We worked through the night, the five of us taking turns to watch the fortress and coordinate with Tai-li’s shadowy guards. For three days we dug holes and covered them up partially by dawn. Hanari and I did a good deal of the heavier work while Ryzen and Huang stood watch.

  Tai-li insisted on getting into the dirt with me and Hanari. Over the next three days, my respect for the lordling grew. I hadn’t imagined he would get himself filthy, but his devotion to Falina would not be denied. When he wasn’t digging with the rest of us, he stood in the shadow of the forest practicing the single move I’d shown him.

  It was enough to shame me for the resistance I’d put up when Odgen had first begun to teach me. He’d had to drag me out of brothels and bars over and over again to convince me to taste the precious honey he’d offered me. And there Tai-li was blade shining in the moonlight.

  The morning of the third day, we’d finished our excavations. Because we were done, we slept through the night and into dawn. All of the group except me, of course.

  In the hours before dawn as the sun approached the edge of the horizon, I meditated and cast aside the exhaustion from days without sleep. Mortals could not do this. And if they’d learned what I was capable of, they might have envied me.

  Until they learned what I was truly capable of.

  “Isha.” I’d heard Tai-li moving about our camp, swinging his blade in the arc I’d shown him. In his place, I would not have been able to sleep so I did not even try to order him otherwise. “Wake up.”

  I opened my eyes and turned to look at Tai-li. He was facing down the road where we’d come from. Here the roads were things of dirt, ill used and poorly maintained. The conditions had been critical to our plans.

  In the distance where Tai-li pointed, a small cloud of dust rose up against the horizon. Someone was coming and judging from the dust cloud, they would be here in less than an hour. Our plans would be ruined if they arrived before we exchanged Falina.

  “Wake up!” I darted from bedroll to bedroll, dragging Hanari out by her legs.

  She came up sputtering. “What’s going on”

  “We have a complication!” I shoved the scroll I’d had Tai-li prepare into Hanari’s hands and sent her off to the fortress. “The rest of you prepare to take your places!” I raised my head and reproduced Tia-li’s whistle and four beleaguered and filthy black-clad warriors dropped from the trees. One of them had been injured. “I need you four to delay whoever’s coming for as long as you can!”

  They didn’t even look to Tai-li before they hopped back up the trunks of the trees and scurried away like human squirrels.

  “Have we failed?” Tai-li’s voice wavered as he stared back to the oncoming cloud of dust.

  “No. Only death is failure.” At the beginning of our journey, I might have shoved him around. But now I clapped him on the shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Steel your will and find the future where your victory is assured. Understand?”

  Tai-li nodded to me and set about preparing himself. He left his purple robe folded up and ready for Hanari, who would hopefully return unscathed from the fortress. She was essential to our plans; this whole enterprise would fail without her.

  Huang entered the pit nearest where I’d planned for our decoy Tai-li to stand. The real Tai-li would be with me at the front incase the brigands betrayed us and tried to send their own ringer out of the fortress — perish the thought, untrustworthy bandits.

  Ryzen was between me and the decoy Tai-li, ready to pop out and grab the princess’s escort the moment she appeared. The four guards had left the small chest for Falina’s bounty with us next to Tai-li’s robes.

  The small amount in that chest had troubled me from the beginning, but I did not worry about it too much. At least the lordling had not required the rest of us to bear the burden of that gold. Hanari jogged back to our position before the sun finished rising.

  “We’re in the clear.” She panted as she jogged into the forest to change and take up her position and change her clothing. As the lynchpin of our plan, Hanari would disguise herself as Tai-li because she was a good deal more dangerous and resilient than the lordling and because she could assume his appearance perfectly.

  If I hadn’t obtained Tai-li’s trust, I wasn’t sure he would have agreed to have Hanari pretend to be him, or he might have demanded a demonstration from her. But as it was, he huddled in the shallow pit with me keeping one eye on the slit in the robes I’d cut up and lain out and his hands at his side.

  I’d broken him of resting his hand on his sword hilt. No student of mine would indulge in such an amateurish behavior.

