Fate's Attendant 1.37

Night fell, and Auntie Ling was still on Yu Yong’s trail. The lantern Hong Fei had brought was nearly useless; the trees and the brush blocked the light on all sides. If the duchess were present, she would’ve likely demanded he keep searching despite the hindrance, but she wasn’t and wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of a nocturnal predator sneaking up on her.

Hong Fei felt himself being watched. Looking into the darkness, he saw glowing eyes gazing back at him. So far, none had thought to try him while he was in the giant badger’s presence, but eventually there’d be a creature who’d climbed past Dustborn.

It wasn’t just humans who sought unity with the Dao. Animals could cultivate, too. Insects as well, for example the giant centipede that had killed Auntie Ling. And plants. Some said even rocks could cultivate, though it took millennia for them to ascend from realm to realm.

“We’d best find shelter for the night,” he said.

Auntie Ling seemed reluctant to give up the chase, yet she nodded anyway. Her eyes were better than his, so she hunted for a good spot, eventually finding a copse where three of the tree trunks created an alcove big enough for him to sleep in.

She sat out front and kept her eyes on their surroundings, her ears swiveling toward every passing sound.

###

The next morning, the air was cool, and the clouds looked innocent, but Hong Fei was coming to learn that both could lie about what the day would bring. The sun wasn’t up yet, so only the world’s eastern edges were tinged in rose-colored light. The rest would be revealed as it climbed into the sky.

Auntie Ling shifted from paw to paw, clearly anxious to resume the hunt. Then, after she was let loose to continue, Hong Fei was forced to jog after her as the giant badger eagerly pushed her way through the forest. She sniffed at the ground, and so he thought that Yu Yong’s trail must still be fresh.

Hong Fei sent a thread of essence through his meridians to warm them. His arm ached from swinging the machete the previous day; there’d likely be more of that today.

###

The sun bore down on the forest from high above. Hong Fei’s clothes clung to him, and all he could smell was his own stink. He was about to ask Auntie Ling for a pause so that he could drink some water when her ears suddenly swiveled forward. A moment later, she charged.

Saplings snapped as Auntie Ling barreled through them. Bushes were trampled, and Hong Fei followed her. At first it’d been instinct, then it became intention. There looked to be a tall outcropping of stone ahead; Yu Yong might be using it as a resting place.

Hong Fei heard a low vibration that thrummed the air. The wind shifted, and he smelled blood. The essence in his marrow and kidneys poured into his meridians.

Following in Auntie Ling’s wake, he broke through the greenery onto a patch of rocky ground about twice as wide as his salon. At the far end, the outcropping rose up to create a wall that protected Yu Yong from being attacked from behind. The youth held a sword in one hand, while the other clutched his chest—the white of his ribs peeked through, as well as the pink flesh of his lungs.

That was a fatal wound, and yet the boy stood upright. At his feet were a pair of boars, already dead. He hadn’t been the one to kill them, however, not unless he had a way to blow a hole through their bodies that Hong Fei didn’t know about.

The culprit was a ruby swift. The birds were normally about the size of two fists together, but this one was as big as a dog. Its feathers shimmered with its namesake color, contrasted by a band of white across its tail. The small glade was filled with the sound of its quickly beating wings.

The ruby swift’s beak was covered in the blood of its victims. The bird swung through the air from side to side as it examined the youth still standing. A black 0 outlined in white floated above its head. That there could be a zero hadn’t been explained by Sun Han.

Auntie Ling leapt to catch the ruby swift in its mouth, but the bird lifted to avoid the attack, then dove to drive its beak through her skull, the sound of the impact heavy. The giant badger reeled. A moment later, she fell back as the ruby swift came at her again. The air ahead of its strike grew hazy with its qi.

Deal with the zero later, Hong Fei thought. The bird’s at least mid-Qi Gathering. Probably higher since its qi is extending past its body. He pulled out the scabbard for Fortune’s Favor from his belt.

“Help me,” Yu Yong whispered with a wheezing voice. His face was pale, but not deathly so.

Hong Fei’s eyes had flicked to him, then returned to the ruby swift as Auntie Ling attempted to bat it out of the air. The bird was an acrobat, however, and its gyrations made a mockery of her attacks. They also kept Hong Fei from getting behind it.

He adjusted the distance between them, moving back and forth and side to side, to create a moment when he might strike the creature true. Or barring that, his footwork might distract it, so that Auntie Ling might land a clean hit.

Powerful flying opponents were frustrating and nearly impossible to bring down unless one was in the upper reaches of Qi Gathering and able to reliably use qi outside the body. Or owned a good crossbow. Alas, the former was currently of reach, and the latter unlikely to work on a bird this agile, even if Hong Fei had had a crossbow in his possession.

