We dined that evening with the lordling himself. Ryzen, the fourth member of our company sat at a right angle from Huang, Hanari, and me. Based on his technique and his notions of “honor” the three for us knew better than to trust him. The lordling did not address the four of us directly for the duration of the meal.

  But once he ordered tea brought out to us, he began to speak in earnest. “My wife was taken from our estates.” I blinked at him, surprised he began so directly. When I looked around the room, I noticed he’d sent the rest of the guards away. Only two men remained, crouched in the shadows and close enough to the lordling to reach out and touch him. I shook my head. The lordling had dismissed his guards without me noticing. My state of alarm rose at the realization. “I believe some of my own men were involved, which is why I arranged for mercenaries to retrieve her.”

  He snapped his fingers and a door slid open behind him. Two more black-cloaked men stepped into the room, carrying a large chest between them. The lordling pointed to the chest with evident disdain. “This is your reward. I want my wife brought back alive.” The two men set the chest on the ground with a heavy thud and opened the lid. Lantern light twinkled back over the room as the gold coins within the chest sparkled. The lordling kicked the lid shut and leaned forward from his wooden chair. “You will not be paid unless she is returned alive. And there is a condition I have not mentioned in public yet.”

  The small hairs on the nape of my neck rose up in unison and my mouth went dry. This was one of many reasons why I loathed nobility.

  The lordling waited until the tension had reached sufficient heights before he continued. “I will accompany you to save my wife.” I snorted, unable to control my reactions. The lordling favored me with a glare. “Do you object?”

  I bowed with a slight incline of my head. It was disrespectful considering his station, but I did not care. “I do. You should object too.”

  He wrinkled his brow at my words and put his hand on his knee. The lordling had looked young before this, but now he resembled a child dressed in his father’s gowns. “What do you mean?”

  My eyes shifted to the black-cloaked men in the room who’d gone still at my words. From the way they’d stopped moving in the shadows, I could tell they’d put hands on weapons and prepared to lunge at me from the darkness at a word from their lord. “I do not know the circumstances of your wife’s capture, but I assume there is a reason you’ve chosen a small group. If I were guessing, you already know where she is and fear a frontal assault will end with her death.” I pointed to the figures in the shadows. “You clearly have agents you trust enough to hear the details, so why not send them alone and remain here in safety?”

  The lordling nodded along with my assessment until I reached my final question. He slammed his hand down on his knee and tried to deepen his voice as he exploded. “Because a man does not abandon his wife to be rescued by underlings!”

  This time I checked my breathing and did not allow myself to snort or laugh in the face of this man’s resolve. He was little more than a child, no older than twenty. But I respected his determination, even if I thought him foolish. When a few seconds passed and the lordling relaxed his hand from his knee, I said, “and you are determined to take this course?”

  “I am!”

  “Are these guards going with us?”

  The lordling nodded. “Their only job is to guard me and the princess when she’s been rescued.”

  “Before I agree to this, I would like to know more about the situation. Who is holding your wife? Where is she being held? And how many warriors must we slip by to rescue her?”

  I had my own opinion on the matter. The lordling’s idea of staging an arena battle might have been inspired to bring in outsiders with no connection to his wife’s abduction. But he had no way of knowing whether the four of us could sneak into a festival, much less a protected enclave.

  “There is a fortress five days away from here.” The lordling motioned and one of the black-clad guards produced a map of the region. I memorized the features at once, glad to have seen a map. “The men who took Falina demand her weight in gold for her return. We will leave a day before the gold shipment departs from Fukan. I have delayed as long as I thought possible…”

  “Wait, how do you know your wife’s captors did not hear of you gathering mercenaries?”

  The lordling smiled, unconcerned with my interruption. “Only a handful of men saw the four of you and know who you are. Those men are currently being detained under guard in my manor.” He raised a hand. “They are being treated well and will be fed and housed. But the men who took my wife expect me to try and take her back using force. Instead, I will have a four of my own trusted men disguise themselves as you four so that it appears I hired you to protect my gold and ensure my wife’s safe return.”

  This was why I hated nobility. The foolish young man before me had decided on a course of action and then bent heaven to make it happen. And in all likelihood his wife would die, I would not be paid, and the whole venture would fail. But my honor demanded I complete my mission, even if the lordling had set blocks before me so great the roof of hell would have buckled under the weight.

