The Nine-tailed Fox hears a scream

Wu Yun and Lan Tian leave the baths and head straight to Qiao Xiaojian's room. Lan Tian knocks on the door, and the shy girl who hid from Rong Jizi's glare welcomes them in.

Qiao Xiaojian is laying on a bed, much like the one in their room, phoenixes and all, with the comforter pulled up to his chest. He looks wan and feverish, but this eyes are sharp and alert.

He lifts one thin arm and motions them closer. Wu Yun approaches the bed, and Qiao Xiaojian motions him closer still. He lowers his head, and that sickly arm shoots out to grab him by the neckline of his robes, bringing his face next to Qiao Xiaojian's lips.

"I know you're not Jiang Tanmei," he hisses into Wu Yun's ear, his voice rattling like and old carriage.

Lan Tian pulls Wu Yun away from Qiao Xiaojian and glares down at him. "Why did you call us here?"

Wu Yun smooths down his robes, and thinks, not for the first time, that he really should have slapped Jiang Tanmei harder. Why didn't he warn them, that someone other than the Prince might notice they were impostors.

"I want to know why you're pretending to be someone you're not." Qiao Xiaojian sits up in the bed, coughing. The servant girl materializes at his side and helps him get comfortable, touching him as if he's made of fine porcelain.

"You are wrong, I am Jiang Tanmei, I've just grown more beautiful since you last saw me," Wu Yun says, trying to mimic Jiang Tanmei's regal bearing. "Even the Prince said so."

Qiao Xiaojian snorts. "If you truly are Jiang Tanmei you should remember how you got the illness that prevented you from joining the army."

Lan Tian opens his mouth to speak, but Qiao Xiaojian cuts him off, "I'm asking him."

Wu Yun is really tired of being told what to do by overbearing humans.

"My arrogance made my head grow too heavy for my neck to support and my military dreams were tragically cut short," he says, smiling sweetly at Qiao Xiaojian.

Lan Tian widens his eyes at him, Wu Yun can read the killing intent in the downward curve of his lips.

"I have no patience for your glibness," Qiao Xiaojian snaps. "It's clear you're not Jiang Tanmei, the question is whether he sent you here or not."

He points at Lan Tian. "Do you know how Jiang Tanmei fell ill?"

"He was poisoned on his fourteenth birthday by his uncle," Lan Tian says.

Wu Yun shoots him a surprised look. He can't imagine Jiang Tanmei voluntarily sharing that information, so Lu Meng must have told him.

Some of the tension disappears from Qiao Xiaojian's eyes. He leans back against the headboard with a sigh. "So you have at least met him."

"He sent us here! We were supposed to save you all from the evil Prince, but apparently everything is fine, and you love it here," Wu Yun says, ready to leave the room and this inane conversation behind.

Qiao Xiaojian lets out a chuckle, but there's no real mirth in his rickety laugh. "Is that what you think? I'm wondering why Jiang Tanmei thought sending an idiot would be of any use, I never took him for a fool."

"I don't care if you're wheezing your lungs out, I'll still punch that smug smirk out of your face."

He's stopped from doing just that by Lan Tian holding him in place by the back of his robes.

Qiao Xiaojian struggles with the comforter until he manages to free himself. His servant helps him out of the bed, and drapes a thick, fur-collared cape around his shoulders. He walks towards Wu Yun with faltering steps, and comes to a stop in front of him.

"Take a good look at me." Qiao Xiaojian says, raising his head to meet Wu Yun's eyes.

"I'm looking," Wu Yun says, crossing his arms. Even under the robes, he can tell how emaciated Qiao Xiaojian looks. He might have been called beautiful once, but no one would look at his gaunt face now and think he looked anything but sickly.

"I became this way only after arriving here." He laughs bitterly and Wu Yun catches a glimpse of his darkened gums. "And you dare tell me that everything is fine."

Wu Yun shrugs. "For all I know you've always looked like this."

"I don't think Jiang Tanmei sent you here to save anyone. I think he sent you here to die in his place."

"That would be very convenient for me." How easier it would be to just disappear with the Jiang family's money if that was all Jiang Tanmei wanted. "Unfortunately that idiot is determined to save you all."

"Or foolish enough to believe you'll even try."

"That too," Wu Yun says, grinning widely.

"Jiang Tanmei should know better than to trust a stray dog."

"How did you become so sick? Has anyone died?" Lan Tian asks, covering Wu Yun's mouth with his hand to stop him from answering.

Wu Yun bites down on his fingers until Lan Tian takes his hand away with a hiss.

"None of us has died yet, but he has taken something from all of us. I've lost my health, Xin Liqin has lost all his sense of shame, Luo Guangli spends his days staring at books because written words no longer make sense to him, Ye Dingxiang sleeps through half the day, Rong Jizi, I suspect, no longer has a soul."

