Four months had passed since she had destroyed the bulk of Djenga's army. But their battle hadn't ended with that encounter. After over a month of skirmishes in the valleys Djenga had laid siege on Suzhou after tricking her into moving off to counter a fake maneuver that he had staged just for her spies. She had been forced to allow the siege knowing well that an attack to pin him against the wall was not a good idea until she had gotten her infantry back from the valleys, where his trick had scattered them. It had taken her a harrowing month of hit and run attack by her cavalry now better trained at horseback archery than any other unit in the Imperial army, before Djenga had withdraw back to the valleys two days east of the city.
And they were in a way both in the same situation. They both needed reinforcement when none where forthcoming. At least she had regular supplies now, unlike her increasingly decrepit enemy, whose army was forced to forage and plunder the countryside for their supplies. The people were suffering as she knew they would during the prolonged war. And it looked like it wouldn't abate soon either. Temudjin constantly proved himself to be an unpredictable enemy and an uncanny general. While the ever growing Imperial army tore at his generals' armies, he and his huge army moved around seemingly aimless and plundered in the remotest corners of the Empire. Rumors abounded that this war was secondary to him, only a distraction to allow him to do something else. But that was not Gabrielle's concern right now, she decided. She focused her mind on the task at hand.
Chang walked through the soggy camp just outside the walls of Suzhou. He saw some of the infantry walking past him smiling proudly in their new clothes and armor, a gift from some of the local nobles. He knew also that they weren't smiling, because of the clothes were new. They were smiling, because the clothes displayed to marks of their proud and by now famed unit. All of the Little Dragon's officers had put in for the change in the regimental badge and now they wore it with pride. No longer did they have the sign of their original home city on their chests, now they carried the mark of the Little Dragon proudly on their backs.
Chang clearly recalled when they had first seen the Dragon's mark on the back of his commander. A unit had been trying to lure in a patrol of Mongols by having one of their horses act lame, but they had been far too successful and so a squad of nearly a hundred bloodthirsty warriors had descended upon them. If the Little Dragon had remained under the cover of her shelter then the regiment of Djenga's infantry, which followed in the tracks of the large patrol, would've been easy pickings for her cavalry. But she hadn't sacrificed them for a battle that wouldn't have been a sure thing and instead chose to ride out and destroy the patrol before it slaughtered the men. Chang remembered the hard fight that had ensued. He shuddered at the deadly efficiency of her razor sharp blade, which she only drew if she wanted to spill the blood of her enemy. And he remembered how an arrow had sped across the battle field and had bounced harmlessly off her unarmored back, but had remained stuck in her clothes. He remembered how he had continually demanded that she be treated for that wound and how she had lifted up the back of her foreign dress to reveal her unharmed back and the image of the Dragon to him and all the officers at her side. The description had spread all throughout camp and now all her men, who already admired their Little Dragon, believed that she truly was a Dragon descended to be amongst men.
Chang smiled at the thought, because he knew very well from hearing his commander and her friend the monk speak about their aches or seeing her bandage a cut on her legs or shoulder that the fair woman was not a divine being even if he regarded her as a blessing. She was by far the smartest, wisest and most humane leader he had ever served with. Even as he walked through camp, he knew where to find her, if she was in her tent to plan or eat, if she wasn't caring for her warhorse, if she wasn't meditating with her monk then she would be with the healers working as hard as any of them. Chang entered the tent of his commander after nodding politely to the guards posted there at all times.
Master Fong sat in his chair continuing to write in another of his miniscule journals of the Little Dragon's adventures. The first volume intended for the Emperor had been stolen, probably by some of the men seeking a souvenir of their commander or maybe to sell for profit in a city suddenly fascinated with the successful woman, who had so far managed to fend of a powerful general controlling an army now only twice the size of hers, so now the monk never left his writings out of his sight earning him the reputation of being the commander's scribe instead of her confidant. "Would you know where the Little Dragon is?" Chang asked as politely as he could not being one of the followers of this man's Buddhism he still respected any man of the cloth.
