Jin was waiting, and from his expression, it was clear he was on the verge of exploding.
Wuyi entered his 'room' and sat at the low table on a cushion. Jin beckoned to the other two beastmasters he was training, and both approached.
Yun Ming also arrived; he paused in the doorway and spoke to soone just outside. "Clear this area," he commanded.
They heard n grumbling, and then Xingjian, Yun Ming's attendant, announced in his accent, "All clear, my lords."
Jin looked around. "Not sure where to start."
"How about from the beginning? And perhaps with a cup of wine?" Wuyi suggested, trying to lighten the mood, though the others looked too serious.
"The rchants arrived—two of them had animals." Jin shrugged. "I'm not telling this well. Two of them had a dozen fine falcons and so hounds. I took the liberty of securing them, okay?"
A dozen fine falcons and so hunting hounds would indeed be worth a fortune.
No wonder the rchants were so incensed. "Go on," Wuyi encouraged.
"Today is the first morning I've been here," Jin cleared his throat. "I've been in the woods."
"You did a beautiful job—dangerous but beautiful," Wuyi complinted. "Biajian and Yun Ming struck their group just right—didn't even see a guard."
Jin smiled at the praise. "Thanks. Anyway, starting this morning," he glanced at Shen, "I began flying the falcons against the birds—those that watch the castle." He shrugged. "I know this sounds la—"
"Not at all," Wuyi interjected.
Jin breathed a sigh of relief. "I was afraid you'd think mad. Will you trust that I can see—I can see—that so of the animals are servants of the Enemy?" He whispered the last part.
Wuyi nodded. "Yes, I believe you. Continue."
Yun Ming shook his head. "It sounds like a job for a very high beastmaster, one that should not be possible; taming beasts is different from looking through their eyes, which is against heaven," he objected.
Jin clasped his hands on his head in exasperation. "The young master gave a manual, but I didn't study it, considering it demonic. Now, I feel that was a mistake," he admitted.
Wuyi shrugged. "Get on with it, Jin."
Jin brought out a hunting bag. It was stiff with blood, but then, hunting bags generally were.
He extracted a bird—a very large specin indeed—laid it on the table, and stretched out its wings.
"The rygfalcon took it down about two hours ago," he explained. "No other bird we have is big enough."
Wuyi stared at the ssage tube on the bird's leg.
Jin nodded. "It ca from the fort, Young Master," he confird.
Shen handed him a tiny scroll no larger than his smallest finger. "Low Zenith script," he disclosed. "This limits the suspects."
Wuyi scanned the writing. Neat, precise, and utterly damning—a list of warriors, Qi adepts, and archers; numbers, stores, and defenses. Yet, no description. Nothing to catch a spy. It was not as though he did not know, but now was not the ti to reveal that the spy was among them—what reason could he give for believing the person was spy.. he couldn't say that he had read the mind of the person?
"Limit the suspects in pavilion?" Wuyi pondered. "A hundred won, every one of whom can read and write in Low Zenith. And use Qi."
One of whom, he suspected, possessed a unique bloodline power that few knew about.
Jin nodded. "We have a traitor," he declared.
Wuyi leaned his head on his hand. "This is why you needed to et here," he asked.
Jin affird, "The traitor isn't here. The traitor is in the fortress."
Wuyi nodded slowly, acting as if he was absorbing bad news for the first ti. "Soone killed the Talon archer in the woods," he revealed, his eyes eting Jin's. "Soone stabbed Elder Xingchen in the back."
Jind nodded. "Yes, my lord. Those are my thoughts as well. Soone collaborated with demonics to murder a pavilion elder."
Wuyi scratched his chin. "Even by my standards, that's quite bad." No one smiled.
Wuyi got to his feet. "I'd like to have you hunt our traitor down, but I need you out in the woods," he said. "And it is going to get worse out there."
Jin smiled. "I like it. Better than being in here, anyway."
Wuyi returned to the main fort. He leaned on the wall, the wall that shielded the outer gate. He had co here almost subconsciously,, the confines of his accommodation suddenly too claustrophobic and stifling.
Initially, he was not worried about the traitor, but hearing about a being that could summon teors was certainly out of his league, no matter if he summoned both his statues; how were they supposed to fight against damn teors? And if that being already knew everything about the fort he would be taking them out soon.
