67: The Wounded Leader

The arrow flew.

It flew straight by the small specific reading at the small clear ground. It flew along the small even arc Lao Wen had drawn in chalk on the small wooden table at perhaps a hundred small specific evenings of the past two years. It crossed the small specific fifteen paces between the small specific covered place against the south wall's brush and the small specific shoulder of the leader.

The leader — at the small specific instant of his small specific weight transferring onto the small specific forward foot in the turning — moved.

He moved by the small specific reading of an old hunter who had — by the small specific reading at the small specific bow on his shoulder, the small specific way he had been turning, the small specific tilt of his head at the small specific call to the men behind — caught, at the very last moment, the small specific reading at the small specific edge of his eye of a small specific bowstring's release at the small specific covered place against the brush.

He did not move enough to dodge the arrow. He moved enough to change where it landed.

The arrow took him — not at the small specific window of the heart, where Heizi had aimed, but at the small specific upper edge of the shoulder, four finger's-breadths above. It went in — by the small specific reading at the small clear ground — through the small specific top of the upper arm, the small specific thick leather of the leader's old jerkin slowing it, and lodged at the small specific bone.

The leader staggered.

He did not fall.

He cried out — by the small specific reading at the small specific cry — in the small specific way of a man who had been struck at the small specific upper arm by an arrow at fifteen paces and who had — by the small specific accumulating reading of his perhaps five seasons on the bandit-route — been struck at small specific other places before and was not, on this morning, going down at a single arrow at the upper arm.

The three men behind him, by the small specific reading at the small clear ground, drew.

One had a long-handled flail. One had a short sword. One had a hammer.

They came at the small clear ground — at the small specific instant of the leader's small specific stagger — at the run.

Lao Wen, behind the small low front wall, stepped out.

He stepped out at the small specific reading of an old officer at sixty whose small specific spear had not been at any small specific real moment in nineteen winters. He stepped out at the small specific careful pace of an old man whose small specific four-step had — by the small specific accumulating careful work he had been doing in the past two years at the small clear ground at every noon — held in his old hands.

He stepped out at the small specific instant of the man with the short sword's small specific weight forward.

The small specific spear's careful thrust took the man with the short sword at the small specific window of the chest.

The man with the short sword made a small low sound. He did not, by the small specific reading at the small specific reading of an old officer's careful thrust, cry out. He fell forward — at the small specific way of a man who had been taken at the small specific window. He went down on his knees first. He went down on his face.

The other two — the man with the flail and the man with the hammer — stopped.

The leader, at the small specific position of the small specific upper bend of the path, was — by the small specific reading at his small staggering grip on the small specific upper arm — at the small specific edge of the small clear ground, with the arrow lodged at the small specific bone.

The man with the flail looked at his fallen comrade.

He looked at the old officer with the spear at the small specific second guard-position.

He looked at Wang Er — at the small specific position fifteen paces east of the south face's small clear ground, with the saber at the small specific *thrust-and-set* — coming, at this small specific instant, into the small clear ground at the run.

He looked at the smith's son's eye at the small specific careful reading of the *thrust-and-set* — the small specific reading of a young smith who had, by the small specific accumulating reading of the past year and a half, been at the small specific work of his hands at the saber's small specific blade-and-foot perhaps a hundred and fifty hours.

The man with the flail and the man with the hammer turned.

They went back over the small specific upper bend of the path at the run.

They came down the small old herder's path — by the small specific reading at the small specific listening of the next quarter hour — at the small specific accumulating sound of two men running who had not, perhaps, been running in some time.

The leader — at the small clear ground's small specific edge — stayed for one beat.

He looked at the arrow at his shoulder. He looked at the old officer with the spear. He looked at the dark-skinned young man at the small specific covered place against the brush, with the bow at a second arrow's nock.

He turned.

He went over the upper bend of the path. He went down at the small specific staggering-and-running pace of a man with an arrow at the bone of the upper arm. He went past the lip of the small flat hollow. He went down off it. He was — by the small specific reading at the small specific sound — at perhaps the small specific lower bend within four breaths.

The household stayed at its small specific positions.

Heizi, at the small covered place, kept the second arrow at the small specific draw. The lame brother, at the corner, kept the spear at the small specific defensive holding-place. The boy, behind the lame brother, kept the small light blade at the small specific second-line ready. Wang Er, at the small specific now-thrust-and-set position three paces east of the small clear ground's small specific edge, kept the saber at the second guard.

Lao Wen, at the small specific position behind the small low front wall, kept the spear at the small specific lowered-but-ready guard.

The man with the short sword, at the small clear ground in front of them, lay face-down. He did not, by the small specific reading at the small specific stillness, move.

