They had enough money to rent the whole of the seaside guesthouse and they did. However, perhaps because they were too used to the poor farmer days, Xiao and Cole were sitting on the small bed in the smallest room that they shared, arguing.
"Cole, please, just one, small boat," Xiao said.
Cole glared at him. "We can get boats when George comes. He can use government papers and get however many boats we need for the island excursion."
"Oh but let's just have one for fun," Xiao said.
"Why do you need one for fun?" Cole demanded.
Xiao opened his mouth but no words came out. "I - "
"You want to save Rose on your own, don't you?" Cole accused. "Look, we will get her when we have enough strengths. Even Reece and Kun aren't here yet."
Xiao looked away and pouted. "I used to despise and envy her, being able to marry Bradley without fearing any ... whatever ... from people. Now I just want to protect her."
Cole stared at him open-mouthed for a moment. "They were engaged?"
Xiao sighed. "The mentors settled the matter. Bradley overheard the conversation. Rose probably knew too."
Cole thought about it. "I suppose there was a partiality towards Bradley," he said slowly. "Though, I always thought that she liked you."
"It's gratefulness for saving her," Xiao brushed it off.
Cole looked at him with sad eyes. "Do you still - "
Xiao looked away. "Cole, let's just get a boat for old time's sake?"
Cole couldn't begrudge him that, not with him grieving for Bradley so he nodded.
Xiao's heart somersaulted in excitement. "I'll interrogate the priest in the meantime."
Cole frowned. "Shouldn't we be doing that - "
"Hey! Priest!" Xiao dragged the priest, cleanly shaven and groomed, into the room and sat him down on the bed. "How do you like the luxury of a bath?"
The priest glared at him.
Xiao laughed. "In any case, it makes being around you so much more pleasant."
Cole scoffed from behind him. "Xiao, I'm going now. Getting a small boat shouldn't take too long. No funny business until I'm back, alright? And remember, this boat is not for us to scout around the island on our own."
Xiao nodded and waved him away. Hurt, Cole left.
Grinning, Xiao looked at the priest. "Alright. What's the island like? You have no reason to not tell me."
"Only that you kicked me out of my temple and my place of prominence in the organisation."
"It's a fucking horrible organisation."
"I am now a disgraced member of the Anlang Sect."
Xiao would have said "a fucking horrible organisation" if he hadn't known Cole. Thus, "you have always been a disgrace with all your playing around with maidens."
The priest's cheeks flushed and he looked away.
"You are not in a position to hold back answers," Xiao told him.
The priest was silent for a count of ten before answering. "I'll help you."
Xiao grinned. "Great. So the island ... "
The priest nodded. "They have cornered themselves to a place where it's either them being captured or all of you dying there. I've been to the island once and there is a pagoda where they would hide everything they have to hide."
"What are they hiding other than themselves?" Xiao asked.
"The maidens, of course." The priest laughed and shook his head. "After all this time, you still don't know what they are doing? The Ravens are ravaged with a disease that needed the blood of Xenon maidens to cure."
"What?" Xiao interrupted.
The priest looked at him smugly. "That's right. Their place of operation is Fisher Island. And of course, there are trials taking place on the maidens, too. It's quite gruesome."
"Who owns the place?" Xiao asked.
"The doctor there is called William Freyer. As for who owns the place, I believe the Anlang Sect."
Xiao fumed. "Them again. How long has this been happening? How many maidens were killed?"
"They dispose of the maidens into the sea without counting it," the priest said. "But I don't think it's been a lot."
Xiao clenched his teeth hard. "Well, how do I get into the pagoda and save them all?"
"All you can do now is to wait until your military and the other knights come. There are too many of them. As for the pagoda, it has traps virtually everywhere. The stairs leading to the pagoda, for example, have traps on the even numbered steps. Then the actual stairs in the pagoda has traps on all the steps so you have to go up by the railing - "
"Then how do the bandits get up and down?" Xiao asked.
"They don't. It's only the doctor and sometimes an assistant that goes up and down. They can walk around the pagoda blindfolded."
Xiao didn't know whether or not to trust the priest. "So if they took a maiden, they would put them in the pagoda where the doctor lives. And the rest?"
"They will live on the island. There are houses there."
"How good is the doctor at fighting?"
"Extraordinary. Especially with other bandits around."
Xiao nodded. "And do you know the pagoda well?"
The priest grinned crookedly. "I know it well enough. In fact," he rummaged around his bag and pulled out a scroll of paper bundled up, "I have a map of the place."
Xiao snatched the scroll over and spread the pieces of paper out. Sure enough, there were diagrams of different stories of the pagoda - five in all. "And the yard?" Xiao asked.
The priest's grin faded a little and he pulled out another piece of paper. Xiao glared at him before taking that too. The maps were detailed, curtailing every corner of the pagoda. True to the priest's words, there were traps everywhere. Arrows shot out of every single door opened and rotary boards on stairs and random parts of the floor. There were also pits in the yard. In addition to all that, on the top level, the ground could be opened up with a lever and that led to a pit in the basement where anyone standing on the floor would fall into a net and would be shot at with arrows dipped in poison.
