by Ben Wolfe
A woman who appeared slightly older than the rest approached with her bow undrawn and without an arrow nocked though Artemis knew that there were enough women prepared to shoot them full of arrows that one more would hardly matter.
Kara was smiling widely at the woman. “Akemi! I was hoping it would be you!”
The woman was slender but Artemis could see the muscles beneath her flesh, with short black hair and clothing that perfectly matched the terrain, including twin lines of green and brown paste smudged onto both sides of her face below her eyes. The woman did not return the smile. “Who else would it be?”
Kara’s smile did not falter. I’ve been practicing the bird cry as you showed me.”
Akemi walked slowly up to Kara’s horse and touched foreheads with the animal. “I noticed. You sound like a bird calling out its death cry. It sounds much like our small children who cannot yet tell the difference in tones. Much better than before.” She stood back and looked up at Kara. “Get off your horse, Kara.” Motioning one of the Jintai forward to take the bridle for Artemis, she said, “You, too.”
Kara dismounted and handed the reins to the closest Jintai, while the others all lowered their bows at a signal from Akemi.
“Akemi, this is Artemis. She is the handmaid to the former wife of the Vordoshan Konigar.
Akemi glanced at Fala. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Then she paused. “Former wife? She isn’t with you. I take it that Konigar is some kind of a title in the western lands? Is she with the group below?”
“She would be if she were not dead, killed by the Konigar.”
“Follow me to the summit. I want to show you something.” Akemi led them up a short trail towards the summit.
When they reached the top of the summit, she pointed into the pass where distant campfires could be seen. Many campfires and certainly more than Artemis or Kara had been expecting. Both exchanged a worried glance. Kara whispered, “Aren’t you glad now that you came with me?”
“This Konigar,” Akemi asked, “is he important?”
“The northernmost lands are ruled by something similar to the kings of the west. He is more like a first among equals. A leader but not a king. More like a war chief.”
Akemi turned towards Kara, the three of them alone among the tall pines and stone outcroppings. “Whatever you are playing at, say it plainly. I don’t have patience for your lessons. These men have entered the pass and block passage to the west. Their scouts are ranging further into the pass and we have had to avoid small parties up here. I need to know what their intentions are. It is our job to watch these passes and warn the Lianshi of any threats.”
“I noticed that some of the women in the group ahead of them, being pursued, are Wraiths. Even the Jintai have heard of these women. Tales spread by refugees who have come through the pass seeking the Lianshi’s protection. These women are deadly and where they go, trouble always follows. In this case, a small army of men gathering at the western entrance to the pass in growing numbers. They know that the weather is bad right now. The pass is close to being impassable for the winter. Why are these men following them? Who are these women?”
Fala looked uneasy, but Artemis stepped forward, pulling back her hood. “Please. You must help them.”
Akemi looked angry. “We must do nothing. We were sent to observe and notify the Lianshi of any threats. We are not enough to protect them from...that,” she said, gesturing forcefully with her bow towards the encampment. “I do not know who you are, but you have brought a small army in pursuit of you, heading towards the lands where thousands of women depend upon the Lianshi for protection.”
Kara made a small gesture to Artemis, begging her with her eyes not to say anything else. She spoke again to draw Akemi’s attention. “They are the wives and concubines of the western rulers. They left because they were not treated kindly or with respect. Many were unwilling participants in their marriages made for the sake of alliances.”
“And the wraiths,” she asked. “Their purpose?”
“Paid in gold to protect them and help them find refuge, but now refugees as well. Their part was uncovered when they attempted to save the Konigar’s wife who had been discovered while attempting to flee. They had meant to kill him and make it appear an accident but he killed his wife as a traitor and survived the rescue attempt as well as the fire meant to kill him. The Wraiths seek refuge with the Lianshi as have so many others that have gone before them.”
“This,” Akemi gestured down into the pass, “is a disaster. It will destroy the Lianshi’s plans to provide refuge for all that follow.” She put her fingers to her lips and emitted a short, sharp whistle.
Artemis saw several women appear from the woods within seconds, bows at the ready, not far down the trail from where they stood.
“Asulka, get Esahe to signal three lit arrows fired across the pass at sunset. We must let Kisa know what is coming. Kaiko, you and Sharizad, take four others and hunt down their scouts. Bring me their heads. Inform the rest that they are to gather the horses and be prepared to travel quickly. I need those heads by midnight when we make the descent into the pass and I need this trail defended. Take the women who go with you into the trees after their scouts are dead. Kill any who attempt to use the trail. Death from above, but do not let them see you. They must fear you, and if they see you, that advantage is gone.”
Later that night, the sunset and they rode a narrow trail through the mountaintops to where it was no longer passable by horses. Akemi had one of the Jintai lead the horses down the north facing slope into the Aelfen Woods. Kara gave strong protest before being silenced by Akemi and then spent moments whispering to the mare before touching its forehead with her own and removing the supplies and weapons she wanted from the saddle.
