by Ryan Kirk
The emperor turned without saying another word.
44
Bai hated the fortress.
In her mind, the thick stone walls of the structure served as little more than another form of prison. She watched Chao and the emperor assemble their forces, far away from any harm she could cause them. Her gift gave her strength, but on a battlefield of this scope, she was worth little more than a foot soldier. She could do little but watch as the enemy prepared.
Their enemies came for them not long after Bai and the others returned to the fort.
Against such a force, Bai didn’t know how much of a chance they had. The wraiths had been weakened by Bai’s earlier attack, but they still vastly outnumbered the monks sheltering behind the walls of the abandoned fort.
The princess’s defenders had the benefit of a simple strategy. They would rely on Lei’s strength as much as possible. If the wraiths approached closer, Bai and Rong would leave the walls to cause as much disruption as they could. Outnumbered and cornered, though, Bai and the others could do little but react to their enemies’ movements.
Rong and Wu stood next to her on the wall. Bai caught their glances in her direction, could see the worry they carried.
She spoke, just loudly enough for them to hear her. “The only mistake we can make today is to give in to fear.”
The students leaned in, as though they were vines growing around the trunk of her courage. She felt like a fraud as she looked at each of them in turn. She hadn’t been this frightened for a long time. It was one thing to go into a fight when you controlled the surroundings and were confident in your victory. It was entirely another experience when you didn’t think you would see the next sunset. “Before I met you, I believed that I was alone, that I was the only one who possessed such gifts. The thought itself isolated me.”
Off in the distance, there was movement among the emperor’s troops. She looked back to her friends. “I’m not sure what will happen. In many ways, the final outcome of this all is beyond our control. There is only what I can do. I will stand firm. I will not abandon you, no matter what happens. If you will do the same, it is all I can ask.”
She received determined nods in answer.
It would be enough. She felt her heart settle. The simple fact of their presence eased her worry. She returned to looking out over the wall. She meant every word. Yang’s students were new additions to her life, but she would never leave them behind. They were closer to her heart than even her own life.
If she could give her life to save them, she considered that a worthy trade.
Xun’s army stepped forward as one. Bai tensed. The time had come.
The advance was as orderly as anything Bai had ever seen. The line of soldiers was as straight as a ruler. Bai fought the urge to summon her power. They were still too far away for her gifts to be useful.
The march of the army stopped well beyond the reach of even the strongest archer. A line of white-robed figures emerged from the ranks, stepping in front of the emperor’s troops.
After about a minute, the monks began marching toward the fort. The rest of the soldiers remained behind. Bai watched, curious. It appeared the monks planned on taking this fort on their own.
Her eyes ran over the collection of monks quickly. Sixty monks, at least, remained after the fight in Jihan. An impressive number by any count. More monks than had ever been assembled for combat.
She gripped the walls of the fort tightly beneath her hands. She couldn’t think of anything to do.
As one, the monks stopped about two hundred feet from the walls of the fort. They all began signing at once, their energy growing as it focused.
Bai swore. All of them attacking at once?
The power swelled, making her head pound with the gathering energy.
From further down the wall, standing next to the princess, Lei answered. He drew in power, building to an intensity that matched that of the monks against him.
The powers were beyond Bai’s comprehension. Her sense, finely honed after years of searching for traitorous monks, was blinded, the entire world more vivid than it should be. She felt like the blind man from the parable, trying to identify the elephant from what little she could understand. Judging which power was greater was an impossible task, the magnitude of each beyond compare. Her body absorbed the latent power in the air, filling her with strength she didn’t ask for.
Bai stepped back and looked over at Lei, surprised to find he was looking at her. He nodded toward the line of monks, and it took her a moment to realize what he meant.
Of course.
If all the monks planned to attack at once, there would be an opening for one with her gifts.
She nodded her acknowledgement, then turned to Rong. “Be ready. Once those powers collide, we’ll have an opportunity.”
The response made perfect sense. Bai expected the monks planned on keeping their distance, pummeling the fort until it was nothing but rubble and bones. Lei could defend, and they could disrupt.
Rong looked downright eager. Bai wondered if the younger woman had any sense of fear.
Drawing in power was no problem in the charged environment they stood in. If anything, Bai had to be careful not to draw too much. The temptation pulled at her, but experience helped her resist.
The wraiths attacked. A wave of energy rolled over the grass that separated the two forces. Bai saw the air bend, distorting the view of the enemy. Never in her life had she seen an attack. For a moment, she just watched as that confluence of strengths barreled toward her. Nothing could stand in the way of such a force. Even the stone of the fort would tear as paper.
Nothing except Lei.
With a yell that originated deep in his stomach, Lei released his shield. Bai glanced at Rong and nodded. This was their chance.
The opposing energies came into contact, and the distortion of the air became severe. Bai could barely make out the army just hundreds of feet in front of her.
Bai and Rong dropped from the wall and sprinted toward the collision of energies.
