"Open the gate."
I said it before Huo even turned around. His brother's words were still ringing in my ears—the plague started at Qingfeng Pass—and every instinct I had was screaming the same thing: if Jingchuan was poisoned here, he wasn't the only one sick.
Huo went still. "What?"
"You heard me." I stepped past the cot where Jingchuan was barely breathing. My palm was still bleeding through the rag someone had tied around it, but I didn't care. "If your brother got poisoned inside this camp, someone here is spreading it. I need to see everyone. Now."
He turned. Slow. Controlled. The kind of movement that meant he was deciding whether to humor me or shut me down. "You just saved one man. That doesn't make you commander of this pass."
"I don't want to command anything." I moved toward the tent flap. "I want to stop people from dying. There's a difference."
His hand caught my shoulder before I got two steps. Not rough. Firm. "You're not walking into my garrison and inspecting my men like you own the place."
I turned under his grip. Close enough now that I could see the edge of his jaw tighten. "Your men? Jingchuan's your brother and someone poisoned him under your watch. You think that stopped with him?"
Something flickered behind his eyes. Anger, maybe. Or guilt. Hard to tell with a guy who looked like he'd learned to bury feelings around the same time he learned to hold a sword.
"We have physicians," he said.
"Yeah?" I yanked my shoulder free. "Where were they an hour ago when he was choking on his own tongue?"
Silence. The kind that lands heavy.
One of the soldiers by the tent entrance shifted his weight. Another one coughed into his fist. Not a sick cough. A this-is-awkward cough. Huo's expression didn't change, but I could feel him registering it. He knew I was right.
"I'll have the chief physician examine the garrison," he said finally.
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"People don't wait for tomorrow." I stepped past him again, and this time he let me reach the flap. "I need to see them now. Anyone with a fever, cough, nausea, rash. Anything."
"Miss Chen." His voice dropped. Not loud. Worse. Quiet and sharp, like a blade sliding out of a sheath. "You don't understand what you're asking."
I turned. "Try me."
He moved closer. Not touching me this time, but close enough that I had to tilt my head back to keep eye contact. The tent felt smaller. Hotter. He smelled like steel and leather and something else I couldn't name—smoke, maybe, or just the kind of exhaustion that sticks to your skin after too many sleepless nights.
"This pass holds the northern border," he said. "Every man here is sworn to silence about what happens inside these walls. You want me to let you walk through the garrison, cataloging who's weak and who's strong?"
"I want to stop an outbreak."
"You want to expose our vulnerabilities." His eyes didn't leave mine. "If word spreads that Qingfeng Pass is sick, we'll have enemies at the gate by sunrise."
"If you don't let me in," I said, "you won't have anyone left to guard the gate."
His jaw tightened. For a second I thought he might grab me again. Instead he just stared, like he was trying to figure out whether I was brave or stupid.
Maybe both.
"You're not military," he said finally. "You don't know what you're risking."
"I know what happens when you ignore an infection." I held up my bandaged hand. "It spreads. Fast. And by the time you admit you need help, it's too late."
Behind him, one of the soldiers spoke up. Young kid, maybe twenty. "Commander, she saved the prince. If she says—"
"I didn't ask for your opinion." Huo didn't even look at him. His eyes stayed locked on me. "Everyone out."
The soldiers hesitated, then filed toward the exit. The last one cast a glance back at Jingchuan, still pale and barely breathing on the cot, before ducking through the flap.
Then it was just the two of us.
And Jingchuan, technically, but he didn't count as a conversational participant right now.
Huo took another step forward. I held my ground. If he thought he could intimidate me into backing down, he didn't know how many drunk guys I'd stared down in the ER at three a.m.
"You don't trust me," I said.
"I don't know you."
"Fair." I crossed my arms. "But you know your brother almost died tonight. And you know he said the plague started here. So either you let me figure out who else is sick, or you wait until half your soldiers are too weak to stand. Your call."
He didn't move. Didn't blink. Just stood there like a wall made of muscle and bad decisions.
"You think it's that simple," he said.
"I think people are dying," I shot back. "Yeah. It's that simple."
"You don't understand this world."
"I understand triage." My voice was getting louder and I didn't care. "I understand that if someone's poisoning people inside your camp, they're not going to stop with one prince. I understand that every minute you spend protecting your secrets, more people get infected."
His hand moved to his sword hilt. Not drawing it. Just resting there. A warning.
"You're asking me to risk everything I've built here," he said quietly.
"I'm asking you to save your people."
"By exposing them to an outsider who appeared out of nowhere?" His voice stayed level, but there was an edge now. Sharp and cold. "You want me to believe you're here to help. Fine. Prove it. Save Jingchuan. Keep him alive. Then we talk about the rest."
