Jade Empire

by S. J. A. Turney

  If Dev had thought that great delicate white bridge at Jalnapur impressive, it was nothing to this incredible structure. Twice as long and twice as beautiful, this bridge was so ancient Dev could barely wrap his mind around it. The images of the gods carved into the parapets were in a style only visible in the oldest of temples, and the delicate script along the sides was the old tongue spoken only by priests. Truly the people who had lived here and become the dead of the eponymous land had once been great. Then finally they were across that immense river and moving south-east once again into the sweaty green of the jungle. The column’s leaders had momentarily given thought to destroying the bridge to prevent the possibility of pursuit, but it had eventually been universally agreed that even if they no longer felt the presence of the guardian spirits, and even if they had the resources to demolish something of that size, it would be foolish to do such a thing.

  Dev was only half-listening as Cinna and Jiang compared the structures of their imperial courts and administrations, identifying the strengths and weaknesses in each with the practised if jaded eye of a career soldier. Occasionally they laughed about what they would do differently, when they realised that they were falling into the same old traps and almost advocating the systems that had already failed them. Despite the constant nervous tension surrounding them, Dev smiled on those occasions, when the two generals had talked themselves in circles and Aram had stepped in and calmly, easily explained how to step out of the trap into which they had fallen. It gave him a sense of pride to realise that the men he and his brother had faithfully served this past year both deferred to his father on all non-military matters. Jai, on the other hand, seemed to be feeling the strangeness of this land every bit as much as Dev. While he was not unapproachable or unfriendly in any way, Dev’s brother was as quiet and subdued as all of them.

  ‘Gods and monsters,’ he breathed in exclamation as they rounded a bend in the wide road they followed and suddenly – quite suddenly – the jungle ended. His eyes wide, Jai rode with the other leaders and officers out of the canopy of green and onto a wide sandy beach.

  They moved out a hundred paces into the open, warm, salty air and stopped their mounts, looking about in awe and, spotting the unexpected, in some confusion.

  The Isle of the Dead lay before them in all its glory. It sat baiting them across more than a mile of channel, the sea’s surface rolling and rising and falling with a noise that sounded like the world breathing, and which spoke of the presence of deep water and dangerous currents. The island itself was huge, clearly. Dev realised he’d never given any real thought to the place. He’d never thought to go there for obvious reasons, and even on their journey south had assumed that would never be their destination. He had for some reason expected an island perhaps a few miles across with tombs and crumbling walls rising like a city of the dead. In fact, the isle had to be more than thirty or forty miles across, and who knew how far it stretched out of sight to the south. And it was green. Not the green of the jungle where they were now, but the green of rolling hills and meadows more like the land north of Initpur. Forest was visible here and there. It looked more inviting than Dev would ever have expected from a place bearing such a name.

  But the thing that made them all pause, from innocent tired farmer to former king or foreign general, was the boats. The wide beach would be big enough to accommodate the entire mob of humanity that had travelled south, so long as they spread out well, for the tell-tale mark of the tide line was a long way from the jungle itself. And just above that line were boats. Not one or two boats as might belong to fishermen who had been blown off course, got lost and ended up here by chance. Nor the sort of boats that might have been here for eons, gradually rotting and falling apart. There were perhaps sixty boats, each no more than a decade old, all of good timber and lying empty with the oars inside.

  Dev shivered.

  ‘Explain that,’ he said in a frail voice.

  ‘I cannot,’ his father answered, as the leaders congregated to examine the vessels.

  ‘They’re recent.’

  ‘And in good condition.’

  ‘They must have landed here and the occupants wandered off into the jungle.’

  ‘That seems exceedingly unlikely.’

  ‘So then where are they?’

  ‘And perhaps as important: where did they come from?’

  ‘It’s an invitation,’ Aram said, holding his arms out, palms flat in an attempt to calm things down. Ripples of excited, nervous conversation were making their way through the Inda as they arrived gradually on the sand.

