“Quickly!” the young man begged her as she wiped at her mouth. Nodding that she understood, she ran with him, her heart still thundering in her rib cage.

The bitter sourness in her mouth only made her want to throw up again, but she allowed herself to be pulled along. He dragged her behind an overturned wagon and then reached to wipe under her eye.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered with a quick smile.

“Thank you,” she gasped hoarsely, not realizing that tears had been streaming down her face.

“Shhh! I will take you out of here,” he whispered as they flattened themselves against the wagon. “Now!”

They clambered up together and dashed towards the river, weaving through the fighting and wagons. 

“We must get across!” he shouted to her. “Can you swim?”

“Yes!” she cried back, shielding her face with her arms, as she stumbled away from a small group who were fully engaged in trying to slaughter each other. 

Splashing into the river, they threw themselves into the current. 

Gods! There so many of them! she thought as the river took her. Surely the party with the boy were outnumbered…would this not be over soon? Speculating about his identity, she hoped that the boy had escaped.

Dammit! The boy!

“I have to go back!” she cried, urgently.

“No! Absolutely not!”

“But I left one of the children in the forest!” she turned, striking out for the shore they had just left, but he was faster and stronger, dragging her back and making her swallow a mouthful of water. 

She panicked as her head went under, the darkness of the water reminding her of another night on a different river. At that moment, she broke the surface, gasping for air.

Tightening his hold, he dragged her forcefully toward the opposite bank. Her mind froze as she tried not to remember the column of water that had swallowed her up. Dazed, she barely heard what the man was shouting at her. Finally, what he was saying penetrated her stupor and she looked at him.

“We’ll go back in the morning. If he stays hidden, he’ll be fine. Don’t worry…the caravan children are smart. He won’t be hurt,” he panted, as he dragged her into the shallows. They crawled out of the river, exhausted.

Listlessly, Cui Xi followed him onto the bank, no longer resisting. She only felt sick to her stomach and hunched over again, gagging.

He watched her, puffed sympathetially through his nose, and then helped her rinse her mouth out with river water.

“Come on, Miss. Your maid is over there,” he said, not unkindly.

Leading her over, he pointed to a bush and with a shuffling noise Xiao Yu burst out and hugged her tightly.

“A’Xi!” she exclaimed tearfully.

“Xiao Yu!” Cui Xi patted her lightly in relief, still dazed.

“Mistress are you hurt?” Xiao Yu frowned, hastily reverting back to the master/servant address. She reached out to wipe a dark splatter on Cui Xi’s face.

“Aahh…” she shuddered, remembering the explosion of blood and brains. “No, no, I’m fine…”

Then she covered her mouth and turned to the side as her stomach protested feebly. Even though she had jumped into the river, the front of her dress was still stained with the reminder of the grisly explosion, and part of her wanted to rip the horrendous reminder off her body.

“It’s the first time your Mistress has seen that kind of thing. It’s not a surprise that she’s feeling unwell,” said the young caravan man, apologetically.

“I’ll be fine,” Cui Xi said, shaking her head, fighting to regain control of herself.

Turning to the young man, she dropped to her knees.

“Miss!” the caravan man, grabbed her arms before she could put her forehead to the dirt. “I’m just doing my duty. Your Yifu paid us a great deal of money to ensure your safety…I cannot accept your bow…” he said hurriedly. 

“Your father is certainly able to find capable people…” Cui Xi remarked to Xiao Yu a little drily as he helped her to her feet.

Xiao Yu lowered her lashes, but she said nothing. She had been quite surprised when the young man had grabbed her at the first sign of trouble and swam with her across the river.

The two girls sat together in silence, not looking at each other, as the hideous sounds on the other side of the river slowly died down.

“Those weren’t ordinary bandits,” Cui Xi said quietly to Xiao Yu, clutching at herself. The cold from the river water was setting in, but that wasn’t the only reason she was shivering. 

The caravan man looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“Why do you think that, Miss?” he asked.

She explained her earlier observations and a hint of surprise flickered through his eyes. He nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I could see that too. You must not think too hard about it though. Travelling with a caravan of goods, we always run the risk of encountering something dangerous. The women understand this, but they still choose to follow their husbands despite it. The children learn from a young age that this can happen. It is the way of life.”

