Chang-li was in the training room, walking the latest disciples through a series of exercises designed to help them move their bodies and cycle their lux in a contrary pattern. The training room in the house that Min's grandfather had procured for the Sect of Morning Mists was larger than their back garden had been at the broken tower. It took up the entire second floor of the rambling main building of their compound.
They had a courtyard here as well, with a small garden reminiscent of the one at the Oaken Band Brotherhood, and a set of small cottages fit into the back wall for the higher-ranking sect members to enjoy their privacy.
Min was in the far corner, practicing with her lux bow. She had a lux-resistant target set up on the wall and was gleefully loosing arrow after arrow at it. She was campaigning hard to be allowed to accompany the party with Li Jiya two days from now on their next venture into the tower. Chang-li was on her side. Joshi and Jiya expressed doubts, but Chang-li knew what Min lacked in cultivation experience she made up for in good common sense.
He pulled his gaze away from the attractive figure of his wife in a shooting stance, back to the disciples he was supposed to be working with. As far away from the disciples as they could get, Joshi and Jiya both sat focused on their own training. They were practicing, using their will against each other as a training technique.
Chang-li had participated a few times, but he didn't have the knack of it yet. Li Jiya could wield her willpower like a club, bashing it down against her opponent. Chang-li was able to block some of her attacks, but no more than that. Joshi was having slightly more success. He had twice managed to expand his will out from himself in an explosive burst, covering the whole of the training floor, knocking the disciples sprawling and giving Chang-li a two-hour headache.
If they reached the final phase of this competition, then Li Jiya and her closest allies — him and Joshi — would receive personal tutoring from a prism. Among the other promised rewards, this was the one that excited him the most. What insights could a prism give him on the nature of cultivation, or on his own weaknesses? If he was still having trouble with his will, a prism could doubtless tell him what he was doing wrong. Or — he shut down his racing thoughts and turned back to the matter on hand.
Chang-li was about to tell Brother Stone to demonstrate the next step of the training exercise with him when, from nowhere, a voice spoke. It was an exuberant woman he'd never heard before.
"Bridal candidate Li Jiya of Morning Mist, please name your two champions immediately, or I will be forced to choose for you."
Li Jiya looked around. "Who? What?"
"You have ten seconds."
Li Jiya's eyes narrowed. "Young Master Joshi and Wu Chang-li," she said at once.
There was a bright flash. Chang-li felt as though he was being jerked forward by a rope tied to his spine. His ears rushed. His eyes swam. Then he wasn't in the same place anymore. He stood on a rocky mountain shelf halfway up a granite peak. The slope in front of him was all loose rocks and bits of shale. Down below, the ground fell away steeply. Jiya and Joshi were there with him, looking around.
A woman's voice came from behind him. He turned. The woman hung in midair over the edge of the cliff. Her radiant skin glowed. Her hair was such a light brown it was almost yellow. Her light green eyes sparkled. Chang-li started to ask who she was, and then her will flared. It was like being punched in the gut by a boulder. Chang-li doubled over.
"That's better," the woman said. "Show some respect."
Li Jiya was on her knees, her head bowed. Joshi had collapsed to his knees as well. He had one hand down on the ground and was trying to force his head up. Chang-li didn't try to fight.
"Your radiance," Li Jiya said respectfully.
"There's the proper manners. Perhaps you do have what it takes to become a bride of the Emperor," the woman said. "I am the Prism Eri." She offered no other name than that. Chang-li had never heard of her, but then he didn't know the names of any of the Prisms except Nai Lin and her father. "I've come to enjoy the spectacle and to promote my own candidate. But this event is boring so far. I've decided to spice it up a little. To that end, all nine brides are being gathered here together for a contest."
"Nine?" Li Jiya's face came up. She spoke sharply, then bowed and said in a subservient tone, "Forgiveness, Prism, there are eight of us."
"There were eight. I have brought Mai Wen of the Golden Locks Sect, my own sect," Eri added, tossing her hair. It rippled in the breeze, flowing out behind her for several feet. "Since she is starting late, I've decided to give her a chance to introduce herself. We’re hosting a little race. Terms are, the three lowest finishers will forfeit their next trips into the tower and give Mai Wen the opportunity to catch up.”
“Why would anyone agree to that?” Li Jiya asked crossly.
“Because I’m not asking, I’m telling. More importantly, I’m adding a prize from my personal treasury,” Eri said. Chang-li came alert. Next to him, Joshi stood a little straighter. “An elixir of Spiritual Refinement.”