  ‘One we must not accept,’ Parmesh replied vehemently, and for once everyone nodded their agreement with the serial dissenter.

  ‘Can I draw your attention to another curiosity?’ Bajaan put in, wandering across the sand and pointing down at the ground. The others hurried over and stared. A stick stood in the sand, rising perhaps three feet into the air, with a tip that had been painted white.

  ‘Shall I pull it out?’

  Aram shook his head. ‘Given that we do not know what is on the other end, I would say not. Remember that no one has lived here in many centuries. Not even the monks.’

  ‘Then who is leaving us boats and marking places with sticks?’ Cinna murmured.

  ‘There is another,’ General Jiang said, pointing to a second white-tipped stick a few hundred paces away. ‘If I were to say what I think, would it spread panic?’

  ‘Go on,’ Cinna said.

  ‘They look to me like range markers.’

  The stocky western general nodded. ‘That same thought had occurred to me.’

  ‘What now, then?’ Jiang asked Aram. ‘Thus far we have only discussed plans to set up a temporary colony by the sea. That was, I presume, based upon there being grassland or some such. I cannot imagine a successful colony growing here on the sand, pinned between dead jungle and dangerous sea.’

  ‘And there is no running water here,’ added Cinna helpfully.

  ‘We passed a small river only half a mile back,’ Aram reminded them. ‘Some of our people will still be crossing it now. There will be fruit within the treeline even if there is no meat. And likely fish in this sea. I am not proposing that we stay here forever, but every man, woman and child in this assembly is tired and dispirited, and everyone could do with a rest and a little recovery time. I suggest that we begin to construct temporary shelters and send scouts out east and west along the beach to see what they can find.’

  Jiang nodded. ‘An eminently sensible suggestion. I would suggest, though, moving down across the sand and a little to the east. Being too close to what look like artillery range markers makes me nervous. Do we start organising the work now or wait for the entire group to be present on the beach so that you can address them?’

  Again Dev smiled at the fact that the Jade Empire’s most successful general was deferring to his father.

  ‘Let us assign work parties straight away,’ Aram replied. ‘It is mid-afternoon, and soon the sun will begin its true descent. I think we would all feel a lot more comfortable if we had water, firewood, food and as much shelter as possible by then.’

  Dev, seemingly forgotten as the two generals began to discuss arrangements with his father, caught Jai’s eye, who nodded towards the edge of the jungle. He turned to the three leaders.

  ‘Jai and I will go and look at the river we passed, see if we can work out where it comes to the sea, as it might be nearby.’

  The three men nodded almost absently at him and, beckoning to his brother, Dev began to ride slowly back along the column of Inda that was still pouring from the jungle onto the beach, mouths open in wonder.

  ‘Thank you,’ Jai said as they moved towards the rear of the flow of humanity, ‘I was starting to become twitchy sitting there doing nothing.’

  ‘And if we kept doing it we’d end up chopping logs,’ smiled Dev.

  ‘You seem surprisingly at ease for a man sitting across the water from the most dangerous place in t
he world.’

  Dev laughed. ‘The world’s geography has changed, brother. That label belongs in the north now. It may be that the Sizhad is busy enslaving the whole world with his heresy and that here is the only place where we can still live as Inda. Every passing day this year has made me appreciate Father’s belief in fate a little more. I can hardly deny it is at work. Can you?’

  Jai shrugged. ‘Fate. Or luck. Or the sheer will of men. All different, but all as likely. I am undecided, though General Jiang is a firm believer in fate, I think.’

  ‘Me too. We have been thousands of miles apart all our adult life, and not only were we thrown back together, but with Father too. And three great armies have been rampaging in the lands, all of whom would now gleefully take our heads, yet here we are on the beach in the dead lands, safe from them all.’

  ‘But not safe from the dead lands,’ Jai muttered.

