The earth wall was still there in the morning.
Xu Hao had rather hoped it wouldn't be.
A sleepless night could play tricks on the mind, especially after a blow to the head. He'd considered that possibility while the two giants snored beside the dying fire, and again when dawn brought the unpleasant discovery that his wrists had gone numb.
But the wall remained in the clearing, a crooked heap of dark soil and stones taller than his head. Behind it lay two long trenches where the ground had moved. One of the giants had left his club resting against the mound, as casually as a farmer might lean a spade against a fence.
Xu Hao stared at it until Big One noticed.
The giant followed his gaze, grinned, and stamped his foot.
A stone jumped out of the dirt beside Xu Hao's shoe.
He flinched. Big One laughed so hard that he had to sit down.
"I'd appreciate a warning," Xu Hao told him. "Preferably in a language I understand."
Big One said something, made a sweeping gesture with both arms, and looked pleased with himself.
"Yes, very impressive. You can rearrange the landscape. I can tell you the probable century in which a French nobleman last paid his taxes. Each of us has his gifts."
Big One leaned down and prodded Xu Hao's sleeve.
Xu Hao looked at the enormous finger, then at the giant's face.
They were never going to get anywhere like this.
He nodded towards the fire. "Fire."
Big One frowned.
Xu Hao tried again, pointing at a burning log. "Fire."
The giant glanced at the flames and said a word.
Xu Hao repeated it. His pronunciation was evidently terrible. Big One corrected him, then repeated the word with more volume, as though shouting might alter the shape of Xu Hao's tongue.
"Thank you," Xu Hao said. "The volume was definitely the missing ingredient."
They worked through the fire, the log, a stone, and the wooden cup. Big One enjoyed this far more than Xu Hao did. Whenever he produced the wrong sound, the giant slapped his own knee and roared with laughter.
Big Two emerged from the shelter halfway through the lesson, took one look at his brother's delighted expression, and came over to investigate.
He listened to Xu Hao's attempt at the word for water, then gave the correct pronunciation without laughing.
Xu Hao turned to him gratefully. "A teacher. At last."
Big Two pointed towards the stream.
"Water," Xu Hao repeated in their language.
The giant nodded once.
Big One immediately pointed at Xu Hao and said something long and complicated.
Xu Hao waited for a translation that never came.
Big Two rolled his eyes.
Interesting. That expression, at least, appeared to be universal.
* * *
They untied him to eat, but never both hands at once.
Big Two handled the knots. He would loosen the vines around one wrist, push a bowl into Xu Hao's free hand, and sit close enough to catch him if he tried anything. Big One generally watched from the fire, his club within reach, while offering comments that made his companion look increasingly tired.
Xu Hao ate what he was given. He had no idea whether the milky drink counted as water, medicine, or the secretion of some six-legged animal he preferred not to meet. It made him feel less exhausted, and the swelling near his ear continued to recede, so he decided to postpone the investigation.
On the second morning, he tried asking for his hands to be freed completely.
He held up both wrists, spread his fingers, and spoke the handful of words he knew. He managed something that, translated generously, might have meant, "Hands, no rope, please."
Big One inspected the vines, tightened one knot, and nodded with satisfaction.
"No," Xu Hao said. "The other direction."
Big Two turned away, but not before Xu Hao saw his shoulders shaking.
That was the first time he'd seen the quieter giant laugh at him.
By the third day, he'd learned enough to understand that the men weren't calling each other Big One and Big Two. That had never been likely, but he found the confirmation mildly disappointing. Their real names remained beyond him, buried in sentences he couldn't follow.
He learned the words for eat, drink, stop, come, and wait. Sometimes he got them right. Sometimes Big One handed him a stone when he'd asked for water, or pointed at the cooking pot when Xu Hao was trying to indicate the stream.
Once, during a particularly hopeless exchange, Xu Hao accidentally used the word for meat while pointing at Big Two.
Big One collapsed against a tree, laughing.
Big Two looked at Xu Hao for a long moment.
"An honest mistake," Xu Hao assured him. "You're both very large. I can see how the confusion arose."
He didn't repeat that word again until he was absolutely certain of its meaning.
The lessons gave him something to do, but they also had a more practical purpose. If he could ask where the nearest settlement was, he might learn whether these men intended to take him there. If he could explain that he was lost, perhaps they would release him.
And if they meant to sell him, knowing what they were saying would give him a chance to prepare.
* * *
On the fourth afternoon, Big One cut his hand.
He was splitting a thick branch into firewood when a piece of bark tore loose. Xu Hao heard him curse. The giant dropped the wood, examined his palm, then pulled a strip of cloth from a sack and began wrapping it around the cut.
