Huginn's Yule

The carts bearing the gifts to the Khan, my dowry, and carrying the hundred women who had been sent with me as my maids and servants, they bogged down in the sand again and again, and all must wait as they were dug out, and we had water for twenty days, and already fourteen had passed. The Rouran drank the blood from their horses veins every second day, as did the men of my own escort, and as a Princess of the Xianbei, I could do no less, and I followed their example without flinching, although Captain Wang must needs show me how to nick the vein and suck the blood, and I did not hesitate, and the Rouran watched, and their look was of approval.

"She is a fitting bride for the Khan's brother," I overheard one say, and I was discretely learning their language, though they knew it not.

The desert nights grew colder, cold and bitter, and even the furs in the carts and the bodies of my maids to either side did not warm me, and Captain Wang showed me how to heat rocks in the fire, and then lay them in the ground and sleep on a layer of them to keep warm.

"How much further," I asked, the next morning.

Captain Wang consulted with the captain of the Rouran embassy's guards. "Ten days to the next oasis," he said. "And after that there is water every third day, and in two weeks further, we will be out of the desert." He grinned through parched lips. "I have patrolled the borders of this desert, Princess, but this is further north than I have ever been, and I do not know these lands, but the Captain tells me that his Khan's rule is strong to the north of this desert, and when we reach the grasslands, we will ride west to find the winter encampment of the Khan, and there we will remain until Spring."

"How long will it take to reach the Khan of the Western Rouran?" I asked.

"We will ride in Spring, Princess, and the Captain says it will be autumn when we reach their lands, and then we must find the encampment of their Khan, but we will be there for the winter." He shook his head wearily. "The Captain and I have talked, the road is long and hard, Princess. I do not think many of your women will survive the journey, those that are not Xianbei, the girls of the Han, they certainly will not, for look how many have died already, and this has not been a hard journey, not as the Rouran or we soldiers of your Guard count hard."

"We will show no weakness," I said, after a moment's thought. "We will gift the Han girls to this Khan of the Eastern Rouran, and no doubt he will be pleased." I smiled. "But it is good to know we are almost out of this desert, for I detest this sand."

"I too, Princess Yuan," Captain Wang said. "And we will be safer from attack in the lands under the control of the Khan, for out here, anything could happen at any moment."

"We have not been attacked yet," I said. "We have seen no-one."

"They are out there," Captain Wang said. "Watching us."

We were attacked the next day.

They came on us fast and hard, at the first light of dawn, and I had risen in the darkness, dressed, donned my coat of chain mail, as I did every day now, fastened on my helmet, strapped my shield to my arm and I was there with my sword, running through my drills under the eye of Sergeant Wen, when the warning horns sounded, and the camp boiled into life. Over a low ridge they came, kicking their small horses into a gallop, and each man rode with a bow in his hand and an arrow ready, guiding his horse with his knees.

"To the Princess," Sergeant Wen bellowed, and my duty guards surrounded me, shields raised, and the second rank raised their bows, drew arrows, nocked them to the bow strings, and there was no panic, for my escort were all experienced soldiers who had fought raiders before, in the borderlands.

The raiders came in line abreast, high in the saddle, and perhaps they had taken us for merchants, fat with trade goods and light on armed guards, and in this they were sorely mistaken, for even as my own loyal guards formed ranks, running to their places, the Rouran mounted and rode out at the gallop, angling to outflank the raiders, and the arrows of my soldiers began to punch out, knocking raiders from their saddles and they did not rise often, and those that did went down again, quivering as does a pincushion, for my escort guarded a Princess of the blood, and they showed no mercy.

The Rouran took them in the flank at full gallop, and there was not a man amongst them, nor amongst my own escort, who could not put an arrow through the eye of a flying bird whilst riding at the gallop, and my soldiers were armored and shielded, whilst these raiders wore only their deels, or tunics made of leather and furs, and it was a massacre. Shaft after shaft impaled them, driving them from their saddles, cutting off their war cries, sending them spinning to the ground, and the Rouran had cut off their escape.