The fact that these trading families accepted the risks of travelling with the caravan didn’t mean that Cui Xi could accept it. She could not accept that she had just seen the tragic slaughter of men, women, and even children. She had lived in a peaceful society with very little danger to her person. What she had experienced in the last few hours she never would have imagined seeing in an entire lifetime.

For now, she could only hide these things in her heart. Every single time she was lulled into believing that she could carry on quietly in this place, something happened that rudely reminded her that she was currently trying to survive a feudal era kingdom where bandits and kings could chop her head off at any given moment.

She huddled forlornly, waiting for the sunrise even though she knew that the majestic colours could no long charm her.

The sounds of fighting ended well before the first streaks of dawn painted the sky. Whoever the assassins were, they had completed their task and moved on. Anyone who had been in the way had been cut down. 

Returning to the remains of the camp, Cui Xi made herself look, letting the images burn themselves into her mind as she surveyed the butchery of the night before. Even though her stomach was empty, she still fell to her hands and knees and retched.

Xiao Yu patted her sympathetically, but even in her sheltered life, she had seen villages taken by plague and rotting bodies everywhere when people died faster than they could be buried. Being a doctor’s daughter, she was no stranger to death, but her tears fell fast when it became apparent that half the children had been killed and the other half were missing.

Looking for the little boy, Cui Xi and Xiao Yu carefully searched the area for the single strip of cloth. When they found it, they ran through the trees, the branches whipping them as they searched. They searched for him for a good half a shichen, but he had either left the place next to the tree where Cui Xi had hidden him or had been taken.  

His disappearance made Cui Xi sob miserably. Even this little bit that she had tried to do to save him, had been futile.

“We have to keep moving,” pleaded the caravan man, urgency flitting across his face.

“But the others?” Cui Xi asked, scrubbing her face angrily with her sleeve.

“They will find each other, but we cannot linger. I will ensure you get to the capital safely,” he said with determination. “Let’s go, Miss.”

Two incense sticks later, they found the horses, and with one last look, Cui Xi shut off her brain and let herself become numb as they turned away from what was now a mass grave. 

*** 

While she was grateful for her life, Cui Xi decided that there was a very real problem with the young caravan man. As they travelled away from the part of the river that was still red with blood, the things that she had seen and heard began to solidify in her mind. She pulled the information apart, put it together, and pulled it apart again…combing through until she could see it clearly.

Multiple times over the next few days, she felt a prickling at the back of her neck and would look around only to see nothing. At first, she thought she was imagining things, but it had happened so many times that she was sure it was not a coincidence. She felt like they were being followed and yet the caravan man, who was normally very alert, seemed to pay it no heed.

There was also the caravan man’s apparent lack of concern with bashing someone’s brains out which caused her to think that he was not new to killing. She had slowly become aware of calluses on his hands that she hadn’t noticed before that told her that he habitually handled a sword and had probably handled one for many years though he did not carry it now. She had originally thought he was just a servant of the caravan leader, but he had not mentioned the man once since they had been separated. Nor did he seem to show much sorrow for their companions in the caravan suggesting that he’d not been as close with them as it initially seemed.

On the third evening, she gave up to her curiosity. If he and whoever else had intended to kill her, they would never have rescued her that night.

“You were never part of the caravan, were you?” she asked quietly, coming up behind him late one night while Xiao Yu slept. He had heard her footsteps, but since he didn’t feel any killing intent, he had not reacted to her as she walked around and crouched down across from him. She had also made no effort to hide the sound of her feet, even scuffing a bit as if to express that she wasn’t a threat. 

He hesitated for a moment, watching her eyes, but then he sighed.

“No, Miss.”

“Ennn,” she muttered, poking a finger into the dirt.

“You aren’t going to ask anything more?” he asked in surprise after an awkward silence.

“Why would I? If you were going to tell me anything you would have already done it. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to ask about your business. All I need to know is that you and those others aren’t going to harm us.”

He blinked, but his surprise quickly turned to wariness and then resignation. 

HAH! So, there are others! she thought, her eyes narrowing slightly. His reaction just now had confirmed it. So, there are hidden guards somewhere! She wondered what Yang Ming Xi was mixed up with that his daughter could be afforded this level of protection. She had been right…he wasn’t an ordinary country doctor.

