Chapter 2
Contents
“It’s so hot![edit]
...I’m dying of heat! Can’t we stop and take a swim, Toruna?”
Wing muttered, “If you’re so hot, why don’t you take off the powered armor? It must be like an oven in there.”
Yao Ye folded her arms across her chest and set her jaw. A second later, with a gesture of defiance, she slammed the visor down. Zhou Wing shook his head. On one point he could not argue. The heat had increased over the last week to an unbearable degree. They no longer rode in the hottest hours of the day for fear of exhausting the horses and themselves. They had left the grand highways of the Eye of Hiparkes, so they were forced to contend with the billowing clouds of dust kicked up by their horses. The faintest breeze did not disturb the endless hills of grain, and the team’s nerves were suffering as a result.
“The town should be just another mile or two ahead, according to the sign when we left the main road,” Selara said through clenched teeth. “We’ll all be happy to throw you in the nearest body of water as soon as we get there. Now please, give it a rest and maybe we won’t hold you under.”
Toruna pointed. “It’s over that hill.”
Yao Ye stood up in the cart. “Where?”
“Sit down!”
She sat down and ducked her head, reaching for her shock pike. “What’s the matter, are there bandits?”
Zhou Wing lifted his eyes to the hilltop. “No... or maybe... there are three fresh cairns... no... five on the top of the hill.”
Selara found herself reaching for her own armor. “But the stones are blackened... no one east of the mountains burns their dead...”
“...unless there is plague in the village.”
The four amalgams turned to Shu Zhuang, who had remained silent until then. “It’s true, usually a pile of stone half as high as a man is used this far east of the mountains, but they’ve always made exceptions for contagious diseases. It’s hard on the families, but the practice has been passed down since the great contagion.”
They continued to stare at him for a moment, then turned as one to the hill as the road bent around it. Toruna nodded. “Selara, you and Wing go ahead into the town in the gunzosha armor. Do not remove your helmets until you are certain that it is safe. Report back to us on the situation within the hour.”
Selara nodded her acquiescence and began donning her powered suit. Ye looked heartbroken. “He’s going to wear my armor?”
Wing glanced at her through veiled eyes. “Do you think I’m any happier about this, after you’ve been wearing that thing for almost a month straight?”
The sorceress did not brook dispute. She stepped off of the wagon and and began removing the bridles and harnesses from the horses. “Ye, do it. Now.”
The girl pulled off her magitech helmet and stared intently at the southerner, her lips pushed into an angry pout. When she realized that Toruna wasn’t even looking at her, continuing with her work without checking for compliance, Ye sighed and slid off the wagon. She began fumbling with the straps and catches that released the shell.
Wing picked up the helmet and sniffed it, then wrinkled his nose and frowned. He lifted it to his nose and sniffed again. Ye looked at him and spat out, “What?”
“It smells...” He took another deep breath. “It smell like... jasmine... and mint. Your sweat smells minty? Mine doesn’t smell like that!”
Yao Ye hopped on one foot and threw a boot at him. “We know all about how you smell! Stop embarrassing me, stinky Wing!”
The town was quiet...[edit]
...though larger than the first they had encountered, two weeks ago. Almost two dozen houses made of sod were organized in three circles along the hillside. There was a single well in the lowest circle, and a set of stables ranging nearby. By the stables there was even a low building with the look of a smithy. The grass was empty, and the horses whinnied from their pens.
Selara stepped into the first ring and turned around. “There were only five cairns... do you think the rest abandoned this town?”
“Not without their horses. But look here.” Zhou Wing indicated one of the nearby doorways. “They’ve tarred this door... there may be a few of the sick left here. Zhuang must have been right.”
Wing pushed open the door, but as he was unused to the armor’s assistance he nearly burst it off of its hinges. It slammed into the inside wall. For a moment he had to step back, as the stench from within was nearly overwhelming, even through the filtration unit. He coughed as tears came to his eyes.
