Dragon’s Dance

I looked out at the coming dawn and thought upon the life of the man I was about to have to kill. Did he have a wife? Kids? But the most important question of all; why did he have to die? But I’m getting ahead of myself. My name is Gītā and I am an assassin. As a member of the Zétiān Court, named after Empress Wǔ Zétiān who rose from taking care of the royal laundry to being the most powerful woman in China, we travel the world under the guise of a dance troupe. We always perform in an area that one of our targets lives in, but we aren’t dumb. We don’t kill them until after the troupe has moved onto the next city. We spend that time gathering information and all the girls work together but only one is chosen to eliminate the target. Despite being named after a Chinese empress we come from many different cultures and backgrounds. We are all classically trained dancers but also trained in combat and weapon techniques. My weapon of choice is a rope dart with a spear head on the end. Good for ranged attacks but also can be used up close and personal. Most of us are selected as children and then trained for years before being given our first assignment.

We arrived in Hong Kong the day before our scheduled performance. During our dance practice we use many Chinese lanterns as background decoration but also to receive our instructions. Inside a single yellow lantern is the file with all the information on our target. I retrieved the file and handed it off to the rest of the girls. Inside was a picture and a file with basic information, just a name and a location. It was up to us to find out the rest. I tend to avoid looking at the photos because it makes it more real to me. People say the eyes are the windows to the soul and I find this to be true. Even when I am taking out a target, I cannot look them in the eye. But this time was going to be different.

“Oh, he’s CUTE!” I heard my sister Naomi squeal from behind me.

The picture was passed around to all the other girls and they all agreed with the original assessment. The picture was passed to me and as usual I just slid it to Liv, the next person in line. She was new and didn’t know about my reservations about looking people in the eye.

“You didn’t even look,” she said.

“Oh, she never looks. Some bullshit about eyes being the windows to the soul or something.” Naomi responded.

“Too bad because he looks exactlyyour type. Tan skin, deep honey brown eyes and a beard.” Liv said.

“And how would you know my type? You’ve been here less than a year.”

“Because I’ve seen the type of guys you hang around with and I’ve seen the type of guys you notice in the crowd.”

“I don’t-”

“Look at this guy,” she said, shoving the picture in my face, “and tell me you wouldn’t at least take him for a ride.”

Before I could react, I locked eyes with the gorgeous man in the picture. His eyes were so soulful and expressive. Liv was right, he was exactly the kind of man I would want.

“See? I told you so!” She giggled and then passed the picture back to the front of the line.

We all retired back to our rooms, but I couldn’t sleep. I just kept thinking about those eyes and what was behind them. Who was he? What did he do to deserve death?

We spent the next few weeks learning about his habits. He lived in a small apartment and enjoyed sitting on his patio while reading. I could never tell what he was reading out there, but the covers were backwards and usually in Chinese. And he always carried a sword with him everywhere he went. Even just going out to the patio he was carrying it. I still had no idea what he had done to deserve to die but I was going to find out.

We had moved on to the next leg of the tour when we got confirmation that it was time to close the file. Liv was picked as the one to carry out the job, but I knew that I had to stop her. I had to know more about this handsome stranger.

I was able to get back to Hong Kong before her and stake out his apartment building. I watched him get up in the morning before the sun and grab a mug of juice. In his left hand was the same sword that I always saw him with. He walked out on the patio and took his usual seat on a long bench. His sword sat across his lap and the book was in his hand when I saw a glint of metal out of the corner of my eye. There was Liv climbing up the side of the building, but she was carrying her short sword in her mouth! I could tell she was using the lightfoot skill we were taught. She was moving far too easily up the side of a solid wall to be using anything else, but she was far too rigid. And having her blade already drawn was making her too visible to anyone crazy enough to look at the side of an apartment building.

I pulled my rope dart out of my pocket and slid the spear head out of the leather sheath. I really didn’t want to kill Liv, but I knew she wouldn’t give up without doing the job she was there to do. I wrapped the bite of the end of the rope around my left wrist and held the spear end in my right. Forcing my chi into the balls of my feet I lept the 15 feet gap between my hiding spot and his patio. He shot out of his chair and started to draw his sword, but I put my finger to my lips and motioned for him to sit down. Of course, he stayed standing and kept his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“I’m not here to hurt you. If I wanted to, I could have killed you from the roof across the street.”

“You either have too much faith in your own abilities or not enough faith in mine.”

“I’m here to stop someone else from hurting you.”

“The one using lightfoot to climb up the side of my building? Or are you referring to another amateur?”

“How did you...”

“Simple,” He pointed to the windows of the building where I was hiding, “I can see her reflection.”

“But you are still sitting here. Are you waiting for her?”

