Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXII

by Cirone, Patricia B.

  "We met some in the hills above the town," Biao Mei said, "when we took shelter from a storm in an abandoned temple."

  "There has been much talk of that," Ro Min noted. "A desperate battle against high odds—the market has been filled with gossip about it."

  "Any real news?" Lin Mei asked dryly. Ro Min smiled and shook her head.

  "In the marketplace? No. But gossip can hold truth. People say that the District Governor is leaving early next Season."

  Lin Mei finished the last of her noodles with a loud slurp. "Has the gossip linked that to the sudden presence of Anshazhe?" she asked.

  "Of course," Ro Min said. "In many ways. But no real news." The midday gong rang in the distance.

  "Time to train," Lin Mei said, stacking her bowls. Ro Min rose in one graceful motion.

  "It was good talking with you," she said, before moving off to the women's quarters. Lin Mei watched her, puzzled. She could not shake the feeling there had been more than was apparent in the meeting.

  "Interesting," Biao Mei said. She looked at him.

  "A romantic interest?" she asked grinning.

  "Of course not," he stammered. "But she obviously knows a lot of what is going on."

  "Maybe you can nurture your friendship, and you can learn from each other," she said.

  "Perhaps," he grunted. She hid her smile. He would have thought in that direction anyway, and now he would look for any probing on Ro Min's part. The returned their bowls to the kitchen and went to the training rooms for the afternoon's session.

  * * * *

  Lin Mei lunged with a padded practice lance and fell to the floor with a whump! Hua Chan had whirled away from the thrust and then back to trip her with his own lance. She felt the padded tip of his lance at her throat, holding her down. After a moment he backed off, letting her rise.

  "Another bad night?" he asked. She nodded. "Bad dreams will kill you," he added, with a slight note of exasperation in his voice. "Rest and get some water to drink. We will start again in a short while." Nearby Biao Mei sweated through his own routine, the heavy wooden practice sword straining his muscles. With a sigh of relief he set it down and joined her.

  They went out to the well in the courtyard. The household was bustling, and they had to wait in line. Biao Mei nodded to the far end of the courtyard where Ro Min and another woman were training with their bows. As they watched Ro Min loosed an arrow that flew unwaveringly into a bundle of reeds that had been set up as a target.

  "Good shooting," he observed. Lin Mei nodded. She watched as Ro Min nocked another arrow. The release was smooth and quick and the second arrow landed beside the first. Lin Mei looked around, observing the household traffic, which was centered around the well and the cooking fire, with only a few servants sitting in the shaded verandas. She motioned toward the sand garden.

  "People seem to avoid that," she said. Biao Mei looked over and nodded.

  "They do," he agreed.

  "That's odd." The sand was carefully raked, the plants were carefully arranged and well tended, and the rocks were tastefully chosen and set in the sand just so. It compared well with other gardens they had seen in their travels. Still, there was something menacing about it, even in the light of day.

  "A pretty garden, eh?" a servant girl behind them said. "Wang Liu's young wife had it made earlier this year. She directed the making of it, in every detail. It is like the gardens in her home province."

  "She is not from here?" Biao Mei asked. The girl shook her head.

  "He brought her here two seasons ago. She was a lady-in-waiting in his older brother's household in Chang'An."

  "So she is from the Capital?" Lin Mei asked. The girl nodded.

  "A minor family. Noble, but not too wealthy. And she is the youngest daughter. This is a good match for her."

  "And her guards?"

  "Also from Chang'An," the girl replied. Lin Mei and her brother looked at each other.

  "Interesting," Lin Mei said later, as they walked back to the training rooms.

  "So Wang Liu has ties to the Capital," her brother said. "Would that account for the presence of Anshazhe?" Lin Mei thought for a moment, then shook her head.

  "The youngest daughter of minor nobility with little wealth? I doubt it. Still, it is something to keep in mind."

  The rest of the afternoon passed in hard effort, and Lin Mei was glad when it ended. She made her way to the women's quarters to use the baths there. The servants had buckets of heated water ready and she gratefully took one and began to rub off the grime and sweat of the day.

