When Erhi came to, the first thing she saw was an unfamiliar male face peering down at her. His features were drawn, but you could tell by the way there was excess skin around his cheeks that he had recently lost weight. They certainly weren't the features of a warrior.

"You're awake" said the stranger, smiling.

Erhi didn't respond. Instead she tried to feel if there was a weapon nearby. Something she could use to defend herself. What was she doing here, lying down? She tried to move, but she was unable to do anything more than twitch her fingers. Had the stranger tied her up? Was she a prisoner? She cast her mind back. What had she been doing before she was here? There had been a battle. She was fighting. Had they won? That's it, she had been riding, charging, taking aim at the enemy, determined to get a scalp. But then something had happened. She had toppled from her horse. Sabar? Was she alive? She had been wounded. By who? Not by this boy, surely?

The stranger laid a damp towel on her forehead and pressed the back of his hand against her cheek.

"We're not out of the woods yet" said the stranger.

In her delirious state, Erhi had only just realised that the stranger wasn't speaking Mongolian. He was Chinese. Wait. It all started to flood back to her. Muunokhoi, the portal, Yue!

"Yue!" called out Erhi.

"I'm right here" said Yue, taking her hand.

"What happened, where are we?" asked Erhi.

"You fell in battle. I found you, saved you" replied Yue.

"How?" asked Erhi.

Yue described his encounter with the Khwarezmids, his walk to the battlefield and the man who was looking for her.

"Muunokhoi, I should have known" said Erhi darkly.

'There's something else I should tell you" said Yue, unable to look Erhi in the eye.

"What is it?" asked Erhi, aware that something had felt off ever since she woke up.

Yue busied himself checking her bandages.

"Yue, what's wrong?" asked Erhi.

Yue didn't reply straight away. His cheeks flushed red and he suddenly became intensely interested in the tent floor. Slowly, it dawned on Erhi what had been missing ever since she woke up. It was quiet. No, not quiet, silent. The camp was never silent. Thousands of men and horses living on top of one another could never be silent, it was impossible. Even in the dark of the early hours, horses snorted and men screamed at the terrors lurking in their subconsciousness. But now there was no sound. Only the wind moaning down from the mountains.

"We're not in the camp, are we?" asked Erhi, her voice unsteady.

Yue shook his head.

"Yue, tell me" commanded Erhi.

Yue looked up from the floor and began to speak. Slowly at first, but then he couldn't stop the words tumbling out in fits and starts.

"I took you to a doctor. He was Chinese, very good, very professional. If it hadn't been for him then you would have been dead. But of course, straight away he realised that you were a girl. I begged him not to tell anyone, but there were others there. Word got out. They called a meeting to decide what to do. There were important people. The one with the golden mask"

"Jebe" interrupted Erhi, her excitement at being discussed by the general fading as she realised what must have been said about her.

"Honestly, I thought they were going to kill you, to put you to death. But someone spoke up for you. An old warrior with a scar across his face. He seemed to know Jebe really well and the general listened to him. So they decided to let you live, but they also decided that you couldn't be in the army anymore. I've been instructed to take you home once you're fit enough to travel" said Yue.

Erhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Home. That might as well have been a death sentence. First they'd have to cross thousands of miles of hostile step and then....no it didn't bare thinking about. Whatever happened she couldn't return. She'd made a promise to herself, to her mother. A promise that she was failing to keep.

"It wouldn't be so bad would it? Returning home, I mean. You never know, we might find another portal. Perhaps you can come with me, back to my time" said Yue hopefully.

"No" said Erhi.

"We can't stay here, it's not safe. And we can't re-join the army. Even if they let us, you're in no fit state to fight" said Yue.

"I said no" said Erhi, her voice firm, her mind made up.

"When the doctor was treating you, he saw your back. Those scars, he gave me an ointment to help with the healing. I've been applying it every day. Is that why you can't go home?" asked Yue.

Erhi didn't respond straight away.

"Yue, you're no longer my slave. I can't keep you here against your will. So why did you stay?" asked Erhi.

"The doctor instructed me how to nurse you back to health" replied Yue, evasively.

"But you could have left me to do die and no one would have been any the wiser. You could have tried to return home" said Erhi.

"And if I did, you would have died. I couldn't do that. I'm not a Mongol" said Yue.

"There's no other reason you stayed?" asked Erhi.

"What else could there be?" replied Yue, too quickly.

A static of unsaid words filled the air between them. Their heads were close, but not close enough. All it would take was for one of them to reach out to the other. But Erhi was too proud and Yue, well Yue was a boy, and although he was a bright, like all boys, in matters of the heart he was a complete fool. Erhi cleared her throat. The moment passed.

"Thanks for staying" said Erhi, her voice tight and precise.

"Like I said, I couldn't leave you to die" mumbled Yue.

He busied himself in tidying the tent. Taking scrupulous care not to come too close to where Erhi was lying. Boys, thought Ehri crossly. This is why she had enjoyed being a man, a warrior, life was so much simpler. Kill or be killed was preferable to a battle of hearts and souls. Not that she had feelings for Yue that were anything else other than friendly. She was grateful to him for saving her life, but nothing else. She couldn't have other feelings for him, could she? By Mongol standards she was more of a man than he was, yet he had saved her, somehow, and if his story was to be believed he had fought and killed a Khwarezmid. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, watching as he pretended to be busy.

"Yue, I'm not going to go home. I'm staying. I'm going to get better and then I'm returning to the army. If they want to kill me then fine, but I won't let them beat me. If you're set on staying as well, then so be it. It's your choice, your funeral. But if you do decide to stay, then I owe you an explanation. The reason why I am the way I am. I owe you my story" said Erhi.

"Erhi, you don't owe me..."

"Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking" said Erhi, more sharply than she had intended.

Mollified, Yue lapsed into silence.

"I'll tell you my story in return for nursing me back to health. I can teach you how to fight and you can accompany me into battle, not as a slave but as a companion. If you do all of this and we don't die, I'll help you find that portal again, I'll help you to return home. That's what I'm offering, that's my deal" said Erhi.

"Agreed" said Yue without hesitating.

"You don't want to think about it first?" asked Erhi, laughing.

"There's nothing to think about" responded Yue.

"Well let's shake on it then" replied Erhi, failing to conceal her smile.

"We don't have to cut ourselves again, do we?" asked Yue.

"No, that was a onetime thing. Once bonded by blood, forever bonded by blood" said Ehri.

She raised herself upon to her elbow and reached out her hand. Yue took it and for a brief moment their fingers touched, lightly and without purpose, two people enjoying the press of their skin against one another. Then Yue gripped her hand and gave it a formal squeeze. The deal was done.