"It's the symbol for the wizard's god," Hao said, scratching his butt. "Some sort of mountain god that he sacrifices to."
"Does he sacrifice people?" Nu scratched her butt.
Lady Jin sighed. Even if he did not intend to betray them, Hao set a poor example for Nu, who hardly needed anyone to teach her to behave like a peasant.
"Yes," Hao said. "But strangely none of the people in the eastern part of the city care. Its not that they are too afraid of him, but they just don't care."
"Now isn't that odd," Lady Jin said. "An enchantment over his area of the city, perhaps."
"I guess," Hao replied.
"Well, if it's only over this area, then he isn't all that powerful, mistress," Nu said. "Right?"
"True," Lady Jin said.
Eventually Hao got them to the mansion where the wizard was staying. Lady Jin looked the place over and found it to be smaller than the young baron's mansion.
"Now how are you going to get us in?" Lady Jin said.
"I have some clothes at a friends place for you," Hao said. "You'll need to hide those weapons if you want to get in. But the plan is that we start tomorrow."
"I know that," Lady Jin said. "Shouldn't we scout a little today?"
"No point," Hao said. "I have already seen enough to know the place like the back of my hand."
Lady Jin agreed and they went to a hut with walls made of grass and broken wood -- a big contrast to the larger wall of the wizard's home. Outside of the hut they found a woman with a crippled leg who was grinding millet with a mortar and pestle. She looked up and stopped when she recognized Hao.
"Hao. You're still alive," she said. "I thought some girl's husband or father would have killed or castrated you by now."
"They try, Xiu," Hao belly laughed. "But I always get away."
Xiu chuckled and shook her head. "Is one of these the swordswoman that you said the young baron was looking for to kill the wizard?"
"Yes," Hao said. "Do you have the clothes?"
"Yes," Xiu said. She reached for her cane and held up her hand. Hao gripped her hand and pulled her up. "Thank you. Come on in."
Xiu led them into the hut. She showed Lady Jin and Nu where the clothes were. Hao walked up to Xiu and brushed her dirty hair back out of her eyes. They kissed and kept Lady Jin and Nu up all night making love.
The next morning as Lady Jin and Nu got dressed into the old clothes Hao said his goodbyes to Xiu.
"I'm sorry, Xiu," Hao said and stepped back. "I've got a job to do, so we'll have to wait till another day."
"Oh you," Xiu said with her arms akimbo. "That's what you always say."
#
Hao led them outside, to the gate of the wizard's mansion and got them through it. He led them towards some trees and bushes, so they wouldn't be seen. They moved quietly to the mansion. Lady Jin was impressed by how silent Hao's movements could be. He had never been 'just' someone's love toy.
"Come this way," Hao said "There's a secret entrance to the mansion over here. You can take the rags off in a second."
Hao reached for a handle that Lady Jin hadn't noticed. He twisted and pulled. A small door opened to reveal a tunnel.
"You can throw off those rags," Hao said. "Let's go."
Hao crawled ahead of them. They turned left and continued on for twenty minutes. The tunnel was dusty and full of cobwebs that caused Lady Jin to cough. Hao stopped and opened a small door above them. They climbed out. Lady Jin coughed as she followed him out and saw the guards that waited for them.
"Oh shit!" Nu said.
Lady Jin looked around, but didn't draw her sword. Four guards had spears and one crossbowman had their weapons trained on them.
The guards took their weapons and bound their arms behind their backs. The guards drove them, with a spear poke or a boot shove to where the wizard sat on his throne.
The throne was made of human bones and the wizard's hands rested on a pair of human skulls. The skull of a tiger was attached to the bony back and sat above his head. The wizard smiled.
Standing beside the throne was a boy in his late teens with the muscular arms of a wrestler. In his hands was a bronze battle axe.
On the other side of the throne stood a woman with a deep scar that went across her nose to her left ear. She also had a blue tattoo on her forehead and a wand in her hand with metal studs at one end.
Lady Jin recognized the woman as the sorceress Blue Dead. The scar was a souvenir of their first meeting five years ago, when Lady Jin had proved that her blade was more than a match for Blue Dead's magic.
