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The Dragon Republic
R.F. Kuang
The searing follow-up to 2018’s most celebrated fantasy debut – THE POPPY WAR.In the aftermath of the Third Poppy War, shaman and warrior Rin is on the run: haunted by the atrocity she committed to end the war, addicted to opium, and hiding from the murderous commands of her vengeful god, the fiery Phoenix. Her only reason for living is to get revenge on the traitorous Empress who sold out Nikan to their enemies.With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance…The sequel to R.F. Kuang’s acclaimed debut THE POPPY WAR, THE DRAGON REPUBLIC combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating effect.
THE DRAGON REPUBLIC
R. F. Kuang
Copyright (#u9d03339c-b976-5374-aa01-1664d7c07d1d)
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Rebecca Kuang 2019
Maps by Eric Gunther, copyright © Springer Cartographics 2017, 2019
Cover illustration © JungShan
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
R.F. Kuang asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008239855
Ebook Edition © July 2019 ISBN: 9780008239879
Version: 2019-07-11
Dedication (#u9d03339c-b976-5374-aa01-1664d7c07d1d)
To
Contents
Cover (#u3d97691c-1b55-5702-bc0b-541356c89ca7)
Title Page (#u28e028fe-1b8c-553f-b68b-f8b00aa75732)
Copyright
Dedication
Maps
Arlong, Eight Years Prior
Part I
Chapter 1 (#u3ce53616-c3b9-5e8e-99cf-6a72b5723e53)
Chapter 2 (#uc6cbb9e8-aac1-5f89-a464-c4d3c063dfc6)
Chapter 3 (#u93915fd8-dc28-5d97-bcd1-ed6194fd78f9)
Chapter 4 (#u94bdaf6d-6626-5c36-9f8d-cb4376756e3d)
Chapter 5 (#u0e106e93-42e9-5bc9-b357-77596349914e)
Chapter 6 (#u2f6f7b2e-ee34-5d85-a8d2-cd2e0a25adc0)
Chapter 7 (#ucba39a37-d1c9-5723-a48d-5c39a2f07194)
Chapter 8 (#u335709b7-7afe-5118-93a2-0074e4a84062)
Chapter 9 (#u5ffa1d5c-91b2-5578-add6-b408117f45c1)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Part II
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Part III
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Dramatis Personae
Acknowledgments
Also by R. F. Kuang
About the Publisher
Maps (#u9d03339c-b976-5374-aa01-1664d7c07d1d)
ARLONG, EIGHT YEARS PRIOR (#u9d03339c-b976-5374-aa01-1664d7c07d1d)
“Come on,” Mingzha begged. “Please, I want to see.”
Nezha seized his brother by his chubby wrist and pulled him back from the shallows. “We’re not allowed to go past the lily pads.”
“But don’t you want to know?” Mingzha whined.
Nezha hesitated. He, too, wanted to see what lay in the caves around the bend. The grottoes of the Nine Curves River had been mysteries to the Yin children since they were born. They’d grown up with warnings of dark, dormant evils concealed behind the cave mouths; of monsters that lurked inside, eager for foolish children to stumble into their jaws.
That alone would have been enough to entice the Yin children, all of whom were adventurous to a fault. But they’d heard rumors of great treasures, too; of underwater piles of pearls, jade, and gold. Nezha’s Classics tutor had once told him that every piece of jewelry lost in the water inevitably wound up in those river grottoes. And sometimes, on a clear day, Nezha thought he could see the glimmer of sunlight on sparkling metal in the cave mouths from the window of his room.
He’d desperately wanted to explore those caves for years—and today would be the day to do it, when everyone was too busy to pay attention. But it was his responsibility to protect Mingzha. He’d never been trusted to watch his brother alone before; until today he’d always been too young. But this week Father was in the capital, Jinzha was at the Academy, Muzha was abroad at the Gray Towers in Hesperia, and the rest of the palace was so frazzled over Mother’s sudden illness that the servants had hastily passed Mingzha into Nezha’s arms and told them both to keep out of trouble. Nezha wanted to prove he was up to the task.
“Mingzha!”
His brother had wandered back into the shallows. Nezha cursed and dashed into the water behind him. How could a six-year-old move so quickly?
“Come on,” Mingzha pleaded when Nezha grabbed him by the waist.
“We can’t,” Nezha said. “We’ll get in trouble.”
“Mother’s been in bed all week. She won’t find out.” Mingzha twisted around in Nezha’s grip and shot him an impish smile. “I won’t tell. The servants won’t tell. Will you?”
“You’re a little demon,” Nezha said.
“I just want to see the entrance.” Mingzha beamed hopefully at him. “We don’t have to go in. Please?”
Nezha relented. “We’ll just go around the bend. We can look at the cave mouths from a distance. And then we’re turning back, do you understand?”
Mingzha shouted with delight and splashed into the water. Nezha followed, stooping down to grab his brother’s hand.
No one had ever been able to deny Mingzha anything. Who could? He was so fat and happy, a bouncing ball of giggles and delight, the absolute treasure of the palace. Father adored him. Jinzha and Muzha played with him whenever he wanted, and they never told him to get lost the way Jinzha had done so often to Nezha.
Mother doted on him most of all—perhaps because her other sons were destined to be soldiers, but she could keep Mingzha all to herself. She dressed him in finely embroidered silks and adorned him with so many lucky amulets of gold and jade that Mingzha clinked everywhere he walked, weighed down with the burden of good fortune. The palace servants liked to joke that they could always hear Mingzha before they saw him. Nezha wanted to make Mingzha stop to remove his jewelry now, worried it might drag him down under waves that already came up to his chest, but Mingzha charged forward like he was weightless.
“We’re stopping here,” Nezha said.
They’d gotten closer to the grottoes than they had ever been in their lives. The cave mouths were so dark inside that Nezha couldn’t see more than two feet past the entrances, but their walls looked beautifully smooth, glimmering with a million different colors like fish scales.
“Look.” Mingzha pointed at something in the water. “It’s Father’s cloak.”
Nezha frowned. “What’s Father’s cloak doing at the bottom of the river?”
Yet the heavy garment lying half-buried in the sand was undeniably Yin Vaisra’s. Nezha could see the crest of the dragon embroidered in silver thread against the rich cerulean-blue dye that only members of the House of Yin were permitted to wear.
Mingzha pointed to the closest grotto. “It came from in there.”
