Yudie’s eyes dimmed, and she said in a small voice:

“Ning, dear, this girl is under sentence. She isn’t allowed out of the city.”

Ning Chen raised an eyebrow. How had he forgotten that?

“Never mind. I’m a silver coat of the Inspectorate. Hide in the carriage and I’ll take you out.”

Yudie shook her head and said softly, “Ning, dear has done enough for this girl already. Just now I brought you into disgrace and made you offend all those people… This girl can’t do you any more harm.”

“To take the daughter of a convicted official out of the city on your own authority is a serious crime… And it wouldn’t only be Ning, dear. The whole courtesans’ quarter would be dragged in with you.”

Ning Chen was about to speak when the carriage turned a corner, and he glanced back, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

There was a carriage following behind them.

He had seen that carriage at the gate of the courtesans’ quarter… and just now, when they came out, he had seen it again at the door of the Heavenly Blessing Tower.

Somebody had his eye on him.

Who would it be?

The Left Chancellor, or the Empress?

At present those were the only two who wanted him dead.

The Empress was the likelier.

Both of them gave Ning Chen a headache.

One was a man below one man in this court, and above ten thousand.

The other was the mother of the nation.

His Majesty showed him nothing but favor at present, but to move against either of those two, with what he could do now, would be a mayfly trying to shake a tree.

He had to have military merit behind him.

This campaign, he had to come home in triumph. With military merit behind him, even His Majesty would have to think three times before he moved against him.

It looked as though there would be no going outside the city today.

Ning Chen stopped the carriage all at once.

“Ning, dear, why have we stopped?”

“Wait here for me. I’ve something to see to!”

Yudie made an obedient sound of assent.

Ning Chen jumped down from the carriage and turned and walked toward the one behind.

Shk!!!

The long blade came out of the sheath.

Ning Chen held the saber crosswise and blocked the carriage.

The driver was a middle-aged man with rough skin and a lean, hollow face.

“My lord, I— what have I done wrong?”

The driver said it stammering, his face full of fear.

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and stared at him. “Why are you following me?”

The driver waved both hands, his face full of terror. “My lord, I am wronged… This small man has not been following my lord.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “That’s not bad acting… Open the carriage.”

The man’s face was full of terror, but there was not a trace of fear in his eyes.

“My lord, my wife is in the carriage. She has taken a chill and cannot be in the wind. I beg my lord to raise his noble hand… and let this small man take her to a physician.”

Ning Chen took the crossbow off the back of his belt without another word, leveled it at the driver and said coldly, “I will say it once more. Open it!”

By the way the carriage sat on its springs, there was plainly more than one person inside.

“My lord, this commoner is only an ordinary man. I don’t know how I have offended my lord. My wife is—”

He had not finished before Ning Chen pulled the crossbow’s trigger.

Whip!!!

The bolt went at the driver like a splinter of light.

The people all around let out scream after scream.

The whip in the driver’s hand swung — and there was a ringing note of metal on metal, and the bolt was knocked clean away.

The grip of the whip in his hand was made of metal.

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed. At that range, and the man had got out of the way of it?

This was a first-rate fighter!

Ning Chen threw the crossbow away. The thing took far too long to load. He took the saber in both hands and cut.

Not at the driver. At the horse’s reins.

The driver seemed to see what Ning Chen intended. The whip in his hand tore the air with a shrill note and came at him like lightning.

The long lash wound round the body of Ning Chen’s blade and hauled, hard. There was great strength behind it. It very nearly took the saber away from him, and dragged him staggering forward several steps.

Ning Chen steadied himself, kept the saber in his right hand and hauled back against the man — and cold light flashed in his left.

The reins parted at the stroke.

There was a dagger in Ning Chen’s hand. It was the one the crown prince had given him.

With the reins gone, the carriage shaft came down hard against the ground, and with a crack it snapped clean through… and several figures burst out through the carriage door and rolled clear.

