"That fox said something," Nu said. She also sounded as if she fought against something.
"Yes," Lady Jin said. "That's it. Can you stand?
"Oh, I'm mostly okay," Nu said. "The armor worked well to protect my vital parts. I think."
Lady Jin had Nu to remove her armor, so that she could check her for wounds. Mostly it turned out to be a few minor cuts and bruises. Nothing serious. Nu put her armor back on with her teacher's help.
Nu went to collect up the used spears and noticed that they were gone with the tigers.
"How can they be gone?" Nu asked.
"Magic," Lady Jin said. "I suppose that they were in the tigers and once the dead tigers vanished so did the spears. Magic is like that. It has its own laws and limitations."
"Shit!" Nu stomped her foot and adjusted her eye patch. "I don't like magic."
Lady Jin walked over to Hao, who was still clutching his golden wand. "Hao, are you okay? Do you hear what I'm saying?"
"Mine!" Hao said. "You can't have it!"
"I don't want it, Hao," Lady Jin said and wondered how to reason with the madman.
"Liar!" Hao moved back away from her. "Everyone wants my sweetheart. She is mine! She loves me! Not you!"
"Do you think that it's alive?" Lady Jin in disbelief.
"Yes, Lady Jin," Hao said. "It is a living being, not a thing."
Lady Jin's body shook as if she had laid her hand on a gigantic gong to quiet it.
The word 'living being' opened up a door in Lady Jin's mind and she remembered the fox man speaking to her about the magic spell that Hao had put on her and Nu. She tried to fight and she tried to warn Nu about it. She was about to speak when Hao jumped up at that moment.
"You are trying to fight me," Hao said. "I see it in your mind. You want to take her from me. No! Mine!"
Hao ran out of the building as fast as he could. Lady Jin looked at Nu, who was shaking her head as if to clear it of something.
"It's gone!" Nu said. "Whatever was clouding my mind is gone, mistress!"
"I know," Lady Jin said. "Hao's spell on us has broken. The golden wand now controls him as he controlled us or maybe its power is stronger than his."
"To the yellow springs with him," Nu said and started taking off her armor. She kept the helmet on.
"Come on," Lady Jin said, after she had gotten her armor off. "Let's see if ole Kaoji is at the old dock yet. We need to get out of here as soon as possible before anything else appears. This place is cursed."
"I hate him," Nu said. "And I don't want to protect him anymore."
"I agree, Nu," Lady Jin said. "Let's get out of here. We need to buy those horses back before someone else gets them."
#
The two women gathered up their supplies that they had left and walked back through the ruins of Zhedi. Eventually they made it back to the old dock and sat down to drink a little water to wait for Kaoji to show up. They waited at that spot for a couple of days and never were attacked by anyone. On the last day they heard a noise in the distance coming from the ruins. As it neared they saw it was Hao and he was running from what looked like a group of flying vampires. Hao hoped into the river and tried to swim to the other side as the vampires continued to chase him. All the while he shouted, "Mine! Mine!"
Nu stood and pointed at Kaoji's boat as he and his crew cruised down the river.
"Now we get out of this place," Lady Jin said. "And leave that fool Hao to what he deserves."
Chapter eight
Lady Jin and her student One-eyed Nu rode across a creek. On the other side, Lady Jin had them pick it up to a trot; she knew that they were very near the mountain where her friend lived. The mountain was magical and if you didn’t know where to look you wouldn’t find it. She had been to it many times, but never with Nu. Once on the other side she knew in her belly that it was the right spot. She stopped her horse and so did Nu.
“Hold my horse, Nu.” Lady Jin handed over the reins. “And wait here.”
Lady Jin stepped forward and, as the wind picked up and tossed her loose black hair in circles, she tossed off her clothes. She held her breasts in her hands and spoke the ancient words she had been taught. Words that were once a language spoken when the most ancient gods were young and unwise. The land shifted and a green glow appeared covering everything, until the mountain appeared in front of her.
“That’s amazing!” Nu shouted. “I didn’t know you could do magic. How did you do that?”
“It’s ancient magic, Nu,” Lady Jin said, as they got back on their horses. “The friend I’m going to introduce you to taught it to me, but I merely revealed what was already there.”
