‘Ji Shi!’ Huxin wandered over. ‘I was not aware you two had formally met.’
Shi was so overwhelmed at Huxin’s presence that his mind went blank and he stood silent.
‘We met at Li Shan, when Shi was sent to seek out Dan and me,’ Hudan explained, and Shi was grateful. ‘We share a love of tigers,’ she said, grinning to placate her sister, and left them both, while she sought out Ji Fa, who was not far afield.
‘Post guards around the stockade … we’ll see how many are still prepared to die for their emperor once Shou is pronounced dead. They may only be holding out for fear of reprisals if we fail to take the city,’ Ji Fa was instructing Xian and Zhenduo. ‘Hopefully, no one else has to die this day.’
‘Not much chance of that now,’ Zhenduo said, but as his brother’s eyes shifted to focus just behind Fa, the king turned to find Hudan waiting to present him with the staff of her enemy.
‘Su Daji is dead.’ She handed the trophy over to Ji Fa. ‘She will wreak her cruel vengeance on our people no more.’
‘Now there is no one to stand in our way.’ Xian was delighted by the news.
‘I fear you are wrong about that,’ Hudan said directly, and the brothers looked disbelievingly at each other.
Fa held up a finger to stop her from saying any more. ‘Please see to the prisoners.’ Fa bade his brothers to leave him with Hudan.
‘Yes, my king,’ Xian replied, bowing out without further question. Zhenduo followed, serving Hudan a firm nod of respect for her day’s work.
‘Are you aware of an impediment that I am not?’ Fa turned to her, as Ji Dan spotted them and moved to join the huddle.
‘Is it true? Su Daji is dead!’ He was so excited he didn’t realise he was interrupting something, and Hudan simply nodded to confirm. ‘I thought my time had come when she flew at me, but some mysterious barrier repelled her attack.’
‘Perhaps you are more powerful than you realise, brother Dan,’ Hudan suggested, denying that she had anything to to with it.
‘I don’t think so,’ he reckoned, with a soft smile of appreciation that was captivating.
‘Ah-hum,’ Fa cleared his throat. ‘We have a war unfolding,’ he reminded Hudan, hoping to get her back to their previous conversation.
‘Ah, yes,’ Hudan found her senses. ‘Ji Dan and I have become aware of an … impediment …’ It came to her attention that the daylight was fading, and looking up she saw the moon beginning to merge with the sun.
‘The second omen!’ a voice cried and everyone looked up in wonderment as the prophecy unfolded.
‘Not now,’ Fa said, annoyed. ‘How am I to kill Shou by the end of the doubling, if I am not yet in the city?’
‘Smoke,’ exclaimed Hudan, as she spied the plume rising from a tower in the centre of Yin. ‘Zi Shou will burn,’ she repeated her prophecy, having never conceived that the cowardly emperor would take his own life. ‘Fate has beaten us to it,’ she stated. Fate or Dragonface? she pondered on the quiet.
The dark haze from the inferno rose and added to the eeriness of the celestial event unfolding above, and as the land was cast into shadow, the frenzied screams of many men cut through the darkness like an assassin’s blade, striking fear into the hearts of all around her — for the screams were emanating from their side of the city wall.
‘Your brave king, and his pretty brothers, will be as lambs to slaughter.’
As she recalled Daji’s prediction, Hudan felt arms about her and she was pulled in close to another — she knew instantly it was Dan, as no one else would dare. Her first reaction was to pull away and go to investigate, but it was dark and complete chaos reigned. As the hysteria intensified, Hudan stopped resisting Dan’s restraint — she’d never heard such blood-curdling shrieks of dread, and was stunned to inaction. As people scampered about them, attempting to flee from the cause of the horror, whatever it was, Hudan was glad for the solid support to cling to. As soon as the moon shifted to allow the sun’s rays to again illuminate the earth, the screaming and ruckus ceased, and an unearthly silence fell as everyone got their bearings.
‘Are you all right?’ Dan asked as he held Hudan at arm’s length and she looked for Ji Fa. When she spotted the king, still living and breathing, Hudan also began to breathe once more, and nodded to respond to the query. But Dan had been distracted and was smiling broadly as he watched Jiang Huxin peel herself away from his brother Shi, who clearly regarded her with considerable affection.