“I’m not going to harm you,” the young man responded carefully, seeing her thoughts fly across her face.

“Good,” she said with steel in her voice. Getting up after a moment, she turned away to see to her horse.

The young caravan man watched her leave and subconsciously touched his chest where Yang Ming Xi’s letter was neatly tucked away in a hidden pocket. Ultimately the letter was the most important thing and he would have to find the opportunity to abandon these two to his brothers who were lurking in the vicinity. Four of them had been assigned in total and he was sure that the one they were protecting was not Yang Ming Xi’s daughter, but the other one, the strange amber eyed girl. 

Her astute observations had unsettled him and the fact that she had foolishly chosen to confront him…If he had harboured bad intentions, she would have been dead. She seemed completely untrained in martial arts and yet she had easily detected the presence of the others. However, the thing that bothered him the most about her…was her odd lack of spiritual presence. He wasn’t able to explain exactly what it was…but she simply didn’t register with him the way most others did. Annoyed, he sighed and leaned back against the tree he was squatting under.

A low voice from somewhere above him spoke: “She bothers you because you cannot read her. There’s something different about her.”

“Ennn. Did you also sense it? Even untrained people have some level of aura, but she’s a complete blank...there can only be two causes. Perhaps the Master would know,” murmured the young caravan man.

“Ennn. I think it’s time you leave. Head to the capital immediately. Regardless of what the girl says…exposed like this she will no longer trust you and that will create problems. Don’t do any unnecessary things. Return and report to the Master at once.”

“Understood.”

He wasn’t unhappy with this result: The three remaining guards could easily ensure the safe passage of two girls.

Rising quietly, he slipped off into the night leaving the one in the trees to wonder about the strange constitution of the amber-eyed girl who was still talking quietly with her horse.

When Cui Xi woke early the next morning the caravan man was already gone, but she wasn’t surprised.

“Why would he abandon us after being paid by my father?” Xiao Yu asked, feeling shaken. She wondered if somehow the instructions to protect them had been changed.

Cui Xi shrugged. The less she said about it the better…just because he had left didn’t mean those others had gone with him and she was not going to say anything to alarm Xiao Yu. 

“I don’t think it matters now. If we continue to follow the road south, we will hit the main road to the capital.  If that boy in black escaped, they may still be hunting him. I don’t want to get mixed up with that again, so we’d better leave quickly,” she said. 

“What are you doing?” Xiao Yu asked, as Cui Xi took a loop of rope from the pack horse. 

“I’m tying your horse to mine. We’re going to go pretty quick and I don’t want your horse to run away with you. Hold on tight to the bridle. I’ll loop this rope over your saddle horn to make sure that we don’t get separated.”

She tied the rope on either end with good sailor knots. Satisfied that they were tight, she then dealt with the pack pony.

“W-wait!” Xiao Yu stuttered in dismay, as she started hauling things off.

“Xiao Yu, I’m sorry. We need to set him loose. His legs are far shorter than those of the other two. He’ll just slow us down, but I don’t want him to get eaten by something...”

“But our things…?”

“Take what you can. Abandon things that can be replaced. Oh…and this…” Cui Xi knelt down, scraped her hand in the mud and then rubbed Xiao Yu’s face.

“That’s better,” she grinned.

Xiao Yu stared at Cui Xi, looking like she was about to cry, but only let her bottom lip tremble. She swiftly grabbed the most important items and then shoved the rest under a bush. 

“A’Xi…when did you learn how to do all of this?” Xiao Yu asked softly, not looking at her.

Cui Xi sighed. There’s so much I can’t explain!

“I know a lot of things happened…will you trust me for now?” Cui Xi asked.

Xiao Yu sighed and then nodded.

“Then let’s go!”

Cui Xi interlaced her fingers and gave Xiao Yu a boost up into the saddle and then put her own foot into the stirrup, swinging her leg over and turning her horse at the same time with a slight pressure from the other knee. Now that there was no one to watch, she didn’t have to hide the fact that she could ride. With that, she didn’t hold back. 

“Tcha!” she cried, simultaneously digging her heels into the horse’s side and flicking the bridle.

Somewhere in a tree, a tongue clicked in irritation.