By the small specific reading at perhaps the next quarter hour, the small specific accumulating sound of the two running men diminished — by the small specific reading at Heizi's ear — past the small flat hollow at the foot, past the lower bend, past the small specific contour at the lower edge of the western face, and was lost in the small specific sound of the small thin wind at the lower country.

Lao Wen lowered the spear.

He looked at the man on the ground.

He said in the small low voice: *boy. Come check him.*

An Ashi came forward — slowly, with the small light blade still at the small ready in his hand. He knelt at the man on the ground. He laid one finger, very gently, at the side of the throat under the small specific small old leather collar.

He looked up.

He said in the small low voice: *master. He is alive. The breath is — by the small specific reading — at the small specific weak rate of a man at the small specific window of the chest, who has perhaps a quarter hour, perhaps less, before he dies.*

Lao Wen closed his old eyes for one breath.

He opened them.

He said in the small low voice: *yes, boy. The small specific window's spear-thrust at sixty is — by the small specific reading at this morning — slightly less precise than it had been at twenty-seven. The small specific thrust did not, by the small specific reading at the small specific bone, take the heart cleanly. He is — by the small specific reading at the small specific window — dying. He has perhaps, by the small specific reading I am giving, a quarter hour.*

He paused.

"Lad."

"Yes, master."

He looked at Heizi.

The two pairs of eyes met across the small clear ground.

Lao Wen said in the small low voice with the small specific reading of an old officer at the small specific instant of an old officer's small specific old saying: *lad. The small specific man on the ground is — by the small specific reading — dying. By the small specific reading of an old officer at the small specific small old upper-hills hunter's saying — the small specific finish of a small dying man, when the man has been taken at the small specific instant of his own small specific decision to come up the path with weapons drawn, is — by the small specific old way — the small specific work of the man whose hand the man came up to harm.*

He paused.

"Lad. The household. By the small specific reading. The small specific finish is yours."

Heizi looked at the man on the ground.

He looked at Lao Wen.

He looked at the brothers — at the lame brother at the corner, at the boy at the man's side, at the smith's son three paces east — each of whom was, by the small specific reading at this small specific instant, watching him.

He thought.

He thought slowly, in the small specific way of a young head of household who had — by the small specific accumulating reading of two years and four months on the road and at the hut — been preparing himself for the small specific instant at which the small specific old saying at the gully east of the third valley two years and seven months ago would, at last, by some small specific accident of the country, be revisited.

The small specific instant had come.

The man on the ground had not been, at the gully two years and seven months ago, the courier. The man on the ground was — by the small specific reading at his small old leather jerkin and his small specific carriage and his small specific having come up a small old herder's path with weapons drawn — a small specific bandit of the small specific four-band that had, at the lower contour for the past year and a half, been at the small specific accumulating becoming of a road.

The man was — by the small specific honest measure — the small specific opposite kind of man from the courier.

The courier had been alive.

This man was, by the small specific reading at An Ashi's reading of the breath, dying.

Heizi understood — slowly, by the small specific reading of his own small specific accumulating two years' filing — that the small specific question of the gully had been one question, and the small specific question at this small clear ground was a small specific different one.

The small specific question at the gully had been: will I, at the small specific instant of a man's small specific having decided to live, take that decision from him.

He had answered: no.

The small specific question at this small clear ground was: will I, at the small specific instant of a man's small specific dying, finish the death the household has — by the small specific arrangement of an old officer's small specific defense of the small clear ground — already begun.

He thought.

He looked once more at the man on the ground. The man's small thin breath, by the small specific reading at the small specific stillness of the small specific upper chest, was perhaps once every four counts now. The breath was — by the small specific reading — at the small specific edge of running out.

He thought of his sister. He thought of the *生* on the silk. He thought of the wider promise he had refined at the steep place ridge — *no girl to that camp, while I am alive*.

He thought of Old Zhang at the threshold: *you are not a boy who can kill. You will be made to. The world will require it of you. Live anyway.*

He thought, finally, of the small specific reading at the dawn of the third moon two years and seven months ago at the persimmon tree, when the country had taken his sister and he had — at the steepest moment of his life until then — laid his forehead against a smooth flat stone and had decided that the wider promise would be, by the small specific way of his life, the small specific way he answered the country's accumulating small specific cruelty.

The small specific man on the ground — by the small specific reading at the small specific carriage and the small specific weapons and the small specific having come up the path — was a man who had been at small specific other small clear grounds before. He had been at the small specific four-band that had taken the load at the saddle of the third ridge east two years and four months ago. He had — by the small specific reading at the small specific carriage of his small specific leather — perhaps been at the small specific upper-hills bandit-camps Heizi and the brothers had seen at the small specific farm beyond the steep place. He had — by the small specific honest measure — been at small specific other small clear grounds where small specific other young women and small specific other small thin children had been, by the small specific reading, at his hands.

