Chapter Thirty-Seven: Decisions

White Clouds slowly drift away from the Western Sky.

Cold winds whipped through long, dark locks, pale moonlight shimmered surreally on merciless blades, pounding waves broke against a wide stretch of gritty riverbank.

The corner of a pair of cruelly red lips twisted up in a sardonic arc, as Xiahou Dun sneered at the youthful opponent he was currently facing off against. The heavy Kirin Fang sliced ominously through the air, as its master called out a taunt: "Don't be stupid, boy! Or has her overwhelming pinkness blinded your judgment as well as your eyes? She's a citizen of Wei, and I'm merely taking her back to where she rightfully belongs!"

Zhao Yun flinched briefly, but did not falter in his stance against his tormentor. If anything, the older general's gibing words only caused him to tighten his grip on the Fierce Dragon.

This slight movement did not escape Xiahou Dun's one functioning eye, as he spat out sharply, "What a disappointment you are, Zhao Zilong of Changshan! The man once known as a mighty dragon on the battlefield has now been reduced into a simpering romantic!"

Offhandedly, he added, almost as an afterthought, "Too busy being chivalrous to see to affairs of the bedroom, eh? Is that why you're so desperately clinging on to your handmaid?"

"Shut up!" Zhao Yun growled in a low voice, furious that Xi Tian should have to stand by and listen to such vulgarity.

But Xiahou Dun was having too much fun to bother taking heed of the younger man's command.

"If it's a bedmate you've been waiting for, boy, then you've certainly wasted your time with her—she's already been claimed," he continued to gloat. "But don't worry, I've got a very enthusiastic, ah, fish goddess waiting back on the boat who'll be more than delighted to get her hands on a handsome fella like you! Hell, she'll even polish your weapon for free!"

Zhao Yun's face turned scarlet, though whether from rage or mortification—or perhaps a combination of both—no one could quite tell. Briefly, he threw a concerned look over his shoulder at Xi Tian, apprehensive as to how Xiahou Dun's lewd words might have affected her. Finding a mixture of confusion and keen curiosity in her eyes, Zhao Yun inwardly sighed and wondered if he should feel relieved that her relative naïveté had shielded her from understanding Xiahou Dun's bawdy "weapons" metaphor…or whether he ought to be concerned that a few more rounds of the man's mockeries would rapidly corrupt that fragile innocence.

"Well, hurry up!" Xiahou Dun called out with a hint of irritability in his voice. "Make your decision now—be smart and hand her over to me…or suffer the consequences?"

Silence.

Zhao Yun's normally gentle eyes narrowed in a glare, before he spun the Fierce Dragon in a graceful arc and delivered his response in a firm voice.

"I've made my decision." And with those words, he charged.

Sima Yi languidly spread his arms, as Ying Ying bustled about, removing his violet brocade robe from around his slender frame.

"You really should keep a closer eye on some of these handmaids, Ying Ying," the Wei strategist was chiding in a deceptively soft, calm voice. "Just now, one of the silly girls was blubbering around the gardens about General Zhao Zilong's so-called engagement to our Xi Gu Niang."

Ying Ying paused momentarily in her work, quirking her mouth in an offended pout when she heard her master's mild reprimand.

"Hn. Jie jie mei mei meng, po po ya tou meng(1)—there are so many women running around this palace, and you expect me to keep track of them all?" she sassed, walking around her master so that they were face to face and poking a slim finger into his chest. "Not to mention all the strange girls that keep showing up as new additions to the Bronze Bird Tower! I am but one small and insignificant handmaid; how do you expect me to control their every movement?"

And she wrinkled her nose at him, before sashaying off with a delicate little huff.

Sima Yi chuckled after her disappearing back, before condescending to entreat, "Don't be angry, child. I didn't mean that you should act as some sort of undignified watchdog."

Ying Ying paused in mid-step, pivoting around with one hand on her hip as she smirked and agreed, "Of course not. That's Li Nai Nai's(2) job."

Sima Yi deigned a smile at her little joke, motioning with one hand that she return. Ying Ying complied after a few seconds, gliding over and removing his black-feathered helmet for him as she added, "Anyway, it was simply a letter—a letter which you eventually found to be false. I just don't see what the big fuss is all about."

Sima Yi's lips tightened into a thin line.

"That blustering drunkard Zhang Yide is quite clever, after all," he reluctantly admitted, almost as if to himself rather than to his handmaid. "I don't believe he has managed to figure out our reasons for marrying Xi Gu Niang to Boyue—I don't believe anybody in Shu even knows of their engagement yet."

He paused to accept some red tea which Ying Ying had prepared, but did not immediately drink from the delicately painted china cup. His eyes idly observed the tiny puffs of steam rise from the cooling beverage, before he resumed speaking.

"However, I do believe that someone in Shu has managed to deduce that our dear Xi Gu Niang is actually a spy for Wei," he continued in an almost detached manner. "Zhang Yide must have thought that by setting up a false engagement between Xi Gu Niang and one of Shu's most prominent officers, it would throw off our plans. After all, how can Wei trust the reports of a girl who's allegedly been having an affair with, and is even planning to marry, one of the enemy?"

Ying Ying shrugged.

"It sounds too clever a plan for that sloppy old swine to have thought up all by himself," she declared, working her features into an expression of dainty boredom. "He probably just decided to play a bad joke in a drunken stupor, and you've taken it the wrong way."