"She has been with the healer for a couple of hours now, but she didn't get much for breakfast, so she should be here… well now", Fong explained as the Little Dragon entered the tent followed closely by her maid. Chang regarded the maid for a moment. She was another oddity in this camp of warriors. She had appeared a while ago just wandering into camp demanding to see her mistress. After presenting Fong and the Little Dragon with a letter she had then set about taking care of the Little Dragon's every need as best she could. The only other thing he knew of her was her name: Mai.
"Ah, hi Chang," his commander dropped down into her large chair besides her table filled with battle plans most of them fakes left for any spy to find he presumed as he had never seen his commander set any of her plans down on paper.
"Yes, Little Dragon, I wanted come give you some good news. A heavy protected courier delivered this," he said and presented her with the scroll that he had gotten no more than ten minutes ago. His commander gently took the paper from his hands and he noticed that both her hands and clothes were splattered here and there with the blood of those she sought to heal. She read in silence then sat the scroll down into a torch and watched it disintegrate in the flames ensuring that no one she didn't trust got to read the news. "That is both good and bad news," she replied and gave them all a weary but happy smile. As always it never seemed to fully reach her eyes.
"What is happening?" Master Fong asked and looked genuinely interested in anything other than the journals for the first time this week at least in his estimation. He would probably welcome the news just like the Little Dragon.
"General Wu has sent a large contingent of veteran soldiers this way. They should be here in just a few days. He asks that I use them well and get rid of Djenga as soon as possible," she explained.
"Get rid of Djenga. Just like that huh?" The monk looked at the commander in confusion. Chang kept from smiling out of respect and the fact that he hadn't been told the entire message yet.
"Yes, it seems that Temudjin is getting fed up with sightseeing and has ordered all the armies to collect in one place, probably to march on Chang'an at the first given moment. Only there aren't that many people on the way back to him and Djenga is probably the only competent general he has left at this point. So our Grand General is shipping me 5000 of his best infantry, so that I make sure that Djenga and his troops don't make it back to join up with Temudjin," she answered and took up a rolled up scroll that he knew was a map of the region. For a moment she looked lost in thought then unrolled on the table in front of them.
"Chang, how long does a soldier take to get back on his feet after such a sea trip?" She asked and looked at him.
He thought back on the times he had sailed and guessed. "I think we could have them ready to march two days after they arrive," he said with all the conviction he could muster.
His commander looked down on the map and ran her fingers across the terrain described there. "Do you remember if there are any deep crevasses in this region", she asked him and pointed at an area in the area possessed by Djenga's armies.
"Not right there, but there is one here," he pointed at a spot not far from the area, she had indicated.
"How large is it?" She sat back her expression thoughtful.
He thought about what she could want to hide there. "It's large enough to hold most of the cavalry we have left," he answered guessing that his commander didn't want to put a couple battalions of foot soldiers in a crevasse, where they would only be able to slowly march out of later.
"Good, then I think we have a plan. First of all Chang I need you to pick some trusted officers amongst the footmen. Have them and their squads march out and do everything in their power to harass or find every single spy and scout that Djenga could have posted around here. Now if I know my dear counterpart, he'll take it as a signal that I am planning something. And I am, because while they're doing that I'll take the best parts of our cavalry and ride out one night to establish our camp in that crevasse. I'll leave you in command here," she explained.
"But won't Djenga get suspicious and send out spies to find our cavalry? And what about the soldiers that Wu has sent?" Fong asked.
"Well I am guessing but I am fairly sure that the lords of Suzhou could be convinced to replace the missing horses in our corrals to ensure that us leaving is less obvious, but I really need Djenga to find out about the arriving soldiers, because as soon as you can I want you to lead them in an open attack on Djenga. He is probably getting his orders to return now or he'll get them soon. So he won't be motivated for a big fight and will probably break camp heading out through the area he thinks he controls. You must force-march the men after him; maybe even send a regiment off towards his other escape routes, so that he'll go in the right direction. I don't care, how you do it, but you must be there, or the cavalry and I will be facing his army alone. This is all riding on timing here. If everything goes well, we'll shatter his army, while I'll try to give Djenga, what he screamed he wanted from me during our last skirmish, a fight woman to man," she outlined her plan to them.
