1 Half Way {1}

The chief moved in his seat and looked at the lady riding adjacent to him. "We"ve shut down the street on the two sides, Adjunct. Moved the nearby traffic inland. Up until this point, no word"s spilled." He cleaned sweat from his forehead and flinched. The hot woolen cap underneath his rudder had scoured his temple crude.

"Something incorrectly, Captain?"

He shook his head, squinting up the street. "Helmet"s free. Had more hair the last time I wore it."

The Adjunct to the Empress didn't answer.

The early in the day sun made the road"s white, dusty surface practically blinding. The commander felt sweat running down his body, and the mail of his helm"s lobster tail continued nipping the hairs on his neck. As of now his lower back hurt. It had been a long time since he"d last ridden a pony, and the roll was delayed in coming. With each seat skip he felt vertebrae crunch.

It had been quite a while since somebody"s title had been sufficient to fix him up. However, this was the Adjunct to the Empress, Laoying"s individual worker, an expansion of her Imperial will. The last thing the commander needed was to show his hopelessness to this youthful, hazardous lady.

Up ahead the street started its long, winding rising. A pungent breeze blew from their left, whistling through the recently growing trees covering that roadside. By mid-evening, that breeze would inhale sweltering as a baker"s stove, conveying with it the odor of the mudflats. What's more, the sun"s warmth would bring something different also. The commander wanted to be back in Kaisheng by then, at that point.

He made an effort not to contemplate the spot they rode towards. Pass on that to the Adjunct. In his long stretches of administration to the Empire, he"d seen enough to realize when to close everything down inside his skull. This was one of those occasions.

The Adjunct talked. "You"ve been positioned here long, Captain?"

"Yes," the man snarled.

The lady paused, then, at that point inquired, "How long?"

He wavered. "Fourteen years, Adjunct."

"You battled for the Jade Emperor, then, at that point," she said.

Mhm."

"Furthermore, endure the cleanse."

The chief tossed her a look. On the off chance that she felt his look, she gave no sign. Her eyes stayed out and about ahead; she moved effectively in the seat, the scabbarded longsword hitched high under her left arm – prepared for mounted fight. Her hair was either trimmed short or drawn up under her rudder. Her figure was sufficiently agile, the commander pondered.

"Completed?" she inquired. "I was getting some information about the cleanses directed by Empress Laoying following her predecessor"s inopportune demise."

The chief gritted his teeth, dodged his jawline to draw up the helm"s lash – he hadn"t had the opportunity to shave and the clasp was abrading. "Not every person was killed, Adjunct. Individuals of Kaisheng aren"t precisely edgy. None of those mobs and mass executions that hit different pieces of the Empire. We as a whole held on and paused."

"I take it," the Adjunct said, with a slight grin, "you"re not honorable conceived, Captain."

He snorted. "In case I"d been honorable conceived, I wouldn"t have endure, even here in Kaisheng. We both realize that. Her orders were explicit, and surprisingly the court performer didn"t try to defy the Empress." He glowered. "No, up through the positions, Adjunct."

"Your last commitment?"

"Kaisheng Plains."

They rode on peacefully for a period, passing an intermittent officer positioned out and about. Off to one side the trees fell away to battered heather, and the ocean past showed its white-covered territory. The Adjunct talked. "This region you"ve contained, what number of your gatekeeper have you sent to watch it?"

"Eleven hundred," the skipper answered.

Her head turned at this, her cool look fixing underneath the edge of her rudder.

The skipper contemplated her appearance. "The butchery extends a large portion of an association from the ocean, Adjunct, and a quarter-alliance inland."

The lady said nothing.

They moved toward the culmination. A score of fighters had assembled there, and others held up along the slope"s rise. All had gone to watch them.

"Set yourself up, Adjunct."

The lady contemplated the faces covering the side of the road. She knew these to be solidified people, veterans of the attack of Li-Heng and the Kaisheng Wars out on the north fields. However, something had been torn at them that had left them crude and uncovered. They viewed her with a longing that she found upsetting, as though they yearned for answers. She battled the desire to address them as she passed, to offer whatever encouraging words she could. Such gifts were not hers to give, in any case, nor had they at any point been. In this she was similarly as the Empress.

From past the culmination she heard the calls of gulls and crows, a sound that rose into a piercing thunder as they arrived at the ascent. Overlooking the fighters on one or the other side, the Adjunct pushed her pony ahead. The chief followed. They went to the peak and peered down. The street plunged here for maybe a fifth of a class, climbing again at the far finish to a projection.

A great many gulls and crows made the progress, gushing out over into the trenches and among the low, unpleasant heather and gorse. Underneath this agitating ocean of high contrast the ground was a uniform red. To a great extent rose the ribbed protuberances of ponies, and from among the squalling birds came the glimmer of iron.

The chief came to up and unstrapped his rudder. He lifted it gradually from his head, then, at that point put it down over his seat horn. "Adjunct..."

"I'm named Liu Linling," the lady said delicately.

"One hundred and 75 people. 200 and ten ponies. The Nineteenth Regiment of the Kaishen Eighth Cavalry." The captain"s throat fixed momentarily. He took a gander at Liu Linling. "Dead." His pony shied under him as it got an updraught. He shut brutally on the reins and the creature stilled, nostrils wide and ears back, muscles shuddering under him. The Adjunct"s steed took no action. "All had their weapons exposed. All battled whatever foe assaulted them. Be that as it may, the dead are largely our own."

"You"ve checked the sea shore underneath?" Liu Linling asked, as yet gazing down out and about.

"No indications of an arrival," the commander answered. "No tracks anyplace, neither offshore nor inland. There are more dead than these, Adjunct. Ranchers, workers, fisherfolk, voyagers out and about. Every one of them destroyed, death cultivators. Appendages dispersed – kids, animals, canines." He halted unexpectedly and dismissed. "More than 500 dead," he ground. "We"re unsure of the specific tally."

"Obviously," Liu Linling said, her tone without feeling. "No observers?"

"None."

A man was riding towards them out and about beneath, inclining near his horse"s ear as he talked the terrified creature through the savagery. Birds rose in screeching objection before him, settling again whenever he had passed.

"Who is that?" the Adjunct inquired.

The chief snorted. "Lieutenant Cao Wang. He"s new to my order. From Anjing."

Liu Linling"s eyes limited on the youngster. The He"d arrived at the edge of the downturn, halting to transfer requests to the work groups. He reclined in his seat then, at that point and looked toward them. "Wang. From House Wang?"

Yea, gold in his veins what not."

"Bring him up here."