This day and the next pass slowly.  Lord Zhao has regained much of his strength since he started eating properly.  The weather’s turned cold and wet and we keep the braziers lit in the cave for warmth.  Zhao Zhan comes and goes silently, seeing to the horses and venturing out from time to time to check the traps he’s laid for small game.  Lord Zhao and I talk.  He acts now as if the possibility of his being my father has become fact.  I don’t dissuade him because I think he’s probably right.  In any case, I’d prefer to think of him as my father rather than the old Emperor who scarcely knew I was alive.

Zhao Zhan’s anxious to be on the way and is preparing the necessary supplies.

“Will you be able to travel?” I ask Lord Zhao and he smiles.  “The exercises that your Doctor Liang gave me have improved my mobility considerably.  I can’t walk far, but I can ride with no difficulty.  I owe him many thanks.”

“When I see him again, I’ll tell him.”

His face becomes serious and he reaches out and takes my hand.  “Jinhai, I beg you, come with us.  The journey to the capital's long and dangerous.  And once you get there, you might be recognized.”

Zhao Zhan pauses in his preparations and looks at us, his face expressionless.

I take my father’s hand in both of mine.  “I have to find my friends and make sure they’re safe.  I’m planning to try and join up with a caravan for protection and once I get to the capital, I’ll go to Liang Zhou’s.  When you’re settled, send messages there.  He lives in Crane Street, everyone knows him.  Let me know how to find you.”

“Your friends?” he repeats, his eyes on my face.  “Are they so important?  Or is it just one friend?  Commander Liao, for instance?”

I feel my face getting hot.

“Even here, we hear rumours,” he says.  “About the heroic Commander and the beautiful young Prince.  I’m told they sing about it in the taverns.  So it’s true?”

“Yes, it’s true.  I have to find Shan.  I can’t rest till I do.”

My father sighs.  “And what about him?  Would he search for you?”

“He thinks I’m dead.  And now he’s in danger from the Second Prince’s men.  He may be forced to go into hiding.”

A desolate feeling catches me by the throat.  I go to the cave entrance and stare out at the rain. 

Behind me, a voice says, “He will come.”  It’s Zhao Zhan.

“How can you be so sure?”

“He is a warrior.  You are his beloved.  Even if he thinks you are dead, he will come back, as I would, for revenge. Nothing will stop him.  If you stay on the road, he will find you.”

I feel a strange mixture of emotion and sudden hope.  “Thank you, Zhao Zhan.  I’m very lucky.  I seem to have found not one father, but two.”

Unexpectedly, a smile appears on his face.  It’s gone as quickly as it came and I’m left wondering if I’m seeing things.  He rummages in his waist-pouch and produces a carved wooden token, which he gives to me.  “If you come seeking my Lord, show this to any one of my tribe and they will bring you to me.  The rain will stop soon.  We will leave in the morning.”

The rain has a rather steady look, but as Zhao Zhan has predicted, it eases off and stops just after dark.  I prepare my gear too.  We have a final drink around the camp-fire before sleeping.

“Until we meet again,” Zhao Zhan says as we touch cups.

“In hope of better times,” I say, but my father remains silent.

We leave next morning at first light.  Lord Zhao embraces me.  Zhao Zhan begins to salute, but I stop him and embrace him too.  He helps my father onto his horse and leads him off down the path.  I watch them go, my heart a little sore.  But my spirits start to lift as I think about what Zhao Zhan has said about Shan.

Lord Zhao has told me about another trail down from the plateau which avoids going back to the ruined estate and will bring me directly to the main road.  I’ve helped myself to some of the stores in the cave and have also taken a couple more quilts, all of it loaded onto my spare horse. The day’s grey and mild.  There are few travelers on the road and before long I’m riding through cultivated lands, with many people working in the fields on either side.  I guess that this must be Ding territory. 

I ride along in peaceful silence, the grey dog questing to and fro on and off the road.  The thought that Shan might be somewhere on the same road is immensely encouraging.  But at the back of my mind is the memory of those troops who sacked Eagle Rock and who are now heading for Border Town and Qiu City.  The sooner I get some news, the better.

Thankfully, it’s another uneventful day.  Nobody tries to rob or rape me.   Around dusk I reach one of the watering places along the road and stop to spend the night.  Here I have an unpleasant surprise.  The well and its surrounding land have been fenced off and three guards are standing at the gate, dressed in uniforms which I recognize as belonging to the Ding family.  There’s a small crowd of disgruntled travelers arguing.  I put on the bamboo hat to shade my face, dismount and lead my horse up.  The guards are barring the way.

