The Sword Dancer

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The Sword Dancer Page 11

by Jeanne Lin


  The front gate had been boarded shut when she came upon it, but she easily climbed the wall and landed inside the tiny square of a courtyard. Wild grass poked up between the rough stones that paved the garden and there was a small pond in the centre, though any fish that might be swimming in the murky waters were obscured beneath a layer of grime.

  The altar in the main room was intact, leading her to believe the shrine’s caretaker had left for a journey and intended to return one day. Statues of the Three Pure Ones, the old sages of Taoist legend, stood on the altar. A dusty spider’s web stretched from the Jade Pure One’s shoulder up to the rafters.

  Perhaps the caretaker of this shrine had gone off on a pilgrimage. Taoist practitioners often preferred to meditate in solitude, reflecting upon life up high in the mountains. Statues and incense neither inspired nor enlightened them.

  Li Feng lit a fire in the small brazier that was typically used to collect incense and then climbed on to the altar to brush some of the dust off of the three statues. The Supreme Pure One regarded her with a serene, yet someone amused expression as she cleaned his face. She wasn’t one for idols either, but it was a small service to perform for her stay at the shrine.

  ‘Elder Sister.’ A deep voice cut through the rhythm of the rainfall. ‘I didn’t realise you had decided to follow the Way.’

  It was Han. Of course it was Han.

  She hopped from the altar, every muscle tense, as he stepped into the chamber. Water glistened upon his face and beaded on his cloak. The patter of raindrops upon the rooftop had covered the sound of his footsteps.

  Her hand trailed to her sleeve. ‘You found me.’

  ‘I’ll always find you.’

  He didn’t seem happy with that. Han shed his bamboo hat along with the heavy cloak that shielded him from the rain. His dao remained in his sheath while he looked over her priestess’s robe curiously.

  ‘Every time I see you, you’ve become something new,’ he said absently before meeting her eyes. ‘You disappeared that night.’

  ‘It was time to go our separate ways,’ she replied with her teeth on edge. Actually her teeth were close to chattering. It was cold inside and wet outside. The prospect of fleeing into the rain didn’t please her at all. She was rather annoyed by it.

  He looked out into the soaked courtyard, then back at her. ‘Even though I’m blocking this doorway here, the frame on that window over there is pretty flimsy. I suppose you’re fast enough to dive through it.’

  ‘In one leap,’ she agreed warily. ‘And then I would be through the courtyard and up over the roof before you could turn around.’

  ‘The rain would make everything very slippery. Are you sure you won’t fall?’

  He took a step into the altar room. By now he had to have discovered what had happened. Was she once again his quarry? Li Feng side-stepped along the wall to keep the distance between them. It was a precarious dance.

  ‘I’ve tried the climb,’ she insisted. ‘I know exactly where to hold on.’

  ‘You’ll land in the alleyway out back,’ he continued lightly. ‘That’s a dead end.’

  ‘Not for me.’

  ‘Ah, up another wall. On to another roof.’

  ‘Walking on walls and flying over eaves,’ she finished for him.

  He smiled. It was a generous, genuine smile and, as always, it did alarming things to her insides.

  ‘It seems you’ve escaped from me again then,’ he conceded. ‘If that’s the case, we can both avoid the unpleasantness of getting soaked.’

  He moved towards her, very much still in pursuit. Her heart was racing as fast as if she had run from him, even though she was standing still.

  ‘One day, I’ll find a way to get a hold of you,’ he said

  quietly. He ventured closer and touched a hand to her waist, cradling gently with just the pressure of his fingertips. ‘Is there a way to keep a hold on you, Li Feng?’

  His mouth grew tight as she glanced over the broad features of his face, the strong cheekbones and broad jaw. He was seeking an answer with his eyes, his touch, but she had no answer.

  ‘I searched everywhere that night.’ His voice resonated beneath the cadence of the rain. She could feel it humming through her, inside her. ‘At first I thought something had happened to you.’