The interior of the sod house was now lit by slanting rays of the afternoon sun, revealing whorls and drifts of dust in the air. A bare table say on the right side of the entry way, and to the left a pair of beds lined the wall. One of them seemed to be occupied. Wing rushed in as Selara shouted after him, “Wing, be careful! We should report back.”
Pulling back the blankets, he shuddered as he saw the form revealed beneath. The fever-wracked face of a woman, perhaps in her thirties, was faintly visible in the dim light. A black rash spread across the lower half of her face, almost masking it entirely. Wing turned the back of one poorly polished gauntlet to the woman’s face, silently cursing Ye for mistreating the equipment. A faint fog soon covered the surface.
“She is alive. Quickly, we need lots of hot water and my herbal pack. See if they have a wise man of their own. I’ll need help.” He turned to Selara, who still stood outside. “Go! This is why we are here. Go!”
She turned to leave, stumbling over her own feet, when she noticed that another door was now cracked open. A single eye peered out at her. Selara raised one hand and shouted, “You! Is there a healer in this village?”
A reedy voice responded, “Are you from Lookshy?”
“Damn it, we’re here under the authority of the Chosen of the Sun, bearers of the Mandate of Heaven. Now answer me quickly, before I tear down every building here with my amazing kung fu!”
The door opened a fraction more, and an old woman with gray, braided hair kowtowed once to her from within. “Don’t hurt us, mighty warriors! Can’t you see that the disease spirit has already done enough?”
Selara’s silver eye slitted, and her tongue involuntarily flicked against the inside of her visor. “Where is this spirit?”
“Did you remember to tell them that we are the Daybringers?”[edit]
“Shut up, Yao Ye, this is no time for playing!” Selara hissed. “They say that this disease spirit is thirty miles east of here in a shrine built into a hill. One of the men from the village accidentally disturbed it when riding past; a rock slide uncovered the entrance and released the foul thing. That was three days ago, and already six have died. Wing is still in the city, beginning his treatments. He asked for supplies and help.”
Toruna nodded and leaned against the side of the cart. She said, “We must all assist him in any way that we can. Let’s bring him what he needs and do anything he asks of us. Be careful, though... do not go inside any of the houses unless you are armored.”
Ye shook her head vigorously. “There’s better ways to help than waiting on stinky Wing. If we can find the disease spirit, we might be able to force it to help cure the plague.”
Toruna looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “All right then, you and Selara will go to the shrine and chasten the spirit. Selara, take the lead. Take two of the horses from the village.”
Selara spread her hands in surprise. “You’re listening to her? She just wants to pick a fight and get out of real work!”
Ye jabbed her chest with her thumb and spoke at the same time. “I’m the spirit censer. I should be in charge! Selara can’t fight an unmanifested spirit.”
Toruna’s eyes flashed. She loomed over the warrior, even in her gunzosha armor, and did not respond to Ye at all. “I will not negotiate on this issue. Yao Ye is our expert in the occult, and you are our expert in martial affairs. She will support you if the spirit should remain dematerialized.”
Selara nodded once, spun on her heel, and began walking toward the horse pens. Yao Ye grabbed her shock pike from the cart bed and synched her robe about herself, but turned at the last moment as she walked away. “Can’t I at least get my armor back?”
She did not wait for Toruna’s reply, covering her head with one hand and running after Selara.
Wing set to his work.[edit]
First he sent Zhuang and Toruna to every house in the village to make certain that there were no unreported cases, while he himself began preparing tea and incense that would relieve their symptoms. The village had not moved on, but no one would leave their homes for fear of foul vapors in the air. While treating one victim was child’s play for Wing, and treating a half dozen was possible, the final count (two dozen exhibiting symptoms) would strain his essence to the limit and keep him working night and day. The gunzosha gauntlets did not ease this task either.
Swiftly he moved from patient to patient, first assessing which were in the most desperate need of help. Then he began his work. There was hardly enough time to perform a complete treatment, especially for a plague case. He lacked the exotic remedies and potions that were necessary to provide effective mundane remedies as well, for though he asked in the village, the necessary herbs were exceedingly rare, and many did not grow anywhere within a hundred miles. Instead, drawing on his vast knowledge of all efficacious techniques medicinal, he used cupping and fumigation to provide treatment for two patients at once! While the pressure and fumes began their work on the first patient, the second would receive therapeutic massage and draught after draught of herbal purgatives and restoratives.
