Butterfly Swords. Jeannie Lin

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      ‘I’m not completely helpless.’ Plenty of pride in her. Her back stiffened with it. ‘I’ll be safe enough once I’m out of this province.’

      ‘Just be careful.’

      At the next corner, she halted so quickly he came up nearly against her heels. A crowd gathered around a group of soldiers wearing black and red uniforms. A crier dressed in embroidered state robes read from a scroll.

      He could only make out bits of it. ‘What are they saying?’

      ‘It is a proclamation by Li Tao.’

      ‘Who’s Li Tao?’

      ‘We have to go.’ She shrank away from the street, but he blocked her path.

      ‘You need to tell me what’s going on. Now.’

      She caught her bottom lip with her teeth, her face pale as she looked up at him. ‘Li Tao is the man I was supposed to marry.’

      ‘Marry? You’re running away from your husband?’

      ‘He is not my husband.’

      ‘What was all that nonsense about a plot against the empire?’ He had kissed her breathless and she belonged to another man. That stung more than it had a right to.

      Ailey froze as a sharp command rang from the plaza. It echoed against the stone walls of the alleyway.

      ‘The soldiers are searching the streets,’ she whispered frantically.

      He ushered her away from the square as fast as he could without breaking into a suspicious run. They wove past crates and debris that littered the alleyway. A window on an upper floor had been propped open. He stacked several crates on top of one another and offered his hand.

      ‘Hurry. Go on up.’

      She hooked her foot on to the corner of the pile and started climbing, grabbing on to the ledge. He watched, momentarily distracted, as she wriggled her slender hips through the opening.

      Focus, man. After a final sweep of the alley, he hoisted himself up the rickety tower and kicked the crates over before pulling through the window.

      The window led into a storeroom. An earthy, medicinal scent permeated the air and the low ceiling just allowed him to stand upright. He peered into the darkness and made out several woven baskets piled high with dried herbs and roots.

      Ailey’s voice came from the far end of the room. ‘Behind the ginseng.’

      ‘Which one is that?’

      A pale hand waved from the corner. He picked his way through the baskets and crouched beside her against the wall.

      ‘You need to tell me the truth, Ailey.’

      She let out a breath and her fingers worked the edge of her tunic nervously. ‘It was an arranged marriage.’

      ‘So all of this is because you don’t want to marry this man?’

      Her gaze shot up to him. ‘During the wedding procession, I discovered Li Tao betrayed our family. I hired mercenaries to attack the wedding procession so it would look as if I were abducted.’

      Somehow he believed her. He already knew she couldn’t tell a convincing lie.

      ‘This Li Tao must be a powerful man if he can send soldiers to scour the countryside for you.’

      ‘He is jiedushi of this province.’

      Ryam let his head thud back against the wall. The military governor. These warlords had complete power over the armies and laws of their circuits. He had to admire her spirit even though no good could come of it.

      ‘That’s why you can’t go to anyone for help.’

      She sank her chin onto her knees in an uncharacteristically childish gesture. ‘I never intended to put you in so much danger.’

      ‘Do you know what this looks like to anyone who finds us? The governor’s wife and a barbarian.’

      ‘I told you, I am not his wife.’

      He continued, undaunted. ‘They’ll hang me, but that is nothing compared to what they will do to you.’

      ‘My family did not raise their daughter to live in fear.’

      The rafters creaked, hushing them into tense silence as muffled voices rose from below. They crouched, listening and waiting.

      ‘I cannot let them find me,’ she whispered once the voices quieted. ‘Li Tao will force me to marry him. He only wants this marriage to gain my father’s trust.’

      As much as she tried to hide it, he could tell she was frightened. In the empire, a woman was first her father’s property and then her husband’s. She was defying both of them.

      ‘We’ll stay here awhile. Wait them out,’ he said. ‘The soldiers will move on in a couple of hours.’

      ‘What then?’

      A sense of foreboding settled over him like a shroud. She was looking to him for answers. The last time anyone had trusted his lead, it had ended in bloodshed. His head throbbed with phantom pain as he recalled the last moments of the skirmish. Imperial soldiers had swarmed over their caravan, overpowering them. A better man could have stopped it.

      ‘What should we do, then?’ she repeated.

      ‘We can’t roam the streets all night and we can’t stay here.’ He needed to think. For once, he needed to make the right decision and not rush into battle.

      ‘Perhaps we can sneak past the guards to the main gates,’ Ailey suggested.

      ‘There are soldiers at the gates and patrolling the streets. You can’t leave town tonight. You’ll need to hide.’

      ‘But where?’

      He knew of places, dark corners in any city that he would never send a woman to alone. ‘We’ll find a place at the edge of town. Tomorrow morning, we leave with the first light of dawn once the gates open.’

      The scent of herbs hung heavy and bittersweet as they waited in silence. Ailey sank back against the wall. Her shoulder inadvertently brushed against him. He was becoming greedy for every touch, no matter how innocent.

      Changan, the imperial capital. He’d been there before. And he could handle imperial soldiers … if there weren’t too many. He had known it would come to this the moment she sank into his arms after their duel. Perhaps he had known even sooner, when he had seen her strength and her fierce determination to get home.

      Maybe this was just another distraction, another reason to avoid returning to the Gansu corridor where his comrades waited. No, he was wrong about that. No one was waiting for him. They probably thought he was dead.

      He had enough СКАЧАТЬ