Five Kingdoms (55 page)

Guang Ci leaped up to retrieve the weapon, managing to be carried for a span before the Blade slid free and both it and its bearer were deposited onto the ground. The dragon stumbled and appeared bent on facing the Phoenix, but it was faced with Jiao Ren instead. The general braced himself for its attack and when the dragon lunged forward, he ran swiftly beneath its head and neck, running the
Spear of Heaven
directly into the dragon’s chest.

The beast coiled its neck back, like a serpent to strike, glaring with amber eyes down at Jiao Ren. Though the angle would not enable the beast to seize Jiao Ren in its jaws, it opened them anyway to let out its death wail. It was then that Jiao Ren drove the Blade deeper, turning it, and unleashing a deep red blossom of fire that rapidly colored the entirety of both forms.

It was impossible to look upon the intensity of the Blade’s energy. Xu Liang averted his eyes. A tremendous heat filled the courtyard, as if Cheng Yu himself had briefly alighted upon the wall and lent the power of the sun directly to Jiao Ren’s strike.

Tristus and Alere
had rushed after Jiao Ren—who had leaped up immediately after the healing spell had taken effect—only to be met with the dragon’s reeling, and to be on the wrong side of it to offer aid to the determined young general. In the moments that followed, the dragon came to glow as if it held fire beneath its skin, and before it was possible to respond, both Tristus and Alere were knocked backward by a tremendous rush of heat. Tristus struck a pillar and was summarily put on the ground. Alere found himself in a cart just behind the pillar. In the moments they were rising, the fire was gone and the air felt still.

Tristus offered Alere a hand out of the cart and retrieved
Dawnfire
. They both hurried toward what Tristus anticipated would be the smoldering body of a dragon and the singed, victorious form of Jiao Ren. They found themselves standing at the far end of a field of ash and skeletal fragments, the Sun Blade propped at low angle on the ground in the middle of it. At the other side stood Xu Liang, Shirisae, and a kneeling Guang Ci. Stunned soldiers were collected behind them. Jiao Ren was very simply not there.

“Dear God,” Tristus whispered with immediate tears in his eyes. And there was nothing more to be said, or done. The dragon was gone, and so too was the champion of the empress of Sheng Fan.

The
Spear of Heaven
was recovered and returned to the Empress with a full account of what had happened. She blessed Jiao Ren in spirit, and blessed all of the remaining bearers, welcoming those from foreign lands into Sheng Fan, as heroes of the Empire.

For weeks after the dragon’s defeat, the west court remained cordoned off, so that architects and workers could begin its clearing and reconstruction. Within the new Temple of Divine Tranquility there would be a tribute to Jiao Ren, taking place of a new statue of Song Dai, which would instead be located in the Garden of Remembrance.

In response to an evident state of attack, one designed at least in part by the former—and still unaccounted for—Chancellor of the Court, the governors of the five kingdoms had been summoned to the Imperial City. It was the Empress’ hope that they would be made to see reason, through the tragic events they had faced in Jianfeng. It was Xu Liang’s hope as well, though he knew even as he addressed the governors and other officials that it would be no simple task, particularly as the governor of Xun had not even seen fit to attend. He had sent an envoy. It became clear that Fa Leng could not be put off, and it hadn’t been. A first wave of reinforcements had been sent. Xu Liang would accompany a second force soon afterward. The campaign was on his mind, even as he spoke to his peers.

“We cannot afford this division,” Xu Liang reiterated. He had already said as much in more than one way. He was having more difficulty than he expected finding a combination of words his colleagues would listen to. “As we speak, we have more important concerns than our political differences in opinion, which have driven certain individuals, both present and not, to disregard the Mandate. I would ask everyone to reflect on such deeds, to consider the scope of such actions and the dire consequences that would surely face the Empire, should anyone attempt to wrest power from the only source capable of instilling peace. The lands divided among the Empire were not intended to be divided from the Empire. We must resolve our differences and face the real threat to the land as one, unified force.

“That is what these weapons represent.” Xu Liang swept his hand over the display of Blades spread upon the floor. “Unity. Alone each of these blades are strong, announcing its station above common with a heavenly glow. Together they are not merely blessed, they are the power that can bless, the spirits of the gods, come to us in the forms of these artifacts, the Celestial Swords.”

“We are not blind, Lord Xu Liang,” someone said, in a voice that dredged up too many memories of an unpleasant childhood. Xu Hong had crested seventy and lost none of his cruelty. His tone was rough, as a roll of thunder. His gaze was uncompromising, especially as it settled upon his recognized son, who—he was determined—had not been delivered to the ranks of the Imperial Court to oppose or challenge him. “We can see the evident sorcery that swirls about these blades, but what makes you so certain they are the weapons of the gods? Is it not possible that you might have fallen victim to some trickery, to believe that sacred artifacts of Sheng Fan could be so readily molested by the hands of outsiders? The same trickery which seems to have convinced many of the eyes of this court into believing that an earthquake was in actuality a dragon!”

