Authors: John Hornor Jacobs
It was then I heard his moaning and at first I thought Tenebrae might have been grievous wounded. But then Carnelia began screaming as well and reason fled.
On the steps lay Secundus. He had taken a spear to the chest.
My brother is dead.
Ears ringing, a numbness came upon me and my sister’s screeching fell to silence and the white noise of men went away and I walked like a ghost to my brother’s body and took his head in my hands and smoothed his hair and prayed that his soul was judged fondly by Pater Dis and welcomed into the great feasting hall of Ia.
In the end, Lupina had to pull me away.
Sun Huang told two Monkey-boys standing nearby to bring Secundus’ body and we turned and climbed the stairs and walked out into the light of day, onto the grand entrance to Dōngtiān Gōngdiàn, the Winter Palace.
Even in the shadow of Dōngtiān Gōngdiàn, the day was bright in comparison to the dark interior. On the great step to the entrance, someone waited.
Sun Wukong stood with a grim look on his face as we made our way into the light, surrounded by Monkey-boys and bearing my Secundus’ body.
‘Hello, Li Jing,’ he said to Sun Huáng, bowing. ‘My brother.’
Sun Huáng did not bow. He stopped and remained still, holding his sheathed
jian,
and squinted his eyes at Sun Wukong. ‘Hello, brother. It has been many years since anyone has referred to me by that name.’
‘It is fitting, then, I be the one to remind you of it, now that the name given you as a Huáng of the Autumn Lords has become meaningless.’
Sun Huáng bowed slowly, crossing his hands over his heart as he did so. Even with his
jian
in hand, he did it elegantly. ‘You have taken from me everything I am.’
‘I am a thief,’ Sun Wukong shrugged, grinning. ‘But I never take more than my victims can bear.’
‘Sun Huáng was all I was. I was a simple man and, I think, doing good for our people.’
‘Truly all you are, brother?’ Sun Wukong said. ‘You still hold your
jian
and the world still knows you as the Sword of Jiang. The other name, the slave name, wasn’t becoming of you. You can continue to work on behalf of the people.’
I followed the conversation in a daze. Carnelia had ceased wailing and Tenebrae looked lost. Lupina guided me to a stone where I could sit. Li Jing – it would take me a long while to think of him as this – shook his head. ‘There was stability with the Autumn Lords. Now, every Huáng will be scrabbling to consolidate power. You’ve doomed us to civil war. Tsing Huáng will most assuredly take control of the army and—’
‘Ah, here Tsing comes now,’ Sun Wukong said, raising his eyes up to the roof. From the upper reaches of the Winter Palace, a figure moved, crawling across its face like an insect, or reptile. It moved faster than one might think possible across the intricately carved surface of stone. As it closed on our position, it pushed itself into the air with a great heave, flipping over and over and landing before Sun Wukong. The figure bowed and placed the severed head of Tsing Huáng at Sun Wukong’s feet.
‘Excellent work, Tizio,’ Sun Wukong said, prodding Tsing’s cheek with the toe of his boot. Tsing’s eyes stared vacantly into space.
‘Fantasma!’ Min exclaimed.
‘Yes, my niece. You have grown lovely. Come give your great-uncle a hug.’
She did not move.
‘You have killed
my
brother!’ I said. It popped out of my mouth before I could stop it. ‘You and this … this thing,’ I said, pointing to the
vaettir.
I spat at his feet. ‘Nothing you can do to undo that. And Rume—’
Sun Wukong came to stand near me. ‘I am sorry, Livia, for your loss. The Monkey-boys were not to harm you—’
‘You caused this! Your pet murdered the Autumn Lords, making us your accomplice!’
He looked at me for a long while and something in him sank, seeing the expression on my face. ‘I fear I have done great good here today. And great evil. I am so sorry for your loss.’
Fantasma turned to look at me. Its face was blank – no smiling or triumphant slaverous grins now. His face was brown with dried blood. It said something to me in the language of Kithai.
‘The chiang-shih says “I am no pet”,’ Min reported.
Fantasma barked another phrase, and pointed to Lupina, who stood clutching my arm.
‘What did it say?’ Carnelia asked, wild-eyed. She ripped her
jian
from its scabbard and with a bound was at Fantasma, lunging. The sword took the creature in the side, but it was fast and vaulted away and came to stand ten paces to the side. It looked at the blood coming from its wound and then back at Carnelia.
‘We took you in, you bastard,’ she said. ‘It was all a lie. And now Secundus—’ A fury took her over and she raced forward again, toward Fantasma, but he was too quick for her and leapt high, coming to rest on top of an ancient stone marker on the side of the steps like some great raptor.
It said something again pointing at Lupina. Min who remained quiet for a moment and then she said, ‘It said, “I know you of old. We are kin”.’
Lupina said, ‘The Hell we are.’
‘Come,’ Sun Wukong beckoned. ‘My boys will keep the guards from spreading this news to Jiang. We have horses waiting. We must return these Rumans to their ship. It would not do for the Ruman navy to begin firing their tremendous devil guns at our city. You have a way to signal?’
Tenebrae went to Secundus’ body and removed a necklace from around my brother’s neck. After putting it on, he clutched at his chest – at his heart – and nodded.
‘Then follow, all. The time of the Autumn Lords is over and what will come, will come.’ The old man turned and began the long journey to the base of the great steps and the road back to Jiang.
Sun Wukong and his pet
vaettir
left us when we reached Jiang, bidding each of us farewell in turn. Li Jing had turned pensive on the ride back and only grunted in response. We stopped at Sun Huáng’s manse long enough to gather belongings and flee to the Jiang Bund. A throng of Monkey-boys escorted us.
At the wharf, Li Jing commandeered a junky and set us in it.
