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

by Gary W. Feather

  Back at the village Lady Jin thank the villagers for their gratitude, but wanted Black Fox to share in it.

  “Oh don’t be so modest, Black Fox,” Lady Jin said to him. “I couldn’t have done it without you. They didn’t listen to a thing I said. You on the other hand—they listened to you.”

  “Well, I guess so.” Black Fox shrugged and accepted another cup of wine from a village woman.

  Chapter twenty-eight

  The villagers applauded. So did their children, who were now back with their parents. They were very generous with drink and food for their four heroes. Songs were sung and everyone danced the night away.

  After a while, Lady Jin sat down with a cup of wine in her hand.

  Nu sat down beside her. “How are you feeling, mistress?”

  “Snake-tongue loved me.” Lady Jin sipped her wine. “Regardless what that bastard, Black-hand said. I know the truth.”

  “Of course you do.” Nu looked at her cup of wine. “Do you want to go back to Guanxibo?”

  “Sure.” Lady Jin thought about. “Why not? What was it we playing to do?”

  “Security duty for caravans, I think.” Nu took as sip of wine.

  “Ah yes.” Lady Jin nodded. “There’s always some security society wanting to hire swordswomen like us to protect rich women and girls on a journey.”

  “Good honest work.” Nu raised her cup.

  “To good honest work.” Lady Jin tapped Nu’s cup with her own and they both swallowed their wine.

  Part four

  Chapter twenty-nine

  Lady Jin knocked on the door of the soothsayer's hut. She and her student, One-eyed Nu had found the hut just where Black Fox and Green Mo had told them. It was within a residential district in Guanxibo.

  "Please enter, ladies,” called out a voice from within the hut. "I have been waiting for your arrival."

  Lady Jin glanced at One-eyed Nu, who shrugged. Lady Jin walked inside the hut. An old man sat on a blue mat in the center of the floor. There was a cooking stove in one corner and a large wooden box in another corner with a blue hat on it. By the box was a writing table, with a small box on top of the table. He nodded towards them. Both women bowed back at him.

  "Hello. I am Lady Jin and this is my student One-eyed Nu."

  "Greetings. I am Blue Dove." he smiled. The wrinkled old man had few teeth to show them. Lady Jin found herself liking him without knowing why. He gestured them to sit with him on the blue rug.

  Before Lady Jin could speak, the man said, "You have been having nightmares."

  "Yes," Lady Jin said. "How did you know?"

  "I am a soothsayer. I speak to the dead, and the dead tell me things."

  "What do they tell you, Blue Dove?" Lady Jin half-bowed her head, respectfully.

  "Snake-tongue is trying to speak to you, but you cannot hear," Blue Dove said. "For a powerful enemy of yours is trying to stop you from hearing him."

  "What is he trying to say?"

  "I don't know, but I do know your enemies are still after you. The ones that pretended to be loyal students of Snake-tongue will try another way to kill you. You must be forever watchful."

  "I killed Black-hand and his loyal followers with the help of Black Fox and Green Mo. The others changed their minds and left."

  "No," Blue Dove said. "The ones who want you dead have a few more followers that will be gathered in an attempt to kill you. You must find them and stop them again."

  "Again?"

  "Yes. A great enemy has been partly freed from his prison. If you aren't swift enough and strong enough he will be reborn. He is stronger than before. He will destroy all that you love. This is all I was told. Listen to your dreams. You will know what to do and where to go. When the time is right. You will feel it in your heart."

  Chapter thirty

  The hot sun burned alone in the sky. No clouds floated in the sky. There was no hope of rain today. A variety of carrion birds circle the remains of camp in the desert. Only one tent was still set up. Now, those that once slept in it were laid out on the ground. Their dried blood covered the ground where they fell after losing their duels.

  One by one, the birds landed on the bodies, attracted to the smell of the rotting corpses. The largest vulture frightened the other birds away from the corpse it had chosen. It sniffed around the belly thinking it had smelled what should be an opening. Instead, the belly had no opening. This upset the bird. It hopped to the head to get at the eyes. An easy, juicy target to tear into flesh. As its beak reached for an eye, a human hand grabbed its neck. The bird's neck was twisted and yanked. Snap!

