引狗入寨
Yǐn gǒu rù zhài
To lead a dog into the village.
To introduce a potential source of trouble.
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Shit—" said Zakhar, hastily backing away from the barn wall.
CRA-CRACK.
With a splintering crash, a long, thin arm broke through the wooden plank wall, reaching toward Zakhar.
CLANGG.
There was a sound like metal cymbals being brought together, like a brass gong being struck, as the arm met the barrier created by Sanli's lanterns. Zih, like ripples on turquoise water, appeared and shimmered across an invisible surface, a wall that only kept out those things seeking to harm those within.
The zih shook, and shimmered, but the barrier held.
Zakhar breathed in, unaware that he had been holding his breath.
The arm still hung through the broken gap in the barn wall. It was long, at least as long as Zakhar was tall, and with too many joints, as though a second and third segment had been added.
The skin of the arm was a sickly sallow yellow, with strange purple and black marks surfacing here and there that looked like ink frozen in ice. Like bruising on a corpse.
The smell of festering meat reached their noses.
But the hand at the end of the arm was the most disturbing of all. Five long jet black nails topped skeletal fingers. The hand was warped, and emaciated, and wrong, but it was a hand that might have been human once. Had been human.
The five travelers standing in the barn watched the hand. Carefully, almost gently, long black nails traced along the barrier, sending blue colored zih flicking every which way like scattering fish. It did this for a while, as though figuring out from touch what it had encountered. Then the arm withdrew.
Zakhar still stood frozen with the others, listening to the horses anxious whinnying. No more sounds came from outside, but blue light still blazed from the princes lanterns. All eyes in the barn were fixed on the jagged square of night the creature had opened.
At last the nervous horses settled, and the light from Sanli's blue lanterns was extinguished.
Zakhar shakily returned to the fire and sat beside Ao.
"Well, I don't plan to sleep tonight," said Ao.
"You can take first watch then," said Kageyama. "About time you took a turn."
A dazed silence fell over the company, and as one they stared into the fire. Zakhar realized Captain Duan was not among them.
He followed Kageyama's wary eyes, to where the daquan stood beside his dun horse. The captain had put the animal's saddle on its back, and was tightening the girth.
"What are you doing?" called Kageyama suspiciously. "Come sit back down."
"Ah, sometimes the weight of the saddle calms him," said Captain Duan, with a grin. "Just trying to get him settled." The daquan slowly walked away from the horse and returned to the fire, standing behind the barrel he had sat on earlier.
"Sit down," commanded Kageyama.
"I can't really settle after all that excitement," said the daquan with a shrug.
There was something... wrong. A manic gleam that Zakhar knew too well shone in the daquan's eyes.
He cares not what happens to him. He just seeks violence.
The hair on Zakhar's arms prickled with danger. The big man stood, starting toward the daquan.
"I said sit down!" yelled Kageyama, the kitsune himself jumping to his feet.
A huge smile on his face, Captain Duan put a boot to the barrel sat in front of him, and tipped it over with a push of his foot.
There was a hiss as the stale water contained in the barrel poured onto their fire. Then blackness.
Zakhar leapt and swung, fist cutting through the air where the daquan had just been.
"Sanli!" called Kageyama in panic.
There was a gasp, and the sound of a scuffle.
Zakhar heard Sanli curse. Then the sound of a knife being drawn.
A moment later, light flared to life, created by green zih that hovered just above Sanli's head. Light. Illuminate. Shine.
Zakhar could see Kageyama, standing next to Sanli, one arm on the prince's shoulder. Relief was in the kitsune's eyes as he beheld Sanli beside him, unharmed.
Then Zakhar saw Ao, struggling, pinned against Captain Duan's chest. The daquan had an arm about her neck. A dull, rusty looking knife he must have found in one of the ruined kitchens of the village was held just beneath the Ao's left eye.
Sanli had just performed the spell for light, and had Tenzetsuto in one and his seal in the other. Seeing Ao, the prince immediately let his seal fall back on its chain against his chest and reached for the metal drop that controlled the collar.
"Buh buh buh," said Captain Duan, and pushed the rusty knife against the soft skin beneath Ao's eye. "I wouldn't do that prince. Unless you want to race? Can your collar suffocate me into submission before I poke her eye out?"
Captain Duan's smile was triumphant. In his arms, Ao's face was furious. She pulled at the arm about her neck, her nails digging into the thick material of his shirt, trying to sink her teeth into the hand that held the knife to her face.
