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‘You stole this,’ he accused.
Her hope shrivelled to dust. ‘I didn’t steal it. It’s mine.’
The craftsman ignored her protest and started shouting for the shopkeeper. Li Feng darted forwards to snatch the jade from his fingers before hurrying out the front door.
The street outside was thick with activity. Painted signboards marked each shop and wares were displayed out in the street to entice customers. She slipped into the crowd, matching the shuffling pace of those around her though her heart pounded insistently, telling her to run. At any moment, she expected to hear the merchant from the jade shop shouting after her. ‘Thief! You stole it!’
But he was wrong. This jade pendant was the one thing that belonged to her. Her mother had put it into her hands with her final parting words. ‘Don’t cry, Xiao Feng. Don’t cry.’
Little phoenix, don’t cry. Those hadn’t been words of comfort. Her mother was giving her a desperate plea and a warning. Li Feng remembered that she and her mother were running from someone, but she couldn’t remember why.
Her current hideout was a hovel a short distance from the main road. The roof was missing shingles and the wooden structure was overgrown with moss. Such a place had once provided shade, drink and a convenient place to rest one’s horse on the journey between cities. Now it provided her temporary shelter from the wind and rain.
Li Feng took care before returning. She held back and led her horse on a meandering path through the woods outside the city until she was confident that no one followed her. The sun was setting as she ventured back to the abandoned tavern. This stretch of road had become a hunting ground for bandits, according to local gossip, and was treacherous for travellers day or night.
Ever since her arrest, Li Feng had sought out shelter in deserted areas or in not-so-legitimate establishments where she could avoid the scrutiny of law enforcers. She had borrowed, or rather liberated, the horse from a courier station. A woman travelling alone was vulnerable to all manner of danger. She needed to be able to move swiftly.
Her master had wandered through the province before settling in the foothills of Wudang Mountain to meditate and dedicate his life to seeking the Tao. He had learned how to fight to survive against bandits and had passed on those skills to Li Feng as well. A sword was difficult to conceal, so she carried knives for protection. Li Feng slipped one into her hand as soon as she dismounted in front of the tavern. She needed to be inside with the door barricaded before nightfall.
Li Feng brought her horse to the hitching post and removed the saddle before tying him down. She entered through the back door to find the main room dark and still. There were a few benches and tables left behind, mostly broken. She shut the doors behind her and fitted the wooden bar into the latch.
The scant daylight that remained filtered in through the empty panes of the windows. The paper that had once covered them had long crumbled. She would sleep here for the night and tomorrow she would find shelter somewhere else. Maybe there was another jade artisan nearby who would be willing to help her.
Li Feng felt through the darkness to find where she’d set her oil lamp. She used her tinder pouch to light the wick. As her eyes adjusted to the glow, a shuffle of movement sent her heart racing.
She reached for her knife just as an immense weight slammed into her, tackling her to the ground. The knife clattered out of her reach.
She knew what, or who, it was, even before she saw him. She knew from instinct and reflexes and the tension in her muscles as they encountered an unmovable barrier. That bastard thief-catcher’s weight was on top of her.
Struggling for breath, she jabbed him in the side, aiming a pinpoint strike against his floating rib. His body jerked at the impact, but he recovered quickly to grab at her wrists.
Her back was against the ground. Blood pumped through her muscles, feeding the fighting instinct within her, but she had no leverage. There was no power behind her strikes. Still Li Feng fought with everything she had. She needed to try to break his hold somehow. She wrenched her hand free to claw at the soft part of his belly—except it wasn’t soft on him.
‘She-demon,’ Han cursed with a grunt.
She had some good names for him too, but she wouldn’t waste her energy. He threw his forearm across her chest while he groped for something just out of reach with his other hand. The rattle of chains made her blood run cold. She renewed her efforts, twisting beneath him, but it was no use. The cold snap of metal over her wrists took the fire out of her.
For now.
He didn’t get off her immediately. Fear choked her as his hand curved over her waist. Instead of tearing her clothes open, he felt around her sash, her sleeves, then checked her boots where he finally found her other knife. She didn’t know whether to feel relief or anger as he threw the weapon into the corner. She felt both.
‘Surrendering already?’ he gritted out.
She had gone still beneath him, first from the fear of being violated, but now because she needed to conserve her strength and think. There was little she could do while he pinned her. Han was too strong, but if he let down his guard now that she was chained—
The thief-catcher ended that thought by grabbing a rope and coiling it around her wrists. He secured her arms to her sides for good measure, wrapping the length around her torso. She thought he might cocoon her like a silkworm, but he knotted off the rope just below her elbows and finally released her.
