The Jongurian Mission (49 page)

“So he took you on then,” Ko said.

“Yes, on the fourth morning he came and my training began. It was rigorous and all I could do at the end of the day was fall into my straw bed and fall fast asleep. I didn’t think I could continue for long, and began to regret my decision to come to the man. But somehow I pressed on. The days passed and the weeks turned into months. What was hard became easy and what had been tiring became effortless. I was becoming a fighter. It wasn’t only fighting that Wen taught me, though, but philosophy and morals as well. The time he spent at Waigo during the war had shown him the value of a man’s life and he was now firmly of the opinion that no man’s life should be wasted needlessly. From what I had seen at Bindao, I agreed.”

The rain began to ease up and the sun even peeked through the thick clouds overhead.
The roads had taken a beating, however, and Leisu imagined that it would now take them another few hours to reach the city because of all of the mud.

“That doesn’t seem like much to hate a man for,” Ko said when it looked like Leisu would
n’t continue.”

“No, it was a lot to be thankful for, however.
Without Wen’s training I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

“So what happened?” Ko asked.

“After a year I began to grow restless. I’d wanted to be trained, and I felt as though I had been. The lessons with the sword decreased while those of the mind continued. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my days in the hills with an old man spouting philosophy, so I began to argue with him more and more. He saw what was happening and urged me to go. As a falling out, it wasn’t much of one. We both had come as far as we would with one another and the time to go our separate ways had arrived. So I left.”

“It was that simple?”

“It was that simple. I walked back the way I’d come with no idea where I would go or what I would do. I’d let the winds take me where they willed. It wasn’t long after I got back out onto the wide plains, however, that I was beset by a large group of men. They looked like former soldiers, and I learned later that many like them were roving the countryside terrorizing the population and generally wreaking havoc. They spotted a lone traveler and considered me easy pickings. They thought wrong; with my training I was a match for any of them alone or in small groups, but ten of them together proved too much for me to handle. They beat me mercilessly and left me for dead after they took my sword and the few coins I had. All I could think to do was crawl back to Wen, for I couldn’t even walk, the beating had been so bad. I made it within a few leagues of the canyons when he found me. I’ll never forget the look of disdain on his face as he looked down and shook his head then simply walked off. I knew that I would receive no further help from him, but instead of curling up to die in some rocky crevice, I decided to live, his indifference emboldening me. I managed to crawl back out toward the plains with no idea of what I really planned to do. When I saw another few men approaching, this time on horseback, I was sure that it was the end of me. Instead the men took pity on me and threw me over one of their horses and rode me back to their small camp in the forest. That was how I came to meet my new and current master,” Leisu finished.

“So Wen left you to die and now you will kill him,” Ko said after a few moments.

“It’s that simple,” Leisu replied.

Ko looked over at Leisu once again then kicked his horse and rode off to see how the other men were faring.
The weather had improved even if the roads had worsened, and the sun shone down through the opening clouds. They rode on for another few hours. The mountains on their left grew closer and closer and soon they were at their base. The road turned into a narrow pass between them and rose steadily higher. The way was narrow and rocky and grew steeper the further they advanced. The column of men was forced to ride single-file through the steep switchbacks that led higher into the mountains. Leisu had never been to Waigo, but a few men who had had assured him that the way wouldn’t be much further. The sun had passed over the mountains to the west and twilight was descending by the time they came up one last steep rise and found themselves looking down on a small circular valley nestled into the bowl of the mountains, Waigo staring back at them.

Ko rode up to report.
“We should have no problems in the city,” he said. “Many of the men fought here during the war and have friends. There are also many sympathetic to Zhou’s cause, although not as many as we would like. The emperor still has a firm grasp on the city; it prides itself on its role as defender of the nation’s border and views itself as above politics.” Ko looked over at him. “We should still be able to find an area suitable to ambush the Adjurians when they show up in a day or two.”

“Good,” Leisu said.
“Let’s head into the city and get settled then.” It’d been a long three days on the road and he was eager to get cleaned up and changed out of these travel-worn clothes. A hot bath would certainly be nice, but all of those things could wait. The most important thing was to find a suitable spot with which to lure the Adjurians while also remaining below the notice of the formidable Waigo garrison. Those men were hardened fighters, having repelled the Adjurian advance across the Isthmus during the war, and Leisu didn’t want to anger them. In fact, it would be best if he could keep themselves separate from Zhou’s name entirely. Any further connection between the Adjurians and his master would not be wise.

A few of the men that knew the city well kicked their mounts and headed down the hill toward the city gates while the others hung back for a few minutes.
Better to let them announce their presence to whatever friends they had, Leisu thought, and wait to be summoned. The north was not the south, and Leisu’s influence here was minimal. His instructions to Ko back in Bindao had been to choose some men with experience and connections here, now he would find out if his deputy had succeeded.

After waiting for what seemed no time at all two of the riders came back through the gates and up the hill.
They reported to Ko, who then rode over to Leisu.

“We have arrangements in a little used warehouse on the west side of the city close to the mountain wall,” Ko said.
“The building is on a back street and out of the way. I think it’ll serve our purposes well.”

“Good, let’s head into the city then,” Leisu said.

The men were happy to leave the road for the city, even if it didn’t promise much in the way of relief from their task. They would still have to be on guard and prepared to fight, but at least they’d no longer have to sleep on the hard ground at the mercy of the elements. They passed under the wide gate and steered their mounts left over the cobbled streets. After turning off of a main street and winding around some back alleys for a few minutes they came to a halt in front of a large building beside the mountain. Ko and many of the other men dismounted, so Leisu did the same.

