Part 31 (1/2)
”Hold out your swords!” she shouted with a hoa.r.s.e voice.
They did so, blades gleaming. Kati withdrew her own, battered sword, and shrieked at them, ”This is not play! It is real! The next time you do this, a h.o.a.rd of invaders will be coming at you to murder your families and burn your ordus! You're all that stand in their way! You are the only defense of your people!”
The men looked at her, astonished. Kati kicked her horse, and rode back and forth along the two lines of men, slapping each blade hard with her own, and screaming, ”You defend your families! You defend your ordus! You defend Shanji! Now let the enemy hear you coming!”
The men were screaming before she made the last turn back towards Goldani. The woman saw her coming, and kicked her horse, but then Kati was past her, blood boiling, her blade outstretched as she screamed.
”SHANJIIII!”.
They covered the length of the field in seconds, the crowd trilling and screaming with them. They formed up again, horses snorting, banging hard against each other in their excitement.
”Again!” shouted Goldani.
”SHANJIII!” a chorus of ba.s.s screams as they crossed the field a second time to the cheers of the crowd.
Now everyone was laughing, dismounting, the swords again in their scabbards. ”It was a good charge,”
said Goldani. ”They have the spirit.”
”Yes,” said Kati, frowning at her, ”but they do not understand.”
There was nothing more she could do. Kati felt frustration, and some despair. Even the trained troops of
the Moshuguang had never known true battle with a skilled army. And battle would come, forced on her by a woman she loved, and another who craved only power. How many would die before Mandughai was satisfied with their opposition? Or would it be all of them? All her loud threats to Yesugen were suddenly silly. Destroy all her s.h.i.+ps indeed. She didn't even know if she could bring herself to use the light of the gong-s.h.i.+-jie against a human life. If she could not, then Shanji was doomed, for Yesugen would bring a superior force for conquest, and only Kati's powers could stop her.
The joy of Festival was suddenly gone from her. She went back to a ger to sit grimly before it while the people ate and visited with friends. The little children came out again to ride their first horses. Some were already leaving the field to pack their belongings for treks back to the more southerly ordus.
Goldani brought her a plate of food, and sat beside her to eat, ”You're not happy,” she said.
”I'm afraid,” said Kati. ”I'm afraid about what will happen to them when Mandughai's army comes. They don't even believe it.”
”I believe, and there are others. Many are not here.”
”It won't be enough. I'll do what I can, Goldani. I'll bring as many troopers as I can, but I'm still afraid
for them all. It's coming so soon!”Goldani put a hand on her shoulder, then went back to her eating, chewing slowly.”How can you be so calm?” asked Kati.Goldani smiled serenely. ”I take you at your word. You've said Mandughai hopes to break off Her attack at the first sign of unified opposition from us. That is my hope.”
”Those were Her words,” said Kati. She'd said nothing about Yesugen, and would not do it now.
”You don't believe Her?”
”I want to.”
”But you have doubts.”
”Yes.” Kati thought again of the real leader of the invasion: Yesugen, the cold, imperious one from the gong-s.h.i.+-jie, the one who had drugged her own mother to enable a private meeting with her adversary. She might have killed her mother in such a way. What else was she capable of?
”Don't underestimate your own people, Kati. We live simple lives in isolation, but we've not survived all these years by being foolish. We're practical people, capable of making decisions we'd rather not make. I think we'll demonstrate that when the time comes. Things will be decided by Mandughai's mercy, not by how well we do in battle. We must trust Her.”
”Your belief is strong, Goldani, though you've never seen Her, or talked to Her as I have. I admire your faith.”
”I also have faith in the Tumatsin woman who will be Empress of Shanji,” said Goldani, ”and I have faith in the people.”
Kati leaned against her, and Goldani put an arm around her shoulders.
”So soon,” said Kati. ”So soon.”
She worked with the men a final time in the afternoon, and then Festival was over, and everyone was leaving. She found Edi again, and they talked while the horses were packed, and then they were gone. The people were gone, and the sand was empty by the pool, the only sound that of the breath from The Eye of Tengri-Nayon, and she was standing alone with Goldani as the waterfall began to splash again. Everything was completed, and the people were still not together.
There would be war soon.
She rode through the canyon with Goldani, and they parted at the intersection of trails heading west, east, and south. Goldani leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek.
”Have faith in Mandughai,” she said, ”and in yourself.”
Goldani turned her horse, and rode away towards the glimmering sea. Kati watched her until she was a speck, then turned her horse east. The animal seemed rested. She walked it for several hours, breaking into an occasional trot as the sky darkened, and Tengri-Nayon was glaring down at her. The following afternoon, when she saw the silhouette of Three Peaks, not far ahead, she went to a slow gallop, holding it much of the way back to the Emperor's city-and Huomeng.
She wondered how much time they were destined to have together.
PART IV.
MEI-LAI-GONG.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
MEI-LAI-GONG.
The warning was quite late, and arrived from three different sources.
Kati was sleeping, and suddenly the emerald eyes were there as they'd been years before, the times before her travel in the gong-s.h.i.+-jie.
Kati!
She awoke with a start, and kept her eyes closed.