by JC Kang
Wretches of the trench
JC Kang
To Brittany, Samantha, and Ticiana. Thank you for your enthusiasm
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
CONTENTS
Maps
Prologue:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Maps
Tivaralan
Cathay
The Capital
1. The Floating World
2. The Trench
Prologue:
One Mother’s Trash
As an abandoned orphan herself, fourteen-year-old Yan Jie’s heart broke every time she saw a desperate parent sell a child. Now, as she knelt beside the beaming two-year-old girl, she felt only relief.
“You can’t have my boys,” the mother ways saying to the clan recruiter. “But Yuna’s a stupid, worthless stain with diarrhea mouth.”
“Diarrhea mouth?” The recruiter, disguised as a priest of the Black Lotus, took a half-step back. It did sound like a disease.
The mother looked sidelong at him. “You know, jabbering all the time.”
In complete sentences, Jie signaled to him. Did this woman not realize how advanced that was for a two-year-old? Maybe she only cared about the twin baby boys strapped to her back. And whatever a stain was…
Still humming a unique but melodic tune, Yuna looked over her shoulder at her mother with a pout before returning her attention to the game of observation and coordination she and Jie were playing.
“But if you don’t want a floater,” the woman said, “The Red Dragons will pay three copper fen for her. They just took my sister’s daughter.”
Floater? Jie exchanged glances with the scout. She’s talented. Let’s take her.
Watching their hands, Yuna looked up and beamed. I’m worth five.
Had she already picked up the signs, just from watching? It wasn’t possible. Not for someone so young. Not in such a short amount of time. The vast majority of people didn’t even notice the clan’s non-verbal communication, let alone learn to use them.
With an incredulous look at her, the scout turned to the mother and pressed a few coppers into her palm. He bowed. “For your trouble. We will take good care of her at the temple.”
And train her to her full potential. If Yuna stayed here in the Trench, she’d probably end up a Triad prostitute. As an initiate in the Emperor’s secret spy clan, she might one day save the realm.
Chapter 1
While nobody else remembered anything from before age three, eight-year-old Feng Yuna had vivid memories of Mama selling her. She’d berated Yuna for being a useless, babbling girl, before ultimately surrendering her for four copper fen. There’d been no contract, like with Seedlings indentured to the Floating World. Mama had just taken the Black Lotus clan recruiter at his word, that he was a priest picking up orphans.
Now, standing on the outskirts of the Trench, Yuna scanned the weathered wood buildings topped by equally worn tile roofs. Women in simple patched dresses sat outside doors, bouncing grimy children on their knees, while men in dirty shirts and pants laughed as they returned home from a grueling day’s work. Many were covered in excrement—shit diggers, the locals called them.
Like the women, her hair now hung in a simple pony tail, and her own filthy dress matched theirs. The coarse fibers scratched, feeling so different from the weightless silk gowns she’d worn for the last season as a Seedling in the Floating World. This homecoming, after six years, was more likely to stir up feelings of trauma than nostalgia.
At her side, Elder Sister Yan Jie clasped her hand. She’d been there that day; posing as a half-elf orphan sent off to join the temple, but really there to test candidates for qualities that made good operatives. Now they were back, to assassinate a Triad boss who might know the truth about the Black Lotus Temple. Jie tapped and brushed the clan’s coded language across the back of Yuna’s hand. How does it feel to be home?
A strange feeling of guilt weighed on Yuna’s shoulders. No, how could it possibly be guilt? It should be sadness. Or betrayal. No, it had to be the clothes. Still, vague recollections of suckling Mama’s breast shifted to clearer images of first steps and words, before crystalizing into the birth of twin brothers. And Mama’s doting on them, because a stupid daughter didn’t deserve Mama’s love.
Yuna shook the recollections out of her head to focus on the present. No matter how distinct the memories of hurt and loss, she didn’t recall the air reeking so badly. She answered in subtle hand gestures, It stinks.
On the other side of her, the chubby ten-year-old new recruit, Tian, studied their motions. The wrinkling of his nose made his round, dirt-smudged face look like a piglet’s. It’s the first thing I noticed, he signed. “Why does it smell so bad?”
He’d only joined the clan four days ago, and picked up the sign language so fast! Up to now, she’d been the most promising young clan member, so much that they considered her the second coming of the Surgeon. The stealth, spying, and fighting skills that took most ten years to learn, she’d mastered in six. She’d also gained fluency in the three languages of the North. If the elders had all lauded her abilities, they’d anticipate molding his potential the way a starving man eyed an imperial feast. Jealousy knotted in her stomach.
Clothed in a tattered dress and a headscarf that covered her tapered ears, Jie gestured from the city walls to the stone-paved gash that ran like a scar through the district. “The capital’s sewers empty into that ditch, and flow into the surrounding rice fields.”
Thus, the name the Trench.
Her birthplace. Or as the locals said, where she’d been shat out.
