The bell sounded wrong.
Xu Hao had heard the herb trader's mule coming down the trail two mornings earlier. Its wooden bell made a hollow, comfortable knocking sound, like somebody tapping a spoon against a cup.
This bell rang twice in quick succession, stopped, then rang again with an ugly clatter.
Sia was on her feet before the second sound had faded.
Xu Hao put down his bow. He had been mending an arrow when the noise began, and the little strip of feather still lay between his fingers.
"Someone's in trouble," he said.
Da Bao looked up from the cooking pot. "Could be the animal's decided to run."
"Then its owner is probably in trouble as well."
Er Bao was already standing. He listened for a moment, then pointed down the slope.
"We'll look. Leave the dogs here unless I say otherwise."
Xu Hao hesitated. Sia had found things in the forest that none of them could see, but three cultivated huskies would turn a simple rescue into a conversation about powers they wanted to keep private.
He told her to stay.
She sat at once, watching him with the expression of an animal who had been consulted and found the decision disappointing.
"I'll be back," he promised.
* * *
The herb trader was on her knees beside the lower trail, one sleeve dark with mud.
Her pack animal stood halfway down a steep bank, one foreleg caught beneath a tangle of roots. The pannier on its left side had slipped and wedged against a tree. Above it, a long patch of earth had given way, leaving a fresh strip of exposed clay where the path should have been.
She heard them approaching and looked up. Her straw hat had fallen behind her, leaving strands of dark hair stuck to her cheek.
"Good," she said, with more relief than dignity. "I was beginning to wonder whether I should shout at the hillside until it helped me."
Da Bao took one look at the animal and started down the slope.
"Wait," Er Bao said.
The earth beneath her knees was cracking. A thin line ran from the edge of the path towards the tree holding the pannier. Below it, water moved through a narrow channel.
"That bank is still slipping."
Da Bao stopped.
Xu Hao looked at the animal. It was sweating, sides heaving. Each time it tried to pull itself upright, the trapped foreleg twisted further beneath the roots.
"How long has it been there?" he asked.
"Not long. I came back to warn a friend about the bridge. He stepped where the bank had washed away." She glanced at the animal. "He's been with me since I was a girl, and now he chooses to inspect a ditch from the inside. Please be careful with his leg."
Xu Hao remembered the way she'd settled the mule by the stream on their first meeting. She had grown up with the stubborn animal. He understood why she wouldn't leave him behind.
Er Bao looked towards the stream. "We need the load off first."
"And then?" Da Bao asked.
"Then we support the leg and bring the animal up without pulling against the roots."
Xu Hao studied the slope. The only stable ground lay above the exposed clay, near a thick pine. A fallen branch rested across the bank, long enough to reach the wedged pannier if somebody controlled its weight.
"We could tie a line around the load from up here," he said. "Lift it off the tree before the mule tries to move."
Er Bao nodded. "Show me."
* * *
It took much longer than Xu Hao expected.
That was becoming a feature of useful plans.
Da Bao held the long branch steady while Xu Hao passed a cord around it and secured the free end to the pine. He used the knot Er Bao had shown him while putting up the shelter weeks earlier: over, around, back through, then tighten under the weight rather than against it.
His fingers remembered the movement. He didn't have to look at each turn.
"Good knot," Er Bao said.
"I failed it four times before breakfast the day you taught me."
"Five," Da Bao said from below.
"You were counting?"
"You made the shelter fall on my head. It was memorable."
They used the branch as a lever, inching the pannier free of the tree. Er Bao guided the weight while Da Bao lifted. Xu Hao paid out the cord a little at a time until the whole sack hung above the bank.
The animal jerked. Dirt crumbled beneath its hind hoof.
"Easy," the woman called. Her voice steadied as she spoke to the mule. "Look at me, stubborn old thing. Not the drop."
"Can you keep his head facing uphill?" Xu Hao asked. "Don't pull. Just keep him looking at you."
She moved carefully to the firmer ground near the pine and spoke to the animal in a low voice. It lifted its head towards her, ears trembling.
Xu Hao crawled towards the trapped leg with Er Bao beside him. He didn't pretend to know more about a mule's anatomy than the woman who'd cared for it since childhood. He could see, however, that the roots weren't merely holding the hoof. A twisted strap from the pannier was wound around the ankle, pulling tighter with each movement.
"There's leather caught beneath the roots," he said. "If we lift the leg now, it'll tighten again."
Er Bao handed him a knife.
Xu Hao cut the strap. The tension fell away. The animal stopped thrashing for a moment, and Da Bao took advantage of it to reach beneath the chest.
"On three," Er Bao said.
"Wait," Xu Hao replied. "The rope first."
They tied a supporting loop beneath the animal's body so Da Bao could raise it without twisting the leg. Xu Hao checked the knots twice, then moved back to the safer ground.
Er Bao counted.
Da Bao lifted.
The mule came up so easily that the woman let out a startled cry. Er Bao steadied the hindquarters while Da Bao placed the animal on a patch of firm earth above the slide.
For a moment it stood shaking, its foreleg held awkwardly off the ground.
Then it put the hoof down.
Xu Hao exhaled.
