The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
V.
To say the least, Li Wei Yong was frustrated. He looked across the field that served as the army's new training ground. It had been moved from the beach not even a year earlier, to be closer to the army's new missile silos, and to make room for expansion. The grass had just begun to sprout where the rainforest that had hugged the beach had once been. Yet looking at the trainees strewn all over the field, he thought that perhaps they needed the challenge of fighting in the sand to bring them up to par. He'd heard the Lin Kuei still used the beach, occasionally, for that very reason.
But the new soldiers' apparent lack of skill was not the only thing bothering him. His father did still expect him to be something he wasn't, but after most of his life, he was nearly used to that. No, his real problem was that now his mother wanted him to marry, and there were no girls around that he could possibly stand enough to spend the rest of his life with.
Certainly there were many girls were quite pretty, but they were all so weak and...girly. He despised the way they threw themselves at him, shamelessly, and how their priorities for getting close to him stemmed not from actually caring about him, but from the fact that he was the only son of General Li, who was essentially the second-most powerful man on Mandalore.
Find me a woman, he thought, who isn't a giggling little girl, and I'll consider marrying her.
Of course, he had met some women who weren't pathetic, but they had all been slaves. Knowing his mother, she would drop dead at the very idea of her son marrying a slave. Of course, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing...
The captain sighed and tried to disappear, for he could see them coming, a small group of dressed up, make-upped women, flocking toward him. That was another thing that bothered him: they flocked, like birds, and they were birds, with their skinny bird legs and pestering high voices that chirped and annoyed you to death when all you really wanted was peace and quiet.
They spotted him, destroying any hopes he had of escaping, and fighting to try and reach him first, they nearly ran across the field, disrupting countless training exercises and mobbing him.
He tried to back away, but they clustered around him, giggling and squealing and talking all at once, so that he couldn't understand a word. He pushed them away and said, "Ladies, ladies, you cannot be here."
"But why not?" asked one, and they all echoed her, like a chorus.
"You're disrupting the training. These men need to concentrate, and you need to leave."
One of them pouted, trying to change his mind. Another thing he hated, pouting.
"Out, out." He herded them away, until they finally gave up and dejectedly left, turning back every few steps to give him nasty looks or pout at him. He took a deep breath and sighed with relief, turning back to oversee the training, but he heard a voice behind him.
"Hey, Meleager! Your papa wants you."
Wei Yong turned to see who had dared to speak with such insubordination. It was Lan Yiao Nih, the same soldier he had demoted to mere guard back before the princess had run away. Had they let him back in the army when she had left? Perhaps now that she was back, he could get the man out of his face. Certainly he was a talented fighter, but he needed to learn respect, or he would be useless to the army.
Glaring at the guard, he went to see what his father wanted.
General Li's office was spacious, but still seemed cluttered, with countless maps, battle plans, models. His father stood, examining a map, the light from his one-way window glowing on his right side, his back to the doorway where his son stood, fidgeting uncomfortably until the older man finally turned and acknowledged his presence.
"May I ask exactly why you made those women leave?" he began.
Wei Yong swallowed, dreading the conversation that was sure to come. "They were disrupting the field, in the way of—"
"When they entered, certainly they were a disruption. But where they stood with you? Certainly not. Wei Yong, you cannot ignore them and hope we will drop the subject. Your sisters have already been married. Tell me, just what in our Empire is wrong with all those beautiful women?"
"I-I don't like how weak they are," he said, stumbling over the words, "Or how they throw themselves at me, or how helpless they seem. I know they are women, and they are supposed to be inferior, but can't they retain even a tiny bit of dignity?"
"Perhaps if you would pay attention to them, they would not have to act so silly to try and get you to notice them. Either you pick one to marry, or your mother will choose for you. There is nothing wrong with any of those women. Yet if there isn't one who would be a good enough wife for you, pick one anyway, and save your mother the stress. You can always find one who is not weak to satisfy you; the messengers make exceptionally good whores."
Li Wei Yong was speechless with shock. Luckily, he didn't have to find a reply, for as he glanced out his father's huge window, he noticed a substantial disturbance. He recognized Lyn Sa, overworked and underfed, as all messengers, in the middle of the fray, shouting.
"I'll go see what the problem is," he offered quickly, dashing out the door.
The soldiers were already hurrying away in a hundred different directions, some first raiding the stables, some on foot. He saw the messenger begin to run away, and he called after her. "Lyn Sa!"
