Chapter 19
It was remarkably quiet. Silent like the calmness that permeates the ether before the eve of the Tempest.

The morning mist marched from the fields of lavender wheat down towards the lowland pastures,
Hidden in their holes they lingered, their bodies camouflaged, as they laid in wait for the lioness of the Queen’s honor guard to come by.

The lure.

Enticement; by a hook that was irresistible to her.

And the bait; wrathful ruin and vengeance. A rare chance to rout that brute and enemy of the state, to hasten his demise.

Li Kay was indeed an unmissable opportunity served up on a golden platter.

But he meant to pay not a jot or tittle of this prize for he had other plans.

though she did come.

She came gently with the morning breeze in armour and green silk, and she stood upon the brow of the hill and stared down into the abyss that was the pasture were li kay stood, he looked across the space between them as it Buckled and was overcharged with awe.

Slowly and surely, she made her way towards the rendezvous point.
Step by step. He couldn’t help but notice her hourglass shape, curves and the swagger of her walk, or the way the breeze rustled her golden hair as it ran its metaphorical fingers through its striations.

Her face was calm, he could see that the years had been kind to her, she may even have seemed more appealing to him.

kay knew he couldn’t show any weakness, or it would be a weapon used against him.

Yet he thought to himself, all that time spent apart, and now they were finally standing at last face to face. He took out the handkerchief that had found its way to him at Mārin village and passed across the small space between them and delivered it into her own fair hand.

There were no words spoken.

She held it in both hands as she examined it curiously.

he could see a small slither of emotion before her face turned back to stone.

He felt Nervous…… very very dreadfully nervous. He started gently tapping the harbingers of his fears out with his foot, hoping that it would go unnoticed as he began to converse.
“I wanted to say sorry to you Min!” He continued “there can be no healing until one of us takes the moral high ground and simply says sorry! Until then it won’t end!” He said pragmatically.
“so, you want closure?” she said as she thumbed her nose at him “what closure does our daughter have!”

She looked composed as she overruled her emotions “Y’know I promised myself, that if I ever saw you again, I’d plunge my dagger into your cold black heart! and I can’t say I feel any different now I lay my eyes upon you !”

“I know… “ he uttered as he hung his head in shame “ I probably deserve it, many will agree!” He exhaled a disarming breath “but our daughter’s gone, and it won’t bring her back !!”. He paused before continuing “don’t you think I don’t feel it every day Min. I know they use political propaganda, but I am a person like you, I have emotions, I bleed, I think, and I err, I also kick myself every waking moment that I couldn’t get to Elkie, I couldn’t save her!” His words were getting faster and gathering momentum, “AND When I close my EYES I imagine her screams more times than you could ever be able to count, and yes, I GAMBLED, and I LOST.!! “
Min seemed anxious the more he spoke: “you do not have the right to talk about her, stop saying her name!” She snarled through gritted teeth.
“ we disowned you long ago!!”
“ Elkie was my child too!” He retorted.
She got more apoplectic with rage as the argument continued, he could see it in her face, fury only held back by ceremony and the thinnest veil of pride.
“ you’re nothing but a dirty stinking murderer and a coward! So you can stop this facade!”
“ you know that’s not true Min, ” he said quietly, and with most efficient and damaging delivery he proceeded with a hurt look upon his face,“ I could never harm a hair on Elkies head, no more could I contemplate such a crime!”
Min appeared somehow different as suddenly she began to hold herself as she looked queasy, she bent double as Kay neared her “ What is wrong with you?” He asked as he secretly knew but resisted the urge to draw near.

She looked up, and it was as if her face was somehow darkened.
And her eyes looked almost black.
“Just think about it Min!”
“ you know what thinking is, thinking is, just a fancy word for changing your mind!” He tried to appeal to the last remnant of her that could be reasoned with, but it was pointless.
She looked up as she drew two swords “NO!!! … it’s too late for that now!”
Worriedly and unarmed kay replied “no it’s not! It’s never too late!”
As he backed up
Towards the lavender wheat field that was behind him.
“ draw your sword and fight!” Said Min As she began from her opening stance.
“ no, I’ll not!” He said rebelliously.
Then a different voice was heard it was like a gruff voice of something else as if it wasn’t Martian but spoke Meese in a mocking and twisted way “then you’re going to die!”
He looked at her…she was accursed, he knew he had still had to manoeuvre her into the place.

He began from ti-shou as he moved fluidly into his guarding stance of playing the lute, now he was going to rely on cunning and mastery of Chaunie, could he match her Tā Zhang skills he wondered to himself, only time would tell?

Adrenalin rushed through his veins, as he recalled the sprites words of being on edge, when they first met which Is How he precisely felt right now, how he had missed that intense and unique feeling, he thought it funny he should think about her at such a time.

Mins eyes were fierce, and piercing, like the viper as it encroached ever nearer, she projected outwardly from them, a real mark of an expert, they began their bout as they drew closer.
Who would be the first to blink?