“If you want to water your animals or stay the night, you’ll have to pay.  Order of the Ding family.”

“We’ve never had to pay for water before,” protests a thin man leading an equally thin horse.

“Well you do now.  Pay up or move on.  Your choice.  And don’t think you can camp anywhere else on Ding land either.”

There’s much grumbling and fumbling for money bags, but they all pay up and so do I.  The area round the well and troughs is trampled and soiled with horse droppings and worse.  I water my horses, tether them and find a more or less clean corner to settle down for the night.  I’ve brought kindling, so I light a fire and start to prepare food.  The guards are still bossing new arrivals about.  I can hear raised voices from where I’m sitting.  So the Dings are demanding payment for water now?  Well, this is their land, who’s going to stop them?  But the smell round here’s terrible.  They ought to dig latrines.  Wryly I think, I ought to volunteer.  I’ve got experience.  This brings back some cheerful memories.

I toss some dried meat to the grey dog and eat the rest with rice, washed down with wine from Eagle Rock.  I sleep as best I can, what with all the comings and goings and the drunken shouting of several men round a camp-fire on the other side of the well.  The grey dog sleeps by my side, a reassuring presence.  No-one’s going to approach me while he’s there.  The quilts I’ve taken from Eagle Rock are high quality and very comfortable, but all the same, I feel distinctly heavy-eyed when I wake up in the grey of early morning.  I eat the rest of the rice cold and prepare to leave. 

People appear and start to sweep up the horse droppings and other night soil.  They’re dressed in rough homespun cloth and keep their eyes down.  I realize with a shock that they’re slaves.  Then, as I saddle up, there’s a commotion outside the fence.  The guards rush out and kneel in the road as a cavalcade sweeps up, coming from the direction of Border Town.  I peer out through the fence.  A dozen men on horseback are guarding a closed carriage. They’ve been travelling all night, judging by the blackened torches on the carriage and the state of the horses.  An arrogant voice rings out, instantly recognizable.

Oh crap, it’s the Dings.

I’ve sat round a table with these people.  If anyone’s in a position to recognize me, they are.

The guards rush back in and shout, “Everyone get back.”  I shuffle back to the fence, using my horses as cover.  My fellow campers and all the slaves do likewise.  The guards start feverishly pulling up water and replenishing the troughs as the Ding horsemen come in leading their mounts.  There’s total confusion as horses and men jostle one another at the troughs.  Buckets are taken out for the lathered carriage horses.  Another guard brings a jug of water to the back of the carriage and a woman’s hand comes out to receive it.  Then a child’s face appears, peering at the commotion outside with round eyes.

It’s the child from Qiu City, the child of Wang Meng and Lady Ding.

The Ding child?  I bet that’s Lady Ding in the carriage.  She didn’t get away then.

Luckily for me, the Dings are not going to sully themselves by coming into the compound.  In fact, they’re impatient to be gone.  Loud angry orders from outside galvanize the retinue.  In a few minutes, the horses are led out, the company remounts and they’re off again, raising dust as they go.  We all relax and the slaves move out to resume their sweeping.

It’s a timely warning not to let my guard down.  I proceed with some caution, not wanting to catch up with the Dings.  Not that that’s likely, because they’re going at top speed, regardless of the horses.  However, a few miles down the road, I see from the tracks that the cavalcade has turned off down a side road which leads deep into Ding territory.  I’m guessing that it leads to the family residence.   Poor Lady Ding has gone from one prison to another.  But at least, this is her familiar childhood home, not that grim castle in Qiu.

By noon, the cultivated lands cease and give way to open country with the odd village here and there.  I stop at another watering place to let the horses drink and a man turns towards me and says, “Surprise!  We meet again, Brother Zhao.”

It’s Lang Huo.

Fuck!

“Hey,” I say, hiding my dismay.  “You’re supposed to be in River Town.  What happened?”

“Oh, this and that,” he says carelessly.  “You’ve been gone for days.  Any trouble?”

“You could say that.  When I got to Eagle Rock, I found the place had been attacked.  Buildings burned, servants dead, family gone the Gods know where.”

“That’s bad luck,” he says, coming closer.

