Chapter 168: The Figure at the Far End of the Stone Plaza

On the morning of the 25th, as daylight came up, Cheng Banshan lifted the hem of Jiang Wan's robe to just above her right ribs and pressed down with three fingers. He stopped at the second spot.

"It's dispersed." He moved half an inch to the side. "The blue-black has faded to yellow. The outermost ring has spread out."

"The inside," Jiang Wan said.

"The inside is still there." Cheng Banshan laid the robe back down, snapped the medicine box shut against his knee, tucked it into the medicine pouch at his waist, and bit the cord end between his teeth to tie it. "Blue-black means tendon and blood squeezed together. Spreading out means the path has opened, and only when the path is open can the medicine get in. Don't take it for healed."

Jiang Wan smoothed her clothes herself and pressed once on the outside of her right ribs with her right hand. The press was quick, as if she only wanted to check whether that place still recognized her. Then she let her hand drop and turned her face toward the stone ground outside the stone chamber's door.

"Medicine stays the same," Cheng Banshan said. "Once a day. Before this month is out, no forcing it."

"The first."

Cheng Banshan looked up. "I said the first. If you heard the third, you're just stealing two days for yourself."

"I didn't say the third."

"It's written on your face." He braced one hand on his knee and stood, pressing the knot at his waist. "There are six pills left. Take them to month's end, and after that I'll compound from the two things in my pouch. Not as strong as this, but it'll hold."

"It'll hold?"

"It'll hold. Just slower." Cheng Banshan walked toward the door. "Walk more over the 26th and 27th. Walk while you can, until the heat rises in your legs."

"Walk to where?"

"Walk until your legs don't want to walk." He turned back at the door. "That's Medicine Hall's orders. No need to write it in your ledger."

Jiang Wan lifted the water flask by the stone wall and took a drink. She drank slowly.

At the other end of the stone chamber, Qian Duoduo was crouched, his bundle half untied, laying coarse grain flatbreads out one by one on a flat stone. When he finished, he counted with one finger, then looked up at the last one.

"Twenty-three."

"Count again," Shi Po said.

"Twenty-four." Qian Duoduo counted again and pointed at the smallest one at the edge. "This one I broke off earlier and soaked for Senior Sister. The broken half is in the bowl." He jutted his chin toward the chipped stone bowl at the base of the wall, where a piece the size of a fingernail was soaking.

"Is it enough?" Jiang Wan asked.

"Enough to get us out the door," Qian Duoduo said.

"Enough to what day?" Xu Yan asked.

"Enough to cover the days around when we leave." Qian Duoduo put the flatbreads back one by one, squeezing each to check its hardness. "The hard ones are all here. Soak them and they'll still soften enough to bite. The soft ones I've separated out and put on top for Senior Sister. If it really isn't enough, I'll eat a half-piece less. My saved half-piece is enough to feed Bai Xiaoman for a day."

Bai Xiaoman came in from the doorway. "I don't need saving."

"Talk less. Save your breath."

Shi Po picked the hardest piece from the ones spread out, put it in his mouth, and chewed for a long time before swallowing.

Jiang Wan lowered her hand from her right ribs and asked Qian Duoduo, "Once we're out, what's the first batch?"

Qian Duoduo tied the bundle cord into a knot and sat down on the flat stone. "Two batches of spirit meals, ten bottles of Qi-Gathering Powder. Same as before. The first batch I'll set aside for the three up on the mountain." He counted on his fingers. "In the first batch of spirit meals, I'm setting aside one bowl of soft for you, Senior Sister. More rice, more water, simmered longer."

"I don't want anything set aside."

"Doesn't matter. I'm setting it aside." Qian Duoduo said. "Your bowl goes on top. No one's touching it."

That day, two groups of Wanshou Mountain people crossed the stone plaza. One group carried water flasks toward the pool, slowing as they passed the doorway, and one of them lifted his chin and looked in. Another group stopped in the middle of the plaza to talk for a while before going around. The wooden carrying pole knocked against a stone with a single clack.

Jiang Wan sat there, both legs hanging down. She didn't move.

