The Most Fortunate Khatun

Bo Jing led a triumphant but weary, slow march back to Banua. Alert as always, but relaxed, he let his horse choose its pace, with the others following. The air was fresh with the hint of coming spring.

Towards evening, the party noticed the glow of campfires among a large cluster of yurts. Approaching, they heard singing and laughter and smiled at each other, wondering if the people of the Bolad horde knew what good reason they had to celebrate. Zhang was wary but Batzorig urged his companions onwards. “I know the song they are singing from my earliest days. These are not howling beastmen, but good people, enjoying their birthright. And with our news, we will be most welcome surprise guests!”

But it was the guests who were most surprised. The feast was sumptuous, the music unending, the hosts most richly arrayed and the guests fully expected. The high host was a man in bright green clothes. He accompanied the musicians on a fiddle, danced with all the women, and joked with all the men. He was the King of the East. This feast was to celebrate his daughter Narantsetseg and perhaps to honor Bo-Jing as his son-in-law?

Bo-Jing married Narantsetseg and the feast continued over several nights and days. Each night, the King of the East asked one of Bo-Jing’s companions to re-tell the story of how they had come to the lands of the Cradle of Humanity (“that is the old name of what you call the Valley of Fires, four, five, six, how many fires?”) and their campaign against the Beastmen and defeat of their evil leader. And one evening, when he was talking to Bo-Jing next to a low fire, he asked, “I think you have something that belongs to me?”

And so Bo-Jing gave up another of the four coins, this time to one whose face matched that of the coin and the King responded with deep gratitude. “You have shown me that you are brave, honorable, and generous. All who meet you will see this in your face.”

The King restored Narantsetseg’s hearing and gave his blessing to Batzorig, thanking him for his kindness as her elder brother, and forgiving him for any unfortunate incidents along the way. He gave gifts of gold, fine new clothes and a suit of armor for Bo-Jing’s flying steed.

And so the heroes returned to Banua, coming from a feast instead of a battle. The attacks on the city had ended, and scouting parties had found no signs of bestmen for several days. And so the people of Banua, accepted Bo-Jing’s good news with satisfaction and also prepared to celebrate. There were several days of joyful gatherings, but the songs were bittersweet for the losses had been great.

Gaansukh opened the palace and set Bo-Jing upon his council chair. He was ready to retire. He had done his best to protect his people, but his failures were many and the rain of forgiveness does not fall inside a palace. He would go with a few of his closest advisors to the shrine at Sum Sakhius.

The people would select their Khan, but Bo-Jing had loved them as a tax collector, he had re-united the Naran horde, he had defeated their enemy. “Do you know I was once suspicious of you? But you are a man of bravery, honor, and generosity. And now I see it on your very face!”

And so the people of Bolad and Nergui, reunited as the Naran horde, called on Bo-Jing to be their Khan. The Emperor summoned Bo-Jing to Khanbaliq to recognize his khanship. He asked Bo-Jing to pledge his loyalty and named him protector of the Barrier Peaks. As long as Bo-Jing and the Naran would protect the Empire’s border, they would pay no Imperial taxes.

The Most Unfortunate Khatun: Part 3

Bo-Jing was an expert tracker, and the beastmen who had taken Narantsetseg made little effort to conceal their passage. For three days the companions and their warbands followed them northward, until the trail entered a dense, swampy thicket at the northern edge of the Naran horde's domain, where the lands of the recently reunited Bolad and Nergui hordes gave way to wilderness.

It was a place ill suited to an army. Thorny hedges tore at clothing and flesh, the mud stank of decay, and a thick reddish mist hung over the stagnant ground. The allied horsemen could go no farther. Bo-Jing and Tetsukichi therefore left the warbands behind to secure their retreat and entered the thicket with together with the powerful sorcerers Bangqiu, Hyamsam, and Salt and a small company of trusted companions. Salt, the young shaman whose magical powers had already grown considerably, was accompanied by Nekhil, her bodyguard, always ready to stand between the shaman and enemies who came too close. Mustapha, one of Tetsukichi's trusted retainers and a skilled illusionist, also joined the company.

The swampy thicket resisted them at every turn. They fought several small bands of beastmen before finally reaching its fetid heart. There they discovered the purpose for which Narantsetseg had been taken.

More than a hundred beastmen and other corrupted creatures crowded around a clearing. At its center Narantsetseg lay chained upon a black altar. Above her stood the Beast Master, one of the Master's lieutenants who had led the siege against Banua, dressed in black robes and holding a ritual knife above her body. Three witches chanted beside him. Around them the beastmen took up the chant until the entire thicket seemed to pulse with their voices.

Behind the altar stood a grotesque blue-black image of a horned demon, glowing faintly from within. Above it all, thick clouds have been drawn into the rite: clouds twisted into a vast blood-red vortex, while the reddish vapor rose ever thicker from the swamp.

The companions remained concealed at the edge of the clearing and quickly devised a plan. Bangqiu and the others rendered Bo-Jing and Tetsukichi invisible. Mustapha then conjured the appearance of a large attacking force emerging from the opposite side of the thicket.