From Li Jiya’s intake of breath, that was a priceless treasure indeed. “A Heavenly Grade elixir?”
“Yes,” Eri confirmed. “Guaranteed to take a cultivator straight to the Peak of Spiritual Refinement.”
"Just for reaching the top?" Li Jiya asked.
"Well, of course, if the others let you,” Eri said cheerfully. “Now stay here and wait for my signal."
She disappeared.
“What’s going on?” Chang-li wondered. A new prism arriving seemed like it had depths he couldn’t fathom. “And what’s the elixir about?”
Joshi shook his head. "Time enough to discuss that once we've won this contest."
"Agreed," Li Jiya said, her eyes sparkling. "Now's our chance to get out in front of the others. It's an equal chance for all of us, if she only allowed each bride two champions.” One of the reasons Li Jiya ranked only fourth was the other six had more cultivators assisting their brides and, of course, Li Jiya was turning over half the rewards to Chang-li and Joshi.
Chang-li was busy trying to scout a route up the mountain. He craned his head. High above loomed a forked peak, the left-hand side noticeably taller than the right, capped with snow. "I think that's our destination," he said, pointing. The slope in front of them was a dangerous scree field. The footing there would be terrible. The ledge they were on continued along the side of the mountain for some ways, disappearing around a bend. "What do you think? Straight up or over?"
"Over," Joshi said at once.
"We don't know there's a path there any better than here," Li Jiya countered.
"I've spent time in a country like this. Have you?" Joshi asked.
Jiya shook her head.
"Then let me lead. I'll get you to the top. But watch behind us. If there are other sects here, some of them may try to attack."
All at once, a long horn blast sounded, echoing off the sides of the mountain all around. Joshi took off at once, hurrying along the narrow ledge. Jiya followed, Chang-li taking up the rear. The ledge was, in places, only barely wide enough for him to put one foot beside the other. Joshi was as fleet-footed as a mountain goat, pressing ahead, Chang-li just trying to keep up. He cycled Breath of the Heavens as he went, keeping himself centered.
They rounded the bend, and the shelf widened out. The mountain curved up over them, overhanging and shadowing the shelf on which they stood. There was a dark hole in the face of the mountain, a cave.
Li Jiya pointed. "What about that?"
In answer, Joshi raced for the opening. He had a ball of yellow lux flame in his hand, a technique he'd recently mastered with some help from Chang-li. It lit the sides of the cave as they rushed in. A breeze blew in their faces.
"There's a way through here," Joshi said. "The air smells fresh."
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Li Jiya hurried onward, the way lit by the light from Joshi's flame. The passage twisted and turned.
They passed an opening on their right, which Joshi ignored as they kept their faces to the breeze. The path seemed to be heading upward. Chang-li thought that was a good sign.
The only warning he had was a brief prickling on the back of his neck. He threw himself to the side, shouting as he did. Li Jiya turned and fired a bolt of icy lux back behind them. It lit the dark passage as it burned through the air and slammed into the chest of the cultivator who'd come up behind them. There were three in the party, two women and a man, who Chang-li recognized after a heartbeat as being from the Dream Blossom sect.
Li Jiya's bolt hit the woman who wasn't their bride. She staggered back. Joshi raced past, head down, fists brimming with lux. Chang-li had a Firepot variant woven off the Infinite Loom in seconds. He hurled it at the cultivators. It exploded, releasing its green and blue contents in a puff of smoke.
The male cultivator cried out as the lux raced up his legs, swathing him in a dark smoke. The effect wouldn't last long. Chang-li wasn't very good at it yet, and putting it inside a Firepot in order to throw it made it even less effective. But for a moment, they had the advantage of numbers.
Chang-li raced in, his sword drawn, as Li Jiya formed her weapon and swung hard down across the other bride. Chang-li thrust his sword under Li Jiya's arm and, before he could think, skewered the rival bride.
Her eyes opened in astonishment. A weave died in her hands as blood gushed up through her mouth. Chang-li had just an instant to realize, horrified, that he'd dealt possibly a fatal wound before she vanished, and with her, the other two members of her sect.
Eri’s laughter echoed all around them. "Well done! She's out of today’s contest. Don't worry. I’m watching, and I’ll yank out anyone who gets too badly hurt. So why don't you just show me what you're made of?"
