Jeff Stone_Five Ancestors 06
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ShaoShu looked up at the Emperor's seating area and saw that Xie was no longer there. The other members of the party were already filing out into a special tunnel entrance as the crowd danced and cheered around them.
Golden Dragon began to limp toward the pit entry door, and ShaoShu threw it open. He helped Golden Dragon through it, then closed it again, the crowd still chanting:
“GOL-DEN! DRA-GON! GOL-DEN! DRA-GON!”
“Are you okay, Golden Dragon?” ShaoShu asked.
“I'm fine,” Golden Dragon replied. “But from now on, please call me Long.”
“Whatever you say, Long. That was incredible!”
“Thanks,” Long said, gripping his bloody right thigh with one hand and his upper left arm with the other hand. “What happened to the guard?”
“He tripped and hit his head,” ShaoShu said, looking at Long's wounds. “Those really look like they hurt. Is there anything I can do?”
“You can help me out of here. I think—”
“HALT!” said a deep voice from down the tunnel. “Nobody is going anywhere.”
ShaoShu frowned. It was Xie.
“Golden Dragon, you are under arrest,” Xie said as he approached. “ShaoShu, you are under arrest, too, until it is determined whether or not you've committed any crimes by assisting this enemy of the state.”
“Oh, no!” ShaoShu said.
“It's okay,” Long said. “I expected as much.” He grunted, clamping his hands down tighter.
“This way,” Xie said, giving ShaoShu a shove. Xie directed them down a series of short tunnels before stopping outside a large prison cell with iron bars across the front. “Inside.”
ShaoShu helped Long hobble into the cell, and Xie slammed the rusty door shut before walking away.
“Hey!” ShaoShu said. “What about his leg and arm?”
“I'm a soldier, not a physician,” Xie said without breaking stride. He turned a corner and was gone.
ShaoShu looked at Long. “I want to help you.”
“I'll be all right,” Long said. He took off his robe and tore a long strip of silk free, wrapping it tightly around his wounded leg.
Long began tearing a second strip for his arm when they heard Xie shouting. ShaoShu listened intently, but with the echoing within the stone tunnels, he couldn't make out what Xie was saying.
Long looked at the prison cell bars. “You're pretty small. Do you think you could squeeze between them?”
“Gosh,” ShaoShu said. “I almost forgot.” He reached into a pouch attached to his sash and pulled out the ring of keys. “No need to squeeze if you have the keys! I tried your choke trick on the guard, but it didn't work. I got lucky. He knocked himself out against the ground.”
Long laughed.
Xie began to shout even louder, and ShaoShu jumped to his feet. He tried several keys until he found the right one, then threw the key ring to Long. “I don't want them to jingle while I'm sneaking around.”
Long nodded and tucked the keys behind his sash.
“I'll be right back,” ShaoShu said, and hurried toward Xie's angry cries. After rounding a few corners, he caught sight of the big man smashing his huge fists against a heavy wooden door very much like the one leading to the pit arena. It even had a small barred window.
Xie stopped pounding and stuck his face against the window. “Let me in, Tonglong! Open this door and I may forgive you. Leave it closed and you're a dead man.”
There was no response from the other side of the door, and Xie began to pound on it again. Brick dust billowed from the hinges, and ShaoShu saw a small hole open up next to the door's lowest hinge. As he stared at it, the pounding stopped.
“How did you get out?” Xie growled.
ShaoShu looked up at Xie and shrugged. “What is happening in there?”
“None of your business.”
Xie went back to pounding on the door, and the small hole next to the hinge grew larger. Xie flew into a rage and began to shout again, focusing intently on the window.
ShaoShu couldn't contain his curiosity any longer. He raced over to the hole and peered through with one eye, trying his best to keep his other eye focused on Xie.
Through the hole, ShaoShu saw a large meeting room. Ornate couches lined the walls, and thick carpet covered the floor. In the center of the room, Tong -long stood debating with the Emperor, the Eastern Warlord, the Western Warlord, and AnGangseh. Tong-long was wearing the white jade armor, and at his feet lay the white jade swords. The Emperor looked terrified.
ShaoShu stepped back from the hole and looked at the door. There was a handle but no lock. The door must lock from the other side, he thought. He examined the small hole and said, “If you are willing to help me, I think I can help you.”
Xie stopped pounding and scowled at ShaoShu. “What could you possibly do for me?”
“I think I can squeeze through that hole and open the door from the other side.”
Xie's eyes narrowed. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I don't trust Tonglong, and your boss looks scared.”
“The Emperor isn't the only one I'm concerned about,” Xie said. “The Western Warlord is my father. Something is very wrong. What do you want?”
“I want you to help me and Golden Dragon. We're not criminals, you know.”
Xie nodded. “I'm beginning to believe that. Tong long and his two-faced mother are the problem. We have a deal, little one. Help me get the Emperor and my father out of there, and I'll ask the Emperor to give you and Golden Dragon a pardon.”