If Tian’s face had resembled a piglet’s a moment ago, it now looked like an opera mask of the Surprised Sidekick. “You mean baba is mixed in with the rice?”
“Circle of life.” Yuna snorted. As the son of a lord, he’d lived a life of clueless luxury up until his recent banishment. Most kids stopped saying baba by age six. “You eat the rice, it comes out as shit. Then the shit becomes rice.”
Tian’s mouth rounded so wide, it would have no problem accommodating an oiled jade pleasure ball. The thought was tempting to put into action once they got back to the Floating World.
“Come on.” Jie started into the street. A half-elf with an exceptional sense of smell, it was a wonder she hadn’t fainted from the overwhelming stench.
Tian shivered like a cold little dog. “Shouldn’t we wait? The Blue Reaper starts to strike around dusk.”
Yu
na gave a bored shrug. Rumored to wear a blue hat and face scarf, the Blue Reaper had been terrorizing girls in the Trench for the last few months. Still, a simple serial killer wouldn’t stand a chance against two Black Lotus members, even with Tian getting in the way.
“There’s not enough time.” Jie looked up to the Iridescent Moon, now waxing to its fifth crescent in its reliable seat in the heavens. “We only have three hours until we meet our informant.”
Yuna followed, with Tian on her heels. Her ears perked up.
Up ahead, a dozen dust-covered laborers hopped out from an oxcart marked with the words Zhang’s Quarry in faded paint. Two of the men approached, heedless of the three children in front of them. Despite the dirt masking their skin color, their large size, prominent noses, and heavy jowls marked them as foreigners, and they conversed in Nothori, one of the languages spoken by the pale-faced people from the North. Yuna was one of the few clan members who’d learned it.
The first man clapped the second on the back. “I made enough to buy a yue ball.” He was just a few steps away, so engaged in conversation that the coin pouch stuffed in his sash would be easy pickings.
Edging her way past Tian, Yuna prepared to swipe the purse. Better that she have it, instead of the Triads selling yue.
“Don’t you need the coin for your wife and little kid?” the second asked.
The first blew out a sigh. “You’re right. Maybe I should wait until yue prices fall.”
“Or just stop smoking that shit before you need to sell another daughter to the Red Dragons.”
Fury and sadness twisted in Yuna’s gut. She let them walk by without taking the addict’s purse. Little did he know prices would keep rising, since the Imperial Court had raided the illegal supplier up North. In the coming weeks, the addicts going through withdrawal would turn the Trench into even more of a living hell. For now, though, the man’s family would eat.
Tian and Jie came up on either side of her, and he beamed as he hefted the coin pouch. I did it, he signed.
Shaking her head, she gaped at him. His family will starve.
“You can speak their language?” If one pleasure ball could’ve fit in Tian’s mouth with lubricant before, a dry one would now. “I didn’t know. I’ll return it.” He started back.
“Sifters, are you?” a male voice called.
Yuna, Tian, and Jie all turned to the source.
Two wiry men in clean black tunics sauntered over as if they owned half the Trench. They probably did, since the imperial court didn’t care what happened here, and the blue-and-green snake tattoos bared by the men’s rolled-up sleeves marked them as members of the Fangs.
Triads. Tian gulped.
What’s a sifter? Jie tapped on Yuna’s back.
Pickpocket. Akin to the denizens who looked for treasures among the shit.
“I don’t recognize you.” The larger’s eyes roved over them, a feral grin forming on his face.
The other laughed. “The boy has a little too much meat on him to be a Trencher.”
Yuna started for her bladed hairpin, but Jie stayed her hand.
The half-elf bowed. “We’re new here.”
The smaller, who was still larger than the three of them combined, laughed. He nudged the first. “Then we’ll have to forgive them this one time for not following the rules.”
“Rules?” Jie asked.
“You can only sift from the foreigners, and half of your earnings go to the Fangs.” The larger extended his hand.
“I was going to give it back,” Tian said, gesturing toward the diminishing backs of the still-chattering foreigners. Whether it was naiveté, or skill worthy of a famous actor—no, it was Tian.
Definitely naiveté. Yuna rolled her eyes. “Sure you were.” The larger laughed. “And my pa has tits.”
“Really?” Tian’s face scrunched up. “Maybe he drinks too much wine.”
It would’ve been a perfectly-timed insult, if it hadn’t been delivered with clueless sincerity. The two Triads exchanged confused glances.
“Are you shitting on my pa?” The big man loomed closer, hands clenching into fists.
Head cocked, Tian threw up his hands. “You were the one who said your father had breasts. I’ve noticed that when men drink too much wine, they—”
The man swung. He’d probably decked many a drunk with his sloppy haymaker, but Jie pulled Tian out of the way.
Yuna pushed forward and bowed low. “I’m sorry, sir. My brother drinks downstream.” All the slang was coming back; in this case, the idiom for stupid. She proffered the purse, which she’d swept from Tian’s grasp.
