by Devin Madson
‘Who was brought up by farmers,’ I said, trying not to flinch. The deep cut stung. ‘The only stitchery I learned was the useful kind.’
He continued cleaning my wound. ‘Well, I’m glad at all events,’ he said after a while. ‘I don’t mind binding you up, but I wouldn’t have been comfortable sticking a needle into a lady.’
‘I wouldn’t have asked you to. Tili is a seamstress by trade.’
Shin stood at the edge of our sunlit clearing, leaning against a tree. He had said nothing since I was brought back bleeding, but such reticence was unlikely to last.
They had found Yani’s body.
‘That jaw looks painful,’ Wen said, tossing the blood-stained water onto the grass.
‘It is,’ I said. I shifted my weight on the jagged stone I had taken as a seat. ‘Proves that not everyone knows who I am.’
Wen’s leather satchel sat open on the ground and he began to rifle through its contents, pulling out small silk pouches. Some were a patchwork of colour in red and blue and green and yellow, others were plain hessian and linen scraps tied with little bits of string. One set was tied to a length of ribbon, a dozen little pouches in a row like the decorative trim of a saddlecloth.
No pattern seemed to link the pouches to their contents, their arrangement a puzzle known only to him. Without appearing to count them or look particularly close, he opened only the ones he needed. A pinch from one, a few pieces of brown bark from another, a third tipped up and poured liberally into his bowl.
Shin still had not moved. His bruises looked better in the bright sunlight, though he had a new cut along his chin and a tear in his sleeve.
‘An extra hand, Captain?’ Wen said.
‘Looks like you’re handy enough on your own,’ Shin growled back.
‘No need for sarcasm, Captain, you may yet have reason to be glad I’m more than a pretty face.’ He wasn’t looking up, too busy concentrating on what he was doing. He was measuring the amount of water with his eyes as it dripped from a ragged water skin, his other hand mushing the contents like a baker kneading dough.
Wen nodded at a ball of rags. ‘If you please, Captain.’
Shin knelt to untie the knot. While his fingers worked he stared at the exposed cut in my shoulder. I fought the urge to move, to turn just a little so he couldn’t see it so clearly. Could he tell it was self-inflicted?
‘What happened to you last night?’ I asked instead, pre-empting the question I knew was coming.
Shin touched the cut on his chin. ‘Someone thought they could slit my throat.’
‘Obviously they were wrong.’
‘Yes. Now they are wrong and dead.’
‘How many were there?’
Dropping the water skin, Wen shuffled closer across the grass. He, too, looked like a man who had been up all night. Dark rings hung under his eyes and his stubble-darkened chin held a smear of blood.
When Shin said nothing it was Wen who answered. ‘Numbers are hard in the dark,’ he said.
‘There were four.’ Shin dropped the ball of rags, their knots untied.
‘Only four?’ I said. ‘I thought there must have been more. I chased two.’
‘You should have called.’
‘I did!’
‘Sit still,’ Wen complained, gripping my elbow with his free hand. ‘This is going to sting.’
Without giving me a moment to brace myself, he took a handful of the poultice and pushed it into the gash. It stung and I flinched, biting my lip, but Wen’s grip was tight and he inexorably pressed another clump between the two leaves of skin.
Gritting my teeth, I turned my attention back to Shin. ‘I did call,’ I said, growling out the words. ‘After I saw someone in the trees.’
Shin sat back on his haunches. ‘Why didn’t you shoot them?’
‘Because I’m not the bowman Katashi is.’
‘Not a bowman at all in fact,’ Wen commented.
‘I couldn’t have hit them from that distance,’ I went on, ignoring him. ‘So rather than try and alert them to my presence I called and climbed down to slit them open.’
Wen shifted the wet poultice around with his fingers, deliberately seeming to press on all the places he knew would hurt the most. ‘And instead they slit you,’ he said. ‘Poetic.’
