Ren Yu jumped up and ran over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders he shouted, "What do you know? How did you know the fire was coming? Why didn't you warn people?" He turned angrily to Ren Nuan and Ding Chao, "How do we know she isn't one of them? The people that did this?"
"Ren Yu...she's just a girl," murmured Ren Nuan but she remained in her seat.
"I heard them," the girl sobbed softly, her face scrunched up in distress, "I heard them in the carriage, they said Gowla...they took Yang Min..."
Ren Yu relaxed his grip on the crying girl but still spoke with suspicion, "Who did you hear?"
"Father and Hu Chao, they will be looking for me," the girl turned about with a fearful expression.
"Father?" Ren Yu wheeled about to Ren Nuan and Ding Chao, "Those men, that's her father! No wonder they want to find her, Ding Chao you have to look for them again!"
"No!" cried the girl, her face turning to Ding Chao pleadingly, "They wish me dead, the man, Hu Chao, he will kill me for sure."
Ren Yu backed away from her with a puzzled look. Ren Nuan stood up and walked over holding out the last parchment page, "Is it because of this?"
The girl's eyes widened, then she nodded.
The light began to finally rise over the mountains, mornings were always late in Gowla's valley, the only place that had early sun had been the monastery, Su Jun used to joke that's how he got up so much earlier for prayer. The girl had just come to the end of her explanation, although unbeknownst to them she excluded the story of her own mysterious parchments.
"A Royal Concubine..." murmured Ding Chao as Song Jie told them of how she had gone into a daze-like state somewhere on the mountains and awoken to find herself in their town.
"What is your name?" asked Ren Yu finally, giving her the rest of his tea. She smiled faintly at him, "Song Jie, it's Song Jie."
Ren Yu turned to Ding Chao, "Jiang Ru gave me those scrolls telling me to take them to Kitenji, I don't even know where that is."
"It's west," announced Ren Nuan, "It's said to be the great western monastery, that's where the high-Abbots live. My late husband, Almighty rest his soul, was, as you know, a peddler, he travelled about a lot and used to tell me of all these far off places he'd heard tales of or visited."
"West..." began Ren Yu, "maybe they can help us, maybe they will know who the Spirits are and where Su Jun has been taken and what these pages mean?"
"You do not understand Ren Yu," sighed Ren Nuan, "Kitenji is not just west, it's in the west. Half a world away from here."
Ding Chao shifted uncomfortably at her words and said, "Just store them Ren Yu, those pages, just keep them safe and don't speak of them to anybody."
"I must find the monks," Song Jie spoke softly, placing her cup on the table, "I overheard Father telling Hu Chao how he took me as a baby from a monk..."
"But there must be closer monasteries!" protested Ding Chao, clearly highly disturbed by such talk of travelling. "No need to go that far!"
"All the monasteries are disappearing around us," murmured Ren Nuan. "Even you must see that Ding Chao? You're always muttering about something strange afoot these recent years, well this is it, it's all connected. Besides..." she picked up the parchments again, "Brother Jiang Ru gave Ren Yu strict instructions on what to do with these pages, we risk bad fortune and forsake the blessings of the Almighty if we tell him not to do so."
Ren Yu turned to look at the girl sat beside him, with her wide eyes now open he could see they were a warm brown and they were filled with a quality Ren Yu recognized, even from his short span on earth. He had seen it in the men and women of Gowla as they protected their town, in Su Jun as he prayed every day and in the face of Jiang Ru as he lay dying in that room, it was determination.
He made up his mind, "I will take her. I will take the pages. I will go to Kitenji." Ren Yu’s words came out so loudly and clearly that he surprised even himself.
Ren Nuan looked up and smiled grimly, "I always knew you were never meant to stay in Gowla, but I hoped one day you would leave with a good purpose of your own calling and I would bid you farewell with a celebration of cakes and ale."
Ren Yu reached over and touched her lightly on the cheek, "Auntie, I still need your help."
"I will get what you need," she said calmly as she rose and climbed the stairs up to her room. They sat in silence whilst she was gone and could hear the opening and closing of drawers and a key against a lock. When she reappeared she was holding a small stack of parchments, they were laid flat in her arms.
"My husband's maps," Ren Nuan declared as she placed them on the table and began to pass them around. The maps were beautiful, painstakingly hand-drawn with faded colours and calligraphic notes.