“I’ve been waiting for this day for the last seven years. I knew that one day they would come for me. I just didn’t know they would send such beautiful but incompetent women”

He must have noticed the change in my expression because he immediately changed the subject.

“So how exactly are you planning on stopping her?”

“Since you recognize lightfoot I assume you know how to use it?”

Instead of answering he lowered himself into a runner’s stance. I could feel the shift in his chi as it pooled low in his legs. I scanned the area to find somewhere with a little more room to fight but the only place I could see was the parking garage behind my previous hiding spot. It was almost like he read my mind because before the words had even left my mouth he was leaping.

He bounced off the building across the street and landed right above Liv. While she was distracted, I jumped to my original hiding spot and then to the roof of the parking garage. By the time I turned he was standing there with his sword in one hand and Liv squirming in the other. Her eyes went wide when she recognized me.

“Gītā what the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry Liv but I can’t let you do this.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?! We got the contract and we have to carry it out.”

“Not this time. Don’t you ever wonder why? Why are these people the ones who have to die? I’ve seen far more evil people just walk around every day. Why him? Why now?”

“I don’t care! His number is up and this freak’s gotta die.”

She dropped to her stomach and flicked out the hidden blade in the heel of her boot and swung it towards his shoulder. He spun on his heels and deflected the blow with the scabbard of his sword. She continued the arch of her back into a forward handspring until she was standing between him and I. I noticed she didn’t have her short sword; it must have been lost when he grabbed her. But I knew that anyone from the court would have more than one weapon so I kept my eye on her hands. Her left leg shot out in a low kick feint then when he went to block shifted into a high kick to his head. His arm moved at inhuman speeds and blocked the kick with a mantis hand wrapped around her ankle. While his attention was on her raised leg, she pulled two ring daggers out of the opposite book and swung them towards his face. He blocked it with his sword and then pirouetted around behind her. She spun the daggers into a forward grip before slashing towards his throat, but the attack was blocked by his still undrawn sword. Using the other dagger, she tried to wrench the sword from his grip but he simply spun it out of her grip and punched her in the stomach with the handle end. I swear I saw his eye flash reptilian for a second before Liv shoved both daggers forward. He knocked them aside again.

“What are you waiting for?! Draw your sword!”

“You don’t want me to do that. Once this blade has been drawn you won’t see tomorrow.”

She spun the daggers again trying to distract him, but he simply crushed her foot with the scabbard then swung upward catching her under the chin. She staggered back and brought her hand to her lips drawing back and seeing blood.

I raised my foot into a standing rooster stance and wrapped my dart around my foot then kicked straight shooting the spear towards her. The blade sunk into her left thigh, and I pulled the rope causing her to fall into a wide split. She turned to me and sneered.

“Two on one isn’t fair. Why are you helping him anyway?”

I saw a glint of silver between her fingers a split second before she tossed the thunder cloud bombs. Thick black smoke exploded between all of us, and I felt the rope of my dart go slack. When the smoke cleared, he and I were alone on the roof.

“More will be coming. You should leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been waiting for this day for years.”

“But why? Why have you been waiting? Why do they want you dead?”

“You… you really don’t know do you?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I knew!”

“I’m a Qílín.”

“A what?”

“A dragon/wolf chimera. I’m not… human.” his eyes flashed reptilian again and I’m sure he did it this time to prove his point.

“Zétiān Court hunts people like me. People who aren’t quite human.”

“People like you? So all of the others…”

“Yes, they were all like me. Well not exactly like me but they weren’t human. The court doesn’t want people to have the kind of power that we have.”

“We? All of the other victims?”

“And you. The court finds people like us before they have a chance to come into their abilities. You think normal people can scale walls like we can? You think normal people are fast enough to block attacks like I just did?”

“Well…no.”

“You really had no idea, did you? Come back to my apartment. We have lots to discuss.”

“They’ll be back, you know?”

“I’m counting on it.”

We lept back to his apartment patio and then he brought me inside. He brought out a box of books and set them down on the table in front of me. I recognized them as the books we had seen him reading while we were tailing him.

“I can’t read Chinese.”

“Don’t worry about it, I will translate. But if you are going to help me then you need this information.”

“Help you?”

“You are on their list now. You won’t be safe on your own. At least not until you know more about what is going on.”

He sat on the table opposite me and pulled out a book.

“We’ll start with this one. It tells you about all the different species of non-humans. Maybe we can figure out what you are.”

I have a feeling this is going to be a long day.

THE END

Bio: Kitty Li is a dance instructor who does some martial arts on the side. This is her first time writing anything since High School but with some encouragement from the important people in her life she decided to try something new.

E-mail: Nāsrīn, Zhūgě

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