After a couple of hours climbing across a barren landscape of boulders and treacherous narrow trails across the very tops of the mountain with flurries and bitter cold winds tugging at their capes, seeking to dislodge them from the mountaintop, they reached a place where u-shaped metal rods had been hammered into the rocks. Half a dozen ropes of nearly unimaginable length laid coiled in piles over the steep decline. It was an area that clearly a rockslide or an avalanche had scoured the trees from the steep descent. Without ropes, an ascent or descent would be impossible.
Cautioned against calling out or talking, Artemis whispered to Kara, “I feel completely useless. Why did you bring me?”
“You were a face she needed to see. To be reminded of why they serve the Lianshi and her promise.”
“What promise?”
“The promise that one in every ten who come to the Lianshi must make. The promise to die for others should they need to and to spend their life training to defend them. They will show their enemies no mercy, for they would surely not be shown any.” Fala shrugged. “It is a hard life for those who train. The lives of all the women who follow the Lianshi are pledged to her, but these women,” she gestured to the seven women led by Akemi who were positioning the coils of rope along the ledge to be thrown out when the time came for the descent. “These women have already given their lives for her. They know that they will likely never see old age.”
At a noise from further down the trail, two of the Jintai broke off from the group and took positions on either side of the trail, several arrows laid lightly on the ground beside them. But it was Kaiko and Sharizad, carrying baskets on their backs, their breaths misting as they exchanged quick comments with the Jintai archers. The archers quickly went back to assisting with the ropes as the first set of coils were swung back and forth in unison by two of the Jintai and were cast out into the dark abyss. As the others followed, another Jintai emerged from further east on the trail, carrying two bundles of steel tipped spears tied together in a special satchel that could be carried on the back. One of the archers slung her bow and then a satchel before removing leather straps she tied first around the wrist and then looping it around the rope before wrapping it several times arou
nd her hands and stepping out into the dark abyss feet first.
By the time Akemi and Kara had coaxed a terrified and visibly shaken Artemis down the mountain, several hours had passed. Akemi wasted no time in heading off to check on the progress of her plan. When they had gathered below, a troop of a half dozen archers under Akemi had joined with a half dozen Jintai archers from the other side of the pass with their leader, Kisa. Artemis watched as a flaming arrow was fired straight up into the pass and the ropes were pulled up the face of the mountain, leaving them trapped in the pass. The small troop of Jintai were now the only thing standing between a small army of hunters and those women fleeing them.
“Light them up and show them what happens to the enemies of the Lianshi,” Akemi said.
It was only when the Jintai jogged out into the night and all of a sudden flickers of light appeared from pots of oil hanging from the tips of spears along either side of the pass that Artemis understood. The ghastly heads of the men from along the top of the pass sat atop the spears, staring towards the encampment further into the darkness at the western end of the pass, illuminated in the flickering glow of the flames. In the center of the pass the lids were removed from the two baskets of heads.
The Jintai dropped further back in the pass, taking up well concealed positions behind the boulders at the farthest point along the pass that had been affected by the landslide. Horns sounded in the distance with the baying of hounds as the hunter’s scouts saw the lights coming from farther into the pass and notified the main body of the encampment.
The Jintai did not have long to wait before they heard the first angry voices from the first hunters that showed up. Moments later they could all see shadows of men warily approaching through the flurries. Artemis could see the shadowy figure of a man carrying an axe from her hidden vantage point just before Akemi let go an arrow that jerked his head back as it went through his eye. The other shadowed figures stopped and Akemi’s voice echoed off the walls to either side of the pass, the wind carrying her words so that it seemed to come from all directions at once.
“Enemies of the Lianshi, hear me. The women you pursue are under the protection of the Lianshi now. You have no claim on them and will only die here. In the snow. Adding to the baskets of frozen heads, the only part we have given you as a reminder of what those men you sent before you once were. But we have not yet given you the rest of them to bury. These heads will remain. A reminder to what happens to the enemies of the Lianshi when men are sent to hunt women.”
A man’s voice echoed in the pass. “We do not fear you,” he said but then went silent as things began to fall from above along both sides of the pass. There was a brief moment of shock before the sounds of curses could be heard as they realized that the headless bodies of their comrades were raining down upon them.
“We return the bodies of your fallen comrades because we are not without decency or mercy. In fact, we will help you bury them and offer you this choice: Leave now or be buried with them. Bodies are not all that we can send down these mountains.”
The men stopped as they realized what she was saying, their heads swiveling, searching desperately for an enemy they could not see and knowing they had run out of time. The one in the lead, a large brute with scraggly red hair and thick braided beard looked wildly up the mountainside where the bodies had come from, struggling against his anger. He let out a bellow of frustration and called out, “Remember my name, witch. You have not seen the last of Jurtan Torhig. I will be back to swim in your blood!”
Akemi placed a horn to her lips and blew. A deep reverberating sound rolled up the sides of the canyon, its low bass note seeming to reach deep into the mountains. The mountains answered her call with a reverberating, low thrumming sound from high up in the mountain pass.
Jurtan Torhig looked at Akemi as she blew the horn. “I see you now,” he said, hurling his axe with a mighty heave before looking up the mountains and starting to run back through the pass towards the already retreating hunters.