Toruna and Zhuang were also working to their utmost keeping up with the doctor’s many demands. The loremaster hastily constructed a fire and began brewing the remedies using every pot he could find in the village. Toruna herself shuttled bandages, compresses, cups, medicines, and all manner of esoteric items to the physician while he labored.
It was early in the morning of the next day that he had finished his preliminary treatment for the patients. It was nearly midnight when he returned to the most difficult case: a girl, perhaps only a few years younger than Yao Ye, if at all, that had been one of the first to feel the symptoms. Her situation was complicated by consumption. He could tell that she had been a pretty young girl before; she had a wide brow and delicate hands, though now her face was covered in the black rash that would certainly leave her scarred for life, even if she did survive.
Her father hovered over Wing while he worked, applying cool compresses to help alleviate her fever and restore the balance of her poisoned essence. “Don’t know what I’d do without her...” the older man muttered while he fumbled with his cap. “Her mother died five winters ago from a bad fall, and her little brother was the first to be taken away to the hill. She has an older brother, but he’s in God Crossing training in the militia.”
Wing did his best to ignore the man. “You really should stand back, sir. She’s contagious, and as you haven’t felt the symptoms yet, it would be best if you avoided contact as much as possible.”
“But she’s my daughter, captain. Besides, the sickness won’t let me die. The ghost wants to see me suffer.”
The physician turned to face the man from where he crouched beside the filthy bed. “So it was you who discovered the shrine. Tell me, did you see the plague spirit?”
The man turned away and shook a little. “Yes I did... a horrible thing it was. Huge claws and a fanged maw that could swallow a man whole. It was like the foulest devil in all of Malpheas had escaped to make sport of creation.”
Wing’s brow furrowed. “Ferocious though it was, you appear to have been a match for it.”
The man sniffed. “Even the yozis cannot outrun the horses of the Marukan. More’s the pity; it couldn’t catch me, so it laid this curse on me. I wish I had died then and there, and spared my Leaf this agony.”
“I don’t doubt there are a lot of people in this town thinking that right now.” He wrung out the cloth once more and dipped it in cool water. As he began folding it, his hands suddenly clenched. “Wait, sir...”
“Chow Bai.”
“Whatever... were you serious just now? Tell the truth! Is there really a monster like that in the shrine?”
“Why would I lie about such a terrible thing!” Chow Bai’s eyes were wide with genuine fear. Wing looked down at his gauntleted hands.
“That hothead Ye is in real danger! Without her armor, she’s just a horsegirl.” He stood, dropping the cloth, and backed away from the bed.
“Wait, what about my daughter?” The rider followed him to the door, sinking to his knees and grabbing his greaves with both hands. “Please, help her! Save her!”
Toruna, arriving behind him with clean linens, thundered, “Where are you going, Zhou Wing?”
“I have to warn...”
“You do not.”
“You don’t understand...” he tried to turn to speak to her, but Chow Bai wrapped his arms around his legs, hugging them to his chest.
“Selara and Yao Ye are tiger warriors. You are a doctor.” She pushed him with one hand back into the room. “We all have a place under heaven, and right now yours is by her side.” She pointed down at Willow Leaf’s sweating forehead. The girl was breathing in ragged rasps, coughing violently in shakes that wracked her entire body.
Wing looked at the dying girl, almost a woman, then looked down at his gauntlets. He could see the faint scratches from where Ye had fallen down the slope, and remembered feeling them slam into him on more than one occasion. He stepped up to the bed and knelt in a single motion, bowing his head and muttering, “Fine. Perhaps this will be a lesson to her.”
At about that time...[edit]
...Selara and Yao Ye had finally reached the shrine. Searching at night had been practically useless, but neither woman had been willing to give in to darkness. Chance at last revealed the entrance. Sure enough, there was sign of a recent rock fall at the end of a narrow gully. The two dismounted and approached the dark entrance carefully.