"Gu- ah!" Ao's pain tore through Zakhar. The daquan had sunk the knife tip into her cheek in response to Ao's attempt to fight him. Blood leaked from the wound and ran down her smooth skin like a ruby tear.
"Ao!" Zakhar started forward. The daquan dug the knife deeper, and Ao cried out once more. Zakhar froze.
"Don't move, big man," said the daquan twisting the knife and causing the blood to blossom as the point went deeper. The daquan cinched his arm tighter and Ao gasped.
Zakhar shook, sick with rage. Don't, he thought. Losing it here won't help.
Ao's struggles slowed, as the daquan tightened his arm about her neck.
"Stop!" yelled Sanli, muscles straining to stay still. "You're going to kill her!"
"Like you almost killed me?" Captain Duan asked conversationally.
Her face turned faintly blue, and the hands trying to tear away the daquans arm became feeble, till at last they fell to her sides.
Now, his captive at last still, the daquan turned his attention to the three men before him, knife still at Ao's eye. "None of you move," snarled the daquan, suddenly vicious. "Little prince, take the pendant off nice and slow, and toss it my way."
Slowly, face twisted in anger, Sanli did as he was told. He tossed the silver tear drop and Captain Duan caught it with his free hand. The dog then looped the necklace around his own neck.
The captain started to step backwards, toward his horse, dragging Ao with him.
"You don't seem so bad, as royals go, little prince," Captain Duan said, his voice once again calm. "So let me give you some advice. You should not make your weaknesses so apparent," he gestured with the knife to Ao. "Out here, they will get you killed."
Sanli stood, furious, but unmoving, like the statue of some wrathful god.
Beside the prince, Kageyama was also frozen. Zakhar knew that stillness from experience. It was not because Kageyama was uncertain, or afraid, that he was frozen. There is a stillness that comes when all possible alternatives have been considered, and one realizes that there is no best option. Any course of action yields unwelcome results.
The daquan swung up into the saddle, dragging a bleeding, barely breathing Ao with him.
"Go open the door," commanded Captain Duan, motioning to Zakhar.
"If you let her go," answered Zakhar.
"You are not in any position to bargain," said the daquan, holding the knife once more to Ao's face.
Zakhar looked at the thickening stream of blood running down Ao's cheek and turned to comply.
"Now step away." Zakhar did as he was told, fists clenched at his sides. What did the dog plan to do with Ao? Why was he not letting her go?
As Captain Duan dug his heels into his horses' sides, spurring the animal to the now open door, Zakhar realized.
He's going to use her as bait.
As the dun horse galloped toward the door, a lot of things happened at once.
Captain Duan suddenly took the knife he held and sent it hurtling through the air, toward the nearest one of Sanli's lanterns.
The knife tore through the lantern, leaving red blood on the white paper. The force of the throw tipped the lantern over.
The moment the knife left Captain Duan's hand, Kageyama pulled one of his own knives from the air. Zakhar did not have time to see which one before the kitsune threw the blade straight at the back of the daquan's neck.
Captain Duan, as though sensing Kageyama's intent, ducked. The kitsune's blade thudded uselessly into the wood of the barn above the door.
As Captain Duan's horse passed Zakhar, the blond man lunged, reaching for Ao-
—the tips of Zakhar's fingers brushed against the bottom of her sheepskin boot. Then Captain Duan and his horse and hostage were gone, disappeared out the barn door into the night.
"Shit," cursed Zakhar. "Sanli, get the barrier, back up! I'm going after Ao."
He sprinted into the night.
It took a moment to find Captain Duan's horse, already out of reach. Shit, I should have gone for Dunya instead. But he did not have time to go back now,
Instead Zakhar's pounding footsteps cut a shortcut toward the village entrance. He knew he could not catch a galloping horse on foot. But he had another plan. The gate had been shattered, but shut it would still provide a hindrance to a horse.
Zakhar just had to reach the gate before the Captain.
He hurtled through old vegetable gardens, and over a water trough. The moon was out, but clouds blocked all but the barest light from the valley. Shadows were everywhere. And in those shadows was a monster.
It is out here in the dark with me, thought Zakhar.
Around the corner of an abandoned house Zakhar skidded, boots sliding in the dirt. The main gate was just up ahead.
Then he heard hoof beats. Captain Duan's horse came thundering out of the dark, up the main road of the village.
Shit, I'm not going to make it—
Zakhar threw himself in front of the gateway of the village, arms out, blocking the horse's path. There wasn't time to shut the gate.