She halted suddenly and turned, seeming surprised that even knew her name, let alone called her by it, honoring her, treating her as a person rather than dirt under his feet.
"What is your message?" he continued.
"The princess has run away again. All inferior officers are to form a party of their choice of soldiers and search for her." She ran off, still giving him odd looks.
Li Wei Yong rushed to his horse, alone. What good would a large, loud search party do, anyway?
He had been riding for nearly half an hour when he found her. Yuen Ming lay near a small stream, muddy and apparently sleeping.
Li Wei Yong dismounted and approached her carefully. He did not see a horse besides his own anywhere around. Had she run all the way? That was impressive, for a woman. Even so, his task should not be so hard.
He got quite close to her, where she was sprawled on the bank, exhausted, it seemed. He decided his best option was to just pick her up. He reached down and grabbed her arm.
A very loud, very high shriek rang in his ears, and he found himself flat on his back on the ground, dazed and stupefied as she stumbled away. She had flipped him!
He pushed himself off the ground and walked back over to his horse, mounting the limber stallion and riding after her. The horse galloped lightly, and they easily caught up to the princess. As he passed by her, he leaned over and grabbed her, dragging her onto the horse with him.
She swung a leg up, hitting him in the ear, and they both tumbled off the horse. The princess screamed again, causing Wei Yong to shy away from the almost unbearable pitch, and she wriggled out of his grip. Perhaps this wasn't going to be so easy after all.
He whistled at his horse, which had continued to gallop for a few seconds after his passengers had fallen. Some extra rope had been tied to the saddle, and Wei Yong untied it, then sprinted after Yuen Ming's once-again fleeing form.
She glanced over her shoulder and, seeing he was still pursuing her, swerved away and tried to run faster, but her efforts were futile. The young captain was not tired in the least, and he jumped forward, tackling her to the ground. Pinning her down with his greater weight, he wrapped the rope tightly around her wrists, binding them in front of her. Sitting on her to keep her from escaping, he tied her ankles together while she beat his back with her fists.
She struggled fiercely, as he carried her to his horse, and it was with great difficulty that he swung her over the front of his saddle, securing her down by tying the extra rope that trailed off her ankles to her wrists, around his horse's girth.
Even so, she used her small amount of slack to kick and beat, leaving numerous bruises on Wei Yong's shins and his horse's ribs after the long trek back to the palace.
An assertive knock came from Emperor Yuen's door. He gave his permission for the visitor to enter and was quite relieved to see that it was a Lin Kuei, Typhoon, with his daughter slung over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed like a madwoman as Typhoon dumped her unceremoniously on a sofa, but what she saw when she looked up stopped her.
On the similar sofa across the room sat Kei Sa, with her head down and Vendetta tightly gripping her arm. Rah Cai Yue sat next to her, still in a dress, and similarly held by Tempest. He flashed her a half-hearted smile, and in another situation, she might have laughed at his ridiculous get up. Instead, she slowly shook her head and whispered, "I'm sorry," though she knew neither of them would ever hold a grudge against her for getting them into such hot water, if they even ever admitted she was responsible. She didn't deserve such friends; friends who would willingly risk their lives to better hers. She closed her eyes and tried not to cry.
Emperor Yuen stood in the middle of the room, staring at each of the conspirators in turn. Finally, he turned to Rah Cai Yue. "Boy, you have ten seconds to get out of my sight before I decide to punish you as well."
Cai Yue looked at Ming, not moving a millimeter nearer to the door.
"Nine..." said Yuen.
Go! Ming mouthed, admonishingly.
"Eight..." continued her father.
Rah Cai Yue stood, clumsily bowed, and stumbled out the door, tripping on his skirts.
Yuen swiveled sharply to glare at his daughter. "You will stay in your room with that window barred, girl," he emphasized the last word, treating with as little respect as he would a slave. "You will not have any visitors or entertainment of any kind, for three days. And if you behave, you will most likely not be punished further, though I make no promises. Take her away!" He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, and Typhoon dragged Ming out the door.
"And as for you, disobedient wench!" Yuen spat, turning to Kei Sa. "I have just the thing for you." He marched out the door. Tempest and Vendetta followed, leading Kei Sa after him.
The two Lin Kuei flung Kei Sa through the curved door, and, stumbling, she forced herself to regain her balance, to not fall, denying them that tiny victory. The door clanged shut behind her and she stood up straight in the darkness, pushing back her hood, she tried to see her punishment. But she could not see anything through the thick blackness, so she felt the walls, which were, strangely, curved. It was almost certainly a sphere, and carefully pacing off the distance between poles, she determined the diameter could be no more than three times her height.
