Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

  "I apologize for the urgency," the monk said to Ren Tzu, "but I must take a sky boat immediately to the other side of town."

  Ren Tzu remained in stalwart silence. My guardian was always careful not to waste words. He would not bother to ask the man why. Instead, he would allow the monk, in his growing uneasiness to explain himself.

  "Dae Jung has requested that I fetch something for him," the monk continued timidly. "He commanded that I do this with discretion, so I'm sure you would understand if I don't inform you of the details. Now, I must take a sky boat."

  "I will take him," Lai said suddenly.

  Ren Tzu looked over his shoulder at the young man who seemed all-too-anxious to carry out the monk's request. Ren Tzu gave a slight, approving nod.

  With little time wasted, Lai and Etsu quickly took their impatient passenger to the air and headed towards the other side of town.

  As I watched their silhouette float away, I felt Ren Tzu's hand grasp my shoulder. I immediately gave him my full attention.

  He said in a strong, but calm voice, "we must follow them."

  "You think there‘s something suspicious about him, don’t you?" I said.

  My guardian nodded. "Monks carry out the duties, which are assigned to them by their religion and by their scared orders. Like the one you belong to. Dae Jung represents neither. Ai and Master Ichiro are the only people of proper authority allowed to direct them."

  "Then why is he carrying out an order from Dae Jung?"

  "He is not. His voice quivered. Monks do not quiver or act unsurely of themselves. He is lying."

  "Then he is carrying out an order from someone else," Kassashimei said in earnest. "Ren Tzu is right. Let's follow them."

  Ren Tzu ordered the guards to remain while the three of us boarded our boat and proceeded in the same direction as the monk. We traveled for what felt like an hour, searching ahead and the buildings below before we landed in a large alley where we found Lai and Etu's boat.

  It was empty. The three occupants were no where to be found.

  "Abandoned," Ren Tzu said. Then he pointed to the wooden pedestal at the bow where Lai's tamma still remained. To leave such an important object behind must have meant that something terrible had happened or at the very least, they left with great urgency.

  We decided to search for them on foot. In our haste, Kassashimei and I had momentarily forgotten the importance of our customs. Ren Tzu stopped us before we left the alley and held out our hats. Reluctantly, we donned them upon our heads and proceeded out onto the streets.

  The walkways were covered with strings of people meandering about. All of them wore western style suits and long dresses tied and decorated with frills and lace. Some wore coats made of heavy furs like the one I had seen the Premier wear in Watersbe. Through the transparent screen in my hat I could see their eyes, staring at us in the same cautious, untrustworthy manner as Miss Nishio had done whenever unruly soldiers visited her tea house. I had never felt more out of place than at that moment.

  "Stay close," Ren Tzu said quietly.

  Walking beside him, I stole several glances at the sword tied to his hip. I had never seen it up close before. The obsidian-colored sheath seemed smoothed to a fine gloss that glimmered against the afternoon sun like water, yet to the touch it was rippled and rough to assure a firm grip. The imperial crest was emblazoned in the center, carved and painted gold. The sword itself remained a mystery to me. I had recalled only seeing it in the shortest of moments during the few times my guardian saw it necessary to draw his blade. To me, it was both menacing and elegant, and to find myself near its presence brought a reassuring feeling of comfort and safety that I doubted I could find anywhere else.

  Searching through the endless mass of people was most certainly a challenge, but it did not take long before we saw a small group of individuals, clothed much the same as us, exiting from a building across the way. We immediately knew it was them. The sign above the building entrance was written in a language I could not understand. Ren Tzu however, indicated that he could read the words quite well.

  "We've been betrayed," he said.

  Kassashimei and I followed as he shouldered his way through the crowd. Lai, Etsu and the monk made their way down the street away from us. The monk had Etsu by the hand. He seemed to be forcing her along while Lai stayed close. Though he was some distance away, I could see a strange look of indifference upon his face.