"My husband was always an artist, peddler by trade, painter by nature. His passion was cartography, he'd come home from week-long journeys without even a hello, he'd go straight to that fire-side and take out all the scraps of paper from his pockets that he'd made notes and sketches on from his travels. Then he would reproduce them all onto a map at once, he wanted to do it whilst it was still fresh in his mind. He had a memory that man! He could recreate a vast mountain range with pen and paper, every crevice and valley in perfect position, but the number of times he forgot to collect the eggs or refill the ale barrels..." Ren Yu looked up and Ren Nuan's eyes were glistening.
Looking down again at the map he'd been handed he saw it was a birds-eye view of Gowla with the surrounding slopes rendered in fantastic detail, even the clearing where he'd caught his catfish was marked. The monastery was labelled with black ink along with a chart for the number of monks. Ren Yu felt his throat catch and he picked another map off the table.
"It's the roads going south-west from Gowla,” he commented.
Ren Nuan peered over, "He often went this way as he got older, said the roads were more level than going north, but it leads to the river-ways if you follow it all the way down."
"There's a town!" exclaimed Ren Yu. "Marked on the edge, I never knew there was one there."
"It's the River People's,” Ren Nuan nodded but she looked slightly unsure, “they stay to themselves you see, but my husband, always had the gift of the gab, he managed to maintain quite good relations with them."
Ren Yu looked up, "Could we make it there by tonight?"
"You could try, but the girl's feet, they're too blistered to travel at such a pace," Ren Nuan replied motioning at Song Jie,
"I am fine, Auntie." the girl's voice came softly through and Ren Nuan turned in surprise.
"My feet have almost healed, I have spare slippers and the herbs you used have worked well, I believe I could run if I tried."
"Good," said Ding Chao grimly, "you might have to."
Ren Yu found packing easier than he had anticipated, he had never been much of a hoarder and therefore had few objects of actual worth to him, he tucked a small prayer book Su Jun had given him into his robes, but thumbed to the front page first, there in small script Su Jun had written, "For Ren Yu on his birthday, may he find this doorstop useful." He also took spare robes remembering wryly the advice of Tong Lei and a bag of fruit Ren Nuan had offered. About him and Song Jie they slung water flasks and of the maps they chose those that they thought they would need and left the others with Ren Nuan.
Ding Chao disappeared for a while then returned with a hessian bag from which he produced a small blade with a carved wooden handle, "One the first things I made," he stated proudly and handed it to Ren Yu and then he drew out a miniature wooden figurine of a fox. "It's a Spirit-totem," he explained, handing it to Song Jie, "It was my mother's, I don't know if it ever worked, but then again, what does?"
Song Jie smiled and kapped in response.
"Oh my - look at the way you bow Song Jie!" exclaimed Ren Nuan, who ruffled Ren Yu's hair fondly, "You better watch your manners now young man!"
Ren Yu rolled his eyes and turned to Ding Chao, "Is it safe out yet?"
"I didn't see any of them Spirits or those men," Ding Chao replied.
"Spirits?" exclaimed Song Jie.
"Aye, evil things,” Ding Chao replied with a shudder, “but I think now with light of day it's clearer out there, but still, stick to the back paths until you're over Siqin Mountain then head straight the way that map tells you to and put a dark robe over that pink satin or you'll have the whole town on you."
Ren Nuan went to fetch a long dark grey robe and tied it around Song Jie's neck.
"Thank you Auntie," Song Jie whispered, clasping the ageing woman's hands to her. Ren Yu and Song Jie left the tavern via the back entrance, the town still reeked of smoke and Ren Yu could not bear to turn his eyes towards to the ruined remains of the monastery. He knew the mountain would be blackened and blood-stained and that was not how he chose to remember it.
The town was oddly quiet, most folk had collapsed, exhausted as soon as through their front doors. Others walked around in groups keeping a quiet eye on the streets. A few men grunted to Ren Yu as he walked by, others just gave him sympathetic looks, knowing he was close to the monks, but they all ignored Song Jie, who pulled the hood of the grey robe so tightly around her that she looked like another scared inhabitant.
Ren Nuan and Ding Chao followed some way behind so as not to draw attention to the pair. When they reached the path to Siqin, Ren Yu turned back to Ren Nuan who held up her hand in farewell, tears streaming down her face. Ding Chao motioned hastily to them, "Over the mountain Ren Yu, get over the mountain!"
Ren Yu nodded, took a final look at his aunt, then clasped Song Jie's hand and set off on the rising path.
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