The deception worked. Scores of beastmen rushed away from the altar to meet enemies who did not exist, while Bo-Jing's retainers sent arrows into their confused ranks. Yet the Beast Master and his witches did not abandon the ceremony. Their chanting continued.

Invisible, Bo-Jing crossed the clearing and struck the Beast Master without warning, wounding him grievously. Tetsukichi appeared beside him and held the three witches at bay while Bo-Jing pressed his attack. Even under the flashing strokes of Bo-Jing's swords, the Beast Master struggled desperately to continue the rite.

He received little aid from his witches. Salt, Bangqiu, and Hyamsam unleashed their magic upon them from the edge of the clearing. When two of the witches fell, Tetsukichi turned from the last of them and joined Bo-Jing against the Beast Master. Caught between two of the finest swordsmen of their generation, the Master's lieutenant finally fell beneath a flurry of blows.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then something happened that none of the companions understood.

A green-golden wind swept suddenly across the thicket. The blood-red clouds tore apart above them. The foul mist vanished. Wherever the wind passed, the beastmen and the other creatures gathered for the sacrifice disappeared in a blinding flash of fire, leaving neither pursuit nor battle behind them.

Bo-Jing remembered little of what followed. When his senses returned, the red sky was gone, the thicket had fallen strangely quiet, and Narantsetseg's chains no longer bound her.

She was alive.

And somehow, he found her safe in his arms.

Siege of Banua Day 4: Bangqiu rescues Naransetseg

It was easy to follow the fresh tracks of the Nergui refugees. It was also easy to note the fresher tracks of a huge number of beastmen. These tracks stayed with those of the refugees, an ominous confirmation of Bo-Jing’s theory that Naransetseg was still alive and still being pursued.

Seeing no other way to reach the Nergui refugees before the beastmen did, Bangqiu took the form of a falcon and soared into the sky.

Bangqiu quickly pulled away from Bo-Jing, Batzorig, Nar-Nuteng, Ryu, and the rest of the war band. Before long he had reached the horde of beastmen, which had half-encircled the Nergui encampment.

There was no fighting.

Instead, a group of wizened men wearing red caps and wielding long, barbed swords were parlaying with a number of Nergui warriors. Naransetseg was clearly the chief point of negotiation. She stood alone on a small mound, eyes darting and hands twitching, at once terrified and terrifying, like a small animal ready to fight for its life.

The Nergui spearmen surrounding her—at a distance—were guarding her in both senses of the word, protecting her while preventing her escape.

Bangqiu soared higher into the sky until he was directly above Naransetseg. Then he resumed human form, using his enchanted levitation boots to break the impact his free fall. He gave her a secret sign to persuade her that he meant no harm. Then he swept her up, cloaked them both in a thick cloud, and used his boots to carry them back into the gloomy sky.

Enraged, the beastmen attacked the Nergui spearmen and refugees.

That evening and deep into the night, Bangqiu summoned all his natural athleticism simply to hold onto Naransetseg while his boots kept them suspended high in the thin air. Naransetseg clung tightly to him with her arms and legs, her tears mixing with the stinging rain on both their faces.

Below them came the terrible sounds of battle and slaughter.

A steady wind from the east carried them toward the mountains guarding the Valley of the Five Fires. When Bangqiu was certain they were far from the battle and the marauding beastmen, he lowered them toward a grassy mountain slope.

Reaching solid ground, they collapsed into exhausted sleep.

By the time Bo-Jing and the war band reached the remains of the Nergui camp, the few survivors they encountered were too traumatized to explain much of what had happened. The “deaf witch” had disappeared, and the beastmen had taken vengeance by killing everyone they could before scattering to the four winds.

Batzorig searched among the survivors for any word of his sister, but none could tell him what had become of her.

Bo-Jing thanked the survivors and urged them to return with him to Banua. Many had little desire to return to the town they had so recently fled, but Bo-Jing promised them his personal protection and convinced a number of them to come with him.

As Bo-Jing would learn later, one of the four winds brought a group of beastmen, yeti, and fanged flying stags north to Banua.

They attacked in a series of poorly organized, desperate raids.

Ganbaatar invited all noncombatants to take refuge within the inner walls. Archers lined the outer walls and targeted the beastmen as they charged through the broken gate.

The beastmen destroyed property and killed animals, but found few human victims in the outer town. Nor could they reach the inner town.

Although the gates had been destroyed by the giant demon-badger during the siege, the pit it had created was nearly impassable. A line of brave warriors armed with spears waited on the far side, turning the ruined gateway into a death trap for the attacking beastmen and yeti.

Most dangerous to Banua were the flying stags. They simply passed over the ruined defenses and descended from the sky.

Fortunately for Banua, Ganbaatar had one defender he had not counted upon.

From whatever shadows had lately occupied him, the mercurial magician Hyamsam emerged to defend his adopted home.

Magic missiles streaked into the flying monsters.

A ball of fire exploded among them.

Then Hyamsam engulfed another group in a cloud of scalding steam.

Several of the flying beasts fell dead into Banua.

