分崩離析
Fēnbēng líxī
Disintegrate; fall to pieces; come apart.
To come apart.
*~*~*~*~*~*
There are stories told, on the islands of the southern oceans, about revenants that return to life from death, still carrying the wounds that killed them.
I knew that really these stories probably came from tales of Zhu's servants. It was said those that carried the seals of the Red Duke had nine lives. Nine chances to live. Really it was probably closer to four or five, that holy number. Three if you were unfavored.
There's truth to all stories, it just gets twisted in the telling.
I thought of those stories now, as Captain Duan stood before me, blood running from his head in veritable rivulets, and an arrow through his neck.
As I watched, he reached up, broke off the fletching of the arrow, then pulled it out by the head, barely grunting as the shaft dragged its way through his neck.
I thought of when he had pulled my knife from his shoulder so easily. As though pain mattered little to him. A regrettable inconvenience.
The daquan threw the broken arrow to the ground in disgust, and then tugged his sword from where it had lodged in the window frame when he had cut the rope, destroying my route of escape.
I knew I should move to stop him. That I should take advantage of his slow movements to strike hard and fast with the liu xing. But I did not. I found myself watching, fascinated, like a child seeing blood for the first time.
I almost found myself rooting for him to overcome his injuries, and stand before me once more.
He did. It was shaky, but he stood, held his sword at the ready, and then spoke, his voice raspy, as though his throat had simply suffered a bad cough, and not an arrow through it.
"I thought there was something odd about you, little mouse. And now I know what it is."
He paused, sword tip dropping and then finding its way up once more. "You are like me," he finished. I realized every rasp of his throat was caused by the blood flowing down it.
I threw back my head and laughed. "Like you? And how are we alike?"
"You see beauty in violence." He grinned, teeth red with his own blood.
His words did not surprise me. What surprised me is that I agreed with him.
"We are nothing alike, dog," I spat coldly.
Captain Duan laughed. "Does it excite you? The thought of ending life, of bringing pain? It does, doesn't it?"
I swung the liu xing in a wide arc, regretting giving him the chance to talk.
"Or maybe it's the prospect of the fight you love," he pressed, swinging his sword in a lazy arc as well. "The chance to gamble your life? To feel truly alive?"
Captain Duan stopped the swing mid arc, his sword at eye level. "In which case, you're even madder than I!"
And at that the mad dog charged.
Immediately I realized his unsteady movements had been a show, for the shakiness was gone from his hands, and his slash was steady. He had been simply talking to give himself time to recover.
In that sense, perhaps we are alike.
I quickly dodged back around the table, agile enough now the rope around my middle was gone. And by gone, I meant out the window.
I skipped over the fallen body of the commander, glancing at the pile of rope that had fallen from Kageyama's body.
That may be long enough for me to reach the ground.
But I had to bring my thoughts back to the fight before me as Captain Duan's sword swung through the air so close I felt it catch and cut a strand of my hair.
"You are thinking of something else?" The daquan brayed. "I am so betrayed. This is our fight, mouse!"
I smirked. He wanted my concentration? Fine.
I ducked under another slash and hurried away, sliding under the table and standing on the other side to put it between us once more.
With breathing space, I considered my options. Captain Duan had not been wrong, when he had accused me of choosing a long range weapon to avoid coming within his reach. I had learned that night on the wall that his hands were too strong for me to escape once they had me in their grasp.
But that did not matter. You did not have to be close to someone to kill them.
The liu xing in my hand was now whirling in a tightly woven circle. It was heavy, and it tired my arm to keep the rotation going. I had experience with the weapon, but those I had used in the past had been smaller, and had not had spikes, which meant I could use blows from my own body, kicks and twists, to propel it at my opponent.
I could not do that now. Not unless I wanted to have a spike through my foot. I would have to rely on momentum for propulsion.
With a twist of my wrist I released the iron ball from its revolutions and sent it through the air, across the table, toward Captain Duan.
The dog side-stepped and swatted the iron ball to the side with a sharp downstroke of his sword and an echoing clang. Quickly I jerked the ball back, having to step aside to avoid hitting myself with my own weapon.
"Mouse, that weapon is too much for you. Choose another, I will wait." Captain Duan generously gestured to the wall of weapons.
I ignored him, beginning to twirl the liu xing again. I enjoyed the sound it made as it whirled through the air. "Do you know what they call this weapon, in the south?" I asked.
Captain Duan frowned, not liking that I was ignoring his magnanimous kindness.
I leapt to the table, bringing the liu xing down in a wide arc from above.
Captain Duan managed to parry the blow. And the next, and the next, that I launched in quick succession to his sides, his neck, his head. One swing aimed at his ankles he simply jumped over.
He returned his own blows, quick sharp jabs and broad swings. Most missed, but a few drew cuts through my clothes, and one a red line across my skin near my wrist. I managed to catch one swing with a loop of the liu xing's chain, then spun away, trying to pull the weapon from his hands. The dog cleverly twisted his wrist to avoid losing his weapon, and I spun away empty handed.
We stood apart from each other again, slowly circling. Just as my liu xing circled the air.
I found there was a grin on my face. Captain Duan's movements, once too fast and powerful for me to manage, were well within my abilities now that he was injured.
Just as he had toyed with me on the wall, I played with him, savoring the chance at revenge. I sent one strike after another, forcing him to dodge the way I wanted, herding him toward a corner like a dog herds sheep. My liu xing swept in wide arcs across the room, vertically, horizontally, diagonally, sliding across stone with a shrieking screech and smashing the chairs and other furniture of the commander's room into splinters when it came into contact.
Despite having to retreat, dodging and grunting to avoid the hiss of my deadly star, the dog's face matched my own, covered with a savage grin.
You see beauty in violence.
Well, perhaps a little.