A group of these raiders burst through a gap in our lines, and I saw two of my soldiers go down, arrows through their eyes, and Sergeant Wen ordered half my guard forward at the run, sealing the gap, but more raiders had broken through now, in desperation, or perhaps they knew not the fate of those behind them, and a dozen saw my maidservants huddled in a group and rode towards them, whooping, cutting down half a dozen soldiers on foot who sought to bar their way with sword and shield.

"Follow me," I cried, and I ran towards them, my guards behind me, and I hammered my blade into a rider's thigh as he rode past me, blood splattering my face as that rider screamed and tugged wildly at his reins, catapulting over his horse's head as it dug it's forehooves in and slid to a halt, and one of my guards ran him through with his lance as another of those steppe raiders bore down on me, sword already swinging at my head.

There was no time to defend myself, and I dropped flat to the ground, and Sergeant Wen was there, stepping over me, his sword chopping down again and again, a limp and bloody body falling on me, and I was on my feet, seizing the reins of that fallen rider's horse, mounting, my sword in my hand, and Sergeant Wen was cursing as two more riders rode at us.

"Go right," Sergeant Wen screamed, and I did, instantly, my blade's tip finding the neck of one rider as Sergeant Wen cut at the other, almost taking his head off, and my guards had run to protect me, not my maidservants, and I could not fault them, for it was their duty to protect me above all else, but there were half a dozen of the raiders left, and they were galloping out of the camp, and as I watched, two were pulled from their horses and knifed on the ground as they writhed, screaming, and I saw two kicking legs clad in white before one rider.

"Mount," I cried. "Mount. They have one of my women."

Without thought, for I knew my guards would follow me, I spurred my horse to a gallop, and Sergeant Wen was there with me, at my shoulder, roaring over his shoulder, and behind me a long tail of horsemen trailed, more and more of them, but my horse was strong, and I was light, and I outdistanced them all, and there was a bow in its case, hanging from the saddle together with a quiver of arrows, and now I sheathed my sword, and discarded my shield.

It was a man's bow, made for a man's strength, but those raiders were only a little ahead of me, and I took arrow to string, aiming, drawing with all my strength, releasing, and my first shot was a lucky one, for it took a rider in the shoulder, and he reeled, and the others looked around, and now I wove my horse, for they were turning in their saddles and shooting at me as I rode, and I was shooting back, but these shots were not so lucky as my first, and they drew away from me a little.

Sergeant Wen at last caught up with me, and he was beating his captured horse onwards, and other guards too caught up, and out to one flank were riders of the Rouran, and the raiders must have known they could not escape us for they turned and stood, and they used their horses as shields, and my maid was still alive, for I heard her screams as they tore her clothes from her and raped her, one by one, while we rode towards them, and beside me a guard went down, an arrow through his chest.

"Hold, Princess," Sergeant Wen bellowed. "This is our job, not yours."

"She is mine," I screamed back, catapulting myself from my horse into the midst of those raiders, and I took the one facing me with one cut, my sword cutting his in half as he blocked, slicing on down through his skull to the jaw and jerking outwards as I freed my blade from the bone, and Sergeant Wen was there, and the other guards, hacking and slashing and cutting in a mad frenzy, and the raider who had been in the act of raping my maid as we attacked cut her throat a second before I removed his head, and I held her in my arms as she choked on her own blood and died, and I wept, for I had failed in my duty, and it was long before I would release her from my arms.

The Ambassador of the Rouran eyed me as we ride into camp, splattered with blood, sword in my hand, mounted on a captured horse, the body of my maid across the saddle of a captured horse whose reins were held by one of my guards, and he bowed low.

"Indeed, Princess Yuan, you are a bride fit for the Khan of the Western Rouran," was all he said, before he turned to his men, just as Captain Wang was inspecting my escort, and thirty men dead and as many wounded we lost in that attack, together with one maid-servant, and it would not be the last attack, and it would not be the last men or women we lost, before we entered the lands firmly under the rule of the Khan of the Eastern Rouran.