The rest fled.

By the time Bo-Jing had returned to the battered city, Banua had survived yet another assault.

And somewhere in the mountains overlooking the Valley of the Five Fires, Bangqiu and Naransetseg slept exhausted on the wet grass, separated from their companions and unaware of what their escape had set in motion.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 05 (First Khazu-Kala and then Banua)

Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, and Salt decided they would go to Khazu Kala. Expecting a difficult battle, Bo-Jing ordered that they make a comfortable camp and rest for a couple days, giving their wounds a chance to heal. 

And so, by the time they reached Khazu Kala, the battle was all but over. A single wizened creature, wielding a rusty wicked sword, stood surrounded by a dozen Nergui warriors—and also dozens of corpses. Bo-Jing, riding on Ses-Hami, arrived by air and Bo-Jing attacked the strange fiend with a flying leap. With his fiery sword, Bo-Jing dispatched his foe and won the admiration of the Nergui. 

Gansukh was dead and his name had the taste of ashes. His duplicity had brought his own death, the deaths of his loyal bodyguards, the deaths of the people who depended on him. With little argument, the survivors of the attack, both the warriors and the people, agreed they would join Bo-Jing. Yes, even in rejoining the Bolad horde in Banua.

It took three days to arrive within sight of Banua and the arrival was not a cause for celebration, but another serving of hardship. For the proud city of the steppe was surrounded by an army of beastmen, dragons, and monsters. Bo-Jing himself cursed bitterly at how the pettiness of Gansukh had brought such horror among the people he had agreed to protect. But Salt would not allow her friend the luxury of despair. She directed his gaze from his foes to the people who now trusted him. With courage and faith, he could bring these people into Banua. Reuniting the people of Bolad and Nergui did not guarantee their survival but preserved their hopes for another day.

Bangqiu became invisible and rose into the air, surveying the enemy camps, and determined the safest route to the city. Bo Jing received the information and led the way. The Nergui warriors formed two files around their families and herds. They raised their swords and shouted as they approached, making themselves appear to be another war-band arriving to join the assault on Banua. The beastmen accepted the deception, cheering as the Nergui passed through their lines. Bangqiu, invisible, flew into the city and alerted the defenders to the ruse. When the gates were opened, Salt and Bangqiu blasted the band of beastmen who tried to join the people of Nergui. The unarmed people passed into the city. Bo-Jing and the warriors stayed to defend their entry, warding off more attacking beastmen. Only when the innocents had entered the city did the warriors follow. Bo-Jing entered last of all and the gates were closed.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 04 (The truth about Batzorig's sister)

Npi-Nhut and the other khimoris thanked Bo-Jing for his assistance. They promised to keep watch over the valley and alert him to any more incursions. And, as a further sign of appreciation, Ses-Hami would accompany him as he made his way to Khazu Kala. Bo-Jing was especially grateful for the khimori’s assistance as a scout and promised his father to not expose him to unnecessary danger.

The company made their way out of the valley, Ses-Hami sometimes scouting ahead when they reached likely ambush points. They reached the watch fire of the Nergui horde and were given a cold welcome. The soldiers shrugged off Salt’s questions about the beastmen and rather than share their ger, sent the guests to sleep among the firewood. 

The company, still including the eight men from the Worm Clan, departed early the next morning and not far from the edge of the valley, heard the sounds of battle. Drawing closer, they found a Nergui encampment under attack by beastmen. Bangqiu broke the beastmen’s charge with a wall of fire then levitated above them to blast them with a cloud of steam. Salt cast her magic missiles and the few stragglers were cut down by Bo-Jing and his men.

The families in the camp offered thanks and, recognizing Bo-Jing’s status as a local baghatur, pledged their loyalty to him and the Emperor. They shared a meal and, though hesitant at first, voiced their discontent with Gansukh. Many had avoided Khazu Kala, waiting for a sign. Over the course of the meal, as they listened to the grim tales of the Worm Clan, they began to believe that Bo-Jing was that sign. The invaders welcomed by Gansukh were worse than they had feared. If anyone could rally resistance against the armies of the mysterious “Master,” it was Bo-Jing.

Among the group were three skilled archers and a retired officer from Gansukh’s army. They vowed to support Bo-Jing when the time came, though their first duty remained to their families.

Later that day, Ses-Hami alerted Bo-Jing to another camp under attack. Bo-Jing and Bangqiu again led the counterattack. Several warriors from the camp joined the fight, and one of them proved to be Batzorig—formerly Gansukh’s right hand, and brother to Gansukh’s khatun, Naransetseng.

After the battle, Salt warned Batzorig that Naransetseng was in special danger: the beastmen had been searching for her among the Worm Clan.

Batzorig’s scarred face went soft. His lip quivered. He nodded, then shared his story.

“I overheard Gansukh speaking with a stranger. At first, I thought it was another black shaman—someone after her necklace. But I listened more closely. The man didn’t want the necklace. He wanted Naransetseng.”

As trust in Gansukh eroded, many people of Khazu Kala made secret plans to flee. Batzorig had persuaded his sister to join them. He remained behind, pretending ignorance—a role Gansukh accepted, perhaps too willingly.

