His attitude was something else, however. He marched into the tent with his back straight and his head high. There was a slightly mocking grin about his lips which suggested that he knew without a doubt that he was superior to everyone around him, but the grin did not reach his eyes. His eyes were dark and had a flinty coldness about them. Ayah could believe the man was the monster Suyin had suggested he was.
Cold eyes took their time regarding Nareel, then Ayah, and finally they settled upon Suyin who was standing there with her back just as straight and her head held just as high. ‘Your Imperial Highness,’ Guang said. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you again.’
‘General Guang,’ Suyin replied, ‘the pleasure is all yours.’
The mocking grin became more of a smirk. ‘I’m sure. Your father will be pleased to know that you are safe.’
‘I’m sure he still has plans of a political marriage for–’
Guang brushed the statement away with a flick of one hand. ‘He found other ways to handle that family. I believe he intends to marry you to someone as a reward for efforts to the Empire. Perhaps the general responsible for taking Istollam and rescuing you from their clutches.’
There was a slight instant where the shock registered on Suyin’s face, but she composed herself quickly. ‘If he does, you should get used to sleeping in armour.’
His laughter seemed to vibrate the tent fabric. ‘I’ve broken tougher girls than you, Princess. However, unbroken as you are, you should be aware of why your two friends are here.’
‘They’re hostages against my good behaviour. You can’t harm me, but you think that threatening them will keep me under control.’
‘Exactly. Though I think I should correct your assumption. I was told to make all reasonable efforts to keep you alive. Finding your dead body in the ruins of Istollam will be sufficient for our needs. I was also ordered to restrain myself from certain… excesses, but not to avoid hurting you. Your friends, however, I can do with as I wish and I assure you that their deaths will be long and unpleasant if you don’t cooperate.’ He got a slight nod from Suyin. ‘Good.’ And without another word, the general turned on his heel and left.
‘I’m sorry,’ Suyin said, dropping onto her cot with a disconsolate expression on her face.
‘Why?’ Nareel asked. ‘You did not ask to be born into your family. It was our decision not to tell anyone who you were. It is not your fault we are here now.’
‘What she said,’ Ayah said, adding a small grin.
‘Thanks,’ Suyin said, looking up, ‘but I’m sorry because it doesn’t matter how well I behave, that bastard is going to find some reason to punish me and that means he’s going to hurt one of you.’
‘Maybe,’ Ayah replied. ‘Maybe Xian will think of a way to get us out of here before that happens.’
‘Xian? I realise that she’s a very resourceful woman but–’
‘Oh, Suyin, you have no idea what Xian can do.’
~~~
‘We’ve been through the hall and there’s no sign of them,’ Keeva reported. He looked more than a little annoyed. Frustration was mixed in there too. ‘We did find the men who were supposed to be on guard outside their room.’ Marsan raised his eyebrows. ‘Dead. Stabbed.’
‘I’d have thought it was obvious,’ Gothram said. ‘Somehow, the princess or one of her friends smuggled a weapon in with them, stabbed the guards, and they escaped.’
‘How?’ Marsan asked flatly.
‘They would have needed help, it’s true.’ The speaker was the richly dressed man who knew exactly how the trick had been achieved, but he was hardly likely to tell anyone.
‘Yes, Pero,’ Marsan said, nodding. ‘Very accomplished help.’
‘Then some of their friends from the circus–’ Gothram began.
‘None of my people have seen them since they were taken away,’ Taravel snapped. ‘It’s only a guess, but an educated one. I think we all know who would be most inclined to extract the Iron Princess from a city about to be sacked.’
‘Why take the other two?’ Gothram asked, his tone dismissive.
‘To ensure that the princess does as she’s told,’ Marsan replied. ‘We know there are spies in the city. It’s not impossible that they got people in to get her out.’
‘Someone would need to have helped them from inside this building,’ Pero said. ‘I’ll begin investigating immediately. We can’t have a traitor that close to us.’
