Pei Ye and the black cat exchanged a glance. The black cat leaped onto a palace beam, while Pei Ye went out toward the sound. Only when he reached the courtyard outside the hall did he notice a small side gate in the rear wall. The sound was approaching that gate, drawing closer and closer. The strange scraping and twisting against the snow grew clearer, accompanied now by someone's faint panting.
After a short while, the sound stopped outside the gate. Someone tried gently pushing it, eliciting only a light clink of chains.
The person outside did not seem surprised and merely sighed softly. Two breaths later came several sounds of wood striking stone, and then the panting rose a little higher-just the height of a stone a foot and a half tall.
Then the source of the sound seemed to rest for a few breaths before giving a soft, strenuous "Hup!" A slender hand caught the top of the wall, its knuckles whitening with the tightness of its grip. Feet kicked and scrabbled twice below, knocking against the wall with dull thuds, before finally finding a protrusion or hollow to stand on. A head with long hair pinned up rose into view, along with half a shoulder.
The climb seemed truly difficult for her. Her face was already flushed red with exertion. She looked down for a suitable place to land, then realized she was rather far from the bluestone beneath the courtyard wall and frowned in distress.
But the next moment, she pressed her lips together again and strained upward with her whole body. She laid her upper body across the wall and hauled her lower half up. Then, staring at the stone half a zhang away, she slowly pushed herself up on her arms, intending to shuffle