Chang considered it for a moment and while he would've preferred to be at his commander's side, when she confronted the brutish general, she had decreed it otherwise and after months of seeing her plans more or less work, he found that he had nothing to add to it except a little question: "Wouldn't it be better if we sent more soldiers out to support you, then we could cut of the escape routes completely and destroy them?"
She looked at his as if he had grown another head and said: "Why? Do you feel a need to kill men that are just carrying out orders and following age old hatreds? We'll leave Djenga's men a way out over the mountains, a route that forces them to abandon their horses and thereby reducing their value in the war to nothing, while I try to make sure that their leader either dies or becomes our captive."
Chang nodded, while cursing himself in his thoughts for not realizing why his good hearted commander would choose to give her enemy an escape route. In the moment of war he had once again forgotten that red blood ran in the veins of his enemy as well and that to his commander neither skin color nor heritage meant that a man was not human and therefore not worthy of living. "I will have the best men I have out scouring the hills for spies immediately," he said and quickly left the tent only just hearing how the monk pledged to get the horses for their deception from the nobles within a day or two.
Chang sat on his immense warhorse Kai and looked out over the troops. They were sweating in the heat and grunting under the weight of their equipments, as they walked through the dust raised by those few horsemen riding in front of them. To the rhythm given by their sergeants the veteran and fresh forces sent by General Wu marched in the already hot morning only a few feet behind the dragon-backed footmen, who pressed on with seeming unrelenting strength driven by their loyalty to the commander.
Somewhere in front of them the enemy was doing the same not knowing that they had just entered the last stretch of valleys, before they came within the deadly reach of the Little Dragon and her well rested and prepared cavalry. Off to the North a regiment, that had been marched off during the day in front of the prying eyes of Djenga's spies, waited making any other escape route stupidity.
Only he knew where exactly the trap was set, but amongst the men there was a rising tension. They expected the big battle and were prepared for their mounted enemy, thousands of long spears' steel tips gleamed in the sun as they hastened their way towards a battle. "Are we on schedule?" He asked and looked to the monk that had ridden wordlessly at his side the entire day.
The monk squinted at the sun. "We're a bit early, but that will only make her attack even more crippling. Soon Djenga will stop to prepare to meet us or risk us attacking with out preparation and then it will too late for him to escape the Little Dragon," he asserted and fell silent again just as Chang spied one of his scouts riding towards their lines at high speed.
"Captain, the Mongols have stopped and are getting ready to meet us in the next valley," the scout said and sounded like he hoped that it would prevent a battle.
Chang looked at the man, only months from being just a boy and commanded: "Go north and tell Captain Lee to begin marching this way." The scout nodded and quickly rode off on his sweating horse, while Chang felt good that he had probably preserved the innocence of a boy that would go home and become a good farmer or craftsman instead of a warrior, just like he had observed his commander do time and again these last months.
"Prepare for battle!" He yelled and drew his sword symbolically. All around him the men began unsheathing weapons and adjusting their armor, before their sergeants began forming them into platoons and marched them in lockstep towards the waiting enemy.
Gabrielle took a sip from her waterskin and looked towards the entrance to the cramped crevasse in which she had managed to hide the remaining cavalry in her army. They had spent two days milling around the valleys going from hideout to hideout during the night until they had come here last night and pressed themselves into this hiding place. Now they awaited the arrival of the enemy that her pair of scouts reported was coming in the right direction.
Shun one of her scouts, walked into the valley and up to her. "Commander, the enemy entered the valley and is currently using the plain at the bottom to form up for combat. From the dust my guess is that the Captain is almost as the mouth of the valley with the army," he reported.
Gabrielle nodded and made some calculations in her head. "Listen up. It is time for us to go forth and end the invasion into our homeland. Today we'll take the first step towards peace and prosperity not only for you but for your families. We ride today for them and for victory." And she vaulted into Ghost saddle.
All around her the men scrambled into their saddles. She waited calmly the fire of her speech not having heated the blood in her veins like it had in the soldiers. The men began readied their weapons, preparing for the battle that would come.