“Your friend must be a sorcerer or sorceress,” Nu said. “You never told me if your friend is a she or a he, why?”
“You’ll find out soon. We’ll take this trail up the mountain. It will lead us straight to my friend’s home. Watch out. Some strange and unfriendly creatures live here.”
A strange roar burst throughout the mountain. The horses tried to pull loose and Nu’s horse even kicked out. They had to back down to calm the horses.
“What is that, mistress?”
“That sounds like the bear-tiger,” Lady Jin said. “I’ve heard them before, but I’ve never seen one. They say it has two gigantic fangs that hang out of its mouth like boar’s tusks.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Nu said.
“Me neither,” Lady Jin handed Nu her reins. “I’ll get out my bow just to be safe. Hopefully the creature won’t bother us.”
Lady Jin strung her bow and led the way up the mountain trail with the quiver hanging on her belt.
“I don’t hear any more roaring from that bear-tiger,” Nu said as she pulled on the nervous horses. “Is that good? Maybe it didn’t notice us.”
“Oh, I’m sure it saw us, or rather smelled us,” Lady Jin said. “Maybe it’s not hungry, but sneaking up on us to see if we’re a threat. Just stay alert like the horses.”
Lady Jin stopped without warning and seemed to freeze like a rock. Nu nearly bumped into her. Lady Jin eased out an arrow and notched it to the bowstring. Lady Jin’s horse listened to the west with her ears forward. Nu’s horse did the same. Nu glanced at Lady Jin and tried to see what caught the horses’ attention.
A large cat-like animal burst out of some large bushes with a ferocious roar. An arrow slammed into its eye and another hit its shoulder. It turned and slapped at the arrow in its eye; Lady Jin hit it in the side near its heart. It moaned, the fur shivered and the paws swung uselessly.
“You killed it, mistress,” Nu said. “A bear-tiger!”
Once it had stopped moving Lady Jin walked up to it, but slit its throat just to be safe. Nu stepped forward and touched one of giant canines with her fingertips and then rubbed across its smooth white surface.
“I’ve never felt anything like that before.” Nu’s words were followed by a blush.
“We’ll take its fur and meat with us,” Lady Jin said. “My friend wouldn’t like it if we left it to rot, for that is the way of nature. You kill to eat, not for pleasure.”
“Okay.”
Lady Jin unstrung her bow and put it and the quiver away. She dug some special blades from one of her saddlebags . Now that the ’bear-tiger’ was dead, the horses had calmed enough that Nu could help. Nu folded the animal’s white fur and got it tucked into one of her saddlebags. Once Lady Jin got everything cut up she could tell that some of it would be left behind. The sinews would make good bow-strings for herself or to sell. She wished they had a pack animal with them, but you can’t have everything. She decided to bury some of it. Lady Jin pulled out a shovel and went to work. Nu took over after a while and, once rested, Lady Jin took over to finish. They dumped the remains into the hole. Lady Jin worried it might not be deep enough, but didn’t say anything. They covered it and at the last moment Lady Jin decided to take the two saber-toothed fangs with her.
Lady Jin and Nu moved on a little ways from the bo
dy to make camp, eat, and feed the horses for death smell might attract other predators. Nu sat by the fire with one of the saber-fangs in her hands. “Its huge. A monster. I’ve never seen a tiger that big before. Its fur is so white. So beautiful.”
“Oh, my friend told me that there used to be a lot of large animals in the ancient times,” Lady Jin said.
“Really?” Nu said.
“Yes,” Lady Jin nodded. “Giant tigers and giant wooly rhinos. Oh, there are still some giant creatures today, but most of them are magical animals made by sorcerers.”
“What about those wild men we saw in Zhedi?” Nu said.
“Those giant apes usually stay hidden far away from humans,” Lady Jin said. Nu tore off some meat stuffed it in her mouth. “That sorcerer had them under his spell of some kind.”
“Well whatever these bear-tigers are.” Nu chewed on some meat. “Their meat tastes pretty good as far as meat-eating animals are concerned.”
#
The next day Nu awoke to see her horse sniffing around the supply bags hoping to find food for himself. She shooed him away and got out some grain to feed her gelding. Lady Jin was awake since she had the last watch during the night. Now she was checking its hooves as it ate grass.
