by Jeff Stone
“Maybe I should let you go?” ShaoShu said. “You can go places I can’t. You would probably be better off free. I’ll let you decide.”
ShaoShu placed the mouse on the floor. It stood still for a moment, staring at him; then it twitched its nose and scurried away beneath the door.
ShaoShu sighed. “Goodbye, my friend.”
He wished he could do the same thing. He was very good at squeezing through tight spaces, but he had not been able to figure out a way to escape this place. Tonglong’s elite soldiers were the best of the best, and as good as he was at creeping around, he could not sneak past them. He would be stuck here forever.
Unless—
Unless he just made a break for it. Forgot stealth and simply ran. After all, he was small, quick, and nimble. It might be worth a try. Besides, he would go crazy otherwise, just sitting in this room all day and night.
ShaoShu decided to give it a try. He crossed the room, checked to make sure the two dragon scrolls he had swiped were securely hidden deep within the folds of his robe, and slowly pulled his door open.
He got lucky. There was a soldier looming nearby as always, and this man was very close—only two paces away. Perfect. Before the soldier could even open his mouth to ask what he was doing, ShaoShu lowered his head and ran right between the man’s legs. The soldier snatched at him, but missed. As the man spun around to begin his pursuit, ShaoShu picked up speed.
“Stop, you little rodent!” the soldier yelled.
ShaoShu didn’t look back. He saw that this corridor was coming to an end ahead, and he had to make a decision: turn right or left. He chose left.
He should have chosen right.
As ShaoShu rounded the corner, he crashed headfirst into Tonglong, who was striding forward. Shao Shu spun to one side in an effort to get around Tonglong, but Tonglong’s hand snapped downward with incredible speed and latched on to the back of ShaoShu’s neck. ShaoShu squealed in pain, and Tonglong responded by squeezing even harder. Tonglong’s grip was amazing.
ShaoShu began to sob. “Please stop, sir. That really hurts.”
A group of elite soldiers rushed forward from behind Tonglong, and the disgraced soldier that Shao Shu had evaded approached from the opposite direction. Once ShaoShu and Tonglong were surrounded, Tonglong released his grip, shoving ShaoShu’s face toward the floor.
“Kowtow,” Tonglong said.
ShaoShu obeyed. He dropped to his knees and tapped his forehead against the floor three times before focusing his eyes on the tops of Tonglong’s heavy boots.
“Rise,” Tonglong said.
ShaoShu stood.
“Where do you think you are going?” Tonglong asked.
ShaoShu shrugged. “Nowhere, sir.”
“That is right,” Tonglong said. “Did you honestly think you could get out of here?”
Knowing that Tonglong appreciated strong individuals, ShaoShu lifted his head and pointed at the disgraced soldier. “I got past him.”
ShaoShu braced himself for a blow from Tonglong, but it never came. Instead, Tonglong laughed.
“I suppose you are right, Little Mouse. How quickly I forget your particular abilities.” Tonglong looked at the disgraced soldier. “Get out of my sight. I will deal with you later.”
“Yes, sir!” the soldier replied, and hurried away.
Tonglong spoke to ShaoShu once more. “I seem to have been ignoring you these past several days. I imagine you are getting bored sitting alone in that room all day long.”
“Yes, sir,” ShaoShu said.
“I can fix that. Come with me.”
ShaoShu stood and followed Tonglong into his command center office. Tonglong told him to have a seat in front of the large desk, and then he ordered his men to wait outside the room. The soldiers left and closed the door behind them, and Tonglong sat down opposite ShaoShu, pulling a small blank scroll, a writing quill, and some ink out of a drawer.
“Do you think you can find the Shanghai Fight Club?” Tonglong asked.
“Yes, sir,” ShaoShu said. “It’s only a few li from here. I remember coming straight to this place after the Fight Club Championship.”
“Good,” Tonglong said. “I would like you to deliver a message to the fight club owner. It is something I do not want anyone else to know, and I think you are the perfect person to deliver it.”
ShaoShu pouted. “Because I can’t read, sir?”
“That is right,” Tonglong said. “Because you cannot read.”
