Pathway

Chapter 229: Time [4]

"I know. I am tempted to wait for the Watch, as I should have done back at the ship. I'll be a long time regretting that." Her voice broke, but she plowed on. "There are some questions I need answered. Cerest has the knowledge, and I think he'll give me what I want."

"I'll go with you," Ju Feng said, "in case he proves reluctant."

"Thank you," Chang Chang said. "I know it's more than I deserve, after the way I've used you."

"Don't," Ju Feng said tersely. "You don't owe me anything."

"I never should have kissed you," Chang Chang said. "I made you feel my death, and you weren't ready for that. It was a very unromantic gesture." She put her head on Fa Mu's chest. It took several breaths, but when she was strong enough, she looked up at Ju Feng. "How long have you known? You said you'd never touched me"

"I haven't," Ju Feng said. "I only suspected. It was Saragui who confirmed it. He has a power to sense those touched by the spellplague, and how badly they've been afflicted."

Chang Chang nodded, accepting it. "I hope Cerest can tell me that toowhy I'm dying."

"You don't have to rush to your demise so soon," Ju Feng said, his voice harsh. "You might have years yet, if you stop using magic now."

"But I have to use it, if I'm ever to be free of him," Chang Chang said. "One last time, that's all I need."

"No. We'll do it another way."

"You think you can change fate?" Chang Chang said.

He looked away. "Just yours."

"That's not true. You wouldn't have brought Zu Ruo with us if you didn't believe you could change things. I saw you touch her hands in the haven. You wanted her out of there, and not just to be my bodyguard. You knew her death waited in that place."

"She's stubborn enough I wonder if anything can kill her," Ju Feng muttered, but he didn't deny her words.

"You can't protect me by yourself," Chang Chang said. "Without your ring, we'll need my magic."

Ju Feng started and looked at his hand, as if he'd forgotten it was bare. He looked at Fa Mu, at the ring keeping him alive. Defeated, he dropped his hand to his side and clenched a fist. "Is your raft still intact?" Chang Chang asked.

"Enough to get us out to the Haven," Ju Feng answered. He looked at Zu Ruo, and a spark of black humor lit his eyes. "What'll it be, Ruo? Should I tell the people you were too frightened to take on the fair folk, golden locks and all?"

"You won't be telling any tales when I have your head underwater for the sharks to nip at," the dwarf said, smiling sweetly. "But I'll go to the Haven, and gladly."

"You don't have to do this, Zu Ruo," Chang Chang said.

The dwarf nodded curtly. "I do, but not for you, so don't let your conscience prickle you. After Tarvin led you off the Isle, we got word from the guards that Saragui's dead."

Chang Chang was shocked. "How?"

"How do you think? It was the elf. The survivors said he had a pair of pretty elf princesses with him." Zu Ruo looked at Ju Feng. "Might be you were onto something about my death waiting in the Haven. I owe you thanks for letting me live long enough to get my revenge on the pretties. But in the meantime, do we leave the butcher here?"

Chang Chang didn't know what to do. The thought of leaving Fa Mu alone on the walkway was a physical pain. He would be vulnerable to any attack until the Watch arrived.

"I have to protect him," she said to Ju Feng, half in defense, half in apology.

The spell had gone awry the first time she'd used it. For once, that would work to her advantage.

She put a hand in her pouch, grasping the cameo as she'd done in the Haven. She pictured the woman's face in her mind, the blue curve of her cheek, carved forever in stone. Letting the image float in her consciousness, she wove the spell.

Mist slid off her hands and coiled in the air. It took on the shape and substance of the woman in lace. She stood before Chang Chang in her vaporous gown, her face impassive.

Chang Chang didn't know exactly what to do. The last time, the servant had automatically gone where her mind willed it. She remembered that she'd been mentally screaming for something to aid Ju Feng.

"Can you understand me?" she asked the strange apparition.

The woman didn't answer. Her expression didn't change. "She has no consciousness," Ju Feng said. "There's nothing in her eyes."

"So she only has life when Chang Chang pulls her strings?" Zu Ruo asked. "Tell her to play guard dog, then."

