The Blue Mountain (The Forbidden List Book 2) (18 page)

Zhou let the sword fall from his hands. The battlements of Wubei faded away, the soldiers vanished into the falling ash, and the silence of night drowned the noise of battle. At his feet, the large bandit’s sword, now dark with blood and the body, split from shoulder to hip, lay not far away. Motes of ash fell onto unblinking, sightless eyes. A soft hand rested on his shoulder.

“Zhou,” Xióngmāo said, “are you all right?”

“No,” he covered her hand with his own, “not really.”

“Have you found out anything useful?” Haung asked. He threw the latest scouting report down on the table.

“No,” Gang said as he flopped down into the wooden chair and scratched at his groin.

“Do you have to?” Liu moved round the table.

“I have an itch, what do you want me to do?” The large man smiled and scratched again.

Haung sighed, after two months of waiting for the visitor the Emperor had said was coming, of reading scouting reports which said little, and of the
Fang-Shi
coming up with no new information, he was beginning to wonder if there was anything to find. More than that, he was missing Jiao and his son. Autumn was in full swing and winter was coming. This far north, the seasons changed quickly.

“Liu,” Haung turned from Gang’s grinning face to look at the tall man, “have the Mongols told us anything useful yet?”

“Sadly, no. I have worked through most of the groups and they know little. They talk of a great army that swoops down upon towns and villages. However, none of them have seen the army. They’ve seen the soldiers that attacked their villages, but taking into the account the nature of peasants to exaggerate everything, I’d reckon that they have seen no more than fifty to hundred at a time. Not enough to threaten the wall, let alone the Empire.” Liu shifted the axes on his belt. “I think we are wasting our time.”

“Some of the soldiers are showing a little promise. A few more years and one or two of them could be really good,” Gang said.

“Maybe,” Liu agreed.

“Well,” Haung began, “I am fed up of waiting behind the wall and relying on other people’s eyes and information. So, I have arranged for us to join one of the patrols tomorrow.”

“Really?” Gang said.

“Yes, really. I want to see what the land is like. There has to be something to see.” Haung stood and retrieved the report, flattening it back out again. “The flow of refugees has slowed to almost nothing and there hasn’t been a trader or nomadic herder past a patrol in weeks. Something is going on out there. I want to find out what.”

“I suppose it will be something to do,” Liu said in his soft voice.

“Do I have to ride a horse?” Gang asked.

“Yes, you do. Pack for two days. We will be spending a night on the plains,” Haung said.

“Trail food is not nice. I best get to the officers’ club and get some decent food in my belly, as a barrier to the bland fare I’ll have to suffer out there.” Gang heaved himself out of the chair and stomped off.

Liu watched Gang leave before asking, “How far are you intending to push out into the plains?”

Haung studied the tall man for a moment. “The patrols are out and back within a day. Only a few of the scouts we have sent out have come back. Those who do, report seeing nothing.”

“What do the ones who do see something actually see?” Liu asked the question Haung had implied.

“Exactly. I want to go a little further. I want to get to one of the villages and talk to the locals, if there are any. We have to find out what is going on.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Liu said.

“Then the Emperor sent the right people, didn’t he?” Haung smiled. “We will have an apprentice
Fang-Shi
with us to set wards and keep us safe.”

“I thought you were a
Jiin-Wei
? Why do we need a sorcerer with us?” Liu looked at Haung, the question clear in his eyes.

“The apprentice needs the practice and with rank comes privileges.” Haung indicated the symbol on his uniform. “If I haven’t got to stay half-awake all night just to maintain the ward, I can get a good night’s sleep. The apprentice can suffer - it is what they are for I am told.”

Liu stayed silent for moment and then said, “Fine. I’ll go and pack.”

