Dragon (16 page)

“H
ow are you feeling?” Xie asked.

“Ridiculous,” Long replied.

“I am asking about your health since you arrived five days ago,” Xie said. “Not your pride at this moment.”

Long sighed. “I am fine, and my wound is healing nicely. I would feel better, however, if your friend stopped treating me like a human pincushion. That arrow through my side was enough, thank you.”

Xie’s personal tailor buzzed around Long like a busy bee, measuring and pinning sections of illegal yellow silk around Long’s body. Only the Emperor was allowed to wear yellow.

Long shook his head. Why had he agreed to this charade?

Xie had a plan to deal with Tonglong, and it was as elaborate as it was simple. Xie had formally taken control of his father’s troops, and as the Western Warlord he had commanded his generals to pull troops from the farthest reaches of their region to meet with the bandits outside the Forbidden City as Mong had suggested. However, what if Mong’s best guess was incorrect and Tonglong showed up at the Forbidden City several weeks before the New Year? Xie was convinced that they needed to take additional action.

Xie realized that since no one was exactly sure where the Emperor was, no one would question it if the Emperor happened to return to the Forbidden City. Meaning, if someone
pretended
to be the Emperor, that person would not be questioned. Especially if he looked like the Emperor and was accompanied by Xie, who everyone recognized as the Emperor’s bodyguard and most people feared. Long was about the Emperor’s size and would be given a wide berth whenever Xie was around, which would be all of the time.

Thankfully, today’s robe fitting would be the last, and they would be on their way by the end of the day. In order to keep things as authentic as possible, they would transport Long in royal style, complete with armed guards and a sedan chair. Long was looking forward to it.

Xie and Long had discussed the possibility that Tonglong might find out about the procession and attack them, but Xie thought that the chance was very slight. They would be traveling through the vast open spaces of the Western and Northern armies’ regions,
and Tonglong would not be caught within a hundred
li
of them without a full complement of thousands of troops.

After a quiet lunch, they set off. Long would have thought there might be a problem with the secrecy of their mission being compromised because of all the people in Tunhuang who knew of the plan, but Xie assured him that nothing would be jeopardized. Everyone within Xie’s inner circle had been loyal to Xie’s father, and they were all eager to see Tonglong pay.

Long began the journey in the sedan chair with Xie at his side atop a Heavenly Horse, as was protocol. The sedan chair had long poles stretching in front of and behind it for men to hoist upon their shoulders; this one, however, had been modified so that horses could carry it as well. They were in a hurry, and the horses could walk twice as fast as humans. They could also run, if necessary.

The sedan chair had blinds that could open, and Long and Xie talked through them for hours. Xie explained that there was something called the Silk Road, which was a network of loose trails that connected China with the West. Goods were transported in both directions over this “road,” and Tunhuang was one of the major stops. Much of the road was hostile desert, so cities like Tunhuang were important points for the buying and selling of supplies for weary travelers. Trade also occurred here, and it was this trade that made Tunhuang one of the richest cities in the world.

As they approached the outskirts of the city, Long
saw a great wall. In fact, Xie told him, it was
the
Great Wall, which was known by many different names. This wall began thousands of
li
away in China’s southeast, and ended here in Tunhuang in the northwest. The wall had been built in sections over the course of more than two thousand years, and was created to keep marauding “outsiders” like Mongolians from getting into China.

Long was surprised when they reached the wall and Xie told him that they would travel to the gates of Peking—the city in which the Forbidden City was located—on top of the wall. Long’s sedan chair was carried up a gigantic stone staircase, and once they reached the top he found the wall to be massive both in height and thickness. It was so wide across the top that several horsemen could ride beside one another down its entire length.

They began their march east, and Long soon learned that in many ways, the wall was as much for communication as it was for protection. Not only could horses race across it to deliver messages, signal fire and drum stations were positioned at regular intervals to allow soldiers to pass information along with amazing speed.

Long also saw that watchtowers had been built every thousand paces along the wall’s top, and that there were four soldiers in each tower at all times, scanning the horizon. The towers were designed with special windows to make it easy for archers to shoot out of but difficult for enemy archers to shoot arrows
into. Additionally, many of the watchtowers in high-trouble areas were equipped with cauldrons of boiling oil to pour down upon enemy combatants attempting to scale the wall.

It seemed every possible precaution had been taken into account when building the wall. Long wondered how many of these design ideas had made their way into the Forbidden City. If Tonglong ever made it there, they were going to need all the help they could get.

S
haoShu crossed the frosty hillside in the night, his cupped hands filled with cold boiled dumplings. He reached the mouth of a small cave and snuck past the two sleeping guards like a rodent slipping past napping felines. If Tonglong ever found out that these soldiers had slept on the job, he would eat their livers for breakfast.

ShaoShu crept to the back of the cave, over to the stinking, battered pig crate. He knocked lightly on its side. “Emperor, it’s me, ShaoShu. Are you awake, sir?”

A weary voice groaned within the crate. “Little Mouse, what are you doing here? I was told you ran off.”