Marsan nodded and made a vague gesture. ‘Do as you wish. We’ve got some two thousand casualties so far and I believe the next couple of days will see many more. Short of a miracle, we’re not going to win this. Spies in this hall are not going to make much difference to the outcome.’
~~~
While he had huge doubts about the situation they were in and was willing to express them in the meeting room, Marsan let none of that show when he was out on the battlements. His back straight, he walked out onto the roof of the gatehouse to check on the positions of the enemy troops, ostensibly anyway. The real reason was to be seen. Morale was as important as discipline and good armour when you were fighting a war. A siege especially was demoralising and knowing that the man in charge was up there with the troops kept spirits up.
Walking over to stand under the wooden covers which protected the two ballistae, Marsan nodded to the sergeant of one of the crews. ‘Sergeant. How are things going?’
‘About as well as can be expected, General. We’ve got a good supply of ammunition and they haven’t managed to drop anything on us that counts. We had a close call with a boulder this morning, but close doesn’t count for much in a battle.’
Marsan smiled. ‘Damn right.’ There was an almighty noise – something between a twang, a crash, and a thud – as the nearest ballista let go of another bundle of arrows. ‘Keep up the good work, Sergeant. Make them pay for everything they throw our way.’
The sergeant’s eyes were on the flying hail of missiles, but he nodded. ‘Aye, sir. That much we can– Spirits!’
Marsan turned, saw what the sergeant had seen, and started immediately to turn away, dropping as he did so. There was a crash as a hail of earthenware containers slammed into the wall, covering the platform overhead, and some of them fell between, shattering on the stone of the roof and spraying burning, black, sticky fluid over everything. And that was when the screaming started.
~~~
Ayah was not really sure what time it was when the two soldiers entered the tent the girls were sharing. It was dark outside and one of the men carried a shuttered lantern to light the way. There had, as yet, been no sign of Xian, but the arrival of the soldiers did not seem like a good thing.
‘You,’ one of them said, pointing at Ayah. ‘General Guang wants to see you. On your feet.’
‘What is this about?’ Suyin asked, springing to her feet before Ayah could. ‘The general said–’
‘That’s what he said. What he’s saying now is that he wants to see this one.’ The soldier put his hand on his sword hilt. ‘He said that we should “restrain” any of you who objected.’
‘It’s okay, Suyin,’ Ayah said with a calmness she did not feel. ‘I’ll just go see what he wants. I’m sure there won’t be any problems. He needs us, remember?’
Suyin gave her a look which said a lot of things. Probably at the head of the list was something like, ‘He doesn’t need all of us.’
Ayah gave her a nod and walked over to the soldiers. ‘Let’s go. I’d really like to get some sleep tonight.’
They took her out and then diagonally across the collection of tents which seemed to form the main command compound. Ayah was not sure whether all the senior officers had tents here, but it seemed like several might. There were other tents here too: open-sided ones providing screening from the weather for various forms of supplies, some Ayah could not readily identify, and one large pavilion which she suspected was where the general met with his senior officers.
And then there was the tent Ayah was bei
ng taken to. It was about the size of the one the girls had been put in, but it had coloured panels and a flag flying over the raised central pole. There was not simply a flap for a door either: a portico of sorts extended out from the front with smaller flags mounted to the poles keeping it up. Presumably, Guang could stand under that flap of canvas and look out upon his army while keeping the rain off, if there was rain. One thing Ayah found interesting was that there was a gap between this tent and the others. Perhaps five paces were left all the way around for no reason Ayah could think of.
Inside, the tent was more like a palace. Expensive rugs lay on the floor and expensive oil lamps provided illumination. There was an actual bed occupying one corner. A table with four chairs took up more space. All the furniture looked hand-carved. There was no sign of the general but there was no doubt that this was his tent.
