The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 5 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Bandits

“If’n there be any bandits about, I reckon they’ll be showin’ up ’round about here,” their guide said in an accent so thick it almost sounded like he was doing it on purpose. He pointed to a spot on the sheepskin map, a pass between two mountain ranges. The sort of place that practically begged for an encirclement. “They all aren’t stupid neither; they won’t go out of their way to get themselves hurt. If y’ leave about half your goods, they should let you pass. Anyway, we only meet them but about once every three times.”

Interesting—at that rate, the merchants would consider using the route. They knew they wouldn’t be attacked every time, and taking the long way around required greater time and expense.

“Just think of it as a bit of an expensive toll, good sirs. Anyhow, it’s said those bandits are whatcha might call the righteous kind of thieves.”

“Righteous thieves?” Basen asked, unable to keep a note of indignation from his voice. Maomao worried whether he would be able to hold himself back if they did encounter the outlaws.

Jinshi seemed to have taken a shine to the dry-country horses, and preferred to ride rather than take the carriage. That left Basen with no choice but to go on horseback as well, which in turn left Maomao with the spacious carriage all to herself; she moved some of the luggage aside and made herself a spot to sleep on the floor. Sitting all the time made her backside sore; she thought a bit of lying down might help.

Being of the firm belief that worrying about whether something would happen or not was a waste of valuable time, Maomao determined to go to sleep. If she was really lucky, by the time she woke up they would have passed the bandits’ checkpoint.

Sadly, she wasn’t lucky.

Before they had made it halfway across the mountains, Maomao found herself tumbling around the carriage. The horses whinnied and the vehicle came to a sudden halt. Forcing her sleepy eyes to stay open and rubbing her back where she’d bumped it, Maomao looked outside. There were no raiders, but the guide appeared to be explaining something to Basen.

“What’s going on?” Maomao asked the driver.

“Ah, it looks like another carriage ahead of ours was attacked by bandits. Probably best to wait here for a while.” In other words, they were hoping that by holding station for a few minutes, they could get away without anything happening to them. Someone who had escaped from the attack on the other carriage was there, asking Basen for help. Maomao couldn’t tell what the man was saying, but Basen seemed to be managing to hold his anger in check.

That was, until the newcomer showed something to him and Jinshi that made them go pale. Jinshi grabbed it and looked at it closely.

Curious, Maomao got out of the carriage, never mind that she still had bed head. (Or was that floor head?) Before she could make her way over to Jinshi, however, Basen set his horse galloping. Jinshi instructed several of his bodyguards to follow the young man, though by the time he had given the order, Basen was already out of sight.

“You’ve been asleep,” Jinshi remarked.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Maomao said innocently.

“There’s a weird pattern on your cheek.”

“Anyway, what’s going on?” she asked, rubbing her cheek with her hand. Jinshi silently showed her what the other man had brought: a wooden tag branded with an insignia in the shape of a flower. Maomao recognized it: each of the consorts at the rear palace was given such a crest. But who did this one belong to?

“The carriage that was attacked was Lady Ah-Duo’s,” Jinshi said.

What’s she doing here? Maomao thought, but this was hardly the time for such questions. How had she ended up getting attacked, anyway? Ah-Duo seemed like someone who would know perfectly well how to bribe some bandits. She would know better than to needlessly antagonize them.

“Consort Lishu is with her,” Jinshi said. That answered some of Maomao’s questions, but also made her substantially more anxious. The congenitally unlucky Lishu shouldn’t, in principle, have been allowed outside the rear palace—but that was something else Maomao could ask about later.

“Are you sure it’s all right, sir?” asked the man who had come for help. When she took a good look, Maomao thought she recognized him from Ah-Duo’s villa. It was unlikely he realized who Jinshi was. He was probably asking about the guards—Maomao had no idea how many bandits there were, but Basen and the handful of guards who had followed him together amounted to no more than five people. It was probably the most Jinshi could spare; he couldn’t leave himself too lightly defended. But it begged the question of why he’d sent Basen on ahead. To check on Ah-Duo, perhaps. Hopefully she wasn’t hurt.

Jinshi seemed surprisingly blasé. “I’m sure he would have been fine on his own. If he’s in time.”

“Huh?”

It wasn’t long before Maomao discovered what he meant.

