Mei put a handkerchief to her nose as she stepped around another pile of refuse. This city stank. The trash problem alone proved the superiority of an Emperor to a bunch of squabbling Guildmasters. The Pearl Emperor ensured people picked up the trash. As far as Mei could tell, the Guildmasters only added to it. If she’d known what a pit Gearhaven would be, she wouldn’t have been so eager to volunteer to recover Princess Wu, who had been kidnapped a month before her wedding day. Still, it was nice to do something other than endless rounds of training and guard duty.
The kidnappers had covered their tracks well, but Mei had managed to trace their scant trail over the Iron Mountains and to this countryless city that had once attracted scholars from all over the world . . . and now attracted fortune seekers instead – a perfect place to hide a foreign princess.
After a week of searching, Mei finally got a tip of a “Sho’lan girl” in Tinker’s Quarter, a neighborhood in the university sector that catered to the many Tinkers in the city. The streets were a cacophony of banging metal and belched steam as the people here invented a parade of clever mechanisms. Mei side-stepped a man walking alongside a four-legged platform carrying his trunk. Her stomach grumbled as she scented meat pies for sale – one of the only positive discoveries of this city. Unfortunately, Mei would almost certainly need to fight the kidnappers, and a member of the Pearl Empire’s elite soldiers, the Surnias, knew better than to fight on a full stomach.
She finally approached the building holding the princess – fourth floor, one entrance, the laundress had said. Maybe one entrance for commoners. Mei circled the building and found a nice narrow alley. She studied the area for a few minutes, allowing dusk to fall and mask her movements. Mei climbed the wall of the building across from the alley, using her specialized shoes to find purchase in the small mortar cracks. She soon climbed on to the second story balcony, and hopped to grab the rails on the next two balconies before leaping onto the fourth floor ledge of her target building. She scooted along the ledge, peeking in various windows until she glimpsed the princess through some grayed lace curtains.
Princess Wu stood next to the stove, stirring some liquid in a pot. Of all the indignities! Not only had they kidnapped an imperial princess, but forced her to cook, too?
Mei spied a man and another woman in the apartment, both working on projects, paying no attention to Princess Wu or the door. And they’d left the window open. Odd.
After a moment of quick deliberation, Mei jumped off the ledge and swung feet first through the window. By the time Mei got to her feet, she had her dao sword out and the woman was still mid-turn when Mei’s dao sliced through her neck to the spine. She yanked her weapon out as blood fountained. Mei grabbed the man and swung him around to block the pot of soup Princess Wu had just thrown. Fool woman, she should know better than to try to help one of the Surnias. Princess Wu’s aim had been so poor the soup had nearly hit Mei!
Except the soup appeared to be some sort of acid, based on the screams of the man and the way blue ooze bubbled and turned green from contact with his blood. Mei slit his throat to end his misery as much as to stop the noise of his screams. A second man, the biggest of all, ran into the room and fell with a dagger to the eye.
Mei dashed to the other two rooms to make sure no other kidnappers were in the apartment. She returned to find Princess Wu near the front door and bowed on one knee.
“Princess Wu, I am Mei Liu of the Surnias. I am here to rescue you and bring you home.”
Instead of a response, Mei heard the front door open and slam shut with footsteps running down the hall. As soon as Mei yanked open the door and bolted into the hall, Princess Wu glanced back in terror and screamed, “Help! She’s trying to kill me!”
Mei nearly stumbled in confusion, but she wasn’t one of the finest soldiers in the world for nothing. By the time Mei reached the princess, she had her arm wraps off and within seconds had the princess gagged and hands and feet tied. She threw the princess over her shoulder and slid down the banisters before too many people could open their doors to investigate.
As Mei dashed into the alley, frantically trying to think of what to do next, she felt the princess’ struggling body suddenly go slack. Mei laid the princess on the ground – her skin had turned ashen, eyes glazed, and blood began to pool around her.
What?!
Mei turned the princess over and stopped cold – the princess had managed to pull a dagger from a hidden sheath at her waist and stabbed herself. Mei recognized the handle immediately – the blade would have grooves etched in it specifically to hold and deliver as much poison as possible. The wound itself wouldn’t matter, the princess was as good as dead.
She ripped off Princess Wu’s gag. “Why? Why would you do this?”
Princess Wu gave a sad smile, “Because you have killed me just as surely as you slaughtered my friends.”
Mei shook her head, trying to sort through her confusion. “Your friends? But they kidnapped . . . you ran away? You wanted to be in this filthy, corrupt place?”
“Better filth than a gilded cage,” the princess replied.
“Cage? You had everything!”
Princess Wu snorted and loosed a shuddering chuckle, “Every bauble, yes, but freedom to explore and act and invent as I please? No, I had imperial duties of unlimited preening, useful as a lace teapot. Not one day of my life did I have freedom until I came here. Do not pretend you cannot see it, Mei Liu. You Surnias spend your lives training to be the deadliest warriors in the world, all to be used as little more than painted porcelain guard dolls.”
She smiled again as her breath hitched. “Still, it appears I have unlocked your cage, too, Mei. You can either go back to disgrace and execution for your efforts, or you can live unfettered and do something with all that elite training.”
Mei didn’t respond, just stared at the princess until she took her final labored breaths.
All that commotion, and no one even came to check the alleys. Such was life in Gearhaven these days.
And Princess Wu was right. Mei could never go home. She was supposed to return as a hero for having rescued the princess. Without her . . . better dead than disgraced in the Pearl Empire.
Something inside Mei crumbled and she finally stood and walked away.
Well, she thought, at least I’ll get as many meat pies as I want.
