by Rob J. Hayes
The Steel Prince darted in to dig his sword from the earth, and the oni turned and swiped the prince with its mace, sending him sailing away into the darkness. Cho knew with horrific certainty that no one could survive such a strike.
Perhaps it was a moment of grief for the man that so many, Cho included, saw as hero. Perhaps it was the sudden realisation that the rebellion was over and the goat was right. Without thought or reason why, Cho raised Peace in front of her and screamed.
Peace focused her scream into a cutting edge that hit the oni and blew through the forest like a storm, scattering leaves and splintering trees. The ground shuddered and ripped apart and the oni split in two, both halves struggling to hold together by thin tendrils of slimy flesh. But Cho's scream continued on, bursting apart trees that were centuries old, churning the forest floor, and send half crushed tents into the air like startled geese. Then it vanished into the darkness and left a stillness behind as though all sound had been sucked out of the forest.
The oni wavered, its two halves peeling away from each other, the fleshy tendrils stretching and stretching, and then they stopped. Both sides of the oni's mouth curled up into a manic grin that was all teeth and tusks and menace, and slowly the two halves of the monster began to pull back together. It was healing. But Cho saw something in the midst of the fleshy tendrils. In the centre of the creature's body was a mask in the same shape as the oni's face. Its core.
Once more Cho charged, Peace held out to her side as she ran. Her footsteps whispered through the forest floor and the tip of her sword trailed through the scattered leaves. She leapt, first onto the oni's right knee, and then up into the closing gap between its two halves. She stabbed Peace into the mask. The oni shattered, another soul stolen by the sword.
Chapter 32
The soldiers of the rebellion swarmed around Cho. They cheered and shouted, and some few even clapped her on the arm. There was little like facing impossible odds to spur on camaraderie. Most of them seemed to have forgotten that their prince had so recently been killed.
The oni's metal club was the last reminder that the monster had ever existed. It was embedded in the earth, the tip of the handle rising up above Cho, and it was bloodied. That didn't stop a few of the more energetic soldiers from climbing on it, whooping and shouting about the victory.
Cho nodded to the soldiers' compliments and offers of drink, and searched for a way out of the jubilant crowd. She preferred quiet contemplation, and the creature she had just slain deserved some contemplation. As did the scar her scream had left on the forest. Not even she had known she could perform such a technique, or at least she had not realised she could use Peace to focus her scream into such a cutting edge. She pushed her way out of the cluster of soldiers, nodding at some and bowing to others, suffering their noise. Only when she was free of the press did she see Daiyu hurrying away through the trees, her slippered feet barely touching the ground. Behind the strategist were four soldiers who seemed made of shadow. They had the shape of men in armour, but no colour. Under the moonlight they moved in an odd unison, as though they were one rather than four, and they carried something silver. Something that required four grown men to carry. Cho hurried after them as quickly as she could, though her limbs felt heavy from exhaustion.
The Art of War and her shadowy men moved through the rebel camp at speed. Other soldiers stepped out of the way and then stood by dumbly as they passed, but no one seemed to remark on their passage. Eventually Daiyu and her shadows arrived at the Steel Prince's tent. The strategist held open the flap for the soldiers carrying the prince. Then she turned her masked face toward Cho, nodded, and disappeared into the tent. Cho followed her in without stopping to announce herself.
Inside she found Bingwei Ma sitting cross-legged in front of the desk. Ein was there too, his hands on the Master of Sun Valley's broken arm. Bingwei Ma grimaced but managed a nod as Cho entered. Now she was closer Cho could see the shadows were actually animated statues, formed of rock as black as onyx. They were identical and they moved with a unity of purpose as they placed the prince's body down on the pallet in the corner of the tent. Then all four of the statues crumbled to dust, leaving only small black figurines as proof they had even been there. Daiyu scooped up the four little soldier statues, and crossed quickly to the other side of the tent where she placed them on the large chessboard. Then the strategist hurried back to her prince and knelt by his side as she worked at removing his armour.
