She remembered that day on the banks of the clear, swift-flowing Quinhuai.
The river mud squelched cool and wet between her bare toes. Knobby knees shuddered in the chill of the breaking dawn as the lanky teen widened her stance and hunched her shoulders low. Determination and focus flashed in her dark eyes.
The worn wooden broom-handle felt good, natural, in her practiced grasp. Her fingers knew each and every splinter. Her callused hands cradled against the beaten and tempered length easily with a familiarity borne of practice and time. Her thumb brushed gently over the hand-carved drake she had etched into the haft, his dagger-like claws extended, ferocious mouth agape, and breathing flame.
The dragon was her silent companion. Always steady; never judging. Others were certainly not so kind.
The ragged hem of her kimono swayed about her knees in the maritime breeze, a gentle reminder of a harsh reality: Wearing tatters and scraping in the gutters for food. It was a way of life. The signs of bitter poverty clung cruelly about her waist and jutting ribs.
In the eyes of the people, she was just like the abysmal dress she wore. Worthless, nothing, irreparable.
To them she was a lowly creature; something to be ignored, and heaped in along with the other rubbish that littered the streets of Southside's slums. To be used, then cast aside. A temporary good to be consumed, then disposed, and shunned.
The red paint on her lips coupled with the white cake of powder on her cheek was as much a mark of her station as her garments.
The women often talked in hushed whispers as they scuttled by, hurrying along to the comfort of a safe warm hut and a full belly.
"Whore!" they hissed "Prostitute."
Lin knew they were not wrong. The coins gained from a night's work were almost worth the coldness that seemed to seep in her soul day after day.
Almost.
She sucked the chill air in through her teeth, reveling in the cool, clear sting of it in her lungs. Muscles tensed, stretching, flexing, and warming with the rush of heated blood and movement. She needed action, she needed chaos coupled with peace, and she needed to escape. Her body gladly obliged.
A battle cry tore from her throat, echoing off the clear rippling waters of the racing river. She struck out with her makeshift staff, the broom handle's tip whistled and parted the air with terrifying force, speed, and precision .Imaginary villains were cleaved in two by the righteous blow and she leapt high and cat-like to avoid their non-existent strikes.
She smashed her weapon down, pulling the heft of her weight and strength into it as she obliterated a clay pot in front of her about the same height as a man's head. Ferocity and wildness painted her face in a predatory grin while fires of vengeful victory danced in her eyes. She swept sideways, blocking and whirling out of reach. Her ebony hair splayed out behind her, tossed by the breezes and flitting through the outstretched fingers of her imaginary attackers.
She was alone in a solitary dance. Tripping lightly, springing, along the fine line of life and death. Lin was intangible, swift, and merciless. Lost in a place where all the whispers and gnawing pains of hunger disappeared. It made her free, if only for a few moments. For a fraction of a second, she was no longer helpless.
She clenched her dark eyes closed and roared her victory to the sky.
But across the river someone watched, and someone heard.
-x—
The enormous wedding barge was built for a Queen. Gold filigrees coated the glossy enameled hull, sprawling in swooping designs of long necked swans and prancing stags. Crimson velvet covered the plush seats and nearly a hundred men bent their backs to the oars as the floating procession was guided through the muddy currents of the Quinhuai.
Alena DeRoswyn sighed, breathing out through her nose in a tiny huff. Her azure eyes skimmed the banks lethargically as she was borne onwards to the high hills in the distance. She crossed her ankles and smoothed the wrinkled seam of her gown.
"Fit for a Queen, indeed." She thought with a distinct bitter chagrin. "A gilded cage, and my new husband as my keeper." Alena bit her lower lip, trying to keep the heaviness of her thoughts from sinking into her heart. She was going to be a Queen, and Queens did not cry.
Queens did their duty for the good of their country.
War was brewing and alliances needed to be formed. If the cost for the safety of her people was her compliance in an arraigned and hasty marriage to an Emperor across the sea, then she would pay it. Her soul for their tranquility.
She slipped a hand over the edge of the boat, skimming her slim fingers through the wet ripples. The glittering backs of sliver fish flitted just out of reach, leaping and splashing merrily. Something moving, hidden in the reeds caught her eye. She shaded her view with a hand, squinting.
