Eagle (2 page)

“Blind?” Ying said. “Leave him, then.”

Hok shook her head. “No.”

Ying shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He spun around and walked quickly down the tunnel corridor, the
rough cotton robe of his Pit Cleaner disguise chafing his beaten flesh.

“Ying, wait,” Hok said. She took Seh by the arm and hurried after Ying.

Ying slowed for a moment, scanning the corridor. He saw no sign of guards ahead. They must have cleared out after the fire began.

Ying glanced back and saw Hok and Seh catching up. They looked like a pair of children whose dress-up tea party had ended in a fistfight. Hok's elegant silk dress was torn in several places and bloodstained from her fierce battle with General Tsung in the pit arena. Seh's simple gray robe was covered in dirt and splotches of who knows what else from rolling along the pit-arena floor en route to this tunnel.

Ying began to walk again. Hok and Seh remained on his tail.

“Why are you helping us?” Hok soon asked in a low voice.

“You got me out of that prison back in Kaifeng,” Ying replied. “I am returning the favor.”

“You already met your end of our bargain,” Hok said. “You gave me information that helped me find Malao.”

Ying scoffed. “Maybe you would consider information an equal trade for someone's life, but I do not. My injuries were too great for me to have survived much longer there. You saved my life, and I am honor-bound to return the favor.”

“But how did you know we would be here in Jinan, at the fight club?” Hok asked.

“I didn't come to Jinan looking for you,” Ying replied. “I came looking for Tonglong. I have a score to settle with him, and he frequents the fight clubs. I saw you and Seh standing in line outside with the round eye. I assumed you were up to something, and also assumed you would fail. I saw this as an opportunity to repay my debt.”

Ying rounded a corner. Ahead of him were rows of holding cells for prisoners who were scheduled to fight that night. All of the cells were empty save two. Inside one sat Fu. Malao was in the other.

Fu roared when he saw Ying, but Malao began to shriek, “Ying! Ying!”

One of Malao's shoulders was bloodstained, and he had a huge lump on the side of his head.

Ying ignored him.

“What are you doing here?” Malao asked. “Are those
keys
in your hand?”

Ying hurried past without acknowledging him. He picked up his pace.

“Ying, wait!” Malao wailed. “Come back!”

Ying glanced over his shoulder and saw Hok heading toward the cells with Seh.

“Hok! Hok!” Malao shrieked. “Help us!”

Fu roared again.

“Ying!” Hok said. “Please come back. Malao is hurt. We need those keys.”

“Sorry,” Ying said, turning away. “I need the keys for the exit door.”

“Let them out first,” Hok said.

“No,” Ying said. “There are too many keys on this ring. By the time I figure out which ones will open their cells, we could be dead from smoke or something else. I won't risk it.”

“I am not leaving here without Fu and Malao,” Hok said.

“Then my debt has been repaid,” Ying said. “Goodbye.”

Ying rounded another corner and began to run.
Foolish children,
he thought.
Don't know when to cut their losses.

Ying reached the end of the next passageway and came to a halt. The tunnel split in two directions. One way led to a set of stairs that went up to the fight club, while the other corridor sloped gently upward toward a ground-level exit door. If he were to encounter any guards or others fleeing the burning fight club, this would be the place.

Ying squeezed the key ring tight so it wouldn't jingle and peered around the corner. Smoke was streaming toward the exit. That meant the exit door was open, sucking the smoke toward it.

Ying listened closely.

Down the corridor in the direction of the exit, he heard footsteps. Someone coughed. “I can't believe we're being sent back in here,” a man said. “We should just wait by the exit door. It's the only way out for those kids.”

“I don't make the orders,” another man replied. “I only follow them. The captain said to make a quick
sweep of the tunnels, then get out of here. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get some fresh air. Men, prepare your
qiangs
.”

Ying noted the unmistakable
click
of a
qiang
mechanism being engaged, then another, and another. He might be able to get past a single soldier with a
qiang,
but not three. Especially in his weakened state. Unfortunately, he needed help.

Ying silently ran back toward the others, cursing his terrible luck. As he neared the cells, he could hear Malao sobbing. He also heard Fu pounding furiously against the bars.

Hok saw Ying first. She opened her mouth to speak, but Ying cut her off. “There are at least three men coming this way with
qiangs
,” he said. “They intend to finish us. If I release Fu and Malao, will you follow my orders?”

Fu growled, but Malao said, “I'll do it, Ying! I'll do whatever you say! I'm a little dizzy and my shoulder is sore, but I can still fight. Get me out of here!”

“Hush!” Ying said. “Keep your voice down.” He stared hard at Fu. “What about you, Pussycat?”

Fu didn't reply.

Hok gave Fu an icy stare. “Be logical, Fu,” she said. “There isn't much time.”

“Fine,” Fu grumbled, locking eyes with Ying.

Ying fought back a smirk. Fu was irritating and immature, but at least he was always ready for a fight. Fu would go first.

Ying flipped through the ring of keys, selected one,
and stuck it into Malao's cell door. The door swung open.

“Hey!” Malao whined. “You said you didn't know which key would open this door.”

“Lucky guess,” Ying snapped. He walked over to Fu's cell and unlocked it. As the door swung open, Fu snarled in Ying's face and muscled past.

“After you, Pussycat,” Ying said. “Put those feline instincts to use.”

Fu rushed forward.

Ying started after Fu, and Hok handed the monkey stick to Malao. Malao grinned excitedly. “Where did you get this?”

“From HaMo while I was inside the fight club,” Hok replied. “I'll tell you about it later. Are you sure you're okay?”

“I'm fine,” Malao said. He and Hok followed, with Seh in between them.

