by JC Kang
A dozen ogres marched the prisoners out of the camp on a path to the south. Ma Jun stumbled along, slowed by his injury. Exhausted from her struggle, Kaiya could only watch them leave before the chief half-dragged her towards a tent.
CHAPTER 38:
Rescue with Red Hair
He lay flat on his back. The chill of the hard ground seeped through his wet clothes. Tian opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. He blinked to clear his vision, and listened. There was the rippling of the river, birds chirping, wind blowing through the trees…and talking.
His vision came into focus. Above him, the tops of sweet evergreen trees, swaying in the breeze, framed a bright blue sky. The Iridescent Moon was hidden from where he lay, but the sunlight suggested it was either early morning or late afternoon.
Where were those voices? He turned his head, sending a blazing pain searing through his temples.
Ignoring his body’s protests, Tian pushed himself to a sitting position. With great effort, he looked from side to side, but the voices came from behind, in elegant, accentless Arkothi. His hand inched toward his saber, only to find that it, and his dagger, were missing.
“Well, well, General Shaotyan rises from the dead!” It was an unfamiliar but melodious male voice, butchering the name of the Wang Dynasty founder.
Tian twisted around, gingerly, fearing that any quick motion would cause his brains to leak from his ears.
Six people huddled in a semicircle on the ground, about ten feet away from him. Four men, most likely Arkothi from their olive skin and dark hair, nodded at him in turn. They wore camouflaged leather cuirasses and bore shortbows and longswords. Some sported short beards. Most looked to be in their twenties.
A fifth man, shorter, slimmer, and younger than the rest, regarded him curiously. He had pointed ears, fine features, and shiny golden hair, and wore a poncho of forest-green. An elf. Perhaps a wild elf? A delicate-looking bow was slung across his back and a long, thin sword hung at his side. “We were worried about you,” he said. The accent, like the lilting of songbirds, marked him as the one who’d referenced the first Tianzi.
None were as striking as the sixth person: a young human woman about his age, she had tanned skin. Dark red hair cascaded in waves of curls down her shoulders. Her almost almond-shaped eyes twinkled a light green, and her beautiful features seemed to have an elvish refinement to them. The smile she directed at him was devoid of any warmth. Like the elf, she wore a forest-green poncho.
“Yes, thanks,” Tian said, stumbling over the Arkothi words. “Where did you find me? And who are you?”
The elf pointed toward the sound of running water. “In the river, unconscious. You’re lucky to be alive. You shouldn’t go swimming in the rapids, you know.”
As if he had planned it. Tian forced a smile.
The woman peered at him. “Who are you? What is a Cathayi doing in the Upper Wilds?” Her soft voice might have been cute, if her tone didn’t cut like a knife.
“I…” What was he doing here? The princess… “What day and time is it? Where am I? Who are you?”
She pursed her lips. “I asked first, so you answer first.”
There was no point wasting time in an argument. “I am Tian Zheng. From Cathay. I work in Iksuvius. I am escorting someone. Back to Cathay. Please tell me who you are.”
Her bushy eyebrows rose. “Back to Cathay? Wouldn’t it be faster and safer to take one of your ships?”
She was avoiding his questions. Meanwhile, the princess was out there, in need of help. “Yes. But we had no choice. We weren’t able to secure passage. Now, can you answer me?”
The woman yawned. “Unable to secure passage on one of your own ships?”
He could lie convincingly enough to fool most people, but his half-truths didn’t convince this woman. Tian stood up. His head pounded, but it didn’t matter. “Am I your prisoner? Because if not, I must find my traveling companion. She may have been captured. By hill ogres. At least tell me what day it is.”
“You aren’t a prisoner.” The elf shook his head. “It is the second day of the eighth month. However, given how clueless you are, I wonder if you even have a chance of tracking down your friend. Maybe you should tell us what happened. Perhaps we can help you.” He turned towards the red-head. “Look, Allie, if his friend was captured by the ogres, then he is not our enemy.”
