The Last Victory

13. In Ruins

"Master Shen! Master! Master!"
Shen blinked. Only now he felt how he was freezing. He stood up, trembling. He was lying on the floor. Around him dirty rocks only. Dew lay on his feathers. The lord groaned. His head hurt terribly. He looked around. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the sky was already brightening a little. His gaze wandered down. His robe was partly hung with dirt and a little grazed.
"Master Shen!"
He listened. A lonely voice in the mountains called his name. Or was he just imagining it? When the voice kept calling for him, he had to come to the conclusion that he was not dreaming. And with that, all the other terrible memories came back.
"Master!"
The white peacock looked up when he saw a movement on a narrow path. It was Ling the little sheep. The soothsayer's great-nephew.
With a deep sigh the lord wanted to turn away, but no sooner had the sheep sighted him, it ran straight towards him. "Master! My lord! I finally found you!"
"What do you want, Ling?" Shen didn't feel like talking to anyone at all. "Just leave me alone."
"But master! Something terrible happened!"
The lord looked down. "How bad can it get?"
The peacock didn't expect the death of his children could be surpassed at all, but what Ling blurted out was even that too much.
"The city was attacked!" Ling gasped out breathlessly.
Shen initially thought he had misheard and asked for repeat. "What?"
"She was attacked! We couldn't stop them. And..." The sheep hardly dared to speak. "Your wife and children have disappeared."
Ling didn't get around to mentioning his great-aunt's disappearance. Because in the next moment, the lord jumped over him and sped away.

The sun was just casting its first rays over the mountains when Shen finally reached the city. The morning rays seemed to want to show him clearly what lay ahead. And what he saw took his breath away.
Piles of smoke rose everywhere over Yin Yan. The fires were quenched, but that couldn't repair the damage. Even so, the damage didn't seem to be that immense. The attackers did not have the intention or the time to lay everything to rubble and ashes. The lord ignored what was happening around him. Only one thought preoccupied him. As fast as he could, he made his way to the palace. It was not as badly damaged as the city, but repairs would take a long time to get everything back to its original condition.
The city wall and the palace wall had holes in some places. But Shen didn't care at all. No sooner had he reached the parade ground than Xinxin came running towards him.
"Oh, my lord!" The gray vixen threw herself down wistfully in front of him.
"What happened here?" Shen asked straight away.
"We were attacked," Xinxin said. "The weapons on the wall didn't work. The palace was stormed and..."
"Who was it?" Shen wanted to know immediately.
The gray vixen hid her face in her paws. "I recognized the intruder immediately, but what he left as a message was much worse."
She rose and grabbed Shen's wing, which only frightened the lord even more. Usually, Xinxin was someone with decency, but that was too much for her too, and she only pronounced one name: "Xiang."
Shen's face froze to death. She couldn't tell what was on his mind. He tore himself away from her and went a few steps across the square.
The vixen looked at him ruefully from behind.
"Where did they take them?"
Shen's monotonous words froze her. "Sir, it's impossible for you that you can there..."
"WHERE?!"
Shen shouted so loudly and hit the ground with his fist so that the stone slabs beneath him cracked and shattered in a wide radius.
Xinxin swallowed hard. "Gongmen City."