Chapter 45

Chapter 45

No one had expected Chen Dong to lay an ambush on the mountain road barely a dozen li from Nancheng. Our marching column stretched for miles. The Northern Qian attackers split it into three sections, forcing each to fight alone and preventing any from reinforcing the others. My carriage happened to be near the rear. A northern soldier drove twin blades into a guard’s temples and reached for the curtain, but I was hiding beside the carriage. I thrust my sword through his back.

“Run!”

Countless thoughts flashed through my mind. I cut through the reins, mounted the freed horse, and prepared to flee. Beside me, Helan trembled. “Your Highness, we should stay here. The guards will protect us.”

“Then stay. I’m leaving!”

Xia Wan’s army and the northern troops had collapsed into a chaotic melee. I galloped into the woods. Xia Wan was at the very front; by riding through the forest, I could skirt the battlefield and join him.

Then a voice called from behind me. “My lady! My lady!”

It was one of Xia Wan’s soldiers.

I raised the whip and brought it down hard. The horse screamed and bolted forward.

The man loosed an arrow. It struck the horse’s leg, and the animal crashed to the ground, throwing me into the dirt. I did not even dare look back. I scrambled to my feet and fled.

The moment they attacked that utterly ordinary carriage, I knew there had to be a traitor among us – and that I was the one they intended to kill.

My injured leg made speed impossible. The soldier caught up and stabbed at me.

I barely evaded the first few strokes before his sword pierced my shoulder. With great difficulty, I caught the blade in my bare hand and shouted, “When the Heavenly Venerable learns of this, do you think your General He will protect you?”

“I obey General He alone.”

Expressionless, he wrenched the sword free. Agony tore through every finger, and my palm nearly split apart. It was He Sulong, just as I had thought. To kill me, he had actually conspired with Northern Qian.

The blade came down, cold and merciless – but never reached me. Helan had seized the soldier from behind. Clinging to him with all his strength, he roared, “Your Highness! Run! Run!”

He had followed me after all.

I started to flee, but the soldier drove his sword through Helan’s belly. He pulled it out and stabbed him again, then again. Blood poured across the ground. Helan’s eyes turned scarlet, and he bit through his own lips, but he never released his grip.

I snatched up a handful of dirt and flung it into the soldier’s face. He squeezed his eyes shut. While Helan still held him, I caught his wrist and swept the blade across his throat in one smooth motion.

Blood sprayed over my face and hair. The soldier died.

I collapsed to the ground and turned to Helan Zhiyan. His entire body seemed submerged in a sea of blood, convulsing without pause. My hands shook as I tried to stop the bleeding, but I could not. No matter what I did, I could not stop it.

“Helan Zhiyan! Weren’t you trying to kill me? What are you doing now? What are you doing?” Despair brought me to the verge of tears. His lips moved as though he were calling out a name. I bent and pressed my ear to them before I finally heard the words.

“Southern Xu… Southern Xu…”

“All right. I will take you home to Southern Xu. I will take you home now.”

His gaze was already unfocused, and his voice came in broken fragments. “Your Highness… promise this subject two things. First… bury me on Mount Nanwang… at Helan Manor.”

Helan Manor had burned to the ground ten years ago, along with hundreds of members of the Helan household.

“I promise.”

“And… no matter what happens, never let anyone learn Xia Wan’s origins. My sister… was pure and blameless. Do not let the world… look down on her.”

Tears filled my eyes. I clenched my teeth and refused to let them fall. “I know. Helan Zhiqiu was the finest empress who ever lived. Every member of the Helan family was loyal to the end.”

Light abruptly returned to his eyes, and he smiled like the young man I had first met at that palace banquet so many years before.

I knew he was not looking at me. He was looking at the Southern Xu that had haunted all his dreams, the homeland to which he could never return.

His cold hand closed around mine. I bent over him and embraced him with all the strength that remained in Southern Xu.

I held his body and wept for a long time. Night had fallen by the time I staggered to my feet, hoisted him onto my back, and began walking.

This was a trackless forest where venomous snakes and wild beasts were certain to roam. I could not spend the night there. I had to find Xia Wan. Perhaps he had already sent men to search for me.

What I did not know then was that Xia Wan had indeed sent someone at once to confirm my safety. The returning commander told him that his lady was unharmed and under special protection at the rear. The column was too long and the military situation too urgent. Xia Wan gave the order to press forward.

Meanwhile, I stumbled through the deepening darkness. Something rustled among the trees. I could not tell whether it was a deer or a wolf.

I could have walked faster if I abandoned Helan Zhiyan, but I could not deceive myself. The moment I set him down, wild beasts would devour him until not even a splinter of bone remained. I had promised to take him home to Southern Xu.