  At some point, the monk glanced over his shoulder and realized our presence. Pulling the other two along he ducked into an alley. As we rounded the turn we found them were gone. Kassashimei and I searched our surroundings while our guardian stepped ahead slowly, his sword at the ready.

  Before long, we heard Etsu scream. Ren Tzu immediately knew which of the doors down the alley it was coming from. He darted towards the sound and rammed open the door. Both Kassashimei and I ran in a moment later, finding ourselves inside of a warehouse and surprised to see the monk clashing swords with our guardian. The sickly screech and clanging metal echoed as both pitted their skills against each other. The monks robe came loose, revealing a uniform underneath. It was the uniform of Princess Xiangfeng's Royal Guard.

  Chapter 24

  It was easy to see that both were swordsmen of great skill. With blades light and swift, they swung and danced, clashing steel against steel from one end of the warehouse to the other. For a moment, I found myself entranced as I anxiously followed every detail of their duel. Kassashimei hardly shared in my amusement, for she took my hand and lead me on.

  "Terr, c'mon you idiot," she said.

  "R-right," I replied, stealing glances at the fight as I ran beside her.

  When we found Etsu, she lunged at me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

  "Thank goodness you're here Terr," Etsu said. "He ran off. You need to get him."

  "Who? What happened?" I asked.

  "It's Lai. It's all his doing. He and that man wanted to hide me someplace in town until-"

  Etsu squealed as the guard fell backwards into a pile of boxes next to us. As he got up, Ren Tzu charged in and swung wide his blade, knocking the guard's weapon from his hands. He fell to his knees, feeling the tip of my guardian's sword pressing down upon his chest.

  "Speak," Ren Tzu said, "speak quickly."

  The defeated man glared. He showed no sign of fear, nor any sign of defying his cause by revealing his intentions.

  "I have nothing to say to you," he uttered. "Kill me. Kill me now and let it be done."

  Ren Tzu must have known that there was no point in threatening him, so he sheathed his blade and took a piece rope from atop one of the crates and tied the man‘s wrists against his back.

  "Where's Lai," I asked. "What have you done with him?"

  "Terr," Etsu interjected, "I told you. It's Lai who's the guilty one. He's been helping this man all along."

  I looked at her, confused, unsure of what she was saying. Ren Tzu, with his calm, imposing demeanor continued to question the man.

  "You represent the princess," he said. "Perhaps it would be best for us to ask her instead. I saw you leave the telegram office earlier, which means you‘ve sent a message to someone. I’m sure Dae Jung would be most unhappy to hear that the princess and her men have been plotting against him. As such, he may resort to certain unsavory measures in order to derive details from her or others affiliated with the Royal Family. Would you allow your honor to be tainted by their humiliation?"

  "Very well." He spoke in a subdued, but dignified tone, trying hard to mask what seemed to be shame from his unwarranted defeat. "It wasn’t the princess who sent me. She’s innocent. It was her mother, Lady An Wei, that ordered me to do this. But this plan was not hers. The idea was actually spawned by that boy, Lai. Lady An Wei suspected that Dae Jung would eventually grow tired of the Royal Family and cast us from the ship. After Dae Jung confirmed our fears when he gave his announcement, Lai approached us and suggested that we return Dae Jung’s treachery by sneaking
into town to send a telegram to the capital in Rui Nan so that we might reveal the Young Emperor's location."

  "So that was the plan?” As my anger grew, so did the bite in my voice. "I don't believe you. Tell me. Tell me why Lai would do this."

  The man was silent.

  I looked to Etsu for answers.

  "I don't know either," she said. "Whenever we were together, he always seemed so optimistic so supportive of me. But the minute we landed in that alley, he suddenly became a different person. I didn’t know what to think when they forced me off the boat. As we went into town both he and that man spoke to each other as if they‘d been collaborating from the start. From what I heard, he planned to have me as well as himself hidden away some where, believing that the ship would never leave without all of its children. He was hoping that we‘d be too valuable to be left behind.