When they caught up, they discovered a collection of hog-tied bandits. There had obviously been quite a struggle. The men’s reeking clothes had been torn, revealing skin covered in fresh cuts. Cuts were the least of it, in fact; several of them had arms and legs pointing in unnatural directions. What manner of battle had occurred that they had ended up like this?

The bodyguards wore what appeared to be grimy bands tied around their wrists. What’s that about? Maomao wondered. What did they mean? She observed from a distance, not wanting to get too close to the bandits; some of them were frothing at the mouth.

Ah-Duo’s guards were not in much better shape. Thankfully, no one had been killed, but one man had had a good part of his arm chopped off. Maomao got out of the carriage and hurried over to him.

“What in the world?” asked the guide Basen had hired, shocked. His sun-darkened face was practically pale.

“I thought money was supposed to be enough for them,” Basen said, fury in his voice. A stern and lovely figure was standing behind him. She was dressed in men’s clothing, but she was the former consort, Ah-Duo. She, at least, was uninjured.

“I offered,” Ah-Duo said, “but they said they were going to sell the woman. And the one I’ve got with me is just on loan.”

As she listened, Maomao inspected the guard’s arm. It hadn’t been very long since the wound had been inflicted, but it was a messy cut. Luomen might have been able to reattach a severed limb if the wound was neat enough, but Maomao didn’t have the skill. If she’d tried to sew it back on, it would only have rotted off again. She gritted her teeth and did what she could do. She didn’t have enough herbs with her, and as she went to request more medicine, she discovered another familiar face.

“I thought about visiting, but I just couldn’t get away.” The speaker was another attractive person dressed in men’s clothing—Suirei. She was carrying bandages and medicinal herbs.

“You’re here too?”

“Yes, although I also questioned whether I was really supposed to leave that villa.”

It was certainly a surprise to find her here—and it meant something was going on.

“Are you good at sewing?” Suirei asked as she heated a needle over a flame.

“No more than the next young lady. I feel particularly bad that we don’t have any anesthetics or sedatives.” She prepared to disinfect.

While they were practically bantering, the guard’s face twisted with pain. The way Suirei held down the quaking man and put a gag in his mouth so he wouldn’t bite his tongue proved that she was an old hand at this sort of thing.

The incident with the bandits appeared to represent quite a miscalculation. Jinshi and the others had known that they could hardly pass for a merchant caravan, so instead their story was that a rich lordling had been consigned to a dead-end post in the provinces. But the pirates seemed to guess that the travelers were even more important than they claimed to be.

What with these people along... Maomao changed out of the robe that had been spattered with the guard’s blood and headed for Ah-Duo’s tent. Jinshi had asked Maomao to hear the story directly from her.

When she entered, she found Consort Lishu there as well, clutching Ah-Duo’s hand and showing no sign of letting go. She was shaking almost uncontrollably. Why she was here remained the question that most intrigued Maomao.

Suirei, also freshly changed, was there too. At least it was clear enough why she would be on this expedition: she had considerable medical talents and could effectively serve as a physician on a long journey like this. Still, her presence came with questions of its own.

Why a consort who wasn’t supposed to be able to leave the rear palace was here, of all places, seemed a very strange thing indeed; to judge by Jinshi’s attitude, though, there was a good reason for it.

“I assume you’re wondering why the consort is with us,” Ah-Duo said. Her perceptiveness was a real boon.

“Yes, ma’am,” Maomao said.

“Have you heard why Sir Basen is going westward?” As Jinshi was in disguise, Ah-Duo had the thoughtfulness and insight to play along.

“I was told there were important discussions taking place there.” Supposedly, Jinshi wasn’t the only important personage who would be present on behalf of the government. She’d heard that he and the others were going to observe what was going on as well as pursue agendas of their own.

“We’re also going to take part in those discussions. With the consort present, we thought it would be best not to travel with too large an entourage. If anything, I daresay we’ve been treated as third wheels.”

That sounded ominous. Maomao still didn’t know exactly what role Consort Lishu was supposed to play in this gathering. Empress Gyokuyou, who hailed from this region, or Consort Lihua, who was related to the Emperor by blood, might have been more obvious choices.

Ah-Duo looked amused by Maomao’s evident confusion. She somehow reminded Maomao of Gyokuyou that way. She suddenly had the thought that His Majesty must like women like this.

“One of the other tasks we’re to attend to on this trip,” Ah-Duo told her, “is to find a wife for the Imperial younger brother.”

Suddenly, Maomao understood why Ah-Duo seemed to be enjoying herself so much.