Seeing that Luosaier was only looking this way in thought, and had neither tried to call out and draw anyone else's attention nor shown any strange expression, Xialuote relaxed a little inside. Then she frowned.
She had meant all along to use this hunt for a word with him alone. On one hand, she wanted to settle the matter of printing and publishing the newspaper; on the other, she meant to take the chance to warn this young nobleman to watch the servants around him, even his own family, lest he be surrounded by evil cultists and never know it.
Luosaier, after all, had twice foiled the plot of these heretics hidden in dark corners to kidnap sacrificial offerings yet again. In all likelihood he was already on their blacklist, and rather high on it.
The only problem was that she had only just promised her father not to get too close to Luosaier. If she struck up a conversation with him in front of her father, that father of hers, deceived time and again, would likely never again believe a single word from his daughter's mouth.
At the thought, Xialuote looked off elsewhere as if idly surveying the hunting ground, then gave a light wave of her hand. She left the ground where the servants were preparing the hunting gear and training the hounds, followed a narrow path behind the tents, and walked toward a small wood not far off.
From the corner of her eye she noticed that, after a brief blank moment, Luosaier lengthened his stride and came after her. He had clearly understood.
A little over ten meters apart, the two left the camp one after the other and slipped into the woods, like two guests with nothing to do with each other who merely wished to wander off alone.
She had barely rounded a few trees when she saw two figures hidden in the wood, pressed extremely close.
A young lady with her hair bound up, a lady's hat on her head, leaned back against a thick trunk. Her collar had been pulled open, and her skirt was bunched at her waist. A young man leaned in over her, one hand braced on the tree, the other somewhere plainly unfit for a formal social occasion.
This... this was... Xialuote stared, struck dumb. Although she came from another, more open world, seeing such a scene with her own eyes still set her cheeks burning, and for a moment she did not know where to put her gaze.
At the sound of her footsteps, the pair who had been making intimate noises froze at the same time, and the next second they broke apart in a flurry.
The woman lowered her head and straightened her clothes. The man turned at once and pretended to watch the hounds in the distance, as if the two of them had merely been young people fond of natural scenery, studying the grain of the bark together.
A composure so easily taken up and set aside made Xialuote feel, instead, that she was the one caught in a tryst.
Of course, this also had something to do with the social ways of the Yindisi nobility.
In Xialuote's memory, among the four great nations of the Northern Continent, the Kingdom of Feineibote, because it worshipped the Earth Mother, was more open about childbirth, the body, and relations between the sexes, and the customs of many places there were even blunter than in Yindisi. Yet Yindisi was clearly none too conservative itself. In the aristocratic circles of Telier especially, a fashion had formed in which dress, etiquette, and forms of address grew ever more respectable on the surface, while in private flirtation, lovers, and amorous rumors sprang up without end, and little by little it had led other regions astray.
It was said that at the aristocratic balls of Telier, ladies passed hints by means of black false beauty spots set in different places on their faces, and gentlemen who could read them might gain a temporary liaison in a rear garden or a study.
By comparison, the Luen Kingdom seemed more conservative. In recent years, though, Luen manners and more practical close-fitting drawers had nevertheless entered Yindisi, because the cultural standing of the two sides had shifted after the war. Beyond an outward show of propriety, noblewomen had a few more choices that made it easier to move.
Thinking of how, in earlier days, there had often been nothing under a woman's skirts but a petticoat, stockings, and garters—the hem seeming to trail to the ground, while all within was left entirely unguarded—Xialuote suddenly felt she had come into a somewhat better age.
She gathered those thoughts in, forced her back straight, and walked past the pair as if she had seen nothing. Behind her, Luosaier had plainly been stunned by the scene in the woods as well. He even stopped where he was and stared blankly for two or three seconds, and only after the man and woman had put their clothing back in order did he give a light cough and follow on as if nothing had happened.
What are you staring for? Keep that up and we won't look as if we came to do anything proper either... She secretly mocked Luosaier for never having seen the world, and only after they had walked some distance did she recover from the embarrassment.
* * *
Coming to the shrubs beside a little stream, and sure she could no longer see the couple or hear those intimate sounds, Xialuote stopped and turned to Luosaier.
"You seem to have business with me?"
She offered no pleasantries, and went straight to the point.
Luosaier looked at her, and suddenly smiled.
"Miss Xialuote, more than your beauty, it is your mind that seems unlike other people's."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Of course."
Luosaier answered with a tap of one finger on his hat brim. His expression did not look like a joke.
His manners are a good deal more practiced than the last time we met... Xialuote grumbled inwardly, then found the smile gone from his face all at once. His voice dropped as he asked:
"What exactly happened that day at the printing plant?
"The attackers were clearly no ordinary people. That beggar especially—his speed and his reactions were both abnormal. And that black-robed woman seemed to have her whole person hidden in the shadows. The liquid in your hand burned her, and then that lady from the Church sent her flying with one punch... Gelin and I have already been dragged in. We need an explanation from you."
