Splash!!
In the enormous burst of spray, three people and a horse plunged into the river. Luckily this was upstream: dry season or not, the riverbed up here still carried plenty of water — otherwise a fall from that height would have flattened them into meat patties.
The moment they hit the water, the force of the drop dragged them straight to the bottom. Xia Ya thrashed with all his might, feeling water pour in through his mouth and nose. He fought and struggled — and felt his legs tangled in the stirrup. He kicked twice, and instead of shaking free he only wound up more tightly caught. Panic seized him; he gasped out of pure instinct, and a mouthful of water went straight down, nearly choking him to death on the spot.
More and more water poured in, his arms and legs grew heavy, his body weaker and weaker, and even his awareness began to blur. His struggles grew fainter and fainter.
Just then a hand reached over from beside him, pulled the fire fork from his waist, used it to cut the stirrup, then hooked under his armpit from behind and hauled him up toward the surface...
The instant he broke the surface, Xia Ya was struck by a blast of bright light. He was dragged, barely, up onto the riverbed and dumped on a rock.
Her hair dripping wet, the wretch heaved Xia Ya over onto his front and punched him in the stomach.
"Waugh!!"
Xia Ya's mouth flew open and it all came out, river water spraying from his lips in great gushes. Then came a violent fit of coughing, and only then did he get his breath back.
The wretch watched him with concern. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Full..." was all Xia Ya managed to say, a long while later.
After a spell of panting, Xia Ya raised his head and saw the wretch and Oakes both beside him. All three of them were now at the bottom of the gorge, the river right next to them; they were lying on a shallow rock that broke the surface, a slab no bigger than two dining tables shoved together, with water on every side.
Shouts and the neighing of horses came down from the far side of the gorge. Far above, the pursuers had arrived; they walked their horses a few circles along the cliff edge and peered down, plainly unwilling to give it up. But that face of the gorge was a sheer, perilous wall, scoured slick by years of the river's current — unless the whole pack of them turned into apes, there was no climbing down.
At last, after watching a while, the lot of them left in disgust, presumably riding downstream to look for flatter ground and a ford. Xia Ya remembered clearly: the riverbed had been fierce and steep the whole way they came. The only place to cross would be where he'd camped the night before — and even on horseback, there and back, it would take the pursuers hours to get there.
With the pursuit gone they were safe for the moment. Xia Ya relaxed, rolled over and coughed a while longer, then looked up at the wretch with a strange note in his voice. "You're the one who fished me out of the water just now?"
The wretch shot the bumpkin a sideways glare. Soaked to the bone herself, her hair plastered together, she was wringing it out with her head tipped to one side; at his words she flared up: "And you dare bring it up! You don't know how to swim at all — the moment you hit the water you sink like a stone! And that's the man who goes leaping off a cliff on horseback?"
Xia Ya smacked his lips and gave a dry little heh-heh. "Well... I've heard plenty of stories where the hero gets chased to a cliff, jumps his horse off, and even if the gap is wide, somehow the gods carry him clean across. Why can't we do that? Must be because you're too heavy!"
That last remark stung the wretch — every woman, old or young, pretty or plain, is especially touchy about her weight.
But with this bumpkin she couldn't be bothered to waste her breath on a squabble; she just rolled her eyes a good few times.
Xia Ya was no fool. A moment's thought told him exactly what had happened.
When he'd ridden the horse off the cliff, the wretch and the goblin consort had merely been sitting on its back, so once they hit the water they quickly swam up. But he had been caught in the stirrup, and with the horse's weight dragging after him, he'd gone straight to the bottom. And he, a boy raised in the mountains, happened to have no swimming skill at all. If the wretch hadn't pulled him out, his life would have ended right there today.
"Those men will probably be on us again soon. We have to find a way out of here." Xia Ya sat up and winced at once. The arrow was still buried in his shoulder; while he'd been fighting for his life he could hold the pain down, but now that they'd stopped, he couldn't bear it any longer. He gripped the arrow's tail with one hand, let out a breath, and cursed under it.