Tonglong wrote a single line on the scroll and took a small handful of sand from an ornate container on the desk. He sprinkled the sand over the newly written characters, dusted it off, and checked the ink with his finger. It was dry. He rolled up the scroll and handed it to ShaoShu.
“The fight club owner’s name is Yang. Give this to him and come straight back here.” Tonglong reached into a pouch tied to his sash and pulled out a large gold coin. “This will be yours when you return.”
ShaoShu stared at the coin in disbelief. Shiny objects had always fascinated him, and this was the shiniest thing he had ever seen. Rays of light bounced off it from sunbeams coming in through Tonglong’s unshuttered window. Besides being shiny, that single coin was worth a small fortune.
“I reward those who are loyal to me,” Tonglong said, adjusting his long ponytail braid. His robe slipped open slightly, and ShaoShu could not help but notice another shiny object, the key Tonglong wore around his neck. It was the same one that ShaoShu had removed from Tonglong’s father’s tomb. It looked different from any key he had ever seen, and was entwined with dragons. Tonglong claimed it was the key to the Forbidden City.
Tonglong pulled his robe closed. “I see the memory of my father’s tomb is still fresh in your mind. I will be putting the key to use soon enough. It would be wise for you to not talk about it with anyone. Ever.”
“No, sir,” ShaoShu said, growing nervous.
“Good boy,” Tonglong replied. “Now run along. If you complete this assignment before dark, I will give you two gold coins.”
ShaoShu’s eyes lit up, and he jumped out of his chair. He would love to have two gold coins that size, but he knew that was never going to happen. As soon as he was clear of this command center, he would head in the opposite direction from the fight club and never stop running until he found Ying or Long. He had had enough of Tonglong.
Tonglong ordered his men to open the office door, and as ShaoShu scurried through it, Tonglong gave the men clear instructions to leave ShaoShu alone. He was departing on a special mission.
The soldiers complied.
ShaoShu hurried outside and was immediately struck by how cold it was, even with the sun out. Winter was definitely close. He would have gone back inside to get an overcoat, but realized that he did not have one. This was going to make his escape more difficult, or at least more uncomfortable.
He decided to jog in order to both keep himself warm and get away from Tonglong faster. He had only gone two blocks and was still within sight of Tonglong’s command center when someone began to shout.
“Hey! Kid! You, there! STOP, IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!”
Huh? ShaoShu thought, and he saw a very old man hobble into the road ahead of him. The old man wore a shopkeeper’s apron, and he began to wave his arms frantically.
ShaoShu frowned and slowed to a walk. As he neared the old man, the same voice called out, “Stop, I said!”
Confused, ShaoShu looked around and realized that the voice did not belong to the shopkeeper in the road. Instead, it belonged to an ancient butcher whose store was located across the street from the shopkeeper. The butcher stepped out from behind his meat counter and waved a large cleaver.
ShaoShu stopped dead in his tracks. Behind him, he heard someone else shout, “Keep him there, old-timers! We’re coming!”
ShaoShu turned to see a group of seven soldiers running toward him from the direction of Tonglong’s command center. ShaoShu did not recognize any of these men, however. They wer
e not wearing the red uniforms of Tonglong’s elite team. What was going on? The soldiers ran up to him, and two of them grabbed his arms while a third gripped the back of his robe.
“Nice work,” the soldier gripping his robe said to the shopkeeper. “I will deliver your reward as soon as I process the paperwork.”
“His reward!” the butcher said. “I saw him first! Didn’t you hear me shout?”
“No, I saw him first,” the shopkeeper argued angrily. “The bounty is mine!”
“There will be time to sort this out later, you two,” the soldier said. “Haven’t you both collected enough bounties already? I am not even sure this kid qualifies. He might be too young.”
“He is plenty old enough,” one of the old men said. “Pay up.”
“What is happening?” ShaoShu asked. “Why are you doing this? What bounty are you talking about?”
“Do not play dumb with me, kid,” the soldier said. “We have been recruiting every man and boy for Warlord Tonglong’s army for days now. I do not know how you managed to hide from us all this time, but it looks like you are in the army now.”
