Dance - Cinderella Retold

Part 6

SIX

She didn't need to look far for her father, for Fu had chosen to take out his frustrations in a furious training session in the courtyard. Mai took up her sword and joined him, shifting from pose to pose as effortlessly as her father.

"You are a better fighter than me now," Fu said grudgingly.

Mai bowed her head at the compliment. "Thank you, Father, but I still have a lot to learn. I hope to live long enough to do so, though. Jing says that if you disobey the Emperor, he will send an army to kill us all. Even you and I together are no match for an army." She glanced around the yard. "And there is nowhere we can retreat to from their superior numbers here."

Fu lowered his blade. "Jing sees only a small part of the picture. Your mother would see it all, and know how to act, but without her, I have no grand strategy any more." He sighed. "If I disobey, one day the Emperor may send an army, if he is not too busy making war on cities where he has no business being. But if I obey him, my dishonour is certain. General Li is the Empress' brother and for all that he is a fool, he still commands the respect of his army. If I were to arrive at the siege of Dean, I would be under his command. When he offers battle, he will lose, just like he did the first time he besieged the city. And he will lay the blame on me. Perhaps my inexperienced troops, or my poor commands, or my insubordination, for I will not take orders from a fool. When word reaches the Emperor, he will move swiftly to seize my lands and all who live on them. He will kill my family, and he will kill me, because he only holds power as long as General Li is his ally. If I ride to war, we will all most certainly die. And if I do not...we at least stand a chance that the Emperor will forget about us. For the best chance of victory, a general must know when to attack, and when to defend, and when not to fight at all." He bowed his head. "Mai, this is not the time for fighting."

"A general who fears defeat cannot be victorious," Mai replied. "That is what you taught me, Father. The hope of victory will only result in defeat. It is strategy and planning that win, every time. And hoping to be forgotten...is no plan at all."

Fu smiled sadly and shook his head. "For a moment, I saw your mother looking out through your eyes. She always had a clear view to victory. Always. But without her...I am lost. If you were my son, I would send you in my place, so that you could learn the truth of war on a battlefield instead of just a training ground. True victory must be won, and contrary to what General Li believes, the best victories are bloodless ones."

Mai shook her head. "How can you win a victory without spilling any blood?"

"Through winning the hearts of your enemies," Fu replied. "I should send you to court as my messenger. Perhaps you could win the heart of the Emperor, or one of his sons. Maybe there is hope after all. I shall think on it, and tomorrow we will make plans to send you to court. For now, go see your stepmother, and tell her what I have told you." He shooed her away.

Mai's head spun. Sending her to court to seduce the Emperor? What hope did she have? Jing commented on her unmarriageable feet every time she saw her, until Mai knew no man would look on her as a possible wife, let alone a prince or the Emperor. She was better suited to war, like her mother.

If only she was a boy and not a girl...

"What did he say? Did you change his mind?" Jing demanded when Mai returned to her stepmother's room.

Mai shook her head. "He will not go to war. He wants to send me to court to be the Emperor's concubine instead, I think." She felt sick at the thought.

Jing snorted. "You? The Emperor would not even look at you. No man wants a wife or a concubine who plays with swords."

"There was one who did," Mai said slowly. "Long ago, when Sunxi first wrote his treatise on war, the Emperor asked him to prove it by training his concubines in the art of war. And he did."

Jing waved the words away like a bad smell. "That is nothing but a story. Soldiers carry swords, concubines need to be pretty. Your sisters will have all the accomplishments and beauty a girl needs to charm a prince, when they are old enough, but not you. You would do better to take up a sword and lead an army in your father's place. In court, you will only make enemies. More than we have already."

For a moment, Mai's heart soared at the thought of commanding an army, as her father had done. As her mother had, too, or so she'd said. When her father had fallen in battle with a near-mortal wound, she had rallied his troops to victory. Mai had studied ever tenet in Sunxi's treatise and trained every day for more than a decade. Why couldn't she command troops in her father's stead?

Because no army would follow a woman, not even the daughter of Yeong Fu and Da Ying. If she were truly a boy like the messenger had first assumed...

Mai raised her head and met her stepmother's gaze. "I will. I will dress in men's clothing and take up my sword and take Father's place. It is the only way."

As the words left her lips, Mai knew they were the right ones. She could bring no honour on her family here. But if she was victorious in battle...or even died bravely in battle, she would honour her ancestors and her mother by her deeds.

Jing's mouth fell open in shock. "You are too small to pass for a man. And your breasts..." Mai expected her stepmother to launch into a scathing lecture about the size of Mai's breasts, whose only virtue, according to Jing, was that they made Mai's feet seem small, but the lecture never came. "You must bind them, but an illusion would be better." Jing bit her lip. "Yes, I think I can do it."

"An illusion? What do you mean?"

Jing smiled, revealing blood on her teeth that had not been there before. "I shall cast an illusion, so that all who see you or your clothing while it is near you will believe you to be a man."

"But...surely only a witch could do something like that..." Mai faltered. She swallowed. "Are you a witch? Can you make me into a man?"

Jing made an impatient sound. "I cannot turn you into a man, girl. I am a witch, not a powerful enchantress, and a weak one at that. I can make things look like they do not, but I cannot change you. Do you want to look like a man, join the army and save your family?"

Mai lifted her chin. "I do. All warfare is based on deception."

Jing rolled her eyes. "You should have been born a boy. I can make you look like one, but you will have to make them believe you are a man, and not a girl. If the soldiers find out you are a girl, you will become nothing but a common w***e. If they don't kill you." She wet her lips. "Either way, you will dishonour your family, so you will not be welcome back here."

Mai nodded. "I understand." And she did. She would not dishonour her mother or her ancestors. Da Ying's and Yeong Fu's daughter could only be victorious. It was in her blood.