"She knows we're coming. Maybe this isn't such a great idea."
Ming-Wa regarded the front door of Pao Hsien's house with gnawing uncertainty. The sun was low in the sky, shining up the length of the mountain valley and casting long shadows across the steep tiled rooftops of Hsiao-pei-ho. Li Fa studied the estate wall before them, seeking for traces of the Shadow Realm that would reveal the presence of sorcery.
"There's no point in trying to trick her," said Fa, "She knows we have to come after her. Anything we try will just let her spend more time setting up. Besides, we have Shan."
They'd spent the afternoon in funeral services for the unfortunate children who'd been subjected to necromantic rites by the Jade Razors. Of course the families were devastated but their children had been missing for days and they had in many cases already assumed the worst. The Goddess' love and guarantee of peace for their souls had eased some portion of their grief, but the town of Hsiao-pei-ho would be a long time healing the terrible betrayal of Pao Hsien.
Fa pounded on the door.
"Pao Hsien! Open up in the name of the Goddess! You will answer for your crimes! Open up!"
The door swung open.
Inside, the click and clatter of a loom underlay the metallic ring of swords clearing their sheaths. A woman laughed.
"It is not I who will answer, misguided fools."
*****
"Hold still, Shan. I can't reach it."
Wei-Yong scrabbled against the high wall at the rear of the estate, trying to grab hold of the top to pull herself over.
"Stretch those skinny legs, girl."
Shan watched with amusement as Wei-Yong grunted and at last got a hold on the top of the wall. She started hauling herself upwards but was unable to make any progress.
"Shan? A little help?"
Chuckling, Shan reached up, planted both of her hands on her friend's backside and shoved.
Wei-Yong shot up into the air and nearly vaulted the wall accidentally. She managed to cling to the narrow top and glared down at the big woman below. Shan was still chuckling. Wei-Yong sneered.
"Let's see you get up here any easier."
Shan backed off across the alley to get a bit of a run at the wall. She paused and whispered up to Wei-Yong.
"Anything going on in there?"
Wei-Yong peered into the dark garden behind the house.
"No, I... Wait, yeah. She's sitting on the verandah out back. She's doing embroidery or something."
"Does she see you?"
"No way. She's... The front door's opening. I can see Fa and Ming-Wa. Shan! There's a whole bunch of swordsmen! She's standing, she. Uh oh."
Shan froze, suddenly frantic with worry.
"What is it?"
"She saw me. She-- "
Wei-Yong's words exploded in a wild shriek as the lanky woman was torn bodily from the top of the wall and sailed right over Shan's head. She plowed straight through the ramshackle wall behind Shan and there was a loud, wince-inducing series of thunks, yelps, crashes and thumps. And then a groan.
Shan stood perfectly still for a second.
"Wei-Yong? Are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah. Fine. I'm just going to lie here for a while. Go get her, Shan. Ouch."
Shan needed no further encouragement. She charged the wall and with a powerful leap, pulled herself to the top and balanced there for just a second, taking in the scene within.
Pao Hsien stood by an embroidery rack, watching the interior of her house where Shan could see Fa raising her hands to cast a spell. Five or six black-clad swordsmen lunged towards the sorceress.
Pao Hsien was laughing.
*****
Ming-Wa and Fa stepped into the house. The interior was broad, just one large room that opened onto the garden beyond. Pao Hsien sat, smiling at them as her sword-wielding minions advanced on the two women.
Long-practiced in working together, Ming-Wa and Fa split up, the older woman heading straight towards Pao Hsien while Ming-Wa made a wide circle around to the left. Fa looked across the garden to where Wei-Yong suddenly appeared. Everything seemed frozen for a second.
Pao Hsien stood and threw out a hand towards Wei-Yong, who disappeared as if yanked backwards out of sight.
"Your Goddess is a demon. A foul creature come to torture and feed on the innocent. She is an abomination, and the Jade Razors will not rest until she is destroyed."
Furious, Ming-Wa pointed an accusing finger.
"You are the abomination! You torture and murder! Innocent children tortured to death, and you dare even SPEAK of the Goddess!"
The young woman lifted her hands and raised her face to the roof above.
"Goddess, in your name I swear this heretic shall die. Tonight."
Her blazing eyes turned to Pao Hsien.
"Die!"
The room exploded in a flurry of action. Five swords whirled in a wild pattern around Fa, who raised her hands and, in a sudden tangle of dark tendrils, chains sprung out of the floor, showering splinters in all directions and wrapping around her attackers.
Ming-Wa sent her mind's searing power into the memories of the blasphemous tailor, bringing forth images of suffering and agony to torture her enemy with. Pao Hsien screamed.
