by Avery Tingle
Ro?”
Ro nodded at her respectfully. “You know what I would do to most women who spoke to me that way, but you are clearly not most women. I’ll give you an answer. I want my baby.”
Lihua was taken aback. “What? Your baby?”
Ro held his hands up as though the answer was obvious. “I am not a brute, Lihua. I did the math. The child has as much a chance of being mine as Shihong’s.”
The thought made Lihua shudder contemptuously. She said nothing.
“Tell me where my baby is!” Ro said, smiling that crooked, evil smile, “And you have my word, we will leave here in peace!”
“I might believe you,” Lihua began, “if I hadn’t seen what you’d done to others you gave your word too. The baby doesn’t belong to either you or your master. The baby is mine.”
Although Ro’s smile remained, an air of malice set in about him. He snapped his fingers.
Four more agents appeared, each carrying two women over their shoulders. Their hands and ankles were bound.
They strode up to Ro and let the women fall to the ground. One of them banged their heads against the concrete and began sobbing.
Lihua glowered up at Ro and the others.
“You say you know what I can do.” Ro announced in a rising tone, “Then you know what I will do if you do not give me my baby!”
Panic bubbled up inside Lihua as the desperate sounds of the woman filled her ears. She remembered countless nights when Ro came to her. She’d never, ever wanted it, not ever, but she’d learned to put her mind elsewhere when it happened.
These women had left similar lives and founded these villages as a place where they could live peacefully. Now, the madness had found them…and Lihua’s knowledge that she had led them here was enough to extinguish all fear. “Ro,” Lihua began in a voice she wasn’t quite sure was hers, “You are a spineless coward and I have had enough of you.”
The smile vanished. “What did you say?” he seethed.
“YOU HEARD ME!” Lihua bellowed, pleased when several of the agents leapt at the sound of her voice, “You coward! You harm others who can’t defend themselves against the likes of you and you have the audacity to call yourself a man?! You’re a runt dog! And I want you out of this place!”
“Bitch…” Ro hissed, “How dare you.”
“Draw your sword.” Lihua challenged, “And I’ll show you how I dare.”
Despite the weight of his armor, Ro moved with remarkable speed. His eyes were red and nearly manic as he drew his decorated sword. ‘”SO BE IT!”
Lihua had to fight to keep from taking a step back as Ro closed the distance between them quickly. His voice boomed as he neared, raising his sword with both hands. Lihua nimbly jumped backwards to avoid a swing that would’ve cut her in half at the middle.
Ro was a master swordsman and he recovered quickly, springing back at her and raising his sword diagonally. Lihua had barely regained her footing by the time the attack came, this one aimed at her chest. She held her sword out in front of her with both hands and shrieked in surprise when his sword nearly dislodged her own. The shock of the impact reverberated up through her arms, and she could feel her bones shaking.
She fell to her back as Ro pressed his advantage. He swung the sword down, and Lihua rolled out of the way to let the blade hit the ground. Lihua came back, raising her leg and sending her instep into the side of Ro’s knee. He buckled slightly and then took hold of her ankle. Lihua yelped as he chuckled a horrible growl, lifting her from the ground.
She looked into the upside-down face of the monster, who raised his sword threateningly towards her face. “I will make this painless, for old times sake.”
“I won’t.” Lihua swung her sword cleanly across Ro’s face, opening a gash beneath his eyes. He bellowed in pain, dropping Lihua to the ground, and she scrambled away, quickly getting back to her feet and waiting for the next attack.
Ro was shaking, holding his face with both hands. Lihua stood at his back, her own back to the agents. She wasn’t worried about them interfering. For Ro, this was a matter of honor.
Whatever happens, don’t back down.
Lihua was unsure where the voice in her mind came from, but she readied herself for the next advance.
She didn’t have to wait long. Ro whirled on her like a savage animal, dashing and bringing his sword down on her head. Lihua fought the urge to back off and not be overwhelmed by the large man. She raised her blade and blocked the attack, but he pressed the extra hundred pounds he had on her down. Lihua fell to her knees, groaning under the weight.
She forced herself to look into the maddened face of this man who’d so repeatedly forced himself upon her night after night.
He sneered at her, and then raised his blade one more time.
