Flower of Bulann

Chapter 49

Yanwen pulled his spear from the Mulhan guards neck, a fresh gush of blood spurting forth onto the wooden floor of the royal palace.

He had dreamed of this day, the day when he stepped out from under the oppressive boot of the royalty, to stand on an equal footing with his fellow peasants.

But this was not that dream, here he was scrambling to save his own skin... amongst the murder and raping around him.

The palace was ablaze in several places now, and he was trying to escape the thick smoke now swallowing the upper floors.

He heard muffled noise from a pile of bodies and tentatively pointed his spear at the dead.

"Who's there?" He said aloud, unable to keep the shaking from his voice.

There wasn't a concrete answer, only more muffled noises, so he advanced towards the corpses, spear held tightly.

Yanwen tried to pull the dead man atop the pile off. But his weight and armour was too much. Then, using his spear butt, he pried the dead man off, the guard's corpse rolling onto the floor with a dull thud.

A deep breath came from the pile, still heavy with bodies of guards and rebels alike... the breath sounded distinctly female.

"Are you a Mulhan guard or a freedom fighter?" The woman called out as he inched closer.

"A freedom fighter..." he answered hesitantly.

The woman sighed in relief. "Thank God!" She called out.

Yanwen hurried to free her at the woman's reassuring words, using his spear to pry off the two remaining bodies.

The woman beneath was, to his surprise a young girl, probably younger than his fifteen years. She was also very pretty, certainly a cut above any of the peasant girls he had grown up with.

"Are you truly with the freedom fighters?" He asked hesitantly as she stood, her clothes so soaked in blood it was hard to tell their quality. Though they were torn horribly... especially around the skirt area.

"What are you staring at?" She chided him with a click of her tongue. "The palace is aflame! We must escape here forthwith!"

"Forth..." he started.

"Right now," she said, correcting him and pulling a helmet from a dead guard.

The girl pushed it upon his head and turned him to the staircase downwards.

"I thank you for saving my life, but now you are responsible for my safety," she told him.

Yanwen took a step forwards, then turned to ask why it was his responsibility. The girl however, kissed his cheek gently. Her soft lips endlessly exciting him... perhaps he would come out of this with a pretty wife?

Yanwen continued to lead the way, though he still reeled from the stench of blood, and the more hideous atrocities his fellow freedom fighters had committed.

"Animals," the young girl said through gritted teeth.

"I don't like this stuff... had I known this would have happened," he lamented, but the girl grabbed his face and shook him.

"Do you believe you could have stopped this?" She asked, though the girl didn't wait for his answer. "Of course you could not! Not even the black dragon could have!"

Her righteous anger roused him, letting Yanwen draw from some untapped reserve of courage.

Throwing aside debris and avoiding others that could be friends... though at this point, everyone but the girl was a potential enemy.

By some miracle, the two of them made it to the ground floor, though there were several men here.

They seemed to be looting the dead, stripping guards and nobles of armour and coin. Leaving the dead peasants to burn in the wreckage.

"Where you going with that bit of fine meat?" One of them asked as he walked past. The man grabbing the girl's arm.

"No need to keep her to yourself, Yanwen," his friend Hasui said in a familiar, yet condescending tone.

"I am responsible for her," he replied defiantly... to snorts of derisive laughter from the man he didn't recognise.

The girl gripped his shoulder tight, she knew what would happen were he to let her go now.

Steeling his nerves and disgust, Yanwen spun on the spot, driving his spear into the first man's face, shock plastered all over it as Yanwen kicked the body off the spear point and spun to his 'friend'. The man dropping his knife and backing away from the doorway.

"Hey, she's all yours, friend. I ain't got no quarrel," Hasui said calmly as he backed away, stopping only to look down at his companion's body and whistling. "Don't show your face around here no more though." Hansui kicked the dead man. "This prick here, one of the leaders of the uprising. Of course... if you were willing to share..."

Yanwen spun on his heel, the spear millimetres from Hansui's face.

"I thought as much... but still, I'm sure you'll have some fun first..." he didn't finish the sentence as Yanwen cracked the butt of his spear against Hansui's head, his former friend bouncing off the floor with a sickening crunch.

Yanwen took the girl's trembling hand and led her from the burning building as the top floor collapsed. The girl looking back at the structure one more time as they fled the burning city.