“I'll try my best,” ShaoShu said. “Wish me luck.” He bent down and stared at the hole again. Visions of Tonglong's father's final resting place began to run through his mind. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and pushed his head through the hole. It fit. As he began to wriggle his shoulders through, Tonglong raised his voice.
“Eastern Warlord,” Tonglong said, picking up one of the jade swords, “I hereby request that our armies unite.”
The Eastern Warlord put his hands out hesitantly, then pulled them back. “I need to think about this.”
The Western Warlord sneered. “I don't need to think anymore. I am leaving.” He turned away from the group, and Tonglong grabbed him by the collar, spinning him back around.
“Take your filthy hands off me!” the Western War lord shouted, and he reached for the sword tucked into his sash.
ShaoShu popped his upper body through the hole and watched in disbelief as Tonglong dropped the jade sword, slipped his own sword from its sheath with deadly speed, and ran the blade through the Western Warlord's heart.
“NO!” cried Xie from the other side of the door.
ShaoShu pushed himself the rest of the way through and jumped to his feet. He turned the door handle, and to his relief, the lock disengaged. He gave the door a shove, and it swung open.
Xie roared, taking a step into the room, and Shao -Shu dove behind a large vase resting on the floor.
Tonglong pivoted toward the doorway, and ShaoShu saw him pull a pistol from the folds of his robe.
BANG!
The pistol fired, and Xie crashed to the floor. He lay still.
ShaoShu shuddered. He peered around the vase and saw Tonglong drop the pistol and pull a second one from his robe. He aimed it at the Eastern Warlord and asked, “Have you finished thinking yet?”
The Eastern Warlord dropped to his knees and kowtowed at Tonglong's feet. “I am your vassal.”
“I thought you might be,” Tonglong said. “You may rise and take one of the jade swords.”
The Eastern Warlord stood and picked one up, and Tonglong pointed the pistol at the Emperor.
AnGangseh, who had been holding on to the Emperor's arm, released it and took a step backward. She smiled at Tonglong.
“Well, Mother,” Tonglong said, “as the Round Eyes say, I believe it is time to pay the piper. I promised long ago to seek revenge against those who have betrayed my family, did I not?”
“You most certainly did,”
AnGangseh said.
Tonglong glared at the Emperor. “Say goodbye, traitor.”
Tonglong pulled the trigger, and at the very last instant, ShaoShu saw him jerk his arm sideways.
BANG!
The pistol fired, its lead ball tearing through AnGangseh's throat. ShaoShu nearly cried out as she clawed at her neck and dropped to her knees, blood pouring between her fingers and over her long nails. She gurgled and hissed and somehow managed to form a solitary word.
“Why?”
Tonglong pointed to a single white cat hair clinging to the side of her black hood. “That's why.”
AnGangseh hissed again and swiped at Tonglong, but he casually stepped out of the way. She swiped a second time, hitting nothing, then toppled over in a sea of her own blood. A moment later, she was gone.
ShaoShu watched Tonglong walk over to AnGangseh and tear a silk cord from around her neck. Dangling from the cord was a key entwined with dragons.
Tonglong turned to the Emperor. “Do you know what this is? You should recognize its unique shape.”
“I do,” the Emperor replied. “It is a key to the For bidden City.”
“Correct,” Tonglong said. “I always knew that my mother had gone to great lengths to obtain it, but it wasn't until I connected her with that traitor Lei that I realized what she was up to. Lei killed HaiZhe, not me. I planned to keep him alive and set the final stages of my plan in motion months or even years from now. Thanks to my mother, things have been accelerated. You are now a puppet, and I am your master. The Forbidden City will soon be mine!”
“Psst! ShaoShu! Let's go!”
ShaoShu glanced at the doorway and saw Long standing off to the side with Xie balanced impossibly across his shoulders. ShaoShu opened his mouth to say something, but Long turned and disappeared, leaving nothing but a shadow.
ShaoShu looked at Tonglong; then he looked back at Long's receding shadow.
And he chased after it.
lives in the Midwest with his wife and two children and practices the martial arts daily. He has worked as a photographer, an editor, a maintenance man, a technical writer, a ballroom dance instructor, a concert promoter, and a marketing director for companies that design schools, libraries, and skateboard parks. He began searching for his birth mother when he was eighteen and found her fifteen years later. He has subsequently found his birth father as well. He recently traveled to the Shaolin Temple in China and while there passed his black-belt test in Shaolin-do kung fu.
Text copyright © 2009 by Jeffrey S. Stone
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stone, Jeff.
Mouse / Jeff Stone.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The five ancestors; bk. 6)
Summary: In seventeenth-century China, orphaned ShaoShu, who can squeeze into small spaces, puts his life in danger when he becomes a spy for a young band of warrior monks known as the Five Ancestors and bravely infiltrates evil Tonglong's camp.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89245-5
[1. Spies—Fiction. 2. Martial arts—Fiction. 3. Human-animal relationships—
Fiction. 4. Orphans—Fiction. 5. China—History—1644-1795—Fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.S87783Mr 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008034810
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