The Lamb and the Gray Battle

September 20, 1447

Nianzang hadn't slept for two days and he howled and cried the whole time. Diyiren folded his legs in meditation, but he couldn't close his eyes, rest or clear his mind. Diyiren kept one claw on Nianzang's chest, forced his own energy into his son.

BoBo knocked on the sliding door before entering. Sutekh, Laoshi and Djehuty followed him.

"The cook has implicated the Dorcha clan in the plot against your son."

Diyiren rose off the bed, stood opposite BoBo. "Round them up," he said.

Sutekh gasped, "All of them?"

The water in the corner fountain churned and gurgled.

BoBo stepped in front of Sutekh. "You would question our King? Would you still call him a coward?"

Djehuty bowed to Diyiren. "You haven't executed anyone in over a year, My King."

"At what point did I insinuate that executions had been abolished?" Diyiren said, careful to keep his voice lowered, so Nianzang wouldn't be disturbed. "I have said to collect an Dorcha clan. It is to be done immediately."

Laoshi also bowed. "My King, your mother would comment on your temper."

"My mother is dead. If my son dies, I will find ways of killing all of you!"

The four bowed as one and exited the room.

The servant, She-Meimei, the little princess who wouldn't give up her attachment to Diyiren, slipped into the room. Diyiren had barely returned to his son. The flow of his energy fluctuated and Nianzang moaned. Diyiren closed his eyes, searched for his sanity. She-Meimei had a tray of bao buns.

"What do you want?" Diyiren groaned.

The servant kept her eyes down.

"My King, you need to eat."

"I will eat when my son smiles."

The servant's lip quivered. She-Meimei was close to Diyiren's age, born in the year 1350, but her energy was not even a tenth of his. Still, she made no motion to leave.

A wave of dizziness struck Diyiren, then nausea rose up from his bowels. He shook it off, focused on his son's whimpers.

"Perhaps Prince Nianzang would benefit from food."

At the time, Nianzang's favorite food was a bao bun stuffed with sweet, silky custard.

The nausea hit Diyiren again, but this time, so did reason. He broke his energy flow to Nianzang so abruptly that it hurt him.

"Why aren't you in the dungeon with everyone else?" he roared.

She-Meimei inched back, rose the tray up so she could hide behind it. "I'm your most trusted servant."

"You most certainly are not."

"BoBo said—"

"My uncle is nothing to you. Don't call him that."

The little princess touched the paper in the door frame, but Diyiren loomed over her. That close to her, he was sure of the metallic scent. He seized her by the neck and the bao buns rolled across the floor.

"I love you," she gasped, but all Diyiren had to do was touch his claws to his palm to slice her neck in two. A bit of flesh tenaciously held the head to the body, so Diyiren pulled his hand from her, and the skull clunked to the floor.

Nianzang howled. Diyiren scrambled up, collected the heretic's carcass to him. At Nianzang's side, he pushed her wrist into his son's mouth.

"Sit up," Diyiren said to Nianzang, but he didn't answer.

When Diyiren adjusted his body, Nianzang screamed out.

"Bite down on the flesh," Diyiren said, guiding his son to her corpse. "That's right," he said, as his son tore off muscle and sinew.

Nianzang suckled the bones, licked the blood away. The boy's head cleared.

"A-Die, you said we must never eat the creatures of the land."

Diyiren stroked his hair, dabbed away the sweat. "This is a unique circumstance. In the future, we will not take actions this drastic."