On Guard
Bai Jingyan rode at the front of the charge. She regretted, bitterly, that she had not gone to rescue Jinchi the instant she had heard the news.
This had never been a matter to entrust to others. The safety of someone precious should never have been placed in another's hands. And yet she had left Jinchi in Fu Yahei's care!
Fool! Idiot! How could she have made such a suffocating, maddening decision?
Those men were soldiers of Jin, not of the Bai army. They were men who weighed every gain against every loss. The moment abandoning Jinchi became convenient, they would discard her without a flicker of hesitation.
If anything happened to Jinchi, she would never forgive herself for that dull-witted judgment — not for the rest of her life.
The sand-laden wind scraped relentlessly at Bai Jingyan's face, but she seemed to have lost all feeling. The closer she drew to Huoshen Mountain, the thicker the stench of burning gunpowder grew. Impatience gnawed at her heart like fire.
Please, she prayed — let Shen Qingzhu hold on just a little longer with Jinchi. Just a little more. Even if the burning mountain was a thousand deaths waiting to swallow her whole, even if she had to shatter every bone in her body getting there, she would save them. She absolutely would!
Night fell. Bai Jingyan chose the harshest, narrowest shortcuts and pushed forward at a killing pace. The slopes were steep, and the howling wind raged down from the sheer cliffs into the bottomless abyss below. Her horse's hooves slipped, loose stones rattling and tumbling away into the dark, and one crisis chased hard on the heels of the next.
Nuo Ping followed hard behind her with twenty Bai estate guards, racing against every passing second. There was no room for delay.
Come what may, they would rescue the Bai fourth young lady trapped on Huoshen Mountain! Even if that hope verged on nothing at all. Either way, the faster they went, the more hope there would be — however thin.
Huoshen Mountain.
Bai Jinchi supported the gravely wounded, unconscious Shen Qingzhu with one arm and gripped her sword in the other hand just to keep herself upright. Her body swayed so badly it seemed she would collapse at any moment.
Du Sanbao and the rest shielded Bai Jinchi and Shen Qingzhu behind them, watching the Liang soldiers who blocked their path with eyes full of wariness. They were exhausted past the limit of endurance — every one of them on the verge of dropping where they stood.
Long starvation and total exhaustion had driven Bai Jinchi's strength to its absolute breaking point. Her whole body throbbed with deep, aching pain, and no matter how hard she fought, she could not keep her mind clear. She was retreating slowly and carefully, trying not to show it — but behind her, flames flickered like a serpent's tongue, licking at the sky. One wrong step and the fire would swallow her. Her clothes had not even touched the flames, yet the scorching heat had already seared her skin raw with pain.
Behind them, a fire raged hot enough to devour a man whole in an instant; before them, the Liang army. It was a dead end in every sense of the word.
Zhao Sheng, blood staining his armor, stood at the very front with a silver spear in hand and spoke.
"Surrender, and I'll spare your lives! Our Liang army is not like Great Zhou's Zhenguo Commandery Princess. We never kill prisoners who lay down their arms! All I want is the Gaoyi County Princess. I only wish to trade her for my younger brother, whom the Commandery Princess holds. There's no need to throw yourselves at death like this!"
Zhao Sheng's gaze was cold and grave. He pointed at the unconscious Shen Qingzhu slung across Bai Jinchi's back.
"Your strongest is already down! Drag this out any longer and you'll all lose your lives! I'm handing you a way to live — why do you still throw yourselves at death?"
Every Jin soldier except Du Sanbao began to waver. They looked to him.
"Squad Leader of Ten……"
"Don't you dare entertain it! Those men are the Zhao Family Army of Liang. Have you forgotten how the Zhao Family Army treats its prisoners? Sure, you won't be killed if you surrender — you'll just live a life worse than death!"
Du Sanbao ground his teeth.
The corner of Zhao Sheng's mouth curled slightly upward.
"Then let me make an offer! Drop this reckless stubbornness, and hand over the Gaoyi County Princess alone! Then I'll let the rest of you go. There are five hundred men here — and tens of thousands more at the foot of the mountain! They could trample you to death just by walking over you!"
"The Bai Family Army…… would sooner die than surrender!"
Gritting her teeth, Bai Jinchi hoisted Shen Qingzhu onto her back and turned to run straight into the flames.
Zhao Sheng's eyes darkened, and he roared.
"Stop her — now!"
The Liang soldiers surged forward all at once. The Jin troops, their fighting spirit already broken by Zhao Sheng's words, were subdued in the blink of an eye.
Bai Jinchi, already lunging toward the pit of fire with her arm shielding her face, was yanked backward as Zhao Sheng seized her collar.
Utterly spent, she went down the instant he pulled — collapsing to the ground with the unconscious Shen Qingzhu.
"Sister Qingzhu!"
Flailing, Bai Jinchi struggled up and reached to support Shen Qingzhu again, but Zhao Sheng's boot came down on her back and drove her face-first into the dirt.
Glaring viciously at Du Sanbao, who was still resisting with everything he had left, Zhao Sheng shouted.
"What are you all dawdling for! Kill every one of them except the one under my boot!"
The subdued Jin soldiers screamed until their throats tore.
"You said you don't kill those who surrender!"
Bai Jinchi had no strength left to move. Through blurred eyes she could only make out Du Sanbao's dim figure, still thrashing against his captors, and — close beside her — the fingers of Shen Qingzhu's fallen hand, twitching faintly.
