I approached the stall and ordered everything my nose could distinguish. The vendor, an older woman with gray-streaked hair and an apron smeared in flour, was more than happy to oblige.
“Would you also like an order of lotus buns?” she asked, shrewdly capitalizing on my eagerness. “They’re our specialty, in honor of the moon for which our town is named.”
“All right,” I said, won by the vendor’s motherly smile. Whatwas the last thing my mother had made for me before she passed? I couldn’t remember.
“Here, try it,” the vendor said, offering me a smooth white roll wrapped in leaves. “The pork buns will take just a moment to steam.”
The bread scorched my fingers when I touched it, so I blew across it first before delicately splitting the bun apart. Hidden inside was a generous offering of rich brown lotus paste, the sugary scent escaping into the air. I tore off a piece of the bun, ensuring an even amount of bread and paste, and popped it into my mouth.
“Good?” said the vendor as she watched me chew.
I nodded, then swallowed. “Delicious.”
“It’s nice to see a traveler in town.” The vendor dusted flour on her palms and rolled out another piece of dough. “Yueguan has been too quiet these past months.”
“Are the springs not busy?”
“Not at all. Everyone is too afraid to visit, what with us being so close to the border. We’re all holding our breath, waiting for the Sian king’s soldiers to strike.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, thinking of the prince waiting for me back in the forest. The prince who could possibly prevent the village’s greatest fear. “I’m sure nothing will happen anytime soon.”
“I certainly pray that we’ll be safe a little longer.” The vendor sighed, then paused her work to check on the steaming baskets. “Ah, it appears your food is ready.”
I waited as the woman wrapped my order in cloth and passed it over the stall. I thanked her with a bow, knowing I needed to hurry before the food cooled. Imagining Ren’s excited face when he saw the treat made my stomach warm, as ifI’d swallowed another bite of lotus bun. The feeling unnerved me, so I quickly brushed the image away.
I’d walked the length of a block when I felt a hand on my shoulder. After spinning around, I recognized, pulse spiking, the grave face of the soldier I’d left at the apothecary shop in Xiuxi.
CHAPTER 14
The soldier’s eyes bored into mine. Her dark brows pinched together like gathering storm clouds, her forest-green uniform faded from travel and smelling vaguely of sweat.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I’ve been tracking you,” the soldier replied bluntly. “You left Xiuxi in an unusual hurry, and I noticed you had a companion—a living one.”
“Companion?” I pretended to think. “Ah, you must mean the traveler I met in the village. But she wasn’t accompanying me. She was merely answering my request for directions and personally showing me the road to take.”
“She?” the soldier echoed.
“Yes, that’s right.” I smiled, as if amused. “Did you think she was a man? She was rather tall, wasn’t she? When I asked about her height, she said she inherited it from her grandmother, who was—”
“What of the corpse you claimed in the battlefield?” theofficer interrupted, clearly exasperated. “He was a soldier from Sian, yes?”
“Yes.” I turned serious again. “But I’ll have you know that holy servants are politically neutral, and so is their work. Just as I have the right to travel between borders, my assignment has the right to return to Sian as well.”
“I’m not trying to stop you from returning, not unless you give me reason to. I merely want to examine the corpse you’re guiding.”
“He’s not with me right now,” I said. “It’s daylight.”
“So where is he?”
“Stored away somewhere dark and cool,” I said vaguely, hugging the package of food against my chest. It was growing uncomfortably hot through the fabric, and my healing wrist twinged from the weight. “Look, I really must be going—”
“Going where?”
Heavens, she was persistent. Were soldiers always this annoying about their jobs?
“Going to… the inn I’m staying at, of course,” I lied.
