The Wandering God

27 Eat Bear Heart and Leopard Gall 1/2

吃熊心豹子胆
chīxióngxīnbàozidǎn
To eat bear heart and leopard gall.
To pluck up some courage.

Zakhar knew it was a bad habit to eavesdrop, but he could not help himself.

The morning sky was a bright cream peach, with a smooth texture mirroring the soft skinned fruit. A few wisps of cloud high up had already caught the sun, and burned like molten copper.

Before him, their figures outlined against the orange sky, Ao and Sanli sat at the edge of the cliff. Zakhar, who had less of an appreciation for heights, sat ten lengths behind them, yet in the still, clear air of the mountain top, the man and woman's words were easily heard.

Ao started laughing after looking at the papers she had drawn from the jacket Sanli had artfully draped around her shoulders.

"What is it?" Zakhar heard Sanli ask, peering at Ao's face. "Are those not the poems you mentioned?"

"They are," said Ao. "I just forgot, how bloody terrible Lu was at poetry."

What? Lu... does she mean...?

Sanli laughed as well, his breath sending out clouds into the cool morning air. "They are rather bad, aren't they? When I saw them as a child I never would have thought they were written by my ancestor..."

As the conversation continued it became more and more apparent who Ao was.

Bloody hell. Ao is... she's...

The sun broke the horizon with a silent yet fierce arrival.

She's Xiyu. The Sixth God.

Zakhar had thought of the idea before now. Sanli's interest, Ao's own nature... but it still felt impossible. Something from legends, from myth. Not something unfolding before him, on the morning light of the mountain top.

Ao is the Sixth God. She's a god. Or was a god.

Zakhar wanted to laugh his disbelief into the clear morning air.

Sanli and Ao put their heads close together, and lowered their voices, but Zakhar still caught snatches of words. And he knew if he heard, then it meant Kageyama, with his sharp ears, heard. Zakhar looked at the kitsune's face. The man had his eyes closed, soaking in the early morning light. Kageyama certainly did not look surprised by what he was hearing,

Bloody hell, does everyone in the valley know but me?

Zakhar glanced down to where Zhangyu sat below, and thought back to Ao's interactions with the Second Prince. Yes, Zhangyu most likely knew. That was where his interest came from.

Ermi? Hmmm... the princess pretended to be oblivious, but Zakhar knew she noticed more than she said.

And Liang'yi... no, Liang'yi didn't know. But then again she wouldn't notice if her house fell around her.

How did I not notice? I feel like a fool.

Zakhar berated himself for not realizing sooner. If he had just realized who she was earlier then perhaps he would not have formed the feelings he had. If I had only known how out of reach she was from the start, then perhaps I would not have made such an ass of myself.

He understood now. Ao's rebuffs had been unavoidable. Ao had been a god, and a lover to the Golden Emperor or the powerful Liu Zhua or both, depending on the version of the story you believed true.

Why would someone like that be interested in someone like himself? Some wine saturated soldier in the Black Lord's army?

Zakhar looked down at his inked arms. Not a chance.