Heizi did not — at the small clear ground — know this for certain.

He knew it by the small specific reading at the country.

He drew the militia knife from his belt.

He came forward — slowly, by the small specific careful pace Lao Wen had laid for him at the past two years — to the small specific position beside the man on the ground.

He knelt.

He laid one hand at the man's small thin shoulder.

The man — by the small specific reading at the small specific instant of the hand's contact — opened his eyes. The eyes were already at the small specific edge. They focused, slowly, on Heizi's face.

The man said, in a small thin voice that was barely a voice: *lad.*

Heizi did not — at the small kneeling — answer.

He drew the militia knife across the small specific window at the side of the throat, at the small specific careful place Lao Wen had drawn in chalk on the floor of the hut at some small specific evening of the past two months in his small specific accumulating tactical lessons: *the small specific quick window at the carotid; clean; immediate; without further suffering.*

The cut was clean.

The man, by the small specific reading at the small specific instant of the cut, did not, in his last breath, cry out. He breathed out — once — and was still.

Heizi held the militia knife at the small thin pool of dark red at the snow.

He looked at the dead man's face.

He filed it.

In the small interior register he had been keeping for two years and four months on the road, beside the names of Mei-er and Yan Liu-er and Ah Si and the eastern-pine hermit and the unnamed fourteen-year-old at the bandit-farm lean-to, he set the small specific *no name; the man with the short sword at the small clear ground in front of the south face of Lao Wen's hut at the noon of the third week of the ninth moon of the second year at the hut.*

The dark catalog stood at six.

He stood up.

He wiped the militia knife at a small folded piece of his own sleeve.

He looked at Lao Wen.

The old scholar, at the small specific position behind the small low front wall, was watching him.

Lao Wen did not, at the small clear ground, speak.

He held Heizi's eye for a long beat.

Then he turned, slowly, by the small specific careful pace of an old man with the spear at the small specific lowered guard, and went back into the hut.

The brothers stayed at their positions for another quarter hour. Heizi, at the small specific covered place, kept the second arrow at the small specific draw against the small specific possibility of the leader's small specific return with the small specific other man at the lower contour. The leader did not return.

By the noon, by the small specific reading at the small specific small specific accumulating absence of any small specific sound at the lower contour, the household lowered its small specific positions.

Wang Er and An Ashi, at the small specific accumulating reading of the past two years' work, did the small specific careful work of dressing the man's body — not for keeping; for the small specific old reading of an upper-hills hunter's careful work at any creature taken — and laid the body, by the small specific reading at Lao Wen's silent gesture from the small wooden stool inside the hut, at the small flat place behind the rock face. They did not bury him. The country, by the small specific old way, would take him.

That afternoon, Lao Wen at the small wooden stool did not speak.

He sat at the stool. He laid the small bound *Daxue* down on the small wooden table. He did not open it.

He sat for a long time.

The brothers, by the small specific accumulating reading of the past two years, did the small specific work of the day at the small specific reduced pace of a household whose master was, on this afternoon, at the small specific quiet of an old officer who had — at the noon — taken the first man at his hut in nineteen winters.

That evening, Lao Wen sat at the small wooden stool with the small bound *Daxue* still closed.

He did not, at the small fire, speak.

The household ate the small evening meal in the small specific accumulating quiet.

Heizi took the first watch.

He sat at the small banked fire ring inside the south face of the hut.

He listened.

The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a small old hut at the grove of twelve pines, on the night of the noon at which the small specific other half of the teaching had — by the small specific reading at the small specific instant of an old officer's small spear-thrust and a young head's small specific carotid-cut — taken the household into the small specific country it had been preparing for.

He filed it.

In the small lighter catalog of moments — beside the small specific noon of the cloth map and the small specific morning of the slates and the small specific dusk of the bog-iron and the small specific noon of the first knife — he did not, on this evening, set anything.

The small lighter catalog did not, by the small specific reading, hold the small specific entry for the small specific finish of a dying man at the small clear ground in front of the south face.

The dark catalog now held six.

He sat his watch through.

The lame brother, at the small specific second hour of the watch, came and sat beside him at the small banked fire for a long beat.

He did not, at the small fire, speak.

He laid one hand once on Heizi's shoulder — light, gone — in the small specific way of a brother who had — by the small specific reading at the past two years — become the small specific way of a brother who knew, by the small specific quiet, when the small specific quiet was the only small specific thing.

He went back to the small low pad.

Heizi sat his watch through.

The owls of the upper hills called once.

The wind, by the small specific reading at the second hour of the late watch, was at the steady cool of the second autumn's deep night.

Lao Wen, by the small specific accumulating reading at the small wooden stool inside the hut, did not speak.

The first day of his small specific not-speaking had begun.