Minutes later, a small glow began to grow in the sphere. Looking up, Kei Sa saw a small fire above her head, directly in the center of the sphere. Vendetta was overlooking her torture personally. As the light brightened, she discovered that the entire surface of the sphere was constructed out of curved mirrors. From the outside, it would almost certainly resemble the little silver ball of so many years before.
Her image filled every contour of the sphere, distorted and reflected a thousand times. It was enough to give her a headache. It killed her curiosity and she sat in the lowest point of the sphere, wrapping her arms around her knees, and burying her eyes away from the unbearable images. Yet she had hardly been seated a minute when there was a great groan of metal, and the sphere rolled to the right a few degrees. Kei Sa was tossed onto her side.
She struggled to her feet as the sphere changed direction, throwing her another way. She stumbled like that for hours, her sense of direction destroyed by her many reflections, in a room that spun slowly, yet erratically, lurching her off her feet, yet forcing her to remain on them.
She was delirious with exhaustion and nausea when the flickering flow of Vendetta's fire erupted into a bright, white light, and she heard a strong, melodious voice, neither male nor female, but not unlike that of the Oracle. It told her more than she could ever have hoped to know.
Watching the torture through a tiny camera, the Lin Kuei were astounded when the lens was blinded by an unbelievably bright light, and they grew quite apprehensive when, after the light subsided, the girl began to predict the sphere's completely random rotations, and easily, if wearily, stepped with them.
And Emperor Yuen grew very, very frightened.
When Ming was finally freed from the confines of her room, still not being treated as a person by her father, but no longer punished, her first thought was to find her friends and make sure they were fine.
As she made her way through the palace, she searched for Kei Sa, whom she was more worried about, as Cai Yue had not even been punished. Having no success whatsoever (she couldn't even find any other slaves to ask about her), when she reached the corner of the palace where Rah Cai Yue lived, she knocked on his door. His mother opened it, and almost reluctantly, let her in, giving her an odd look, as though she was not welcome. She immediately left the room, heading to the source of some very good smells.
Looking around the finely furnished parlor, Ming suddenly realized she did not know where to go. She had never been to where Cai Yue lived before, after all. "Mrs. Rah?" she asked uncertainly, approaching the kitchen.
The large woman sighed and moved away from her cooking to face Ming. She did not speak.
"Where is Cai Yue?" Ming quietly asked. His mother pointed down a hall, still not uttering a syllable to the princess. "Thank you," Ming said, bowing slightly, and hurrying down the hall.
There were two doors in the hall, one opened and one closed. A quick glance into the open room revealed it to be dark and deserted, so she knocked on the closed one. She heard a latch being undone, and Rah Cai Yue opened the door.
"Oh, come in," he said, and closed the door behind her.
"I do not believe your mother likes me very much," said Ming, sitting in the chair he offered.
"She's still kind of upset over that horse thing, even though she never rides him. She probably can't ride him; she'd end up crushing the poor animal. And then she found me with your dress and came to the wrong conclusions. I think she thinks you're some sort of evil sorceress."
"Me? An evil sorceress? I can't even call up my element, let alone use it to cause destruction."
"I know, but even if you were an evil sorceress, I'd still be friends with you."
"You're just saying that to be nice," Ming dismissed. "But, Cai Yue, why sorceress?"
"Ah, just a bit of history..." he said modestly.
Ming leaned forward. "Please tell me, Cai Yue. The Oracle told me so little and—"
"You met the Oracle? Now I'm jealous. I can't believe you met her! Did you speak to her?" At Ming's nod, he slumped down. "Not fair."
"She mentioned you."
Cai Yue sat up straight again. "Really? What'd she say?"
"That I should listen to you—"
"And you should." He grinned.
"Also that you have Gravity as your element, which is very rare."
"Yes, well, I'm special." He closed his eyes and leaned back, as though daydreaming. "The Oracle... Was she nice?"
"Cai Yue," Ming urged. "Please tell me."
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. How much did the Oracle tell you about the war before the Transformation?"
"Not much. That the Demon Master caused hatred that sparked genocide."
