Chenzhou's scouts had pinned down Beng Shai the next day, but reported he was tucked away in a camp with enough warriors that it would be stupid to try and force a confrontation there.
Beng Shai was well known for fighting at the head of his forces, so it wouldn't take long for him to leave on his own. Once he did, the scouts would alert Chenzhou, and he could ride out to confront him. Not all of Chenzhou's commanders agreed with his plan.
Lady Yang in particular, had been trying to talk him out of it all morning. "I simply don't think it wise to take such a risk." She kept saying.
Chenzhou had forgotten how stubborn she could be. She had so much experience and expertise that she sometimes forgot other people had them too.
Especially when those people were younger than her.
"I realize that." Chenzhou was careful to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Her concern came from a good place, and it wasn't worth alienating her support. "But it's clear there is something else at play here, and we need to figure out what that is. Talking to Beng Shai is the fastest way to do that."
Lady Yang frowned deeply, a wrinkle appearing across her forehead. "I'm not sure…Beng Shai has no reason to tell us the truth. And there is no physical evidence of this mysterious third presence you keep referring to." The lines on her face smoothed out as she gave him a sympathetic look. "If you keep speaking about it without being able to prove it, people are going to think you've lost your mind."
And bad things happened to leaders whose followers thought they'd lost their minds.
Before Chenzhou could respond, a soldier sprinted over to them, threw himself into a bow, and gasped out. "Beng Shai is on the move, Lord Ye. The scouts just sent word he's headed west with a war band."
"Get my horse ready," Chenzhou ordered and completely forgot about the conversation he was having with Lady Yang.
He rode out the gates only a few minutes later with a host of four thousand on his heels. Lady Yang brought her own force of two thousand to assist, and it only took two hours to meet up with the scouts and shift position to run into Beng Shai's force head-on.
Lady Yang seemed to cheer up due to taking action about something, and if she disagreed with Chenzhou's decision to plant himself in Beng Shai's path and wait, she didn't say anything, just sent her archers out to the sides just in case.
They hadn't been that far ahead of Beng Shai, so it didn't take long for the first of his forces to come into view.
Beng Shai's forces came to a halt when they spotted Chenzhou's forces, and both groups stared one another down as Beng Shai's forces gathered.
Next to him, Lady Yang's horse shifted, and she calmed him with a silent command. Chenzhou took a deep breath, knowing she wasn't going to like what he did next. "Stay here."
She turned to him in confusion, but he was already urging Lord Blue forward, and all she had time to say was a sputtered, "Lord Ye!"
He rode several lengths in front of his force and stopped.
After a moment, Beng Shai and several of his clansmen did the same. Chenzhou moved forward and heard several of his own commanders move up behind him. They played the game until they were close enough that Chenzhou could make out the hard expression on Beng Shai's face.
"So much for peace, Lord Ye." Beng Shai sounded angry, but also sad.
Before Chenzhou could respond, the whistle of an arrow sounded, and chaos erupted. Beng Shai and his clansman immediately reared back as their forces rushed forward.
Lord Blue leaped sideways as Chenzhou's commanders spurred their horses forward.
He didn't see where the arrow hit, let alone where it came from, before the forces were joined and the deafening crash of battle filled the air.
He was unseated from his saddle relatively quickly, but it seemed the abrupt start had done that to the majority on both sides.
There was a screaming in his head that Chenzhou always heard in battle that he never realized was Huaban as he ducked a scythe and swung Huaban in a strong arc.
He'd never been a slouch on the battlefield, even before, when he was dying, he knew how to fight.
It was something else to do so without already being exhausted and weak. It didn't take a tremendous amount of effort to lift Huaban, to take a step.
Was this how Eirian always felt?
This wouldn't be a long battle. Neither side had reinforcements in the immediate vicinity, and their numbers were limited. Chenzhou caught a glimpse of Lady Yang and one of her younger sons fighting together. One of the Yin sisters on his other side and many other children of the court fighting to prove their worth alongside their lord.
And then he spotted Beng Shai.
Or Beng Shai spotted him, it was hard to tell, but their swords were clashing before he could think too much about it.
Beng Shai carried a long, curved blade, typical of his people, but different in that it looked like it had always been a sword. It hadn't started out as something else and been repurposed.
Had it been his father's? Chenzhou carried his father's sword, and his father had fought against Beng Shai's father.
Had these blades crossed before?
There was a part of Chenzhou that was hesitant to hurt Beng Shai. That same part of him that was still holding out hope for peace, but Bang Shai was radiating rage, and Chenzhou didn't know why.
Or how to face it.
It gave a force to Beng Shai's blows that nearly took Chenzhou to his knees. He stumbled back, afraid Huaban would shatter. He tripped over a fallen soldier, and suddenly he was falling.
All he saw was a mass of bodies and then blue sky and a blade coming down, and he reacted without thinking, striking out with Huaban as his back hit the dirt.
He didn't feel the moment Huaban pierced Beng Shai's heart, but as the panic from the fall subsided and he came back to the moment he saw Huaban embedded in Beng Shai's chest, the surprise on the other man's face, and the crushing feeling of defeat that came over Chenzhou as he realized there was no chance of saving him.
"No, no, no, no!" Chenzhou caught him as he fell, craddling Beng Shai as blood started to bubble out of his mouth. "I'm sorry. I didn't-"
Beng Shai gurgled, blood bubbling at the corners of his lips as he tried to speak. "The-they said we could ha-have peace." There were tears in his eyes as the light left them and tears in Chenzhou's, too.
He'd killed the best chance at peace the borderlands had ever had.
~ tbc