by Ben Wolfe
Kisa nodded her head and turned back towards Azar but was met by Margot, who had ridden from the rear of the procession. The Jintai had already turned back towards the outpost where two jintai stood sentry to the narrow causeway.
“What is the hold-up?” she asked.
Kisa reined in her horse and saw the suspicion in Margot’s eyes. She had long since begun to read the looks and small gestures passed between the wraiths. It was not dissimilar to the hand signals traded by the jintai when they were approaching a location quietly or when the din of battle was too great to hear instructions or a change in orders, though the wraiths were more subtle than the jintai and tried to keep their unspoken communication hidden. There were also set pauses between gestures and actions which made their communication harder to read but it was clear that the wraiths did not trust the Jintai.
Kisa gestured for Yumakai to remain at the rear of the column though the Jintai did not look very happy about it. “The messenger was relaying instructions from the Lianshi that we are to have you bathed before she will hear your petition.”
“Our petition?” replied Margot. It sounded uncertain even to her ears.
“It is an honor to be welcomed into Karsova in the same manner that the Lianshi herself was welcomed to this place. We are to proceed to the western causeway which will lead us to the baths just inside the stone wall of the city set atop the hill. It is one of the first things the women of Karsova built when the city was founded, they discovered that the city was set atop mineral hot springs. There is even one that erupts in the middle of a fountain in the central square on a regular basis.”
Azar raised an eyebrow and said, “She wants us to bathe? Are you being serious? We were chased halfway across a continent, through one of the highest mountain ranges in the world with some of our charges and one of our own killed and she wants us to bathe? Without even extending guest right of bread and mead first?”
“Azar,” Kisa replied, but glanced at Margot, “please remember that you are judging us by the standards of the west, which you are fleeing. Things are different here and if you want the Lianshi to grant your charges sanctuary,” she paused, “and you for that matter, sanctuary, then you need to accept that things will be different than what you are used to.”
“It is against the rules of our order to unveil or disrobe before anyone,” Margot replied. “But we will discuss it amongst ourselves and will accompany the wives and concubines of the west as far as the causeway. There, we will make our decision.” She turned and said, “Azar, go and spread that word of what is being asked to the other wraiths. We will need to make a decision quickly. We’ll accompany them to the western causeway and make a decision amongst ourselves to stay or leave. If we stay, we will catch up to them. If not, we will leave from there.”
When the procession reached the western causeway, the wraiths gathered at the foot of the causeway while the rest proceeded on. Azar was the first to speak. “We cannot unveil! We would be violating our oaths of secrecy. We would be marked for death.”
Margot took a deep breath. “Azar and all of you,” she said, looking to each wraith, “Look up this hill at this city. It is incredibly well thought. This place would be nearly impossible to lay siege to without a massive army ten times the size of the one defending it. But also, look at what they have. They look to be thriving. They are allied to some degree with the aelfen, ruled by a queen. They stopped a small army from following us. You know we would not have been able to fight them off alone. If you believe the handmaiden, they are incredibly well organized and brutal when they need to be. We have supported our husbands, our families and friends in Arkenheim, each of us a younger daughter of a major household that would not be missed, yet by now they will surely have noted the absence of so many. Because of my failure to kill the Konigar and make it seem an accident, I have placed our entire order in a precarious situation. While their rescue was sanctioned, my actions were not and now we know that our order has been disavowed by the very people we have always served to protect first. If our families found out who we were, and by now they would have, they would have no choice but to turn on us. We have no friends and no family. We are alone.”
The wraith known to others as Lisei spoke, “She’s right. Pela was killed and for the first time in over a hundred intervals, we left a sister behind. Pela fell and we ran to protect the rest of our charges.”
Azar seemed upset, “That’s not fair! We were hopelessly outnumbered and had accepted the charge to protect these women.”
Lisei shook her head, arguing, “It won’t matter that we had good cause. Never in all the intervals since our founding has one of our own been left behind or her identity discovered. How long before they figure out who we all are as Margot has said they would if they haven’t already?”
Azar’s voice grew heated, “Then perhaps we should return with Margot to face charges before the full sisterhood. You know that if they were going to be discovered they would have all gone to ground and we all know where they would be. We could take Margot back to face justice. If not for her failure, none of us would be in this situation.”
Margot looked at the others. “If that is your decision, I will return with you to face censure. If not, I suggest that we begin looking at things differently because we can never go home again and as far as I can see, we can either make this our new home and petition the Lianshi for a new home in her empire or we can return home to face execution.”
The wraith known as Esther removed the hook that attached her veil and allowed it to drop. “Lord Warren would never do that. I am his youngest daughter. He has to know I was among you by now and would protect us. All of us.”
Azar let out a hiss. “You young fool! You know the rules and why we took our oaths. They are to protect all of us from certain knowledge so that none may betray another. You think your brother can protect you if we return?”