"WE RIDE NOW!" Gabrielle yelled as soon as everyone looked ready and almost began thinking again. Four aside the almost 800 remaining cavalrymen and horses of her army charged out of the crevasse just as Djenga's men rode towards the footmen that had just come within their range.
As the bushes and trees gave way to grass and the small plain that lay at the bottom of the large valley Gabrielle saw, how the army of Djenga began tearing into the men lead by Chang and winced at the toll in dead and wounded soldier that charge had probably cost her army. Like the wind her fresh and prepared men rode through the supply wagon and men left behind by Djenga's army, Gabrielle knowing full well that those at the tail end of her column would busy themselves with destroying this just in case the battle went bad. She had ordered them to.
The four man column had spread into a long line of warrior, some grasping powerful bows or crossbows, while others brandished spears or even swords. Gabrielle had spent the entire time with her army enhancing their battle abilities and that in her mind included allowing them the use of the weapon they favored as long as they kept up their skills in the other required weapons and used them, when she wanted them to. She cocked her last green fletched arrow on her amazon bow, and while bracing herself in her stirrups, shot the first arrow towards the enemy that had just realized, what kind of trap this valley had turned into. She noted that it had hit and felt no joy as she saw her target tumble out of his saddle and hit the ground head first.
Gabrielle knew very well that she could allow herself no for pity these people. She had seen what they did to soldiers and innocents alike and there could be no doubts in a battle. She cast them away and reached to her side instead of down to her boots and drew her katana. All around her without her even noticing her horsemen nodded to one another. The Little Dragon was serious. This battle would not end with the enemy getting away.
Djenga screamed out his anger as he brought down his mace on the head of his enemy. His arms were also screaming but with fatigue. For almost ten minutes the battle had been fought. He had lost his mount to the spears of those gods be damned reinforcement that some devil had deigned to bequeath his enemy. His men called her a devil as well, claiming she was either that or a ghost. White skinned and mounted on a brute of the same color. Her weapons stealing the breath of life from any men they touched. They claimed her skin to be impenetrable to their weapons.
He didn't fear either her weapons or that his weapons might bounce of her skin. He hated her for her ability to defeat him. He hated that a woman existed that was capable of time and again outwitting and defeating him. He was the blood brother of Temudjin. He had been called the shadow of Green Dragon, so powerful was he supposed to be. Still he had lost first the bulk of his army and now probably the rest as well. This devil woman had left his men with only one way out. A way that lead over a mountain not scalable on the back of a horse, a way out that would shatter his men across the entire region and make them worthless. Behind him somewhere their supplies were surely burning, if the smell of smoke was any indication.
It would all have been acceptable, if that damnable woman would just die at his hands, but he had never been able to do more than threaten her from a far and so his men thought that he feared her as well.
Then as his eyes swept around the battle that raged unabated around him and he hollered out another order for his outnumbered men to rally, he saw her. She rode towards him sitting atop her tall white mount, holding the thin steel blade that had killed and wounded so many, low to allow her to strike at anyone nearing her unarmored legs. He saw, how she yelled out a command in the tongue of those bastards that he had come here to punish for their crimes against his people. Her eyes met his and they widened in recognition. She spurred on her horse barreling towards him. He took hold best he could of his horseman's mace and remembered his lessons on how to avoid being trampled.
Gabrielle saw Djenga standing in the middle of the carnage. Around him several of her men lay dead or wounded. He looked as sweaty and weary, as she felt. It felt to her like everything became quiet and faded into a background of noise. Her eyes met his and she recognized the challenge apparent in them. She spurred Ghost on hoping that her scarred and equally weary warhorse would hold up for the remainder of the battle.
Gabrielle swung her right over to the left and leapt of Ghost's saddle landing with an uncomfortable jar. Ghost danced away from her and continued on probably leaving the battlefield soon, while trampling several wounded from both sides. Gabrielle knew she would be able to find her later and so focused on her enemy instead.
