Chapter Text
If the Envoy had been reluctant before about letting Zhao Yunlan go off on his own, he nearly pitched a fit now, when he knew about the gun and all. Unfortunately for his argument, nothing else had changed; the kids still needed protection, and the Envoy was still the best choice for that, so it was Zhao Yunlan who crept through the trees to scout out the Youchong's nest.
It was warmer now, and the fog had lifted a bit. The sky, or whatever was above them, was still lost in haze, beyond the skeletal black tree branches reaching overhead—no leaves left on any of them, that Zhao Yunlan could see, just the dead ones on the ground; maybe even mirror plants couldn't thrive on the strange not-sunlight here. But it was clear enough that when he pressed himself to a slick tree trunk and peered around it, he could see the whole monster nest, further downslope.
It looked something like an ant mound, except instead of a little pile of grains of sand, it was a sizable hillock made of rocks ranging from gravel to chunks larger than basketball. The flat top of the hill was round like the crater of a volcano, several meters across. And sunk within it was not a hole in the ground but a perfectly circular pool, black water protected from any breeze by the surrounding wall of rocks, so its surface was still enough to perfectly reflect each stone and pebble ringing it.
And reflect the few Youchong, tending to their hill, arranging more rocks with their mandibles. As Zhao Yunlan watched, another pair of monsters crawled out of the pool. The water barely rippled as they emerged, and not a drop showed on their carapaces. Both were holding more rocks; they dropped these to roll down the slope, then one skittered off into the forest on the opposite site, while the other crept on its multitude of legs back into the water, vanishing beneath its mirror surface.
Zhao Yunlan made his way back through the woods to where the Envoy and the kids were hiding. "The good news is, the pool's right there in the open," he said. "The bad news is that there are half a dozen Youchong standing guard, and more coming through."
"That won't be so much of a problem," the Envoy said, looking thoughtful. "You said there were six?"
"Five, plus the one that went into the woods, and the seventh that went back through. And who knows how many on the other side of that portal."
"Youchong nests are rarely larger than twenty," the Envoy said. "Between these and the ones we've already encountered, there shouldn't be more than a couple on the other side. That's good."
Zhao Yunlan raised his eyebrows. "'Good' must mean something different in Dixing. We're not getting to the other side at all, if we can't get through the monsters on this one. Your warding won't work on that many out in the open, will it?"
"Definitely not with five of us," the Envoy confirmed.
The kids were listening closely, their eyes huge and frightened. "M-maybe," Ah-Mei stammered, "maybe some of us could—"
"No!" Zhao Yunlan said in the harshest whisper he could manage, perfectly timed with the Envoy's sharp shake of the head.
"It won't be necessary to leave anyone behind," the Envoy followed up, his certainty reassuring enough to ease the kids' panic. "The plan before will work as well now—I can act as the decoy to draw them away."
"Or I could," Zhao Yunlan began.
The Envoy shook his head. "I'm the more tempting target; as you said, even my blood appeals to them, and my dark energy all the moreso. It should be a sufficient distraction for you all to get to the pool and through it—with luck I can also attract the last of the Youchong on the other side, leaving that way completely clear.
"—Though," he added, his face drawn in concern, "there is one thing you should know—the odds are high that this reflection goes to Dixing, not Haixing."
The kids gasped, wild-eyed again and clutching each other. "Makes sense," Zhao Yunlan said slowly, "if that's where these monsters usually come from."
"But—but if we go to Dixing," Ah-Liu started.
"Then Zhao Yunlan will keep you safe, and take you home from there," the Envoy assured him. He looked back to Zhao Yunlan. "Whoever you meet in Dixing, simply give your name, and you'll be escorted to the gate to Haixing, with all the children. You have my word."
"Uh-huh," Zhao Yunlan said. "And what about you—wouldn't it be even more convincing if the Black-Cloaked Envoy himself were telling them to let us go?"
Said Envoy blinked at him, guileless behind those round lenses. "Yes—yes, of course, that would be—"
"Because you're coming with us through that portal, right?" Zhao Yunlan said. "You said this was the same plan as before—so you make a distraction, and then sneak back to come with us. That's the plan, isn't it, Hei-laoge?"
