Chapter 24 #2
“No! You know nothing of my feelings!” Lilan clutched the front of her shirt, her tears mingling with the rain on her cheeks.
“You’re always gone, off on another journey in another town.
I know you do it to support our family, but even when you’re home, it feels as if you aren’t here.
While you were out there working, I had to watch Baba grow weaker every day.
I had to make sure he took his medicine and got enough rest and didn’t miss you or Mama too much. ”
The buzzing guilt became a swarm. “Lilan, I—”
“I didn’t mind, of course.” The lantern trembled in her hand.
“I loved Baba, and I was happy to help. But I felt like his only daughter, jie, a girl without a sister. We know almost nothing about each other because you never talk to me. And then you suddenly bring home a prince and a strange woman you’ve never mentioned before?
Even worse, Baba died because the prince’s brother tried to poison him? ”
I puffed out a frustrated breath, heart clenching. “I didn’t know—”
“Precisely! You didn’t know what would happen.” Lilan swallowed another sob. “But I knew even less. And I still don’t understand everything! I don’t understand why Baba had to die, because you’re still keeping secrets!”
I dropped the spade and wrenched my sister into my arms. Stroking the back of her head, I murmured, “I’m sorry, mei. It’s my fault, all of it. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Just tell me the truth,” she wept. “What are you doing?”
I leaned back, resting my hands on her shoulders. This time, I answered honestly. “I’m getting justice for Baba and these men. Prince Liqin killed them with his own hands. So I’ll make him face punishment for his sins.”
“What?” Horror overshadowed her anger as she stared across the muddy field. “Don’t tell me … you plan to reanimate the dead? An entire army? That’s madness!”
I tried not to flinch at her tone. It didn’t matter if my actions appeared mad. I was sure of my plan, and I intended to follow through with it.
“Perhaps,” I said tautly, returning to the shovel. “But I’ll succeed, I swear it.”
“You mustn’t do this!” Lilan grabbed my arm. “Baba wouldn’t want this!”
I resumed digging, my jaw set. “I’m doing this for him.”
“No, you’re doing this for yourself. You’ve let hatred consume you, and you’ll go so far as to disturb the dead for your own vendetta!”
“I’m sure they won’t mind getting vengeance on their murderer.”
Lilan yanked my arm again, pinching flesh. When I shook her off, she pressed, “You can’t do this, jie. This is wrong and unnatural. How can you, of all people, disrespect the dead like this?”
“I’m doing what I must,” I countered, echoing the words Master Zhang once spat. I’d thought he was wrong then. But I’d been a fool. “If you won’t help me, Lilan, you may as well return home. I’ll take care of this myself.”
“You know I can’t do either of those things.”
“Baba needs his burial rites,” I reminded her. “You must be there for him.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Lilan shouted. “Baba is dead, and you’re still putting your family second.”
My entire body froze over, the last of my patience grown numb.
“Second?” I hissed, shooting her an icy glare. “I’ve always put this family first! Everything I’ve done has been for you and Baba—for us. Everything I’ve sacrificed has been for us. So do as I ask, Lilan, and leave. Carry out Baba’s burial while I carry out his justice.”
Lilan’s voice turned desperate. “You should be the one performing his burial rites. You should be keeping vigil over his body with me, then sending his spirit off as we bury him.”
“I haven’t enough time.” My spade struck deeper into the earth. “I must stop the prince before he hurts anyone else.”
“Jie!”
“Go home, Lilan.”
If she gave a retort, I didn’t hear it. I blocked out every sound, save for the thump of the shovel against earth.
I plunged the blade into the ground over and over and over, mud splattering my arms and legs like blood, until the spade knocked against something hard.
As I dug with my fingers, I recognized the shape of a human skull.
Pieces of dried brown skin still clung to the bone.
The sight should’ve disgusted me, but I was past something so trivial.
Smiling grimly, I swept away enough dirt to expose most of the body.
Then I drew a reanimation talisman from my pocket and set it on the skull’s forehead.
I’d left my staff on the ground while shoveling, but I reached for it now to perform the ritual.
My thumb brushed against the character engraved in the wood by my father—Kang.
For just a moment, I hesitated, Lilan’s words ricocheting in my mind. Was she right about Baba’s wishes?
No. I’d already come this far.
I shoved aside my doubts and continued with the spell. Shaking the iron bells, I commanded, “Rise.”
The skeleton crawled out of its grave, following my order as obediently as my usual corpses. It still gripped a hatchet in its hand, the only companion from its previous—pitiful—life. But I’d give the skeleton purpose in death.
It’d take too much time to unbury each body one by one, so I pointed to the field and said, “Dig.”
For the next hour, I worked alongside the skeletons I reanimated, each finding another comrade to add to my growing army.
I felt like a corpse myself, covered in mud and decay.
As the number of reanimated dead increased, the thinner my energy stretched.
This was far beyond what I’d attempted at Jing Mansion.
But my determination never waned, fueled by a fury that only grew with every skeleton I unearthed.
Liqin had hurt so many people—these men, my father, Ren, and countless others. However grotesque my methods, the eldest prince deserved to be executed by what appeared to be hell itself. And I’d be the executioner leading it.
When every skeleton in the field had broken free of its grave, I stabbed my shovel into the earth and surveyed my army.
There were at least fifty before me, maybe more.
Each stood with a yellow Fu talisman covering their eyeless face.
Sinew and bits of flesh knitted their bones in between their moldy, torn clothes.
Maggots nested in the pockets of rot. Many of the soldiers wielded daggers and swords, weapons of self-defense that’d been buried alongside them, a cruel replacement for the family they’d left behind.
I clenched my staff and leaned into it. I wasn’t sure if the fatigue was a result of my shoveling or my qi being used to concentrate on the skeletons under my control. But I couldn’t rest now.
Not when I’d just begun.
I pivoted toward the main road, lantern swinging from my other hand. As my army and I marched away from the field, a lone figure picked herself off the grass at the meadow’s fringe.
“Lilan,” I said, eyes narrowed as I recognized my sister. I’d thought she’d left long ago.
“Jie.” Lilan met me halfway. Her eyes flitted, repulsed, over the skeletons, then cut back to mine. “I’m begging you one last time. Please don’t do this. You can still change your mind and come home with me. It isn’t too late.”
I gave her a rueful smile. “You’re wrong, mei. It’s already too late.”
Calmly, I stepped around her and continued up the incline to the road, my deathly host following closely behind.
Prince Liqin was likely reclining in a luxurious palanquin right then, believing he’d won the world. But I would prove him wrong. I’d meet him in the capital with the men he’d murdered.
And then I’d kill him myself.