by JC Kang
Then Sameer was there. His naga swirled so fast it seemed like a parasol of glowing blue. Clack. Click. Twang. Woosh. Thunk, the naga cut through another incoming bolt, this time from another direction.
“Protect the regent!” Commander Zhuang mounted up, withdrew his bow and loosed. Around him, other cavalrymen jumped into their saddles. Yet with the limited space, the horses lost the advantage of mobility. Instead, they formed a protective ring. Several horses reared as bolts struck them.
“Get back,” Cyrus said. “Back onto the covered path.”
Fleet zigzagged between falling bolts and came to her side. Helping her to her feet, he pulled her back behind a column of rock. Sameer backed up with them, swinging his naga. Brehane already waited behind cover.
“Thirty men on the other side of the gorge,” Fleet said, pointing. “Armed with repeating crossbows.”
It was too similar to the altivorc ambush from before. Another cramp squeezed her belly. Kaiya grimaced, and then peeked around the column.
Hand on the golden circlet of Athran around his neck, Cyrus braved the storm of bolts, helping wounded men back. Blood stained his robes—whether his or one of the guards, it was impossible tell.
Someone, or a few someones, shuffled around the rock columns, too far away to be one of imperial soldiers. Fleet’s eyes darted in that direction even before Kaiya pointed.
A dark shape leaped at her, the flash of the sun reflecting off his sword blinding her. A blade whistled through the air and cut into flesh. A man screamed.
“Black Fists,” Fleet yelled. “They’re cornering us on the path while the crossbowmen keep us pinned down.”
No wonder. They were certainly too well coordinated to be random bandits. Vision brightening and coming into focus, Kaiya took stock of the situation. The guards fought and loosed arrows while enemy Moquan darted back and forth, engaging and disengaging. Men clutched wounds and yelled; others just fell to the ground, silent. Bolts continued to fly in from a sharp angle above.
“Protect me,” Brehane shouted. She turned out from behind the cover of a column and started chanting in the guttural language of Shallow Magic. Sameer stood beside her, nonchalantly knocking away incoming bolts. At the end of her spell, a fireball exploded across the gorge, louder and brighter than any firework. Brehane collapsed into Sameer’s arms.
Kaiya blinked. Brehane had become so powerful.
The barrage of bolts dwindled, and the imperial soldiers now renewed their own shots with increased speed. Soon, incoming attacks trickled to a halt.
Commander Zhuang dropped to a knee in front of her. “Jie-xia, we have repelled the insurgents.”
At what cost? Kaiya looked around again. Several black-clad Moquan lay on the ground, their blood painted across the stone path. Her men, too, had taken significant casualties. It also meant that the Moquan had turned against her, and that they knew she was coming through the gorge.
Fleet appeared around a column, clasping a torn swath of cloth with a wen emblem. A link of wisteria blossoms, the symbol of the Lord of Yanhu.
Right where they were heading. Now that the wounded needed tending, there was no way they could exit the gorge by nightfall.
CHAPTER 36:
Spider in the Web
Jie paused outside the doors of Tiantai Shrine’s main building, confirming that she hadn’t been followed in the predawn hours. Even with a useless arm, stealth still came naturally, and elf senses prevented anyone from sneaking up on her.
It was deserted and dark, the surrounding derelict compound and overgrown gardens lit only by the iridescent moon as it waned to its fifth gibbous. Satisfied, she pushed the door open just wide enough for her to slip through. The interior hadn’t changed from a year before: just a plain stone floor and a large chest on a raised dais.
Everyone in Huajing believed the chest had once housed some jade relic from the previous dynasty. However, she had learned its true purpose during the princess’ clandestine departure for Vyara City a year before. She depressed a button on a rear hinge, which led to a whispering swish inside the chest. Opening the lid now revealed a set of steps leading down into the secret passages beneath the palace and castle. Maybe her Moquan brethren could surreptitiously scale the palace walls in designated areas, but now her handicap relegated her to easier ways.
