Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain by Jin Yong (11 page)

After they had all moved away from the circle, Valour had several feet of space around him, thus enabling him to wield his sword with greater agility and accuracy. Bracing himself, he advanced two paces. Practising Stretching the Claws in the Cloud, he struck a mighty stroke on the crown of the younger twin. It was a fast and furious blow. The lad, who was engaging himself in a fight brandishing his sword against Hawk whirling his twin staves, immediately ducked away from the blow. The pearl on one of his plaits was cut through the middle and dropped to the ground in two halves.

Both lads turned pale. "Brother!" cried the younger one, puckering his lips, almost in tears.

Valour laughed loudly. Suddenly he saw white figures flickering before his eyes. The twins had already crossed over and changed positions. In a second, the weapons of Radiant and Prime were cleft with a clang. Alarmed by this, they quickly leapt out of the circle, only to find both twins already flashing a keen dagger in each of their hands.

"Make him pay for it!" cried the elder twin.

Curio's and Fortune's long swords were broken with a clash as the lad thrust his dagger by twisting it around in his right hand. The dagger was capable of cutting through metals and stones. Curio was slow in moving back and the dagger glanced against his upper left chest, cutting the leather strap around his girdle, with the sheath fastened to it, into pieces.

The younger twin then moved closer to Valour, attacking him furiously with the flashing blade in his right hand and the keen dagger in his left hand. Brandishing the two weapons in his hands, the lad now wielded them in a manner which differed drastically from the way in which he whirled only his sword. Valour was seized by both rage and fear and could not identify clearly the direction from whence the blows came. The dagger was dreadfully keen. Valour dared not go against it with his sword and was forced to fall back while the younger twin kept charging forward heedlessly, with utter concentration on Valour.

The twins were standing back to back. One took over all the remaining eight opponents so as to enable the other to fight Valour in single combat. After a few tricks, a considerable length of Century's metal rod was broken off. Hawk and Peace dared not move closer, fighting and moving only on the periphery of the circle. Seeing that Valour was cornered and doomed, Fortune, Curio, Radiant, and Sign grew desperate. They would have advanced to succour and assist if only three of their blades had not been broken, and if they had also been able to break through the guard of the elder twin.

Tree had been watching them fight, marvelling at the swordplay of the twins. When they had first started fighting against Curio and the others, they were of only average skill. However, the power of their blows kept increasing as their opponents grew in number. Matters took a different course once they had flashed their daggers. Whirling up his long sword, the elder twin forced his opponents into fighting in a flustered manner. Presently, the weapons of Peace and Hawk were also broken. Of the eight fighting against the elder twin, Sign was the only one whose sword remained intact. This obviously had nothing to do with her being able to fight well, but rather to the elder twin's being thankful for her gift of the fruit and therefore letting her go.

With his back to the corner, Valour fought like an animal at bay. Seeing that the younger twin thrust his long sword straight at his chest, Valour at once responded with the Dancing Dragon and Leaping Phoenix. The key to swordplay was in eliminating the opponents when attacked from above; smiting blows if attacked from below; taking the enemies by surprise when attacked from within the circle; swiping if attacked from outside the circle; thrusting at the enemies when attacked halfway from the centre. These five tricks of Elimination, Smiting, Taking by Surprise, Swiping, and Thrusting were common to swordplay of all schools. When Valour saw his opponent attacking him from above, he responded with the Elimination which should have warded off the blow. However, his wrist sank when the two blades crossed and his sword was forced down hard by the enemy's blade. Valour was delighted and thought to himself, "Are you as skilled in swordplay as I am endowed in my wrist?" Immediately he gathered strength to stage a counter-attack. The younger twin retracted his sword slightly with his right hand and thrust the dagger in his left hand out on a sudden. Valour's long sword was cleft with a crash.