Selara leaned in close to a hole barely large enough for a grown man to wriggle through. “There’s light inside... it must still be here.”
Ye clenched her fist before her. “We’ve tracked it to its lair! Now we must slay it in battle glorious!”
“We didn’t track it, we stumbled around in the dark for hours until you accidentally fell in a ditch. And I thought you said we needed the spirit’s help?”
Yao Ye tossed her shockpike into the hole and dropped to her stomach. “You’re ruining my first kill! Hurry it up.”
“Wait, Ye, I’m in charge of this mission!” She dropped down and tried to snatch at the girl’s legs, but she was too quick. Selara dove down on her own stomach and tried to push through the rubble, but she couldn’t fit through the aperture in her gunzosha armor. Quickly she began throwing stones out of her path as quickly as she could.
Yao Ye found herself in hall dimly lit by a pale green light. She knelt and picked up her shock pike loosely in one hand. In a low crouch she crept down the passage, stepping gingerly over flagstones a yard across, deeply pitted by age. There was no ornamentation, no writing, no frieze or sign of habitation.
Ye whispered faintly, “Selara, I’m going to check ahead, just tell me if you want me to wait here.”
Stealthily she approached the end of the hallway, which seemed to lead out into a broader chamber. When she reached the end she found stairs leading down to a green pool, the source of the faint light. In the center of the pool was a dais with a long sarcophagus of green jade, covered loosely in green silk, disks of gold, and boxes of cedar, ebony, and jade. Ye stepped silently down the stairs to the walkway surrounding the pool, moving with catlike caution. She tiptoed past two great stone liondogs flanking the path, until she reached the waters.
“Hmm... it must be in that big box!” She tested the water with her pike for depth, then waded in. Standing in the water waist deep, with her pike over her head, she began to walk slowly out to the dais.
Just as she was scrambling up the damp stones, she heard the faintest sound of pebbles falling. She shouted, “Don’t worry Selara, I think...”
“More graverobbers!” A voice like thunder filled the room. Ye turned and raised her shockpike, warned by the call of essence in her blood, as a massive shadow fell over her.
Willow Leaf’s eyes fluttered open at last.[edit]
Zhou Wing was the only one still awake; Chow Bai had thrown himself in a corner, and even Toruna was sitting with her head in her arms on the door step.
“Who...” she whispered.
Zhou Wing raised a single finger. “Do not speak; you’re desperately dehydrated. Drink this.”
With one hand he gently helped her into a half upright position, and with the other he tipped a shallow bowl of tea to her lips. She grimaced with pain as the water touched her cracked lips, but she drank all of the medicine.
Wing refilled the bowl. “You’ve had a rough time. I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’ll last the night. I’ve done all I could, but your body is simply too worn out.”
She drank again, swallowing feebly. One hand stretched out from under the blankets. Wing watched with some fear as it moved toward him.
“I did all I could, really...”
Her hand touched his own. It was light, hardly any weight at all. Her lips parted, and she rasped out, “Thank you.”
Wing turned his head to one side in shame. “You should rest. Sleep will make this easier for... you.”
She settled back into her bed, but her eyes remained fixed on him. “If I am going... to... die tonight... can’t I at... least... be awake for... it?”
The physician covered her feverish hand with his own great gauntlet and nodded his head.
Selara had barely made it through the rubble...[edit]
...and adopted the snake form when she heard shouting coming down the hallway of the strange shrine. With the swift and sweeping footwork of her style she came to the glowing room, just in time to see Yao Ye strike a glancing glow to the jade hide of an immense stone beast. As tall as Toruna at the shoulder, it was a great liondog, a guardian spirit of tombs, manses, and treasure troves. Ye was shouting, “We are the Daybringers, and we’re here to Do Good, Be Awesome, and Annihilate...”
Before Selara could blink, the beast swatted Ye with one great paw. She sailed across the full width of the room, bounced off the stone wall and landed in sprawled across the floor, her legs dangling in the pool.
