Who were these people? They had met up with traders around this route before, but this estate and these people were not the ones they met.
She could see her husband's openly bewildered expression. She knocked his shoulder and furrowed her brows at him. He wiped his face clean of any expression but solemnity.
"May I ask," she started as Mistress Liu's sharp gaze fell on her, and then cleared her throat, "what the meaning of this proposed appointment is? I have yet to confirm the existence of our goods."
"You tell me."
Mistress Liu's voice was commanding and contrary to her doubts was certainly an alpha.
"What my Mistress means to say," the valet cuts in, "is that we need you to take over our academy when all is said and done. The payment given will be donations we've saved."
The our stuck out to us and Lakshmi, not one to miss one social cue much less multiple, resisted the urge to remember if she had been disrespectful along their journey here.
He was not a valet but the Mistress' husband.
Contradicting most of the gossip and rumors she heard, she knew that they were a strange pair, Sir Liu was a typical omega but her husband's light tug on her sleeve brought her to attention. He whispered to her, "He's not an omega. Nothing's right here. We need to leave. Now."
Lakshmi had been in her husband's country for a short time. Their children, Nasir and Liangyu, were still too young to know that they stood out like sore thumbs. Her husband told her not to worry about it, but how could she not? The number of times their relatives mocked her for choosing a name that didn't fit their daughter was only the tip of the iceberg.
"I believe," she said, as she held her husband's hand. "We should hear them out."
"Fine," her husband lost all pretense of politeness and said, "What is this favor?"
Mistress Liu nearly flew out of the chair, steam pumping out of her body, on the route to attack her husband. They reared back and exhaled in relief when Sir Liu held her in place as he said, "You're right. As you can see, I'm a beta, and she's an alpha. We married illegally."
"Where did your son come from?" Lakshmi said immediately. As much as this piqued her interest, she wouldn't condone kidnapping. "We won't lie for you. Or work in a slavery ring under the guise of a school."
Sir Liu smiled. "Cheng-en is our son."
Before Lakshmi or her husband could reply—not that they could, as their minds failed to finish a thought—Mistress Liu's militant voice sliced through.
"Yes, an alpha and a beta had a child," Mistress Liu snapped. "So you can see what favor we might ask."
"And you carried it?" Lakshmi questioned.
Sir Liu replied, "She did not."
Her husband groaned at her side as if the admittance physically pained him.
If the Liu Clan's gossip was fringe conspiracy, then the theories of alphas and betas being able to procreate were fantasy. This might as well have suggested that alphas can mate with other alphas for heirs. It went against everything they were ever taught. Lakshmi is a high omega because of her gender and dynamic, but if that wasn't true--
It was ridiculous.
What did that mean for omegas then?
Even this was too much for Lakshmi; she frowned and said, "What do we have to gain? In whatever this is."
"Finally! A proper question," Mistress Liu scowled. The woman stood up and then gestured to the calligraphy paintings on the wall. "We were sent these as gifts this past season. Under the guise of celebrating our son's birthday and the official opening of the academy, they sent us well wishes with May Lu Ban pave a beautiful House of Liu."
The parchment was thick and richly colored. Its calligraphy ink sparkled in the light, and the coal-like shimmer only flattered the parchment. She wasn't a master in calligraphy, and the language itself was secondary in her education to Sanskrit. However, the strokes were clean and confident, if not mildly threatening, which was odd for a child's birthday gift now that she thought about it.
And Emperor this past season spoke of war and orderly conduct.
"Excuse my wife, this is her second language, and I'm not well-practiced in the art of riddles. I'm merely a simple merchant in need of shipment to keep my clan afloat."
There was nothing else for Lakshmi to see in the calligraphy. She thought the gift was pretty kind of them. The most her neighbors and in-laws ever gifted her were mean innuendoes. But her husband stood up as if he saw it and whispered under his breath as he blinked at the work.
"And if she can see it," Mistress Liu hissed. "Then it's clear as day. The Emperor wants us dead to cover up what alphas can be or become."
Her husband paced a bit before he broke.
She didn't understand his panic.
It sounded like Mistress Liu was overreacting.
