Six Celestial Swords (7 page)

“Xu Liang is an educated and intelligent man,” Han Quan admitted. He pulled his hands out of the draping sleeves of his robe and added sternly, “However, he is young for his station, like the Empress. It presents an uncomfortable imbalance to have two such fledgling individuals at the summit of the vast mountain Sheng Fan is to the rest of the world.”

Jiao Ren looked at the mystic again and his dark eyes lingered this time. At length, he returned his gaze to the inner wards of the Imperial City and said evenly, “Xu Liang is no fledgling, Lord Han. He has served the Empire for almost two decades now. I was a mere child when our late Emperor Song Bao saw promise in the mighty Lord Xu Hong’s second son.”

Han Quan’s narrow eyes glimpsed Jiao Ren in his peripheral vision. He said calmly, “And in comparison to a man of my years you are a mere child still. The Empress is but an infant. And the Imperial Tactician, who has also assumed the role of Imperial Tutor, in spite of his frequent absence from the court, is a very young and very restless man. How can he know what is best for Sheng Fan when he cannot even decide what is best for himself?”

Jiao Ren frowned involuntarily. “Master Han Quan, his thorough study of the land and its history helps him to perceive its future. He does nothing against the Empress’ wishes.”

“General Jiao Ren, you misinterpret me. I am not criticizing, but stating fact. And the fact remains that there is a terrible conflict facing the Empress and the people, and the land of Sheng Fan. In his haste to research the matter, Lord Xu Liang has hidden our Empress from us. It is as snatching the sun from the sky. The people see only the looming shadow of a storm and they grow concerned, some fearful.”

“A storm is nothing to fear.”

“Not to one who watches it from the safety of higher ground.”

Jiao Ren turned to look at Han Quan once more, but the ancient mystic was already departing. He decided not to holler after him, but turned back to the wall and placed his hands upon the railing. He stared out over the Imperial City and its residents out of doors, and wondered if they were fearful. They did not look it, nor did they act it, but perhaps...

At that moment he felt a tremor in his hands. It was nothing violent and nothing that came from him. He felt it beneath his hands, in the stone itself as the minor quake reverberated up from the earth. He severed contact with the wall and looked closely at the Imperial City’s residents still moving about below him. No one reacted to the tremor and in the still air not even a leaf trembled. He looked to the guards stationed on the walls, all of them seeming not to notice. It must have been very weak and therefore—he lightly touched the wall again and felt no vibration—nothing to be concerned with.

SONG DA-XIAO opened her eyes, not alertly but almost as a reflex to the tremors in the air. Since their beginning, they had been growing steadily more insistent, like an assault ram hammering against stubborn gates. Stubborn and sturdy as they may have been, even the gates of the Imperial City would weaken without reinforcement.

The Empress’ eyes, gleaming golden with magic, fell shut, as if she’d fallen back asleep after being stirred by a sudden noise in the night without actually having regained consciousness. Her prayers continued uninterrupted. And then, for no apparent reason, her spirit and prayers strengthened.

WE HAVE SET
out to sea, my Empress. We are unharmed. Remain strong and remember that you are the life essence of Sheng Fan.

Xu Liang withdrew from his meditation with a pang of dread in his heart. Though he hid his concern from the Empress, he could tell, through her, that time was moving rapidly against them. A heavy thump drew his attention to the door of the narrow cabin Captain Yvain had been gracious enough to lend him for the journey across the Sea of Tahn. The first noise was followed by a second. Feet scuffled and voices rose.

“Get out of my way! Worthless peons!”

“You will not interrupt our lord!”

“I told you to get out of my way!”

Xu Liang sighed, then calmly stood and made his way to the door. He reached for the latch, then thought better of the action and stepped aside.

The door burst open and Guang Ci stumbled backward into the room. He managed to stay on his feet, glaring at the one who’d pushed him. The young guard reached for his sword.

Xu Liang stopped him. “We are guests, remember.”

“My lord!” Guang Ci stepped out of his fighting stance and dropped onto his knee. “My apologies. I did not realize—
mmmh
!”

One of his fellow guards staggered with momentum into the room and rolled over him.

Xu Liang sighed once again. “Fu Ran, you are a menace.”

The former guard stepped into the cabin, shoving back the man who followed him. He grinned with satisfaction that was just beginning to nettle Xu Liang. “This is the best these drones can do? It’s a wonder you haven’t been killed.”

With no humor in his tone, Xu Liang said, “It is a wonder, yes, with you so carelessly flinging them about. At any rate, that is their concern and not one that they will easily discard, as you can see.”

Fu Ran glanced at the bodyguards surrounding him, who were waiting for the order to dispatch him. There was not a trace of fear in the brute, but his features darkened noticeably. “The captain wants to see you,” he said to Xu Liang.