Feeling gracious Djenga allowed the small woman to leap off her horse and waited; until she would be ready meet him. It wouldn't impress his men, if he killed the wench by attacking her from behind like a coward. He knew that if he slaughtered her, the tide of this battle could turn in his favor. At least his blood brother would thank him for killing one of their enemy's best commanders. Quicker than he had expected of the small woman, who close up looked like even less of a challenge than from atop her horse, she turned to face him.
Gabrielle turned around and took hold of her blade preparing for combat. Her weapon was light not intended to parry the heavy metal mace that the Mongolian general wielded and she knew better than to try to turn aside such weapons even with her Sai. This would have to be done with speed and finesse instead of force. She liked fighting that way the best anyhow.
Gabrielle focused her mind on the sounds around her. She forced her mind into the trance state that she achieved so easily as breathing now. Every sound around her took on a whole other meaning as she was subjected to the barrage prevailing on the battle. It threatened to overwhelm her for a moment, but she called up the calm and surety of purpose that the teachings and meditations of the monks had given her. She expanded her focus to include even her eyes seeing every subtle breath and tension going through the heavily muscled body of her enemy. It was uncanny almost like reading the mind of her enemy.
He couldn't decide what that damnable woman was up to. She had turned towards him. She had hefted her exotic sword that he would give as a gift to his daughter, when he got home. But now she just stood there like she was rooted on the spot. Bellowing out a vicious warcry he charged towards her.
Gabrielle knew he was coming before he took a step forward. She overrode the instinct of her body and mind to flee the attack or flinch at the warcry.
Djenga ran toward her. His mace held ready for a vicious strike meant for her head.
She commanded her muscles already tense like springs to be ready for instant movement. She moved her weight forward. She was ready to spring into action anytime. Still she waited.
Djenga felt his moment of triumph come. The woman stood rooted to the spot like frightened prey in front of the charging tiger. He was almost in reach and drew his mace back to strike.
Gabrielle saw her moment. She sprinted forward and slightly to the left. The katana with the blade held backwards flashed in a tight curve from her low right across to end up as a high left as she passed her enemy at high speed. She felt something tuck hard against her muscles as her weapon impacted with her enemy.
After spending a mere moment to sense, if she had gotten by unharmed, Gabrielle spun about, her katana turned to be ready for a downward blow from the left. But what she saw made her lower her blood dripping weapon.
Djenga felt a sharp pain in his right arm then suddenly felt dizzy, as the woman seemingly passed him in a blur of blue and steel. He began feeling lighter and looked to his right to discover that his forearm and the hand holding his mace had been replaced with air and the regular spurting of blood from just above his elbow. His mouth fell open in surprise and he fainted in shock.
A murmur seemed to go through Djenga's army as the word of his fall spread faster than any fire could have. The already defeated army shattered and broke into chaos. Leaders bellowed commands and were ignored by the few unwounded survivors as they broke into a dead run for the hills. Too late, in Gabrielle's estimation, was her command to let them flee followed by her vengeful troops and for a few minutes most of the wounded and many of the fleeing enemies were slaughtered without mercy. She didn't have time to cry for them, but she swore to do that later, as she bent down and made a life saving compress on the remaining stump of Djenga's arm. He could an important man to interrogate, if he survived his wound and the enemies now surrounding him.
Gabrielle wandered through the camp and marveled at the sudden happiness, she felt radiating not only from her men, but also from the people that had come out of Suzhou just to greet them and their happy news. The threat to this part of the Empire had been banished and for some reason everyone wanted to place the credit for that at her feet. As if she hadn't relied on the effective scouts Chang had trained, as if luck and timing had nothing to do with it. But she also knew that protesting this had no point. These people saw her as their hero and she let them, because she felt that it made them happy. It was okay, at least as long as she didn't begin believing it.
Gabrielle stepped into her huge tent, a gift from a local merchant. To her great joy Mai, her maid that had followed her from the palace of the Emperor to care for her here in the midst of war giving no reason for that decision but a meek smile, had prepared a warm bath for her. "Thank you, Mai. Where would I be if you didn't take care of me?" Gabrielle asked and dropped her dirty clothes and weapons in a great pile. She would take care of them later. With a sigh she sat her naked body down into the warm water and relaxed for the first time since she had ridden out to trap Djenga.