"I doubt the Emperor even knows your names," she said.
Her husband closed his eyes and asked, "Who sent you this?" with a raised hand as if he already knew but wanted confirmation. "There are few people with strokes like the--"
"The Prime Minister."
"Ah, I see." Her husband brandished his robes and gave a curt nod. "We're leaving."
"Wait--!" Lakshmi held her husband's shoulder tight as he nearly rushed out. "What was in the strokes?"
"The Prime Minister threatened to kill them which aligns with the belief that the Emperor wants them dead. And if we get involved," Her husband clutched her hands in his, "they won't just kill them. It'll be us. Our children. My entire family. Do you understand? Three generations at least."
"I don't understand."
"The characters in those strokes." Her husband's hands were shaking as they pointed at the calligraphy. "It's a chengyu. It means to stop when you're ahead. They're showing off against the Emperor, and do you know what these two did? They opened it anyway. They can't be saved. "
As her husband yanked her through the door, Sir Liu said, in the loudest voice she imagined he's ever done, "Please, we beg of you! We have gold on us!"
The two stopped flush in the doorway, yanking and pulling.
"We don't ask that you save us," Sir Liu added. "We ask that you save our children and then buy the academy when all is said and done."
"You will not be able to keep all our wealth," Mistress Liu said. "The Prime Minister will want that. They'll consider it an act of treason but we have hid other accounts in other place. I have relatives outside the city who will take my son in, who will need to be paid. And we request one more favor."
"One more?" Her husband cracked. "Aren't these two more than enough? We're dead. It's all over."
She patted her husband's back and tried to cool his temper down.
"Master Won's granddaughter needs a guardian. We need it to be you two."
Her husband sighed, perhaps more comforted by the idea that they knew their lives were ending, "How does feeding an extra mouth benefit us?"
"Xia Ting's mother is an El Mahdy. Master Won's ancestry stretches back to the prior dynasty between two nobilities in two Empires. You can connect the stars in this alignment, I gather?" Mistress Liu replied and then continued at their tight expressions. "The Emperor wishes to make peace with the kingdoms of the far Southern deserts to control the deserts that lie between us. Such an act would prevent war, famine, and monetary loss. It's an act worth awarding. And any such guardian of her's will gain what her absent parents would instead--the parents of a princess."
Lakshmi had her own personal history with the far Southern lands. Her first marriage was to the Empress Molokhiyya, an alpha with no small appetite in omegas. To all import with few knowledge, this marriage was never finalized, but the way Mistress Liu's eyes burrowed into her, it appeared such knowledge was known by a few too many.
She would be able to wrangle such a marriage between the far western lands long before the south and someone in the Imperial Court with only a small sacrifice in dignity by using those old connections.
But--what could she gain?
"If we adopted her," Lakshmi said boldly, even as her husband gestured for them to leave now, "we would take all the gains. She would carry the Song name. Nothing for the Won family would be gained through her directly. Xia Ting would have to do all the work of personal pretense. Is that fair? On such a young girl."
Out from behind Mistress Liu's chair slid a young girl not much older than twelve or thirteen. Her brocade was red, with cranes and vines twining across its form. Her hair was twisted down her back loose and without adornment. Her skin stood an umber sard, like a reflecting gem settling on the twilight sands of the far southern deserts.
She said, with a lilting voice, "My grandfather warned me and my parents that this side of the world is no less dangerous than theirs. I wish to live here in my grandfather's world, no matter what."
Her husband sighed, and they shared a look.
It appeared that they would be gaining a daughter.
"She could pass as a niece of mine that I'm adopting officially until things need to be clarified," Lakshmi said. "The only thing I worry of now in your plan is what to do about our meeting and escape. Someone will know we have met."
"You don't have to worry about that," Mistress Liu said, and as if well-timed, Cheng-en's shouts flew to their ears. "We've already begun your cover."
Chaos and disarray sounded from the outside.
Bells rang in alarm as more shouts joined in.
"Help! Help! Master Won!"
She turned to the barred windows, where smoke could be seen floating up. It must've been no surprise to the young girl, who clutched her arms, squeezing to make herself small but making no sound.
