All-Knowing Novice, page 14
“Gladly,” Gao Feng snidely replied. He handed the lantern off to Xia Wei and walked over to the door. He placed his hand on it and moved it around as if searching for something. “Ah, here it is.” Taryn watched as his fingers sunk into the metal and a thin square plate came loose and dropped to the ground, revealing a keyhole much like the ones they used inside the residential buildings.
Gao Feng pulled something, presumably a key, out of his robe and pushed it into the keyhole. A moment later, there was a loud whooshing sound as the gears of the lock turned and fresh air was allowed through the new openings. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of connected cables and joints moved inwards until none remained on the wall around the door.
Once the lock had wound itself into the door, the door itself moved. At first Taryn thought it was just a trick of the light, but the entire door moved towards them for a few seconds, then rolled into a slot in the wall that Taryn was sure wasn’t there a moment ago.
Taryn looked towards Gao Feng, intending to praise him for actually telling the truth, but he noticed something peculiar. Gao Feng was dusting himself off. Taryn looked to Fan Shun to ask what happened but stopped when he realized she was shaking. “What’s wrong?”
“Sorry, that was undignified of me.” She cleared her throat, and Taryn realized she was shaking because she was trying not to laugh.
“What happened?” Taryn asked, already having an idea of what transpired.
“It doesn’t matter.” She waved him away.
“Ahem. I’m waiting.” Gao Feng spoke up before Taryn could pester her further. Taryn rolled his eyes and looked towards Gao Feng, who was standing with his hand next his ear as if he were trying to listen to something. “Say it.”
“Say what?”
“I was wrong, you were right.”
“Apology accepted. Just don’t do it again.” Taryn tapped him on the shoulder and walked past him, which prompted Fan Shun, the Cai, and Xia Wei to follow along. Taryn was surprised Xia Wei had chosen to follow him, but he guessed anything was better than standing that close to Gao Feng.
Especially when he was angry.
“That is not what I meant, and you know it!” Gao Feng yelled, causing his voice to echo inside the tunnel.
“I know nothing. I’m just a dumb, Clanless peasant. Remember?”
“What happened to you not starting an argument?” Fan Shun asked, though there was no real heat in her voice.
“I could apologize again if you want me to.”
“You wouldn’t mean it.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Just don’t do it again. As amusing as it is, this isn’t a game. We’re not on ‘teams,’ we’re a team. You’re gonna have to remember that.”
“Did you forget that we’re not actually going to help them?” Taryn whispered. Fan Shun smiled at him, only this time, it wasn’t an amused smile.
Taryn gulped. “I mean, obviously we’re not going to just abandon them.” He nervously laughed. “I thought that was implied.”
“Uh-uh.” Fan Shun shook her head. But Taryn noticed that she was less angry now, so he let out a relieved sigh. He wanted to grumble at the injustice of it, but he realized that he’d feel bad if he abandoned them. They’d keep an eye on them until they made it back to the tunnel, but that was it, he wasn’t setting foot inside the city after that.
He wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to. The Mourner had specifically told him to leave with the core, and for good reason if the visions he’d been bombarded with every night were to be believed.
The walk from the door to the other side of the wall was much longer than Taryn expected, taking over a minute. He was surprised at just how thick Haven’s outer wall actually was. Either the founders were far more paranoid than they needed to be, or they need to start teaching kids about Eco Beasts in school. This is ridiculous. Taryn had never heard of a creature, Eco Beast or otherwise, that would warrant a wall this size.
The image of a fire-breathing reptile came unbidden into his mind, and he suddenly understood why the wall had to be that thick.
As he emerged from the mouth of the tunnel, he noticed three things almost immediately: it was brighter than he thought it would be, it was louder than he could’ve ever imagined—with seemingly thousands of insects all singing their songs at the same time—and there were Mokan trees everywhere. Most grew so close together that they formed natural barriers, preventing Taryn from being able to see what lay beyond them.
