The sky looked like rain. "We should go back to our camp," Wu said.
Dawn Star frowned. "It is practically dark. We shouldn't wander around in a swamp in the middle of the night."
Wu froze. So right. So exactly right, but they hadn't broken camp. They hadn't brought anything to start a fire or to sleep on and -
And Dawn Star was already walking back in to the hermitage as if it were the right thing, the smart thing to do.
She shuddered, inside and out, and then followed her friend into a dead place.
It was not right that she should be sleeping in his home without him.
Lian found she was not as welcomed in her home as she had been. "What do you mean I shouldn't come in?" Her glare caused the serving woman to fall to her knees.
"Only that it is dangerous and I don't know why, mistress. Please!" Wu did not know if the serving woman was begging for the princess to listen to reason or just to stop glaring at her, but Lian motioned for the servant to leave.
And that is when Wildflower fell over screaming in pain. She and Dawn Star went to the girl's side as she thrashed and moaned.
"Does she need a doctor?" Sky asked.
"No," Wu said shortly. The girl's pained black eyes faded to red and then blue as each spirit begged for her help in defeating the other. Dawn Star looked at her.
"I can do this," she said, trying to reassure her friend. "I'm not too weak."
"But who are you going to help?" her friend asked carefully.
She realized that there was a time when Dawn Star wouldn't have had to ask that question. "Chai Ka. I will aid you, Chai Ka!"
The palace melted around her and she was in a misty land where only she, Chai Ka and Ya Zhen stood. The toad demon gave off a putrid smell here, one of decay and disease. It hissed at her, rocking side to side, trying to keep both of his enemies in view. "You think your treachery will stop me, mortal? As long as corruption remains in this world, I will be here!"
"Perhaps," Wu said, drawing the spirit of her Dragon Sword. She brandished its misty ghost at the beast. "But you will have to find a new place to live, I think."
Ya Zhen might have been a match for one of them, but not together. In no time, he flopped over, and slowly he melted into the mist and gray and only Chai Ka and she were left.
"Thank you. Wildflower, too, thanks you." The great spirit bowed and she bowed back.
But she did not tell him that part of her decision was because she did not want the demon tormenting her about her secret and her loss. Chai Ka at least had the decency to keep his musings private - that is why he lived and not the toad demon.
Lian was anxious to leave when she returned and so they went, through the maze of halls and levels that made up the Imperial Palace. Wu was surprised at how such a large building could have so many spaces seemingly devoted to nothing, to have areas that were 'little used' when the rest of the Empire seemed to be spilling over with too many people. Her mouth tightened and her fists clenched. Yes, too many people - so many they could build the Wall until they died or be sacrificed to be stone soldiers and no one would make a fuss.
The final hundred yards was excruciating. Wu expected to be overwhelmed with guards and Assassins at every turn, but there was nothing but shadows flitting in between pillars that stretched high above them.
"We are almost at my father's receiving chamber," Lian whispered. Her dark clothing made her almost invisible in the unlit hallway. "I will confront him, Wu."
"We will confront him," a familiar voice said. Dawn Star - and Sky - were behind them. She added, "You are not the only one who lost her master."
Wu nodded. Who was she to deny her friend revenge? They had lost the same – too much. "Of course. We will do this together."
Wu did not know what to expect when she followed Lian into the receiving chamber. No doubt courtiers felt awe at the architecture or fear at the gaping open maw where a river flowed into the clouds. But Wu could only see one thing. "Master Li!"
She saw nothing of brothers in the two men standing next to each other; though she did recognize the man next to her Master. She had seen his statue throughout the Empire, but his malevolence roiled off him, like heat off the high grass in the summer. Even she felt compelled to bow in his presence; only her Master's defiance stopped her.
Lian and the Emperor circled each other. No doubt both father and daughter had heard of how they were supposed to act around each other, but they did not appear to have ever put it into practice. To be fair, any father might be surprised at Sun Lian's working clothes, but it did not help that Lian's voice cracked with rage and fear. Wu doubted very much that anyone raised their voice to the Emperor twice.
As Lian confronted her father with the evidence they had gathered from the catacombs, she watched the guards and the shadows. The Emperor was not denying his actions; he was not even justifying them. When he raised his hand, she felt the power of the amulet rise in her. And when he shouted "Enough!" she was almost ready for the magic and power that assaulted her. Almost, but it still drove her to her knees. Her friends and her Master were not as ready and they fell to its power.
His back was to her when he began to speak again. "Who among you would dare challenge my right to rule?" he asked the air, not expecting an answer.
"Here," she said firmly, pushing herself to her feet. She squared her shoulders. "Face me."
When he turned he laughed at her. "Do you even know what led you here?"
"You upset the order of things." You killed my friends. People I loved. "I do what I must." I must kill you. I must.
"But for whom, I wonder?" The Emperor mused. "Do you blindly follow the will of your master? Is anything so simple? What did Li tell you? That I murdered your people and caused the restless dead? Side effects!"
She almost choked on her outrage and felt the ice forming at her fingertips unbidden. Yes. Of course. This man would think that the deaths of so many were side effects.
"This is about power!" he declared. "Come, student of Li! Your quest for death is at an end!"
And rather than fight her himself, he retreated behind his soldiers and allowed them to fight her instead. The figurehead of the Emperor had never awed her as a child; perhaps that had been Master Li's doing. But him hiding behind his underlings – she had never felt so much disgust for a man she should revere.
Finally she made it to the dais where the Emperor waited to confront her. He was looking at her like a particularly annoying insect. He was underestimating her and it made her bold enough to smile. His grimace did not change, but perhaps she saw a flicker of doubt in his yes?
This was not an Arena fight with cheering crowds and cleverly traded jibes. It was not even an Assassin's fight, all silence and shadows. No, the Emperor shifted between forms and styles like water, but it seemed he was not comfortable in any of them.
It had been a long time since he'd been challenged, she realized, and even the power of the Water Dragon wasn't inexhaustible. It had to be renewed in a human vessel and she would not allow that. The slice of the Dragon Sword, the injuries of a thousand cuts, the freeze of ice; she would not stop.
When he died, he turned to dust.
And that…was the end. The men and women who had killed her friends, destroyed her village, kidnapped her master and killed her lover were dead.
She did not feel exaltation or joy. Maybe that would come later. Right now she felt a glimmer of relief but that was all and it was stifled under the weight of so many deaths.
"My student." Master Li walked past her and up to the dais, where the crumbled body of the Emperor and the shard sat. He plucked the green stone from the dust and said, "You have made me proud."
And her heart lightened. Not all was lost. Master Li and Dawn Star were alive. Though her Master was a prince, it did not matter. She'd fought through the heart of the Empire for him; it would be nothing now for the three of them to ensure his regency – or succession! Whatever he wanted. She had done anything for him – and would continue to do so.
She almost grinned, knew it would earn a rebuke even now, and covered it with a respectful bow. "We have much to discuss," she said evenly, trying to hide her emotions.
"I'm sure there is, my student." He walked toward her, holding out the green gem in front of him. "Your abilities have grown immensely. But it also does my heart good to see that you have remembered what I taught."
She looked up from her bow just as he tossed the stone high. "Even the basics."
The fist came at her heart and then her stomach and she of the lightning reflexes and ice-cold mind could not muster strength or speed to stop him. She clutched at her stomach and felt white hot heat.
Her knees hit the floor and she looked up at her master. He said nothing and watched her die, silently, on the steps of the Emperor's dais.