“It was easy. My brother-in-law was afraid of her, and he avoided her. But then... the stranger returned. He brought half-man monsters. And suddenly Gansukh demanded I bring her to him.”

Batzorig stalled. He told Gansukh that Naransetseng had gone to visit their mother’s grave—three days west of the city. Gansukh had raged. And then he had despaired. The stranger promised to return.

“That was four days ago. I stayed close, in case Gansukh needed me. Because... he’s my khan.”

Batzorig turned to Salt, Bo-Jing, and Bangqiu.

“My sister is deaf, but she is not a witch. She’s the daughter of the King of the East. When we were children, my mother was alone—my father and uncles were at war. One day, a man came to our camp. He wore green and played the fiddle. He helped my mother... stayed with her... and then Naransetseng was born. Before my father returned, the man left, but he gave her a necklace.”

He looked down at his hands.

“She was beautiful. She believed our father—the man who raised her—was the squat, scarred soldier who came home from war. An ugly man, look at me, my face was his face! And he loved my beautiful sister more than anything. More than me, I think. She was not deaf when she was born.”

Then, almost in a whisper:

“But the stranger... he knows who she really is. That’s why he wants her.”

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 03 (Not the coin they were looking for)

Over the next few days, the party was joined by the remnants of the Khimori herd—Npi-Nhut, Ses-Hami, and only three others. Then they were attacked by the lion-eagle creatures. These beasts were fearless and seemed driven by hunger. They targeted the party’s extra horses, swiftly killing two and carrying them off.

Salt reacted immediately. Bo-Jing had given her a magic wand, and she used it to unleash an explosive ball of fire as the creatures fled. Those not killed were forced to land. Bo-Jing and his men galloped after them, fighting with arrows and swords. The brave warriors were grappled by talons and slashed by claws, but they defended each other and killed the monsters.

The Khimori expressed their gratitude, praising the party for slaying enemies they had come close to believing were insurmountable. Ses-Hami examined the bodies and told Bo-Jing he believed six more remained—including one that was invisible except when attacking. Bo-Jing assured Ses-Hami that he and his company would remain in the valley until the threat was eliminated.

Bangqiu then suggested that while ranging over the northern end of the valley, they should search for the Northern Coin. Bo-Jing agreed. Following Erke’s earlier hints and their own knowledge of the valley, they located an enormous horse statue, which they reasoned must represent the King of the North. Bangqiu climbed it. Following the statue’s line of sight, he spotted a high cliff to the north, pockmarked with caves. From this vantage point, he also saw figures moving outside—possibly human, possibly animal, likely something in between. The company decided to rest and approach the cliffs the next day.

While resting, they kept a close eye on the figures. The next day, they climbed to the cliffs and encountered a group of beastmen, clearly agitated but held in check by a robed man—Erke, the mysterious traveler they’d met in Khanbaliq. He greeted them like old friends, apologizing for having left Banua without them.

“I didn’t know when you’d return. And as you can see—I found some new partners!”

Erke explained that, with the beastmen’s help, he’d located several tunnels, one of which surely held the Northern Coin.

“Unfortunately, these are the breeding grounds of the crimson death worm. Watch your step—or your last breath will be a cry of agony!”

Beastmen from the Clan of Worm tapped their crimson shields and laughed.

Erke added that most of the beastmen had died exploring.

“They almost never watch their step...”

Salt found the beastmen unsettling. Their musky odor was overpowering, and they stared at her with bloodshot eyes and drooling fangs, whimpering when Erke shouted at them in a harsh metallic tongue. Their glowing marks oozed blood and pus as they scratched at them.

Erke pointed out the tunnels he had explored and suggested sending in the beastmen first to draw out the worms.

“Your men can shoot them—the worms—before they shock us. And if all the beastmen die, we won’t have to pay them. Speaking of payment, I’m working for the Emperor. He expects the coin, but we’ll all be well rewarded.”

Bangqiu and Salt rejected this at once. Salt didn’t believe Erke. Bangqiu didn’t care.

“We don’t work for the Emperor,” Bangqiu said. “If we find the coin, I want it.”

As they argued, Erke lost control of the beastmen, and they attacked with fury. Erke pulled a potion from his robes. As his body sublimated into a blue-green cloud, Salt fired a ball of flame from her wand. The cloud evaporated and two beastmen were incinerated. The rest attacked.

At that moment, a screech from above heralded another assault. The lion-eagles returned. As the Khimori took to the sky, the beasts targeted the party’s horses. Bo-Jing and his soldiers outnumbered the beastmen, who fought with a death-wish. Four horses were killed before Salt and Bangqiu drove off the lion-eagles with magic, killing one.

Knowing another attack could come from any direction, the party set camp with many watchers.

After a day of rest, Bo-Jing and Salt chose to explore the tunnels. The Worm Clan refused to follow.

“The death worm is our totem,” they said. “We must warn you—if molested, it will defend itself with poison, needles, lightning... But if it spares you, so will we.”

