The gate that Yung had guarded was broken and rotting. Wu could smell the swamp from here.
"Do you think there are still bandits in there?" Dawn Star peered beyond the gate, not quite going through.
Wu swung the Dragon Sword at the long grass that poked out of the marsh and into Two Rivers. "No. There's no one for them to rob within a hundred miles of here."
Dawn Star smiled. "Do the weeds offend you?"
"No mercy for invaders," Wu countered, swinging harder to make her point. Green blades flew into the air and showered down around them, a strange green rain..
Dawn Star stepped over the threshold and into the marsh. Wu trimmed the area around the gate some more until Dawn Star called out to her. "We're wasting time, Wu!"
Wu reminded herself that she'd chosen to do this and she stepped over the threshold. It was time to put some ghosts to rest.
Wu and Lian smelled of dusty death when they finally made it to the Assassin's Lair in the Necropolis.
"Who would have known that so many of the living were in this graveyard?" Lian had said after they'd put the pyromancer woman down. But the dead were a nuisance too and they'd had to fight their way through too many ghosts. It had taken half the day to reach the lair and Wu was impatient now. Their goal was just steps away; she could see the door to the tomb just beyond the bend in the dirt road.
Shadows moved and created a form she had memorized weeks ago. She froze, gripping Lian's arm tightly.
"What is it?" the princess asked crossly, no doubt not liking to be handled so roughly by a peasant. Her complaint was not loud, but Zu heard her nonetheless. For a moment, he looked at them and then he was gone, eaten by shadows.
"What was that about?" Lian asked, rubbing her forearm. "You nearly pulled my arm off."
It could not be an accident that she saw Zu. He would never be so careless.
Why had he wanted her to see him? What was his plan?
"Wu? Wu." She looked to the princess. "For lack of better words, you looked like you saw a ghost."
"That's exactly it," Wu said dryly, covering her reaction with a lie. Lian had never trusted Zu and she would think twice about entering the fortress that he had entered before them. Wu would not waste more time though.
What if, what if, what if, echoed in her head with each footstep as they walked towards the entrance. Each step was forced; she did not want to risk herself to the evil she knew was underground, but she had to if she ever wanted to see Master Li again.
They trod the creaking wood of the pagoda's stairs and opened the heavy doors. The room had the air of something had not been disturbed in years, yet in the floor was the place to put the seal. Wu did so and the stairs opened for them and the dank smell of caves drifted up.
She thought she heard a faint scream as well.
"Shall we stare at it all day or are we going in?" Lian asked.
After spending so much time with the princess, Wu had realized that Lian's attitude became more self-righteous the more unsure she was. It said much about her upbringing, but her attitude still didn't rankle any less.
Is he down there? her traitor self wondered, not half as frightened as it should be. Her traitor self was anticipating this. Her traitor self was an idiot.
The stairs were first wooden then stone torn out of rock. She paused on each step, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Shadows were deadly here.
While she waited to feel comfortable in the dimness, she listened. Lian - she couldn't say that name here, couldn't even think of her as Lian if they didn't want to give themselves away - was just behind her, almost breathing on her neck.
"You have come." A man in a red mask and dark robe stepped towards them. "But I was not told there would be two."
Wu bowed, erring on the side of caution, and told the story that she and Silk Fox had concocted. "I have brought my slave. No one said I could not."
The Watcher did not seem displeased. "That is fine. We have uses for slaves."
As he escorted them to the Hall of Initiation, the Watcher talked. He did more than talk, he was forthcoming about every plan of the Assassins. Wu was most interested in the golems.
"Why does Death's Hand need golems? Who would dare oppose the Emperor?"
"There are those who think that the Emperor must serve the will of the people, but they are traitors in disguise. His glory is our glory," he said pointedly.
Wu felt Silk Fox stiffen at her side. This was not what she wanted to hear, but maybe she would now learn what her father was capable of and what others would gladly do in his name.
Wu was not comforted when the Watcher laughed after she asked if the Assassins used bodies harvested from the Necropolis. "You will be trained and learn everything you need to know of that in the coming days."