The princess could just barely make out hair of ebony black and a body lithe and lean, moving in a dance-like form on the other side of the river.
It was a girl. A beautiful girl. And she was…fighting?
Alena felt herself being pulled, as if by an unseen force. Her eyes tracked every leap, every strike, every parry made by the tiny teenage warrior. The flickering hem of the tattered dress flashed tiny glimpses at strong calves and thighs of muscle and sinew. There was something about her that touched Alena deeply. Grace mingled with ferocity. Beauty twined with savagery.
"She fights better than some of the swordsmen back home." Snorted the young regent, thoughtfully tapping her lip. "Perhaps….she could be of some use to me in this strange land. I could always use a companion..." the thought trialed off, dying before reaching the princess's tongue.
"Captain! Pull the boat to the opposite bank, I wish to stretch my legs." Alena ordered, curiosity mingled with something unknown gnawing deep in her gut. There was something about this girl that she simply had to see for herself.
-x-
"Girl, what is your name?" A woman perhaps no more than 15 years of age, stepped from someplace unseen, making Lin jump in alarm. Her gown of summer green satin whispering through the reeds. She spoke gently, her accented voice soft and lilting. Her patterns of speech were prim, but comforting and filled with the sensation of genuine warmth.
The young warrior narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She could see the silhouette of an Imperial Pleasure Barge moored only a scant few meters away. Royalty. Surely that meant trouble.
"Lin. My name's Lin. And I'm not a girl. I'm a woman. What's it to you?" The spunky teen quipped, flipping dirty black bangs out of her eyes. A servant's quick intake of breath and the sudden tension in the air caused Lin to shuffle from foot to foot, anxiously.
Instinct told her she had said something very wrong, and secretly she cursed her wagging tongue. Her jaw clenched, bracing for what should have been an impending slap across the cheek for her impertinence.
Her Majesty chuckled and swooped into a low bow, her blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "Very clever, my lady. I suppose it was quite remiss of me to mistake you for younger than is your due. Indeed you are nearly just as old as I am. My name is Alena, and I am from a land far away…I am headed to the palace to be married to the Emperor…" She pointed to the high curl topped roofs in the distance.
"but I have not yet met any people in this countryside…would you like to come along with me? To be my new friend?" She babbled excitedly, holding out a hand and coaxing with a radiant smile.
Lin noticed that her fine, rounded nails were free of dirt.
"If…if it would please you. My lady." Lin curtseyed awkwardly, wobbling dangerously and keeping her eyes down cast.
"Lin…" A gentle touch on her shoulder made the young warrior look up. "What are you doing here by the river side?"
The warrior shuffled her feet, her eyes suddenly very keen to study the tattered hem of her mud soaked skirt. "I..I'm a prostitute, m'lady. I was looking for a day's wages…but none would come. So I decided to practice my fighting skills instead, to pass the time until the men stop on their way home from the fields." Came the mumbled reply.
Vibrant blushing shame bloomed in her cheeks. The Queen's mouth flickered, its corners edging down in a pitying frown for only a moment before she recovered.
Perhaps, the sovereign thought silently to herself, I see something in this poor little urchin. A kindred spirit. And indeed, Alena knew that Lin was someone who still held on to that inherently human fiery pride, but who was also in danger of losing the tenacious spark. She cleared her throat.
"You need never look down or curtsey to me, do you understand? We are equals. I want you to treat me as your companion, not as your Queen." The regent spoke, her visage firm, but loving. Lin sensed, in that moment, that Alena hid something of herself from the world. Something personal, like a flickering flame that had long been guarded and repressed and was beginning to gutter out beneath the weight of her forced duty.
The kingdoms, the waif knew, had to be joined in alliance for the sake and safety of the people…but few ever tarried to think of the cost such an alliance entailed: The sacrifice of a young woman's vivaciousness and virginity all in the name of peace.
The Queen, Lin realized, was lonely.
"Yes, your majesty…er…Alena. I'd like to come with you, see the palace, and be your friend. I'd like that very much." She flashed a toothy grin and clamored, limbs flailing ungainly, into the gilded velvet seats of the boat.