Chapter 51
He woke up to steel on his neck and remained still as solid ice.
Jie Rui sat up next to him, eyes darting between three things. His comrade. Myself and the spear he'd left propped up in the corner.
"What? Why would— I swear by my na– Why would I tell anyone? You've already paid us!"
I stared him in the eye, angry, and he stared back, like a rabbit caught by a fox. Or a lion. I was coated in new scars, broken bones, and other people's blood. Whatever reserves of patience I'd had were completely gone.
His eyes were unconvincing. I pushed the edge of the blade deeper. I was aiming to cut a vein.
"Wait, wait, stop!" He pushed his head further back, but it had nowhere to go. He was stuck between a piece of steel and a hard place. The blood leaking from my bandaged leg and the brush with death I'd just had made it far easier to be in a murderous mood.
*Crreak* I turned my gaze to Jie Rui, who had been slowly bringing his arm towards his spear. The wooden panels underneath his foot still screeched as he looked at me.
The awkward silence was only permeated by the floorboards again as Jie Rui went back to his original position.
By now, I'd already been categorizing them. Watching their fidgets, the way Mu Ke shivered under my hands, the tiny twitching in Jie Rui's eyes as he decided whether to take the risk or not. His eyes hadn't left my hands the whole time.
They just looked like people who wanted to live to me. Not backstabbers.
"Fine," and I tossed Mu Ke back. He gripped his neck, where a small red line had appeared. He shook too much.
I ignored the gasping for air and took a jar of jerky from next to him. If I had seen the money pouch I had given them, I would have taken that too.
"Move."
It was Jie Rui. He was standing right in front of me. Blocking the way. Spear angled dangerously towards my face.
"No." The spear was at my neck now. It felt like the snow. I decided I didn't like the cold. "I don't take well to threats like that, boy."
I shouldn't have released Mu Ke, it would have allowed me to walk past without trouble. "I don't take well to backstabbers either." I didn't know where I'd heard this, but I was sure it was unwise to talk like that to someone with a weapon at your throat.
The blood leaking from my leg was taking some sense, too, I thought. I'd have to tighten the tourniquet again.
He lowered the spear ever so slightly. "We didn't backstab you. We're guards, not mercenaries."
I put my palms up in the sky, "Misunderstanding then." The spear shook violently, and I prepared to either take the hit or die trying to dodge. I didn't have the energy to keep fighting.
His face hardened, and he thrust the spear forward.
Straightaway, I swung my arrowhead towards his neck and leaned forward. I would be taking someone with me.
'Huh?'
Jie Rui had thrust the spear into the air behind me, and right away, I redirected my arm.
We both flinched.
"You're lucky you've built up a lot of good will around here." I sighed in relief, and he shooed me away with his spear. "If I see you again tonight, I'll treat you like an outsider."
I wanted to apologise and smooth over the misunderstanding, but my leg and the grass mattered more. I limped over to the street and tightened my tourniquet again before going home.
Down the street, I could feel what I was sure was Jie Rui's gaze on me, but I didn't turn back. I had a spirit herb to boil. And if he decided he regretted letting me go? I clutched the arrowhead in my hands.
'I'm not letting anything stop me from eating the spirit herb.'
At the house
Everyone was asleep, and I had been boiling the spirit grass for the better part of an hour. I'd even taken the pot to the fireplace but nothing was happening. Every time I took the spirit grass out of the water, it started to boil, and when I put it back, the water turned almost cool.
If I were a braver man, I might have tried to ingest it as it was, but I couldn't take the risk. And I wasn't going back to that den again. More assassins might come for me.
I cycled through everybody I thought I could have made an enemy out of in the time I'd been here, and only two had enough power to do such a thing.
Wan Cheng and the field overseer.
The coin I had taken from the short, masked man was still in my robes. In the glow of the fireplace, I could see the fine etchings on it. I put it away.
If those were the kinds of people who were starting to come after me, I would need strength even more. I stopped myself from throwing my fist at the wall, I'd promised myself I wouldn't do that.
The fire wasn't working. Either the scroll had lied to me, or the fire wasn't hot enough. Carefully, I used a fork to pull out the spirit grass. There was only one place I knew with fire hot enough for this.
If it didn't work, then I would have almost killed myself for nothing.
I banged on the door to the smithy.
It was closed, but I could still hear the sounds of steam hissing off freshly hammered steel and men shouting in pain as someone dropped a barrel on their leg.
After half an hour or more of knocking, someone came to open the door. It was bad manners, but I could think about that later.
*Squuueak* The door opened to reveal a wiry, average height man, with a headscarf covering his head and fire-tanned skin. "Who are yo—"
He noticed the blood and gore engulfing my whole body and ran back inside. Shortly returning with Igor. I hadn't bothered to clean up, but I'd wiped my face, so he recognised me almost immediately.
