Fair Trade
Chapter 2
Home Sweet Home
The carriage ride west made her long for the days when she would ride Mongolian ponies on the plain bareback. Why did it seem like that was a lifetime ago? She sighed and placed her head against the carriage wall.
"It won't be much longer." Cai Yong patted his daughter's hand and tried to hide his nervousness.
"Worried?"
"Of course. Ma Chao isn't the man you used to know. He's impetuous and bloodthirsty."
"Sounds just like the man I used to know." She replied and thought about a young man covered in blood riding a previously white mare. She had been with him on many raids to repel the barbarians and she knew how much he loved a good fight. She had learned how to appreciate it as well. Odd how they were now on the opposite ends of the spectrum. He was driven by rage, living for battle. She was hardly able to muster anger, knowing life would toy with her and she couldn't do a damned thing about it.
"He must know you were married to Cao Cao's son." Cai Yong suddenly thought about that. His hands began to shake more.
"Half the country is married to one of Cao Cao's offspring or has been in bed with one of them. I doubt he'll be so irrational."
"Once I gather the information we need, we can return home."
"We're going home…remember?" Wengi asked and then opted to drown out everything he continued to say. Home. Why did that word seem so foreign?
"It's like sending a lamb into a wolves den." Zhang Liao protested. "How can you send them without some sort of support? We have an entire brigade of specialist bodyguards trained to protect and support spies…"
"Liao." Cao Cao waved his hand in dismissal. "How obvious would that be? Why would a man who has nothing to fear employ a bodyguard unless he was guilty of something?"
"I'd love to see you counter that argument." Xiahou Dun scratched his beard and moved his rook across the chess board.
"Dammit I love her and I am not going to just accept that you're gambling on Ma Chao's rationalization to bring her home intact." Liao growled. He didn't care if he had just admitted his feelings in front of the two generals; he was having a hell of a time keeping his temper in check. This wasn't a simple assignment to him and he hated that Cao Cao was always appeared so aloof when discussing political and military decisions.
"She used to be engaged to Ma Chao." Cao Cao's simple statement was followed by his hand grabbing two of Dun's pawns from the board. His cousin ground his teeth in reply.
"What?" Liao's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. If that was true she would have said something. The Wei King was a friend, but that didn't grant Liao any access to information until the man was willing to tell him.
"The fact that you didn't know makes me all the more secure in my decision to send her out there." Cao Cao leaned back in his chair and smiled as Dun began to contemplate his next move.
"Screwing the emperor's daughter-in-law…damn Liao. I thought you were above that sort of thing." Dun looked up at Liao's irritated face. "Then again you did bang Lu Bu's daughter too."
"Stop trying to piss me off. You're just going to have to lose your damned chess match." Liao hissed knowing the Wei general was trying to get out of the minor humiliation of having Cao Cao beat him at the game.
"Valiant effort however." Cao Cao grinned deviously. A win was a win, no matter what the game was. "Liao, I will test her loyalty. Then we will determine if she is worthy of you."
"She was worthy of your damned kid." Dun snorted.
"Cao Ji wasn't a valuable asset or a close friend. Apparently he was also impotent. Worthless brat."
"If you say so." Dun reached out to move his queen but saw Cao Cao smile. He retracted his hand and went back to thought. "How many people has she married already?"
"Stop it." Liao snapped. "I'll just beat on you after the match is over if you keep this up."
"Be patient Liao." Cao Cao said with a kind smile.
"What? You're fathering him?" Dun said with a hearty laugh. "Your son dies and you can't remember his name and now you're deciding to adopt Liao?"
Cao Cao kicked Dun sharply in the shin. "Cao Ju was hardly worth feeding."
Dun rubbed his shin and recalled the reason why he always wore full battle dress when playing chess. He readjusted his robes and snorted, "Why are you so suspicious?"
"I think we've only seen a smidge of Cai Wengi's talent." Cao Cao caught Liao's agitated glare. "You'll thank me. I know you better than you think. Do you really want a wife that stays home and writes poetry?"
"Watch out, he's trying to marry you to Cao Zhi." Dun hovered his hand over his last remaining knight and saw Cao Cao smirk again. Annoyed, he retracted his hand.
"Yes." Liao growled.
