Shanji. Part 20

The elderwoman put a hand to her mouth, and stared.

How am I doing?

Just fine. She's impressed.

They went back to the boy in the hut, and Kati knelt again, touching his mother's hand, and taking it from the boy's. "Don't be afraid. This will be difficult for him, but he will be healed."

Kati moved her hands over him, pressed down on his back and closed her eyes. In an instant, her eyelids seemed to glow green. The boy stirred, mumbled something and tried to roll away, but Kati held him firmly by his back. Sweat burst from the child's face, and he cried out as his mother covered her face with her hands, sobbing. The mattress was soon drenched with sweat coming from every pore in the boy's body, and he writhed frantically to escape Kati's grip. A sound came from him, a horrible gurgling sound, and Kati jerked him upright, bending him forward and pressing on his back. There was a bright green flash as her eyes opened, and she said, "Cough! Cough it up!"

The boy made a sound like gravel sprinkled on metal, and coughed up a horrible mess of mucus and blood all over himself, Kati, and the mattress. It went on for minutes, retching after retching, until finally the child took a deep, clear breath, and opened his eyes, his face flushed red.

"Ma?" he asked, and the woman who was his mother burst into tears.

Kati stood up, and came to the elderwoman, and it seemed her eyes still glowed, though faintly. "This is the will of First Mother," she said, and the elderwoman bowed deeply before her.

The villagers agreed to accept the services of any doctors sent to them in the name of First Mother, but Kati felt it was her only accomplishment with them. The people had no problem with the stores of grain and beans rotting in their bins. They met their production quotas, and if it wasn't picked up, well, that was someone else's problem. Yes, they could raise more beef on the neighboring gra.s.slands, but if the n.o.bles saw no need for additional animals, the land was better off in its natural state. Besides, there was plenty of meat in the village.

They had traveled two days by horse and cart to return from the village, but Kati was now awake and alert. Mengmoshu was exhausted and drowsy as the cable car came down for them. Jin-yao had brought them through Wanchou before dawn, when the streets were empty, and Kati had slept with her head on Mengmoshu's shoulder the whole way. He wondered if she'd felt his kiss on her head as he held her. They were back in white uniforms. The beautiful purple robe had been burned along the way for security reasons, and also because there was no way to clean up the mess that had saturated it. Mengmoshu's black robe was too hot, and he had changed clothes out of sight of the village. The car arrived, guards loaded their luggage and Kati settled herself in a seat opposite him, seemingly lost in thought. Half-way up the mountain, she suddenly said, "Land."

"What?"

"Land! All lands are the property of the Emperor, and he favors the n.o.bles by allowing their use of it."

"Yes. That is the system," he said.

"The more favor they receive, the richer they become."

"This is true," he said sleepily, stifling a yawn.

"But only a single percent of the land is occupied, or used! If we expand, especially to the northeast,

there are many resources to exploit there. More land for favor and profit."

"And?" Now he was barely awake.

"Build new population centers, and expand. Use land as favors that must be paid for by investments in the system: transportation systems, a power network, medical care, training, better housing conditions, all the problems we've seen. The Emperor gives them new lands according to their investments, and each worker is given a piece to call his own." Kati's eyes were again bright with excitement.

"Hmmm. You might try expanding on that idea with Huomeng," he mumbled.

"I will," she said.

And she did, quite soon, because Huomeng was waiting for them at the cable car station, and he seemed particularly happy to see Kati again.

PART III.

CHANGELING.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

CHANGELING.

Kati's final transition to Tumatsin womanhood occurred when she was seventeen. In Tumatsin society, the day of her flowering to womanhood would have been an occasion for joy. But Kati was not with her people now, and the day she became a Changeling ended in great sorrow for her.

She had been practicing with the young troopers for six months, and had gained a degree of respect from them despite being a girl. Master Yung had insisted that both she and Shan-lan practice with bow and sword on horseback and in simulated combat, and so he'd brought them into his cla.s.ses for the young men newly commissioned as troopers.

