Phoenix

“I can carry her,” Liu Renqing says and reaches around me.

Feng Yu jumps first, and after waving for us to follow, Liu Renqing leaps off the edge. I scream involuntarily as we drop, downwards past the cliff wall. He jumps in a feat that defies gravity and should be impossible anywhere except in fiction, his feet dancing along the cliff edge to the cave mouth below, all while princess-carrying me. He releases me into Feng Yu’s arms as I stumble with weak legs when my feet touch the ground. Humans shouldn’t do this kind of thing. It’s scary!!

There is a deep rumble from inside the cave and air is pushed out, carrying the stench of burnt flesh and wet ashes. I put my sleeve over my face to block out the smell.

“Someone is still working down there,” I say.

“Or they left something to do the work for them,” Feng Yu adds.

“I can’t imagine they’ll let it unattended when they went to such lengths to cut us off,” Liu Renqing concludes.

I really, really don’t want to go into the cave. I can’t even express how much I don’t want to go into the cave. Everything about it screams mortal danger. I am not used to fighting and know even less about whatever kind of strange magic spells and rituals this world has going on. People turn into animals here! What am I supposed to do if someone like that jumps me??

“I’ll go ahead,” Liu Renqing says and actually goes ahead.

Why does everyone here have so much confidence? I guess if you’ve trained for this since your childhood and know the rules of engagement, it eliminates a lot of uncertainty, but still. Going ahead into the death cave? Feng Yu grabs my wrist and pulls me along. That’s my decision made, then. The stench gets worse as we progress, though there’s nothing amiss in the tunnel itself. It’s narrow, but there is only one, so at least we can’t lose our way. As the light fades, Feng Yu summons flames, which he carries floating over his hand like a lantern.

“I can feel something up ahead,” he says.

“Me too,” Liu Renqing confirms.

I dare to reach out once more. The cave is filled with the shimmering trail of the demons which possessed the animals and I can barely see the walls for how the air shines. Yet there is something more, up ahead. It shines… black. Like an absence of light. A large amount of magical energy is definitely concentrated there.

“There’s something big behind that corner.”

Liu Renqing signals for us to wait. His steps are so light I can’t even hear them. Then I realise that the whole cave is incredibly silent. There’s no sound except our own breathing, the rustle of our clothes. I watch Liu Renqing turn the corner and have to let go of my enhanced senses, since they unnerve me. There’s a long moment of silence, in which I hold my breath in anticipation.

“Come quickly!” he yells and we run.

Behind the corner is a large, circular room, all walls of which are plastered with handwritten talismans on red paper. In the middle, there are three large stones, which are as black as the night, around which dark blue mist swirls. In the middle between them, it forms a vortex, which turns faster and faster right in front of our eyes.

“If the monsters came from here, I don’t want to be here when this is reaching its conclusion,” Feng Yu says. “We should leave. Destroy the entrance to this place.”

He takes a few steps back and shouts in pain. There’s a flash of red light and Feng Yu stumbles forward once more.

“What happened?” I ask.

“It’s a trap… again…”

Liu Renqing swings his hand and a swell of water splashes against an invisible wall in the entrance to the chamber. He tests it with his sword, but the blade crashes against it as if it was a stone wall.

“Damn. We walked right into it.”

“Someone must have known we were coming here. There’s no way this would be as well timed otherwise,” Liu Renqing says and tries another attack against the wall, without visible result. The air flickers red briefly like a forcefield, only this is not a science fiction story. This is my life now.

My life, which might end in this cave.

“Did we alert them when we went up to the dam?” Liu Renqing asks.

“What dam? When? You two? Alone??” Feng Yu demands to know.

“I don’t think so. There was no indication. They couldn’t have known who we were,” I reply. “Could they?”

“Hello?” Feng Yu asks.

“But then where would they have gotten the information? What if there’s a mole…”

“Hello??”

“Hush, chicken,” Liu Renqing says and Feng Yu pouts adorably.

“We went to the dam below Yueji Lake to check it for hidden explosives. Unfortunately we found quite a lot,” I explain.

“Explosives??? What is happening?”

“Get down!” Liu Renqing yells and pulls both of us to the ground.

The whirlwind is getting stronger—magic energy swirling and swelling above our heads. The air becomes harder to breathe as it fills up with smoke. I put my sleeve over my face, but it doesn’t help much. Both of them flank me, each an arm around my back.

“We can’t let whatever this is go through,” Feng Yu shouts over the rising rush of the wind. It tears at my clothes and makes little stones fly, which hit me like projectiles, countless painful, small impacts. He grabs a whole handful of mahjong stones from his bag.

“Stay back!” he orders us and Liu Renqing draws me away under loud protest. Feng Yu throws the stones and activates them all at once. The cave is lit up like daylight as the fireball flies towards the formation and crashes into it. The flash as it impacts is so bright, it shines through my eyelids and I can’t see anything for several moments. I cower in Liu Renqing’s arms until the ringing in my ears fades and the world comes into view again.

“What was he thinking…” Liu Reqing murmurs. “Not much, as always, I assume.”

