The Gory Pearl of Doom: A Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu novel

by Gary W. Feather

  #

  “Where are we going now, mistress?”

  “I’m going to look for Snake-tongue and see if I can’t talk him into helping us.” Lady Jin explained. “I want you to go back to the market to talk to the locals. See if you can find our new friends; Ko and his grandmother. We’ll meet the temple of the goddess Xi Wang Mu, mother of the west, later to talk about what we found out.”

  “Yes, mistress.”

  Earlier they had found the temple as they entered Duan before they had first met Li Bo at his mansion.

  Chapter four

  Lady Jin had asked Madam Zheng where the inns in Duan were. She had told Lady Jin that Duan had only one inn. Lady Jin followed Madam Zheng’s directions and ended up at a large building even bigger than Li Bo’s mansion. This time Lady Jin had tied her hair back to keep it out of her way. I need to be ready for an attack from anywhere. Lady Jin walked inside and went to a girl handing out drinks to some men. The girl had no idea who Snake-tongue was.

  “Have you ever seen men with red bracelets on their arms?”

  “Go away.” The girl replied. She was pretty and chubby. “We don’t want trouble here. I’m busy.”

  The girl turned to walked out of the room. Lady Jin followed her.

  “You do know what I’m talking about don’t you?”

  “Hey! You’re not supposed to be back here in the kitchen.” The girl snapped.

  A man with big muscles and a large hammer appeared. “Is there a problem, Peony?”

  “No. She’s leaving. Right?”

  “Fine.” Lady Jin smiled. “I’m not looking for trouble. I just wanted information of Snake-tongue.”

  “We don’t know how he is, so go.” The girl crossed her flabby arms.

  Lady Jin walked out of the inn under the gaze of every eye in the place. She wondered if she go straight to the temple or wait nearby the inn for awhile. Lady Jin walked a little ways from the inn and stopped. She heard someone following. Lady Jin turned with her sword drawn.

  “Lady Jin? I heard you were looking for me.” Snake-tongue gave her a sexy lopsided smile. Five men stood behind him. He and the other men had their swords out too. Snake-tongue twirled his sword a few times. “What do you want?”

  “I wish that you would stop working for this Su Mao.”

  “No. I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “I…I must.” Snake-tongue said. His words stumble out of him as if forced by something.

  “Where does Su Mao live?”

  “His home.”

  “Where is that?”

  “At…at…at…I can’t tell you.”

  A couple of the other men attacked Lady Jin. She blocked and dodged their moves. But Lady Jin was out numbered and knew she was in trouble.

  A farmer pulling an ox and wagon down the road passed them. He seemed to be having trouble with the beast and hadn’t notice anyone fighting. Lady Jin climbed over the ox. Her attackers came after her. Lady Jin smacked the beast with the edge of her blade. The ox got angry and attacked the nearest thing. That being the men after her.

  Lady Jin took off running down the road.

  I think I got away! Lady Jin stopped and allowed herself to remember. I must have been as young as Nu when I first met Snake-tongue. He was so strong and kind to me. A number of the men in mercenary army I had joined didn’t like women soldiers among their ranks. Snake-tongue was one of the few men that didn’t mind. He taught me a number of things. Of war. Of love.

  Chapter five

  Lady Jin entered the temple of Xi Wang Mu. She gave a coin to the priestess and knelt before the goddess’s statue. Lady Jin gave a quick prayer to the mother of the west as the goddess was known. When she stood up she saw Nu waiting outside of the temple. Lady Jin thanked the priestess and went to see her friend. Nu wasn’t devoted to the goddess as much as Lady Jin was.

  “Did you find out anything, mistress?”

  “I found Snake-tongue with five of Su Mao’s men.” Lady Jin sighed. “He won’t quit working for Su Mao. They attacked me, but I got away from them.”

  “He had five men with him. Why didn’t he challenge you one on one?” Nu asked.

  “I don’t know. He seemed kind of strange.”

  “What do you mean by strange?”

  “I’m not sure how to explain it, Nu.” Lady Jin shrugged. “So. How did you do? Find out anything?”

  “Yes.” Nu smiled. “I learned that Su Mao is supposed to frequent a certain brothel in Duan called Torn Flowers.”