  Beside me, Huang and Hanari shook their heads as if the same thoughts rolled through their minds.

  I set the cup of tea beside me, wiped my mouth, and said, “when do we start, lord?”

  “Please, call me Tai-li. And we set out at dawn.”

  We set out at dawn. The oath I’d sworn to Odgen pressed down on my shoulders that night. While Hanari snored and rolled about in her sleep, I folded my arms and resisted the pull of unconsciousness. Would Tai-li the lordling or his wife Falina survive the week? Would the four warriors chosen as his proxies? Or was something else happening, the shape of which I could not quite seize?

  The sun rose and I was packed before Hanari shot up from bed.

  “Whassat!?” She whipped her head back and forth as if still in the throes of her dreams. “Oh, we’re still in the palace…”

  I nodded to her and flicked my fingers toward the small roll I’d made with food and bedding. “We’re leaving soon.”

  Hanari crawled over to me on her knees. “You heard the lordling, let’s just get out of town and move onto the next one, Isha. This job is madness and… you know there’s something wrong with it, right?”

  “Of course I do.” I raised my hand to forestall any further complaints. “But I accepted the lordling’s mission. I won’t back down now simply because it is harder than I originally thought.”

  “You… I mean… aren’t you afraid you might die?”

  I snorted and looked out the window of our small apartments. A carved opening in the shape of a flower petal cradled a small tuft of clouds in the sky beyond. “I will certainly die. It is inevitable.”

  “I mean now…”

  I thumped the Mountain Cutter’s scabbard on the floor. “We could have both died in Tamanoe. Our food could have been poisoned last night. And in five days my head could be severed from its neck. But no fire, no poison, and no blade can take my honor from me.”

  If Odgen were alive, he might have cracked a joke then. I could almost hear his voice.

  Monsters like you and me, Isha, we have no honor left.

  I’d never agreed with him.

  Hanari frowned and shook her white hair out like a cloud dispersed before the winds. “Well, I am going to live to be surrounded by ninety great grandchildren and die in a palace ten times bigger than this one.”

  She hopped up and patted her belly. “Is that how you will use your portion of the gold purse?”

  “Maybe? Or maybe I will give everything to orphans. Who knows?” Using her toe, Hanari flipped the bare katana she’d taken from the goblin and tested the weight. Though ideal for hand-to-hand, her sword stance offended my sensibilities. On the way to rescue princess Falina, I intended to make sure Hanari learned the basics of her new weapon.

  Tai-li wore a ridiculous purple embroidered robe when Hanari and I walked up to him. Huang and Ryzen were already there, arguing with the lordling and his guards.

  “…stand out like a plum tree among firs.” Huang’s hissing words floated to me across the courtyard. I agreed with his assessment. And I knew as surely as the martial artist stood there with his face too close to Tai-li that the lordling would not relent.

  “Boys.” I nodded to the three of them. At my greeting, Ryzen scowled as he looked over and Huang stepped back from hissing at the lordling. None of the black-cloaked guards were visible, but I could sense their presences nearby.

  “Master Isha.” Huang bowed to me with his fist in his palm. “Please help me convince Tai-li he needs to change into something else?”

  I gave all three of them a once-over. Ryzen wore a loose-fitting tunic and brown robe over a coif of metal links. His weapons were hidden under his robes, but I could see the bulges from them as he turned and favored me with a scowl.

  Huang had put a shirt on, bone white with black cloth buttons on the front. His pants were black and loose. Of the people standing before me, he was the only one who might have been able to sneak through a fortress.

  When Tai-li turned to me, a carnival of sounds greeted my ears. From the whisper of leather plates beneath his garish purple clothing to the jingle of metal scales, I could tell he wore a full body suit of armor. Was this outrageous purple robe the only thing in Tai-li’s wardrobe which would cover his bulk? Like Hanari, he carried a sword on his waist, but an ornate scabbard sheathed his blade and further proclaimed his wealth.

  “Tai-li looks fine to me. Let’s get moving before we lose too much of the morning.” I kept my voice low and eyed the walls. A flicker of black across the roofed arch suggested one of our shadows had accidentally revealed himself.

  “But, master Isha…” Huang looked earnestly pained as he spoke.

