Their Spirit Unbroken (Relentless Book 3)

by Ryan Kirk

  Before she could summon the others, an officer with a white flag rode out from the ranks.

  Bai searched for the princess. She stood on the wall with everyone else, her eyes unfocused. Bai put her hand on the princess’s shoulder. The woman gave a small shudder and turned to look at Bai.

  “We should attack.”

  Bai didn’t care what Lord Xun and the emperor had to say. They had left themselves open.

  The princess shook her head, her eyes focusing on Bai. “No. If my father was willing to lose the wraiths, it means he had a plan in place. He would assume an attack and be prepared. We should listen to what he has to say.”

  Bai clenched her fist. Talking wouldn’t solve this. But her desires didn’t overrule the princess’s orders. “We’ll protect you, then.”

  “Thank you.”

  It only took Bai a few moments to round up Wu and Rong. Both seemed in a bit of a daze. Bai told them they would escort the princess to the parley. They both bowed in acceptance.

  She glanced over at Lei, who remained as still as a carving on the bench. He didn’t look to be in any shape to join them. She let him be.

  The princess joined them at the gate a minute later. The heavy wooden gate creaked open and they walked through. The princess took the lead, the other three following about ten feet behind her.

  Bai saw the emperor and Lord Xun astride their horses. If the situation deteriorated, she had little doubt they would turn and run in a moment. A dozen soldiers stood in a loose semicircle behind them.

  The hairs on the back of Bai’s neck rose. She spoke softly enough that the princess wouldn’t hear. “I don’t trust them, even under a white flag. Stay close, and be ready. Especially you, Wu. We might need a shield with little warning. If anything happens, we need to keep the princess safe.”

  They nodded. Bai saw the determination on their faces. They wouldn’t fail her, nor she them.

  They stopped across from the emperor. For the first time since she had met the princess, Bai thought she saw the woman come close to cracking. “Why, Father?”

  The emperor shook his head. If he had any trace of regret, his face didn’t show it. “The monasteries cannot go on. The power cannot be controlled, so it must be eliminated. Every disaster that has befallen the empire in the past thirty years has been due to the monks and their inability to understand and harness their gifts. I saw a chance to eliminate the problem for good.”

  “And so you will kill them all?”

  The emperor’s silence was answer enough.

  Bai saw the princess pass through grief. She stood up straighter. “Why have you called us here?”

  “To offer you a clean death one last time. We have come prepared for this, princess. Even with Lei, you cannot last. Save us all the trouble, and save the lives of my loyal servants who would otherwise have to fight.”

  For a bare moment, Bai thought the princess might accept. She hesitated for a heartbeat, then shook her head. “I cannot surrender, Father.”

  “Then this is goodbye.”

  The princess nodded. “It is.”

  She turned on her heel and approached Bai and the others. The princess never saw the emperor’s gesture, but Bai did. The man would even break the truce the white flag represented. Bai was already moving when she yelled, “Wu!”

  She felt the shield cover them all. Less than a second later, small darts thudded against the invisible protection. The soldiers were armed with some small wrist-mounted device Bai had never seen before. She suspected the darts were poisoned.

  Bai broke through the shield, letting Wu form it again behind her. She leaped into the line of soldiers, her fists smashing helms. She spun behind one soldier as another fired. The dart stuck in his fellow soldier’s armor.

  Bai only fought alone for a moment. Soon, Rong was in the midst of the soldiers, wreaking havoc. Wu stayed close to her, knocking soldiers off balance and throwing up shields between the soldiers and the princess.

  As Bai expected, the emperor and Lord Xun turned and galloped away the moment the fighting broke out. Bai thought to go after them, but her priority had to be the safety of the princess.

  A princess who wasn’t making that task simple.

  Bai saw her fighting the soldiers as well, her gift devastating. With the razor-sharp focus she achieved, her arms and legs were like blades. She saw the princess chop at a man’s neck, but her hand went straight through. The princess didn’t hesitate as she moved on to the next man.

  The soldiers, lacking the element of surprise, had no chance. Bai and her group were almost clear when a flash of motion caught her eye in the distance. She looked over and saw a huge sphere flying up through the air and dropping straight toward them.

  Bai pulled all the power she could summon into her body. Time slowed, and Bai saw that Rong had already seen the projectile. The princess, however, was oblivious. Bai ran toward the woman, grabbed her by the waist and physically pulled her away from the fight. She ran toward Wu, their only hope.

  She saw the shadow grow around her. She dove, twisting so she would land on her back and the princess would remain uninjured. Wu’s shield appeared over her just as the sphere plowed into the ground less than a dozen paces away.

  Fire exploded from the projectile, spraying over Wu’s shield and covering it in flame. The princess looked up, surprised to be covered by fire.

  They couldn’t stay here.

  Bai urged them to their feet, still under Wu’s shield. Wu gritted his teeth. “I can’t hold out much longer.”

  “Then move!” Bai ordered.

  They ran, the flame sliding off Wu’s shield. A moment later, he dropped it. Bai directed them toward the inviting gate of the fort. “Run!”

  She glanced back as they did, just in time to see a handful of arrows arc from Lord Xun’s lines and fall toward them.