Selara drew her seven section staff and lashed it to the stones before her, shattering a paver with the force of her blow. “Foul spirit of contagion, if you seek blood then come and taste your own!”
The thing turned to face her with great, baleful eyes that seemed half crazed. “How dare you! Thieves in this holy place call me a spirit of contagion? I’ll swallow you whole!”
“We don’t want your ill gotten gain...” With that, she leaped bodily across the pool, hurling her staff before her. The liondog caught it in its powerful jaws, but in that instant she was upon its back with both arms clamped around its throat.
Selara shouted, “Submit! Release the plague from the city or I swear I’ll tear your head off and sell your body for boys and sake.”
The liondog rolled. As the wind was knocked from the warrior’s lungs by several tons of stone, it roared, “You fools have brought the plague upon yourselves. The grave treasure of Xie Tyen is cursed!”
Selara released her hold, stunned, and leaped away from the spirit. “By the sun... do you swear that you speak the truth? You’re not a plague spirit?”
The liondog watched her warily, then bowed low. “I see that you have been deceived. I swear that I have not betrayed my duty, though I am ashamed to admit that a thief did evade my guard three nights past. I had become sleepy; the centuries do weigh heavily on me now, and I had thought the entrance must be sealed forever. Forgive me, amalgam of the sun’s beloved.”
Selara bowed as well. “We should not have been so rash... I apologize on behalf of my companion as well.”
“Hmm... I hope I didn’t kill her.” The great liondog waded across the pond to where Yao Ye lay unconscious on the stone, her spear some three paces from her hand. It leaned its massive head over her and breathed deeply. Its gravelly voice murmured, “Hmm... strange...”
Selara picked up her staff and followed him through the water. “Is she hurt badly?”
“She smells... like cinnamon.” The liondog’s tongue flicked out of its mouth to lap wetly at her cheek. “Maybe nutmeg...”
“Oh... bleh.” Yao Ye rolled onto her side, her eyes still clenched shut. “If you’re going to eat me, get it over with. Your voice is making my head pound even worse...”
The silver-eyed warrior knelt beside the girl, “Ye, I’m sorry, but we have to ride. We need to tell the village about the real cause of the plague, and quickly. Can you move?”
One blue eye opened in response. “Real... what?”
As dawn approached...[edit]
...Willow Leaf was rapidly fading. Her breath became more shallow and irregular, rattling in her chest, and her skin began to take on a gray pallor, even where the black pustules had not yet spread. Wing worked tirelessly to make her comfortable, aided by the handful of charms that were inscribed in his heart in burning runes of essence.
An hour before sunrise, she began respiring more rapidly, in forceful, labored breaths. She asked, between gulps of air, “Who are you? Are you... Lookshy?”
Wing shook his head. “Marukan, like you.”
A faint smile twitched the corners of her dry lips. “Not like me... please...” She opened her eyes for a moment. “Let me see you, just once.”
He looked around himself, to see if anyone else had heard her. He knew it was foolish, ridiculous even, to humor such a dangerous request. If he were to fall to the plague, who would treat the rest of the village? Even so, Toruna was not in sight, and it was perhaps the last thing he could give her.
He reached up and released the catches at the neck, wincing as he heard the release of air next to his skin. He lifted off the helm and set it on the floor beside himself. His gray hair, normally as light and free as racing cirrus clouds, was damp and pressed against his forehead; his pale skin stretched tight over fine features, a narrow nose and lips. Dark gray pinwheel irises were set like gemstones in his almond shaped eyes beneath arching eyebrows.
Willow Leaf looked at him for a moment, and suddenly her eyes widened. She gasped, “Luna! You’ve come to help us!”
“Wait, I’m...”
“I won’t tell anyone. Don’t worry.” She closed her eyes, and for a moment Wing had a vision of her beauty returning, before disease had rent her body. He saw the blood return to her cheeks and her breath quicken. “If you want, Lord, I’ll keep trying. I think I can sleep now.”
Zhou Wing opened his mouth, then closed it. He picked up his helmet from the floor and held it over his head for an instant. “You do that.”
