A Wuxia Tale: Blades and Flowers

Racing Home

(WANG DAO)

"Whats wrong?" I looked behind me when Yong asked that question. Its close to midday on our second day of traveling back home to the Middle Kingdom. So far we managed to avoid major towns in the province of Awadh by staying off road. By nightfall, we will be in the border of Tibet. From then on, the real challenges will start. Tibet is a beautiful and haunting region but crossing it will not be easy.

That region is mostly deserted, dry and crawling with things hiding in shadows and sands.

"Nothing," I said.

"Nothing...and yet you have been standing here for quite some time, just staring at that seer? What? Does he have a dirt on his face?" Yong chuckled like he finds that amusing.

I frowned at him. "He has been quiet. You didn't notice that?"

"Is he?" Yong frowned as well and joined me in staring at AhRan who is sitting on a toppled tree. The seer has such a small and weak presence. If I am not keeping my eyes on him, I'm sure AhRan could easily slip between the trees and shrubberies around us and then escape our group.

"Does it matter if he is quiet?" Yong asked, sounding surprisingly curious. I sighed. "I don't like quiet people." I said.

"Maybe their minds are empty thats why they are quiet. Personally, I prefer people who are quiet instead of shouting their stupidity." Yong grumbled.

I looked at him. "And yet you follow Prince Jin, a man who mostly say things that doesn't make sense and you are pining for Prince Guo who smiles charmingly at everyone without attaching their heart. You like frivolous men." I said to the guard.

Yong snorted. "I am not pining," he said before walking away with his back stiff like a rod.

"Liar," I rumbled and continued staring at our quiet seer. Alright, so I don't really mind quiet people. I like Yong and Hua is my twin. Both quiet people. Not to mention my Father. But the thing is, I mostly trust Yong, Hua and Father's thoughts to not be harmful to me when they are quiet. This seer, I feel like his silence is a sign that whatever they are thinking about, it won't benefit me.

I sighed as Prince Jin came to my side. "They are here," he said.

"They finally caught up on us?" I grumbled as I picked my sword up. "Whats the plan?"

"We do what we do usually," Prince Jin said as he signaled Yong who nodded to us. "You keep the parcel safe."

"Can I kill him if he gives me grief?" I asked, just to confirm things.

"No," Prince Jin snickered. "That seer is the only thing I can show to the Imperial Family from my travel to the South Indes. If we don't have him, our travel here will be useless."

"We should've bagged the old Shah and Queen's heads. At least the Queen's head, we killed her." I said.

"We killed her to show good faith to the new Shah." Prince Jin sighed. "Look, just bear with it for a couple more weeks. We will soon get to the Southern border. I'm sure General Wei will accommodate us."

"Uncle Wei will take a strip off my hide for escaping Baba's orders," I said.

"Someone should tell General Wang that his orders couldn't be absolute. Some promises are meant to be broken." Prince Jin said while staring at the horizon. To the approaching menace coming to us.

Those are the Shah's mercenaries. He did send us off peacefully but when we got out of the Mughal Capital, we became a fair game to mercenaries. And the new Shah has a petty side. Not to mention HaRon is a cruel bastard.