Ya was happy to see her friends alive. Lady Jin ate some food and went straight to bed, but instead of sleeping she laid with her eyes open.
Why can't I sleep? Lady Jin thought. Why? I know why. I want that power that I was given. No. I don't. I'm a swordswoman and I don't need magic. I want it. I want the power of that goddess. I never should have done it. My sword. My training. My student.
The door opened and Nu walked in carrying a steaming bowl of something.
"Your friend Ya said that this stuff might help you sleep," Nu said and brought the bowl up to her mistress' lips.
Lady Jin sniffed and smelled an ugly brew that looked black as death. "One of her weird herbal medicines?"
"Yes," Nu said.
Lady Jin swallowed it down as fast as possible and tried not to puke. She feel asleep without saying another word and she awoke four days later.
"You're awake!"
"Yes, Nu," Lady Jin said and slowly sat up. "I'm so weak."
"Ya said that you would be," Nu said. "So she had some medicine made to help you get your strength back."
"Ughh," Lady Jin grumbled. "More of her crap?"
Nu and Ya nursed Lady Jin back to heath in a couple of days with the medicine and regular exercise of sword practice and chores.
"There that's enough," Lady Jin said as she carried in the last of the wood that she and Nu had chopped. "I think that it's time for us to go."
"Really?" Nu said. "You think that you're ready."
"Yes," Lady Jin said and wiped sweat off her forehead. "Let's say our goodbyes and leave."
Ya gave them some food and water for their journey. Ya's stable boy got Lady Jin and Nu's horses ready for travel and he wished them well as they left.
Outside of the city they were about to get on their horses when they saw Hao leading a brown ox. Lady Jin handed the reins of her horse to Nu.
"What are you doing?" Lady Jin asked him.
"Same as you! Leaving this stupid city," he said. "I plan to see the world. I was hoping that we might journey together for awhile."
"Fine with me," Lady Jin said.
Chapter five
Lady Jin led the way to the docks by the river in the Chu city named Ge, where dockworkers and sailors were loading and unloading cargo. She was above average height for a woman from Chu; of course, she wasn't from that southern nation. She wore the light brown trousers and loose shirt of the barbarian tribes which was unusual for either gender in Chu where few rode horses like the steppe barbarians did, most hitched them to wagons or chariots. Lady Jin was in her earlier thirties, but had the muscles of a female leopard and the scars of numerous battles and fights. Some were deep and some were harder to see.
Behind her were her student One-eyed Nu and their recent traveling companion, Hao. Nu was dressed much like Lady Jin, but with the beauty of baby fat that stays a while with a teenage girl. Like many a young person trying to find her place in the world Nu consciously and unconsciously imitated her older friend and teacher's mannerisms and clothing.
By contrast, Hao was old, ugly, and of no use in a fight. He had been tagging along since Lady Jin and Nu had left Cai, and this continued to make Lady Jin's nerves scream and bounce. Who was he and what did he really want? Lady Jin was silent on this, but her student wasn't so tactful.
"Hello, your ladyship!" shouted a deep bellowing voice ahead of Lady Jin.
Lady Jin smiled and put aside her worries as the large fat riverboat captain waved at her, after he put down the barrel that he had been carrying. He came over and hugged her, lifting her off the ground. His arms were big as the oars used to move his large boat down the Han River and his balding head was covered by a hemp rag. He smelled of man sweat and the river that he lived on. He set her back down and Lady Jin found that she couldn't help herself from giggling, just like always, around the man.
"It's good to see you again, Kaoji," Lady Jin said.
"It is a pleasure to see you as always, Lady Jin," Kaoji said and rubbed his hairy chin. "Oh, is that little Nu! My, how you have grown!"
One-eyed Nu was treated to a similar hug that included being lifted off the ground. Nu giggled even more than her teacher had and had to adjust her green eye patch once he let her down softly. He turned to Hao.
"Who is your friend, ladies?" Kaoji said.
"That is Hao," Lady Jin said and she felt the tension in the air when she did. Nu's nostrils flared as Lady Jin spoke. "He has been...traveling with us since we left Cai."