  "Train hard, fight easy," a voice said behind her. She turned to look. It was Ro Min, with her companion. "This is Kin Shin," she said. "May we join you?" Lin Mei shrugged, and moved aside to make space in the small tiled room. She watched as the two women washed with quick economical movements. Afterwards they went to soak in the large heated tubs in the next room.

  "Lance work," Ro Min said, pointing to the bruises on Lin Mei's body. "Hua Chan is a hard taskmaster."

  "He is," she agreed. "I was watching you practice with the bow earlier. Good shooting."

  "Thank you," Ro Min acknowledged. "It is just as hard to learn as the lance, although less painful."

  "We heard of the fight in the storerooms last night," Kin Shin broke in. "Good work."

  "Good thing I was awake," Lin Mei said. "A bad dream made it difficult to sleep."

  "A bad dream?"

  Lin Mei nodded. "The same as the past few nights, a large snake, dangerous, looking for something."

  Ro Min and Kin Shin looked at each other. "It is unusual for the same bad dream to come more than once," Kin Shin said.

  "This one does," Lin Mei said.

  "Drink a small cup of white tea this evening, before bedtime," Kin Shin suggested. Lin Mei thanked her for the suggestion and the talk drifted to memories of Chang'An, the capital.

  That evening Lin Mei and Biao Mei were informed they would have the last watch, just before dawn. She recalled Kin Shin's suggestion and went to the kitchen to get a cup of white tea. While sipping it just outside the door she gazed over at the sand garden, noting the way people seemed to avoid it.

  "Looking at the garden?" one of the cooks asked. She nodded. "Pretty garden," the cook said, "but people don't seem to like it. Bad feng shui, I say. Wang Liu's wife used a book instead of consulting a local expert. She even had that big rock brought in from the river because she liked it. You can do that in the center of the empire, but not here near the mountains. No, not here." He moved off back into the kitchen, leaving her to finish her tea and wonder about his words.

  After the day's exertions Lin Mei had no trouble falling asleep. She woke just in time for their watch. They relieved the guards who had the prior watch and took a walk about the compound, partly to check the grounds and partly to come to full alertness. All seemed in order and they ended their round at the door to the storerooms where they had battled the Anshazhe the night before.

  "Think they'll return?" Biao Mei asked.

  "Maybe," she replied, "but I doubt if they will so soon after last night. Still, let's stay alert." She looked down at the sand garden.

  They had just started another round of the compound when Lin Mei stopped in her tracks, slightly dizzy.

  "Are you well?" Biao Mei asked, stepping close. After a moment the dizziness passed, leaving a feeling of fear and nausea in its place. That, and an image of danger.

  "The cats!" she said suddenly. Without another word she raced across the courtyard, Biao Mei following in surprised exasperation.

  She entered the stables, hand on her sword hilt, and ran down the center to the stall where the cat's basket was. At first all seemed well, but as she came closer she noticed that there was an air of agitation, with the kittens squirming about their mother. She, for her part, had her head raised. And Twilight and Shadow were sitting up, staring into the darkness. Lin Mei looked around into the shadowed interior, and froze in horror.

  It was a woman.
Or rather, it appeared to be a woman. She stood in the shadows, covered only by long, thick, black hair which reached down past her waist. Tall, slender, and perfectly formed, she swayed in the moonlight coming through the windows near the roof. Her eyes were cold, filled with hard calculation. Part of her mind told Lin Mei that this was easily the most beautiful woman she had seen in her short, though eventful, life. A bigger part of her mind noted that she had never before been confronted by anyone, or anything, so dangerous.

  "Who are you?" Lin Mei breathed.

  "Lumas," the stranger replied, her voice cold as ice.

  "Lumas," Lin Mei repeated. "Why are you here?"

  "You brought me here," the stranger hissed in an angry reply.

  "We brought you here?" Lin Mei asked. "How?"

  Before she could reply the mysterious being looked to the end of the room, her face scowling. In an instant she was gone, apparently vanishing into the dark shadows without taking a step, leaving Lin Mei with a wildly beating heart.