He replaced the helmet on his head, and held her hand until she nodded off. Soon her breath became regular, and as the first rays of dawn crept into the room, he was certain that she would recover.
It was at that time that he heard shouting outside. He gently placed her hand on her chest and straightened her linens, then stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“There’s his house!” The shout came from a tangled mob of villagers striding up the hill to the upper ring. Toruna shook herself awake and stood beside him, while Zhuang still slept by the dying fire. The mob was carrying pitchforks and torches, and as it approached he could see that Selara and Yao Ye were leading it. Ye did not look well; she leaned on her shockpike as she walked, and thick red blood had dripped through her hair down one side of her neck.
Zhou Wing opened his mouth, but Toruna spoke first. “What is the meaning of this? Go back to your houses, if you value your health. Now!”
The villagers stopped as one, looking to their amalgamated leaders. Selara took another step forward, now just five paces from the house. “Here is the source of the plague,” she snarled. “In there lies the man that brought this down on us! It was no malicious spirit of disease. Chow Bai was a tomb robber, and he brought cursed gold into this village! Bring him out to face his justice!”
Toruna turned to Zhou Wing. “Go and find if this is true. Be quick.”
He stumbled back into the house, while the crowd resumed their cries of vengeance. Chow Bai still slept in the corner, and to Wing his face seemed fat with blissful contentment. He stood over him, black rage boiling through his veins. He removed his helmet and tossed it to the floor.
“Get up, Bai.”
The man didn’t stir; his cap was still crushed together in his folded hands. Wing couldn’t stand to see him so peaceful while his daughter suffered a few paces away. He pulled back his leg and kicked the rider in the gut, hard, and felt the satisfying lift as the man bounced up against the wall he had been sleeping against. His eyes flew open and he squealed in pain.
“What... hey... no!”
Wing slowly pulled his leg back again; the shouting outside was growing to a fever pitch and he could barely hear Toruna’s calls for order anymore. “How could you watch your boy die, watch them all die...”
“I’m sorry!” He covered his head with both arms and rolled into a ball on the floor, terrified by the white apparition armor clad before him. The gray wheels in Wing’s eyes spun madly, but he lowered his boot to the floor. “I’m so sorry. I’m a weak man! Everyone knows it. I lost my spine the night her mother died, but I’m still alive.”
“Where is it?” His voice was terrible, steady and calm, but as rigid and sharp as a scalpel.
Bai crawled across the floor with surprising speed. In a moment he had pulled a bundle of rags out from under Willow Leaf’s bed. He threw it with both hands at Wing, who let it bounce off his chest to the floor. A gold disk the size of child’s fist fell out of the rags, clanking dully on the earth floor.
“I didn’t know! I did it for her! When I found the shrine, I saw the gold and thought it would take her away from this. She’s had to work so hard taking care of us since her mother died, and she was sick all the time. I didn’t know!”
“Why didn’t you say anything when they got sick? Why?” He stepped toward Bai slowly, backing him against the bed.
“I didn’t think it was my fault... well... later I did, but then it was too late!”
Wing felt his fists clenching, felt the power of the exoskeleton responding to his increased pulse rate and the targeting system humming into action. At the same time he saw the figure on the bed stir. Leaf turned to face the two, blinking blearily. “Father?”
Zhou Wing froze where he was. He picked up the coin from the floor and walked back out the door.
The crowd was nearly at the doorstep; Toruna was facing down Selara and Yao Ye with a cold stare, but the three dozen villagers behind them continued to push forward. He said nothing. Silently he lifted the gold coin up into the dawn’s chill light.
Yao Ye shouted in a hoarse voice, “It was him! Burn down the house!”
With the coin still held above him, Wing spread his other hand before him. “There is a girl inside, his daughter. Think of what you are doing!”
“Then bring him out and let him face the brothers and sisters of those he’s killed, or be prepared to face the same fate.” The enraged and injured girl lowered her shockpike until it touched his breastplate. Sparks and ghostly traces of essence writhed up and down the ironwood shaft.
Wing reached over with one hand and grasped the head of the pike and brought it up to his throat. “Don’t do this. Wait for the circuit rider. Bai is the girl’s father. Would you leave her an orphan?”