On the 26th, during the Snake hour, daylight fell from above onto the stone plaza, turning the stone ground blinding white.

Jiang Wan came out of the stone chamber and stood at the doorway for a while. Bai Xiaoman reached out to support her, but she waved her hand. "No need."

She stepped down from the stone steps. The flat stone slab Shi Po had placed two steps from the door on the 21st was still there. She stepped over it without pausing.

Step by step, she walked toward the stone plaza. Halfway there, at the far end of the plaza, several Wanshou Mountain people were sitting at the doors of the stone chambers that hugged the rock face. Four or five of them. One was holding a piece of cloth. He looked up and saw her, said something to the person beside him, and they all turned to look this way.

Not one of them stood. Not one of them spoke.

Jiang Wan walked to the edge of the stone plaza and stopped. She turned to look back at the stretch she'd just crossed, then turned forward again. She raised her right hand to shoulder height and held it there, then tried to raise it higher. It wouldn't go. She lowered it and raised it again, this time stopping right at the shoulder.

Shi Po watched from the doorway of the stone chamber, both hands clenched in front of him.

Jiang Wan lowered her right hand, turned, and walked back. She didn't speak until she reached the bottom of the stone steps. "The stones."

Bai Xiaoman started. "What?"

"Your stones." Jiang Wan pointed at the open space in the middle of the stone plaza. "Drop them here. I'll watch."

Bai Xiaoman pulled five pebbles from her front placket and held them in her palm, then walked to the open space and crouched. One pressed into the earth to the east, one south, one west, one north. With all four set, she stood, holding the fifth.

"The center one. Throw it," Jiang Wan said.

Bai Xiaoman tossed the fifth into the middle.

"The first four were faster than on the 20th," Jiang Wan said. "The fifth is still slow. Half a breath slow. That half breath is the difference."

"How do I make up that half breath?"

"When you drop the fifth, your hand has to think about it landing, not about it going crooked," Jiang Wan said. "If it goes crooked, drop it again."

Bai Xiaoman pulled the five stones up one by one and dropped them again. After the second round, she turned her head.

"Don't look at my face," Jiang Wan said. "Look at the stones."

The third round she set them down clean, standing outside the circle with both hands hanging at her sides. Jiang Wan watched for a while. "That one. Again like that. That's enough for today. More practice and your hand will start to drift."

"I can do two more rounds," Bai Xiaoman said.

"Save them for tomorrow." Jiang Wan said. "You're learning to drop all five as one. What matters is that they land, not that they land pretty."

"When will I be able to drop them as one?"

"When you drop them and your mind isn't thinking about whether they'll go crooked." Jiang Wan tapped once on her own knee. "That's how it was when I trained the sword. The day your hand moves faster than your head—that's when it's done."

Bai Xiaoman tucked the pebbles back into her placket and nodded seriously, then asked, "Senior Sister, that sword strike of yours—the one where your hand moved faster than your head—how many years did it take?"

Jiang Wan thought for a while. "In the fourth year, there was a day it was raining. I chopped a piece of firewood, and only after I'd chopped it did I remember I was chopping firewood."

"Chopping firewood?"

"Chopping firewood." Jiang Wan said. "Back then I chopped two loads a day."

Jiang Wan didn't need help coming back this time either. When she reached the door, Xu Yan was standing there. She said, "Tomorrow I'll walk to the middle of the stone plaza."

Xu Yan answered, "Good."

"You come too?"

"I'll come." Xu Yan said. "Tomorrow I'll walk behind you."

"No helping."

"No helping." He said. "I'll be two steps behind you, watching your legs."

Jiang Wan didn't answer that. She sat back down on the flat stone slab. Only then did Bai Xiaoman go over and smooth the hem that had bunched up at her lower back.

Xu Yan stood at the door and went over the past few days in his mind: on the 21st, five steps out and back; on the 22nd, all the way to the pool; on the 24th, sitting at the door, pulling half a sword free before sliding it back; today, to the edge of the stone plaza. A little farther every day. The medicine—Cheng Banshan had it handled. The legs—she'd said it herself. All that remained was the hand that hadn't come back yet.

