They slipped out of Gray Hollow before dawn's second bell. The back gate was just a crumbling stretch of wall where the old clan seal had faded into moss and rat burrows. Li Shen stepped over the fallen stones like he'd done it a hundred times — because he had.
Yue Lan's spirit threads hovered at her shoulders, restless as moth wings at dusk. She hadn't slept. Neither had he.
They didn't need to say it out loud: the bounty wasn't rumor anymore. Someone had paid real silver for Li Shen's name, and cheap blades to test it.
---
By mid-morning, they reached the river's bend where the ferry dock once tied Gray Hollow to three southern towns. Now only a half-sunk skiff bobbed in the shallows, its rope tethered to a rotten post carved with old clan runes.
Li Shen crouched by the water, rinsing the grit from his blade. Yue Lan watched the path behind them — eyes sharp, threads flicking like a cat's tail.
"You know they'll follow," she said.
He dipped the blade again, let the river's chill bite his knuckles.
"Good."
---
They took the skiff — half-rotten wood, cracked oars. The current carried them slow through reeds heavy with spring insects. They drifted past fishermen pulling empty nets, past girls washing rice bowls in the shallows, past boys who pointed at Li Shen's bare blade and whispered to each other.
The rumors had grown teeth. But teeth needed a throat.
And Li Shen's blade had learned to cut.
---
They tied the skiff near dusk where an old bridge once crossed the narrowest bend. Only two stone pylons remained — the rest swallowed by flood and time. On the far bank, a half-ruined watchtower leaned like an old drunk. Wind stirred the grass around its base, carrying the stink of stale campfire smoke.
Someone had waited here.
---
Li Shen climbed the bank first, boots sinking into wet silt. Yue Lan followed — threads brushing the grass in restless arcs. They didn't bother to hide their footsteps.
A shape rose from the ruined tower's shadow. Young, thin, draped in a merchant's traveling cloak far too clean for this wild bend. His hands rested on the hilt of a short saber — polished, well-oiled, never tested.
Li Shen stopped a few paces away, blade resting across his shoulder.
"Merchant's road ends here," Li Shen said.
The youth didn't flinch. His eyes flicked from Li Shen to Yue Lan's drifting threads — then back.
"I don't want trouble, chain-breaker."
Li Shen's grin was frost under dusk's soft breath.
"Too late."
---
The youth reached into his cloak, slow enough to prove he wasn't stupid. He pulled out a silk pouch, stamped with a crescent coin seal. He tossed it underhand — the pouch hit the mud at Li Shen's feet with a dull chime.
"Silver," the youth said. His voice shook, but not much. "I was told you'd listen to silver."
Li Shen didn't look at the pouch. His blade's edge glinted in the dying light.
"Speak."
---
The youth swallowed. "Gray Hollow wants you gone. The Red Banners want you bled. But the South Gate elders—"
He paused, chest heaving. "—the elders say you cracked Heaven once. They think you could do it again. For them."
Li Shen's laugh startled the reeds. Yue Lan's threads coiled tighter.
"For them?" Li Shen echoed.
The youth licked dry lips. "They'll pay. They'll feed you. They'll call you prince if you want. Just come south. Take their chain instead of Heaven's."
Li Shen's grin was gentle. Almost pitying.
"And this is their bribe? A pouch of silver to buy my throat?"
The youth looked at the ground. "It's more silver than I've seen in my life."
Li Shen stooped, picked up the pouch. He tossed it once, feeling its weight. Then he let it drop back into the mud.
"Tell your elders," he said softly, "I don't wear crowns. Or chains. Or silk collars for old men's prayers."
He stepped closer — so close the youth flinched back, boot catching on a root.
"Next time, send teeth. Not coin."
---
When they turned to go, the youth still stood there — breath fogging, eyes wide, the pouch sinking into river mud.
The rumors kept growing. But rumor never bought his throat.
It only made his blade sharper.
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⚡ End of Chapter Six — Silver in the Throat
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