Ayah was taken to the central pole which seemed to be thicker than the one in the tent she had come from. It also had a pair of manacles fixed to it at around waist height. The men turned Ayah’s back to the pole and tethered her arms behind her back. The metal was cold around her wrists and not particularly comfortable. Oddly, that was because they were too loose and they banged against the bones in her wrists as she tested them. They were loose, but not that loose. Without a further word, the soldiers left the tent and Ayah was alone with her thoughts.
Suyin had said that Guang was a sadist. It seemed rather likely that he had had her brought to his tent and chained to a pole in order to indulge himself. What was she going to do about that? Hoping that Xian would sweep in and rescue her was one thing, but she had a feeling that that was hoping for a little too much. She figured she could get free of the shackles without too much trouble: they had clearly been designed with bigger wrists in mind and she was a flexible woman. But what was she going to do once she was free? If she escaped, Guang would have the entire camp searched and would likely punish Nareel in her stead. She was, she realised, more frustrated and angry than scared. Fear should have been her reaction to her situation. She should be scared, but she was angry. She had pulled one of her wrists free of its cuff before she really knew she was doing it.
And that was when Guang walked in. Ayah held still, gripping the loose cuff behind her back and hoping he did not pay that too much attention. Guang paused to pull off his mail shirt. It took effort and she suspected that he normally had help. The fact that he wanted to be entirely alone with her did not seem like a promising circumstance. There was a padded waistcoat under the mail and that was removed next, leaving the general in a tunic and loose trousers. He had said nothing and Ayah just watched him, feeling the anger building in her belly like a hot weight.
He smiled as he finally turned to examine his prize. ‘Defiance,’ he said. ‘I see defiance in your eyes. I like that. It’s always more… interesting to break the defiant ones. The ones who think they have a hope. That nothing can get to them.’
Ayah just watched him as he moved slowly closer, taking his time. The longer he took, the more her teeth gritted together as hot rage built within her. The arrogant bastard thought he could do whatever he wanted. He thought he could do anything to anyone and no one would stop him.
‘I’m not going to rape you,’ he went on. ‘A lot of women are concerned with that kind of thing. I’ve never taken a woman who did not want me, so put your mind at ease. You are very attractive, however, so I’ll make you a deal.’ He stepped up so that his face was no more than a hand or so from her face. He was wearing a leering grin; Ayah loathed that grin. ‘When you beg me to fuck you, I’ll stop the pain.’
Ayah felt her nostrils flare as she sucked in air. The hot weight in her belly seemed to evaporate as it mixed with the oxygen. She opened her mouth to scream right into his face, but what she felt then was the heat rising up through her throat and out. Fire blasted into Guang’s face. He staggered backward as his beard sizzled away and his tunic caught fire around the neck. He had been close and she had caught him low; his eyes were unaffected and now wide in shock, which was about how Ayah felt.
Still, she could move and she had a hand free. Ignoring the flames, she slammed her fist into his face and he staggered further back, his eyes glazing. He was too far away from her to swing at him again, so she aimed a kick at his stomach instead and got a satisfying grunt in response, and then she pulled away and began trying to yank her left hand out of its cuff while Guang took another step back, looking dazed and really not with it. He still did not seem to have realised that his tunic was burning; the shoulders were alight now and the flames were spreading across his chest and down his arms. It had to hurt, but he just looked at Ayah as though he was not sure what had just happened.
Suddenly, the pain from the burning cloth seemed to impinge upon his senses and he began to slap ineffectually at his chest. Ayah redoubled her efforts to pull her hand free. Her knuckles scraped past the metal painfully, but she got herself out… And realised there was no point. Guang stumbled forward and then collapsed onto the expensive rug at his feet, his tunic still burning.
Ayah winced at the sting from her sore knuckles and watched as the great General Guang quietly burned.
