Chapter 5 #5
He could sense Quing Da’s alarmed glare that instantly faded to a smile when he realized what Alex had done.
Nili’s eyes widened, taking in the cloak now donning her petite frame, and the hat that fit her head so comfortably as if it had been made for a kitsune.
“Don’t blame yourself, Nili. You didn’t have your dashing inspector’s uniform on!
If you’d had this on your person, you would have run down the culprits in no time, crying out ‘the game’s afoot, Watson!
’ whenever we passed a shady establishment, and our foes would have been falling out of every gambling den and speakeasy, fleeing in clear guilt or bragging so loud that we would have picked up all the juicy tidbits.
Or perhaps they would have left scraps of paper with clues we would have tracked down just at sunset, before dueling the masterminds with sabers…
or dao… upon a steam locomotive or maybe a merchant wagon! ”
He laughed aloud. “It would have been awesome!”
His friends stared at him for long moments.
“Alex, you do know your city’s in dire peril, right?” Sunlay urged. “Even worse, those rifts are being flooded with Silver-tier abominations as we speak! Not just a handful but dozens, perhaps hundreds! It would be absolute suicide to…”
Her words choked off when a smiling Alex revealed treasures even he hadn’t been aware that he had been carrying, revealing over half a dozen obsidian prizes reflecting the stars under the midnight sky before making them banish once more.
“Those things are perilous, fool! You’ll poison us all!” Anjen cried.
But Nili was shaking his head, her gaze one of stupefaction. “The way you’re smiling, even knowing the peril your city faces… You did it! You and your friends actually managed to rupture their ritual sites!”
Alex gave a rueful chuckle. “Don’t give me too much credit.
The headmaster and the prince were the true powerhouses.
They let me hold on to the Dark Qi stones, since I can store them pretty effectively.
And I won’t even bore you with how close we came to getting absolutely slaughtered.
But somehow we made it, and I just happened to be in the area and heard your cry, so… yeah. Here we are.”
Sunlay stared at a smiling Alex for long moments, as if unable to believe the words she was hearing.
“Alex, are you certain? Both the West and the South…” Her lips curved in an awed grin.
“It’s true. I can see by the look in your eyes that you actually managed to break the formations in both rifts. Were it otherwise…”
Her eyes grew haunted as she stared at the caldera protecting the city that Alex had dared to call home. At least, for a time. “I fear your citizens would already be fleeing for their lives, and right into that bastard Xien Tang’s trap.”
“According to our enemies’ agitated mutters, at least one of the rifts should have already burst by now. I suggest we leave the area with all haste, my lady, before Tang and all his thousands of soldiers grow restless,” Zichen urged.
Sunlay’s relief turned into tense anxiety once more. She turned to Nili. “Did you find it?”
The kitsune lowered her gaze. “I fear not, mistress.”
Sunlay gave a bitter laugh. “All this effort and hardship, and in the end we’re no better off than when we—” Her words cut off with a gasp of wonder at the prize a grinning Alex gently placed in her unresisting palm.
“Oh, look what I just found. It’s amazing what pretty stones you’ll find in these ochre sands. ”
“Alex, you did it! This is the Water core that—”
“The wujen who was never here stole from you? Could be. Or maybe it was just a loose stone among the sands.”
Quing Da stared at him for long moments before bowing solemnly and low, as did everyone else. Then his expression tightened. “My lady, miraculous saves aside, we must be off. But first we must see to the bodies, lest the madman so eager for conquest realizes just how close his prey is to capture.”
“I’ll handle that,” Alex said, quickly darting from corpse to corpse until only a few splatters of blood remained, quickly absorbed by the thirsty sands, and it was as if the Silver-tier thugs had never been.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Alex said brightly.
“Now, shall we get going? I’m guessing Wanshi is some distance away, and there’s getting there in the nick of time like heroes…
or getting there too late for anything but a tragic ending.
” Alex winced at the pained looks this earned him.
“Okay, sorry. That hit a little too close to home. So let’s look at the bright side!
You’re free, and you have a Water core. Now let’s get going while the going’s good! ”
The pair of wujen exchanged looks before catching Sunlay’s eyes.
She gave the slightest of nods, earning a pair of resigned bows.
“At once, Your Grace.” Alex could sense Sunlay’s wince as her cousins gave what was no doubt a well-conditioned answer.
Though it was nothing he hadn’t already suspected, so he kept staring up at the beautiful star-filled night sky, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing.
“It’s okay,” Sunlay said with a smile. “I already know you know. Now come. Let me show you something that will ignite a spark of wonder, even in someone as remarkable as you.”
Alex smirked, meeting Sunlay’s gaze, before his eyes widened with genuine awe as he looked upon the exquisitely woven rug covered in a collage of harmonious abstract designs absolutely saturated with Wind Qi as the whole thing began to float in the air.
“Are you serious? An actual flying rug? You have this?”
Nili chuckled. “Finally, something that impresses you! Well, come on, hero. In case it wasn’t obvious, there’s no way we would have had any chance of exploring multiple rifts in time to save our home if we lacked any means of transport faster than a trade caravan.
And thank all that is merciful that those thugs were too stupid to realize just how much of a prize this rug truly is. ”
Alex couldn’t help but nod as he sat on the rug, smiling with awed bemusement when the entire thing began to rise, feeling more like he was sitting on a waterbed than anything else as the rug floated higher and higher into the air.
“Be careful, Zichen. We don’t want to fly too high right now, and we want to be well out of sight of Xien Tang and his men!
” Sunlay urged, earning a curt nod from her wujen, and suddenly they were off, racing along the desert sands parallel to the trade road so clearly visible, even a hundred feet up by starlight.
Alex closed his eyes and sent an anxious Linnea a final heartfelt message before saluting his friends with the silver chalice a laughing Quing Da had handed him.
“To honored friends and fortuitous encounters!” Quing Da declared as they drank, everyone’s eyes alight with the sheer joy and wonder of being alive after having escaped what had no doubt seemed certain doom.
Alex sighed with genuine relief as he took his ease, enjoying the sweet fermented drink and a leaf filled with honeyed nuts as he took in the starry heavens above while they raced past the dunes below at breathtaking speeds.
He couldn’t help but laugh for the sheer joy of having survived certain peril before ascending straight to Silver, now reveling in the power he felt flowing through his frame.
And though he was all but certain that the next leg of his journey with his boon companions would be filled with peril, he savored this halcyon moment of friendship and camaraderie, eager for the adventure to come.