Crane (17 page)

“You know,” Seh said, “Grandmaster was constantly doing secret things and always seemed to have plenty of money. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a mountain of treasure hidden someplace.”

“This certainly is exciting,” PawPaw said. “Tell me, then, are the two of you going to head up the canal to the Forbidden City, or down into the southern regions?”

Hok paused, glancing at Seh. “We don't know,” she said. “I'd like to try and find our brothers Fu and Malao before we go treasure hunting.”

“Do you know where they've gone?” PawPaw asked.

“No,” Hok replied. “They were abducted.”

“Abducted?” PawPaw said, straightening up. “How come you never told me this?”

“I … I guess I didn't think there was anything you could do about it,” Hok stammered. “I suppose I should have known better.”

PawPaw took a deep breath and sighed. “No, you're probably right. There is no point in fretting about it now. There isn't much I could have done except tell NgGung to spread the word through his network to keep an eye out for them. I haven't seen NgGung since you've been here, though, so it doesn't matter. I'll be sure to tell him when I see him. Do you happen to know who took your brothers?”

“Fu was captured by a man called HaMo,” Hok said.

“I've heard the name,” PawPaw said. “He is not a nice man.”

Hok's mind flashed back to the rainy day in the river. “I heard him say something to Fu,” she said to PawPaw. “HaMo said, ‘I like your spirit, boy. Forget your sister, I'm taking you to LaoShu instead.’ “ Hok sighed. “I don't know what he meant by that, though.”

“I might,” PawPaw said. “Try not to think about what I said earlier concerning river pirates. I suggest you head to Jinan City—the City of Springs. It's the next big city downriver, only a day's travel from here. Seek out a place called the Jinan Fight Club.”

“What is that?” Hok asked.

“It's exactly what it sounds like,” PawPaw said. “It's a place where people fight and spectators gamble on the outcome. Many lives are foolishly lost for blood sport. It's an evil place in the very heart of the city's most elite section.”

“Is it difficult to find?” Hok asked.

“No,” PawPaw said. “But it's difficult to get into. The crowd consists mostly of powerful officials. Jinan is the capital of the next province—Shandong. I wish there was something I could do to help you.”

Hok shook her head. “You've helped us so very much already.”

“That's right,” Seh said. “We'll never be able to thank you.”

PawPaw sighed. “Just take care of each other like you have been. That's thanks enough for me. Now you
two should be on your way.” She looked up at the sky again. “You should be able to travel as long as you'd like by moonlight. If you can do without sleep, you can probably reach Jinan by sunrise. That might be best. The longer you're on the water during the day the greater the chance that someone will see you and perhaps recognize you.”

“I understand,” Hok said.

“I do, too,” Seh said.

“Then that is all,” PawPaw said. She stepped between Hok and Seh and threw an arm around each of them, hugging them simultaneously. “I hope to see you both again someday.”

“You will,” Hok said, wiping her eyes. “I'll make sure of it.”

“Me too,” Seh added with a hint of a sniffle.

PawPaw wiped her own eyes, then helped Hok get Seh into the skiff. Hok and PawPaw pushed the skiff into the river, and Hok jumped aboard. She turned back to PawPaw and nodded once. PawPaw bowed back, then turned and headed up the hill toward her house.

Hok wiped her eyes again. She was going to miss PawPaw tremendously.

Hok grabbed the long push pole and quickly set a course down the center of the river. She missed her little brothers, too.

“M
alao!” Fu said. “Can you hear me?”

Malao groaned and opened his eyes. “Huh … ?” he mumbled. “Where … where are we?”

“I don't know exactly,” Fu replied.

“Is it … morning?” Malao asked. He glanced sleepily around the pitch-black room.

“I don't know,” Fu said. “It's hard to tell without any windows.”

“Ohhh,” Malao said. “My whole body hurts. How long have I been asleep on this hard floor?”

“About a month,” Fu replied.

“A month!” Malao said, sitting up. He bumped his head on a length of bamboo. “Ouch!” he yelled. “Hey—what … what's going on? Is this your idea of a joke?”

“I wish,” Fu said. “We're in a cage. Don't you remember?”

“No,” Malao said, rubbing his head. “All I remember is a bunch of crazy dreams. You wouldn't believe some of them. I dreamt about a cobra, a mantis, a toad, and a—” Malao stopped and stared in Fu's direction. “A tiger, too. I was
locked in a cage with it.”

“I don't think those were dreams, Malao. You've been drugged.”

“Drugged?”

Fu nodded in the darkness. “HaMo sprinkled a little bit of powder on your face every day. He called it Dream Dust.”

“Yeah …,” Malao said wearily. “I had a dream about a river toad sprinkling dust beneath my nose. That was real?”

“Yes.”

“I had a dream about a cobra choking me unconscious on a dragon boat in Kaifeng, too,” Malao said. “Was that—”

“That was real, too,” Fu said. “Hok, Seh, and I, plus Cheen and Sum from the bandit stronghold, tried to rescue you. We were ambushed by HaMo. Tonglong and AnGangseh showed up, too. That's how I got captured.”

