Роберт Асприн - Forever After

“Right you are, sir. So Squashblossom is the reason why we have to go to Torfay and kill Dolonicus, and therefore she is the reason I need you to complete my training as a hingu-shanshao so’s I can slay him.”

“Before I can do that, Spido, I need to determine what you know of hingu . You didn’t know enough of it to know the Thirteen Truths or the Nine Precepts don’t exist.”

“No, sir.”

“But they do exist, Spido.”

His aide looked more confused than usual. “Yes, sir, I mean, no, sir, I think.” Spido’s shoulders slumped forward. “I have a lot to learn, yes?”

“You and every other hingu-kun .” Gar refrained from giving Spido a smile and scaring him further. “You see, Spido, the science of hingu itself is but a degraded and diminished form of a much older art known as Tian-shi-sheqi. Hingu means death, but Tian-shi-sheqi is harder to translate from ancient Thermaean. The closest we can get now is ‘cycle of life’ but that lacks the inclusiveness of the art. If you will, Tian-shi-sheqi is the philosophy for which hingu is the practical operation.”

“If you say so, sir.”

“ Tian-shi-sheqi demands that death not be a cessation of life, but a summing up of all life experience. The idea that, in the face of impending death, one’s life flashes before one’s eyes is merely a poor layman’s understanding of the soul of the art, you see. If you will, a practitioner of Tian-shi-sheqi becomes a poet working in the fabric of life to perform his art.”

Spido’s confusion began to clear. “Poetry I understand, sir. I even have tried my hand at it. I have a bit about you.”

Ah, Domino, your lover may not be the only poet in Faltane ! “You do? Please, tell me.”

“Oh, no, sir, I don’t think so.”

“Spido, you do wish me to hear it.”

“So I do, sir, you can put your hand down now.” Spido swallowed hard, then ducked his head sheepishly. “Here goes: When his mind is idle/He thinks homicidal.”

Gar smiled and Spido cringed reflexively. “Spido, that is special.”

“It is?”

“Yes, yes indeed. You may not have learned much at Armbruss, but this may be a help, not a hindrance. In that couplet you have captured me perfectly.”

“I have?”

“Indeed, yes, you have distilled me to the essence of my being.” Gar nodded solemnly, for the first time not regretting the presence of his traveling companion. “This ability you have exhibited suggests to me that you might have an innate grasp of some tenets of Tian-shi-sheqi . I might be able to teach you things, wonderful things.”

“Could you, sir?”

“Yes, oh, yes.” Gar’s pale eyes flashed as he looked at his aide. “Do you remember hearing of the battle at Stone Crossing?”

“Where Kalaran’s Dread Legion of Implacable Retribution fell dead when they heard Rango’s trumpeters sound a charge?”

‘The very same. Do you know why they died like that?’

Spido shrugged warily. “I’d have to be guessing Tian-shi-sheqi , sir.”

“And right you would be. What do you think is the core of any soldier’s life?”

“Fear, sir?”

“Exactly. What I did, the night before the battle, was to steal into Kalaran’s camp and travel among the sleeping Legionnaires. Using kuo-tak , a special Tian-shi technique, I was able to lay them low with a touch.”

Spido raised an eyebrow. “But they died all at once, on the field, and, begging your pardon, sir, but you might be fast as Spotty Gulick sniffing out a poker game, but you’re still not fast enough to touch each of them so they dies that quick.”

“No, no, you misunderstand. With kuo-tak , a touch kills, but the death is delayed and can even be triggered by a sight or a sound or a scent. The key is to distill the victim’s life down to one event, one sensation, then to work off it and back to where the trigger brings death.” Gar stared off distantly. “I knew, for those men, that when they heard our side sound a charge, no matter their confidence, there would be a moment of self-doubt, of fear. When the unknown yawned before them, as the battle joined, I knew that moment would be there. It was a moment, a thought that had occurred in every battle to every warrior ever, and that was the moment I chose to define them and their existence as soldiers. And in that moment, when they heard the trumpets, they were slain by kuo-tak and the touch I had given each of them while they slept the night before.”

Spido’s horse sidled away from Gar. “Fascinating, sir, really. And you learned this from Udan Kann?”

“That fool? No. He thinks of killing as a science. Hingu is all formulae and techniques to him. Things are learned by rote and become mechanical in execution. The other hingu-shanshao I fought in the war were stiff and slow when seen through eyes colored with the artistry of Tian-shi-sheqi . As with your shanshao , I had no trouble slaying them.”

“And you’d destroy Udan Kann if we ran into him?”

Gar nodded solemnly. “He was the master, but this student has gone beyond him. I may not know all he knew, but I understand more than he will ever comprehend.”

They rode in silence for a couple more miles until Spido suggested they camp in a grove of trees beside a crystal-clear stream. Gar agreed and left Spido to make up the camp and prepare the evening meal while he wandered off through the long grasses of the nearby meadow and worked through two hours of martial exercises.

By the time he finished, the sun had set and Spido called him to supper. His exercises — a regimen he had created specifically to increase his stamina so he could last longer than the half hour during which he had defended Bardu Defile — had helped him burn off the anger he felt at the memory of Udan Kann. The hingu-Groshanshao had been like a father to Gar and the other orphans being trained at Armbruss. Gar had spent his life believing his parents had died accidentally, but when he learned the truth — that Udan Kann had murdered them at Kalaran’s order — his rebellion and defection had been the only options open to him.

Spido put his bowl down after finishing his second helping or gruel and patted his stomach. “My cooking is not bad, but nothing like me mum’s cooking.”

“You wear evidence of her skills around your middle, Spido.”

“She’ll fatten you up, too, sir, in a week or less.” Spido thought for a second, then nodded with a smile. “She’ll let you stay with us, I’m thinking, sir, given that you’re dark haired and all. The eyes might bother her — she’s not much on Northerners like that Jancy Gaine, though I’d have been much on her would she have given me so much as a wink and a nod, eh, sir? Not much of a chance of that, given how stingy she is with smiles, of course.”

Gar frowned, “Jancy seems quite affable to me.”

“Beg pardon, sir, but compared to you, there’s rocks what are fair lunatic with laughter and smiles.”

“So you fancied Jancy, did you?” Gar looked slyly at his aide. “Wouldn’t such a dalliance play hob with your relationship with the fair Squashblossom?”

“Well, as me mum says, men are meant to hunt treasure, if you catch my drift, and you can’t fault us for our nature. Still and all,” his voice lowered a bit, “I’d only entertain a lass if she were meant for me ‘cuz of the prophecy.”

“The one about the goddess?”

“Yes, sir.”

“While Jancy fights with the heart and skill that can only be a divine gift, I’m not certain she is a goddess.”