  I clutched the Mountain Cutter in my hand and used its handle to keep the canvas up so we could see. Hanari whistled at us when she walked out into the open and confirmed she had taken up her disguise and that we could not be seen by the men at the fortress.

  Now we had to wait.

  Time pressed against my back. Each moment which rolled by convinced me the dust cloud was near enough to stop us from making the prisoner and gold exchange and would crush us at any moment. I eased my thoughts with conscious meditation, something Odgen had forced on me as a way to put the crimes of my past behind me.

  It had never worked, but it had at least calmed my mind.

  When the gates opened in the distance, I took a deep breath.

  Three figures stepped out of the gate, one of them larger than the giant of a man Hanari had defeated in the arena. He was almost as tall as the Oni Waru. I had a bad feeling about him, a ferocity rolled off of his skin and rippled in the early morning light. From this distance, a robe concealed his features, but the man moved like someone who’d received extensive training.

  Another figure walked in front of the giant in the cloak. This man wore head to toe metal armor and moved with the same liquid grace as the giant. Unlike his companion, this man wore a pair of short katana-like swords on his hip which would have been known as kodachi in the old days.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He moved with the same bearing and confidence as the giant. Unlike the giant, this man’s presence leaked out over the field and I could feel Tai-li shiver beside me.

  Walking between the two men was a woman with golden yellow hair, a fair complexion, and silken fall robes. Her head and face were bare and as far as I could tell, she was unharmed. Tai-li whispered, “Falina.”

  It took him a second before he gave the confirmation whistle which would keep our plans rolling forward. My skin burned as I watched the two fighters next to the woman. Hanari had her orders and knew what she was supposed to do. But if she did not get Falina far enough away from those two men, they would cut Tai-li’s wife down with no more trouble than a horse swatting flies with its tail.

  “That’s far enough.” Hanari called out in Tai-li’s voice and I couldn’t help but grin. Truly no one else would have been able to pull off this ruse. “Send my wife forward and stay where you are. You have you gold.”

  The two brigands exchanged glances between each other and the giant walked over to the chest while Falina ran ahead with her arms out in the style of a proper noblewoman. That last feature set me as ease. It was possible these bandits had their own evil spirit posing as Falina. And my plan had trouble accounting for that fact. This was the other reason Hanari took Tai-li’s place. She could defend herself far more effectively than the lordling.

  “It’s so good to see you…” it was our signal, given as the giant brought the chest of gold up to examine its contents. The timing could not have been better.

  In the stories, the heroes emerged from their hiding places with shouts and cries of elation. Stupid. I’d coached my fellow warriors to be silent as the grave when we emerged. There was no reason to give our enemies the least opportunity to defend themselves.

  Still, the giant sniffed the air like a hound as we raced up the sides of the pits we’d dug in the road and surrounding area. He tossed the chest of gold at Ryzen as if it weight no more than a sack of rice. As skilled as the warrior was, he was mid escape from the pit when the chest took him right in the head.

  Blood burst from him as the giant and his ally whittled our fighting force down by one before we’d taken the first swing. The smaller man sprang toward Falina and Hanari as if to cut them both down with his dual swords and I jumped up to intercept him.

  Tai-li had followed my orders well, remaining in the pit while I rolled out.

  The Mountain Cutter clashed against the smaller man as Huang darted after the giant. I already knew the unarmed martial artist was outmatched before I saw them crash together. I pulled my attention away from the giant and to the shoulders of my enemy.

  “Clever little trick,” the man’s agility was astounding. He was almost as fast on his feet as Wei. And with my initial block, he retreated, kicked dirt into my face and thought to skewer me with his blades. But I’d been trained on such dirty tricks and did not require my sight to battle even an opponent as skilled as this man.

  His swords slid off of the scales of the Jade Avarice and he swore under his breath as I kicked him full in the chest. Rather than fall, he flipped back, rolled and came up with his swords at his sides like lowered wings. Wiping a line of blood away from his lips, the man darted toward me with his swords extended behind him.

  It was a classic defense against the Mountain Cutter’s longer reach. And of course I knew the counter. I kept my own blade to my back and opened my eyes. We had the advantage of the rising sun to our backs, but this warrior intended to blind me again, this time using the reflection from his blade.