Xu Liang’s eyes glared as he watched his father walk toward the Blades. The Governor of Du possessed a more oblong shape in his older age, as the great muscles of his youth had lost their firmness and become simply excess weight. It was an effort for him to bend over and, if he crouched down, it was not quite so easy for him to rise again as he once did. Perhaps that was why he refrained from touching any of the Swords, though it was apparent in his expression that he’d intended to.

Xu Liang spared him the trouble—and as far as Xu Hong was probably concerned, made a supreme and blatant effort to humiliate him—by taking two swift steps to the weapons and lightly sweeping up the Moon Blade. He held it low, and let his father watch the weapon’s glow swell along the blade, over the hilt, and gradually over his arm. “This is not trickery, Xu Hong,” he said. “It was not trickery that killed either the dragon or General Jiao Ren, eradicating nearly all evidence of their existence from the west court of the Empress’ city.”

The display appeared to make the governor of the Western Kingdom uncomfortable, and unhappy. He glared in a way that was familiar to Xu Liang—the glare he had been raised to look at, whenever Xu Hong felt intimidated by Xiang Wu’s child.

“There will be more avatars of Chaos,” Xu Liang told him, and the rest of the court.

Murmurs began to rise in the throne room.

“It was my grandfather,” the Empress said, drawing all attention to her, “your late Emperor, who implemented the Five Kingdoms Resolution. He believed that it would best benefit the people, enabling all parts of Sheng Fan to be properly and attentively governed, down to the smallest village. Prosperity and brotherhood were his inspiration. He believed that the Mandate rendered him father to all people of Sheng Fan, and he believed that a father must trust in and share responsibility with his children.

“The governors of the Five Kingdoms were granted tremendous trust and a heavy responsibility; to begin to share the burden that the Emperor carried every moment of every day. That is a burden that I now carry, and I have trusted in and shared it with those same men, as well as with their sons. They had rebelled, as children do, under my father. They had been reprimanded, as children are, and set back upon a path of correct civil service. Stubbornly, some of these adopted sons continue to speak out against and to act in defiance of the Mandate. My brother scarcely had time to realize the level of disloyalty and ungratefulness that some had arrived at. I have seen now that judgment is a rarer guide than heart. The path to glory and the path to ruin run side-by-side. The wise will attempt to discern the difference; the passionate will take either course. Passion becomes recklessness and defiance when misguided. I will redirect those who are misguided, and I will enlist the aid of all who are loyal, and courageous on behalf of the people.”

The Empress looked directly at Xu Liang. “I believe that is what the gods intended when they bestowed the Celestial Swords upon us. The Empire will put out the fires of rebellion, the progenies and disciples of Chaos will be put down, and order will be restored to the land.”

Xu Liang bowed low in response to her decree. In the corner of his vision, he could see others in the court doing so also. And so it was decided. The Swords would become weapons of the Empire.

The Vulture and the Wolf

M
a Shou’s feet
were blistered and burning from too many days spent on them, walking. Rest was something he’d only been able to take when his companions deemed there was time for it. All of them seemed tireless. The necromancer barely seemed a part of the world and his reticent warrior had the stamina of several men. Zhen Yu seemed not to feel things anymore, be it strain, weariness, pain, or hunger. Ma Shou was the only living one among the three, he was decided. And he planned to stay alive, despite this punishment. A punishment that was intended to be final came with death, not life. It was not Ma Shou’s death which interested Lei Kui besides.

The necromancer sat atop a white horse with a brown hex mark upon its forehead while Ma Shou crested the hill on foot. He was the last of the four of them to arrive. Even Zhen Yu, for all his lack of vigor, had the ability and the drive—perhaps inspired by Lei Kui—to move with speed. Guo Sen rode a dark brown horse that tended to lead, identifying him as the necromancer’s bodyguard, Ma Shou believed. The Vulture and the Wolf, Ma Shou had decided; one who toiled over corpses and one who skulked in the shadows waiting for opportunity—the opportunity to take revenge, Ma Shou believed. He had already dealt with one of such low scruples and savage determination, one who—unlike these two—would hold himself more civilized and at no risk of being labeled an outcast.

From the top of the hill—one peak among several in the narrow, golden and green hills of Eastern Ji—Ma Shou looked toward the lower horizon. The etchings of many grand rooftops glistened beneath the moonlight in the distance. He had returned to the Imperial City at last, in the company of the despised.

Continue the adventure in FOUR BARBARIAN GENERALS.

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