  Bai cursed and made the first sign of the attack. She was next to useless when it came to projecting her energy, but perhaps she was strong enough to blow arrows off course. She stopped and turned, thrusting her hands out. She filled her body with as much energy as she could take, then released the attack.

  The blow was probably enough to send a large man tumbling to the ground. The wave hit the arrows, sending them cartwheeling through the air. Bai didn’t admire her handiwork. She turned and caught up to her companions, seeing their grateful nods.

  They were about two dozen feet away from the gate when a lone figure stepped out. He walked calmly toward them, and the four of them slowed down as he neared.

  Somehow, Bai understood.

  Bai pushed gently on her friends’ backs. “Go. Protect the princess. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Rong turned to face her, and Bai saw the lack of belief. Bai nodded. “I promise.”

  Rong stared at her for a moment, then relented. She led Wu and the princess back to the fort.

  Bai turned to Lei. Again, she had the impression of a man stuck between worlds, not fully in either. He gave her a short bow, and Bai had a sickening feeling it would be the last bow she ever saw Lei make.

  46

  Lei sat on the bench inside the fort, waves of sensation washing over him. His skin vibrated, his teeth ground together, a thin defense against feeling everything. He held his head in his hands as he sat, seeking his sanity. He heard waves of grass whispering in the wind a mile away. Snow fell softly, far to the north, far out of sight.

  He didn’t know how he knew such things, but they were as real to him as the tiny ridges on his fingers.

  This had to be madness.

  He had stepped into another world with his last defense. For all the training he’d done, all the preparation he had put his body and mind through, he had never dared use as much power as he just had.

  He should be exhausted, searching for a bed to rest on for the remainder of the day. His body had acted as a conduit for energies even he didn’t comprehend.

  But he felt like he could skip down a road for miles without tiring.
His body weighed nothing, as light as a paper lantern in the wind.

  He knew well the danger of pushing his body too hard. He’d had to teach the same danger to Bai so many years ago.

  This was something else. This was a problem of mind, a problem of spirit. He had no answers.

  Light stabbed at his eyes, the real reason he hid his head in his hands. Sounds pierced his skull, as sharp as nails. The world was paper and the seams were ripping, an unbearable brightness hiding behind the veil of an early winter’s day.

  It occurred to him that the power had addled his mind. He focused on a blade of grass standing as still as a statue in front of him. He bent down and grasped it between thumb and forefinger, gasping as exquisite sensations rolled across his body.

  Perhaps it wasn’t that the world was paper, but that he was. Perhaps he had burned himself out from the inside with that last shield.

  A part of him knew the wraiths prepared another attack off in the distance. The problem was, his sense of that attack blended in with everything else. The wraiths created the signs for an attack, but all Lei could hear was the cry of a newborn. Focus was impossible to find, but he had to search. Instinct took over, a primal response to danger guiding his actions. Lei grasped for the power he’d become so familiar with and it responded like an old friend, wrapping him in a warm embrace.

  The ease of it terrified him, and he held back.

  What was this strength? It couldn’t be so easy. Everything he knew told him his body should be a withered husk standing in the middle of the fort. He defended again.

  Lei felt the wraiths perish as one, their lives wiped from the planet the way Daiyu used to wipe crumbs from their table after eating. He felt Chao’s dying breath, echoing in his ear as though Lei had bent over to catch his last words.

  There had been none. The emperor’s betrayal barely had time to register in the mastermind’s consciousness before he passed through the veil.

  Lei’s heart broke at the loss of life. So much violence, and to what end? Perhaps it was his lifetime of isolation, but he saw it all so clearly. These games of power, these efforts to control the lives of others, all of them were meaningless. He loved Bai like a rebellious daughter, but she didn’t anchor him here. He didn’t care to take part in this world anymore. A deeper truth called to him.

  Off in the distance, well beyond the attacking army, there were other monks who had responded to the abbot’s call. For now, they remained at distance, silent observers to the events of the day. Lei was grateful the story would spread, no matter what happened.

  Lei felt his sword in his hands. He didn’t even remember drawing it from its sheath. He’d come across the sword as a young man and it had been the only item he’d kept through his journeys through the empire. Once, he had relied on it to help him focus his energy.

  Such abilities seemed crude now.

  He stood up and walked toward the gate. It was open. Some part of him realized that Bai was on the other side. He stepped through, looking up.

  Seeing Bai brought him a few moments of clarity, of the singular focus he was used to. He saw Bai, and he saw the bonds she had built with Yang’s students, and the princess. They would die for her, if it came to that.

  An unwilling leader, but one all the same.

  She urged them on, stopping to speak to him. She saw into him, and he knew that she knew. He gave her a short bow.

  “You said that we would visit Two Bridges together,” she said.

  How could he tell her that he wouldn’t break his promise? That though she may not recognize it, he would be there. That he would always be there. That it wouldn’t be a hollow phrase?

  The sword hung at his hip. He pulled it from his belt and handed it to her.

  “We will.”

  She bowed to him, and he saw how she fought to keep her emotions in check. She struggled for words, but he understood.

