by JC Kang
The imperial guards all dropped to one knee in a salute.
Fleet piped up, his voice cutting through the reflective silence. “Does anyone have mustard seeds? This bread is quite bland.”
The princess glared at him for ruining the moment, and he lowered his head in mock shame.
As they finished up their lunch, Tian gazed over the madaeri’s map. They’d reach the crossroads of the east-west and north-south highways by the end of the day. Soon after that, they’d be able to see the northernmost mountains of the Nothori range to the west. The altivorcs must have come from that direction. After reaching the highway, their battalion would turn northward toward Iksuvius. How far away were they now? Who would reach the crossroads first?
Chen Xin said, “The altivorcs are looking for seven Hua disguised as Kanin Riders. If we change back to monks’ robes, it might throw them off.”
Li Wei shook his head. “Wandering monks don’t ride warhorses, and nobody will confuse a Kanin charger for a farm nag.”
Fleet jumped up and down, waving his hands. “We’ll be able to see the altivorcs on the river basin well in advance. We can leave the highway and ride through the woods a few miles west of here.”
“We should split up,” Cyrus said. “The Kanin horses are faster anyway, and they’re not looking for the three of us.”
Tian tapped his chin. Maybe the Akolyte was trying to abandon them again.
Fleet shrugged. “Whether we are seven and four or eleven, we don’t stand a chance confronting an army of altivorcs. But in smaller groups, it’ll be easier to bypass them. We can meet in the town of Issemies, at the confluence of the Alto and Noto Rivers. It’s about two days from here.”
It made sense. As long as they saw the altivorcs first, they could avoid them. Tian exchanged glances with Chen Xin, who nodded his approval. All eyes shifted expectantly to the princess, who consented with a tilt of her head. With reluctant farewells, the Hua rode ahead.
That night, they camped under the stars for the first time on their trip, not far from the crossroads between the two main highways. After eating a dinner of cornbread, they fed the horses with the feed they’d bought in Gaukaimas.
Despite the pleasant evening weather, the princess’ cheerful demeanor tumbled into silent petulance.
Tian hid his scoff, thinking about how some people actually enjoyed the outdoors. He and the five imperial guards rotated watches, allowing the irritable princess to sleep.
He woke the next morning to find that the horses were bloated, and refused to be ridden. They pressed on nonetheless, pulling reins and cajoling their mounts for a couple of miles before their pace ground to a halt.
Tian called for a break. Removing everything except the horses’ saddle blankets and bits, they sat at the roadside and snacked on cornbread. After an hour, the horses’ condition deteriorated.
“We might have to leave them behind,” Tian said, fiddling with the straps to his armor.
Cornbread crumbs dribbled from Li Wei’s mouth as he spoke. “If we do, it’ll be the dead of winter before we reach the rendezvous point.”
Ma Jun shook his head. “We can buy horses in the next town. We should have enough for seven horses.”
Tian tapped his chin. They only had thirty gold kroon. Maybe enough for horses.
“What about riding gear?” Xu Zhan pointed at their sick horses. “We can’t carry it all—”
“Altivorcs!” Chen Xin scrambled to his feet, pointing with his sabre towards the river.
Tian turned his head. Fifteen altivorcs surged up the riverbank, armed with curved broadswords and spiked shields. Apparently not even the princess, with her keen ears, had heard them above the water splashing among the rocks. The altivorcs fanned out, encircling them.
Kanin spears and sabers in hand, the imperial guards formed a protective circle around her. Taking up a horse bow, Tian came to the princess’ side. It’d been years since he’d shot, and as children, she’d always been better. Had she ever shot at live targets before? Her hands trembled as she fitted an arrow to her own bow.
The enemy circled, using their superior numbers to flank each of the guards.
Tian nudged the princess. “Do that thing with your voice.”
Kaiya shook her head. “They’re resistant to it.”
The leader spoke in thickly accented Arkothi. “Turn the princess over to us, and the rest of you will be spared.”
