“Your attitude could use some improvements.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you.”
“My attitude has been nothing but polite,” she bit out. “You, on the other hand, have been ignoring me all day long and whenever you do speak, it’s to belittle me in some way.”
“I haven’t belittled you in any way,” he said with a scoff.
“The way you speak and your tone is belittling enough.”
“It’s not my fault you perceive my tone as belittling.”
The air between them turned bitter as they exchanged a few more biting remarks. After a few minutes, a village came to view. Biyu shifted in the saddle, her legs and lower back aching as usual. Nikator tightened his hold on the reins, and his arms—which were braced on either side of her waist—held her in place. Heat coiled in her lower belly; her body betrayed her.
“Something’s not right,” he said.
She nibbled on her lower lip and stared at the upcoming village; it was eerily quiet, but nothing struck her as strange. It could have been her lack of experience talking, though. “Why do you say that?”
“It’s too quiet,” he murmured, as if speaking loudly would wake something. “And there’s no smoke coming from any chimneys.”
“It’s still summer; people are likely too warm to start a fire.”
“Everyone still needs to cook dinner,” he said as if it was so obvious. “And there are no sounds either. No children, no carts being pulled, animals squawking—nothing.”
They stopped at the entrance of the village. Like he had said, there was nobody around. No animals, people, or anything. Wagons with wares were abandoned, some doors were left ajar, and streaks of blood painted the ground and the windows. The smell of death and decay clung to the air and Biyu inhaled sharply as vultures flew above and picked at the chunks of questionable-looking meat on the road.
Nikator dismounted, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he scanned the streets. The horse exhaled forcefully from its nose, clearly nervous. Biyu held onto the reins with trembling hands and quickly looked around herself. The stillness was creepy. What had happened here?
“Something attacked this village.” Nikator pulled the horse forward slowly.
“We should turn away, then.” She hated the panic in her voice. She cast a furtive glance over her shoulder at the forested area they had entered from, and she wondered if something was hiding in the shadows, waiting for them to venture deeper so it could strike. “It still might be here.”
“If it’s still here, then it’s my duty to slay it.” He said it so simply that shame curdled in her belly at her own cowardice. Fighting back hadn’t even occurred to her—only running.
Biting down the fear and panic clawing up her throat, Biyu swung her legs over the side of the saddle and jumped off before she could think better. She stumbled forward, almost falling flat on her face, and steadied herself.
“What are you doing?” Nikator asked, grasping her elbow with his free hand.
“I can fight too. Plus, there might be survivors and I want to help.” She raised her chin. Even though her words sounded uncertain and lacking in confidence, she was a princess of this empire and it was also her duty to protect it. She had given him those burn scars, hadn’t she? That meant her body knew how to fight reflexively. Her magic—her violet flames—had helped her years ago. She could channel that, even though it had been years since she had properly used it.
Nikator didn’t look convinced. “Stay close to me, then.”
She hung close to him as they walked slowly forward; she willed her magic to warm her hands, readying it in case she had to fire it at something. The deeper into the village they went, the clearer it became that there were likely no survivors. Torn clothes littered the streets and pulpy puddles of blood and gore were splattered everywhere. They came across some corpses, but all of them were dry, as if the very essence of their being had been sucked from them, and some of them were shredded so badly that it was hard to see what they had looked like.
Tears burned her eyes and bile collected in the back of her throat as they came across another body. This one was missing its head and one of its legs was twisted unnaturally.
Nikator cursed loudly as he crouched to inspect the body. “I think this might be the work of ajiangshi.”
All the blood drained from Biyu’s face. Ajiangshiwas a blood-sucking undead creature that stole the life essence of the living and was malevolent in nature. The only way to slay the monster was by carving out its heart.
She quickly glanced up at the setting sun with a sinking heart. “They’re weak to sunlight.”
“It’ll attack soon, then.” He tightened his hold on his sword and scanned the streets. “It seems like it’s made this its feeding ground.”
“Have you ever faced one before?”
He cringed. “Once, when I was a child.”
“How did you kill it?”
