Page 76 of Dragon 7

You do?

It is older than you.

What is it?

Goryū.

The name rose within my chest, swirling around my Tiger’s rage.

“I've heard that name before." I turned a bend at high speed. The cart leaned. The tires screamed against a root. "But I don’t know where I’ve heard the name."

I whispered it to you in your dreams. . .many times.

The trees rushed past on both sides. Black trunks strobed through the headlights, close enough to shatter the cart if I drifted a foot in either direction.

Branches clawed at my arms. The smell of the forest floor came up thick and wet—crushed leaves, turned soil, pine resin—all of it laced with gun smoke drifting in from the west, south, and north.

Goddamn it. I wish I had more time.

The ground shook.

An explosion sounded somewhere on the far side of the island and sent its force up through the earth.

Into the tires.

Into my hands on the wheel.

Into my back teeth.

The trees trembled. A branch cracked in the dark, fell through the canopy, and hit the ground.

What happened?

I’d just been voicing that to myself, but to my surprise, Goryū answered. One of the planes fired at the antiaircraft gun.

No.

Yes. The gun is gone now.

Another boom followed. Then another, walking across the island in a line. Then the sound of more planes.

The few antiaircraft guns remaining answered. Their shells were long flat tearing roars. One after another.

I pressed the accelerator to the floor. How do I use you in this war?

Goryū's great head swung forward as he soared. I don't know.

Why not?

You have never been in control of me before.

Yes, but you know what you can do.

I know many things.

I pursed my lips. What you did to the trees back there. We can do that to the men?

We can. They will weaken, but they will not crack like the trees.