Bo-Jing promised to avoid unnecessary violence, believing the coin could help in the war against the Master. Bangqiu chose to remain outside to guard the horses—and to keep an eye on the Worm Clan.

Bo-Jing, his men, Ryu, and Salt ventured into the tunnels. The warnings proved accurate. Gan-Yul was bitten and his leg swelled painfully, but he survived. The party cleared the path with long poles, using rocks to kill worms from a distance. Most effective, however, was Ryu’s snake staff. As a giant python, it drove out the worms, crushing and devouring them. Even when bitten repeatedly, it endured, only reverting to staff form when finally overcome.

The nest they found covered an older, human-made tunnel. After crossing a chasm, they entered a small chamber. A bronze coffer rested on a stone pedestal. Though small enough to hold, it was too heavy to lift. Bo-Jing summoned all his strength to knock it off. Something clattered inside.

From his pack, Bo-Jing retrieved a bottle of vinegar he’d found in Khanbaliq. While his men gagged, he drank it down and, with a great shout, smashed the coffer open. Inside was a dull metal disk, possibly pewter, with four doves flying in a circle—no symbols, no writing. Ryu read the accompanying scrap of paper:

“Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”

Outside, Npi-Nhut approached Bo-Jing with a plan. He believed Bo-Jing was honorable, but the lion-eagles would return. Many more horses—and people—might die. The Khimori couldn’t fight effectively while carrying riders, but Npi-Nhut was willing to make an exception. Each would carry one fighter into the aerie.

Bo-Jing agreed. Ryu volunteered. Bo-Jing chose Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren. A dilemma arose over whether to take Zhang or Gan-Yul—Salt resolved it by volunteering herself. Npi-Nhut approved, noting her uncanny timing in battle.

They flew by moonlight. Salt pressed her face into Npi-Nhut’s mane. Bo-Jing, riding behind Npi-Nhut on Ses-Hami, held tight, his legs aching. At dawn, they reached the southwest cliffs.

Npi-Nhut signaled. The Khimori circled, then dove. Two lion-eagles were visible. As Npi-Nhut feinted, the others dropped their riders. Bo-Jing landed on one, severing its wing. Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren flanked the other. Ryu landed and released his snake staff.

Salt remained airborne. The wounded lion-eagle screeched. Two more emerged—and then the invisible one struck Bo-Jing, pinning and slashing him. Salt blasted it with bolts of energy. Bo-Jing tracked it by claw marks and gusts of air, striking again and again.

Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren killed one, but struggled with the next. Ryu’s snake immobilized it long enough for Gan-Wei to finish it. Ryu healed Yi-Ren, then joined the fight with his staff. Salt hit the invisible foe with magic again.

It screeched and flew—Salt bathed it in violet light, revealing it to the archers. Struck by arrows, it dove. Ses-Hami chased it to the ground. Though wounded by its talons, he threw it off, then pounded its head with his hooves. The others arrived to find the final beast dead.

Back in the aerie, Bo-Jing found a fine sword among the bones and gave it to Gan-Wei.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 02 (Into the Valley)

The party returned to Banua and shared news of their success at Sum Sukhis. Ganbaatar was thoroughly pleased and announced a small feast in their honor.

The celebration was muted, however, by the growing evidence that their recent triumph, however symbolically important, had done little to address the danger now gathering around them.

The population of Banua had noticeably increased during the weeks Bo-Jing and his company had been away. The most obvious newcomers were members of the Bolad horde returning to the seat of their khan, as was their right. But more and more of the new arrivals were refugees from the Nergui horde.

They were not soldiers.

They were families. Widows. Children.

Ganbaatar called them his “long-lost people returned,” deliberately striking a tone of generosity rather than conquest. Clearly, Gansukh had not been able to defend his people as well as Ganbaatar.

But an uncomfortable question hung over Banua.

Would “better than Gansukh” prove to be good enough?

Bo-Jing discussed the matter with Ryu and came to the one obvious conclusion. As an Imperial baghatur, he was not Ganbaatar’s man and he was not a partisan of the Bolad horde. His commission might have brought him north to collect taxes, but it also gave him responsibilities to the people of the frontier, Bolad and Nergui alike.

He would go to Khazu Kala.

He would make peace with Gansukh if possible and, regardless of whether he succeeded, find some way to bring help to the people there. If he could not organize a defense himself, he would gather enough information to make a compelling report to the Imperial authorities.

The mysterious Salt had also found her way to Banua.

Bo-Jing suspected that Bangqiu had somehow contacted her through the dreamworld. Regardless, he was glad to have the advice of another magician before confronting the armies of the “Master.”

Another newcomer also volunteered to join them.

Nekhil was a wandering warrior with a poor horse, shabby leather armor, and little besides his spear. His explanation was simple.

Every shaman deserved a bodyguard.

Salt, apparently finding nothing unusual in this arrangement, accepted his protection. Bo-Jing welcomed Nekhil into the company.

Nar-Nuteng, however, made a different choice. She respected the customs of her people and the ancient taboo against entering the Valley of the Five Fires. She would remain in Banua.

