Fate's Attendant 1.16

The lower city rang with the sounds of chisels and hammers striking stone. The early morning air was already hazy from the dust swept up by the wind which blew constantly at the gorge’s base. The sun’s light had yet to reach the tops of the buildings. Hong Fei noted how it crawled down the rocky walls at a sedate pace.

A pair of men came hurrying from the street’s far end, yelling. They warned of an approaching wagon, and everyone on the street rushed to the edges to clear the way. Being no fool, Hong Fei followed suit. He tucked himself into a busy open-air cafe selling steamed rice cakes. The owner had set up a screen to keep the wind away from the food, but it left room for Hong Fei to watch the proceedings.

Moments later, the heavy wagon appeared, pulled by six enormous horses. The wood groaned painfully as they hauled thousands of jins of marble to the nearby workshops. A dozen men and women escorted the wagon. They either walked alongside or attended to the levers that connected to each of the metal-clad wheel’s brakes.

Hong Fei was among several who stood over the café’s customers as they were eating, the spaces between tables full of people avoiding being run over by the wagon. No one seemed to find the situation awkward, though the young man at the table beside him eyed his sword warily.

“How long does it take to stop?” Hong Fei asked.

The young man set down his chopsticks and bowed his head. He appeared to be no more than twenty, but his hoarse voice made him sound older. “The heavy ones take half the street.”

Hong Fei had purchased clothes appropriate to walking through a variety of Ruby Swift City’s neighborhoods—neither too rich or too plain. Fortune’s Favor, however, gave him away as someone noteworthy, even if people didn’t know the sword’s provenance.

They had avoided his gaze earlier, not knowing his status, but once he’d spoken—and in way that wasn’t threatening—that opened the door to him becoming an object of their curiosity.

“First time in the low city?” an old matron asked. One of her eyes was milky, and she only had half her teeth.

“I passed by once before, but it was late at night. Didn’t get to see anything then.”

She nodded sagely. “Stop by the shops. You’ll find goods just as fine as above but for half the price.”

“Are you looking to buy something specific?” a man asked. He was dressed somewhat nicer than the others and carried himself like a merchant rather than a laborer.

Hong Fei gestured ambiguously with his hand, not willing to mention quite so publicly his search for the Kang family. His thought was to explore the backgrounds of the other Yu retainers to see if there was anything there that would be use. He couldn’t match the xiàowèi’s strength, but there might be a way around him, and Ma Mo’s sweetheart who’d died was the best lead he had.

“I just thought to see what was down here, and then the wagon came through,” he replied. “What happens if someone gets in its way?”

The crowd winced at the question, giving a chance for a third person to jump in and answer it. This was another matron; she wore a gray headscarf tying her hair back. “Doesn’t happen often, that. Only once or twice year, since most folk know to run when a wagon’s coming. Accidents do happen, though, and then it’s ugly. I’ve seen grown men split in two by them wheels.”

Another pair of laborers walked passed the café to warn of a second wagon’s approach, and the people around Hong Fei sighed. They chose to stay where they were.

“I imagine it’s even worse for women and children?” Hong Fei asked.

“Dead is dead,” the matron with the milky eye told him, and the people around her nodded in agreement.

“What about the last—” Hong Fei stopped mid-question.

A girl ran along the rooftop across the street. A deathly white number 2 hung over her head. She appeared to be barefoot and fleeing from a group of other children racing after her. They held sticks in their hands, and one, a notably larger boy, held a shard of stone like it was a knife.

Hong Fei stepped from the stall. Several hands actually reached out to stop him, but oblivious to their efforts, he’d put his hand on the hilt of his sword, and they drew back.

The street was currently empty, the space between the two wagons open. Hong Fei began to pace the running children. Behind him, the second wagon’s escorts spotted him. They yelled at him to get out of the way.

That drew the attention of the first wagon’s escorts. One of them started to approach Hong Fei, but again his sword warded away the effort to help him to safety.