  He stopped himself, embarrassed at revealing so much. They were toe to toe, but still barely touching. It was hard to breathe freely with him so close.

  She had never considered that he might be worried. That he might actually care for her. The thought flooded her with warmth.

  ‘I saw that the tavern keeper and his family were gone the next morning,’ he told her. ‘I knew then what had happened.’

  ‘It’s just salt,’ she argued.

  ‘It is never just salt,’ he corrected. ‘And the tavern keeper wasn’t the only one involved. I suspect the entire village had a hand in the smuggling.’

  ‘You arrested the entire village?’

  ‘No, that would be beyond my abilities. Such a serious accusation has to be carefully considered before being reported to the proper—’ He stopped himself and regarded her with a determined expression on his face. ‘This isn’t why I came here,’ he said, his voice rough.

  ‘Why, then?’

  His hands rounded her waist to rest against the small of her back. At first she stiffened, but his touch had the ease of familiarity. As if holding her was the most natural thing in the world for him. Slowly he pulled her closer, testing the bonds between them.

  She braced a hand against his chest. ‘This is impossible.’

  ‘I know.’

  He didn’t kiss her.

  With a heavy sigh, he lowered his forehead to hers. She had never realised how well they fit. Her height complemented his perfectly. It was a disconcerting thought. For a long moment they did nothing but stand together, breathing softly.

  She closed her eyes. ‘I’m only letting you do this because you’re so warm.’

  ‘Of course.’

  He was more than warm. He smelled faintly of sandalwood, a clean, comforting smell that made her close her eyes and sink against him. His chest was broad, his shoulders strong and for once she enjoyed the feeling of being enclosed and held. It had been so long.

  ‘Didn’t you consider that I might have some compassion in me?’ he asked her. ‘I’m not made of rock.’

  An apt comparison, actually.

  ‘Justice is justice,’ she pointed out. ‘Your words.’

  He fell silent. Li Feng pulled away and he let her slip through his fingers without a fight. Surely she was misleading Han to remain in his embrace, no matter how good it felt. She went to stand outside on the veranda. The tread of his footsteps on the wooden floor told her he’d followed her outside.

  ‘Why do you continue to follow me, if not to arrest me?’

  She stared at the endless fall of water. It was easier than looking at Han. She had allowed herself to be diverted once before from her quest and wouldn’t let it happen again.

  ‘I told you we would do this together,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’ She turned and fixed her gaze on him. She wouldn’t accept his deflections about truth and justice any longer. ‘Why are you here?’ she demanded.

  He considered for a long moment before answering.

  ‘Because we’re friends.’

  * * *

  He managed to coax her back inside. They fed strips of wood into the brazier and warmed their hands over the fire as they sat on the bamboo mats that covered the floor of the shrine.

  ‘How did you find me?’ Li Feng asked.

  ‘Does it matter?’

  She tilted her head playfully at him. ‘I want to know how the thief-catcher thinks.’

  It was as if they’d never parted. All their meetings in the past weeks started to blend seamlessly together in his mind. And in the spaces in between, he’d done little else but think of her, looking over small details, things she’d said, done. Figuring out how he�
��d find her again.

  He nodded. ‘I knew you would come to Minzhou because it was where our friend Cai Yun was going. From our past altercations, I knew you favoured seeking out abandoned buildings. Then it was a matter of asking the right people about a woman travelling alone. You’ll always stand out because of that.’

  She made a face at him, her lips in a pout. She would always stand out for him because he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. It had been that way from the first moment he’d seen her, sword in hand.

  ‘Do you know that Cai Yun is dead?’ she asked.

  He blinked once. Twice. ‘Dead.’ He sat back, exhaling sharply. ‘Dead?’

  She shifted to find a more comfortable position on the mat, tucking her legs beneath her as she recounted the tale. Han noted that she was no longer in a position to leap to her feet and fly through the window. In response, he relaxed as well, leaning back and resting an arm over his knee. For the moment, they were companions again.