The tailor's hands flew and a half-dozen needles, each threaded with a different colour, shot through the air to drill into Li Fa's body, penetrating her wrists and ankles. With a wild laugh, Pao Hsien yanked on the threads and Fa's body jerked and twisted like a puppet's.
Ming-Wa stared in horror. She'd heard of such things, a secret order of priestesses. The Sisterhood of the Gilded Curtain.
Somehow, her outrage managed to increase. The swordsmen were shrieking as Fa's chains shrank around them, bones snapping and skin tearing, and now Fa's frantic, terrified voice rose above all the others in a scream of terror as her body responding entirely to Pao Hsien's direction.
Wei-Yong had disappeared without a trace and there was no sign of Shan. Li Fa stepped awkwardly towards where Ming-Wa stood.
"Get out, Ming-Wa. Save yourself."
Fa gasped as Pao Hsien yanked on the threads and twisted her body painfully. The tailor and Ming-Wa regarded each other.
"Your Goddess, Ming-Wa, brings nothing but terror and death. Even if you strike me down here, you will come to see, as I have, that you serve the greater darkness."
"Greater than the murder and torture of children? You dog!"
"Yes, Ming-Wa. Greater than I. The Goddess is evil beyond what you can conceive. She will consume us all."
"You lie."
"You'll never know, Zheng Ming-Wa. You will die now and your Goddess shall fall. Tianguo will be free."
"No."
Ming-Wa stood, feet planted, fists clenched at her side, ignoring Li Fa as her helpless friend came lurching towards her. With a shudder of her slender body, Ming-Wa again sent her mind stabbing deep into Pao Hsien's memories.
The tailor fell to her knees, groaning, as Ming-Wa's will forced agony upon agony into her consciousness.
"You carry the darkness within you, Pao Hsien. With your own memories I will destroy you."
The tailor let go of Fa's threads and reached out towards the spools beside her. More needles glinted there.
"It is I who will destroy you, foolish girl."
"If there's any destroying to be done, I'll take care of that."
Pao Hsien looked up in disbelief as Shan raised her sword.
Different cuts served different purposes. Shan was a master of the sword and knew how to cut using only her wrists, for when the enemy was too close for proper handling. She could cut using her arms and shoulders, when caught in a sitting position. For more powerful cuts, of course, her cuts used the abdomen, the hips, and even the legs to drive her sword in an irresistible arc through her enemy's body.
When she cut Pao Hsien completely in half, Shan had the distinct sensation that even her toes were helping to propel her sword.
There was a quick spray of blood, and Shan stood there, frozen, her sword pointing out to her left, as to her right, Pao Hsien gasped, clutched at her stomach, and fell to the floor in two pieces and a flopping pile of entrails.
For a couple of seconds, nobody moved. Then Shan produced a cloth and wiped it down the length of her sword. Fa collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from the wounds at her limbs.
Shan took a step towards Ming-Wa, but the look on her friend's face stopped her. At first she looked down at herself, but realised that Ming-Wa was looking past her.
Behind her.
A woman's voice chuckled. Not Pao Hsien. Dark, deep and hoarse, as though coming up from some deep underground tomb.
"Shan! Behind you!"
The big woman started to whirl when a sudden searing pain tore at her kidneys. Shan looked down to see well over a foot of steel, a broad gleaming blade, protruding from her front. As she watched, three trickles of blood made their way down the blade.
She tried to speak and her mouth filled with blood. She realised she was on her knees, shuddering uncontrollably. A sick, abbattoir noise and the blade withdrew with a sudden gout of blood. Shan crashed to the floor next to the corpse of Pao Hsien. She'd never even seen her attacker.
Ming-Wa had. And now she stared, aghast, at her two friends motionless around her, and at the tall, freakishly armoured figure standing before her.
It was a woman, well over six feet tall, in baroque armour detailed to resemble demonic features, with points and spines jutting out from out all over. She held a mammoth two-handed blade in her hands. The lower half of the blade was dark with Shan's blood.
She'd risen as Ming-Wa had watched from the shadow of Pao Hsien's corpse, as though rising from a trapdoor in the floor, and without hesitation had rammed her huge sword right through Shan's body.
Now the strongest, most durable woman Ming-Wa had ever known lay bleeding and helpless at her feet, struck down with one blow.
The strange woman smiled.
"Thank you for striking down my mistress. With your deaths I will be free of this servitude."
"What?"
Shan moaned quietly. Ming-Wa backed away several quick steps and threw her mind's power into tearing apart the creature's memories.
The smile disappeared and the shadowy woman charged forward.
*****
Wei-Yong groaned. She lay in a cloud of dust, tangled among debris and what looked like the remains of a bed frame. It had been as though a giant hand had swatted her off the top of the wall like she might knock aside a mouse. She groaned again, and set about untangling herself.