"Did we beat the oni?" Bingwei Ma asked.
"Yes," Cho nodded and then looked to the broken body of the Steel Prince. He was clinging to life, but barely. "But the cost was too high." She stepped closer, not out of fear but trepidation. Cho already knew what she would see and knew what it meant. Daiyu had claimed the rebellion would fall apart without the prince at its head, and she could well believe it after seeing the way the soldiers rallied around him as he threw himself at the oni. Disparate forces held together by a hero's will.
"To see such a thing before I die," the Steel Prince murmured, bloody bubbles of spittle on his lips. His ceramic armour was shattering in some places, and bent into impossible shapes in others; it pierced his skin and blood welled up around the shards. His left leg was broken and both his arms. His breathing was erratic, coming in short raspy gasps. Cho could not fathom how the man was still clinging to life.
"I'm sorry." They were inadequate words. "The oni came here because of us. It was chasing us."
Daiyu turned her head towards Cho and the dark eye slits in her mask seemed damning. "You knew you were being chased by such a monster?"
"No," Ein said, taking his hands from Bingwei Ma and fiddling with his scarf now it was back in place around his neck. "It was sent by a shinigami."
"Another one?" asked Daiyu.
"Yes. It seeks to stop me from reaching Wu. I believe it wishes to stop the shinigami I serve from reclaiming the power given to the emperor. This was but the latest of yokai it has thrown at us, though I feel it may also be the last. It must have taken a lot to convince an oni to fight for it." Ein turned his pale gaze on Cho. "You killed it? With Peace?"
Cho nodded.
"Good."
Daiyu poked gingerly at the prince's body, to a chorus of groans and wet gasps. When she spoke, her voice wavered, as though she were holding back tears. "Your armour is crushed into you, my prince. It is both killing you and the only thing keeping you alive. If I try to remove it you will surely bleed to death, but if I do not I cannot treat your wounds."
A ghost of smile touched the Steel Prince's scarred lips. He turned his head towards the Art of War, but there was no sight. "I'm dying. Nothing you do will stop that now."
Silence held for a moment before Daiyu turned to Ein. "You can bring him back?"
The prince's body shuddered. "No!" A hint of steel crept back into his voice. "No, Daiyu. I will not serve a shinigami. I will not serve any god."
"The rebellion will fall apart without you."
The smile drifted back onto the prince's face. He was fading, Cho could see that. His breathing was like a candle with only the wick left to burn, its flame flickering in and out of existence. "You will find another to lead in my place, Daiyu. You are the rebellion." He coughed more blood onto his parched lips. "More than I. It was always you."
Daiyu's shoulders slumped, her head bowed, and Cho heard the sob even muffled by the mask. The Art of War knelt in front of her dying prince, her hands covered in his blood. There was nothing she could do. She gripped hold of a large shard of the prince's armour and pulled it out of his chest. The Steel Prince convulsed once, gasped, and then died, his blood welling up from the wound and spilling out across his chest.
Daiyu let out another sob then turned to Ein. "Do it."
Ein wasted no time pushing past the strategist and setting his little pack down next to the body of the Steel Prince. Within moments the boy was poking at the corpse's wounds.
"This was not as the prince wished," Bingwei Ma said. His
frown seemed to darken the tent and the way he clenched his fists made him seem as though he were considering stopping Ein by force. Cho wondered what she might do if the Master of Sun Valley tried. She was honour bound to protect Ein and see his quest to its finish. "His wishes were for you to find someone else to take his place."
Daiyu's mask turned briefly towards Bingwei Ma and then back to her prince. "His wishes don't matter. There is no one else. If word of the prince's death spreads, the soldiers will desert. First one, then many. It may be my strategies, my plans of attack that have let us strike at the emperor and hidden us from retribution, but it was his will that kept us all bound together. It was his banner the men outside flocked to. It was his dream of a free Hosa that inspired them to take up arms and fight against impossible odds." She paused and took a steadying breath. "Did you wish to be brought back, Bingwei Ma?"