The musty stone corridors appeared completely undisturbed. Only the senior-most imperial guards knew of the passages, and from the layer of dust on the pavestones, none had come through here since the princess’ journey. The tunnel leading into the inner castle had been walled off as if it had never existed, suggesting that the castle defenders had come at least this far. However, the steps leading up to the outer palace grounds remained unblocked. At the top, she released the dwarf-made trigger and the wall slid open without a sound.
The manicured garden from a year ago now looked like a supply depot. Crates crushed new spring grass while kegs of firepowder crowded shrubs under the eaves of adjacent buildings. With a sigh, Jie made her way toward the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where her clansmen said the leadership gathered.
Walking among the many buildings, she stumbled upon a city of tents in the vast central courtyard. Some armed men moved about, but for the most part, everyone seemed asleep. Unwilling and possibly unable to castrate any belligerent soldier who might decide to take advantage of a palace maid, she avoided contact and instead crept up the steps to the hall.
She passed through open doors and into the vast, dark chamber. With no one inside, the light baubles remained mostly shuttered, filling the room with a dim illumination. Two maps lay on the floor, with black and white pebbles on them like a weiqi game. One map depicted the nation, with the white stones representing the imperial forces and their provincial allies, and the black stones a mess of Peng’s rebellion, Madurans, and Teleri.
The other map was the capital. The position of black stones showed just how little the army crowded into the palace knew of the occupation. Moquan secrecy likely accounted for much of the ignorance. The lack of communication that checked and balanced loyalties in times of peace now proved a weakness in times of war.
Jie began rearranging the enemy positions. Several thousand outside the palace gates. A central command center in the northern marketplace, not far away. Four hundred, mostly wounded, in the northwest quadrant. Two hundred at the north gate, five hundred at the west gate, and eight hundred along the holes in the east walls. Patrols fanning out and back.
With the eight thousand Hua soldiers on hand, a surprise attack coordinated from the rear and flank could defeat the Teleri. Though, as Tian said, they had to first root out and eliminate the brains behind the occupation. If the foolhardy commanders here behind the palace walls knew about the secret tunnels, they’d rush out at the first opportunity.
Servants opened the double doors and filtered in, opening the shutters as they went. Many paused when their gazes fell on her. One rushed out, yelling, “Intruder!”
Jie harrumphed. Certainly someone would recognize her as Princess Kaiya’s handmaiden.
Soon enough, imperial guards burst in with flashing dao. Not that she could fight them all even if she had the use of both her arms. She ignored them, continuing with her work of organizing the stones on the city map. Though they kept their weapons bared, they didn’t try to stop her.
Presently, Minister Song and two generals stepped over the threshold.
The minister jabbed a finger at her. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”
“And why are you rearranging our maps?” General Tang, whom she recognized from the past, glared at her. The soldiers would be better served if General Shan were in command.
Jie stopped and bowed. “I was Princess Kaiya’s bodyguard, though I masqueraded as her handmaiden. The acting Tianzi’s mother Wang Kai-Hua can vouch for the handmaiden part. You have heard of the Tianzi’s agents—that is my clan.”
Minister Song gawked, and then nodded.
“And the maps?” G
eneral Tang pointed.
She waved a hand across the rearranged stones. “Our clan has observed enemy positions and I have made changes based on what we know now. We have harassed their supply lines. You have enough men to defeat them.”
The other general—Sun?— furrowed his brows. “We knew that. However, we are stuck behind the walls while they concentrate our muskets and our firepowder on the only way out.”
“There is another route. The same way I came in.”
General Tang harrumphed. “The soldiers can’t climb walls like the Tianzi’s agents.”
“Neither can I.” As much as she hated her handicap, Jie used her good arm to hold up her useless one.
“The escape tunnels.” The imperial guard commander’s voice sounded awestruck.
She nodded.