Panic stabbed at her once again when Han reached for her sash, but it was only to remove the jade pendant. He released her abruptly and sat back, as if in a hurry to put some distance between them. He was breathing hard and his dark hair was askew over his face. Strands of it had been dragged from his topknot during their struggle.
‘Wen Li Feng.’ His expression was far from smug as he looked her over. ‘You look like you’re plotting my death.’
He was right.
She rolled on to her side and tried to sit up, which was difficult tied the way she was. She glared at him.
‘I hate you.’
He barked out a laugh.
She did hate him. There was no reason, no rational reason for him to go chasing after her. Why wouldn’t he give up like any other lowlife thief-catcher?
She finally managed to prop herself up against the wall, flopping like a fish to do so. Han leaned back to watch her. Bastard.
‘You have sharp elbows,’ he complained, running a hand over his ribs.
‘Sweet talker,’ she retorted.
The lantern cast the thief-catcher’s face in deep shadows. He regarded her with an expression that was both curious and assessing. It made her nervous.
She finally calmed down her breathing enough to sound rational. ‘Why did you come all this way, thief-catcher? Surely the reward money isn’t worth the trouble.’
‘You’re not going to claim innocence?’ he asked.
‘I’m innocent.’
He grinned. His eyes danced with light when he smiled.
‘There is a matter of a stolen horse,’ he remarked.
‘Which you can take back. He’s outside.’
‘That hardly negates the crime.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. Her crimes were insignificant compared to those of the corrupt bureaucrats that governed over the province. Bureaucrats that this thief-catcher obediently served.
‘Then there’s also the matter of a stolen shipment of jade and gold.’ He held up her carving. The lamplight flickered over the jade.
‘This is not stolen.’
He raised his eyebrows at her.
She felt a twinge of loss at seeing her sole possession in his hands. ‘It’s mine.’
Han gave the jade a passing glance before tucking it into the fold of his robe. ‘What about all the other missing treasures?’
‘I don’t know what treasures you’re speaking of,’ she said blandly, her face showing nothing.
More raised eyebrows and a disconcerting touch of amusement at the corners of his mouth. That sort of smile in the right sort of light could disarm a woman, but Li Feng only gave him a hard look in return. She was already disarmed and this was definitely the wrong sort of light.
They loved telling stories about Thief-catcher Han in Fujian province ever since he’d defeated the bandit chief known as Two Dragon Lo. Zheng Hao Han had become somewhat of a romantic figure, yet her thoughts were anything but romantic while she was trussed and helpless before him. Especially when he seemed to be enjoying it.
‘Miss Wen.’ He suddenly appeared serious. ‘I’ve been wondering about your sword skill. You say you have no master, but if I had to guess your style, I would say its foundation is from Wudang Mountain?’
She tried not to let her surprise show. They’d had a brief exchange at the tavern, hardly enough for him to discern any particular technique.
He kept his gaze levelled on her, scrubbing a hand over the hard cut of his jaw. ‘From your silence, I think I must be correct. The Wudang forms are known for their fluidity and are often likened to dance.’
Whether or not she hated him, Li Feng had to admit that Han had captured her. Again. He was more than a dim-witted sword-for-hire. He had been carefully tracking her and assessing her abilities. All while she hadn’t given him a single thought. She deserved her defeat.
Li Feng looked at him now with new eyes—as the enemy. His fighting experience, like so many thief-catchers, probably came from serving in the military. His choice of weapon, the straight-bladed dao, confirmed that.
‘The shopkeeper in town told you about me,’ she ventured.
‘You seem to have a fondness for jade shops across the county. Yet you never have anything to sell. I would expect a thief to try to profit from her bounty as soon as possible.’ He was watching for her reaction. ‘I considered that you might be gathering information for more underhanded activities, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.’
‘I told you, I didn’t take any of the jade.’
He wagged a finger at her. ‘So you had accomplices. Don’t try to be clever with your words, Miss Wen. I’m wondering why, after such a grand take, you are not enjoying newfound riches? A falling out with your comrades, perhaps?’
‘If I told you, would you release me?’
‘No.’
‘I don’t suppose begging for mercy would do any good either,’ she remarked drily.
He paused at that. ‘No,’ he said finally, his expression inscrutable. After a tense silence, he spoke again. ‘If you are indeed guilty of the theft, you must accept the consequences. You might be sentenced to time in the cangue for theft. At worst, you may suffer a public beating. Most likely you’ll be sentenced to servitude to make up for your crimes.’ Han listed off the punishments as if reading from a code book.
