by JC Kang
“Oh, yes. Gardener Ju told me quite a bit about you.” Faceless Chang’s purr had a lulling quality to it.
Jie sucked on her lower lip. Faceless Chang knew about the Black Lotus. She had to die. Didn’t she?
“Oh, and we have other guests,” Faceless Chang said. “Be a good girl, my pretty Blossom, and open the door.”
Glare never leaving Jie, Lusha wiped her mouth and glided across the carpet. Even with her ruined face, she moved with the willowy grace of the Floating World. She even knelt when she unlocked the door and opened it.
The muffled sounds from the other side crystalized into focus as twelve—no, thirteen—sets of footsteps of varying weight crossed the middle of the antechamber.
Eight Triads hustled in a young woman, and two boys who looked so similar they had to be twins. In fact, they looked a lot like Yuna, who now emerged from among them, still holding whimpering little Mikayla on her hip.
✽ ✽ ✽
Knife in hand, Tian hid outside the door to Faceless Chang’s office. To reach this point unseen, his stealth skills must’ve improved, at least enough to hide his footsteps among the heavier boots of the Triads and the rambling of Yuna’s brothers.
The huddle of Triads and Yuna’s family didn’t give Tian a clear line of sight, but he could see enough: Faceless Chang sat atop his desk, which like everything else in this antechamber and that office, was repaired. Jie stood in the door of the next room, knife in hand; while the wiry lieutenant, Du, moved to interpose himself between them.
As bad as killing someone was, the window of opportunity for a clear shot was disappearing by the second. Why wasn’t Jie taking it?
The woman with a stitched-up face, who’d opened the door, glided back toward Faceless Chang’s desk.
Draping one arm over her shoulder, Faceless Chang held up a hand. When he spoke, his voice came out gravelly. “Now, as you know, I’m in need of a new enforcer. Why don’t you join me, Yan Jie?”
“Me?” Jie lowered her weapon, effectively ending any chance of a quick kill.
How could she even consider it? Tian squeezed the hilt of his own blade, counting. To get a clear shot of his own, around all the Triads, he’d have to go six and a half steps into the room.
“Yes.” Laughing, Faceless Chang brushed a small hand over a porcelain bowl on his desk. “I like broken things. And you, Yan Jie, are broken since Lilian’s betrayal.”
Broken things.
Broken things!
While Jie’s expression twisted, Tian was now seeing the connection, like the web of repairs in the ceramics: white with the cobalt five-clawed dragon reserved for Princess Kaiya’s family, the planter by the door probably came from the imperial kilns—where any imperfect wares unfit for the Emperor were smashed instead of letting them fall in the hands of commoners.
He squinted at the stitch pattern in the woman’s scarred face. It wasn’t like the stitches Yuna had sewn in Jie’s, and presumably his, wounds. No, it was more like—
The door into the antechamber opened, revealing the Blue Reaper, knife in hand. His gaze looked past Tian, into the office.
“Now, Jie,” Faceless Chang said. “Kill the girl’s mother.”
Tian swallowed hard as possible outcomes warred in his head. If Jie attacked Yuna’s mother, and the Blue Reaper tried to kill Mikayla… There were just too many sources of chaos. Tian ran into the room, shut the door, and lowered the bar.
Around him, the room erupted into chaos. Jie’s eyes were locked on Yuna’s mother. While the Triads opened a path for her, Yuna stood in the way, still holding the screaming Mikayla close.
Wait. Yan. Faceless Chang had used Jie’s real surname. Tian reached into robe and pulled out Mikayla’s old ragdoll. The stitch pattern was the same as the woman’s face. He raised the bar and opened the door to let the Blue Reaper in.
✽ ✽ ✽
It was so quiet, Yuna could hear her heart pounding in her ears. What was Jie doing, acquiescing to Faceless Chang? And Tian! He could be adorable with his naiveté, but now, he’d just made a stupid mistake. The Blue Reaper appeared at the door, coming to kill Mikayla.
Mama or Mikayla.
There was no way to save both.
And right now, trembling Mama was between her and Jie, with the half-elf closing fast.
Yuna looked over her shoulder, where Tian stepped out of the way and let the Blue Reaper through without a fight.
“Get out of the way!” Tian gestured her to the side. “The Blue Reaper is coming for Feng Rumei.”