The Master of Sun Valley rose from his cross-legged position on the floor and walked to the tent flap. "I was not asked. Your prince made his position clear." He swept his dark gaze to Cho. "Some things are more important than victory." And with that he ducked out of the tent. But Cho knew he wouldn't go far. He couldn't. Not while they were still bound to Ein.
As the boy worked at a feverish pace, his knife and needle darting in and out of the prince's wounds, Cho paced the tent. She spent some time looking at the pieces on the chess board. Two sides of the game, light and dark. The dark pieces were all in the shapes of men: soldiers for the pawns, monks and Shintei, and the king was a warrior dressed in armour that looked a lot like the Steel Prince's. The light pieces were animals and monsters: hounds instead of pawns, ravens and horses, an ornate dragon in the place of a king. All beautifully carved. And somehow the Art of War had brought the pieces to life.
Daiyu sat down behind the desk and looked through the papers scattered there, then pulled out a map and began writing on a separate sheet of paper. Her movements were jerky, forced, and she gripped the brush with a clenched hand.
Cho lowered herself into the seat Ein had pulled next to the desk. "I have never seen a technique like yours before," she said, her voice quiet and even. "Where did you learn it?"
"My grandmother taught me." Daiyu paused and then shook her head. "Not my true grandmother, I never knew her. My mother was a foreigner from Nash. When she heard the emperor was looking for foreign women who might be able to bear him a child, she leapt at the chance. Many women did. They traded their lives and loved ones for a space in the emperor's harem. Lives of luxury and the chance of one day being an empress. I was just eight when my mother abandoned me to the world and made her way to Jieshu. I never saw her again."
The strategist paused and glanced over to where Ein laboured to bring the Steel Prince back to life. "I spent months on the roads of Song, begging for whatever I could, trying to keep clear of soldiers, bandits, and others who might seek to take advantage of a child alone. One day I wandered into Schuan, a village near the western border. I found an old lady sitting alone at a table in front of her house. On the table was a chessboard." Another pause. Cho wondered if Daiyu might be smiling under her mask. "The woman was ancient. Wrinkled beyond age, and barely able to move without the use of two walking sticks. But her mind was sharper than any blade. She challenged me to a game, one I had never heard of before, and promised a full meal if I should win. I lost, but she still fed me. That day and the next and hundreds more."
Cho smiled. "She sounds kind."
Diayu nodded. "As kind as they come. I have no idea why she took me in. She had so many grandchildren of her own and they barely had enough food thanks to the emperor's taxes. But she took me in, and she and her husband fed me and clothed me and taught me the value of working for those things. And she taught me chess. Every day, dozens of games. Hundreds of strategies. She taught to me think three different ways at once: the past, for it is important to remember what has come before in order to see what may come again; the present, because one cannot make plans without first knowing what resources one has available; and the future, to know what one's opponent must do and when, and to position oneself to counter their every move.
"Her last lesson to me was the technique to bring the pieces of the game to life from the earth around me. Her last gift to me…" Daiyu fell silent and waved her hand towards the chess board and its beautifully carved pieces. "She died because they could no longer afford to feed everyone in the village. She ate less and less each day so there would be more food for her grandchildren. And for me. That is the emperor's legacy: ten kingdoms of starvation, all so he can wage his wars. So when I heard of the Steel Prince and his rebellion, I packed up my chess board and found him. I swore to serve him until Hosa is finally liberated from the WuLong rule."
Roi Astara ducked through the tent flap. The leper took one look at Ein working away on the Steel Prince's body and bowed his head. He was silent a moment, no doubt paying his own form of respects.
"So it's true. The Steel Prince died during the fight with the oni." His voice was weary and his eye half lidded. "Will he be… back soon?"
Ein turned around, his eyes flicking only briefly to Daiyu as she sat behind the prince's desk, her attention once more on the paper's there. He looked at Roi Astara and shook his head. There was something in his pale eyes, something on his face. The boy was anxious, fearful even. Cho did not think she had ever seen Ein sweat, but he dabbed at his forehead with his bloody hand and turned back to his work.
