Leaving the campsite, Jang Geon and Ju Yeorang pushed on along the dark mountain path by the light of a single torch.
For ordinary townsfolk it would’ve been a sprained ankle waiting to happen, but the two of them were trained; they moved without much trouble until sunrise and found a small village.
“Good. There.”
“Do we have to pass through that village? You said the branch chief could grab us.”
Ju Yeorang brushed her hair back. “We still have to go. We have to send a courier bird.”
“To who?”
“Who do you think? The people who’ll help us. If we’re about to cross a blade with an ancient house, they’ll need time to get ready.”
Jang Geon glanced at the village’s size. “Small place. Not sure the post will have birds.”
“They do. Always ready.”
She answered his mutter with one of her own and strode for the village. Jang Geon watched her with steady eyes, then took Jojo’s reins and followed.
“Be careful in there. I said they might have bribed the Martial Alliance branch chief, but after last night they may just send killers. You know what I mean?”
She spoke without looking back. Jang Geon only nodded.
Clear, cool air slid down off the ridge and settled over the little village. The morning sun was already throwing hard light, and the people, squinting into it, moved about their business.
Children had been running in a pack since dawn. They froze when they saw Jang Geon and Ju Yeorang. Ju Yeorang walked up with a bright smile.
“Hi. Can I ask you something?”
Faces mixed curiosity with a little wariness. She went down on one knee so they were eye to eye.
“Do you know where the post is?”
A simple question got a simple answer: all fingers pointed the same way. The one who seemed oldest said, “Old man Chu runs the clinic and the post together. Look for the clinic sign.”
Ju Yeorang smiled, ruffled his hair, and drew a few coins from her bosom to press into his hand. “Thanks. Get something good and share.”
They took the coins with a whoop and scattered. Ju Yeorang watched them go, unable to look away, and rose slowly. Jang Geon also watched their backs.
“You like kids.”
“I had younger siblings. Quite a gap. Two boys, two girls. All four were bright and sweet… If they’d grown up, they would’ve become good people.”
Her eyes had gone vague, fixed on the receding children. She didn’t seem to feel Jang Geon looking. He let the quiet sadness and longing in her face sit, then asked, “First time in this village?”
“Yes, first—”
She stopped mid-automatic answer and met his gaze. His eyes were calm without a tremor. Not the chill of iron or stone—more like a still lake that might offer only the smallest ripple even if you threw a rock with all your strength.
“…Let’s go. If we send the birds and move now, help will meet us by morning.”
After a moment lost in those eyes, she looked away and said it. They went in together, trading the village’s wary looks with their own careful alert, and entered the shop with a clinic sign.
“Come in. Outsiders this early, eh? What can I do for you?”
The elderly man was sucking leaf tobacco from a short pipe, scratching his head. He looked like company was a chore.
Ju Yeorang stepped up. “We’d like to use the courier birds.”
“…Courier birds?”
“Yes. Courier birds.”
“Well this is the post, but… birds?”
He stared at her as if she were absurd, then asked, half testing her, “Where to?”
“Akga Mountain Lodge.”
“Ah.” He nodded, got it then, and shuffled to the back. He returned with a big cage—three birds inside.
“What do you want to send?”
“Tell them we’re on the way and need help now. Ask them to come meet us.”
“Who should I say it’s from?”
“Ju Yeorang.”
He wrote the same note three times and tied one to each bird’s leg, then held out his hand to her.
“…Yes?”
“Payment.”
“Ah.”
She rummaged, then pulled the pipa off her back and felt along it. From the hidden compartment she took a small pouch, drew out a silver coin, and handed it over.
After they watched the old man release the birds out back, they went to find a stable. Ju Yeorang bought a mount, and they eased out of the village. People kept their wary eyes on them but started no trouble. The Martial Alliance branch chief didn’t come looking, either.
Ju Yeorang only got more uneasy, glancing around as they neared the edge of the village. “What is this? Why is nothing happening?”
“No trouble is good.”
“But… if they mean to stop us, using this village would be best…”
Jang Geon straightened the tilt of his bamboo hat. “Maybe he’s more sensible than he looks.”
“He?”
“Je Unseong.”
She snorted and shook her head. “A sensible man tries to kidnap someone who said no? Who can tell.”
They rode on and left the village behind. The trees thinned as they came out of the mountains; jagged slopes softened into rolling knolls. With gentler ground, the horses could stretch. They managed their pace so the animals wouldn’t tire.
After a long run, Ju Yeorang lifted a hand and pointed to a low range in the distance. “There! I know a hide there!”