Ning Chen took the chance to sweep his left hand across, and the dagger cut through the whip that had his blade wound up in it.

“Bold bandits! Under the Son of Heaven’s own feet, you dare attack a silver coat of the Inspectorate in the open street… Will you not put up your hands and be taken?”

Ning Chen roared it, and swung the saber at the driver.

The driver made a cold sound in his nose, his face full of contempt.

A blade swept across and caught Ning Chen’s stroke and held it.

The driver came in and kicked at Ning Chen’s belly.

Ning Chen turned his body, dropped suddenly into a crouch, rolled where he stood, and the dagger in his left hand swept round with the movement.

A ripping sound!

One of them staggered backward. The dagger had opened a horrible wound down his thigh, deep enough to show the bone, and the blood came out of it in a jet.

Ning Chen came out of the roll at a distance from them, twisted up onto his feet, and settled into a half crouch on the ground, the dagger in his left hand hidden behind him, the long saber in his right held up in front.

This was the Thirteen Ghost-Shadow Blades.

The whole of it built on coming at a man where he does not expect it and striking where he is not ready.

Every one of these men was thickly built. In a contest of strength he was certainly no match for them, and could only fight on skill and speed.

Ning Chen’s eyes were wary and hard, and he silently fixed every one of their faces in his memory.

“You are very bold. To murder a silver coat of the Inspectorate in the open street? Who sent you?”

These men were bold past believing. They had not even covered their faces.

The driver’s face was full of murder. “Only a hawk and hound of the imperial house. Killing you is ridding the people of a menace… We meant to do it somewhere with nobody about, and instead you delivered yourself to our door.”

“Since you’re in such a hurry to die, I’ll oblige you… Make it quick!”

Their eyes were savage as they came at Ning Chen to kill him.

Ning Chen was driven back and back, looking for a chance to strike in return.

He did not need to keep all of them. One would do — one was enough to trace the hand behind this.

Saber light, cold as frost. Sword shadows flying.

These men were all first-rate fighters, and their skill was not below that of the Inspectorate’s silver coats.

And they were old hands at it. Not one stroke of theirs went anywhere but at something vital.

Ning Chen used the quickness of his footwork, fighting and giving ground at the same time.

A disturbance on this scale, in this place — the gate garrison would certainly have word of it soon and come at a run.

All he had to do was hold them. There was no need to fight to the death for it!

The driver appeared to see straight through what Ning Chen was thinking, and pressed his attack harder and faster.

A long blade came sweeping across with the cold light on it.

Ning Chen bent backward from the waist, went out of the way of it, and swept his own saber across to force the man off.

But just then came a hissing note of something tearing the air.

A sharp sword came at him like lightning.

Ning Chen was driven back and back again.

A big man took the chance to spring high into the air. The weapon in his hands was a very strange one — an iron rod about as thick as a small child’s arm, with a lump of iron the size of a fist at one end.

Take one blow from that and a man would be dead or crippled.

A blunt weapon does far more damage than a blade.

A blade that misses anything vital may be taken several times without killing a man… but a blunt weapon has only to land, and bones break and sinews tear, and a man is dead or crippled.

Ning Chen, driven back and back, all at once dug in his foot and drove himself forward like a hunting leopard, straight inside the man’s guard.

The strange weapon in the man’s hands smashed into the empty air behind him.

Ning Chen brought a knee up, and very nearly finished the man’s line for good. The sound he made was not a human sound… and while he was doubled over, Ning Chen added a headbutt to it, into the man’s nose.

Crack!!!

The bridge of his nose shattered.

The man screamed like a pig on the block, staggering backward, and went down in a sorry heap, one hand at his crotch and one at his nose, rolling on the ground with the pain of it.

But before Ning Chen could be pleased about it, the half-length of whip in the driver’s hand came lashing at him.

Ning Chen swung the saber to block it.

And another of them took the chance to put a boot into his belly, and the whole of him went flying back several meters and came down hard on the ground, and rolled over and over before he stopped.

(End of Chapter 119)