He watched more closely than I imagined. He didn't ask at the time only because he was wary of those people from the Church, Weiyefu above all, whose showing in a fight was astonishing... Xialuote's thoughts raced. She did not know whether she ought to tell any part of the world of mysticism to this ordinary person, who had truly been pulled into the matter.
Fortunately, before she came looking for Luosaier on her own, she had already prepared answers for many different questions. She did not hesitate long.
"According to the Church, they are heretics who believe in an evil existence. Those murders in the Old City were their doing, and they had set their sights on me, I fear, for some bloody purpose as well... Perhaps these evil cults have got hold of some special potion that can make whoever takes it far stronger in body than an ordinary person."
Luosaier clearly did not quite believe her.
"A drug?"
Seeing Xialuote nod with a serious face, he frowned and pressed on.
"And that bottle of liquid that burned someone?"
"Holy water," Xialuote answered at once. "Something Sister Weiyefu gave me to defend myself. I don't know why it was so strong, either. I only know it works very well against those heretics."
Such an account was clearly hard for Luosaier to credit, but she gave him no chance to keep asking, and went on at once.
"More than the Church's secrets, you ought to watch the people around you. See whether anyone is keeping an eye on you, or doing anything strange. You've disrupted their doings twice. You might become a target yourself."
This was her real reason for seeking Luosaier out. If the trouble really did lie in the Gusitafu residence, then he might notice an abnormality sooner than she could.
Seemingly startled by how fast the subject had jumped, Luosaier stared at Xialuote for a few seconds before he said:
"There is one abnormal person, yes. And she is right in front of me."
What? Xialuote made no effort to hide her shock.
"Just now you bared your teeth at several of the hounds," he said, weighing his words, "as if you meant to bite them back. And then they were frightened by you."
For a moment Xialuote had nothing to say.
She had considered that Luosaier might have seen her use her extraordinary ability to drive off the pack of dogs, but she had never imagined it would sound like that from his mouth.
"I did not bare my teeth," she said, stressing it.
"I am only describing what I saw."
Luosaier's tone was entirely sincere, and for an instant it made Xialuote wonder whether she really had let a fierce look slip without meaning to. Only then did she realize he was leading her by the nose. She drew a deep breath and turned the talk aside.
"If you think I was spying on you, then I think you were observing me the whole time just now."
Luosaier did not deny it.
"I was only curious."
"Curious about the Church's secrets, or curious about me?"
The moment the words were out, Xialuote knew something was wrong. Luosaier, too, went visibly blank and did not answer. The woods fell quiet at once.
That sounded far too much like a line that couple would have used, and slipping off to the stream like this is the same... Xialuote muttered to herself, and the scene felt more awkward by the moment.
She was just about to change the subject as unconcernedly as that young lady had behaved when, from the other side of the shrubs, there came a sudden rustle of grass underfoot, and then low, broken gasps.
Surely not. How many people are hiding in the grass at the edge of the hunting camp? Xialuote looked at Luosaier and found his expression a little delicate as well.
But the next second that rustling turned into something far more unsettling: a wet, sticky sound of tearing.
As if something were swallowing flesh and blood, eating its fill.
Xialuote's expression froze on her face. Luosaier grew grave as well, and his right hand moved of its own accord toward the flintlock pistol at his waist.
They were already some distance from the tents. Trees and shrubs blocked the view, and the cries of the hounds farther off were enough to cover small sounds. Once discovered, the couple from earlier ought to have left. If anything happened by the stream, perhaps only the two of them would know.
Confirm what it is first... Xialuote lowered herself, avoided the dry branches on the ground as best she could, and moved toward the sound.
Luosaier followed a little behind her, one hand on the holster. The pistol was troublesome to load, and there would be only one shot. It could not be used rashly.
The two rounded a clump of shrubs and came to the little stream, hidden in the shade of the trees.
A smear of dark red struck Xialuote's eyes at once. A continuous trail of blood ran from beside the shrubs all the way to the stream, and tiny beads of blood clung to a few flattened blades of grass.
At the end of the trail lay a servant of the hunting ground. He was on his back. His linen shirt had been ripped open, and a bloody opening gaped in his abdomen. The organs dragged out of it still gave off a steaming, hot, rank reek. Crouched beside him was a hunched figure.
The figure wore a tattered cloak. One foot was in a leather shoe, and the other was bare. Its head was bowed to its chest. Both hands pressed on the servant's corpse, fingers sunk deep into the flesh, and its shoulders twitched, again and again.
The wet sound of chewing came from there.
Several words from Weiyefu's booklet flashed through Xialuote's mind.
Abnormality, corruption, loss of control.
Just then the thing seemed to notice them. Its neck turned at an angle no ordinary person could possibly manage, and brought its face straight around toward Xialuote.
Chapter 26