ShaoShu remembered the scroll Tonglong had made the Emperor sign. That must be what this was all about. “You mean you’re just going to take me straight off to the army?” he asked. “Without telling anyone? What about my, um, family?”
“When you do not come home, they will know exactly what happened,” the soldier said. “Everyone is accustomed to it by now. Every man and boy in the entire region is being fitted for a uniform at this moment. Now come with us. We need to find a way to verify your age.”
“You had better let me go!” ShaoShu warned, growing angry. How could Tonglong do this? “Listen,” he said. “Southern Warlord Tonglong has sent me out to deliver an important message to the owner of the Shanghai Fight Club. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.”
The soldier laughed. “You don’t say? Can I take a look at this message of yours?”
“No,” ShaoShu said. “It’s secret.”
“I will see about that,” the soldier replied, reaching into the folds of ShaoShu’s robe. ShaoShu wriggled and squirmed, but the man still managed to grab hold of the small scroll and pull it out. Fortunately, the dragon scrolls remained hidden.
The soldier unrolled the scroll, and his eyes narrowed. “Is this your idea of a joke?”
“No,” ShaoShu said. “Why?”
“Because of what it says, you little runt. You are going to pay for this!”
“How am I supposed to know what it says?” ShaoShu asked. “I can’t even read!”
The soldier’s eyes narrowed even more. “It says, ‘Major Guan is a buffoon.’”
“Who is Major Guan?”
“Me!” the soldier roared. “I am in charge of rounding up all the dodgers—people like you who try to hide from their responsibility to answer the Emperor’s call for additional troops. As if you did not already know this. Tie him up!”
“Wait—” ShaoShu began, but his words were cut off by his head being shoved forward until his chin dug into his chest. One soldier kept his head pinned in that position while another soldier yanked his arms behind his back. A third soldier crossed ShaoShu’s wrists and began to tie them together with a rough cord.
ShaoShu did not despair. His life on the streets had put him in the path of constables before, and he had been through this routine more times than he would like to admit. He knew just what to do.
He made fists with both hands, tensing his forearm muscles as the unseen soldier wound the cord around his wrists, behind his back. ShaoShu pressed his flexed forearms outward against the cord with steadily increasing pressure until his wrists ached. He maintained the pressure even after the man had finished.
ShaoShu’s head was released, and he lifted it up. Behind his back he felt the cool breeze blowing through the open space he had managed to leave between his wrists, and he forced down a smile.
“This way,” Major Guan growled, and the six other soldiers replied, “Yes, sir!”
One of the soldiers gave ShaoShu a shove, and they began marching toward the compound. The men surrounded ShaoShu as they walked, but they kept their hands off him.
That was their first mistake.
Their second mistake came when a pretty young girl stepped into the road behind them and approached the old shopkeeper. All the soldiers turned to look at her.
ShaoShu took advantage of the distraction. He pressed his wrists together to close the gap he had left between them and unclenched his fists, straightening his fingers. He quickly folded his right palm upon itself by touching the tip of his thumb to the tip of his little finger, and slid his uncommonly flexible folded right hand out from beneath the bindings in one smooth motion.
His hands were free. ShaoShu balled them into fists, and as Major Guan turned to face him to continue walking, ShaoShu drove them both straight into the major’s groin.
Major Guan cried out and hunched forward, and ShaoShu zipped around him, racing away from the command center. He had taken only a few steps when he heard pistol shots and the sound of horses’ hooves. ShaoShu turned to see Tonglong and several soldiers racing down the road toward him atop squat, hairy stallions.
ShaoShu knew better than to try to run any farther. He stopped, and Tonglong was beside him a moment later.
“Going somewhere?” Tonglong asked.
ShaoShu was scared, but he was also angry. Tonglong had set him up with that note. He knew that ShaoShu was going to get nabbed as soon as he set foot on the street. ShaoShu found that he could not contain himself. “You knew I would get caught, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Tonglong replied with a smirk. “But I also had a hunch that you would escape. And I was right.”
“It was a test?”