Valour shuddered and immediately thrust the truncated sword at the younger twin. He ducked away from the blow and cornered Valour instead, lunging his blade furiously to his left and right. Valour had no way out. Fortune, Curio, and Radiant shouted out, all dispatching their secret weapons immediately. The elder twin flung out his right hand, catching all ten of the killer darts. A tiny net was, in fact, fitted to the bottom of the hilt of the dagger, designed specifically for catching enemies' secret weapons.

Though he had lost his weapon, Valour, the Seven Stars Hand, was still well versed in pugilism. Being an experienced hand among the outlawry, Valour was able to keep his head in adverse conditions. Thereupon, he took to his fists, still staying calm in the face of attack. The dagger, flashed by the younger twin, was deadly keen, capable of severing the hand. Valour was held back more by the threateningly keen dagger than by his opponent's uncanny feats of arms. He tried hard to parry the blows, not daring to launch a counter-attack.

"Pay me back my pearl, pay me back my pearl!" demanded the younger lad. Valour would have been more than willing to pay him back his pearl, yet no pearl was at hand; also he could not bear to lose face.

Tree now found the situation rather awkward. If matters dragged on much longer, the boy would, in his anger, thrust the dagger at Valour's chest, piercing it. Valour was here at the top of the mountain as his invited guest. He could not possibly be humiliated by his enemy's errand-boy. The twins were uncanny in their feats of arms. Neither was Valour's equal when fighting on his own, not even Hawk's or Century's equal. However, when the two were fighting together, the tougher their opponents, the more furiously they fought. If Tree were to intervene at this juncture, and fail to bring the situation under control, he would end up exposing himself to greater ridicule.

While Tree was wavering between joining the others in fighting the twins or keeping himself entirely out of the battle, Valour found himself in a dangerous situation. He was now in tatters, his face stained, with weals on his chest and his arm bearing the imprint of the long sword of the younger twin. Several times he was on the verge of begging for mercy but checked himself just in time.

"Are you or are you not going to pay me back my pearl?" demanded the younger twin.

At this moment, the servant with the long neck walked to Tree and whispered into his ears, "Great Master, please rid us of the twins." Tree answered in the affirmative, but was still debating with himself.

Suddenly there came a swish in the air. A blue plume of smoke soared into the sky. The long-necked servant knew it was announcing the arrival of reinforcements. He was overjoyed. He thought the monk had after all over-estimated himself, and was finding all kinds of excuses now the crisis had come. It was fortunate to have the Master's friends arriving. The servant immediately rushed to the entrance and sent the bamboo basket to bring up the guests.

Chapter Three: Myrmidons

The long-necked fellow was the steward of the eyrie and bore the surname Yu. He had been a paragon of a fighter among the outlawry and was a man of sharp sense and shrewd ability. When the bamboo basket was halfway up the mountain, he craned his neck out to look below. But all he saw was shiny black bundles packed inside the basket, not in the least resembling any human figure. After the basket had been hauled closer, he was able to make out several chests and trunks, as well as flower-pots, censers, and the like, so that the basket was packed to the brim. Steward Yu began to wonder, "Are they here to pay tribute to the Master?"

Three women were pulled up the mountain when the basket made its second ascent. Two of them were in their forties and were dressed like servants. The third woman, apparently a maid, was fifteen or sixteen years old, with big round eyes and a dimple on her left cheek. She stepped out before the basket had come to a complete halt, glanced at Steward Yu, and addressed him smilingly. "I presume you must be Big Brother Yu. You have a long face and a neck which I have heard about." She spoke in the northern dialect of the capital, and her voice was decidedly pleasing. The steward disliked any reference to his neck and head, but, noticing that the maid was beaming with delight, he found no cause to lose his humour and merely nodded whilst forcing a smile.

"I'm Lute," the maid introduced herself. "And this is Mama Zhou. She was our lady's wet-nurse. This woman over here is Auntie Han. Our lady thinks highly of her culinary arts. Let down the basket quickly to bring the lady up." Steward Yu was about to ask to which family her lady belonged, but Lute just went on chattering as she busily unloaded the basket. She removed a bird cage, a civet cat, a perch for the parrot, pots for the orchids, plus much more strange paraphernalia. "This summit is so high," she commented with a sigh. "There is neither grass nor flowers. I do not think the lady will like it here. Big Brother Yu, do you never get bored staying up here all year round?"