Du Sanbao's strength, too, had finally given out, and the Liang soldiers took him down in one motion, forcing him to his knees. Everything before his eyes had gone hazy. Blood dripped, drop by drop, from his lashes, dyeing the entire world red.
A Liang soldier raised his blade high, and its cold light flashed.
Du Sanbao's consciousness was slipping away. Little by little, he was coming to accept that this was where his life would end, on Huoshen Mountain. He had dreamed of becoming a great general, but it seemed he would have to pin his hopes on the next life instead.
Bai Jinchi screamed with every ounce of strength left in her body, clenched her longsword with all her might, and rose to save him. Zhao Sheng smiled coldly and drove his boot down onto her again.
Before the Liang soldier's blade could fall, an arrow tore through the wind — and through the soldier's throat. The arrow, having punched clean through, sailed on trailing flame and buried itself in a tree, the white fletching at its end still trembling with the force of the shot.
The soldier who had held the blade stared with bulging eyes. Blood burst from his throat. His body went rigid, and he toppled to the ground where he stood.
Zhao Sheng jolted in shock, drew his sword, and roared.
"On guard!"
In the distance, a white steed reared high on its forelegs and came thundering toward them at lightning speed.
Bai Jinchi's eyes flew wide open. When she saw Bai Jingyan in silver armor glittering through the firelight, hot tears surged up and broke free all at once. She cried out in a voice choked to breaking.
"Big Sister!"
For the long days of her captivity, the Liang army had cut off their water, and her people had survived on raw grain and drinking blood. Even then, Bai Jinchi had not shed a single tear.
Even when she had resolved, with perfect composure, to carry Shen Qingzhu into the pit of fire and die, she had not wept!
But the moment she saw her elder sister, her heart — so firm until now — softened all at once, as though one touch would shatter it completely.
Cold, razor-sharp light glinted off the armor of the woman atop the white steed. Having already loosed one arrow, she calmly took aim at Zhao Sheng.
In the brief instant their eyes met, Zhao Sheng's gaze snapped wide. It was a heartbeat of a moment, but his body reacted before his mind — he threw himself back and rolled aside. Even so, the arrow that sprang from the bow punched through his collarbone and buried itself deep in his thick armor. The tremendous force left his head ringing. A hair's delay, and it would have torn out his throat.
Then the Bai estate guards who had followed Bai Jingyan came pouring in on horseback.
Zhao Sheng had not been killed — but he had been repelled. Bai Jingyan hauled hard on the reins, and her horse reared high. Bending down from the saddle, she seized Bai Jinchi's arm and hauled her up onto the horse.
Bai Jinchi lay draped across the horse's back, turned her head to look at Bai Jingyan, and tried to call out to her sister through her sobs — but she could endure no more, and slipped into unconsciousness.
As Nuo Ping dismounted and moved to lift Shen Qingzhu, felled by massive blood loss, a Liang soldier drew his blade and lunged at him.
Bai Jingyan's hand darted back to the quiver at her shoulder, then drew the bowstring taut with all her strength. The arrow flew so fast that only a blur of afterimage trailed behind it, and it pierced the Liang soldier square through the throat. Bai Jingyan's voice rang out like a bell.
"Withdraw!"
The Liang soldiers, whose guard had fallen completely, could only stand frozen and stunned when the Bai estate guards descended on them without warning. All they could do was watch, dumbstruck, as the rigorously trained guards loaded the Jin soldiers onto their horses and galloped off like madmen.
The purpose of this operation was rescue — nothing more. Bai Jingyan had given strict orders: do not linger over battle; save the people and turn back the way you came. Engaging the Liang army was not permitted either.
The Bai estate guards kept her command firmly in mind. The moment they had their people, they fled without so much as a backward glance.
Only after every last guard had withdrawn did Bai Jingyan finally lower her bow, covering the retreat from behind as they rode.
Zhao Sheng snapped off the arrowhead lodged in his collarbone and pressed his hand hard against the bleeding wound. Then, through gritted teeth, he bellowed.
"Archers! Fire!"
The archers drew at once and loosed toward the direction Bai Jingyan's party had fled. But their speed was simply too great. Moreover, Zhao Sheng had climbed the mountain hunting for Bai Jinchi, judging there would be no need for bows — he had brought only a handful of archers. And so they could not touch the Bai army guards, veterans of countless retreats.
"After them!"
Zhao Sheng drove his sword into the ground and pushed himself upright.
"Urgent report, General!"
A Liang soldier from the foot of the mountain scrambled up, dropped to one knee, and delivered his report.
"General Zhao! The Jin army is attacking our soldiers at the base of the mountain! Our forces have no one to command them at this moment. Please descend the mountain at once!"
The Jin army had circled back for a counterattack!
Zhao Sheng glared at the vanishing backs of Bai Jingyan's party and ground his teeth. If he let this chance slip today, who knew when he would get another to kill Bai Jingyan.
"We descend!"
Zhao Sheng immediately led his soldiers down the mountain.
Wang Xiping, locked in battle at the base, saw the torch-bearing figures coming down from above and judged that Bai Jingyan's operation had succeeded. Even if she had failed to rescue anyone, the Liang army would inevitably give chase if he withdrew his troops now — which meant he could buy her precious time to make her escape.
Wang Xiping's voice thundered across the field.
"Withdraw! Withdraw!"
Wang Xiping wheeled his horse around and pulled his cavalry back at full gallop.