The monk laughed. “Bow before your emperor’s envoy, boy.”
“Never. Not when you disrespect the creatures of our lands.”
Beside him, Hakaru spat his wood-grass to the dirt. “You think you have your royal powers here?”
The monk, clearly the leader, came forward again, and his narrow, piercing eyes met Sen’s. He was of middle age, a squat, boar-like man, with a thick neck, rough features, and heavy hands. His flat nose had once been broken. “We’ve come here for the wedding, child. Would you put a stain upon this day, by starting conflict?”
“Youhave started conflict!” Hakaru began, and the other red monks stormed closer. But now they had grabbed the no’in woman, and thrown her back to the dirt, and the squat one towered over her, rage billowing across his pockmarked face.
“On the ground, peasant,” he shouted, staff rising in his hand.
Instantly, Sen raced forward. He caught the squat monk’s staff as it came down, twisting and using the momentum to flip the heavy, red-robed man over his shoulder and wrenching the weapon from his hands. There was a cry of outrage, and the great staff went clattering away. Sen hit the dry dirt hard. But in the moments he had risen to his knees, the big monk came at him again, bellowing, surprisingly fast for one of his bulk. He grabbed the staff from where it had fallen, reversed his grip and switched with his feet to land a sharp blow from the backside of his swing, but Sen recovered quickly, and as the monk came down with a strike that would have split his skull, Sen parried, drawing his short-sword from his waist and cutting in too quick for the monk to counter, closing the distance and landing with the sharp edge of the blade less than a handsbreadth from the boar monk’s scowling eyes.
“Howdareyou,” spat the monk.
He moved to lash out, but Sen grabbed him, shoved him off, strong and lean against the red monk’s bulk. “You will not touch her. These no’in are of my mother’s land!”
Behind him, his brothers were shouting. “Sen, put your blade away!” Nihira called. Sen stepped into a crouch, but with a scowl the monk shifted away from him, spitting to the ground and lowering his arms.
“You have drawn your blade in the presence of a holy one,” he said, voice low. “I am Ryaku’in of the mountain, and you will know my name.”
He shoved Sen off, but by then the young woman had darted away into the trees, and as the other monks went to follow, Hakaru stepped in their path.
Sen stood over the red-robed leader, who was wheezing, cursing with heavy breaths. The furor in him had boiled into something even worse.
“You call yourself a monk? You attack a no’in, a peasant!”
“She assaulted us!” The monks crowded him. Nihira called out in alarm, but the leader pushed them back.
“We have a decree to travel in these lands,” he said, reaching into his robe. He withdrew a paper envelope. “Marked with the seal of the retired-emperor’s court! You have no say on where we pass in the sovereign’s realm.”
“Sen, come back here,” Nihira called, from his horse.
But Sen would not. “The emperor,” he said. “Theemperor?” He tore the paper from the squat man’s hands. “What do I care for the emperor? This is not the emperor’s domain.”
“How dare you,” began the monk again, seething. He reached forward, to grab Sen by the shirt.
And then he stopped.
Sen’s jade bead, the necklace that he always wore, had come loose in the confrontation.
It hung, glinting in the light.
The boar-like monk released him. Suddenly. Completely.
“Where did you get such a treasure?” He spoke as if he recognized the bead, as if he knew what it was.
“What do you care?” Sen said, pulling away. “It’s nothing to you.”
Hakaru looked set to charge them, but the other monks stood firm. Soon they would come to blows. Behind them, on his horse, Nihira called their names again. “Sen. Hakaru. Now!”
“You don’t know what you’ve justdone, boy,” the monk hissed at last, straightening his robes. “Though I care not. You are but crude, unlearned people, in these lands beyond the barrier.” He took a threatening step forward. “But if you’re not careful, you will pay.” Then, to his monks: “Come!”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Hakaru shoved in. “Hey! Hey!”
Nihira again cried, “Stop!”
The red monk turned. “I mean they’ll come for you, prince,” he said, waving a thick finger in Sen’s face: “Remember this. I know who you are.”