  ‘An entire gang of bandits killed him out in the open and then disappeared?’ he asked.

  ‘They said a thief-catcher tried to hunt down the killers, but they beat him nearly to death and then escaped into the mountains.’

  Outlaws were known to band together to attack transports along the rivers or merchants on the road. In remote areas, a group of thugs could overpower local authorities and try to take control of entire towns, such as in the case of Two Dragon Lo. The same problem had plagued the county where his father had served as magistrate.

  ‘This wasn’t mere banditry,’ he concluded. ‘This is intimidation.’

  ‘The killers were part of the smuggling ring,’ Li Feng suggested.

  ‘Most likely. It stands to reason that a man who dealt with outlaws would die by their hands.’

  ‘I also learned that he was Prefect Guan’s steward,’ she said.

  Han stood and paced to the window, his mind racing. Guan He oversaw the administration of the prefecture.

  ‘If the prefect is involved, then the corruption reaches far beyond the bribery of a few commission officials,’ he declared. A fire rose within him. ‘The entire salt trade within the region could be compromised.’

  ‘Han.’

  Li Feng’s even, soothing voice disrupted his fervour. She regarded him with such a serious expression that he feared what she would reveal. As if she were about to confess to the murder along with ten other crimes, but it was nothing so dire.

  ‘I know that it’s your life’s work to rid the world of outlaws and corruption,’ she said.

  He was taken aback. ‘It’s not—’

  ‘But this, all of this that you’re speaking of, it isn’t my concern. This happened once before. I became involved in a conflict that had nothing to do with me. If I hadn’t been so blind, then I wouldn’t have got so deeply entangled with the wrong people. I wouldn’t have thief-catchers chasing after me.’

  She looked away from him. He could see the long line of her neck and the way a strand of her hair curved along her ear to grace her throat. His own throat went dry for no reason. Well, there was a reason. He was next to Li Feng and she didn’t need to be dressed in a threadbare courtesan’s robe to entice him.

  ‘Maybe I should be grateful for your past transgressions,’ he drawled. ‘Otherwise I would have never been one of those thief-catchers with the privilege of chasing after you.’

  Li Feng snapped back around, her gaze narrowing on him in cat-like fashion. Then she let out a short laugh. ‘What is this, thief-catcher? Your method of courtship?’

  He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. They regarded one another across the bamboo mat, her face lit with a smile and him grinning. This was better than courtship. Better than seduction.

  All he knew was that even when they were on opposite sides of the law, he still felt a closer connection to her than anyone else in this world. What they had between them defied the boundaries of order and convention and he had never felt anything else like it.

  Li Feng let out a long sigh. Her smile faded and the fragile thread between them broke, or rather it was pulled thin once more.

  ‘I only want to find out what happened to my family,’ she told him. ‘The jade led me to Cai Yun and now Cai Yun has led me to his master. I will continue my search with Guan He. The rest of this, I leave to you.’

  She sounded almost apologetic. He didn’t want to drag her into any cause. He had just taken for granted that their paths had become intertwined.

  ‘I haven’t forgotten what’s important to you,’ he assured her. ‘Tell me what you remember about your parents.’

  She looked up at him from where she knelt. ‘Mother was a dancer. Father must have been one as well. We travelled with an entire group of performers. Maybe they came through here at some point. Or maybe we were from this city.’

  ‘What’s your family name?’

  ‘I don’t remember.’ A look of pain flickered across her face. ‘It’s so infuriating! I remember some things, foolish things, so clearly. And yet something as important as this? Not at all.’

  She threw a twig into the brazier. The low flame leapt, as if in response to her frustration, but it settled as the wood burned away. Han watched the slow dance of the fire, trying to understand the depth of Li Feng’s loss.

