Beneath Ceaseless Skies #226 Read online

  Issue #226 • May 25, 2017

  “In Memory of Jianhong, Snake-Devil,” by Richard Parks

  “Whatever Knight Comes,” by Ryan Row

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  IN MEMORY OF JIANHONG, SNAKE-DEVIL

  by Richard Parks

  There was a trail to follow, if one could call a slight lessening of the undergrowth a trail.

  “Honored Father Pan Bao,” I asked, “Please tell me again why we are on this freezing mountain? I haven’t seen the sun since we entered this forest.”

  “Filial—Occasionally, When It Suits Her—Daughter Jing, as I did not tell you the first time, how by all the gods can I tell you again?”

  I was perhaps too optimistic, but as my father was still feeling the effects of the previous evening’s carousing—mostly involving plum wine—I had hoped to catch him unaware. I should have known better. My father may have had a headache and a slight worsening of his normally dour disposition, but he had taken our client’s gold, and I knew from experience gold tended to focus his mind when little else save a new scroll on the Tao could.

  “Then will you perhaps tell me for the first time?”

  He seemed to consider, though he never broke stride. “Jing, as we are both likely to perish today, perhaps I should. We’re hunting a very powerful snake-devil.”

  I sighed. “That is the sort of thing one should know beforehand. When were you going to tell me?”

  He paused to scratch his beard. There was a hint of gray in it now, something I had barely noticed before. “In truth, I was debating whether I should tell you at all. At seventeen, you know little or nothing of the world. As your father, it is my duty to keep matters that way until the time you are married.”

  Dying in ignorance is not a virtue, Honored Father. But then, marrying in ignorance probably wasn’t either.

  I thought it, but I did not say it. There was no point. Father may have been a scholar of the Tao, but he was not above invoking the teachings of Kong Fuzi when it suited him, usually where I was concerned. It was my place to be the innocent, obedient daughter, except in our role of devil hunters when I had to use my martial training to kill something. I took a moment to loosen my jian in its scabbard across my back. This accomplished little except to make me feel a bit better. In addition to his wards and charms, Father had his own jian, except his was made of peachwood and was, in its way, far more powerful than my own sword of three-plate bronze. It depended on who—or more likely what—was to be killed.

  As we ascended, the undergrowth thinned out until we emerged into a high meadow. The trail was still visible, if faint. The sun was visible again but weak and cold, and an icy wind struck us now without hindrance, making me wistful for the undergrowth. “Did you say ‘snake-devil,’ Honored Father?”

  “I did.”

  “A high mountain cave seems an odd abode for a snake-devil. Especially at this time of year.”

  While winter was not yet fully upon us, here in the north of Qin late autumn was severe enough. I was dressed warmly, but even so I was chilled. I could only imagine it would be worse for the devil. If a snake-devil was not a true snake, it did share many of a snake’s characteristics, including an aversion to cold weather.

  “While it is my obligation as a follower of the Tao to root out evil, the weather was, I admit, a consideration. I expect the creature to be somewhat sluggish now. We must use this to our advantage if we are to succeed.”

  “You mean not die?”

  My father sighed. “You’re starting to remind me of your blessed mother,” he said. “Please stop.”

  I had barely known her before she died, but my mother’s face was burned into my memory. She was beautiful, as by my own reckoning I was not. The idea that I might still remind my father of her in some regard I found very cheerful, even if that regard might be my annoying habit of seeing through his nonsense. I had no way of knowing personally, but Father had made it clear enough over the years this had been one of her less endearing traits.

  The path grew steeper once we’d crossed the meadow, and we soon came across a high mountain stream. Father paused to consult a small scroll. “This is what we were looking for. We follow the stream and it will lead us to the monster’s cave.”

  “I gather this creature is causing mischief, else why pay us to remove it? Who is our client?”

  “The Provincial Governor, Sun Fu. Apparently the beast descends from the mountain whenever it gets hungry, and so far under his administration it has devoured three soldiers and seven goats. Most of Qin’s fighting men are needed for the southern borders with Chu, Zhou, and Wei, and on the north side of this mountain are barbarians probing for weaknesses. He can’t afford to lose any more soldiers. Or goats, for that matter.”

  I frowned. “Is Qin at war, Father?”

  He paused a moment before answering. “Daughter, so far as I can tell everyone is at war now, or preparing for it. The political aspects of the situation do not concern you... or me, come to that. We have a mission to complete. That is all that matters to us.”

  We followed the stream into a small defile cutting deep into the side of the mountain. Evening was falling, and the sides of the crevice cut off some of the remaining light. Ahead we could see a shadow that marked the cave entrance, though the stream emerged from a smaller crevice to the side rather than directly from the cave. I drew my jian as we approached the opening. “We’ll likely need torches.”

