29. The girl with a poison garden
"There is a second body." Shuomo pointed ahead. He and Yan had continued on and quickly found that the guard had managed to mortally wound the soldier that had followed Su and Fei Yuan. They hadn't expected to find a second body and even from this distance Yan could see it wasn't Su or Fei Yuan. This body was dressed similarly to the other attacker. They hurried to the body, close to the body they also saw a glistening pool of blood. Yan quickly turned the body. The attacker was indeed dead, Shuomo kneeled down and inspected the wounds. There was an arrow through his shoulder and two stab wounds: one in the abdomen and one clean cut through his heart. "Where did the arrow come from None of us carries a bow. And this cut through the heart is clean, it must have been done by a professional warrior, well trained." Yan looked around while he responded to Shuomo's comment that Su could have done it as she was very well trained and had to do combat before "This blood worries me. I think the attacker would have died swiftly after he was pierced through the heart, so you'd expect him to be in the pool of blood or near it. This distance is too large." Shaking his head and sighing Yan motioned for Shuomo to follow him. They found clear signs that recently people had walked here: footsteps, trodden on flowers and plants and broken branches. Deeper and deeper into the forest the tracks led and with every step he took Yan felt his anxiety increase. Where were Su and Fei Yuan? Had there been a maiden in distress? Or had it been a trap? Were they captured o r worse still: dead? Yan kept calling out Su's name, Shuomo did as well, but there still was no answer. "Brother Pei, here drink something." Shuomo said as they crossed a small stream. With a heavy heart Yan drank and sat down next to Shuomo. Shuomo looked at him, not knowing what to say. "Don't despair. We'll find them." He eventually said, but Yan did not seem to hear him. "If it gets too dark I know of a place where we could stay and then we can continue in the morning. We are actually heading in the right direction."
"Let's continue, the path is still clear." Yan said, not acknowledging what Shuomo had said. Though he didn't know Yan well, Shuomo understood that for now keeping searching was the only thing he wanted to do. So they continued to follow where they believed Su and Fei Yuan had gone. Gradually Shuomo started to recognize his surrounding, which gave him hope. At a certain point he stopped Yan with a hand on his shoulder. "Careful, there is a tripwire here." Surprised Yan turned to Shuomo. "I think I know where we are going, it would explain the arrow, though she was a long way away from her home. Come on." Shuomo stepped over a certain area and led Yan to a clearing up against a short rockface. In the clearing there was a house surrounded by blooming gardens. "Where are we?" Yan asked, but Shuomo kept silent and kept on walking to the entrance of the house and knocked on the door. After a while they heard a surprised call from above. Both men looked up . From a low, covered, tower a young woman leaned forward. "Shuomo! What are you doing here?" With a broad smile Shuomo looked up: "Xunan, did you shoot a warrior today?" Holding out her bow as answer Xunan said: "Yes, did you find him? Wait, I'll open the door." The two men didn't have to wait long for Xunan to open the door. When she did, they stepped in at her invitation. Inside Yan quickly saw a sofa with a familiar woman. "Who is your friend?" Xunan asked Shuomo as Yan ran to Su. Smiling Shuomo said: "He's her husband."
"Xiao Su, my dear wife." Yan said, kneeling down next to the sofa. Her clothes were so bloody that Yan feared for her, but he soon saw she only appeared to have had a wound on her arm. Softly he stroked her hair he could sense Shuomo and Xunan had come closer. "Where is she hurt? Other than her arm?" he asked.
"Nowhere else, but when we finally got here she threw up and barely made it to the sofa before she fell asleep. She was extremely tired."