The smell came to me and I gagged. It was a sweet smell, mixed with pungent herbs and something fermented that caught at the back of my throat. ‘What is in that stuff?’ I turned my head away.
‘Would I give away my secrets?’
‘It smells like you went in it,’ I said. He pressed harder still, and I winced. ‘That’s not necessary.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Shut up,’ Shin growled. ‘We are in enemy territory. Their spies could be watching us and two of my Pikes have turned into children. Get this bound up, we need to move.’
Wen patted the last of the poultice onto my arm. ‘Do you think they’ll come back? Bring more men?’
‘I don’t think The Usurper takes kindly to having his men slaughtered.’ Shin scowled at me. ‘You should have killed them.’
‘And you should have come when I called,’ I snapped. ‘Only Yani came, and look how much help he was.’
Wiping his hand on his leg, Wen shot me a look. ‘Good with his sword, Yani.’
‘And what good is a sword when you get shot?’
Before either man could answer, the sound of quick steps heralded the arrival of Bei, one of Monarch’s Pikes of old. He came out of breath, a ragged black beard darkening his lined face. ‘Captain,’ he said, a hand upon his black sash.
‘Don’t bring me more bad news,’ Shin growled, standing up to face the scout. ‘What is it?’
‘Emperor Kin is gone.’
‘What?’
‘The army, it’s gone. They must have gone before sunrise. Only a skeleton force is left to hold Risian.’
Shin’s hands tightened into fists. ‘And left everything behind?’
‘I don’t know, Captain,’ Bei replied. ‘All I know is that they aren’t there anymore.’
With a snarl, Shin kicked Wen’s wooden bowl, sending it flying into a nearby tree. A sharp crack echoed around the forest, and like a shelled nut it fell onto the mottled grass in two neat halves. Shin spat. ‘The Usurper never moves his men in the dark.’ His gaze burned down at me, but I kept my eyes on the bandage Wen was tying.
‘Where did they go?’ Shin demanded.
‘I don’t know, Captain.’
‘Find them!’
* * *
It took the whole day to find them again. The men complained. Functioning on little rest they jeered at every order, taking it in turns to point out that with only a skeleton force left behind, we could take Risian by nightfall.
‘Fools!’ Shin snapped at them, ordering scouts in every direction. ‘You think The Usurper is stupid? He’ll have sent men to Kogahaera. Any attempt to retake Risian with such a small number will fail.’
‘There’s a standing battalion at Shimai, too,’ I said.
‘Told you so, did he?’ Tika sneered. He pulled at the binding around his hand. It was dirty, his face hot and beading sweat. ‘Did he tell you his other battle plans while you were sucking his cock?’
The others laughed.
‘You’re the expert on cocks, Tika,’ I snapped back. ‘You touch yours so much you’ll never need a woman.’
Tika started toward me, but Wen grabbed his arm. ‘Just leave it.’
Shin let them jeer. They needed an outlet for their frustration, and everyone knew a standing battalion had always be quartered in Shimai.
It was late afternoon when we finally caught their tracks and Shin pushed us on, exhausted and injured, to catch them by dusk.
For us, stealth was everything. Having caught their trail we let the horses go and continued on foot. At the edge of the fen we stopped to rest beneath the dense cover. The men were subdued. Wisps of swamp stench came to us on the breeze, another thing for the men to complain about. For me it meant memories, the smell so reminiscent of a past life that my insides felt hollow.
I had first met Monarch at Nivi Fen. He had been practising his archery, a group of Pikes clustered around urging him to harder and harder shots. They had laid bets, laughing, pride shining in their faces as they watched their captain’s skill. A smile had hovered on his lips, but each and every man might have been absent for the attention he paid them, his whole gaze, his whole being focussed on that bow, that arrow, that moment when he let go the string.
And it had been that moment, looking at his handsome face with its knit brows, that I had lost my heart. Katashi Otako, the cousin I had spent so long searching for.
