used magic at such a high-skilled level that you were undetectable, or you used none at all. Which left me with no choice but to use simple non magical tools.
And only fools like me used Heavenly Wings. There were very few people who were willing to leave themselves at the mercy of Heaven as they clung onto a couple bamboo sticks with silk stretched over them. Both the silk and my clothes were dark gray, allowing me to disappear in the night sky.
The last part of the Wing snapped into place and I now had to do a running start. I jumped, pushing off the roof, arms wide open. The Heavenly Wing opened behind my back.
The airstream caught and lifted me up, and for a moment I felt like I was a part of the sky. Everything seemed to become still, leaving only silence, interrupted by the rustle of silk and my heartbeats. My soul filled with boundless exhilaration. I was flying!
***
Another thing Cloud City didn’t forgive was overconfidence.
A sharp gust of wind suddenly came in from behind the buildings and hit me in the side. I was flung by it, the wings shook, and the fabric stretched taut, catching the air. I barely managed to grab onto the support straps and take back control when I ran into a new threat — a patrol passing below me suddenly stopped.
“Did you hear something?” one of them alerted the rest. Why were the damn guards so competent here?
I jerked the left strap, making the Wing tilt, and I suddenly plummeted. For a moment, the city turned upside down — my stomach did a flip and my dinner attempted to escape, but I managed to hold it down.
The risky maneuver paid off, as at the last moment I turned sharply, flying dangerously close to the pointed roof of a tea house. The tiles tore through my sleeve, but simply glided against my steel bracer. It broke my concentration for a moment, and then I pushed off the building soaring back up into the night sky.
My heart was pounding like a war drum, but I couldn’t afford to dwell on it, so I took slow deep breaths. I had to focus, if I was panicking the mistakes I’d make at this height and speed would be fatal.
With one more sharp turn I was right above my target. I went in with a nosedive, folding the Wing mid flight. My feet touched the tiles, I rolled to slow down, and froze, listening to my surroundings.
I stood on the highest point of the estate, a light breeze ruffled my hair, but it didn’t ease me. Something was wrong, Icould feel it in my guts, my intuition was screaming at me that I should leave.
There were always some sounds at an estate, even past sleeping hours. A whining dog, a night servant sweeping the garden paths. But there was absolute silence, as though someone had pulled a thick blanket over the entire estate.
I strained to hear even a hint of life. Nothing. Even the nighttime cicadas, which usually filled the air with their chirping, were utterly silent.
