Sorrow In Autumn

Chapter 8. Qing Lou

On the edge of a forest a warhorse shifted impatiently, as restless as it's silent rider.

The scent of rain filled the air mingling with the golden leaves of autumn scattered on the ground. The mare dug at the wet ground and tossed her mane, aware on some level that something strange was hovering just out of reach, her senses telling her that danger might be close. A pale hand appeared from the long sleeves of a coal-black cloak and patted her neck gently.

His mare however well-trained could sense the boundary magic and Kunlun's spinning sundial pendant told him it was a strong field, encasing all of the upper part of the hill. Another of Zhao Yunlan's clever inventions.

The wind rustled the leaves and the black cloth of the Emperor's robes billowed in a icy cold dance, but Shen Wei seemed not to notice. For a moment as the cloth rose in the air, there was the unmistakable gleam of a gold hilt.

Fierce chocolate brown eyes were fixed on the landscape before them, the six horses dwarfed by the majesty of the jade green forest creeping up the jagged cliffs of the Middle Province.

Lin Jing reluctantly sitting in the center, looked at Shen Wei's back worriedly, shuddering from the cold and the foreboding silence of the Dixingian soldiers handpicked for this mission. Tan Xiao, the secret agent on his right, offered him a friendly smile.

Directly behind him was Ye Huo better known as Flame; holding the reins of Li Qian's horse with two silent female soldiers. Battle Commander Tu Qiuyue, with her soft amber eyes that were as hard as steel and Mo Bingqing. Whether the latter was intelligence or pure military, he had no idea. Equally he wasn't sure if that was truly her name.

He did know that Tu Qiuyue was a loyalist having served with Emperor Shen for a number of years and that she owed Chieftain Kunlun her life. He also knew that they feared Chu Shuzhi almost as much as the Emperor. His old friend was beside himself, but he could hardly leave Dixing in the midst of all the recent trouble, with Emperor 'in recovery'. As Regent he had remained behind with the promise that Shen Wei would collect Guo Changcheng and return him to the safety of Dixing.

The Emperor didn't look like he needed 'recovery'.

With no protection from the wind, they stood in formation behind Emperor Shen, waiting for Li Qian to return.

High above them the building rose from the trees sitting atop the hill like a boat floating on the waves. Qing Lou or Quiet House was a quaintly named sanctuary, run by voluntary healers and priests. Their specialty was the long-term care of patients affected by the war and they were entirely neutral. It hadn't spared them from the ravages of war but the new building had been partly funded by all sides.

It was a sacred place and its rules had to be respected. It was also the current home of Guo Changcheng, Shen Wei thought looking at the white-washed walls.

For whatever reason, someone had cast what Lin Jing suspected was a kind of own curse on Guo Changcheng. The king would protect his people at all costs, Lin Jing could only assume that whatever had happened to Xiao Guo, had happened well away from Kunlun's protective reach. 

Shen Wei could not wield power in the same way, but he was watched Zhao Yunlan avidly for some time, his best student one could say.

Zhu Hong had sent Lin Jing to the sanctuary the moment they found him but were turned away, as they were neither his family nor his benefactors. It took weeks to learn the right name and it was no one they knew.

Before his forces had engaged with the Crown Prince, Lord Kunlun had sent away all of the vulnerable people, which included Xiao Guo. The plan all along had been to defeat the Prince and then when that was over, rejoin the main Shangbei forces.