‘I told you so,’ Hudan ribbed him, and Dan raised both brows to admit he’d been unduly jealous.
‘The prisoners!’ someone yelled in horror, whereby Hudan and Dan pursued Ji Fa to the centre of the commotion. Men were running away and covering their mouths to refrain from vomiting.
Inside the stockade lay a blanket of human porridge and body parts — every single man had been torn asunder. Entrails dripped down the tall bamboo bars of the enclosure and heads were spiked on the upright poles, which stood over two times the height of any man. A river of blood oozed out one side of the enclosure, and it chilled Hudan to the bone to see it.
The look on Ji Fa’s face was bleak and then wrathful. ‘Who did this?’ he demanded, furious to have had his orders ignored, and every man backed away to deny any part in the crime.
‘A hundred men could not have accomplished such a massacre in the time this took,’ Zhenduo, bloodspattered from being so close to the action, gave his opinion. ‘It sounded like a hundred beasts were loose in there.’
Many eyes turned to Jiang Huxin, but Shi was quick to defend her. ‘I had contact with the tigress for the entirety of the doubling. She did not move from my side.’
‘Nor did Jiang Hudan,’ Dan vouched, before the possibility of her involvement was suggested.
‘It appears that only the prisoners were attacked.’ Xian returned from surveying the area. ‘So perhaps this was heaven’s justice for the unfaithful?’
Fa looked to Hudan, who nodded to confirm Xian’s assessment, as it was far better than stating the truth before she discussed Dragonface with Ji Fa. ‘I must speak with you about that other matter,’ she said urgently.
The king obviously knew there was a connection between the impediment Hudan had spoken of and this horrific act. After eyeing the carnage, he looked at Zhenduo and Xian. ‘Have it burned, before the cesspit causes a sickness. And do it quickly.’ Fa glanced at the sky, noting that rain clouds were again forming.
His brothers left at once to see it done.
‘You four,’ he singled out Dan, Hudan, Huxin and Shi, ‘follow me.’ Fa appeared most perturbed as he looked for a quiet place for them to speak.
At this moment the gates of the city were hauled open, and a herald exited to announce. ‘The Emperor Zi Shou is dead!’
‘Long live the king!’ cried the high lord of Qiang.
‘Long live the king!’ Every man present turned and knelt down before Ji Fa, and even Hudan and Huxin bowed their heads to him in a symbolic gesture.
‘This victory belongs to heaven!’ Ji Fa told them. He was not entirely comfortable with being the only man standing. ‘There is still much work to be done this day, so let us not waste time in idle veneration. Arise my fellow countrymen, arise and assist me to set our land to rights once and for all.’
A deafening roar of victory and a clashing of weapons evolved into a steady beat that accompanied the chant: ‘Tianzi! Tianzi! Tianzi!’
‘Now let us find somewhere quiet to talk,’ Fa said to the other four to let them know that their discussion was a top priority, and Hudan nodded to agree it was.
‘This conquest will be legendary!’ the lord of Qiang said, congratulating the new king as the small group headed toward the city gate. ‘We took the East in a single morning, majesty, with an army ten times smaller than that of the enemy! That is unprecedented!’
Indeed it was, but how long they could maintain control of the East and the city of Yin was quite another matter.
As Zhou and Shang troops
alike rushed to help the local people to put out the fire in the central palace, more troops searched for assassins and booby-traps. Ji Fa found Shou’s huge council chamber abandoned, and declared it would be his room of operations. He led his group inside.
12
THE DRAGON PIT
The account Hudan gave of Dragonface and the Jade Book was met with incredulity, for the story was beyond belief. However, Dan’s nodding head added validity to the surreal revelation. There had been many such moments of truth this day already, and it was now clear that there would be more before the day was done.
‘I believe these creatures are why this battle was such a non-event,’ said Hudan. ‘They know it is your time, Ji Fa, and Dragonface is welcoming you with open arms. These creatures feed to build strength and a greater resistance to death.’
‘But considering the feast they’ve just had …’ Fa was too overwhelmed to continue.
‘… then our adversaries are fuelled up and waiting for us,’ Dan finished.
