Fate's Attendant 1.19

“Where’s the woman?” the man with gravelly voice asked. “She owes us.”

“You’d best take that up with the steward of Duke Yu,” Hong Fei replied. “She works for his estate now.”

The man stared. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. “W—what?”

“Don’t understand me?” Hong Fei taunted. “Did they find only half your brain when they sowed your head back together? Kang Lian is beyond you now.”

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with!” the man yelled. His face turned bright red in anger, except for the fleshy scar down the middle of his face, which remained pale.

“Maybe I should finish the job that was started,” Hong Fei said, gesturing at his face with Fortune’s Favor.

The man couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He turned on the Yang brothers. “What are you waiting for? Get him!”

Hong Fei took a step back to make sure the ground around him was clear. They’d be the ones forced to chart a path through the dead and the injured.

“He’s making you angry on purpose,” Yang Jian pointed out. Though he said that, he put away the rock knife in his hand to draw the sword at his side.

“Are you a viper spitting poison?” Yang Xin bellowed at Hong Fei. “Where’s your dignity as a warrior?”

“My words only hurt because they’re true,” Hong Fei replied. “I’m looking at three dunces: one who can’t understand me, and two who don’t know how to accept orders.” He paused a moment, then grinned mischievously. “I’m sorry, do you need help with the mathematics? One plus two equals three.”

Yang Xin glared and hefted the club on his shoulder. He patted his brother on the chest. “Come on, it’s two against one. We can handle him, and he deserves a beating for what he’s done.”

“More than beating,” the scarred man demanded. “Kill him.”

Yang Xin nodded grimly. “All right.”

The brothers split up, each taking a side of the alley. Yang Xin was already burning essence to wield the stone club; Hong Fei could smell the copper-tanged scent of it in the air. The former retainer would likely swing it faster than expected.

Hong Fei lifted his center a touch, slipping into the Hong’s water-style arts. He’d flow around the brothers’ attacks until Yang Xin exhausted himself, then strike in earnest. Fortune’s Favor and knife working together to—

A chamber pot full of filth struck Yang Jian in the face. He’d been so focused on Hong Fei, he hadn’t seen it fly down from the rooftop opposite. Kang Lian stood there, breathing hard. Her daughter handed her wine jar to throw next.

Hong Fei snapped forward, his riptide footwork shifting into a linear thrust to deflect Yang Jian’s sword toward the alley wall. He pinned it there with his body, while his knife stabbed him in the side—once, twice, thrice in quick succession. A cool energy flowed into Hong Fei’s head.

Yang Xin roared in anger, and Hong Fei ducked away as the stone club smashed against the wall where he’d been. Splinters flew; he felt their sting across his face and neck. Blood seeped from where he’d been cut. His eyes were safe, however, and he wiped them clear.

The club swung in his direction twice more, the air vibrating with its passage—whoosh, whoosh. Hong Fei transitioned back to the water arts, and his footwork became slipper; his body melted.

No matter what Yang Xin tried, the stone club wouldn’t connect. He fought for longer than expected; a battle frenzy could do that.

Hong Fei noted how his opponent’s eyes were red. The stress of the essence in the man’s meridians had burst the blood vessels there. The control was sloppy for an experienced soldier, unless there’d been a dramatic change in cultivation recently.

Not tier three, Hong Fei thought. Closer to four or five. It seemed that someone had bought the Yang brothers’ loyalty with cultivation resources.

A jar of wine broke against Yang Xin’s back, the shards of pottery clattering on the ground behind him. A rock followed after, though it missed and hit one of the dead men instead.

The distraction was minimal but paired with the essence exhaustion creeping through Yang Xin’s body, it opened a gap in the man’s defense. Hong Fei let the club swing past, then entered into his opponent’s space.

One hand dragged the knife across the muscles and ligaments of Yang Xin’s arm. The other thrust the scabbard between his opponent’s legs. With a twist, he sent the man tumbling.

The former retainer’s back was soaked with wine. Hong Fei stabbed him, so that blood could join it. He’d avoided the kidney, however, intending to question the man afterward.

The entrance to the courtyard was empty. It looked like the scarred man had run during the fight.

Little Ruyun pointed to one of the open doors in the alley. “He went that way,” she yelled.

Hong Fei took off after him; he ran through the one-room residence to head up the stairs where a woman screamed. She clamped a hand over her mouth, and the rest of her family buried with their own bodies to keep her from crying out again.

An old man pointed with his cane toward an open door. The residence was connected to another in the adjacent building. That residence was empty, however, so Hong Fei ran to the window and threw open the shutter. He saw the scarred man pelting down the alley, not daring to look back.

Hong Fei gritted his teeth. He slammed the window jamb in frustration, then took a deep breath to settle the battle tension singing through him.

Down the stairs he went. The door onto the alley was left open, so he walked out to check on the state of the Yang brothers. As he’d thought, the one named Jian was dead, but Xin was still alive, though his breathing was labored. A few of the other nearby Rock Knives groaned from their injuries. The one with the broken elbow had somehow escaped, but the others were all still here.

“Should we come to join you?” Kang Lian yelled.

“Not yet,” he replied, roughly lifting Yang Xin into a sitting position against the wall.

The pupils of the man’s eyes were wide open. He barely seemed to notice Hong Fei looking at him, then when he did, the anger returned. He spit in the dūtóu’s face, blood and saliva mixed together.

