An Illicit Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

out of
range of the archers.
    He led An-Ming behind a growth of brush by the bank. Her horse
pranced in agitation, his hooves splashing in the shallow of the river. She was
fighting to keep her hands from shaking, but she managed to steady the
animal.
    “Uyghurs?” she asked.
    “Khitan,” he replied without emotion.
    They were outnumbered and he needed to decide now. Fight or
flee. Tension rippled through his body as he detached his bow from the saddle
pack.
    “If I fall, you ride north.” Kwan-Li indicated the direction
with his hand. “Ride hard.”
    “Wait—”
    There was no time to see if she understood. He hooked the bow
over his shoulder and gave her one final look before kicking his heels in to
ride back into danger.
    His kinsmen had regrouped to face the oncoming riders. The
attackers outnumbered them two to one, by his quick assessment. A few of them
had broken through the pass and were charging forward.
    Kwan-Li urged his knee against the horse’s side, using the
pressure to direct the animal, while he reached for an arrow and nocked it. The
rhythm of the earth thrummed through him. The cadence of his breathing joined
it. The pace of the enemy horsemen rushing toward them became a dissonant
harmony. He took it all in.
    Kwan-Li sank his weight onto the iron stirrups and rose,
standing upright in the saddle. His horse continued its charge. This technique
of shooting from the saddle allowed the Khitans to dominate the steppe, but it
had been years since he had done this. A lifetime. He drew the arrow back and
let it fly.
    The body remembered. The heart remembered.
    Kwan-Li aimed and fired again, his arrow once again finding its
mark.
    “Go!” Ruan shouted. “They only want the princess.”
    Kwan-Li hesitated. His tribesmen had pushed the attackers back
to the pass and were holding their ground.
    Ruan exchanged his bow for a halberd. “Go.” His face creased
into a grin.”This Old Wolf won’t be dying today.”
    With a bellow, Ruan rode into battle.

Chapter Four
    No matter how far they fled, Dao could still feel
danger chasing them. She had grown up as a household servant in a wealthy
section of the city. She’d polished furniture and haggled for good prices on
chickens at the market. The only place she’d seen a bow drawn was at the archery
park.
    They rode for hours before stopping when the sky faded to red
and gold. The land had once again flattened out into wide expanses of wild
grass. Kwan-Li did one final scan of the horizon in every direction before
setting up camp. He started a fire and broke off a chunk of a tea brick into a
pot of water.
    “They won’t harm you,” he said when she looked over her
shoulder warily.
    “How do you know that?”
    “You are the Emperor’s niece and an imperial princess.”
    “Not out here. Bandits don’t care who we are,” she argued.
    He fell silent, a frown creasing his brow as the tea brewed.
After a few minutes, he handed her a cup filled with steaming liquid.
    “Those were not bandits,” he said. “They were from another
tribe and they wanted to keep us from reaching the capital.”
    He sounded calm now. Deadly calm.
    “What about your tribesmen? What about Ruan?”
    “Ruan has survived much worse. Now drink, Princess.” Kwan-Li
had to close his hands around hers to get her to grip the cup. “You will feel
better.”
    “Does it have mare’s milk in it?” she asked after a pause.
    He laughed. It was brief, but it was a laugh. The touch of his
hands was also brief, but they were warm and strong and did more to reassure her
than anything else.
    “You said the men were Khitan,” she began.
    “I couldn’t tell which clan they were from, but none of the
tribes would dare raise a hand against you. The wrath of the Tang imperial army
would be too great.”
    His jaw clenched and he radiated a low, simmering anger. The
warrior in him had come out in battle and it remained. Dao could sense the
change in every part of him. She had been so naive.