Allie glared at the elf. “If he’s telling the truth. The Cathayi are only interested in money. Who knows who the bastard has sold his sword to? Perhaps he works for our enemies and is tracking us.”
Tian growled. As if anyone would send him into the woods to track experienced rangers. And the girlish voice did not suit her foul mouth. “I am guessing, Allie, that you are Eldaeri. That means the Teleri’s imperial ambitions concern you. They declared war on Cathay by trying to take our princess hostage. I need to find her now.”
The six exchanged glances. Of course, out here in the wilderness, they couldn’t have heard the news.
The elf scratched his head. “I’ve seen your princess before, half a year ago. Describe her to me.”
Tian bit his lip. Where to start? Banishing all the negative things that immediately popped in his head, he gave his most objective evaluation of the princess. “Voluminous hair. With a vibrancy of its own,” at least before he cut it. “Doe-like eyes. A high thin nose. Full lips,” a perfectly symmetrical face, really. “Graceful like willow branches in—”
“You sound like a man in love,” Allie said.
Heat stirred in Tian’s cheeks. “A voice that could charm a dragon.”
“And did charm a dragon, for which I owe her a personal debt of gratitude.” The elf turned to Allie and nodded.
Allie flicked hair over her shoulder. “If the stories are true, she’s beautiful beyond compare. We’ll help you. Be warned, if it turns out you are lying, we will nick your fucking intestines and tie you up to a tree. The Kanin brushhogs will come and eat your shit.”
Tian hid his cringe, not so much at her threat but at her dirty mouth. “I’m not lying.”
Allie smiled without the least amount of sincerity. “In order to find your princess, you need to tell us everything you remember about how you came here.”
Tian paused to recollect the order of events. “We camped on the eastern bank of the river. We were running south when I fell off a ledge. It was just before dawn this morning.”
Allie nodded. “The trail should be quite warm, then. It’s now near the fifth waning crescent, and we are not far from where the river starts to drop and the east bank rises. Hurry up.”
They all stood and collected their gear. Within minutes, they were swiftly marching toward the river, with Allie in the lead. The peaceful chirps of birds and the rustling of animals in the brush did little to assuage Tian’s anxiety.
Arriving at the river in ten minutes, he scanned the surroundings. The ledge on the opposite shore was about ten feet higher than this bank, which in turn was level with the water. They turned north, walking uphill with the river at their side. Tian regularly checked to see the height of the opposite bank.
After an hour, they came to a stop at a wide trail that ran perpendicularly to the river.
“Ogre tracks.” Allie pointed to the markings in the muddy ground. The others fanned out to look for clues.
Tian fidgeted, though noting how they operated. “Any human tracks? She’s only this high.” He held his hand at his nose. “Small feet. We also had two other men. About my height.”
The elf shook his head. “If they were captured by ogres, they would have been carried.”
“There were ogres.” Tian pointed at one of the large, deep footprints in the mud. “We should follow this trail.”
The elf again shook his head. “There are ogres all over this region, and we don’t want to recklessly traipse into one of their camps. By the way, it is always safer to travel on the eastern side of the river, especially at night.”
Just like Fleet said. Tian rolled his eyes. They had cam
ped on the east bank. Apparently, the ogres didn’t get the notice.
One of the men pointed. “A braid of human hair, coarse and black, about thirty centimeters.”
The princess’ braid!
Another one chimed in. “Blood on this leaf, red and fresh.”
Tian looked at the elf and Allie with an urgent, forced grin, silently prompting them.
Allie tilted her head down the path. “Follow the trail. We’re now entering dangerous territory. Keril, you take point; Rami, you have rear guard. You, Zheng, stay close to me and try to keep quiet.”
One of the men padded to the front with a bow in hand. Although he didn’t even seem to be watching his feet, he made no sound as he stepped through the needles and around the dried greywood leaves. The rest fell in behind him, all walking with equal stealth. Allie took the middle of the line and motioned Tian to follow her.
After a few minutes, Allie looked back and smiled at him, this time quite genuinely. She pointed at his feet and gave him a thumbs-up signal.