"I'll follow when I can," the Envoy said. "If they're not lured far enough away, the Youchong can pursue you into Dixing—that portal will still be open. The only way to ensure your safe escape is for me to lead the Youchong as far from the nest as I can. Once they're safely distant, I can come back and join you through the portal, in Dixing."
Zhao Yunlan narrowed his eyes at the Envoy. "Come back with what?"
"What?"
"If you're going to be leading these guys on a chase, baiting them with your dark energy—which you've used so much of already that your lips are gray—then where will you get the juice to teleport yourself back?"
The Envoy drew himself up, and it was like the mud and wrinkles on his suit fell away; he didn't actually don the black cloak of his office, but he didn't need to. There was cold fury in his eyes, in the uncompromising set of his jaw, at the presumption of a mere Haixingren questioning his ability. "I'll manage," he said shortly, and power pulsed in those words, the strength of a high lord of Dixing.
Twenty-four hours ago, it might've rattled Zhao Yunlan. But he'd seen a lot since then, and not just of this mirror realm. Enough that he thought he might know this Dixingren—this man. Maybe not all of him, or even most. But enough. "You're not planning on leaving yourself enough to make it back—hell, this distraction you've got in mind, are you really going to lead them away? Or just take them out, and yourself with them?"
The Envoy stared at him, the sham fury in his eyes gone out, but whatever feeling was left...was real, Zhao Yunlan thought, though he couldn't identify it, couldn't even fathom how deep it went. But it made that pool plunging between worlds look shallow. "Zhao Yunlan," the Envoy said, and his voice cracked, "if I can save you from my own mistakes—just this once—"
"Your mistakes, my mistakes—I don't give a fuck," Zhao Yunlan said. "I'm just not letting anybody die for me. Not on my watch." He bit down on this thumb, studying the Envoy's pale, resolute face. "So this distraction you were thinking of—do you need to be there for it? Or could you project it away from you—like, make a big ball of dark energy for them to play with and roll it away from here?"
"I might be able to temporarily manage something of the sort," the Envoy said, "but it wouldn't engage them for long—and the moment I crossed through the portal, it would vanish anyway, and then they'd come through after us."
"And there's no way to just destroy the portal once we're through it? Strand these monsters here for good?"
The Envoy shook his head. "The only way I know of to destroy a reflective portal, once opened, is to break the mirror in question. But water can't be shattered. If the pool could be drained...but from your description, this is more than a puddle we could trample into the ground. And I won't have the power to do anything more, not until I've regained my strength."
"Power," Zhao Yunlan repeated, thinking. "A Dixing power..."
He lifted his head—and saw the Envoy simultaneously do the same, as if they themselves were reflections of one another, a bridge crossing worlds. The realization showing so bright in the Envoy's eyes Zhao Yunlan knew was a match for what shone in his own.
"Zhao Yunlan, perhaps—" the Envoy began, just as Zhao Yunlan said, "Hei-laoge, do you think—"
They both turned to look back at the kids."—Together, perhaps, " the Envoy said, "though it may not work—"
"—but it's our best bet," Zhao Yunlan finished.
He went over, crouched before the watchful kids. "So, you guys ready to get out of here?" he asked, and wasn't surprised when they all nodded hard enough to shake their heads off their necks. Zhao Yunlan smiled at them. "Great! Because to do this, we're going to need help from you. Ah-Liu, Lingling, I know what your parents told you, but it's going to be okay—after this, the Black-Cloaked Envoy over there is going to owe you one..."
The Envoy didn't actually make a big ball of dark energy to distract the Youchong.
What he did make was a shadow—an unsettlingly solid-seeming shadow that prowled on four lanky limbs, with long spectral talons that dug gouges into the soft earth and energy trailing from it like smoke. It wasn't quite what Zhao Yunlan would've pictured as bait. More like a nightmare to run screaming from. The kids covered their eyes and ducked behind Zhao Yunlan, who didn't blame them.
The Youchong apparently had different standards, though. As soon as the Envoy sent his projection stalking around the rim of the giant anthill, the monsters dropped their rocks and lifted their heads, feelers twitching. If they'd been cats instead of giant crab-bugs, they'd have been pricking up their ears.