Yao Ye’s face contorted, her cheeks puffed out and her eyes bulged for a moment. Wing leaned back slightly from the tip of the pike. Suddenly she doubled over, dropping the pike as she put both of her hands on her knees. He leaned over to try and help her up, but then she vomited.
Selara looked down at her, then looked back at the crowd. Those closest to Ye stepped back as she continued retching. Taking advantage of the pause, Toruna stepped forward. She picked up Ye’s fallen shockpike and swept it in a broad arc at the crowd. Everywhere it pointed, the people scrambled backward.
“Go to your homes. There are enough bodies on the hill already.”
Seven days later...[edit]
...the five amalgams stood in the shrine of Xie Tyen. In the pale green light, the liondog stood over the great sarcophagus draped in green silk. The team stood in a line, with their hands folded before them in their brown robes of office. All were weary, especially Zhou Wing; though returning the gold to the tomb had stopped the spread of the plague, it still took work to tend those already sick and nurse them through. Now they were on their way to the next town, and had stopped to pay their respects at the hallowed grave.
When they left, Willow Leaf had felt well enough to walk as far as the village edge with the help of a staff. She told Wing, “Please send my father’s apologies. He really didn’t mean harm. He wanted to give you this, before you left.”
She held out to him a leather belt with a silver buckle. Wing turned it over in his hands and saw that it was covered in crescent moons stamped into the leather on all sides.
“I helped him make it... a little.”
Wing stooped in a low bow to her. “Make sure you keep resting for the next month. No chores! That’s what got you into this. Tell your father to be honest with the circuit rider, and he may live.”
Little Leaf nodded her head solemnly. As they rode away on their cart, Selara said to him, “Well, you are quite the sentimentalist.”
Zhou Wing still fingered the belt as he stood before the liondog. It bowed its head low before them and spoke with a deep and rumbling voice in cultured Riverspeak.
“Long ago in the time of the great contagion, there was an immaculate monk that went from city to city caring for those that had fallen to the plague. Though no one could stop its ravages, Xie Tyen did much to ease the suffering of the people of this land. In the end, she too died of the disease, and the people who loved her built this tomb in her honor and filled it with grave goods to honor her. The land still remembers her, and punishes those who would defile her memory.”
The spirit bowed its head to the floor. “It was my duty to guard this place, and because I failed in my duty, many have suffered. Children of the Solar Exalted, I submit myself to your judgment for failing in my task and for mistaking you for thieves.”
Toruna raised her arms, gesturing for the guardian to rise. “Many have wandered from the paths of righteousness, but the time has come to set things right. Do your duty faithfully; your moment of weakness is forgotten. Please forgive us...” and at this her eyes darted toward Yao Ye for a moment, “...for trespassing so injudiciously in this sacred place.”
“The authority is yours; no trespass was committed.” The liondog bowed its head and picked up one of the jade boxes from the grave goods and tossed it through the air to Wing. He caught it clumsily in both hands. It spoke once more.
“I have heard of your work in the village; the very wind sings your praises. You are truly a scion of Xie Tyen. Take this to help you in your work. I think that she would prefer that her tools be used once more for good.”
Wing opened the flat green jade box and found inside eight curious acupuncture needles, two of jade, two of orichalc’, two of starmetal, and two of moonsilver. He bowed deeply to the liondog, speechless at the gift.
Farewells were spoken, and the team left the shrine, carefully sealing it once more with stone. As they looked over their work, Yao Ye approached Wing with her hands behind her back and her face down. She had healed from the severe bashing she had taken, but there was still a lump on the side of her head and a slight catch in her walk.
“Wing, I realize that I said some things about you that weren’t very nice, and I may have threatened to kill you a little. So I made this for you. I really, really hope you like it.”
She handed him a small package the size of her fist, wrapped in green paper and tied with twine. As soon as he took it, she skipped away to the cart. “Thank you?” He called after her.
He untied the twine and unwrapped the paper, and found inside a fresh bar of faintly scented soap.
