by J C Kang
White Sheep of the Family
JC Kang
To Fans of Tian. You Made This Happen
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintended.
Copyright © 2019 by JC Kang
http://jckang.dragonstonepress.us
[email protected]
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work or portions thereof in any way whatsoever, as provided by law. For permission, questions, or contact information, see www.jckang.info.
Cover Art by Binh Hai
Maps by Laura Kang
Logos by Emily Jose Burlingame
Maps
Tivaralan
Cathay
The Capital
1. The Floating World
2. The Trench
Chapter 1
Before yesterday, ten-year-old Zheng Tian had always believed Black Fists to be a fairy tale: mythical villains meant to scare children into good behavior. Today, he was an initiate of the Black Lotus Clan. Not kidnapped by their Fists, but saved from an imperial death sentence.
Maybe beheading would’ve been better than the humiliation. Now bruised and panting, he tried to lift his sword. His arms ached at the effort. He couldn’t say he’d never been bested by a girl two years younger and a head shorter—only twenty-seven days had passed since the last instance—but this was the first time an opponent had worn a dress and blindfold, and made such short work of him.
His skinny opponent had him cornered in the small room, and the glare from the window made it hard to see as she darted in and stabbed. His foot slipped on the wood floor, and he couldn’t raise his sword in time to parry. The blow landed with a dull thud on his padded armor. Pain flared in his ribs.
“Point, Yuna.” Jie, the cruel half-elf judging the match, swept a red flag up with her left arm for the seventeenth time. “That’s enough for today.”
“You won.” He hung his head and saluted with a fist in an open palm.
Yuna removed her blindfold and returned the gesture. “Thank you for letting me.”
It was a victor’s typical polite response, which never seemed to lessen the sting. It certainly didn’t now.
“I’ll need to work out the other arm to keep the muscles balanced.” Jie rolled her left shoulder.
Tian frowned. His arms ached, too. After all, the practice sword weighed more than her flag.
“Yuna, you may go.” Jie saluted, fist in palm. She didn’t look much older than either Yuna or him, yet somehow she was in charge of his new world. “Your list for next time is, red, sword, wheel, dagger, green, stab, cloudy, spicy, crossbow, opera, bludgeon, slippery, sun, finger, six, two, zero, nine.”
Was it a shopping list? Tian looked from the half-elf to the girl.
Closing her eyes, Yuna mouthed the words. Then, she bobbed her head in the cutest way, less like the swordswoman who’d thrashed him, more like Princess Kaiya.
Tian’s stomach twisted. Four days. It’d been four days since he’d last seen the love of his life, the girl he’d promised to marry. The girl he’d never see again. Four days since his banishment from the capital.
Once Yuna left the small, sunlit room, Jie turned back to him. There was nothing cute about her, except maybe those pointed ears. Her gaze bore into him. “Zheng Tian, why did you lose?”
Why, indeed? He shouldn’t have, given his opponent’s stance and shorter reach. Maybe if there’d been more space. He stretched his arms out to the side, demonstrating the narrowness of the wood-floored chamber. “There was no room.”
“If you get attacked in an alley, are you going to ask your assailant to take it out into the street?”
He started to respond, but closed his mouth. There was more than just the amount of space. He pointed to the window. “The sun was in my eyes.”
It also cast Jie’s hair in a unique shade of dark brown, unlike any other in a realm of black-haired people. “She was blindfolded.”
That humiliation still stung, but there was more. His shoes’ smooth soles had slipped more than once. “The floor was too slick.”
The cruel half-elf rolled her eyes. “You fought on the same floor.”
“She was barefooted!”
Jie shrugged. “Nobody said you had to wear shoes.”
All the disadvantages, this one self-imposed. Still, despite him preempting Yuna’s possible lines of attack and defense, she always landed a quick, decisive blow. His swordplay, in contrast, might’ve been as sluggish as a water buffalo. “Yuna was holding her weapon in stance six. But then, she used pattern two.”
“And?”
“You are not supposed to mix the two. Every sword master says so.”
“You’re overanalyzing.” Jie threw her hands up—the right higher than the left, proving her muscles were already balanced. “Swordplay isn’t forensic accounting.”
Whatever forensic meant, and what it had to do with counting, had to be better than getting beaten by an eight-year-old, blindfolded girl. He shook his head. “Her moves did not match her stance. It’s not fair.”
“Exactly!” The evil half-elf’s lip quirked. “Had we been using real blades, you’d be dead twenty times over.”
“Seventeen. Fifteen, because two were not fatal blows.”
Jie blew out a frustrated breath.
Tian’s shoulders slumped. There was no denying the truth. “Yuna is better with a sword.”
“I was waiting for that answer.” Jie’s smile looked less kindly, and more like the Lord of the Underworld bargaining for souls.
This had all been a lesson. These new teachers had to break him down before building him back—
“But no. You’re the son of a hereditary lord. You’ve learned from great sword masters, and your technique is superior for your age. You have a longer reach and a size advantage. You might even be better than me.” She chuckled. “Well, maybe not…”
Tian looked up. “The Founder wrote in the Art of War that knowing your enemy—”
“—will win you half your battles. Yes, yes.” Jie held up a hand. “I’m glad you can recite the Founder. What did he say about choosing your battlefield?”
