Butterfly Swords (17 page)

W
est of the central cities the land opened up to arching blue sky and untamed grassland as far as the eye could see. The road disintegrated into a trail of wheel ruts and tracks overtaken by weeds. The last time Ryam had been this way, he’d been riding alongside the cache of weapons, heading unknowingly into disaster.

Ailey stopped and dismounted to watch a herd of wild horses thundering across the plain. She had traded her court dress for riding clothes, but kept the turquoise robe as if unwilling to hide herself any longer. It draped down her back, the edge of it catching the breeze. She had pinned her hair up and the sunlight played over her face.

For days he’d ridden beside her. Their stolen morning remained fresh in his mind, never more than a meaningful glance away. Her body had been awakened, eager and hungry, and it called out to him. He could conjure the feel of her hips arching into him and a sweat would break out on the back of his neck. Desire was nothing new to him, but this feeling was.

He could see the question in her eyes when the day faded into night. She would crawl into his arms and they would fall asleep like that, day after day, curled together in exhaustion. That was enough for now.

‘Our home lies in the valley before that ridge.’ Her finger followed the sloping grey line at the horizon. ‘Two, maybe three days from here.’

He lowered himself from the saddle onto the packed dirt of the road. Ailey gripped her reins loosely with one hand, dwarfed beside the chestnut steed. Her gaze set fiercely on to the point in the distance. She led the horse along with her hand on the bridle,

‘Fifth Brother heads the defence command at Longyou. We were always close. He will understand why I had to leave.’

‘Your father will eventually find you there.’

‘Then I’ll keep on going.’

He was the one who always went along, never asking the how or why of things. It was how his party had been attacked and caught unaware by imperial patrols. He didn’t know if he liked that attitude on Ailey. Everything with her held weight and purpose. It wasn’t like her to be so careless, especially with something as precious as her honour.

There was something different about her. A restless energy simmered beneath her calm demeanour. It was anger, he realised. The slow, quiet kind. She had lost her sheen of innocence to replace it with defiant purpose.

‘You’re the imperial princess,’ he said. ‘They will never stop looking for you.’

‘I will not be used as a bribe. And I’m not really a princess. My father was a different man before he was made Emperor.’

She narrowed her eyes as she looked towards the horizon. He didn’t know how to deal with this side of her. Ailey seemed suddenly willing to turn her back on everything she held dear. Something had happened in Changan between Ailey and her family. Whatever her reasons, it couldn’t be purely for him.

At the first sight of home, Ailey breathed in the crispness of mountain air and her heart opened and lifted. The orange light of dusk filtered through the peaks to fall across the grey-slate tile of the rooftops. Their family banner flew from the mast, dragon-green edged with yellow. She had always thought her home a humbling place. The height of the mountains stretching above reminded her that she was in the smallest corner of the world. But it was her corner.

‘We are here,’ she said simply.

Ryam pulled his mount in front of her, looking tall and confident in the saddle. ‘Look at you. You’re glowing.’

The imperial palace would never welcome her the same way, with the curve of the mountains taking her in their embrace.

She pointed her horse towards the mansion across the valley. ‘I’ll race you to it.’

Ryam’s mouth lifted slyly. ‘What do I get if I win?’

A smile lit his eyes that sent ribbons of delight through her. She dug in her heels and the horse surged forwards. Head lowered, Ailey leaned into the rush of air and the rhythm of hooves pounding into the grass. Ryam appeared beside her, his blond hair whipped back by the wind, the dark head of his stallion nudging ahead of hers by inches. She dug her heels in harder, gripping the saddle with her thighs, and lost herself in the freedom and thunder of the run, each beat bringing her closer to home.

Ryam reached the grounds moments before her and dismounted, swinging one leg over the saddle and landing with confidence. He took the reins from her to help her down. She ended up in his arms as her feet touched earth.

It had been like this for the last several days, light touches against her shoulder, holding her arm, taking her hand when he didn’t need to. Each touch pulled her awareness back to him, but there had been nothing to match the delicious passion he had shown her in the tiny room of the drinking house.