Feng Rumei? That didn’t make sense.
“Rumei is controlling Jie. If the Blue Reaper kills her, maybe Jie will stop.”
It sounded impossible, but if it were true… Yuna dropped Mikayla, shouldered past Mama, and lunged toward Jie. The half-elf spun away, allowing Yuna to recover and block the path to Mama. Behind her, the Blue Reaper swept past.
“Attack the Blue Reaper!” Faceless Chang yelled.
If the room had been shocked into still silence a moment ago, it now erupted into chaos. Broadswords rasped from scabbards. As one of the Triads dashed by Jie, she swiped a knife from his belt. Her gaze remain locked on Mama with a determined focus, akin to the clan’s Tiger’s Eye technique.
Heart racing, Yuna pressed her back to Mama. She circled as Jie tried to move into a flanking position. The new vantage point provided a view of the Blue Reaper moving like a blur through the Triads, dispatching them with precise stabs. Mikayla sat on the floor screaming as bodies fell around her.
Jie advanced with zigzagging slashes, forcing Yuna to back up and push Mama with her. Even with a weapon, facing the clan master’s daughter would be suicide.
With no weapon, no fighting skill, Lusha moved in between Feng Rumei and the Blue Reaper, but he raked a blade across her throat. Blood spurted as the once-celebrated Corsage of Yuna’s own Peony Garden collapsed to the floor.
Yuna and Mama were just about backed up to the wall as Jie claimed the ground between them.
Faceless Chang disappeared behind the Blue Reaper’s broad form, and she screamed a very female scream.
With a quick feint that caught Yuna out of position, Jie jabbed a deadly thrust toward Mama.
Yuna jumped knock the weapon away; but caught flat-footed, she’d left herself open. The blade came toward her flank, seemingly in slow motion.
Jie lurched to the side as Tian tackled her. The stab which would have dealt a mortal wound to Yuna’s liver instead glanced off a rib. Pain blossomed in the spot.
“Stop it, crazy half-elf!” Tian yelled.
At Faceless Chang’s desk, the Blue Reaper froze, then turned around. His gaze locked on Jie, and he stalked over. Behind him, a groaning Faceless Chang covered a stab wound to her stomach.
Tian threw his knife hilt-first to Yuna, and she caught it. Jie pushed him off and took a step toward Mama. Yuna sank back down into a defensive stance.
With her single-minded focus on Mama, and her back to the Blue Reaper, Jie didn’t see him about to slash at her. Yuna dove into Jie’s legs, sending them both to the floor.
The Blue Reaper loomed above them. He aimed a kick at Jie’s exposed ribs, but the half-elf rolled out of the way and kip-upped to her feet. The cold, determined look had disappeared. She counter-attacked with a flurry of stabs and slashes that had the Blue Reaper in retreat.
She turned to Yuna. “Pattern seven. Before Rumei takes control of me again.”
Yuna gasped. With pattern seven, Jie would put herself in a vulnerable position to allow Yuna to flank. It was tantamount to self-sacrifice. Before Yuna could object, Jie shifted her position, leaving her side undefended.
The Blue Reaper lunged at the opening. She grunted as his blade slashed across her arm. His motion exposed his flank, and Yuna snapped the knife with a twisting stab that slid into the space between his ribs. The No Shadow Cut, she’d done it! Hot, black blood washed over her hand, and she lost her handle on the weapon as he jerked to the side. Ignoring the wound,
which would surely kill him, he followed up with what would be a fatal blow to Jie’s unprotected kidneys.
Yuna threw herself into the path of the strike. The Blue Reaper’s blade plunged deep into her flank. Unbearable pain seared through her, and she sank to her knees. White flashes clouded her vision.
✽ ✽ ✽
No, no, no, not Yuna! Jie’s heart pounded in her ears. She reversed the grip of her knife as the Blue Reaper pulled his own from the girl who’d just sacrificed herself. Yuna’s blade still protruded from between his ribs, so deep it had to have penetrated into his lungs. Even still, he stood firm, ready to—
Tian seized the killer’s ankle and drove his shoulder into the back of his knee. It would’ve worked better from the front, but the Blue Reaper still sank to a knee. Jie raked her blade across his carotid artery, spraying a mist of black blood. Probing at this newest wound, he fell face-first onto the floor. His brimmed hat plopped off, exposing the back of his head, and she slid the knife into the space between his skull and the top of his spinal column.
