The Luxury of Vengeance

challenge will come to an end."

  Somehow, Tuan and Minh had come to a harmony of sorts. Likely a common enemy had united them. But Chien knew something they did not. It would be difficult fighting the two of them simultaneously, but he had to survive. There was so much riding upon this. So many expectations, so many lives. Though he sorely wanted to, he did not turn again to look at Bao.

  It seemed at last, at the end, he was not at all alone.

  Tuan attacked first, he had never learned the fine art of patience. There was no art to his thrust, only brute strength, and Chien dodged it easily. Tuan did not allow himself to become dissuaded by that. He attacked once more, and this time Chien brought his sword up to block. The force of Tuan's blow threatened to cripple his arm.

  From the corner of his eye, he could see Minh sneaking forward to make his attack while Chien was distracted. He allowed himself to stumble back, enough that he was out of Minh's reach as well. From there it became a dance of dodging Tuan's strikes, which became clumsier with each missed blow, and avoiding Minh's attempts to catch him off guard. They truly did complement one another. Should they have ever settled their differences they would have been a truly terrifying duo.

  But Chien had not come this far to fail. This was his destiny. His throne. His empire. And if Minh and Tuan did not intend to bow, then they had no choice but to fall.

  All it took was one. One misstep by Minh in which he thrust his sword too close to his brother's skin, the sharpened sword cutting easily through the fabric. Tuan howled and stumbled back, hand going to his arm while he glared at his brother, "Are you attempting to kill me?"

  "I missed. It was a mistake."

  Chien stood back, dao at the ready rather than attempting to press his advantage. He could see blood spill from between Tuan's fingers as he squabbled with his brother.

  "I barely nicked you!" Minh cried. "You truly are a weakling. So much for the strong and mighty Tuan. I should have known it was nothing more than an act."

  "A weakling? From a man who scarcely knows what to do with a sword? All you can do is sneak behind others and steal their strength." The blood continued to flow, staining Tuan's golden robe. Chien could see that the Empress was beginning to grow angry, but no one had yet noticed. He could be patient. He could wait.

  "At least I do not cry when I receive a small cut on my arm. You're barely bleeding." Minh gestured to his arm then paused. "Why are you still bleeding?"

  Tuan looked down as well, eyes widening as he took in the blood that covered his hand and made its way down his sleeve. He moved his hand away from the wound, and the blood began to fall freely down his sleeve. "What have you done?" He asked his brother in a fading, horrified voice.

  "Nothing, I did nothing." But Minh could not help staring in fascination at the wound.

  "Summon the shaman!" The Empress declared, standing from her throne.

  Before she could make her way down the tiers however, Tuan had staggered backward, raising his weapon with great effort. "You will not take the throne from me. Even in death." He thrust forward, but his arm was too weak to do much more than pierce Minh's skin.

  "Tuan! Stop!" Tuan collapsed, every breath he took sending him into shudders of pain. He was feeling it now. In the moment of death, the pain would be the worst. Every part of him clinging to life while the poison slowly dragged him to the underworld. He had enough strength to shove his mother away when she would have collapsed beside him and taken hold of him. "I am the strongest," he gasped. "The most capable. I will not die here." His movements slowed and his statement faded into nothing.

  Tears sat in the Empress's eyes as she stared at the body of her oldest son. The gasp of pain from behind her made her turn, and she watched as Minh clutched at his chest, the front of his robe soaked in blood. She mouthed the word 'No', but it never made it past her lips. Minh fell and she sat frozen in horror.

  Silence descended within the hall.

  "Do you feel the depression weighing upon you until it seems there is nothing left but despair?" Chien's words seemed a shout in the silence. "The horror that has gripped you now that you are all alone? This is but a taste of what I have suffered these thirteen years." His sword drooped, and he cradled his aching arm. Trying to block Tuan's blows had seriously injured it.

  "What have you done?" His aunt's voice was hoarse with grief, her hands covered in the blood of her sons.

  "My mother screamed as she died. As that poison made its way through her system, she screamed in pain. It seemed only right that I extend your sons the same courtesy you gave my mother."

