Chapter 17

As Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit traveled on the back of their phantom steed, they focused themselves on fleeing. The Dragonbloods who were after them would need to recover their Circle Mates and that would give them time. Plus the sorcery that was used to summon the steed also gave it a tireless stride and knowledge of the direction they wished to go, so all they had to do was focus on regaining spent Essence and hanging onto the Steed. That wasn't the easiest thing that Shi Hou had ever done, given how they'd had to double up on the saddle, but it was still a lot easier than most things.

As it happened, they seemed to have a day's head start on their pursuers and with the Phantom Steed, they managed to make it out of Onehill's territory and into the territory of Peshmi. Peshmi was a town that was built off the Ivory Trade by a Culture from further to the Southeast. The Dramilar People, who once had a large population in the First Age, but have since been reduced to a small pocket around Peshmi and the Chaya Republic, though the Dramilars of Peshmi shunned their Chayan Cousins.

Peshmi largely grew rich off the Trade of Riverbeast Ivory, the many tusked pachyderms that sheltered in the shallows of the rivers and could gore a man through his armor if they weren't careful. Mind you, the fact that the town seemed to be out of the worst of the Wetlands, and thus had room to grow more food without resorting to Polders also helped sustain the twelve-thousand inhabitants.

Peshmi would have been considered pleasant, had not the Prince of Peshmi decided to go to war with the Emir of Tulgadan. Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit ran into a patrol of Peshmi's Forces just as their second day of travel began. The Foot Soldiers were armored in leathers made of Riverbeast Hide, the toughened, treated, hides as strong as steel yet as light as leather. Meanwhile, the harness of their Mounted Captain was plate and chain with embellishments. While the Footsoldiers carried long spears and round shields, their Captain carried a slashing sword and round shield.

"Halt! You are entering the Sovereign Territory of Peshmi! By Order of Prince Ravandar, all those entering by foot must state their name and business in Peshmi!" Called out the Officer.

"I am Stone Monkey, this is Evening Rabbit. We're just passing through on our way to Tashkek." Informed Shi Hou.

"Just passing through on the way to Tashkek, eh? You're rather heavily armed for just passing through. How do I know you are not agents of Tulgadan seeking to disrupt our military readiness?" Demanded the Officer.

"If we were Agents of Tulgadan, we wouldn't have stopped to talk, and if we did, we wouldn't be so conspicuously-equipped." Pointed out Shi Hou.

"Which is just what an agent would say had they been caught unawares. We will have to search your pack." Intoned the Officer.

"What for?" Questioned Evening Rabbit.

"To ensure you are carrying nothing that may be used to aid our enemies in Tulgadan. Please comply." Nodded the Officer.

Shi Hou frowned slightly. Grellthorpe's Opium Package was at the bottom of their pack. He had no way of knowing whether or not this particular Peshmi Officer was inclined to let such things slide. While Opium wasn't illegal in Peshmi, it was heavily taxed. It was possible that if the Peshmi Squad found Grellthorpe's Package, they might think that he and Evening Rabbit were smugglers trying to cheat the Prince of his due in taxes. The penalty for that in Peshmi was the same as it was in Varsi and Tulgadan, loss of two fingers to the Executioner's blade.

All that played out in the back of Shi Hou's mind as he tensed, ready to spring into action. Two of the Peshmi Footsoldiers moved out of their place in their formation to take a look inside and for a moment, Shi Hou thought he was going to have to kill them. Evening Rabbit, on the other hand, managed to save the day. Burning Essence, she began to cut a deal to bribe the squad and their Captain.

"Captain, surely you must have better things to do than go rooting through our pack? We're simple travelers fleeing the recent bout of civil upheaval in Nexus and heading to stay with a distant cousin in Tulgadan, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, we understand that you're just being thorough and are willing to pay any fines or fees we may need to expedite our passage through the border, isn't that right, Monkey?" Tried Evening Rabbit.

"Absolutely." Agreed Shi Hou.

"Fees for expediting your way through the border, you say? Such fees can be expensive, especially for ones weighed down by all that Mystical Material. The lowest amount the Prince will take is two thousand Dinars." Mused the Captain.

"Two thousand Dinars is outrageous for a simple fee. We are just humble travelers, seven-hundred-fifty Dinars would surely be enough for Prince Ravandar to purchase half a dozen casks of fine wine?" Retorted Evening Rabbit.

"Ah, but it is not simply Prince Ravandar who will profit from the fee, he also has various dependents, his wife and children, for instance. Perhaps I can cut down on the fee to a more reasonable level, say one-thousand-four-hundred Dinars?" Haggled the Captain.

"The Prince's Children are yet young. They could not possibly require so much of a pair of simple travelers. Shall we say one-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-five Dinars? Surely that would be enough from just a single source? After all, the Prince must have plenty of loyal captains to enforce the Border tolls and Restrictions, no?" Hedged Evening Rabbit.

