The Paladin Part 41

If Ghita himself was inside those walls and not well on the road to Cheng'di he had risked getting himself into a trap-the mob around him, the southern lords advancing through the city-The estate could burn, Ghita, the Emperor, everything in one bonfire- But Ghita had powerful reasons to retreat here in the chaos-to grab the mercenaries' payroll and gather up the remaining members of his staff and the core troops of his personal guard, that trusted number which would have guarded the headquarters during his processional.

d.a.m.n right Ghita dared not desert those troops-or the money. The hand-picked commanders of the Imperials and money for the mercenaries had put him in power, money had held him there, that and Gitu's Angen officers and the elite of Gitu's hire-ons. And if they had to, if they could hold out long enough, or break free-there were the large mercenary garrisons at Anogi and at Cheng'di, garrisons that could come in on two sides of Lungan. . . .

If there were a Regent alive to rally to, and pay promised.

Shoka bit dry, stubbled lips and stared at the corner where the road cut back to the scullery access. Try the same thing twice?

G.o.ds knew what Taizu would do. Or whether she had come this way or could ever have gotten through the ambushes in the streets.

But d.a.m.ned if he could afford the chance she was in there, if it came to a siege. This was where the killing would surely be, the Emperor held hostage, if Ghita was in there, and the odds were more than even that he was- Not that the southern lords wanted Beijun back. But there were the priests, there were the northern lords, tied by blood to the dynasty and enjoying their prerogatives, were the political repercussions against whoever caused the death of the Emperor. There was a certain war,of succession-more blood, more craziness, while the barbarian kings sent their mercenaries into the heart of Chiyaden and grew more and more necessary, with the army pinned down in border skirmishes against those kings'

enemies- The d.a.m.ned, self-indulgent fool . . .Help me, Shoka. . . .

He was alone on the street-just himself, the dead, and the waiting archers, of whatever side. But a new sound echoed through the streets-a distant thunder of cavalry.

Reidi? Or Meijun or Kegi, sweeping in from the east?

North. My G.o.ds. The mercenaries have cut around north, back to their headquarters-some captain worth his hire- Or Gitu. With the gold to pay them here, at the headquarters- He urged his horse forward, trusting to that distraction, slipped over to the shadowed side of the saddle before the corner and kept low, hoping that if anyone was looking his way, what was visible from above and from across the street was simply a riderless stray.

It got him across the street. He put his feet down and led the horse along the wall, keeping it between him and the outside, himself constantly in its shadow. He tried to remember the other side, where the terraces and the trees were.

No cart to help him over the wall this time. He stopped the horse, climbed up into the saddle and got a knee onto its back.

It moved. He tugged back on the reins, centered his weight, and got it stopped and mostly steady for the moment. Not so high a wall. Not so impossible, if the d.a.m.ned horse would quit edging forward on him.

Stand, dammit!

He looked up, tugged the rein again and figured on a single instant of stability.

He tucked up further in the scantly flexible armor, got his foot braced, d.a.m.ning the s.h.i.+n-guards, and reined the horse to a momentary stop again.

And thrust up on that foot and jumped from a startled, shying horse, for a belly-down landing on the top of the garden wall.

He rolled off, fast, and plummeted. Not the same distance down. He knew that the instant he had gone.

Further. Thump!

Onto a paved terrace, between two potted pines.

He lay still a moment getting his wind back and finding out if his shoulder was broken. Then he got himself up on his hands and knees and stood up quietly, taking his bearings on the house across the paved terrace, the way down to the scullery access.

There were dead men down there, like puddles of shadow.

He crept gingerly down the slope, keeping an eye to the scullery and the sheds there, and edged along the wall to reach for the gate-latch.

It was already unlatched.

The d.a.m.ned littleb.i.t.c.h!

Chapter Twenty-two.

