Xu Hao had begun to dislike marks in trees.
At the university, a mark on old wood had been an invitation to investigate. A carpenter's stamp could date a roof beam; a scratched name might reveal the person who built a gate. He had once spent three weeks tracing the origin of a carved symbol on a merchant chest.
Here, a fresh cut in the bark meant somebody with a knife had been walking where he slept.
Er Bao examined the mark without touching it.
"Not ours," he said.
"I'd hoped you'd say that."
"It's on the side facing the stream."
"Someone could follow it uphill."
"They could. We don't know whether that's what they intended."
Da Bao joined them, Little One at his heel. He looked at the cut, then at the surrounding trunks.
"There's another there."
Xu Hao followed his finger. On a pine twenty paces ahead was a second slash, shallow and slanting. He hadn't noticed it because the first cut had caught all his attention.
"A marked trail," he said.
"A hunting route, probably," Da Bao replied. "Or someone clearing a way back to town."
"Probably?"
"You said yourself that we shouldn't guess more than we know."
Xu Hao looked at him. "You're using my teaching against me."
"Er Bao does it all the time. I thought I'd try."
* * *
They followed the marks no farther than the edge of the rocky slope. There were three in total, all on the same side of the trees. Beyond them the ground rose steeply, and the path turned away towards a dry creek bed.
Er Bao knelt beside a flattened patch of grass. Someone had rested a load there, perhaps a sack or bundle of traps. A few threads of rough rope clung to a bramble.
"No clear footprint," he said. "And we don't know how many people came through."
"They could still be nearby," Xu Hao murmured.
"Yes. So we go home."
Da Bao frowned. "We could look from the ridge. Find out whether they're coming towards camp."
"And if they are?" Er Bao asked.
"Then we move them away."
"How?"
Da Bao lifted his club slightly.
Xu Hao stepped between the brothers before the discussion became a plan.
"Could we try a method that doesn't begin with beating strangers?"
Da Bao lowered the club. "I wasn't going to beat them. I was going to look frightening."
"You've practised that sufficiently on me."
Er Bao almost smiled. "We will stay out of sight. If the hunters want game, let them take it. If they come towards us, we'll decide what to do after we know their purpose."
Xu Hao asked one more question before they left.
"If someone is marking a route, won't they come back the same way?"
"Often," Er Bao said. "But sometimes they take a different path once the traps are set. We don't know whether these marks lead to a camp, a hunting ground or merely a place to turn towards the road."
"So even if we follow them, we may find nothing."
"We may find the hunters. We may also lead them towards us when they had no reason to climb the ridge."
Xu Hao considered that. His first instinct had been to turn every clue into a map and every map into an investigation. On Earth, following a trail of evidence meant asking for permission to inspect records. In this world, the evidence might be attached to somebody who carried a weapon and disliked being questioned. He looked at Sia, whose ears had turned towards the dry creek bed. She was willing to protect him whether or not he had a good reason to expose them both. That made choosing the reason his responsibility.
They withdrew along the stone ledge. Xu Hao kept the dogs close. Once he heard a distant tapping sound—metal against wood, perhaps—but it stopped before he could tell where it came from.
Every instinct urged him to turn and investigate. A little knowledge might make the danger less frightening.
Then he remembered Er Bao's lesson: sometimes the hardest thing was leaving something alone.
He kept walking.
* * *
They agreed on one more precaution before moving anything. If a stranger approached the ridge openly, Da Bao would stay out of sight until Er Bao had spoken to them. Xu Hao would remain behind the shelter with Sia, Grey and Little One. Nobody would display the cards, mention the copied beasts or volunteer details about the brothers' family.
"And if somebody asks for water?" Xu Hao said.
"We can offer water," Er Bao answered.
"If they're injured?"
"We'll decide what help we can give without exposing everyone."
Da Bao frowned. "You two make hospitality sound like planning a siege."
"We've been guests of yours," Xu Hao said. "I would describe our arrival as something close to a siege."
Da Bao grumbled but accepted the arrangement.
That afternoon the brothers rearranged the camp.
Not because they believed an attack was certain, Er Bao explained, but because the shelter was too visible from the southern approach. They shifted the cooking area behind a broad stone and reduced the smoke by using drier wood. Da Bao moved the larger supply sacks away from the path, hiding them beneath a sheet of bark.
