Part 30 (1/2)

”It won't,” said Tam. ”If he's dirty, he's hidden it perfectly.”

”Chin's your ringleader,” Tran declared.

”Prove it.””He's right,” Lang agreed.

”Is he? Can I face the Council with that? Bring me evidence, Tran. Prove it's not just bitterness talking. Wait! Hear me out. I agree with you. I'm not asleep.

But he looks as clean as Wu. He doesn't leave tracks. Intuition isn't proof.”

Tran bowed slightly, angrily. ”Then I'll get proof.” He stalked out.

Tam did agree. Chin was a viper. But he was the second most powerful man in s.h.i.+nsan. and logical successor to the empire. His purge would have to be sustained by iron-bound evidence presented at a perfectly timed moment.

Chin would resist. Potential allies had to be politically disarmed beforehand.

The Council, increasingly impatient with O s.h.i.+ng's delay in moving west, were growing cool. Some members would support any move to topple him.

It was a changed s.h.i.+nsan. A polarized, politicized s.h.i.+nsan. Even Wu admitted his suspicion that the empire had been better off under the Dual Princ.i.p.ate. It had, at least, been stable, if static.

While Tran obsessively rooted for evidence d.a.m.ning Chin, Tam healed old wounds and opened new ones. He studied, and quietly aimed his Hounds at their midnight targets.

And futilely persisted in trying to draw the venom of the Tervola's western obsession.

Then, without Tran there to advise them otherwise, he and Lang began riding with the Hounds.

Select Hsien Luen-Chuoung was a Wu favorite, a Com-mander-of-a-Thousand in the Seventeenth. Such a post usually rated a full Tervola. The evidence was irrefutable. O s.h.i.+ng had, for the sake of peace with Wu, avoided acting earlier.

The unsigned, intercepted note sealed Chuoung's doom.

”Go ahead. Deliver it,” Tarn told a post rider who was one of his agents. ”We'll see who his accomplices are. Lang, start tracing it back.” The note had come to his man from another post rider, who in turn had received it at a way station in the west.

The message? ”Prepare Nine for Dragon Kill.”

O s.h.i.+ng was The Dragon. It was his symbol, inherited from his father. The sign in the message was his, not the common glyph for dragon, nor even the thaumaturgic symbol.

So, Tarn thought. Tran was right, after all, in mistrusting learning. His advice about suborning the post riders had paid off.

”Lang, I want to go on this one myself. Let me know when the wolves are in the trap.”

Chuoung, unsuspicious, gathered his co-conspirators immediately.

”It looks bad for Lord Wu,” Lang averred as he helped Tarn with his armor. The conspirators were all officers of the Seventeenth or important civilians from Wu's staff.

”Maybe. But n.o.body contacted him. He hasn't shown a sign of moving. And the message came from the west. I think somebody subverted his legion.”

”Chin somebody?”

”Maybe. Remembering their confrontations back when, he might want Wu more vulnerable if there were a next time. Come. They'll be waiting.”Twelve Hounds loafed in the forest near the postern. Tam examined them unhappily.

These scruffy ruffians were the near-Tervola he had recruited? He had insisted on having the best for this mission. These looked like they were the bandits the Council accused them of being.

Chuoung occupied a manor house a few miles southwest of Liaontung. As Commander- of-a-Thousand he rated a bodyguard of ten. And there would be sorcery. Most of Chuoung's traitor-coven were trained in the Power.

O s.h.i.+ng sent a black sleeping-fog to those guards in barracks.

Thus, six would never know what had happened. To distract the conspirators themselves he raised a foul-tempered arch-salamander. ...

They were guilty. He listened at a window long enough to be sure before he attacked.

Pure, raging hatred hit him then. Nine men squawked in surprise and fear when he lunged into the room, his bad foot nearly betraying him.

Their wardspells had been neutralized unnoticed by a greater Power.

The salamander blasted through the door.

They weren't prepared. The thing raged, fired the very stone in its fury. Screams ripped through melting Tervola-imitative masks. Scorched flesh odors conquered the night. O s.h.i.+ng retched.

Chuoung tried to strike back.

Lang, from over Tarn's shoulder, drove a javelin through a jeweled eye-slit.

”Keep some alive,” O s.h.i.+ng gulped as the Hounds swept in.

Too late. The surprise had been too complete, the attack too efficient. In seconds all nine were beyond answering any questions ever. The salamander didn't even leave shades which could be recalled.

O s.h.i.+ng banished the monster before it could completely destroy the room, then searched Chuoung's effects.

He found nothing.

He interrupted his digging an hour later, suddenly realizing that the screaming hadn't stopped. Why not? The conspirators were dead.

He went looking for his Hounds.

They were behaving like western barbarians, murdering, raping, plundering. And Lang was in the thick of it.

Tam spat, disgusted, and limped back to Liaontung alone.

Lang became addicted. He was a born vandal. He began riding every raid, ranging ever farther from Liaontung, using his fraternal ties to acquire ever greater command of the Hounds.

O s.h.i.+ng didn't pay any heed. He was happy to have Lang out of his way.

Lang did love it, making the Hounds his career....

The men attacked didn't accept their fates pa.s.sively. O s.h.i.+ng lost followers. Yet every raid encouraged recruiting.A plague swept s.h.i.+nsan. Rejection of the established order became endemic. And O s.h.i.+ng didn't see the peril, that rebels are always against, never for, and rebellion becomes an end in itself, a serpent devouring its own tail.

It got out of hand. His tool, his weapon, began cutting at its own discretion.

Lords Chin and Wu came to O s.h.i.+ng. Backing them were Ko Feng, Teng, Ho Lin and several other high lords of the Council of Tervola. They were angry, and didn't bother hiding it.

Their appearance was message enough, though Wu insisted on articulating their grievance.