Auntie Ling ought to be able to extend her qi, especially with the buff infusion from Sun Han, but she hadn’t done so yet. Meanwhile, Hong Fei was steadily depleting his essence, just keeping pace with the two combatants. Soon, he’d have to commit to an attack or else become a liability on the field without doing any good.

Hong Fei grimaced and drew fully on his essence. His steps quickened; the scabbard in his hands whirred as he swung it. The ruby swift dodged, the whirring of its own wings overwhelming the glade. It rolled in the air to avoid the snapping jaws of Auntie Ling, then blurred as it shot toward Hong Fei.

As quick as he could, he ducked to the side, yet the ruby swift still caught part of his upper arm, tearing a strip of flesh away. A tree had been behind Hong Fei, and the trunk splintered as the creature burst through the other side.

The ruby swift disappeared into the foliage, then came buzzing into the glade from a different direction, shooting at Hong Fei once more. He dodged, then again as it looped up and over for another strike against him. It liked aiming for the heart, he noted. And, he’d apparently succeeded in annoying the creature.

Auntie Ling stopped chasing after the ruby swift and switched to guarding Hong Fei instead. She rose to interpose her bulk in between them, but that wasn’t a natural motion for a giant badger. Even after a sudden spike in her qi from Sun Han’s buff, the ruby swift wove beaten her paws; it tilted to the side to slip past her jaws.

Hong Fei avoided being pierced through the heart, given the opportunity to do so thanks to Auntie Ling’s defense, but the two of them were no closer to bringing the creature down.

The giant badger growled, her frustration evident. In response, the ruby swift flew upward to look down on the glade. It seemed to waggle its tail as it circled above them.

Hong Fei spotted a loose rock on the ground and threw it with all his might. The ruby swift dove at him in reply. Auntie Ling reared—her buffed qi flaring—but the angle was too steep and the swift too agile. There’d be no intercession this time. The only thing the bird must be wary of was the ground behind its target. The dive had to be constrained to an angle that safely pierced the soft flesh while avoiding the hard rock behind.

Hong Fei stilled as if uncertain which direction to dodge. The ruby swift tilted to avoid the scabbard he held in his hands, yet the swordsman burned the last of his essence to catch the change in trajectory, to reinforce himself to withstand the impact.

The unexpected movement surprised the ruby swift. Its qi shot ahead to cleave through the scabbard in the way, yet Fortune’s Favor had been a gift of the emperor and was not so easily destroyed. The bird slammed into it.

Hong Fei was blown off his feet and sent tumbling. The ruby swift dropped to the ground, only a moment before it recovered, but that was enough for Auntie Ling’s qi-infused claws come down on its body, trapping it.

Even so, the ruby swift buzzed under the paw, cutting into the flesh of the pad, while Auntie Ling maneuvered her other paw into place, sliding one set of claws between the other, like sending a handful of knives into a cage keeping an enemy captive.

The overwhelming scent of her qi filled the glade, and even a Dustborn would’ve seen her claws shimmer. Pressing her full weight down, she pierced through the ruby swift’s body. Blood flowed, both hers and its together. The bird’s bones cracked as they were crushed.

Hong Fei came to kneel beside Auntie Ling and examine the ruby swift. He saw that the zero was missing. Also, the neck had snapped, and it didn’t appear to be breathing. There’d been no cool energy flowing into the area between his brows.

“Again,” he said.

Auntie Ling nodded and drove her claws into the body once more. The bird didn’t respond, even when the giant badger severed the wings, then the head. Nothing could live like that.

Hong Fei couldn’t mention the zero with Yu Yong present; the youth who was presently in the process of slumping to the ground.

Hong Fei ran over, but the Young Master was still alive—suffering from exhaustion and shock and whatever else it was that was knitting the flesh of his chest back together, a life-saving artifact from his family, no doubt. A dangerous one in Hong Fei’s estimation, based on the fluctuating qi he sensed coming from the youth.

Hong Fei essence was running out, and he felt the sting of his own injury. Blood slid down his arm to drip from his elbow. He’d lost some skin and a thin layer of muscle. There were bandages in his pack. He slung it off his back as he approached Auntie Ling.

The giant badger was holding her right front paw off the ground. He knelt beside her and tilted it up so that he could see the underside. The ruby swift had sliced into the kidney-shaped pad underneath.

Auntie Ling blinked at him as if this was a normal occurrence. She smiled to let him know she would be fine. Even so, he wrapped the paw with a bandage.

Hong Fei looked back at Yu Yong as he worked. There was no way he’d ask Auntie Ling to carry the youth for the trip back to Ruby Swift City. He’d have to do it himself.

ToC | Next Chapter >

Characters Mentioned in this Chapter 

• Auntie Ling, a summons 

• Yu Yong, grandson to Duke and Duchess Yu