Chapter 7 #3
His words died off when he saw the intent looks that the pair were giving him.
“That’s three elements, at least,” Nili calmly noted.
“Um… maybe?”
“And I’m almost positive I saw you unleash lightning as well. Against an entire handful of Xien Tang’s henchmen.”
Alex shrugged. “Who can say?”
The pair of women exchanged pointed looks.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Sunlay?”
She looked strangely uncertain, even anxious. “Some might consider our hesitation… unworthy.”
“What are you talking about? Your timing was perfect! My Wind Walking ability is basically flight and moving how I wish through the air at this point, and you all had a rug to steer. The way I see it, we did it perfectly. I struck like a hammer, Quing Da and everyone else then did their part, sweeping up all the pieces I had scattered. From there, it was healing and helping those we could before regrouping and heading to Wanshi. And now we’re up an entire caravan of valuable grain to give hope to a city full of people I’m guessing have been living on half-rations for at least a while.
Best of all, it gives us excellent cover and allows us to pose as mercenaries ourselves, just in case the situation in your native city’s even more precarious than we had feared. ”
Nili gave Sunlay a pointed look. “I told you this boy was no fool. Or perhaps I should say, he’s the best kind of fool. The kind you want on your side. Always.”
“Your words are more accurate than I wish to admit,” Sunlay said with a sigh, before her eyes brightened with her smile.
“But you’re right. This caravan will give at least a bit of hope, and with the prize now in our possession, if all goes well, it’s only a matter of time before our fields are flourishing once more, and everyone can eat and drink as much as they like. ”
Yet Alex could still see the hesitation in her eyes.
“Sunlay?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“You did the right thing. The city’s welfare has to come first. What I did was tactically idiotic, risking my life for relatively little, compared to what was truly at stake.
” Alex gave a helpless shrug. “Only thing is, there’s no way I could have lived with myself after hearing a child’s desperate screams, other than to jump right into the thick of things and give those raiding assholes the comeuppance that they so richly deserved. ”
Sunlay bowed her head, smiling freely despite the moisture in her gaze.
“That’s because you’re exactly what this world needs.
A hero who would put aside the games of rulers and thrones for what really matters.
The safety and well-being of all the innocent lives caught between the madness and machinations of too many titans who see the entire world as nothing but a game board for their own amusement. ”
Alex chuckled bitterly. “If only you knew how right you truly were, Sunlay.”
Nili flinched at those words, haunted eyes making it clear she understood all too well what Alex would never be stupid enough to say aloud. Not now, anyway, when he had finally freed himself from the vilest game of all.
And how easy it would be to fall right back in, he thought ruefully, as between one moment and the next, Wanshi revealed itself in all its pristine lacquered glory.
Alex was captivated by the sight of a city of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of brilliant white marble buildings around a caldera just as vast and grand as Liushi’s own.
Alex traded looks with a grimly smiling Quing Da, more than halfway expecting to see the entire city surrounded by the Red Prince’s hard-eyed troops. But there was no one at all.
Much to his surprise, and relief, the rest of the trip to the city was proving to be as quiet and peaceful as a stroll through a city park.
Alex actually dared to let himself relax, before the tightness in Nili’s gaze made it clear that he was once more playing the fool.
His fingers flashed with handsign. “What is it?”
She flinched, holding the hand of her husband so tightly, strained features carefully not looking in any direction but straight ahead. “Our death, if you’re not careful, pup!”
Alex blanched at this, feeling an awful tingling between his shoulder blades, as if fearing an assassin’s mark that could strike him dead at any minute… and then the pressure was gone.
Nili gave a heartfelt sigh, moments later.
She gave Sunlay the tiniest of nods. She seemed ready to collapse with relief.
Alex’s lips pursed into a tight frown. He knew he should let it go, but…
“Relax, Alex. I spotted them. They don’t know that I spotted them. But at least now we have a chance.”
Alex’s eyes widened with growing anxiety, fingers flashing with frustration. “Nili, what the hell are you talking about?”
She glared his way. “I’m talking about certain death, for all of us, if we dare to tangle with the sleeping tigers content to let us pass. For now.”
“Nili!”