Even with Wu's training, she had difficulty seeing in the dark, but the Watcher led them easily through a passage filled with green light. It shimmered on the slick walls ahead and she could hear the crackling of torches. They left the claustrophobic passage and entered a huge chamber.
Truly, this was a tomb for an Emperor. The grand staircase that led to the Hall of Induction below was intricately carved. Wu was almost glad that it was not being used as a tomb; she did not think that the Assassins appreciated it, but at least she and Silk Fox could see how beautiful the afterlife might have been for the Emperor.
"This is where your training begins. You will find Master Gang at the end of the hall." The Watcher began to step away to go to his post.
Wu stopped him with a question. "Did anyone come in here ahead of us?"
The mask hid his face, but he could not conceal the sneer in his voice. "Only the most skilled of our number could enter this place without me knowing. I am the Watcher."
"'Did he see anyone come in here ahead of us?'" Silk Fox repeated, as the man left them. "What was that about?"
Wu was lost in thought. She did not necessarily believe the Watcher. But if Zu had wanted to betray them, surely he would have told the Watcher immediately and the Assasins would have set upon them as soon as they'd entered the tomb. Inquisitor Jia and Death's Hand wanted the amulet desperately. They wouldn't play cat and mouse with her for the sake of fun. Would they?
Wu's musings were broken when she and Silk Fox were met by Assassin Acolytes at the bottom of the stairs, acolytes whose pride outweighed their sense. Wu was not about to allow them to intimidate her and she doubted that humility was all that prized in this place. The princess and the peasant happily accomodated them in their desire for a fight.
It ended in quick blood and the Acolytes slinked off. Wu cleaned her blade while Silk Fox looked down her nose at her. "You took off his head."
"It made my point," Wu said, putting her sword away.
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Silk Fox looked down at her clothes. "The blood sprayed. Give me some warning next time."
Wu's skin prickled in the damp air. She thought she had heard something, the scrape of stone on stone perhaps. She tried to look as if she was simply a warrior checking her equipment after a skirmish. Then she felt the spy behind, the one who was using stonework and shadow as concealment.
Concealment was not the same as cover, though, and it would afford their hunter no real protection. She pulled her sword again and swung, turning to face the one behind her.
Sword met staff, but the sound was swallowed in the dark.
Her hunter was Zu. He looked very right here, in this evil place, and it made her stomach turn. Zu stepped back, lowering his staff and she did likewise, though she did not lower her guard. She remembered that much at least.
Wu held up her hand before Silk Fox could speak, before she could ruin anything.
"You have come to the realm of the Assassins and you already have enemies. You should not have come here at all. This is my realm, where my demons hide," he said quietly. "You will be forced to see them."
She took a breathe, knowing that it would shatter her facade of calm. Wu asked, "Why did you come here?" when what she wanted to ask was why did you leave me?
He answered her question with a question. "Are you certain you are ready for what you will learn here?"
"Yes," she said, forcing her confidence. "I told you before. Whatever it takes to free my master."
He stepped back, melting into a shadow. She could barely see his form in the darkness. "We have discussed much in our time together, but not everything. I left some things buried but now you have descended into their level."
"Nothing can stay buried forever, Zu," she insisted. "We saw that at Tien's Landing."
The darkness spoke. "And yet, at the end, Tien's Landing was buried again."
"Then come here if you have no business with the Assassins?"
"I will give you that answer when I see how you react to this place." And then he was gone.
"Why did you hesitate?" Silk Fox asked. "You should have let me kill him. In fact, you should have killed him."
Wu ignored her. Whatever Zu's reasons, he had not betrayed them. Didn't Silk Fox see that that was enough for now? Zu was still the best hope that they'd find the princess' evidence and a way out of here alive.
But Silk Fox would not let it go. "You allowed him in our group, knowing who he was. Now he is here and he can ruin everything. Next time you see him, don't hesitate to strike."
"Or what, Fox?" Wu asked.
"Or I shall strike for you." And the princess sheathed her sword and walked away.