"Oh. How do you do, Hao," Kaoji said with a polite bow.
"Just fine, thank you," Hao replied with a polite bow as he picked his teeth with his finger.
"You're welcome," Kaoji said and crossed his arms. "Now what are you all up to?"
"We need a lift to Ba in old Zhedi city," Lady Jin said.
"Old Zhedi?" Kaoji said. "Where that crazy old wizard blew up the whole place. Why would you want to go there?"
"Sorry, Kaoji," Lady Jin said. "I can't tell you. Is that okay?"
"Well I guess so," Kaoji said. "If you're sure about this"-Lady Jin nodded yes-"well okay then. I can take you. Do you want me to wait for you?"
"No," Lady Jin said. "But I'll want you to return in five days from when you dropped us off and wait for us."
"Can I assume that someone or something might be chasing after you when you show up to leave?" Kaoji laughed as he spoke.
"Most likely, Kaoji," she said and patted his arm. "Will you accept the job? Same pay as last time?"
"Okay, Lady Jin," Kaoji nodded. "We'll be leaving at sun up, so be ready to go or get left behind."
"Good. Thank you, Kaoji," Lady Jin said.
She gave Kaoji the first part of the money for the ride and the rest he would get later after their job was over.
Kaoji tossed the coins to make a sound and examined one closely to see if what was real, with his fingers and tongue. One couldn't always trust friends and Lady Jin wasn't offended for she understood the reason of it.
The three of them walked away from the riverboat captain to where they had hobbled their horses and Hao's ox before Hao asked, "Can we trust him? Will he keep quiet about where we are going?"
"Probably," Lady Jin said. More than I trust you.
"I trust him more than I trust a bastard like you, Hao," Nu said.
"Oh," Hao whined and pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. "Why do you hate me so? I have done nothing to you."
Nu's hand edged toward her sword's pommel Lady Jin grabbed the girl's hand and she could feel the beating of the girl's pulse as she squeezed it. He's baiting you and you're falling for it, girl! Lady Jin thought. She felt Nu relax and she let go of the girl's hand.
"Come on, Nu," Lady Jin ordered. "We'll sell the horses and buy new ones when we return."
"Maybe I can get something for my ox, too," Hao said and nodded as if talking to himself.
Maybe he is talking to himself, Lady Jin thought. Or maybe to someone else. That old wizard in Cai had made a deal with some mountain demon and it had given him the power to control people's minds. Could that be what he is doing talking to the demon? Maybe I'm getting paranoid.
#
The three of them walked in the light of the moon to the dock with the sun just beginning to make its appearance known to the world. It is said that once ten suns lived in the sky and there never was darkness, until the great archer god Yi killed nine of them and left only one to brighten the world. Of course there were other stories that Lady Jin had heard one about an ancient fox that had stolen jewels from the gods and as punishment he was turned into the sun.
Lady Jin walked onto the large boat and gave Kaoji's wife Ling a hug and so did Nu. Ling was plump and almost as strong as her man, with the smell of fishes and other river animals that she cut and cooked to feed everyone. The couple had three sons; thirteen, ten and three years old. They helped the best they could with their father's crew of five men. Hao was introduced around to everyone, but failed with his attempts at friendliness. The bo
at trip down the river was uneventful with no one injured or killed in the journey. Soon they came to an old dock that was once used by riverboats to buy and sale to the old city of Zhedi. A new city with the same name was later built by the survivors of the dead city, but even they had nothing to do with the ruins. It was said that the dead still controlled it or some things that the crazy wizard had left behind.
Lady Jin tied her shoulder-length black hair behind her with a strip of red silk. She picked up her bag that held her bow, quiver and supplies with a blanket tied to it. She put it on her back and waved at Kaoji and the others as they went away along the river. Nu was putting her bag and blanket on her back for the journey and Hao was doing something similar. She watched as her teenage student put her hair up in a similar ponytail with a cloth made of hemp.