"Why are her clothes so bloody then?" Yan still let his hand carefully glide over Su's belly, but as Xunan had said, he found no other wounds. As Yan was only focused on Su he did not see the anxious look Xunan gave Shuomo: "It's my little sister, Nian. The attacker stabbed her in her arm and upper body." Before she could continue they heard hurrying footsteps. "Young Master. You are here, you found us." Fei Yuan ran to Yan, who only quickly glanced at Fei Yuan. "I stayed with sister Su, as you asked." Yan nodded: "You did well, Fei Yuan." With one last gentle touch to her cheek Yan rose: "She'll sleep a while longer I think. How bad are the wound of you little sister?" It wasn't Xunan who responded, but Fei Yuan: "It's bad, the cuts are deep. Miss Yi and I did what we could. She is asleep.: Fei Yuan looked around clearly expecting others, but when he didn't see them he turned to Yan, who had sat down on the sofa next to Su, holding her hand in his lap. "Where is sister Rushuang and Yunchuan and the others?" Yan could hear the anxiety in Fei Yuan's voice. "We don't know. Brother Pei and I followed your trail from where you got separated. Brother Xie and Zihou followed where Rushuang and Yunchuan had been headed. We promised to meet up at the carriage, but it's too late to get there now. Let's hope they found the girls and a safe place to sit out the night. Tomorrow I'll head back to them and bring them here." Shuomo told Fei Yuan, then he turned to Xunan and asked to see Nian. Together they left for a room to the side of the large living area where they were. Fei Yuan brought Yan some water and a cloth. Yan gently wiped SU's face and her arm, which was still bloody from the wound on her upper arm. "We bound her wound back where Nian was attacked, but Nian was so severally injured we had to get to miss Yi's house as quick as we could." Fei Yuan explained. "While we were walking back Su was getting nauseous and tired, but she persisted that we had to get back to the house as soon as we could. We weren't sure whether there were more soldiers waiting to attack. At one place we had to hold some plants aside to get past. Su held Nian, that's why her cloths are covered in blood." That's when Yan looked up and took in Fei Yuan's appearance, his clothes were also covered in blood. Fei Yuan saw Yan look at him and he took in his own cloths. "I carried Nian." He said as explanation.
"You did well, Fei Yuan." Yan said, he'd cleaned Su's face and arms. She must have been very tired, because she hadn't woken up. "I'll get some supplies to treat her wound." Fei Yuan left and while he waited Yan watched Su, noting that even though she was sleeping she still seemed tired. He could also see she wasn't really at ease, he brushed some hairs away from her face and then softly stroked her cheek. "You're safe my dear, you can rest easy."
"Young master, here are the supplies. Shall I bind the wound?" Fei Yuan placed the tray on a stool near Yan. Yan shook his head: "I'll do it." He heard Fei Yuan sigh, so he looked up at the young man, who had always served him so well. "What is it Fei Yuan?" he asked gently.
"I wish Sister Rushuang was here, so she could have taken care of Nian. Miss Ji and I did what we could, but sister Rushuang could have done better. And she could have helped sister Su." Smiling to himself Yan reassured Fei Yuan that they would soon be reunited with Rushuang and the others. "How can you know? When we got separated there were still attackers after us. Maybe Sister Rushuang and Yunchuan were caught or killed." Before Yan could reply they heard a loud bell, looking around to ascertain where the sound came from. A glance through the room revealed a long row of bells next to the door, one of which was still swinging. Just as Yan wanted to aske Fei Yuan if he knew the meaning of the bell Xunan and Shuomo ran in. "Can you shoot?" Xunan asked hurriedly. Yan nodded. "Good. Go up the ladder next to the door and take the seat in the watchtower. There is a bow and arrows there. Shuomo and I will meet the intruders where they entered." Xunan said, already opening the door to leave. Yan felt Su squeeze his hand, he turned to look at her and saw she had waken u from the sounds. "My dear husband, you've found us." Yan gave a swift nod and then reached for the dagger in his waistband. "Here, keep laying down. Anyone that you don't know comes too close…"
"I know." With a quick kiss on her forehead Yan left to take up his place in the watchtower. After a while Yan finally saw movement in the forest. Pulling the string and putting tension on the bow Yan patiently waited. When the first person came into view Yan released a sigh of relief. There, walking through the gate, were Rushuang, Xie, Yunchuan, Zihou, Shuomo and Xunan with some guards and Feiyun soldiers. A quick check revealed they weren't gravelly wounded. Yan put the bow down and climbed down. He saw the anxious faces of Su and Fei Yuan. "Fei Yuan, open the door. The others have also found this place."
