WangXian Forever 7

Chapter 72 Xinghong

Hongse looked at her sister, her twin in everything but age. She had thought she knew everything there was to know about her.

"May I see it, please?" She asked, giving the one she had back to Raina.

Xinghong passed it to her.

"How do you have this?" Hongse opened the pendant; now she knew what to look for, it was much easier and faster.

"I have no idea." Xinghong admitted. "Master Dashi found me. My parents had become frightened, he thought, that's why they left me at foot of a tree, where Master Dashi lived. He said I had that around my neck when he found me."

Hongse looked at the man sleeping a few feet away.

"His mind...locked away from us holds more secrets than the entire collection of books in the Gusu library." She smiled ruefully. "This just makes it more important than ever to discover this place. It may hold the answers to the deepest of our questions." She turned over the pendant in her palm.

The eye was exactly the same as Raina's but the inscription was different. The parchment was identical to the other though.

"How do you know about the secret library?" She asked Xinghong.

"Quite by accident." Xinghong said, laughing awkwardly. "I happened to bend down and it slid free of my robes. At the time, I was helping to serve food to a group of homeless men and women. An old lady saw it and said things, but I can't remember much of what she said. At the time, I just put it down to the ramblings of a tortured soul...so many things had happened to them, they didn't know if they were coming or going. But now that I think about it, and the fact that you have one too...it makes it all the more real, somehow."

"I know what you mean." Raina replied. "How crazy is this, we are both here, and meet, and have the same eye pendant?"

"Some would say, there are no coincidences." Wei Ying said, bringing them out of their reverie. "What if it was meant to happen? You guys were meant to meet, to share your similarities. I already wondered if our coming here was supposed to rescue you." He looked at Raina. "And now you both have those, I think it just reinforces that belief."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hongse stood up.

They went outside, all ten of them.

Raina watched as Hongse began chanting and place one palm over the other, blue electricity crackling between them. Her sisters stood at the three compass points around them, while Dunshi, Xiao Zei, Dashi, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, and finally herself, stood in the middle.

With a sudden whoosh! They were off, lifting from the ground.

Raina felt giddy with relief. She was finally free...finally leaving this place that had become a prison for her. She couldn't think about that now, not while they were doing it, so she looked up...straight into the blue eyes of Hongse. They flashed with intensity, and a look of understanding passed between them.

Raina felt a kinship with this woman, no matter that prior to this day, she hadn't known that someone like her could exist. A feeling of trust and welcome, a warmth that spread from her chest into her face, until she thought it would be obvious to everyone else.

Hongse centered her, made her feel safe again. She missed this feeling...stolen and trampled upon by her husband. It was...intoxicating. she smiled at Hongse De and hoped she could let her read how grateful she was to the leader of the the Flowers of Venus.

Wei Ying was keeping an eye on their direction, and trying to see if he could spot any place like that described by Xinghong and Raina.

This was unreal, he was thinking. How could it be, that one woman from the North, Xinghong, could have the exact same necklace as the one from the South? Wei Ying did not believe in coincidences...too much had happened to him not to believe in the power of the Universe.

He looked down past the swirling sands lifting them up and above the cold desert. Nothing but the sand dunes, shifting and changing below them, met his eyes. He made sure that the dog star remained at the forefront of their travelling direction, while simultaneously checking the ground below them for any buildings, any place they could stop for rest. They had been travelling for a couple of hours now and there was only a few more before the early morning rays would lighten the horizon. Already the stars were beginning to fade, signalling the start of a new day.

And then he saw something.

"Hongse! Look down there!" He shouted.

They all looked to see mountains, a long row of them, differing in heights.

"Maybe we can shelter Dunshi there?" She asked.

"Yes, that's what I was thinking. There might be a cave big enough for him." Wei Ying shouted back.

They landed amidst the swirling, dancing sands, until it settled, crossing their eyes until they felt the stillness of the air surrounding them.

Lan Zhan pulled out a clean white handkerchief and wiped Wei Ying's faces and hands first before his own, while the Flowers of Venus used their vast, flowing sleeves. Hongse offered Raina her red handkerchief, and she accepted with a pinkish blush on her cheeks.

Then they drank water from their provisions and finally were able to look around.

A tall sandstone wall rose up next to them. No door was visible, and it was too smooth to scale. But even as Wei Ying looked at it, he realised that Dunshi was probably the only one who could step over it, the others would have to fly. And what if there was a spell or an array to prevent them? So he closed his eyes and began to check.