Seeing him like that, the wretch's anger had long since drained away, and she leaned in, concerned. "That wound is bad. The arrow has to come out."
She thought it over a moment, took up the fire fork, and undid Xia Ya's shirt. He had been wearing the leather armor stripped off the giant Niguer of the Four Gallants of the Royal City; the wretch ran the fire fork across it and the leather parted at once. The fork looked dull and rusted, yet it was frighteningly sharp.
The arrow had sunk deep, though luckily it hadn't gone clean through him. The sight of the mangled, bloody wound made the wretch's insides quiver; fighting down her nausea, she said, "You—bear with the pain." Then she set the fire fork to cutting open the flesh around the wound.
The fork had barely touched flesh when Xia Ya let out a heaven-shaking howl. It wasn't the blood that nearly made the wretch faint, but that scream; her hand shook and she glared at him. "What are you screaming for?"
"Like hell! Let me jab you a few times and see if it hurts!" Xia Ya said, with perfect righteousness.
"When you're fighting for your life, you're so reckless that just watching you scares people. So why aren't you playing the hero now?" The wretch found it rather funny.
Xia Ya rolled his eyes. "Like hell. Who says heroes don't feel pain? Risking your life is one thing, but getting sliced by blades and stuck full of arrows is going to hurt, guaranteed! I'm no hero; no need to tough it out and play the badass." He shivered again as he said it.
"Then... just hang on." The wretch had a couple more mocking words ready, but then it came back to her that this bumpkin had taken the wound saving her, and the mockery died in her throat. Her voice came out oddly gentle instead; she leaned closer and, gripping the fire fork, carefully widened the cut a little more.
Xia Ya opened his mouth to howl again — and this time the scream stopped dead in his throat.
Why?
Because when the wretch bent down, her head was almost against Xia Ya's face. He felt her breath brush lightly over his skin, and in it he caught a faint, indescribably sweet fragrance. Xia Ya's virgin heart gave a few instinctive thumps, and a tingling, melting warmth he could not describe rose up in his chest.
His head was all muddled, and yet an absurd notion surfaced in it: This guy hasn't brushed his teeth in days — how come his mouth doesn't stink at all...
Such things defy explanation; it was human nature, the instinctive thrill of male hormones meeting female ones.
The feeling frightened Xia Ya. Instinctively he drew a deep breath — and only pulled in more of that scent from the wretch's body. His heart beat faster still; and just then, sensing the small movements of his body, the wretch turned her head and said, displeased, "Don't move around, I— mm!!"
No sooner had her head turned than her lips, by the worst luck in the world, went sweeping right across Xia Ya's gaping mouth...
For a moment, both of them were frozen stiff.
In truth it had only been the briefest touch; the wretch's lips had merely skimmed across Xia Ya's mouth, touching and yet not touching, as though they had brushed him and yet stopped a hair short. But somehow both of them had felt that contact, unmistakably real.
In that instant Xia Ya's mind went blank: No wonder this guy talks so soft and fine — his lips are this soft...
One second later, both of them shrieked at the top of their lungs and shot apart with a whoosh. Xia Ya's mouth hung open and his eyes bulged as he stared at the wretch; the wretch, face flaming red, was scrubbing furiously at her mouth.
The wretch's heart was bleeding: It's over. My first kiss went to a bumpkin...
And Xia Ya's heart was bleeding too: Damn it! Last time just holding this guy got me hard, and now he's kissed me! I've been kissed by a man!!!
Xia Ya opened his mouth to roar at her, and the instant he did, he felt something wrong at his shoulder. He looked down — the wretch had been holding the arrow in his shoulder just now, and when they scrambled apart she'd jerked back, and her hand, without thinking, had yanked the arrow clean out!
Xia Ya's eyes bugged, and he let out a howl that shook heaven and earth.
From his shoulder, with a spurt, shot a jet of blood...