  His family was still alive, but in a way, they were lost to him as well. Or rather, he was lost to them. The difference was that he knew where his family was. They lived on a farm now, outside the city where his father had once served as magistrate. Even though he hadn’t seen them in years, they were in his thoughts. If they were to suddenly disappear, he would be missing a part of himself.

  ‘You said it was fifteen years ago that you were separated?’ he continued.

  Li Feng nodded. ‘Yes, fifteen. Why do you ask?’

  ‘I told you that my father was a magistrate. I must have still had my milk teeth when he tried to teach me about the law.’

  She frowned at him, confused.

  ‘This knowledge…it gives me certain advantages as a thief-catcher.’ He didn’t want to sound boastful, but he knew his upbringing gave him some insight into the inner workings of the tribunal and the magistrate’s office. Part of his success came from being able to speak to appointed officials as well as the constables and common folk. ‘You had mentioned the men who came for your mother may have been trying to arrest her for some crime. I can look into the case records in Minzhou. I can’t promise anything, but I can try.’

  She stared at him, her lips pressed together and her brow creased in thought. ‘Thank you, Hao Han,’ she said finally, with a quiet sincerity that touched him.

  They edged closer to the fire to enjoy the last of the warmth before it burned out. Even with the doors and windows shut tight, the small space inside the shrine grew chilled as the evening came. He had secured a slightly more hospitable place the day before and was going to suggest that they leave for more comfortable lodging, but Li Feng came and huddled against him with her head against his shoulder.

  He would see about relocating tomorrow. For now, the rain outside could turn to snow and he wouldn’t have moved from that spot.

  Han wrapped his cloak around both of them and his arm slipped around Li Feng, settling around her waist. She steadied a hand flat against his chest, where she could probably feel how his heart had started pumping faster from having her so close. His entire body reacted to her, tensing, warming, wanting.

  He did think of bedding her. Of course he did. He also thought of how he’d been a fool not to take her at the Singing Nightingale and again at the salt village. And right now. In his mind, he was already on to their second time together, let alone the first.

  He lowered himself to the mat, bringing her with him the entire way. Li Feng settled partially over him and her head found the same spot on his shoulder in the darkness. He was breathing hard by now, though they had barely moved for nearly a quarter of an hour. His hand was cradled at the small of her back and he could feel the tension gathering
along her spine. Li Feng had to be thinking along the same lines as he was.

  ‘It would change everything,’ he said to her, to himself and to the darkness.

  ‘Would that be so bad?’ She was drawing a lazy line along his collarbone with her fingertips. Heaven help him if it wasn’t the most erotic caress he’d ever experienced. Just that slightest touch, nowhere near any significant part of his person, and he was already hard.

  Every thud of his heart was telling him now. Now. Now. With the same insistence with which his thief-catcher instinct had told him to chase after her.

  But despite her flirtatious tone, he sensed that it wasn’t quite what Li Feng wanted. She seemed content to curl up beside him. Her breathing deepened as she relaxed into sleep.

  The stars were not aligned. What else could he say? He knew that was a poor explanation, but it made as much sense as any other reason he could give. They were in a cold shrine, on a hard floor while rain poured outside. And there were unresolved issues between them.

  Not eight days ago, Li Feng had run from him. There was nothing that convinced him she wouldn’t run from him again and, though he had lain with women before, he wanted more from Li Feng than that. And he wanted to be more than a moment of heat and passion for her as well, as sweet as that moment might be.

  Li Feng burrowed against him and he clasped his arms around her so she couldn’t get away. Not that she was trying to at the moment, but he held her tight to him anyway until she relaxed and settled against him. It was true that he wanted much, much more, but for now, this was enough.

  Chapter Ten

  The front entrance of the magistrate’s yamen was designed to be an imposing sight. Armoured guards flanked either side of it, with a long spear in hand and swords at their belts.

  Petitioners would enter through the blood red pillars to kneel before the magistrate. The vast compound contained the

  tribunal and the prison house as well as the various offices of the clerks and deputies that served beneath the county magistrate.

 

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