Soon, Bai realized something was wrong. The competing powers wrestled against one another, but the magnitude of the powers was such that reality itself seemed to tear like thin fabric. Bai held out a hand, halting their advance. Her body could absorb an impressive amount of power, but no one could be near the meeting of those energies and hope to live.
A sudden wind picked up, pulling them toward the line where Lei’s power and that of the wraiths met. Bai scrambled for purchase, her feet kicking up the dirt under the grass, now fighting to stay away from the powers.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned just in time to see Wu running behind them. She’d never seen the eager young man run so fast. His face was a mask of fear, and he leaped, tackling both her and Rong.
They slammed into the dirt and Bai felt Wu throw a shield over them, his unique talent allowing him to do so without the need for a sign. The chaos they had been running through abruptly disappeared.
Wu’s shield saved their lives.
The world boomed and shook, the energy releasing with an anger that put a thunderclap to shame. Bai saw the wave of energy wash toward them, grass and dirt thrown up hundreds of feet in the air. It smashed against Wu’s shield and he grunted with the effort of holding it. He wasn’t even fighting against an attack, but the after-effects of an attack. It still took all he had.
Fortunately, he held.
The wave passed and dirt trickled down against his shield. He dropped it, exhausted, and dirt drifted down over them.
Bai looked over at Wu. The young man was sweating buckets and breathing hard. He didn’t have the deep wells of strength other monks had, and protecting the two of them had taken everything he had.
“Get back to the fort,” she ordered.
Wu nodded. “That sounds great.”
With that, Bai got to her feet and charged the wraiths.
As she passed through the dirt she realized the fight had bee
n taken completely out of Chao’s followers. They had challenged Lei with everything, and it looked like Lei had won. Most of the monks seemed like Wu, exhausted on hands and knees.
Bai smashed into them with a fury, delivering kicks and blows strong enough to shatter bone. Half a dozen fell before even one managed to find their feet.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the monks to find their second wind in the face of the assault. Attacks threaded their way toward her, the wraiths responding as they had been trained.
Bai absorbed the attacks, then launched herself at anyone who stood.
Around her, she heard the sounds of steel being drawn. Many of the monks had armed themselves with swords and long knives.
So, they had come prepared for today’s fight.
Rong crashed into the lines beside her, her own fists and feet flying among the rebellious monks.
To Bai’s surprise, she heard calls for a retreat.
The wraiths turned and ran, and Bai chased after them, unwilling to let any escape.
She felt a restraining hand on her shoulder. “Let them go!” Rong yelled.
Bai wrested her shoulder away. “They’re running! We’ll never have a better chance.”
Rong pointed to the fields beyond the monks. Lord Xun’s army was marching forward in lockstep. “They’ll be in bow range soon, and even you aren’t good enough to dodge a thousand arrows.”
Bai cursed. Rong was right.
Turning her back on the retreating monks pained her. To have her enemy so close, and to let them escape, hurt. They caught up to Wu just as he made it to the walls of the fort.
For some time after that, the field was quiet. The wraiths blended back in with Lord Xun’s army, and Bai wondered if they might be fighting off a joint assault in the near future. The monks had been given an opportunity and they had failed.
They won the first engagement, but the victory meant little. Bai and Rong compared experiences and figured that between the two of them they had killed perhaps a dozen monks. It dented the forces facing them, but little else. They were still outnumbered, and the victory hadn’t come without cost.
Lei looked like he was wasting away. He still glowed against her senses, but his physical body looked weaker than ever. He claimed he could still fight, but no one in the fort was sure of that. He looked even older than he was, resting on a bench with his head in his hands.
She’d always considered him invincible, and she had to remind herself that he was just another man, gifted with extraordinary abilities. When people approached him he didn’t even reply most of the time. They couldn’t depend on him anymore, but they had little choice.
Bai sat next to him, but there was little to say. His feat had gone beyond words, beyond description. Such powers had never been assembled before. The monks from Jihan now avoided him, his full power beyond their comprehension. His once strong arms looked flabby. However he was connecting with the energies he used, it was killing him.
The princess came up to where they sat. She kneeled down in front of Lei. “How are you?”
Lei continued staring at the ground, not reacting to the presence of the princess at all.
The princess looked to Bai, worry in her eyes.
Bai answered the question as well as she could. “He says he is fine, but I do not know. This is unexplored territory for us all.”
“Can we rely on him?”
Bai shrugged. “He’s never let me down before.”
Bai stood up and stretched. She’d come through the first sortie remarkably unharmed. She didn’t think the same could be said of the second time she would leave the walls. “How bad is it?”
The princess stood up, too. By unspoken agreement, they wandered the courtyard. “I can’t imagine it could get much worse.”
“Your allies?”
The princess shook her head. “Most would accept my rule, if it came to that. But peace has made us complacent. Most lords will wait to see who emerges victorious, then offer their support. I’m afraid we can’t rely on outside aid.”