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  “Call me Isha and nothing more.” I snapped my fingers together like the jaws of a serpent. “And as to the… Tai-li, our duty is to retrieve his wife, not to protect him from bandits on the road.”

  Ryzen snorted while Hanari covered her mouth with the sleeves of her robe. Tai-li glowered at me, his hand drifting to the hilt of his sword. “I need no such protections…”

  Rather than respond, I kicked open the side gate and walked out in the lead. A group such as this one, composed of five, only two of whom knew each other, would need a leader if we were to succeed. I’d hoped Huang would step to he altar shrine and take the place, but from the way he’d already alienated Tai-li and the hostile glares Ryzen shot him, I knew there was no chance for him now.

  So I took charge.

  “We’re leaving through the southern gate of Fukan.” I strode down the street with my head held high, as if I belonged this close to the lord’s palace.

  “But our destination is to the East…”

  I turned on Tai-li at his question. The others, save Hanari, had their eyes on me as I did. “Tell me, lordling. Are you doing this to impress your father?”

  “My father is to know nothing of this!” He hissed at me in the same tone I’d used on him, leaning toward me with his hand on the hilt of his sword as if to warn me off.

  “That explains at least part of his farce.” I could have slapped his hand away from his sword and put the arrogant fool on his back in the middle of the street. But it was too early for such treatment and would draw more attention to us than I wanted. “And I assume you want your wife back, in truth, and not as a corpse?”

  “Of course…”

  I interrupted him, irritating him further. “Then shut up and let me lead this little parade. As a wealthy fop, you should not deign to speak with your servants on the streets and you should definitely not argue with them.” Sweeping my arm out to the side, Tai-li followed and frowned. Here and there people stared at us, aghast at how public our little tiff had become.

  Red faced, Tai-li looked down at the ground and flicked his hand toward me. “Fine, servant lead on!”

  I nodded once at him, noticing how his hand trembled on the hilt of his katana. That was a problem for later. Right now I wanted to get this group out of the city before we attracted the wrong kind of attention.

  When I stopped at a clothier near the outer wall of the city, I could hear Tai-li’s grumbling over the din of the crowd. I bowed to the old man who stood at the front of the store and said, “my munificent employer has permitted me a small indulgence.”

  The proprietor looked over our group with narrowed eyes. A pair of guards closed on us surreptitiously from the alleys on either side of the store. I didn’t blame the proprietor or the guards. Our group looked like bandits. “Yes?”

  I pointed to Tai-li and said, “if my son were my employer’s size, would you have two sets of traveling clothes to fit him?”

  Next to me, Hanari bumped my hip and giggled into her sleeve. The store owner did not seem to notice. “I may. Do you have coin?”

  I reached into my pouch and withdrew a pair of gold coins, not caring whether I overpaid for the clothes or not and set them on the counter. “Is this enough?”

  The proprietor’s eyes widened and he snatched both coins off of the counter, his earlier suspicion of our group entirely forgotten. “Let me check my stock and I will return shortly.”

  Before he could leave, I added, “I would like three long sashes, any color if you would.”

  The old man waved back at me as he hummed his way into the forest of clothing behind him. I’d chosen a worker’s shop exactly for this reason. Most likely, he would have sets of clothes other customers had left unpaid and he would use this opportunity to unload them on me. Sure enough, he returned with two sets of dingy and often-repaired robes. They were bulky, brown, and fit my needs perfectly. In different circumstances, I would have shouted at him and chased him back into his stock for insulting me.

  He set both robes down on the counter and returned whistling with a length of yellow cloth, one of black, and a bright pink silken cloth which surprised me. Upon closer inspection, I could see the defects and boles in the silk and could understand why the merchant saw fit to foist these off on me.

  “Perfect.” I bowed to him and laid it on thick. “May heaven look kindly on your generosity.”

  The old man’s eyes widened and I resisted a smirk. He was superstitious and knew he’d cheated me out of the gold I’d given him. Whatever plans heaven had for retribution, the old man had earned.

  I rolled both sets of clothes up with the yellow and pink sashes, tied them off with the black sash and slung them from my back. With a final bow, I fled from the clothier before he tried to sell me more of his cast-offs or found a way to redress the karmic imbalance he’d created between us.

