Chapter 74: No Comfort
Hao took in Meishan through the eastern gate.
The city was eerily quiet, and he noticed the smoke drift over the stone walls. The road under his feet was still wet with what had appeared to have been blood that was washed off awhile ago. Two soldiers of the Western Reaches Army stood at either side of the gate with their spears at rest, and they saluted Liang as he passed. Liang nodded back but did not stop walking.
Inside the wall, the courtyard of the prefecture spread out in front of them, wide and emptied of the fighting that had filled it that morning. The Meishan defenders sat in bound rows along the western portico, their weapons piled in a heap at the center of the courtyard, their eyes on the flagstones. Administrator Wen were counting names, Fei Liao was talking to a cavalry captain at the north end, and he noticed four soldiers watching the perimeter. With his advanced senses he could practically feel the Qi radiate off of their bodies, and he realized that they must have been a cohort of students that Liang had personally trained. At least, that was what his intuition told him due to the refinement of their Qi.
He continued walking until he noticed bodies on the side draped with cloth with open graves next to them.
The graves were being dug at the southern edge of the courtyard, near where a small altar had been raised with the inscription for “Shen” written along the face of the headstone. Three long shallow pits were side by side. One of the forms was the size of a man. The other two were smaller. Much smaller.
Hao stopped walking.
Liang kept going, but halted to turn his head and look at the graves as well.
Liang's face did not change.
"Liang….am I seeing what I am think I am?”