  "What was that?" Biao Mei asked, shaking. Instead of replying Lin Mei looked down the room to where Lumas had fled. She doubted that the mysterious and dangerous being had run from something. So she had run to something. But what? Suddenly a certainty crystallized in her mind.

  "The garden!" she yelled. Without another word she ran down the center of the stables toward the door, Biao Mei in pursuit. The door was still open and they raced through it to the space outside.

  And confronted three figures in the courtyard, all dressed in black, masked, with swords out and ready. Anshazhe. Biao Mei stepped out in front of his sister, sword in ready position. Lin Mei stepped to the side, grabbed her sword hilt firmly, and proceeded to strike it loudly against the wall of the stables, all the while shouting "Intruders! Intruders!"

  Within moments doors and windows were opening and people were shouting all over the compound. One of the Anshazhe motioned to his companions and they started to run. Two arrows sped through the night, striking with unerring accuracy. Two of the Anshazhe went down. The third almost made it to the nearby wall where a knotted rope waited when a dark streak brought him down. He fell, thrashing on the flagstones with Hua Chan's lance embedded in his back.

  Suddenly the night was quiet, everyone staring in shock at what had happened. Shin Hu's voice broke the stillness. "Torches," he yelled. "Lanterns!" In moments the courtyard looked like New Year, with lighted lamps and torches appearing out of nowhere. Shin Hu sent men to search the place while he took Lin Mei and her brother to the side and bade them stay still and speak to no one until he had a chance to question them.

  Lin Mei said quietly as they waited, "Let's not mention the woman we saw until I have a chance to learn more."

  The sun was rising over the wall when Shin Hu returned. His men had reported that they had found no other Anshazhe. Armed messengers had gone to the magistrate's office and the head of the city's night watch, and Wang Liu had been awakened.

  It was midmorning when the household of Wang Liu returned to some semblance of normalcy. The magistrate's men had come and gone, taking their reports and the bodies with them. Shin Hu had closely questioned Lin Mei and her brother. They simply said they had been checking the stables and encountered the Anshazhe on the way out. Ro Min and Kin Shin were the heroines of the day, with Hua Chan sharing credit.

  "That's four dead in the last two days," Shin Hu commented. "Add in the ones we killed back at the temple in the hills and this has been a bad month for the Anshazhe. And we still don't know why they are here." He looked down at Lin Mei and Biao Mei, who were sitting on a bench inside the stables where he had taken them. "Any ideas?" They shook their heads mutely. "Well," he went on, "you two seem to have a nose for this sort of vermin hunt. If you find out anything that is useful, you will let me know, correct?" They nodded. "Good. Go and get some rest."

  "Breakfast," Lin Mei said quietly as they walked across the courtyard to the kitchen, "and I want to talk to that cook."

  Two bowls of rice and noodles later, along with tea, life looked better. They stacked their bowls to be washed, and went in search of the cook Lin Mei had spoken to the day before. They found him chopping some radishes for that evening's dinner. He looked up as they approached, almost as if he had been expecting them.

  "So," he greeted, "more excitement and battles." Lin Mei smiled in greeting and looked around to ensure they were alone.

  "What is wrong about that garden?" she asked. "It's not just the self-taught feng shui."

  He finished chopping the last radish and looked up at them. "The lumas do not like to be disturbed."

  "Lumas?" they both replied in unison. He smiled wryly at them.

  "So you've met her?" They nodded slowly. "Ah," he went on. "When I was younger..." He was lost in reverie for a moment, then shook his head to come back to the present. "The lumas are serpent demons that live in stones. The people of the mountains claim they come from a union between a stone serpent demoness and the Monkey King." He looked at them to see if they were still following him.

  "When Wang Liu's wife built her garden she brought a stone from the river. The lumas you met lives in that stone, and she is unhappy. She haunts the compound now, mourning the loss of her home."

  "If the stone is returned to the riverbed, will she be appeased?" That was Biao Mei. The old cook shrugged.

  "Perhaps," he said. "The stone demons are fickle, and their behavior is not easily predicted. You can try."

  "How is it that you know of these things?" Lin Mei asked. The old cook smiled sadly.