Steward Yu frowned and thought to himself, "The Master is well on his way to meeting his strong opponents; yet, arriving now, from heaven knows where, is this chit cackling on and on." Thereupon, he asked, "May I know to which family you belong? Are you relatives of my Master?"

"You are guessing stupidly," Lute answered sharply. "I could tell that you were Big Brother Yu the minute we met. Why is it that you do not even know which family my lady is from? If I had not told you that my name is Lute, I am sure that you would never have guessed who I am in a thousand years. You, stop it! Stay where you are or the lady might get angry." Steward Yu was stunned on hearing this, but he then saw Lute bending down to pick up a small cat. She had, in fact, addressed the last few words to the animal.

The steward helped the maid unload all the paraphernalia from the basket. "Aiya, do not touch anything," said Lute, annoyed. "There are books inside this chest. If you have the box the wrong way up like this, the books will all be jumbled up. Now, now, leave the orchids alone. They are to be kept away from men or they will be tainted by their breath. The lady says orchids are the most elegant and graceful of all flowers. If any man exhales nearby, the flower will surely wither the same evening."

The steward immediately put down the small pot of orchids he was carrying. Suddenly he heard a voice chanting behind his back, "The mind leaps at playing music on a stringed instrument; the heart is unhappy that no one is able to share your music's true delight." The squawking sounded eerie.

The steward started and turned around at once, ready to engage his opponents, only to discover the white parrot reciting a poem from his perch. Feeling annoyed, yet amused, he ordered the bamboo basket to be sent downhill to bring the lady up. The nanny, however, insisted that the cases be unpacked before anything else, and a fur be unpacked to upholster the basket lest the lady should find it too hard and uncomfortable. The nanny took her keys and had the trunks unlocked. Turning next to Auntie Han, she started a discussion with her about whether to have the basket upholstered with a mink or a pelt of the silver fox. The steward was growing impatient and could not hold himself back any longer. His mind was still preoccupied with the battle raging in the hall, and he was worried about Valour's fate. Soon, he instructed an attendant to tend to the lady, and dashed back into the hall.

The steward had been away receiving the visitors for some time. Meanwhile, the fight had continued as before, without any decisive gains by either side. Valour was still cornered by the younger twin, except that his situation had become more precarious. He lost the shoe from his left foot, and the queue braided as a bun on his crown was sliced in half, giving him a dishevelled appearance. Curio, Fortune, Radiant, and the others had taken up weapons from the domestic helpers. Twice they had attempted to assist Valour, but they could never move beyond the circle described by the elder twin and they ended up drifting farther and farther away from Valour.

Hawk and his party had intended to wrest the iron casket from Valour, but they, too, were forced to step back after suffering several defeats at the hand of the elder twin and his dagger. They could not accept losing. They saw very little that was special in the moves practised by the twins, who were also limited in their internal energy. The twins only had two unsurpassedly keen daggers and a series of moves for mutual support, be they on the offensive or defensive. But the two lads were in danger of forcing an outright submission from the entire group of agile and courageous fighters.

Thereupon, the steward studied the floor for a moment, remarking to himself, "The Master has entrusted me with the overall charge of the eyrie while he is away. If he learns that these honourable guests have been greatly humiliated and shamefully beaten on his own premises, how is the Master going to preserve his honour? I have to rescue this fellow Valour even if it costs me my life." Thereupon, he rushed to his own room, grabbed the broadsword, forged with purple of Cassius, puce in colour, wielded by him when an outlaw but lying disused since. He spun round to the hall. After examining the moves and movements of the twins for a while, the steward cried aloud, "If the two little brothers do not halt right now, we of the Jadeite Eyrie will but have to resort to force."