  “Thank you,” was all she managed.

  There had been one other teaching he wanted to pass on to her. But what was it?

  Ahh. He looked back to where the others now sheltered in the fort. “Take good care of them. They love you, too.”

  She nodded, but her feet were rooted to the spot. He gently encouraged her. “Go now. All is as it should be.”

  Lei knew his course, and he knew the cost. To him, the cost was easy to pay. Hopefully Bai would understand. He thought she would. She had never been as close as Daiyu, but they had shared a connection over the past decade.

  Bai passed him, and the brief clarity he’d experienced faded. Sensations attacked him with renewed vigor. He couldn’t see the army, at least not the way he was used to. He knew they were there, but it was a knowing that went beyond sight, as though he looked into their souls. They were scared, as soldiers always were on the eve of battle.

  Lei felt sorrow for what was to come. He still hoped it could be another way. “Surrender now,” he said. Though he spoke softly, he knew his voice carried to every ear for miles. The power continued to course through him.

  Lei stepped around the bodies of the wraiths that had fallen, arrows lodged in their backs. “Let us discuss your terms for peace. It is not too late.”

  He felt a wave of arrows being released, heard the hiss of thousands of them in the air. Lei wiped his hand across the sky and swept them off into the distance.

  Surely they would turn, would retreat from their own destruction.

  The army sounded the charge, causing Lei to halt. He felt the rumble of horses in front of him, the creatures charging with their riders into battle.

  There would be no compromise, then. Before, he would have felt some sorrow at what he was about to do. Now, he didn’t feel the same. Death wasn’t an ending, but a door.

  Death was only hard on the living.

  Lei could feel the currents of power running throughout the land. Most days, he would have allowed some trickle of it to enter his body, but no longer.

  This time he dove in, embracing the power and opening himself completely. He retained only the barest hint of control, shaping the force in the direction it needed to travel.

  Lei thought he felt a hand guiding him. He opened his eyes, but he did not see the army charging him. He saw Jian, his brother, dead for thirty long years, showing him the way. His brother even had that slight grin on his face that had driven Lei mad with anger as a child. Today he gently pulled his younger brother further into the light.

  The paper that was the world tore as the energy funneled through his body. It made even the power he had summoned before pale in comparison. This was the sun compared to the moon.

  Lei focused the energy, but that process happened in the back of his mind. His real focus lay on the thin membrane that existed between the reality he had always known and the world beyond.

  Jian had disappeared, and he swore he felt Daiyu brush past his arm, the way she often had before sneaking into the bedroom. He smiled and took another step. The blinding light hiding behind reality no longer seemed so bright.

  And then they were both there, Daiyu standing just in front of Jian. She held out her arms wide, welcoming him.

  Tears ran down Lei’s face as he stepped forward.

  47

  Inside the monastery, Bai just had time to run to the walls. When she got to the top, she looked out on the field to see Lei walking toward the army. A wave of arrows rushed at him, and Bai turned around to call for a shield, but she knew it was pointless. Lei was too far away for them to protect.

  She needn’t have worried. Lei swiped his hand across the sky and the arrows were thrown hundreds of feet to the north.

  Bai had never seen an attack like that. It didn’t even feel like an attack. It felt like a bending of reality.

  The army charged.

  Lei gathered his power, and then there was a bright flash, a cone of light that began with Lei and ended beyond Bai’s sight. For a fraction of a second, it was only light. Bai thought she saw shadows dancing within the light, but she cou
ldn’t be sure.

  Then the force of Lei’s attack hit.

  Stone cracked underneath her feet, and a wave of pressure slammed her onto her back. The earth trembled and the clouds fled as though chased.

  Then it was over. Bai stumbled to her feet. Her jaw dropped, and she didn’t bother to close it. Wherever the light had touched, only devastation remained. The grass, and at least a foot of the earth below, was simply gone. Off in the distance, she saw dust and debris in the air, but here, close to the fort, the air was clear.

  What humans had been present were gone. No evidence remained of their existence.

  The same was true of Lei. She could clearly see the place he stood when he released the light. The cone ended sharply just before it. But Lei was gone.

  Later, Bai, Rong, and Wu escorted the princess through what remained of the battlefield. Though Lei’s attack hadn’t been aimed at the fort, the power of it had almost been enough to bring the walls down. Many were injured, and their care had come first.

  Then other monks began to trickle in. Not many, but a handful had traveled toward the fort in response to the abbot’s summons. They had seen it all, and they bent their backs to aid those within the fort.

  Once everyone was taken care of, the princess had stated her intention to examine the damage Lei had caused. Bai and the others had joined without asking permission.

  The silence over the plains seemed deeper than before, nearly sacred. When anyone spoke, it was in a whisper. Bai stood where the cone of destruction began. Lei had stood right there, she was sure of it.

  The princess approached and stood next to Bai. “Do you understand what happened?”

  Bai slowly shook her head. “Lei always had a deeper connection with the power that we all use. He never told me how he formed that connection.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “I think he’s gone.”

  “But how?” Bai had a glimpse of the princess’s weakness. She didn’t accept what she didn’t understand. She knew her question had no answer and it dug under her skin.