As the road stretched on, the mountains gave way to valleys, and the valleys to mist-covered forests. The air had cooled considerably, carrying the smell of pine resin and damp earth, and the sky had turned a pale, overcast gray. Only two days remained before they would reach the lands of the Tiger Sect.
On the morning of the fifth day, as the camp was being packed, the birds stopped singing all at once. Rui's hand closed around his sword hilt.
"Do you feel that?" he murmured.
Wang Bo had already lifted his head, eyes moving across the tree line.
"Yes. The forest is too quiet."
A whistle cut through the silence. Then the sky filled with arrows.
"Ambush!"
Rui was off his horse before the second volley left the bow, blade already drawn, closing the distance to Yuan Yu's carriage in a few long strides. Wang Bo's sword rose in a blur, cutting two shafts from the air before they could land. Yuan Yu burst through the carriage door with his own blade out, deflecting one arrow, then another, while the guards scrambled to close ranks around him.
A horse screamed, an arrow buried in its flank, and reared violently enough to nearly throw its rider. A soldier near the rear of the convoy went down with a shaft through his shoulder, cursing through his teeth as another man dragged him behind the carriage. Wood splintered — two arrows punched clean through the carriage wall, and a third tore through the supply cart's frame, sending splinters scattering into the grass.
As suddenly as it had begun, the attack ended.
No second whistle came. No movement stirred among the trees. Men stood crouched with weapons raised, breathing hard, waiting for an answer the forest refused to give. Two scouts were sent ahead. They returned with little to show for it — broken branches, a handful of unmarked gray-fletched arrows, boot prints that led nowhere useful.
---
Yuan Yu stood with his back against the carriage, one hand pressed flat against the door, sweat gathering at his temple.
Wang Bo reached him first.
"You're bleeding."
Yuan Yu looked down at his arm as though noticing the cut for the first time — a shallow wound along his forearm, bleeding through the sleeve.
"It's just a scratch," he said.
Rui was already beside him with the medicine kit, opening the sleeve without asking. His hands were steady. His jaw was set.
The cut was shallow, but Rui's expression did not ease.
"How did they reach you?" Wang Bo asked, frowning. "We were both positioned to cover you."
"I was distracted," Yuan Yu said.
"Could the arrow be poisoned?"
Yuan Yu shook his head. "No, it's not that." He gritted his teeth as Rui cleaned the wound. "It's my stomach again. It's been worse since yesterday."
Rui wrapped the bandage without speaking, pulling it perhaps a fraction tighter than necessary before tying it off.
"You should ride in the carriage," he said. "I'll stay with you. At the next stop, I'll have them prepare some tea and warm buns. It might be easier on your stomach."
Yuan Yu nodded, then glanced once more toward the tree line.
"We keep moving. Whoever this was, they didn't aim to kill — if they had, we wouldn't be standing here." A faint smile crossed his lips. "Maybe this is simply how the Tiger Sect greets its guests."
No one laughed.
"I couldn't protect you," Rui said quietly, his eyes still on the bandage.
Yuan Yu reached over and ruffled his hair.
"I'm fine. We'll find out soon enough who did this."
He smiled — the same calm, reassuring smile he always gave.
Wang Bo watched the two of them for a moment, then turned back to check on the wounded soldier.
---
They traveled the rest of that day with greater caution, scouts riding ahead and behind, conversation thinning to almost nothing. The trees grew sparser. The ground turned harder and stonier beneath the horses' hooves. Old stone markers appeared along the roadside — some toppled, some worn past reading, a few still bearing the outline of a tiger carved into the stone.
The soil smelled different here.
*Iron,* Rui thought. *Old rain. And something older still.*
"The Mooncloud Sect had lands like this once.
Before that night."
Abandoned watchtowers rose along the ridgeline at intervals, their wooden platforms long rotted away, leaving only the stone bases, draped now in moss. One still had a rusted spear leaning against it, as though whoever had carried it had set it down one day and never returned.
Yuan Yu's gaze lingered on the abandoned watchtower as they passed. He said nothing.
---
That night, while Yuan Yu rested beneath a blanket inside the carriage, Rui pressed a palm to his forehead.
"Thank you, Rui," Yuan Yu murmured.
"It's my duty," Rui said.
Yuan Yu smiled faintly and closed his eyes.
Outside, Wang Bo sat by the dying fire and sharpened his blade with slow, methodical strokes. He did not look toward the carriage.
But his blade had been sharp since morning.
---
The mountains of the Tiger Sect rose higher on the horizon with every passing mile.
For the first time in days, Yuan Yu slept peacefully.
Rui looked away from the carriage window and settled back into his seat.
Tomorrow, they would finally arrive.