43. Nothing Official

It was generally considered rude to turn down an offer from your host to join him for dinner, but Yanli hoped Nie Mingjue would understand. The Xuanwu Rescue Brigade, as Wei Ying had pointedly taken to calling it, was leaving at first light the next morning. While most of their trip would be done at night through Qishan lands, they could at least speed to the far edges of Qinghe in little more than a day, and Nie Mingjue was not going to lose a full day of travel if he could avoid it. Yanli thought the only reason he was not leaving that night was because Nie Popo had all but sat on him in order to review their defenses.

So, they had a quiet family dinner in their pavilion, and Meng Shi played them beautiful, inspirational tunes to lighten their hearts before carefully storing the guqin for travel. Liu Peng was busy packing things for them, although Yanli wondered how she could be so busy when they had arrived with just the clothes on their backs, which had in turn been bought for them by Nie Huaisang.

After dinner was cleared away and Liu Peng bid them goodnight, they all settled in the main room by the light of braziers and a few candles. Ying’er and A’Cheng huddled on each side of Yanli like they were five again, while A’Yao sat next to his mother, shaping and buffing her nails with expert precision.

“Have you heard word of the Yunmeng Jiang sect?” Meng Shi asked.

“Nothing official,” Yanli said, rubbing the boys’ arms as they tensed up at the mere mention of their old sect.

“Hm. A little birdie told me that he is preparing to retreat to Lanling,” A’Yao said, not looking up from his task. Yanli assumed he meant Nie Huaisang.

“Back to the snake pit? After failing in his mission for Sect Leader Jin, I doubt he expects a warm welcome,” Meng Shi said with a frown. “And Madam Jiang should not be traveling at all. She is due in less than a month.”

“Officially or unofficially?” A’Yao asked, causing Ying’er and A’Cheng to frown in confusion.

“Unofficially.”

“To be fair, Second Mother, it would not be responsible of him to leave her here, either,” Yanli offered.

“He could have asked to allow her to join us in Tangshan. Sect Leader Nie is in an awkward position regarding Yunmeng Jiang, but he’s an honorable man. He would not say no.” Meng Shi inspected her nails as A’Yao changed hands. “Oh, lovely as always.”

“I asked, but no one in the Unclean Realm has nail polish,” A’Yao said regretfully.

“Big surprise there,” A’Cheng said with a snort, which made them all chuckle.

“If I had time, I could make you some, Mama.”

“I know you would, A’Yao,” she said with a soft smile.

“I think Jiang Fengmian is in a difficult situation,” A’Yao continued as he diligently buffed away. “He failed to convince the Nie to actively support him, and he knows Jin Guangshan won’t. That leaves Gusu Lan, but we don’t even know their status at this point, and that could mean traveling all the way across China just to find out that Cloud Recesses has fallen.”

“We don’t know that!” Ying’er sat up, radiating defensiveness.

“We don’t. No one does. Which means it would be a risk for Jiang Fengmian to go there,” A’Yao explained.

“So what are his options, then?” A’Cheng asked, squinting into the distance as he tried to think the problem through.

A’Yao sighed heavily. “Wen Ruohan.”

“What? No!” Several of them exclaimed at once. Even Meng Shi looked doubtful.

“Lotus Pier is in Wen Ruohan’s hands. No one, at this stage of the war, can get it back from him. Jiang Fengmian’s play for assistance from the Nie was never going to win it back, and in the end damaged what good relations he had with Nie Mingjue due to his falling for Jin Guangshan’s ploy, if indeed it was his idea in the first place. We know Lanling Jin has been angling to stay out of the path of Wen Ruohan, and Jin Guangshan is the type of man who would use the destruction of other clans for his own gain. For all intents and purposes, Yunmeng Jiang has been eliminated as a great sect, and is barely a sect at all. All he’s got are a handful of disciples and a potential heir.”

“More than we’ve got,” A’Cheng said with a shrug, then yelped when Ying’er reached over Yanli to pinch him. “It’s true!”

“Actually, I have two heirs, so I win.” Yanli said smugly, grabbing their hands. They both blushed and smiled, and Meng Shi chuckled sweetly at them.

“What can he offer Wen Ruohan, though? I mean, you just said he hasn’t got much of anything left. Nothing Wen Ruohan needs, anyway,” A’Cheng said.

A’Yao paused and looked up, his eyes going distant. “If it were me, I would send a message to Wen Ruohan offering my services as his spy. Jiang Fengmian is beaten down and his sect is hanging by a thread, but he’s got a good reputation overall and many long-standing relationships with all the sects of the jianghu, great and small. Many minor sects would look to him for leadership, anyway. Wen Ruohan does not need him, but only a fool would ignore the fact that he can use him. For better or for worse, he has been driven into a corner, between the fall of Lotus Pier and our usurping an alliance with the Nie, as well as positioning ourselves as critical to the war due to Ying’er’s control of the yin iron.”

“It’s not so much control as an ongoing negotiation…” Ying’er rubbed the side of his nose.

