The north wind sent grit rattling against the ruined city wall, making a soft, steady hiss. Yuan Wenkai reined in his horse and gazed up at the words "Yumen Pass," looming like the fangs of a giant beast beneath the gloomy sky. His blue-gray horse snorted uneasily and pawed the snow into a deep hollow.
"My lord, this city wall..." His guard Yuan Qi tightened his grip on his saber, but the howling wind swallowed the end of his words.
Withered grass sprouting from the cracks between the bricks shivered in the wind. Half of a foreign tribesman's wolf banner jutted from a gap where the archery tower had collapsed. Yuan Wenkai brushed a hand over the gilded, silver-inlaid tiger tally at his waist. Just yesterday, he had been a fifth-rank Zhaowu commandant in the Northern Guard Army. Today, he was the magistrate of Yumen County, a place feared by all.
