LIAO RETURNED TO FIND clothing and equipment already laid out on his bed. Beside the clothing was an assortment of hand-blade weapons and a Han survival belt, the type of which he had not seen since he was a much younger man.
Liao immediately determined what Shui had planned for the three of them for the day. They were going on a hunt, and Liao’s pulse raced at the prospect. He had questions about the female Nubian accompanying them but elected to defer to the older man’s judgment in the matter. As a matter of course, however, Han women did not ordinarily participate in the hunt. That there was far more to this Nubian than met the eye was something Liao had long since come to understand, yet without knowing exactly what it was that set her aside or made her of such interest to Shui.
He h