The daquan, smile bright in the dark, saw Zakhar, and kicked his horse faster.
He intends to run me down, Zakhar thought. But he stood firm.
At the last minute Captain Duan swung Ao's limp form out, gripping her by the back of her rough page's cloth like a limp kitten, and threw her at Zakhar.
"Catch!" he laughed as his horse thundered past.
Zakhar's arms reached out and closed around Ao's body, holding her tight against his chest as the momentum knocked them both to the ground.
Winded, it took Zakhar a moment to recover. He felt Ao stir.
"Ao? Ao! Are you—?"
Ao groaned against his chest. "Argh, what happened?" the woman said, blinking blearily up at him. "Where's that damn daquan? I'm going to rip both his eyes out."
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you anywhere else?" Zakhar took the corner of his sleeve and wiped away the dark blood on Ao's cheek.
She shooed his sleeve away. "Just my cheek. And my neck," groggily Ao sat up on Zakhar's chest. "How long was I out for? And why are we outside?" She looked, confused, at the dark village around them.
It was then that Zakhar remembered the other danger. "Quick, get up, we need to get back to the—"
Something stirred in the dark ruins of a house not ten lengths away. The sound of dry skin rasping against burnt wood reached his ears, and timber shifting.
"What—" asked Ao, standing shakily beside him.
"Sorry!" yelled Zakhar. And without another thought he picked Ao up, threw her over one shoulder and started flying back the way he had come.
"Zah-kar. Put-me-down," Ao cried, voice shaking with every jolting stride Zakhar took. Behind them, he heard the sounds of the eh'lang crunching through the ruins after them.
Zakhar hurtled faster. Back over the water trough, through the jungle of a vegetable garden. The barn was back insight. He was going to make it. They were going to make it, and—
A horrible, chilling screech sounded just behind them. It was a scream of many voices, many creatures, blended together into one howl of agony. Rage, pain, grief, all mixed into the terrible cacophony of a single cry.
I'm going to die tonight.
Ao's shouts, which had consisted of demands to put her down, changed. "Zakhar, run faster! Faster!"
Zakhar's legs pumped harder. The breath came harsh in his chest, hot air streaming from his mouth like smoke with every outbreath. He heard the sound of his own feet thudding the earth, and much louder, the monster behind him. The barn was insight, it's doors gaping open like the dark mouth of another monster waiting to welcome them—
"Zakhar!" screeched Ao, and Zakhar knew it had caught them.
Then a burst of golden light flew from the barn. It passed over Zakhar, and he felt bathed with a faint warmth. Tingles, like a butterflies wings, fluttered pleasantly across his skin, and time seemed suspended.
Then the light was gone, and Zakhar was mere lengths from the barn.
Another shadow emerged to meet them. "Hurry up!" barked Kageyama, sword unsheathed in one hand.
Zakhar sprinted through the doorway, the blue zih of the barrier swirling faintly and prickling pleasantly across his skin at their entrance.
Gasping for breath, Zakhar doubled over, placing Ao on the ground. He glanced up at where Sanli stood, Tenzetsuto in one hand, looking out the entrance.
"Thanks for that," Zakhar gasped. "I thought it had us."
"It almost did," said Sanli. The prince squatted beside Ao. "Ao, are you ok?" Sanli reached a hand to Ao's face.
Ao slapped the hand away. "I am fine, little prince."
Outside another screech shook the night, drawing their attention.
In the faint moonlight, a shape could be seen half sprinting, half dragging itself away from the barn at a furious crawl. The torso was huge, a giant bloated shape much larger than the torso of a cow or horse or any other normal animal.
From the torso multiple legs sprouted, some ending in deer hooves, some in wolf or bear paws, and a few in human like hands and feet.
Zakhar knew that as the eh'lang consumed flesh they grew, taking on the characteristics of that they consumed. By the looks of it, this one was old, and had been hunting and feeding for a long time.
Patterns of fire from Sanli's spell were still etched across its skin, burning like brands in the night. The monster screeched and thrashed its many appendages, trying to put the flames out.
It was hard in the dark, to see the face, but briefly, in the light of the dying flames running across its body, Zakhar was able to make out a long jutting jaw, in what, impossibly, had once been a human face.
The monster gave another screech, and dragged itself off into the night, the scorched embers of its skin glowing in the dark.
Silence fell over the barn once more. The blue light of the freshly restored barrier lanterns went out.
"I am definitely not sleeping tonight," said Ao.
*~*~*~*~*~*