On the 27th, during the Dragon hour, Xu Yan called Qi Qi to the stone chamber's door.

"Sit at the edge of the stone plaza," he said. "Watch the far end. If you see something, come back and report. Don't go over."

"What about when I'm not on gate duty—should I still go?"

"Especially when you're on gate duty." Xu Yan said. "There are ten of us at this end. Who's at the far end of the plaza, which stone chambers they're resting in, whether they come out at night—I need to know."

Qi Qi acknowledged and went.

During the Snake hour, he came back and crouched at the door. "Those chambers stayed dark all last night. This morning there was noise inside. I went around behind the half-collapsed one and listened at the air gap. Someone was putting things down inside—iron clanking against stone. Twice."

"Wanshou Mountain?"

"The Wanshou Mountain people were all sitting on the plaza, watching their own water flask. The people in those chambers never came out."

"Came down from above," Xu Yan said.

"There are footsteps on the stone steps," Qi Qi said. "In bursts. More than one or two."

Xu Yan sent him back. During the Monkey hour, Qi Qi returned, running hard this time. He drank water before speaking. "They've come down. Ten of them."

Everyone in the stone chamber stopped what they were doing.

"Swords on their backs," Qi Qi said. "One of them has his sword wrapped in cloth, tied with two knots. They came down from the path above and rested at the far end of the plaza. Someone took a water flask to the pool to fill it. On the way back, he glanced this way but didn't come over."

"You didn't meet them face to face?"

"I was crouched behind the collapsed stone chamber. They passed along the edge of the plaza. They couldn't see me."

Xu Yan nodded and told him to move Qian Duoduo's bundle to the base of the stone wall, saying that end was damp. Qi Qi acknowledged and went out.

Xu Yan stood at the door and laid out this level's paths in his mind: the stone chamber by the pool belonged to Qingya. Past the plaza were the chambers where Wanshou Mountain rested. Beyond that, hugging the rock face, were the ten who'd just come down. Behind those chambers was the cliff face itself. No other path. People coming down from above could only take that one stone stairway.

Shi Po crouched by the door and asked, "What if they come over?"

"If they come, they come." Xu Yan said. "Rule Four says: no taking lives, no seizing what's in another's hands. Anything beyond that—we'll deal with it when they're in front of us."

Shi Po nodded and crouched back down.

Around lamplighting time, two figures at the far end of the plaza walked to the middle, stood a while, then retreated.

Qi Qi came back from the edge of the plaza and said the moment he was through the door, "The one leading them is Wei Changge."

The stone chamber went quiet.

Huo Qing sat at the stone chamber's door, sword across his knees, a cloth running up and down the sheath. At the name, his hand stopped. The cloth rested on the ring at the sheath's mouth, the spot worn pale from polishing.

Then he started polishing again.

Not a word.

Xu Yan glanced at him and said nothing either.

Jiang Wan sat with her back against the stone wall. The sword by her hand stayed where it was. "How far is that end from here?"

"Forty-some paces," Shi Po said.

"Forty-some paces." Jiang Wan repeated it, and said nothing more.

Cheng Banshan, inside the chamber, untied the cord of his medicine pouch and tied it again, looking at no one.

Xu Yan didn't turn in right away. He went over the night watch again: Du Xiaochuan on the You-Xu shift, Shi Po on Hai-Zi, himself on Chou-Yin. If anyone heard noise from the plaza side, they were not to go out—they were to call him. Du Xiaochuan asked, "What if they sneak over here?" Xu Yan said, "Even if they sneak over, someone calls me first. No one charges out alone." Du Xiaochuan acknowledged and stuffed the fire starter tighter against his chest.

After that, he walked to the door and looked out. The far end of the stone plaza was dark. Only at one chamber's doorway was there a sliver of shadow moving—one movement, then gone.

He didn't keep calculating. He turned and looked at the people sitting in the stone chamber.

Huo Qing was still polishing his sword. The pale ring at the sheath's mouth gleamed a little brighter now.