The last small hope flickering inside Bai died. Even if the abbot’s letters had reached other abbots, a monk approaching the area would quickly turn away from the gathered forces.
She hated thinking that Chao’s plotting and betrayal was going to succeed. She considered leaving the walls in the middle of night and making a last attempt at his life. Stopping the force against them was beyond her abilities, but perhaps she could make sure Chao didn’t get to enjoy his victory.
“How are you?” Bai asked.
The princess came to a stop, looking up at the walls and the monks who kept watch. Bai followed her gaze. There were so few of them.
“As well as can be, I suppose. My father has always been an emperor first and a father second. Maybe it’s strange, but I can see his fingerprints over everything that’s happened, and I’m in awe. The monasteries have been a problem for years, and he’s finally found a way to bring them to heel and harness their power. He’s committed horrible crimes, but still.”
“He has?”
The princess gave Bai a sorrowful smile. “He’s always played both sides. I’m sure of it. He must have aided the Order of the Serpent with their attacks. How else could so much black powder have gone missing, and been transported throughout the empire? Not only did he ally with Chao, he gave Chao the perfect method for recruiting more members.”
As soon as Bai heard the princess’s explanation she found herself agreeing. “Do you think Chao knows?”
“I doubt it. He hated the Order, and for good reason. I’m sure my father gave Chao the information needed to destroy the Order.”
Bai nodded, her mind fitting everything together. The emperor supported the Order to give Chao an event to rally support from. Then he used the wraiths to destroy the Order and any evidence of his involvement. She understood the princess’s point. It was brilliant, if horrible.
And there was nothing she could do about any of it. For all her strength, she was as good as useless.
But she would fight and die by her new allies.
Perhaps that was enough.
A shout from up on the wall interrupted her reverie. “Movement!”
Bai stood and climbed the stairs to the wall, wondering what fate held in store for them next. She expected a joint attack, with the wraiths supporting the army.
Her guess was wrong.
The wraiths had stepped forward again, separating from the main force.
Bai frowned. She supposed if the monks hadn’t trained with the army, they might be almost as much of a danger as a help. The two forces had trained apart, so they would fight that way as well. Or perhaps it was pride. Chao insisted that the wraiths be the one to crush those who opposed them.
Whatever the reason, the monks marched forward alone, and again Bai felt the energy gathering. Their numbers had been lessened, but not by enough to matter. The joint strength of so many monks was still enough to destroy the fort and everyone inside.
Bai wondered at their strategy. Were they just going to keep attacking and regrouping? Could they sense Lei getting weaker? She couldn’t understand why they would resort to a tactic that had already failed.
Bai looked back at Lei. He remained sitting on the bench, his posture unchanged since she had stood up to walk with the princess, but she felt him summoning more energy. But it felt lethargic compared to his earlier attempt. Could he possibly stand against the forces arrayed against them?
It was too much to hope.
She returned her gaze to the field beyond. It truly was hopeless, then. With the amount of energy being focused, the walls of the fort would collapse like paper. She looked around for a place where she might survive the onslaught and fight against the wraiths. She didn’t want to die without fighting to the end.
As one, the wraiths released their attacks. Still sitting on the bench, Lei formed his shield around the fort.
Bai knew, right away, that it wasn’t enough. Lei had
protected them one time too many.
The energies clashed, and Bai could do nothing but watch. Lei’s shield shrank as a greater force battered against it. There was nothing left.
Just then, Bai watched as a dark cloud rose up from the army behind the wraiths. It took her a moment to realize what the cloud was, and a moment more to realize their target.
The emperor had turned on the wraiths, and at a perfect time. A wave of arrows sliced down, a second cloud flying into the air even as the first fell, aimed for the hearts of the wraiths.
The wraiths were completely blindsided. They were focused entirely on attacking Lei, confident in their allies behind them. None of them had even considered preparing a shield. The arrows fell with deadly precision, the attacks of the wraiths winking out just as Lei’s shield fell.
Some of the attacks reached the walls, but the stone endured for the few seconds that remained in the attack.
Bai couldn’t believe what she had seen.
With one attack, the emperor had destroyed the wraiths.
45
A silence fell over the battlefield as the final cries of agony faded away. Behind the killing ground, Lord Xun’s army stood motionless, as though they waited for the battle to begin.
Bai realized her mouth was open. She closed it, still not believing what she had just seen.
Betrayal on top of betrayal.
Why?
No one on the wall spoke. The wraiths had been enemies, but they had been brothers to most who stood on the wall. Brothers may argue and fight, but no one wanted to see another monk killed by an arrow to the back.
Bai kicked her foot against the stone wall, just hard enough to make her big toe throb. The pain focused her, brought her to the present moment.
What should they do?
Lord Xun’s army had just murdered the men best capable of defending them. It opened a window of possibility. Bai and the others could attack. Without the gifted to stop them, the vast difference in numbers seemed more like a challenge instead of an impossibility. Bai had seen monks take on an army before. It could be done.
