by C. R. Jane
None of the dynasties, geographies, people, or monsters are intended to be historically accurate.
If such fibbing offends you, please don’t read.
Chapter 1
Tenth Year of the Shang Dynasty Reign
Rainbow Forest, fifty kilometers outside of Lijiang Village
Xiulan
Ash fell among the scorched rainbow trees that once had bark the colors of a prismatic sunset. This forest was known for its colors. Now, the trees were charred, nothing but blackened husks of themselves.
I wrenched the dragon helmet from my head, grateful for the moment’s reprieve from wearing the armor that served as both protection and disguise. The fires were downwind of us, and so I took advantage of breathing in lungfuls of fresh air.
It was nice to smell something other than my fetid breath being recycled around me. The sweat on my brow cooled, helping me concentrate better.
The winds could change any moment. Because of that, I needed to be prepared to contain the fire on the off-chance the wind would violently change direction. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened.
Fire was necessary to keep the sickness at bay. A cure was rare, but that was only because most people didn’t linger long enough to fight off the disease. Only a few villages were able to report overcoming the wave of death that seemed to start the plague. It was sad to see that it had come all the way up here.
The Imperial Majesty's Dragon Guard were charged with keeping the fire line so that the raging flames from nearby villages would be contained. That was the official edict.
What the Council of Governors actually wanted was for the fires to remain well away from the Imperial City.
I wanted the same thing, of course. Though my father passed on to the spirit world, my mother still lived on as the wife of a loyal Dragon General, and so lived in the protection of the Imperial City. I would be there, too, and I tried to volunteer, but tending the sick and dying seemed a fruitless endeavor.
Why treat the symptom when I could treat the source of the disease?
That was why I volunteered to be an apprentice to the Dragon Guard for this short mission. Females were generally excluded from the army, but no one really checked the volunteers, grateful as they were for any helping hands. So, with a flourish script, I’d signed up as “Ky Lan” versus my actual name of “Xiulan,” which everyone knew.
I was named for the beautiful orchid that my father adored. Unfortunately, he treated me like one, too.
My parents indulged my whims at studying medicine and perhaps one day of being a medicine woman. Deep down, I knew they thought that knowing medicine would be a valuable skill for a wife and household manager that they expected me to be.
Just the thought of that kind of life made my skin feel tight and small around me. But, there would be no sense in shaming them if ever I was caught in my pretense, especially outside of the city’s walls.
Only men and women of low status needed to be outside of the walls.
It always killed the spark that lived inside of me to hear my parents say that. Especially since I nurtured this feeling inside of me that I was destined for more than being the dutiful wife of a high-ranking officer.
My mother held the opinion that my thoughts were tainted, and that if my father hadn’t spoiled me, I would be begging him to find me a suitable husband faster.
The thought made me cringe, my heart threatening to burst against the building anxiety.
Yet for all that I despised the cloistered life that my mother planned for me, I liked knowing that my mother and her extended family and friends were safe within the walls.
Soon, we could return home. We just needed to round up the nearby villagers so that they might have refuge while Lijiang would be repaired.
I found some privacy in the woods to fill my water bottle and soak a rag so that I could find some relief with all this heat.
"You should be more careful. You don't know who might be around."
Hayato’s cool voice drifted from behind me, and I turned to face him.
My brother was mere minutes older than me, but the way he acted you would have thought he was decades older. He had been serving in the Dragon Guard since he was able to walk, placed there once the old temple masters identified that he carried the dragon spirit. It was said that he was destined to serve in the Dragon Guard especially since our father enjoyed such illustrious ranks.
Serving would have been an honor for me, too. But, I had the unlucky fortune to be born female. I was cursed with the destiny to stay indoors and learn to play an instrument or sew a tapestry. My worth coming from idle things like being beautiful and bearing sons.
That was why when there was a chance for me to volunteer and serve side by side with the Dragon Guard, I took it. I had to disguise myself as a male to do so, but freedom from the destiny assigned to me was worth suppressing my femininity.
Hayato found out about my plans, of course. My brother always seemed like he had a sixth sense and could read minds. Whatever his opinions though, he continued to support me and champion me in anything. The only way that Hayato would agree to my scheme was that I had to promise that I would be by his side at all times.
I looked at him now, less respectfully than I ought to, but I managed to keep the tone of my voice neutral even though I wanted to be snippy. We teased each other constantly when we were in the safety of our own home, but out here, I was supposed to be a dutiful apprentice. "I made sure no one else was around."
Hayato nodded. "Come. We’ve been assigned to check on the eastern perimeter."
He left the woods without looking back to see that I would follow his instruction. To him, it would be a given, and he would be right about it.
I fastened the dragon helmet back on top of my head, making sure that every wisp of hair was tucked in.
I felt something watching me, gaze heavy that I wanted to turn around and confront whatever it was. But nothing was here.
"Ky Lan!"