Fu soon stopped, and Ying watched Fu's head tilt to one side. Fu's low-light eyesight was excellent, but his ears were even better. Fu sank to his haunches and held up four fingers.

Four guards,
Ying thought.
That's five against four. No problem.
He looked back at Hok, Seh, and Malao and held up four fingers. Hok and Malao nodded back. Hok whispered the information into Seh's ear.

Ying sank to the ground and slipped the chain whip from around his waist. He gathered it up in one hand, shoving the key ring behind his sash. He slid
over to Fu's side and mouthed five words:
Angry Tiger Moves the Mountain.

Fu nodded once and compressed his body into a large ball. A heavy boot scraped the floor just ahead of them, and Fu sprang with a tremendous roar.

“Oooof!” the lead guard groaned as Fu slammed into his midsection. The guard's long
qiang
fired on impact with a characteristic
click … fizz … BANG!,
the lead ball burying itself harmlessly in the wall of the tunnel. Fu hammered a tiger-claw fist into the man's jaw, silencing him.

“What's going on up there?” a guard called out.

No one offered a reply.

Ying eased his back against the tunnel's stone wall and saw the outline of a second guard creeping forward with his long
qiang
leveled at Fu's head.

“Crazy Monkey Swats the Fly!” Ying shouted, and Malao responded by racing forward, swinging his monkey stick wildly. The guard saw Malao coming and shifted his arms to protect himself, but he was too slow. Malao leaped high into the air and brought the monkey stick down on the crown of the man's skull with a tremendous crack. The guard slumped to the ground, out cold, his finger still on the
qiang's
trigger.

Click … fizz … BANG!

The
qiang
fired, its fire stone-tipped hammer igniting black powder. The lead ball shot forward, and the unsupported weapon flew backward out of the unconscious man's hands. The
qiang
crashed against one
wall of the tunnel, while the lead ball thudded into the opposite tunnel wall in a shower of debris.

Two down, two to go,
Ying thought.

A third guard stepped up through thickening smoke and froze at the sight of his unconscious comrades being stood over by two children. Ying took advantage of the man's hesitation and lashed out with his chain whip. The whip's weighted end wrapped itself around the end of the guard's
qiang
several times. Ying yanked the barrel of the
qiang
down and sideways, and shouted, “Monkey Takes the High Road, Tiger Takes the Low!”

Fu and Malao attacked as one. Fu threw his shoulders into the man's knees at the same moment Malao sprang into the air and slammed his heels into the man's cheekbones. The guard sailed backward, releasing his grip on the
qiang
in order to use his hands to break his fall. That proved to be unnecessary, as the fourth guard ended up breaking the third guard's fall for him.

Fu wrestled the
qiang
from the fourth guard's hands, and Malao put both guards to sleep with his monkey stick.

Ying unwrapped his chain whip from the end of the third guard's
qiang
and put the whip back around his waist. He pointed to the remaining unfired
qiang
Fu was holding and said, “Give that to me.”

Fu growled and took a step back.

Hok gave Fu a cold glance. “Do it, Fu,” she said.

Fu handed the
qiang
over.

Ying slung one of the
qiangs
over his shoulder and pulled the second one tight across his chest.

“Follow me,” Ying hissed. “No matter what happens, do not stop walking.”

“What are we going to—” Malao began.

“No questions!” Ying snapped. He turned and walked away. Behind him, he heard the others scramble and follow.

When Ying reached the bend where he'd first heard the guards, he turned the corner without breaking stride. The smoke was quite thick now, still flowing toward the exit door. Perfect. The exit door was still open. He would no longer need the keys.

Ying stopped and laid the key ring down, then quickly looked over the
qiangs.
The pans were full of powder, and the flints were locked firmly in place at the ends of the hammers. He could only hope that each had a lead ball rammed down its barrel.

Ying slung one of the
qiangs
across his back, raised the other to his shoulder, and headed for the exit door.

Y
ing strode through the tunnel exit door with all the confidence of a seasoned general, smoke wafting around him in the hot night air. Three guards stood in a cluster fifteen paces from him in a narrow alley behind the burning fight club.

The men stopped in mid-conversation and stared for several moments through the darkness before one of them had the sense to try to raise his
qiang.

“Put that down!” Ying barked, swinging his own
qiang
toward the man. “All of you, lay your weapons on the ground!” Ying fanned his
qiang
back and forth between the guards. The first guard lowered his weapon. The others followed suit.

Ying continued forward, making eye contact with
each of the men. They were young, not much older than him, and probably unseasoned. He bared his pointed teeth and flicked out his forked tongue in the dim firelight. All three men flinched.

Definitely unseasoned,
Ying thought. He knew that any two of them could have raised their
qiangs
and fired, and he would certainly have fallen. However, one of them would most certainly have fallen, too. None of them was willing to take that chance.

“Lie down!” Ying spat.

The guards looked tentatively at one another. One of them glanced toward the exit doorway. “Look!” he said. “It's the girl from the pit arena—”

“Quiet!” Ying hissed, his finger on his
qiang's
trigger.

The man closed his mouth. Ying nodded at the cobblestones, and the guard dropped to the ground. Ying fanned his
qiang
across the other guards again, and they dropped to the ground, too.

“Fu! Malao!” Ying snapped. “Pick up the
qiangs
.”

Malao scampered through the doorway and grabbed a
qiang
that was longer than he was tall. Fu grabbed the other two.

“Let's go,” Ying said. “Hok, lead the way.”

Hok stepped around Ying, holding Seh's hand. Seh's arm brushed against Ying's elbow, and Ying felt something move beneath Seh's sleeve. A snake?

Ying smacked his lips. He could use some fresh snake blood. But not right now.

“Count to one hundred before you even think about getting up,” Ying said to the guards.

The guards began to count quietly,
“Yi … er … san … ”