What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I blinked. My face was still buried in Alix's shoulder when I saw it.

It couldn't be!

It was not an illusion or a trick of the fading sunlight against the snow-covered branches.

Boque.

I saw the damned mogui out of the corner of my eye. He ducked behind one of the donkey carts transporting squirrel skins and straw mats into the city. I recognized that fiend by his greasy mustache and hunched back. Kujui had sent Boque to follow me this whole time!

I should have known that the Kujui, the old hairy louse, didn't trust me to bring Alix back on my own!

Boque was one of Kujui's most nauseating of servants. I always called him stinky mogui because he used to poke holes in my cottage's silkscreens and watch me as I bathed. If he had not been one of Kujui's most trusted spies owing to his diminutive stature and ability to hide in old clay pots, I would have killed him years ago.

For four long years, as I have been held captive by the Ashe Mountain bandits, I had no choice but to tolerate that greasy demon's wandering eyes. At times, I thought about offering my last two spells to Kujui if only I could use the last one to kill the lustful little devil.

If he reported back to Kujui that I told Alix about our plots, the hairy bandit king would surely have my throat slit in my sleep.

I have no choice. I needed to kill Boque before he could report back to Kujui that I had turned against him. I didn't need to have every Ashe Mountain bandit here in the Imperial City chasing down myself or my disguised form as Lady Teng. This stupid girl and her pastel gowns were the only disguise I had. Even though this guise would fade by the next full moon, as I had never intended for this spell to last forever, perhaps it would be enough time for me to use it to get close to Julong and take the bastard's life.

I shoved Alix aside and made a run for Boque, the little hunchback fiend. My right hand was already around the shaft of my jade dagger. If only I could drive this dagger into that plump potbelly and scatter his innards before the Gate of Divine Might, maybe I could buy myself some time.

Boque didn't even run. I kicked him over with one thrust of my right knee. I pinned him to the muddy, well-trodden path leading to the city gates. No one saw us. Who would say anything even if they did?

I was still disguised as an upper-class lady of unreproachable repute. I crouched down, all the same, to shield my attack from the nearby merchants.

Boque snickered at me even as my hands closed around his wrinkly neck. His chin was decorated with a single mole with a tuft of hair growing out of it. I recalled how he used to curl that hair around his middle finger while he peeped at me from outside my cottage.

It would be my greatest pleasure to end his life. And he knew it.

So, why wasn't he afraid?

Doque seemed to laugh at me with his jaundiced eyes as he pointed back toward the mulberry trees. I jumped up and felt all the hope leave my body. The Ashe Mountain bandits were here. They were emerging from behind the trees like a swarm of ants crowding around a newly fallen crumb. They had appeared so silently and deftly that the other peasants milling around us hadn't even taken notice of them.

I opened my mouth to scream. I was still disguised as a well-to-do lady — no, I was the daughter of the High General! I was dressed in my beautiful fur-trimmed robes with butterflies on my collar and flowers embroidered onto my sleeves. I stood out among all the rest of the travelers here in their drab clothing. With one shaky finger, I pointed at the beggar bandits that were standing by the forest. I could see that they were hiding their rusty sabers and gardening hoes among the folds of their tattered clothing.

The guards didn't notice, but Alix did. My loyal servant turned and started to drive his fists into the first bandit he saw. With his fists alone, he took down the first raggedy, pockmarked bandit. Before Alix was able to steady his hands around the fallen antique saber, two more jumped on him.

Before I could scream, "Criminals are trying to steal my qiánbāo! Help!" The words died in my throat.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Kujui himself appears behind Alix with a long silver dao.

"Look behind you!" I screamed instead.

Alix turned around and came face to face with the leader of the bandits himself. Despite his old age, Kujui was a well-trained fighter. It had been said more than once that Kujui trained with a Shaolin master in his youth. I heard that as a young man, he was corrupted by a traveling troupe of actors who introduced him to lusty women, fine wine, and the succulent taste of Beggar's Chicken. Unable to return to a monk's life, Kujui threw himself into a life of thievery and debauchery.

I started running back towards the forest, but I knew that I would not make it in time. The battle between Alix and the bandit king was so ferocious and deadly that I could barely see who had the upper hand. Their weapons swung through the air as rapidly as the flutter of a dragonfly's wings. Alix was by far the younger and stronger of the two. He held his own until Kujui's fine bronze sword sliced his rusty saber cleanly in half.

Kujui turned to me with a wicked smile. His gapped tooth grin melted into a look of disappointment as he genuinely had expected better from me. Even then, I wondered what could possibly give him that idea. Did I not plot his downfall with every breath during those four long years? He should have known that I served no one but myself.

He cocked his head toward Alix as though he wanted to make sure I was looking. Despite my efforts not to care, my hands went to my mouth in shock. Surely, he couldn't be serious. Would he kill Alix to teach me a lesson?

Was my crime so terrible that Kujui would kill a true werewolf to hurt me?

Kujui turned, and his sword disappeared into Alix's chest. I couldn't believe my eyes, not even as the blood started to pool around Alix's feet, and he dropped to his knees. Alix mouthed an indecipherable word to me as his hands still clutching the wet spot on his tunic where the sword had entered his body.

Maybe it was my name. I didn't know. The gaping hole in his linen jacket was the only thing that occupied my visual field. The blood seeped from between his fingers and fell, drop by drop, into the untarnished snow.

And that's when I realized that the fight was over before it had even begun. On that day, I not only lost all illusions I had of Julong, I also lost Alix, the only man who had ever loved me.