It wasn’t that hard, considering his own stealth training. He smiled back.
Before long they came to a clearing. Keril raised his hand in a fist, and they all stopped. After scanning the perimeter, he motioned for them to enter. The sun now sat high overhead, providing radiant warmth in the clearing. Allie motioned Rami to continue down the trail and the others to fan out.
The scout came back in a few minutes and whispered, “Clear.”
A torrent of whispered observations erupted.
“Ogres were here, probably about three hours ago.”
“Looks like about a dozen, four dead among them.”
“A human was bleeding here, the shape and amount suggests blunt trauma.”
“Another human was set down here. Probably a woman, with six centimeter black hair. There’s a flute here.”
Tian hurried over to look at the flute, with Allie close behind. “This is our princess’.”
Allie knelt down to sniff dried blood on a leaf. “Then it seems we are on the right trail. Let’s break for lunch and rest.”
Tian grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “We must keep going.”
All of the men grinned at him. One shook his head in a ‘he’s in for it’ look.
Allie lifted her arm to lock Tian’s and started to push at him with her other hand. She slid a leg behind his. It would have dumped an untrained man flat onto his behind, but Tian’s reflexes instantly took over. He reversed her throw by pressing a hand into the small of her back, stepping laterally and twisting his own hip.
She fell backward, but with catlike grace put a hand down and rolled back into a stand. In the same motion, she drew her dagger and set it at his throat.
Tian turned and seized her hand, then twisted her wrist and swiped the dagger away.
Her companions reached for their weapons. The elf already had an arrow nocked and aimed at him.
Allie raised a restraining hand and flashed Tian a lethal smile. “You’re more than meets the eye.”
Tian pursed his lips. So, he’d gone from being the rear end of a mule to the front side of a male prostitute.
Tone softening, she added, “You remind me of another Cathayi. One I consider a friend, and to whom I owe a debt of thanks. If what you told us is true, you’ve not eaten breakfast, and since we’re all hungry and tired, you must be even hungrier and more tired. How do you plan on rescuing your princess from a dozen angry ogres on exhausted legs and an empty stomach?”
“I’m sure you know…what the ogres will do to her.” And it would be his fault for bringing her into this Heavens-forsaken wilderness.
Allie placed a hand on his shoulder. “Your woman is safe for the time being.”
His woman? “How can you know that?” He flipped the dagger and offered it to her hilt-first.
“You’ll have to trust me on this.” Refusing the weapon, she flashed a wry smile. “Ogre superstitions will protect her.”
Tian threw his hands up. “What does that mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “If you want to continue on your own, please feel free to get yourself fucked. It would certainly free us up to continue on our own mission.”
Tian sighed. She was right. He was hungry and tired, and even at full strength, there was little chance he could defeat a dozen ogres in their home territory by himself. Defeated, he dropped into a seated position.
Something cold and hard bit into his butt. He popped back up. All heads turned to him, amusement dancing in their expressions. He looked down. A round piece of strange grey metal, a thumblength in diameter, lay partially hidden in the leaves. Picking it up, he turned it over in his hands and traced the etching: a circle surrounding a curious emblem of squiggly lines. A precisely cut scrap of black cloth was still attached.
Allie gasped. “The Teleri imperial seal. How did it get here?”
Tian furrowed his brow, trying to recall where he had seen it before. “I think the Teleri First Consul wore this.”
Allie chuckled. “Of course he did, idiot. It’s the heirloom of the Bovyans, passed down from the first Geros to every First Consul. If it’s real. Let me see it.”
Tian handed it to her.
After a cursory glance, she drew her sword and held the two objects close to each other. She sucked in a breath.
Tian craned over her shoulder. Both pin and sword seemed to be made of the same mysterious metal.
She handed it back to him. “I believe it’s real. Both the seal and my sword were made from a falling star. There’s so little of this metal in the world, and the skill for etching into it was lost long ago. It’s impossible to counterfeit.”