She could hear shouts and screams and applied herself more energetically. Within moments she stood, looking around at the interior of some kind of storeroom. A door creaked open and a wide-eyed face peered in. Wei-Yong smiled.
"Sorry about the noise. We're trying to kill the tailor next door. Excuse me."
She pushed past the startled homeowner and raced back across the alley. This time, she was able to leap up and pull herself over the wall without help.
Her shock at the scene beyond didn't stop her from jumping down into the garden and racing for her fallen friend.
"Shan! Shan!"
Ignoring everything else, Wei-Yong checked her friend frantically. Shan had suffered a terrible wound and was losing blood in a terrible flow. Wei-Yong got her lying flat and applied a tight bandage to staunch as much of the bleeding as she could, applying some unguents she had and providing the wounded woman with a sip of water. She looked over where the strange armoured woman advanced on Ming-Wa.
Her bow came up and Wei-Yong sent a rain of arrows punching through the bizarre armour. The swordswoman turned and charged her.
Ming-Wa followed as Wei-Yong scrambled back, dodging the lightning swings of the shadowy woman's blade. Again Ming-Wa reached out with her mind, but she couldn't find a strong hold on the creature's memories. Only vague images came up to her, indistinct and wavering.
The huge sword licked out and caught Wei-Yong across her back. Ming-Wa cried out as Wei-Yong shrieked and threw herself to the floor. Blood was everywhere as the three women ran across the house, dodging corpses and torn floorboards.
Too late Ming-Wa realised the woman had spun and now it was her turn to throw herself to the floor as that silvery blade buzzed overhead. For a second Ming-Wa thought she'd dodged the attack, but a wicked reverse cut found her unprepared and steel bit at Ming-Wa's hip.
She felt the blade strike home against her, bang off her pelvic bone and tear free, sending blood spraying with a hiss and a spatter on the floor. Unable to stand, Ming-Wa crashed down, screaming in agony. She heard Wei-Yong curse and the twang of her bow, arrows thudding home, and she flipped over onto her back, ignoring the hot slick pain in her hip.
The swordswoman had turned away from her and now advanced again on Wei-Yong, who looked calm and unruffled as she sent arrow after arrow buzzing into her enemy's body. The metallic ring as each arrowhead penetrated the armour plates was for a second the loudest sound in the room.
Ming-Wa put pain and the fear of death from her mind. She reached out again, taking hold of the shadowy woman's mind. She tore at the memories within, searching for pain and agony that she could call forth to destroy her foe.
"Goddess preserve us. Goddess preserve us. Goddess preserve us."
The woman's mind was strange, murky, and Ming-Wa felt a touch of madness enter her as she clawed at insubstantial shreds of reason. Somewhere in here lurked pain. Fear. Weakness.
Wei-Yong scrambled backwards. She started hurling curses at her implacable enemy, imitating Shan's creative obscenities as best she could.
"Suck on Her Holy..."
Ming-Wa found what she was looking for. A core of memory, carefully shielded. She took hold with her mind and yanked. And yanked again. And rubbed that ancient pain in this creature's mental face.
The sword fell to the floor with an unnaturally heavy clunk. The woman didn't scream as Pao Hsien had. She turned to Ming-Wa and, shaking, removed her helmet.
Ming-Wa's breath caught. Before her stood a beautiful young woman, pale and with huge black eyes so full of misery and suffering the Angel felt horrified at what she'd done.
"Thank you. It is over."
The woman collapsed in a clatter of metal, and then vanished as shadowy arms seemed to reach out of the floor and drag her straight down.
Ming-Wa and Wei-Yong stared at each other over the empty space where the woman had fallen. Ming-Wa managed to catch enough breath to speak.
"You're just not as good at swearing as Shan."
"Practice."
*****
Bandaged, exhausted, but standing on their own, the Angels watched as Pao Hsien's house burned. The townspeople cheered, vindictive and furious in their grief, but the Angels were silent.
Ming-Wa remembered the words of Pao Hsien, and, to her own shame, she felt the stirrings of doubt.
Fa broke the silence. Her voice was hushed, lacking its usual commanding tone.
"We need to know more about the Jade Razors. We got lucky this time."
Shan remembered looking down at the floor and knowing, with awful certainty, that she was about to die. She swallowed and looked over at Fa.
"We need to rest, Fa. None of us is going anywhere soon."
Wei-Yong didn't speak. She stared at the fire, ignoring the others, her usually cheerful face drawn and tight.
Ming-Wa took a deep breath.
"Goddess preserve us."
"Goddess preserve us."
"Goddess preserve us."
The fire roared higher.