Chapter 6: The Price of a Stone

The moon was a thin sliver when Kai Cheng reached the edge of Qingshui, a pale knife blade caught in the branches of the scrub pines. He had taken the long way back, skirting the fields and the irrigation ditches, avoiding the main road. The stone was a cold weight against his ribs, wrapped in cloth and tucked inside his tunic, and every step he took seemed to whisper a warning: too easy, too clea...