"May I massage you?" Mai, who always was unwaveringly polite and deferential, asked.
"Sure if you want to," Gabrielle replied and fell silent as Mai tried to unknot her muscles. She thought of the slow trip home from the makeshift camp and hospital they had set up after the final defeat of Djenga and his army. Djenga himself now rested in a well guarded healer's tent not far from here, having been brought here on a rickety cart as she had returned with the main part of her army. She had let the Captain of the reinforcements stay in command up at the hospital and let him keep a regiment to guard the wounded until they were ready to return here.
A few days later Gabrielle looked up from her reading as a guest entered her tent. The healer, she had assigned to care for Djenga, had come to visit. "His condition is good enough to allow both travel and questioning. However be careful, while he has lost his arm, he is belligerent, so much in fact that I had order him chain and manacled to his bed," the healer reported.
"Thank you, I'll have more men posted. When you're rested, you could go back to care for our men again, if you feel like it," Gabrielle suggested to which the healer nodded gravely and disappeared back outside the tent. Gabrielle rose and went the same way after ensuring that her weapons were in their places.
Gabrielle heard the angry yells of the captive General a long time before she could even see the tent in which he was kept. Gabrielle saw the ten attentive guards that Chang had seen fit to surround the tent with stand around seemingly debating if their orders prohibited them from gagging the irritating prisoner, who was screaming curses in differing languages.
Gabrielle stepped up before the entrance to the tent. "I'll interrogate the prisoner now. No one may enter no matter who they are," she ordered and walked inside.
Chang, who had his tent not far from where the enemy General was kept, noticed how the man, who had been yelling all morning suddenly, fell silent. Fearing suicide or intervention from his own men he hurried to the tent, but was met with the spears of men he thought loyal to him and the commander. "What is going on here? Why has the prisoner gone silent? He could be trying to speed himself into the next world, so let me pass," he ordered, but was ignored.
The spears didn't move, but the man he had put in charge, answered: "We don't know what is going on. The Little Dragon has ordered us to keep anyone from entering, while she interrogates the prisoner."
Chang nodded. That the Little Dragon has some secret interrogation method was no secret. Sometimes in the past when they had caught an important or particularly uncooperative prisoner, she had demanded to be left alone with them and would then return less than a minute later with all the knowledge that she needed. He had never found any traces of whatever method she used except that the prisoners were often unconscious and having nosebleeds, after she had dealt with them. He had asked one of them once what she had done to him, but the man had only babbled something about fingers of death and pain in his bad Chinese. Chang decided to wait for whatever his commander would learn instead of speculating on how she did it.
Gabrielle asked her final question as Djenga struggled to remain alive. His manacles rattling as he attempted to writhe in pain, but his paralyzed body stopping him: "What is Temudjin seeking in Chin?" Her internal countdown gave him only 10 or less seconds to live.
After choking for a few seconds Djenga answered in a pained voice, blood flowing from both his nose and his wound: "He is seeking to capture the divine. He wants the blood of one of the heavenly Dragon. His witch Jenn has promised him that with the power in it, he can subjugate Chin and avenge the defeat of his father at the hand of the Emperor." Gabrielle quickly undid the Pinch, but decided not to knock the man unconscious unsure if he would survive more damage. Puzzled she turned around and left the tent again. Chang awaited her outside; she had recognized his voice earlier.
Gabrielle sat in her chair and thought, while Fong sat and scribbled in another of his journals for the Emperor. She had told neither Fong nor Chang about what she had learned of Temudjin's motive for this war even if she had shared everything else. She remembered her battles with the Roman Governor of Egypt in the past and this scheme sounded akin to that. Maybe fights such this could be apart of her destiny just like stopping Ares had been apart of Xena's.
One of her guards peeked inside. "Ma'am there is a man claiming to be an Imperial messenger outside. He demands to see you personally instead of going through Chang as per your command," he explained.
"Send him in," she said and looked at Fong, who just like her seemed to rattle himself out of his thoughts, as he whispered: "Finally, it took them long enough."