None of the laborers knew what to do, so they ran for the foremen on each of the wagons. Moments later, the one behind began to slow. The one in front, however, continued to roll onward.

Hong Fei picked up his pace. The girl had jumped from one building to the next; the distance hadn’t been far, half a zhang at most, but she would soon come alongside the wagon. From the way she kept glancing at it, she likely intended to jump.  

The children chasing after her seemed to think so, too. They yelled at each other to catch her before she could escape.

Hong Fei leapt onto a step built into the area below the wagon’s tailboard. A series of handholds led to the platforms upon which the laborers attending to the brakes stood, and he shimmied up, letting a touch of his essence flow.

The sword and the speed with which he moved let the laborers know he was no ordinary warrior. They hurriedly backed away, even though the foreman bellowed at them to stay at the brake levers.

The white number 2 above the girl’s head was growing heavier, and Hong Fei hurried, running passed the laborers in his way. The girl couldn’t wait any longer; the gang behind her had caught up. She leaped toward the wagon.

And would have succeeded if not for a loose stone—the only one along the roofline. Instead of landing on top of the wagon, she fell with only a fraction of the momentum she was supposed have had. The trajectory would take her to the ground, then send her tumbling under the wagon.

Hong Fei jumped and caught the girl in his arms. His momentum changed the trajectory, so that the two of them thumped against the adjacent building’s wall. He’d gotten his hand up in time, so that it took the impact instead of her head.

The fall was treacherous. The girl screaming in his ear, Hong Fei locked in on the spot they were most likely to fall. He shifted his weight, using the addition of the girl to make sure they were tilted away from the wheels.

Essence streamed into his legs. The girl’s scream continued all the way down until with a forceful exhalation of the air from his lungs, he hit the ground and let the energy coil up through his legs and into him. He completed the tilt and fell forward, twisting his body so that it was his back that hit the ground. A hand flew out to smack the rest of the fall’s momentum into the ground. The pain stung badly.

The laborers yelled. Finally, the brakes screeched, yet the wheels continued to roll. The wagon traveled nearly twenty-five zhang before it stopped.

People ran toward Hong Fei to help him up. A matron, the one with the gray ribbon, took the girl from his arms to make sure she was uninjured, which she was except she couldn’t catch her breath. Scared beyond reason, she hyperventilated.

The matron took her to sit nearby and rubbed her back until she calmed down.

Hong Fei ignored the pain in his hand. He barely noticed the aches along his back. The white number 2 above the girl’s head had changed into a white number 1, and a cool energy flowed into him through the spot just above and between his eyes.

He glanced down at the satchel hanging from his belt. That refreshing energy was familiar. He’d felt it once before, after killing the giant centipede.

###

The girl’s name was Kang Ruyun. The matrons in the crowd escorted her to the nearby café, where they gave her a seat and a cup of tea to settle her nerves. They made soothing noises, intermixing them with nosy questions.

Was she truly the younger sister of Kang Shao, who’d been crushed under the wheel of a stone-carrying wagon the previous year? What a tragedy it would’ve been for both girls to die in the same way! Was it a quirk of fate, or perhaps had the family angered the god of stone?

The café owner, seeing the attention her place was getting, placed a plate in front of Kang Ruyun. The steamed rice cakes were hot and fresh from the baskets and flecked with bits of green onion.

The matron with the milky eye “tsked” when the girl grabbed the cakes to eat them with her hands. They were just solid enough to hold together as Kang Ruyun shoved them one after the other into her mouth.

The children who’d chased after her had disappeared from view. A few among the crowd cursed them. Not for the intent to harm the girl—that was the children’s own business—but for driving her to risk leaping onto the top of the wagon. If the girl had been crushed underneath, then it would’ve delayed its deliveries.

Eventually, both of the wagons got underway again. The people watched them go with more excitement than they had before. Now, there was a story attached to the day’s deliveries. Their families and neighbors would hear all about it. If only the swordsman would reveal his identity; he couldn’t be an ordinary person.