“Good morning, Nu,” Lady Jin said. “I’ve already eaten. Get something for yourself and we’ll load the horses get moving.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Nu did as she was told.
After a little stretching and exercise Lady Jin and Nu were off up the trail again with their loaded horses. Lady Jin stopped a few times to check for tracks and droppings that might warn of more predators, but found no such hints.
Both women drew their swords at the hoof-beats. On turning they saw several men on horseback and they women were assaulted by the smell of old rotted meat. The lead rider looked familiar in its green silk robe, which was the only thing among them that wasn’t rotted, torn, or rusty.
“I’m pleased we have found you once again.” The man in the magical robe pointed a sword with a strange spike near its tip. His eyeballs looked like they would fall out of his mummified face at any moment. “Run as you wish for we will always find you, as we have done so many times before. Now you shall suffer our wrath, Lady Jin!”
A huge ball of white light appeared between the two opposing parties. When it was gone, a woman stood naked between the two groups. In place of a mouth and nose was the beak of an eagle; her arms and legs were covered in feathers.
“You are not welcome on my mountain creatures of death magic,” the bird woman shouted. “Go! Leave here!”
The mummified horses became frightened and turned and bucked. The riders held on to their mounts, but in some rather embarrassing positions.
The bird woman turned to look at Lady Jin and Nu, and raised a feathered hand towards them. S gentle warm feeling went through their bodies. The surroundings changed to that of a lighted cave dwelling. The bird woman was there; she sat on a large blue pillow. Nu couldn’t help but notice that the bird woman’s vulva was surrounded by down feathers, not hair.
“It’s good to see you again, Lady Jin,” the bird woman said.
“I’m pleased to see you too, Mountain Lady,” Lady Jin said. “Thank you for rescuing me and my friend. She has been my student for several years, her name is One-eyed Nu. Nu, this is the sorceress known as Mountain Lady.”
Mountain Lady politely nodded towards Nu. Nu politely bowed and said, “I’m honored to meet you, Mountain Lady. My mistress has spoken highly of you.”
“I fear that she exaggerates about me too much,” Mountain Lady said. “I merely obey the wishes and will of this great mountain. For this mountain is the power that you have seen. I just permit my body to be its focus.”
“That in itself is an amazing thing few can do, Mountain Lady,” Lady Jin said.
“Thank you,” Mountain Lady said. “Now please sit down.”
They sat on some of the pillows laid around the floor. Mountain Lady reached to her left for a blue cloth and wrapped it around her loins and hips. “I’m sorry,” Mountain Lady said. “I usually forget that humans are uncomfortable with nakedness, aside from bathing.”
“Thank you, Mountain Lady,” Lady Jin said. “I bring you this as a gift.” Lady Jin held out the two large fangs of the creature she had killed.
Mountain Lady’s beak-mouth shaped into human-like smile as she took them from Lady Jin. She placed the gifts on a small pillow by her right hand. “Thank you for the gift, Lady Jin, but unless you face the dead warriors of bone they will follow you for eternity. You can’t just try to forget about them and hope they will go away.”
“Nu and I have faced them in battle before,” Lady Jin said. “Just recently in old Zhedi.”
“Who are they?” Nu said. “Why do they keep chasing us?”
“They chase Lady Jin, not you, young one,” Mountain Lady said.
“Young one.” Lady Jin laughed and tapped between her breasts. “You once called me that.”
“Yes.” Mountain Lady laughed like a falcon cries. “You still seem young to me, but you have grown a little wiser since I last saw you.”
“A little?” Lady Jin said.
Mountain Lady laughed out loud and nodded. “I assume you have returned for the sword of Fu Hao.”
“Yes, I have,” Lady Jin said.
“Good. It is time you finish what you began.”
“Fu Hao?” Nu asked.
“She was a great general and wife of a king who lived many centuries before you were born,” Mountain Lady said. “I fondly remember her singing."
Lady Jin blushed as Nu gazed at her teacher. “You can sing?”
“Yes.”
“Why—” Nu started to say.
