Heart of Defiance

by Ryan Kirk

  The place she had destroyed.

  Delun’s thoughts seemed to mirror her own. “You’re sure?”

  “If he’s around, there’s almost no doubt he’s in town.”

  “I could do it alone.”

  She shook her head. “Thank you, but no.”

  Delun didn’t respond.

  She didn’t want to go into Galan, but she wouldn’t hide from what needed to be done.

  They were noticed even before they reached the outskirts of the village. Two men watched the road, no doubt due to all the recent excitement. One man ran back into town while the other stood in the center of the road, holding what appeared to be an old, rusted spear.

  Bai found the scene foolish but did not laugh. No doubt the man would be quaking in fear. Delun’s robes announced who he was as clear as day, and Bai was no stranger, but the man still stood his ground. That took courage.

  Delun was about to step forward and deal with the sentry, but Bai laid a hand gently on his shoulder. “That won’t be necessary.”

  She led the way, pulling in some power from Delun. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind. Her senses sharpened, and she saw the way the man shuffled back as she approached. She smiled at him, trying to put him at ease. The idea might have been well-intentioned, but it didn’t work.

  Bai saw the man’s weight shift, his center of gravity moving back as he prepared to lunge with his spear. To her heightened senses, the movement was easy to spot. She stepped to the side as the spear jabbed at her, then caught it in one hand. She gripped the shaft tightly as he tried to pull away.

  Bai watched the man struggle. Holding the spear was barely a challenge, but the man looked like he fought with his whole body. She focused some of her energy into her hand and squeezed, snapping the spear. The man fell backward as his anchor gave way.

  She looked down at him. “I’m not here to hurt you—”

  He didn’t give her time to finish the sentence, scrambling away and sprinting back into town.

  Bai and Delun watched him go.

  Delun grunted. “That could have gone better.”

  Bai shot him a withering glare, but it did nothing to disturb the monk’s composure.

  They continued into town. Bai kept drawing a trickle of energy, ensuring she would be difficult to surprise. Behind her, she felt Delun begin preparations for a shield. It felt like the second sign, but she wasn’t experienced enough to be certain. Regardless, he seemed ready to protect her. The gesture offered her some slim comfort.

  When she’d imagined this moment, she’d imagined some sort of conflict. She had prepared for the townspeople to attack her, or yell at her, or confront her in some way.

  As she walked through Galan, though, she was greeted with nothing but silent glares. She saw people looking out their windows, or staring at her from the small hidden spaces between houses. The most daring fixed her with angry looks as they passed on the opposite side of the street.

  Everyone looked angry at her, but Bai didn’t feel that emotion. She felt their fear. No doubt, rumors about her had spread after her escape from the cells weeks ago. Rumors that were perhaps closer to the truth than Bai had once imagined. For all the hate in their eyes, Bai felt only pity in return.

  She had been one of them, not that long ago.

  After walking for a few minutes, she had to turn to Delun. She wondered if he felt the same when he traveled through towns in his white robes. “Is it always like this?”

  “Sometimes.”

  A slowly rising wave of sorrow filled Bai’s heart, cresting as they walked past the destroyed market square. Weeks had passed and still no one had tried to rebuild. Bai asked Delun to stop. She wasn’t sure when or if she would ever be in Galan again. She found her old house. At first, she had intended to leave the bracelet behind, proving to herself she had moved on from her childhood.

  Now the action seemed foolish. She had moved on, and the bracelet was all that remained besides her mother’s memories. She bowed to the house and to the spirit of her mother. The woman hadn’t been perfect, but Bai believed she had done her best. She thanked her mother for all she had done.

  Eventually, she returned to Delun. “How do we find the questioner?”

  Delun gave a grim smile. “If he’s here, he’ll find us.”

  The two of them continued, and before long, Delun’s prophecy came true. A single man stood in the middle of the street. Even if she hadn’t recognized him from before, Bai would have known him. There was no fear in his stance, no turning away.

  He gave them a slight bow as they approached. “Bai. Master Delun. It is a pleasure.”

  Bai almost asked how he had found them, but then stopped. They were in Galan. No doubt everyone in town knew they were here. Word traveled fast in a small town.

  Delun stepped forward before Bai could speak. “We need your assistance.”

  The man gave Delun a quizzical look, as though a request for help was the last thing he’d expected.

  “If you are able,” Delun continued, “we need you to stop or slow the advance of Lord Xun’s troops.”

  The man laughed, then saw the expression on their faces. “You’re serious?”

  Delun nodded.

  The questioner shook his head. “My responsibility is only to take Bai into custody. What you ask is beyond my duty.”

  Delun stepped forward with such menace that Bai actually stepped away from the two, her protective instincts overriding her reason for a moment. The questioner didn’t so much as flinch.

  “Your duty,” Delun growled, “is toward the empire, the same as me. Bai and I are going to Kulat to stop the monastery. If you can slow the army, you can prevent war.”

  The questioner’s eyes slowly looked back and forth between the two warriors. Bai had no problem imagining the calculations running through his mind. The questioner’s gaze settled on Bai. “Your work is well-known, Master Delun. But this woman has the skill to assist you in this?”

