by Justin Hill
Shulien smiled. “Look at it,” she said.
Snow Vase did. “It’s ugly,” she said, then paused. “Is this a lesson?”
Shulien unfolded her legs and pushed herself off the bed in one movement. She came forward. “This teapot sat in the middle of us, Duke Te, Mubai and myself, many times. It is small and silent. We barely noticed it. But now, of the four of us, there are only two left, this pot and myself, and I wonder which of us will outlast the other. I think perhaps it will be the pot.”
Snow Vase looked at the pot. It would be easy to pick it up and shatter it on the floor. She was tempted. It was a truly ugly pot. So ugly it drew attention to itself.
“Books have been written about Duke Te and Mubai. Men tell tales in the inns and way-houses. No one talks of the pot. It is silent, and it inspires silence.”
Shulien smiled. It was a rare moment, like the flowering of a magnolia tree. “You should not listen to stories in inns,” she said.
“What else can one do in them?”
“You have been to many?”
Snow Vase nodded. “Yes.”
“Inns are not places for young ladies.”
“I had to cross the kingdom to reach you,” she said. “I came from Dunhuang.”
Shulien stopped, and seemed to see the girl for the first time. “Dunhuang?” she said. “That is many weeks’ travel.”
“It took me six.” Snow Vase’s voice was cocky as she spoke, and she added quickly, “I ride fast.”
“So you do.”
Snow Vase nodded. “I brought you your lunch,” she said, and went out and brought the tray in and set it down on the bed, then took the dishes off one by one, careful not to spill the sauces.
There was cucumber, lotus root, a plate of fried egg and tomato, and another of fried peanuts with salt. Snow Vase poured a little soya bean milk for her teacher, and then bowed and made her exit.
“Have you eaten?” Shulien said.
Snow Vase paused at the doorway. “No,” she said. “But. . .”
“Come!” Shulien said. “Eat!”
“I could not.”
“Look, there is enough for two.”
As Snow Vase sat to eat there was a sudden shout. Shulien’s gate banged open. In a moment her master was out of her seat and at the door. How does she do that? Snow Vase thought, and hurried to stand next to her.
Horse Three ran across the yard. “There are riders at the stable gate!” he panted. “My brothers are trying to keep them out.”
Shulien turned to Snow Vase. “Bring your sword!”
The two women ran through the palace. The sound of shouting came from the stable yard. He has come for Wei-fang first, Snow Vase thought. The rest of the compound stood in eerie silence. They ran through a screaming band of women, and at the next intersection they saw Sir Te. “I brought all I could,” he said.
Shulien drew her sword and led them toward the stable gates.
“I am sorry!” Old Horse sobbed. “They broke the door down. I could not stop them.”
“Mubai!” Shulien’s war cry rang out as she ran into the stable yard. Her sword flashed in the spring sunlight as she took up a fighting stance. But then a tremor went through her, and she let out a strangled gasp, and took a step backward.
It was not Hades Dai, but five dirty warriors. The foremost of them was a grizzled, lean-faced man, with narrow eyes and a jacket of black leather, belted at the waist.
Snow Vase looked at her master. “Are these the best of the West Lotus men?” she said.
“No,” the grizzled leader said. He looked sadly at Shulien, and then bowed and saluted Sir Te.
“Sir Te, I am Silent Wolf,” he said. His voice was low and rough, like sackcloth. “I saw the summons you put out. I have gathered these warriors. We all pledge our service to you.”
Snow Vase turned as Shulien stared at him. Her face went from disbelief to shock, then a flashing look of anger.
“You!” she said, and seemed lost for words. “How dare you come here?”
She did not wait for an answer, but turned and walked from the yard.
Snow Vase looked around her in astonishment. Sir Te looked back and forth, confused and nervous. “Well,” he started. “Welcome! You must have traveled far, from the—er—smell of you all. Well! I’m a little startled, that is all. You must not take offense. I am deeply gratified for your service, and . . . do you know Yu Shulien?”
The lead warrior did not smile. His eyes were looking at the moon door where Shulien had gone, as if he expected or hoped that she would return. “Do I?” he said. “No. But I did once. Long ago.” He spat on the floor. “You might say I knew her . . .”
He paused for a long time.
“In another life.”
I8
Next morning Snow Vase’s horse snorted as she entered, lifted his long face, and nuzzled her. She held the horse close. He was the only friend she had left, she thought. The only family.
She held his head up, and the horse snuffled at her. “So much has happened,” she said. “I cannot even begin to tell you. I am learning. So much!” The horse snorted again as if in answer. “Yes. We will ride again soon,” she said. “I promise!”
As she came out, Snow Vase saw Silent Wolf training in the yard.
She turned her face so that she would not accidentally catch Wei-fang’s eye, but try as she might she could not stop herself from watching Silent Wolf.
The grizzled warrior was stripped to the waist, a broad black leather belt around him. He was a true master. He moved as smoothly and effortlessly as a flag that is carried through the air, but when he connected with an object there was a loud crack!
Such power, she thought. Such control!
She took a step closer, and waited.