  “Wait until we’re inside and our eyes adjust to the darkness. No point in revealing ourselves sooner than we must.”

  Which presumes the devil doesn’t know we’re coming.

  We paused just inside the cave’s mouth. I wasn’t too worried, as the entrance was narrow enough that any attack would of necessity be from the front, and there was still enough light to see anything coming. In fact, there was more light than I expected as we moved farther in, so much so that I abandoned the idea of torches.

  Father looked about. “Very curious,” he said.

  “The fact that we can still see our hands before our faces, Honored Father?”

  “That and it’s much too warm in here, or had you noticed?”

  “Indeed.”

  I was not especially fond of caves. They tended to be damp and cramped and chilly. Granted, in extreme winter weather they were much warmer than being outside, exposed to the elements. Yet this particular cave was even warmer than that. It was almost... pleasant.

  “Wait a moment, Daughter.”

  We paused then. In my estimation we were now about half a bowshot into the cave. It had not widened appreciably nor had the light dimmed, so I was still reasonably confident that we could not be taken by surprise, but that sti
ll left the mystery of the light and warmth. I could see a source for neither.

  “This isn’t right,” he said.

  “For a cave? No. For the abode of a snake-devil? Ideal,” I said.

  Father grunted. “Exactly. This is spirit magic at work, which means this creature may be even more powerful than I suspected.”

  “You flatter me, Sir.”

  The icy wind we had walked through on our way to the cave settled into my stomach when I realized the voice had come from behind us. Father and I whirled about to find what appeared to be a finely dressed young woman only a few years older than myself, standing less than twenty paces away.

  How?

  I dismissed the thought. Its resolution was not nearly so pressing as surviving the next few moments. I held my blade straight toward the figure and adopted a defensive stance. Father fumbled for his peach sword, but all the while the woman merely looked at us. For a few moments we returned the favor.

  “It’s an illusion,” Father said.

  The woman frowned. “I assure you I am quite real.”

  “I meant your appearance, devil. Reveal yourself!”

  She smiled. “It’s more transformation than illusion. As for revealing myself, there is no need. You know what I am, nor am I trying to deceive you, but as of yet I am not certain what you are. This requires some thought, so pardon me.”

  The image of the woman swirled as if it had turned to mist, and in an instant she was gone. Father and I stared at the empty space where she had been, then turned to each other at almost the same moment, but I asked the obvious question first.

  “Father, why aren’t we dead?”

  He scratched his beard with the tip of his wooden sword. “Curious.”

  I frowned. “That’s all you have to say? We were caught unawares by what is clearly a very powerful devil who doubtless knows our intent, and all you can say is “Curious”?

  “But, Daughter Jing, isn’t it? Consider your own question: Why are we still alive? In the devil’s place I would have slain the both of us without a second thought, and so would you. Yet the creature seemed, well, curious about us. Why do you think that is?”

  “It’s plain that it knows what a human is, as it assumes the form of one and has eaten more than a few. How are we special? I do not know.”

  “Neither do I. Our mission—not to mention our lives—may depend on answering that question.”

  I had another question of my own in mind. I took flint and striking stone and after a few moments managed to get a torch lit.

  “Daughter, why are you doing that? We have more than enough light to see.”

  “To see? Certainly. To examine? On that small issue I would disagree.”

  I crept back to where the creature had made its appearance, first examining the ground, then raising the torch to get a closer look at the wall and ceiling.

  “There it is,” I said.

  Father joined me there and looked up where I pointed. “Ah. Very clever, Daughter.”

  There was a circular tunnel connecting to the main tunnel, at about the height of a tall man and about as wide, leading away into the darkness. It had blended into the shadows of the rock in that dim light so well that neither of us had spotted it.

  “It stood to reason that, as the devil is a physical creature, it hadn’t simply manifested behind us. I’ll wager there are more of these,” I said.

  “Well done... and another reason to be vigilant.”

  Neither of us spoke of simply turning back, though I must admit the thought did occur to me. My father had been a devil hunter before I was born, and as he had no son, he had trained me to follow his example until the day, as he sometimes threatened, to marry me off to the first brute foolish enough to meet his conditions. Said conditions always seemed to change from one day to the next, or at any time when my frustration with his drinking and carousing goaded me into asking about them.

  I knew the thought was pointless—we knew nothing else, we had taken the provincial governor’s gold, and so we had no choice but to either fulfill our mission or die in the attempt, though now dying seemed likely. Honor was at stake, certainly, but if word spread that we had failed to deliver, our livelihood was also ruined, and Father’s vices were expensive.

  It occurred to me, considering those vices, that we were in more difficulty than whatever the devil had planned for us. On that matter, Father seemed to be mulling the possibilities.