  Time rolled on as the brothers rode along the line of stragglers, and soon the column had moved past, making for the beach, Mani and a small group of riders following on as rearguard. The soldier was concerned at the two brothers riding back into the jungle alone, but Jai pointed out that they were only going as far as the river, perhaps half a mile beyond, and they had all travelled the path safely once that day. Reluctantly, Mani continued on, and soon the brothers were alone.

  Finally they reached the small river they had crossed earlier. The water was clean and sparkling, and Dev dismounted to taste it, declaring it eminently drinkable. The flow was not fast and the bed not deep, the path here crossing it in a shallow ford. The channel ran on into the jungle to their left and if Dev’s estimate of direction was anywhere near accurate and it did not deviate too much in direction, it would probably strike the beach some two miles from the place the camp was being established. That would make water retrieval much easier and less worrisome than having to delve deep into the eerie jungle for it.

  ‘Do we follow it, then?’

  Jai nodded, trusting his brother’s judgement. Dev had always been good with geography. Better than Jai, anyway. ‘Let’s be sure.’

  The going would be tougher in the vegetation, so the pair dismounted and began to walk along the river’s course, sometimes on the bank where the plants and trees receded, and sometimes simply along the flow of water, relishing the chill of the river soaking their boots. They walked in relative silence – though they were still far from stuck for conversational topics, the creepiness of the still, silent jungle made speech seem intrusive.

  The watercourse began to veer slightly west, adding distance to Dev’s initial estimate, and Jai nudged him. ‘Is it worth going on?’

  ‘It might not change too much, and at this point we might as well find out.’

  At his brother’s nod, Dev pressed on. The light was starting to change now as the sun began to sink in the west. ‘If we don’t get to the beach soon, this is going to turn out to have been a terrible idea,’ Jai noted. ‘Father will be concerned.’

  ‘It cannot be far now,’ insisted Dev, sloshing along the water. The pair lapsed into silence again and gratefully stepped up onto a border of low, springy grass alongside the river, following it south.

  A further quarter of an hour passed, and Dev, starting to query his own wisdom, opened his mouth to seek his brother’s reassurance when he heard the voices. Instantly, he snapped his mouth shut and stopped dead, gesturing for Jai to keep quiet. They shared a concerned look. There was no way the river had come close enough to their father and his people so, unless some of those Inda had strayed far along the beach in search of wood, the voices were most likely enemies.

  They tethered their horses to a low branch and stepped carefully and quietly forward. A few dozen paces away, the river split into two channels, one heading off tangentially east, back towards their camp. The other ran on ahead, and a faint lightening of the gloom there suggested they were close to the beach. The brothers motioned to each other and stepped back into the water to better disguise their footsteps. They would leave no trail, and the splashing and gurgling of the water would hide their footfalls from prying ears, whereas on the verge there was every chance they might break a twig and attract unwanted attention.

  Gradually the world brightened until they finally spotted sand between the green leaves. They paused again there, listening. The voices were clearer, more distinct. The words were not precisely audible since they were issued in low tones, but they were Inda voices, with a dialect familiar from the brothers’ youth. The pair crept forward and ducked sharply to one side as they spotted movement between the trees. Moving ever more carefully to a good observation point, the pair peered through the foliage towards the beach.

  Their spines chilled. The voices belonged to four men in white who sat close to the river on the beach, spears jammed into the sand, chatting amiably together. Beyond them, the brothers could see numerous fires surrounded by white-garbed men. Low shelters had been erected using simple white sheets and two posts, and the distant but unmistakable sound of horses was now audible in the background. Dev waved urgently at his brother as Jai moved forward, coming dangerously close to the enemy’s line of sight. Fortunately, the four white-clad men seemed oblivious, their attention more on each other and the beach than the greenery nearby. Finally, after what seemed an age, Jai reappeared and gestured back towards their horses.

