The rain had become a downpour — fat, cold drops beating the rooftops of
Linhua like war drums. Thunder cracked through the sky, scattering market
dogs and washing away the last traces of daylight.
Ju Xian darted between alleyways, soaked to the skin, her boots sloshing
with every step. The map Meilan gave her had turned to pulp in her hands,
the ink bleeding like a wound.
She gritted her teeth.
> "Should've stolen a horse," she muttered.
A low stone bridge stretched over the narrow canal at the edge of the city —
a hidden passage Meilan once mentioned. Ju Xian ducked under its arch,
shaking from cold and exhaustion.
She wasn't alone.
Taotao sat beneath the arch, arms wrapped around his knees, hair dripping
over his face like a drowned cat.
They stared at each other in disbelief.
> "You?!" they said at the same time.
Ju Xian was the first to recover. "I thought you left!"
> "I tried to leave!" Taotao snapped. "But apparently, I'm a citywide
sensation now. I can't take two steps without someone pointing at my face
like I'm some sort of celebrity outlaw."
"You are a celebrity outlaw," she said dryly.
"Don't flatter me. This is your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yes. I should've robbed a rice stall. Rice never argues."
She dropped beside him with a tired sigh. "Well, guess what? The canal road
is flooded, I lost the map, and we're both now the top prize on every
soldier's hunt list."
They sat in silence for a long beat, the storm raging just beyond the arch.
Finally, Taotao spoke again. "If I say yes... if I help... what happens next?"
Ju Xian didn't look at him. "We leave Linhua. Head east. I have a contact.
There's a ruined temple near Yanzhou — if we can reach it, we'll be safe. For a while."
"And then?"
"Then I figure out how to stop being a pawn. And maybe you stop running."
He gave a bitter laugh. "Running's the only thing I'm good at."
She looked at him then, really looked. "That's not true. You're also good at
being a pain."
"See? Skills."
Another roll of thunder passed overhead.
They remained under the bridge as the world drowned around them — two
fugitives, two strangers, two people tethered by a thread too thin to see...
and far too strong to .