"What's in the boy's bag?"
Xu Hao looked at the young man beside the gate.
His question had been delivered with the boredom of someone asking whether it might rain. The guards, however, stopped what they were doing. One lowered his hand from the cart he had been inspecting. Another straightened so quickly that his helmet slipped over one eyebrow.
Xu Hao had seen enough officials in his old life to recognise which of them mattered. It was rarely the one holding the paperwork.
"My notes," he said. "A cup. Some clothes. A little medicine."
"Let me see."
Da Bao shifted beside him. Er Bao placed a hand on his brother's forearm, so casually that the movement might have been accidental.
Xu Hao slipped the bag from his shoulder.
The cloth had once been part of his white coat. He'd cut and stitched it himself, badly in places. When he held it out, the official took one look at the uneven seam and smiled.
"Did you sew this?"
"Yes."
"I can tell."
"Then my work has a distinctive style."
A guard coughed into his fist.
The young man did not laugh. He tipped the contents onto the inspection table: Xu Hao's cup, two strips of clean cloth, a charcoal stick, the jar of salve he'd bought from the herb trader, and his bark notes. The folded scrap of paper slid out last.
Xu Hao watched the paper, not the jar. Real paper was scarce enough in his present circumstances that he resented seeing it handled by strangers.
The official picked it up and unfolded it.
"An address?"
"A shop in town. A merchant recommended it."
The young man's eyes moved across the writing. He appeared to recognise the shop's name, though if it meant anything to him, his face gave nothing away.
"You intend to buy medicine?"
"Among other things. Shoes, principally."
The official looked down at Xu Hao's patched footwear.
"You should buy two pairs."
"That depends on whether the first pair is affordable."
This time a guard nearly smiled. The young man laid the paper down with two fingers, as though it might dirty them.
He picked up one of the bark strips.
"And these?"
"Records."
"Of what?"
"How often I missed a target. I've been trying to improve."
The strip carried a number of little marks and a drawing of Da Bao's repaired cooking pot. The young man stared at it for a moment. Then he tossed it back onto the table.
"A scholar who writes on firewood. Hibiscus Town attracts all kinds."
Xu Hao gathered his things, taking care to fold the merchant's paper along its original creases. Beneath his vest, the Heavens Body parchment remained secure against his chest. He was grateful he'd decided not to carry it in the bag.
"May we enter?" Er Bao asked.
"Of course," the official said. "Once you've paid."
Da Bao lifted the little pouch of copper coins. "Five each. Fifteen altogether."
"For yourselves, yes."
The official's gaze travelled to the rolled hides and tied sacks on their backs.
"And fifteen for the goods."
Da Bao stopped counting.
"What goods?"
"The goods you are carrying."
"I know what goods are. Why fifteen?"
The official smiled, evidently pleased to be asked.
"Three bundles. Five copper each for inspection."
Xu Hao glanced at the guards. One was suddenly very interested in his boots. Another was studying the far end of the queue.
Er Bao spoke before Da Bao could.
"We've sold hides here for years. We pay the entrance fee, and the merchants charge for their work. There has never been a separate inspection payment at this gate."
"Then consider yourselves fortunate to have arrived on a day when the rules have improved."
"Improved for whom?" Da Bao asked.
Er Bao's fingers tightened once on his arm.
The official's eyes narrowed. For the first time he seemed to be taking a genuine interest in the two brothers rather than their belongings.
"What's your name?" he asked Da Bao.
"Wang Da Bao."
"Well, Wang Da Bao, perhaps you haven't noticed the men stationed around us. They are here to make sure travellers obey the rules. My rules, if I feel the need to explain them."
Da Bao looked at the nearest guard. The man moved half a step backwards.
Xu Hao could hardly blame him. Da Bao was broad enough to block a doorway, and the club across his back was not a decorative item. Er Bao, beside him, was even taller. Xu Hao had watched both men stop creatures that would have torn through this queue in moments.
Yet the official stood well within their reach, relaxed and smiling.
That told Xu Hao more than any announcement of rank could have.
A woman in the queue behind them whispered to her companion. "It's that Su young master again."
"Quiet," came the answer. "You saw what happened to the cart driver."
Xu Hao did not turn. He could feel people listening behind their lowered heads.
The official stretched out a hand.
"Thirty copper altogether. Unless you would rather take your hides back into the forest."
Da Bao opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked at Er Bao.
Xu Hao knew what his eldest brother wanted to do. It involved neither money nor paperwork. He also knew why Er Bao would stop him.
The brothers weren't afraid of a few guards. They were afraid of the family behind them, the kind of people who could remember an insult for years and send someone else to settle it. Two men who had escaped one slaughter had good reason to know the difference.
More importantly, they were bringing Xu Hao into town to live.
He would be the one left behind when they went back to the forest.