Sima Yi smirked, and finally took a sip from his now-lukewarm tea.

"Either way, Zhang Yide's letter is no longer of any importance," he asserted with cool confidence. "At this very moment, our own illustrious General Xiahou is in the process of escorting Xi Gu Niang back to Xuchang to be married."

Steel against steel, fury against fury, as two warriors met on the endless shore of the Chang Jiang.

What a surprise, Zhao Zilong—you're publicly defending a spy and a traitor to your nation?

Clang! A piercing metallic shriek soared into the midnight skies. A spearhead slashed expertly through the air, only to be countered at the last second by a formidable scimitar blade.

I imagine the higher-ups sitting on their asses back in Jingzhou won't be too happy to learn of your treachery, will they?

Ornate armor thundered heavily against their wearers' bodies. Amidst a wild tornado of blows and dodges, a sharp weapon's edge managed to nick a section of exposed flesh, shredding the surrounding skin and drawing a line of stark crimson.

That was good. I suppose I've been underestimating you a little bit, haven't I, boy?

Ruthless strikes, growls of rage, hateful glares. Under this unrelenting assault, one of the duelists was forced to adopt a disadvantageous defensive position. A massive left-to-right side swipe from the Kirin Fang, and he staggered back and almost stumbled in the sand.

Excellent work, Xi Gu Niang! You've succeeded in bewitching Shu's greatest hero into a lovesick bleeding heart!

Spear flying at unprotected throat, scimitar slashing across armored chest. Sweat trickling saltily down foreheads, blood being spat out of parched lips. Volleys of insults hurled by one of the combatants, angry narrowing of brows in response to these stinging taunts.

Very amusing, boy! I'll be sure to write to your comrades in Shu about how valiantly you fought in the name of your little ladylove!

A grunt of pain, of anger, before one found himself looking at the harshly glinting point of the Fierce Dragon at the same time that the other felt the cold edge of the Kirin Fang pressing against his neck.

So it's come down to this, has it? I repeat my offer—give the girl up, or choose to defy me and earn a romantic epitaph for your troubles?

Dark eyes glared defiantly at the older and more experienced warrior, even as their owner felt the latter's scimitar driving into his skin, steadily exerting pressure on his jugular vein.

I will not let you take Xi Gu Niang to Wei so that she may live out the rest of her days as one of Cao Cao's pawns of war.

Brutally handsome features twisted themselves into an ugly sneer.

Then I see you've chosen the epitaph.

The Kirin Fang pushed deeper into its victim's throat, almost drawing blood. At the same time, the master of that fearsome saber both saw and felt the Fierce Dragon point at his skull and graze the vulnerable spot between his eyes.

If we both have to die so that Xi Gu Niang may be free, so be it.

"No!"

Heads turned in the direction of the new voice, as Xi Tian, who'd remained silent throughout the length of the duel, finally spoke up. She gathered her gossamer silk skirts and ran hastily across the beach, a ghostly moonlit figure clad in soft rose, as she moved to stand behind the man whose side she had chosen.

Xiahou Dun.

Zhao Yun could only stand by and watch in stunned silence, as the girl he loved made her decision.

"No, General Zhao. No." Xi Tian begged in a whisper, unable to look at the man she'd just been forced to betray for a second time in one night.

"Xi Gu Niang…why?" Zhao Yun began brokenly, but was cut off by Xiahou Dun, who snapped crisply, "The girl's made her choice. But don't despair, there are plenty of obnoxious matchmakers out there who'll be more than happy to saddle you with a wife or ten!"

He roughly grabbed Xi Tian's arm and hauled her off toward the Wei-bound boat still waiting by the rickety old harbor. The last Zhao Yun saw of them was Xiahou Dun throwing a merry red traveling cape over his captive's shoulders. Xi Tian turned around once to exchange a farewell glance with the man known as the Little Dragon, before her escort impatiently pushed her forward. Soon, the pair had seamlessly disappeared into the darkness where not even the moon's far-flung silver beams were able to reach the sand.

When Guan Ping arrived in Wu, the sleepy pink rays of dawn were just beginning to peek over the horizon. A far-off rooster crowed somewhere in the distance, as the dutiful young officer disembarked and promptly resumed his quest for the Third Tiger of Shu.

He didn't have to search for long. Guan Ping galloped madly across the sand, to where a despondent figure in silver-and-blue armor was sitting on the beach. When he felt he was within hearing range, the youth called out urgently, "General Zhao!"

He reined in Red Hare so abruptly that the startled horse reared up and unleashed a series of shrill neighs. In a flash, Guan Ping had dismounted and was running down the shore. He hurriedly pulled out the letter entrusted to his care and waved it toward the man who was to receive it, at the same time repeating his greeting: "General Zhao! General, I have a letter from our Lord Liu Bei—"

Suddenly, he paused, the unnerving feeling that Zhao Yun had failed to hear him slowly creeping into his senses. Hesitantly, Guan Ping looked down at his immobile superior, venturing in a troubled voice, "General? Has something gone wrong?"

Zhao Yun finally acknowledged the boy. He made a slight effort to turn around, and hoarsely, hollowly, muttered a single phrase: "She's gone."

1. Literally: older sisters and younger sisters, grannies and little girls. Ying Ying is actually referring to her fellow handmaids as her sisters, the old servants as grannies, and the child servants as the little girls.

2. Grandma, a title given to old female servants.