Free The Pirate Empress by Deborah Cannon Page B

saw only a settlement of felt tents where Mongol women innocently fetched water, washed clothes, cooked, minded livestock and processed hides, meat and milk—totally unaware of the menace stalking them.
    Zhu nocked an arrow; Quan raised a hand to stop him. Too late, the arrow flew into the camp and killed an old woman carrying a bladder of water. All four thousand horsemen took Zhu’s shot to be the signal for attack, and because only a small force of guards had remained to protect the settlement, they were soon overcome. None of the camp stood a chance, and no one—old, young, woman or child—escaped the wrath of the Emperor. The Mongols’ tents lined the lake, blocking escape by water. Hundreds were killed. The tents were looted and burned. Their camels, horses, cattle and sheep were captured as booty. The ground ran liquid with blood beneath the red wheel of the sun. The soldiers swarmed over the camp like beetles and then were replaced by crows. Stripped flesh from human bones hung in the brittle branches of trees.
    When word reached the Mongol warriors in the south, they rushed home to their womenfolk only to be ambushed. Arrows flew and blades clashed, and those who escaped the Emperor’s vengeance fled north. It was now October. The wind howled and temperatures dropped to freezing. Robbed of shelter, food and weapons in a land where winter came early, Esen’s barbarians were finally crushed. The annihilation of the Mongol settlement had taken several weeks and had strayed horribly from Quan’s original plan; and although he was mortified by the massacre of women and children and elderly, the end result was just. A stop to the Mongol raids. The remaining barbarians would starve.
    He Zhu was triumphant as they returned to Beijing. When His Majesty learned of their victory, the lieutenant was hailed as a hero. Now, was the time to build walls: with the Mongol terror at bay they had the freedom to link the ramparts from the mountain passes of Jiayuguan in the west to the Yellow Sea in the east. To Quan’s surprise, His Majesty agreed. He was tired of barbarians and wanted, once and for all, to keep them out.
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    Master Yun looked up as a golden fox hurled itself across the Koi Gardens onto the curved red roof of his temple. Should he trap her like the beast she was? She was fast, faster than any creature he knew, and smarter.
    “Jasmine,” he said. “What game is this that you play? Do not pretend that you are faithful to the Emperor when I know you belong to Esen. Why didn’t you warn your Mongol master of Chi Quan’s ambush?”
    The fox flitted her tail, lifted her regal head and wrinkled her nose at him. With the death of thousands of Mongols and peacetime here, his power waned. He must hide the extent of his weakness. A flash of gold leaped off the red-curled roof and slipped inside the temple door. Master Yun rose. The Koi Temple was sacred; the fox was the fish’s enemy. She had no power in the vicinity of the Jade Fountain.
    He walked to the temple and went inside. What he saw by the fountain nearly gagged him. He was wrong about her abilities; the fox had transmuted into a beautiful, fair-skinned woman, eyes sparkling.
    “Master Yun,” she said, bowing mockingly. She swayed her provocative hips, swishing the white satin of her skirt, and stroked her ebony hair across her bare breasts as she moved. She leaned up against his chest until the scent of jasmine blossoms teased his nose, before sweeping back her hair to expose a duo of pale, ginger-tipped breasts.
    He closed his nostrils to her perfume; shut the vision of her beauty from his eyes, though his eyelids remained open. The touch of her skin, soft like silk, had no effect on him.
    “You’re wasting your time,” he said. “To me you are only the essence of evil.”
    Jasmine wet her lips with her tongue. “There was a period when I was not wasting my time.”
    “Those days are gone, Jasmine. You are not a woman. You’re a wicked