That was my assumed name. I would have been annoyed being called for like this, but there was a bit of fear and urgency in my brother's tone.
I ran after where he had gone.
I stopped short, seeing my brother Hayato, with two other men openly staring straight ahead. There was no way that Hayato would have called me so urgently for nothing.
"What is it?" I asked breathless.
Before I could get an answer from the men who gathered, I saw something flickering in the edge of the clearing. Shadows, maybe?
There, emerging from the tree line, we found confirmation of what had happened in the sleepy village of Lijiang. What looked like shadows were shambling corpses.
Hayato gripped my upper arm. "Behind me."
He didn't have to ask me twice.
These people weren’t familiar to me, but enough of them carried items with symbols indicating from Lijiang village to let me know that they must have come from there.
We were too late to stop the spread of the infection before it hit the town, but we would make sure it wouldn’t spread any farther.
We each took up our swords and shields, and waited for the horde to come.
They were easily overpowered. Stiff-limbed, they walked slowly, sometimes hopped, and more often than not, fell over if they encountered an obstacle. It was more sad than scary. Hayato and I took up a system of raising a shield to stop them, while the other would strike one through the head.
Over and over we did this until finally, the horde from Lijiang were subdued.
We gathered the dead so that they would be prayed over and cremated.
One of the bodies looked familiar. His robes were different. They looked to be the pattern of the Imperial City.
Jun, the Captain of the Dragon Guard, peered at the hollowed-out face and body with an increasing sense of alarm. “I know this man,” he whispered in awe. “This is the Imperial Physician.”
I looked down at the ravaged corpse. His skin was gray and hung like
worn out socks that lost their elastic. Even if I was a facial expert, I doubted I’d be able to recognize my own mother in this condition.
Trapped gases gave him a bloated appearance around his mouth and especially his gut, even though the man was usually pretty lean.
One of Captain Jun’s men spoke up. “What is the matter, General? If it is the Imperial Physician--”
“It is the Imperial Physician!” Captain Jun insisted.
The guard nodded as if his captain hadn’t interrupted him. “So, say it is the Imperial Physician. What does it matter? Shouldn’t he have been up here trying to save the people of His Imperial Majesty?”
“It seems that he’d been here for a while too, with his skin looking like that,” another guard chimed in.
Captain Jun leveled his gaze on his Dragon Guard. “Therein lies the problem, you see. The emperor had made that valiant recovery from the wasting sickness. The physician recorded the herbs and medicines that were used, and it was because of his findings and success that surrounding villages have sought help.”
The other guards shifted uncomfortably on their feet, confusion on their faces. “I still don’t understand, Captain.”
The guard might not have understood, but I did. The physician was supposed to be at the emperor’s side even at this very moment. The physician’s reports about the emperor’s slowly improving health updated this very morning. I said as much, though my voice trailed off as I became the center of attention.
I was grateful when someone else spoke up and I could just fade into the background.
“If you are sure that this is the imperial physician, and yet this...person...had been here for so long that he is wasted away into this state, then who has been tending the Emperor?”
Captain Jun’s face was pensive. “That is one of many questions that need answered.”
Chapter 2
Speculation about the physician and the emperor spread through the Dragon Guard as Captain Jun pushed on toward Lijiang village. Theories ranging from evil magic to shapeshifting to mistaken identity were bandied about.
Hayato rode close to me, separating himself from the others. Even though he was the rising star in his unit, he was a loner by preference. “So, what do you think is going on with the body?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter anymore. Their spirits are at rest.”
We had ensured that every infected body was set ablaze, incense and prayers spoken over each one as they burned into ash. Captain Jun held onto the Imperial seal that had been hanging from the alleged physician’s body. “Oh, come one. Just one little theory?” I pressed him.
Sometimes he was a little too practical. He looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Fine. I believe that was the emperor’s physician and he had been sent here by the emperor’s medical team to die an anonymous death. No one expected that he would be found as a shambling corpse.”
Hayato’s words brought chills over my body. He did this a lot: speak with so much authority and confidence that anything he said seem like the unvarnished truth.
Or a hidden prophecy.
“And what is your theory about why anyone would do that?” I pressed him.
He smiled to himself. “Because the real emperor died a month ago and to ensure that the right of succession goes to the pregnant dowager empress’s unborn child, she is waiting until her son is born to announce that the emperor has unexpectedly died.”
I hushed him immediately. To even speak of the emperor’s demise was treason and punishable by death. It was no joking matter. “Man, remind me never to ask for your opinion again. I know you don’t like the dowager empress but you didn’t have to paint her as a kind of conniving and evil witch.”
He shrugged. “The truth is as plain as day no matter how much it is hidden or twisted by evil people. Regarding the dowager empress, I simply paint with the colors I’m given,” he said.
I shook my head. “And I suppose that she’s evil enough to concoct a plague in the empire to accidentally kill off her co-conspirators.”
