We slept through the rest of the night, with me sleeping beside the Blackbirds. The attack had made it clear that the Dragon Claw would not willingly allow anyone to leave them.
The next morning, Ju-Mei successfully exorcised Lord Timur’s son. I wanted to begin with him: apart from helping the young man, freeing him would give his father good reason to support us. He was exhausted afterward, and Ju-Mei needed time to memorize the spell again. Meanwhile, we still had two Dragon Claw men imprisoned.
I considered releasing one prisoner and having Nar-Nuteng follow him invisibly. But he might first seek revenge on Chuluun or Timur’s son for leaving the Dragon Claw. I decided that the risk was too great.
Despite everything, we arranged a tournament for the Blackbirds, who had been looking forward to testing themselves. We settled on a round-robin format followed by finals. Lord Timur also showed us the beautiful bathing complex he had built beside the river: a hot bathing house, a sweat room, and the cool river itself. We could enjoy his hospitality, but I insisted that the prisoners remain guarded.
Back at the castle, one of the Dragon Claw prisoners was brought up. Ju-Mei attempted an exorcism, but the man reacted with extreme anger and violence. He broke free of his restraints and attacked Ju-Mei, injuring his face. The Emperor and I intervened. I still hoped that we could subdue the man and give Ju-Mei another chance to free him, but the struggle ended with the prisoner’s death.
That evening, the Emperor and I returned to the baths and found a private place together across the river. While we were there, the special cat returned. She waited until we were ready to speak with her.
This time she spoke Common. She told me that she was connected to an enormous magical cat, the Great Black Panther, though I am not entirely sure of the nature of their relationship. These magical cats also hate the Dragon Claw. She asked me to go to Balanzia and form a team to fight them.
I considered the journey, but the cat cared nothing about finding the Empress. To her, opposing the Dragon Claw mattered more than the lives of one woman and her son. I was not ready to abandon them.
When we returned to the castle, Ju-Mei went down to the cells and exorcised the remaining prisoner. This attempt went much better. Afterward, the man told us that he had seen the Empress and her son. They had been expelled from a village outside Xi’an along with a band of Dragon Claw followers and had continued toward Hanzhong.
After three days at Willow Crossing, we finally had a clear destination. We decided to leave immediately with a smaller group and search for them. I did not want my son coming with us. He was not yet strong enough to fight the Dragon Claw, and I would not put him in that danger.
Balanzia and the team the cat wanted me to assemble remained a larger mission for afterward. First, we would find the Empress and her son.
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