There was only one path through the trees, and it would lead them west.
“Which way now?”
“If you’d give me a moment...” Gao Feng snarked. He retrieved the map from inside his robe and looked it over with Xia Yawen and Xia Wei, leaving the other half of the group to entertain themselves.
Taryn turned and looked in the direction they’d come. “How does the door shut?”
“What kind of a question is that?” Gao Feng asked, clearly not understanding Taryn’s point.
“The door is still open. Shouldn’t we shut it?”
“There’s no way to open it or close it from this side. All of that has to be done from within the wall.”
“Then...” Taryn trailed off.
“No, he has a point,” Xia Yawen said, speaking up for the first time since Gao Feng nearly had his head impaled. “We can’t leave the door open. Who knows what manner of Eco Beasts will slither in while we’re gone.”
Everyone looked at Gao Feng and Xia Yawen expectantly.
“What do you want us to do about it?” Gao Feng shouted. “We can’t shut the door from this side. I’ve already told you that.”
“You didn’t think about that before we left the city?” Fan Shun asked impatiently. “That’s it, I’m taking charge. Hand me that map.”
“Who do you—” Gao Feng was interrupted when Fan Shun grabbed his head and twisted it to the side until he thought it would break. She snatched the map from his hand, then shoved him away—into the waiting arms of Xia Yawen, who glared daggers at Fan Shun’s back.
Taryn wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Fan Shun walked over to stand beside Taryn. She pored over the map for several minutes, her eyes darting around the paper wildly. Her lips moved ever so slightly, but no matter how hard he tried, Taryn couldn’t hear what she was saying.
Suddenly, she blinked and almost collapsed on the spot. In fact, she would have had Taryn not realized she was going to fall and moved to catch her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and helped her stand. Now that he was so much closer to her, he could see the veins in her eyes were inflamed and scarlet tears were running down her nose and cheeks.
“Grandma, are you okay? What’s happening?”
Fan Shun waved him away and stood up on her own. “Nothing, just out of practice.” She wiped the blood off her face and handed the map back to Gao Feng. “Before we go anywhere, one of you needs to send a messenger script to your parents and inform them of the situation with the door.” The three nobles opened their mouths to speak, but Fan Shun silenced them with a look. “I know you have at least one on you for emergencies, most likely more than that. I’m not going to let the city be put in jeopardy because you children can’t see past your own noses. Do it, I won’t ask again.”
Xia Wei was the first to move. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small box, a finger-length piece of paper, and a pen.
He wrote something on the paper, then closed his eyes with the box lying flat on his palm. After a few moments, the box began to change, its form changing to a dark brown liquid, then changing again into the form of a small bird.
Xia Wei rolled the paper, sealed it with a string, then stuffed it so far into the wooden bird’s mouth, the paper disappeared completely.
“Home.” With that one word, Xia Wei activated the script on the bird. It leapt off his shoulder and flew through the tunnel.
“I’ve never seen a messenger script used before,” Taryn said.
“I’d be more surprised if you had,” Gao Feng said. “It’s not something Clanless peasants like you will own in your lifetime—”
“Enough,” Xia Yawen commanded. Her sudden outburst surprised both Taryn and Gao Feng. “We’re not even a day in and things have already gone wrong. So, here’s what’s going to happen. You”—she looked straight at Taryn—“stop antagonizing Gao Feng, or I’ll send you back to the city without pay. And you”—she rounded on Gao Feng—“don’t embarrass me anymore.”
Taryn blinked at her, at first unable to comprehend the sudden change in her attitude. Then, her words clicked into place. Taryn’s face went blank, and he nodded. He walked away from them, choosing to wait by himself.
His insides were burning. He felt sick to his stomach. He felt angry, but unable to do anything about it.
He hadn’t done anything, hadn’t said anything this time. But he was the one she threatened to kick out.
He gritted his teeth until it felt like they would break.
He knew this shouldn’t affect him as much as it did, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why it did. They’d only known each other for a short time. She owed him nothing: not her time, not her friendship, nothing. He knew that. So, why did it hurt so damn much?
Chapter 13
IT TOOK TIME FOR THE messenger script to reach its destination and for a contingent of city guardsmen to make their way to the tunnel. By the end of it, several hours had been wasted because of Xia Yawen and Gao Feng’s inexperience.
Even the guards who arrived to relieve them and protect the tunnel couldn’t hide their consternation. The guards were clearly unprepared for a long posting, but that was easily explainable since they didn’t have much time to gather supplies or equipment.
The entire time they were waiting, Taryn had chosen to remain apart from the group, sitting away from them with his back against the trunk of a large Mokan. He couldn’t bear showing his grandmother how much Xia Yawen’s words affected him. Especially since he didn’t know why they affected him. They were just the words of a friend—he shook his head—an ex-friend. Logically, they shouldn’t have affected him at all.
“Hey.” Fan Shun crouched down in front of him and waved her hand to get his attention. “We’re ready to move.”
“Okay,” Taryn said, his voice raspy. He climbed to his feet without meeting her eyes. He knew she’d want to know what he was feeling, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it, not right now. Not when the problem was within earshot. But she said nothing. She motioned for him to walk ahead of her, which he did. He didn’t have it in him to argue.
“Now that we’re all present, I think it’s past time that we get a move on. Gao Feng, if you would lead us. The rest of you will return to your places behind us,” Xia Yawen said, patently refusing to look in Taryn’s direction. Gao Feng agreed without hesitation and began walking towards the only opening in the tree line.
Taryn felt like someone had twisted his insides into a knot. He didn’t say a word about Gao Feng’s sly smirk in his direction, instead choosing to pull his hood further down his face. If they couldn’t see his eyes, then no one could comment on what he was feeling.
Taryn flexed his fists as they walked. He was trying to calm himself down so he could focus on the situation at hand instead of being so easily distracted. He hummed to himself, taking long and slow breaths, and he even imagined beating Gao Feng to a bloody pulp. None of it helped keep him calm. Not saying he didn’t enjoy mentally pummeling Gao Feng, because he did. It was one of the highlights of the last few hours. But it did little to actually calm him down.
I wonder... He looked to the ground and searched his memories for something else he could focus on. What came to mind was a breathing technique the Mourner used to use to circulate his Eco. Taryn didn’t have Eco, but the breathing technique was complex enough that it should allow him to block out any unwanted thoughts.
He took a deep breath to start it off. He mentally pictured a ball of gas within his chest. Taryn didn’t know what color Eco was, but he imagined the gas to be blue. Once he had the image locked within his mind, he began to take slow breaths in and out. Each inhale would force the ball of gas to expand, each exhale would allow it to shrink.
Unbeknownst to Taryn, Fan Shun noticed something she never would’ve expected. With each inhale, Taryn was pulling Eco into his body, a feat which should’ve been impossible for him. The human body was unable to interact with Eco without an outside party injecting Eco into their bodies. This was a well-known fact of life, so why was it being disproven right before her very eyes?
And she wasn’t the only one to notice...
Taryn soon realized that he liked doing this. The breathing pattern made him feel better, calmer for sure, but also better in a general sense. His body relaxed and his tense muscles became loose. By the time he finally looked up, his body felt like he’d just been subjected to a relaxing massage for the last—Taryn suddenly realized that night had fallen. Dawen was in the sky, though its light barely reached them anymore.
That wasn’t a problem for most of them, as the Eco within their bodies enhanced their senses far beyond Taryn’s. Or that’s how it should have been, but Taryn could see. Not perfectly, but he could see well enough to avoid tripping over his own feet.
He didn’t understand why he could see better out here than he could in the city at night. But not understanding something was beginning to be a habit, and it felt like ten things were being added to that list every day.