Hayato grew pensive, eyes clouding over in thought as if he was taking this game seriously. “No, more like she is taking advantage of an opportunity, though killing off her co-conspirators would easily be something she would do. Smart, too. Fewer loose ends, the better.”
I chuckled. “Well if you ask me, the simplest solution is likely the truth: Captain Jun is mistaken and that wasn’t the physician.”
“Then how do you explain the Imperial seal? It’s not like they’re commonly passed around even among those who have access to it,” Hayato countered.
Tapping my finger against my chin, I tried to come up with a plausible explanation. Images and theories bubbled up from within me, until something seemed to hit me in the gut and spread like a seeping warmth throughout my torso before resting in my throat.
I opened my mouth and a river of words flowed from me. “Because he was sent as an envoy, and the seal proved that whatever he had to say was spoken from the Imperial throne.” I had tried to moderate the words, to hold them inside of me but I couldn’t. It was as if my throat would burn up. As I spoke, it was as if a glowing ember of truth lit up around my heart and exploded, unable and unwilling to be hidden.
Where did this come from? And why was I able to experience it?
My shocked gaze met Hayato’s. A small smile rested on his face. “Good. You’re learning to trust your instincts.” He nodded as if satisfied. Nudging his horse forward, he trotted on ahead as Captain Jun gave a signal to the Dragon Guard to proceed in formation, with volunteers such as myself bringing up the rear.
Hayato made his way back to me, face closed off and grim. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I received the answer to that question before I could ask it.
There was an overwhelming smell of death and decay that rolled down the mountain. My stomach seized up and clenched and it was all I could do to keep the meager contents of my stomach down.
We were downwind of something, and we all were desperate to get ourselves away from the smell. As we neared the village, the wind shifted just a little so at least the noxious odors were being carried away from us rather than at us.
What happened here?
A pile up of blood and gore saturated the earth. Slash marks tore up the sides of the walls, scoring deep into the wood. Lijiang was lucky that lumber was its main trade. If its walls were less secure, they would surely have fallen against whatever had wanted to get in.
Captain Jun hailed the guards at the gate but there was no answer. Finally, he worked open the pass-through gate that only guards knew existed, and with a few extra hands, got the gate open.
I’d expected a massacre. Evidence of war or battle. For the most part, the town just looked empty. Abandoned.
We saw some survivors, children mostly, who had been small enough to hide in tiny places. They were not the best witnesses to figure out what had happened.
There was another group of survivors on the roof of the water tower. The Captain hailed them and asked them to come down, promising that everything was fine. When the ragtag group finally assembled, it was comprised of under twenty people.
Captain Jun looked at the men in the group with particular disdain. As if they didn’t have the right to be afraid and hope to survive. I held my tongue. I understood that the villagers had just been trying to survive in the best way they could I didn’t blame them.
I saw the shambling corpses just down the mountainside. Those were likely these survivors’ friends, relatives, neighbors...it was hard enough for me to put them down. How much harder would it be for people to kill the ones they once loved? When they were actually people they knew?
The volunteer group were assigned to tend to the survivors, and we made plans to load up the cart for them to be escorted back toward the Imperial City. Unspoken was the desire to leave sooner rather than later.
An older woman stubbornly refused to leave, saying that her son’s spirit was ta
ken away into the woods. Her voice wasn’t loud, but she spoke with enough persistence that she was heard. If they could bring him back then she would leave.
“Who is that woman facing off against the captain?” I whispered to the Dragon Guard’s newest rookie.
Han, just as transfixed at the sight, didn’t look at me when he answered. “That is the grand madam of the village. Her son was the governor here. She is waiting for his spirit to return or something.”
I couldn’t hear what the woman said, but the captain’s voice grew impatient. He wasn’t quite shouting—the decorum to be respectful to elders was ingrained in all of us—but it was clear that he was reaching a breaking point.
If he started something now, in front of these survivors, there would be a divide, and that would make it harder for them to listen to orders if needed.
The Captain rolled his eyes. “Ma’am, we don’t have time for this. And your stubbornness is endangering the lives of all these people.”
I’d seen that resolve in the woman’s eyes before. It was the look that my mother sometimes got when she had had enough of my father’s demands. It mirrored the feeling that I had in carrying this fire inside of me that no one wanted to acknowledge.
Without asking for permission, I spoke to the woman directly. “Old mother,” I intoned with the highest respect. “What is it that you need before you are able to leave your home?”
Maybe it was because I was close to her or maybe she just had that perception that came with being a wise woman of great age, but her eyes sparkled when she addressed me. The Old Mother inclined forward at the waist in a shallow bow. “My son, Dae, the governor of this village, has yet to return. I will not leave until he returns or until his bones return so that I might give him a proper burial.”
Well, at least the Old Mother was ready to acknowledge the possibility that her son could be dead.
I tried to be gentle in my reasoning with her. “What if we are unable to find your son? Or, what if we find him and were unable to carry back his bones. What is it that you need that would convince you that your son’s spirit is at rest?”
