Pathway

In the same breath, Chang Chang felt the backlash from her spell. There was a distant drumming, the blood forcing its way through her body. Her skull felt tight. Would the vessels burst and her mind go dark? Yes. She welcomed it.

Fa Mu's lifeblood dripped between the planks, crimson on the brown water. The colors were just like Ju Feng's eyes.

Chang Chang felt herself fall, half-curled into a ball. She could see Fa Mu's face. He was looking at her, the fear intense in his gaze.

Not for himself, Chang Chang thought. He didn't care at all that he was bleeding to death from a chest wound. He was trying to get up, to get to her. To see if she was safe.

She could hear Ju Feng's voice now. He came into view, running full out down the walkway. She saw his floppy hat bobbing. He grabbed the giant, peeling him off Fa Mu like a fly. Before he could raise the dagger, Ju Feng grabbed him from behind, pushed his knee into the small of his back, and used both hands to pull the giant's head back.

There was a soft popping noise, and the giant went limp.

His spine, Chang Chang thought, snapped in one movement. Such a small sound on such a big man. But Ju Feng had known exactly what he was doing. He dropped the giant's body and went for Za Tau, a bland expression on his face. Same intentions, his course set.

He grabbed the spell bands that held the smaller man. When he was sure they were secure, he dragged Za Tau to the edge of the walkway.

"No, please!" Za Tau cried, when he realized what Ju Feng intended. He kicked and struggled, but Ju Feng kept dragging him. His expression didn't change. "Not the water, don't!"

"Ju Feng," Chang Chang said, but it was too soft for him to hear. He gazed at Za Tau's frantic expression reflected in the water. "Ju Feng," she said, louder.

The monk paused and turned to look at her. His face visibly softened. He started toward her but checked himself. He looked from the water to Chang Chang, as if he were suddenly waking from a dream.

"Leave him," Chang Chang gasped. The blood pounded a sick rhythm against her temples. "Check on… Fa Mu."

Ju Feng nodded and left Za Tau at the edge of the walkway, facedown toward the water.

He crossed to Fa Mu and examined the butcher's wound. When he saw all the blood, he turned to the giant's body. He fisted his hands in the giant's baggy shirt and ripped the fabric down the middle. The tearing was loud in the darkness. He stripped the giant to the waist and left the body where it was.

"Help me," he told Zu Ruo.

The dwarf came around to Fa Mu's other side. Together they hoisted the butcher into a half sitting position. Zu Ruo put her back against Fa Mu's to prop him up.

Ju Feng looped the ruined shirt around Fa Mu's middle, tying off the end under his armpit to try to slow the flow of blood. Zu Ruo gently laid him back horizontal.

"He'll live for a while," Ju Feng said.

Chang Chang put her head down to quiet the spinning, the roaring blood. She heard Zu Ruo's footsteps, a short, heavy tread that stopped behind her.contemporary romance

"She's almost as far gone," the dwarf woman said. Chang Chang felt Zu Ruo gently roll her onto her back. She probed her chest for wounds, then started on her arms and legs. Chang Chang started to tell her not to bother, but she didn't have the strength.

"Well?" Ju Feng said when she was done. He hadn't come any closer. He used Fa Mu's body as a buffer between them.

"Whatever's hurting her is going on inside," Zu Ruo said. "She needs healing, and even that might not be enough. Her eyes are strange—glassy, like yours."

"Ju Feng." Chang Chang sat up, gripping the dwarf's shoulder for support. "Tarvin's dead."

He followed her gaze to the Watchman's body. "He shouldn't have tried to take you alone."

"Ju Feng, can you call the Watch?"

He hesitated. The pain twisting his face was all the answer Chang Chang needed. "What do you want to tell them?" he said.

"Give them our exact location." The tide of pain was slowly leaving her. Chang Chang felt strangely calm, her body inert. She had no more reserves of strength to lose. This was where everything settled. She had to start the slow climb back up. "I assume they're still searching for me somewhere in. Tell them we have wounded and need immediate aid. Go quickly, please."

Ju Feng stood and walked a little distance away. He removed something from his pouch and spoke a word Chang Chang didn't hear.

