Chapter 49 | The Healer’s Morning
Ruoxue made it halfway across the wagon before her step shortened.
Xu Tianlong saw the change at once.
She had risen from the bench as if she meant to climb down and help with the last of the packing. Her white robe was already straight, her sword resting within reach against the wall. Then her weight shifted onto her front foot and stopped there.
It was small. No stumble. No collapse.
Still enough.
"Sit down," Xu said.
Ruoxue looked toward the open rear flap. "I can help."
"You can sit."
Her mouth tightened for a moment. Then she turned and lowered herself back onto the bench.
Qing’er had already set her medicine box beside her.
"Does it hurt?" she asked.
"Not much."
Qing’er gave her a look that was much less gentle than her voice. "That wasn’t what I asked."
Ruoxue paused.
"When I move too quickly," she admitted.
"Where?"
Ruoxue answered quietly. Qing’er asked nothing else. She took Ruoxue’s wrist, settled her fingers over the pulse, and bent her head in concentration.
Xu stayed near the wagon entrance and watched.
Qing’er’s hands never shook when she worked.
A warm green light gathered around her fingers.
It wasn’t bright. The glow rested against Ruoxue’s wrist like living spring light beneath leaves, soft enough that Xu could still see the lines of Qing’er’s knuckles through it. Ruoxue’s shoulders eased by degrees as Qing’er held the contact.
The treatment didn’t last long.
The green faded.
Qing’er kept her fingers on Ruoxue’s wrist. "Better?"
Ruoxue moved her leg carefully, then shifted her hips against the bench. "Yes."
"Good. Now your qi. Slowly."
Ruoxue glanced at Xu.
He nodded.
She closed her eyes.
Ruoxue simply went still, breathing through her nose while Qing’er watched her face and kept hold of her wrist.
After a few breaths, the tendons in Ruoxue’s hand tightened.
Qing’er’s eyes sharpened. "Stop."
Ruoxue didn’t.
"Ruoxue."
A thin crease appeared between Ruoxue’s brows. Her next breath caught.
Qing’er pressed her thumb down against the inside of Ruoxue’s wrist. "Enough. Let it go."
Ruoxue exhaled and opened her eyes.
Irritation showed plainly on her face.
"I could have gone farther," she said.
"I know." Qing’er released her wrist. "That’s why I stopped you."
Ruoxue stared at her.
Qing’er didn’t look away.
The silence lasted long enough that Xu almost smiled.
Almost.
Qing’er reached into her medicine box instead. "The soreness is better. There’s no sign of a new injury"
Xu stepped closer. "Walking?"
"Normally, yes."
"Fighting?"
Qing’er hesitated. Her eyes moved from Xu to Ruoxue, then back. "If she has to, she can still use qi. I wouldn’t send her to scout, and I wouldn’t let her hold a strong circulation for long. She started hurting as soon as she pushed harder."
Ruoxue’s brows lifted slightly. "You wouldn’t let me?"
"No."
The answer came so quickly that Qing’er seemed to realize how firm it sounded only after she’d said it. Color touched her cheeks, but she didn’t take it back.
Ruoxue watched her. Her lips twitched, barely. "I see."
Qing’er took out a wrapped packet. "And you’re still taking this."
"I’m not impatient."
From outside the wagon, Feng’s dry voice drifted in.
"You tried to start packing before Qing’er finished checking you."
Ruoxue turned her head toward the flap. "I can hear you."
"Good."
Qing’er covered a smile by looking down at the packet.
Xu stepped closer.
"You ride," he said. "No scouting. No forcing your qi because the road feels quiet. If trouble comes, you don’t take the front unless I tell you to."
Ruoxue met his eyes.
Her pride was still there. Good. He had no use for breaking that out of her.
"Yes..Tianlong," she said.
Qing’er let out the breath she’d been holding and passed over the medicine.
Ruoxue took it without argument.
Lin appeared at the rear opening with a travel bag tucked against her side. "The last bundle is tied down. Cheng is bringing the horses in."
Qing’er emptied the medicine into a cup of tea and passed it over. Ruoxue drank, frowned at the taste, and handed the cup back.
"Bad?" Qing’er asked.
"Very."
"Then it’ll remind you not to need another packet."
Ruoxue looked at her as if deciding whether that deserved an answer.