  Delun nodded. “More than most.”

  The questioner stood in silence for a few more moments. “I can try, but I’ll have little authority with the military itself. My best effort would be to ride to Lord Xun personally and then send a messenger to the army, but I don’t think that will be fast enough. I will do what I can, though.”

  Delun gave the questioner a respectful bow. “That is all any of us can do.”

  The questioner returned the bow and was about to turn away when Bai spoke up, curiosity overwhelming caution. “Why didn’t you show up that night?”

  The questioner smiled. “I was there.”

  Bai’s questioning look caused his grin to grow even wider. “I was watching you and Lei, attempting to better judge your character. I wanted to know you better before apprehending you. My plan had been to show myself in time, but then events spiraled out of control. I don’t regret my decision, though. I saw what you two did that night.”

  Bai shook her head in disbelief.

  The questioner slipped away without another word, and Delun breathed a sigh of relief. Bai gave him a questioning glance.

  “Not all men are so reasonable,” Delun replied. “He gives us a chance at averting this tragedy, though.”

  Bai nodded. “On to Kulat?”

  “Unless there’s something more you need to do here.”

  Bai looked around. They were near the outskirts of town, approaching the area where she and Delun had fought. Although she still called Galan home, it didn’t feel that way anymore. Now that she was here, it was just a town, a place she had once lived. A small part of her felt homeless, an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach that she wasn’t sure she would fill anytime soon. “No,” she said. “I’m done here.”

  She believed it, too. Until a door to a house opened in front of them and a familiar face stepped outside, the man as surprised to see her as she was him.

  Bai couldn’t believe the coincidence. Her stomach clenched in knots as soon as she saw the man, but she forced herself to
relax.

  Wen stood in front of her.

  The man who had been responsible for so much of her suffering. The man who had beaten her in the cells.

  Bai barely felt the power surge through her, her instincts and anger taking over. She dashed toward him, grabbing him by his throat with one hand and slamming him up against the wall. His feet, just off the ground, kicked feebly at her.

  She held her grip, impervious to his weak attempts at escape.

  She wanted to yell at him, to beat him the way he had beat her. As she held him there, choking the life out of him, she looked for that hint of anger in his eyes.

  Instead, she saw only fear.

  Wen was a coward.

  “Bai.” Delun’s voice behind her was gentle but firm.

  The last of Bai’s rage cooled. She released her grip, sending Wen collapsing to the dirt at her feet. She knelt down next to him. “If you ever treat anyone the way you treated me, I will return.”

  Then she stood back up, looking at the man who had once inspired terror in her. She shook her head.

  “Now I’m done.”

  34

  Delun rested in a deep squat as he gazed at the road in front of them. Behind him, Bai paced back and forth, covering the width of the road time and time again. She had run out of patience an hour ago.

  Over their past days together, Delun had come to a realization: he enjoyed Bai’s company. The woman had lived through some difficult experiences, her behaviors indicative of the person she used to be. More than once he had caught her startling at some small sound with the awareness of frightened prey. But she kept pressing forward, a trait Delun saw very little of in his life. In his experience, more people were governed by fear than by reason.

  She had more reason than most to be afraid. When the monasteries learned of her gifts, she would be hunted across the entire empire. Lei’s village wouldn’t be able to shelter her for long.

  She knew as much. She’d admitted it to him as they walked. Yet here she was, risking everything to help him.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Delun gave a short, bitter laugh. “Not at all.”

  “Do you really think they’ll be interested in peace?”

  Delun shrugged. “From what I’ve seen, it seems unlikely, but we need to try.”

  That morning, Delun had found a messenger to deliver a letter to the monastery. It requested a meeting between him and Guanyu.

  The reasoning was simple. If Delun could somehow convince Guanyu to step down, this disaster could be averted. If, as Delun thought more likely, Guanyu decided to attack him, at least the battle would happen outside the city.

  Perhaps he was too much of an optimist, though. Some small part of him still believed it wouldn’t come to a fight.

  Perhaps he was just blind. He couldn’t imagine a world in which monk willingly fought against monk.

  He glanced over his shoulder again at Bai. She had handled herself well thus far, but he still worried about her. If Guanyu attacked Delun, the abbot would send some of his best and fiercest fighters. Despite her preternatural skills, she did not have the lifetime of training experience the monks did. How far could she trust her skills in a pitched battle? How far could he?

  There were no easy answers to his questions, but at the moment, she was a tool willing to be used, and that was enough for him.

  She sensed them coming before he did. “There’s quite a few of them.”

  Delun couldn’t feel them. “How many?”

  “Six, maybe seven.”

  Delun narrowed his eyes. “That’s fewer than I expected.”

  Delun had figured Guanyu would respond to his request with overwhelming force. Six or seven monks was no force to sneeze at, but was only a fraction of what Guanyu could afford.

  Delun had fought off six already. He’d had help, of course, but Guanyu would have taken that into account.

  Delun tried to put himself in Guanyu’s shoes, adopting the abbot’s mindset.