"Khan!" He dragged me into the smithy, and I squealed in pain. The second he heard that, he dropped me, and I lay on the floor, hissing and nursing my leg.
"Get the boy a stretcher!" Igor hollered, but I was coming to ask for a favor. I didn't want to be more of a burden.
"No." I propped myself up with a crude cane that had been left on a hanger to cool. It was still warm. Likely some apprentice's work. "I came here for–"
They brought me a stretcher, and Igor hauled my protesting body onto it. "Stay there." I could smell the alcohol steaming from his breath. "Boys, take him to the waiting room." He walked away, "I'm getting Randy."
I was in the same room where I'd told Big Randy about my deal with Wan Cheng.
Big Randy came out not long after. "Khan, what's the matter?" He didn't notice my leg till he rounded the door, "What happened?" He came to stand right next to me. Analysing me like I was some stubborn child, that led to him squinting his eyes, "You aren't supposed to be hunting."
I tried to ignore all the fussing, but I could see he had dropped whatever he had been doing for me. Shirking the compassion of people who cared for me was a fine way to increase the enemies I was sure I already had. "I went to find something."
"What?"
He didn't seem pleased, my eyes were elsewhere though, focused on my leather bag. I removed it from my shoulder and flipped it open.
Igor immediately whispered, "Spirit herb..."
Big Randy ran to shut the door. "Are you mad, Khan? If a cultivator catches even a whiff of that, you'll be dead."
Thorough gritted teeth, I managed to snarl, "I need you to help me boil it."
Igor pulled a bottle out of his robes and said, "The boy is nothing but trouble."
Big Randy glared at him, and he looked away. "Where'd you get this, boy? Who'd you st–take it from?"
I half-whispered, it should have come off as a low shout, but it was all I could manage, "I didn't steal. I foraged for it. Lady Vespara–"
Big Randy brought his hands up to his head.
"Lady Vespara had a scroll. In her library. It…" I groaned, "told of a spirit herb in the forest. I recognised it from one of my hunts. Said, it would give me the strength of two full-grown men."
Big Randy and Igor paused at that. "And you're sure of its effects?"
'No.' But what choice did I have? Even coming here and asking for help was something I didn't want to do. I was quickly becoming a burden to Big Randy.
"Yes. The Lady wouldn't have lies strewn around in her library."
Big Randy asked, "If it's real, why hasn't Lady Vespara sent someone out to get it herself, then Khan? You're hopes are blinding you."
"No. It could be real." Igor belched out, "She wouldn't dare. The cultivators would take her life."
Big Randy looked at him as if to tell him to hush, but I'd already seen it, "Please," I held Big Randy by the sleeve, "I won't stop till I at least become a cultivator. Why stop me from using this chance?" I wasn't in the right state of mind. Why did my words sound like begging?
Big Randy refused to meet my eyes. "The more I try to protect you, the more you seem to get hurt." He exhaled, the air coming from his belly, "I'll help you boil it, but I have to tell you something."
I nodded in agreement. He could have asked for my right hand in that moment, and I would have still said yes.
"You care too much for that boy, Randy."
Big Randy didn't argue.
"I'd take that bracelet back if I were you. He's bound to lose it."
I took a look at the bracelet on my arm. A gift from Big Randy to me. Even during the bear attack, I'd made sure to keep it safe.
"I gave the gift away, not you, Gor, just help me start the furnace up."
Igor belched again, "It's already hot."
The spirit grass had come to a boil. It had taken five hours and some of the best coals Big Randy had.
Astral embers.
He'd shown them to me one of the first times we'd met. I didn't know what they were made of, but I could guess. Like all abnormal things I'd seen in the city, it was probably made of some sort of residue from actual embers.
I promised to pay Big Randy back, but he was more focused on heating up the water. I'd never seen him so excited to burn something.
"They're astral embers, my boy, haven't had to use them in 3 years!" He pointed my face to the fire, "Look at the colour, how it moves." He spoke of it better than his wife.
He took it out slowly, before handing it over to me. The moment I had been waiting for. Gently, I swallowed the spirit herb down.
Big Randy and Igor looked at me, waiting for the effects.
"Well?"
"Must've been fake then."
I wanted to groan. To scream out in frustration. Had I been alone, I might have cried.
All that work. And just for this?
"Thank you, Big Randy. I'll make sure to pay you back for the embers." I thanked Igor as well. Now it would be more slogging, and slaving to pursue my dreams of becoming a cultivator.
What was I thinking? That I'd really find a spirit herb because of a scroll in a noble lady's library?
Suddenly, I started to glow. Green at first, then white like the veins on the spirit grass. My leg started to crack.