“I did run off—with Ying, after the battle with the bandits. However, we have been following Tonglong
ever since. We’ve been spying on him and his men, and I’ve been swiping food, too. I’ve brought you some. Here it comes.”

ShaoShu carefully dropped seven dumplings through one of the crate’s airholes.

“Thank you,” the Emperor said.

“You are most welcome. How are you doing?”

“Much better whenever you sneak food to me. I have missed you. If I should make it out of here alive, you will be rewarded handsomely.”

“I only want to spend time with my friends.”

“Are you referring to the young Cangzhen monks you have told me about?”

“Yes.”

“That is most admirable of you. Do you include Ying among this lot?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I still find it difficult to believe that Ying is attempting to help me,” the Emperor said.

“It’s true,” ShaoShu replied. “In fact, he is the reason you are heading to the Forbidden City so far ahead of schedule.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ying having attacked Tonglong is driving Tonglong crazy. Literally. I have watched him stomp around camp, ranting and raving to himself about Ying coming back from the grave to try to kill him. I think Ying’s attack made him realize that he could die anytime. He was going to wait for all of his troops to arrive at the stronghold before marching to the Forbidden City, but as you can see you are already on the way.”

“How long before we get there?”

“The soldiers say about a week.”

“How many men does he have again?”

“Some died in the attack against the bandits, but he still has about eighty elite soldiers, plus their horses.”

“There are three thousand highly skilled imperial soldiers within the Forbidden City. Tonglong does not stand a chance.”

“They keep calling this a ‘diplomatic mission,’” ShaoShu said. “Tonglong’s men say there will be no bloodshed because of who Tonglong bribed.”

“Did they mention any names?”

“Just one, but they say this person is really important—Wuya, or Crow.”

“Wuya?” the Emperor asked. “Are you certain?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then we are indeed doomed. Wuya is the head of security for the entire Forbidden City. All three thousand soldiers report to him.”

“Uh-oh,” ShaoShu said.

“Uh-oh, indeed. To think, I fully trusted Wuya. Apparently another of my many mistakes. When are Tonglong’s main forces supposed to arrive?”

“I heard the soldiers say that local squadrons are already arriving at the stronghold, but the troops from the south and east are not supposed to be here for at least another few weeks.”

“That is good news. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“Well, there is the key that I stole from Tonglong and gave to Ying.”

“A key?”

“Yes, sir,” ShaoShu said. “Tonglong had a key that he claimed opened a back gate or door to the Forbidden City, he wasn’t sure which. Just before I ran off, I stole the key and gave it to Ying.”

“Do you know where Tonglong got the key?”

“His father, sir.”

“What does it look like? A normal key?”

“No, it is entwined with dragons.”

“This is
great
news,” the Emperor said. “I knew Tonglong’s father. If the key is what I think it is, we just might have a chance. That is to say, Ying will get another chance at Tonglong. Now, listen carefully… .”

S
eh sat at the meeting table inside the secret room above the kitchen at the Jade Phoenix. He and the bandits had only been in Kaifeng a few hours, but the proprietor, Yuen, had told them that rumors were flying thanks to propaganda from Tonglong. She said that locals were saying Tonglong’s elite force had killed the bandits, crushing their so-called Resistance.

Seh hated to admit it, but the propaganda was more or less accurate.

Around the table with Seh sat Mong, Hung, Bing, Sanfu, and the Governor; plus Fu, Malao, and Hok. The mood was somber. They were deep in conversation, determining their next course of action.

The Governor cleared his throat and looked at
Mong. “I don’t know how to say this, but our best next step may be surrender.”

“Never!” Fu growled, slamming his fist on the table.

“We have to be realistic,” the Governor said. “No one has worked harder for the autonomy of this region than I have, and no one knows better than I what is at stake. If we had the means to fight, that would be a different story. However, what we have just seen all too clearly is that a volunteer army of well-intentioned men cannot compete against those armed with pistols and muskets.”

“We killed some of them,” Fu said.

“We killed about twenty horsemen, compared with more than a hundred bandits lost,” the Governor said. “That ratio is unacceptable. It will not change significantly unless we have firearms—”

“Did someone say firearms?” a voice called out from the opposite side of the meeting room’s trapdoor.

Seh did not recognize the voice right away, but Fu, Hok, and Malao did.

“Charles!” Malao squealed. He jumped out of his chair and pulled the trapdoor open, dropping a rope ladder down into the kitchen. A moment later, Charles’ head popped up through the trapdoor.

“I came to ask Yuen where to find you, and here you are!” Charles said. “This must be a sign. I have news.”

“Please tell us that your pirate friends are on the way,” Malao said. “We could really use the help. Besides, I
love
boat rides.” He giggled.

Charles shook his head. “My news is not
that
good. In my quest to find my countrymen, I sailed all the way to the sea before I learned that Tonglong has positioned warships up and down the seacoast. I could not attempt to travel by that route. The Grand Canal turned out to be out of the question, too. There are soldiers everywhere.”

“So, what is your good news, then?” Hok asked.

“I sailed back up the Yellow River to Jinan and went to see HukJee, the black market dealer. He has realized that Tonglong as Emperor would be bad for his business, so he offered to help. He will give us firearms.”