There were times when she wondered if Ryam remembered what had happened between them. He had confessed that he was drunk that morning, after all. But then he would catch her eye, his gaze smouldering and dangerous, and she knew without a doubt he remembered every detail.

‘What would your family think?’ He pulled her closer inch by inch. ‘Finding you out here in the arms of a barbarian?’

His voice slid over her, low and sensual, almost a challenge. They would think she’d gone mad. She raised herself onto her toes and he slid his arm across her back. Her heart thudded as she pressed close, feeling every angle and contour of his body.

‘I meant everything I said to you in the drinking house,’ she replied.

Her arms wound around his neck. His skin was heated and damp. The bronze skin at the hollow of his throat glistened with a sheen of sweat.

‘I know.’

‘I mean it still.’

His eyes turned turbulent as he held her securely against him. He lifted one hand to the nape of her neck, his fingertips twining gently into her hair. She loved how he always looked at her so intensely before he kissed her. He would hold her, seeing her and tasting her all at once. It was the height of boldness, letting him embrace her out in the open. His presence beside her felt more real now that they were in Longyou, in this place that was so much a part of her.

He had just fitted his mouth to hers when a crowd of footsteps marched towards them. She released him immediately, but Ryam let his hands linger, curving unhurriedly down her back before letting her go. His rueful smile sent her heart racing, as if the only thing worrying him was that they had been interrupted.

They were shielded by the horses from the approaching guard patrol. ‘Shen Ai Li is here,’ she called out in answer to the warning shout.

She stepped out into view of ten armoured soldiers who were all reaching for their swords.

‘Lady Shen.’ The captain stared at her in surprise. He signalled to the others to stand down.

‘Where is my brother?’ she asked.

The captain’s gaze darted from Ryam back to her. ‘The commander is out on patrol at the border.’

‘Then I will wait for his return.’

The captain bowed formally and gestured for his men to lead the horses to the stables. He glanced once more at Ryam, but said nothing. Her father’s soldiers made a point of treating her with a detached air of deference, probably under orders. These men would not dare to question why she was here. She was the youngest daughter of the household and fell under the rule of Grandmother and Mother.

Ryam watched the men go. If he felt any apprehension, he hid it well. His thumb was hooked casually into his belt near his sword. He scanned the training fields and the cluster of barracks beyond the main house.

‘How many men are garrisoned here?’

‘A hundred. There are nearly a thousand more stationed along to the western border. Come, I’ll show you the house.’

He shook his head as he followed her. ‘I don’t have a shred of good sense, do I?’

At the front entrance, a pair of servants dressed in dark wool jackets came out to light the lanterns for the evening. They greeted her with muted surprise and then continued with their duties. She led Ryam up the steps into the main room while the servants kept their backs conspicuously turned.

The house looked the same as when she had left. The hall lay vacant and solemn now that most of the household had deserted it for Changan. Only Fifth Brother stayed in Longyou with the border command.

Their ageing housekeeper came out to greet her, shuffling in her slippers. ‘Little Ai Li has come to visit us. So kind of her to remember Amah now that she is a married woman.’

She had known Amah all her life. The dear woman was older than Grandmother, too old to make the journey to Changan. With Amah’s failing eyesight, Ailey was convinced she navigated the rooms by memory and by touch since she had taken care of the household for so long.

Amah reached out with thinning fingers to pat Ailey’s hand and then squinted up at Ryam. ‘Your husband is very tall.’

‘Amah.’ Ryam greeted her with a polite bow, his inflection nearly perfect.

The old woman craned her neck at him, like a bird sensing a disturbance in the air. She leaned close to Ailey, but didn’t whisper as quietly as she thought. ‘He has a strange look about him. He might be mistaken for a Mongolian.’

Ailey laughed and hooked her arm around Amah’s shoulders affectionately. ‘Amah, can you prepare my room for me? And put our honoured guest in Third Elder Brother’s room.’

Amah doddered away to do her duties, calling out in a shrill voice to the servants at the other end of the house. At her age, the others were expected to come to her.