“Yes, and you passed with flying colors, unfortunately.” Tonglong pulled two gold coins from the pouch on his sash and threw them to ShaoShu. “You have earned those, Little Mouse. You managed to find a flaw in my recruitment enforcers’ procedures. I will have to fix that, beginning with the proper way to tie knots.” He nodded to the bundle of cord still hanging from ShaoShu’s left wrist.
ShaoShu stared at Tonglong. “What if I had failed?”
“Then you would likely begin training as a powder boy first thing tomorrow morning. We can always use fast, nimble children like you on the battlefield to carry cannon fuses and other items to the front lines.”
ShaoShu looked away from Tonglong, frustrated.
“Cheer up, ShaoShu,” Tonglong said. “You succeeded, which means you will remain with me. I will even have a red uniform made for you so that no one will question you again.”
“Thank you, sir,” ShaoShu mumbled, still unable to look at Tonglong. He glanced at Tonglong’s horse.
Tonglong patted the animal’s neck. “You did not know that I am a horseman, did you? I have been riding all my life, and I have the finest stallion in China waiting for me at a former bandit stronghold. I have not seen him in several months. This stubby, hairy one will have to do for now.”
ShaoShu glanced at Tonglong, and Tonglong pointed at the gold coins in ShaoShu’s hand. “We are packing up and moving out tomorrow. I suggest you exchange some of your new wealth for a means of transportation. I will have one of my elite men take you pony shopping today. It is a long walk to the Forbidden City.”
It had taken Long and PawPaw nearly two weeks to pack up all of PawPaw’s belongings, and he was glad to be almost finished with the task. She did not have much in the way of clothes or furniture, but he guessed that she had more medicinal herbs than the best apothecary shops in the largest of cities. Many of the items were rather odd, and she seemed to have saved the strangest for last.
“What are these?” Long asked, holding up a stack of thin, rigid black wafers, each roughly the same size as his palm.
“Dried fruit bats,” PawPaw replied. “Good for digestion.”
“What about these?” he said, poking a finger into a
small container of tiny dried objects.
“Don’t touch those!” PawPaw snapped. “Larks’ tongues. Very expensive.”
Long pulled his finger away and shrugged. He wrapped these final fragile items and moved on to the remaining bulky objects, like dried deer antlers and whole tortoiseshells that would one day be ground into powder.
Thanks to PawPaw’s constant attention, Long’s health had steadily improved and he could now handle nearly any task she threw at him. She had removed his stitches, and both wounds were healing nicely. Hok’s estimate of a two-week general recovery proved to be accurate, and he was healthy enough to travel. He was probably even ready to climb onto a horse.
Horses had been on Long’s mind ever since Xie had first mentioned them, and Long was somewhat relieved when the bandit escorts finally arrived with two workhorses, each pulling an empty cart. It meant that he would get a chance to observe the animals up close before he would ever have to climb onto one’s back. In some ways, he wished that he could observe the bandits in advance, too.
His sensitive dan tien had detected the bandits approaching well before they knocked on PawPaw’s door, and he was not sure he liked what he saw. Peering out of PawPaw’s shuttered windows, Long saw the first bandit come into view, and he was one of the strangest-looking humans Long had ever seen. The man had a stubby torso, curiously long arms, and a ratty mustache that reached all the way down to his chest. He was filthy, and even from a distance Long could see that his nose was very wide and almost completely flat. Thick scar tissue crisscrossed his forehead and cheeks, a clear sign that the man was a veteran fighter. He must be NgGung—Centipede.
Hok and the others had told him about NgGung. They had said that he was a very nice man, but warned that he loved to play a game called “One new thing you’ll know for every blow.” Apparently, NgGung would encourage people he had just met to fight him as a means of exchanging information.
Fortunately, PawPaw was familiar with NgGung’s ways. She hurried outside to greet him alone, while Long continued to peer through the shutters, sizing up the other two bandits. One was a thick but pleasant-looking man with a clean-shaven head and face. He looked a surprising amount like Fu, and was surely Fu’s father, Sanfu—Mountain Tiger.