Shoka crept back along the wall, up to the next terrace, familiar territory. Beside the potted pines and up again, but not toward the house itself, with its terraces and its archers. The main court had to lie near the main gate, and in his mind Shoka could see the front gate from the inside, men running for horses and for defensive vantages the moment the watchmen advised them of movement up the street.

The defenders might well, then, choose to vacate the headquarters and break for the north gate with a weight of numbers that might force a pa.s.sage to the Cheng'di road-with the gold, with the Emperor, with their alliances to foreign kings-every a.s.set that would mean disaster to the Empire.

And a fool of a girl was loose somewhere on the grounds trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate one of the two men on whom everything depended.

Cursethe decision that had left Taizu with his bow and Wengadi and Panji with the other two, and his own short-sightedness that had not even thought about equipping himself to do more than pull a fool out of a death-trap- Ill-thought, ill-prepared, ill-done from the start. He was bruised and exhausted and confounded by the erratic moves of his own allies. His wits were fraying, he wastired , dammit, and people on his own side made him move again and again and again-there was a limit. He knew he was beyond it.

How in h.e.l.l did she get through the streets?

How in h.e.l.l did she get in here without raising an alarm? She's too short to do what I did.

If I knew where she got in I might know where she is.

No, no need to wonder. Find Ghita, find Gitu, that's where she is.

If they haven't found her first. No bow, none with the dead men back there; so the work had to be close-in, and that meant mixing in with the mercenary guard around the house.

Close-in enough to reach Ghita, who knew his face as well as Beijun did, d.a.m.n right he knew it; and he had to beat a fool kid to it.

He kept low as he crossed the terraces, and dropped off the wall of the highest to a soft slope under the shade of pines, slipped down a path and around the meanderings of a hedge. He heard horses, beyond the shoulder of the house, and where the hedge ended he saw lanterns, the front gate, and the great courtyard of the estate, where the gate let in on a paved expanse large enough for the hundreds of horses that were gathered there, and up onto the delicate garden-slopes-everywhere an animal could stand.

Men were running to the gates. Whoever had come in to join them had arrived at the front with a great deal of commotion in the street, but no attack. There were too many horses inside to admit more riders, but the gates opened a crack and they began to file inside all the same, riders crowding up into the gardens on this side of the courtyard.

Staying mounted, most all of them. Preparing for an imminent breakout, then.

Dammit, no sign of Reidi. Ghita's lot were organizing, doubtless moving on the street to clear the buildings nearby of rebel archers who might have made things difficult and given Reidi and his men some help-and the group which had gone back after Reidi had no idea what else had come in. If Reidi came with only his own company- Where in h.e.l.l is Feiyan and Hainan? Chewed to rags in the streets, pinned down? Chasing some d.a.m.n ragtag down the east road? How did they let a whole d.a.m.n wing loose to come back here?

Dammit to b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, where are they? They should have been chasing up this company's backside.

Kegi. b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Kegi's probably haring off to Cheng'di, Ghita's set him a lure and he's probably hot on it. Ghita's d.a.m.n good. Set up an easy fight and a retreating enemy all the way down the bridge street and out the north gate and the east- While he retakes Lungan from a sweep up this street and back to our lighter forces at the bridge, take them out, and get across to hold south while the Cheng'di garrison and Anogi come in to catch us three-sided- Not d.a.m.n bad, old fox. But you're discounting the people's tolerance for you.

Or gambling foreign threats will make you the lesser of evils.

And that the Emperor will be your safety with the priests and the north.

Hors.e.m.e.n rode close to the hedge, the crowding becoming that thick in the yard. Concealing what they do have in here, in the case an attack does come.

Keeping as many men as they can off the street while they get the gold loaded and the records-I'll bet there are records Ghita doesn't let out of his sight-names and lists, blackmail material-or work for his a.s.sa.s.sins. He wouldn't separate himself from those. He's too good and too careful. Reidi, for G.o.ds' sake, scout it out before you come in.