‘But note the carnage was confined to your enemies, Ji Fa,’ Hudan pointed out. ‘Dragonface is not burning any bridges just yet.’
‘I didn’t depose Zi Shou so I could be controlled by some prehistoric lizard!’ Fa stood to pace out his frustration.
‘Many of those who have opposed him in the past have died suddenly or been taken over by him for the extent of their rule,’ Hudan informed him, passing on what she’d learned from the Great Mother. ‘A truly fearless few have managed to banish the creatures, but none have managed to kill the beast, not in hundreds of thousands of years.’
‘A lizard is no match for a tiger,’ Huxin said, keen to get hunting.
‘You are staying out of this,’ Hudan replied, saying what Fa and Shi both wanted to … she had noticed both men flinch at Huxin’s suggestion. ‘You are responsible for other lives now.’
‘Absolutely correct,’ Fa said, and then unexpectedly looked at Shi, making his little brother jump. ‘And how are you involved in all this?’
‘I don’t know,’ Shi pleaded, faking innocence. ‘I mean, I’m not.’
‘Then why have you and Dan been at odds these past weeks?’
Both Dan and Shi were surprised that Fa had noticed.
When they both stared blankly back at him and then at each other, Fa grew impatient. ‘Someone answer me.’
There was a knock on the door and Fa, still perturbed, said ‘Enter’.
‘We have recovered the body of Shou, my king,’ Xian announced as he eyed the gathering curiously. ‘He attempted to burn his riches with him in his tower, but I believe we have salvaged most of it.’
Fa gave a determined nod of approval. ‘Good. See that the hoard is distributed to the people of Yin.’
‘There is more hidden in the city,’ Hudan said surely and Fa looked to her. ‘Shou liked to pay tribute to our friends.’
Fa caught her drift, and shifted his attention back to Xian. ‘Have the body of Shou taken to his throne room, and gather our brothers.’
Fa looked back to his company as Xian withdrew. ‘I know something odd is going on here, and I will get to the bottom of it,’ he vowed in a paternal tone. ‘Come Dan, Shi … let us pay our respects to the dead.’
Huxin and Hudan moved to follow the brothers from the room, but Ji Fa claimed their attention.
‘Please,’ he said carefully, not wishing to offend, ‘I respectfully request you remain here. This is a family affair, and I fear we shall not be at our best.’
The ire in his tone matched the look on the brothers’ faces; Hudan had never seen them appear so forbidding. ‘As you wish,’ she granted, and Dan, for one, was relieved.
‘We shall speak again after,’ Fa insisted, ‘and devise a means to deal with this curse before it deals with us.’ As the new royal family exited the chamber, Fen entered with haste.
‘Thank the heavens I found you,’ Fen said, very distressed. ‘He Nuan has vanished!’
‘Calm down,’ Huxin entreated him. ‘What do you mean, she vanished?’
‘During the doubling I had hold of her hand, when she was torn from my grasp in the darkness. I know not by whom.’
Huxin and Hudan looked to one another, and it horrified them both to think Dragonface had hold of her.
‘I hoped that you might use your talent to join her wherever she is and bring her back,’ Fen appealed and Hudan was torn.
She had become quite fond of her brother’s betrothed and she hated the thought of any woman being hauled into the dragon’s lair, but Ji Fa would be furious if she attempted to confront his curse alone, and without his order or permission.
‘You cannot …’ Huxin could not believe she was even considering it.
‘Why not?’ Fen realised they both knew something he did not.
‘You cannot run such a risk without Ji Fa’s consent,’ Huxin pressed.
‘Why are you both so fearful?’ Fen’s panic intensified.
Hudan clicked her fingers having had a thought. ‘The elixir of waking sleep,’ she resolved. ‘To project my physical body is too great a risk, but if I spirit walk my way to her I cannot be detected.’
‘Please,’ Fen begged, at his wit’s end, ‘won’t you tell me —’
‘Just fetch the elixir, Fen,’ Huxin instructed. ‘No questions.’
With a deep frown, he turned and sped off to retrieve the said item.
‘It certainly won’t do any harm to see what our adversaries are up to,’ Huxin added, once Fen had left them.
‘My thought, precisely,’ Hudan concurred.
‘Still, this deed will drain your chi.’ Huxin found this very concerning. ‘If you are to confront Dragonface this day, that is not to our favour.’