Roi Astara coughed and it quickly turned into a wet rasp. The leper seemed to be getting worse by the day and Cho could only hope he lasted long enough for them to reach Wu and complete their quest. Perhaps then the shinigami would allow Ein to burn the disease from his body.
"Perhaps," Roi Astara said after the coughing fit had passed. "You should address the soldiers. There are rumours the prince is dead. Many saw him struck down by the oni and his body carried through the camp. A word from you, strategist, may help to assuage their fears."
Daiyu set down her brush. "How long?" she asked Ein.
The boy shrugged. "His wounds are extensive."
Daiyu slipped out from behind the desk, her robes whispering across the floor. She passed Cho and Roi Astara without a word and swept out of the tent. The leper walked quickly over to the desk and stared down at the papers arrayed there. "Interesting plan. It might work."
"I can't do it," Ein said. The boy's hands were slick with blood and he was shaking his head, there was a light in his eyes that was feverishly bright. He was panicking. "The damage is too extensive. There isn't enough left of the Steel Prince to bring back."
Zhihao was sitting on a stool, staring into the dying embers of the camp fire. His wine bottle was still half full, but he had found his taste for it had vanished. The maudlin mood had settled over him heavily as soon as Chen Lu had fallen asleep.
Roi Astara threaded his way through the swarm of soldiers as they packed away their camp. He limped towards Zhihao more quickly than looked comfortable. The leper cleared his throat, which turned into a cough and then a full-blown hacking wet rasp. Zhihao waited for him to finished without a word. At last the leper said, "Ein needs to see you right away."
Zhihao glanced at the snoring fat man nearby. "Just me or both of us?"
The leper turned away. "He just said to bring The Emerald Wind."
Zhihao left Chen Lu his wine, a pleasant surprise when the fat man woke, and followed Roi Astara through the camp. The leper was silent save for the irregular tap of his wooden sandals as he limped along, leaning heavily on his rifle as a crutch. His health had deteriorated since they had met, the wet coughing coming more frequently, his faltering steps more pronounced. Zhihao guessed that what was left of the man wasn't used to quickly trekking all the way across Hosa, and the strain it was putting on his diseased body was too great. There would come a time when his body would fail, and Zhihao just hoped he wasn't around to clean up the mess. They walked up to the Steel Prince's tent and Roi Astara ducked inside nimbly, making cert
ain not to touch anything. Zhihao followed the leper in.
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but when they did Zhihao spotted Itami, Ein, and the woman in the mask, all gathered around a sleeping pallet in the corner of the tent. Zhihao considered turning around and slipping away before anyone noticed him. Then Roi Astara cleared his throat again, this time without the coughing fit.
"Zhihao, good," Itami said. "We have a problem." She stood and motioned him closer. They were standing over a dead body, one with a scarred face and a mess of wounds that looked like he was simultaneously crushed, mauled by a bear, and treated to the business end of a butcher's block.
"That's the prince, isn't it?" Zhihao said. "By the stars, what did you do to him?"
The masked woman turned Zhihao's way, then stormed past him to the armour stand. Zhihao had never seen ceramic armour painted silver before, but it certainly stood out, catching the lantern light and throwing it back at him in blinding fragment. The chest piece was missing and the left leg too, the rest of it was smeared with blood. The woman glanced at Zhihao again, then back to the armour stand.
"He died during the oni attack," Itami said. She looked Zhihao up and down in a way that had him feeling a little self-conscious.
"The what attack?" Zhihao asked.
"The oni."
Zhihao just shook his head at that. "I must admit, I've been drinking. There were definitely some shouts a while back, but… what's an oni?"
"The most powerful yokai we've faced so far," Roi Astara said. "We could have used your help."
"Oh. Well, Chen Lu had a bit too much drink and I thought I should look after him while he was unconscious. Did we kill it?"
"Itami felled the yokai, but not before it did that to the prince."
Zhihao glanced again at the wreckage that had once been a prince, and edged away from it. "So bring him back?"