At first the men resented her presence, but quietly, because she was Moshuguang. It took them only one day to discover her skill with the sword, and she left bruises on several of them. After that, they did not defer to her; their egos wouldn't allow it, and Kati spent many evenings using her hands to heal the bruises all over her body.

She had to learn the bow from scratch. For three miserable months, while the others rode, she stood alone on the archery range outside the dome, sending arrows at man-sized targets fifty meters away. Lui-Pang spent time with her in the evenings, correcting her mistakes in form, and the extra time they had together made the work seem worthwhile.

She wondered if she was in love with Lui-Pang, and if he was in love with her. She thought about him constantly when they were apart, but it was always the physical things she thought of. Outside of horses and weapons, they had little to talk about, but when they were together, those times when his hand was on her breast and his tongue explored her mouth and body, she had twice been on the edge of giving herself completely to him. Today would be another test of her will, for they rode together after cla.s.s.

They stood in two lines, waiting for Master Yung to arrive. Lui-Pang looked back at her and smiled briefly. Their relations.h.i.+p was still secret, and Kati respected him for that. She'd probed all his friends and found nothing to indicate they knew what happened during those long rides. He was discreet, something difficult for a young man to do.

Shan-lan also smiled at her, undoubtedly wondering if she'd read the most recent poem he'd sent to her: The flower has a thorn from which my blood drips.

The finger heals.

The flower has a beauty I yearn to hold.

My heart aches with longing.

Thorn protects beauty.

Tanchun had brought it to her the night before, a small parchment with the poem and a painting of a flower protected by large thorns-unsigned. The poems were now frequent, and Kati wondered how she would tell the Emperor's son they were only dear friends and nothing more.

Master Yung arrived with their masks and ordered the two lines of them to face each other. They came to sword length without masks and went through the ten dongs, changing opponents each time by moving to their left. Kati struck hard and fast. Shan-lan did well, and Lui-Pang grinned when she gave his blade an extra hard slap after a disengagement. But when she got to the tenth dong, she found herself facing Xue-she, a malevolent young man who had bruised her badly on several occasions while enjoying every second of her pain. He gave her a smirk, knowing they would be paired off for ten dongs of masked, close combat.

On tenth dong, their blades flashed, but his did not touch her.

They put on their masks, and came within sword length. The fact that their practice blades were dulled by grinding was not a comfort. A hard slash to leather armor still left a long bruise on flesh, and a heavy blow to the mask could render her unconscious. Xue-she would be trying for both effects in every move he made.

Xue-she beat at her furiously in the first two dongs, forcing her to be purely defensive in holding him off. He chuckled, and said, "I can slow down, if the Lady wishes it."

Kati growled, and her face flushed. Sweat seemed to burst from every pore.

On the third dong, Xue-she slipped her blade and drove his point into her mask at forehead level, snapping her head back and pinching her neck. She rotated her head to ease the pain, and Xue-she chuckled again.

Kati ground her teeth together, and her jaws hurt as if someone were squeezing them. "Zhumbei!" she snarled.

On fourth dong, she touched him lightly on the chest, but not before he'd smacked her hard on the point of the right shoulder. Numbness ran down her arm, loosening her grip on the sword, and on fifth dong he slapped it from her grasp. The entire cla.s.s had to wait while she retrieved her weapon and got back into line.

She felt furious and humiliated, and again Xue-she chuckled at her. "Perhaps you'd like to rest?" he said.

Her jaws and gums ached, and when she closed her mouth there was pressure on her lower lip, something hard and sharp there. The sound that came from her was deep and guttural. "Ahhh," she said.

Her fingers blanched white on the sword's hilt, and the muscles of her forearm felt squeezed by her leathers. Her body seemed on fire as she struck on sixth dong, and she hit Xue-she twice on mask and shoulder, making him wince.

"You'll pay for that," he snarled. "I'll no longer hold back because you're a girl."

Kati growled, and raised her sword. Two teeth pressed hard on her lower lip, and then Xue-she jumped Master Yung's command and poked her hard in the chest before she could react. She lashed back furiously, and dented his mask across the nose. Each breath was a growl. She suddenly realized she wanted to kill him.

