Eventually there had been dark slate walls, and now there was a place that smelled strongly of hay, sweat, and dung. The donkey perked up here, its sensitive ears turning this way and that, and Rock Head was forced to hold strongly onto the animal’s lead line to keep it from pulling away.
A person—focusing intently showed that it was a man in armor—came to take the lead line from Rock Head, but the instructions from the boss had been clear once he’d understood them. The job was to hold the line, so Rock Head refused to let go.
Voices came and went, and slowly the area began to piece together in his mind. There were horses and oxen, but no other donkeys had appeared yet. Another person came and stood before Rock Head. This one—a woman—carried stillness with her. She stood before him quietly until his mind could assemble her into a whole.
“You’ll need to let go if we’re to take care of the beast,” she said.
Rock Head reordered the words until they made sense, then replied, “My job is stay with the donkey.”
The woman’s eyes slid from her face to examine him. One turned toward the donkey while the other focused on several other people nearby. Rock Head caught the colors of their uniforms: green and white.
“How about you lead the donkey into a stall,” the woman said. “You can stay with the animal while its examined and cared for.”
Rock Head was figuring out the words’ meaning when another voice intruded: “Master Hu, the dūtóu was taken inside for treatment, and we’ve put the rescued laborers in the dining hall for the time being. By the looks of things, more than a few have gone several days without food.”
That was far too many words at once, and Rock Head had to let go of the attempt to order them. His breathing began to quicken, and his hands tightened around the lead line.
“Easy now,” the woman said, her voice soft. There was a gesture too, but Rock Head didn’t quite see it. “May I touch your arm?”
This time, there’d only been a handful of words, and their meaning became clear. Rock Head nodded to show he’d understood them.
Gently, the woman put a hand on his elbow and guided him to a sheltered place. The animal smell from earlier intensified. He heard a horse’s whinny, which he recognized. Another horse snorted, and there came the sound of hooves trampling hay.
Rock Head nodded to himself. He understood what this place was, a stable. “I work for a man with a sword. He told me to lead the donkey to the House of Yu.”
“And you’ve done a fine job of it,” the woman replied. “Now, in here if you please. This is the stall.”
Dark wood surrounded Rock Head on all sides. It became easier to focus on the donkey who immediately went to eat from a pile of hay at the far end. He let the line go slack, since animals needed to eat.
Not just the donkey but the woman too became easier to understand, and he saw she was lean, with gray in her hair. Rock Head bowed. That was what one did when meeting an elder for the first time.
The woman nodded in reply. With a gesture, her hand flew away and returned a moment later with a mug full of water, which she handed to him. “Go on. You must be thirsty.”
Only a handful of words, quickly comprehended. Rock Head downed the cup in one go. His mouth and throat had been so dry after coming down from the Dragon’s Spine.
“We’ve called for someone from the dūtóu’s courtyard,” a voice said—a man, Rock Head realized.
“All right,” the gentle woman replied. “Then let’s the two of us take care of this fine little donkey for the time being.”
“Master Hu will… for this beast?” the man said. The voice had shifted at the end, sounding like surprise.
“Every animal deserves our care and attention,” the gentle woman said. “None are beneath us.”
The horse in the adjacent stall sent its eyes to peek in on the gentle woman. The man went away and came back with a brush and a bucket of water. He worked with the gentle woman to groom the donkey. Rock Head helped when it was asked of him to do so. Following the instructions from the boss didn’t mean he couldn’t follow others’ too, as long as they were comprehensible.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
After a time, the gentle woman said, “You have a delicate touch.”
It took a moment for Rock Head to realize the words had been meant for him. “It’s because I’m strong,” he replied.
“If you’re not careful, things break. Is that it?”
He nodded, pleased that she’d understood.
She turned her eyes toward the donkey. “Do you know if the animal has a name?”
Rock Head nodded again, this time because he’d heard the boss mutter the words several times: “Clip Clop.”
The gentle woman snorted in surprise, then her laughter peeled through the stable, bringing more eyes to the donkey’s stall. “Really? Something so childish?”
“It’s a good name,” Rock Head replied, defending the boss.
“All right, all right. Yes, it’s a fine name for a donkey. One might even call it approachable.”
“Approachable,” Rock Head repeated. It’d been the most important of the words she’d said.
A man’s voice came from outside the stall: “Master Hu? We’ve brought a person from the dūtóu’s courtyard.”
“I was told there was a new hire,” another said, a woman, and this time the words cut through all the others.
Rock Head’s heart bloomed; his breathing nearly stopped, and he rushed out of the stall to see Yellow’s Ugly Dog. People called her that, but to him, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
###
“Blessed gods,” Ugly Dog said in surprise. She couldn’t help rushing to grab Rock Head by the shoulders.