At last Captain Duan stood in a corner of the commander's study, trapped where I wanted him. I saw panic fill his eyes even as triumph soared in mine.
I brought the liu xing out of its spin, chain clinking in a deadly song as it flew toward the captain's chest.
At the last moment, with a reserve of speed he had been saving, the dog turned sideways, the spikes just barely scratching at his chest plate. Then my metal star thundered into a book covered shelf, sending paper exploding outwards.
I tugged on the chain. The liu xing had become lodged once more, this time in the wood of the bookcase.
Captain Duan grinned, and I realized it was I who had walked into his trap.
The dog drew back his sword, and brought it down with all his strength on the metal links of my weapon, severing the chain in two and destroying my weapon.
I pulled the broken chain back to me. It came clattering harmlessly over the floor, like an ashamed dog that has failed its duty.
"I told you you should have chosen another weapon!" Duan all but screamed, gleeful in his triumph.
Face wild, Captain Duan threw himself across the room at me.
Calmly, as he rushed, I let the chain out at the other end, the end with the wooden handle. I gave a swift sharp kick to the wood, sent it curving up over my shoulders...
...and brought the wooden handle crashing down onto Captain Duan's already bleeding head.
The dog crumpled mid charge. The force should have been enough to lay him out, but I hung back. This was the most dangerous time. If he was simply playing dead, and I got too close, it would be over for me.
When I was certain that Captain Duan was in fact incapacitated, I dashed forward, kicking his fallen sword out of his reach.
I quickly looped the remains of my weapon around his body, tying the links in the back. I had learned my lesson the first time. I would not give him the chance to rise again.
As I bound his hands with the metal, I could not resist repeating my question to the dog's unconscious back. "Do you know what they call the liu xing in the south?"
The dog did not answer of course. He was still alive, breathing softly, but the last blow had well and truly felled him.
Since my opponent could not answer, I did, smugly. "They do not call it 'falling star'. In some parts of the south, and the islands of the eastern sea, it is called 'dalong quan'. The Dragon's Fist."
At that moment, there was pounding on the door. I stood, snatching up Captain Duan's sword in preparation to defend myself from the next threat.
The door burst open, and Kageyama flew into the room, sword sliding from its sheath like a hissing snake, followed, to my surprise, by Zhangyu.
Both men looked around at the wreck the room had become. The blood, the fallen soldiers, the commander with his head crushed in lying under his own war table. Papers from the exploded bookshelf drifted over all, caught in the wind from the broken window, settling in streaks of blood like giant flies drawn to the carnage.
Kageyama's eyes found Captain Duan's unconscious form and stayed there, narrowing.
I lowered my sword. "Oh my, gentlemen. How kind of you to come to my rescue. You are just in time to clean up."
I gestured to the broken room around me.
*~*~*~*~*~*
I was uninjured save for the small cut on my wrist where I had dodged a swing from Captain Duan's sword too slowly, and the bruises on my ribs where he had stabbed me while I still had the rope wrapped about me.
I washed, changed to the clean clothes that had been laid out for me, and left the small soldier's quarters I had been given since Zhangyu had taken control of the fortress.
Then I made my way down to the dungeons.
I followed the wide spiraling staircase, the one Captain Duan had dragged me up all those months ago, down, into the foundations of the stone fortress. Moisture leaked from the stone walls around me, but instead of being colder down here, it was strangely warm, as though the fire in the center of the world ran close to the surface.
I found Kageyama and Sanli outside one of the thick wooden doors that sealed the cells. Two of Zhangyu's guard stood on either side of the door, rigidly at attention.
Standing on my tip toes, I peeked through the door's small window, enjoying the sight of the Daquan chained to the far wall. He sat, hanging his manacled hands between his knees as he contemplated the cell floor between his feet.
The dog's head and neck had been swathed in bandages, and the white was speckled with red.
"Need someone to help you change your bandages, dog?" I asked.
Captain Duan heard my voice and looked up. When he saw my face peering through the barred slit, he waved, the cheerful grin on his face looking like he was greeting an old friend.
I felt my stomach clench. I reached forward to slam the metal flap on the small window shut.
"It will be difficult to interrogate him. I fear he will enjoy the pain," I said. "I wish we had the commander instead, but alas, he's... lost too much face." I chuckled, thinking of the commander's face crushed beneath my liu xing.
Beside me, Kageyama stood inspecting his knife, the one that forced you to tell the truth. I had forgotten it's name, but not its effects.
He sheathed the knife and frowned at my words. "Your irreverence is never appreciated, but now especially. Commander Sha may have been an enemy, but he was still a man. Laughing at his demise makes you no better than him." Kageyama tipped his chin at the door of Captain Duan's cell.
I hated when the kitsune took this condescending tone. Hated more that I knew he was right.
You see beauty in violence.
I didn't. I don't.
"Take Sanli and go check to see how Zakhar is doing," Kageyama said, nodding to the prince. Sanli leaned against the wall, bandaged fingers held in a sling in front of him, a distant look on his face.
"I will..." I said stubbornly. "...after we get the information from the dog. I want to know who is after me."
"I will get the information you need. Go."
My lips pursed. "I beat him. It was my victory. Why do you deny me? You think I am not capable of torture?"
Kageyama leaned close to speak in my ear. "Oh, I am sure that you are capable. Do you want Sanli to know it too?"
I glanced over at the little prince, where he leaned weakly against the wall, his bandaged fingers pathetic, his face pale.
No...
"Go to Zakhar. He nearly killed himself trying to rush back in to save you." Kageyama gave me a light push toward Sanli then moved to enter the cell.
The last thing I heard before the heavy door closed behind him was Kageyama calmly addressing the Daquan.
"What was it you said of me, Captain? That I am not a man of violence?"
*~*~*~*~*~*