Artemis saw what happened next in what almost seemed to be slow motion. She heard the reverberation from higher up in the pass and knew that the horn Akemi was blowing would trigger an avalanche. Artemis understood, as did Akemi, that if she stopped prematurely, it would mean certain death for all of them. She fumbled to nock her bow as she watched the Jurtan, brother by marriage to the Konigar himself, hurl the battle axe at Akemi. She fit the arrow and tried to track the axe as it flew. She watched Akemi close her eyes. Letting go her arrow, she watched in horror as it missed the axe.
The horn stopped abruptly, but they all knew Akemi had done the job that needed to be done. They ducked behind boulders as the first snow from the high ledges began rolling over the slopes gathering speed to a thunderous accompaniment. There were no trees or boulders to move this time and the snow rolling down the mountain began to pick up speed. As the first snow came down into the pass, Artemis saw Akemi, motionless. Her arm was outstretched and still grasping the horn with the Jurtan’s battle-axe buried deep in her chest, the force of the blow throwing her well beyond the cover of the boulders. The snow came past like an angry sea, sweeping the image of Akemi from Artemis’ vision and stinging her eyes.
The Jurtan looked back in the pass, unpassable now until winter had finished, the other hunters were refusing to take the narrow trail in the high pass, having seen what awaited them. He watched as the men hastily began gathering their belongings and breaking camp. There was nothing here now except two baskets containing the heads of hunters, overturned in the snow, their heads frozen and barely recognizable. The several spears that remained on the fringes of the area where the avalanche had landed still had the heads impaled on top, but the spears leaned at various angles. Walking over to one, he became aware that one of his retainers, the Heitar of Lief, had approached and was talking to him.
“...that a conclave has been called and the Konigar wants you to attend in his stead, Torhig.”
Torhig grunted and yanked up hard on one of the spears, the head on it seeming to watch Torhig as he walked over to the closest overturned basket. Tilting the tip forward until the head was on top of those that had spilled out, he put his foot on the neck of the man’s head and pulled the spear free.
Turning to the Heitar of Lief, Torhig pointed the bloody tip of the spear towards the blocked pass. “I lost a bloody good battle-axe in...that,” he said with such menace that the young Heitar, a good head shorter than Torhig, took a step back. “Get me those other spears,” he growled.
Dropping to one knee, mailed fist to the ground, the Heitar bowed his blonde head. “At once my lord.” He stood and began directing his men. When the orders were issued, he turned back to the Jurtan. “The heads, Torhig?”
Torhig’s knuckles turned white on the spear haft as he dug the butt of the spear into the snow and ground it into the icy ground beneath. “Find the head of my son and put it in one of the baskets. We’ll take it back to the conclave.”
“What about the other basket?”
Torhig looked at the Heitar with dead eyes. “Leave them where they lie. Their bodies are buried. Let those who look upon their frozen heads be reminded of what happened here as we will remind those who matter.”
CHAPTER THREE
THE CONCLAVE
◆◆◆
Nearly a week later, as the Heitar of Lief saw to the quartering of their men, Jurtan Torhig approached the doors of the throne room of Eisengard without breaking stride. One glance gave the guards pause before they pushed the doors open for him. Torhig strode into the room with eight thrones arranged in a semicircle. As the last to arrive, he had expected the others to already have started but he was unprepared for the petty bickering and shouting over each other that he encountered by all save the man quietly sitting on one end, observing, the tattoo of a gryphon covering half of his face.
Torhig stopped and stood before the so-called kings of the west, watching as they fought amongst themselves and waiting to be noticed. The g
uards who had admitted him had not even bothered to confiscate his weapons or announce him. The man from Corth with the Gryphon tattoo, the only one amongst them to notice him, cleared his throat to no effect. He was, after all, like him, a representative rather than a king or Konigar. Torhig slammed the butts of the three spears on the stone floor, echoing throughout the chamber. A knight in black at the center of the arguing kings looked up at the sharp sound, his hand going for his sword.
Jurtan Torhig shrugged the basket off his shoulder and tossed it to the ground, the thawed heads spilling out and rolling across the floor to stop at the feet of the gathered conclave.
The knight in black stood slowly, stepping down from the dias and looking down at the heads, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. Turning one of the heads with his foot, he looked from the head to the barely concealed rage on Torhig’s face.
“I take it that the hunters ran into some resistance?” the knight said quietly. “Torhig, I’m sorry about your son.” The hall was silent.
Jurtan Torhig replied, “We were following the wraiths and your women into the pass and ran into the Jintai. They were watching the northern pass from the high reaches. A narrow trail that does not go the whole way on either side but is protected from the early snows by the giant pines that grow along the slopes. They had archers in the trees. The pass is narrow and in places treacherous. We could not mount an assault there. We tried to burn the trees but they would not light before our men were shot full of arrows. They lured us into the pass where there had been a landslide. Rocks or maybe snow from the interval before. The heads were placed in baskets in the middle of the pass. They belonged to the men we sent to scout the high reaches. We thought we were chasing the wraiths and your women. We came across these in the pass. Behind the shelter of boulders and large trees from the previous landslide, they called out to us as enemies of the Lianshi and told us that the women we pursued were under their protection.”