Once out in the bay, Tenebrae cut his palm with a folding knife and dripped the blood on the signal, which began to glow, shudder, and rise. With a jolt, it shot high into the sky, leaving a trail of brimstone-scented smoke behind it and, at some etheric height, raced south out over the Nous Sea, toward the
Malphas
.
And then it was gone.
That is the end of my tale, my love. Except for this.
The
Malphas
steamed into the bay. On board, the gunners and lascars stood at attention as Juvenus greeted us. ‘We’ve been paced by a score of Kithai warships since coming into this Ia-damned muddy bay. One had the temerity to fire upon us with ballista. They are following. We need to move quickly.’
‘I would put this accursed land behind me,’ I said.
Tenebrae wordlessly nodded. Turning, he barked orders at lascars to take Secundus’ body below deck. Carnelia gripped her
jian
and glared about with an awful look upon her features
‘Agreed,’ Juvenus said. ‘These damned Tchinee are taking a decidedly bellicose stance, the idiots. Mr Gridlæ could use some range-finding practice.’ He snorted, making the whiskers on his face cant and shift. ‘Your quarters await you,’ he said. Spying Secundus’ remains he cursed. ‘Ia damn these bastards all to Hell,’ he said and stomped off to see to his charge.
Li Jing cleared his throat. ‘I must leave you now, my girls,’ he said, looking at Carnelia, Lupina, and me.
‘No, sifu,’ Carnelia said. ‘Come with us. I would have you with me, always,’ she said.
The old man smiled. ‘I am tempted more than you know.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘But my brother is right. There is much work to do here now that the Autumn Lords are no more. Wukong and I can be a strong factor for peace. And order. Without us, there will be war.’
‘There may be war, anyway,’ Carnelia said. ‘Secundus—’ Her voice broke and she struggled to get herself under control. ‘Secundus was Rume’s emissary. And now he’s dead.’
Li Jing frowned and drew her into an embrace. ‘All the more reason for you to go, my student. You must let your Emperor know what has happened here.’ He sighed and looked to the city of Jiang and the shore. ‘Kithai is not your enemy. Now, I must make sure it does not destroy itself. Go with my love and great affection and sorrow,’ he said. He turned to me. ‘And you …’ He turned to me.
But I did not notice. My water had already broken and the first of the convulsions had begun.
Fiscelion Secundus was born on the crest of a wave, and came squalling into this world. We’re born into pain, and we live in it. It makes us strong for what comes after and what we must do while we are here.
I love you my husband, with all my heart. Our son will grow strong in the waiting days as we travel home to you. I will not return to Rume. I will not bend the knee to Tamberlaine. I will see you soon, before fall turns into winter in the Hardscrabble.
Ever your loving wife,
Livia
15 Kalends of Mithranius, 2638 ex Rume Immortalis
We made our way east, toward
Dvergar
. The skin on my face had blistered and peeled and Bess was cantankerous and ornery as all get out. Between the two of us, we made a sorry pair, pus-weeping burns and all. Behind us, the smoke of Harbour Town’s destruction still rose in a tremendous cloud, two days later. It hung in the sky and even with our backs to it, its presence felt like a blow about to fall upon us.
We took on water and a little hardtack at a small sodbuster farmstead on the westernmost edge of the Hardscrabble and I took rabbits when I could with my sling, but out here, in this arid flatland, the rabbits were meagre and small and no herbs grew to sweeten the pot.
Fisk had taken to outriding, even at night. The
daemon
hand he once wore round his neck, even though it was in its case, stirred in him a great agitation and he found it hard to rest.
The fire was low by the time I’d finished Livia’s letter and I sat there smoking, watching the embers glow and spark, deep in my thoughts about the kindred of
dvergar
and
vaettir
and the idea that there was a child of Fisk and Livia in the world now.
When I’d come to the end of her message, I will admit my heart fell, and I offered up to the numen and old gods of wind and stone a prayer that Secundus’ spirit would join with theirs and become part of the great breath of the world. He was a good lad, and I miss him still.
The dawn was lightening in the east when I heard the sound of hooves.
Fisk came into camp, dismounted, and snatched up the rest of his kit.
‘Shoe, we got company,’ he said.
‘Who?’
‘Who you think? Beleth. Riding at the head of a pack of Medieran horsemen, all of them carrying a bit of damnation with them.’
I cursed for a while.
‘All my backtracks and manoeuvring aren’t working. They’re onto us. We’ve got to ride and ride hard. Make for
Dvergar
and hope your Neruda fella will grant us safety.’
He didn’t need to tell me twice.
It took only a few minutes to tack up Bess and pack my gear.
We rode just as the morning sun broke over the gunmetal blue-grey line of the Eldvatch Mountains.
‘Ia damn it, Ia damn it all to Hell,’ Fisk said, over and over, as we rode.
My thanks to Sensei Tanner Critz for speaking with me about the history and philosophy of swordfighting in Eastern Cultures;
My thanks to Sensei Chris Perry for his friendship and guidance in the martial arts;
I am very glad to have found a community to be a part of in the Gouitsu Dojo.
Thanks to Max Gladstone for some translations of phrases into Romanized Chinese;
My thanks to Andrew Liptak for an essential reference to a naval battle of the Spanish-American War;
My thanks to Myke Cole for his steadfast assistance and support, his encouraging words, and for keeping the streets of NY and the east coast maritime waters safe;
Many thanks to Pat Rothfuss for his kind words, support, and facial hair grooming advice;
As always, thanks to my wife for supporting me in my labors, both during the day and at night. Without her, Occidentalia would not exist.
Also by John Hornor Jacobs from Gollancz:
The Incorruptibles
Copyright © John Hornor Jacobs 2015
All rights reserved.
The right of John Hornor Jacobs to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2015 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 12394 6
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.