* * *

The patrol party of fifteen left the wall gate at first light, just as the sun’s rays began to creep across the eastern horizon. Each man, in full armour, rode a horse and across the saddles were bags of supplies. Enough for three days, though the patrol was only intended to last for two. The margin for safety was standard practice in the army. It also lent a degree of flexibility. If we find anything, Haung thought, we can spend an extra day ensuring we have all the information we can gather.

The normal patrols had found little in the past few months and the longer scouting patrols returned, if they did, with uncertain information. As the last horse passed through the gate it was slammed shut and the sound of a heavy wooden bar falling on the other side had the sense of finality about it. At the front of the column, the lead solider raised an arm in the air and signalled everyone forward. A loud groan sounded behind Haung and he turned in the saddle.

“I wish I had a cure,” Haung smiled.

“No cure except a lot more sleep and perhaps a jug of rice wine,” Gang responded.

Haung shook his head. “Isn’t that the cause of your illness in the first place?”

“So it is, but while I was drinking I felt fantastic. It was only when I stopped that I felt ill. Seems to me the solution is simple and logical, keep drinking and feeling good.” Gang smiled at his answer.

Haung stared at Gang, whose smile only grew wider. “We have a long way to go today, just try and stay in the saddle.”

The route out of the hills was slow, not much faster than walking pace, and there was little to see. They followed the only road through the rolling landscape and did not pass a single soul. The early morning sun rose over the hills, its heat burning away the mist that hung low on the ground, accompanied by the jingle of harness, the creak of leather, breath of horses and Gang’s complaints about the increasing brightness.

By the midday stop for food, most of the soldiers had stopped listening to the famous warrior moan about his headache and formed their own little group, leaving Haung and Liu to put up with him.

Haung hooked the feedbag onto his horse’s nose and let the animal eat first. He picked his own meal out of a saddlebag and chewed thoughtfully. For a long time this road had been subject to a mass migration of people, all fleeing an army that no one seemed to have seen. They had flooded into the Empire and to the major cities, especially Haung’s home of Yaart. Every bit of intelligence gathered by the Emperor’s services could shine little light upon it. There was definitely a large army out on the plains somewhere. Enough refugees from different areas had seen troops moving. Small bands admittedly, but so far apart that they must have been coordinated by someone, somewhere.

“Captain,” Haung called out the troop leader, “how far to the nearest village, deserted or otherwise?”

The soldier peeled away from the group and wandered over to Haung. “The first deserted one? We could reach that my mid-afternoon if we get moving soon. The first one not deserted? Well now, that is the question isn’t it? As far as the reports show, there isn’t one within a day’s march.”

“And beyond a day’s march?”

“The scouts have reported some activity in villages two days distant, but there is little information. They note is that the villages seem empty, but that the fields are being tended and they have seen folks in the fields.” The captain nodded as he spoke.

“No-one has gone into the villages and spoken with the farmers?” Haung asked.

“Not that we know of. We have lost a few scouts and, that being the case, we have little knowledge of where they went and who they spoke to.”

“No patrols have gone out that far from the wall?” Haung looked down the road, towards the north and the rolling grassland plains.

“Not that far, no. Do you know much about the Mongol people?”

Haung turned to inspect the captain. An older man, the grey flecks in his hair, the lines around his eyes and weathered skin spoke of a career officer who had risen as far as his talent and connections would take him. “No, not very much.”

The captain smiled. “Well, they are a mostly nomadic people. They herd cattle across the plains and their camps last only a week or two before they move on, sometimes less. Heard folks say that the Mongols live in the saddle. The villages you speak of are really just small settlements set up by some of descendants of Empire folk who travelled north, or were trapped behind the wall when it was built centuries ago. The nomadic Mongols use them as stopping-off points, a place to buy and sell meat, skins and furs. Think of them as trading posts that also do a little farming. Without the constant flow of people the villages won’t survive long.”

“But they exist, these villages?” Haung asked.