The cloth had been used before. Xu Hao could tell by its colour.
"Oh, don't do that."
Big One ignored him.
"That's filthy. You'll grind half the forest into the wound."
Xu Hao stood as far as the vines would allow and tried pointing. Big One frowned at him. Xu Hao pointed at the cloth, shook his head, and demonstrated washing with his one free hand.
Big Two came over, drawn by the commotion.
Xu Hao said the word for water. Then stop. Then water again, more urgently.
For a moment, both giants stared at him.
Big One held up the cut, which was already beginning to close at the edges. The bleeding had slowed. Perhaps whatever allowed him to move earth also helped him recover from injuries. Xu Hao wasn't prepared to make that assumption, though. An infected wound was no small matter, whatever size its owner happened to be.
He pointed at the pot above the fire, then at the cloth.
Big Two's eyes moved from the pot to his brother's hand. He spoke sharply. Big One protested. After a brief argument, Big Two took the dirty strip away and tossed it aside.
"Good," Xu Hao said. "Someone in this camp values having two hands."
He had to do most of the work by gesture. He asked for water from the pot, waited until it cooled enough to use, and indicated that they should rinse the cut. Big One submitted with the injured dignity of a man being treated for a scratch by someone less than half his weight.
Then Xu Hao offered a clean section of his own undershirt.
Big Two studied the cloth. He spoke to his brother, who looked offended, and then cut a narrow strip from it.
Xu Hao took the strip and held out his hands.
Both men looked at the vines.
"I'm going to tie a bandage," Xu Hao said. "Not challenge you to a duel."
Big Two hesitated, then freed his other wrist.
Both hands were free, and neither man was holding his shoulder.
He resisted the urge to rub them. Instead, he folded the cloth into a pad, pressed it over the cleaned cut, and wound the strip around Big One's palm. The knot was small, firm, and easy to untie without pulling at the injured skin.
His mother would have approved.
Big One flexed his fingers, studying the bandage. He tried pulling at it with his teeth.
"Please don't."
The giant gave an approving grunt, then held the hand up for Big Two to see.
Big Two examined Xu Hao instead.
There was no friendliness in his expression, exactly. But he hadn't drawn the sword, and he didn't retie Xu Hao's hands immediately. He let him wash them in the remaining water first.
Xu Hao took that as progress.
Five minutes later, he was back against the tree.
He took that as a reminder not to become overconfident.
* * *
Rain came on the fifth night.
It began as a soft patter on the leaves and became a downpour that turned the clearing into a patchwork of puddles. The brothers dragged the firewood beneath the shelter and covered the cooking stones. Xu Hao remained where he was until rainwater began running down the back of his neck.
He called out the word for water, followed by stop.
Big One looked over and laughed.
"Very amusing," Xu Hao said through chattering teeth. "You should perform in public."
Big Two came out a moment later, lifted him by the back of his coat, and carried him beneath the shelter. He set Xu Hao down beside the woodpile and secured one ankle to a post instead of binding both wrists.
The arrangement was not comfortable, but at least he could wipe his face.
He watched the rain make silver threads beyond the edge of the cloth. Big One sat near the opening, scraping dirt from his knife. Big Two checked the knots holding the shelter in place and, when he was satisfied, settled beside the low fire.
Neither man appeared troubled by the storm. Xu Hao was beginning to suspect it would take considerably more than weather to frighten them.
Then a sound came from beyond the clearing.
He couldn't have described it. A long, dragging scrape, followed by the crack of a branch. It might have been a tree shifting in the wet ground.
Big One lowered the knife.
Big Two rose without a word and took up his sword.
They stood listening. Even Big One's breathing grew quiet.
Xu Hao held still. A second sound came, farther away this time. He looked between the giants, waiting for some indication of what they expected to find.
Big Two spoke a single word.
Xu Hao recognised it.
Wait.
He didn't need the translation. The giant had placed himself between Xu Hao and the shelter opening, his blade lowered but ready. Big One had moved beside him, the bandage still white against his broad palm.
The rain went on falling.
After a while, the brothers exchanged a few quiet words and returned to the fire, though neither put his weapon out of reach.
Xu Hao lay down on his side. He could see the dark line of the trees beyond the shelter, but nothing moved there now.
He had been looking for a chance to escape since the moment they tied him up. Tonight, with one ankle bound and both hands free, he might finally have managed it.
He watched Big Two sitting awake beside the opening.
Then he drew his damp coat around himself and closed his eyes.
But whatever had made two men capable of moving earth reach for their weapons was somewhere in those trees.
For the first time, the vines around his ankle were not the thing that frightened him most.