His only consolation was he could just run away. For so reason, he felt the urge to see that pure apprentice, his first kiss in this world, but then he dismissed the idea and walked to the wall for so air.
The stars burned in the distant heavens, and fires illuminated the Bridge fort courtyard below. The Lower Town at the foot of the summit was deserted, held by only a skeleton guard. Darkness enveloped the area—the Wild was as dark as the sea.
He felt sothing searching for him. Initially, it was a prickle in his hair, then a foreboding of doom, and suddenly, he had never felt so vulnerable in his life. He crouched where he was standing.
When the sensation didn't relent, he took a deep breath and forced himself to his feet. He made himself walk, despite the overwhelming fear, up the steps set into the wall to the first tower. The ascent was so difficult he used his hands by the fourth and fifth steps—by the eighth, he was crawling. He spoke to the Statue of Harmony, "Auxilium."
He realized the statue was facing this challenge too; all his statues were combining forces to resist whatever was trying to breakthrough. With his will and Qi combined with the statues, he ford a sword and attacked the encroaching energy. The energy dissipated. He felt a bit relieved but was pale from the exertion. What was that about?
Thinking about what just happened, he slowly walked toward the guarding area. One of the nearby warriors on duty, Wanxie, noticed Wuyi and leaped to his feet with a painted mahpai tile used by warriors for gambling in his hand.
"Young Master!" he shouted, and a dozen archers around him leaped to their feet and bowed.
Wuyi glanced around. "Be at ease," he said. "Who's on the walls?"
"Li," Wanxie answered. "Zhao in the main area, Ma and Xiao commanding the towers with ballista arrows. Watch changes frequently."
"Double up," Wuyi ordered. He wanted to apologize to them but had a creeping feeling, so he was going to cost them a night of sleep. But he'd learned not to apologize when giving an unpopular order, much less over-explain it, especially when the leader was as young as he was. No matter how loyal they were, he followed the rules of leadership.
A successful raid had credited him in the hard currency of leadership—no leader is ever much better than his last performance.
Wanxie frowned, yet he began fastening his Qi armour cloak. Like many other veteran Qi warriors, Wanxie wore his fortune on his body—a subtle brag, a statent of his worth, a willingness to risk that fortune against any assailant. The The dark-complexioned old warrior looked around, and, like true warriors, his fellow gamblers avoided his eye.
"ng, Fan, Zhai, co with . ng, if you don't want the duty, don't make it so obvious that you're sneaking off to the Shi's." Wanxie glared at the youngest man in the room, then turned back to Wuyi. "Is that sufficient, Young Master?"
Wuyi didn't know Wanxie very well—he was Yun Ming's man—but he was impressed that this senior archer would take the initiative himself on the wall.
"Carry on," he said coldly, and walked across the room, surveying the piles of coins on the tables, along with the dice and mahpai tiles. He noted there were about four dragon coins worth a hundred gold liang on the table and a few low-grade spirit stones. Wuyi was pretty certain a righteous noble leader would never have allowed such blatant gambling. Thus, he stroked his chin and beckoned to Wanxie.
The archer approached timidly like a scolded pup expecting a kick.
Wuyi pointed at the coins on the main table but didn't say anything.
Wanxie raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth.
"Save it," Wuyi said. "Remind of the warrior's rule on gambling."
Wanxie made a face. "The total value of the ga must not exceed a day's pay for the lowest-paid man," he recited.
The dragon coins, lower-grade spirit stones, and gold liangs glead up at Wuyi, accompanied by more than a dozen silver liangs and a few copper coins. Wuyi placed his hand over the pile. "Must be mine then," he said, "I'm the only person in the group who earns this kind of money every day."
Wanxie swallowed, but his eyes narrowed in anger.
Wuyi raised his hand, not disturbing the pile.. He locked eyes with the archer and smiled. "You get , Wanxie?"
The archer almost sighed with relief. "Yes, Young Master."
Wuyi nodded. "Good night, Wanxie," he said, and acknowledged the man. Handling subordinates was sothing he had learned from expert books, and he wanted to believe he was doing the Young Master thing well.They understood each other he will overlook certain things and they will do so difficult duties.
He walked out onto the wall, and there it was again—not the fear, but the feeling that soone was trying to find him. It was not divination but sothing else, sothing malicious perhaps.
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