Lady Earthquake

Lady Earthquake Chapter 37

After Yan had gone to prepare Mo for the journey, Ban-Li went on his knees before his prince, bowing his head to the floor. "What is this?" Sun-Sin asked, the laughter his adjutant loved in his voice.

"I am a bad servant but I cannot allow you to run into danger blindly." Sitting up, he slipped his right hand into his belt. Two scrolls resided there, each wrapped in a red bag. He brought out the one with the carved knobs and pulled it from the bag. "You cannot go to the Convent of Pure Enlightenment, your highness."

"What is this?" He reached for the bag, but stopped short, his fingers curving under. "What are you doing with a Royal Decree in your belt? Are you a...?"

"Lady Zang entrusted this to me as a secret, telling me I was to keep you from going there but I really do not see how I can unless I show you this. Please take it, your highness. It...it concerns your lady mother."

"My mother?"

Without any of the usual formality, except to wipe his fingers on a napkin, Sun-Sin took the scroll and opened it. Ban-Li watched his face anxiously. Sun-Sin's expression hardened, muscles along his jaw appearing. "I see. Very well. I will not step foot into the convent. However, the needs of my men come before every other consideration. There is nowhere else to take Yan and Mo for treatment except the Yiang capital. It would avail us nothing to set that arm only to have our heads taken."

"Yes, sir."

He smiled at him sadly and Ban-Li's heart started beating again. "My foster-mother put you in a difficult position. Allow me to apologize for her thoughtlessness."

"Her desire was to protect you." Much more softly, he added, "So is mine."

"We will do our best to protect one another. Get up, you foolish child."

They slept for a few hours in a bedchamber, all four on the floor, Ban-Li near enough to Sun-Sin to clasp his hand. The landlady promised in a whisper to get her husband drunk to keep him from going at once to the authorities but she said he was determined to go in the morning. By the time dawn came, the four men and the shy boy were ten li away.

By then, Mo had stopped weeping whenever he saw Ban-Li. He seemed to be walking in his sleep, talking to people who were not there, a general, servants, even having a lengthy argument with a fishmonger over the price of dried mackerel. Ban-Li recognized the names but did not think Sun-Sin did. He seemed to be lost in thoughts of his own. It was strange, however, that every time Ban-Li looked at his captain, his captain seemed to have only at that moment looked away from him.

Ban-Li had his own worries. He could not be sure if Mo still had his box of disguise props. He could do with a fresh mustache. This one kept peeling up at the edges. Perhaps he could explain away the loss of his mole somehow but without a mustache his disguise must end. It was currently the least of his worries but the most insistent on intruding on his thoughts.

Yan had fallen silent as well. Drops of sweat rolled down his cheeks as his fever mounted from hour to hour. By the time the innkeeper's boy, who was as taciturn as the rest of them, pointed to the tower of the convent's temple, Yan too moved in a dream of marching, muttering the drill as he stumbled along.

"Here at last. Come here, my adjutant." Sun-Sin's haggard face and untidy hair seemed to make him a stranger as the prince lifted his head, fixing his gaze on him. Ban-Li felt a pang run through him, vibrating, a feeling not of hunger, or trembling fear, or even thirst, but a mix of all of these. Warmth seemed to spill out of his heart, flowing over and flooding every part of him, right down to his damp and chilly toes.

Ban-Li patted his chest as though to relieve indigestion but in reality, to calm a leaping heart. He wanted to look anywhere but at Sun-Sin's face. Could a girl in disguise fall in love with a man she had always known in such a place and in such a time? Or had it happened long ago and, like a seed planted one hundred years before, suddenly burst into flower like this? "So inconvenient...."