"So the assassins that the boy baron hired weren't too easy to catch," Da, the wizard, laughed. "I must tell him what a fool he was to hire women as I eat his balls in front of him."
"I know her, master," Blue Dead said and touched her scar. "That's Lady Jin. She gave me this. Please let me kill her for you."
"Hush."
"Please...please...I --"
"Shut up! I'll decide what to do with her. Not you!"
The wizard tapped the right skull with his long fingernails.
Nu tried to pull away from the guard that was holding onto her. The guard raised his arm and struck her neck with his forearm. She went down to one knee, but quickly recovered. She dropped her shoulder to the floor for leverage and cupped one foot behind his ankle, then she kicked at his shin. The surprised guard flung his arms around uselessly as fell. Nu hoped up and drove her heel into his solar plexus, cracking the sternum and driving it into his heart. Blood dripped out of his lips as he died.
"Damn it, Nu," Lady Jin snapped. "I was trying to find out what's going on here."
Lady Jin kicked back at the side of the knee of the crossbow armed guard. Crack! The guard screamed as he went down and she stomped on his throat. She held her bound hands down as far as they could go and hoped up. As her feet were in mid air she swung her bound hands underneath them to the front of her body. She landed and blocked another guard's spear thrust with the rope. She slipped behind the guard and pulled the rope against his throat to stun him. She gripped his head and twisted it to kill him.
She unsheathed his knife and freed herself, then freed Nu, who still had her hands behind her back.
"Here's your swords," Hao shouted.
The swords clattered on the floor by Nu. Lady Jin snatched up her sword and Nu grabbed her own sword.
"I see that you had no problem freeing yourself," Lady Jin said and plunged her blade into another guard's ribs.
"True," Hao said. "Have you noticed that the old wizard has left with the axe boy and your friend Blue Dead?"
"Damn it!"
"Follow me," Hao said. "I know another place to sneak out of here."
#
The three of them ran out of the throne room and raced down the hall, until Hao stopped at a statue of a rhinoceros. Lady Jin followed him as he crawled underneath it. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed the statue had genitals. Hao smiled back at them and reached between the statue's rear legs, and gripped its penis. He pulled and twisted, and a door creaked open behind the statue.
"That's how you do it," Hao whispered, winking.
"Just get going," Lady Jin snapped.
"Creep," Nu whispered behind her teacher.
Lady Jin crawled behind Hao through the dirty and dusty tunnel. Someone used to the luxury of living in a well-lighted modern city would have gotten lost, but she and her student weren't night blind. They had better night vision than an ancient city person from all of their travels through woods, caves and other dark places. Lady Jin suspected that Hao's eyes were equally keen.
Even still Lady Jin was happy to see the sun light shinning in the tunnel when Hao opened the door leading to the outside. Once outside she did a cat stretch and stood up, then shook her aching knees.
"Now what do we do?" Nu asked.
"Are there any temples around here?" Lady Jin asked Hao. "Other than the temples to the wizard's demon."
"Yes," Hao scratched his hair. "Maste
r Ling used to have a temple of the gods not too far from here, but that stinking wizard burned it down and broke the statues."
"Take me to it," Lady Jin said.
#
Hao agreed and took them back to the bushes and trees. It wasn't long before they found a burnt down building with the remains of a little road that led from the mansion to it.
Hao and Nu waited outside the ruins as Lady Jin walked into it to find what she sought. She felt a heavy heart as she went through the rubble where busted offering bowls, faded flowers and rotted food was scattered on the floor. It still had a strong burnt smell to it.
Amazing, Lady Jin thought. No animal has dared to come here and eat the food that was meant for the gods. They know better.
Lady Jin found a statue that had been destroyed beyond recognition. Then another with its head beside its broken snake body. She had seen its type before and recognized it as that of Xi Wang Mu -- Queen Mother of the West -- a goddess that Lady Jin had sent prayers to once or twice.
Lady Jin picked up a bronze ritual vessel and carried it over to the statue. She knelt before the statue. She drew her sword then set her bare weapon between her and the vessel in front of the broken goddess. She kowtowed five times.