She took up her white-sheathed sword and moved to the rear step. Xu watched more closely this time. Ruoxue climbed down without the shortened stride that had stopped her earlier. Qing’er followed behind her with the medicine box.
Xu stepped down after them. Damp earth gave softly under his boots.
Most of the camp was already gone. The fire had been buried. Loose cloth and bedrolls had been packed into the wagon. Cheng led the rested horses in from the camp line while Shun laid the traces straight beside the wagon.
They worked the harness into place without hurry. Cheng settled the straps flat against the horses’ chests. Shun checked the buckles, then moved around the front of the wagon.
Xu looked toward the trees east of camp. He wasn’t going back into them after a trail that had already died on stone.
"Good. We leave now."
The morning was already gone.
Lin moved to the wagon’s side and tugged the nearest strap. Cheng looked at her.
"It’s set," he said.
She checked the buckle anyway, then released it. "It is."
Feng came around from the rear of the wagon. "A miracle. We may actually leave."
Lin gave her a flat look. "You were the one searching the forest."
"And I stopped when he told me to." Feng tipped her chin toward Xu.
Xu ignored both of them and looked at Ruoxue. Wind had lifted the loose silver hair over her shoulder. She had a ribbon in her fingers and was trying to gather the length without letting it catch on her sword.
"Give me that."
Ruoxue looked at his hand, then passed him the ribbon.
"Turn around."
She turned.
Xu gathered the heavy silver hair low behind her head. Strands had caught against the edge of her robe. He freed them, drew the rest together, and tied it out of the way.
Ruoxue reached back and tested the ribbon.
"Too loose."
Xu tightened it.
She checked again. "Better."
"Get in."
Ruoxue obeyed, stepping up into the wagon with her sword in hand. Qing’er followed with the medicine box. Lin climbed in after them. Feng took the rear corner before Xu turned to Shun.
"You watch the rear and the tree line. Don’t go looking for whoever left those tracks. If someone starts following us again, I want warning before they get close."
"Understood, Young Master"
Cheng climbed onto the driver’s bench and gathered the reins. "Young Master..We can press the horses once we clear the forest."
"Don’t."
Cheng glanced over his shoulder.
"Keep a steady pace," Xu said. "The road isn’t running away."
"Yes, Young Master."
Shun took the other place on the driver’s bench. Xu climbed into the wagon last and sat beside Lin. Qing’er settled opposite Ruoxue with her medicine box braced near her feet. Ruoxue rested her sword beside her and leaned back against the wagon wall.
Cheng called softly to the horses.
The wagon rolled forward.
Canvas creaked overhead. Harness leather pulled taut. The camp slipped behind them between the trees, then vanished around a bend without ceremony.
Xu watched the road through the side opening.
The forest thinned slowly through the afternoon. Damp roots and dark trunks gave way to wider patches of light. The road remained rough, but the wagon handled it without trouble. Cheng kept the horses at an even pace. Shun looked back often enough to satisfy Xu without turning their departure into another search.
Xu saw no movement following them through the trees.
They stopped to water the horses.
Xu climbed down. Ruoxue followed, with Qing’er close behind her. She walked to the shade beside the wagon without asking for help and rolled her shoulder as if testing how much stiffness remained.
Qing’er started toward her, stopped herself, and busied her hands with the medicine box instead.
Ruoxue looked over. "You can check."
Qing’er blinked. "I wasn’t going to."
"You were."
A small dimple appeared before Qing’er could hide it. "Only if you looked worse."
Ruoxue gave a quiet "Hn" and went to drink her tea.
Xu let them handle it.
They moved again a short while later.
By late afternoon, the trees had opened around a broad stretch of rising ground.
Xu saw movement on the far ridge.
He straightened.
Several figures crossed the rise in the distance, small against the pale sky. Their robes were light blue.
Xu’s attention stayed on them.
He had seen that color before on Azure Cloud Sect cultivators, with silver-cloud embroidery at their cuffs and collars. At this distance he couldn’t make out embroidery, faces, or weapons. Only the pale blue and the easy way the group moved along the ridge before dropping out of sight on the other side.
Feng shifted near the rear opening. "You see them?"
"Yes."
Lin leaned enough to look past him. "Azure?"
"Maybe."
Xu kept watching the empty ridge.
No one on the ridge turned toward them. The road ahead stayed empty.
He let the flap fall back into place.
"Keep moving," he told Cheng.
The wagon continued east toward the ridge.