  A man coughed. The man, whose eye was almost pecked out, sat up. He opened both of his eyes. He looked around at everything. It was a failure. He knew it. It was his failure. He knew all of this, but he did not know why he was still alive. He looked down at his belly and found a hole where Lady Jin had stabbed and eviscerated him. He smiled. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a pearl on a bronze chain hanging around his neck. The pearl felt warm. He let go of the pearl. He looked at the dead vulture. He bit into its neck. He sucked out the blood. He tossed it aside and laughed.

  "I am Black-hand! I still live!"

  The other birds flew into the air and screamed at him. He ignored them. Black-hand crawled over to the body of his friend Bald-dog. "I am sorry old friend. I am hungry. Very hungry."

  Black-hand cut open Bald-dog's stomach. He reached in for the liver. He sliced it off and pulled it out. Black-hand's lips moistened as his eyes gazed upon the organ meat. He cut off a slice with his knife. He chewed. He enjoyed his first taste of human flesh. After he was done with the liver. He went for the heart. Next the brain. He had been told that organ meat was the best. After he was through with Bald-dog, he went to feast on his other dead, friend Big-armed Ling.

  Once he was done. Black-hand felt full and powerful. Black-hand picked up his sword. He swung it around. Black-hand tossed it into the air. As it came down, he caught it without looking. Black-hand had seen an acrobat do things like that once for a king. No true swordsman would do such a foolish thing, but he just didn't care about death or pain. Black-hand cut his arm. He didn't feel anything. Black-hand didn't bleed. Black-hand laughed.

  "I am Black-hand! Fear me!"

  *Yes! Even Lady Jin will fear you, Black-hand!*

  "Who said that?" He looked around. He was alone, except for the carrion birds that were eating what he had left behind.

  *I am your old master, Black-hand. I am within the pearl. I am why you still live, for you serve me. I give you power.*

  "Master? You're alive?"

  *No. But I will be one day. You have only partly freed me. Soon with the bloody heart of Lady Jin in your hand. You will free me. You must return to Duan. You will gather our friends and prepare to greet Lady Jin when she comes to Duan.*

  "Yes, master! I obey!" Black-hand shouted. "I will free you, master! I will kill all of our enemies! Lady Jin and the rest of them!"

  Chapter thirty-one

  Lady Jin screamed in the night. She was off her blanket that she had been sleeping on. She sat up on the cold wooden floor. One-eye Nu was looking at her with her one eye. The other eyehole was covered by a black eye patch. They had been sharing the blanket, for the desert night in their room was cold. They had spent several nights at the same inn in Guanxibo before and after she had killed Black-hand.

  "Was that another nightmare with Snake-tongue in it?" Nu asked.

  "Yes." Lady Jin sat barefoot in her nightgown that hung to her knees. Nu was dressed the same way. At first Lady Jin had been sweating from the nightmare, but now the sweat was making her cold. Though at times she had been colder and survived.

  Nu picked up the blanket and wrapped it around her sword mistress.

  "Thank you, Nu." Lady Jin patted the teenage girl's cheek. "You didn't need to."

  "I wanted to, mistress."

  "I know what we need to do."

  "What?"

  "We must go back to
Duan."

  "Duan, mistress?" Nu nibbled at her lower lip. "Where Snake-tongue...died."

  "Yes." Lady Jin sighed. "Get dressed."

  "Yes, mistress." Nu stood. "I will get our riding clothes."

  As Lady Jin dressed herself in her riding clothes she tried to remember the nightmare. Snake-tongue was in it, but all that she could remember of it was the one word: Duan. A place she hadn't wanted to see again for as long as she lived. Now she had to go there. She was sure. She felt it in her guts and heart. It was the right thing to do. She was needed there.

  The two women carried their belongings out to their horses. They quickly got the horses saddled and the saddlebags tied onto the saddles. They rode out of Guanxibo without any trouble, and headed east.

  Several days later, Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu arrived in the outskirts of Duan. They had stopped at a creek to bathe off the travel sweat and grime. The first they saw were heads impaled on the ends of pikes set in the ground. Lady Jin recognized a couple of the heads. One belonged to the farmers who had been attacked by men working for Su Mao. Nu had defended them and now they were dead.