  “Well done, Nu.” Lady Jin said. “Though it sounds like a trap. We need to be careful going there.”

  “Yes, mistress.”

  #

  After some searching Lady Jin and Nu were able to find Torn Flowers. They entered the building to find every eye in the place aimed at them, both male and female. Two of the men looking at them were very familiar to Lady Jin.

  “Look everyone! It’s Lady Jin and her friend!” Su Mao bellowed. He laughed. Su Mao had his left arm over a barely dressed teenage girl. “Look Snake-tongue! Isn’t she beautiful?”

  “Yes, Master Su Mao.” Snake-tongue agreed.

  “Did you come looking for me?” Su Mao asked. “Or the ladies here?”

  “No. I came looking for you, Su Mao.” Lady Jin snarled at him. “Stop with your damn games.”

  “Games? What games?” Su Mao kissed the prostitute on the mouth. The girl giggled. Some of the other prostitutes in the room did the same.

  Lady Jin tried to calm herself, but felt the uncontrolled anger rising in her body. Suddenly Nu screamed and attacked Su Mao. Another man stepped in between them and blocked the girl’s sword.

  “Damn it!” Lady Jin gritted her teeth and released her sword from its sheath.

  “Oh my! How rude!” Su Mao laughed. “Such a rude, girl!”

  Two men attacked Lady Jin. She parried their violent attacks. Snake-tongue had his sword out, but he didn’t come for her. He was watching Nu fight. Leave her alone! Lady Jin went after her attackers with angry blows that put them on the defensive. They blocked her attacks fairly well. Lady Jin hacked through an arm. This man ran off, while the other kept at her. Lady Jin jumped to avoid a chop to the legs. With both hands she brought her blade down on his skull. It split halfway through the skull, but got stuck. He fell with her sword still in him.

  “Shit!” Lady Jin looked up to see other men with red bracelets on their arms coming. She stepped on the dead man’s shoulder. Lady Jin grabbed her sword and yanked. Come on! She yanked again. It’s free! Damn it! Lady Jin held up her sword.

  Su Mao was gone and so was Snake-tongue. A man laid dead at Nu’s feet.

  “Come on, Nu!” Lady Jin tapped her friend with an elbow. “Let’s get out of here!”

  Now side by side they retreated to the door. Lady Jin opened it. No one in the place attacked them. Lady Jin wasn’t sure if they wouldn’t attack at any time. Lady slipped out of the place. Nu slammed the door shut.

  “Where did they go, mistress?”

  “There they are!” Lady Jin pointed.

  They chased after Su Mao and Snake-tongue, until Snake-tongue stops. He faces Lady Jin.

  “Are you ready to fight me, Lady Jin.” Snake-tongue holds up his sword. He’s ready to fight me. Am I?

  Lady Jin retreated from him. “I can’t fight you.” Lady Jin touched her heart.

  “Will you just let me kill you?”

  “Could you do that?”

  “I…He wants me to kill you.”

  “What do you want, Snake-tongue?”

  “I want you to go away.” Snake-tongue turned in a circle. He waved his sword. “I want you to leave Duan. Please.”

  “Come on, Nu.” Lady Jin said. “Let’s go.”

  They left Snake-tongue in the street. Lady Jin decided to return to Li Bo’s mansion to see if they find out anything new.

  “One of these days he is just going to kill you, mistress.” Nu said as they walked down the dirt street. Snake-tong
ue hadn’t followed and was a long was off. “I don’t trust him.”

  “I still care about him.” Lady Jin replied.

  Chapter six

  Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu entered Li Bo’s mansion. They were met in the courtyard by Madam Zheng.

  “Greetings, Lady Jin and your apprentice.” The older woman bowed. “Master Li Bo wishes to speak with you in his library. Though you may go freshen up in the women’s quarters before you meet with him.”

  “And greetings to you Madam Zheng.” Lady Jin bowed. Nu bowed after her teacher bowed. “Thank you for the courtesy. Do we have time for a bath?”

  “Yes, Lady Jin you do.” Madam Zheng clapped her hands. A servant girl rushed up to them from inside the main building.

  “Yes, Madam Zheng?” the girl appeared about twelve or thirteen. She bowed with a frightened look in her eyes.