And so Bo-Jing departed with Bangqiu, Salt, Ryu, Nekhil, and the usual members of his retinue.

En route to the lands of the Nergui, they encountered a khimori—a blue-black flying horse—who introduced himself as Ses-Hami, son of Npi-Nhut, the khimori Bo-Jing had previously met in the Valley of the Five Fires.

Ses-Hami brought grim news.

The Valley had been invaded by evil creatures who defiled the cradle of humanity with wanton bloodshed. They fought one another, killed animals, and set the grasslands ablaze.

At first, the khimori had been able to avoid the danger simply by taking flight.

Then the land-bound monsters were joined by flying abominations: lions with the heads and enormous razor-sharp beaks of eagles.

These creatures could pursue the khimori into the sky.

Several of the herd had already been killed. Without assistance, Ses-Hami feared the rest would soon be eliminated.

Bo-Jing immediately promised to help.

That night, however, he slept badly.

He had been traveling toward Khazu Kala because frightened people needed him. Now he had promised aid to the khimori as well. Every detour carried a cost, and Bo-Jing found himself wondering whether the promise he had just made might eventually be paid for in human lives.

By morning, he had reached a decision.

Helping the khimori might also help the people of Khazu Kala. If nothing else, entering the Valley would teach him something about the creatures causing such havoc throughout the northern frontier.

The company turned toward the Valley of the Five Fires.

On the approach, they passed through the Bolad fire camp that guarded one of the traditional entrances.

It had been completely destroyed.

Every firewatcher was dead.

Bo-Jing and his companions crossed into the Valley.

There they encountered a group of haggard soldiers carrying crimson shields.

The strangers reacted with open joy and relief at the sight of other natural people. They identified themselves as warriors of the Clan of the Worm and told a story much like the ones Bo-Jing had already heard elsewhere.

Their lands had been overrun by beastmen.

The creatures attacked without reason or apparent purpose except for their obsessive search for two people they called the “deaf witch” and the “queen with no name.”

Circumstances had become so desperate that the Worm Clan warriors had broken the taboo against entering the Valley of the Five Fires. Their plan was to cross it, warn their treaty-partners among the Nergui, and begin organizing a common defense.

Bo-Jing thanked them for the warning and agreed that all people threatened by the invaders would need to stand together.

He believed the “deaf witch” might be Naransetseg, wife of Gansukh, khan of the Nergui horde.

He intended to accompany the Worm Clan warriors toward the Nergui lands.

But first, he had made a promise to the khimori.

The men of the Worm Clan asked to travel with him. They had seen enough already to recognize in Bo-Jing a true baghatur of courage and honor.

Bo-Jing welcomed their help gladly.

Not long afterward, the enlarged company encountered several of the beastmen the Worm Clan had described.

What they saw was worse than expected.

These did not appear to be creatures born as beasts. Beneath the claws, fangs, and strange tattoos were recognizably human bodies caught in the midst of some agonizing transformation.

The creatures were fearsome opponents.

Bangqiu and Salt struck first, blasting them with scalding steam and other magic. Those who survived were swiftly cut down by Bo-Jing and his men.

The Worm Clan warriors pledged their gratitude for having been accepted into such valiant company.

Some time later, Ses-Hami approached Bo-Jing privately.

There was something he had not told him.

His father, Npi-Nhut, had been captured by the beastmen.

The creatures had offered Ses-Hami a bargain: deliver Bo-Jing to them, and they would spare his father.

After traveling with Bo-Jing, Ses-Hami had come to understand that he was not merely formidable but honorable. And he knew his father would rather die than purchase his freedom with the betrayal of such a man.

Ses-Hami also knew where the enemy was waiting.

The beastmen and other monsters had prepared an ambush along the main path into the Valley, expecting Bo-Jing to pass beneath them.

But Ses-Hami knew another route.

A narrow path through the forest climbed even higher than the ambush point.

If Bo-Jing agreed, they could approach the enemy from above, rescue Npi-Nhut, and turn the ambush against those who had prepared it.

Bo-Jing agreed immediately.

Ses-Hami led the company through the forest and eventually to the crest of a steep grassy slope overlooking the main path below.

The khimori had spoken the truth.

A group of beastmen and three trolls waited above the path. They had assembled a great mass of rubble, held in place by logs and ropes, ready to be released onto anyone passing beneath them.

Nearby, Npi-Nhut stood chained to a rock.

Three enormous wolves guarded him.

Bangqiu rose into the air.

From above, he cast down a ring of fire around the would-be ambushers. The flames expanded, trapping the beastmen and trolls inside.

The Worm Clan warriors loosed arrows into the surrounded enemy.

The wolves charged uphill.

Bo-Jing ordered his men to concentrate their arrows on the animals while he stepped forward, sword ready, to meet whatever survived.

Salt added her own magic to the volley.

Two of the wolves fell before reaching the company.

Only one reached Bo-Jing.

He killed it with a single blow.

Below, the ambushers tried desperately to escape Bangqiu’s burning prison. Some were consumed by the flames. Others managed to break free and charge uphill, only to be overwhelmed by Bo-Jing and his men as they reached the crest.