"Oh, great goddess Xi Wang Mu! Hear my pleas of justice. An evil wizard has conquered half of this city and demands that people worship the demon lord that lives on a nearby mountain. He has destroyed this holy place and broken your very temple. Give me the strength to stop him. His power is great and he spits on the gods. I give you my blood oath and my promise to avenge you."
Lady Jin picked up her sword and sliced her left forearm with it. Her own blood poured into the ritual vessel. She looked down at the head's eyes and waited. A light passed from the cold eyes of the head to Lady Jin's living eyes. Lady Jin kowtowed.
"Thank you, Xi Wang Mu, for your gift."
Lady Jin stood and walked out of the ruins with her sword in her hands. There wasn't even a scar where she had cut her forearm.
Chapter four
"Now let's find this Da," Lady Jin said and sheathed her sword. "I want to go right back inside, he'll expect us to run."
"They'll still be guards there for he has a lot of them," Hao said.
"Good! Let's kill them all," Lady Jin said.
"Big talk," Hao shrugged. "But I'm not going."
"What?" Nu said.
"I was told to take you here and not to join in the fighting." Hao said.
"You coward!" Nu cursed.
"No," Hao said. "Just following my baron's orders. I observe and report back."
"No wonder the wizard is wining," Nu said. "You fu--"
"Shut up, Nu," Lady Jin said.
"Yes, mistress," Nu pouted and turned away from Hao.
"Maybe we'll meet again someday," Hao said and bowed to Lady Jin.
"Maybe we will at that," Lady Jin returned the bow.
Hao snuck off, leaving Lady Jin alone with her student.
"--cking coward." Nu said.
"It doesn't matter, Nu," Lady Jin said. "We're doing this on our own. Like we were paid to do."
#
Lady Jin led the way back into the tunnel and they came out of it underneath the rhinoceros. Lady Jin stopped between the forelegs and looked back at Nu.
"Why don't you pull and twist it," Lady Jin whispered with a grin. "It might shut the door behind you."
"But --" Nu looked up at the penis.
"Seriously, we might want a quick exit later," Lady Jin whispered. "If they knew where it is they'll stop us."
"Oh...all right, mistress," Nu grumbled and clutched the statue's penis in her hands. She pulled, twisted, pushed and twisted. The door shut. Nu sighed at looked back at her teacher.
"Let's go," Lady Jin whispered.
Lady Jin led the way through the dark parts of the building, so they couldn't be seen. Lady Jin, with knife in hand, snuck up behind a guard. She covered his mouth and cut deep into his throat. She slowly lowered the body, so as not to make a sound. Within the darkness they killed the two guards at the doors to the wizard's throne room, but inside they found no one. Lady Jin found a silk cloth with characters written on it that smelled recently written.
"What does it say, mistress?"
"'Meet us outside in the courtyard'," Lady Jin said.
"What should we do?" Nu said. "It might be a trap!"
"Possibly."
Lady Jin stood silently in thought.
She made a decision.
"We'll go outside through the statue's secret door again. Then we can come into the courtyard from the opposite direction, just in case they wanted to ambush us."
Lady Jin didn't grin this time when Nu opened the door with the statue's penis. She was too focused on what was to come. Once they were outside they dashed to the entrance to the courtyard.
"Stay calm," Lady Jin said to her student.
Lady Jin walked calmly through the entrance with sword in hand. The wizard waited to greet them. The only ones that were with him was Blue Dead and the teenage boy with the battle axe.
"I'm glad that you accepted my invitation," Da the wizard said.
"It's very kind of you to invite us," Lady Jin said.
"Are you ready to die, Lady Jin?"
"A warrior is always read to die, old wizard," Lady Jin replied.
"Are you ready to die, girl?"
"Yes, old wizard," Nu said.
"I'm not ready to die," Da said. "I have a plan to live for centuries. No matter what you mortals do, you will not stop me."
Da gestured to the boy and he stepped up with his battle axe. He swung a vertical cut at Nu, forcing her to step back.
She stabbed at his throat, but he quickly beat her blade aside. The impact from the heavy axe blade jarred her hand and almost made her drop her sword. He swung his axe at her again and again.
