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the thought, and she was glad he didn’t see. Some time later, he slowed and glanced her way. “You are certain you’re all right?” He paused. “Your mistress … she treats you well?”
    Humiliated, she colored even more. “They’re so kind to me. Zhen Ni treats me like her own sister.”
    “Good. I’m glad,” he said. “It’s just, I don’t often find beautiful girls sleeping naked in the forest.”
    Her mouth dropped, then she burst into laughter when she saw the teasing slant of his gaze.
    “Not that I’m complaining,” Kai Sen went on. “But the last time I was caught undressed in the forest, it was because Han had stolen my clothes from the river bank and I had to return to the monastery plastered in cypress leaves. They were prickly. And didn’t do the job well.” He cleared his throat and grinned at her.
    She laughed harder. “Han didn’t!”
    “Han did. Don’t worry, I got him back.” Kai Sen laughed with her, and it eased Skybright’s heart. His laughter made everything feel normal and right again. She reached overhead to grab a sprig of cypress, sweeping her palm across the needle-like leaves, trying to picture Kai Sen returning to the monastery covered in them, and chuckled again.
    They strolled beneath the cool shadow of the majestic forest, and Skybright remembered how the earth vibrated and hummed with life the previous night, when it seemed she could detect every small movement and animal near her within leagues, smell and taste them on her tongue.
    “Do you practice forms with the staff?” she asked.
    “I do. We’re taught to use an array of weapons, but I’m most comfortable with the staff.” He spun it from one hand to the other, without thought, by reflex. He wielded it as if it were an extension of him.
    “But I thought monks were against violence?”
    “Fair point. The techniques and forms help strengthen us not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. And we’ve been known to take to arms and go to war to defend our kingdom in the past. Then, there are always the demons.” He said the last part with a mischievous wink, but she felt both arms prickling. “We must always be prepared.”
    “Demons?” she whispered.
    “From the ancient texts. The ones that roam the underworld, the ones that roam our own world.”
    “Do they exist?” She shivered despite herself. Kai Sen noticed and drew closer, but she wasn’t shivering for the reasons he thought.
    “I’ve not seen the like myself. But the abbot believes what the books say.”
    They were now by the creek where they had met the first time, not too far from the Yuan manor. “You’ve read these books?” Skybright tried to keep her voice even.
    “We study them, yes. Why?”
    “I need to—” She rubbed at her throbbing temples in frustration. “Could you research something for me?”
    He peered at her, his handsome face curious. “If I can. On what?”
    “The serpent demon.”
    Kai Sen’s eyebrows lifted.
    “Do you know anything about them?” she asked.
    “Not beyond the usual old wives’ tales of warning.”
    They heard the distant gong from the monastery and Kai Sen whipped toward the sound, his stance as taut as a tiger about to leap. “Han’s going to kill me.”
    “I can find my way back. I know where I am.”
    “It’s my fault. I took my time on purpose.” He grinned. “I’ll see what I can find. When can I meet you again?”
    “Back here, in three days’ time? In the morning.”
    “I’ll look for you, Skybright.” Kai Sen jogged back in the direction of the still reverberating gong. “Keep safe until then.”
    She waved, sorry to see him go. Skybright wasn’t certain that she could keep safe. She wasn’t certain about anything any longer.

 
     
    Skybright sneaked back into the Yuan manor through the unguarded side entrance, relieved that no one saw her along the way in the dim alley. Like all matriarchs, Lady Yuan was unconcerned with the goings on of her servants—as long