"That does sound reasonable, yes." Nodded the Captain.

"Monkey? Pay our entry fee, we've delayed long enough." Commanded Evening Rabbit.

"As you wish." Concurred Shi Hou.

Shi Hou fished out two silver Durhams and thirteen silver Pounds from their pack and handed them over to the Captain. For his part, the Captain bit into one of the larger, Dirham coins in order to test that it contained actual silver and that Shi Hou wasn't trying to cheat him. With a nod, the Captain was satisfied and waived Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit on through the Border, allowing the pair to enter the Territory of Peshmi without a fight.

As they made their way further southeast toward Tashkek, the landscape began to get slightly less marshy, gradually drying out as they made their way toward the plains. It wouldn't completely dry out until they reached Tulgadan, which was one of the reasons why the Varsiyags controlled Tulgadan. It was drier there, which meant it was better weather for the Cavalry the Varsiyags tended to use. Mind you, they weren't born to the saddle like the Marukani were, but they were still one of the better places to find cavalry in the Scavenger Lands.

Unfortunately, their trip couldn't stay unimpeded forever. The Circle of Furious Elements was still tracking them, after all, and with the Lunar Half-Caste likely guiding them, Shi Hou knew that there wasn't much chance of the Dynastic Mercenaries losing their trail. They couldn't afford to visit the Havelis and Stepwells of Peshmi, instead skirting the City Proper around to the east before continuing south toward Tulgadan and eventually, Tashkek.

It was in the borderland where two things happened. First, they came upon the remains of a battlefield. Bodies were butchered on both sides, with the mustachioed corpses of Varsiyag Riders being fewer in number than the darker-skinned corpses of Peshmi Infantry. In total, a full scale of twenty-five corpses lay scattered where they'd fallen. The pattern of the carnage, along with various hoofprints and footprints indicated a mutual retreat after an inconclusive battle.

Shi Hou and evening Rabbit took the opportunity to salvage what remained of the Battlefield, making back the money spent on bribes twice over in coin and saleable goods before burying the dead and giving them what rites they could. Nobody wanted these troops to rise again as Hungry Dead, after all, so funeral rites were necessary.

Unfortunately, giving them the proper funerary rites took a few hours and by the time they were finished, Shi Hou and evening Rabbit could only travel a little further before the sun dropped too low in the sky to continue on and they were forced to make camp. Shi Hou hunted up a bit of game, namely a pair of Swamp Rabbits for Evening Rabbit to cook over the campfire with some wild onions he'd foraged. They ate while Shi Hou cleaned the skins and set them to dry by the fire so he could sell the furs, and then they went to sleep. By the time they were ready to head out, twelve hours had passed.

That, unfortunately, ate up much of their head start, and by the time that Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit reached the disputed border territory between Peshmi and Tulgadan at noon the next day, the Circle of Furious Elements caught up with them as they just had crossed over the recognized border of Peshmi.

The venue for the impending battle was the ruins of a small homestead, one of many that had been ransacked during the Balorian Crusade at the End of the Shogunate Period and never rebuilt. Tumbled drystone walls overgrown with moss and ancient tree stumps that had been cut down by the homesteaders were the only remaining evidence that anything had been here at any point. As the Circle of Furious Elements arrived, though, Shi Hou noted that the Wood Aspect from the other day was missing. That made Shi Hou grin since it meant they must have beaten her at least.

The Large Earth Aspect, however, was present, as was a fiery-haired Fire Aspect in a Red Jade Chain Shirt and a White-Haired, Robed, Air Aspect in a Thaumaurgically Enchanted Robe. Evening Rabbit's nose twitched as the Air Aspect arrived alongside the Fire and Earth Aspect. Bringing up the rear of the group was the Half-Caste Lunar that Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit had fought in the Undercity of Nexus.

"She's a Sorceress. I should be able to handle her." Intoned Evening Rabbit.

"I know I can take the Earth Aspect." Offered Shi Hou.

"Silence!" Spat the Fire Aspect.

"Is that Anger I hear? What, are you not used to losing?" Taunted Shi Hou.

"You won't be so cocksure in moments! You've done enough damage to our Circle, it ends here!" Sneered the Fire Aspect.

"Oh? Did your Wood Aspect bleed out?" Pressed Shi Hou.

"Almost. As it stands, she'll never draw her bow again thanks to you two Anathema!" Growled the Fire Aspect.

"Well, you shouldn't have attacked us." Shrugged Shi Hou.

The Fire Aspect sputtered for a brief moment before the Earth Aspect placed a hand on his shoulder. With a shake of his head, the Fire Aspect took a deep breath before continuing with his speech in a more even tone.

