Paeng Hyeon stretched his legs and spurred his horse forward.

  Delayed by helping Soun, Sosam’s group set off after him toward their destination.

  The White Dragon unit was spread wide across the vast field.

  Sosam’s eyes were fixed beyond the invisible horizon.

  There was a sharpness in them that had not been there before.

  Soun could not find a moment to say he was sorry for slowing them down.

  “Combat,” Sosam said. “Primary weapons out.”

  The five men drew their main weapons.

  In the five-man formation, Soun’s role was the bow.

  Not because he was the best archer, but because it was the one role he could reliably fulfill.

  A role, after all, is simply what one is acknowledged to be able to do.

  Sosam drew a ring-pommel saber.

  It was not a weapon Soun had seen him use before.

  The two spearmen moved forward side by side.

  Soun shifted slightly left, positioning himself to intercept from behind them.

  They made a long detour around a large but low sand ridge.

  Beyond it, distant snow-capped mountains rose under the pale sky.

  They advanced slowly.

  The enemy could appear from anywhere.

  An advance party was made up of the strongest and fastest riders.

  But their armor was rarely heavy.

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  Far to the right, Soun saw Gagyeongpil’s group riding straight up the ridge.

  As unit leader, he sought high ground for visibility.

  Sosam preferred concealment.

  They moved through rock, dry grass, scattered snow.

  They skirted a deep gully carved long ago by water and circled behind a modest boulder.

  Suddenly the two spearmen lowered their voices and tightened their grips.

  A feeling? A sound?

  Sosam drew his blade behind his back, ready to strike forward.

  He signaled left and right.

  Hooves clicked softly.

  Soun felt the horse change beneath him.

  The animal sensed what he could not.

  Animals perceive more sharply than men.

  Sosam raised a finger.

  Something was there.

  The two archers widened their arc around the rock.

  The spearmen moved toward its rear.

  Bows were raised, half-drawn.

  Soun nocked an arrow.

  The horses edged forward.

  Sosam saw it first—

  a rounded back, clad in patchwork leather and colored cloth, visible behind the stone.

  Soun’s thoughts stopped.

  He drew fully.

  He released.

  Sosam had already drawn as well.

  The distance was short.

  Arrows struck.

  The enemy cried out and leapt.

  A spear pierced his throat.

  A crescent blade swung wide.

  The second man dodged.

  The blade thrust forward again.

  He rolled aside.

  Sosam cut off his escape.

  Soun’s second arrow flew.

  The man staggered, clutching his chest.

  The blade finished him.

  It was over in an instant.

  Only two.

  They had been watching the opposite direction.

  They never saw the five approach.

  A good ambush site for one side is a good ambush site for the other.

  Always assume the enemy is already there.

  Sosam gathered the five and dismounted.

  Both enemies had taken arrows.

  One died to a spear, the other to a blade.

  Sosam searched the bodies for information.

  They were lightly armed, wrapped in thick fur.

  Their horses were tied nearby.

  He attached the reins to Soun and Jincheol’s mounts.

  “We ambush here. Hide the bodies.”

  They dragged the corpses behind the rock and covered them with branches.

  Soun avoided looking.

  Jincheol pulled the arrows free and handed them back.

  “Yours.”

  “Yes—ugh.”

  Soun swallowed bile.

  Blood and flesh clung to the broadheads.

  “Both of them. Not bad.”

  Both men had fallen to Soun’s arrows.

  The spear and blade ended it, but he had begun it.

  He dismounted and retched.

  Nothing came up.

  Only thin water and tears.

  The others left him alone.

  “First time?” someone said.

  Soun nodded.

  “It’s not murder. It’s war.

  If not you, someone else would kill him.

  He’d kill you without knowing your name.

  This is war.”

  Soun breathed in deeply.

  He forced his hands to steady.

  Sosam set traps.

  A low line to trip horses.

  Wooden caltrops scattered on the ground.

  Spears planted to block a charge.

  Soun took his assigned position.

  He could see the ridgeline and the plain beyond.

  Only then did he exhale fully.

  He cleaned his arrowheads.

  He had killed a man for the first time.

  Cold and tremor washed over him in waves.

  His thoughts turned white.

  Then returned.