Xu Hao suggested putting the dogs out of sight when they weren't training. Three enormous huskies moving around the ridge were likely to attract questions even from harmless hunters.
Da Bao looked pained. "Little One likes the sunshine."
"She can still have sunshine on this side of the rock."
"There's less of it."
"Then we'll rotate who sits in the best patch."
Er Bao nodded. Da Bao went to inspect the patch personally, evidently concerned that his dog might receive an unfair allocation of sunlight.
Xu Hao spent the rest of the afternoon making the escape route easier to find. He removed the old cuts from one fallen branch and replaced them with a pattern he could recognise by touch. When Er Bao asked why, Xu Hao explained that an obvious mark might guide a pursuer as readily as it guided them.
"Good," Er Bao said. "A sign meant for you shouldn't help everyone who sees it."
Xu Hao didn't mention how long it had taken him to think of that. He made a private note to review every other obvious mark he'd left near camp.
He also worried about the strip of bark on which he recorded his progress. It contained strange signs, arrows and little circles, all potentially interesting to somebody who searched their camp.
"Should I burn it?" he asked.
Er Bao examined the sheet. "Can anyone here read your notes?"
"No. They're a mixture of symbols and shorthand from my own world."
"Then keep them hidden. Knowledge is useful. Burning it whenever you're frightened isn't."
Xu Hao nodded. He wrapped the bark in cloth and placed it beneath his sleeping mat, where he could reach it without drawing attention.
* * *
The next morning, Da Bao resumed their archery lessons with a new rule: no shouting when Xu Hao hit the target.
"That rule is cruel," Da Bao complained.
"It's temporary," Er Bao replied. "If strangers are nearby, we'd rather not announce our position."
"Then how will he know he did well?"
"The arrow in the bark should help."
Xu Hao laughed, then lowered his bow when he noticed Little One watching a patch of undergrowth.
Da Bao followed his gaze. "She heard something."
They waited. The dogs remained alert, but nothing appeared. After several minutes Er Bao signalled for them to continue.
Xu Hao fired his first arrow at the fifteen-pace target. It missed by a hand's width. The second struck the edge. The third hit close to the centre.
He looked towards Da Bao.
The giant had promised not to cheer. His face was contorted with the effort of keeping that promise, and both fists were clenched at his sides.
Xu Hao lowered the bow. "You may say one word."
"EXCELLENT!"
Birds scattered from the pines.
Er Bao covered his face.
"One word," Da Bao said defensively. "You gave me permission."
Xu Hao stared at him for a moment, then began laughing so hard he had to put the bow down.
It was a welcome relief. They had spent two days making plans for a danger they had not seen, and Xu Hao had begun to mistake worry for useful activity. A moment of laughter did not remove the problem. It did remind him that their lives were not solely made of it.
* * *
In the evening, Sia woke him from a light doze beside the fire.
Her head had lifted towards the southern trail. No growl. No bark. Only her ears forward and her body tense, as she'd been when watching the tiger.
Xu Hao sat up and laid a hand on her neck.
Er Bao was already awake. He extinguished the brightest part of the fire with a scoop of soil and signalled for silence.
There were voices below the ridge.
Two men, perhaps three, speaking too far away for Xu Hao to distinguish the words. Something heavy shifted against stone. Then one of the voices gave a tired laugh.
Da Bao rose without a sound and moved to the edge of the shelter. He held his club low, but Xu Hao could see the tension in his arms.
They waited.
The voices moved away along the dry creek bed. A long time passed before Er Bao allowed anyone to speak.
"Hunters," Da Bao said quietly. "Probably heading down towards town."
"Did you recognise them?" Xu Hao asked.
"No. I didn't see their faces."
"Then we still don't know."
Da Bao nodded, accepting the correction with a faint smile.
Xu Hao looked down at Sia. She had settled again, the danger apparently past. He wasn't sure whether she'd sensed hostile intent or merely heard the men sooner than he had. He was grateful either way.
Er Bao sat beside him. "You did well."
"I did nothing."
"Exactly. You didn't call out. You didn't investigate. You didn't turn somebody passing below our ridge into a fight."
Xu Hao considered that. It wasn't the sort of achievement he could put on a cultivation chart. It was certainly less impressive than sending a tiger crashing into an earth wall.
But the strangers had gone, the dogs were safe, and nobody knew they were here.
He thought it might be the most useful lesson Da Bao had not yet managed to teach him.