Descendant of the Crane(109)

He was sobbing too hard to speak. But then Hesina knew. She knew the way Caiyan tackled problems—with parsimony.

The Tenets hadn’t been moved at all. The book was still in her father’s study.

Two guards lay heaped in the snow when she ran out into the courtyard. One clutched his head, dazed, while the other struggled to sit up. Hesina’s gaze darted beyond them to the lone, weaponless figure ringed by ten guards.

“Akira!”

The snow slowed her run. She was halfway to them when one guard lunged. Akira spun behind and threw an elbow into the man’s neck. A second guard closed in, and Akira caught the woman’s arm and used her sword to deflect another’s blow. One of the swords fell into the snow, but Akira didn’t grab it.

Even now, he didn’t want to hurt them.

Hesina ran toward him, skidding to a stop as some of the guards broke away from the ring and blocked her way.

“Capture her alive!” ordered one while the others charged. “Save her for the execution!”

Hesina dragged Xia Zhong’s blade through the snow, leaving a long, red streak. She flung the snow at the guards when they neared. They slowed, momentarily impeded, and Hesina cut around without engaging, yanking an empty sheath off one of their belts.

“Catch!” she cried to Akira, throwing it.

Akira swiped the sheath out of the air and slid it over his blade, becoming a new fighter—fluid and unrestrained, wielding his sword as he had his rod.

Hesina broke through to him and whirled so that they were back to back. They pushed back the guards, thinning their ranks, until a gap opened and Hesina spun to Akira. “Run.”

Hurry. They sprinted through the galleries of the outer palace, dashing through the corridors and scattering shrieking maids right and left. Hesina had lost the screened headpiece back in the fighting, and her face was on clear display, but she didn’t care. She slowed only to slash the facades. They toppled behind them, choking the path to the inner palace. Anything to buy them more time.

But no guards came after them, or waited in her father’s study when she burst in.

Hesina spun with her sword held out, ready to fend off another onslaught, dumbfounded to find none. Then she snapped out of her daze and ran for the shelves, honing in on the rough-bound spine nestled between The Annals of the Empire and Lizhu’s Chronicles.

The pages stuck to her clammy hands as she flipped through, scanning the insect-like characters. To be sure, she tore out a page and watched it fuse back, whole and unmarked.

“Where to?” asked Akira when she rejoined him in the corridor with the Tenets bound to her waist.

Hesina grabbed his hand. “This way.”

Once they were inside the throne room, she bolted the doors and faced the dais up ahead. The throne was empty. She wasn’t sure why she’d expected Caiyan to be here, or why her heart dropped when he wasn’t. Maybe it was because this seemed too easy, to be able to leave without a final confrontation. But she couldn’t complain, not when her back burned and her legs throbbed.

She went up to the dais, arm shaking as she pointed Xia Zhong’s sword at the soapstone reredos. “Help me destroy this.”

Without questioning, Akira unsheathed his sword and struck. Hesina slashed perpendicular to his diagonal. He slammed his pommel into the center of their cuts. Cracks spiderwebbed outward.

One more slam, and the screen collapsed in pieces.

Hesina clambered onto the throne and hauled herself over its back. She thumped to her feet on the other side. Akira landed behind her.

This time, she didn’t need to say “run.”

The passageway was longer than Hesina recalled. They must have been running for ten, fifteen minutes before the ground grew jagged with chunks of broken rock. She slowed to touch the wall. Her hand came away powdered with soot. Her nose smarted from the musk of black powder. Her eyes smarted from tears.

Take some sticks of black powder with you, and find the passageway sealed with stones, she’d ordered Lilian. Blast them away, and lead Mei’s parents and the others out of the city before I read the decree.

Lilian must have already been planning on condemning herself at that point. Even then, she had carried out Hesina’s final request, and now Hesina smiled in spite of the twinge in her chest. She wiped at her eyes as the gong struck six notes directly above them, announcing the hour of her execution.

It was time to finish this in style.

Hesina faced forward. Behind her lay the lacquer palace she called home. Beyond lay the life of a fugitive. She’d always dreamed of freedom, but this wasn’t quite the kind. How were they going to live? How were they going to feed themselves?

“For what it’s worth,” said Akira, making her realize she’d spoken out loud, “I can return to robbery, and you can…”

“I can what?” Pursue the truth? Rule? Hesina had proved herself quite incapable at both.

“Make lanterns.”

Hesina smiled—sadly. Wherever she went, she would go alone. She wouldn’t bring Akira down with her.

But for now, they crossed this boundary between worlds together, their jog slowing to a walk as they came to a fork in the dirt tunnel. The passageway on the right echoed silence. The left whistled with distant wind, probably leading up to one of the bamboo stands just past the imperial gate. Hesina craved fresh air but knew better than to go aboveground. The whole city would be learning of her escape any moment now, and the palace’s vicinity would be clotted with guards. The risk and danger were simply too great.