I was eighteen and most others would have called me a master of my art though even then I knew that no one ever truly mastered their art, there is always room for improvement. I had won four tournaments and faced many foes by that time but, there was one person that I had gone up against that I could never defeat, my mistress; the only woman other than myself to be learned in the ways of martial arts at that time. I have competed in this type of tournament many times but today the stakes were so much higher... If my gender was discovered I could have been executed for treason or worse. Normally I would have competed, won and gone home but this time the crown prince attended both the semi-finals and the finals.
The winner of that tourney was to be rewarded with a place in the royal household, perhaps as captain of the guard or as a general in the imperial army. I wore my customary disguise of loose black pants and shirt, the belt that my mistress gave to me that had long since been turned black from years of use and most importantly the black face wrap that I used to hide my feminine features but, I still felt as though everyone could see me for what I was, a woman in a man's tournament.
I would have withdrawn but we were only told that his highness would be attending the morning of the semi-final and I did not have time to slip away. My predicament had become deadly serious, and I could no longer escape without raising suspicion.
The preliminary battles were over and the competitors who were less prepared had already been rooted out, it was only those who truly knew their art that were left. I had three matches on that day, one of which was a Shaolin monk, the monks who had taken me in. I did not know who else I would be facing at that time.
Before my match with the monk I faced a boy no older than fifteen years and an arrogant man that very nearly broke my arm just because he could. Thankfully I managed to escape the latter with nothing more than a dislocated shoulder and a couple of bruised ribs. The monk that I fought did indeed grow up with me though to this day I do not remember his name, nor could he have recognized me due the years that had passed even if I had not had my disguise. I had more matches the next day but, the number of competitors was dwindling. There are three much-needed rest days between the semi-finals and the finals, during which I trained as much as I could and rested when I no longer had the energy to continue drilling myself.
When the day of the finals rolled around at last I was ready for this to be over, I was tired of the stress of hiding my gender as I always was, but this was worse. My mistress had come to watch me fight during the finals, disguised as a man, of course, as though was not against the law for a woman to practice martial arts, it was against the law for her to be in the arena. As such she could be imprisoned or even killed just for watching the tournament, I shudder to think of what could happen to me if I'm discovered competing.
I was fighting my last opponent, a monk from some monastery by the sea; I was too on edge to concentrate on anything but the battle itself and the feel crown prince's eyes following our every move. My eyes flick towards the prince for less than a second, but the monk had been waiting for my concentration to slip. Before I knew it, I was on my back about to be struck a deadly blow when I heard my mistress's feminine voice cry out. Mine and everyone else's gazes were dragged involuntarily to my mistress as she shoved men twice her size out of her way to get to the podium where I had lain.
She never made it; she was seized by two men in the uniform of the Imperial guard, who forced her to her knees. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, the crown prince had stood and was striding towards my mistress with a lethal grace. I swept my forgotten foes legs out from under him and leapt desperately to my feet. I hit the ground running and I was at the edge of the podium in seconds. I called out for them to wait in as deep a voice as I could manage, but it still came out sounding like a woman's. I said that she is here only at my behest, the prince then turned on his heel to face me querying me as to who I thought I was. My reply was to unwind my mask and show myself for what I truly was, a woman.
A shock wave of gasps rippled through the crowd, yet the prince looked oddly unsurprised. I felt sick as another two imperial guards wrapped their hands around my upper arms gripping them with bruising brutality. The prince barked at the guards to unhand me, saying he had decided that he would fight me. If I won both myself and the woman, he gestured at my mistress, were to go free with no consequences but if I lost our punishment was yet to be seen. Waves of protests rose from the crowd at the ultimatum, calling out that I was not worthy to touch him or that he should just let us both go free and save himself the trouble, he commanded silence, claiming that he has already made up his mind.
I was reluctant as I did not want to injure the prince. I would never have dared to say so but from the fierce gleam in his eye I could tell that he had pre-empted my thoughts. He shed his shirt and swung up onto the podium. He attacked and I was helpless as my body responded relying on nothing other than instinct and muscle memory. I was beginning to become frustrated with him so I went into the offensive, no longer caring whether I injured him or not, he became an opponent just like any other.
We fought for what seemed like hours, attack, block, parry, attack, follow-through, defend. On and on the battle dragged, we are both tired quickly, me more so than him as he has superior strength and endurance seeing as he was a male and he had not been fighting almost constantly for three weeks, let alone just come from another match. When I could no longer stand upright from exhaustion he swept my legs out from under me in a move very similar to the one I had used on my previous opponent, he then planted himself on my hips and held my wrists in one hand above my head, effectively pinning me. He looked into my eyes almost apologetically before he schooled his features; he panted from the exertion but hid it well.
My mind is raced, what would happen to my mistress and I now? He pressed me down once more to let me know that I was indeed beaten before he stood and pulled me to my feet, all the while retaining his hold on my wrists.
He faced the crowd and called out in a strong, clear voice that I had proved both my worth and my honour though he could not let my crime go unpunished. He declared that he would take me back to the palace and decide my penance there. There were calls of outrage, the men in the arena wanted me freed and I had no idea why. Even as he whirled around and all but dragged me off the stage by his grasp on my wrists the many Imperial guards were standing at the inner edges of the crowds, a silent threat if they tried anything. With a final fleeting glance back at my mistress before I was dragged off and she was released back into the crowd I saw a single tear trickle down her cheek. That was the last I saw of her for a very long time.
YOU ARE READING
Cherry Blossom
Historical FictionI was a young girl living in ancient China during what became known as the Tang dynasty. I was found abandoned on the doorstep of a monastery by the monks that lived there, they called me Nǚhái or girl. My mistress called me Yīnghuā or Cherry Blosso...