‘Are you certain?’ she challenged. ‘There was quite an expensive amount of jade stolen … as I hear.’
‘The magistrate will be lenient seeing as you’re a woman.’
‘I’ll be shown mercy after I confess under torture.’
A frown creased his brow. It was clear he was disturbed by her directness, but said nothing to refute her claims. She may have lived for most of her life away from the affairs of the world, but she’d learned very quickly about how justice truly worked. Some magistrates were crueller than others, but none, by the very nature of their position, was particularly kind.
‘I will do my best to see that you are treated fairly,’ he said, though it was a faint promise. He apparently thought having her head and arms locked in the cangue or publicly beaten was ‘fair’.
‘Why would Thief-catcher Han want to help a suspected criminal like me?’
‘Because you rescued me.’ He wasn’t pleased to admit it.
She sat up straight, confused. ‘I did no such thing.’
‘On the rooftop, you could have let me fall.’
Li Feng recalled reaching out for him, her hand closing around his wrist. She hadn’t even remembered the incident until he brought it up. ‘I acted on instinct.’
‘Most criminals only have the instinct to save themselves.’
They regarded one another across the tavern. There was an undeniable connection between them. Like Han, she didn’t particularly like it. Li Feng didn’t believe in fate, but if she hadn’t caught him, he would have fallen. Perhaps he would have broken an arm or a leg. It would have been very difficult to pursue her while restricted to the use of one leg.
‘What are you smiling about?’ he asked warily.
She thinned out her lips. ‘Let me go and you can consider your debt repaid.’
‘No.’
‘But I’m a helpless woman.’
‘Justice is justice, for man or woman.’
She exhaled in exasperation. He spoke the words with such conviction, but she found it hard to believe him. A mercenary didn’t care about justice or injustice. He only cared about his reward.
‘Did you promise leniency to Two Dragon Lo?’ she asked.
His expression darkened and his light, casual demeanour disappeared. Everyone knew the story. Two Dragon Lo had murdered every other thief-catcher who had gone after him. His gang had even defeated a constable and his entire squad of hired swordsmen. Yet Zheng Hao Han had ventured alone into the forest that was Lo’s stronghold and had killed the notorious bandit with his own hands.
‘Two Dragon Lo was a different matter.’
Tension gathered in his shoulders as Han came forwards and wrapped a hand around her ankle. His touch was firm, but oddly gentle. She considered kicking him out of spite, but their gazes locked and he gave her a sharp and pointed look that was full of warning. In brusque, efficient movements, he coiled another length of rope around her ankles before extinguishing the lamp. She heard the sound of him settling on to the ground not too far away.
She didn’t know if Han deserved his reputation for being the god of thief-catchers, lowly god that it was, but he had thwarted her on her one advantage. Her joints, which had always been flexible, were made more so by rigorous discipline and practice. Irons were easy to slip out of. Coils and coils of rope, less so.
After some time passed, his breathing grew deep and steady. Quietly, she tried to wriggle her hands free beneath the ropes. Perhaps one of his knots could be worked loose.
‘Go to sleep.’ Han’s voice sliced through the darkness. ‘The sound of you struggling is keeping me awake.’
With that, he settled down again. She scowled at him, even though there was no light for him to see it.
Chapter Three
When Han had originally decided to go after Wen Li Feng, his primary reason was that she was an oddity. She was too skilled with the sword to be just a dancer and she had demonstrated the ability to bypass heavy chains and locked doors.
Now, he was certain she was hiding something. Her behaviour was suspect, with her numerous visits to jade merchants. The same instinct that told him Li Feng was more than a dancer also told him that she wasn’t motivated by greed and that there was more at hand than theft.
His father had always told him to find the one detail that was out of place and start his search from there. Father always seemed more concerned with how things fit neatly together rather than any specific moral code. Right and wrong were values that were subject to interpretation. Order was the natural intended state of heaven and earth and to commit a crime was to violate that state. Their household had once been kept with that same philosophy in mind.
Father also believed that every time a crime went unpunished, society was one step closer to ruin and decay. It had been several years since Han had spoken to the man, but he was sure Father’s ideals hadn’t shifted one bit.
If Han didn’t hunt the sword dancer down, he was certain no one else would or could. So now that his prisoner was trussed up before him, society was safe from ruin.
‘This is absurd,’ Li Feng muttered.
She was face down and draped over the saddle in front of him with her wrists and ankles tied
‘It will take at least a week to reach Taining.’ She tried to lift her head, but failed. ‘Are you going to keep me like this the entire time?’
‘Yes.’