Tian nodded. “I remember now. When the princess faced the First Consul, she mentioned this pin. She must have cut it from his uniform.” He stashed it in his lockpicking tool pouch, and put that in his pack.
Allie sighed and looked to Thielas. “So the First Consul still lives. Our plan to attack his entourage must’ve failed.”
Tian tapped his chin. It all made sense now. The Eldaeri repeating crossbows his team had found in Larusso’s Iksuvius warehouse must’ve been ordered by Allie, to attack Geros. Yet another mistake Tian had made.
He looked to Allie, who’d already set up he bedroll at the other end of the clearing and was fast asleep.
The elf came and sat down beside him, offering him some bread and dried fruit. “Forgive my rudeness for not introducing myself earlier. I am Thielas. Allie is right, you know.”
Tian nodded, chewing on some of the fruit. “Who are you people? What’re you doing in the Wilds?”
“That’s not my place to say. I leave that up to her to tell you, but you have to earn her trust first. Still, she does seem to have taken a liking to you.” The elf’s smile looked forced, his friendly tone masking jealousy. “She has a wild spirit; that much I can tell you. Even more so than your average human.”
Tian nodded again. There must be something between these two. “I’ve been rude, too. Sorry. I should’ve thanked you. For helping me.”
“With the appearance of this pin,” Thielas said, “this rescue may be tied up in our own cause. In any case, you had better get some rest.”
Around them, the five others had finished eating and unfurled bedrolls. Sighing again, Tian leaned up against the back of a tree on the other side of the clearing, in the shade, and closed his eyes.
He was awoken just minutes later by a gentle shaking. He opened his eyes.
Allie hovered over him with a smile. “Wake up, Tian. You were the one in the rush.” She giggled like a girl. Everyone else appeared to be ready to go.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“About two hours,” she said. “You looked tired, so I sent Kori and Rami ahead to scout, to make sure we were on the correct path. There are hundreds of ogre tracks passing through here, but I think we have the right one.” She extended a hand to help him up, which he gratefully accepted. Her fingers were coarse and her grip strong, so un
like the princess’ smooth, delicate hands.
Thielas looked up at the sun. “It is midday, so we should be safe from the ogres for a little longer while they enjoy their beauty sleep. We can be a bit less careful for another several hours. Let’s make the most of it.”
They started down the trail, with Keril taking point.
As they walked, Tian started probing as only a good spy could. “I don’t often see ladies with such good wilderness skills.”
Allie laughed. “How would you know what good wilderness skills are? Yours certainly need some work.”
Tian laughed nervously, and prodded her to continue with a raised eyebrow.
Allie said, “My parents wanted me to be an elegant lady, but I preferred to run in the forests. When I was twenty-four, I met Thielas, who taught me woodcraft. Then, I was sent to live with a distant uncle, in hopes that I’d learn proper etiquette. After eight years, no success!”
She was least thirty-two! And obviously Eldaeri, whose traces of elf blood allowed them to age more slowly. Time to coax more information from her. “I guessed you were Eldaeri. I’ve not met many.” Except for two princes, both quite arrogant. “It seems odd. To be this far away from home. In this wild land.”
She skidded to a halt and stared at him. “You talk like a stalking predator. Know that I am elusive prey. You won’t learn more than I want you to.”
Tian snorted. Smart woman. Who cursed like a sailor. No need to continue with the roundabout questioning. “What can you tell me?”
“You look smart.” She flashed a feral grin. “How much have you already deduced?”
“The Teleri Empire expands to the east. Into the lands of the former Arkothi Empire. It will soon be on the border of the Eldaeri Kingdom of Serikoth.”
Allie sighed. “Yes, my homeland. They have already captured Thundercloud Fortress, which guards the pass between the mountains and Bullhead Lake.”
Capturing Serikoth would put the empire closer to Tarkoth and all of its resources, like… “Teleri wants shipbuilding lumber. And deep-water ports.” Cold tingled up Tian’s spine. Tarkoth wouldn’t fall easily, but here in the Wilds… “That’s why they captured Iksuvius.”