Chapter 25: The Summons
Wang Su walked the village perimeter in the first month of the third year and told me things I didn't want to hear.
"Prefect Shen's forces are repositioning north along the Qinghe border, and the Meishan prefecture has gone quiet."
I cupped my chin in thought.
A quiet Meishan was worse than a loud one. Prefect Shen going silent meant either he'd been given orders to consolidate or he'd been told to prepare for a larger undertaking. It could be a campaign towards our position in the Western Reaches once the peace treaty ends the winter of this year, or he could be mobilizing for a war to the north.
Regardless, I increased the militia's conditioning sessions that week and said nothing to the village yet since I didn't have more information to go off on.
It was during this time of concern that I found Mother asleep in the clinic when I stopped by.
Or so I thought.
She lay on the bed near the window, blanket pulled to her chest, breathing shallow and slow. I stood beside her and counted the breaths the way I'd been doing for months without telling anyone. Twelve per minute in the first year. Ten in the second. Eight now, on a good day. The intervals between inhales stretched longer each season.
I leaned closer and placed two fingers against the lung mai point on her wrist. The pulse was there but thin, and the qi density beneath it had dropped since my last reading two weeks ago.