"Have you gone mad Hu Chao?"
"Hold her, Zheng Li."
Song Jie felt thin, claw-like hands gripping her shoulders and resisted the urge to squirm free. Hu Chao bent down in front of her in a bizarre bow, Song Jie realised he was looking down toward her ankle, he reached out and pulled the robes, now she did begin to struggle.
"Song Jie he just wants to see your burn!" hissed Zheng Li from behind as her dress was lifted to just about her right ankle.
"Nothing," exclaimed Zheng Li in relief, "see!"
"It's the other one," came a rasping voice from the direction of the carriage, Guo Bo was poking her head of the window so as to watch the proceedings suspiciously. Hu Chao pulled the robe over the other leg and clasped at Song Jie's ankle, she shrieked and pulled away in fear but he yanked her back again, afraid to lose her balance on the rocky ground and not knowing where the edges of the cliff were, Song Jie didn't dare struggle too violently.
Zheng Li let go his vice like hold on her shoulders and walked round to peer at her ankle, "How strange..." he murmured.
"It must have been pretty extraordinary tea to burn such an intricate pattern," remarked Hu Chao dryly, his expression was impossible to interpret. Song Jie looked down at her own marked skin,
The familiar snaking 'S' interwoven with two dots and a line striking through the centre. When she had been young she had seen the marking as an ugly blemish that other girls did not possess, and as everything in the houses was beautiful and mark-free, she had sought to get rid of it. Song Jie had indeed burned the skin with tea as she had told Hu Chao, seeking to eviscerate the blemish from her body, but it had not worked. Auntie had been called to her room by the screams and had put a cold compress on it immediately. When the bandages were removed the skin had darkened and mottled slightly so that the mark no longer looked so stark against her porcelain skin, and Song Jie was able to pass it off as a birthmark.
Hu Chao however, traced the 'S' slowly with his fingertip, causing Song Jie to recoil at his touch. "And it so it begins," he stated, glancing up at Song Jie's burning eyes, "or rather ends."
Stepping back he drew out a short sword from his robes so abruptly that Guo Bo shrieked and disappeared back inside the carriage.
"For what possible reason?" Zheng Li cried. "What does this mean, this mark that distresses you so much?"
"It means,” Hu Chao breathed heavily, his chest puffing out, “I have found the Magi's quarry without searching. They have been looking in completely the wrong places. Isn't fate strange little girl? I shall be rewarded for this, I know you're what I'm looking for, I've seen the scrolls, I know you play a part in it all." His lips curled at Song Jie, but she looked straight past him, her eyes were focusing on something behind, something that had moved at the front of the carriage.
"It seems you have a thistle amongst your flowers Zheng Li, I shall cut it out for you," Hu Chao moved forward, the blade held high, glinting in the muted light from the moon.
"No!" cried a voice and something jumped on the large man from behind, he fell backwards and dust from the dry earth sprang upwards making it even harder to see what was happening. Song Jie stepped to the side before Zheng Li could grasp at her. There were sounds of scuffling and a familiar girl’s voice, "Song Jie, run!"
"Yang Min?" Song Jie pushed forward and saw her friend on the floor beside Hu Chao who was bleeding from the head, he had fallen onto a rocky patch.
"Where's the girl?" he shouted ferociously at Zheng Li who looked around wildly. Hu Chao snatched at Yang Min and pushed her towards Zheng Li, "Hold this one, don't let her escape."
He picked up the sword again and strained his eyes into the darkness, Song Jie drew back, she was powerless against him and she knew he meant to kill her, but Yang Min was still trapped. Yang Min continued to cry out when Hu Chao snapped, "Put her in the carriage and quiet her down. We will need her as a replacement".
They are not going to kill Yang Min
Song Jie felt relieved, despite her own situation. She paced softly backwards, the road they had come from twisted around the mountain but her feet discovered a new track beside it, worn out and eroded by animals running up and down the slopes. She found herself stepping carefully down this path, away from the men who were still frantically looking behind rocks and in crevices.
"She cannot go far, wait for the sun Hu Chao,” Zheng Li was calling out hurriedly, “it will show us where she is, there aren't any trees or cover for miles. You just have to wait. Why is she so important anyway? Look, just wait until morning, at least we've got the other girl, stowaway she must have been, up front in the driver's nook. So at least I've got a courtesan to present! Do what you will with my 'thistle' but surely your business with her can wait until morning Hu Chao, it won't be long now!"
Song Jie listened to the men until she could hear them no more, then turned and ran as fast as she could down the mountain.
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