Nu saw that she had to be careful, for his axe could easily break her sword. She tried stepping to the side and slashing at his legs. He moved out of the way and slammed the butt of his axe into her back. She fell, but rolled out of the way to avoid his downward cut. His axe blade sunk into the ground, but she wasn't quick enough to get up to take advantage of it.
Nu's back burned from the blow that he had given her. She then cut across his ribs and scratched his cheek with her sword-tip. Both fighters were breathing hard and now moved slower. Neither would be able to take a break, until the other was dead. Nu knew that she needed to endure; she hoped that he would leave a fatal opening before she did.
Nu watched. She found the mark and attacked with her blade. It went into his throat and upwards towards his brain. A smile appeared on his lips before he fell to the ground. Nu stepped her foot on his head for leverage and pulled her blade free. Nu wiped sweat out of her eyes. Her hair was drenched and sweat had poured down her arms, thus darkening the sides of her clothes. There was also blood, but most of it wasn't hers.
"He lost," Da said. "That's too bad. I suppose he is happy to be with his brother."
"I'll kill her," Blue Dead said.
"No." The wizard waved his staff. "Kill Lady Jin."
"Thank you, master."
Blue Dead picked up her heavy wand. Lady Jin knew that it was both a magical tool and a formidable weapon. She swung at Lady Jin wildly like a fool that Lady Jin knew she wasn't. The swordswoman moved her blade around the wand like a twenty-first century master surgeon. The sorceress recognized what Lady Jin was doing and tried to stop her, but she didn't see the swordswoman's blade drop down and into Blue Dead's foot. She staggered back and Lady Jin's blade flashed up and pierced the sorceress's heart.
"Mali-shah Tzeltah!" Da the old wizard shouted and qi burst out of the end of his staff. Da's qi slammed into Lady Jin's chest and she was knocked back several feet.
"Mistress! No!" Nu shouted and ran to her teacher. Nu smelled burnt flesh and smoke floated around the hole that the wizard had made. Lady Jin body felt warm, but Nu realized that it would soon grow cold. She was d
ead. "No!" Nu turned to blindly charge the wizard, but Lady Jin's hand grabbed Nu's wrist.
"Don't." Lady Jin said.
Nu stared in disbelief. Her teacher's eye's were like two large jade stones. Lady Jin stood up and breathed, and smelled like jasmine. Nu backed away and Lady Jin looked at the old wizard. The swordswoman continued to breathe and Da's eyes widened as he recognized the qi that he had hit her with being reconstituted into a green ball of qi between her cupped hands.
Da tried to block the ball of qi as it was thrown at him, but it burned through his defenses and destroyed his staff. Lady Jin pulled out her knife and walked up the steps to where the wizard stood. He called up more of his magic and begged the demon for help, but he received no answer. Lady Jin plunged the blade in his heart and then grabbed the battle axe to behead him. Nu followed her teacher as she carried her grisly prize by the hair back to the old temple. Lady Jin dropped the head by the broken statue of Xi Wang Mu. The earth shook and wind blew down a tree, and Lady Jin fell to the ground. Nu dashed to Lady Jin's side and her teacher opened her eyes. They were normal human eyes and not like jade at all. Lady Jin slowly sat up.
"Well, I think that worked out okay, Nu," Lady Jin said.
"What?"
"I hoped that the goddess Xi Wang Mu would want revenge for what he did to her temple and worshipers," Lady Jin said. "Also I have had some dealing with her in the past."
"Dealings?"
"Let's just say she owed me," Lady Jin said. "Of course letting one of the gods take control of your body isn't without a price."
Lady Jin leaned to the side and puked up her last meal. The puke was a green, blue and orange mess that didn't look like anything that she had eaten earlier. Nu laughed.
"That's not funny," Lady Jin snapped.
"Sorry, mistress," Nu replied. "I'll go get our weapons."
#
When Nu returned with Lady Jin's sword and knife she found Hao standing over her teacher. He dropped a bag by her teacher and walked away.
"What did he want?" Nu asked.
"Just to pay us," Lady Jin said and sheathed her weapons.
Nu helped Lady Jin up and the two of them made the long journey back to Ya's house.
Evil Wizard Hao: A Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu novel Page 2