"Really?" Fei Yuan exclaimed.
"Really." Yan laughed and then went to SU, who was trying to sit up more. He supported her upper arm and helped her sit up. "How are you?" he asked taking his wife in, worry still visible in his eyes. "I'm alright, a little tired and I'm a bit hungry. How bad is the wound on my arm?" Yan sat down next to Su, placing his arm around her shoulder, so she could lean against him. "Fei Yuan and I haven't had time to redress your wound."
"How's the girl that was wounded?" clearly Su suddenly remembered what had happened. "Sister Su, Fei Yuan! You are well." Rushuang exclaimed when she entered the house after Shuomo and Xunan. What followed was a collective sigh of relief to have found each other again after so many anxious hours. The friends made sure everyone was alright. With the help of Xunan Fei Yuan quickly prepared tea and some refreshments, Shuomo and Zihou prepared a table and seats, while Rushuang first redressed Su's wound, which luckily wasn't deep, but did require a good cleaning. After Rushuang was done Shuomo brought her to Nian, who was asleep, but woke up when Rushuang took care of her wounds. "You Highness, could you ask miss Ji to come and help me? And ask Fei Yuan to prepare some restorative herbs. The same we used when Beiming was wounded." A little while later everyone except Nian, was gathered in the living room, enjoying the tea and refreshments. "What happened? Who attacked us?" Rushuang asked Xie, who like Yan was seated next to his wife, with his arm over her back, holding her close as he told her what he knew. "Two of the attackers weren't killed, so we know they are a group of soldiers that protect the shrine of empress Xuan. The group that attacked us is part of a larger group. Because others came and took the horses and carriage. Unfortunately the two soldiers we had captured were killed during the stealing of the horses and carriage."
"That might turn out to be fortunate, now they don't know much about our group." Yan replied. Shuomo nodded. "How many men did we lose?" Yan asked Xie.
"One royal guard and seven Feiyun soldiers. We took out about twenty."
"Did they carry the mark?" Su wanted to know.
"Yes they did." Zihou responded.
"How come you got separated?" Yan asked, Su turned to him so she could look into his face: "We were about to turn to got to the carriage when we heard a scream ahead of us. We had to act fast, because the attackers were very close. I told Rushuang and Yunchuan to go on ahead. As the attackers were behind us the guards and soldiers stayed to fight them off. One guard followed Fei Yuan and me. A small distance asway we found miss Ji lying on the ground with a soldier standing over her. At that moment an arrow shot through his shoulder. He turned and managed to wound my arm before I… ran my sword through him. The wounds of miss Ji were severe and well then miss Xunan came to us and told us her home was close by. So we came here." Su told everyone.
"Where is here? Are we safe from those soldiers?" Rushuang asked.
"this house belongs to my family, my father is a poison master, behind this house is one of the two poison gardens we maintain. Me and my sister had to harvest certain plants that grow close to the forbidden shrine. Usually we won't go that far, but there are many requests for those plants, so we had to do another trip."
"Have you encountered these soldiers before?" Shuomo asked, he seemed slightly worried. Xunan shook her head. "I've seen them from a far, but we've never encountered them. But a few weeks ao someone entered the poison garden without permission. A day later I was asked to treat a man in the inn nearby. He died, when he visited the poison garden he got a scratch from a poisonous plant." Rushuang watched Xunan and then said: "Why would someone break into a poison garden? Even poisons can be bought."
"He did take a handful of henbane, I can show you tomorrow."
"I would love to see your garden."
"Just listen carefully, you have to be so careful in the garden. All those plants could kill you. But as you're a poison master yourself it will be fine." At that moment both Su and Yunchuan discreetly tried to hide their yawns. "For now it seems best to get some sleep. Brother Xie can you arrange the guard for tonight?" Yan asked as the others started to get up and clear the table. It took some time to organize a sleeping place for everyone, but eventually everyone was sound asleep.