Ye An squinted her eyes, the relentless rain hanging onto her eyelashes. With a sweep of a finger, she flicked the gathered rainwater off, freeing her gaze to pin on the smattering of black that was heading towards the city gates. The troop was coming, with Prince Adlai and Sze Chang at its lead.

Bracing herself, Ye An turned towards the beheaded body once more before scanning the area. At the edge of the small square stood a plain hand-pulled cart. It was simply a sturdy rectangular plank with shallow walls lining the edges on all sides except for the back. Upon closer inspection, Ye An noticed some brown spots speckling the thin layer of the now-wet hay strewn across the cart. 

This was a cart that carried dead bodies. Bodies of all of those who were executed at this very square.

Ye An tasted blood as her teeth pierced through the inside of her lips. The public execution today was not the first. Before her fraying emotions could untether her, Ye An steeled her mind with only one thought, This would be the last. With that resolute thought the only thing in her mind, Ye An heaved the handle of the cart up and pulled it towards the execution platform.

Xi Chen dashed over to help her, concern drawn on his face. "What's this? The battle's about to begin soon."

"I know." Ye An huffed with the effort of pulling the heavy cart. "But I need to get his body somewhere safe. Where are the others? And the guard?"

"Here. Let me." Xi Chen reached over fluidly to take over, pulling the cart in Ye An's stead. "The rest of them went to get our horses. As for the guard, I let him choose between fighting with us or leaving and he beelined towards the forest."

Ye An nodded grimly. Without another word, they hurried their footsteps, their boots and the wheels of the cart drawing splashes of muddy rain water in the air. Ye An continued to explain, "I promised Yue Fei that I'll retrieve his body later. I don't want his body to be violated in battle. So, I need him to be out of harm's way. "

Xi Chen furrowed his brows at Ye An but didn't stop his steady stride. "Yue Fei?"

"The woman earlier. That was Yue Fei. I asked her to gather the innocents and hide in the forest. The least I could do is keep my promise." They arrived at the platform as Ye An ended her sentence. Xi Chen finally took a proper look at the decapitated head. His jaw clenched. "That's.."

"Yue Fei's husband." Ye An continued Xi Chen's sentence plainly, only the tautness on her face betrayed the emotions that she kept tightly under wraps.

Xi Chen turned to her, his frown deepening. "What about her son?"

"Safe." Ye An answered. "For now. But I don't know how long that'll last for him and everyone else if we don't end this soon." 

Xi Chen nodded and released the cart. "Let's end this battle quick so that no one else gets hurt or dies."

Before they moved the body, both of them kneeled in front of Yue Fei's husband with their heads bowed respectfully. The rain ran down their faces as they offered Yue Fei's husband a quick silent prayer. At the end of their prayer, Ye An glided her hand over the glassy eyes of the dismembered head, offering one last prayer as she closed them. Thunder rumbled overhead as she did so.

Xi Chen scooped the body up while Ye An carried the severed head with utmost respect. Despite the urgency of the impending battle, both of them placed the different parts of the body as gently as one treated delicate flowers. In the end, they placed the corpse in an abandoned armory nearby and covered it with a straw mat. 

They made it just in time as the troop thundered into the capital.

*******

Sword in her hand, Ye An whirled around as another one of General Shao's men tried to ambush her. With the chaos surrounding her, the tendrils of hair had escaped Ye An's neat top knot and swayed around her face like gentle willow leaves in the wind, but her eyes were sharp as deep winter icicles as she took her aim at the man. The sword that she was armed with was the very same one that she had taken from the barracks at the border many months ago. 

With hawklike precision, the tip of Ye An's sword punctured the base of the man's throat. A flicker of regret went through Ye An as she angled the sword and shoved the blade deeper down his throat. This man was one of the imperial soldiers. But she had to remind herself that he had chosen to fight under General Shao instead of her. If she were to let him go, it would be a gross disrespect to the soldiers who had made the decision to fight under her. A decision which she knew was a difficult one to make and which she did not take for granted. Not to mention, this person might go after the troop on her side if she were to brashly let him go. With that thought settled, Ye An pulled her sword out and moved swiftly onto her next target.

Not too far away from Ye An, Xi Chen who was on his horse tumbled out of his seat. His stead was impaled and had run amok. The rain that had never stopped was now washing away the mud that was collected by his armor during the tumble. Before the last of the mud returned to the ground however, Xi Chen had already stood up. And without wasting any second of his motion, Xi Chen's blade efficiently sliced the tendon of the grey wolf rode by the Northerner who had punctured his horse with a spear. 

The wolf roared in pain and the Northerner yelped as he too fell to the ground. Xi Chen's boots stomped into the muddy ground as he sliced at the other legs of the animal for good measure. The enormous beast toppled over. With the wolf out of the way, Xi Chen focused on the Northerner. Rain raced down the angles of Xi Chen's face as thunder boomed. The lighting that followed soon after flashed behind Xi Chen, accentuating his light-colored eyes as he towered over the Northerner. The fallen Northerner cowered. He was used to combat while riding on a wolf's back. His training did not include ground combat like Xi Chen's did. And he would now be paying for it. With one precise slash from White Tiger, the Northerner laid still. Xi Chen flicked the blood from his sword as he surveyed the battleground. It looked as though they were winning. But Xi Chen knew from experience that it takes half a breath for the tide to switch. Just as that thought played in his mind, a commotion erupted a few yards away.

Both on horseback, Prince Adlai and Sze Chang had been battling with their backs at each other while they fend off the men under General Shao and Leader Wakhia. Their horses circled each other in a synchronized grace as Prince Adlai's wide saber cut through the men and Sze Chang's metal fan flew across the crowd, its sharpened edges fatal to whomever they encountered.

"That's a pretty neat trick that you have there." Prince Adlai complimented when Sze Chang's fan returned to him and both of them were close enough to be within hearing range.

"Well I didn't know that this was how I'll be using this party trick of mine." Sze Chang answered amiably.

Prince Adlai was about to reply when he caught something at the corner of his eye. "Hey!" When he couldn't get their attention, the prince pulled at the reins of his horse hastily and galloped towards them. Sze Chang chased closely behind him.

As they neared the scene, snippets of conversation reached their ears.

"What do you mean? I'm fighting under Emperor Ye An! Why are you fighting me?"

"So where were you when we were preparing the troop this morning? Don't lie! You're one of General Shao's dogs!"

"Hey, stop!" Prince Adlai ordered as they came to a stop but before he could mediate this scene, another one was sprouting on the other side of the battleground.

Ye An was looking for any traces of General Shao with each corner that she turned but couldn't catch even a sliver of his shadow. Just when she was trying to deduce where he might be, an altercation broke out on her left.

The heated argument was between two Northerners who were riding on their respective wolves. The guttural Northern language sounded even harsher when it was infused with the combined fury of the two men. All Ye An could pick up were the names Adlai, Wakhia, and Burat. Although she couldn't understand a huge portion of the conversation, alarm bells were ringing in Ye An's mind. This was not good. Ye An turned away from the scene for a moment to scan for Prince Adlai or Sze Chang for assistance, but that was all the time it took for the wolves to start ripping into each other.

The snarls and growls emanating from the wolves reverberated at the hollow of Ye An's chest even through the roaring rain. Dread filled her lungs. Nearby wolves, both friend and foe, answered by turning their attention to the pair of Northerners and their wolves while adding their own feral cry into the mix. Much like a pebble thrown into a lake, the wolf cries rippled further and further. 

Ye An's chest constricted in fear. The tides were switching. And she was nowhere near at finding General Shao, the source of the tsunami.

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Writer's note: Well.  [: