Once We Were Kings (Young Adult Fantasy) (The Sojourner Saga) Read Online Free PDF

his own wife.  But what stopped her were these two things:
    First, deep down, she too believed in his cause; because she believed in him.  Never had she met a man of such integrity and conviction.  If Bai Juang believed something, it must be true.   And second, he always knew the paths of diplomatic warfare when it came to their conflicts. 
    "Where did you...?"  She took hold of the flower and wanted to cry. 
    "My bride.  How soon you have forgotten. "Twenty years ago today," he pointed to the hills, "at the foot of that very mountain where our daughter gathers Kai roots, you and I met for the first time and—"
    "Bai." Myanwu took the flower and sank into her husband's embrace.  "I will never forget."
    She remained there, holding him tight, glad that he was home.  Even if it was only until his next three week trip to and back from the symposium.  He was a good man.  And she treasured these moments.
    Then, at the sound of something she hadn't heard since she was a child, Bai's body went stiff. 
    "No."
    From the outskirts of Xingjia, atop the sentry towers, a clarion call resounded.  "Shao-Bao," Bai Juang's eyes darted to the village gates.  Myanwu dropped the Orchid and ran to the house not realizing that she had trampled and torn the delicate petals on the ground.
    Frantic, she vaguely heard her husband shouting to the men running back into the gates, calling all men to arms, "How far off?  How far off!"
    The only reply she heard was, "How can this be!  Where are the imperial guards?"
    Already inside the house, Myanwu found her son, rushed him down into the hidden room beneath the house, and held him close. 
    Out in the courtyard, someone cried out, "Torians!"
    She winced.  Above them, someone was overturning chairs, ransacking the cabinets and dropping dishes and utensils to the ground.
    Shao-Bao let out a gasp.
    She covered his mouth.  Held up a finger.
    The crashing of furniture and items being kicked aside onto the floor grew closer.  Louder.
    Then, the worst thing that could have happened, did.
    The door hinges above them squealed.  Where was Bai Juang?
    The door to the hidden room flung open.
    Myanwu and her son screamed, their eyes squeezed shut.
    "Where is it?"  Bai Juang said, his eyes round with panic."
    "What?
    "Where is my sword!"
     
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
     
    “Come out."  Affecting all the courage she could, Ahndien grasped the hilt of her father's sword tighter still.  "Show yourself...and...and I won't hurt you."
    The rustling in the bush stopped.  Curiosity overtook caution and Ahndien stepped forward, ready to strike, though Father's sword felt a bit too heavy to swing with any effect.  When she reached the place from which the rustling sounds came, she took a deep breath, held it, and with her foot, pushed away some of the branches.
    "Please," she whispered.  "Answer me."  Father had warned her not to wander off to the top of the hill.  There are vicious mountain lions that devour little children, he had always said.  Her heart beat like the festival drums of the New Year, yet fear had not seized her.  Not entirely.
    She pulled the branches aside. "Aha!"
    Just then, a small man, slightly hunched in the back and wearing the white garb of a monk, turned around and gasped.  "Ai!"  He lifted his walking stick as if to strike.  But when he saw Ahndien's face, he lowered it. "What do you mean, startling an old man like that?  Why, I might have..." he coughed, sputtered, pounded his chest.  "I might have mistook you for... for a bandit!"
    "I'm sorry," she said and rushed to his side.  "You didn't answer."
    "Eh?"
    "You didn't answer me when—"
    "Eh?" he turned his head.  "Speak into this ear, my child.  The hearing's not what it once was."
    "Never mind."  She helped the old man out into the clearing where she had set her things down.  "Have you eaten yet?"
    "My food is knowledge, wisdom...and truth!"  From behind the white beard that stretched down to his chest,