And DH and his eldest sister had to make the tough decision to move my father-in-law to hospice today.
So it's been a little difficult around Casa Harden lately. If I fail to post, I'm probably up to my neck in other deeds. Like rushing through unpacking the remaining boxes from the move still sitting in our living room so we can temporarily store FIL's apartment furniture.
On the other hand, I hope you all have a glorious Cinco de Mayo or Revenge of the 5th, whichever holiday you celebrate. Here's your last sneak peek before A Measure of Knowledge drops on the 15th.
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When the final peal of the bells died, the five of us joined hands. Both Shi Hua and Quan’s hands were clammy to the touch. In any other circumstance, I would have teased the ambassador about his nervousness, but I couldn’t this time. Not with his family’s lives at stake.
Luc and I gently fed energy into the young Jing priestess. Talbert and Quan focused on their desire to speak with Reverend Father Biming. Shi Hua launched her thread of magic westward.
The main problem was the Reverend Father was a quicksilver like Talbert. Someone who essentially was undetectable by those of us with mental talents. If the Reverend Father wasn’t deliberately listening for Shi Hua, she wouldn’t be able to communicate with him. Our unspoken hope was the demon attack meant he was listening for her.
Assuming the demons hadn’t killed him.
Shi Hua? The masculine silent voice wasn’t Biming. Nor was it Brother Jian of Light. From the feeling of two beings in one mind, he was a Wildling.
Fa? she asked. Are you all right? Is Mei Wen alive? She said there was a demon attack in Chengzhou. Where’s Reverend Father Biming?
Just a moment, Fa said. The link still existed, but his attention was split. After a breathless moment, he returned. I sent one of my wardens to fetch the Reverend Father. He assigned me to listen for you.
Brother Fa, Prince Po is with me, Shi Hua said. As are Chief Justice Anthea and High Brothers Luc and Talbert.
Your Highness, Honored Seats. I hope you don’t mind, but Reverend Father Biming was adamant that he speak with you tonight. He will be here momentarily. The Jing priest hesitated a moment. I can say a healer was already at the home Temple of Balance. The last report indicated Justice Mei Wen is alive. His worry filtered through the link despite the young priest’s best efforts. Shi Hua had told me that she, Mei Wen, Jian, and Fa had been close when they were novices in the Jing Capital.
How many justices did you lose, Brother Fa? I asked. What assistance can Issura render?
As to your first question, I do not know. Clergy and wardens are still searching Balance, m’lady. The young priest’s weariness tugged on our link and I poured more of my own resources into Shi Hua. As for your second, the Reverend Father can answer that question better than I can.
The smooth essence of Reverend Father Biming entered our link. Sister Shi Hua, are you all right? I was told you were in contact with Justice Mei Wen when the demons attacked Balance.
I’m fine, Reverend Father, she reported. Chief Justice Anthea absorbed the brunt of Justice Mei Wen’s pain.
Can we drop the titles for now, Biming? I said. We have a multitude of questions, and I don’t want to wear out Shi Hua more than necessary.
I understand, Anthea, but may I please speak with Prince Po privately first? Biming said.
My brother and his sons are dead, aren’t they? The tsunami of Quan’s grief drowned all of us for a moment.
The empress as well, Your Highness. I am so sorry. Biming’s love and affection for his prince swirled around us all.
How? I bit out.
One of the imperial concubines was replaced by a skinwalker. Biming’s simple statement tore at me. When I first learned Shi Hua was Temple, she asked me how I was able to see demons. My strange sight that allowed me to see demons and skinwalkers resulted from an accident when I tried to bestow human sight on myself in my efforts to escape service to Balance. Shi Hua had hoped to replicate my spell, but according to my own Reverend Mother, all efforts to duplicate my accident had failed.
If I understood what I’d done wrong, I could have reproduced my eyesight in someone else. The emperor’s little boys wouldn’t be—
Anthea! Luc snapped. You can wallow in guilt later.
My apologies. I struggled to breathe evenly. From the anxiety irritating my nerves, I would need to visit High Sister Mya of Child before I would be able to sleep tonight. Both she and High Brother Ben of Vintner had been adamant that I couldn’t rely on soma tears for sleep.
You must come home, Po, Biming said. You are now the crown prince. The heads of the Temples know I’m speaking with you. We will keep the peace until you return.
How bad is your situation? Talbert asked.
Biming gave a stark recitation of what he and the other Temple heads had pieced together over the last two candlemarks. The actual attacks matched Quan’s analysis of quick, surgical strikes at the human institutions the demons considered their chief opposition. At the extent of the losses, I feared the almond pastries I’d eaten would make a reappearance.
Everyone of the Jing home Temples and their schools of philosophy had casualties. Of course, Light was more heavily targeted, but Balance and Death were as well. Which meant somehow the demons who survived the Battle of Tandor managed to get word to the other demons in our world before our own Crown Princess Chiara and the Issuran army hunted them down and killed them.
The School of the Dragon and the Phoenix suffered the most casualties. According to Quan, they were an offshoot based on the more esoteric teachings of Balance and Light. His own father had been a master of the school and its representative in the imperial court until he was struck with a scourge designed to resemble the disease known as the Child’s curse.