The room went silent, save for Mikayla’s cries, Faceless Chang’s groans, and Yuna’s heaves.
“Yuna!” Tian said.
“Yuna!” Her mother, cowering in the corner with her twin sons, covered her mouth.
Jie ran over and knelt by the girl, so pretty and precocious. A stream of blood trickled from the side of her mouth, and her beautiful eyes were dimming with each of her labored breaths. The Blue Reaper’s blade had bit deep into her liver, and it was a wonder she was still alive, let alone conscious. She’d taken the death blow that should’ve been Jie’s, and not even the clan’s Viper’s Rest, a self-induced coma which Yuna had yet to master anyway, could save her from such a devastating injury.
“Go sit with her.” Tian pulled at the mother’s arm. In the week Jie had known him, his voice had never sounded angry. Now it carried enough acerbity for the both of them.
Her mother’s first tentative steps lengthened into a determined stride. She knelt down and rested Yuna’s head in her lap. She brushed her hair out of her face. “You saved Mama. You’re a good girl. Come, Feng Qi, Feng Tan. Tell your big sister how proud you are.”
The two boys came and knelt around her.
Tears ran from the corner of Yuna’s glassed eyes, down her temples, mirroring the ones blurring Jie’s vision and drawing rivulets down Tian’s cheeks.
She’d found her family. Her real family. Jie pulled Tian away. No matter how the Black Lotus emphasized clan loyalty over blood, Yuna had always held on to the latter. It was better to let her die with—
“Jie.” Yuna’s voice came out a whisper as she pulled her hand from her brother’s and reached out. “Tian.”
Tian was at her side in a blink of an eye, and Jie not long after. They each took one of her hands, cold and clammy.
“Say…goodbye…to Wen…for me.” The light went out of Yuna’s eyes, her gaze frozen on the beyond.
Chapter 14
Rising from where Yuna’s family surrounded her, Jie stood and picked her way through the dead Triads. She paused to look at Lusha, who lay motionless at the foot of the desk.
Faceless Chang—Feng Rumei—slumped in her chair, hands pressed against the stomach wound. She wouldn’t last the hour, and the Black Lotus would need that hour to answer some last questions.
“You are going to die,” Jie said. “But I can either make your death even more painful, or very fast. I need you to answer me.”
Feng Rumei let out a sneering sound, and no doubt her lip curled beneath her mask. Well, if she wanted to play that way…
“Wait.” Tian shuffled up, Little Mikayla in his arms.
She was quiet now, clasping that same ragdoll to her chest.
“Mikayla is your daughter, isn’t she?” Tian asked.
Daughter? Gawking, Jie stared at the boy.
Feng Rumei coughed as she fumbled to remove the mask, and Jie helped her loosen the straps on the back. When the visage of the demon fell away, it revealed a girl, exotic in her mixed heritage, beautiful despite her pallor and the blood running down her chin. She finger-combed her matted brown hair. Her gaze found a cracked mirror, and she clawed for the mask. “Please, don’t let Feng Mi see me like this.”
Moving the mask out of Feng Rumei’s reach, Jie dabbed the sweat and blood from her face, arranged her hair the best she could, and gestured toward Yuna’s inert form in her mother’s lap. “Your daughter won’t care what her mother looks like.”
“What did you want to know?” With a nod, Feng Rumei stretched out her arms, and Tian hefted Mikayla into them. The girl quieted.
“You used one of the Steel Orchids as a body double,” Jie said. “Where’s the other one?”
“Dead. She was the original Faceless Chang. After I helped her take over the Red Dragons, I had to kill her.”
It wasn’t exactly what Jie had suspected. “How?”
“With Empathy. I made the clan believe she was Feng Rumei, and ordered them to kill her. I kept her frozen so she couldn’t defend herself.”
“Wait,” Tian said. “Didn’t she and Gardener Ju switch out on occasion? How did she accept you as her twin?”
“Again, Empathy. I made her believe I was her twin.”
“And she trained you in our ways?” Jie asked. “You were able to avoid my throwing star.”
Every shake of Feng Rumei’s head looked painful. “Empathy. I could sense your intention.”