When he came at her on eighth dong she was ready, striking him four times, once hard in the stomach. He struck back as the exercise ended, and Kati rained blow after blow on his head. "Yiiiaa!" she screamed, and with one vicious slash cleaved the blade of his sword in half. The piece of broken steel spun into the air, and landed several paces behind Xue-she.

"Enough!" shouted Master Yung. "Stop it! The dong is finished!"

Xue-she panted for breath, his mask close to hers. "What are you?" he asked.

Her voice seemed strangely deep to her. "I'm a woman who has shattered your sword," she said calmly.

Xue-she jerked off his mask as Master Yung came up to them. There was a gash across his forehead where Kati's dull blade had penetrated the mask, and blood was flowing down into his right eye. Master Yung pulled him away from her.

"Attend to your wound and retrieve your weapon! I will take your place here! Ninth dong!" he shouted. Everyone in cla.s.s was watching them.

Xue-she stumbled away from them, panting hard, a hand to his face.

"Strike!"

Kati struck hard, though Yung faced her without a mask. The fury within her had suddenly dissipated. Her mouth was not so full of her own teeth, the leather not so tight on her forearm. Still, on ninth and tenth dong, she made two hits that would have been severe in battle, and Yung was pleased. He stepped close to her when it was over.

"Leave your mask on for a moment, and calm yourself. Remember your fury; let it happen when you fight for your life. It's the fury of your ancestors, a thing I cannot teach to the others. Be proud of it!"

He walked away, and all the others, even Lui-Pang, were staring at her. She turned from them, walked a few paces, and breathed deeply to calm herself before taking off her mask. A breeze cooled her face. Her hand and forearm ached, and the right arm felt heavy. She sheathed her sword, and walked back to the others, still breathing deeply. Lui-Pang came up to her.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"He made me angry," she said.

"Remind me to leave our swords behind when we go riding."

Kati smiled. "I have no defense against you."

Lui-Pang grinned, raised an eyebrow, and walked away from her.

Master Yung allowed them to rest a few minutes, and then they went to their horses. The animals were a mixed breed with thick shoulders and short, muscular legs giving them tremendous accelerating power. Their muzzles were short, mane and tails spa.r.s.e, always reminding Kati of her beloved Sushua. They had been bred for speed over short distances, and strength for collision of horse against horse in battle, following a genetic line going back thousands of years before the ancestors of Tengri-Nayon.

Kati was a.s.signed a white mare who stomped and snorted as she vaulted into the saddle. She joined the line of men following Master Yung a kilometer beyond the dome to a large area fenced with logs. Straw bales holding man-sized dummies of wood and wool wrapped with cloth formed a spiral within the enclosure. They lined up at a gate for mounted drill with bow and sword, going in one at a time on an inward spiral and exiting at another gate to get back in line.

Bow drill was six arrows, one left, one right on each loop of the spiral at full speed. Yung graded them on time and accuracy, and gave a bronze ring to the overall winner. Xue-she had several rings displayed openly on a leather necklace, but he'd not re-appeared after sword drill. Kati kept her three rings in a box in her rooms; the three necklaces she wore beneath her tunic were enough.

Kati had a good day, though not perfect. She missed getting the bronze ring by three points, but her disappointment was eased by the fact that Shan-lan was the winner, and it was his first. She thought he might cry when Master Yung presented it to him, and his eyes were moist when she joined the others in giving him a hug of congratulations. "You are an artist and a warrior," she whispered to him, then wished she hadn't said it when he hugged her longer and closer than necessary.

Final drill was always exciting, though mostly a test of horses, and there was no grading. They formed two lines facing each other at fifty meters, and put on their masks again. When they drew their swords, blades flas.h.i.+ng, Kati was excited. When Yung raised his arms, she thumped hard with her knees and the mare leaped forward with the others, as everyone screamed.

"SHANJI!".

The charge took seconds, animals shrieking and snapping at each other on impact while their riders slashed furiously left and right at their nearest opponent. Kati took a hit on her mask as her blade whacked satisfyingly across a chest. Satisfyingly, but she went back to regroup knowing that in battle her face would now be in two pieces.