~~~
Neither Suyin nor Nareel noticed as Xian’s humanoid body misted into existence at the back of the tent. The two girls were sitting together near the front of the tent and they looked nervous. Or worried. Xian had the feeling that the reason for that was that Ayah was not there and she felt her stomach lurch.
She dropped the two swords she was carrying onto the cot where Ayah had been sleeping. The clatter had both Suyin and Nareel jumping to their feet and looking around, but Xian spoke before either of them could say or do anything else. ‘Where is she?’
‘Guang had her taken to his tent,’ Suyin said. ‘She said you’d come, but– She’s been gone for a while. Not very long, but…’
Turning, Xian grabbed Ayah’s sword from the cot and then started for the tent flap. Her body began unwinding as she did so and she heard Suyin gasp. There would be time enough to deal with that problem when Ayah was safe. She strode out across the encampment, ignoring the walls of tents as she marched in a direct line toward the tent where Guang was living.
The general had entertained himself with a couple of local farmers who he had suggested might have information useful to the campaign and Xian had seen the kind of thing he got up to. What she could not understand was why he seemed to feel the need to justify himself to anyone. She was sure his staff knew that he was simply a sadist and none of them were ever going to do anything about it. Several of them had similar leanings, which was why they had been picked to be his senior officers and attendants. The question was: how far had he got with tormenting Ayah?
The answer, Xian realised as she stepped through the wall of the tent, was: not very far at all. The flames had died away, but the evidence of their passage over his back was quite obvious. He was lying there on his stomach, not moving and looking really quite dead. Xian stepped around and looked at his face, which was more badly burned than the rest of his skin. There was blood oozing from his nose.
Xian began to form her physical body as she turned her gaze upon Ayah. The girl was sitting on the edge of Guang’s bed, fully dressed and frowning in thought. As soon as she spotted Xian appearing, however, she got to her feet and closed the distance. She wrapped her arms around Xian’s waist and hugged her as soon as the fox-woman was solid enough.
‘I knew you’d come,’ Ayah said, her voice soft.
‘It doesn’t look like I was really needed,’ Xian replied.
‘You are. I think he’s dead, but now I’ve no idea what to do about it.’
‘How? I mean, how did you manage to set him on fire?’
‘I, um. Well, I was really angry at what he’d done and what he said he was going to do to me. I was going to scream at him. I was going to scream at him and it came out as fire.’
‘Oh! Well, anger is often a way to catalyse the ability.’
Ayah fr
owned. ‘You’ve seen it before?’
‘I can do it. When we have time, I’ll teach you to do it without all the emotion. It’s sort of an extension of using your qi to warm yourself. Now, help me get this waste of humanity into bed. We’ll need to do something about his assistant in the morning, otherwise my plan is going to go all to pieces, but–’
‘You have a plan?’
Xian grinned. ‘I have a plan. Of course I have a plan. We need your two friends out of here first, and I smuggled another one out of the city earlier to help. Between us, I think we can do this army some damage and maybe stop the siege.’
Ayah returned the grin. ‘I’m all ears.’
~~~
‘Jun?’ Ayah said, her eyes widening as she saw the young man crouched in the bushes. She looked around at Xian. ‘You brought Jun?’
‘I did,’ Xian replied, ‘and we’ll get to why shortly.’
Jun gave Ayah a quick grin. His gaze shifted to Suyin who was coming in behind Xian with Nareel right beside her. ‘Your Imperial Highness,’ he said, his tone sour.
‘Please don’t,’ Suyin responded. ‘I gave up that title. It’s just a shame that Siyu refuses to accept that I don’t want to be the Iron Princess.’
Jun frowned, but he appeared to decide that the subject needed to be changed. ‘I’m glad you’re all okay, but I have no idea why Xian wanted me here either. She smuggled me out through the docks–’
‘They should really increase security there,’ Suyin said.
‘Huh. Since I got here though, all I’ve done is hide. I don’t see why I’m needed, Xian.’
The Iron Princess (The Twilight Empress Book 1) Page 22