  They moved back along the river, and Dev barely dared breathe until they reached the fork in the river. Retrieving their horses, they hurried towards the other channel and began to follow it back towards the camp. Perhaps a mile further on, the second stream emerged onto the beach, where it flowed down to the sea. They had mercifully rounded a corner and could see nothing of the Faithful’s camp. Finally, Dev broke the silence.

  ‘There should not be a road there, and there were no marks of passage on the beach. The enemy came along the sand from the west. That means they are heading east. Towards the camp. Thank all the gods that they decided to stop there for the night, else they would have found us unprepared.’

  ‘I don’t know where that picket of Father’s learned to count,’ Jai replied, ‘but he did a woeful job estimating their numbers. They were supposed to have six or seven hundred. We killed maybe two hundred back at the monastery, but there were still far too many on that beach.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘I reckon near a thousand. I counted up and they had about forty men around each fire. I saw more than twenty fires.’

  ‘That’s too many for us.’

  Jai nodded. ‘We have to leave, and now, before they begin to move again.’

  The two brothers raced along the beach, back to the camp, angling quickly down to the softer sand near the water where their tracks would be erased by the tide. It was just less than three miles by Dev’s estimate, and they found the Inda in a state of nervous stability. All eyes repeatedly shifted to either the eerie jungle north of them or the terrifying island to the south, but they had campfires and makeshift shelters and food was now being distributed. The brothers passed a line of pickets without speaking to them and rode straight towards the camp’s centre where Aram was still in conference with Jiang, Cinna, Bajaan, Mani and Parmesh.

  ‘Father!’

  ‘Thank the gods,’ Aram shouted back. ‘You have been gone far longer than I expected.’

  ‘The Faithful are coming, Father.’

  Aram’s face cracked and fell. The others scrabbled to their feet and hurried over. ‘What?’

  ‘Three miles to the west or a little more. They are camped by the end of that river on the beach, and they are heading this way. They will be here by mid-morning at the latest.’

  ‘How many?’ Jiang asked.

  ‘I don’t know whether we underestimated the numbers at first or more have joined them, but I counted something approaching a thousand on the beach.’

  ‘Too many for us to fight off,’ Cinna said angrily. ‘We’ve one hundred and eighty-five fit and ready riders. Even with Aram’s trained fist-fighter
s we won’t number more than half their force, and they are better equipped. Fighting is not an option.’

  Jiang concurred with a nod.

  ‘But where can we run?’ Parmesh argued. ‘If you cannot defend us then we must run, but where? West is into their arms. North is back where we came from, which we know is no use. We must press on east, then.’

  Jiang shook his head. ‘Many of your people are on foot. The enemy are mounted. They will catch up with you in no time, especially on open ground like the beach. Besides, following the coast east will eventually just bring you back out past the markers and into the war zone, towards the border with the Jade Empire where everything is currently in turmoil.’

  ‘Then what do you suggest?’ spat Parmesh angrily. They all watched Jiang expectantly, though he said nothing. It took only moments for them to realise that the tall easterner was looking over their heads across the water. They turned as one.

  ‘No,’ Parmesh whispered.

  ‘Then give me a feasible alternative to consider.’

  ‘The island is the home of the dead. No living man can survive there.’

  ‘So say your tales,’ put in Cinna. ‘The ones that claimed we would be dead or driven mad when we passed the markers and that no man can carry a weapon beyond them.’

  Parmesh was shaking his head, and even Aram looked horrified.

  ‘There has to be an alternative,’ the old man breathed.

  Cinna shrugged. ‘I said I would lead for you in war. Well I tell you this straight: if we fight a thousand angry, well-rested and well-armed cavalry with less than five hundred men armed with sticks, we will all die. And so will hundreds or even thousands of your civilians before the enemy are overcome. Fighting is simply not an option. We cannot go east, west or north, for reasons we have already clearly stated. Someone – don’t ask me who – has conveniently left us boats. If we do not use them, we will all die. You are the leader, Aram, and you purport to believe strongly in fate. Give me your appraisal of our options.’