‘Nice stitching, Wen,’ someone jeered, cutting through my thoughts. ‘Darn my stockings next, eh?’
Tili laughed, a little chuckle rising above the sounds of the fen – the call of frogs and the ever-present insects playing their symphony.
‘Stick my needle into fabric?’ Wen said. ‘But it doesn’t swear and complain and writhe around.’
‘If you need something darned, I’ll do it,’ Tili replied.
She was kneeling on the ground beside Wen, her helmet off and her hair glossy with oil and sweat.
‘I don’t mind holes,’ Bei returned.
‘And I don’t mind darning them. I didn’t bring any thread, but Wen has lots. I’m sure he could spare some.’ The smile she threw Wen was prettier than any she had ever given me. There was laughter in it, camaraderie.
Returning the smile, Wen took a wooden spool from his satchel and held it out to her, bowing humbly. ‘My thread would be honoured. I’ve seen the robes you make.’
‘Seen them? How can you have–?’
‘I was with Lady Hana the night…’
Wen’s voice faltered as Tili blushed and turned her face away.
Tika sniggered. ‘Nice one, Wen. You stuck your foot in that good and proper.’
‘Like you can talk,’ Wen snapped, tapping his palm and nodding in the direction of Tika’s injury. ‘It wasn’t me the captain had to warn.’
With a growl Tika rose from his place, but Tili put up her hands. ‘Stop it, both of you,’ she said. ‘Sometimes men do cruel things, but that does not mean they have cruel hearts. Now, Bei, when we stop next, I’ll mend your clothes.’
Tili must have felt the weight of my gaze, for she came to kneel before me, looking so comfortable in her men’s attire she might have been born to it. ‘Are you all right, my lady?’ she asked. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’
‘Not at all. Don’t trouble yourself about me.’
The shrill yelp of a heron came from the trees. It was a strange sound during the day, and knowing what it meant, every Pike reached for the closest weapon – for sword or mace or knife, Wen for his bow. Scrambling up, I drew my short sword, the sudden movement making my left shoulder ache.
Men were approaching through the trees.
‘Long live Emperor Katashi!’
Dull footsteps sounded on the grass and black-clad men appeared, each one wearing knots of red sashes tied around their waists and up their arms. Some were cut or splattered with mud, but each and every one was worn with pride — a Pike badge of honour.
‘Well, fancy meeting you folk here,’ one of them said, spreading his arms wide. He was a burly man with a familiar face, but I could not recall his name.
‘Put your helmet on,’ Shin growled, thrusting one into my hands. ‘And keep your mouth shut.’ He walked past, putting himself between me and the newcomer. ‘Renner.’
‘Shin.’ The burly man grinned. He had knots of red silk tied around his left thigh too, golden dragons hanging crumpled and torn. ‘We saw you coming. Following The Usurper, eh?’
‘Found him at Risian.’
The man nodded. ‘We did good work there,’ he said, patting the mass of knotted sashes that hung from his hip. ‘Never thought red-belts had much sense, but they sure are learning. Kin’s got that camp locked down tight. Oh ho, and what’s this?’
I pulled the helmet down hard over my curls. Renner took a step toward Tili, only to find Wen standing in the way. Ignoring the Pike, he pointed at her, turning to grin at Shin. ‘A girl? Brought yourselves along a toy to play with? Nights getting too cold for you boys?’
‘She’s fighting, same as you,’ Shin said.
‘Oh yes? I don’t fight beside no woman.’ Renner spat. ‘I always said I would follow no baby into battle. A man has to respect his leaders. Captain Regent.’ The man spat again, nearly catching the tip of Tili’s sandal. ‘The Otako whore. Seems I was right. A fine little traitor she turned out to be, eh?’
‘You should watch what you say. Lady Hana is an Otako. She’s our emperor’s blood.’