At last Silent Wolf stopped, and she tilted her chin and started to speak, but he looked at her, said nothing and turned away.
“Snow Vase!” a voice called at the end.
She shook herself and turned, and saw Wei-fang.
“He is good, huh?”
“Yes,” she said.
“He’s teaching me,” Wei-fang said.
“Teaching you? What—how to fetch a stick?”
Wei-fang smiled. “I close my eyes and imagine . . .”
“I bet you do.”
This morning the kitchen maid had brought him two bowls of rice, each one stuffed with chili pork tendons, boiled to tenderness. He bent over them and picked his way through, savoring each morsel. “No. Just watching him I am learning. I may be imprisoned here, but my mind is free to wander where it will. I think when Hades Dai comes I will need to fight him, so I am watching this master, and going through the moves in my mind.”
“You would fight your master?”
“He’s not my master,” Wei-fang said.
“No?”
“Not anymore.”
She gave him a look.
Wei-fang sighed deeper this time. “If it wasn’t for the threat of my master, I might enjoy this sojourn,” he said. “I am like the mountain hermits. The wind is my fellow, the rain is my shower, and as I sleep the stars watch over me.”
Snow Vase looked at Silent Wolf. “Does he ever speak to you?”
“Yes,” Wei-fang said.
“What does he say?”
“He thinks I am innocent.”
“He is a fool.”
“Maybe. He is in love,” Wei-fang said.
Snow Vase’s pulse quickened. “Is he?”
“Yes,” Wei-fang said. “You mean you don’t know?”
“No,” Snow Vase said. “How would I know?”
“Didn’t you see how Shulien looked at him?”
“Yes,” Snow Vase said. “You mean—he and Shulien?”
Wei-fang winked.
; “What do you know?”
“Ah!” Wei-fang said. “That is private.”
“Idiot!” she said, and slammed the gate behind her.
For the rest of the day, whenever Snow Vase was passing the dog cage she made studious efforts to ignore him, but she was almost disappointed when he shouted out to her no more. Two days after that she stopped and said, “How do you know my name?”
Wei-fang looked up in surprise.
“I asked,” he said.
“Who?”
“Ah!” he said, and grinned.
She shook her head with irritation and carried on with the sack of millet grain.
That night Shulien and Snow Vase sat together in her yard to eat.
“The new warrior,” she said. “He said he knew you.”
Shulien turned sharply. The two women had started training in Shulien’s own courtyard, and she had become strangely sharp. “Who?”
“Silent Wolf,” Snow Vase said.
“You have been talking to them?”
“No, teacher,” Snow Vase said. “You told me not to talk to them, and I am your student. But . . .”
“But what?”
Snow Vase’s cheeks colored. “Wei-fang asked me about it. He mocked me because I did not know.”
“What business is it of his?”
“It is not.”
There was a long pause. “Leave me,” Shulien said.
Snow Vase saw from her teacher’s face how she had transgressed, and nodded. Silently cursing Wei-fang, she hurried from the courtyard.
“Stop!” Shulien called out. She stood up and walked toward Snow Vase. “I am sorry,” she said and took a deep breath. “All this is hard for me. I came here, out of my solitude, to grieve quietly for my old friend. And instead all I have been beset with is troubles. I remember something Mubai once said to me. It is the things one does not want to happen that teach us the most. I am sorry, I have been hard on you. Unnecessarily, perhaps. You are young and talented and you are a good student. I wish I could be a better teacher for you.”
Snow Vase saw the look on Shulien’s face and she nodded.
“Yes,” she said. She smiled. “I will go and practice!”
“Good,” Shulien said, and smiled back. She was so pretty when she smiled, Snow Vase thought. “You should smile more often,” she said, before she had thought whether this was a good thing to say.
Shulien smiled again. “You are not the first to tell me that,” she replied.
“Silent Wolf?” Snow Vase said.
“Go and practice,” Shulien told her.
“Yes, teacher.”
Shulien watched Snow Vase walk from her yard.
Silent Wolf, she thought. That was the biggest surprise of all. Mubai had always said that if you were afraid of something you must confront it, lest it control your life thereafter.
This was the last thing she wanted to do. She took in a deep breath and threw a simple black cloak around her shoulders. Silent Wolf and his men were staying in the courtyard next to the stables.
I9
By the time he had paced the entire perimeter of Duke Te’s palace, Thunder Fist’s face was gloomier than a chained hound. “How can we protect this place?” he said. “This is a hopeless task. It is like asking a man to stop the ocean with his hands.”
“The man without hope has lost before the first blow is struck,” Silent Wolf said.
Thunder Fist glowered at him. He waved an arm at the size of the place. “I am brave but I am not a fool. It took me two hours to circle this palace. If Hades Dai comes with all his men, then we cannot hope to patrol the walls.”
“We do not need to,” Silent Wolf said.
“What do you mean?” Thunder Fist said.
Silent Wolf pulled a stool over and sat down on it. “I will explain,” he said.
The others looked up. Even Iron Turtle thrust his chopsticks into his rice and set the bowl down. “We do not need to protect the palace. All we need to do is protect the sword. Hades Dai is only interested in that.