They’d just gotten out of the woods, and now she wanted to go back in. Jang Geon said nothing and followed her with Jojo. They ran along a shallow river until late afternoon.
Still following the water, Ju Yeorang swung her reins. “This way!”
Soon they found a small cave among tall conifers. She slid down and rubbed her eyes. “We’ll rest here tonight. We didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“How’d you find a cave like this?”
A narrow mouth, but a deep throat of black—deeper than it looked. “Call it my private spot. I found it last time ducking rain in these parts. Little ways in it gets too tight to pass, but at the mouth you can straighten to about your waist.”
They unsaddled, lit a small fire, and brewed tea. Not long after they set up inside, the sun dropped and the world outside went dark. Ju Yeorang wrapped both hands around the metal cup and stared into the night. “Looks like he gave up.”
Jang Geon, roasting jerky, looked at her as if to ask what she meant.
“Je Unseong. His level’s higher than I thought, so he’s probably let it go for now. He’ll look for the chance to split me off from you.”
She smiled at him. “But by morning my friends will meet us. Then it’s over.”
“Right.”
Her head tilted at how flatly he chewed. “Aren’t you excited? You’ll see Imperial Army methods tomorrow.”
“Of course I am. It’s a chance to feel the emperor’s arts, if only indirectly.”
“You don’t look excited.”
He answered by watching the fire and chewing. She didn’t seem offended. She watched his face for a long time.
“Why didn’t you join the Martial Alliance?”
He sighed lightly and met her eyes. “Meaning?”
“With skill like yours, you could settle with the Alliance or under one of its sects. Not wander around getting dragged into trouble.”
“…I just don’t like being tied.”
A small smile. “Ah. A stubborn wanderer, then?”
She reached for the pipa laid beside her, paused, set it down, and slid closer to him.
“Can I ask something else?”
“What?”
A sly smile. “You helped me because you think I’m pretty, right?”
“That’s part of it.”
His blunt answer actually deflated her. “…If that’s part of it, is there another part? Imperial Army methods?”
He kept his eyes on the fire, jaw working jerky. “I’m only protecting myself.”
“…What?”
He went on. “Most days you’d never know it’s there, and I can’t show it to anyone—but there’s another eye in my chest that looks at the world. That eye can’t do anything. It just watches, blank and still. Compared to all the powers overflowing in the world, it’s a weak, futile gaze.”
Ju Yeorang stared, a little dazed. He kept talking, eyes on the flames.
“But when someone’s fallen right in front of me, that eye glares at me with everything it has. As if to say hurry and help, as if that’s the code I learned. But it’s only a helpless gaze inside me. I could ignore it, and nothing would happen. So sometimes I do. Do it a few more times and the glare fades, grows dull, becomes even more hollow. Given enough time, it’ll vanish like adolescence.”
He looked away from the fire and into her eyes. “But I can’t just sit and watch it disappear entirely. That eye is mine. If it’s gone, I won’t get back the person I was.”
His gaze held hers, steady as ever.
“So I’m helping you. Because right now that eye is looking at you. Does that answer it?”
She kept staring, still a little blank. After a long beat she drifted closer, almost without noticing, and kissed him.
The fire flickered. Outside, only an owl called. After that brief, quiet moment she drew back and looked at him.
“…You’re really strange. A kind you don’t see twice.”
“A pleasant kind of strange.”
She snorted at that and kissed him again. The calm, wavering firelight only lit the tangle of two bodies.
Outside the cave, Jojo chewed grass and watched the shadows intently.
****
Jang Geon woke with the clear sense of having slept deep for the first time in a while.
After a night like that, of course he had. He rubbed his eyes and noticed the fire was out. Ju Yeorang and her gear were gone, too.
He rose without fuss, drank the cold tea, pulled on his outer robe, then picked up a torn scrap of cloth left where she had slept. Letters in soot:
[Sorry. Thank you for the last few days. Don’t follow me. It’s dangerous.]
He folded it neat and slid it into his bosom, took up his sword, and stepped outside. The words slipped out of him.
“Fuck. Jojo, you little shit.”
Jojo was gone. She must have ridden her new horse and led him along. But the Jojo he knew didn’t let himself be led off just like that. She’d coaxed him with a smiling face, and he’d trotted right along.
He propped a foot, blew out a long breath, slung his sword to his back, and squatted. It didn’t take long to pick up their hoofprints.
“Been a while since I used lightness skills.”
He tightened the straps across his back and bounced on his toes. The next instant he shot off in the direction of Ju Yeorang’s trail—fast as a galloping horse.
Fast enough to churn dirt and grass—yet where he passed he left only the faintest hint of a step.