Soon the monsters were dead.

Bo-Jing’s company had turned an ambush into a complete victory.

And not one of them had fallen.

Npi-Nhut was freed from his chains.

He confirmed his son’s account and expressed pride in Ses-Hami’s choice.

The elder khimori announced that he would gather the surviving members of the herd. With Bo-Jing’s permission, they too would join the growing company as it continued its campaign through the Valley.

Bo-Jing agreed.

The party that had entered the Valley seeking information was becoming something else.

Everywhere they went, survivors were choosing to follow.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 01 (Cleansing the Shrine of Sum Sakhius)

After their adventures in Khanbaliq, the company returned to their house in the city and allowed themselves a couple days of rest. There were long baths, good meals, and few responsibilities beyond deciding when to leave.

But then, one afternoon, Bo-Jing announced that they would depart the following morning. He was eager to return to his official post at Banua—and equally eager to leave Khanbaliq before the Emperor found some new reason to summon him to court.

Bangqiu used the quiet interval to send a thought-message to Kafka in the Happy Valley. The Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, he reported, was now free of the slavers and corrupt monks who had been using it as their stronghold. It should be suitable for reconsecration and occupation by genuine monks, although there remained certain practical difficulties involving ants and a badly neglected sewage system.

The company set out the next morning: Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, Nar-Nuteng, Ryu—Bo-Jing’s spiritual adviser, an adherent of the Two-Fold Path—and the rest of Bo-Jing’s retinue.

As they traveled north, Bo-Jing and Bangqiu discovered that their reputations increasingly preceded them. Where there was no inn, someone found them a snug house. Where there was no house, there was an encampment around a roaring fire, the smell of roasting meat, and a crowd of smiling faces.

Mostly, people wanted to hear about the coin Bo-Jing and Ganbaatar had presented to the Emperor. Where had they found it? What powers did it possess? What would the Emperor do with it? Would Bo-Jing now be rewarded with marriage to an Imperial daughter?

Others had heard about the feud with Gansukh and the Nergui horde. Some knew rumors of Bangqiu’s magic.

And nearly everywhere there seemed to be one or two young men eager to test themselves against the bright-eyed warrior maiden traveling in Bo-Jing’s company. Nar-Nuteng rarely declined the challenge.

Bo-Jing and Bangqiu, meanwhile, had begun thinking seriously about finding another of the ancient coins.

Along the road they met a mystic named Erke, who claimed to travel through the Valley of the Five Fires in the dreamworld. There, he said, he had heard a rumor concerning the Northern Coin.

“The horse of Khagan Harad still looks for his master.”

It was little enough to go on, but Bo-Jing invited Erke to travel with them.

Farther north, the welcomes remained warm, but the questions changed.

People were hearing stories from the western lands: men losing themselves to the minds of beasts, surrendering to hunger, rage, lust, and fear until little remained of the men they had once been. There were still occasional jokes about the barbaric habits of the Nergui horde, but most understood that this was something different.

Now, instead of asking for stories of Imperial treasure, people wanted reassurance.

Was it true that Bo-Jing and Bangqiu had fought wolves, giants, and flying monsters?

Had they really led men against the Master’s creatures?

And if those creatures came again, would they fight them again?

Yes, Bo-Jing told them.

They would.

By the time the company reached Banua, thoughts of the Northern Coin had begun to seem less urgent.

Ganbaatar greeted them with relief.

“So thankful you decided to leave the good life in the capital and return to little old Banua.”

He had already forbidden his people to travel west into Nergui lands. The stories coming from that direction were too disturbing, and Ganbaatar believed the Master’s beastmen might already be moving east.

But another report troubled him even more.

The shrine of Sum Sukhis had been defiled.

The shrine lay several days northeast of Banua, and Ganbaatar considered it the true jewel of his lands.

“A holy place for all people,” he told them. “No matter your faith, anyone who went there with an open heart came away with peace and joy.”

Until now.

Pilgrims had disappeared. Others had abandoned their journeys after finding themselves increasingly uneasy as the shrine’s stupa came into view.

Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, and Nar-Nuteng agreed readily to investigate. Ryu and several of Bo-Jing’s other associates went with them.

Erke declined.

He would remain in Banua and await their return.

The journey to Sum Sukhis took several days. At first they still encountered shepherds, travelers, and small settlements. As they drew nearer to the shrine, the country became steadily emptier.

Eventually they met a hermit who told them something of Sum Sukhis’s strange history. The shrine had been deliberately constructed in three levels: an upper story, a ground floor built around a sacred pool, and beneath them an underground level that had always been closed to pilgrims.

The design, the hermit explained, expressed a truth about the world.

Peace and holiness did not exist because evil was absent.

They existed because evil was continually resisted.

Now blue and purple oni had taken the shrine. They attacked pilgrims, desecrated the holy place, and filled its former silence with violence.

On the day the company finally reached Sum Sukhis, they encountered two of the creatures before they even entered.

The ten-foot-tall blue-skinned monsters were trying to knock down a tree in which an eagle had built her nest.