Lady Jin looked at the ruins of the city and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She felt a premonition of doom as they walked through the dead city. There was a strange smell in the air that hinted of burnt flesh, wood and something indescribable. A few of the buildings had been burnt down, many had been strangely melted down by a terrible heat, while others had fallen apart in rubble, but few were still in pristine condition. These made the place seem more eerie for a normal fire wouldn't have done this nor was it the products of war. It was magic of the dark kind.
Once again Lady Jin felt the hair on the back her neck stand up. It was an old warning that she had learned to listen to, even though she wasn't going to quit she was going to keep her senses open. Eyes, ears, nose and whatever else that had kept her alive all these years. She leaped and rolled to her left as a large block of stone landed where she had stood.
Lady Jin drew her sword where she crouched by a half-melted building, soon Nu squatted beside her.
"Where did that come from?" Nu asked and looked about.
"I don't know," Lady Jin said. "Possibly that guard tower, but that would be quite a throw."
"Magic?”
Lady Jin looked behind her for the owner of the voice as did Nu. It was Hao. Why didn't I hear him? I should have heard him sneaking around like that. I must never forget how stealthy he can be, for that makes him dangerous.
"Could be magic," Lady Jin said.
"This place makes me want to crawl away and never come back..." Nu said with a shiver.
"...Almost as if someone or some thing is pushing you away," Lady Jin said. "Is that what you mean, Nu?"
"Right!" Nu said. "How...are you feeling the same?"
"Yes," Lady Jin said.
"Me too," Hao said.
"Look," Lady Jin said.
Two large shapes crawled down the guard tower they were larger than the biggest man, and covered in yellow fur. They ran towards the three humans on their rear feet and the knuckles of their long arms. They let out an inhuman roar and the foul odor of their mouths reached Lady Jin's nose quicker than the roar reached her ears.
"Wild men!" Nu shouted.
Wild men was the old name given to the large apes that lived in the forests of eastern Asia that were known to hunt the giant panda and even could threaten the great tiger. Sometimes they attacked humans, though it was rare.
The wild men stood over them on their hind feet and made a display of beating their chests and roaring. After that one of them reached for Lady Jin. She dodged away and slashed at a muscled arm with her straight sword's tip. The wild man bared his ape fangs. She knew the creatures only used the most simple of tools and weapons, like a rock or a stick. They were still dangerous for their size and their intelligence was much superior to that of a tiger.
Lady Jin shouted at it and backed away as it came down on its knuckles. The wild men used their knuckles for their front feet like a four legged animal did for their kind didn't walk or run on their legs very well. The creature picked up a stone as big as her head with one hand and tossed it at her. She easily dodged the attack and thought of what to do next. She slashed at its groin and legs to keep it away from her and barely escaped some feces that it threw at her, though later she would learn that a bit splashed her leg.
The creature roared about his failure and angrily pushed against a wall to bring it down, and picked up a large piece of it with both hands. It raised the large rubble over its head to throw and seeing her chance, Lady Jin leaped forward in that instance. She aimed for the heart not by going straight in, but by stabbing it through the armpit as she dashed by. The blade went in and punctured the large heart of the beast, though she had to stretch up to do it. It worked, but she lost her sword in the creature's armpit.
The creature still wasn't dead, but it was down. Lady Jin watched it and it watched her as she drew her knife, though she would rather have her sword, but an experience warrior knew that a dying animal could be extremely dangerous. Its eyes dropped and then opened again. With its last strength it reached toward her, she dodged it and shoved her knife into its neck, again and again, until she realized it was dead.
After getting her breath back, Lady Jin looked up from the great animal that she had killed to where Nu and Hao were. The other wild man was also dead. She got up and wiped the sweat and blood from her face with her sleeve, then pulled her sword free from the wild man's armpit. She pulled a rag out of a pocket to wipe her sword clean.
"You two okay?" Lady Jin said as she walked over to them.
"Yes," Hao said.
"Yes," Nu said. "I still think someone wants us out of here."
"This wasn't a chance encounter," Lady Jin said. "Someone sent them after us."