Hong Fei wiped it away, then again because his own blood was getting into his eyes. “What happened? How did you get involved with the Rock Knives? Was it another family or did someone at the estate introduce you?”

Yang Xin didn’t respond. He just looked past Hong Fei toward his brother.

“If you want to live, you’ll tell me what you know,” Hong Fei said.

Yang Xin shook his head. “It’s already too late.” He glared and said, “I’ll see you in hell.”

The man began to convulse. His spittle frothed, and Hong Fei had to hold him down to keep the spasms from furthering his injuries. Then Yang Xin’s eyes turned glassy. The body sighed, the last of the air escaping from its no longer breathing lungs. A cool energy flowed into Hong Fei at the same time.

He quickly stepped back. Whatever killed Yang Xin didn’t seem to be catching, but Hong Fei hadn’t seen sign of a poisoned pill or needle, and he preferred to be cautious.

Then, another man began to shake among the injured on the ground, and Hong Fei withdrew toward the inn’s door. From there, he saw how the tremors broke the man’s back. He heard the spine crack from across the courtyard.

Magic? Hong Fei wondered. Or an oath to silence people who know sensitive information? Which begged the question: who possessed the cultivation to cast a magic or enforce an oath that strong?

Kang Lian came down from the rooftop with her daughter in hand. She found Hong Fei gazing worriedly at the almost dozen men and women on the ground across the courtyard. The sight sent a shiver of fear through her. They’d resisted the Rock Knives, and there’d be no going back now.

Then he turned around, and she saw the small cuts on his face. “Ruyun, fetch cloth and water.”

“Later,” Hong Fei said, stopping the girl from running off.

Now that the fighting was over, he noticed how there was nothing above Kang Lian’s head, and the number above Little Ruyun had gone down from a 2 to a 1. Connections were starting to form in his mind between the living and the dead.

He needed to talk to Auntie Ling, but first he asked Kang Lian, “Do you know who the bosses are? Where they operate from? If there are any families or notable people behind them?”

“There’s the moneylender who hounded us. His family name is Guo, but everyone calls him Little Ox. His brother…” Kang Lian reached across her chest to rub the upper part of her right arm as if she’d been pinched there. “His brother goes by Big Ox, and he runs the gang’s brothels.”

Hong Fei nodded. It shouldn’t be difficult, then, to track down the various pieces of the gang’s organization, especially when one of the members was so prominently scarred. “We should get going before any more trouble arrives.”

“We know a shortcut to the middle city,” Kang Lian offered. “Or we can stop by the river to clean your face.”

The swordsman strode forward. “I have an errand to run first. What’s the quickest way to the main gate?”

Mother and daughter hurried to catch up. They held their noses as they stepped over the bodies on the ground.

“We can show you,” Kang Lian said, but before she could continue Hong Fei suddenly stopped.

He glanced toward the way they’d just come, and with a sheepish expression said, “Don’t mind me, I’ll be quick.” Then turned back to loot the bodies.

###

Kang Lian squirmed in embarrassment. The morning queue to leave Ruby Swift City was long, and there was nothing for the people waiting in line to do other than gawk at the poorly dressed woman with a bundle of clothes strapped to her back standing beside her daughter without shoes.

The two of them waited to the side while Hong Fei went about his errand outside the city. He’d told them he’d be back within a handspan of the sun and not to go anywhere without him.

At least, the soldiers had been polite. They kept an orderly line and dissuaded anyone from bothering mother and daughter. That hadn’t been the way of things at first. Hong Fei had had to show them his badge of office before they straightened up. It went a long way to counteracting the impact of the cuts on his face and the blood on his clothes.

A soldier with gray in her hair approached Kang Lian. “Would you like a cup of team, madam?”

Kang Lian shook her head and declined. Truthfully, she was parched, but didn’t want to delay their departure when Hong Fei returned. The morning had already been horrifically eventful, and she wished nothing more than a safe, quiet, out-of-view place to rest.

She tightened her grip on Little Ruyun’s hand. Her daughter had started to pull away to go exploring.

From the top of the wall, a voice cried out in alarm. A bell rang, and the soldiers below rushed to close the gate doors. The people in line scattered, leaving Kang Lian questioning whether she should join them. Hong Fei hadn’t said anything about what to do if the city came under attack.

The voice from the top of the wall called out, “Hold! Hold! Send the shízhǎng out to talk to him.”

The doors stopped closing. Soldiers gathered at the gap left open and muttered to each other. They looked to the woman who’d offered tea, and she in turn stared grimly at what was on the other side. She ordered her weapons and armor before stepping through.

Kang Lian clamped down on Little Ruyun’s hand. The girl had attempted to pull away to join the soldiers peering through the gap.

“We’re going to stay here,” Kang Lian decided. “And if the soldiers start running, we will too.

“What do you think it is?” Little Ruyun asked.

The soldiers pulled open the doors. None of them could take their eyes off of Hong Fei walking through the gate with a giant spirit beast prowling forward at his side, the air heavy with its menace.

The morning really had been too full of the unexpected for Kang Lian. The poor woman fainted.

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ToC |  Next Chapter >

Characters Mentioned in this Chapter 

• Yang Jian and Yang Xin, the gambling ring’s leaders 

• Kang Lian, mother to Little Ruyun 

• Kang Ruyun, aka Little Ruyun, daughter to Kang Lian