“Set spears!” Chen Xin ordered. In response, the guards all took a step back to tighten their circle and lowered their spears.
With a laugh, the leader barked an order in a foul-sounding language. Five of the altivorcs broke away from the group and trotted towards the sick horses.
Tian and the princess both loosed several arrows at the pursuing altivorcs, but they lifted their shields and continued towards the horses. None of the arrows found their mark.
Tian lowered his bow. The enemy could wait them out until they tired or reinforcements came. If someone didn’t act now, the altivorcs would be eating horsemeat tonight. He dropped his bow and vaulted into a flip over the protective line, drawing his saber with a simultaneous cut toward the leader.
The sudden attack caught the altivorc unawares, and his head rolled into the dirt. The other altivorcs froze and gaped at the black blood which rhythmically spurted from the severed neck.
Using their shock to his advantage, Tian slashed through the knee ligaments of the next closest.
The imperial guards, perhaps sensing the shift in momentum, surged outward in unison. Spears flashed towards the closest enemy. Just as swiftly, the men spun back into a protective circle around the princess. Their vicious coordination and efficiency was jaw-dropping.
Tian glanced around, evaluating the results of the imperial guards’ split-second attack. Chen Xin’s lightning strike had impaled an altivorc in the throat, while Zhao Yue thrust through the eye slot of another’s helmet. Three altivorcs had suffered injuries.
Those three had no time to fall back. The circle flared out again, this time in a crossing burst of precise thrusts, before reforming around the princess. One second, three more altivorcs down. No wonder Jie had come to respect them.
Behind Tian, the horses cried out. He turned to see two of the altivorcs hacking at their mounts, while the other three rushed back to join in the fray. The princess wept, her fingers fumbling at fitting another arrow.
All-out melee broke out, with one-on-one duels, man versus altivorc. Spears flashed, sabers glinted. Red blood splashed against black. In the half-minute that it took for the other three altivorcs to arrive, the Hua had killed or incapacitated the first group. Tian, along with four of the imperial guards, set upon the last three and quickly finished them off.
The two surviving altivorcs, near the slaughtered horses, bolted. Ma Jun and Li Wei scrambled after them.
“Don’t let them get away!” Tian yelled. Why hadn’t the princess shot them already? “They will reveal our position. And bring reinforcements.”
His orders seemed to unfreeze her. The princess let arrows fly. Even as her hands shook, her aim was true: one altivorc fell, shot in the back, and the other one was slowed as another arrow lodged in his leg. Ma Jun quickly caught up and decapitated it.
The princess sunk to her knees. She turned away from everyone and threw up.
Tian afforded her a quick glance. It must’ve been hard on her, being so close to combat. He turned his attention to his second victim, the altivorc whose knee he had cut in the opening seconds of the encounter. He knelt, brandishing his broadsword.
Tian disarmed him with a deft twist of his saber, and then wrenched the altivorc’s arm back in a lock. “Why did you attack us?”
The altivorc’s voice cracked. “We knew to be on the lookout for Cathayi disguised as Kanin Riders, and were ordered to capture you. We knew it was only a matter of time before your horses ate the poisoned feed, and that we would be able to catch up with you.”
The sleeping altivorc must
have passed the message on. But how? “How did your message get ahead of us? How many of you are coming up the highway? Where are they now?” Tian cranked the lock a little more.
The altivorc chortled and sealed his lips tight.
“Speak, and I will spare you!”
The altivorc set his gaze forward, a grim look forming on his hideous face.
Spewing foul language, Tian placed more torque on his lock. The tearing of ligaments and the dislocating of a joint made a wet popping sound.
The altivorc unleashed a guttural scream. His free hand yanked a dagger from his belt and jerked the blade across his own throat. Black blood gurgled from his mouth, and he collapsed into the dirt.
It was suddenly silent, save for the princess’ sobbing.
Tian turned to her. Poor girl. She must have never experienced this type of carnage before. He then realized how wrong he was.
The pounding in Kaiya’s ears drowned out all other sound. How she wanted to spit out the sour taste in her mouth!
