The sulfur mist gathered heavy outside the arched entrance of the limestone shelf, but the shallow cavern interior remained dry and shielded from the swamp draft.
Ye Chen dropped the heavy ironwood branches he had gathered across the mouth of the cave, creating a rough windbreak that filtered the worst of the corrosive vapors drifting from the reed bank.
Across the cavern floor, Senior Brother Bai gently lowered the trembling body of Officer Shen onto a dry stone ledge, propping the wounded junior’s head against a rolled canvas bedroll.
The two surviving patrolmen sat against the limestone wall, their hands pressed against ragged lacerations where the ghost venom had begun turning the surrounding flesh into dark, blistered rot.
Ye Chen pulled a wide-mouthed clay jar sealed with red wax