  “We are not dead. Therefore, it seems likely that the devil wants something from us first.”

  “You mean such as taking pleasure in tormenting us before our inevitable destruction?”

  He smiled. “You’re thinking of a cat-devil. That is not the habit of snakes.”

  “What, then?”

  “I have no idea. I admit I am curious to find out.”

  We pushed on, though more slowly, and now I kept the torch lit, examining every inch of the cave wall as we proceeded, but we traveled at least a hundred paces further without finding any more side tunnels. Then the woman appeared again, this time in front of us, no more than fifteen paces away. The mist swirled once more and there she was.

  “I understand how you might consider your business here pressing,” she said, “but I wonder if I might have a moment of your time.”

  Father held his peachwood sword in front of him but had not begun any of the incantations appropriate for a confrontation with a snake-devil or any other kind. “While it seems foolish to me, in a sense we owe our lives to your forbearance, so it would be ungrateful to refuse you. However, I must warn you that any trickery will be met forcefully.”

  She bowed slightly. “That is fair, as you have no reason to trust me. Yet I will further state that I know your intentions toward me just as you know my true nature. As I hinted before, this form I wear is for your convenience, not as a deception. If we must be in opposition, at least in these regards we can both be in accord.”

  “Freely conceded,” my father said. “Other than our deaths, what do you wish of us?”

  “Information. Or a possibility. I admit I am not yet sure which.”

  Either the devil was sincere in her confusion or she was an even better deceiver than I expected. Considering my father’s proclivities, it should also have been easy enough for the creature to assume a form even more enticing—and distracting—to his lecherous eye. The creature’s appearance, while that of a winsome young woman, was not obviously designed for that purpose, aside from the fact that we all knew it was not her true form.

  “We’re listening,” Father said.

  “I have worn this form before,” she said, “while I... well, I’m sure you’ve heard of my transgressions, or you would not be here. I will not bother to defend them, other than to say I was hungry. But at one of those times I moved among the villagers as one of them, I heard an interesting story about a snake-devil long, long ago who lived as a human woman and eventually became one. I’m wondering if it is true.”

  I frowned. “Are you referring to the legend of Madame White Snake?”

  She brightened. “Yes! That’s it exactly. Is it true?”

  “I used the word ‘legend’ deliberately,” I said. “It’s an old tale and as such has many versions. They cannot all be true.”

  “Meaning it’s possible that one of them is true,” she said, and I had never seen a devil looking wistful. This one did.

  “Most legends have at least a seed of truth,” Father said. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’ll tell you, but first I need to think some more. Please excuse me.”

  In an instant, she was gone—again—before we could even react.

  “Father, do you have any idea whatsoever what that was about?”

  He looked thoughtful. “Perhaps. The Three Jewels of the Way are Compassion, Moderation—what was that noise out of you, Daughter?”

  “Forgive me, Father,” I managed to say. “I was just clearing my throat.” In reality I was trying my best not to burst into laug
hter, as that would have been most un-filial. After a pause and a glare, Father continued.

  “As I was saying: Compassion, Moderation, and Humility. Of the Three Jewels, compassion is the first. It’s possible the creature is attempting to throw us off our guard by a false appeal to our empathy. Or....”

  “Or?”

  “She really does want to know the answer to her question. Frankly, I am undecided as to which is true.”

  “Throwing us off guard seems rather pointless if she could have killed us already,” I pointed out.

  Father didn’t even blink. “Devils are perverse creatures, and their motivations do not always make sense. Humans are the same. Never forget this, Daughter.”

  I had no argument to make in that regard. “I think our next meeting will tell the tale, for good or ill. Shall we move on?”

  Not that I was in a particular hurry to confront the creature. While my sword was imbued with as many devil-quelling charms and wards as my Father was capable of creating, I was nowhere near certain this would be enough. The creature was both smart and fast, and had demonstrated both traits to my complete satisfaction. Whatever advantage we had hoped to achieve from the cold had long since evaporated in the warmth of the creature’s cave. Plus, we would be fighting the devil in her lair. She knew its nooks and fissures as we did not. She had every advantage, and yet we still lived. More, we had not even been attacked.

  Strange.

  As if sensing my thought, Father said, “I do not claim to understand what the creature wants from us, but I don’t think we should assume too much from the snake-devil’s reasonable demeanor. We know what she is and what she has done. If she has not acted as we feel she should, that is our limited perception. She has her own reasons.”

  No doubt. I simply hoped that we might understand those reasons before she either killed us or we did the same to her, for I could not see any outcome to this matter save one or the other. I did not wish to either fail or succeed in ignorance.

  My father frowned. “Jing, did you hear that?”