Bangqiu and Ryu used their magic to transfix the oni, sending them crashing rigidly to the ground. The eagle immediately descended and began pecking at one monster’s eyes, carrying bits of flesh back to her chicks.

Examining the bodies, Bo-Jing noticed something unsettling. Both oni were covered with large pus-filled sores and bloody boils.

Ryu spoke with the eagle. She told him that the monsters lived in the “quiet stone house.”

They had, she said, “taken the silence away” with fighting and screaming.

Inside the shrine, the party found the sacred pool just as the hermit had described it. Nearby, a staircase descended below ground.

At the foot of the stairs stood two oni guarding a closed door, their backs toward the party.

Bangqiu addressed them in their own language and in his most commanding voice.

He had come from the Master, he announced, and required a full report.

The guards immediately became defensive. They insisted that they were faithfully carrying out the Master’s orders. They were guarding the place as commanded.

But something underground was making everyone sick.

Most of the oni wanted to leave.

The chief would not allow it.

Bangqiu informed them that he would speak with the chief immediately.

The guards obligingly escorted the visitors back upstairs.

The other oni seemed almost pleased by the novelty of guests. Bo-Jing, displaying both his sword and the power of the Eastern Coin, helped persuade them that the strangers were powerful allies of the Master.

The creatures were violent, certainly, but not in any organized way. Their aggression came and went in bursts, sometimes directed at the visitors and just as often at one another.

At one point, apparently on a whim and perhaps hoping to entertain their guests, two oni seized a third and threw him over a balcony into the sacred pool below.

All of them bore the same sores and lesions.

The chief was less welcoming.

By the time Bo-Jing and his companions entered his quarters, they found themselves surrounded by a dozen enormous creatures. The chief himself was suspicious and openly hostile.

Bo-Jing acted first.

Calling upon the power of the Eastern Coin, he spoke a single sharp command.

The chief collapsed, motionless.

For a moment, the oni stared.

Then one of them lunged for the fallen chief’s yak-skin cloak and wrapped it around his shoulders.

“I am the new chief!”

Another immediately challenged him.

Within seconds the room dissolved into a brawl.

Somewhere in the confusion, Bangqiu made the cloak disappear.

It took the oni a little while to notice.

When they did, their outrage turned once again toward the visitors.

Bangqiu had already vanished from sight.

Invisible, he climbed outside through a window and called down to them.

“The chief’s cloak is outside! Whoever reaches it first will become the new chief!”

To prove the claim, he allowed the cloak to become visible and dropped it to the ground.

The oni crowded at the window. They considered jumping, but even oni could recognize a bad idea when staring down from sufficient height, and instead began shoving one another toward the stairs and over the balcony.

By the time they reached the ground, the cloak had vanished again.

A short distance away, it reappeared.

The oni charged after it.

Then it vanished once more.

While Bangqiu led the shrine’s occupants farther and farther away in pursuit of their wandering symbol of authority, Bo-Jing and the others slipped out.

Near the exit they encountered two oni unlike any they had yet seen.

Disease had transformed them almost beyond recognition. Their swollen skin had stretched into a pale, sickly violet. Most of their teeth were gone. Their bodies were a mass of sores.

They attacked without fear and with almost no regard for their own survival.

When Bo-Jing and his companions cut them down, it seemed less like defeating enemies than releasing creatures that had already been destroyed.

The party exchanged grim looks.

Then Bo-Jing led them back downstairs.

The door the oni had been guarding had been smashed open.

Beyond it, the company found more diseased creatures and put them down.

And then they found the source.

Deep beneath Sum Sukhis rested a boulder of black stone nearly as massive as the shrine above it. Sickly purple light pulsed within it like a heartbeat.

Almost immediately, their skin began to itch.

Their thoughts changed.

Anger came easily. Suspicion seemed reasonable. Cruel impulses arrived with the seductive simplicity of common sense.

They withdrew and continued exploring.

Nearby they discovered two chambers whose walls were covered in unfamiliar writing. The moment they entered, the oppressive feeling lifted. Touching the inscriptions brought an extraordinary sense of peace.

Bo-Jing could not read the characters, but they reminded him of writing he had seen in Bangqiu’s books.

The party left the shrine and made camp outside, waiting for Bangqiu to return from his successful campaign to establish the yak-skin cloak somewhere else on the northern frontier.

When he finally rejoined them, they told him what they had discovered.

Together they entered Sum Sukhis once more.

Bangqiu could indeed read the writing.

As he spoke the words aloud, a profound calm settled over them.

When they returned to the chamber of the black stone, they discovered that something had changed. A gentle yellow radiance now surrounded the enormous boulder. Its purple light still pulsed within, but the corruption no longer touched them.

They could stand beside it without feeling their minds turn against them.

The evil had not been destroyed.

It had been contained.

Bangqiu considered the broken door through which the oni had entered the undercroft.

A wooden barrier and good intentions, he announced, were clearly inadequate.

He raised his hands.

Stone flowed across the opening.

When he was finished, the passage beneath Sum Sukhis had vanished behind a seamless wall.