Phoenix In The Mist

Chapter 12: In The Rolling Mist

That night, by the time I was halfway through the evening meal, I was ready to be left alone.

Many of the young men came by, congratulating me and asking if I could work with them on their melee skills. So much so that it became tedious, and tired and sweaty as I was, I was in no mood to entertain them.

"Some sort of celebrity, are you?" Yu Heng's voice came from behind me. Shovelling some of the food into my mouth, I pretended not to hear him. "Tales of how you bested our Royal Highness are flying throughout the camp."

My face heated. "Stop it," I groused. "If you've come to congratulate me too you can sod off."

He laughed. Setting his kuai zi and his bowl of rice down, he sat down on the bench next to me. "Your father trained you well. From what I hear, you're as fast as a bolt from the lightning god and as good a fighter as Sun Wu Kong*."

He started miming imaginary sword moves. "So fast and furious. A blur of steel. And that final sword stroke! I never knew one of the Yamanese Ka Gae had ever visited your house."

That was because she was dressed as a farmer's wife. Part of the Shadow Warriors' training was stealth and disguise. Farmers came to visit Baba regularly and Aikiyo knew that no one would question her visits if she appeared to be one of them. "Seems like you know all about my training session. How was yours?"

Yu Heng shrugged. "About the same as yours. My commander was Chi Jun Shi. He put me on my ass, but I did pass the test."

He leaned towards me. "I've got a question for you though. If your combat skills are so good, why did Hua Zhou hide you at home? If I had a son with your abilities, I would be so proud and would have never hidden him from society."

I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. I knew he would eventually ask me, but I had still dreaded it. Slowly opening it, I stared into my almost empty bowl and shook my head.

"Come on," he cajoled. "You can trust me."

Looking up, I met his muddy brown eyes. "That's the thing," I said softly. "I can't trust anyone here. Not fully, at least."

Picking up the last few grains of rice with my kuai zi, I finished my meal and hastily left the table, avoiding anyone else as I left the mess tent.

~

"How was training today, kiddo?" a cheerful voice called as I ducked under my tent flaps. Unrolling the bedroll, I plopped down cross legged and sniffed. "I was undergoing a test and you left me to sleep?"

The sapphire dragon grinned. "Hey now, I only left you because I knew you were going to ace that test. Seriously though. How do you feel?"

"Annoyed. Tired. Sweaty and sticky. Take your pick," I rolled my shoulders as I uncurled my legs and lay down on the woolen blankets. I sighed. Back at home, I could always take a bath after training because we had easy access to a well. Although a river ran through camp here and provided the water we needed for cooking and drinking, I was not inclined to bathe there where the truth of my gender would be out in the open for everyone to see.

Ying Long's grin faded. "I'll see what I can do. Rest. I'll be back." He slipped out of the tent.

I sighed again. Closing my suddenly heavy eyelids, I yawned. Just a quick nap, I promised myself. Just a quick nap.

~

Mist. Heavy, rolling mist. Thick ribbons of it wove past the area I was standing in. Trees surrounded me, plants the likes of which I had never seen before. One looked like a watermelon, but it had shrunk to the size of my thumb and was yellow instead of deep green. Stranger still, many grew on a single plant, and it was in the middle of what seemed to be a forest. Where was I?

Shafts of moonlight penetrated the clouded canopy of trees. Enough to see by, but I still couldn't make sense of my location. Suddenly, the light of a lantern bobbed in the distance. Forcing my feet to move, I headed for the glowing orb. Perhaps the person holding it could give me some directions.

As I got closer, I began to hear snatches of conversation. I stopped, curious as to why two people were meeting this deep in the forest.

"Shan Mei, why are you here? Did Li Fei get worse?" A worried yet melodic voice cut through the mist.

"Worse? No. There's something you should know though, sister," A sneer was evident in the other woman's tone. "I am the one causing her illness. I needed to lure you back here, so I could finally kill you."

"Why?" The heartbreak was evident in the way her voice cracked.

"Why?" the other echoed. "I'll tell you why. You and Li Fei got everything you ever wanted. You, the hero of Wu Dao. Li Fei, married to our now illustrious Emperor. Me? I was married off like chatel just to secure an alliance. You did nothing to oppose it, even though you knew that I didn't want it."

"I was overruled, Shan Mei. The Emperor was adamant about getting that alliance, and that chieftain would only submit when offered your hand in marriage. There was nothing I could do."

"Liar! You just didn't want to fight another war and you sold me out!" A metallic shring rang out as a blade was drawn. "Now you would pay for it."

"Shan Mei, don't do this. You don't want to do this."

A soulless laugh. "Oh, but I do."

The world exploded in a maelstrom of flame and darkness. The two clashed, each fighting a battle for supremacy. The power that was a blackhole of nothingness ate away at the light and heat, and the golden conflagration blasted away the cold void.

The flames called to my own Phoenix. Like recognized like. I realised that whoever this woman was, she, too, was a Phoenix. The other with darkness? A total opposite to our Gift. It felt oily, and I knew it carried the foul wind of sickness and death.

Clangs rang out as a battle of blade against blade, Gift against Gift took place. The cries of an avian and snarls of a beast punctuated each sword clash, each strike of their power, and the ground trembled, as if behemoths were rising from within the depths of the earth.

A sudden gasp and the flames winked out. The darkness gobbled up any light, and dark fingers reached for my location. I instinctively recoiled from them. Then suddenly, all of the shadows condensed, spooling back into the woman who had just committed sorricide. From my angle, I could see that she had ethereal beauty, her silky black hair cascading down her back, pale creamy skin glowing in the mist filtered moonlight. The only thing abnormal was that her startling blue eyes glowed a tinge of red around the irises and her canines were unnaturally sharp.

Then I noticed the blood covered Dao in her hand. I clapped a hand over my mouth, and it took everything in me not to scream. Wickedly curved, the black metal seemed to drink in the lifeblood that dripped down it, along with the surrounding light. A physical manifestation of the woman's powers. The sight chilled me to the bone, and I reminded myself that if I made a single noise, I would be the next one to die. As if hearing my thoughts, the woman's eyes swung to where I was hiding in the foliage. She bared her teeth in a feral grin. "It is done! You're too late, there's nothing you can do."

A beat of silence. "No, there is still one last thing I can do." A familiar voice trembled as it spoke, pain and grief resonating through it. "You took from me what is most precious, and now I will take from you what you treasure most. Your control."

"You wouldn't dare," the woman hissed.

But the unknown voice swelled with power and authority, and the speaker ignored all protests of the woman. "I curse you! By the power given to me as a Spirit Guardian, I curse you! For the first night of every year, your beast will break free and savage those under your rule. What was meant to be a day of joy and celebration will end in despair and carnage. Until your sister's true heir finds it in her heart to forgive one of your descendants for an atrocious act, may this curse linger! Go, now, and know that this same heir will end your bloodline."

Mist blotted out everything, and overhead, the sharp cry of a hawk pierced the night. It wasn't until everything faded to a murky white and I was back in the clearing where I started that I realised that the voice belonged to Ying Long.

*Sun Wu Kong: the legendary Monkey King