Hong Fei leaned against the back of the café, listening to the residents of the low city talk. Every once in a while, the girl’s eyes darted toward him, then she’d go back to nervously watching the crowd. She looked ready to bolt.

The girl was twelve-years old and belonged to a family who’d only moved to the low city the previous year. Her father was dead, and her mother was a temporary laborer, picking up what jobs she could to keep the two of them housed. There were whispers of the family owing money to a local gang.

When it seemed Hong Fei wouldn’t hear anything else new, he pushed away from the wall and said, “The girl must be rattled. Thank you, everyone, for your help in easing her fear. I’ll escort her home now.”

The crowd didn’t dare interfere, so they parted for him and nodded their encouragements. One of the men called him hero, which Hong Fei didn’t deign to acknowledge. He simply offered his hand to Kang Ruyun to help her stand.

She didn’t need his help, however. The wobbliness in her legs had passed along with the fright she’d had from falling. She hopped off the chair and eyed him warily.

“Show me the way to your house,” Hong Fei said, “and I pledge that no harm will come to you while you are in my custody. I say so on the honor of the sword I carry.”

Kang Ruyun didn’t take any comfort in his sword vow, but she nodded anyway. She’d seen enough of soldiers and cultivators to know that there was no escaping them if they really meant to catch you.

She led him away from the café, back toward the direction from which she’d originally come. The crowd watched them go. Hong Fei felt the gazes on his back.

Once they were out of earshot, he asked, “Are you mute? Or just reluctant to talk?”

Kang Ruyun’s hands clenched. She looked back at him and said, “None of them are worth even the dust from the stones.”

“Oh?”

Instead of elaborating, however, she turned around to keep walking. “Are you—are you a retainer for the nobles at the top of the gorge?”

“Yes, though I’m new to the house,” Hong Fei answered and watched as her shoulders hunched up.

“Do you have money for us?” The question was almost whispered. “The coins we got last year were stolen, and we’ve not been able to find any work since…”

“Since?” Hong Fei pressed.

“My sister died,” Kang Ruyun replied.

“I see,” Hong Fei said, thinking.

For a while they walked in silence, taking a meandering path through the low city. They left the main thoroughfares for a maze of shops and residences shoved close together. The number of people increased, while the quality of their clothes decreased. Poorly cobbled streets and densely packed courtyards shared by multiple families became the norm. Kang Ruyun wasn’t the only one barefoot.

The girl’s eyes roved throughout the journey, checking the alleys and the rooftops with more diligence than some of the scouts Hong Fei had had the displeasure of working with. No one from his own troop, of course. Those bad ones either fixed their bad habits quickly or they didn’t last.

As they stood at the entrance to a particularly narrow alley, Kang Ruyun paused. Her back to Hong Fei, she didn’t let him see her face, but he noticed the tension in the girl’s body.

“You didn’t tell me if you have money for us,” she said.

“I didn’t plan on it, but I might,” Hong Fei replied.

Her small shoulders slumped. “You want something from us.”

“Just answers to questions,” Hong Fei said gently. “Nothing else, I promise.”

“You promise?” Kang Ruyun asked bitterly, then she shook her head as if his words didn’t matter. “I don’t want to bother my mother. Ask me your questions.”

“That’s not enough. I’d like to talk to both of you,” Hong said.

“About my sister,” Kang Ruyun said flatly.

“Yes.”

The girl flinched at hearing the word spoken. She trudged forward, her steps as slow as a stone-carrying wagon. Yet, what could she do? Those high above ruled over those below. That had always been the way of things. Her anger hidden deep inside, she could only hope that the promise of money was at least true.

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ToC | Next Chapter >

Characters Mentioned in this Chapter 

• Kang Shao, sweetheart of Ma Mo, deceased 

• Ma Mo, a Yu soldier and Ma Zhi’s cousin, caught participating in a gambling ring

• Ma Zhi, a Yu shízhǎng