Four rounds, four charges, the horses growing more furious each time. Each time she was. .h.i.t at least once, and wondered how anyone could survive such a charge. The fury that had been with her had not returned, though she was boiling inside. The fury of her ancestors, Yung had said. She had felt it. Yung had seen it, even through her mask. For one moment there, she'd been a Changeling! How could she bring it back? And what would her comrades think if they saw it?

Master Yung seemed pleased, declared the cla.s.s finished for the day, and there would be another week for their bruises to heal. They dropped their masks into a cart and followed it back to the dome where boys took the horses away to be rubbed down. Her cla.s.smates returned to their barracks, and Shan-lan was showing his bronze ring to the two troopers who's arrived to escort him back to the palace. She felt his pride, his excitement about showing the prize to his father, but there was another feeling there. Wistful? No, something sadder.

Lui-Pang was returning, leading two horses for their ride. Shan-lan saw him, turned, and gave Kati a faint smile.

Envy-and jealousy; that was the feeling. Shan-lan turned his head, and followed his escort back to the monorail station.

"Are you ready?" asked Lui-Pang.

"Yes," she said, smiling. The day was hot, and he'd removed his leather tunic, exposing the sleeveless s.h.i.+rt he wore beneath it. Kati looked admiringly at his bronzed, well-muscled arms, and said, "Good idea. It's hot."

She took off her own tunic, and put it in a roll back of her saddle. She wore a long-sleeved, yellow s.h.i.+rt beneath the tunic, and rolled the sleeves up to her elbows before mounting up. Lui-Pang mounted his horse, and his eyes flashed mischievously at her. "The knoll by the Emperor's thumb; first one there wins a prize. Ready?"

Kati kicked her horse, but Lui-Pang was right with her. Guards stumbled to get out of the way as they thundered out of the gate and down the torch-lined road, neck-to-neck in a turn sharply left to the sloping gra.s.s fields south.

The wind whipped her face and hair as she bent low over the animal's neck, the throb of the gallop surging in legs and knees. Lui-Pang rode like a demon, and his horse was a little stronger than hers. By the time they reached the knoll he was two lengths ahead of her, a.s.suring his victory by swinging from the saddle before coming to a stop. His feet hit the ground, and he fell, tumbling over and over into the tall gra.s.s on the knoll, coming to a stop on his back and thrusting both arms into the air.

"I win! I win!" he shouted, like a little boy.

"You cheated!" she shouted, vaulting from her horse, and rus.h.i.+ng to throw herself on top of him so hard that he grunted when catching her. They rolled over and over in the gra.s.s, ending up with Kati on top. She grabbed his hands and pressed them to the gra.s.s, leaning over close.

"So, what is your prize for winning the race?"

"A kiss from your lovely lips!" he declared.

She gave it to him, long and hard, their mouths twisting against each other. She released his hands and his arms encircled her, the kiss becoming softer, and deep, and then their cheeks were pressed together. "Hmmm," she murmured. "The loser also receives a prize."

Lui-Pang rolled her over onto her back, traced her jaw, nose and cheekbones with a finger. "You were wonderful today. What you did to Xui-she is long overdue. He's too arrogant for his own good."

"He's cruel, and enjoys the pain he gives," she said. "He made me angry."

"I'll say he did." Lui-Pang traced her chin, her jaw-line, down her neck. His hand found her breast, thumb moving over the nipple, which was instantly hard. "Ohhh," he murmured, and kissed lightly, licking her lower lip. "The taste of a warrior."

Kati's hands moved over his back and along his arms, squeezing the hard muscles there, and suddenly she wanted him as badly as she knew he wanted her. Love, or l.u.s.t, it made no difference, for now it seemed her body, not her mind, was telling her what to do. For the moment, at least, she adored him, and she let him see it in her eyes. He seemed startled, and there was even some fear there, which surprised her.

"Mengnu-your eyes-they're green!" He sat up, straddling her, and her hands caressed his chest. She pulled up her s.h.i.+rt, and guided his hands beneath it, sighing at his touch.