His father's steps crossed the courtyard.
Wang Tian came through the opening in the wall and passed the chair without speaking. Frost cracked beneath his feet. He entered the treatment room, knelt beside Wang Tiexin, and took his wrist.
The two clan members moved aside. One held a folded towel above the basin while the other supported Wang Tiexin where he lay on his side.
Wang Tian checked his pulse. He bent close enough to feel the old man's breath, then closed his eyes and sent his spiritual sense inward.
Wang Ben watched from the chair.
Beyond the missing wall, more clan members crossed the courtyard in both directions. Someone called for more buckets. A second voice answered from the western courtyard, too far away for Wang Ben to make out the words.
Wang Tian withdrew his spiritual sense.
"He's alive. The backlash damaged his meridians and his spiritual sense. I need time before I can tell you how badly." Wang Tian looked at the clan member supporting his father. "Keep him on his side."
Wang Ben stood. The movement caught beneath his ribs, and his hand closed around the back of the chair until the pain passed. His father looked up.
"Will he wake?" Wang Ben asked.
Wang Tian was quiet for a moment. "I don't know." He turned back to Wang Tiexin.
The towel in the first clan member's hands had gone dark. He lowered it into the basin, and the water clouded around his fingers.
"Fresh water," Wang Tian said. "And clean towels." The man beside the basin began to rise.
A shout cut across the courtyard. "We need hands in the western courtyard!"
Another voice called for water from beyond the compound wall.
The clan member stopped halfway up. His eyes went to the opening in the wall, then back to Wang Tiexin.
Wang Ben crossed the room and took the basin before the man could lift it. The water shifted against its rim. He grimaced. The weight was small enough to carry.
Wang Tian watched him lift the basin. "Nothing heavy."
Wang Ben nodded.
He turned toward the courtyard. Through the broken wall, the last of the night lay pale above the roofs. Smoke drifted above the neighboring streets. Wang clan members moved between the family rooms, the western courtyard, and the main gate. Some carried buckets or stacks of clean towels. Others dragged broken boards clear of the paths.
Wang Ben stepped through the broken wall with the basin in both hands.
Wang Feng stood near the center of the courtyard, directing people toward the damaged buildings and the streets beyond the main gate.
"Leave that roof until daylight," he told Wang Hao, Wang Jun, and Wang Xiu as they prepared to enter a room beneath a cracked beam. "Move the wounded first. If they can walk, take them to the western courtyard. If they cannot, call for a stretcher."
He turned as Wang Ben approached. His gaze went to the basin.
"Used water," Wang Ben said.
Wang Feng pointed toward the drain along the eastern wall. "Empty it there. Rinse it and take fresh water back."
Wang Ben carried the basin across the courtyard. A line had formed between the well and the main gate. Full buckets passed toward the street. Empty ones came back. He waited until a clansman tipped water into the basin, washed the dark water from its sides, and filled it again.
He kept the fresh basin close to his body and crossed back to the family rooms without spilling it.
One of the clan members met him at the broken wall and took it inside. He held out a stack of towels in return. "They need these in the western courtyard."
Wang Ben accepted them.
Six wounded people sat along the western courtyard wall while Wang Xiu and another woman moved among them. One man held a bandage against his scalp. Another sat with his arm across his chest while Wang Xiu bound it in place. None of them spoke above a murmur.
Wang Ben gave the towels to Wang Xiu. She took two, then pointed to an older man sitting near the entrance.
"He can walk, but not alone. Take him to the receiving room."
Wang Ben crouched beside the man. "Can you stand?"
The man planted one hand against the wall. Wang Ben took his other arm and helped him rise. Most of the man's weight stayed on his own feet. When he stumbled, Wang Ben caught his elbow and steadied him.
They crossed the courtyard slowly. At the receiving room, Wang Jun came forward and took the man's arm.
Wang Ben returned outside.
The bucket line had stretched through the main gate. Wang Ben joined it near the opening in the wall and took the next full bucket. He passed it to a soot-streaked woman on his left, received an empty one from his right, and sent that back toward the well.
Smoke rose from two roofs on the adjoining street. The fire closest to the main gate had already been beaten down to a dull glow. Two clan members stood on ladders below the eaves. Those on the ground shouted when a tile shifted or a blackened beam sagged.