Ryam was grinning at her. Her chest welled with happiness and relief to be back at home, no longer running.

‘She thinks you look Mongolian.’

‘I know.’

‘How much of the Han language do you understand?’ she asked.

‘A little here and there. We barbarians have been out here for over six years. We’re not completely unteachable.’ He turned to look about the chamber. ‘So this is where you grew up.’

‘Here, come to the map room.’

His fingers closed securely around hers as she took his hand. Finally, she was able to let go of her weariness and her anxiety over her father. Li Tao and the hundred other things that didn’t make any sense were swept away as she led Ryam down the familiar corridors. She would work them out later. For the moment, she was home and she was safe.

The mansion at Longyou was as still as a mausoleum, the servants scarce and the rooms empty. Ailey led him from room to room as she chattered about how Fifth Brother made her paper cranes and the older brothers tormented her.

‘Ming Han was the worst.’ Her brightness flickered for a second. ‘He would pick me up and spin me around until I felt sick.’

‘No wonder you had to learn how to fight back,’ he said lightly, taking her hand to urge her to continue with the grand tour. He hated the look of sadness on her face. It took her to a place he couldn’t reach.

‘Well, everyone, no matter how fierce of a warrior, was deathly afraid of Mother,’ she went on. ‘Except for Grandmother, of course.’

‘Of course.’

Ailey blossomed as she breezed through the house. One moment, he would be content to listen to her. Then, without warning, the need to hold her would overpower him. As if touching her would allow him to absorb the energy that vibrated through her.

She pulled him along. ‘The map room is where Father would meet with his captains.’

In this corner of the house, the rooms were separated by silk screens framed with lacquered wood. She lit the lanterns in the chamber, revealing a rectangular hall with several chairs and tables laid out in the centre. A map of the empire spanned one entire wall.

He stood beside her, looking up at the black and red lines marked with spidery characters. The Chinese empire stretched through the continent, reaching from the ocean into the desert.

‘This is Changan. These lines mark the different defence commands. The flags show where our soldiers are stationed.’

Ailey stretched out her arms to point out the different areas to him. He began to see where she had come from, raised in a guarded mansion as the descendant of exalted generals and warriors.

‘The command at Longyou has long been a target of barbarian raids and attacks from foreign kingdoms since we are so close to the western frontier,’ she explained. ‘One of the most important defence points.’

‘That was one of the reasons the Emperor allowed us to stay at the Jade Gate. Barbarians fighting barbarians.’

His mismatched legion had been stationed in the corridor by the Emperor’s grace. The empire had pulled back its military outposts from Gansu, but imperial rule continued to cast a shadow over the region. His ill-fated mission had likely strained the tenuous truce to the breaking point. And then he’d stolen the Emperor’s daughter. Although Ailey had run away on her own, a father would never see it that way.

‘Where is Yumen Guan?’ she asked.

He tapped a spot at the far left of the map. ‘This is the Gansu corridor. The fortress is situated in this pass.’

She looked at the spot for a long time. ‘That is where you will go from here?’

‘Eventually.’

What else could he tell her? He needed to return to the corridor. He owed Adrian that much.

‘It looks far.’

‘Less than a week, if you know the way through the mountains.’

Just like that, she grew quiet, the light in her eyes extinguished. She stiffened when he rested his hand against the small of her back. Taking a breath, she tried to continue, speaking rapidly into the gap of silence between them.

‘The last year has been an uncertain time for my family. The August Emperor passed away and there were questions about who would rule next. He had no sons to carry on the line.’

‘I remember.’

The August Emperor had sought an unlikely alliance with their barbarian army, mistaking them for a more powerful force than they were. Adrian had been summoned to the capital just as those events began to unfold.

‘Before the insurrection, my father was denounced as a traitor by the palace. He sent us into hiding, while he refused to abandon this post. Li Tao could have vouched for my father’s honour, but he said nothing.’ Her eyes sparked with anger. He must have been already plotting then, searching for his opportunity.’