Lady Earthquake

Lady Earthquake Chapter 51

The fourth or fifth time he came in, he dragged his attention away from the still, white figure to notice that there was no maidservant in the room. Casting his thoughts back, he realized that no one had been there any time he had come in. No bustling servant-wench came when he called, either.

Grim-faced, he strode out and located Dongru coming along the corridor carrying a tray with a bowl of hot water and a towel. "Where are the maids?" Sun-Sin demanded.

"Eh...forgive me, your highness. They have all fled but Miss Ganxie who is asleep."

"Fled? Why?"

"Some among them said that Miss is possessed of a demon and that they would all be carried away with her. So they fled, even Maidservant Guo."

"Stupid girls. Hire new ones." Then he noticed his man's hands were trembling. "Do you believe that?"

"No, your highness."

"Give me that. Bring my dinner into this chamber. Soup and rice will be enough."

"Fools," Sun-Sin said. Yet seated once more beside An-Xia, wiping her hands and face with a dampened cloth, he could not find it in his heart to be genuinely angry. If they had remained, he would not have the chance to sit here unobserved, gazing with open emotion at her. He traced the curve of her cheek with one finger.

"Do wake up," he said. "I miss your lively eyes."

Dongru left his meal outside the door. By the time Sun-Sin remembered it was there, the soup was cold. He ate it regardless. He had to keep up his strength to be strong for An-Xia. He gave her two more of the physician's pills.

He was only vaguely aware that some maids came and went in the room, lighting the candles, refreshing the incense, and adding water to the clay kettle nestled in its padded basket, keeping in the heat. Alone again, holding on to An-Xia's slack hand as the slow hours between nightfall and midnight passed, Sun-Sin spoke to her in an undertone, telling her about the first time he had realized she was a woman and what that new knowledge had done to his heart.

"I already knew you were the bravest person I had ever met; how was I to know you were also the most beautiful? Blind men have more sight than I did. Do you remember when you came out in that pink robe I bought for you? The blooming cherry trees are not more lovely."

He leaned forward to brush his finger tip over her eyebrows. "I never told you how relieved I was when you lost that false mole on your eyebrow. Aren't I a shallow fellow, though?"

It was then, close to his hand, that he saw the hideous black spider crouched on the brocade pillow. Reflexes coming alive, he dragged An-Xia away. At the same instant, he kicked the bowl that had held his soup over the spider.

"Anyone there! Danger!" he called to his servants but no one came as time stretched out like warm resin.

To his horror, he saw the gleaming bowl lift up and a long, hairy leg poke out from beneath the rolled rim. The spider was growing larger, crawling out from under the bowl. Drops of black venom burned the brocade fabric as it dragged its bloated body along, already the size of a woman's hand.

Sun-Sin jerked the knife from his belt and sent it into the horrible thing. But this only split the creature in twain, creating two of them. They had grown again, big as kittens, and then there were more than two, crawling out from beneath the quilt, slipping down on wire-like webbing from the canopy. They made a hissing sound like dry rice swirling in an iron bowl.

He picked up An-Xia and jumped off the bed. Instead of immediately standing on the floor, they seemed to fall from a cliff-face. The assassins of the Third Prince were following them, the lions on their breastplates coming to life, venom dripping from their fangs. Smoke billowed, blinding him. Who was this woman burdening his right arm? If he held on to her, how could he fight them?