“This is it, sir,” Ko said walking over.
“There are stables one street over that’ll see to our horses.”

“Let’s see what this place looks like,” Leisu said, motioning toward the building.
It was a two-storey windowless and unremarkable building set behind many others that looked the same. Several large crates were piled up around its walls and even up to the city wall not far away. There was one large door on the ground level and a wooden staircase that led up to a smaller door on the second floor. Ko and a few of the men walked up to the large door and a man produced some keys and unlocked the large lock. A lantern was lit and they stepped inside. The area was large and nearly empty, with only a few crates stacked up against one wall. Leisu nodded, and they headed back out and went up the staircase. The door was unlocked and the inside was much the same as the lower level, except that there were several offices near the back, separated from the larger floor space by thin walls.”

“This is what I think will be the real treat,” the man with the keys said, walking over to the far wall.
There was a small metal ladder bolted to the wall and a trapdoor above it. The man climbed up, unlocked the lock that secured the door, and threw it open. Ko and Leisu followed the man up the ladder and found themselves standing on the building’s roof, a clear view of the valley floor outside of the city walls before them.

Leisu smiled.
“This has a lot of potential,” he said to Ko.

“When we catch some of the Adjurians we can tie them up and display them for their friends on the rise to see,” Ko said.
“Notice how the other buildings block the view of this roof from the rest of the city.”

Leisu looked around him.
It was true. The other buildings, while only two storey’s like this one, rose a little higher and obscured their roof from view. It was a perfect place for what they intended.

Leisu walked over to the man with the keys and slapped him on the back.
“Well done,” he said, then turned to Ko. “See that the men get some rest, but have them do so in shifts. Send a few men out immediately to keep an eye on the gates for any sign of the Adjurians, and keep another two on this roof to look out at the approach to the city. We have to know when they arrive and intercept them before they can get any help from the authorities.”

Ko nodded and he and the other man both went back down the ladder into the warehouse.
Leisu remained standing on the roof looking out into the small valley for a few more minutes. In a day or two he’d be heading back to Bindao, these Adjurians a distant memory.

* * * * *

The sky was as grey as the mountains they followed when they started out the next morning. Clouds crowded together overhead promising rain any minute, Bryn thought. The high mood and good cheer of the night before disappeared as they broke camp. If the weather was any indication of how the day would progress, it wasn’ a good sign.

The rain began to fall less than an hour after they began walking.
It came down lightly at first but soon grew into a heavy downpour. It was all they could do to tie their coats tighter and pull the few raincoats they still had from the packs to keep dry. The trees overhead provided some protection, but it was little. Soon all were wet and the mood was sour. It didn’t improve any when the last of the salt pork was pulled out and passed around for a sparse and unappetizing lunch.

Well past midday they came to a large road that ran from the east, wet and muddy from the falling rain.

“Be on guard now,” Jurin told them.
“If any rebels have been on our trail, they’ll attack somewhere around here.”

No attack came, however, and they turned west and followed the road.
It wound through a large canyon that cut right through the mountains and most of the road had to cut back and forth in small switchbacks as it progressed higher and higher, the grey stone walls towering high above them. Their progress was slow due to the steepness of the road and the rain that continued to fall. They saw no other travelers, however, which was a measure of relief to them all. After several hours of nothing ahead of them but road and rock, the mountain walls abruptly receded and after one more rising switchback they were looking down on a large city nestled into the mountains.

At first it was hard to identify as a city.
Its large walls were made from the same stone as the mountains, and besides being smaller and jagged from where they were cut, looked no different from the walls that naturally formed on either of its sides. Small houses and buildings, most often made from stone blocks, but sometimes of wood, stretched right up to the walls, sometimes rising higher than the stones that were meant to protect them, which were only built about fifteen feet high. There were only two walls that Bryn could see; the one in front of the city that faced them across the small valley floor, and another a couple hundred feet behind it at the rear of the city, which was made of larger stone blocks and rose much higher. The second was not as long as the first, as the two mountain walls that the city was nestled between crowded closer together as they cut off and enclosed the valley further to the west. Those mountains were the true walls of the city, for nothing could get by them.

A large open space had been cleared leading up to the city gate, which itself was constructed of immense logs that looked to have been felled from some ancient forest of giants, so tall were they.
The gate was open outward and several carts and wagons sat idly outside, large tarps thrown over whatever cargo they contained. There was very little movement at all really, and Bryn figured it was probably because of the rain that there was not the same kind of bustle that he had seen at other city gates.

They sky was already dark because of the clouds and the rain, but it was growing even darker. The mountains rose so high on either side of the city that the sun was already behind them before they had even started following the road an hour earlier. Now it was becoming difficult even to see the road as it continued to the gates. Torches were already lit along some of the city streets and within many of the buildings.

Jurin looked over at Pader.
“This would be a good time for both of us to enter the city. It’s early enough that the gates are still open, but getting dark so that most people won’t have a chance to get a good look at us.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Pader replied.
“I’m just following your lead here.”

“Halam, you and the rest of the men should go back down the road a ways,” Jurin said.
“When trees begin to grow plentiful on the sides of the road, find a good spot well out of sight to make camp for the night.” He looked up at the darkening sky. “I know that it’s cold and raining and that it may continue all night, but it would be safer not to make a fire.”