Huxin’s point made Hudan’s heart flutter and she couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
‘Why are you smiling?’ Huxin was curious to know.
‘I believe I know of a means to recover my chi quite quickly.’ Hudan shook her head, wondering if this predicament was heaven-sent or of her wanton design — there was only one way to know for certain. ‘I shall explain everything to heaven’s chosen and allow him to decide which scenario is more favourable?’
‘Now to explain that to Fen,’ Huxin said, glancing to the doors that she expected to see him come speeding back through at any moment.
‘We tell him nothing before Ji Fa gives the nod,’ Hudan insisted. ‘I feel our new sovereign will want this situation handled as quietly as possible.’
The sons of Ji Chang exited the blood rite appearing both satisfied and disturbed at once. Dan’s expression was utterly rueful.
The body of Shou of Shang was carried away for burial in pieces. Three arrows, shot through his heart, still protruded from the torso; his head was hung on a pole — flying the white banner of the tiger — for public viewing.
Hudan was later to learn that Fa had fired the arrows; one for his father’s wrongful imprisonment, one for the murder of Bo Yi Kao, and the last to avenge the great man, Bi Gan; but it had been Dan who had swung the axe that severed Shou’s head.
As Shou’s crimes against heaven were read out to the gathering crowd in the palace courtyard, the clouds burst and heaven began to weep. For the people of the East the rain brought welcome relief and it was a clear sign that justice had been done. It was proclaimed that: ‘The Zhou have exterminated the Shang, as per the mandate given to Ji Fa by heaven: to unite the four quarters of the land, over which the Zhou dynasty are now sovereign.’
Ji Fa did away with the Shang title of emperor and replaced it with the word ‘Zhou’. He then commanded that the imperial rice store be opened immediately, to feed the starving people of this city. There was great rejoicing in Yin and the people chanted the name of their new sovereign, proclaiming him to be ‘the father of the people’.
Afterward, the king summoned Dan, Hudan and Fen to his council chamber where he awaited them with Jiang Huxin.
Dan hadn’t said a word to anyone since the blood rite, whi
ch had left him in the darkest of moods. He’d not realised the extent of the animosity he and his brothers had stored up toward Shou over the years and, unleashed, his own primal aggression left him rather disgusted. They had been anticipating the day when they took their revenge on Zi Shou, but desecrating a dead coward’s body had given him no satisfaction. His brothers had certainly seen another side to the humanitarian son of Ji Chang this day that they would not soon forget. Dan vowed he’d never swing an axe again.
‘Brother Huxin has explained to me that you suspect He Nuan has been abducted by our adversaries, and that you have the means to spy on them,’ Fa said, getting straight to the point and aiming his query at Hudan. Dan was shocked to hear the news. Fen appeared to be showing great restraint, for clearly he had questions.
‘I can,’ Hudan began warily, ‘but the feat will drain my chi.’
The news was concerning to Fa, but Jiang gained Dan’s attention with the comment and his dark mood took a sudden upswing.
‘Brother Hudan knows a means to quickly replenish her chi afterward,’ Huxin was quick to advise Fa, and Hudan’s shy smile caused Dan to smile also. Surely she was not contemplating what he thought she was contemplating.
‘But there is a risk I might not fully recover.’ Hudan made that very clear. ‘The first rule in establishing a fact is to repeat the experiment, and the theory on which I am basing my hypothesis has been not replicated or verified to complete satisfaction.’ She glanced at Dan, who was fit to burst with amusement. He dared not believe she would allow him to be involved in her restoration, but just the suggestion put a grin on his face.
After a moment’s consideration, Fa made his decision. ‘I believe that is a risk worth taking.’ He looked to his chief advisor and was surprised to find Dan suddenly cheerful.
‘I … I,’ Dan contained his delight by clearing his throat. ‘I couldn’t agree more.’
‘What do you need from me?’ Fa looked back to Hudan, and so did Dan, a playful look of question on his face.
‘A few hours solace in a quiet, private place.’ Hudan seemed a little nervous now Fa had approved of her course of action. ‘And someone to assure I am not disturbed.’ Hudan avoided making eye contact with anyone as their sovereign considered her request.