  "Everbloody." She brushed one last hand over Tuan's cheek before reaching for his weapon. "You will die for what you've done here today. You will never take a hold of this throne. This Empire is mine. These people are mine!"

  "Perhaps. But I will take joy in the fact that if nothing else, I will take you with me. Whether I leave here or not, the Empire will never accept your rule. You are a failed Empress. You are not worthy of the Throne of a Thousand Swords. Only the strong may take the throne and you have proven time after time that you are anything but. This ends today." He tried to move his arm and hissed in pain.

  "If my sons gave me nothing else, they gave me the power to end this." She flicked the sword, a hateful look on her face. "Thirteen years only to join your dear mother in the underworld. I gave her the opportunity, you know. To take her weak brood and return to her wasteland of a home. She refused. Something about her child's destiny. I did feel bad about An. That was," she paused, "an accident."

  An accident. He had seen the broken, bloodied lump they'd left of his sister. Rage blinded him, but before he could step forward and take her head, an arm appeared in front of him, blocking him. "I will ask you once more, Empress. End this." Chien did not want this ended. He wanted her dead.

  "She must die."

  "You are injured. What hope do you think to have against her?"

  The worst part of it was that Bao was right, but Chien could not stand down. His pride would not allow him. His hatred would not allow him. "Why should I step down, General, when I have the advantage?"

  "Hasn't enough blood been spilled tonight?" His gaze flicked to her sons who still lay prone.

  The Empress's gaze followed his. "Not nearly enough. By the time this night is over I shall see this hall bathed in blood. All of you. I will kill all of you who stood aside while this—this traitor slaughtered my children."

  "Your children killed each other. The prince did not lay a hand upon them."

  "Do not call him a prince! He is not a prince! He is the bastard of an iron my brother left to hang about my neck, and I will be damned if I sit aside and watch as he takes my throne. The throne goes to the strongest. The strongest here is me!"

  "The Dragon has granted him his blessing."

  "And look what good that has done. Look at the man your Dragon has sent you! Weak. Useless. Just like his father. Just like his whore of a mother."

  Chien hissed and stepped forward to find himself once again blocked by Bao. "If you insist on this challenge then, I will accept in the prince's stead."

  The Empress paused. "Barely ten minutes and already you have given your oath to another. I planned to kill you one way or another today, General. The order hardly matters to me. Come, if you think you can kill your Empress."

  Bao pulled his sword and Chien grabbed desperately at his shoulder. "You cannot defeat her."

  "No. I cannot." He shrugged free of Chien's grip. "But I will not watch you die while I stand helplessly aside."

  "You think I could do the same? Stand aside while she kills you?" Beneath his hand, he could feel the tension in Bao's body. He practically vibrated with the urge to do something, to fix this. But this was not Bao's problem to fix. The problem was Chien's. "Have some faith in me."

  Chien could see that Bao wanted to ignore him, wanted to disregard his words, but Bao was smart enough to know he had little chance and religious enough to respect the idea that Chien jus
t might have a god's favor.

  In the end, he stepped aside. Chien squeezed his arm then released him. "I will win."

  Bao did not respond verbally, but he looked over to Chien and there was a wealth of response in his eyes.

  His arm ached, but he could not fail, not here. Not now. The sword pulsed once more, and he could feel the warmth spreading through him again, the dragon's blessing making him forget about his aches and focus on the battle before him. The Empress did not wait for him to raise his weapon, she attacked and though his dodge was clumsy, he managed to move quick enough to avoid being caught by her sword.

  "When you die, you will be the last in a line of pathetic rulers loyal to an invisible ideal." They circled each other carefully, each looking for weakness in the other's stance. He attacked and she blocked.

  "Only cowards and fools feel the need to taunt their opponent once the battle has begun." She attacked and he blocked.

  "You will pay for those words." She attacked once more, a series of relentless strikes that he could barely defend himself against. Just when it seemed as if she might let up, she stabbed forward once more, this attack breaking through his defense to catch him on the arm.

  Chien made the mistake of reacting to the sharp sting of pain, and in his distraction, her sword stabbed into his stomach. There was a pause. Then there was the pain, the vicious claw of pain that stole his breath. This far, this long, to fail. His