The Crow and Cloud Formation
"He doesn't trust us," Soi Fang said. Though she spoke low, her voice rang like a clarion call and the skitter of her horse sounded like a drum as she brought it up to meet her commander and his aide.
"Ha! I knew it!" Choshu Ishi clenched his fist and shook it in the direction of Madai, the range town across the field. Standing, as he was, in the shade of a pine grove, even the guards who'd turned Soi Fang away from the walls would have been hard-pressed to see the gesture. "Wait. He who?"
"Mayhiros Xenon," said the third in the trio, Smiling Tao, a small man in farmer's homespuns and geta. "A great grandnephew of Mayhiros Tesos and leader of the Black Thunder Lancers. That's his banner, hanging above the gate."
Ishi shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted. "Don't see it. Never mind. Is he just going to keep the gates shut until we've moved on?"
"Longer, probably," Soi Fang said. She was off her horse now, holding its reins and keeping it still by stroking its face with her other hand. "He's worried by the demons lurking around and doesn't plan to let up until they pass."
"Well at least it's not because we ride under the Solar's banner and his loyalty's for his uncle."
Soi Fang looked back towards the town. "That's probably part of it, actually. I heard a while ago that Tesos helped him build a manse at a range town in the north."
"Oh. Right. If he won't let us in, he probably won't give us any food, either."
Soi Fang shook her head.
"Sell us any food?"
Soi Fang shook her head again.
Ishi sighed. Between his Scale, his command and support crews and the camp followers, he had almost a hundred mouths to feed and a dwindling stock to do it from. If they didn't resupply soon... "Do we have enough food to last until the next range town?"
"Probably, and a few days beyond if we restrict rations. But between the demons and what that black sludge in the river did to the fishing this season..." Smiling Tao shrugged.
"A smaller town might not have enough food to part with." Ishi scratched his head. "Well I don't know what to do if he's just going to be a jerk about it. We can't steal the food, but we can't turn back to the Eye of Hiparkes - there are demons out there. Where does he get his nerve?"
"A good question," said Smiling Tao. "Neither he nor his family have any holdings in Madai."
"Wait," Ishi said. "What?"
"No one from Mayhiros holds the lease on any of the farms or pastures in this region, nor on the mill, the smithy, the tavern... None of them even live here."
"You're sure?"
"Very."
Ishi shaded his eyes again and strained to see the town. He could mark the outlines of the hastily thrown up earthen ramparts and the sturdy palisades beyond, but the text on banner was still a mystery. "Then what the hell is he even doing in there?"
"Taking hostages." Soi Fang's horse skittered away from the angry blare in her voice.
"Or taking advantage of a bad situation." Smiling Tao lived up to his name and it was a grim sight. "If he holds on to the town long enough, and with demons as his excuse I expect he could, he'll call it his own for as long as he lives. It's a short step from 'protector' to 'elder' when you have the power of the dragons to call your own."
Ishi loosened his sword in its scabbard. "Alright then."
Soi Fang and Smiling Tao stumbled over each other to say, "What?"
"Fang, get the gunchei together for orders. Tao, ride on ahead to scout his manse and then back to the Eye to get another scale on the move north; I want to meet up with them by the time Xenon runs back there and I want to know what we're going to face.
"We're going to end this." Once more, Ishi clenched his fist.
"How?" Soi Fang let go of her horse's bridle and the animal trotted a few steps away from her high brass voice. "His lancers are a full Wing. They outnumber us five to one! And Xenon's a double-stylist. He's famous for being both a disciple of the Lightning Hoof Style and an initiate in your own Five Dragon Style!"
"Wow." Ishi blinked. "That's impressive."
"He fights from horseback and uses the direlance 'Pine Needle' and the armor 'Four Layers of Bark!' His signature move is called 'Heaven's Black Lightning Punch' and they say he can use it to shatter a stone fortress wall!"
"Wow," Ishi said again. "He sounds really tough. Everyone's heard of him?"
"Yes!"
Now Ishi smiled and he picked up his own white banner. "Then we're definitely going to end this."
