Nathan M. Farrugia
The Phoenix Ascent
‘Your saber looks sharp,’ Zhu said.
‘I’m sure you say that to all the royal guards,’ the woman said, holding the saber to his throat.
She had confronted him while they were alone in his study. He was housed in the royal palace and could summon the royal guard for help. Except she was the royal guard.
‘Your elixir,’ she said. ‘Is it here?’
He looked past her pointed saber and noticed the lamellar armor under her thin robes. Hundreds of laced bronze scales, sharp and angular, like her face.
‘I have more than one elixir,’ he said. ‘I’m pretty good, you know. Plague, persuasion, passion, forgetting. And you could … ask without the saber.’
‘The saber speeds things up.’ She pressed it against his skin.
‘Look, if you’re here for the immortality elixir, I’ll tell you what I tell everyone else: it doesn’t work.’
Zhu knew that once you were in the crosshairs of the royal guard, your life was over. They were the dynasty’s most formidable intelligence agency, charged with specialized tasks that ranged from subverting revolutionary factions to personally guarding the crimson-robed emperor. Men would disappear for questioning and never return.
‘I don’t care for your immortality elixir,’ she said.
He hadn’t see that one coming. ‘Then what are you here for?’
His table was covered in notes on rock samples, illuminated by the flame of his bronze oil lamp. His satchel lay next to it. His three elixirs were already secured inside, in the sheaths he’d woven himself so they wouldn’t rattle or break.
‘The stone from the sky. The elixir you made from it.’
‘The—’
‘Phoenix,’ she said.
‘What business do you have with it?’
‘The capital is under attack. My business is to escort you.’
He stepped back, bumping the table and the lamp. Shadows leapt on the walls.
‘Why do I need to be escorted?’
‘Our chancellor is executing the emperor’s loyalists.’
‘But that’s everyone. That’s—’
‘Us,’ she said.
In her eyes he saw his dynasty burning. She tucked a loose curl behind her ear and looked away.
‘We don’t have much time. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the chancellor is planning a surrender to the Mongol general,’ she said.
Zhu straightened himself. ‘So you’re … not here to kill me?’
‘That’s not the intention, but I can be swayed.’
She took a step back and checked the hallway behind her.
He heard the distant clash of swords and fire. A trebuchet punched a hole somewhere in the capital city wall, making him flinch. He tried to hide it but she noticed.
‘So, things aren’t looking too good out there. Where precisely are you planning to take me?’ he asked.
‘Anywhere but here, precisely. Pack the Phoenix elixir.’
Zhu reached for his satchel and slung it over one shoulder. The Phoenix elixir was already inside.
‘It’s happening, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘The empire is taking the dynasty.’
‘Just worry about the elixir.’
He shook his head. ‘None of it matters anymore.’
She closed on him, the lamp’s flame glittering in her restless jade eyes.
‘Let me make this very clear. The Mongol general isn’t here just for the capital,’ she said, sheathing her saber. ‘He’s here for the Phoenix.’
‘But this is just one Phoenix, there are three,’ he said. ‘Each one gives … different abilities. How does he even know—’
She gripped his arm. ‘We’re leaving now.’
‘No,’ he said, surprised by his own resistance. He scooped the pieces of glittering rock into his satchel.
‘We don’t have time …’ She stopped when she realized what he was doing. ‘You have pieces of the actual skystone? Here?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve been studying—’
‘This is worse than I thought.’ Her attention shifted to his papers on the table. ‘Those drawings.’
‘All the different comets and their effects,’ he said. ‘And the—’
‘Three Phoenix,’ she said. ‘Yes, I know, stop wasting time.’
She pulled his drawings from the table, rolled them as one, and shoved them into his hands.
‘Everyone is looking for this,’ she said, dragging him out into the hallway, past an armored statue. ‘The Mongol empire, our own emperor, others from distant lands arriving at our ports as we speak. What you know and what you have written. They are converging on you.’
‘But how did they hear?’ he said, walking after her.
The hallway was lined sparingly with bronze lamps shaped as dragons. She paused between two lamps, her face in darkness.
‘How do they know? The empire has spies everywhere. One of Ögedei Khan’s greatest generals is mounting an attack here at the capital while you ask me more questions than you need answered. All you need know is: you do not want to be in his path.’
Zhu had heard stories of the general. He rode into battle, his face hidden beneath a bronze mask that sparked fear in legions of Imperial soldiers. He had conquered and overrun more territory than any other commander in history. His strategies were sophisticated and innovative, and he could coordinate armies five hundred miles apart. In just two days he had orchestrated the invasion and destruction of both the Hungarian kingdom and the Polish lands, a feat that should have been impossible.
The general was a dangerous tactician who had already conquered most of Zhu’s own country. If this royal guard was telling the truth, then it would fall tonight.
She continued down the hallway, pulling him with her. Everything about her, from her stride to her grasp on his wrist was crisp and unapologetic. She checked over her shoulder to ensure he was carrying his satchel.
‘Your elixir,’ she said. ‘They want it and they won’t stop—’
‘I don’t even know if it works!’ Zhu pulled from her grasp, stumbling into a tall ornamental shield held by one of the royal guard statues that lined the hallway. The shield came free and she caught it before it could topple on him.
‘Who are you really?’ he said, regaining his balance. ‘Most of the royal guard evacuated three moons ago.’
‘With the emperor.’ She nodded. ‘And a handful of prostitutes.’
‘Why are you still here?’
‘My name is Syà and I have one last order.’
‘Who from? And what’s the order, get me killed?’
‘To ward off your enemies just as felt cloth protects from the wind.’
Zhu clutched his satchel. ‘That’s great but I know the tunnels better than most. If I wanted to escape the capital, why would I need you?’
The hallway behind them exploded into a crackling fireball. Rubble and flames showered the marble floor. He peered through dark smoke to see Mongol soldiers step through a newly formed hole in the wall, their scimitars and helmets gleaming.
‘For that,’ she said.
‘How did they do that?’ Zhu said.
‘Gunpowder bomb in an iron shell,’ she said.
Still holding the tall shield, Syà pulled him behind her and drew her saber.
A dozen soldiers filtered through the hole. They wore conical steel helmets and robes with leather belts, concealing lamellar armor that looked similar to Syà’s.
The hall was only wide enough for three men abreast. The front three soldiers dropped to a knee as the next row drew arrows in compact bows. He’d heard Mongol archers could hit a bird on the wing.
Syà crouched, motioning Zhu down with her. The archers fired. Whip arrows hit the shield and exploded with small bursts of gunpowder.
Zhu watched as Syà leapt into action. With her saber sheathed, she shoved him behind the statue and stepped forward with her shield. Something shot from her hand, it was small and ball-shaped. He peered out from behind the statue to watch it skitter along the floor and bounce off a Mongol soldier’s leather boot. It flashed and exploded, and the hallway filled with thick white smoke.