She’d watched in slow motion as an orc spear floated through the air. Had it been aimed at her? Or Chen Xin’s back? It should have hit one of them. But then Xu Zhan was there, in front of her. He wasn’t Tian or Jie, able to use some Moquan trick to turn aside projectiles. He blocked the spear the only way he knew how.
With his life.
Now, through the tears in her eyes, his unconscious form was blurry, lying in a pool of his own blood. She knelt beside him, using her shaking hands to try to staunch the profuse bleeding from the gash in his neck.
She wiped away the tears and looked up as Tian approached. What did his tight lips mean? Disgust at her for their predicament? Scorn for Xu Zhan, whom he’d scuffled with when they first arrived in Iksuvius?
Kaiya looked back down. Less of Xu Zhan’s blood slipped from between her fingers as his pulse faded. Though belligerent, he’d always been the first to step up to her defense in times of need. How sadly ironic that he loved fighting, and his passion had claimed him. He was only twenty, twenty-one? She clasped his cool hand. Hopefully, that would warm his spirit as he returned to Yang-Di’s embrace for a temporary respite. She whispered a prayer that he be reborn into a better world.
As she knelt with a heavy heart, Tian helped the guards bind open wounds. His expression never changed, the loss of a comrade-in-arms seeming more like an inconvenience to him than a tragedy. Words more bitter than the bile’s aftertaste threatened to spill out of her mouth.
Chen Xin came forward and knelt. “Dian-xia. We must bury Xu Zhan. We cannot let carrion birds and other wildlife desecrate his body.”
Kaiya nodded in solemn agreement, though it was clear calculations were running through Tian’s mind.
His voice droned like a failed poet. “We must hurry. We can’t waste much time.”
Waste time! How could he consider honoring the dead a waste? Despite his cruel words, he grabbed an altivorc shield and dug into the soft ground near the river. Chen Xin, Ma Jun, and Zhao Yue joined him. Li Wei, even more somber than usual, helped her collect large stones along the banks to form a cairn.
“Let us create more cairns,” said Ma Jun, “to make it appear as if we have lost more than one of our own. Since we don’t have the horses anymore, we should disguise ourselves as wandering monks, as Chen Xin suggested earlier.”
Kaiya shot a glance over at Tian, who in turn looked at the iridescent moon. Still thinking about time!
“Very well,” he said. “Keep it simple.”
They made two more shallow graves, stacked rocks in a ring around the mound, and placed a Kanin suit of armor and sword on top of each.
When they were finished, the imperial guards all bowed their heads.
Kaiya followed their lead, saluting Xu Zhan. “If we make it home, I swear we will one day return in force so that we can take you back.”
They threw the rest of the Kanin armor into the river, and dressed in monks’ robes with broad conical straw hats. They kept the spears in hand and packed away three sabers, as well as her pair of straight swords. Saying their final farewells to Xu Zhan, they continued south down the highway on foot, keeping a quick pace and drawing the curious stares of passing travelers.
Kaiya sighed. They stood out like a bride on her wedding day.
CHAPTER 29:
Sacrifices
The princess and her imperial guards trudged down the road in front of Tian. Xu Zhan’s death weighed heavily on his mind, clouding all the other questions that raced through it. Pugnacious and curt from their very first meeting, Xu had nonetheless earned Tian’s grudging respect over the past few weeks.
Indeed, all of the imperial guards had proven more mentally capable than he’d given them credit for: Chen Xin’s recognition of King Arvydas’ dissembling; Li Wei’s observation about their mismatched disguises; Ma Jun’s suggestion to mask their losses with multiple cairns. Their precise and ferocious attacks when defending the princess. How many more of them would perish from his failed escape plan?
With a sigh, he tried to focus on their current predicament. Without horses, they couldn’t outrun the altivorcs if they encountered a large regiment. He would have to find a way to buy or otherwise liberate some horses in the next town. If there were any healthy horses there.