  In the time that Dae Jung and his crew would spend searching for us General Fung would have already arrived, and by then, the Royal Family and its people would have been long since gone. I know it seems far fetched. I couldn't believe it either, but Lai has betrayed us all."

  There as no time to look for Lai, as we had to hurry back to the ship and warn the crew. Before leaving, I took Lai's tamma, which was still mounted upon the pedestal of his boat. My mind briefly wandered as I held the crystalline sphere to my eyes. He had marked it with small carvings and notches in the shapes of numbers and symbols.

  A long time ago at the Imperial Temple, the Boar once told me that the worth of a shyo mu could always be judged by the lack of the cleanliness of his tamma; more specifically, the nature of its blemishes. Over time, we would come to understand the small imperfections in our crystal spheres. Sometimes the arrows they presented would point falsely in a certain direction or decipher certain flows of the ether that did not exist. We would place markings upon its face to remind us to correct for such errors.

  The one I held in my hand was worn, scratched and heavily marked. It was well used, a symbol of an experienced and proud child of the sky. And yet, without hesitation he left it behind.

  He left me behind.

  He left his friends behind.

  His deceit left me stranded in doubt. Frustrated, I threw Lai's tamma against the alley wall and watched it shatter into a thousand pieces.

  We flew back to the ship, taking our captive with us, knowing that we would have to leave town as soon as possible. Everyone knew of General Fung's unending obsession with the Young Emperor, and with the receipt of that telegram, he would most certainly waste no time in his attempt to retrieve him.

  Unfortunately, as we arrived, we were unaware as to how truly grim things had become.

  From a distance we saw smoke billowing from the side of the ship. I peered back at Kassashimei who returned a worried look. Etsu however, seemed the most distressed as she covered her mouth with her quivering palms. The tiny glimmer of a few scattered flames came into view as we came closer. Something had happened, and the true extent of our misfortune was finally revealed when we landed upon the deck and found ourselves amidst a stand-off between the Princess's men and Dae Jung's guards. Like rival packs of wolves, they glared furiously at each other, with Dae Jung's group standing at the bow and Princess Xiangfeng's group gathered at the aft end of the deck. Below, within the belly of the ship, the sounds of chaos could be heard as the screams and shouts of men and women mingled with the clash of blades and gunfire. Our tiny kingdom had fallen into turmoil.

  "How dare you touch my mother," Princess Xianfeng snarled, pointing her sword at Dae Jung. "You will pay for what you did with your life."

  Ren Tzu stopped a monk that was shuffling by with a bucket of water to put out the flames. "What has happened?"

  The monk‘s eyes widened, his face blackened by smoke, his red cotton robe torn and stained with patches of ash. Though he was shaking, he still managed to maintain his serene composure. "I see you have finally come back from the market. While you were gone, a battle of exiled dynasties has erupted. Dae Jung had discovered that An Wei, the Princess's mother, had been hiding away money and gold stolen from the Imperial coffers. She’d been burying them underneath the soil in the Atrium. A guard found her digging them up as the people of the Royal Family were packing in preparation to leave the ship. Dae Jung had the poor woman dragged above deck where he personally whipped her. He then locked her away some place at the bow. Of course, once the Princess heard of this, it did not take long before this little war erupted. How sad that such violence was allowed to happen. They do not realize that in killing each other, they are also destroying the ship."

  Dae Jung was standing atop the highest point of the bow behind row upon row of Imperial Guards. Facing the princess's tired and disordered men, he seemed invincible, and incredibly pompous. "The damage you have done to this ship, this divine ship of the Empire, warrants greater punishment upon you than was given to that thieving mother of yours. However, I will let her go if you and your people leave immediately. You must also abandon any and all possessions of worth, so that it might cover the cost of repairing the damage you‘ve done to this vessel. Continue this revolt of yours and you and all those affiliated with your court shall die."