So Lan Tian was right, the Prince really wants something from his captives, but what can he do with someone's shame and reading comprehension?

"Why does he want those things?" Wu Yun asks.

"He doesn't want them! He's testing something on us, maybe trying to see how much we can lose until there's nothing left, I have no idea." Qiao Xiaojian's chest heaves with the burden of his anger. "But don't tell me everything is fine, and that we're happy to be here."

Wu Yun raises his hands, and walks backwards away from Qiao Xiaojian and his fury. "Duly noted, but why did you ask us here?"

"To warn you that you'll die as soon as the Prince finds out that you don't have Jiang Tanmei's poisoned blood."

"Is that why he asked for him?" Lan Tian asks, looking worriedly at Wu Yun. "Did Jiang Tanmei know that?"

"None of us knew what he wanted from us until we got here," Qiao Xiaojian closes his eyes. The strain of his illness makes his paper-thin eyelids tremble, and sweat gather at his temples.

"Young master, it's almost time. Rong Jizi will start his rounds soon," the servant girl says, supporting Qiao Xiaojian with careful hands.

"Wei Su is right, you need to leave. Stay in your room and don't go out," Qiao Xiaojian says, letting Wei Su help him sit down at the table.

"Almost time for what?" Wu Yun asks, growing tired of Qiao Xiaojian's cryptic tone and somber warnings.

"For the screaming," Wei Su replies, her doe eyes the size of bowls. "Please leave."

"Who's screaming?"

Wei Su ignores Lan Tian's question, and despite her diminutive size manages to push them both out the door.

Wu Yun huffs at the closed door, and kicks it twice with the tip of his boot. "What a morbid little man. If you ask me, what the Prince took from him was his sense of humor.

He turns to Lan Tian with a grin and says, "I bet you two mantous that was just an excuse to get us out of his room."

Ten minutes later Wu Yun is getting out of his outer robes when an earsplitting scream pierces the air. It's a primal sound, raw like something being born and dying at the same time. It doesn't seem possible for it to come out of a human, but it doesn't resemble anything an animal could produce either. The walls rattle with the strength of its agony, and even the ever-present hum of the cicadas outside dies down.

"So they weren't lying about the screams." Wu Yun is pressing the pillow around his ears in an effort to muffle the agonizing sound. He's met with little success.

"Apparently not." Lan Tian has wrapped an entire robe around his head like a bizarre headscarf. He isn't much more successful than Wu Yun.

"Do you think it will last through the night?" Wu Yun asks, tossing around in the bed like an hyperactive eel. "I'm tempted to go find whatever is making that sound and put it out of its misery."

"It would probably thank you," Lan Tian says, flattening the robes around his ears.

Just as suddenly as it began, the screaming stops. Not gradually but all at once, as if a lever was pulled to cut it off.

"I've never been more grateful for silence in my life." Wu Yun never suspected the ringing of his own overworked ears would one day bring him so much happiness.

"I'm going to try and sleep now, before it starts up again," Lan Tian says, making himself comfortable on the bedroll on the floor.

"You don't need to sleep there, come up here." Wu Yun scoots back against the back panel of the bedframe, and pats the mattress next to him.

Lan Tian averts his eyes, and remains on the floor. "I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Is this about the thing in the baths? I told you that's just a silly human thing, you have learn how to ignore it," Wu Yun says.

Lan Tian wants to protest, but Wu Yun's impish smiles disarms him more completely than any weapon ever could. He takes off his outer robes and climbs up into the bed.

He lays stiffly on his back, staring up at the canopy with unfocused eyes.

Wu Yun sighs and throws an arm over him. He rests his head on Lan Tian's broad chest and closes his eyes.

"No, don't squirm. You'll get used to it like this," Wu Yun says, muffling his words against the thin fabric of Lan Tian's inner robes.

He can feel his heart thumping like a startled rabbit under his cheek but eventually the sound evens out, becomes steady like a drum, and lulls him to sleep.

Wu Yun opens his eyes and is met with a radiance so strong it almost blinds him. The sun is shining, but so are all the stars in the sky. He's sitting on a swing under a weeping willow, balancing slowly to and fro. His kicks out his feet to feel the sweeping branches touch his bare toes.

Someone approaches him from behind, and a pair of strong arms envelops him.

"Ling Yan is always hiding from me," a smooth voice whispers against his neck.

Wu Yun knows it's him who's speaking, but he has no control over the words coming out of his mouth. "It's because I love it when you find me."

He turns around to face the one hugging him. There's something he's about to say, but he's silenced by a smiling pair of lips pressing against his with infinite tenderness.