“Perhaps you are right, she said, “but if we cannot trust each other, then who can we trust?” she asked. “I might not agree with the choices she made and regrettably the situation those choices have placed us in, but Margot is right about one thing. Our circumstances have changed and it calls for us to change with them in order to survive. We can do so from here, with at least some protection, hoping that the next time we contact our families, we can do so safely and maybe with the hopes of one day seeing them again.”
One of the other wraiths called Tarla also removed her veil. “I agree. I vote to stay. There is nothing to go back to right now. We have to change the circumstances again if we ever hope to see our families again.”
Margot turned to the last two remaining wraiths as Azar let out another exasperated hiss. “Ariane, Lisei, what do you have to say?”
Ariane looked to Lisei and said from behind her veil, I think that one of us needs to try to return to the sisterhood to let them know what happened and tell them what we are trying to do here.”
“I agree,” Lisei said, removing her veil. “And I think it should be you, Margot.”
Margot replied, “Me? Why me?” she asked. “I stand to lose the most by returning.”
Azar pushed her horse forward, “Because you were the one who got us into this mess, you will have to take the greatest risk to get us out of it. But don’t worry. I will be going with you to make sure you tell the whole story rather than just a glorified version of it. Our sisters need to know what they are facing before making their own decisions. We still have some secrets left to preserve and I would remind all of you to keep those or I swear when I return you will all wind up dead. It was a mistake to show your faces because I see you now. I see all of you. Come on, Margot. Our journey is not done yet.”
While the other wraiths moved toward the causeway, veiling themselves again, Margot and Azar left to return the way from which they came. “We will need to pay for passage through the aelfen wood again,” Margot said.
“Better than the alternative,” Azar replied. “What is your life worth to you?
”
They arrived to see the groomswomen leading the horses, belonging to the women they had escorted, towards the stables. The baths were a single-story stone building buried halfway into the ground. The low stone building was covered with grass and goats stood atop the building grazing lazily. One of them stared at Esther as she dismounted. She and the others handed their reins to the groomswomen, but as she handed the reins to the woman, Esther made a last-minute decision. “Ariane, go with them and see to the horses and our gear. One of us will be out shortly to relieve you. Find out where we can have our things washed.”
Ariane nodded briefly after looking around. Esther was the youngest of them but with Azar and Margot gone, she was the ranking member of their group. Membership in their sisterhood was not by rank but by time in service and Esther had been indoctrinated at a very young age.
As Ariane went off with the groomswomen, Esther followed the other two into the shade of the building. Truth be told, she was looking forward to a bath. Winter this far south was not felt yet and there had been a great deal of both dust and heat on their journey. Weeks in the saddle had compiled so many aches that they had gone unnoticed until now.
They walked into a large grotto with stone pillars and hanging plants over a very large pool that seemed to be fed from two places. The far wall seemed to flow into the pool as it spilled out of a spring near the ceiling. At the other end, closest to them, it bubbled up from below the surface. There seemed to be blocks of stone set beneath the surface in rows such that the women could sit in the clear water towards the center as well as closer to the edges. It seemed that the women they had escorted had already broken up into groups that the wraiths had noted on the journey to Karsova. There were the wives and there were the concubines. The women from the west divided themselves along the lines of the great rivalry between the houses of Medrigor and Eisengard, forcing the few from smaller houses to choose between the alliances as though those mattered anymore. There was a great deal of distrust and the women had a great deal of difficulty crossing social boundaries as well as political ones. Most had already removed their clothes and were placing them in baskets before making their way into the bath. Lisei and Tarla looked to Esther for guidance. Revealing their faces to each other was one thing, though still forbidden by their order. To do so before outsiders was taking things to another level.
“Our circumstances have changed,” she whispered. “We can either change with them and adapt or we can return and die. It is too late now to question our choices or where our loyalties lie. Just as it is up to Margot and Azar to put the choice of what to do to the sisterhood, it is up to us to convince them to give any wraith who comes to them sanctuary here.”
“Our circumstances have changed,” they both agreed and began to detach their veils and disrobe. The women they had ridden with for weeks went quiet as the wraiths held the whispered exchange and began to disrobe. The Jintai stared impressed at the sheer number of weapons hidden within the folds of their clothing and with unabashed interest at their gauntlets, which they placed atop their baskets. When the women moved forward to remove the baskets, the wraiths waved them off with threatening looks and carried them with them to the edge of the bath. Slowly, they submerged themselves in the warmth of the hot spring.
They had purposely chosen the end farthest from the Jintai and the women they had brought to safety. That meant that the only place left had been near the one woman who made no alliances and sat alone. Margot’s charge. The Vordoshan handmaiden who did not fit into the social classes of either the wives or concubines. Her mistress had been willing to bring her along, yet her mistress was dead and the failure of the wraith that brought her, which had dramatically increased the danger of their journey, had further alienated her from the others. She had said little since returning with the Jintai and the aelfen ranger called Kara. Esther had learned from the Jintai that she had watched the commander of the Jintai, named Akemi, killed by the Jurtan Torhig while making sure they could not be followed. Her name she remembered, was Artemis.
