Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 154: Zhai Jiang

Zhai Jiang was a cousin of Duke Wuli Yuan of the Huoyan Kingdom, the neighboring kingdom of Tianqin. This was his first visit to the Tianqin Kingdom, and so far, his experience had not been very pleasant.

Zhai Jiang rode up to the Xiang stronghold on a weak horse, with his tired, low-level spirit beast trotting along behind him. He had lost most of his attendants and bodyguards in the fighting; only one attendant, a boy too young to swing a sword effectively, had somehow survived with the pack horse.

Zhai Jiang pounded on the west gate of the town, which was below the stronghold. A pair of scared-looking guards opened the main gate just wide enough for one horse to let him in.

"There is an army of the demonics out there," Zhai Jiang gasped. "Take me to your lord."

The lord arrived soon enough. To Zhai Jiang, the lord of the town seemed old for a warrior—gray-bearded and tending towards excessive weight—but he was dressed as a warrior should be.

"I am Yinhua Han," he said, cupping his hands.

Zhai Jiang thought it unlikely that this man was even a qi warrior. He wondered how such an ill-favored lout had come to command such an important post.

"I was with a convoy of fifty wagons," Zhai Jiang said. He sat down suddenly; he hadn't intended to sit, but his legs gave out from under him.

"The Demonics," he said. He tried to sound sane and rational, like a man whose word could be trusted. "Demonics attacked us. With Duskreavers. A hundred, at least." He found that he was having trouble breathing.

It was difficult even to recount the tale. "Oh Heavens," he said.

Yinhua Han put a hand on his shoulder. The man seemed larger somehow. "How far, my lord?" he asked.

"One hundred Li," Zhai Jiang took a deep breath. "Maybe less. West of here."

"By the Heavens!" Master Yinhua Han swore. "West, you say?"

"They went around the town?" He shook his head.

Zhai Jiang heard footsteps outside. He raised his head and saw the same man who had let him into the city, accompanied by a pair of lower-class men.

"They say there's swampling in the fields, my lord." The guard shrugged. "That's what they say."

"My daughter!" one of the two men who came with guard shouted. It was more of a shriek than a shout. "You have to save her."

"I'm not sending a man out that gate; it's too dangerous. You need to be steady," Master Yinhua Han advised, pouring the man a cup of wine.

"My daughter!" the man said in anguish.

Master Yinhua Han shook his head. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said, not unkindly.

He turned to the warriors. "Sound the alarm. Bar the gates. And get me the town chief and tell him I'm imposing martial law. No one is to leave this town." After having his say Master Yinhua Han left.

Since Zhai Jiang was a proper noble, he was given appropriate accommodation. However, he was not in the best mood that night and drank too much wine the following morning.

He had woken up to sounds of wailing. The man whose daughter had been abducted sat in the warrior barracks, wept, and demanded that the lord send out a rescue party.

The town chief agreed with him, and heated words were exchanged between the warriors and the town chief. Zhai Jiang wanted no part of it. The commoners were too alien to him—both too servile and too free—and Master Yinhua Han was no noble. Even the temples in the fort seemed counterfeit.

It was disorienting.

Mid-morning, as he finished his ablutions—he felt vexed a Duke's cousin washing without so much as an attendant or slave to help him—he heard the town chief's shrill voice near the warrior room, demanding that Master Yinhua Han come out.

Zhai Jiang dressed. He had spare shirts because the boy had saved his packhorse, and he planned to reward the boy richly for it.

"Come out of your hole, you doddering old coward!" shrieked the Town Chief.

Zhai Jiang was trying to dress by himself. He had done it on his own in the past, but not since he had become a man. He had to take support against the stone of the wall few times to get his clothes on..

"Master Town Chief?" he heard. It was Master Yinhua Han, his voice calm enough.

"I demand that you gather all the useless mouths you call your warriors and go out to find this man's daughter. And open the gates—the grain convoys are on their way. This town needs money, though I'm sure you've been too drunk to notice," the Town Chief sounded like a particularly nasty midwife.

