Jeannie Lin - Butterfly Swords

‘That’s why you can’t go to anyone for help.’

She sank her chin onto her knees in an uncharacteristically childish gesture. ‘I never intended to put you in so much danger.’

‘Do you know what this looks like to anyone who finds us? The governor’s wife and a barbarian.’

‘I told you, I am not his wife.’

He continued, undaunted. ‘They’ll hang me, but that is nothing compared to what they will do to you.’

‘My family did not raise their daughter to live in fear.’

The rafters creaked, hushing them into tense silence as muffled voices rose from below. They crouched, listening and waiting.

‘I cannot let them find me,’ she whispered once the voices quieted. ‘Li Tao will force me to marry him. He only wants this marriage to gain my father’s trust.’

As much as she tried to hide it, he could tell she was frightened. In the empire, a woman was first her father’s property and then her husband’s. She was defying both of them.

‘We’ll stay here awhile. Wait them out,’ he said. ‘The soldiers will move on in a couple of hours.’

‘What then?’

A sense of foreboding settled over him like a shroud. She was looking to him for answers. The last time anyone had trusted his lead, it had ended in bloodshed. His head throbbed with phantom pain as he recalled the last moments of the skirmish. Imperial soldiers had swarmed over their caravan, overpowering them. A better man could have stopped it.

‘What should we do, then?’ she repeated.

‘We can’t roam the streets all night and we can’t stay here.’ He needed to think. For once, he needed to make the right decision and not rush into battle.

‘Perhaps we can sneak past the guards to the main gates,’ Ailey suggested.

‘There are soldiers at the gates and patrolling the streets. You can’t leave town tonight. You’ll need to hide.’

‘But where?’

He knew of places, dark corners in any city that he would never send a woman to alone. ‘We’ll find a place at the edge of town. Tomorrow morning, we leave with the first light of dawn once the gates open.’

The scent of herbs hung heavy and bittersweet as they waited in silence. Ailey sank back against the wall. Her shoulder inadvertently brushed against him. He was becoming greedy for every touch, no matter how innocent.

Changan, the imperial capital. He’d been there before. And he could handle imperial soldiers … if there weren’t too many. He had known it would come to this the moment she sank into his arms after their duel. Perhaps he had known even sooner, when he had seen her strength and her fierce determination to get home.

Maybe this was just another distraction, another reason to avoid returning to the Gansu corridor where his comrades waited. No, he was wrong about that. No one was waiting for him. They probably thought he was dead.

He had enough problems taking care of his own skin. What made him think he could protect this woman who seemed to be in more trouble than he was? That blow to the head he’d suffered hadn’t knocked any sense into him after all.

Ailey held her breath. He had said they would go together. His manners might be strange and uncultured, but there was a core of honour in him. She hadn’t been wrong about that.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured.

His only reply was a brief shrug of his shoulders. He was helping her at great risk to himself. More than he knew. But she needed him to get home. It was the only way.

The morning came back to her as they huddled in the corner, trying not to touch and failing. His mouth had crushed against hers. She squeezed her eyes shut, but that only made the memory more overwhelming.

His hands had urged her close until she was pressed against the hard muscle of his chest. She had cast all caution aside, assuming he would leave. But he was still here. The heat of his body radiated through his tunic to find its way to her.

He shifted and she responded by inching towards the wall. His features were shadowed in the dim corner and the steady rhythm of his breathing reminded her how precariously close he was. She held herself perfectly still, afraid that if she moved she would find herself falling towards him, closing the scant space between them.

As if sensing her thoughts, he pulled away to the window, leaving her so quickly the air beside her still tingled with his presence. He braced his hands against the frame with head bent and shoulders pulled taut, a powerful silhouette against the light outside. The silence went on for so long that she began to worry he had changed his mind.

‘I don’t see any more of them,’ he reported, peering down into the alley. ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

‘What Li Tao has done is unforgivable. I would rather die than become his wife.’

Ryam nodded, and moved away from the window. ‘We’ll go out the back way.’

Reckless , she could hear Father proclaiming. To imagine she was safe with a barbarian she’d barely met.

Always feeling, never thinking, Mother scolded.

But she had thought very carefully and she trusted Ryam more than anyone else in this province. This was Li Tao’s domain and he would kill them both if he found them.

She had vowed to her parents to be a dutiful wife, but that was one vow she could not fulfil. She prayed they would forgive her for her disobedience. She hoped they would believe her when she spoke against one of the most powerful men in the empire.

Her legs burned as she stood and the blood rushed back into them. They must have been crouched there for over an hour. Ryam led as they picked their way around the baskets towards the stairway. He scanned the room below on the first floor, and gestured towards the door at the back.

She peered over the railing before starting down, keeping her step as light as possible. Midway, a board creaked beneath her feet. Ryam muttered a curse as the voices halted down below. He gave her a small push.

‘Run!’

They bolted down the stairs and through the door, abandoning any attempt at stealth. She took off around the corner and ducked into an alcove. Ryam shoved himself in beside her. They both held still, pressed against the brick. When it was clear that no one was following, she doubled over, gasping for breath.

‘We’d make very bad thieves.’

She looked up to see Ryam grinning. He had a good spirit. She laughed, caught up in it. Part of her couldn’t help but enjoy this adventure.

Once her breathing returned to normal, she poked her head around the enclosure. The streets had emptied in the late afternoon and the sounds of the market faded. Ryam emerged first, surveying the area before pulling her behind him. He shielded her as they ventured forwards. The protective gesture made her want to press even closer. She didn’t have much experience with cities. She definitely had no knowledge of the back alleys they were navigating. Most of her life had been spent in her family home nestled in the mountains, surrounded by family and household servants.

‘Where is it that you came from?’ she asked.

‘The other end of the world.’

‘You seem to have been here for a long time.’

‘Years and years.’ His answers became noticeably clipped when he spoke of his past.

‘We have a name for your land. We call it “Ta Chin”, the Great Empire of the West.’

‘I don’t come from any great empire.’

She frowned.

‘That empire you speak of no longer exists. Our kingdom—what was our kingdom—is a small one compared to this empire.’

The journey across the silk routes was said to be a treacherous one. If she only had the time to ask all the questions she wanted to. He must have amazing stories to tell.

‘Are you part of the lost legion?’ she asked. ‘The wandering soldiers they speak about?’