  "There’s no deal to be made," the Princess said, her sword unwavering. "I’ve already decided to end your life. You think your men could overtake mine? We shall see. But take notice of what I am about to tell you. We’ve already taken over the engine and fuel compartments, and we will not hesitate to set them to explode and destroy this ship along with everyone in it. Either way, I will take your life." She then addressed Dae Jung‘s men directly. "Return my mother and hand me that disgusting man immediately or else we will all perish. This I promise you."

  It was a vain attempt. There was no convincing them.

  Just like their masters, the soldiers stared each other down with disciplined restraint, waiting for the order to charge and accept their fated deaths. Amidst such violence, I was glad that all the chienkuu ko were safely away at the town market. But it was of little comfort as the lives of all the others onboard dangled on the whims of two uncompromising, prideful individuals.

  "Follow me, we're going below," I said.

  "Whatever for?" Etsu asked "We need to leave right now. Before these people kill us all."

  "We can't leave just yet. It's best that you stay with us." I looked at both Ren Tzu and Kassashimei. "We need to make sure that the Young Emperor is safe."

  Both nodded sternly in agreement.

  We hurried below, hardly noticed by the two stalwart forces that seemed too focused on each other to realize our presence. We came to the throne room where a number of Dae Jung's guards awaited us. The captive Ren Tzu towed behind us had caught their attention. They pointed their rifles and spears as one of them cautiously approached.

  "By order of the Young Emperor's advisor," one of the guards said, "no one is to come near these doors."

  "But the Young Emperor is in danger," I replied. "Shouldn't you be taking him off the ship? He isn’t safe here.”

  "And who are you to command us?" the guard spat. “That man you have bound up. Hand him over. Xiangfeng's men are to be properly dispatched where ever we find them."

  "No, we won't," Kassashimei said suddenly, "and you're all idiots if you think that keeping the Young Emperor here will make him any safer."

  The guard growled, glaring impatiently at the girl. "You've got quite a mouth on you. If you don't hand over that prisoner immediately, then we‘ll take him by force. Do not think that I would hesitate drawing a sword to a child. Especially one as chatty and disrespectful as you."

  The threats were enough.

  Ren Tzu came forward, his hand dangling at the hilt of his sword, hinting at his grim resolve.

  "Let us through," he said.

  The guard took a step back, eyeing the man cautiously and signaling his men to spread out. "Do not misunderstand me. My duty is to the orders given me, and I will not yield. Not even to an Imperial Master Swordsma
n like you. If you want bloodshed, you will have it."

  "We are both on the same side," Ren Tzu said calmly. "I wish no harm upon you or your men. But if you strike, you will come to regret it. We will not leave until you let us through."

  "The prisoner. Now!" the guard demanded.

  With barely a warning, spears, swords and the crack of rifle fire darted mercilessly at the awaiting swordsman. Instinctively, I lunged at Kassashimei and Etsu, and kept their heads down as bullets ricocheted down the corridor. Amidst the light haze of gun smoke and the pale clang of blade against blade, our guardian struck down his foes, one after another. Though the way he dodged and swung was a spectacle of grace and agility, the true testament to his magnificent skill was not the blood spilled, but instead, the lack of any blood at all. With the hilt of his sword and the flat edge of the blade, he struck at the backs and sides of his opponent's heads, his sharp edge used only to block and cut down rifles and spears. With well-practiced effort, they fell to the ground, dazed and unconscious.

  Still, I watched in dismay as he grew bogged down by their numbers. In groups they came, to replace those he had felled and before long, he was surrounded. As they closed in he looked at me with unflinching eyes, waving me away; a silent, stern request to run.

  As I turned to take Etsu and Kasshimei, I found our captive gone. The ropes that once bound him were piled ominously in the corner. With great surprise, I turned again to see our captive charging into the fray. His fists flew and his kicks swung with perfect accuracy towards chests and heads. The guards fell one by one, then by twos. Both he and Ren Tzu fought with such focus, that their energy was spent on only single blows, striking exposed weak points and defeating their opponents in quick succession. After only a short time, the fight was concluded. A few writhed helplessly on the ground, a few groaned, but none could, or even dared to stand.