"Then you would have taken Diao Chan when she had her hands in your pants." Cao Cao shook his head. "She's a sorceress, a powerful one at that, and I'm not going to let that skill go to waste just because she had a lousy time in Mongolia."
"So Ma Chao the Splendid is going to make that happen?" Zhang Liao said with a touch of distain.
"Perhaps." Cao Cao yawned. "Dun just make a move I win no matter what you do."
"Shut up." Xiahou Dun spat and then reluctantly moved his queen.
"Not much has changed." Cai Yong stepped from the carriage and held his hand up to his daughter.
"Except the banner above the main gate." Wengi said somberly. How many times had this town changed hands?
"We should meet the prefect, well I will. Perhaps you would like to visit the market?"
"Yes." Wengi nodded. The market was where she would certainly learn something. What did the people here think? How did they feel about being the front lines in a war between the Ma Clan and Wei?
"Good, I will meet you back here then. Don't get into too much trouble." Cai Yong said jokingly.
"Too late." She said quietly as she saw a man on a white horse in silver armor. For the first time in a long time she felt the urge to roll a fireball. For some reason seeing him made her angry. Why shouldn't it? He had chosen revenge over her and he was the reason she was now here instead of with Liao. She brushed past a group of hapless fangirls and stood in the road.
Ma Chao brought his horse to a stop; it wasn't the first time a girl thought she could get his attention this way. Women were just so damned foolish. "Ma'am, if you would please step aside…"
"You've let this all go to your head Mengqi." She snorted in disgusted. "If you want me out of the way, you'll have to move me out of the way."
"Wengi?" He blinked in confusion and stared down into her unmistakable brown eyes, smoldering with anger.
It seemed so close now. The spells to conjure lightning were on the tip of her tongue. "You idiot. What the hell are you doing here? Do you think that just because of your reputation that you won't be the target for an attack?"
Any uncertainty that this was indeed Cai Wengi vanished. "You haven't changed a bit."
"You haven't either." She said coldly.
"You should be thankful." He said quietly. "If we did marry, you'd probably be dead."
She couldn't stay angry at his pleading eyes lost in the still youthful but weary face. "Sorry. I heard."
"I heard you were married again…" He didn't recall what the man's name was. It definitely was a Cao though.
"He's dead." She watched his eyebrow rise. "Natural causes."
"I think your record is almost as bad as mine." He played with his horse's mane. "What brings you home?"
"I needed to get away from Xu Chang…people were looking at me like I was the walking plague." Wengi replied.
"Are you staying long?" He asked. It would be nice to visit with an old friend. He had fewer friends than he used to.
"A few months." She then added. "Whatever the obligatory mourning period is."
"Oh." Ma Chao suddenly remembered she was still a vassal of Cao Cao. "Right…there is always another Cao that needs a wife."
"You do know how to comfort people don't you?" She shook her head and stepped back into the crowd.
"Wait." He followed after her, his horse snorting at the fangirls that pressed up against her sides. "Will you join me tonight for dinner? I'm sure Dai and Yun Lu would love to see you too."
She looked up at him as his horse caught up to her. She stroked the mare's face and cheekbones. "You're dragging your baby sister off to war as well?"
"I can't exactly leave her home. She breaks a lot of stuff." Chao grinned. "You might be surprised; she's turned out to be quite the warrior."
"So much for the magic I taught her."
"I wouldn't say that." Chao chuckled. "So will you join us?"
"Sure. I'm sure my father will be happy to see you as well."
"Doubtful." He shook his head and noticed the older Cai standing respectfully back at the carriage.
"Then I'll leave him at home. It will be just us kids." She hoped it could be that easy.
"I'd like that." Chao smiled warmly and then let it fade from his face as he turned back into the crowd to rejoin his men.
Wengi watched him ride off. She hated that she could still have feelings for him, but brief moments like these could always make her heart flutter. She shook her head and went to join her father. They had both chosen their separate paths. No, Chao had chosen his path and it didn't include her. She had a wonderful man back in Xu Chang waiting on her and he deserved her unwavering loyalty. She loved him, so why did a childhood sweetheart make her wonder what could have been? "One damned conversation and I can't keep it together. I do need to conjure something destructive…"
