Lao Bingyi’s voice carried from one of the log pillars braced in the water. It had once supported the hall, and now it stood alone with Lao Bingyi balanced on top of it. Chih realized with impressive calm that she must have leaped from the shore; otherwise, there was no way for her to have made the crossing.

Lao Bingyi had a bruise growing dark on her forehead and her left sleeve was soaked in blood that might have been her own or someone else’s, but her pinned braids were still pristine, and she looked mightily put out. She shook her lance at them from across the water.

“I am getting the boats, and we are bringing you back to shore. Do not think you can hide from clean-up by staying on the water and designing your next monstrosity. Cleric, are you well? Is Sang with you?”

Chih blinked to be addressed, and they stepped forward hastily.

“We’re both here, and we are both unharmed.”

“Good! There’s a great deal of work to do!”

There always is, Chih thought wryly, rocking the quieting infant in their arms, and they were relieved they were still around to do it.

Chapter Seven

A skinny woman with a bandaged wrist ferried them back to land in a flat-bottomed fishing boat, poling expertly around the fallen wreckage. When he gained the shore, Master Nie grabbed Lao Bingyi in a one-armed hug, pushing his face against her cheek with an affection so deep that Chih blushed.

“Hello, beautiful one. I’ve missed you.”

“Missed the plumb bobs and books I was bringing back for you, maybe.” She snorted. “Look at you, so happy that you finally got to test your toy.”

“And who’s going to have to put it all back up, I ask you?” said Khanh rhetorically. He had laid his hammer aside to greet the boat, and now he came to press his cheek against Master Nie’s and then Lao Bingyi’s.

Something passed among the three of them, and beside Chih, Sang whistled softly.

“There’s something you don’t see every day,” she said, and Chih shrugged.

“Sometimes you get told about it,” they said thoughtfully. “Maybe you get told about it two or three times, and you just don’t know what you’re hearing.”

“Hm?”

“Come on, I need to find out who this baby belongs to. My arms are going to fall off if I have to keep carrying them.”

To Chih’s relief, the baby’s parents were still alive, and when they gave the baby up, they were immediately pressed into service.