At long last, it was almost time for the solar eclipse. The sorcerer must have been preparing to make his move, given the way he was dragging himself toward the cave entrance.
Having donned his “Anki” disguise, Akim walked right up to the cave and shouted, “There you are, Doctor Tou!” He affected a brighter voice than his real one, packing it with all the earnestness he could muster.
As soon as that crisp greeting reached his ears, the sorcerer called Tou snapped his head up. His gaze darted about, but it only took a moment before he was looking Akim straight in the eye. “Oh, hello… Could you remind me who you are?”
Aha, thought Akim. No wonder searching for a blind man hadn’t yielded much in the way of results.
“Apologies for not introducing myself sooner. I am Anki, one of the Maiden’s porters. I accompanied Her Ladyship on her return visit, and we were informed that you had left to pick herbs. The locals seemed quite concerned, so I came looking for you.”
“Goodness, I’m amazed you managed to find me all the way out here.”
“Ha ha. I got a bit lost, to tell you the truth. It’s a relief to have stumbled upon you in the process.”
As Akim laughed and scratched at the back of his neck, he discreetly examined the other man. According to Shu Keigetsu, absorbing that corrupted qi should have left him in a weakened state. Akim didn’t note any obvious abnormalities, like discoloration of the skin, but a sheen of sweat had indeed formed on the man’s brow.
“I see… Apologies for the trouble. I’m sure a youngster like you has better things to do than look everywhere for my old bones.”
Tou appeared to be sizing Akim up himself. Was he young? Well built? How were his qi reserves? Akim felt those sightless eyes probing him.
Possibly intent on stealing his life force, Tou casually reached toward Akim, but the spy grabbed a knife dart from his sleeve and chucked it at the ground near Tou’s feet to keep him in check. “Watch out, Doctor. I spy a leech.”
Thump!
Tou froze with his hand half extended, startled by the dull impact.
“Aw, shucks. Forgive me for drawing a blade without warning. I used to be a soldier, so I’m a bit too quick to reach for a weapon. Bit of an overreaction to a leech, wasn’t it?”
As Tou had no training in the martial arts whatsoever, all he could do was laugh uncomfortably. “Ha ha, goodness.” For now, at least, he seemed to have given up on messing with this dangerous porter.
Hands off, if you please, Akim quipped in his thoughts, though there wasn’t a crack in his pleasant demeanor.
“As luck would have it, the locals brought the Maiden for a tour of this very lake. Today is the Day of Ultimate Yin, so they proposed watching the eclipse and getting in some ice fishing on the side. See them on the shore?” he asked, pointing to the opposite lakeshore, nearly a thousand strides away.
The lake near the summit was ringed by rugged rocks, so there wasn’t much room on its actual shore. Of note, one boulder directly ahead of the cave was practically a miniature cliff, and the crowd standing onshore was split up around either side of it.
“I imagine they’d be delighted to have you join them, Doctor.”
“Oh, you’re right. There they all are.”
Stroking his beard, Tou nodded as though he could see them with his physical eyes, but it wasn’t the locals clustered on the left side of the shore he was looking at. His eyes were fixed on “Shu Keigetsu,” who stood on the right side of the giant protruding rock. At the moment, all he cared about was the bracelet emanating his own qi.
“Hmm… Is that the Maiden I see on the right side?” Tou fished for an excuse to get near her. “Excellent timing. I actually had a matter I wished to discuss with her in priva—”
“Is it the loud noise you heard three nights ago, by chance?” Akim cut him off, dangling the bait he’d saved for just this occasion. “I might advise you to ask the military officer instead. Look, he’s standing on the shore as well.”
“You mean Master Kou Keikou? Truly?”
“Yes. See him on the left? Oh, he just stepped forward. He’s been looking everywhere for you, actually. You’re the one in charge around here, so he hoped to get your opinion on something.”
After muttering, “I wonder if he can hear us from here,” Akim waved his hand and shouted in the direction of the opposite shore, “Sir! I found Doctor Tou!”
A reply came immediately. “Ooh! It’s appreciated! Come on over, Doctor Tou!”
When that faint male voice reached his ears, Tou made a show of contrition. “Oh dear. I can’t believe a military officer from the capital went to so much trouble to look for me.”
Kou Keikou’s body was robust and had a strong affinity for earth. Tou wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass him by.
“I mustn’t keep him waiting,” he said, his lips curving into a grin. He was clearly thinking, Like a moth to the flame.
We’ll see who the real moth is, Akim thought, maintaining his pleasant composure all the while.
“Let’s be off,” he told Tou. “We’ll cut across the lake to the opposite shore. The ice is quite slippery, so I’ll take it upon myself to lead us down the easiest path. Please follow me.”
“I appreciate it.”
There were no plants or living creatures on the ice to emit qi, so it must have been difficult to maintain his so-called “vision.” Tou tagged along after Akim like this offer was a godsend.
“It’s nice to have a shortcut, but walking across the ice is quite unnerving. I worry it could break underneath us at any moment.”
“Ha ha ha! Let’s hope it holds out until we make it across.”
The figures standing on the opposite shore still only looked the size of a pinkie finger. As the two men engaged in idle chatter, they began their slow trek across the frozen lake.
“Here they come.”
Around the same time, on the opposite end of the lake, Keigetsu stood with Reirin on what would be the right side of the shore as seen from the cave. She watched Tou’s steady approach with a gulp.
“All set, Kou Reirin?” she asked.
“Yes.” Decked out in her finest clothes, Reirin hugged the item she was cradling closer to her chest. “The locals appear ready to go as well.”
She craned forward to peek at the side of the shore past the boulder. All the residents of the settlement were standing there, along with the three Maidens tasked with leading them. In their finery, the trio looked the perfect part of well-to-do ladies, but they were standing quite close to the locals, a sign that they had hit it off the previous day.
The locals had been brought to the lake for the ostensible purpose of ice fishing, but not one of them had set foot onto the frozen surface of the lake. They stayed put on the cramped shore, staring fearfully at the skies. In addition to the song, the Maidens had spent the whole previous day teaching them the old belief that souls would detach from the body during a solar eclipse, so their terror came as little surprise. But that was for the best.
Shing! Shing!
Reirin and Keigetsu caught a flash of light coming from the distant forest and glanced up. What they found was someone standing on a hilltop a fair way from the lake, bouncing light off a mirror—and that someone was Captain Shin-u of the Eagle Eyes. To prevent the sorcerer from detecting him, he’d picked a spot a good distance away that also gave him a view of the whole mountain. His job was to use the light to send signals from there.
“Twice in a row, I see,” remarked Reirin. “It looks like His Highness is well on his way to the lake.”
“This is so vexing. If only I could make a flame call, we could update one another without the added delay.” Keigetsu chewed her nails in frustration, too used to relying on the Daoist arts.
Reirin attempted to pacify her with a rueful smile. “I’m afraid this was our only option. Our target might notice if we were to use your magic.”
“I know, but this plan requires us to operate in smaller groups. It’s hard not to worry when we can’t see what the others are up to.”
Just as Keigetsu had said, their strategy involved splitting up into teams and assigning each a different role. Akim was in charge of finding the sorcerer and guiding him to a certain spot. Gyoumei’s job was to thwart Tou’s escape by hiking up the mountain from the bottom and putting on the pressure. Shin-u was their liaison, tasked with passing on messages from the men scattered throughout the mountain to Reirin and Keigetsu by the lake. Finally, Reirin and Keigetsu were the commanders, the ones who would coordinate and collaborate with all the moving parts.