She glared his way in exasperation. “Another hidden band that allowed us to pass only because they think themselves truly hidden. Had they truly gone unnoticed, I’d fear for our city’s ultimate fate. But now, since we know they’re coming…”
“We have a chance,” Sunlay whispered, making it clear that Nili had served her well in teaching her so many secrets, including handsign, that Alex suspected few nobles went to the trouble of mastering.
Yet he was far from comforted.
“Let me guess. There’s another nest of enemy dickheads and we’re not rooting them out because why, again?”
“Because they’re Silver-tier, you fool!” Nili snapped in the interface that had blossomed so strongly between them after she had literally summoned him between worlds.
And for all that he felt his cheeks flush, feeling as if he had just been castigated by his mother, he couldn’t let that particular sleeping dog lie. He forced himself to ask the question that would make clear what his next step had to be.
“And why are a cluster of Silver-Tiers waiting here? Within sight of the city, but not inside?”
Nili frowned, refusing to meet his gaze.
Alex turned to the noblewoman staring at them both so intently. “You get it, though, don’t you?”
Sunlay’s beautiful features tightened with worry. “Yes, I think I do.”
“Sunlay…”
The noblewoman flashed her kitsune companion a sad smile. “Alex’s right. There’s only one reason. If they dared enter the main gate while radiating a Silver’s power and refusing to take the oath, that would be a declaration of war, right then and there.”
Quing Da winced, cursing under his breath. “Damn. If only I didn’t know what that meant.”
“But you do,” Alex softly whispered. “We all do. They refuse to enter until their diplomatic pawns have put whatever gambits they have into play. Because the minute they do, their objective is as clear as day.”
Quing Da sighed. “Through stealth or direct assault, they intend to force a coup.”
“Or slaughter the entire royal family in the dead of night,” Nili said with a dark scowl.
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Yet right now, at this very moment, with at least half an hour of sunlight left, we know exactly where they are. And they have no idea that we know. We have the drop on them. Only for this precious moment, perhaps, but this moment is ours.”
Nili blanched. “Alex, those are the furthest things from raw recruits. At least half of them are Silver! Such a concentration of power, here in the deep desert…” She shuddered with dismay.
“And Xien Tang, so eager to overthrow Liushi, is an actual Gold.
How is it that our enemy has so many deadly pieces at their disposal?
Alex was afraid he already knew the answer, which filled him with hope and dread in equal measure.
He didn’t know for sure yet, but he was now filled with the increasing suspicion that maybe he hadn’t committed the unforgivable crime of turning CuiJing Principality into a vast desert, centuries ago.
Maybe he wasn’t where he thought he was at all.
Either way, it was clear that his old enemy still had access to incredible resources he could bring to bear to crush the will of the desert cities… and there was very little his new friends and allies could do to stop him.
Maybe here was where Dongfang Hong was intending to forge his own desert empire, for reasons Alex could only guess at, or perhaps for the oldest reason of all.
The accrual of power and dominion over everything within one’s domain.
No matter how many lives pursuing the Path of Conquest might cost. With a foundation as twisted as that monster’s had been, once the puppet of a spite-filled god—maybe still the puppet of a spite-filled god—perhaps it was the only path of advancement now available to the former Red Prince.
Alex felt a sudden chill.
If Shalu really was still inhabiting Dongfang Hong like a puppet, perhaps he was trapped inside, or maybe it was his only relief from a divine body undergoing well-deserved torments as it lingered between immortality and death.
And the one thing above all else Alex was dead certain of was that under absolutely no circumstances did he want to encounter that creature ever again.
The precious, improbable, and glorious veil protecting Alex with a fresh start, a second chance at a life free of malevolent influence, would pop like a soap bubble if that monstrous abomination ever caught sight of him again, he was sure.
Somehow, Alex was certain that the Fog of War that had no real bearing on his new life was still protecting that mad, possessed fanatic from understanding any report regarding Alex that was sent his way.
To that man alone, descriptions would become muddled and confused, as he knew only that an unknown individual was interfering with his plans.
But Alex refused to duck his head in the sand and allow that monster the absolute freedom to pillage and destroy the fragile oases that were the only sources of life and hope in this beautiful yet barren desert. And perhaps that was okay. Maybe Alex could successfully defend a few cities from afar.
So long as he didn’t take it to extremes.