The first man let out a yell. Shoka kicked him, grabbed his sword from the bundle off the cart and Taizu grabbed her bow and quiver.
Into the scullery-court, then, fast as they could scuttle, and up a stairway to a garden terrace.
"I'm sorry about that!" Taizu whispered as she crouched down beside him in the shadow of a potted pine and nocked an arrow.
"Damn, I've gotten soft! Stay here!"
He sprinted along the terrace, across the shadow-bars of the pines and the lantern-light of the porch above. The hue and cry was spreading. Shouts racketed off the walls and lost direction in the porches.
He knew Ghita. Nothing but the best. Center of the mansion, second or third level, in regal quiet and elegant splendor.
Damn mistake not to have knifed the poor sods out by the gate. It would have gained a little—not much, but a little.
Up a wooden stairs as lanterns flared above. He ducked low, dived off the stairs into a clump of juniper as guards came thundering down the walk, headed for the scullery gate.
No question whether Ghita was awake by now.
And one good thing about the guards: they made so much thumping on the wooden porches he could run full out. He scrambled up onto the stairs, up onto that porch and right through a fragile window-screen, crash! right into the second-level hall.
Guards ran to stop him. They spread themselves out. That was a mistake. One-two, three, four, and five—an arc of blood spattered across a fresco of mist and mountains. He ran the hall, shoved open the doors at the end.
More guards in a lighted hallway, a startled cluster of screaming women who had no time to scatter. He took one guard and the other, that second man down with a crippling wound, howling—
A man in front of him. A face like a mask of terror; brocade robes, trailing hair. Not Ghita. He knew the man, memory said, and a heartbeat later knew the boy inside the soft, plump face.
The Emperor himself. Beijun.
"Shoka!" the Emperor breathed, under the clatter of arriving guards.
From the hall behind. A good score of them.
"Shoka, help me!"
He froze, sword lifted, guards behind, in a dead-end room.
And whirled and charged on the last instant, cut his way left and right and never looked to see what he hit, only where he was going. The leg burned as he ran, tore, gods knew what.
He ran, grabbed a corner, swung onto a stairway and took it with desperate abandon.
A matching screen. He hit it with his shoulder, rolled off the sill with his hip and somersaulted onto the wooden porch—
No fear of burglars, had lord Lieng.
Right off the porch onto the junipers, thank gods for the armor. He clawed his way to the low wooden fence, swung his leg over, and pelted along the terrace with the shouts of guards in his ears and of a sudden the sharp whisper of arrows passing him.
She was there, she was waiting for him in the shadow of the wall, and guards were dying behind him.
"Shed it!" he hissed as he reached her post. He stripped the rags off, pulled a bamboo pin off an armor strap and furiously grabbed up his topknot and pinned it. She threw down her bow then, dumped the quiver, the rags and the hat, and scuttled down the stairs with him, down to the scullery court.
Soldiers came in the open gate. "Up there!" Shoka yelled at them, pointing with his sword. "Move, dammit, they're up there! —You and you, get that gate!"
The soldiers poured past them. The designates turned to close the gate.
And died quietly.
"Damn," Shoka said, and walked over the body that blocked the doorway, out onto the sidewalk by the cart. There was one man moving faintly, of the injured. One was gone. One lay still.
They walked down the lane to the corner, where a sentry stood.
"One got out!" Shoka said hoarsely.
"Haven't seen a thing!" the sentry said.
Shoka pointed with his sword, uphill, beyond the lights. "We'll check up this way!"
It was just that easy to walk away, into the alley, sheathe the swords, and vanish into the maze of Lun-gan streets.
But he had to tell Taizu then: "I didn't get him. I couldn't get that far. —I ran into the Emperor."
"Here!"
Soft, terrified face. Shoka, help me!
When his arm had trembled on the verge of murder.
Help me!
Gods, that he had the gall!
Chapter Twenty
"Chun?" Shoka asked, arriving with Taizu at that door in the Peony's upstairs hall.
"Captain," came from the other side, muffled, and a bar lifted and thumped. Chun opened the door. The men were on their feet, anxious: so was master Yi and his man, but Jian whipped out a sword and master Yi and his man sat right back down again.
Chun shut the door.
Shoka folded his arms, leaned against the wall and stared at master Yi, stared at him grimly, a long, long, considerate moment, while the men asked him questions he made no attempt to answer.
"I'm sure you understand," he said when the questions had died away into deathly silence, "master Yi, —we're talking about life and death here. I'm sure you know—I've gone to a great deal of inconvenience to keep you safe. Another man might just have cut your throats. Do you understand, master Yi?"
"Yes, m'lord," Yi stammered.
"You can go."
"Please—"
"Don't worry, master Yi. You or your man. Unless somehow the Regent's men can trace that cart or the jars. I'm afraid it's in an inconvenient place right now. We'll have to depend on you to cover it with your friend. I'd tell him someone stole it. I don't think he'll want to know more than that. I don't think you do."
"No, m'lord." A whisper, in a room where a whisper was audible.
"I wouldn't let them trace it, master Yi. You're a wise man. You know how the police are. It doesn't matter whether you're in with us or not. You procured the incriminating cart. Your friend knows you did. I suggest you tell him how dangerous it would be to file a theft report—because I'd hate to see you arrested, a foreigner, being asked questions you can't answer. Ignorance is much the safer course—because we'll be watching you, master Yi. You can depend on that. You see we've kept you alive. We will. We remember favors. They don't. Think about that, master Yi."
"I will. I will, m'lord."
"Make your friend believe it, master Yi. Tell him how dangerous it is. Tell him what he can be involved in. You have time, if you leave now. And I trust you can guarantee your man's silence."
"Yes, my lord!"
"Go on, master Yi."
Master Yi hesitated a moment to look at the men around him. Then he got up and his man did, and Shoka stepped aside from the door. Chun opened it and master Yi bowed his way out, rapidly, herding his man with him.
"We missed him," Shoka said after the door was closed. "We had to get out. But we found the Emperor."
Faces showed their shock.
"Here and in secret," Shoka said. "We met. He said, Help me. And by that time the guards were coming. I couldn't stay to ask him against what, or whom. My guess is, Ghita's worried about what he'll do, left in the capital—worried, maybe, that he might take power into his own hands. I don't know. Right now we've got to get moving."
"Yes, m'lord."
Shoka looked at Chun.
"Captain," Chun amended.
"Let's get out of here," Shoka said. "Are we set?"