Xu Liang inclined his head in agreement to the invitation, instructed his men to stay behind, and went with Fu Ran. No words were exchanged between them as they passed through the narrow corridors. There was nothing to be said. Fu Ran had abandoned the Empire. Nothing would come of an argument between them, except the same conclusion that had been drawn fourteen years ago. In Fu Ran’s mind, there was no place left for him in the Empire; no place he would accept, Xu Liang would argue. Until now they had managed to accept each other’s positions whenever they infrequently met. It irritated Xu Liang that Fu Ran would dare to imply that those who had taken his place were incompetent, years after it had voluntarily ceased to be his concern. Of course, Fu Ran’s pride had always been his greatest weakness. A weakness Guang Ci seemed to share. Fortunately—and ironically—that shared trait would not enable Guang Ci to follow Fu Ran’s example, for now.

On the deck of the
Pride of Celestia
, Xu Liang was led abaft, where he found Captain Yvain standing at the railing, looking out at a sea blanketed with low-lying clouds. She glanced back at Xu Liang as he arrived and motioned him closer. Fu Ran stayed back.

“I apologize if I disrupted your meditation, Master Xu,” the captain said. “But I’ve got a splinter in my mind and I think you just might be able to remove it.”

Xu Liang decided not to mention the scuffle below decks between one of her men and all eight of his. He said cooperatively, “How may I help?”

With her eyes on the fog behind her ship, Yvain said, “Fu Ran tells me you’re more than just an official of Sheng Fan’s court. He mentioned to me that you’re a sorcerer. Is that true?”

“I have studied magic for many years,” Xu Liang admitted. “I have acquired an adequate understanding of it.”

The Aeran woman smiled without looking at him. “Is there any way you can see through that fog?”

Xu Liang closed his eyes. “What should I be looking for?”

“These clouds settled in three days ago, just after a lookout spotted another ship in the area. No one’s seen anything since. I thought we’d try looking at it from a fresh perspective, if you catch my meaning.”

“Give me a moment,” Xu Liang replied, and he began pulling in the unseen details of the air and the water around them. He opened his eyes more quickly than he expected, jostled from his scan by the passage of a very large presence. Not another ship in the fog, but a...

“Dragon!” came a voice from above.

All eyes went skyward, except for Xu Liang’s. Before the lookout in the crow’s nest reiterated, he knew what the man would say. “Serpent! Beneath the ship!”

Yvain cursed in her own language and began barking commands at her crew, at once distracted from the mysterious patch of fog.

Xu Liang discerned enough words to understand that the Aerans had encountered a sea dragon before and knew how to defend the ship against their unpredictable nature. That surprised him. Dragons, as a race, were often reclusive creatures, phantoms of the ancient past that haunted more stories than populated areas. Xu Liang had never seen one before—of land or sea—outside of artistic interpretation. He found himself curious and fearful, fearful for the dragon, even as it slid beneath the
Pride of Celestia
and rocked it severely.

Fu Ran rested his hand on Xu Liang’s shoulder as Xu Liang took hold of the railing. “It might be safer for you below decks. These beasts can make for some pretty rough seas when they pass...and when they don’t.”

Xu Liang shook his head. “Thank you for your concern, but I might be of some assistance up here.”

“Dragons are resilient against magic,” Fu ran informed urgently.

Xu Liang shelved the new information at the back of his mind, and then said, “Perhaps, Fu Ran, but ships generally are not.” The big man looked confused until Xu Liang added, “Please inform your captain that I intend to conjure a southeastern wind. We will evade both the dragon and the ship in pursuit at the same time.”

Fu Ran looked down into the water, then out to sea, and back at Xu Liang. He gave a crooked smile before jogging across the deck toward Yvain. He passed eight familiar men, who had clearly felt the assault on the ship and responded in the only way ingrained upon them. Without acknowledging his guards, Xu Liang positioned himself for prayer.

FROM THE HIGH deck of the
Jade Carp,
Xiadao Lu glowered at the clouded sea ahead of them. Surprisingly, it was not as easy to track a man on water as it was on land. Nothing but open space with nowhere to hide…and yet it had taken several days to finally catch sight of the barbarian ship that had swept Xu Liang away from Sheng Fan. The mystic’s destination was a mystery, but Xiadao Lu had sworn to his lord that he would not reach it. His fist tightened unconsciously as his thoughts darkened.

I shall not fail.

A whiff of foulness suddenly assailed the warrior’s nostrils. His expression lightened with amusement. He’d only come across the odor once before, along the Chang River near his boyhood home. He watched a magnificent beast rise from the water then, as mighty and splendorous to behold as the legends told. It was as looking upon a god and to this day, Xiadao Lu wondered what had inspired the creature to show itself. His grandmother had told him that it was the spirit of one of their ancestors speaking to him and, out of respect, Xiadao Lu immediately began wearing colors to match the beast’s scales. He believed that the gesture brought the dragon’s luck upon him and gave him an advantage over his enemies. He welcomed a second encounter with such a creature, and that reflected in his tone when he said, “I smell a dragon!”

In his voice that was either incessantly bored or incessantly mocking, Ma Shou said, “And all this time I’ve been crediting that stink to the ‘captain’ of this vessel. It’s a pity that pirates are the only men willing to take to sea upon a moment’s notice.”