He helps me to my feet and we turn around… to see Feng Yu on the floor. But it’s not him in his human form. A large, red bird lies prone, unconscious, head at an unnatural angle. I fall to my knees to pick his head up, supporting it as well as I can. His feathers are fine and soft like fur, and his body is incredibly light for how large it is. He is still the size of a human, with a long neck and longer legs. He looks like a cross between a crane and a bird of paradise, with extremely long tail feathers. Nothing like I imagined when I heard the word phoenix, though his feathers are shimmering like they are burning embers.

“What happened?” I ask as I cradle his head protectively.

“He blew up the formation… He…” Liu Renqing’s voice is heavy. “His phoenix form should be unaffected by the fire of the explosion, but I don’t know what kind of energy was contained in this thing.”

I close my eyes and concentrate on the dragon qi within me. My centre of balance shifts as I feel the horns and tail materialise and even though they rip my clothes and unravel my hair, I don’t care. With both hands on Feng Yu’s body, I try to feel into it, like I did with Dai Qian. There’s a weak flow of genuine qi coursing through him, but also a second flow, more erratic. As I reach out, it bites back like an angry cat. Ah. So that’s what was in the formation.

“I will try to remove the curse or poison or whatever it is,” I say and Liu Renqing nods.

He’s kneeling on the other side of Feng Yu’s motionless body, looking at him like he’s losing a lover. I don’t even have time to be happy about that little fact. With a concentrated effort I push qi into his body, which I mentally order to chase the erratic parts that try to disrupt the even flow. At first, they play a game of chase, until my own energy manages to chase them towards me. As soon as the curse hits my hands, it disperses, and my palms start burning. I hiss in pain because it feels like touching a hot plate, fighting the urge to draw my hands back. Wait. My power is ice, isn’t it? Snowy crystals appear around my hands, melting immediately, the room filling up with water vapour. It still hurts, but it is bearable. Finally, the erratic energy is dissipated and all I can feel is a smooth flow. I fall back with a sigh, shifting back into human form as I do, so as to not crush the dragon tail. Liu Renqing walks around and sits down next to me to support me.

“Well done,” he commends me as he draws me into his arms.

I let myself be pulled, resting against him, eyes closed. We sit like this for a while, watching the fog settle on the ground, then vanish completely. With it, the stench and the smoke is gone and all I can smell is wet earth. The formation is broken, stones toppled. The paper on the walls is charred, burnt off. Whatever has been set here to summon another attack is neutralised.

“Footsteps,” Liu Renqing whispers into the silence.

I strain my ears. Yes. Footsteps in the tunnel. He gets up and draws his weapon, standing in front of Feng Yu and me, ready to defend. I tense, stand up to not be too good of a target. A figure rushes around the corner, a vision in white and red.

Zhu Chun.

“Thank heavens I found you,” she says. “What… what happened here?”

I can’t blame her for being confused. Everything in the chamber is destroyed, my clothes are ripped and Feng Yu… well, Feng Yu is a big bird.

“There was a formation here, but Feng Yu destroyed it in time. He is unconscious. Shimei could remove the remnants of the curse that jumped on to him,” Liu Renqing explains.

Zhu Chun’s posture relaxes as she looks around the room.

“On your end?”

“I fought until the remnants of the enemy fled. My people are badly injured. Two of them didn’t make it, but I stabilised the others. We need backup to get them back to Xiyang,” Zhu Chun says.

“I will go,” Liu Renqing replies. “I’m the least exhausted and can order the city guards to follow me back without arousing suspicion.”

“Alright. We’ll get your friend to the others up on the cliff and wait for you,” Zhu Chun agrees.

Liu Renqing nods and after leaning down to squeeze my shoulder in reassurance, then runs out of the chamber, out of sight. Zhu Chun kneels down next to me and takes my hand to feel my pulse.

“Er-jie… Are you alright?”

“I’m not badly injured. Just exhausted.”

“That’s good, but you shouldn’t strain yourself. The cleansing you performed on him is dangerous. The curse could’ve jumped over into you!”

What?? That’s the first I heard about this! Is that why Murong Zhiyu didn’t perform the cleaning on Dai Qian? Is it really that dangerous? Have I been playing Russian Roulette this whole time?

“I had to,” I say, once again half lying my way through this. “Feng Yu is very important to me.”

From Zhu Chun’s expression I can see that she’s drawing the wrong conclusion, but if that’s what convinces her to believe me, I don’t mind. She pats my arm.

“Alright. I’m just worried about my dear Er-jie. Do you think you can climb the cliff, or should I carry each of you one at a time?”

Since I don’t even believe it’s humanly possible to jump that high, I opt for the easy way out.

“I wouldn’t risk it right now.”

“Good, you shouldn’t. I will carry him up and then come back for you.”

I watch her pick up Feng Yu like he weighs nothing and follow her through the cave. Zhu Chun is smaller than me, more delicate, but she carries power and responsibility like any true commander I’ve ever seen in films or dramas. She’s inspiring and beautiful. Zhu Qiu should be proud to call her a sister.