31 May 2007
by: Jade Aestas
Disclaimer: I do not own this universe (Emelan, etc) or any of the characters mentioned here except Zhi and Cai Geng. Don't be discouraged if you don't get why Briar/Daja/Sandry/Tris etc are missing here, I decided you need to see Zhi first. This is a Briar fic, mostly, and a romance. Also, it is my FIRST EVER FANFIC, so be nice!!!!
Comments are good, we like comments!
Book of the Way
Zhi Geng plunged headlong into the Bengbu river, her tired body protesting painfully as she forced her arms and legs to carry her to the other side. Distantly she could hear the sound of hunting dogs as the Yanjingi army scouts desperately searched for any sign of her passage. Knowing they faced Imperial executioners if they failed to capture her sparked a glimmer of pity in her mind as she fled, but not enough to stay her. Zhi's fate would be far worse than death if she ever knelt at the feet of the emperor again.
If? She thought, sputtering as she surfaced and the rage of the river forced water past her lips into her oxygen-starved lungs, More likely a matter of when. No one escaped the Imperial will- no one. But she had to try. It was that or continue to live as an unwilling pawn in his mad drive to conquer Gyongxe.
Zhi and her sister Cai had been the unwilling guests of His Imperial Majesty for the past year- Zhi forced to use her magic to heal entire battalions of his soldiers in seconds, always with the threat hanging above her that Cai would be tortured if she did not. Not even the bandits who had murdered their parents and burned their village inspired such fear and rage in Zhi's heart as did the emperor of Yanjing, but she had done as he commanded, keeping his armies strong against wounds, disease and other deadly affects of war. Cai was all she had left, and the emperor had used that last vestige of humanity against Zhi- promising her that Cai would not be harmed unless she refused to do as he wished.
But no more. Zhi's throat tightened and she sank briefly below the surface of the river once more as she fought the surging memories. Cai had been dancing in front of the emperor, a child-like, self-taught sort of dance that she had made up for Zhi and performed for both of them. But just as she turned a cartwheel, a poison dart had flown at the emperor out of a fold in the pavilion cloth, piercing her leg and sending her tumbling to the floor. Zhi had watched in horror as the young sister she had given up everything to protect shuddered violently and lay still. It was the fastest acting poison she had ever seen, meant to assassinate an emperor at the very feet of his best healer. But the rot-festering belbun had missed, striking instead the only innocent person in the Imperial Army encampment.
And so she had run. Knowing he now had nothing left to force her with, the emperor had turned the encampment inside out searching for the assassin. In the fury and panic as commanders and footmen alike scrambled to obey, no one had thought to hold onto Zhi, who had never before attempted to flee. She had spent several long seconds on her knees, cradling her sister's body, but when her head came up to look at the emperor as he shouted orders and threatened his men with torture, death, and profanity, her eyes were dull with a rage so suppressed that she barely even noticed it. Her only thoughts had been of escaping.
She had slipped silently out of the Imperial pavilion and dashed to her tent nearby. A quick search had revealed several stashes of food, which she tucked into her green healer's tunic, and then she was gone again.
It was only as she was passing the last of the sentries that her anger had caught up with her. Now, she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the pictures it brought to mind. She had used her magic, the beautiful, clean, healers' magic that her mother had named her for, to reach within their chests and starve them of air until each sank to the ground, their faces purple. Zhi had never thought of that before, that a healer could just as easily kill someone with their magic as heal them, and she didn't want to think of it now.
She yanked her mind away from the idea and strained for the far edge of the river. It was far; not so much that she could have drown in the attempt, but she was tired from a night spent in fear and in hiding, and the healing magic that came so easily to her in aid of others did not work on herself. Finally she gained the other side and crawled up the bank to rest a moment in the soft grass that marked the edge of the riverside still belonging to Gyongxe. Somewhere miles ahead lay her destination- the first Living Circle Temple. Though Zhi was a Taei and did not believe in the Living Circle, she knew they would take her in once they discovered she could heal. The trick would be keeping them from realizing just how much healing power she really had.