and Yi Han took this as an invitation to sit down. Yet even as she smiled her thanks at Kitsune, she was scanning the far bank of the river. What, if anything, had she seen earlier? Some wild ponies were drinking from the river, and birds roosted on the rocks or flew lazily in the air. If there had been anything untoward, they would not have presented so calm an appearance, but would have taken flight. It must have been nothing more than the sun sparkling on the water after all; the sense that time was passing too quickly nothing more than the after-effects of battling demons and the dash through the portal.

Yi Han did not find it easy to talk about herself, and like all warriors and those who live always with danger, she was especially wary of strangers. But how can you call 'stranger', one who has saved your life? And Yi Han was drawn to a quality of stillness and inner strength in Kitsune — qualities she strived for in herself, and failed to attain.

"I was the only child of elderly parents," she began. "My mother, Meng Rui, died when I was but two years old. My father, Ao Tou, was a great warrior and swordsman. He put a little wooden sword in my hand when I could barely toddle, and raised me as the son he had always wanted.

"When I was almost ten years old, my mother's sister intervened and insisted I should learn more womanly ways, but by then I was a warrior, though and through.

"My father ... my father ... After he died," Yi Han said in a rush, "I felt stifled by our home. So here I am."

She could say no more for now. There were things she could not yet bear to think, let alone speak of. And feeling the silence lengthen between them she pointed to where Kadinkadinka was addressing himself to Mei Xia and the geisha, and said laughingly, "Our Babylonian has an eye for the ladies. I think, though, that he will not find them as compliant as he may hope. Especially the one they call Maiko," she added thoughtfully. "She is as great an enigma as you."

And though she had not phrased it as a question, yet a question hung in the air between them.