Harrumphing, the man snatched it up. “Since you made fun of my pa, I’m keeping all of it this time.”
“Your pa’s a crusty bucket,” the second said.
Crazy, Yuna signed.
With the audacity of a lord, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and studied her. “You know, two pretty girls like you, I can give you a job that will make more than sifting the pockets of these pathetic foreigners. The boy’s pretty enough, I could probably find a job for him, too.”
Maintaining outer calm, Yuna seethed inside. The way his eyes roved over her left little doubt what kind of job he had in mind. In the Floating World, a girl would never lie with a man until she blossomed with Heaven’s Dew. Apparently, such rules didn’t apply in the Trench, and the idea that an eight-year-old, or even younger, might be used by a depraved…
Jie tugged Yuna back and bowed. “I’m sorry, kind sirs. We’re just learning about the area.”
The two men leaned in to each other and exchanged whispers.
The larger chuffed. “As long as you’re on this side of the Trench, you belong to the Fangs. Don’t cross to the other side.”
Fangs on this side, Red Dragons—and the boss they needed to kill—on the other. Yuna shot a knowing look at Jie.
“Where are you staying?” the smaller asked.
“With family.” Jie bowed again.
Though it was a lie, Yuna squirmed. Mama probably still lived somewhere near here.
“Well, if it gets too crowded in his house, we can find you lodgings and work. Go to our Tang, and ask for Big Brother Tu, and tell them Brother Zeng sent you.” Leering, the smaller thumped his chest, then pointed at a white stone tower with rust-colored tiles in the distance, rising above the hovels. It looked like the other troop garrisons surrounding the city, but was apparently now home to the Fangs.
If the limited information the clan had gathered was correct, the aforementioned Big Brother Tu was one of the Boss’ lieutenants. Yuna exchanged a glance with Jie.
The half-elf pulled her and Tian back, bowing to the men. “Thank you for your kind offer.”
“And if any of the Flukes give you trouble, be sure to let us know.” The smaller one cracked his knuckles before the two pushed past them and continued on their way.
Once they’d passed, Tian hefted the purse in his hand.
Grinning, Jie plucked it from his palm. She surreptitiously passed it to Yuna and motioned to the two foreign laborers in the distance. “Go return it. Tell the man he dropped it.”
“What about our new friends?” Yuna tilted her head to the two Triads, who watched them from between two huts.
Jie nodded. “I’m sure they’ll follow us. Lose your tail and meet up across the trench at the magistrate’s office.”
Where they’d connect with an informant who could arrange an introduction with Faceless Chang. He’d taken over the Red Dragons in a bloody coup six years before, possibly helped by a Black Lotus Clan traitor known as the Steel Orchid—who was so ruthless, she’d let her own twin sister die in a fire. Face scarred from decades of conflict, Faceless Chang now wore the opera mask of Yanluo, Lord of Hell. Since he probably knew about the clan, he had to die.
Yuna scanned the surroundings, and found the smaller of the Fangs peeking at them around the corner of a hovel. Squirreling away the purse, she took off after the two foreigners. S
he’d slip the money back onto the yue addict.
The weight and feel of it indicated four copper fen.
Four coppers. All a little girl was worth in the Trench.
Up ahead, a Hua man sat in an intersection, chained to a pole. A square board canque hung around his neck. The picture of penis painted on the wood displayed his crime against the Fangs.
It was there that the two Nothori laborers parted, one continuing and the yue addict turning down an alley between the ramshackle rowhouses. Yuna hurried to catch up. At the head of the alley, she froze.
“Andris Dukurs of Lietuvi?” spoke a slithery male voice in the Nothori tongue.
“Yes?” the yue addict said.
Clothes ruffled. Steel rasped, the short sound indicating a dagger being drawn. A smothered cry broke out, followed by gurgling.
Yuna covered her mouth. One of the men had just attacked the other. She listened.
Whoever had been stabbed now gasped in labored breaths, and heavy footsteps hurried deeper into the alley.
Taking a deep breath, she peeked around the corner.
Not far in, the yue addict was curled up, his lifeblood soaking into the packed dirt. A cloaked figure wearing a brimmed hat in the style of the fair-skinned neared the far end of the alley. He turned around, revealing a kerchief-covered nose and mouth. Though the rest of his face was shaded by his hat, a pair of white eyes found Yuna.
She ducked back, palming a throwing pin from her hair in one hand and snapping out a knife from a forearm strap with the other. He fit the description of the Blue Reaper, but didn’t he only target girls? Why would he attack Andris Dukurs?
Chapter 2
Yan Jie’s shoulder and spine burned from where the surviving Steel Orchid had flayed her skin off. Despite Yuna’s superb stitching, and the fact that elf blood helped her heal faster and better than full humans, she’d probably end up with a scar.