“Hades Dai is a cobra. He is a man of great strength and power, who puts more faith in craft and cunning and guile. He will not come at the head of his warriors, but he will try subterfuge and lies. Such are the things he delights in. It is what has made him evil, and made his evil grow deeper and blacker. He seasons his food with cunning, drinks it down like Iron Turtle drinks wine.
“No, when he comes it will be in secret, at night. Otherwise he will rouse the whole city against him, and the soldiers . . . Well, they may be weak but they are plentiful. And I doubt even Hades Dai will escape once the Imperial Cavalry are set on his heels. There are only so many arrows one man can dodge.”
Silver Dart laughed. She had seen men dance. “I have never known a man who could dodge all my shots,” she said.
Silent Wolf nodded. “I believe it, Silver Dart Shi. I would not like to be put to the test.”
Thunder Fist was unmoved. “Then what are we to do?”
Silent Wolf stood up. There was a long pause. “Our weakest points are not the gates or the walls. Thunder Fist is right. We cannot hope to guard the walls of the palace. And the place is already full of mourners. As far as we know, Hades Dai’s men could already be within the walls. No. The only place we need to guard is this courtyard.” He swung himself up and strode to the roof-ridge of the hay store. “If you see the palace from here, the roofs are a walkway. These will be Hades Dai’s roads.”
“So what do we do?” Iron Turtle called up. “I am not one for running over tiles all night. I will break them, for one.”
“We can lay traps,” said Flying Blade. “Tripwires, bells.”
“What happens if Iron Turtle is sleeping off a pot of ale? You think a bell will wake him?”
“Who said you were allowed to sleep?” Silent Wolf said.
There was a long pause.
Iron Turtle looked at Silent Wolf. “You’re joking, yes?”
Silent Wolf almost smiled, but the look quickly faded. “No,” he said with a sigh. “I am not joking. Hades Dai will come, that is the one thing of which we can be sure. We will stay here. We will keep watch. Not a single person shall enter this courtyard without my permission.”
“The sword is here?” Iron Turtle said.
“Yes,” Silent Wolf said.
Iron Turtle looked around him. All he saw were the three single-story buildings that formed the north, west and eastern sides of the courtyard, their gray brick façades and papered windows staring blankly back. Across the southern side of the courtyard was a wall of the same gray brick, as high as the buildings, through which the gateway ran. To the left of the courtyard, in the crook of the west wing, was an old plum tree, wizened and bent with a few scraggly branches, their last pink blossoms still clinging on.
“It’s not in my room, and it’s not in Silver Dart’s room.”
“How do you know?” Thunder Fist said. “Been spying on her?”
Iron Turtle’s cheeks colored red. “No,” he said. He glowered at the bigger man.
“It is hidden,” Silent Wolf said. “And it is better that way. All you need to know is that it is here, and that no one comes into this courtyard without my say-so.”
They nodded their agreement. “Beware spies,” Silent Wolf said. “Hades Dai will have many plans. It is the fool who relies on one arrow when he has a full quiver.”
That night Shulien stood in Sir Te’s study, the Green Destiny on the desk before her. She moved the candle closer. The sword seemed to glimmer with an inner light, as if it were made of glass, or jade.
She knew she was being watched. Knew an intruder was there. Only one, and he was very good. He thought she could not tell he was there. He was patient, she gave him that. Patient and almost silent. One of the best. But it was the little things that gave him
away. The cricket that suddenly stopped. The way the bats veered above the intruder’s head.
Shulien did not know if she was trained to this, or whether her knowing it was natural. But she knew he was armed, male and deadly. But she remained calm. She had Green Destiny. And there was almost no one in the world who could outclass her in sword-play.
“I know you are there. Why not step out of the shadows?” she called out.
The figure stepped forward through the shade of the doorway. An armed warrior, his sword sheathed across his back: Silent Wolf.
Shulien turned to face him. “I thought it was you,” she said.
“How did you know?”
“Because you were so good,” she said. Her voice remained calm, but it took on a hard edge as she looked at him. “You were dead,” she said. “Why did you come back?”
He stopped and swallowed and did not seem to know what to say. She saw him struggling for words, and an odd mix of relief, justification, satisfaction and despair came over her—and she could not hold on to one long enough to give her a sense of exactly how she felt. “What is the point of appearing now, after all these years?”
“I swore an oath,” he said.
“Is that an answer?”
“It is my answer.”
Damn him, she thought, he is as infuriating as I remember.
“An oath. What for? Me, or the sword?”
“I swore an oath to protect both. I have come to fulfill that oath.”
“I do not need protection.”
“You did in the birch forest, when Hades Dai’s men waylaid your wagon. I remember them catching a choice fish in their net. And yet it was they who lay dead at the end of the fishing trip, not the fish.”
“That was you?”
Silent Wolf nodded.
She moved so there was a wide stretch between them. “How long have you been following me around?” she said.
“Years.”
“And you never came to speak to me?”
“I was tempted.”
“Tempted?”
He nodded. She shook her head at him. “What does years mean? How many? Where? How have I not seen you?”