The teams of clergy and talents who acted as the imperial family’s personal bodyguards had been killed by the skinwalker, as had a number of the imperial harem. The skinwalker killed as many of the civilian troops guarding the imperial palace as it could before a cook warded it in one of the kitchens until Temple assistance arrived and ended the threat.
All the guilds were ignored by the demons except for the Healers Guild. One master, a journeyman, and a handful of apprentices survived at their headquarters, but in the demons’ focus on the main guild house, they missed the personnel who’d taken up residency at the Temples to assist with the multitude of babes the breeding edict had produced.
I wondered if the demons targeted the Healers Guild because it spawned off from the Temple of Death. Balance was the only one of the Twelve Temples that didn’t have a guild cleave off from the order over the last century.
The demons also ignored the nobles. If Jing were like Issura, the nobles had few of their members with any talents. Our enemies needed to take out the Temples, the guilds, and the schools of philosophy. Everyone else could be eaten at their leisure.
Quan let out an audible sigh before he said silently, It’s the midwinter, and Issura has been beset with storms since the solstice.
We may not be able to get you a weather sorcerer, but we can petition the duke for a weather oracle, Talbert said.
If Anthea and I ask, the duke may be willing to loan us Captain Titus and the Mars Tranquilus, Luc added. She’s a nimble ship with an excellent crew, and no offense, Quan, but she can handle a winter storm better than your ship can.
Quan chuckled, but the effort sounded forced. You have no argument from me on that score.
In the morning and if it’s all right with you, Quan, Shi Hua and I can contact Queen Teodora, report Jing’s situation, and petition for additional aid, I said.
If it’s all right with you, Anthea, I’d like to be involved in that conversation, he replied.
The renegade’s spies are expecting you to go back to Jing, Talbert said. There’s going to be ambushes along the way.
In the middle of the Peaceful Sea? I said.
Yes, my dear Anthea, Quan mocked. They are called pirates.
We have to assume they will strike before you leave Issura, Luc said. I strongly suggest you stay here for your own safety.
I concur, sir, Shi Hua said.
No comment, Anthea? Quan teased.
Only if you say no to a common sense precaution, I replied. You already know those from Thief will not be as direct even though they agree with me. Biming’s laughter pealed like a bell through my mind. It sounded like he needed the emotional release.
We’ll discuss our preparations further tomorrow at the same time, Biming said. I’ll send Jian and Fa with a Temple group I trust to meet you in Ryuku. Is that acceptable, Shi Hua?
The sister had come to Issura as Quan’s bodyguard. It said much that Biming trusted her to get their new emperor back to Chengzhou safely.
Yes, sir, she replied without hesitation. It hadn’t registered yet that her new assignment meant leaving her son Chao behind, possibly never seeing him again. In all my jealousy over the other Light and Balance clergy given permission to bear children, the thought of leaving my child behind hadn’t occurred to me.
Mya never called me self-centered during our talks involving my emotional repair work. She should have. Maybe I would have understood sooner.
Be careful, Biming, I said. Renegades may still be hiding in and around Chengzhou.
We will, Anthea. Weariness filled his mental voice even though it was fairly early in the day for Jing, but a demon attack will exhaust everyone when the initial adrenaline charge fades.
Shi Hua dissolved the link with Biming and Fa. She blinked a few times to reorient herself. “Shall I inform your concubine to have your concubine order the embassy household to pack, Your Highness?”
Quan nodded absently as he played with the beads on his moustache. “Wait.” He gestured sharply. “Hers and her son’s belongings. Sufficient clothes and weapons to sustain me during the voyage. Have Mistress Yin Li select four guards to accompany us. No more, no less. Tell her about—” He choked on the word while he did his best to be the world leader he thought he should be. “—about the imperial family, but neither of you are to say anything to anyone else. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” She nodded.
“It’s going to be difficult to keep this news quiet, Po,” I said softly. “Not with the clergy from all Twelve Temples present tonight when the demons attacked Chengzhou.”
“I trust the seats of Orrin to keep their silence and to ask those of their Temples to do the same.” He flashed me a brief smile. “At least until I can leave Orrin.”
“I’ll ride up to the duke’s estate.” Luc grabbed his crutches and stood.
“Tonight? I thought I was the one with the lack of manners,” I teased.
“Luc’s right.” Talbert pushed to his feet as well. “We need to work fast to get the new emperor out of Issura alive. I’ll inform the other seats of what’s happening.”
“What about me?” I was a little nonplussed the two high brothers had taken the jobs I would have preferred.
“You and I will put together a list of requirements I may need from your Teodora,” Quan answered. “We both need to be prepared for tomorrow morning. Would you mind if the chief justice and I use your dining room for a little while longer, High Brother?”
Luc nodded. “Our facilities are at your disposal, Your Highness. And I’ll have Edberth brew you two some more tea.”
Quan was correct. We did need to be prepared for speaking with the queen. But what puzzled me was the surprising lack of jealousy from Luc for once over me spending time alone with the future emperor of Jing.
Maybe Luc was simply happy Quan would soon be out of his hair.
In my case, I simply didn’t like change, and I’d had far too much of it over the last two winters.
And some instinct deep in my spirit said Balance wasn’t done flinging more challenges at me than She already had.
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