“Of course, just there aren’t as many as you’d think. It is a common thing. Folks from the Empire come up to wall thinking to make their fortune trading with the Mongols, except there are few places to trade. No point wandering out into the plains and seeking a tribe. They’d be likely to kill you before you could explain your purpose.”

“They are not a friendly people?” Haung waved back towards the wall. “All those I met in town seem to be friendly enough.”

“They’ve had to learn to be. They came to wall with nothing. The villagers and traders had nothing but the clothes on their back. The nomads had, if they were lucky, a tent or two plus some furs.”

“What happened to their herds?” Haung asked.

“They lost them. Most said a band of soldiers came out of nowhere, and you’ll know how hard that trick is to pull off once we get out onto the plains proper, and stole their cattle.”

“They didn’t put up a fight?”

“I’m sure some of them did. Most of the folks who turned up were women, children and the elderly. Some groups had men amongst them, but not as many as you’d think.” The captain shook his head. “The nomadic groups aren’t big. A few families, or even just one, that stick together and look after the herds. Those trading posts also provide a place to arrange marriages and deals between families. Most of them, least the ones we know about, are a kind of sacred ground to the Mongols. They don’t fight there.”

“They fight elsewhere?”

“Born for it, I think. They live, fight and, for all I know, fuck in the saddle. Each man has a few horses or he’s not considered a man. They are a tribal people too. If you know the villagers well enough, they’ll tell you about the battles fought between tribes and the grudges that outlast death.”

“And we built the wall,” Haung said.

“We built the wall,” the captain agreed. “Of course, it hasn’t been tested in centuries and maybe that’s the point. It does its job. The tribes used to gather together in the lean times and ransack the towns and villages in the Empire. The wall keeps them out and reminds them that our army is not too far away. They are much more concerned, these days, with fighting each other. What you have to remember above everything, is that the Mongols are not the Empire. These are not people who settle down, farm, mine and pay taxes. There is no government out there, no laws except those of tradition and the sword.”

“So, how do you keep track them?”

The captain turned a look on Haung that he found hard to read. “We don’t. It is why we don’t patrol further out than a day’s ride. No point. One day you’ll see,” the captain paused and then corrected himself, “you used to see a herd of cattle go past, east to west, or west to east, and the next it will be gone. The grass will be lower, but that will be the only evidence that any living soul had been there. A day’s patrol gives us enough warning to prepare on the wall, but there hasn’t been anything to worry about since before I was born. There is the occasional run in with a tribe, but nothing more than a few dead soldiers and Mongols. And we get on… got on,” the captain shrugged, “well with the trading posts. Up till the refugees started flooding south there was nothing to worry about. We patrolled a little further out in the early days, but in the end we had to pull back to the wall just to handle the influx of folks. Truth be told, I didn’t reckon there would be as many folks as have turned up, on the whole of the plains. Anyway, the scouts were always more reliable.”

“Scouts? I have read the reports but not met one,” Haung said.

“Solitary fellows, scouts. They spend weeks out past the wall. Many used to leave reports in the villages to be collected by others or brought in by traders. You won’t meet many of them.”

“Thank you for the information. Do you think we could visit the village, the deserted one? I’d like to see what they look like and maybe get an idea of scale,” Haung asked.

“Scale? Have you seen the maps of the plains? Not worth the paper they’ve been drawn on. Nothing to map except the odd river, and there aren’t many of them, and the villages. We don’t even know what is on the other side of the plains. No one has made it all the way across and back again to tell us. We know more about the islands to the south and the east of the Empire.”

“But we can get to the village?”

“It is your patrol. I am only here to keep the soldiers in line.” The captain smiled at Haung. “I’ll get the men ready. You think you can get Master Gang back on his horse?”

“He got on it this morning without too many complaints,” Haung said.

“That’s only because you don’t speak horse, Captain Haung. His horse was complaining more than Master Gang throughout the whole of the ride this morning.” The captain walked off with a wave and began to shout at the men, gathering them together and explaining the route.