We rode into the encampment of the Khan of the Eastern Rouran three hundred men and twenty women less than we had left Luoyang with, and the Khan greeted us with pleasure, for the carts carried many gifts such that the Rouran desired from us in return for a year's peace. His pleasure when I gifted him my forty five remained Han maid-servants knew no bounds, for I had dressed them in clothes of my own, fit for a Princess, and I had bestowed upon them titles, and in return for this and for the armor and weapons of my dead soldiers, I negotiated a further year's peace, and of this I sent word back to my father by a letter to be carried by a merchant from Wei who had dared to travel this far north, and who was now returning.

After I had talked with them, warning them that it would be certain death for them to continue on with me, all acquiesced to that gifting, and great indeed was their relief when the Khan kept only two or three for his own pleasure, and gifted the remaining out to his subordinate khans and his chief warriors, and they too were greatly pleased, for women of the Han, even maid-servants newly raised to titles, with their airs and graces and their beauty, were much prized by these people, and I could vouch for their virginity, for so must all my maids be, and so all were pleased with my arrival, and we were hosted through the winter, if not in the style of Luoyang, at least with comfort, and the soldiers of my escort were fast learning the ways of the Rouran.

We departed the encampment of the Khan as the first green buds of spring broke through the snow, and I rode out with Captain Wang and six hundred soldiers, for some had died over the winter, and but twenty maidservants, for fifteen of my Xianbei maid-servants had asked if they could remain as wives of men of the Rouran, and I did not refuse. The Khan himself sent an escort of two hundred of his men with us, for these lands were his, and the lands of other Khans through which we would pass to reach the Western Rouran were such as paid him tribute, and thus, he said, a larger escort was not needed, and now we travelled with my dowry on packhorses rather than carts, for we must ride fast and hard to reach the Western Rouran before winter once more fell on the steppe.

And now I will pass over the next year of my life in less detail, for there was much that was the same. The endless days riding across the steppe, every day as the other, and men died, as men do, from sickness or in accidents, or in fighting the raiders that at times darted in to attempt to seize a horse or a woman, and now and then they were successful.

The encampments where we halted for days at a time while the horses grazed, and the men hunted, all regaining their strength. Men died, as men do. In accidents. From illness. In battle against raiders who attacked, sporadically, but there were always new raiders, and they had to be fought off again and again, and our numbers dwindled week by week, until by late summer Captain Wang had but four hundred and fifty of his soldiers remaining, and of the Rouran there remained but one hundred and fifty, for some too had died, some had wandered off or disappeared, others had become ill and halted.

Sergeant Wen, he was a master of the sword, surpassing even my Sword Master at Shaolin, and every day he trained me, until my muscles screamed for me to cease, and then he trained me the harder, and my strength and my skill grew, for often now I would run all day on foot, at the side of the horses, wearing my coat of chain mail, my sword in one hand and my shield on my arm, and on other days I would ride, and I would practice with the bow until I could raise my arms no more, until my archery was the equal of any of my soldiers.

"Why do you do this, Lady Fan," she who was my maid and who had grown up with me, always serving me, my mei-mei, my little sister, she asked me one day as she rode at my side. "You are a woman, and you will be wife to a Khan. There is no need for you to do this, and what man loves a woman who is not soft and silken and pale-skinned, as a woman should be?"

I shrugged. "My father is Prince Yuan Cheng, mei-mei, and he is a General of our Armies, and so too are my brothers. You know them, and you know my family. It is my duty, for were you not with me as my servant at Shaolin Temple while I studied the Way of the Warrior? I have trained all these years, and I will not stop now, and Sergeant Wen is such a teacher as one dreams of. He is a true master."

Sergeant Wen, Captain Wang and I talked too of this, but they did not attempt to dissuade me. Rather, they sought to train me to be the best I could be, and with this, I was content, and as the summer ended and autumn drew closer, word reached us that the Khan of the Western Rouran was far to the south, leading his men in a great raid against the rebellious tribe of the Göktürks, and my Captains studied such maps as we had of these lands, and determine that we must needs overwinter before moving on.

"There is an old fortress of Ban Chao a few days travel from here," Captain Wang said, poring over the map and such records of these lands as had been provided to him from the Imperial Archives, for the Han Dynasty's armies had conquered these lands long in the past. "I will send out scouts."

