Lady Earthquake

Lady Earthquake Chapter 50

The landlady met them at the street-door, upbraiding them as men of ill intent. The prince ignored her, pushing past her. "There you go, knocking me down on my own doorstep. I will call the constables and then you will be sorry. Give my house a bad reputation as the abode of demons...." Luyo had to shake her to get her to stop. More effective even than that was the muttered identification of the man running up her stairs three at a time.

"Who is there?" Ganxie whispered at his knock.

"T'ien Sun-Sin."

"Oh, your highness, thank you...just a moment." A few miscellaneous noises and she swung open the door.

He had no eyes for anything but An-Xia. She looked like a ghost, her hair ragged and rough, her face pale except for two scarlet banners in her cheeks. The white night clothes hung about her body, showing that she had grown too thin. Her eyes were glazed, staring at something beyond human sight. Smears of red stained the floor and the hem of her clothes. She murmured, "Sun-Sin?"

Thinking she recognized him, he hurried to her and took her hands. "I have come to take you home."

"Where are you?"

"I am here. I am right here."

She tried to pull her hands free. "Your highness? Sun-Sin...?"

His heart torn between fear and anger, he demanded, "Has she gone blind?"

Ganxie was weeping, tears darkening the breast of her robe. "No. She does not know where she is. She keeps looking for you, your highness. All night she walks, all day, calling for you."

"And I had to choose this time to go away," he muttered, knowing there had been no choice. The wounds he had suffered from fighting Meng had not healed well, especially the one in his shoulder. He still bore red streaks radiating out from the closed cut, though they no longer blazed with the heat of infection. The hope of seeing An-Xia again had helped to heal him. Now he met with this horrible sight, without even the shadow of her smile to guide him home.

"It was not so bad until today when that cat of a landlady decided we had to go."

An-Xia succeeded in freeing herself. She walked past him, bumping him just as he had pushed past the landlady. She limped pitifully, leaving more red smears on the floor from her torn feet.

"Shu Ban-Li! Attention!"

For an instant, she paused, a listening expression coming into her face. Hope clutched at his heart only to be lost as she started once more to pace across the floor, wall to wall and back again. She felt along the surface as though seeking for an opening. He tried again, using her childhood name. "An'er...?"

"Do not let her out the door," Ganxie warned. "The last time, I turned my back an instant, only to hear her feet on the stairs. Once outside, I saw people pointing in the direction of her escape and heard them say a madwoman had run past them as swiftly as an arrow."

"Was my manor her objective?"

"No, for that is in the opposite direction."

"Gather up her belongings and follow us. We will care for her there."

Sun-Sin picked his love up in his arms, holding her as tightly as he could. She tossed her head and fought him, calling his name all the while. He tried to soothe her with his voice as he carried her downstairs. He found Luyo fending off the landlady who was now overcome with apprehension at having offended a member of the Royal Family.

"Pay her what is owed," the prince ordered. "Then help Ganxie pack up."

He put An-Xia in the carriage and told his personal guard and the servant holding the horse to hurry as he climbed in beside her. He clasped her in his arms as the carriage bounced over the unevenness of the road. The motion seemed to soothe her for a moment; perhaps in her dreams she saw herself traveling to wherever she thought he was. Even so, she kept calling his name, her voice hoarse and choking with tears.