  It occurred to him he might be viewing the problem incorrectly. He was considering this insurrection as the end, but Guanyu wouldn’t. For the abbot, the uprising on the western edges of the empire was only the beginning. He didn’t have that many monks to work with, and they’d already taken losses in previous encounters. Guanyu was playing a game much bigger than Delun.

  Bai was about to retreat into the woods when Delun stopped her. “Hold on. Guanyu will want to protect his monks as much as possible. It might make him more defensive.” Delun paused, his mind racing through the possibilities and how he could best exploit them. Their original plan had been for Bai to hide, only to defend Delun if the worst came to pass. “If things go bad, I want you to attack them instead of defending me.”

  Bai gave him a quizzical look.

  “If they attack me,” Delun explained, “I want you to attack the monks with everything you have. Your immunity to their attacks should send them off balance for at least a minute or two. If you can take one or two down, I believe the rest will retreat.”

  Bai looked doubtful.

  Delun attempted to give her a comforting smile. “Trust me. It is our best chance.”

  Bai nodded and walked away, disappearing into the shadows of the woods. He hoped she trusted him. It was an incredible ask, to trust the man who had once hunted her.

  Delun had chosen the location of the meeting carefully. The road between Galan and Kulat ran along the western edge of a great forest, and Delun had chosen a section where the forest swallowed the road, a place where Bai could easily hide. If she didn’t pull power into herself she was difficult to sense, and Delun hoped the monks wouldn’t be expecting her.

  A few minutes later he sensed the group coming towards him. He confirmed Bai’s estimate. He sensed seven people, and he recognized two of them. One was Guanyu. His energy was strong, but not as strong as the man who walked beside him. Kang.

  Delun had expected that particular companion. Still, it didn’t make him feel any better about the meeting’s prospects. Although he believed he had a slight edge on Kang, the margin of difference between them was narrow enough that a fight could easily go either way. Regardless, fighting Kang would take almost all his attention. If it did come to a fight, Bai would be left with the other six, including the abbot. The odds hardly seemed fair.

  Delun mentally shrugged. He had gotten used to long odds early in life. Whatever the challenge, he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Sensing the monks approaching, another question that had nagged Delun wormed its way to the front of his thoughts. How had Guanyu became the abbot of so many strong monks? From Delun’s senses, Guanyu was perhaps the third or fourth most powerful in this group. Monks didn’t necessarily base rank on strength, but Delun had a hard time imagining this particular group of monks following a weak fighter.

  Delun thought of Lei’s words in the village above. The rebel had indicated Guanyu was incredibly powerful, but Delun didn’t sense it.

  It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Was he underestimating his opponents?

  Delun shook his head to clear the thought. It was too late to change their course of action now.

  A few more minutes of waiting brought the two sides together. The monks spread out in a line across from Delun, stopping about forty paces short of his position. Each looked relaxed, but all were clearly ready to fight. Fortunately, no one went so far as to form the signs for any attacks or shields.

  Delun did his best to stand casually in front of them, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. As though facing seven of the strongest warriors in the empire didn’t make his knees quake and his stomach twist in knots.

  He gave the tiniest of bows to the abbot. It was disrespectful, but in Delun’s mind, Guanyu didn’t deserve anything more. “Thank you for coming,” Delun said.

  The abbot waved his hand dismissively. “Get to the point, Delun. You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you stand.”

  Delun raised
an eyebrow at that. It was all the reaction that he allowed himself. He wouldn’t let Guanyu’s verbal tactics dissuade him. “I asked you here today so we could put an end to this madness.”

  “And what does that mean to you?” Guanyu asked.

  “You step down as abbot and turn yourself in for trial to the monastery at Two Bridges.”

  Guanyu laughed out loud. Delun figured that was a bad sign.

  “Do you know what I think is madness?” asked Guanyu. “I see a monk who openly stands against his brothers, who cooperates with rebels looking to destroy the empire, who kills those very people he is sworn to stand side-by-side with. I see that monk demanding that an abbot step down. That, to me, is madness. Delun, you have overstepped your authority and have sullied the reputation of the monasteries throughout the empire. By my authority as abbot of Kulat, I hereby banish you from the monastic system and sentence you to death.”

  Definitely not a good sign.

  Legally, there would be a mess to sort out if the two of them ever ended up in front of an impartial judge. Unfortunately for the rule of law, the nearest impartial judge was hundreds of leagues away. Strength would decide the victor of this argument.

  As if on cue, all six monks beside Guanyu began forming their signs. As Delun tracked their motions, he saw that four of them were signing attacks and two were signing shields. Apparently, this group had worked together before.

  Guanyu spoke again. “This doesn’t have to be hard. I suspect you have the girl hiding somewhere around here. Call her out and we can arrest you both. Otherwise they will attack.”

  When Delun didn’t respond, Guanyu sighed. He made another dismissive gesture with his hand and turned away. The four monks with attack signs all aimed at Delun, and he swore. His fingers danced through the shielding signs, just barely getting to the third before the attacks darted at him.