"I wouldn't expect you Anathema to understand. Peleps Ling and Cynis Juri were Sworn Brothers of ours, that means something." Frowned the Fire Aspect.

"I thought they were both women?" Grinned Shi Hou.

"If you're going to mock me, then there's no point in this preamble. Mei, Chen, deal with them!" Ordered the Fire Aspect.

"I'll take the Anathema who thinks she's a Sorceress." Nodded the Air Aspect, Mei.

"I'll take the other one. Sen, back me up?" Queried the Earth Aspect, Chen.

"With pleasure." Snarled the Fire Aspect, Sen.

Suddenly, Mei began chanting and thrust her hands out, and a cascade of sculpted, obsidian, butterflies with razor-sharp wings vomited forth at Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit. Evening Rabbit, for her part, chanted and crossed her arms in front of her, enveloping herself in a cocoon of hundreds of bands of swirling essence that redirected the razored butterflies away from her and back at Mei. Meanwhile, Shi Hou's Gem of Sapphire and Emerald tore apart the Sorcery before it even reached him, butterfly falling out of the air as soon as they came within a five-foot radius of him.

Mei, on the other hand, was forced to dodge away from the reflected stream of butterflies, hiding behind a nearby pile of timeworn, half-tumbled, stones. The Butterflies gouged chunks out of the rocks but shattered on them without cutting through. Mei emerged unharmed from her cover, looking back at Sen and Chen.

"The Girl has Sapphire Circle Sorcery and her Guard has some sort of passive anti-sorcery defense!" She called out.

"As if we needed more proof of their Anathema Nature!" Spat Sen.

Sen then wreathed his arms in flames before lunging for Shi Hou in a lunging punch. For his part, Shi Hou fell into his Even Blade Form before, with a burst of essence, he drew Perfection, currently in the form of a Reaper Daiklave, and lashed out in a draw cut, parrying the flaming fist. Unfortunately, Sen managed to halt his momentum, turning his punch into a whirling kick that stomped the ground and threw up a burst of flame around himself that forced Shi Hou to back off or be burned.

Shi Hou dodged backward, right into an uppercut from Chen that brought razored shards of stone with it, bruising Shi Hou's Ribs and cutting into his cheek with razor-sharp chips of stone. A Second Punch from Chen was grappled using the Snaring Vine Method of the Terrestrial Hero Style and Shi Hou tossed Chen back toward where Sen was currently smoldering. The pair went down in a tangle of limbs.

Shi Hou smirked at that, only to be picked up by a burst of wind from behind and slammed through the ruins of a half-tumbled wall, breaking his nose and bruising his orbital bone. As Shi Hou stood, shakily, he noticed that Evening Rabbit had been bound in a bundle of thick, pulsing, vines and was struggling to cut her way out. The attack had actually come from the Air Aspect, who was blowing into her hands to create a second ball of wind to throw at him.

As she did so, Shi Hou leaped into the air using the Effortlessly Rising Flame Technique to leap twenty feet up in a burst of essence, eyes blazing with peripheral essence sailing over the swirling ball of wind, which exploded against a mossy tree stump in a blast of furious winds that gouged great chunks out of the wood with razor-sharp vacuum blades. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of things, as Shi Hou was forced to kick off a nearby willow tree to avoid being struck by a blazing fireball thrown from Sen who finally managed to extricate himself, though Chen was looking worse for wear from being burned by Sen's flames.

The Fireball exploded the Willow, turning it into a torch just after Shi Hou bounced off it, using the Effortlessly Rising Flame to shoot himself toward Chen, who was burned by his friend's defense. A burst of hazy essence coated Perfection in obscuring steam, allowing Shi Hou to cut Chen's left leg out from under him. The Big Earth Caste punched a ball of stone at Shi Hou at the same time. Both attacks hit and Shi Hou was sent tumbling away from Chen to land hard on the ground near Evening Rabbit, even as gouts of blood began to pour forth from Chen's Femoral Artery.

"Chen!" Shouted Sen, punching a ball of flame at Shi Hou while Mei moved to attempt to staunch the blood flow.

Shi Hou dodged a moment too late and was blown backward into another tumbled-down wall as his skin seared in the heat. He crashed through the tumbled-down wall and bruised his tailbone. Thankfully, he was still able to get to his feet thanks to his particular collection of Hearthstones keeping him up and fighting. However, there was a limit to how much punishment he could take even with hearthstones that made his bones unbreakable and his blood unspillable. Burning and crushing could still hurt him if he got hit enough, and the enemy seemed able to do both of those things.

Picking Perfection up off the ground, Shi Hou moved over to Evening Rabbit and cut her loose from the mystic, pulsing, vines. As the vines fell away, they discorporated into motes of Essence. Evening Rabbit stood up and blew out a sigh of frustration.