“Only the senior-most imperial guards know how to get in,” he said. “And they are all behind the inner castle walls. How do you know?”
“I watched the late Chen Xin engage the trigger.”
The imperial guard general bowed.
General Sun stomped on the floor. “Then we will mount a counter-attack.”
“No,” Jie said. “Not yet. We don’t know if there are any spies among us, and there is a mastermind behind the occupation. Once my clansmen find him, I will let you know how to get out. In the meantime, plan that counter-attack.”
Tian stared at the lines of thread weaving across the abandoned Floating World theater stage, each sagging with clues and evidence. With the Bovyans’ lack of high culture and their mating habits highly regulated, the entertainment district would be a safe place for his attempts to uncover the brains behind the Teleri occupation.
The threads came up organically as he categorized the Nightblade sightings, Teleri patrol patterns, and citizen arrests. The origins and impact of the myriad rumors regarding the Tianzi held a particular interest. He had gone mad. He had died. He had fled the city. The Metal Men were clearly working hard to undermine the people’s confidence.
With the rest of his gang of young Moquan out on missions, Feng Mi and Huang Zhen watched him from the audience seating. Despite what they thought, the Teleri didn’t have any interest in the palace and castle, except to make it seem like they did. His people had already countered half-hearted insertions by Nightblades, and they’d proven adept at avoiding capture and tailing. No, those attempts were merely a distraction, to prevent organized resistance to a small occupying army.
“Up to your old habits.” Jie said from the entrance. All heads turned her way. “How you see anything in these cobwebs you construct…”
Old habits, ones he didn’t remember. Using the strings made perfect sense, and there was an order to it, one which only he seemed to see. He pointed to three pieces of evidence, one at a time. “The timing between these events suggests at least seven Nightblades and no more than twelve. If we know their number, I can triangulate the source of their orders. A spider lurks somewhere in this web.”
Jie laughed. A cute laugh which stirred a sense of nostalgia, even if no concrete memories surfaced. “In that web, you are the only spider I am seeing.”
The two younger ones chuckled. With a snort, he contorted between several strands…and paused. “What do you mean?”
She tilted her head. “Just that you look like a spider in your web.”
He turned around, a full rotation in place, as he scanned his notes. A Nightblade sighting at the palace. Another in the noble’s district. One by the east wall. No activity in the far west of the city. Now, he had an excellent vantage point to see it. “Here. In the Floating World.”
“What?” Jie worked her way down the aisles.
Tian tapped a foot on the stage’s hardboards. “The spider is here. In the Floating World.”
Jie came to the edge of the stage and pointed with her good arm at the note about the Nightblade she and Huang Zhen had killed in the noble’s quarter. “That one had a smudge of prostitute’s make-up on his suit.”
Huang Zhen nodded emphatically. “And smelled of perfume.”
“Right.” Tian traced a line connecting Chief Minister Hong to the center of the web. “You also believe our proverbial spider might be hiding out here?”
“Hong is connected to the insurgency through Chief Minister Tan, and then the decisions to move soldiers away from the capital.” Jie pointed at the same thread, then another branching off of it. “He had access to couriers and could’ve ordered the assassination on the princess at your father’s castle. He was present when the Tianzi sealed off the inner castle, yet somehow ended up on the outside, in the palace grounds.”
Feng Mi stood. “I’ve turned the Floating World upside-down, inside-out, and there’s no sign of him.”
Tian tapped his chin. Stubble prickled his fingers. “I’m certain the mastermind is here. What did Hong have to gain? What did he want?”
Jie sucked on her lower lip. “From my observations, he was obsessed with the princess. Maybe for power, maybe just because she was unattainable to someone of his station.”
She shouldn’t have been attainable to Tian, either. He pointed to the thread which included the assassination attempt on her. “Then he wouldn’t want her killed. He was either very skilled at manipulating all these improbabilities into reality…”
“Or he is an unwitting puppet,” Jie said.
