Lady Earthquake

Lady Earthquake Chapter 13

Without opening her eyes, An-Xia awoke. She listened intently. She lay on a thin bedmat that smelled of spilled rice powder, rancid hair-oil, and some kind of bitter medicine. Over that came the smoke of unfamiliar incense. As though from a far distance, she heard cheerful music and laughter. Was she missing a party? Was she ill? Her chin hurt as though she had fallen and hit it. Her mouth was too dry to let her speak. Her lips moved in the shape of the word she wanted most to say. Another attempt and a thread of sound emerged.

"Mother?"

"Quiet now. Just lie quiet." A warm, calloused hand squeezed hers.

"Sergeant Mo?"

"Right. I am here."

She opened her eyes. The room was unfamiliar, small, and with only one high window. Sergeant Mo sat beside the bed on a drum table pulled up close. His forehead was rumpled with worry and his wrinkled eyes were red. He tried to smile with trembling lips. "You are better. You fainted."

"Fainted?" She slipped her hand free and raised up on her elbows. Her head swam. "Oh, I remember. I...are they dead?"

He pressed his lips together until they turned white. Then he nodded. "The summer residence is burned and I think...I think no one survived but you and me."

An-Xia crossed her arms over her stomach and rocked back and forth. Her grief seemed to sink into her bones, making her ache like an old woman bent by years of woe. Tears dripped onto the quilt over her lap. "Why...why did they name me this? 'Safe summer'? A joke? Oh, what a bitter joke!"

"Do not...now...do not." Sergeant Mo, who had seen her father die, put his arm around the girl, remembering how often she had run to 'old Mo' to bind up a scrape, tie a bandage around a cut finger, or dry far less tragic tears. He sought for words to express his deepest beliefs. "They are at peace now, away from the pain of this world. They lived noble lives. They will be reborn."

She nodded against his shoulder. "I am still here. If only I could be free too."

"They would not desire that. You must live on."

"What am I to do now? What am I to do without them?" she sobbed.

"Cry. Rest. Grow strong."

Rubbing her eyes with her balled-up fists like a child, she moved away from his comforting embrace. "Yes. I must grow stronger. My duty is clear."

"Do not talk about duty now."

"I must. Where is it?"

"There. Beside you."

Blindly, she reached out and found the shape of the Thunder Sword beside her on the bed. "Good. And the scroll?"

"It is in the sleeve of your robe. Safe enough there for the moment."

An-Xia ignored the tears that still spilled from her eyes. She clutched the leather-covered hilt of the heavy sword and held it against her breast. There was nothing else left of the life she had lived until now. She was the last surviving member of the Li family. Her duty to her family demanded that she dedicate herself to revenging their deaths. She would have to begin to think for herself.

"Sergeant Mo, tell me everything you know about last night."

"It was two night ago, Young Mistress. You have been unconscious since then."

"Two? Where are we?"

He did not meet her steady gaze. "I could not be certain what place would be safe. I do not know who attacked the manor. It could even have been Lord Zang."