The Wandering God

52 Where Mountains And Streams End 4/4

山窮水盡
Shānqióng-shuǐjìn
Where the hills and streams end.
At the end of one's rope.

*~*~*~*~*~*

At the worst points of my life, the lowest of the lows, I had always turned to anger to get me through.

When I had told Lu this, he had looked sad. Him looking sad had made me, well, angry.

"What else should I rely on?" I asked him sharply. I sat on the edge of his veranda, letting the soft rain that was falling land on my head and shoulders.

"Faith," he said. "In love, and the people around you."

"Faith," I scorned. "Love. Spoken by someone who has had a peaceful life."

Lu looked out at the falling rain. "I have not had such an easy life. I saw my family killed before me."

I bit my lip, regretting my hasty words. But I would not agree with him. "If there is one thing I know for certain, it's that in this world we only have ourselves to rely upon. Then you will never be disappointed."

Lu shook his head. "Perhaps you will never be disappointed. But you will be very lonely."

Lu's face vanished, and instead a hated, symmetrical one swam before my eyes.

"What's with that face?" Zhen asked with a smile. "Aren't you happy to see me? I am here to save you."

The drug still made my mouth numb, so I did not speak, just glared.

"Prince Zhangyu was terribly worried when you disappeared. He thought his fiancé had gotten to you," said Zhen, picking up the metal shears. I watched as he brought them close to my hands once more... then cut away at the wire binding my shackles together. The shackles fell away.

"He instructed me to make sure you leave the city safely. He has already prepared a ship for you. Risking the wrath of a tiger." As he spoke, Zhen took the cut wire and used it to bind Sanyu's hands, none to gently, to the table covered with metal implements. "If you ask me, it's a lot of trouble to go through, for some forgotten goddess. He has a weakness for you."

No one asked you. I thought. I had forgot how the snake liked monologuing.

Zhen stood over me, hands on hips, looking down at me as I lay on the floor beneath him. "Hmm?" he said, puzzled when I still had not risen. "Why aren't you standing? I would help you, but Prince Zhangyu forbade me from touching you."

My lips struggled to form words. "I cannot."

"Cannot?" Zhen's black eyes searched the cell, and then found the glass syringe that Sanyu had left on the table as he prepared to torture me.

Zhen lifted the syringe and sniffed it. "Ahh. This is strong. You are lucky he didn't use more. It could have stopped your heart."

He put the syringe back on the table and came to stand over me once more, taking a vial from a pouch about his waist. "Fortunately for you, I have my own antidote."

The snake produced one of his thin silver needles from somewhere, and stuck it in the mouth of the bottle.

Then he looked down at me. He twirled the needle in one hand, smile triumphant. "Hmm, this feels familiar, doesn't it?"

I ground my teeth.

"Too bad the prince forbade me to touch you. Just think of all the fun we could have, my six-fingered goddess."

I tried to convey my hatred through my glare.

In response Zhen's smile stretched so wide I thought his face would split in half and open up to a fanged mouth and a forked tongue. Like the serpent he was.