Those scouts found the ruined fortress, and my men quickly rebuilt it, while others hunted, and stores of meat and such other food as could be foraged for was laid up, together with hay cut for the horses, and wood for fires. Long and lean and cold were those months of winter, but I commanded no favors for myself. I ate as my soldiers ate, I warmed myself as they warmed themselves, and I trained harder and longer, for I was a Princess, and my father was Prince Yuan Cheng, and I must honor my family. When the spring came and the horses had been grazed on the fresh green grass, we were once more ready to move out, some men the less, but before we did, news of the fall of Northern Wei reached us.

A small party of men with a Rouran guide, for the Khan of the Eastern Rouran had granted my father that one last favor, even as Northern Wei fell, rode in, and they had ridden hard and fast. The commander of that small party of soldiers carried a written message from my father's hand, a message which I have still, and it is all that remains to me of my father. That letter, and my sword.

"Farewell, daughter," my father had written. "I write this letter in haste, sent with a trusted Lieutenant and his men, to bid you a last farewell. Our armies in the south are defeated, your brothers are dead, having died doing their duty in the service of the Emperor and of Northern Wei. I myself am with the Emperor and his family, holding the citadel of Luoyang, but my army is made up only of remnants who remain loyal, for my best men have died already, holding the Qi at bay, and those few who remain I send with this message to you, hoping they bring word to you of your father's end. There is fighting in the City now, we few who remain yet will fight to the last to defend the Emperor, but I do not hold any hope of victory, for we are outnumbered and many of our men have deserted, and this will be my last letter to you, for soon we will be surrounded in the Citadel, and there is nowhere to escape to. You have my blessings, Fan, my beloved daughter, and you carry with you my hope that you will, with your children, carry on the lineage of our family. Goodbye, and may the Buddha bless you. Your father, Prince Yuan Cheng."

"Northern Wei has fallen, Princess," the Lieutenant said, kneeling before me. "Luoyang was burning as we rode away, the citadel had been breached, and the news reached us that Prince Yuan Cheng had fallen with the Emperor in those final hours. Obedient to your father's wishes, we have ridden hard all summer to find you and give you his last letter to you, and now we place ourselves under your command, for such were your father's wishes."

"My thanks, Lieutenant," I said, and my eyes were flooded with tears, such as I could not see, for my father was dead and yet his men, these men who had carried this message to me, losing half their number along the way, together with those who were with me and who survived, they were loyal to me still, who had done nothing to deserve such loyalty beyond being my father's daughter.

"What course shall we take, Princess Yuan?" Captain Wang asked as we ate that night. Myself, the Captain and his officers, the Lieutenant, and the Captain of our Rouran guide, and all looked to me, a girl of but seventeen summers, and awaited my command.

"We must continue," I said, and my voice was decisive, though my mind was uncertain. "I am promised to the Khan of the Western Rouran, together with my dowry and my soldiers, and this was agreed to between my father and the Emperor Daowu who was, and the Khan of the Eastern Rouran. Northern Wei has fallen, there is nothing there for me to return to, and the Khan of the Eastern Rouran kept his word, to not attack Northern Wei for two years, and he did not attack, even as Northern Wei fell to the armies of the Southern Qi and to rebellion. The Khan kept his word to my father, and so I shall keep mine. We shall continue on to find the Khan of the Western Rouran."

And how I hoped that the Khan of the Western Rouran would indeed take me as his wife, for Northern Wei was no more, but I came as my father's daughter, with a large dowry, and with many warriors well-equipped with chain mail, lances, swords and bows, and although they were half the numder I had ridden out from Luoyang with, they were all tried soldiers, young and eager for adventure and to find a woman and wealth, and they were volunteers, every man, accepting that their destiny was to follow me, and to end their days in a foreign land.

"Captain Wang," I said, sipping on my tea, and I had thought long on this. "Northern Wei has fallen, my father and the Emperor are dead, and I will continue on, for there is nothing for me to go back to except death, for I am a cousin of the Emperor, and my father was not unknown."

I hesitated, sipping on my tea. "In the morning, we will parade the men, and I will tell them of my decision, and ask only for volunteers to ride on with me, and all who do not wish to continue may turn back with my blessings and thanks."