  "I was not always a cook," he said. "When I was younger I was trained to be a priest. I learned the rituals of propitiation. I learned to intercede between men and the elemental powers. Then one day, when I was performing a ritual to appease a serpent demoness whose home had been disturbed by careless men mining for gold, I let my weaker male nature get the better of me. For my sin I was banished from the monastery." He looked at Biao Mei. "She was beautiful, wasn't she?" Biao Mei blushed red.

  "Can you still perform these rituals?" Lin Mei asked.

  "Yes, but I cannot guarantee that they will work."

  "What about the Anshazhe?" she asked.

  The old cook looked at her for a long moment. "Perhaps your new friends, the ladies of the deadly bows, can help with that."

  "Perhaps," Lin Mei said. "Thank you for your words." They turned to go.

  "Wait," the cook said. They stopped. "Wang Liu already knows," he said.

  "Knows what?" Biao Mei asked. But the man returned to his radishes. After a moment they left.

  "Wang Liu and the magistrate both," Lin Mei said quietly once they were outside. "That would explain the rather brief inquiries of the last few days." Biao Mei nodded.

  "Do we go and tell Shin Hu?" he asked.

  "Tell him what?" Lin Mei asked in return. "So far we have tales of a 'stone demoness' and cryptic references from an old cook. Let's talk with our 'new friends' and see what light they may choose to shine on this."

  They were allowed entry to the main house with an ease that made Lin Mei uneasy. It was as if they were anticipated. Ro Min met them in a side room, with tea and sweet rice buns on the low table. They sat opposite her as she poured tea with a grace and composure that seemed out of place in this provincial outpost. She set the full teacups before Lin Mei and her brother and sipped quietly from her own cup, then sat back and waited. And it hit Lin Mei with a jolt.

  "You're not ordinary guards," she said. "And Wang Liu's wife is not the youngest daughter of a minor noble family." Ro Min smiled faintly.

  "Imperial Guards," she said softly. "Charged with protecting the women's quarters." Kin Shin walked in and took the other chair. They sat quietly, watching Lin Mei and her brother. They were unarmed, but Lin Mei recalled a moment two years before in the Southern jungles when they had come upon a tiger feeding on a deer. Their calm neutral eyes reminded her of the cat's gaze, and a chill ran down her spine.

  "And who is Wang Liu's wife?" Bi
ao Mei asked. Kin Shin took a cup and poured tea into it, taking a sip before setting it down and looking at him.

  "The King of the Western Turks asked for the hand of the Emperor's oldest daughter," she began. "She is his favorite, and she pleaded not to be sent to live among the Western barbarians. But to refuse such a request would be a grave diplomatic insult. Fortunately the Emperor had another daughter, born of a concubine, who was almost identical in looks to the oldest daughter. She was sent off to the Western lands, where she resides in splendor, and is the mother of the Khan's sons. The Emperor's daughter was sent here for a few years, as the wife of the merchant, Wang Liu. We were sent with her."

  "She accepted a life out here as the wife of an old merchant?" Biao Mei asked in disbelief.

  "A marriage in name only," Ro Min replied. "At his age it does not matter to him. His sons from his prior marriage have been given positions in the Imperial Government, and he has an Imperial license to conduct trade for the Emperor here. He will die a very wealthy man. She will return home, and in the meantime he has a beautiful and refined wife and is the envy of his peers."

  "What about the Anshazhe?" Lin Mei asked, already knowing the answer. Ro Min shrugged.

  "We have sent a message back to Chang'An," she said casually. "Inquiries will be made." Lin Mei looked at her knowingly. The secret had somehow been leaked, or was suspected, and blood would be spilled. She hoped it wouldn't be theirs.

  "That explains why Wang Liu was so indulgent regarding the sand garden," Biao Mei said. Ro Min and Kin Shin just smiled. Lin Mei and her brother looked at each other for a moment and reached a decision.

  "That leaves the matter of the demoness," he said. The two imperial guards looked at him. Quickly Lin Mei recounted what the old cook had told them.

  "He gave no guarantees," Kin Shin pointed out.

  "We can try," Lin Mei replied.

  * * * *