"No," said Master Yinhua Han. "Was that all?"

At that moment, Zhai Jiang couldn't decide exactly what he thought of Master Yinhua Han. Was he over-cautious?

He reached for his shoes—uncleaned, of course. He put them on and struggled with his cloak while trying to put it on, his mind still on Duskreavers, swamplings, and worse things—the ambush he had faced on the journey.

He had been trained to fight the demonics. Until yesterday, he had only fought other men—usually one-on-one, with swords in training yards.

The images in his head made him shudder.

"I order you!" the Town Chief screamed.

"You can't order me, Town Chief. I have declared martial law, and I, the lord of the fortam the power here,, not you " Master Yinhua Han sounded apologetic rather than dismissive.

"I represent the people of the town. The farmers, the merchants, and the artisans!" The Town Chief's voice sank to a hiss. "You don't seem to understand—"

"I understand that I represent the king. And you do not," Master Yinhua Han's voice remained level.

Zhai Jiang had made his decision. He was going to support the low-born lord, Master Yinhua Han. It didn't matter what the two men were debating—it was about their manners. Master Yinhua Han was acting as a lord would. He might even survive at a duke's court.

Zhai Jiang tested his feet in his shoes and took his sword. He never left his rooms without a sword or a dagger. Then he went out into the hall—a hall crowded with warrior soldiers listening to the argument in the main room below. He ran light-footed down the stairs.

He had missed an exchange. When he entered, the Town Chief, red-faced, thin, and tall, was silent, his mouth working.

Zhai Jiang went and stood behind the old lord of the fort, Master Yinhua Han. He noted that the Town Chief wore a rich, dark blue velvet cloak embroidered with rabbits. He smiled—his own silk robe was worth about fifty times that of the Town Chief's.

"This is Master Zhai Jiang," Master Yinhua Han said. "The Duke of Huoyan's ambassador to our king. Yesterday his convoy was attacked by hundreds of demonics."

The Town Chief shot a venomous glance at him. "So you say. Go do your job; you are just a hired warrior to protect the people. Aren't you even a little humiliated to think that this man's daughter is the plaything of monsters while you sit and drink wine?"

The man—who stood behind the Town Chief with a dozen other men—gave a sob and sank to the floor.

"His daughter has been dead since yesterday, and I won't risk men to look for her corpse," Master Yinhua Han said with casual brutality. "I want all the women and children moved to the castle immediately, with food and provisions."

The Town Chief spat. "I forbid it. Do you want to panic the town?"

Master Yinhua Han shrugged. "Yes," he said. "In my expert opinion—"

"You have no expert opinion. You were a small warrior for-hire—what? Forty years ago? And then a drinking crony of the king's. Very professional!" The Town Chief spoke.

Zhai Jiang realized the man was afraid. Terrified. And that terror made him belligerent. It was a revelation. Zhai Jiang was not, strictly speaking, a young man. He was twenty-nine, and he thought he knew how the world worked.

Yesterday had been a shock. And now today was a shock too. He watched the foolish Town Chief and watched Master Yinhua Han and understood something of their quality. In his kingdom, no town chief could speak to a lord in such a way. But then again, this lord here was not a real noble, which the town chief knew very well.

"Town Chief?" Zhai Jiang asked. "Please—I am a stranger here. But the demonics are real. What I saw was real."

The Town Chief turned and looked at him. "And who in Heaven's name are you?" he asked.

"Zhai Jiang, cousin to the Duke Wuli Yuan of the Huoyan Kingdom, the one they call the Dawn Duke for his kindness," Zhai Jiang bowed, cupping his hands. His cousin was too old to draw a sword, but his titles rolled off the tongue, and he was annoyed by the Town Chief.

The Town Chief, for all his belligerence and terror, was a merchant and an educated man. "From Huoyan province?" he asked.

Zhai Jiang thought of telling this peasant what he thought of their casual use of "province" for the dukedom that had already transformed into a kingdom. But he didn't bother. "Yes," he shot back.