“You have been very quiet since rejoining us with the Jintai,” she said to the woman, who looked ill at ease with the wraiths so close to her. “Your name is Artemis, is it not?” she asked.
The woman nodded, her arms folded over her breasts.
“I am Esther,” she said. “And this is Lisei and Tarla.”
The other women nodded a greeting to Artemis, but Tarla pulled one of the baskets closer to her feeling ill at ease without her weapons or clothing.
“You are all from Arkenheim?” she asked.
“There and from the surrounding settlements and plains,” Ester replied.
“Devonshire actually,” Tarla said. “You are from Vindhela?”
“No. I was raised on a farmstead near Falshire. I played in the great woods when I was a child. That far north there were not many aelfen communities and the woods were safer. At least we were safer until the war found us. I was taken in by the Konigar’s wife as her handmaiden. In the war, the women, even Georgina, rode against the armies of the night.”
“Many of us were too young to participate in the war but we all remember it,” Tarla said.
At the other end of the baths, the Jintai began to emerge from the water and were brought towels by the attendants who had taken the baskets away.
Lisei watched as they began exiting on the far side of the baths with the attendants. “Wraiths,” she cautioned, but too late. The doors were barred from the outside and the only entrance remaining, the one from which they arrived, flew open and Jintai came streaming into the baths, taking up station along the edges where the women were at, bows drawn.
Tarla made to take her gauntlet from atop the clothes, but a Jintai aimed her arrow at her and simply shook her head while the western women began to raise their voices in fear and move away from the edges of the baths towards the center.
One voice rose above the others. “We demand to know what the meaning of this is! We are here to request sanctuary. We are guests in your house.”
As the Jintai pulled the wraith’s baskets away from the edge outside of their reach, an unmistakable voice of command rose above the voices of fear. Strong and certain. “That remains to be seen.”
Nearly thirty Jintai with bows aimed at the women in the pool had secured the grotto before a woman in a translucent gown over a white shift entered. “You are certainly visitors. But whether or not you are granted sanctuary depends greatly upon your answers to my questions and whether or not you bring value to my empire and our community. From what my Jintai tell me you are a pampered lot, unlikely to bring much value to my empire and far more trouble than you are worth.”
The one woman who had spoken so forcibly from amongst the women spoke out angrily, “You invite us into your baths and as we stand naked and defenseless after all we have been through, you would kill us here in your baths?”
“No. The baths were to see what the wraiths would do. We were not worried about you.”
The attention of all the women then turned to the wraiths now standing near the edge of the baths glancing at the baskets with all of their weapons in it.
Artemis moved between the Jintai and the Wraiths. “What do you want with them?”
The Lianshi smiled. “I like you. What is your name?”
“Artemis,” she replied.
The Lianshi’s demeanor faltered and a sudden sense of sadness threatened to overwhelm her. “So it was you. You were the one who tried to save Akemi.”
When the pained expression crossed Artemis’ face, the Lianshi turned to the women of the western kingdoms. “And you. Who among you would pay the price for admission to Karsova?
The outspoken woman said, “You took all of our belongings but we can pay if they are returned to us.”
The Lianshi waved a dismissive hand. “The price we ask is not one that can be paid for with belongings.”
The western women all looked at each other in bewilderment. In that moment, th
e door burst in towards the Lianshi and Ariane put a knife to the startled Lianshi’s throat, pulling her back towards the corner of the room and kicking the door shut. “Lower your weapons,” she said, but the Jintai did not move.
“I said, lower your weapons,” she said, digging her dagger in just enough to draw blood. But the Jintai still didn’t move. “I’ll kill her,” she said.
“No, you won’t,” Allia said. “And they know it. They have seen me die before.”
“Ariane,” Esther said quietly, “At a young age my father taught me some of the ancient language of dragons. ‘Lianshae’ was the word they used to describe those like my father. Immortals.”
“Immortals can still be killed,” she said.
“Jintai,” Allia called out, “Shoot every wraith in here but take this one alive.”
“No, no, wait!” Esther said. “Please. We came to swear our service for sanctuary. Killing us would be killing one of your own.”
The Lianshi held up her fingers in a gesture to the Jintai who waited.
“Ariane,” Esther said, watching the closest Jintai who had an arrow levelled right at her. “Let her go. This is not how we wanted to approach this.”
“She came here to slaughter everyone. You want me to let her?”
“If she wanted to do that they would be dead already,” Esther said.
“Thank you,” the Lianshi said with a smile. Putting her hand slowly up to Ariane’s arm, she gently pushed the arm with the dagger away from her throat and stepped away from her. Turning around, she looked at Ariane and rubbed her throat. “What happened to the three Jintai I sent to the stables?” she asked.
“They’ll wake up tomorrow wondering where they are and what happened,” Ariane said with a grin.
“You find it amusing?” she asked.
“My apologies, Lianshi. Appearances were that you were trying to have me killed and then I saw you enter here with thirty Jintai and nearly fifty assassins outside. What was I supposed to think?”