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countenance, and she is upon him, her knee digging into his chest as she forsakes tech- nique completely and drives the knife into his heart, draws it out, plunges it back in, the two of them now falling to the ground, and she is still stabbing him as they land, this time across the neck, and the head is divorced from the trunk with a minimum of fuss, and she is on her knees, looking down upon the body, expressionless. Then she hears her mother scream from inside the house, and she turns to look, but the sound has been cut off, like a door slamming shut. She sees only the threshold, and far down the hall, a single fallen candle marking the place where her mother was. *** 
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Something must be done, the warrior whispers. His knuckles and arms bruised, his empty boots standing at ill attention, the rest of his body wrapped in blankets meant for finer rituals, he sits cross-legged on the floor. Uncle says nothing. He can only offer a cup of tea to his nephew as his servant rubs the young man's back, chops his shoulders into smooth- ness. Accepting the drink without a word, the warrior inhales it with a contemptuous gulp. You should have been there , he says. You wouldn't believe it otherwise. Master Lau was only trying to help me. He didn't raise a hand .  |
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