  "Do you think friends of Black-hand killed them?" Nu asked Lady Jin as she slowed her horse. Nu screamed at the carrion. The birds flew into the air and circled, waiting for the humans to leave.

  "Yes." Lady Jin sighed. There were other heads she didn't recognize. They all looked fairly recent.

  Nu drew her sword. She swung it at the birds.

  "Put your sword away. There's no point of bothering the birds."

  "Yes, mistress." Nu grumbled. She followed Lady Jin into Duan.

  Lady Jin led Nu to the inn where they had stayed during the last time in Duan. Lady Jin went to negotiate their rent, leaving Nu with the horses. Once inside the room they had chosen, they changed out of the dirty riding clothes and into dresses. The dresses were pretty, but not too tight or hanging below the ankles in way that made it too uncomfortable to move. This made them look civilized to their fellow Chinese, though they wore swords on their hips too.

  Lady Jin decided to check out the market to ask about who killed all of those people. There were still a number of locals selling the crops and animals they had grown, or the various goods they had made. But no one was selling weapons. Nu was the first to notice this, for she had talked to a friendly weapon merchant the last time they were there.

  "Actually, I don't see anyone selling ordinary knives for kitchen and domestic work. Nor axes for chopping wood," Nu commented to Lady Jin as they peered at the things being sold.

  "Interesting." Lady Jin looked at a kindly elder woman selling skirts and leather bags. Lady Jin lifted a yellow dress. "Very pretty."

  The older woman gave a price. Instead Lady Jin asked about the farmers whose names she remembered.

  The old woman's eyes widened in shock and fear. She shook her terrified face. "No. I don't know them. No."

  "But—"

  "Go. Go away."

  Lady Jin asked others and got similar responses. One elderly couple collected their stuff and left the market.

  "No wants to talk about them," Lady Jin said to Nu.

  "I guess no one noticed the heads stuck on pikes just outside of Duan!" Nu shouted.

  Everyone at the market flinched, but didn't say anything in response to her words.

  "Hush, Nu."

  "Oh. Yes, mistress." Nu rubbed her hip.

  Chapter thirty-two

  "Do you think Li Bo is still alive?" Nu asked Lady Jin as they walked to the mansion of Li Bo. A wealthy man in Duan who had hired Lady Jin to kill a villain named Su Mao. Su Mao had turned out to be a demon.

  "I didn't see his head on a pike out there. Did you?"

  "No."

  Lady Jin and Nu bowed to the guard at the gate of Li Bo's mansion. Lady Jin identified herself and One-eyed Nu to the guard. He nodded and said Li Bo had been hoping she would show up. The guard opened the gate for her. The gate opened up to a courtyard with three trees and a clump of peony flowers in one corner. A girl servant met them immediately near the gate to lead them to where Li Bo was waiting for them. He was in his library. The servant announced the visitors to her master.

  "Marvelous, let them enter," Li Bo said.

  Li Bo was sitting on a blue pillow with a book in his left hand. So he has survived. How did he do that? Li Bo stood up and gave a humble bow. But not too low for this was his home. Lady Jin bowed lower, and Nu bowed even lower. Li Bo told his servant to bring the two pillows for his visitors.

  "Thank you, Li Bo." Lady Jin sat down on her pillow first and then Nu sat on hers. "I'm glad to see you looking better than I last saw you."

  "Yes." Li Bo nodded. "Those were sad times for me."

  "I sure it is better since we got rid of Su Mao," Lady Jin said.

  Li Bo almost swallowed his throat. "Su...Su Mao wasn't such a bad man."

  "He was a demon." Lady Jin tilted her head.

  Li Bo rubbed his white mustache; his hand shook as he did. "He was a good man."

  "Yes, Li Bo. He was a good man." Lady Jin turned to see the speaker behind her. It was Black-hand. Nu screamed and jumped up. Lady Jin simply nodded at Black-hand.

  "You're still alive,” she commented.

  "Indeed," Black-hand said. "I feel great. Better than before."

  "Why?"

  "I'm sure you would wish to know, but I'm not going to tell you," Black-hand said. "And I don't think we should be disturbing Li Bo. He needs to rest, you know."

