Chapter 61
THEY SPRINTED PAST THE TREE their carriage had been parked under, and Duan Ling stopped to check the driver’s pulse. Fortunately, the man was still alive—just unconscious. Duan Ling hauled him upright and propped him against the tree while Wu Du went on ahead.
“W—wait!” Duan Ling panted, quickly losing his breath as he chased after Wu Du.
Wu Du leapt into the high branches of a tree in a few easy strides, while Duan Ling darted to the side, kicking himself off one tree trunk and onto another. From atop the canopy, Wu Du cast his gaze out across the vast plains, searching for the bandits—but even in such a short time, they’d disappeared.
Wu Du cursed. “They stole everything.”
Following his line of sight, Duan Ling gazed out too. Wu Du glanced over and had another sudden realization. “How did you get up here?”
Duan Ling almost fell from his branch; Wu Du hurriedly caught him.
Flustered, Duan Ling said, “The map and letter are both on the carriage.”
This spelled serious trouble. Duan Ling backtracked to the field and picked up a bow and quiver a bandit had dropped, testing it out. The Tangut bow was crudely made and rough on his hands, but usable.
“You can shoot too?!” Wu Du exclaimed, incredulous.
“Just a little,” Duan Ling said, another white lie delivered straight to Wu Du’s puzzled face. If you knew who taught me to scale walls, you’d probably die of shock.
“Seriously, how did you get up in that tree earlier?” Wu Du wasn’t giving up.
“I climbed it! Do we have to talk about this now? We need to find the carriage!”
Firelight flashed in the distance. Wu Du glanced up and saw several owls gliding northwest.
“That way.” After a moment’s consideration, he said, “Why don’t I drop you off…”
But where could he leave him? Wu Du couldn’t abandon Duan Ling alone in the wilderness, and there was still the matter of the unconscious driver. Just as he was feeling completely stymied, a voice shouted in the distance:
“Help—! Save me!”
They looked at each other with mutual frowns. There were more people in such a remote area? Deciding it was unlikely to be a trap, Wu Du crossed the field and found a middle-aged man shouting his lungs out. “Somebody! Help!”
Duan Ling nocked an arrow and aimed it at the man, but the stranger merely fell to his knees in front of them, panting. “Mercy, mercy!”
The man was sweating buckets and looked about to faint. Wu Du studied him briefly before setting a twig alight with a firestarter to properly illuminate his face.
“My young mistress…was kidnapped by those mounted bandits! Who are you? Won’t you please save my lady—”
Duan Ling immediately understood: The bandits had stolen the wrong carriage.
“Who is your young mistress?” Wu Du asked, furrowing his brow as he looked the man up and down.
“Sh-she…” the man stammered, clearly feeling the danger in Wu Du’s regard. “Well…my lady is here to visit relatives.”
“Take care of him.” Duan Ling pointed the man toward the driver resting under the tree. “We’ll go and look for her.”
“You two are…”
Duan Ling waved the question off and turned to leave.
“Hey! Wait!” Wu Du called after him.
“I get it now. We weren’t the bandits’ target,” Duan Ling said without breaking stride.
As soon as he said it, Wu Du understood as well. “Right—it’s too much of a coincidence.”
The bandits had to have been lurking here for some time; this ambush was premeditated. All that yelling in Tangut must have been because they realized something was amiss, and that the person they were looking for wasn’t there. They’d suspected some trick was underway, so they’d moved in. But then—why had they taken the carriage anyway?
This was a true damsel in distress situation. Wu Du and Duan Ling sped down the road, following the ruts made by the carriage wheels until the tracks veered off into the wheat fields. By now, the sky was growing lighter. Duan Ling couldn’t keep up with Wu Du, so he stopped trying, jogging along behind him with occasional short breaks.
Finally, Wu Du couldn’t stand it anymore. “Just go back!”
“I don’t know the way!” Duan Ling panted at him.
Wu Du was speechless.
But Duan Ling was determined to stick with him. Around them were nothing but fields and mountains. They’d set off when it was still dark, and now that dawn was breaking, the landscape looked completely different. They’d been running a full two hours—run all the way back? He was out of his mind!
Thus Wu Du could only slow his pace and observe their surroundings. The wheel tracks had disappeared from under their feet, and across the field was the rocky bank of a stream. Heavy fog covered the plains at daybreak, so thick they could scarcely see their hands in front of them.
“So the bandits wanted to kidnap a lady,” Duan Ling said, walking to the stream and leaning on a boulder to rest. “But they mistook our carriage for their target and tried to kidnap the wrong person.”
Wu Du was still shirtless. His clothes had been stowed in the carriage, so all he had was the towel in his hand, his trousers, and the sash around his waist. He stood and looked into the distance, toward the sound of rushing water. Before Duan Ling could say more, Wu Du dropped to the ground and pressed his ear to the earth, shushing him. He got up and waded gingerly across the stream, then turned and waved Duan Ling over.
Their carriage was stopped in a clearing before a waterfall. Several bandits were guarding it, groaning as they applied medicine to each other’s necks. As Duan Ling watched in the morning light, a few disappeared into a cave behind the waterfall—a makeshift encampment. A lamp hung from the cave’s ceiling, and several people were sitting around inside.
“Can we take them out all at once?” Duan Ling asked.
“The ones outside, yes, but not the ones in the cave. We’d need to attack twice, but I have nothing useful with me—only this sash, and I’m low on poison powder. There’s just enough left for a single use, so we’d have to kill the rest.”
“Then we’ll lure the ones inside out,” Duan Ling said.
He drew a simple map in the dirt behind the tree, crafting a plan with Wu Du. “And then…once you have everything, I’ll leave the rest to you,” Duan Ling said, looking to Wu Du for confirmation.
Wu Du nodded his agreement, staring thoughtfully at Duan Ling.
“What?”
“Very bold,” Wu Du said. “Who taught you this stuff?”
As Duan Ling scrambled for an appropriate answer, Wu Du said, “Let’s get on with it, then.”
The pair separated. Duan Ling took a steadying breath, drew his pilfered bow, and shot a single test arrow. His archery skills weren’t great, but he’d practiced drawing a bow. Though these Tangut iron bows were exhausting to draw, they were powerful and had a long range.
In the meantime, Wu Du hid himself in the forest and waited, sitting on his haunches with hands braced on his knees as he watched Duan Ling.