The older silk clad man walked into the tent with all the majesty and self-importance of a high level bureaucrat and stopped before her with an expression like he expected her to be impressed by or thankful for his arrival.
"Yes," she asked in a low voice not liking the arrogant expression of the man as his eyes wandered across her body, leaving her with the same feeling she got in most inns when drunkards ogled her body.
"I'm been sent by his divine majesty to convey to you Warrior Bard his contentedness with your most fortunate defeat of an enemy of the Empire and commands you to present yourself on the fields of battle in the North, where you'll serve under the illustrious General Wu himself," he explained to her. Gabrielle got the feeling that this man would probably get himself killed within the first hour she spent in the company of any amazon. He took out two scrolls and reached forth to deposit them in her lap, when he suddenly found a sword at his neck.
Chang, who had entered just behind the pompous bureaucrat, held his sword against the back of his neck. "Make one more wrong or disrespectful move toward the Little Dragon and I'll tell the Emperor that you met an unfortunate accident at the hands of some wandering Mongol warrior. Now give those scrolls to the honorable monk over there and leave," he commanded like the old man was a disgusting creature instead of an important dignitary. Sweating profusely the man deposited the scroll into the hands of a gently smiling Master Fong and slowly edged his way out of the tent. Chang's sword never left its position at the back of his neck.
"That wasn't very nice," Gabrielle commented, while Fong quickly broke the seals of the two scrolls and read them.
"Neither was he. Besides you looked about ready to say or do anything," Chang commented and smiled any hint of his anger disappearing.
"It would seem that he was saying something correctly. While a whole lot more politely phrased the Emperor does command you to leave the army behind and come join the one that Wu is assembling to go meet Temudjin. A ship should be waiting in the harbor to take you as we speak. But there is more good news. As thank you for services rendered he has given you an official seal and ordered the formal formation of your very own noble house. Of course you're the only member, but then again you're already noble so that won't matter much to you. The other scroll is from Wu. It is much more sober. He has promoted you to full General and wants you to take control of a large part of the army in the coming battles," Fong explained and handed the scrolls one after another to his friend.
Gabrielle understood well after her time here that the Emperor was granting her great honor, but she didn't need anymore of that. She decided that she would at the first given opportunity make sure that Chang got the seal and title of nobility instead of her.
"So it seems we're heading onto another battlefield," Chang commented and smiled to his commander.
"No, we aren't," Gabrielle commented after reading the second scroll. "Wu has ordered me to place you in charge here as the new commander of all the footmen. He wants you to make sure that the stragglers from Djenga's army don't cause trouble around here, and then continue a sweep heading west making the countryside and trade road a safe place again. The cavalry is supposed to head north and meet up with me as soon as possible, but that is all," she explained. Chang actually hung his head even if he had just been promoted. Behind her Gabrielle heard Mai begin packing gifts and possessions into bags and chest in preparations for their trip.
Gabrielle watched Mai and Fong walk onto the ship, while she stood besides Chang. "I guess this is farewell," she commented.
"Yeah, you'll probably head towards your next adventure, when this is over. We'll probably never meet again," Chang said and regarded at her.
"Anything could happen. But you're right, maybe after a short vacation at the nearest thing I have to a home, I'll go out looking for trouble again," Gabrielle admitted. She wanted to take a short breather with amazons before deciding anything like that. I had been too long since she had seen the welcome faces of her sisters anyhow.
"You know you're the best commander and teacher on how to live a good life that I've ever met… I'll miss you Little Dragon," Chang suddenly said and drew her into a warm hug. When the powerfully built Captain let go again, she would've sworn, he had misty eyes.
With a nose wrinkling smile she walked up the plank onto the gentle bobbing ship, when she heard Chang ask himself: "I never got her real name."
Gabrielle turned, smiled and just said: "Gabrielle of Poteidaia," before she disappeared out of his view.
Chang stood on the quay until long after the ship had left the harbor. His eyes staring after it as he tried to burn the memory of the living legend he had known into his mind. When he left he knew that he would never forget her until the day he died.