Part 4, Chapter 1

Driving out the merfolk

Part 4 Probably the End

Ch 1

Renping and Jiangou dressed as Xun and the Emperor sat their mounts calmly, the army ranged behind them. On the other side of the small valley stood the troops of the King of the Merfolk, their scaled armor looking oddly out of place on dry land. 

“I really don’t want to be here,” Jiangou said softly to Renping.

“No one wants to be here,” she replied. “They don’t either, but we all have the things we believe in.”

“I believe in wine, poetry, and not getting stabbed,” Jiangou muttered. Renping growled at him, and he flinched, startled. “Fine. I also believe in not letting the Heavenly Realm get over run by my insane grandfather, happy?”

“Yes. Now blow the horn.”

Jiangou started to whine again, so Renping snatched the silver horn from his hand and blew the attack. The two armies charged.

The battle raged, the Heavenly Troops were out numbered, but better trained. Feats of valor and cowardice played out in their tiny corners of the overall chaos. Soldiers defended their comrades or broke and ran. Blood flowed thick and heavy on the ground and the horrible stench of battle suffused everything. 

The Heavenly army was falling back, step by step as they were slowly ground down. Then in the distance another horn sounded. The exhausted fighters looked up and saw the King of the Merfolk in his distinctive finned armor posing before he entered the field. 

“Seriously?” Renping gasped. She and Jiangou had fallen back for a rest, allowing the next rank of soldiers to take their place. Renping was shocked, but both of them were still alive. At least until the second wave of warriors overtook them. 

The Heavenly Army circled their ranks, prepared to die to the last man rather than surrender. As she and Jiangou braced themselves a second horn sounded. 

The High Gods, all mounted on their fastest steeds took up position behind the faltering army. At the head of the ranks rode Emperor Jianyu, his power crackled over the field making Renping’s hair try to stand on end. With another clarion call the wave of power washed over the battlefield, followed closely by the High Gods who rode over the heads of the tattered Heavenly Army and drove the King of the Merfolk away from his intended prey and back towards his own troops. 

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as the High Gods made their charge. Driven by the fury of having been tricked and trapped the High Gods showed no mercy and the ranks of the Merfolk fell before them. There was no room for small battles under the onslaught. The soldiers who didn’t run died under the combined power of the gods. 

Renping watched the opposing army melt away. Most of them fled, but the violence that befell those who tried to fight made Renping turn her face away. Jiangou was there, his gaze also directed firmly away from the front line.

“He’s always been like that,” Jiangou said softly. “Once he’s moved to act no force in the world can stand against him.”

Renping shuddered, it had been easy to think of Jianyu as Leng Zai on the road. He had been just as cheerful and playful there as he had been in the kitchen in the place, if not quite as flighty. Now she wondered if she would ever be able to think of him like that again.

“Speak of the Devil,” Jiangou muttered as Jianyu drifted down to land before them. 

“Renping,” he said softly.

She didn’t want to look at him. She didn’t want to see him splattered with blood. She wondered how Xun had been able to stand it when he had come back from the battle with Jiangou. Xun hadn’t seen him fight, Renping thought. If she had seen him fight there was no way she would have taken him back.

“Renping,” Jiangou said, and she looked at him. Jiangou had fought his brother and survived. There had been almost no casualties in that fight, although there had been plenty of wounded. How had they faced something like that and come out the other side.

“Renping,” Jianyu said more forcefully, he moved to stand before her. “That wasn’t me,” he said.

Jiangou snorted and Jianyu glared at him.

“It wasn’t just me. I was directing the power of the other gods in their rage to keep it from our own people. I’m still just me,” he said, using the same tone of voice he would use to calm a frightened horse.

Renping did her best to ignore him. It would take a long time before she was able to think of him as just her friend again.

Jianyu stepped back. “I understand,” he said in a deeply resigned voice, as if she had said her thoughts out loud. “You may hate and fear me as much as you wish, but I still have a request to make of you. I need you to go to Xun, she has Shun and Xiaomin, but I would feel better if you were with her as well. Can you go to her?”

Renping nodded. Jianyu summoned his riding beast, a winged white tiger like the one Jiangou had used, and Jiangou helped her onto it. Glad to be away from the men she had thought of as friends Renping rode off back to the palace.