His mouth formed a circle of its own accord. It all made sense. “The narrow space limited what I could do. It neutralized my reach advantage. The slick floors slowed my reaction. Yuna kept the sunlight in my face to make up for the blindfold—”
Jie shook her head. “We will teach you to fight in the dark, using all your senses. But what you should get out of this is, forget everything you learned about duels. We don’t fight fair. Do you remember how heavy your sword felt?”
“Yes.”
“Yuna gave you the one with a lead core.”
And when she did, she’d hefted it as if it were light. He made several slow nods. Really, he’d only lost his duels to Princess Kaiya because she didn’t fight fair, either, and he let her get away with it. Out of love.
“But most importantly, don’t analyze in the heat of the moment. Turn your brain off, and let your reflexes take over.”
“I will try.” Try to get used to this new world and new people.
When Jie smiled instead of smirked, it was like sunlight peeking out through the clouds on a rainy day. “There’s hope for you yet.”
***
There was no hope for the boy. In Yan Jie’s twenty years with the Black Lotus Clan, the last six embedded in a brothel in the Floating World, she’d never seen such a hopeless initiate. He might have exceptional swordsmanship for his age, a natural observational ability, and tenacious curiosity; b
ut in every other aspect, he lagged well behind the others. They’d started training almost as soon as they could walk, after all. Meanwhile, he could stand to lose some of his baby fat.
He was a handsome boy, at least, with a high-bridged nose and strong jawline. And those eyes. They took in everything, and gleamed with intelligence. Her adopted father, Master Yan, had saved him from beheading because of his brains, and that’s what she needed now.
She led him back to another of the safe house’s rooms. In the two days since Master Yan had brought him here, he’d rearranged all of the physical evidence regarding the murder of a great lord.
A murder she’d witnessed, perpetrated by a clan traitor.
A clan traitor she’d loved, and been forced to kill. Her chest clamped her heart. She took a deep breath and shook the thoughts out of her head so as to focus on the task at hand: With the loyal Lord Ting now dead, the treasonous lords who he’d kept in line were no doubt plotting their next move. Somewhere in the mess of information hid the identity of whoever ordered the hit. She looked to Tian.
The kid was studying her, but dropped his gaze as soon as her eyes fell on him. “I… I… look!” He pointed.
She followed his finger to the evidence she’d neatly organized before he’d come. After he’d gotten his hands on it, the ledgers, records, and weapons looked as if a drunken bull had gone for a romp in a pottery kiln. It made no sense, besides the chalked lines connecting them like a web spun by a spider high on yue.
“What?” she asked.
“The assa.. assassi… assassination!” Excitement grew in his tone as he found the word. He pointed to the mock-up of the crime scene she’d set up, using bangles and beads. It was the one thing he hadn’t touched: the common room of her former home, the Chrysanthemum Pavilion. Once the preeminent brothel of the Floating World, it was now nothing more than a burnt-out husk. Destroyed by the explosion her love had rigged to fake her own death.
“What about it?” Jie asked.
“Are you sure this is where Lord Ting and the countant were sitting? And you were on this table?” He pointed to a fake jade bracelet which represented her.
Jie nodded, even as her heart squeezed. The memory haunted her, having to sacrifice the house Florist, who’d been like a stern but kind mother, and not even being able to save Lord Ting. “What about it?”
“There were two assass.. assassins.”
The boy saw all kinds of connections, but this one… Jie shook her head. “I would remember if there were two.”
“One just isn’t possible. You said that Lord Ting was shot in the back?”
“Yes.”
Tian pointed to the place where Lilian had shot the crossbow. “You were between the first assassin”—his face brightened—“and him. The countant was shot in the chest, him in the back.”
She’d noted that at the time, but hadn’t given it further thought in the chaos of the ensuing melee. Jie’s gaze strayed to the repeating crossbow they’d recovered from the two of Lilian’s accomplices who Jie’d killed. There’d been four in all, but Tian’s observation suggested there was a fifth. If he were right, somewhere, out there, was another assassin, who might have answers. Still, “Where’s the other crossbow?”
“With the killer?” He walked over and picked up the bolt which had killed Lord Ting and proffered it. “The shaft. It’s a different wood from the others.”
Jie took two steps back and looked. The shaft was made of a smooth, white wood; the others were eldarwood, now charred like the crossbow which fired it. During the assassination, she’d caught one of the former midflight, and it’d been coated with a contact toxin that’d knocked her unconscious. This one, too. Exposed to air for so long, the active ingredient had long since evaporated; but the musky scent still clung to the wood.
“What is wrong?” He pulled the bolt back.
“Smell it.”
He brought it to his nose and sniffed like the fluffy white dogs at the Black Lotus Temple. He looked back at her and shrugged. “It smells like wood.”
