Journey to the East 33

“So, what words do you have for me, to risk such rudeness?” Gu Xiulan asked, a harsh note in her voice. She had captured a cup of spiced wine from a passing server. It was a good vintage, tingling hotly all the way down. They had reached the west side of the hall, past the columns and nearer to the heavy wall hangings, enough to be out of the general scrum of the party.

She spoke without turning to face her companion, swirling the cup in her hand with casual ease. But she was watching, watching for the flinches or hesitation. She was pleased to see none. As much as she despised being condescended to, she had no patience for sycophants either.

“I wish to present myself for service in your unit,” Shan Qiao said firmly.

“Oh? I suppose it would be an opportunity to ensconce yourself as my second, or an officer. I do not know that I should, the Gu family has many cultivators of high quality, as do the other families. What distinguishes you?”

“I would join as a common soldier if it gained me a place under your command.”

Gu Xiulan paused mid-sip, but only for a moment. “I don’t know that I have a place for such humbleness.”

“I am not being humble. I believe I would do well as a lower officer. I served with my father in this campaign, though I was left to rear line roles,” Shan Qiao said. At last they turned to face each other. “And though I was told I distinguished myself in overseeing the security and supply lines of the medical tents, you can see as well as I what this earned me.”

Her name had not come up in the merits ceremony after all.

“And? Shall you not ask your own father for a more offensive role?” Gu Xiulan asked, pitiless. She wouldn’t be so insulting.

“He will not give it, I have asked and received the answer,” Shan Qiao grimaced, bowing her head again. “But if the young Mistress of the Gu selects me for her unit, he will not be able to refuse.”

“So you are asking me to annoy Baron Shan? Whyever would I do such a thing?”

“Because it is not enough.”

She paused at the emotion that leaked into the other woman’s words. Shan Qiao went on“Marching around the wounded and the sick, playing soldier where the enemy will never tread unless we are overrun… that is not why I wished to fight. You though, you show brilliantly the sort of command I wish to be a part of. To win glory and strike down the dead, as all of our ancestors have, regardless of mistakes of birth.”

That was a strange way to phrase it, but Gu Xiulan was sympathetic. She couldn’t say that she hadn’t had some nagging fear that she was being pushed off into the backline when she had been given simple logistical tasks. She was sympathetic at least, given the burning core of conviction under Shan Qiao’s plea. 

“I will give no free rides, my command will only accept excellence. If you fail to keep up you will be ejected into the dust, without hesitation,” Gu Xiulan said idly.

Those were good eyes at least. Looking back at her without fear.

“If I should be so shameful as that, the dust is where I belong.”

We will see,” Gu Xiulan said dismissively. She did not think someone with such visible drive would turn out so poorly, but she was prepared to be disappointed as much as impressed. “I will run you through your drills, and see where you should stand… Sometime in the next month, be prepared to hear from me. Your family delegation will be Pheonixhome at least that long, no?”

“They will,” Shan Qiao said, bowing deeply, hands clasped before her chest. “Captain Gu, you will not regret this.”

“I had better not. How much annoyance should I expect from your father, Shan Qiao?”

She grimaced, straightening up. Gu Xiulan followed her eyes through the crowd, toward the direction of the upper tables. “...I will bear the brunt, you are his liege’s favored daughter, but he is among your Father’s military inspectors and vice commanders.”

“Picking at the details then, watching my reports for errors and discrepancies, more harshly reporting on my faults?” Gu Xiulan asked.

“Likely, Captain Gu.”

“Good. I will be better for it if I do not have some simpering fool judging me lightly to curry favor with father,” Gu Xiulan scoffed

Shan Qiao stared at her, before breaking into a grin. “Captain Gu truly lives up to the words which are spoken about her.”

“Oh?” Gu Xiulan asked, pretending disinterest. “And just what words are those?”

“That you are a herald among the new generation, unfettered from the moldering tradition built up in the era of victory and imperial games which have begun to mire our courts and inspire men to set aside their duties for games of intrigue and low cunning.”

Gu Xiulan didn;t pause this time, finishing her drink in one long swallow. Those were… definitely not the words SHE had heard, so she was curious where in the world all of that was coming from.

Still, she couldn’t say she hated them. She could certainly build on that.

“Do tell me more. I have been too busy to keep my ear to the ground these last few months…”

***

The fires were burning low now, tongues of sullen red reaching for the ceiling and cores of glowing orange, where the fuel of the bonfires slowly crumbled to used gray ash. The solemnity and celebration had both passed, leaving all burned down to the embers lazily sparking and snapping in the hearth. The soldiers, the visitors, even most of their kin had gone from the hall, leaving only a few remaining, speaking quietly among themselves.

She and her father were no different, looking down on the great hall. It looked as if a great dust storm had blown through it, chairs and table settings in disarray, soot and smoke marking the rafters and columns, and the scent of cooling food and warmed drink suffusing the air.

“Do you intend to follow through with that daughter of the Shan, Xiulan?” Her father asked her, reclining on his throne like chair, the image of a satisfied patriarch.

She grimaced, she knew one could not hide from one's parents if they wished to look, all the same… “Do you disapprove, Father?”.

“I do not,” he replied, resting his hand on his chin. “It is no insult to the Shan clan to select one of their number for your command. Indeed, it is an honor. You will learn the intricacies of what is an insult to a clan and what is merely a small clash with a member, or even the head. This is a good enough opportunity for you to learn. And, it is good for you to build away from me.”

“Father?” Gu Xiulan asked, tilting her head in question. What did he mean?

“I will cultivate my own circle, the officers and advisors I trust. I will prepare those who might outlive me, a cadre of seasoned men who might serve and advise my heir. This my Father did for me. But this is not enough. The one who will take my place must cultivate their own generation, find those who may be trusted with heavy duties and onerous tasks. This is as much the burden of a leader as riding at the tip of a spear.”

“I don;t know that giving this woman a chance amounts to any of that Father,” she murmured, feeling a bit shamed. She hadn’t really been thinking in such terms.

“It may not be!” Father laughed. “But all the same, you should keep your eye out for such talents. No one rules alone, Xiulan.”

It was true. The fighting was over for now. She expected the next few months to be just as hard on her nerves though.