"Do you think that sorcerer that they talk about is still here and alive?" Hao asked and wiped his sword's curved blade on his trouser leg.
"Where should we go now?" Nu asked. Like her teacher she had used a rag to clean her straight sword's blade.
Hao pulled out his map that he had of old Zhedi before it was destroyed. He held it out for the others to see.
"According to this," Lady Jin pointed and she could smell animal's blood and odor on her hand. "We should be getting closer to the old sorcerer's mansion, if it still exists that is."
"Mmmmhuh..." Hao said. "Not too far...just down that way, I guess."
The three companions walked cautiously down the street and turned left at the guard tower, but no more wild men came out of it. As they continued their journey they found more and more buildings that were undamaged by the disaster that had befallen Zhede. The strangeness of that disaster and its scent made the three even more nervous as they walked with their swords out and ready for anything.
"This is it," Hao said.
"There's no sign," Nu said. "But I think that's it."
Lady Jin didn't say anything as the stared at the glowing building surrounded by a wall of stone. Most walls in China were made of dirt that was pounded within wooden frames over and over for long time until it was hard and able to withstand an assault. This looked to be all stone, but the yellowish-red glow around it made it look peculiar. Were they really seeing stone?
It was getting hard to see anything other than the glowing building for the sun nearly gone, so they sat and ate a meal of dried fruit and bread that they had brought along in their bags.
"Impressive," Hao said. "I've heard that they make walls of stone far to the west."
"The west?" Nu said. "There are only nomadic horse riders out beyond Ba, Shu and Qin."
"No, Nu," Hao said. "Beyond the steppe nomads are city dwellers just like us. Well they are different, but they have a written language and arts of their own.
"What?" Nu said, unbelieving.
"Have you been there?" Lady Jin asked.
"Not in my material form," Hao said.
Lady Jin was surprised by what she had heard, though she didn't show it or say anything more about it. Still, she wouldn't forget it. Does Hao realize what he just said?
Without saying anything else, Hao lay down and fell asleep.
Lady Jin shook her head in disgust and looked at the glowing building, she caught the smell of sulfur
in the air. Is it coming from the building? She told Nu to take the first watch and went to sleep. Later Lady Jin was awakened by Nu for her time at watch, which was later followed by Hao's turn at watch.
Chapter six
The next morning they ate and watched the building that glowed.
"Now how do we get in?" Lady Jin said after a swallow of water.
"I think that I might know how to," Hao said and pulled out a green wand.
Of course you do, Lady Jin thought.
Hao stepped away from them and waved his wand around in a series of geometric patterns in the air. He spoke in a language that Lady Jin had never heard of.
At first Lady Jin could saw nothing, until a green circle appeared as he drew it, as if he had been writing on a bamboo stick or cloth with a brush. Other shapes appeared around Hao; ovals, triangles and rectangles, and they floated in the air like smoke. The geometric shapes floated away from Hao to the glowing building they surrounded it and circled it. They circled faster and faster, and soon they were a blur. A loud noise like thunder exploded and the light around the building became as bright as the sun.
Lady Jin and Nu dropped to the ground and covered their eyes and ears, but Hao just stood there. The sound and lights vanished. As it exploded the scent of sulfur hovered over everything and then vanished as if only an illusion. Lady Jin stood and Nu followed her example. The building was no longer glowing.
"Now we can go in," Hao said. He smiled showing his rotten and missing teeth, and wiped his nose.
"Well go ahead," Nu said. "We'll follow you."
"Of course," Hao calmly said.
Hao casually walked up to the building that was supposed to have been the home of the old sorcerer of Zhedi. His sword was in its sheath, but he still had his wand out. He held the wand in front of him like a shield.
I never knew that Hao was a sorcerer, Lady Jin thought. What else do I not know about him?
Lady Jin walked into the building behind Hao with her sword out and Nu followed her. Hao began to laugh as he saw a room with broken furniture and a square box of wood in the middle of the room. There was a door to the left side. He walked over to the door quickly without looking around and tried it. The door opened and other the other side was a wall.
Evil Wizard Hao: A Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu novel Page 3
