William Wu - Emperor

“No. Just sore.”

A hostler came out of the stable and Steve arranged for him to take care of the horses. Then they went inside the inn. Entering last, Marcia walked stiffly but without help.

Inside the door, Steve found a large room with a fire roaring in a stone fireplace set into the opposite wall. People were seated around several tables near the fire, eating and drinking. To the left of the door, a slender man with gray hair looked up from the counter where he was carefully writing with a narrow brush.

Steve identified himself again as a scholar seeking an appointment. He requested two rooms for the team as two married couples. The innkeeper took them up to the second floor and showed them the rooms, which were across the hall from each other. They were small but clean and tidy.

Each room had two beds, a large pitcher of water, wash basins, and a chamber pot. Steve glanced at each of his companions; they all nodded. Hunter paid for the rooms.

Then Hunter remembered the group of people sitting near the fire. “Do you have any foreign guests tonight?”

“Foreign guests? No, sir. Not tonight.”

“Are all your guests right here?”

“No. A few have finished their dinners already and gone to their rooms.”

“I see. Are there other inns nearby?”

“One small inn lies south of here a short distance. The lodgings there are not nearly as comfortable as ours, however, and-”

“We saw it on the way. Are there others?”

“Not within half a day’s ride.”

“All right. We will be right down in a minute to have dinner for four.”

The innkeeper bowed and went back downstairs.

“I’ll just leave the bag of clothes up here,” said Steve. He tossed it onto one of the beds. “Let’s go get some hot food. I’m starved.”

As they descended the stairs, Steve glanced over the other travelers seated at the tables. He had no idea what their clothing signified, except that all of the other patrons appeared fairly well-to-do. Certainly none of them were peasants.

Steve found an empty table in the comer. The other patrons had taken tables closer to the fire. In a moment, the innkeeper hurried out to bring them a pot of tea and teacups, pouring for all of them.

“Are all of these people Chinese?” Jane asked. “Or are some of them Mongols?”

“I don’t see any Turks in this group,” Steve said with a grin. “At least I can tell that much.”

“I would say by their clothing that they are all Chinese,” Marcia said quietly. “Here along the border, a lot of genetic mixing has taken place over the years, so you can’t really tell by personal appearance.”

Steve inclined his head toward a couple of men who wore swords in scabbards at their belts. “Soldiers?”

“Yes,” said Marcia. “But they’re Chinese soldiers in the army of the Chinese empire, not Mongols.”

“What about the others?” Hunter asked. “How much can you tell from their appearance?”

“The three men in plain black silk robes are probably government scholars,” said Marcia. “Or the youngest one might still be a student. The men in the colorful silk robes with all the embroidery are most likely rich merchants.”

“I know we’ve talked about it before, but I feel so much safer in this society than I did on our other missions,” said Jane. “Even in a place like this. In Port Royal, an inn like this would have been full of buccaneers ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Here I feel that we can just eat dinner and go to sleep.”

“And those dinosaurs won’t show up to trample us, either.” Steve laughed.

“It fascinates me,” said Marcia. “After so many years studying this era-”

“You just can’t believe you’re really here,” Steve finished for her.

“Well, yes,” Marcia said stiffly, glaring at him. “something wrong with that?”

“Of course not,” said Jane. “It’s just that all the historians we’ve worked with said something like that at one time or another. But I know you mean it.”

“Take this inn for instance,” said Marcia, turning to Jane. “Many Chinese folktales are set at roadside inns just like this one.”

“Really?” Jane asked, sipping her tea.

“Some were fairy tales about ghosts, spirits, and monsters; others told of mysterious disappearances.” Marcia smiled. “I guess these inns weren’t completely safe.”

“The people in those stories didn’t have positronic robots guarding them under the First Law,” said Steve.

Stiff and uncomfortable, Wayne sat in an old, worn saddle on a weary horse, with Ishihara riding behind him on their mount’s bare rump. Their peasant friends had somehow bought the horse for them and the saddle and bridle, as well. They were following Hunter’s team on the road north out of Khanbaliq. When Hunter’s team had first bought their horses, Xiao Li had hidden nearby and watched.

Ishihara had suggested that they let Hunter and his team leave Khanbaliq while they stayed behind to look for MC 5 in the city. However, Wayne had insisted that this kind of logic had ruined his plans before. As soon as Hunter found out that the Polos had not taken the road north, he would come right back. This time, Wayne wanted to sabotage Hunter’s team more thoroughly, but he did not know how yet.

The peasants had volunteered to come with them, wanting to earn the goodwill of the spirits they had befriended. Ishihara would not allow it, feeling that a trip of that length would be too disruptive to the village. Wayne wanted their help, but he understood that arguing with Ishihara over this particular interpretation of the First Law was a waste of time.

In the end, Wayne and Ishihara had hidden with Xiao Li to watch Hunter’s team ride out of the city. After that, Wayne and Ishihara had waited for Hunter’s team to get a head start before following them. They did not want to risk being seen. Ishihara tracked them, instead.

All day on the road, Wayne considered what to do once they caught up to Hunter that night. The best way to distract Hunter had to be to separate him from his human companions up here, far from Khanbaliq. Then both Hunter and his human team would spend their time and energy trying to reunite. That would leave Wayne and Ishihara a clear opportunity to hurry back to Khanbaliq ahead of them and search for MC 5 without Hunter’s interference.

The sunlight in the mountains was fading quickly when they passed a small inn. Ishihara observed that the tracks left by Hunter’s team stopped outside but then continued. He and Wayne rode on and reached a much larger inn as night fell. Overhead, however, a high, bright moon offered light of its own.

Wayne reined in. In a small stable off to one side of the main building, he could see a man grooming a horse by lantern light. Flickering light leaked from cracks around shutters on the windows of the inn.

“Did they stop here?” Wayne asked quietly.

“Yes. With my vision altered to maximum light sensitivity, I can just recognize their horses’ tracks.”

“All right. Now we have to come up with a plan.”

“I suggest we move back down the road a short distance to talk. If Hunter turns up his aural sensitivity, he could conceivably overhear us.”

Without another word, Wayne turned their mount and slowly rode around a bend.

“This is far enough,” said Ishihara. “The wind is slight, but rustles the trees sufficiently to cover our voices from here.”

“Good.”

“Our own horse has slowed considerably,” Ishihara added. “I believe he needs a good night’s rest after this trip carrying both of us.”

“All right. That’s important. It means we can’t just jump on and ride him back to the city tonight.”