Part 2, Chapter 29

We are not good at this…

Ch 29

It had been two weeks since Xun and Leng Zai had begun their attempts to steal the pendant, but everything always seemed to go wrong. The Emperor never went anywhere without at least a half a dozen guards, so they hadn’t been able to approach him even in a way that seemed accidental. The next idea was to sneak in when delivering his food, but the kitchen servant was always stopped at the door and never allowed into the Emperor’s tent. Even sneaking into the Emperor’s tent after dark had proven too risky with the number of guards and the constant activity in the area.

The army had almost reached enemy territory and was setting up their semi-permanent camp. Xun had found a sheltered grove upstream of the camp and had set up her own tent. 

“I’m getting pretty good at this,” she said to no one. 

The brush behind her began to rustle. 

“Leng Zai, can you help me tug that line a little tighter? I can’t seem to get all of the slack out of it,” she said absently to the noise. When there was no response she spun around. Two soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms stood on the edge of the little clearing. 

Xun’s mind raced, but she couldn’t seem to hold onto an idea. These were clearly soldiers of the God of War and she was alone, panicking she ran. It did not take long before they captured her. As Xun struggled her hair stick fell to the ground. Then there was a sharp pain on her neck and everything went dark.

When Leng Zai and Renping came later that night they found Xun’s camp deserted. The two searched the area and Leng Zai found Xun’s hair stick standing straight up only a few steps from the camp.

“Someone took her,” he said, his voice icy with rage. “They took her and I’m going to get her back.”

Renping stopped him. “Oh. Who took her? How are you going to get her back? Do you even know what direction they took her in?”

Leng Zai looked at her helplessly. “I have to go now,” he said. “I have to find her before…”

“Before she gets hurt? You don’t know if they’ll hurt her. You don’t even know who took her.”

“Yeah, before she gets hurt too… but…”

Renping looked at him. “This has something to do with you, doesn’t it? Why you never seem upset or happy or anything for long. You want to find her before you… loose the emotion?”

Leng Zai’s hand fisted over Xun’s hair stick. 

Renping looked at him, “I won’t loose the emotion or forget. We will get her back, but we need to figure out who took her first.”

Leng Zai still refused to look at her, but nodded and followed her back to the camp.