He stood up. He walked out, a shadow afoot, he trusted, among the shadows of horses and riders, just one more soldier wandering around, possibly one of the first-arrived out designated to keep the perimeters. He slapped a soldier's horse on the rump to let it know he was there, walked past it and on down the slope.

If Reidi came down that street now he would see a comparatively small cavalry force holding the street outside. He might mistake it for the Regent's forces, drawn up to defend the headquarters . . . chase it past the gate and then discover himself attacked from the rear and the front.

No d.a.m.ntime to wait. Reidi was due, any time now, depending on how fast he had been able to muster a force and pa.s.s necessary orders to other companies.

Right into a trap.

He walked the high part of the slope, trying for a clear view over the backs of the horses, worse now that men were mounting up. No sight of Ghita or Beijun, which might mean that they were not- But there was a wagon near the terrace at the main house doors. A good st.u.r.dy wagon and a double yoke of horses. That was where something had to come-the records, the gold, and likely not far off, the officers and the staff who had to make sure that wagon stayed safe. The elite guard, the Imperials, or the native Angen troops would be watching that, d.a.m.n sure no random lot of mercenaries who might take it into their heads, considering all that had gone wrong, to pay themselves all at once and the h.e.l.l with the commander and Chiyaden.

"That's the gold down there," he muttered to another man afoot. "d.a.m.n bet it is. Wouldn't y' like t' guard that? "

"Ain't a chance," the man said wistfully, and spat. "You come near that, you're dead."

"Where's the commander?"

"Ought to be out. Don't know what they're doin' in there."

"Waitin' for th' rebels. I had a bellyful of waitin'. I lost m' tent, lost ever' d.a.m.n thing-"

"Me too." Another spit. "Not that it was much."

"Lot of gold down there."

"Don't say it. You can die for thinkin' it."

"I ain't. I ain't thinkin' a thing. If I was thinkin', I wouldn't be here."

He walked on, sauntered down the slope, down among the horses-looked up as the doors opened and light flooded out, with the shadows of Imperial guards and a number of official types coming out onto the terrace.

"Clear it back!" an officer yelled, and Imperials moved down to clear a s.p.a.ce around the wagon, and tobring certain horses in close to the steps. Moving fast now. Shoka edged his way closer to the line the Imperials were making, and kept an eye to the porch.

Plan your retreat, master Shoka.

Up the steps, cut a few throats and run like h.e.l.l down the terraces for the scullery gate-if the leg still has it.

d.a.m.n scullery lane's a dead end. Got to make that streetside corner in a hurry.

Where are you, kid? For G.o.ds' sakes, where are you?

He looked up to the porch as more men came out, one smallish man in robes being hustled along by others. And one tall, lank one in plain armor, with a gilt-embroidered robe thrown over it, and a helmet fancier than the armor.

None of that mattered. He knew Ghita's face, every nuance of body movements.

"You!" a voice snapped from the height of the steps, and he looked, alarmed, straight into an Imperial's face.

"Get him!" the guard yelled. And Imperials poured off the porch as soldiers scattered-as Shoka drew and took out the first and second to come at him, and charged for the porch, h.e.l.l with anything but the target, who was retreating behind his guards.

Horses screamed of a sudden and wheels cracked into the terrace steps, splintering wood, then jerking forward. Shoka cleared himself a s.p.a.ce about him and staggered back as a horse bolted between him and the guards, horses scrambling every way in mortal terror, over the terraces, breaking down railings, cras.h.i.+ng through hedges- He whirled clear of pursuing guards and reeled under the buffet of a horse's shoulder, dived into the general chaos of bolting and rearing horses and struggling riders and saw the fire burning, saw a fiery trail come through the air and rebound off a horse's rump, to fall and panic others as it burned under their feet.

"Taizu!"

He saw the outer gate opening, saw men running out into the lantern-lit street. Horses escaped that way.

From somewhere high in the air came a booming, echoing voice.