“She’s magnificent.” Mountain Lady tilted her head to the side like a dog. “Don’t you sing anymore?”
“Not for some time,” Lady Jin said. “Maybe I feel I have nothing more to sing about.”
“Sad.” Mountain Lady scratched some of her feathers with her beak. She stood up with a strange inhuman elegance. “It is time we go. Your horses are out this way with mine.”
Chapter nine
The Mountain Lady walked through a doorway that Lady Jin hadn’t seen earlier. Once on the other side, the doorway vanished. Lady Jin walked up to her horse, checked its hooves and then noticed the saddlebags weren’t full of meat. She turned to ask Mountain Lady and found the old lady laughing.
“That old bastard can’t die by mere human weapons,” she said. “He’s lived here almost as long as I have. You see, he is a friend of mine.”
“Eeee!” Nu screamed as the large yellow horse changed form—into the white bear-tiger that Lady Jin had killed earlier, but now it wore a saddle and bridle as if it was a horse.
The Mountain Lady calmly walked up to it, put a foot into a stirrup and climbed on. “Like I said, he’s an old friend of mine.” Mountain Lady laughed. “Don’t worry, your horses thinks he is just another horse.”
“Magic?” Nu asked.
“Yes,” Mountain Lady said. “But it’s his, not mine.”
Nu climbed on her horse, while keeping an eye on Mountain Lady’s mount. A spear appeared in Mountain Lady’s hand. A lightning bolt flew out of it and slammed into the wall. It exploded. Pebbles and dust flung onto the three riders and everywhere else. Once it cleared, a doorway to the outside world could be seen.
Lady Jin and Nu’s horses bayed, kicked, and jumped. Their riders had to hold on and try to calm them. Eventually they followed the Mountain Lady’s mount out of her ‘cave’.
The three riders followed a mountain path wide enough for three horses, though they rode single file. The path circled the mountainside heading upwards, thus the forth rider heading towards them was going downhill.
Lady Jin recognized him as one of the rotting dead men who’d approached her and Nu earlier. He reined in his horse, raised a battle-ax over his head, and shouted in the language of the Ba and Shu people of the southeast. “I h
ave come to challenge Lady Jin to combat from horseback!” While he spoke, dust and other old things tumbled out of his mouth cavity.
Lady Jin drew her sword and gave her horse a command to charge. The dead rider hit his horse’s rump with the pommel of his battle-ax and the two horses thundered towards each other with dust flying. She missed her cut and ducked from his chop, so she used her reins and feet to force her horse in a quick circle. She got in a thrust to his back that drew no blood, but he did when he elbowed her in the face.
Lady Jin shook off the blow and rode away and turned to charge again. He raced after her and got to her before she could move ahead. His horse slammed into hers; his ax fell in a downward arc. Her horse bit his horse’s ear as it had been trained. Lady Jin felt a terrible jolt in her arms, shoulders, and back when she blocked the ax with a double-hand grip on her sword. She slammed an elbow in his face and another under his chin to get him away from her.
Lady Jin spun her horse to get away from the ax. He moved his horse in order to get into a good position to strike. She cut through his arm, but got no reaction for her attacker and no blood. The arm hit the ground, exploding into dust and rock.
“Sorcery!”
“Ha ha!” the dead man shouted. “How else do dead men live?”
Lady Jin dodged his one-handed ax swing and cut through his teeth right to the back of his head, thus taking off most of the skull. She kicked the rest of his body off his horse. Like his arm, he burst into dust and rock once he hit the ground.
“What was that thing?” Lady Jin asked Mountain Lady as she rode back to them.
“Was it really just dust and rock?” Nu said.
“Not exactly,” Mountain Lady said. “But that is what they are now.”
“Answer the damn question, sorceress!” Lady Jin pointed the tip of her sword at Mountain Lady. “What was that?”
Mountain Lady carefully laid the middle of her spear across her mount’s withers and gave a gentle bow of her head in supplication to Lady Jin before she spoke. “I suppose someone took the bodies of those men out of their graves and poured the blood of a phoenix on them and spoke unholy incantations to call them from the Yellow Streams where the dead exist.”
Evil Wizard Hao: A Lady Jin and One-eyed Nu novel Page 5