“If that is the case, who pulls his strings?” Tian scratched his chin again. Having been posted abroad during the insurgency, he didn’t know all of the minister’s associations firsthand.
“Peng Kai-Long,” Jie said. “I saw them together several times.”
The one behind the rebellion in the South. Tian closed his eyes and tried to conjure a memory of what this Peng looked like. “Why would he want the nation invaded?”
“To divert the imperial armies?” Feng Mi said.
Huang Zhen nodded. “To defeat the Teleri and win the admiration of the people.”
“He would need to take command of the imperial army first.” Tian snorted. Not very likely. “And he would have no means of communicating with Hong now. His past actions make him appear very hands-on. Even if he lets others get their hands dirty.”
Jie sucked on her lower lip. “Emperor Geros delegates efficiently.”
“But the clan would be aware of Hong communicating with someone out of the country.”
“What if Geros used an intermediary?” Jie pointed back at the web. “You believe the occupation is coordinated from here, in the Floating World, and Hong is not here.”
Feng Mi jumped up and down, expression bright. “Hong’s concubine.”
A concubine. Tian swept his gaze over his notes. Nowhere was there any mention of a concubine. “What do we know of her?”
“Half-Ayuri from Ankira,” Feng Mi said. “She arrived in Hua about three years ago, searching for her father.”
Tian furiously scribbled notes and clipped them to a new thread intersecting Hong’s. “What was Hong doing three years ago?”
Jie sucked on her lower lip again. “That was during Lord Tong’s insurgency. He was promoted to Minister of the Imperial Household after serving as a palace valet.”
“...And would’ve arranged many of the matchmaking meetings,” Tian said. “For Princess Kaiya.” Not that it mattered to the Teleri’s spider. Still, it showed a pattern of ambition, making Hong attractive to someone looking for influence inside the court. “He made sure she didn’t marry. All so he could one day claim her for his own.” His stomach twisted. Jealousy? Over a woman he didn’t remember?
“He visited his concubine often,” Feng Mi said, “especially after he became Chief Minister and bought a house. We deemed it typical male behavior.”
Or plotting? Tian maneuvered the concubine’s thread over several others. “We are going to pay a visit to Hong’s house. If she is still there and coordinating the Teleri occupation, we will eliminate her and launch Jie’s counter-attack.” He turned to Jie. “Go back to the palace to help them p
repare, and await my message.”
Back to the palace. Jie snorted to herself as she crept through the darkened streets. Tian might not have run after the princess, but it wasn’t as if the time they had together now brought them any closer. In fact, with her handicap, they seemed to be growing further apart. At least before, he had respected her as a comrade. Now she was nothing more than a messenger girl.
A messenger girl with superb senses. She froze in place. Somewhere, someone watched her. How far she’d fallen. Her skills must have deteriorated for even a Nightblade to best her in routine stealth techniques.
Well, her stalker probably hadn’t counted on her elf vision. She scanned the surroundings, focusing on the shadows cast by the moons. Two-story row houses lined the road. Trees stood every—there, behind one of the trunks. A stout man. Too short for a Bovyan, though with her bad arm, he could probably overpower her.
Now who would be out so late? Certainly not a rapist in an occupied city. No women came out, and Teleri patrols roamed the streets. Better not to find out. Jie darted to the closest tree and prepared to evade.
“Wait,” the man called out in heavily accented Arkothi. He stepped out from behind the tree and raised his hands. His cloak flared open, revealing a broadsword at his waist. “I have a proposition for you, half-elf.”
The dark olives of his complexion in her night vision suggested someone from the South, yet his accent didn’t sound familiar. The features—heavy, with fangs. An altivorc, and a prince, no less, given his good looks. Her experiences with altivorcs over the years had never been friendly.
She reached for a biao. “What do you want?”
He scanned up and down the street, then up into the windows. He lowered his voice. “I have been searching for you. My king has a proposition. And as a reward, he will heal your arm.”
CHAPTER 37: