Chapter 14: The Message

Luca came on the second day.

Not alone.

We heard them before we saw them. Horses on the old road, a lot of them.

I climbed the outer wall and looked west.

There were two hundred at least. Coats, banners, spears.

Luca rode at the front on a black horse. His coat was the same as it had been in my yard. He hadn't changed clothes. Maybe he had ten of them.

Ren rode beside him.

I got down off the wall.

"He brought the army," I said.

Min-jun was already at the door.

"He brought the rings," he said. "Look at his hand."

I looked.

Luca's right hand was resting on the pommel of his saddle, and the three iron rings were on it, plain as day.

They came to the edge of the trees and stopped.

Luca got off his horse and walked the rest of the way on foot with Ren beside him.

He stopped ten paces from the door.

"Han Seo-jun," he said.

"Luca."

"You sent for me."

"I did."

He looked up at the temple.

It was the first time he'd seen it standing. I watched him do the arithmetic.

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