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Danzi again.
    She pulled one of Danzi’s scales from the pouch around her waist. She missed the old dragon. She’ddiscovered that if she held the moonlit dragon scale before she went to sleep, she would dream of him. In her dreams, he always had some words of guidance, though their meaning wasn’t always clear. But during her stay at Beibai Palace, her dreams of Danzi had ceased. She had held the scale in the light of a full moon and her sleep had been dreamless.
    “Kai, do you still have dreams of Danzi?” she asked.
    The dragon shook his head. “No, Father doesn’t visit Kai in dreams anymore.”
    Ping knew in her heart that the old dragon had died. He had passed a year or so in peace and contentment on the Isle of the Blest, and now his souls had gone to Heaven. Heaven seemed like the proper place for Danzi.
    They stopped for the night by what had once been a river. Now it was not much more than a stream. The soldiers put up the tent, while the driver lit a fire and prepared a three-course meal served in red and black lacquerware bowls. There were two kinds of roasted meat, soup and dried fruit.
    “This is a good way to travel,” Kai said as he ate his third roast pheasant.
    Ping wasn’t so sure. She would have preferred to slip through the landscape unnoticed like a leopard.
    The Princess had given Ping a white nightgown. She felt silly changing into this delicate embroideredgarment out in the wilderness, but she had to admit it was comfortable to sleep in. Kai slept in the tent with her, but where Ping slept under a bearskin, Kai curled up on top of his.
    The next morning, it took more than an hour for the driver to prepare breakfast and even longer for him to pack up the tent. The soldiers didn’t travel inside the carriage. One sat up front with the driver while the other stood on the back. Ping was left to pass the hours listening to Kai chatter on about anything that came into his scaly head. They travelled
li
after
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without Ping using any energy at all.
    Kai didn’t need to be entertained as he had when they’d travelled in a carriage before. He didn’t ask to play games. When he wasn’t speaking, he seemed content to look out of the window. Ping was pleased they were making such good progress. After putting off the journey for such a long time, she was eager to find the dragon haven as soon as possible. At this rate they would reach the area where Long Dao Xi was marked on the map in a week or two. She hadn’t wanted to travel in a carriage, but now she appreciated the speed with which the landscape was slipping past her window.
    During the afternoon, the sun made Ping pleasantly warm. The motion of the carriage was soothing. She was dozing off when Kai jumped to his feet.
    “Stop the carriage!” he shouted.
    The driver couldn’t understand the dragon, butthe sound of crashing copper bowls that he made was so alarming that he stopped anyway. He reined in the horses so suddenly that Ping slipped off her cushion onto the carriage floor.
    “What’s the matter, Kai?” she said. “We’re not due to stop to eat for hours yet. Do you need to pee?”
    Kai pointed a talon into the distance. One of the soldiers opened the carriage door. The dragon leapt out and ran off across the plain.
    “What’s wrong with him, Madam?” said one of the soldiers. “Is he injured?”
    “He’s seen something.” Ping scanned the landscape. “Dragons can see much further than we can.”
    Danzi had told her that dragons could see a mustard seed from 100
li
away. She could see nothing but tussocks of dry grass, but she got down from the carriage and hurried after him. Kai stopped at a particular clump of grass about half a
li
away. It looked the same as all the others.
    “There’d better be a good reason for making us stop,” Ping said. She was out of breath. She’d done a lot of things during her time at Beibai Palace, but none of them involved running. “If I find out it’s just a lizard or a coloured