Chapter 6: Good

Ji-han came out of that pool.

He had no sword, no sash, and no trousers, so he grabbed the nearest weapon, which was a wooden bath ladle.

"Stay here," he told the Leader.

"Ji-han, you're naked."

"I'm aware of that."

He went up the support post and through the roof slats in four moves.

The rain-soaked bamboo was slick under his bare feet.

A figure in grey crouched at the far gable, a boy in the Vice-Leader's livery with a long brass tube pressed to his eye.

The boy saw Ji-han coming and froze.

Then he bolted.

Ji-han threw the ladle.

It cracked off the back of the boy's skull, and he went down on the tiles with a yelp.

Ji-han landed on his spine with a knee.

"Don't," Ji-han said, and his voice came out wrong.

It came out low and flat and absolute, the voice that had once sent two hundred men into a gorge.

The boy stopped struggling.

He went limp under Ji-han's knee.

"Report," Ji-han said, before he could stop himself.

"The Vice-Leader said," the boy whispered, "to watch for the, for the..."

Ji-han caught himself.

He had a boy under his knee, whimpering, and a roof full of rain.

He had just spoken like a Second Seat, which was the one thing a man with no past must never do.

He took a long breath.

"Who told you to spy on a married couple?" he said, in the plain, wounded voice of a lost scholar.

"The Vice-Leader. He wants to know if you, if you..."

"If I what?"

"If you take orders. From him. Or if you give them."

Cold ran down Ji-han's back.

"I give them to nobody," he said gently. "I can't remember a single one. Go and tell him that."

He let the boy up.

The boy scrambled off the roof, and half his tunic tore on a tile.

Something small and white fluttered from the gable, and Ji-han realized too late that his ribbon was gone.

The white one.

It had slid from his braid when he tackled the boy, and the boy had snatched it as he ran.

Ji-han stood on the roof in the rain with nothing on, staring after him.

"Ji-han?" the Leader called from below, anxious. "Come down. Please."

Ji-han went down.

The Leader had a towel waiting, and he wrapped it around Ji-han's shoulders and held him against his damp chest.

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