Mistress Liu continued on, "We have drunk poison so that you can tell the Prime Minister that thy work has been done. Our Clan is done."
Mistress Liu hunched forward as her chest rattled and blood oozed from her mouth before she spat to the ground. She swiped against her mouth as Sir Liu leaned forward and pressed his brows to hers.
Lakshmi and her husband turned around to give them their privacy but could hear them speak still.
"I am to take my son and--"
The words cut off, jarring the tragic scene as Lakshmi and her husband stood at the doorway, with each second gaining more and more tense.
Should they turn around? They thought.
The two shared a look as choked gasps sounded behind them. It felt like a whittling piece of wood bending until the lines began to crack. They waited for it, whatever it was, to spread until it snapped.
They couldn't have imagined that a routine traded goods meeting would have twisted into such a knot.
"Wait--wait--no!"
They spun around as Mistress Liu broke down to the ground, and Sir Liu started to cough blood.
It aspirated in his throat, blood spitting out, as he gasped for air.
She hissed, "Traitors! Show yourselves!" as blood dribbled down her mouth. Sir Liu gasped his final breath. His death swift and faster than Mistress Liu's.
She clutched Sir Liu with blood spilling through her fingers and her own staining gritted teeth. "He was not to be poisoned yet. There's still work to be done. Xia-er, come here!"
Xia Ting fell to the ground beside them as Mistress Liu whispered in her ear. Then, with a little kowtow or goodbye, the young girl snapped up, pushing through both Lakshmi and her husband to the outside, her footsteps clicking through the halls.
When Lakshmi turned back, both Mistress Liu and Sir Liu were cradled in each other's arms. Dead.
Her husband yanked on her wrist and said, "We must leave. Now."
"We can't leave without Xia Ting."
"Who would hold us accountable?"
"Our pockets!"
The flurry of brocade and footsteps was easy to track as the two hurried after the young girl's footsteps. What had been quiet, soothing stillness had transformed into disquieted silence as they crept around the halls and winding interiors.
The training room splattered with blood and the dead form of Master Won leaning forward was found on their exit. Had they not known otherwise, he would've appeared napping.
"It wasn't Master Won then," Lakshmi said with scrutinizing eyes. But she could see no one else. Nothing but a saber protruding out his back. "We never saw others on our way. Neither on the path up."
"They said they were betrayed," her husband clarified. "It must've been someone who was already here and someone they trusted."
"Most of their clan members were listed in their housing records as servants, but I didn't see any when we arrived and," Lakshmi said, as her husband continued tightening his hold and yanking them through the halls and winding turns. Broken vases and ripped calligraphy; it was as if a tornado had ripped through the halls. Someone angry had stomped through here, and she couldn't imagine it was Xia Ting. "I didn't see their other master or disciples--Master Marumoto should've been here too."
"Presume that they are the ones who betrayed them. They know the real plan which means--"
They can't stay here for long.
The husband and wife duo shared a look as they heard the enraged scream of a young woman--Xia Ting was in danger. Following the voice led them to the servant's quarters closer to the entrance gate than any other interior with the cracked sidings of the window and Xia Ting's voice peering through.
They slid into the room with broken jars, splattering food, and water spilling as a wizened man with long white hair tied up and a beard nearly half as long slumped on the floor dead.
Blood spilled out of his mouth as well.
His death only seconds earlier.
Xia Ting's harsh breathing was the only sound. The young girl crouched underneath one of the tables, pushing away the tablecloth that covered it to find Cheng-en hidden behind it. "I know where to send him. No one will see us, but we must leave now."
Cheng-en remained silent but shivered as he clutched his hands to his mouth, his quiet sobs breaking the silence.
She reached over to help the young girl, as blood stained her sleeves, but Xia Ting ripped off a piece of her brocade to wrap around the long wound on her upper arm.
Only a sword could make such a wound. Lakshmi had seen the practice swings of merchant swords in the main city and soldiers on her own travels. "But who--?"
The young girl twisted her lips and stared out through the shambled window.
There was nothing else to be said as the hooves of a horse cart arriving clicked at the entrance. Chests full of gold already perched inside.