It never ceased to amaze her that full humans had lasted so long with such pitiful noses. “There’s a poison on it—”
The boy dropped the bolt and scuttled back.
She buried a laugh. “Don’t worry, even when it’s fresh, it only works on females.”
His lips rounded.
She pointed to a rack of vials on the far wall. “That’s where we keep them. You’ll have to learn all the poisons and toxins we use, and you’re behind by six or seven years. Now tell me, what’s so special about the wood?”
He eyed the bolt as if it were a spider before pinching it up by the fletching. “It is yue wood. It only grows in one place in the realm. Tieshan County.”
A smile came to Jie’s lips, unbidden. Amazing that he’d retain knowledge that most would consider trivial. Did he know yue sap was refined into a drug as euphoric as opium, but not as addictive? “How do you know of this tree from Tieshan?”
“My father took me there last year.”
What would Lord Zheng, one of the eight highest-ranked lords of the realm, be doing in a county as insignificant as Tieshan? Jie raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“To meet Lord Nan.”
Lord Nan had often visited the Floating World with the murdered Lord Ting. His loyalty to the Throne had never come under scrutiny, but what if he’d provided the murder weapon? Still… “What did your father and Lord Nan talk about?”
His face flushed an interesting shade of red. “They… they wanted me to meet Lord Nan’s daughter.”
Jie suppressed a giggle, even as she considered the implications. A staunch ally to the Emperor, Lord Zheng was using his youngest son to join his family to Lord Nan’s. Most likely to take the daughter hostage, to ensure Nan’s loyalty to the throne; but what if Lord Zheng was scheming in the background? “Are you betrothed to her now?”
If his original blush had been red, his cheeks had since discovered an as-of-yet unnamed new shade. He sputtered. “I… I am supposed to marry someone else.”
“Who’s the lucky girl?”
“Princess Kaiya.” His tone managed to combine defiance with pride.
Jie just about choked on her own spit. “Do you know what marriage means?”
“We get to hold hands any time. And maybe even—” His face turned redder than the hanging lanterns in the Floating World, and he lowered his voice to a whisper, “—kiss her.”
It was too adorable. Rumor had it the princess didn’t share her family’s good looks, but the way he spoke about her, she might’ve been a once-in-three-generations beauty. Jie couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. She, herself had practiced kissing many of the Blossoms and Florets in Chrysanthemum House, though Lilian was the only one who counted. That, and the man who… She shook the memory away. “Zheng Tian, is there anything else can you tell me about this murder?”
His expression brightened. “I would need to see the actual spot.”
Impossible, since it’d burned down. Though another brothel shared the exact same layout. And it was the place she’d killed Lilian. She swallowed hard. A new recruit never went into the field without a minimal level of proficiency. It was like asking an alchemy apprentice to mix fire powder correctly. Her better judgment screamed he wasn’t ready.
Still, she had to know. This might be the only lead to uncover whoever had turned Lilian. And with his sense of spatial relations, he might be the only one to solve this puzzle. And, it would be a simple in and out job, one that even he couldn’t mess up. “Zheng Tian, we’re going to the Floating World.”
“The Floating World?” All color drained from his face. “I cannot go there. I am not allowed. The Emperor banished me from the capital.”
“You’ve been in the capital this whole time. Don’t worry, it’s a big city, and the authorities rarely go into the Floating World. This will be your first lesson in blending in. Remember, the clan doesn’t exist. You aren’t its newest initiate.”
> “But it does, and I am.” His eyebrows clashed together like dueling rams. “Right?”
It would’ve been cute, if it didn’t come with the risk of getting them killed.
Chapter 2
Tian lifted his face to the late afternoon sun and breathed in the fresh air. It was the first time the mean half-elf had let him outside. He looked up and down the paved street, noting his new home was one of several two-story wooden row houses. The signboards hanging above the first floors indicated a myriad of shops: a grocer, tanner, butcher; his brain took it all in, storing it away. His new house was apparently above an herbal pharmacy, which would explain the heady smell everywhere.
“Come on.” Yuna beckoned with her free hand, the other clasping the hand of a pretty young woman.
It was the one Jie called Little Wen, even if Little Wen looked a few years older than Jie. Dressed in a beautiful blue gown, she turned with a willowy grace and beamed. “Little Tian! Elder Sister wants you to come with me.”
Elder Sister… why so much deference to the half-elf? Tian tapped his chin. “Where is Jie? She was going to take me to… to… the Floating World.”
“I’m taking you, and she’ll be following.” Little Wen—well, maybe not so little, since she stood a head taller—leaned in with another radiant smile. “If you spot her, I’ll give you some candy.”
Tian’s lips twitched into a grin. Up to now, they’d fed him rice porridge with some chicken and leafy greens. Not nearly as delicious as the cooks in the Imperial Court, and not a single sweet among them. And, this was a challenge! He looked left and right, to see if he could find Jie among all the chattering townsfolk.
“Don’t be so obvious.” Little Wen poked him with a finger that looked delicate, but felt as if it were made of iron. “And don’t trust your eyes, alone. You’ll need all your senses.”