If true, that would be a relief. “Does anyone else know about the Black Lotus Clan?”
“No. The fewer people who knew, the more the legend of Faceless Chang grew.”
Unless she was protecting someone, there was no reason to lie. It looked as if the secret of the Black Fists was safe. Jie let out a sigh.
“Please, grant my last request.” Feng Rumei bowed her head. “Please take care of Feng Mi. If I can’t keep an eye on her…”
“What about her father?” Tian asked.
She lifted her chin to the wiry Triad, dead by the Blue Reaper’s hand. “Du was her father, but I made sure he never knew.”
Tian nodded. “Right. The months you supposedly wasted in the Floating World with a Blossom, you were pregnant.”
“And that coincided with when Gardener Ju was often absent,” Jie said.
“Yes.” Feng Mi let out a long sigh. “I could never let the Triads know I was a girl, and Gardener Ju filled in for me at times.”
Tian shuddered. “Why did you bring Feng Mi back to the Trench?”
“I’d hoped my father could teach her the rudiments of Empathy. And I wanted her close. Sadly, she has no talent for it.”
Jie looked over her shoulder at Yuna. Mothers came in all forms, apparently, though Yuna, Mikayla, and Jie were the same in that they barely knew theirs, if at all.
Feng Rumei coughed a few times. When she spoke again, her voice was even weaker than before. “Tell Feng Mi…tell her that Mama took down the leadership of the Red Dragons, and made the Trench a better place.”
“I will.”
“Do you promise?”
Jie nodded.
Feng Rumei’s voice came out as a barely audible whisper. “There’s more to Lilian’s story. Fixer Zhang has the answers…” Her eyes rolled up and her body went limp.
Epilogue
Jie bounced Mikayla on her hip in the safehouse room that Tian had co-opted for his web of evidence, watching as he pored through Gardener Ju’s ledgers. Whether or not she had Empathic power, she was a pretty girl; and if she was half as clever as her sister Feng Rumei, she’d become a valuable asset to the clan.
Still, Little Feng Mi would never fill the hole in Jie’s heart left by Yuna’s death.
Wen joined several clan sisters kneeling at the far end of the room. Tears streaked her cheeks as they washed Yuna’s body before the Cleaners came. They’d take her back to Temple and cremate her, and lay her ashes to rest with the thousands of others who’d lived and died for the Black Lotus.
In order to protect the clan’s anonymity, they’d used the last of the safehouse’s supply of musk and flower toxins on Yuna’s mother and brothers. It would leave them with, at best, hazy recollections of the night’s events. How easy it would be for her mother, to assume her daughter was still alive somewhere; and for her brothers, who would continue to believe their older sister had died long ago.
It was not so easy for Jie, Wen, and all the clan sisters who’d loved Yuna. The girl looked peaceful in death.
The same could not be said about the Blue Reaper, who turned out to truly be blue. He wasn’t even human. Tusks rose from his lower jaw. With his black blood, he could only be an Altivorc, though unlike his hideous brethren, he was quite handsome. His blue scarf proved to be magic of some sort; no amount of pulling, cutting, stabbing, or burning could affect it. In addition to his knife, they’d recovered a finger-length metal cylinder. They couldn’t figure out what it was, or what it was used for. Jie had written a message to Master Yan, suggesting they should seek out Arkothi Runemasters or Aksumi Mystics to study the strange artifacts. Why he’d targeted Nothori Empaths, there was no way of knowing. While Tian did not like coming to conclusions without plenty of evidence, he conjectured that in this case, it had to do with the First Empath’s role in liberating mankind from the shackles of orc slavery a thousand years ago.
These things weren’t her concern. More daunting was the Trench. Feng Rumei had made half of it a better place. Now, with the Red Dragons’ leadership dead and the yue supply about to dry up, it was a firepowder keg, ready to ignite. She would send word to Master Yan, requesting the clan send someone in to become the new Faceless Chang.
It might be an easy solution, but more perplexing were Feng Rumei’s last words. There was more to Lilian’s story, and perhaps that meant the murder of Lord Ting and the machinations of the Steel Orchids were yet to be fully resolved. Which meant Jie’s part in that story was unfinished also.
There were three days before Jie was to take Tian to the Black Lotus Temple to start his training. Three days to figure out who Fixer Zhang was, and then learn Lilian’s secret.