"Well, she gave you the simplified version, then. What happened was that the Demon Master was unable to keep the violence going long enough for genocide to occur. You see, they attacked, but when there were no responses, no counterattacks, they stopped. He gave the task to an Edenian sorceress, the mistress of deception and a succubus as well. She falsified counterattacks, destroying ships and people, then making it seem as though the Mandalorians had done it. Yet the Kitsune, Edenia's female force of justice, knew what she was doing. While they could not defeat her in battle, they could uncover her lies. The war stopped, and the Demon Master was furious. He stripped the sorceress of the necromantic powers that had kept her young and fueled her power. She shriveled up instantaneously, but the Demon Master kept her alive, to be his slave. And it has been said that later he gave her powers to the person who thought up a scheme for him to gain access to Earth, a person whom you will never guess."
"Who?"
"Shang Tsung," he whispered conspiratorially.
"No! You're just making that up."
"I'm not! I heard it from your great-great-grandmother, I swear. Are you going to accuse her of lying?"
"No, she would never."
"She was a great woman in her time," reflected Cai Yue. "It's not her fault that her descendant turned evil." He tapped his fingers on his desk for a short while, having nothing more to say, for once, just thinking of all he gaps there were left in his account of history, wondering where he could find more information. Then he remembered Ming was still there. "Oh, uhh, what did you want again?"
"Have you seen Kei Sa?"
"Ah, no. Not since your father's office. Yet she has been the subject of all the gossip for the past couple of days. She got put in the sphere, you know."
"Oh, " Ming commented, grimacing. No one was ever a pretty sight after they left the sphere.
"It seems she walked out after her day."
Ming's jaw dropped. "What?" she whispered. No one had ever survived the full day. It was a few hours as most, and then they were dragged out, unconscious and beaten.
"I can only tell you what I've heard, but I've heard that from just about everyone, including the guy who's obsessed with her."
"What? Who?"
"Uhh...never mind."
"Well then, if you don't know where Kei Sa is, do you know where the rest of the slaves are?"
"No. They were everywhere yesterday and the day before, as usual, but today they've all disappeared. It's kind of weird. The same thing happened exactly one earth year ago."
"How do you know all this?" Ming was astounded by his endless depths of useless information.
"I'm the official palace rogue. It's my duty."
Ming stood. "I suppose I should go look some more."
"Wait." Cai Yue threw her a small bundle. "Take your dress, please."
"Certainly," she said, and hurried out.
Rah Cai Yue locked the door and sat with his back against it, pulling out a small leather book.
Yuen Ming had reached a bare corner of slave's quarters, still having seen no sign of her handmaiden, when she thought she could hear music, very faint snatches of a piano. She looked around, baffled. No one was anywhere near her, let alone a piano. She must be hearing things.
But the dim melody continued and Ming could have sworn it was floating up from beneath her feet. She knelt down and pressed her ear against the floor, and indeed, she heard the bittersweet tune resonating through the aged wood. She pried at a loose board, and a small trapdoor opened with it, barely large enough for one person. She hesitated for half a second before she climbed down the ladder, thinking that she shouldn't endanger herself or the slaves with the knowledge of their secret hideout. But there was no turning back.
Making her way carefully through the cramped, dim corridor, Ming could not make out the words of the song, as voices had just begun to accompany it. Suddenly, it hit her—it wasn't Mandalorian they were singing in, but English. She listened carefully to the words.
Long lay the Earth in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and thee soul felt its worth.
She rounded a corner, and came upon a sight that started her immensely. A large group of slaves, possibly nearly all of them, had gathered in one room. They sat in rows of long benches, which were divided into two large sections by an aisle down the middle. Ming started down the aisle, headed toward the raggedly constructed stairs leading up to a platform on which a large wooden cross was prominent. On the steps knelt a small figure in white.
The song changed to what would be considered a major key in human European music. Ming had studied much about different music in the opera, and much about different cultures with her brother. She had discovered that most Mandalorian music would have been considered minor by the humans. She didn't know why. It sounded happy enough to her.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
She stood at the base of the stairs, close enough to hear Kei Sa praying aloud quietly, but fervently. She prayed for understanding, for freedom, for strength, and thanked her god unceasingly. Based upon the enthusiasm with which she whispered, Ming did not find it hard to imagine she had been there for two days.
The music changed to minor, as suddenly as it had changed before.
Fall on your knees, o hear the angel voices.
O night divine, O night when Christ was born.
Ming looked around at the slaves and wondered if they truly knew how beautiful their song was. She had taught Rah Cai Yue what little he knew of English herself, and he was from a wealthy family, not just a slave.
She sat on a bench in the front row, softly crying, overwhelmed by the music and the slaves' sad joy.
They finished their song.
O night, O holy night
O night divine.