In the moment he took the pressure off of her, Lihua dove between his legs and appeared behind him. Ro recovered quickly and turned, raising his blade defensively. Lihua brought her sword down towards his chest, and she easily pushed him off. She returned, throwing a flurry of attacks towards his face and body. Ro was stronger, but she was faster. He was able to deflect all of her attacks, but was forced to give ground as Lihua relentlessly battered him.
With all of his attention focused on defending his body, Lihua seized an opportunity and ducked, stabbing her sword into the exposed area in his armor just above the knee. Ro winced and screamed as the wound drew blood, stumbling forward.
As Lihua stepped forward for a decapitating blow, Ro lunged forward and stabbed the tip of his sword clean through Lihua’s armor at the stomach. His sword pierced her flesh and exited out through her spine.
Paralyzed, Lihua slowly lost feeling in her arms as something wet and coppery rumbled up inside of her. She coughed, expelling blood as her arms fell. She forced herself to hold onto her sword as her world began to swoon, the cold metal strangely warm as Ro began to twist it within her.
Lihua grimaced but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a scream. “I will think of you,” Ro hissed in her ear, “as I ravage them into the next life.” He nodded to the bound women.
Lihua’s eyes flashed. She compelled her arms back up, summoning the last of her strength as she brought her sword up towards Ro’s neck. “You will not touch them.” She swore.
Ro’s eyes widened at the last moment of his life. The blade sliced cleanly through his neck, and his body fell to the ground as his head rolled away.
“Agh…” Lihua dropped to her knee, clutching the sword that had gone through her. With shaky hands, she took hold of the weapon and pulled it out of her, tossing it to the side.
She then fell forward, leaning on her blade for support.
Blood running from the corner of her mouth, her strength failing, her vision blurred, Lihua looked up at the rest of Ro’s agents. “Leave this place.” She commanded in a shaking voice, “Go back to your master and tell him that you found our bodies.”
The agents were still.
Lihua frowned. It wasn’t just the agents. The very world had gone still. The snow hung, suspended in mid-air, and the wind stopped.
The first arrow punctured her armor at her left shoulder, knocking her backwards. It burned, the arrowhead scraping against bone.
The second arrow found her right shoulder at an angle, digging in and landing dangerously near her heart.
Breathing became a labored chore. As she forced her head up trying to find the shooter, the final arrow caught her in the chest bone, breaking clean through. She felt one of her lungs pop as the arrow lodged.
Lihua took one final breath and fell to her back.
She could still see the world, motionless before her eyes, but her body was quickly growing numb. She wondered how she was still alive.
“Lihua.”
It was a cold, nasally, familiar voice. It was omnipresent, in her ears as much as her mind. She could barely move, straining to see the owner of the voice--
There. Above her, an impossible, long dot in the sky that grew larg
er as it descended.
He was a thin, gaunt man of six feet. He was old, and he couldn’t die soon enough, in Lihua’s opinion. His face was gray and wrinkled, and there was an odd red tint to the outskirts of his eyes. He was dressed in gold silk and a garish, tall hat that bore his emblem in red.
“Shihong.” Lihua managed through torn vocal chords.
“Thank you.” He said, hovering above her stomach, “You saved me the trouble of killing Ro. He was never supposed to touch you.”
Blessedly, numbness had set in. Lihua couldn’t feel anything below her neck. “How…how are you…”
He smiled a cruel, twisted smile, holding up his hands. “There is much you don’t know, my wife.”
Lihua scowled. She’d always hated it when he called her that. Their marriage, one of his many, was not by her choice.
“Had I known you were so capable, I may have included you in my designs.” Shihong said sadly, “Instead, it will be my daughter who bears the fruits of our labor.”
“You will never see that child…” Lihua would’ve said more, but coughed up blood.
“Lihua.” Shihong began, raising a menacing hand, “Suffice it to say I am beyond anything you know.”
Lihua’s body began to quiver as a burning sensation set in beneath her skin where each of the arrows had hit her. “Stop…” The arrows began to turn slowly, forcing more blood out of the injuries.
“The power mistress grants me is absolute.” Shihong declared as Lihua’s torment continued, “You won’t even die unless I allow it. And I will not allow it, Lihua, until