By dusk, they had only walked about thirty li in somber silence. Tian glanced at the princess again. Her jaw had been rigidly set and eyes focused straight ahead the whole time. His stomach clenched. Did she blame him for the death of Xu? The loss of their horses? At this rate, it would take around three days to reach Issemies, while Brehane and the others would arrive in less than two. Would they pass each other on the road sometime tomorrow? If they missed each other, would Brehane wait, over Cyrus’ inevitably vocal objections?
Mercifully, they made it to a town before night fell. They stayed at an inn and ate warm food. The mood was solemn, with the imperial guards’ sorrow at the loss of their comrade drowned by the local ale. Tian abstained, instead concerning himself with the stares of the innkeeper and patrons as they pointed and joked about the Cathayi monks with long hair.
Early the next morning, Chen Xin and Zhao Yue set out to look for horses. Though they returned unsuccessful, they were able to procure larger packs to carry the supplies.
After a quick breakfast, the group set out as the iridescent moon waned to its second crescent. Walking in silence, it didn’t take long for them to reach the town limits. Before the third crescent, it was well behind them.
When they took their first break around the fourth crescent, Tian worked up the courage to say what he had been thinking since the night before. “We’re dressed like monks. But we still have hair. Even the locals can tell.”
Ma Jun ran a hand through his hair. “What do you suggest?”
Tian braced himself for their reaction. “Shave it off.”
Zhao Yue grasped a lock of his hair. “Only monks, newly inducted soldiers, and convicted criminals shave their heads.”
Li Wei snorted. “Or have it shaved for them.”
Tian threw his hands up. He’d expected resistance. After all, long hair was a badge of pride in Hua. But this...
“For the princess’ safety.” Chen Xin stepped up and extended his hand toward Ma. “I will go first. Ma Jun, your razor.”
Thank the Heavens someone saw reason. Tian glanced at the princess. Her arms were folded over her chest, her eyes set forward above her frown. This one would be harder.
Li Wei snorted again, but headed down the bank. “At least Xu Zhan got to keep his hair.”
Tian descended the riverbank with the guards close behind. The princess tentatively followed. The imperial guards helped each other cut their hair with a dagger, while Ma Jun shaved everyone close with his razor. When it was Tian’s turn, he watched as his hair floated downstream.
When the last guard finished, Tian looked expectantly at the princess. “Now you.”
She turned her head like a petulant child. “Never.”
Tian looked towards the imperial guards for support, but they all edged back and stayed silent. “Dian-xia. Locals have been staring. At least cut your hair close. To hide under your hat. You don’t have to shave it.”
She scowled at him with a glare sharp enough to shear steel. “I will not look like a slave or prisoner.”
Perhaps she wanted to be the First Consul’s bed slave. Tian clenched his jaw. “On foot, we can’t outrun the altivorcs. We can’t fight any more than ten.”
“My hair will not be touched. That is my order.”
Where was Jie when he needed her? Maybe the princess would have listened to her. “Xu Zhan sacrificed himself for you. The rest of us will do the same. Is your own vanity more important than our lives?”
The princess’ face hardened. She spun around and walked back towards the road.
Tian opened and closed his fists. His life would be forfeit if they ever reached home. She would resent what he was about to do, but she would live to realize it was the right decision. He might be the villain today, but he would not be the fool in history.
Kaiya stood by the riverbank watching the waters drift northward. Though she wouldn’t admit it aloud, she took greater pride in her hair than even her voice. Even when she’d been a woefully plain child, her hair had been beautiful. And now, the silky, lustrous locks could be pinned, braided, or curled. The very thought of cutting them made her heart seize up.
She didn’t have to listen to this incompetent cur’s demands. She turned to climb up the bank.
The guards had already reached the road, a couple dozen feet away. When had they departed? And where was Tian?
Her head jerked back. She gasped at the burning pain in her scalp from the yank on her hair.
“Dian-xia, forgive me. I do this for you.” Tian’s voice choked, even as he seized a larger handful of her beautiful tresses. He used them to tug her along, ignoring every tearful threat, curse, and plea she could muster.