"It wouldn't work," Chang Chang said. She raised her right arm slowly out from her body. She concentrated on nothing except moving the appendage. The lady in lace mirrored the gesture until their fingertips were practically touching. "She only does what I directly imagine her to do. Once I'm gone, she won't act independently."

Chang Chang slowly turned her body until she was facing Fa Mu, who lay a few feet in front of the servant. The lady again mimicked the gesture.

"There," Chang Chang said. "As long as I picture her standing here, she'll remain. The folk of WaterWay should be wary enough of sea wraiths to stay away from this apparition until the Watch arrives."

Still, her gaze lingered on Fa Mu. She took a step toward him, but Ju Feng laid a gloved hand on her arm.

"If we're going, we need to go now," he said.

"You're right. I just"

"I know," Ju Feng said. "You'll see him again."

She looked at him. "Do you truly think that?"

He shrugged. "You were right. If I didn't think I could beat the odds, I'd never play the game."

They looked at each other for a breath. Then Chang Chang smiled. "So let's play."

Ju Feng's raft was in good condition, considering it had gone through a sea wraith attack. Ju Feng and Zu Ruo worked the oars while Chang Chang sank into her thoughts. She kept a part of her mind fixed on the apparition watching over Fa Mu, but she knew she would lose the spell soon. The battle ahead would require her complete concentration.

The Watch would be there by now. They would save Fa Mu. Chang Chang could not consider any other outcome.

She took inventory of what magic she had left. She had never used so much in so short a time. Some of the spells left she hadn't meditated on in years. They were at the very edges of her consciousness. Her teacher had insisted that she be able to protect herself, but she'd put the harrowing magic as far from her active mind as she could.

Now, mentally, she entered the tower room. The sunlight spilling in the windows had become stygian night. When she entered the room, flames sprang from tallow candles, long unused in their brass candelabras. Black shadows stretched to caress the bookshelves. It was only her fear made manifest, but she was still unsettled at the changes.

Chang Chang walked to a place at the base of the shelves. A black tome floated down from a high shelf to meet her outstretched hand. Arcane writing was burned into the silver spine. The book opened in her hand, and she read.

The spells were powerful, but she was more concerned with the backlash. She'd been caught completely off guard and made helpless when she'd incapacitated Trik. All the offense she could muster wouldn't be worth anything if she were incapacitated herself.

Chang Chang blinked, and the tower disappeared. She stared out at an endless stretch of dark water. Ju Feng didn't have his ring. With his body unfortified, he'd be significantly weakened by any blow that managed to land on him. But she trusted his speed. If they couldn't catch him, they couldn't hurt him.

That left Zu Ruo. She would anchor all of them, and she would make Cerest's men answer for her master. It worried Chang Chang that she would be walking into a potential den of spellplague, but she knew the dwarf woman would not be dissuaded.

"What will you do when this is all over?" she asked.

Zu Ruo looked up from her rowing. "Go back to the haven," she said, as if it was a foregone conclusion. "No one to run it, the champion should step in. I don't think he's going to be doing it," she said, nodding at Ju Feng.

"The title's yours," Ju Feng said. "I have no interest in the haven."

"Don't know what you're missing," Zu Ruo said.

"What do you love so much about the fighting?" Chang Chang asked.

Zu Ruo shrugged. "I like the crowd, like it when they cheer for me. It's what everyone wants."

"She likes to be seen," Ju Feng said.

"Isn't that what I'm saying?" The dwarf woman looked irritated. "What of it?"

"Bells grew up in a family with eight brothers," Ju Feng said.

"Eight? Isn't that quite prolific, for a dwarven family?" Chang Chang said.

"Not so much these days," Zu Ruo said. "I'm thinking our sire wanted a small army, not a family, so he got all of us on my mother. As far as he was concerned, I would grow my cheek fuzz and be indistinguishable from my brothers. Nine soldiers, nine sons. That's what he wanted. He cut my hair himself, when I refused to do it. My brothers held me down."

"Gods," Chang Chang said. "Your own family?"

"Blood doesn't mean much. The next time he came for me, I bruised him good before he could get the shears on me. After that, I almost took out his eye. Each time I hurt him a little more, until he stopped coming for me."