  Tai-li walked up to me surreptitiously and hissed. “I won’t be paying for those.”

  I took a heavy breath and stopped at the side of the lane. “Nor do I expect you to, sir. Now we should hurry on. This unnecessary detour will cost us time.”

  Tai-li’s eyes bulged with fury, but again, he cast out among the crowd and must have caught people staring because he swallowed his rage and left his quaking hand on his blade.

  At the southern gate, the guards did not even stop us as we left the city behind. They did not stop the group of eight men following us. Not that I expected them to.

  The moment we left the sight of the gatehouse and the roads gave us shelter from the crowds moving into and out of Fukan, Tai-li grabbed my arm.

  “How dare you order me about like a common…”

  I hooked the Mountain Cutter’s scabbard under the back of his heel and pressed one finger into his sternum. Tai-li toppled over onto his back, soiling his purple robes and blubbering in anger. At the same time, I drew my weapon and cut a bolt from the air, a bolt which had been intended for Tai-li’s back.

  Our eight brigands had chosen the instant of Tai-li’s anger to attack us.

  Four men rushed from behind trees near the roads, shouting and waving their spears as if to harry us. It spoke poorly of the city for bandits to set upon their lordling so close to the walls. Three more men fired arrows at us from the distance.

  Hanari deflected the missiles with her hands while I took position over Tai-li and cut the arrows from the sky before they could pierce my employer and ensure I would not be paid. One of the men charging from the forest grabbed his neck and gurgled. I could hear the branches over his head rustle as one of the black-clad personal guards jerked the bandit off of his feet and slit his neck with thread.

  A pair of knives flipped out of the branches to the left and took out a second charging man before he reached the border of the road. Ryzen cut down the third man the second he closed within the swordsman’s reach. And I dropped the Mountain Cutter back into her sheath and jabbed the metal scabbard into the ribcage of the fourth man hard enough to crack bone in a mirror of the move I’d turned on Tai-li with my finger.

  Huang and Hanari took off like oddly paired gourds, one white and black, the other burnt red, and leapt into battle with the archers who’d tried to ambush us.

  They brought down the remaining four with the help of two more black-cloaked guards. That made four guards for the lordling. The lordling who currently cowered at my feet, waiting for death to take him with his hand on his finely-crafted katana blade.

  The bandit I’d jabbed in the chest writhed on the ground, still alive. Ryzen loomed over him and I hissed at the warrior. “Leave him. I want to question one of them.” Ryzen nodded at me and proceeded to clean his paired blades.

  Tai-li had his eyes squeezed shut. When I tapped him on the shoulder, he tried to draw his katana on me, getting his sleeve tangled in his sash and squealing as he struggled show steel. I shook my head and stepped with my ankle at his elbow and said, “Stop. You’re safe Tai-li.” His elbow hit me once before he opened his eyes and looked up.

  Ryzen hissed a curse at the lordling’s weakness, a curse I could not particularly argue with. Rather than remain on the road where anyone could see us, I pulled Tai-li up and dragged the rest of my group off to the east.

  Tai-li let me pull him along for almost two minutes before he huffed at me. “Let me go I said!”

  Or maybe I’d been dragging him for a while and ignoring his complaints. When he finally pulled out of my grip, the black-clad guards had vanished into the woods around us.

  “How dare you drag me around like some kind of ruff…”

  I stepped into his space and dropped him on his ass a second time. This time he cowered on the ground expecting an attack, covering his face, and curling into a fetal position. From the distance, I could swear I heard soft laughter in the trees.

  The surviving bandit I tossed in the distance while I loomed over the lordling. “Get up you little fool.” I wanted to slap him, but I suspected his guards might complain about that.

  When he turned his gaze to me, Tai-li’s face was twisted into a mask of fury. He pulled his katana before he stood and I laughed at him. I wasn’t happy about this, but I knew the signs of macho brain-poisoning when I saw them. And I knew one of the only cures.

  His blade shook in the air as he finally stood and faced me. I shot through his guard, twisted the blade out of his hands and flung into the bank of leaves next to the wheezing bandit. Tai-li gasped and I set the Mountain Cutter’s length next to his head. “I’ve saved your life once today. Speak to me about daring one more time and I will take what I am owed from your hide.”