“I reckon it was that troop we met.  Bastards.”

“I heard some stuff about that troop.  It seems like the Emperor’s been assassinated and his brother’s taken the throne.  The merchants are all a-twitter.”

My shock and surprise aren’t entirely feigned.  “Assassinated?  Who did it?”

“The Prime Minister, seemingly.”

“Prime Minister Li?” I say in genuine astonishment.

“Yep.  Anyways, he’s in prison and the Second Prince has taken over.  And remember I mentioned the southern princes were recruiting men?  Well, now we know why.  The southern provinces have rebelled.  That means war.”

I sit down slowly on the edge of the water-trough, thinking furiously.  There’s no way Prime Minister Li would assassinate the Emperor.  He was the Emperor’s trusted advisor;  their relationship was widely known to be close.  This is a fabrication put about by the Second Prince and his mother. 

“Did you say the Prime Minister’s in prison?  They haven’t executed him?”

“Nope.  Seems like they want to put him on trial.  And probably get him to incriminate a lot of other people.”

“What about his family?”

“In prison too.”

“Bad news all round, then.”

“Won’t affect us,” he says carelessly.  Then he adds, “Sorry about your family.  Shall we get going?”

We mount up.  I’m still thinking over the implications of the news.  If Li Wei’s family’s in prison, then Shan’s sister…..  If he knows about this, how can he come back for me?  His first thought will be to get to the capital and try to help her.  And if he goes to the capital, he runs the risk of being arrested, imprisoned, perhaps executed. 

Oh Gods, what a mess.

I’m jerked back to reality by the unexpected feel of someone stroking my hair and I recoil in amazement. Lang Huo laughs and takes back his hand.  “Sorry.  It’s just that I missed you.”

“Don’t,” I say shortly.

“Sorry." he says again, "Tactless of me, given the circumstances.”

We ride on.  His spirits seem unaffected by the rebuff.  As we camp for the night, I think that once we get to River Town, I’ll find an excuse to get away from him.  My sleep’s restless.  I dream that I wake up in the morning and find Shan lying next to me.  He’s smiling.  He leans over, lays his hand along my cheek and bends to kiss me.  Desire sweeps over me.  My arms go round his neck, my lips part and my body arches against his.  But the dream dissipates in a moment as the kiss becomes more brutal and invasive than any of Shan’s.  My eyes snap open.  It’s indeed the morning, but this isn’t Shan.  It’s Lang Huo who’s pressing me down, he’s biting my lips, then my neck. I can feel his hardness through the double layer of clothes.  My body convulses in absolute horror and I push him away violently.

“What’s the matter?” he asks, leaning back.  “You liked it.  You’re hard.”

“Get off me.  I don’t want this.”

“Well obviously you do,” he says caressingly, fondling me through my clothes.

“I thought you were someone else.”

“Got a lover, have you?  Well, that makes things easier.”

He grabs my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.  With the other he starts to fumble at my trousers.  Unluckily for him, we’re not all that different in height and strength, and getting somebody’s trousers off with only one hand while holding them down requires a considerable advantage.  Employing every trick I know, I break my hands free and bring the heel of my hand flat against his nose.  Heaving him off, I roll over and come to my feet, reaching for my sleeve sword. 

It’s not there.

Lang Huo laughs.  There’s blood trickling down from his nose but he’s still smiling.  “I took it,” he says.  And indeed, he’s holding it idly in his hand.  “Sorry,” he adds.

His face changes as I bend down and retrieve the knife from my boot.

“Fuck,” he says, “You’re not as simple as you look.  My mistake.  We'll have to do this the hard way."

Attack before they’re ready.  Take them by surprise.

I don’t give him the chance to finish what he’s saying.  Moving in fast, I trick him into feinting to his right while he still hasn’t got a proper hold of the sleeve sword, then swinging round his left side, I grip him round the neck with my left arm and bring up the blade in my right hand.  He struggles, kicking and slashing wildly backwards with the sleeve sword.

That place just below the ear, Shao Ru’s voice says, Get them there and they’re dead meat.

Blood gushes out over my sleeve.  Lang Huo makes a dreadful gurgling sound and his body sags in my grasp.  I let go and he collapses to the ground.

That’s four men I’ve killed.

I stagger backwards, my breathing ragged, suddenly aware of a sharp pain in my side.  My exploratory hand comes away with blood on it.  He got me.  I’m injured.