I’m not sure, I say. She reminded me a little of the line keeper: Both of them recognize signing, but neither seems comfortable with it.
A man emerges from the building just then and catches sight of me finishing my sentence. He recoils and makes an abrupt turn, giving us a wide berth. I glance back at Li Wei to see whether he noticed. He did, and his face darkens.
I’m getting a bad feeling about this place and these people, he tells me. Something isn’t right. They know about us, or at least about people like us. And it scares them.
Why would they be scared of us? I ask.
I don’t think it’s us so much as—
He drops his hands when a heavily cloaked figure appears beside us. Based on this person’s height and hands, I’m guessing she’s a woman. The hood makes it difficult to see her face, and she is careful to keep her gaze averted and avoid any further identification. She appears to have noticed us signing, and I expect her to behave as the others did. Instead, she makes a gesture of beckoning and leads us toward a narrow space between two buildings.
I think she wants us to follow her, I say to Li Wei.
Another passerby notices the signing and does a double take, sharing the same look of alarm as the fruit vendor. The mysterious woman stamps her foot impatiently and beckons again for us to follow. When we don’t move, she gestures broadly to the other townspeople and then makes very deliberate motions with her hands. She is signing, but it’s not exactly the same kind of signing I know. Some of the words and motions are foreign to me, but a few come through—especially when she points to the townspeople again and signs: Dangerous. She indicates once more that we should follow her, and I am able to understand: Me . . . keep you safe.
Li Wei and I exchange glances again. We don’t know anything about her, he says.
We don’t know anything about any of these people, I point out. But she is the first to know our language. Kind of.
The cloaked woman suddenly makes a sharp gesture. I follow where she points and see two guards from the front gate moving purposefully through the crowd, clearly in search of something. Their faces are hard, and they push people out of the way indiscriminately as their gazes dart around. A chill runs through me. I don’t know for sure that they’re looking for us, but we can’t take the chance. Li Wei and I clasp hands and follow this stranger into the unknown.
CHAPTER 10
OUR GUIDE LEADS US around and in between buildings, taking a path so convoluted that I soon lose all sense of where the market is. We leave it far behind us along with a lot of the more populated areas—which makes me uneasy. This stranger spoke of saving us from danger, but is it possible we’re simply walking into a trap?
At last, we reach what appears to be the opposite side of the township. I can see the towering wooden wall in the distance, but it isn’t our final destination. Instead, our guide takes us to a squat two-story building with minimal decoration. Painted characters on the front read: Red Myrtle Travelers’ Inn. With a quick gesture, we are beckoned around the back side of the building, to a nondescript door.
After glancing around to make sure we’re alone, our guide pushes back her hood, and I am surprised to see she is our age and exceptionally pretty. She opens the door and starts to step through, pausing when she notices we don’t follow. It’s okay, she says. No one will hurt you here.
Who are you? I ask.
And what is this place? Li Wei demands.