  Tai-li opened his mouth as if to question me, but shut it when I lowered the Mountain Cutter’s scabbard near to his face. He took a breath and recovered a fraction of his composure. There was hope for him yet. He turned and looked at the others of our little troupe, all of whom averted their eyes as if watching for another ambush. Except for Hanari, who stood a few feet away from me ready to back me up if needed.

  Tai-li took another breath and said, “what are we doing here?”

  Finally, I was hoping he would find some measure of calm so I could speak to him reasonably. “We’re going to interrogate the man who tried to kill us and see if he’s involved in your wife’s abduction.”

  Tai-li frowned at the man laying where I’d dropped him. “This is one of them?”

  “He is.” I pointed to the man. “Would you like to help me?”

  Tai-li narrowed his eyes as if to argue or question my words, but nodded. “Fine.”

  “Good.” He started to walk over toward the man, but I pointed at Tai-li and let a portion of my killing urge slip. “No, stay!”

  He jerked as if I’d hit him, opened his mouth again, but blanched as if recalling my earlier warning.

  To my surprise and pleasure, he remained where I’d told him. I walked over to the bandit and collared him in one hand, set the Mountain Cutter on the grass, and grabbed Tai-li’s sword with my free hand.

  “Pleash…” Blood trickled from the corner of the bandit’s mouth. I’d hit him a little harder than I’d intended to. Even if I’d been planning to let him live, he wouldn’t survive the night, most likely.

  “Why did you attack your lord, fool?” I held the bandit up to look at Tai-li. “Answer me?”

  “What? Thash not mah lord!” the bandit tried to cover his face, but from the pain which shook him, I imagined moving his arms was too painful.

  Still, I manhandled him and pulled him closer to Tai-li, who leaned away. “Tell me why you tried to attack your lord!”

  The bandit burbled and cried, he hadn’t tried to attack his lord, he was just after a fat merchant’s purse. From the lack of recognition and utter fear in the bandit’s eyes, I believed him.

  “Good, then you will be fine.” The man looked up at me and smiled as I drove Tai-li’s incredible blade into the man’s chest through his heart. He died with the smile on his face.

  “Why did you kill him, he needs to face judgement!” Tai-li had spirit, I gave him that. It was proof he wasn’t completely worthless.

  I snorted and dropped the man’s corpse to the ground. “He just faced judgment. And a good deal more kindly a judgement than hard labor for the rest of his life.”

  Ryzen and Hanari nodded over the man’s corpse and walked away. Huang bent over and pressed his fist into his palm, bowing to the dead man. He’d done the same thing with the other dead bandits.

  “Give me back my sword.” I loathed the way the lordling ordered me around as if he expected me to obey.

  If I hadn’t already made my decision about Tai-li’s sword, his tone would have made it for me. “No.” Tai-li’s face turned red and he stepped toward me as I wiped the katana off on the dead bandit’s sleeve. Before Tai-li spoke, I pointed at him with my free hand. “You think you can order me to return your blade? Have you earned it?”

  “It is mine by right…”

  “That’s a ‘no’ then.” I flipped the sword around and sheathed it naked in my sash. Tai-li’s eyes widened and I knew he was wondering how I’d avoided cutting myself or my garments. “I will make you a deal, lordling. Tell me the full truth about your missing wife and perhaps I will agree to return your sword to you.”

  “Guards…”

  I let the full force of my presence wash out of my body and over the petty lord. He clapped his mouth shut and stared at me. Ryzen put his hands on his swords and Huang took several steps back as I let the Jade Avarice fold over my skin. This lord was surely not one of the innocents I’d promised Odgen I would protect. With tones as quiet and sure as a cicada’s chirp, I said, “If you order these men out of the trees, I will drop you before their feet hit the leaves.”

  From five feet away, I could hear Tai-li’s heart thumping in his chest. Men shifted in the trees around us and Hanari moved to face them. It was Tai-li’s place to decide what to do now, and though I’d let my killing spirit loose among these mortals, I felt calm and in perfect equipoise.

  I wasn’t entirely surprised when Tai-li fell on his knees before me. “They demanded I come alone! They said they would defile her before they murdered my wife if I did not come alone! Please, I only want to save Falina, please help me save my wife!”

  Tension fled from around us and I swore to the sky.

  I wasn’t getting paid.