"d.a.m.n you, Gitu!" it howled, female and huge. "d.a.m.n your cousin too! You pack of thieves, I'll have your eyes for pig-food! I'll roast you in h.e.l.l and have your bones for a necklace! And anyone with you, I'll lay diseases on him, I'll give him the plague and the pox, I'll curse you with cold beds and cold feet and cold in your bones all your life, till you die and I carry you off to h.e.l.l for my dinner, every one of you!"

Men ran in the firelight, crazed as the horses, bolting for the gate, the terraces, the gardens, grabbing onto horses and escaping as they could.

Ghita stared, looking up at the balconies, and Shoka jumped for the porch, vaulted the rail and sliced his way through startled guards and staff, two blows dealt before Ghita realized where he was and backed up to shelter behind clerkly men who wanted no part of it. "You d.a.m.n dog!" Shoka yelled, and took his head off while staff ran for the inner halls and guards rushed to defend a dead man.

One, two, and three died, before the quick-thinking fourth a.s.sessed the situation and somersaulted backward over the terrace railing, out of his way.

There was Beijun cowering on the porch. There was his wife up there on the balconies somewhere, and he had no hesitation in that choice.

Even when at the bottom of his gut he wondered if therewere demons, and if he was rus.h.i.+ng up there to confront a sight he would never want to see.

He took the stairs at the corner up and up, one turn and another, while the firelit courtyard and the dark alternately swung past his vision, and he saw the paved area emptying, the wagon burning, riders rus.h.i.+ng out the gate, to shouts and curses inside and outside the walls.

He came out on a balcony at the very top of the house, face to face with a white demon shape and an arrow aimed for his heart.

"Taizu!"

The apparition whirled and sent the arrow out through the railings, several stories down into the courtyard.

And looked back to him, white-faced, white-armored, white hair streaming in the wind.

He stared. She said, with a breath: "It's flour."

"You d.a.m.nedfool , wife!"

"I figured you'd come here." She drew another arrow from her quiver and studiously let fly at the chaos below.

"How did you get in here?"

"With Ghita's bunch." She picked out another arrow. "I rode in, slipped down in the dark and got the scullery gate open. And got some flour and coals and stuff in the kitchen. Walked right up here." Another shot. "The kettle there's the echoes. I was going to wait till they got the gates open, but I heard a commotion and I thought it might be you. -Is help coming?"

"I d.a.m.ned well hope so! But I've got no guarantee. Come on, come on, dammit!" He lunged after her and grabbed her by the arm, hauled her to the stairs. "Drop the d.a.m.n bow!"

"It's yours!"

"Drop it, dammit!" He hauled her down around the turns, running, h.e.l.l with the pain in his leg. She followed that order the way she listened to everything, but he let her go, to follow him on her own. The bow banged on the railings and the steps as she struggled to stay with him, shedding flour all the way.

"The Emperor's down below. Hewas. I went to saveyour neck!Drop the d.a.m.n bow! " She still had it when they hit the second floor. Fire was everywhere below, the courtyard deserted, the burning wagon lying wrecked, horseless, overturned against the terrace corner. A pine had caught fire, gone up like a wick. Loose horses still ran the garden and the courtyard, darting this way and that in thunderous panic, ignoring the open gates and the safety of the lantern-lit street.

He rounded the last turn, felt the shaking of the stairs, and in the next instant came face to face with guards coming up.

He yelled. Taizu yelled. They yelled. He took out the first one who stood paralyzed in shock and the hindmost three lit out down the stairs. The second came to life as he stumbled on the corpse. A sword flashed past his head and took the railing out with a downstroke: he followed up in the same direction and the man and his head followed the railing down.

Shoka ran, charged the rest of them, trying to keep the momentum, trying to gain ground-d.a.m.ned if he knew where anything was at the moment, except the terrace and the gate that was escape; and the place where he had parted with Beijun.