"He's stable," I said. "For now. But if there's more poison in this camp—"
"Then I'll find it."
"How?" I stepped closer. Close enough now that I could see the faint scar along his collarbone, the one that disappeared under his armor. "You going to interrogate every soldier? Test every meal? You don't even know what you're looking for."
"And you do?"
"I know how to find a pattern." My heart was pounding but I kept my voice steady. "Fever curves. Symptom clusters. Transmission routes. That's my job. Let me do it."
For a long moment he just looked at me. Then he turned and walked to the tent entrance. I thought he was leaving. Instead he stopped at the flap, one hand on the canvas.
"If I open that gate," he said, not looking back, "and you find what you're looking for, the empire will know Qingfeng Pass is compromised. They'll pull our reinforcements. Redirect our supplies. We'll be on our own."
"You're already on your own," I said. "You just don't know it yet."
He turned his head. Just enough that I could see his profile against the lamplight. "You're very sure of yourself."
"I'm sure people are dying." I moved toward him. "And I'm sure you care about that. Or you wouldn't have begged me to save your brother."
His shoulders went tight. "I didn't beg."
"You admitted you needed me," I said. "Same thing."
He faced me fully now. Two steps away. Close enough that I could see his chest rise and fall, the controlled rhythm of someone keeping a tight leash on their temper.
"You want into my garrison," he said softly. "You'll go where I say. You'll see who I allow. And if you find anything—anything—you report to me first. Not the imperial physicians. Not the court. Me."
I should've argued. Should've pushed back on the control-freak routine. But I needed access more than I needed to win the argument.
"Fine," I said.
"And if you're wrong," he added, "if you cause panic over nothing, I'll have you removed from this pass before dawn."
"I'm not wrong."
"Then we'll both find out." He pushed the tent flap aside and stepped into the night. "Stay close. Don't speak unless I tell you to. And if anyone asks who you are, you're my personal attendant. Nothing more."
I followed him into the cold air. The garrison was bigger than I'd thought—rows of tents stretching into the darkness, watch fires burning at intervals, soldiers moving between posts. The smell hit me first: smoke, sweat, and something sour underneath. Sickness.
Huo led me down the main path, his stride fast and purposeful. I had to jog to keep up. Soldiers glanced our way, their faces curious or suspicious or just blank with exhaustion.
We were halfway to the center of the camp when Huo stopped.
I nearly ran into his back.
"What—"
He held up one hand. Listening.
Then I heard it too.
Coughing.
Not one person. Multiple. Wet, rattling coughs that echoed from somewhere beyond the next row of tents. The kind of sound that made my stomach drop.
"How long has that been going on?" I asked.
Huo didn't answer. He just started walking again, faster now, toward the noise.
We rounded the corner and I saw them: a cluster of soldiers sitting outside a tent, hunched over, shoulders shaking. One of them looked up as we approached. His face was flushed, eyes glassy.
"Commander," he rasped. "We thought it was just the cold—"
"How many?" Huo's voice cut through the air like a whip.
The soldier hesitated. "Twelve. Maybe fifteen. Started this morning."
I pushed past Huo and crouched next to the nearest man. Pressed the back of my hand to his forehead. Burning.
"This isn't just one patient," I said, looking up at Huo. "This is an outbreak."
He stared down at me, his face unreadable.
Before he could respond, the sound of hooves echoed from the main gate. Fast. Urgent. A rider coming in hard.
Huo turned toward the sound, his hand moving to his sword.
The rider appeared a moment later, flanked by two guards. Behind them, a covered palanquin swayed into view, carried by four men in imperial red.
The palanquin stopped.
The curtain pulled aside.
A woman stepped out. Elegant. Composed. Dressed in silk robes embroidered with gold thread, her hair pinned with jade ornaments that caught the firelight. She moved like someone who expected the world to rearrange itself around her.
Su Liyue.
I didn't know her name yet. But I knew the look in her eyes when they landed on me.
Pure venom.
She walked forward, a scroll in her hand, and stopped three paces from Huo. Her gaze flicked from him to me, then back.
"Commander Huo," she said, her voice smooth and cold. "I bring an imperial order."
She unrolled the scroll.
"By decree of the Imperial Medical Bureau and the Ministry of Rites, the woman known as Grace Chen is hereby named a person of medical investigation. Evidence suggests she is the source of the plague outbreak at Qingfeng Pass."
My stomach dropped.
Su Liyue's eyes met mine.
"She is to be quarantined immediately," she continued, "pending full examination. Any resistance will be considered treason against the throne."
Huo's hand tightened on his sword hilt.
The coughing behind us grew louder.
And Su Liyue smiled.