Free The Red Plains (The Forbidden List Book 3) by G R Matthews

to prove my honesty and give you a clear account of the past day, and it is very strange. Every so often, and it seems to happen at random, the ground appears to rise up, at least the plants and grass do, and strangle a few tens of Mongol warriors. Would you know how that was done? It is quite infuriating and, as yet, I have not found a way to combat it. The generals are becoming quite irritated by it. Mongols tend to be quite a superstitious lot, even their magicians seem to be concerned. I am loathe to let them devise their own solution to the problem, it would not be a pretty sight.”
    Zhou kept his face still, and tried to hide the thumping in his chest by clasping his hands together. The Spirit of Life, the being who had given him the staff and infused his body with strength in his battle with the Duke, seemed to be taking part in this battle too. “I have no idea.”
    “Really?” Yángwū shook his head. “Such a shame. I thought you more intelligent. I have seen something similar, a long time ago and had it reported to me again much more recently. The Nature Spirit has taken a hand in two battles now, one in the Spirit plane and now one here. Always before, her power was limited to the area surrounding her tree, or those of her brothers and sisters. I looked, you know. A long time ago, I looked for her tree, the source of her life and power. Never found it. No matter, it is clear her power has grown and extended with the joining of the two planes, Nature and Spirit. It has never happened before. Did you know that?”
    Zhou let the man ramble on, listening for information and struggling to think of a way to turn anything to his advantage. He shook his head.
    “Of course. You must forgive me, I keep thinking you were a fully trained and learned Wu , but you are not. You’ve been in the library though, haven’t you? A great shame that all that learning is lost. Not my choice, I hasten to add. If only they had not turned the heart against me it would still be there for all to learn from,” Yángwū said.
    “You know about the library?” Zhou could not help asking the question.
    “Of course I do.” Yángwū looked at him in confusion for a moment. The polite but menacing short, round-bellied man suddenly looking much older than the lines around his eyes and face would suggest. “Zhou, really you must learn to listen. I told you that I had been trained on the mountain. My teacher is long gone now, but some of my scrolls would still have existed in the library. The Wu do not discard knowledge lightly. Perhaps, whilst there is a little time, I can assist your education a little. Old habits are hard to let go off and sharing learning, teaching others, is something I did for a very, very long time.”
    There was a wistful tone in Yángwū’s voice and Zhou noted the faraway look in his eyes. Memories are powerful, he knew. They recreate times and places where you could live forever. All you have to do is let go of the now. There were times when Zhou was tempted to do just that. To live, to exist, in a time where his wife and child were alive and they were happy. It would not take much, just open the barred and locked doors, demolish the strong walls he had spent time building in his mind. The memories would destroy him, he knew, but the temptation was strong. He gritted his teeth and forced the sadness back down.
    “Teach me what?” Zhou said.
    “Let’s start at the beginning and see if we can build a common frame of reference.” Yángwū paused for moment, rubbed his chin again and then began. “You know about the planes and the journey through them to the spirit realm? Good,” he said as Zhou nodded, “we can get through that quite quickly then. The first is the void, the nothing, the place where the Fang-shi draw their power. The void and our world were once as one, as were all the planes.”
    “I didn’t know that,” Zhou admitted.
    “Ah, well there was a battle many thousands of years ago. A battle