Tales of the Three Kingdoms: Silver Falcon Falls

"Um, I have to ask. Just to be sure. That was the plan all along, right?"

Once we were disguised as simple, if successful, fur merchants, and ambling eastward along the capital road, my thoughts finally caught up with me regarding our flight from Dreadwolf and his men.

"Don't look at me," said Brass Bell. "I was making it up as I went."

She turned to River, who sighed.

"We all were." River sounded disappointed in herself.

"So you were never really going to sell me out?" I asked her.

She looked at me with gaze narrowed. Even in simple trapper's furs she still seemed like she belonged in a royal court. "You think I would go through all that trouble to get you out of the palace alive, relocate my staff, leave my home in the middle of the night, and lead you ten li down the river, just to turn you in at the first sign of trouble?"

"Well when you put it like that…" It was her tone more than her words that convinced me. I had already accepted the fact that River's plots were beyond my comprehension.

"But… just so I'm clear. What was the plan?"

River sighed again, more in exasperation than in disappointment this time.

"Leave the Demon looking for you in the palace, transport you to Moon's Reflection without anyone knowing, and then ride to Iron Tower without leaving a trail. Then soldiers. War. Conquest. The whole bit." She waved a hand in the air at this last, as if it were a triviality. Or, more likely, not her problem but mine.

"And… what did happen?"

"You honestly can't figure it out for yourself?"

"No, no. Of course I can. I, uh, just want to help Windstopper understand."

My bodyguard looked up from his place atop the oxcart, switch forgotten in one hand as a stick of chicken consumed his entire attention in the other. Luckily the cart needed no guidance to follow the trail.

"I Know What Is Going On. It Sounds Like You Do Not Know What Is Going On."

With his new breastplate hidden beneath his clothes, he was heavier than ever and I was glad we had traded his horse for an oxcart. For the horse's sake at the very least.

"They knocked me out, ok! My head still feels like it's being used to dredge the river."

"I got it," said Brass Bell.

"Thank you," said River.

"Dreadwolf clearly suspected my involvement in the plot," began Brass Bell. "Either that, or he just figured he'd cover his flanks, and sent his wolves to the home of everyone who might want him dead. If the latter, he must have been spread pretty thin last night. In any case, the Prime Minister was onto us even before you stood before him with Lion's sword."

River picked up the thread. "So I sent a message to Chief Brass Bell here, with a plan to get you out of the City of Lanterns, and I waited in her home for you to arrive. The wolves showed up before that, though, and I managed to convince them that they were all part of the plan. Luckily, Bell was quick to take a hint, and her acting was perfect. Oh, and you did well, too, my dear."

"Me?" I asked.

River nodded.

"Oh yes," said Bell. "I could really feel the betrayal in your eyes."

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"I did feel betrayed! I was betrayed!"

The two women laughed.

"And wait a minute," I turned to Bell. "You said you really were considering turning me in."

River's smile froze on her lips.

"Well," said Brass Bell, by way of explanation, "I was. It doesn't mean that I would have stopped trying to topple Dreadwolf. It was just a question of whether or not you were the man to help me do it. If you were broken or evil or lacked the will of Heaven in any way, I would have simply returned to my post and worked through River here."

River nodded magnanimously as if letting me die in order to continue the fight against the wolf was all perfectly fair. I didn't think so. But then, again, I wasn't being very objective about this, was I?

"So… am I?" I asked.

"Are you what?"

"Am I the man to topple Dreadwolf?"

Bell thought about this a while, and when she answered her tone was low and somber, and one of her hands left the reins to sit at her belt.

"I believed what you said in that jail cell, Sparrow."

The silence stretched on as we rode, each with our own thoughts, until River broke it.

"Ah," she said. "I almost forgot. Windstopper, can you give Sparrow his bundle."

"Hm?" I asked. I had to be honest… I hated that my bodyguard was often under secret orders from someone else, even if it was someone I trusted as much as River.

"Oh. Yes. Here You Go, Sparrow."

He threw me a bundle of hemp the size of a body and it almost dragged me off of my horse when I caught it. Windshear whinnied in annoyance.

"By Heaven, what is…"

As I laid the sack across my saddle and peeled back the layers, the first thing I saw was…

"Discreetly," hissed River, eyeing a pair of peasants ambling down the road the opposite way. They bowed to her as if on instinct. She nodded back and smiled magnanimously.

Once we passed the two travellers, I looked around, nothing but paddies in all directions and some farmers in the fields too far away to make out any detail. Even so, as I pulled back the hempen layers I held them out to either side to block any view of the contents within.

"My armor!"

"Yes, your armor," River said, more quietly than I had. "You may need it soon. Especially if you can't keep your voice down. You should at least be wearing your breastplate beneath your cloak."

I would have to wait until we passed a copse of trees in order to don the gleaming white and silver breastplate. It was built to look valiant on the field of battle, not for skulking around, and any peasant, even at a distance, would know to which clan I belonged if I tried to put it on now.

They would only need to come forward at the next sign of a wolf to collect a fat reward.

"Wait…" I said, shuffling through the large bundle of plate and padding. "If you were the one who took my armor, then…"

River smiled like a queen of old.

In the bundle, there it was! My Son-of-Heaven Saber!

I hadn't worn my own sword when I had gone to deliver Noble Lion's to Dreadwolf, and when I had returned to River's estate, it had disappeared along with my Silver Falcon clan armor. I had assumed them both stolen by ransacking wolves, along with anything else of value River had left behind.

The saber's ornate scabbard was hidden beneath another layer of crude furs, its handle and pommel wrapped in simple, supple leather, but as its owner, I recognized its shape immediately. And I only needed to expose half a span of its blade to know for sure that this was indeed the priceless weapon I had earned for saving a prince's life.

I looked to River, her chin in the air, and smiling like she had just granted gold and silver to a peasant. In a way she had but…

"You couldn't have given this to me sooner?"

Her chin stayed up, smiling as she looked straight ahead. "Don't you think I know when you'll need a sword and when you won't, at this point?"

My eyes narrowed on her, and she glanced in my direction when I didn't respond.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, if we had needed swords to get out of the capital it would have already been a lost cause. At this point, our biggest problem is bandits and scouts. We're done with politics. We're done with plots. At least for a little while. We're in your world now, Sparrow. The one where a fast horse and a long sword can make a difference. Thus…"

She gestured to Windshear beneath me and the sword laying across my saddle. She had saved both from the after-effects of my bungled assassination.

I let out a sigh. She was right. Again. But I didn't have to be happy about it.

I began to pull the disguised blade from the sack with the intention of tying it on immediately, but paused.

"With your permission, my lady," I said.

Her chin lifted even higher. "By all means, ser. Defend your lady with life and limb."