SKY OF PAPER: AN ASIAN STEAMPUNK FANTASY

CHAPTER 57

It was easy to see that both were swordsmen of great skill. With blades light and swift, they swung and danced, clashing steel against steel from one end of the warehouse to the other. For a moment, I found myself entranced as I anxiously followed every detail of their duel. Kassashimei hardly shared in my amusement, for she took my hand and lead me on.

"Terr, c'mon you idiot," she said. 

"R-right," I replied, stealing glances at the fight as I ran beside her.

When we found Etsu, she lunged at me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. 

"Thank goodness you're here Terr," Etsu said. "He ran off. You need to get him."

"Who? What happened?" I asked. 

"It's Lai. It's all his doing. He and that man wanted to hide me someplace in town until-"

Etsu squealed as the guard fell backwards into a pile of boxes next to us. As he got up, Ren Tzu charged in and swung his blade wide, knocking the guard's weapon from his hands. He fell to his knees, feeling the tip of my guardian's sword  pressing down upon his chest.

"Speak," Ren Tzu said, "speak quickly."

The defeated man glared. He showed no sign of fear, nor any sign of defying his cause by revealing his intentions. 

"I have nothing to say to you," he uttered. "Kill me. Kill me now and let it be done."

Ren Tzu must have known that there was no point in threatening him, so he sheathed his blade and took a piece rope from atop one of the crates and tied the man's wrists against his back. 

"Where's Lai," I asked. "What have you done with him?"

"Terr," Etsu interjected, "I told you. It's Lai who's the guilty one. He's been helping this man all along."

I looked at her, confused, unsure of what she was saying. Ren Tzu, with his calm, imposing demeanor continued to question the man.

"You represent the princess," he said. "Perhaps it would be best for us to ask her instead. I saw you leave the telegram office earlier, which means you've sent a message to someone. I'm sure Dae Jung would be most unhappy to hear that the princess and her men have been plotting against him. As such, he may resort to certain unsavory measures in order to derive details from her or others affiliated with the Royal Family. Would you allow your honor to be tainted by their humiliation?"

"Very well." He spoke in a subdued, but dignified tone, trying hard to mask what seemed to be shame from his unwarranted defeat. "It wasn't the princess who sent me. She's innocent. It was her mother, Lady An Wei, that ordered me to do this. But this plan was not hers. The idea was actually spawned by that boy, Lai.  Lady An Wei suspected that Dae Jung would eventually grow tired of the Royal Family and cast us from the ship. After Dae Jung confirmed our fears when he gave his announcement, Lai approached us and suggested that we return Dae Jung's treachery by sneaking into town to send a telegram to the capital in Rui Nan so that we might reveal the Young Emperor's location."

"So that was the plan?" As my anger grew, so did the bite in my voice. "I don't believe you. Tell me. Tell me why Lai would do this."

The man was silent.

I looked to Etsu for answers.

"I don't know either," she said. "Whenever we were together, he always seemed so optimistic so supportive of me. But the minute we landed in that alley, he suddenly became a different person. I didn't know what to think when they forced me off the boat. As we went into town both he and that man spoke to each other as if they'd been collaborating from the start. From what I heard, he planned to have me as well as himself hidden away some where, believing that the ship would never leave without all of its children. He was hoping that we'd be too valuable to be left behind.