  “You will prepare a bathtub for Lady Jin and her apprentice.” Madam Zheng didn’t acknowledge the girl’s bow. The girl had a tattoo on her forehead that marked her as a slave.

  “Yes, Madam Zheng.” The girl bowed quickly to Lady Jin and Nu. She turned and ran off.

  #

  Lady Jin leaned back in the hot water of the bathtub. The servant girl or rather slave had just finished rubbing her back with a soapy towel. She had done a good job cleaning both of them. A bit too eager to please.

  “It feels good to be clean after fighting in that nasty brothel.” Nu said. She still had her eye patch on. Nu ducked her head underneath the water a second time. Nu came up and started to giggle.

  Lady Jin waited a few more minutes before standing up. She let the wet drip off her naked body and waved for the slave girl to bring a towel. Lady Jin stepped out of the round wooden tub.

  “So soon?” Nu stood up with a pout on her lips.

  “Yes.” Lady Jin giggled as the girl rubbed her with the towel. “The magistrate is waiting for us.”

  “Yes, mistress.” Nu stepped out of the tub when the girl was done with Lady Jin.

  “Your dirty clothes will be cleaned and returned to your room.” The girl said. She always looked down when she spoke to them. This kind of thing always bothered Lady Jin, but she said nothing.

  The slave girl helped them dress into clean dresses. A red dress for Lady Jin and a pink dress for Nu. They both were given soft slippers to use for indoors.

  Outside of the room where they bathed was Madam Zheng waiting for them.

  “Please follow me.” Madam Zheng led then out of the women’s quarters to where the library was.

  Inside the library Magistrate Li Bo sat on a large green cushion with a book in his hands. He looked up at them.

  “Thank you, Madam Zheng. You may go.” He sighed. He had a look of defeat in his face worse than Lady Jin had seen before.

  “Yes, master.”

  Li Bo smiled up at them. “Please have a seat.” He waved to a some cushions against the west wall. Nu went to retrieve them. She placed one closest to him for her mistress.

  Lady Jin sat down. She glanced down at what he was reading.

  “Have you ever read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Lady Jin?”

  “Yes, Magistrate Li.” Lady Jin nodded. “I have a copy of it. He was a wise man.”

  “I suppose.” Li Bo said. “My father always told me to listen to its wisdom for it could save life. And it has. Many times…but not now. Now I find no use for it.”

  “What has happened?” Lady Jin noticed his weak eyes. The looked like the eyes of a dying man. “Was it Su Mao? What did he say to you?”

  “I doesn’t matter.” Li Bo shook his head. “Nothing does anymore. I have been feeling odd for some time now. Sometimes my mind and body feels great for several days and then it falls into weakness again.”

  “Have you been poisoned?”

  “No.” Li Bo coughed. “Madam Zheng is very careful with my food and drink.”

  “Could she have done it?”

  “Never!” Li Bo snapped. “She and her family have served my family for generations with honor. It is impossible…” He looked at the floor as if he could see something important there. “No. It must have been that new slave girl I purchased recently. Yes. Her! Yes.”

  Snake-tongue’s eyes had that same look of a dying man, just like Li Bo. Could this be connected somehow?

  “I give up!” Li Bo reached into the sleeve of his robe. He removed a large bag. He tossed it in Lady Jin’s lap.

  “What?” The bag was heavy and made the sound of chinking coins.

  “Our agreed upon price. Take it and leave. I have no more use of your services.”

  Lady Jin picked it up and handed it to Nu.

  Nu opened it. “Wei coins, mistress.”

  “What happened to you?” Lady Jin touched his shoulder. He shivered as if struck. “I can still stop him.”

  “No!” Li Bo screamed at her. “You can’t! Go away! Go away! Cause no more trouble in Duan!” Tears fell from his eyes and he covered his face. He began to cry uncontrollably like a baby.

  Lady Jin stood up. There’s something unnatural about this. Lady Jin bowed to him before leaving the library. They didn’t see Madam Zheng around.

  “Well, mistress. He paid us everything you asked for.” Nu tossed the bag of coins in her hand. “It’s all here.”

  “Something is not right,” Lady Jin said. They returned to the woman’s quarters to collect their belongings.

  Nu told the slave girl that they were leaving. They needed their horses saddled and ready to ride. They quickly changed into their riding clothes.

