a Record of the Sword Witch
She says nothing and sips at her wine.
There is the rustling of small, quiet movements from a dozen people trying to mask the sounds of reaching for their weapons.
“I don’t want trouble,” she says to no one in a loud clear voice. “Just a drink. I’ll finish it and leave town.”
“I finished my drink. Now I’m leaving.”
No one responds. She gets up and the rabble takes a step back as one. She adjusts the scabbard at her belt and everyone moves back two steps.
I suspect she did that on purpose.
She turns and keeps walking away. I follow as best I can.
“Where will you go?” I ask.
“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “You’re staying in Xichang.”
“I cannot!”
“You aren’t built for this life,” she says.
“You’ll carry everything. And you’ll do as I say.”
I nod because those conditions are already met! Sword Witch possesses nothing but the sword at her hip, the clothes on her back, and the armor under it. And, as a hero of the age, it’d be my honor to assist her in any way she suggests.
“Why is there a bounty on your head?” I ask.
Still walking. Marching. She takes a left and then a right. Then another left and another right. We’re seeing the backs of many shops and residences.
“Someone needed killing,” she says at last.
CHAPTER THREE
It has been three days.
I am happy to report that your chronicler Gao Wenshi still lives.
Now, you may be saying: “Gao Wenshi, how can you call yourself a chronicler with such an egregious gap? Three days? The fate of the empire can shift in one day! And here you’ve left out three of them? You’re as irresponsible a biographer as you are a useless scholar and unfilial son!”
“Stand aside,” Sword Witch said. Her voice rose above the clamor of the marketplace like a great bell. It was not a voice for asking. It was a voice for commanding.
Everyone around us complied before they realized it. And then, in the very next moment, everyone looked around in a daze wondering why they moved; wondering where the noise of the marketplace had gone; and wondering where these three hoodlums had come from.
“Calamities like what?” she said. “Stub Your Toe? Forget What You Walked In The Room For? Some Dirt In Your Eye?”
They rankled at that.
“Lady,” Thunder Wu said. “You won’t prove anything by dying in front of all these people. Why not give up, huh? We’ve got you outnumbered.”
“You do,” she said. “But you’d need five more to make it fair.”
I woke up to more darkness. I might not have known I was awake if not for the throbbing headache. I tried to get up but my limbs would not comply. Every effort was met with the infinite weight of numbness.