A’Yao sighed again. “Please don’t tell anyone else that, for now. My point is, even if Gusu Lan is unmolested, they have a lot more incentive to back Qinghe Nie and Yiling Wei than they do an already foundering sect whose land has been conquered.” He stopped and looked around at them. “It all rests on how desperate he is. At the very least, siding with Wen Ruohan might get Lotus Pier returned to him, if the Wen win the war. He’d be the leader of a subsidiary sect, but then, so would everyone else. He’d be alive, back on the Lotus Throne, and if he plays his cards right, he could even see to the destruction of the Yiling Wei sect. Provided that Wen Ruohan doesn’t kill us all first.”

Yanli shook her head. “You are clever enough to think of that, and I could see a truly desperate, craven man making such a bargain. But Sect Leader Jiang is not a risk taker, and for all that we have discovered how much he is without merit, he has never been ambitious. It’s one of the traits that Madam Yu hated most about him. I doubt such a course of action would even occur to him.”

Ying’er looked doubtful, but A’Cheng seemed convinced. A’Yao and Meng Shi traded loaded looks, but let the matter drop.

“In any case, I will send a message to Sect Leader Jiang tomorrow, letting him know that Madam Jiang is welcome to join us, as our guest,” Yanli said. They all looked at her like she was crazy. “What?”

Meng Shi shook her head. “There is no way he would not read malicious intent into that invitation. And even if he doesn’t, it still would be madness to leave his wife and future heir in your clutches.”

“You make me sound like a villain in an adventure novel!” Yanli laughed. “The point is that I will offer, because that is the righteous thing to do. I will not have him telling others that we turned our backs on a defenseless woman heavy with child.”

“You are an honorable woman,” A’Yao said, his eyes bright, and Meng Shi looked between him and Yanli in a way that made her blush.

Ying’er fell backwards with a heavy sigh. “I miss Lan Zhan!”

“Ugh, not this again,” A’Cheng said and got up to pour them all some more pear juice. The boys bickered until Meng Shi asked Yanli to recite a romantic poem, which Yanli knew had to be on purpose as it made A’Yao’s checks pink up. Eventually, though, the night crept up on all of them.

The boys were reluctant to go to bed until Meng Shi gently asked if they needed a lullaby to help fall asleep, “the way little babies do?”

Quietly humiliated by the comparison, they retired to their room boasting of falling asleep quickly “like soldiers!” so that they would be ready for travel in the morning.

Yanli had not laughed, which she thought she deserved credit for.

That night, she sat on her private porch overlooking the garden, trying not to worry and failing miserably.

Eventually it got late enough to be edging into morning, and still she sat, wrapped in blankets and staring out at the sky full of stars. There was no moon, which was fortunate for the Brigade’s travel plans, and allowed the sweep of the silver river to be clearly seen.

She heard some rustling and looked down at the railing, expecting Ying’er to pop his head up. Instead, it was A’Yao.

“Yanli,” he said, quiet and soft.

“A’Yao,” she answered, holding out her hand. He deftly cleared the railing and landed on silent feet to come sit next to her. They looked at each other for a long moment before she scooted closer to his side, and he raised his arm to wrap around her shoulders. They sat in silence for a while.

“I believe you will be safe in your travels,” he finally said.

“I believe you will not be safe in yours,” she countered with a sigh. She felt him smile as he pressed his face against her hair.

“Probably not.”

She loved his honesty most of the time. It was good to be held by a man who did not humor or lie to her. Still, part of her wanted him to tell her everything would be fine. He seemed to read her thoughts with his next words.

“I wish I could promise to be safe, and that we will all return to you hale and healthy. I want nothing more for you than peace of mind and happiness.”

She nestled in closer, feeling his breath over the sensitive shell of her ear. Stirred in a way she normally suppressed, she tilted her head up and finally asked the question she had left hanging for too long.

“Will you kiss me, A’Yao?”

“Oh, A’Li. Yes. Yes.”

They were quiet and gentle deep into the night, exploring each other in hidden ways. A’Yao was more passionate in his lovemaking than she had expected, but then, she herself acted on impulses that were far more aggressive than she ever thought she possessed.

They were not married nor even properly betrothed, so A’Yao tried to demur on taking her as a husband would, but she insisted. He looked at her for a long time, his naked body pressed up against hers as they panted for breath.

“A’Li, such a thing…it might have undesired consequences.”

She shook her head and ran her fingers over his fine, beautiful face. “I know. Would a direct heir be so bad?”

Speechless, he kissed her, and she cried tears of joy later as they laid in the mess they made. There was no guarantee that he would ever return to her, and she found herself pleased with the idea of possibly taking a part of him with her. Pleased enough to tease him, and roll over to settle on his lap for another round.

He snuck out as the first rays of sunlight peeked over the tops of the farthest mountain ranges, having barely slept. They kissed goodbye as secret lovers do over the railing, and her tears turned to ones of sadness once she was truly alone again.

She hoped she was not trading one life for another.