"Is it truly gone?" someone asked from farther down the line.
A man standing in the street looked up at the empty sky. "The grand formation is gone."
For a moment, only the buckets moved. Then a woman nearby laughed once and covered her face. Someone behind her began to cry.
Farther down the street, someone called, "What is it?"
"The grand formation is gone!" a voice answered from the gate.
The next bucket reached Wang Ben. He passed it on.
A woman entered the courtyard carrying a small child against her shoulder. The child's arms were locked around her neck. Wang Ben stepped back to let them pass, then took his place in the line again.
When the roof by the main gate stopped smoking, Wang Feng broke the line into smaller groups. Wang Hao took two guards along the street to call at the adjoining houses. Four others carried the remaining water toward the fire farther down the street. Wang Ben joined Wang Jun and two others clearing the path to the western courtyard.
A broken roof beam lay across the path. Wang Jun and one of the others bent to lift it. Wang Ben reached for the beam, but pain pulled beneath his ribs. He straightened and stepped away from it.
He gathered the loose boards beside it instead. The first armful was light. He carried it to the wall and took another. By the third trip, breathing deeply hurt. He stopped long enough for the pain to ease before continuing.
The sky above the compound turned gray. Shapes that had been shadows became damaged walls, missing tiles, and doors hanging open on one hinge.
Wang Ben carried water, towels, and messages between the courtyards and the street. Each time he passed the family rooms, the treatment-room door remained open. Wang Tian did not come out.
Near the main gate, Wang Feng began calling the returning groups to him. Wang Daiyu arrived with paper, ink, and a board to write against. Runners were still coming in from the two adjoining streets when Wang Ben returned with an empty basket.
The first light had reached the compound walls.
Wang Ben set the empty basket beside Wang Daiyu.
She had laid the board across one end of a bench. The first sheet held four headings in a narrow hand. Wounded. Fires. Unsafe buildings. Immediate needs.
Wang Hao stood across from her. Soot marked one sleeve.
"The fire by the main gate is out," he said. "The one farther down the street is still burning, but it has not spread. Nine wounded remain in the two streets. Four cannot walk."
Wang Daiyu's brush stopped. "Remain in the streets?"
"Yes. I did not include anyone already brought inside."
She wrote the number and left space beneath it.
"Three houses should not be entered," Wang Hao continued. "We have not checked the far end of the second street."
"Then it stays uncounted," Wang Feng said. "No guesses."
Wang Daiyu marked the missing section and looked toward Wang Xiu.
"Seven in the western courtyard," Wang Xiu reported. "Three more in the receiving room. We need two stretchers, more bandages, medicinal ointment, and the grade eight Flesh Mending, Blood Replenishing, and Vitality Restoration Pills from the medical pavilion."
"How many inside the walls altogether?" Wang Daiyu asked.
Wang Xiu looked toward the family rooms. "Eleven confirmed."
That number included Wang Tiexin.
Wang Daiyu wrote it without a name.
Another runner reported two damaged roofs within the compound and a doorway that had begun to lean. Wang Feng sent Wang Jun to keep people away from all three. A second runner asked for more water at the fire. Wang Hao went back through the gate with him.
Wang Daiyu continued to write until she reached the bottom of the page.
"Read it," Wang Feng said.
"Eleven wounded inside the compound. Nine still in the adjoining streets. One fire out and one still burning. Six buildings unsafe to enter. Two stretchers, clean bandages, medicinal ointment, grade eight Flesh Mending, Blood Replenishing, and Vitality Restoration Pills, and more water needed." Wang Daiyu touched the blank space below the street count. "The far end of the second street is not included. Neither is anything beyond these two streets."
Wang Feng looked over the people gathered around the bench. "This is a count of what we have reached. Nothing more. Mark it incomplete. Send one copy to the City Lord's people and keep one here."
Wang Daiyu turned the sheet and began a second copy.
The clan member who had remained with Wang Tiexin came through the broken wall. He went directly to Wang Feng and lowered his voice, but Wang Ben stood close enough to hear.
"No change. Elder Tian gave him a Vitality Restoration Pill. He needs more clean towels."
Wang Ben picked up the empty basket.
"I'll bring the towels, ointment, and pills."
He crossed the courtyard toward the medical pavilion. Behind him, Wang Daiyu asked the next runner how many of the wounded could walk.