  "Yes. I need to rest." Li Bo laid down his head. He seemed asleep, as if in a trance…a peaceful smile on his lips.

  Lady Jin followed Black-hand out of the library. Neither of them reached for their swords. Though Nu gripped the handle of her sword. Outside wasn't the servant girl, but three men. These men wore armbands. The same one they had seen worn by the warriors who worked for Su Mao a couple of years ago. Black-hand also wore the armband.

  "Su Mao is dead,." Lady Jin said to Black-hand.

  "Yes." Black-hand nodded. "But he is not without influence in the world of the living."

  Black-hand drew his sword with the aim of cutting Lady Jin's neck. She blocked his sword with hers. "Impressive sword draw, Lady Jin."

  "Thank you."

  "Kill them." Black-hand stepped aside to let the three men through. Each man carried a pair of short swords.

  Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu faced the men side by side in the hallway. The men's smaller blades could be dangerous within the small space of the hallway. Lady Jin thrust the point of her longer sword at one man's face, causing him to raise his swords. Nu did the same to a second man. The men tried to move on the two swordswomen, but were kept back with quick feints to the men's groins. Suddenly, with a practiced hand, a signal was given by Lady Jin. Nu knelt on one knee and swung her sword at the men's faces. Lady Jin used Nu's thigh to catapult herself over the three men. As she landed, Lady Jin's sword swept through two of the three men's necks from behind. The third man turned and was stabbed in the back by Nu.

  Nu looked around for Black-hand. "He's gone."

  "I already knew," Lady Jin said. "Let's get out of here."

  They ran outside to the courtyard where two swordsmen were waiting for them.

  "What now?"

  "Just run, Nu!" Lady Jin shouted.

  "Run? We can take them," Nu complained, but obeyed her mistress.

  The two women ran as fast they could with their bloody swords in their hands. The swordsman had looked surprised. They seemed to have expected a challenge, but the reason for Lady Jin's wish to run from battle was soon shown when six spearmen appeared out from behind the trees where they'd been hiding. A guard at the gate tried to stab her with his spear. Lady Jin cut him down. The two women kept running. They didn't slow down until they were a couple of miles from the mansion.

  Nu was on one knee and breathing hard.

  "That's why you should practice running—for when you need the endurance." Lady Jin explained.

  "Yes, mistress." N
u stood back up. She wiped the blood off her blade. Neither woman had put up their swords when they raced away.

  The two women later returned to the inn. After a meal, they returned to their rooms. In the middle of the night, Lady Jin woke up screaming. "Shit!" Lady Jin shouted into the dark. "Snake-tongue! What are trying to tell me?"

  "You're still seeing him in your dreams?" Nu asked.

  "Nightmares," Lady Jin corrected. "And yes. There is something important he his trying to tell me, but I'm unable to hear him."

  "The soothsayer said someone was blocking you," Nu wondered. "Could it be Su Mao?"

  "No," Lady Jin said, firmly. "He is dead."

  "Black-hand is supposed to be dead too."

  "I know," Lady Jin said. "I was so sure I had killed him."

  "Maybe Su Mao saved him from beyond the grave." Nu pulled her knees to her chest. She tugged on her nightgown. Lady Jin brought her knees up and rested her arms on them. I put that pearl in the ground. I planted a peach tree on top of it. I chanted a prayer. It should have worked. No one should have dug it up without some sort of punishment from the gods. Oh Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West, why did you let this happen?

  Chapter thirty-three

  The next morning, they bought a couple of peaches at the market and went to look for a medium. Nu heard about the medium the last time they had been at Duan. They found the woman on the other side of Duan from where they had entered. This side had no heads stuck on pikes. If we had come in this direction we wouldn't have seen the heads. How could Black-hand know that they would enter Duan? There were many directions they could have come from. How?

  "Looks like the house I was told about." Nu pointed to the house in front of them. It was made of tapped earth, much like many walls that surrounded houses and cities. The roof was made of lacquered wood.

  A woman a little older than Lady Jin, was pulling weeds in a garden. She looked up as they approached. "Hello. Can I help you, ladies?" The woman stood up and stretched in a way that showed her back was aching.