Chapter Nine
Jian
Jian trudged through camp, exhaustion wearing him down. He’d run the new recruits through the course most of the day before giving them daos and trying to make some sense of their fighting stances.
The truth: they were a mess.
He didn’t know how he was ever going to make them battle ready. Most of these men had never held a dao in their lives.
Minglan hadn’t returned—not that he’d have let him keep training if he did, nor had he appeared for supper. Jian saw the blood dripping down the young man’s leg, but maybe the wound was even worse than he thought. Would he already have to send one of these men home? The boy wasn’t the first soldier to get injured on the course, but something in his quiet defiance made Jian want to watch out for him, to make sure he was okay.
B
