Blood on the Snow

Going noiselessly to the door, she listened intently, frowning in her concentration. There were many hurrying down the path outside--almost ten, she thought; it was hard for them to disguise their footsteps on the pebbles. At the gate, perhaps two or three, probably assessing their hut. Since there was no sounds of alarm the bandits probably had not launched their attack yet.

Granny Hong and Yuanzheng, Madame Liang, Gong Yezi, even Zheng Ziying, flashed across Suzhen's mind. She thought rapidly about the huts closest to them, and which were most likely to need help.

Pushing open the door, she shut it firmly behind her, and stood on the threshold scanning the situation rapidly, brushing at the snow blowing past her face.

There were six men on the path outside the hut, looking at the other homes; two were actually at their gate, another was testing his blade, and one was going gingerly up the steps of Gong Yezi's house, while the others were passing out torches to set fire to the thatched roofs with. She could make out more dark forms in the distance, some tying their horses to the fence they had hacked a hole through, others holding up their torches.

As she appeared, they froze. Suzhen stared steadily back at them without a sound, and watched as they glanced uncertainly at each other, clearly taken surprise by her appearance, and confused why she did not immediately scream to raise the alarm.

Her voice was low and crisp, but it carried far because of her internal energy. "Leave now and do not come back. Or I will kill all of you. I am giving you warning."

She pointed at one of them. "You. I remember you. You have some guts, not learning your lesson from the last time you tried to bully defenceless people. Tell your friends to get out of here while I give you the chance."

The man she had pointed at stared at her in disbelief, then let his breath go sharply. It was the bandit with the little silver earrings from that day when she, Huajun, and Granny Hong had been ambushed on the road to town. They had knocked all three of the bandits off the side down the slope, but whereas she had killed one of them, the other two, including him, had been merely stunned.

"It's that witch who killed Guan Zheng. But she doesn't have a sword now, and there are so many of us. So there's no need to be afraid of her." He drew his blade. "If possible, don't kill her yet. We'll have some fun with her, make her regret she killed our brother." A crooked smile twisted his face and he licked his blade provocatively.

Suzhen looked scornfully at him and made a mental note to kill him first so she could use his sword, a decent looking blade that seemed fairly new, without as many nicks as his companions'. What an idiot, to draw attention to his own weapon.

She whipped sideways and snatched up a chunk of firewood from the stack outside their door. Her lip curled and she sent the block of wood flying through the air with a burst of spirit energy that would have killed an ox. The sword fell noiselessly into the snow as the man went down without a sound, his body cushioned on the soft snow so he lay like one sleeping, except for the bright trickle of blood slowly oozing from his head, staining the white snow.

As the other bandits leaped forward to attack, brandishing their blades, Suzhen sprang into the air, flinging another two logs rapidly midair at the two closest to the gate. One managed to block it with his arm, but gave a grunt and staggered back as the bone snapped neatly. The other hacked at the block with his sword but was carried backwards into the snow, unable to withstand the force. Suzhen seized the moment to snatch up the sword lying on the ground, and landed in the midst of them in a whirl of white, the rabbit fur cloak fluttering in the night air in an explosion of soft snow as she hit the ground.

Like a tornado in a snowstorm she slashed swiftly left and right as the bandits closed with her, sending one flying backwards with a square kick in the middle of his chest that winded him, and snatching his sword as he stumbled. A sword in either hand, she sliced viciously backwards and leaped forward, avoiding the spray of blood as two bandits staggered and fell, to lunge under the arm of the one in front of her, slashing him across the chest as he swung at her.

The bandits in the distance started running forward, and the clash of steel rang through the peaceful night air. She heard the confused voices and shouts as people in the huts woke up and hurriedly armed themselves, realizing the bandits had finally attacked.

With an adroit twist of her body, she leaped up and flipped backwards as she sensed the sword hissing through the air behind her, clearing the blade as it sliced through the air where she had been standing moments before, and stabbed the man wielding it from above. She landed once more on the ground, scattering snow, and struck out savagely with her sword hilts as they rushed her, dislocating the jaw of one and knocking out a tooth from another. Kicking them aside for the villagers to deal with, she hurried down the pathway to meet the rest of the bandits as they came surging forward. The villagers come pouring out of their homes, armed with axes and other homemade weapons.

Suzhen cut at the torch a bandit swung at her, scattering sparks as it cracked and fell to sizzle out furiously in the snow, and looked up, panting. The bandits were not bandits for nothing, however. She watched in dismay as they rapidly changed strategy, abandoning her to rush at the villagers, and to invade whatever homes they could.

Turning to the incoming ones, she wrapped her fingers more tightly around the sword hilts and chose her next opponents. She would hold up as many as she could.