He's been connected to the Watch all this time, Chang Chang thought. Yet he never brought them roaring down on our heads. He and Fa Mu had followed her, no matter where she went. They'd kept her safe.

The conversation was short. When Ju Feng returned, the familiar tightness was in his jaw, the only sign of concern he ever betrayed.

"They're not far away," he said.

"Good. Would you help me, Zu Ruo?" Chang Chang asked.

The dwarf helped Chang Chang to her feet. When she could walk steadily, she went to Fa Mu.

He was unconscious, but he still breathed. His face had no color, and his skin was cold. Did it feel worse to Ju Feng?

"I never touched him," Ju Feng said, in answer to the unspoken question. "I couldn't know—"

"Of course you couldn't," Chang Chang said. "And I wouldn't have listened, if you'd tried to tell me. I would have denied it until I was blind to everything else."

Ju Feng removed his gloves and slid his silver ring off his finger. Replacing his gloves, he picked up Fa Mu's left hand. The ring would only fit on his smallest finger. Ju Feng slid it snugly into place.

"It'll keep his heartbeat strong until the Watch gets here," Ju Feng said. "He should live, if they hurry."

Chang Chang nodded. "How long do we have?"

"Not long."

"Then I need to get going."

She kissed the back of Fa Mu's hand, folded it over his chest, and stood up. Her eyes fell on the bound man hanging over the walkway. The sense of detachment settled over her again as she approached him.

He watched her seat herself on the walkway so he could see her in his peripheral vision. She left him as he was, dangling over the water. The threat was there. She didn't need to tell him.

"He was your friend," Chang Chang said, pointing to the shirtless, dead giant. When Za Tau didn't answer, she said, "Fa Mu is mine. You don't know how hard it was for me to tell that man"—she pointed at Ju Feng—"not to kill you. A tenday ago I could never have conceived such a thought in my mind, but time and hunger and desperation and fear work so many worms into the most pristine thoughts, and mine weren't clean to begin with.

"You can't imagine how much I want to kill you myself right now. It should matter that you're helpless, that you can't fight back. I know it should, but it doesn't. I just want to punish someone, for all of it. Perhaps it's the same for you, and that's why you could kill Fa Mu without even knowing him. I don't care about that either."

She put a hand in the air. He flinched, and she took a gross stab of pleasure in his fear. "I talk too much. It's a curse Ju Feng warns me against, but I won't waste much more of your time. I'm going to release you. You'll go back to Cerest—you've got no other employment, or you'd have taken it by now. Go back to Cerest, and tell him that I want to talk to him."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ju Feng and Zu Ruo exchange glances. She didn't look at them or try to explain. They knew this conversation was as much for their benefit as Za Tau's.

"Do you know what the Thousand Ferryman's Clove is?" she asked Za Tau.

For a breath the man didn't answer. Then he nodded, a quick jerk of the head.

"That's good. That will make things easier. Tell Cerest to meet me in the heart of Ferryman's Clove."

"You're mad," Za Tau said, breaking his silence at last. "No one—"

"No one goes there," she said over him. "That's why it has to be there. No one to hurt, no more friends to kill. Only enemies. If you come there, Za Tau, I will kill you, with no words preceding the deed. If Cerest wants me, he'll have to come to the Clove. Will you carry that message to him?"

Za Tau nodded again. Chang Chang flicked her hovering hand. The bands around his chest flickered and melted away. He exhaled sharply and slumped on the walkway. Until then, Chang Chang hadn't realized how tightly the bands had constricted his breath.

She sensed Ju Feng stepping toward her. His protective shadow fell across her, seen clearly by Za Tau as he got to his feet and took off running down the walkway.

When his footsteps receded, Chang Chang stood and faced the others. Fa Mu was still unconscious, his head tossing fitfully from blood loss and fever. She knelt, dipped her arm in the harbor, and smoothed her cool, wet fingers across his forehead.

"Do you approve?" she asked Ju Feng without looking up.

"Of your plan?" Ju Feng said. "I don't know. It's very possible that if Cerest doesn't kill us, the wild magic at the Clove will do the job."

done.co