  As soon as the glint spread across my face, I took a half step back and pretended to shake the glare out of my sight. He aimed his double thrust toward the only exposed section of my armor, my face. Which was exactly what I’d expected him to do.

  I twisted in place, pivoting the side of my neck into his strike and whipping the Mountain Cutter around with enough force to split an oak trunk. My blade bit and then all sense of resistance faded. When I completed my turn, the shorter of our two opponents had lost have his size. I’d cut through his trunk and left his upper half lying in the dirt with his mouth gaping like fish.

  A massive fist came down from the shadow of my blindspot and I turned away from the blow at the last moment. Though the giant man had only struck me with a glancing fist, my head rang and my vision darkened.

  I kept my balance only by virtue of a dragon’s endurance and willpower. But my arms were too numb to raise my blade. I looked up at the giant as he grabbed me in both arms to hug me to his chest and crush my spine.

  I dropped the Mountain Cutter as the giant lifted me up to his eyes and a great gush of foul air wafted over me. Try as I might, the monster, for this strength could belong to no man, held me me and pressed me with the weight of Hell’s sins.

  Though I kicked him, swung my head, and bit at him, the giant held me and squeezed. Bones popped in my arms and shoulders and my guts pressed against my spine. He laughed as he surged with strength to end me. But a shadow crossed the giant’s own and I smiled at him and spat blood into his eyes.

  The giant’s arm jerked as metal glinted behind the man’s legs. He roared at me, tossing flecks of spittle over my face as he tried to turn with me still in his grip. A second flash of light in the giant’s shadow and a clean note sounded as a finely crafted katana split firs the air and then the giant’s own flanks. His roar shifted to a moan as his arms weakened and I slipped out of his grip.

  Though he’d definitely broken broken my left arm and shoulder, I could still use my right. I leaned down as the giant struggled to keep himself upright and wept. A pure note of my own sang as I sliced through the giant’s neck with the Mountain Cutter.

  Behind him stood Tai-li, blood covered and panting. He wiped his sword on his own robes and returned it to his scabbard without looking. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I stared in horror at the shadow coming toward us from the fortress. Whoever had watched from the windows had given a signal and arrows sprouted like a wave from the fortress and flew toward our position.

  I grabbed Tai-li by the collar and rounded toward Falina and our decoy. We’d set a pit near Hanari in case she’d needed to slip in. My brain refused to process the scene before me, as Hanari was already on her knees clutching her chest before we reached them.

  Putting the injury out of my mind, I tackled all three of them into the pit with a sweep of my arms and turned. The wave had closed with us and I still my mind. I swept the Mountain Cutter before me and parted the waters of the incredible wall of arrows with short, simple gestures. Not one bolt escaped my wrath as I focused my fury on the missiles seeking my death or the death of my honor.

  When the wave collapsed and no more arrows came, I found myself standing in an inverse shadow. Everywhere around me was a sea of blacked missiles save the pit behind me. Several of the arrowheads were lodged in the Jade Avarice, but none of them had pierced my skin.

  At once my mind flashed back to Hanari, the way she’d been injured when I turned.

  Falina and Tai-li were both alive. My honor was intact. But Hanari lay panting and sweating on the ground, a hole in the breast of Odgen’s robe where her lifeblood leaked out.

  I grabbed her and she raised a bloody hand to my cheek. No words escaped her lips, though she smiled at me and mouthed something I could not make out. Then the light left her eyes and she shuddered to a stop.

  I turned with a roar toward the fortress, intent on seeking my revenge there, but Tai-li’s weeping thanks brought me to a halt. He wiped his hands over his wife’s face and cheeks, brushing her hair away and kissing her. She kissed him back with fervor. Blood streaking his face as she did.

  My soul turned dark. And for a moment, I considered violating the oath I’d made to Tai-li to save his wife. Her hands were bloody for a reason and I could guess at its cause.

  Around me the ground shuddered and the source of the dust could finally lumbered toward us. A small army of soldiers from Fukan had arrived, having taken it upon themselves to rescue their lord, they’d raced here on horseback, without sleep. If not for the black-clad guard, Tai-li’s own forces would have ruined my plan.

  But Hanari would have lived.