‘Haven’t you heard?’ Renner turned away from Tili and looked hungrily around the group. He had every man’s attention. His own were grinning and nudging one another, while ours tried hard not to look my way. They were watching, waiting to hear the news, and my heart sank into my stomach. ‘Haven’t met Hiand’s group then. He left Koi a few days after us and they were so big with gossip when we saw them, there was no shutting them up. There’s no end of rumours.’
Shin grunted. ‘What good are rumours? Spit it out, Renner, or I’ll spit you.’
The burly Pike showed his teeth. ‘Loyal dog, eh? Well see how you like this, Arse. That little Otako whore spread her legs for our emperor, and now she’s run off to spread them for the other. Oh? You think it’s a joke?’
Wen had laughed, and shrugged as Renner turned on him. ‘That isn’t news. Why else is she being called the Imperial Whore?’
‘You think it’s funny?’ Renner gripped the front of Wen’s robe. ‘You think it’s funny for the little bitch to make a fool of Emperor Katashi with his seed still oozing down her legs?’
He let Wen go, pushing him back. ‘Everyone’s looking for her.’
Eyes glanced my way. Shin grunted. ‘I’m no bounty hunter.’
‘I’ve heard otherwise.’
‘Let the Great Fish hunt his own woman.’
Renner looked around at the small group, hooking his thumb into a knot of red silk. ‘I expect he shall. He’s marching this way as we speak. When he reaches The Valley we’re going to drop a thousand red sashes at his feet.’
‘Looks like you’ve got some work to do,’ Wen commented.
The Pike looked Wen up and down. ‘Got a smart one here, have you, Shin?’
‘Watch who you’re talking to, eh?' Wen stood proud. ‘I carried the Hian Crown out of Mei’lian with an arrow in my shoulder.’
Renner sneered. ‘Want me to bow? We’re all Pikes, aren’t we?’ He strode across the grass, blades flattening beneath his fat reed sandals. ‘You want to hunt some red-belts? We’re ambushing Kin’s battalion when they cross the Zisian Bridge tomorrow. Tonight we lie low, so they don’t suspicion we’ve followed them this far.’
‘Suspect,’ I muttered under my breath.
I was sure Shin heard me, but he did not turn.
‘What do you say to us moving in for the night,’ Renner went on. ‘You’ve got a cosy little spot here. Cosy company, too.’
‘You can stay,’ Shin said. ‘But you watch what you say. Hold up your hand, Tika.’
‘That’s what happens to any man who touches what don’t belong to him. No fires.’
There was some muttering amongst the newcomers, but Shin turned away. Beneath the canopy the ground was dappled with shadows, each crossing his face as he approached with silent steps. He didn’t stop as he passed me. ‘Lie low,’ he hissed, barely slowing. ‘Don’t go far, just far enough so he can’t see you.’
I didn’t nod, didn’t move, just let him go. The new Pikes were making themselves comfortable. They dropped their packs and ranged themselves around the camp, many sitting close to Tili. They eyed her, unsure, shooting the occasional glance at Tika, who stayed at the edge of the group, scratching his injured hand. Renner stood watching the scene as though he owned it. Not far from his left foot my bag sat open, containing the few belongings I had dared bring with me. None of it mattered except for the dusty pink sash rolled in the bottom, the Otako crest embroidered on its tail.
I slipped away, speeding to a run as I left the group behind.
No more men would die because of me.
Chapter 14
One million, three hundred and twenty-one thousand, three hundred and seventy-six.
The number had gone down. In the silence I could hear men dying. It was getting harder to concentrate.
Darius had disappeared. Without a word he had walked away from our game, alone. His presence filled the house, but the absence of his body left an awkward silence between Kimiko and I. We carried water from the pump in the servant’s yard to tend our horses, and dug through the best of the feed Darius had found in the stables. Hardly a word passed between us. Kaze was happy to see me, a novelty of which I had not yet grown tired. I spoke to him, telling him how rundown the house was and that he was far more comfortable where he was, at which the jet-black gelding had tossed his head, snorting with playful disbelief.