  #

  Lady Jin tied the strap on her saddlebag. “Done. Are you ready to go, Nu?”

  “Hello, Lady Jin.”

  Lady Jin looked away from the horses and Nu towards the front of the stables. “Snake-tongue?”

  “So you’ve been fired by Li Bo?” he asked her. Two other men with red bracelets walked into the stables.

  “Yes.”

  “I guess you have no reason to kill Su Mao.”

  “I guess so.” Lady Jin replied.

  “Would you be interested in working for him?”

  “Would you be interested in leaving with me?” Lady Jin knew what he would say.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “I will miss you, Lady Jin.” Snake-tongue smiled. He had the strange dying man look in his eyes just like Li Bo.

  “What did Su Mao do to you?”

  “Do?”

  “There’s something odd about you.” Lady Jin shook her head. “It’s hard for me to pin it down, but your so…so sad.”

  “Sad?” Snake-tongue laughed. “Sad? Yes. Sad. Is that a crime?”

  “No.” Lady Jin glanced at Nu. Three more men with red bracelets walked into the stables behind Snake-tongue. “I’m going to leave now.”

  “Maybe.”

  Lady Jin nodded in understanding.

  Lady Jin glanced at Nu and gave a hint of a nod. With the signal both swordswomen jumped on their horses. Lady Jin screamed a war cry she knew from the step nomads. They raced at the men trying to stop their escape. “Move it or die! Move it or die!” Nu screamed. The men leaped out of the way as the women charged their horses through to freedom. Lady Jin led the way through the streets at a fast pace without letting up for a while.

  “Whoa! Whoa!” Lady Jin called out to her horse. Nu did the same. “How are you doing, Nu?”

  “Fine, mistress.” Nu got off her horse to check it. The horses were probably fine. It wasn’t the first time they had been run hard like that. “They haven’t followed us.”

  “Good.” Lady Jin patted her horse’s neck before gave her gelding a look over. “The horses are fine, let’s walk and lead the horses. You never know how soon we’ll need to run again.”

  “Yes, mistress.”

  Chapter seven

  Lady Jin decided to return to the temple and ask the priestess if they could find a shaman or someone who could tell fortunes. The priestess gave them directions to a sha
man, who lived not far from the temple. The shaman’s house stood surrounded by a circle of rocks within a flower garden.

  Lady Jin and Nu tied their horses to a tree. Lady Jin knocked on the door. It opened and an old man with a clean shaved face looked out.

  “Yes?”

  “I am Lady Jin and this is my apprentice One-eyed Nu.” They bowed to him and he bowed in return. “I was told by the priestess at the nearby temple that you were a shaman who could tell fortunes.”

  “Oh. Yes. Yes.” He smiled and nodded. “Come in. Come in.”

  “Thank you.” Lady Jin followed the shaman inside.

  The place was full of strange rocks with only a few spots on the floor to sit on. The shaman seated himself cross-legged upon a large rock with a flat top. He waved them to a couple of cushions on the cluttered floor. “Sit. Sit.”

  Lady Jin looked up at the odd man. “I have a friend who is attacking strange. I think another man is using magic to control his mind. Can you find out if this is so?”

  “Mmmm.” The old shaman nodded. “Yes. I think so. What is your friends name?”

  “Snake-tongue.”

  “Mmmm. 50 Wei coins.” Lady Jin agreed to the price. The old shaman grabbed a little metal box sitting a nearby rock. He opened a little door on it. He closed it again and shook it. Something rattled inside. It didn’t sound like coins. He opened the door and bones fell out in front of his legs. He nodded, pointed, and mumbled to himself. Lady Jin had seen this odd behavior in fortune tellers before. “Your friend Snake-tongue is in a lot of trouble. His very soul is owned by a very evil man named Su Mao. I have heard of him. He is very evil. More than you can imagine. In order to free your friend you must kill him.”

  “Kill Su Mao?” Lady Jin nodded. “I have no problem with that.”

  “No. No.” The old shaman shook his head. “You misunderstand. It is Snake-tongue who must die.”

  “No!”

  “His soul will be consumed by Su Mao, if you don’t kill Snake-tongue.” The old shaman explained. “You must release his doomed soul. Only then will he be free.”

  “Nooo.”