He must conceive this fight as a game, he must play it and play it well. Hopefully, it would not resolve in his death.

With her swords, she swung at him succinctly a first blow warded off as in character with Tā Zhang a second soon followed as she followed through and spun her body around to deliver another.

The force drove him backward as he narrowly avoided getting sliced like a kebab.

He thought to himself if he were to stand any chance he would have to close the range, it was his only hope.

He moved in close as another double pirouette attack threatened to peel him like a piece of fruit. The blood drained out of his face, as he thrust himself forward into probable danger.

He wavered his hands like clouds, right then left quickly as weaved his way close to her as he was advancing, he was now close enough to grasp her knee lift her off her feet and throw her to the hard ground of the floor as the swords fell away from her. He looked down upon her, she looked vulnerable as he saw her eyes had just a small glint of something, he looked on smitten by the hope.

Frozen he stood there staring at her, perhaps a moment too long as she spun and landed a blow with a ferocious kick and regained her footing all in one movement, leaving him with a bloody nose as the two descant figures resumed their combat.

He wiped his nose and tasted the blood from the back of his hand, it tasted salty.

They regained their composure But this time with empty hands.

As their attention was quickly diverted to two more guardswomen rapidly charging down the hill towards them screaming a battle cry as the big Georgian Wi Sako emerged from his hiding place and intercepted them, he began to hold them off using some type of harpoon spear weapon.
It was not long till he had taken them out of the game.

“ cheater!” Said kay
“ I see you’ve reformed the band!” She said with a crooked smile.

Min performed the signature of her style a double changing palm and was now ready for her circle walking. Her feet began to hover as she slid each step above the burgundy grass as she started to walk in a small area.

Unabowed kay formed his raised hands stance.
As round two began.

This time it was more like a dance they both countered each other’s attacks punch, open palm, kicks they were deadlocked.
Entwined arms feet legs and other appendages, it was a stalemate….but it could not be.

The scholars that wrote about this encounter would want to answer the age-old question whose the better fighter Li Kay or Li Min?
Embellished romanticised as the two forlorn souls almost danced in the pasture with a canopy of fireflower petals streaming through the air, as the former lovers tragically sang their own swansong, heaped in archetypal folklore and teaching lessons in morality the tragicness would be felt but overlooked.

A droplet of sweat hung around his neck as he could smell the scent of her pheromones and it reminded him of fucking, the times they spent having adventurous sex in their youth.
He recalled their two bodies clammy as she writhed on top of him, her breasts bounced as she hefted her body and was breathless, they held hands in amongst the clover in the throes of passion and then climax, planting seeds inside ….satisfaction a flush of bio luminance.

If he had any chance at all?

If he were to win this fight he knew he had to appear to lose, he hoped the blow would not outright kill him. As he made the rhythm of his san shou (pushing hands) predictable.

Tired, judicable.

There it was a moment of broken rhythm as a crushing double changing palm strike descended in an arch and set him yards back into the lavender Wheatfield and on to his back, as he lay there stunned he smiled smugly with satisfaction, as he gazed up into the Martian sky.

He thought to himself he was redeemable as the sentiment faded.

She walked away to find one of her longswords nestled in the burgundy grass and covered in the morning dew, laid out much like the Grand Marshal. She stooped to pick it up, as She made her way slowly toward the broken Shell that was Li Kay, as he lied there injured and bloodied. Moving in for the kill the sword tip caressing the chaff of the wheat as she walked over and in amongst the wheat to where he was.
Unable to move he raised one hand and stuttered “wait, wait!!”

She stood there scornfulness personified, her lips black as if in some more considerable measure she had been transformed by evil.
“Wait, wait!” she said mockingly, as she began to cackle manically as if kay was in danger of becoming her sacrificial lamb.

The fight was over, he’d never gave a thought to what would happen if he lost, now he wished he had, but it was too late.

it was over there was nothing else he could do!

“ yes wait!” He replied with contempt “wait for vee to lasso you!”

Her face changed with a violent pang as the trap was sprung.

From amongst the wheat, the young attaché moved quickly as he lassoed her free hand with a lariat made from spider silk. She began to howl like a beast that had never walked the mortal world as if the lasso in some way hurt her, she began to bite at the twine frantically, that had ensnared her hand, but it’s breaking strain was impenetrable and when that was no good, then she tried to cut it with her sword and when that didn’t work she began to start to slice into her wrist .

Kay observed from where he lay unable to move, he could see ūna appear as she began chanting incantations like it was some pious mantra, but his sight was growing dim.