For an instant, the prism appeared in front of them. She looked over all three, her eyes lingering on Joshi. "Especially you, Young Master of the Darwur. I've seen your kind, but not as cultivators. You fascinate me." And then she was gone.
"Don't listen to her," Joshi snapped. "Keep going."
They raced onward, the tunnel quickly bringing them out onto a higher slope of the mountain. Chang-li took a moment to orient himself, found the peak they were heading for, and started up the slope toward it. The hillside here was less steep than previously, the footing good. The slope opened into a thin-soiled mountain meadow, littered with boulders the size of his head. A stand of aspens clung to the flanks of the mountain higher up. Beyond, he could see the meadow they were in turning into a saddle between the two peaks.
"This way," Joshi urged, and they hurried forward. Chang-li kept glancing over his shoulder, looking for trouble.
"Focus on our path," Joshi told him. "Magen's watching behind us. You keep an eye ahead."
He hadn't seen his friend's lux-bond creature since entering the cave, but it was good to hear the little sprite was making itself useful. Li Jiya looked determined, still carrying her weapon, using it as a stick in places to haul herself up steep bits of the climb. Chang-li had to change to Purification of Mind and Soul. It worked well with his deeper breathing.
They were running up a slope so steep Chang-li would have had to stop and rest a dozen times in the days before he was a cultivator. Now he barely broke a sweat. Lux did wonderful things for the body if it didn't kill you outright.
Chang-li spotted movement on the slope ahead in the aspens. Rather than pointing, he dropped his voice and told his allies, "Someone waiting up ahead."
Joshi at once directed Magen forward. Chang-li felt rather than saw the lux-creature, rushed past them up the slope. "Three cultivators, the Azure Flame Sect," Joshi reported, "waiting in ambush."
"I look forward to wiping the smile off Xue Lan’s face," Li Jiya declared. Azure Flame was currently in first place.
"Do we believe the prism will step in to prevent deaths?” Chang-li asked.
Li Jiya hesitated. "Yes, I think we do. There are other prisms here, and she's given their word, in a way. I don't think they'd stand for her lying about that."
"In that case, let Joshi and me go first. If you're defeated, we're all out. But if one of us is removed—" it sounded better than killed, whether or not Chang-li trusted the prism's words—"then we can go on. Anyway, I have an idea." He summoned Breath of Heavens and focused on the physical luxes, strengthening his body with red and applying the others to the swords. If they were being watched, then Azure Flame would think he was a cultivator with a focus on physical luxes. That could be to his advantage.
They kept up the slope. Joshi said, "They're gathered together. I'm going to go another ten yards and leap at them. You two follow up in the chaos."
"Agreed," Chang-li said. He felt gloriously alive as he cycled the tower lux. There was just a hint of violet here, enough to tempt him, not enough to do anything with. He didn't know any actual violet techniques. He was tempted to siphon it into the temporal training chamber. That treasure he kept stored in his soul space. Siphoning lux off of his core into it would be easy. However, he suspected there were three prisms watching this event and he didn't want to tempt fate. So, despite the appeal, he left the violet lux alone, venting it out of his channels at the end of each cycle.
Joshi bent his knees and sprang forward into the air, covering twenty feet in a crashing leap. He plummeted into the aspens like a falling star. Chang-li threw himself forward, strengthening his legs with red lux and running so fast, his hair streamed out behind him. Li Jiya kept up. Each of her bounding strides covered yards of ground.
Chang-li concentrated and his sword burst into flame. As he reached the edge of the trees, he saw the enemy. All three cultivators were focused on Joshi, who was in their midst, blocking multiple attacks at once. Magen covered his back, but he wasn't going to be able to stand up under the attacks of three cultivators, all past the Peak of Mental Refinement.
As Chang-li yelled and threw himself forward, one of the bridal candidate's male allies made a clapping gesture. Lines of lux sprang out of the air, seizing Joshi's legs, wrapping around them and yanking them apart. Joshi stumbled and fell. The other male cultivator dove on him with a heavy, orange-spiked club.
Chang-li was there. He swung his sword and sliced deep into the first man’s arm. Blood gushed out, falling to the ground in a puddle. The man turned at him, staring in horror. His lux technique unraveled. Joshi rolled over and seized the legs of the man with the club, throwing him to the ground. The two grappled, wrestling as they sought to pin each other.