Er Bao held out his hand for the coins.
Da Bao stared at him.
"Brother."
"I know."
"He's inventing it."
"I know that too."
"Then why—"
"Because we have something to do here."
Er Bao didn't look at Xu Hao. He didn't need to.
Da Bao drew a slow breath. He counted out the first fifteen copper, then another fifteen, dropping each coin into his brother's palm with more force than was strictly required.
Xu Hao watched the small pile grow.
He had spent years handling coins from old kingdoms. Some had carried the faces of kings whose names nobody spoke anymore. Others had been stamped so badly that scholars argued over which side was supposed to be the front.
He had never minded the coins themselves.
What troubled him was the way Da Bao held his hand still while Er Bao paid.
The official counted the money and put it away.
"There," he said. "Was that difficult?"
"Not at all," Er Bao answered.
His voice was pleasant enough that Xu Hao almost believed it.
The young man waved them through. Da Bao lifted his sack with a jerk. For a moment Xu Hao thought the giant might turn round anyway, but Er Bao stepped beside him and the brothers moved towards the gate.
Xu Hao followed.
They were nearly past the inspection table when the official called after them.
"A word of advice, hunters."
Da Bao stopped.
"If you want to look like great warriors, try arriving with enough money to pay your way. Carrying clubs doesn't make a man important."
Several people lowered their eyes. The official seemed to enjoy that as much as he enjoyed the payment.
Da Bao's hand went to the strap across his chest.
Er Bao said his name once, quietly.
Xu Hao felt the familiar warmth of Sia's card beneath his ribs. She was waiting inside him, safe and unseen. If he called her out now, every guard at the gate would remember the boy who summoned a Firefly beast from empty air.
The official had not noticed the three great companions. He did not know what Xu Hao could do, or what the Wang brothers had survived.
It would be rather foolish to teach him.
Da Bao took one more step, then stopped again.
Xu Hao could see him weighing the insult against the people standing beside him. At last his shoulders lowered.
"Come on," Er Bao said.
Xu Hao suddenly wanted to do something kind for his eldest brother. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of was getting them through the gate without a fight.
He turned around.
"Young Master."
The official looked at him. "What now?"
Xu Hao bowed.
Not too low. Enough to give the young man what he expected, without making a spectacle of it.
"Thank you for explaining the fee. We're strangers to the town's newer customs."
Behind him, Da Bao made a noise that suggested he'd swallowed something sharp.
"At least the boy has manners," the official said.
"My brothers are excellent men," Xu Hao replied. "They're simply not accustomed to refined company."
The official's smile returned. "That much is obvious."
"And it would be discourteous to leave without knowing the name of the gentleman who took such care to instruct us."
A pause.
Xu Hao kept his expression respectfully attentive. He had stood through countless university receptions on Earth. If he could persuade an offended professor to explain a funding decision over a glass of warm juice, this was not an entirely unfamiliar task.
"Su Jin," the young man announced. "Of the main branch."
The main branch. Xu Hao filed that away beside the name.
"Young Master Su Jin. Thank you."
"Remember it."
"I expect I shall."
Su Jin nodded, satisfied. He waved the next traveller forward before Xu Hao had finished straightening.
Da Bao was waiting inside the gate, glaring at him.
"You thanked him."
"I did."
"He robbed us."
"He did that too."
"And you thanked him."
Xu Hao adjusted his bag. "You seem determined to make this sound strange."
"It is strange!"
Er Bao looked from one of them to the other. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but he kept it under control.
"Little brother," he said, "why did you ask for his name?"
"I dislike owing money to people I haven't been introduced to."
"We don't owe him money," Da Bao said. "We paid him."
"Exactly. Now I know who collected it."
Da Bao stared at him, plainly unconvinced.
Xu Hao let the matter rest. The street ahead was crowded with stalls, carts and hanging signs, and somewhere among them was a herb shop that sold real paper. He had never been so eager to find a shop in his life.
Beyond the wall, Su Jin's voice rose again, demanding that somebody open a sack of grain.
Er Bao drew alongside Xu Hao as they walked.
"No trouble," he said.
"Not today," Xu Hao agreed.
His brother glanced down at him.
"And tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow I hope to buy shoes. They're becoming a matter of personal dignity."
Er Bao laughed.
Xu Hao was glad of it. Da Bao's expression softened as well, just enough for him to mutter that the first thing they ought to buy was a meal.
They had entered Hibiscus Town with fifteen fewer copper than they'd expected to spend. Xu Hao knew the exact amount. He'd counted every coin as it passed from Da Bao's pouch into Su Jin's hand.
He would remember the name. He would remember what it cost his brother to keep walking.
But for now, there was a town to learn, and a family that had brought him safely to its gate. He followed them into the crowd, leaving Su Jin on the other side of the wall.