After another hour or so of walking, Fan Shun called for everyone’s attention. “We’re going to set up camp here for the night. Stay close together, and for the love of the divines, try to stay quiet.” Fan Shun’s voice was serious, and it brokered no argument from the others. Not that they would argue. The nobles were just as eager to sit down as Taryn was.
Xia Wei dropped heavily onto his backside and let out a sigh of relief. Xia Yawen and Gao Feng moved off on their own and sat down together.
Taryn wondered what they were whispering to each other, but he shook his head and expelled the thought from his mind. It was none of his business, and he would treat it as such.
LATER THAT NIGHT, LONG after the nobles had gone to sleep, Taryn, Fan Shun, and the Cai sat around a fire pit. Thanks to the thick roots of the Mokan trees that surrounded them on all sides, and the incredibly long leaves that brushed against the ground, they had more than enough material to get a fire going.
However, the conversation had died out some time ago. Taryn still wasn’t in the mood to talk, Fan Shun had nothing to say to the Cai, and the Cai were more than happy to sit in complete silence with little motion or noise coming from either of them. This went on until Fan Shun could not take it anymore.
“Taryn, what was that earlier?” She asked quietly, so as not to alert the nobles to the topic of their conversation. When it became clear that Taryn didn’t understand the question, Fan Shun continued speaking. “This afternoon. Something happened, what was it?” She was trying to broach the topic of his Eco without it being too obvious. All they needed was for one of the nobles or the Cai to realize that he could wield Eco and that would be it for them.
Taryn completely misunderstood her meaning and thought she was talking about the way he’d acted after Xia Yawen threatened to kick him out of the group. He looked at the ground between his feet and pulled his hood further down his face.
“It hurt,” Taryn said under his breath. Fan Shun opened her mouth to speak, but Taryn continued before she could. “I didn’t expect her to say that.”
“Her? Xia Yawen?”
At the mention of the Qiao princess, the Cai men suddenly became very interested in the conversation. Nearly in unison, the two sat forward.
Taryn nodded, refusing to look up and meet his grandmother’s gaze. “I know I didn’t tell you about it, probably because I knew it would end this way, but I knew Xia Yawen before we took the job.”
Fan Shun’s eyes widened minutely, and she glanced towards the still sleeping nobles.
“I met her at the New Year’s Festival. We—literally—ran into each other in the market district. I’m not sure why, but something just... clicked. We became friends, or at least, I thought we had. We met up every day and were in each other’s presence for hours at a time. Then one day she vanished. I looked everywhere for her. But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find her. Until the other day.”
“You mean the day we...”
“Yeah, the day in the courtyard. It was the first time I’d seen her since Leafwake.” Taryn shook his head. “I know it’s stupid. I shouldn’t have let her words get to me. And I don’t know why they hurt so much. But when she threatened to kick me out of the group, I felt like my insides had been twisted. I couldn’t face you after that.”
“And here I was thinking it was going to be something good.” Gu Qigang snorted derisively. He stood up and walked away from the fire in order to find someplace to lie down.
“Jackass,” Fan Shun muttered.
“Apologies for his behavior. He can be a bit thick sometimes. Please, continue,” Duan He said.
“I... uh... don’t really feel comfortable talking about this in front of you.”
Duan He blinked as if he hadn’t considered that. Then he let out a quiet laugh and shook his head. “No, you’re right. My mistake. I’ll just be over here, then.” He went and joined Gu Qigang, the two lying outside of the firelight’s radius.
Fan Shun and Taryn watched him go, then Fan Shun pinched Taryn’s cheek and pulled his head around to face her. “Don’t start thinking we aren’t going to talk about this later.”
“I figured,” Taryn tried to say, but it came out garbled thanks to Fan Shun altering the shape of his mouth.
She let his cheek go and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “But I understand what you’re going through.”
“You do?”