I walked that long, black road through the night, forcing my mind to remain alert and consider how I would confront He Sulong. But I was too exhausted, too drowsy. Everything before me began to double. Just as I decided to find somewhere to rest, voices sounded from the woods ahead.
My first thought was that Xia Wan’s men had come for me. But instinctive caution made me hide before the figures drew near.

“Goddamned rotten luck! Those southern slaves reacted too quickly.”

“What did you expect? There were so many of them! I’m telling you, our commanders never meant for us to return alive.”

“Shut your mouth! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Northern troops.

There were five of them. They carried a fire striker, and as they approached, its weak light illuminated their leader. To my shock, I recognized him. He was a junior officer in Nancheng’s standing garrison named Ning Lan. During large palace banquets, he had sometimes led the troops responsible for keeping order.

Had he never seen me, I might have lied my way free. But he had. We had crossed paths more than once.

They walked slowly. I held my breath with all my strength. Then a bolt of pain shot through my ankle.

A snake, brilliantly colored, had sunk its fangs deep into me. I could almost feel the icy venom numbing my body with terrifying speed.

I clapped a hand over my mouth. My entire body shook, and I nearly bit through my lip.

“What was that?”

“Probably the wind in the leaves. Come on! Don’t let those southern slaves find us.”

The firelight slowly receded. At last, I managed to fling the snake away. But when I lowered my head to examine the wound, a sound came from above me.

The five northerners stood directly before me, watching with mocking smiles.

In the grip of absolute terror, a person cannot speak. I stared at them and felt sweat trace a slow path down my back.

“I told you someone was here. And look at this…”

Ning Lan dragged me roughly from my hiding place. He was about to say something when he suddenly froze. “Are you… Her Majesty the Empress?”

Once the others understood who I was, they erupted in delighted cheers. “The Wolf-Headed Buddha protects us! We’ll earn a tremendous reward for this!”

“Should we kill her or take her back alive?”

As they clamored excitedly, I studied them one by one. They were all very young, the eldest no more than nineteen. These were not Chen Dong’s battle-hardened elite. Those men must have been defending the capital.

“Better not risk complications,” one youth said eagerly. “Kill her and take her head back to His Majesty.”

Ning Lan nodded and drew his saber.

Its gleam lit my face. I raised my head and forced myself to smile. “Your name is Ning Lan. Do you know Wan Zhong?”

“How do you know my name?”

“Of course I remember. You guarded the outer grounds during the late king’s birthday banquet. You did well, and I rewarded you with silver. Isn’t that right?”

He stared at me for a moment.

One of his companions cried, “Captain, why are you talking to her? Have you forgotten she practices sorcery?”

I raised my voice. “Wan Zhong once commanded my palace guard. Now he serves in Xia Wan’s army as the Standard-Bearing General.”

“Why are you telling us this?”

“Xia Wan’s army outnumbers Northern Qian’s ten to one. Nancheng will fall, and surely you have guessed as much. You are all too young to be buried with it. If you spare me, I will reward you. You know… you know I am the wife of Xia Wan, the leader of this army. I can grant you wealth and high office.”

One youth cut me off with a shout. “Bullshit! His Majesty will drive the southern slaves away! Isn’t that right, Ning Lan?”

Ning Lan hesitated and said nothing. The youth shoved him. “Are you deaf, or have you fallen for that witch’s lies?”

In a low voice, Ning Lan said, “But my father told me… His Majesty has suffered from a chronic illness that causes terrible headaches. He… he won’t live to thirty.”

For someone so young to hold even a junior command, he had to be the son of a noble house.

I seized my chance. “If you release me, all you lose is one opportunity to claim a reward. Think. If the King of Northern Qian wins, the greatest honors will go to the men who held Nancheng. What will be left for you? But if he loses, what will become of you? What will become of your families? You have an opportunity now. I can ensure that you and your families live safely and prosper.”

“Bah! If the southern slaves take the realm, do you think they’ll let northerners live in peace?”

“Perhaps. I heard they treated the northerners who surrendered a few days ago well. They did not even bombard Songzhi City.”

“She can barely save herself. How could she give us wealth?”

“But she’s a witch. She always finds a way.”

The youths dissolved into argument. I watched them intently while gripping my ankle to slow the venom, but it was already too late. Half my body had gone numb.

In the end, they put my life to a vote.

Ning Lan voted to spare me, and his follower did the same. Two more fervent youths voted for death. The last boy looked at me uncertainly. After a long moment, he stammered, “My family farms the land. Her Majesty introduced southern seeds, and only then could we pay our taxes… So Her Majesty ought to live.”

I collapsed to the ground. They watched me with complicated expressions for a moment, then left.