When Xiao finished examining the map, he looked at the priest quizzically. "How did you manage to get all this down from one visit?"
The priest cackled. "I took this from the designer of the pagoda, of course. Don't ask who or where he is, he's dead now."
Xiao's eyes widened. "You killed him?"
The priest grinned. "Well, that's that. What else do you need to know?"
Xiao bit his lips to suppress his anger. "Draw me a map of the island itself."
"I have a map of that too."
"Who did you kill this time?"
The priest made no answer but handed it over. "If you are going to scout around the place, do it from the east side and head inland to the pagoda."
"Any traps I should be aware of?" Xiao asked.
The priest shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of."
Xiao nodded slowly. "Alright."
The priest made to leave, but Xiao called him back. "One more thing."
Cole came back in a short while. "I got the boat. It's tied up by the dock."
"Under who's name was it rented under?"
"Mine and yours."
Xiao grinned. "Aww. It's like our first house together or something."
Cole's expression was stoic for a long second before grinning too. "You just have to meet my mother and then we are all good."
"Right, you've met brothers, my best friend, my mentor, my enemies, my - "
"Ability to spew nonsense?" Cole added.
Xiao hit him on the arm playfully. "Don't pretend you are all serious and stuff."
Cole grinned before looking away.
At night, Xiao and Cole laid on the roof of the guest house after they practiced martial arts. Xiao was drifting to sleep after a long day and his breathing was slow and even.
"Do I remind you of Bradley?" Cole asked out of the blue.
Xiao was too tired to open his eyes. "No, you're different," he said, slurring the words together.
"How so?" Cole asked.
"You are prouder. You are quieter - until you're not. You're nicer in a way. But then you're meaner. You're just different."
Cole hummed but didn't say anything else. Soon, he fell asleep, too.
Cole woke up groggily on the roof with the rain pouring down at him. He looked down at his clothes to find it soaked through already. A raindrop fell into his eye and he cursed, rubbing his eye furiously, getting rid of a few eyelashes on the way. He looked to his side to rouse Xiao, only to find him gone.
"Bitch," he muttered. It must be Xiao's idea of a joke to let him sleep in the rain. He was sure it was also connected to him saying he slept really lightly.
He jumped off the slippery roof. Just then, a servant of the guesthouse came in. "Knight Fessler, there is a group of elders outside, saying that they've come to help."
Cole's eyes widened and his heart raced. He hated talking to people - though elder people were better as he didn't have to be as good as them. If that made any sense at all. He knew Xiao would find it absurd, but Cole had grown up around people older than him. It pushed him to be better, but at the same time gave him a sort of comfort when he couldn't be as good. That also made him proud, of course, when he found himself better than his older peers. That made hanging around Xiao a challenge as the younger one was quite talented and loved humiliating him.
He raced out of the guesthouse, his clothes still wet. Thankfully, the people he was welcoming were even more drenched. At the front of the group was the Grandmaster of Phoenix Mountain. Behind him were Grandmaster Liang, Reece, Kun, Jonah, and Peter. Cole ran up and bowed down. "Grandmasters! Come in!"
Grandmaster Ford of Xue Lake barely looked at him before going in. Reece, Kun, and Peter followed suit. Grandmaster Liang patted him on the shoulder in a paternal fashion and then went in. Jonah, though, hugged him heartily.
"Cole, how's it going?"
Cole smiled nervously. "I'm going - uh, doing good."
Jonah was heading inside already, opening rooms at random and poking his head in. Finally, he chose a room next to Xiao and Cole's room. "So, this is the final stop then."
Cole reflected that Xiao was probably like this once upon a time. That made him sad but less conscious. "Yeah."
"Well, the others should come in a day or two. The military too."
"How did you meet up with the others?" Cole asked.
"Mentor, Grandmaster Ford, Peter, and I met them outside Roche," Jonah explained. "When I got back to Mount Huai, Grandmaster Ford was there so he accompanied mentor down to here. Now that Rose is abducted, well, he has more of a reason to be here."
Cole nodded.
"Ignore them being all rude to you," Jonah advised. "You won't see them again anyway."
Cole cracked a smile. But then, he realized that Xiao should have been out here greeting his mentor already. Telling Jonah he will see him later, Cole ran into their room. It was empty. Cole's eyebrows furrowed and his heart raced again. He barged into where the priest was living. He was looking into his bag of stuff. Seeing Cole, he set the bag aside. "Yes?"
"Where is Xiao?"
The priest shrugged, not bothered at all.
Cole's hand drifted towards his sword. "What did you say to Xiao yesterday?"
The priest laughed. "He wants to go scouting about. Why are yelling at me?"
Cole stomped his right foot in frustration. "That - !"
He ran out to the dock to find their boat gone amongst the others. Looking out into the river through the unrelenting rain, he couldn't see a thing but the blurry outline of the island. Xiao had gone a long time ago, he was sure. He looked about and saw the supervisor of the dock. He jogged over. "Hey, sir, did you see someone taking a boat and sailing to the island?"
The old man thought about it. "Back when the sun wasn't up, there was someone, yes."
Cole gasped. The clock had just struck nine. He saluted in thanks and ran back into the guesthouse. "Jonah!" he said. "We need to save Xiao!"