As Chang-li swung his sword again, the injured cultivator threw up a technique. Chang-li's sword bounced off of it. The bride was there, stepping in and hurling two-handed a ball of woven lux. It hit Chang-li and knocked him back out of the grove of aspens. He tumbled head over heels.
The lux unraveled from the ball and wrapped itself around him, tendrils crawling all over his body, pulling his limbs painfully taut. He arched his back in involuntary agony as the cords began to burn. Everything was pain.
Chang-li fought to control himself. He switched cycling patterns to Double Branching river and inhaled as much of the enemy lux technique as he could, fighting for control just as he had against his reflection in the temporal training chamber.
It was working. The enemy weave fought him, but then, suddenly, as though its master's attention was diverted, the pattern collapsed. He sucked it all in, leaping to his feet.
Joshi was on top of one of the cultivators, pounding him. The injured cultivator was throwing techniques at Li Jiya, who dodged them as she swung at the bride. Chang-li wove a net spell rapidly on the Infinite Loom and hurled it at the enemy bride.
She wasn't looking in his direction. She must have thought her own technique had taken care of him. His net flew true. It caught her, wrapped her, and that gave Li Jiya the opening she needed.
She stepped in with her polearm and sliced the girl open from shoulder to navel. An instant later, all three were gone.
Chang-li was starting to feel sick. What sort of competition was this? This was barely cultivating. It was brawling, the sort of thuggery any bandits could do. Just because they were using cultivation as a weapon didn't make it a test of how adept Li Jiya might be.
But Li Jiya was smiling. "We can't be the only ones who've met in combat," she said. "By now, half the others could be eliminated from this contest, but someone else might be ahead of us. Let's hurry."
They raced on toward the tip of the mountain. As they emerged onto the saddle, Chang-li glanced behind. He saw a pair of cultivators far below, back the way they'd come, laboring their way up the mountain. Li Jiya saw where he was looking and frowned speculatively.
"We could set an ambush of our own.
“And let someone else beat us to the goal?" Joshi shook his head. "No, those are irrelevant. Even if they reach the top, it will be long after we and any serious competitors have done so. Focus on the goal, Li Jiya."
"Yes, I suppose you're right," she agreed, sounding almost reluctant. “I want that elixir. It’s insurance for us later.”
They turned upward from the saddle. They had to use their hands quite a bit here, scrambling over the rocks, and then they came to a sheer cliff face, twenty feet tall. Chang-li eyed it. The rock looked slippery and sharp.
He sighed and reached for a handhold, but Joshi was smiling. He crouched and leapt, his meteor punch technique taking him to the top. Then he turned and called down to them. "Hurry, come. Lift Li Jiya up and toss her. I'll catch."
Chang-li was going to say there was no way he could throw a woman that far when he realized he probably could. He pulled in lux, then bowed politely to Li Jiya. "With your permission?"
"Stop wasting time," she scolded. "I want to win already."
Chang-li nodded. He put his hands on her hips and felt a blush creeping up his face as he felt her body under her robes. He hoped Min didn't hear about this one. Then he lifted and tossed her into the air.
Joshi reached out and grabbed her wrists. She dangled over the edge for a few seconds before scrambling in to stand beside Joshi.
Joshi pointed. "Another comes."
Chang-li turned. A trio of cultivators were racing toward him, the bride at their head. "You two go ahead," he shouted. "I'll delay them." A few minutes delay could buy Li Jiya the win she so desperately craved.
Neither of his companions bothered to wait and argue. They turned and raced onward while Chang-li prepared a technique.
The newcomers were closing fast as he tossed out a weave at their feet. The bride leapt easily over it, the other two cultivators parting to go around. And then, the first stepped in the concealed Firepot he had placed between two rocks just a moment before. It exploded in the man's face.
The bride didn't pause. She was coming on fast, weaving a technique. Chang-li was prepared. He called on his Double Branching River technique and reached for her lux. It answered him easily. The look of shock on her face was worth all the time he had spent in the training chamber. "How are you—?” she began, but then she let the technique drop.
She reached forward, making a smashing gesture, and her will came down against Chang-li like the mountain itself had fallen on him. His knees buckled. Chang-li struggled. This was nothing like the willpower training he'd done with his friends. This woman wanted to kill him. He fought her, determined not to give up. Even as her companions raced toward him, one had a sword drawn. Chang-li grit his teeth and pushed with his own willpower.
For an instant, the pressure eased. Then the enemy cultivator smashed a club against his head, and everything went dark.