Vee Vee held onto the rope for dear life, luckily he was wearing gloves so he could hold on vehemently as the string slid through his hands, she seemed to possess strength beyond someone of her stature
He began to recite…
“Who is she a mystery,
Is she the answer to a prayer, is she the choice between truth or dare, is she the one that driving me,
Prey will you tell me who is she”

The first part of the tome written by Grozette was recited by Vee Vee as Min crumpled to the floor in a heap

But It wasn’t long before she got her second wind. She rose up to her feet as she pointed with her sword fingers towards her sword and it seemed to fly back to her hand. She spoke in a voice that was not her own “ you will release me!” as she began to thrash wildly trying to hack at Vee, suddenly she felt restricted as her leg could not move in step with the rest of her body as she saw the familiar shape of the dark executioner Tumjai as he called out
“So she kept turning in my mind, like windmills of thoughts divine and I wished that she would come to me, prey will you tell me who is she,” the next part of the liturgy, kay could almost see white smoke coming from her.

And then, and then?
She began to levitate, her feet left the ground Tumjai, and Vee looked at one another Unsure if this was in the grand scheme as she started to move and gradually drag them along faster and faster appearing more like a demon from the underworld. Vir okota quickly darted like a mongoose in behind ūna as he passed a parting glance over towards the Grand marshal he was still lying incapacitated amongst the wheat. Vir had some of the twine attached to a Bola, he started swinging it around above his head It made an agreeable hum as the marksman expertly hit the target an ensnared her other leg, and slowly they began to wrangle her back to
The ground as he called out his part in the recitation “And so I shall play for time, I’ll drop a stitch to save nine, and all those with eyes shall see … Loves lost, come back to thee !”

The sky above them began to turn cloudy, and it was almost as if the sun were eclipsed as darkness encroached, as if the very gates of the underworld were opening and Tiamat herself were coming through.

The wind began to escalate, and again she began to rise as the tall Georgian wi sako the final man lassoed her last appendage as she carried on floating He pulled it in, vir looked at him, and his expression was that of; well! As it was apparent that sako was trying to remember his lines, finally his expression turned to one of Eureka as he started reciting his part

“And once upon a time,
When you knew your own heart and mind,
When you Used to abide with me,
Prey will you tell me who is she “

She shouted “ Tallulah! “as she winced in pain.
The voice of Li Kay seemed to add the last line of the liturgy “come back to me!” He said as he appeared to lose consciousness.

The creature that had infested Min howled in pain like no other creature that had ever walked this mortal reality. She finally lay on the floor and turned on to her side as she vomited a huge piece of black vomit it almost looked like a figure of black congealed blood as it moved for a second and died, it smelt foul. There was silence at last as the only sound was that of the young witch reciting her mantra as the vibrations rang out and began to radiate good energy. The clouds started to clear, and the sun could be seen once more in the sky as it pierced the clouds like a mighty spear until eventually she finished and returned her mind to the current plain of consciousness.

Min lay unconscious, she seemed at last at peace almost having a glow of lucidity, about her

They looked at one another and began to congratulate themselves but someone was missing “where’s kay?” asked ūna as it dawned on her that he was not present. She stared at the empty shape left in the wheat where he had lain there was some blood specks but nothing else.

Had he emancipated?

Horrified ūna held her hands over her face and began to weep uncontrollably.

“ I’m sorry for your loss,” a voice said as the two guardswomen from earlier stood beyond the perimeter, “ I hope we can sue for peace now, we shall inform the Queen!”
“ I trust you will return the Captain when she is adequately recovered!” Ūna nodded,
And with that, the two guardswomen disappeared into the distance.

Tumjai seeming quite callous insisting that they carry on as normal as he quizzed Vir over the quickest way to get to Mārin, he concluded by narrow boat from the river Ylla.

The company meandered towards Churchill carrying the comatosed Li Min along with them their faces weathered and beaten.

when they reached the paddock of Mantillas and Rex, they noticed another striking figure tending to the tillas, wearing a red hood and cloak.

As the enigmatic figure turned they could see It was Li Kay he smiled, it resonated like a ray of sunlight.
Ūna uncontrollably rushed at him and gave him a giant hug “ I thought you were !” And then it dawned on her she had been duped, but she could not be angry with him, she continued to embrace him.
“I thought you were dead!”
“I’m sorry oon’!” He said
“ it was necessary, now the Queen will think that too, but that slippery dog the knightmare will raise his game, now the eyes of the courts will not be watching it will be a thoroughfare!”

“We have to get to the boats before nightfall.” He said as the rest of the men saddled up and rode out until only vee and ūna remained.

———

It was as plain as the nose on her face that there was a problem they couldn’t solve …Rex, he was too slow,

And so she began untethering him as she let him loose and looked at Vee “ don’t worry Rex knows the way he’ll be alright!”

Dumbfounded Vee contested “but that only leaves Ibliss!” she nodded with a look of satisfaction on her face.

“I know!” She replied grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
“ I thought YOU might like to ride and I’d be your passenger!” She said fluttering her eyelashes.
He smiled, the two of them saddled up
as ūna slid her arms around his waist.

Ibliss flew like never before as he galloped along the road towards the boats , and her winette hair was swept by the wind as she nuzzled her chin into his shoulder, she purred with contentment as she whispered into vees ear “I love Florentine cuisine!!”.