The woman crossed to it and held its face between her palms. "There you are," she murmured. "I thought you were going to make me walk the rest of the road."
Da Bao straightened, covered in clay from his shoulders to his knees.
"He weighs less than that tiger," he said.
Xu Hao looked at him. "This was never meant to be a competition."
"Everything is easier when you know which end to lift."
"You might have mentioned that when I was carrying stones uphill."
Er Bao smiled. "You learned quite a lot carrying those stones."
* * *
The mule's leg was scraped but not obviously broken.
Xu Hao watched it walk a few cautious steps. The woman checked the hoof herself, lifting it and feeling along the lower joint with practised hands. She opened a narrow tin from her pack and rubbed a little green salve over the scraped skin.
"He'll need rest," she said. "If it swells by tomorrow, I won't take him onto the road. I can replace the herbs. I can't replace him."
"You shouldn't take him across the broken bridge either," Xu Hao said.
"I wasn't planning to. That's why I came this way." She gave the damaged slope a bitter look. "Apparently the road has other ideas."
Her herbs were scattered across the ground. Several bundles had broken open, spilling leaves and dried roots into the damp clay.
Da Bao began gathering them. He handled the plants as gently as a man with hands the size of serving dishes could manage. Which was not especially gently.
"That one stays separate," she told him sharply. "It's not for eating."
Da Bao froze with a handful halfway to his mouth.
Xu Hao looked at him in horror.
"Why were you going to eat it?"
"I wanted to know what it tasted like."
"And if it was poison?"
Da Bao considered this. "Then I'd stop."
Er Bao took the bundle away before the experiment could begin.
Xu Hao helped sort what remained. A few roots were ruined by mud; most could be dried again. He tied the salvaged bundles with clean strips of cord and arranged the weight across the two panniers so the animal wouldn't have to carry more on the injured side.
The woman watched him work.
"Well, little scholar," she said, watching Xu Hao tie the salvaged bundles, "at least somebody has made use of those serious lessons."
"I've had good teachers. Very persistent ones."
"I can see that. You even frown at the rope until it behaves."
Xu Hao looked up. "That's not how knots work."
"No? It appeared to work on you."
Da Bao was smiling behind his back. Er Bao studied the repaired load with unusual concentration.
The woman reached into her pouch, took out a small handful of copper coins and offered them to Xu Hao.
He shook his head. "You don't need to pay us."
"I know. That's why I'd like to."
Xu Hao hesitated. He was used to accepting payment for professional work, and refusing it automatically felt like a performance. But helping a stranded traveller wasn't a job he had taken for profit.
"Keep the money for the road," he said. "We'll be travelling to town ourselves soon."
She looked at him more closely than she had during their first bargain.
"You might have mentioned that helping stubborn animals was among your talents, little brother. I could have raised the price."
"I'd have thought my unpaid favour was enough."
"Oh, I haven't forgotten that." She tucked the coins away. "Nor will I forget today."
"Then we're even?"
"An accountant as well as a scholar. How tiring it must be inside that head."
She reached beneath the lining of her hat and took out a narrow strip of paper. Xu Hao stared at it.
Actual paper. Thin, a little yellow, folded twice.
"A herb shop in Hibiscus Town," she said. "Larger than it looks from the road. They can find medicines other shops won't bother with, and they sell paper and ink as well. Show this to the people at the counter."
"Will they know who sent me?"
"They'll know the mule." The corner of her mouth lifted. "He's more memorable than I am."
Xu Hao accepted the strip as if it were a valuable manuscript.
"Thank you."
"You've been living in the forest too long if a shop's name makes you that happy," she said.
"You have no idea."
"Then perhaps I'll see you there someday, little scholar. Bring your list. I enjoy watching people try to bargain."
* * *
They escorted her to the junction where the lower trail joined the southern road. The mule walked slowly but steadily. Before parting, the woman stopped and looked at the three of them.
"You might want to remember something when you reach the gate," she said. "The guards charge for beasts as well as travellers. Five copper coins for each beast you bring inside. Keep them out of sight if you don't need them in town."
Xu Hao felt Sia's card warm faintly in his chest, though she was still waiting at camp.
"A useful warning," he said.
"And don't let the price change merely because somebody thinks you're new. Ask them to say it twice."
"That," Xu Hao said, "is advice I intend to follow."
They watched her disappear down the road, the little bell tapping quietly again.
On the way back, Da Bao clapped Xu Hao on the shoulder.
"You were useful today."
"Astonishing, isn't it?"
"You used the knot, found the strap, and kept the mule from getting hurt worse. That's more important than hitting a target."
Xu Hao looked down at his muddy hands. In the forest, his bow made him a poor substitute for either brother. Today the difference in strength had mattered less. He had noticed something Da Bao had missed and used a skill Er Bao had taught him.
He was not suddenly powerful. He still needed the brothers to raise the animal out of the bank.
But for a few minutes, the three of them had solved a problem that none could have solved as easily alone.
That evening, Xu Hao pinned the scrap of paper beneath his sleeping mat beside his bark notes.
The woman with the troublesome mule had already sold him medicine, given him a road worth taking, and now placed real paper in his hands.
He still owed her a favour. Exactly what he'd agreed to was beginning to trouble him.