Wei Liang left through a gap in the southern wall an hour before dusk, a route Brigh had mapped for him three days earlier, unwatched because it led nowhere anyone official cared about — just scrub brush and a drainage ditch that ran under the outer stones. He moved low and fast through the tree line, the fourth seal steady in his chest, every sense sharper than it had been a month ago.
Xu narrated the terrain as they went, old habits from a life Wei Liang still knew almost nothing about. "Split pine's a mile past the second ridge. You'll hear the wagon before you see it if the road's dry. Get there early. Position matters more than strength in a fight you're choosing to start."
He reached the fork with light to spare, dusk bleeding orange through the trees, and found a rise thirty paces