"Sprouting Shackles of Doom. I'm not good enough with a blade or martial arts to get out of them if I can't counter the spell." She grumbled.

"We. . .need to run. They're. . .preoccupied with their. . .Earth Aspect. Can you. . .summon a horse?" Huffed Shi Hou.

"Yeah, hang on!" Intoned Evening Rabbit before she chanted in Old Realm and sent a burst of essence out. A green, mossy, Elemental Steed appeared out of the treeline. Evening Rabbit and Shi Hou mounted up and the Horse began to run off.

"Sen! They're getting away!" Pointed out Mei.

"Oh no they don't!" Snarled Cathak Sen, punching another fireball at them.

The Steed janked to the side and Shi Hou drew his bow and a single arrow, infusing it with his essence as he infused the Arrow with his essence and fired off a Dragon-Graced Arrow back at Sen. The Arrow glowed white with Godly energy before Sen, in a burst of Essence, held out his palm, a flame burning in it intensely. The Arrow thunked into his palm to no effect before incinerating from a gout of flame.

Then the Elemental Steed carried them out of range and off the field of battle. It was hard fought, though and if not for his Gem of Sapphire and Emerald and Evening Rabbit's Dolorous Reflection, they likely wouldn't have survived to escape, torn to shreds by Obsidian Butterflies. However, now was not the time for recriminations. No, they had to put as much distance between the Circle of Furious Elements and themselves as possible. Getting another head start would be the only way they could recover in time for the next confrontation.

After all, somehow, Shi Hou knew they had not seen the last of their Dynastic Opponents. . .

XXXX

Cathak Sen was furious. Twice they'd had the Anathema dead to rights and twice the Anathema had managed to escape while critically wounding one of his Sworn Brothers. Oh certainly, the Half-Caste Anathema Spawn had helped eventually in ensuring that Chen didn't bleed out, but it was a close-run thing and Mei was taking Chen back to Jiara to recuperate. While there, he would be reporting to the Immaculate Order with their findings.

In the meantime, Cathak Sen would continue to track the pair of Anathema with the aid of their Anathema Spawn Guide. Mind you, they'd had to conceal the fact that they'd sent for the immaculate from the Anathema Spawn. It was likely that she would be placed under the scrutiny of any Immaculate Brothers who arrived to handle the Twin Anathema, even though she was helping them.

Unfortunately, Mei and Chen would take time to reach Jiara, owing to the distance from here and Chen's injury. Likewise, it would also take time for a Wyld Hunt to be gathered and called. Likely it would take them a month to report in, and a week or two to get the Wyld Hunt called in, for a total of a month and a half at the outside, give or take a few days. That meant that Sen would be on his own out here for some time.

He would have to be stealthy, something he was never very good at, if he wanted to do anything more than simply observe and await the arrival of the Immaculate Brothers of the Wyld Hunt to report. He also wasn't certain that their contract would allow for such delays. Honestly, he didn't particularly care about that, though.

The Contract with Nexus was, as far as he was concerned, null. Two Anathema had already partnered up and twice escaped his sworn brothers and he while dealing crippling damage to one of his sworn brothers in the process. This was no longer a business matter, it was now a deeply personal religious matter. Demonic Forces could not be allowed to run rampant in creation and as far as he was concerned, if Nexus didn't like him bringing in the Immaculates, they could hire someone else.

This needed to happen, the Anathema needed to be slain, and Cathak Sen was insistent on being instrumental in making it happen. If he could prove himself to the Immaculates, then certainly he and his Circle would receive any rewards that Nexus could give from the Brothers of the Order. Who knows? Maybe he'll even be granted a Satrapy of his own to rule?

A Man can dream, after all. . .

XXXX

AN: So here we have Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit's second clash with the Circle of Furious Elements. There's a bit of a pattern forming where they get away by the skin of their teeth while critically wounding one of the Circle. Unfortunately, Cathak Sen recognizes that pattern is occurring and will eventually swing confrontations in Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit's favor. He's sent for the Immaculates to call the Wyld Hunt on them. Fortunately, it will take the Immaculates some time to get their ducks in a row.

In that time, Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit need to get strong enough to resist the Wyld Hunt. Fortunately, if they can do that, Realm Year Seven-Sixty-Three will dawn by the time a second Wyld Hunt can be called, and with it, the Bull of the North's invasion of Linowan and the subsequent destruction of the Tepet Legions will sidetrack the Realm. Then the Scarlet Empress will disappear at the end of the year during Calibration, meaning the will to send anyone to the Scavenger Lands will be totally gone. Of course, that will only happen if they get strong enough to survive the first Wyld Hunt.

At any rate, the next chapter will cover the arrival in Tulgadan.

Stay tuned. . .