The Envoy let his shadow-thing linger in place, oozing energy, until almost all the Youchong were moving; then it bounded away, into the forest, and the Youchong made clicking hisses and scuttled after it. Even as they watched, a couple more of the bug monsters crawled up out of the pool and joined the chase.
Only two Youchong stayed behind. They looked about the same as the others to Zhao Yunlan's unpracticed eye, maybe a little bigger and nastier. If the Envoy was right about his monster biology—what kind of professor was he pretending to be, anyway?—that would be the queen and her guard.
But they were, luckily, on the farther side of the pool, busily poking at some of the rocks—"So their eggs are probably over there?" Zhao Yunlan muttered.
The Envoy nodded. "If we don't disturb them, they shouldn't attack."
He sounded out of breath, his voice strained; there was sweat beading on his pallid forehead. "You gonna be okay?" Zhao Yunlan asked him.
The Envoy nodded. "I can maintain the projection."
"Not what I asked," Zhao Yunlan said, looking across the hill. The Envoy's shadow creature had disappeared into trees and mist, and the Youchong were vanishing after it. Now or never.
"Okay, kids," Zhao Yunlan said. "Just like I told you—on my count, you run, fast as you can—get up that hill and into that pool, and we'll be right behind you. Got it?"
The kids nodded, crouching like runners waiting for the starting pistol. "Three," Zhao Yunlan counted off, "Two, one—go!" and they were off, scrambling down the slope as fast as their short legs could take them, and then clambering up the steeper side of the Youchong's mound, using both hands to climb.
Zhao Yunlan would have been right at their heels, but he was pacing the Envoy—who started off okay only to nearly take a header halfway down the slope. Zhao Yunlan grabbed his arm, kept him from faceplanting in the mud as they slipped down to the base of the hill. The Envoy staggered, clinging to Zhao Yunlan; he was coughing, a spot of red at the corner of his lips.
"Zhao Yunlan," he gasped out, "you should—"
"—drag you up this anthill? Yeah, that's the plan," Zhao Yunlan said, pulling the Envoy's arm over his shoulders and giving him a push at the small of his back to start him moving upwards. "You just keep that shadow going until we're through, okay?"
He felt the Envoy nod where his head was falling against Zhao Yunlan's shoulder. He was climbing, or making a go of it at least, stumbling between the mound's larger rocks. The gravel slithered out from under their feet, difficult to get purchase on.
The kids, with their lighter steps, were already almost to the top of the mound—then over, and then Ah-Mei screamed her piercing shriek.
The Envoy's head jerked up at that cry, and he made a concerted effort to move his legs, so that he and Zhao Yunlan got the rest of the way up to the crest of the hill.
One of the oversized Youchong was still on the other side of the pond, busy with its rocks; but the other—either the queen or the guard, Zhao Yunlan didn't have a clue which—was now on this side, between them and the water. It was standing over a cluster of oval iridescent stones the size of beach balls, rearing back on its mess of hind legs, hissing with its jagged mandibles spread as wide as the span of Zhao Yunlan's arms.
The kids screamed back at it—and threw rocks, picking up handfuls of the pebbles that made up the mound and chucking them at the thing.
Even the monster was startled enough by this assault to freeze for a moment. Though at the next shower of stones rattling against its carapace, the Youchong shook off the threat response, dropped back to the ground and started up the hillside. Its horde of barbed feet were surer on the loose gravel than any of theirs.
"Go for the pool!" Zhao Yunlan shouted. Leaving the Envoy slumped on the ridge, he threw himself forward, scrambling to get between the kids and the charging Youchong. He drew the Dixing revolver as he skidded down the slope—if he was going to go out, it would be guns blazing—
—Or the Youchong blazing. A ball of fire roared past Zhao Yunlan, close enough to singe his goatee, and crashed into the monster with the force to flip it over onto its back in the gravel. Its limbs twitched and jerked in the air as the flames engulfed its body, flickering blue-white heat that reflected brightly in the still-smooth pool.
Zhao Yunlan looked back, in time to see the Envoy risen to his knees at the crest of the hill. For an instant he posed there, white-faced and bloody-mouthed, one hand raised with all his fingers aimed toward the burning Youchong. Then he crumpled and collapsed like a sand castle melted away by the tide.