The other squatters at the abandoned warehouse he’d been living in had said he’d gone missing. They’d taken care of his father in the meantime, but just the bare minimum. No one squatting in the low city could afford to share their food—just a bit here and there.
“Where have you been?” Ugly Dog asked. “No one knew where you’d gone.”
Rock Head’s face flushed in embarrassment. “I was took by people in masks.”
Stable Master Hu Qin looked over from where she’d been brushing… a donkey of all things. “Your dūtóu rescued a good number of people held by the Tiger Masks, and this young man helped lead them here.”
Ugly Dog stepped back in shock. “My Rock Head was one of the captives?” She quickly examined her intended husband and found him unharmed.
His eyes had crossed from the effort of following the conversation. “I was. But a good man took me here. He gave me a job.” Then as if to stress the importance of the last point, he repeated, “I have a job. He’s my boss now.”
“You… you’re the new hire?” Ugly Dog looked around to see if the people around her had heard the same thing as she had, which was apparently the case because they were looking at her in turn, curiosity plain on their faces about what her response would be.
Even though Ugly Dog had joined Hong Fei’s courtyard only days ago, she understood that the dūtóu enjoyed a reputation for mysterious dealings. The man seemed to know all sorts of things that others didn’t, with no one quite comprehending how he knew them.
And now, Ugly Dog was making a very public show of some of his household’s inner workings. Except, she didn’t know how those things operated either. Rock Head’s presence at the estate was just as much a mystery to her as anyone else.
She cleared her throat, suddenly self-conscious. “That makes us both. Your boss is my boss too.”
“Oh,” Rock Head said. Then a moment later, his smile widened. “Oh!”
Ugly Dog nodded. There were so many things she wanted to say: about how she no longer worked for the Rock Knives, about how Hong Fei had stunned her by knowing Rock Head’s name even before they’d met; about how she’d used the advance on her salary to move the young man’s father into a proper apartment, with a caretaker took look after him; about the peculiarities of the dūtóu’s household; and about how Rock Head should stop caring about propriety so that the two of them could get married, with no bride price necessary.
All those words caught in her throat, the eyes of the people around her strangling them before they could escape her mouth. Her eyes darted to Hu Qin. “Stable Master, may I take Rock Head with me to the dūtóu’s courtyard?”
Hu Qin nodded. “You may. And once the dūtóu awakes, pass along my regards. Tell him for me that he has a good eye for people.”
The stable master was a frightening figure among the Yu retainers, but Ugly Dog now wondered if that reputation wasn’t deserved. If the woman could recognize the worth of someone like Rock Head, she couldn’t be all bad.
“I will,” Ugly Dog replied, then she took Rock Head’s hand to lead him away.
“I’m supposed to hold the line,” he said.
“These are new instructions from Dūtóu Hong’s secretary,” Ugly Dog explained. “I’m to show you where you’re going to live.”
After a few steps, he said. “My father—”
“—is well, I’ve made sure of it.” Ugly Dog’s chest puffed out with pride. “My salary can more than afford it.”
“Oh.” A frown formed on Rock Head’s face, a thought gathering and the words being assembled. Ugly Dog waited until he continued, “I’m—I’m happy you don’t work for the Knives anymore.”
“Me too, if I’m honest,” she replied.
“And if you have a job and I have a job, then that means—”
Ugly Dog smiled and put a finger upon his lips to shush him. There were people about, and this was private business between Rock Head and her. “Yes, it does,” she said.
He licked his lips where she’d touched them. “Will it really be all right?”
“I don’t know,” she replied honestly.
Life in Hong Fei’s household was peculiar, and also dangerous. She’d embraced her death already, but now that Rock Head was present, things had become cloudier. It’s still better for him than squatting and living from day to day. A chance at life worth living is also worth dying for.
“It may not be easy,” she eventually continued.
“If it’s good, then I can do it,” Rock Head replied.
“We won’t be poor, at least,” she said with a grin. “Not with the salaries we’ll be making.”
Another frown formed on Rock Head’s face. He blushed in embarrassment, and Ugly Dog had an uncomfortable premonition.
“You agreed to work for the boss, but you didn’t ask about the wages, did you?”
“I—I don’t understand what you’re saying,” he replied, looking away.
“You! What were you… no, never mind, when the time comes, just let me do the talking.” Ugly Dog shook her head. “I have experience negotiating with the boss.”
“All right,” Rock Head replied. Then, a few steps later, the frown faded from his face, and the smile from earlier returned.
Ugly Dog didn’t realize it, but her own smile was just as bright.
- Clip Clop, apparently the name that Hong Fei has been calling the donkey "liberated" from the Rock Knives
- Hu Qin, the stable master at the Yu estate
- Rock Head, a young man with a red 3
- Ugly Dog, a former Rock Knife that's now part of Hong Fei's household, red 3