“Oh, no,” Malao said. “I'm sorry.”

Fu shrugged.

“Where are the others now?” Malao asked.

“I don't know.”

“Hopefully, they're all right,” Malao said.

“Yeah,” Fu said. “Hopefully.”

Malao yawned. “I can't believe how sleepy I am. Everything seems cloudy. Do you feel the same way?”

“No. HaMo tried to drug me at first, but I wouldn't let him near me. He tried to put some of that Dream Dust in my food, but I smelled it mixed in there. I refused to eat, and after a couple days he began to give me food without drugs.”

“Whoa,” Malao said. “You didn't eat for days? That's a first.” He giggled weakly.

“This is serious, Malao. Although I'm glad you're awake, you should save the jokes for some other time.”

Malao stopped giggling. “Sorry, Pussycat.” He stretched and let out a long moan. “Everything seems to ache. If all I did was lay around asleep or drugged or whatever, why do I hurt so much?”

“Because you haven't moved around enough,” Fu said. “Your muscles tighten up if you don't use them for a long time. HaMo pulled you out of your cage a few times to exercise your arms and legs, but that probably wasn't enough. Or maybe you're sore from what he did do. He bent and twisted you like a rag doll.”

“I think I remember that,” Malao said. “And I remember having my own cage. How did I end up in here with you?”

“HaMo put us in here a day and a half ago. Before that, we were locked in the same room, but kept in separate crates.”

“Crates?” Malao said.

“They smelled like fruit,” Fu said. “Apples, maybe. Whatever they were originally built for, they were too strong for me to break out of.”

Malao scratched his head. “Are we in an orchard?”

“No, we're in a city called Jinan. HaMo nailed us inside the crates and shipped us here down the Yellow River along with a bunch of food.”

Malao swallowed hard. “You don't think we're going to end up as … dumplings, do you, Pussycat?”

“I don't know. They've referred to us as ‘fresh meat’ several times. On the way to this room, we passed other rooms that had men in cages.”

Malao shivered. “Who are ‘they’? You don't mean that crazy old couple from the Divine Dumpling Inn?”

Fu shook his head. “I don't think so. When I say ‘they,’ I mean HaMo and his helpers.”

Malao scratched his head again. “I wonder why they put us together.”

“I think they have plans for us,” Fu said. “Once they put you in here, they stopped drugging you. They probably want us to do something.”

“Or maybe they're going to eat us!” Malao said. “They probably want to get all the drugs out of my system before they chop me up and …” His voice trailed off. “We need to get out of here, Fu.”

“I know.”

“So you've tried to escape?”

“A few times,” Fu said. “Besides trying to break out
of the crates, I've tried to break out of this cage. But it's no use. This bamboo is too strong. I thought about putting up a fight when they first dumped you and me in here together, but several men with spears surrounded us the whole time and they had two ropes around my neck. I didn't have a chance. I—” Fu stopped in mid-sentence.

“What's wrong?”

“Shhh!” Fu whispered. “I hear footsteps.”

“Over here, sir!” a muffled voice called out from outside the room. “You're just in time. It sounds like the small one has come out of his stupor, and they're discussing escape!”

“Escape?” a commanding voice replied. “We'll see about that.”

Fu and Malao turned toward one another in the darkness. Someone had been listening to their every word. More than that, Fu and Malao both recognized the second person's voice!

A powerful teenager threw open the heavy door and stormed inside the dark room. His intense eyes reflected the dancing flames of the torch in his hands. “Well, well, well,” he hissed at Malao and Fu. “How fortunate that you two should show up here at this time. We are expecting hundreds of guests soon, and they will be hungry for some fresh meat!”

Fu and Malao stared with their mouths agape.

The teen smirked and turned to the guard standing in the doorway. “Give me some time alone with these boys. I need to see what they are made of. A
quarter of an hour should be sufficient. Make sure you lock the door behind you, too. If you hear screaming, pay it no mind. It will cease soon enough.” “I understand, sir,” the guard replied with a wide grin. “Fresh meat always squeals the loudest.” He laughed and bowed, then took a step back and closed the door.

H
ok squinted downriver, staring into the rising sun. She and Seh had had an uneventful night. In fact, it had been downright boring. They hadn't encountered a single boat the whole time, and the traveling was easy. Hok was tired, but glad they'd stayed on the river without stopping. Jinan shouldn't be too far ahead.

Hok's stomach growled and her gaze drifted to the large basket PawPaw had placed in the skiff for them. They hadn't bothered to open it during the night.

“Are you hungry, Seh?” Hok asked.

Seh twitched, but didn't answer. He was asleep. Hok decided to leave him be.

Hok hooked one of the basket's large handles with
her foot and pulled it toward her. It was surprisingly heavy. She lifted the lid and found the two large hats PawPaw had mentioned, plus numerous containers of dried fruit and roasted nuts. There was enough food in there to last her and Seh at least a week.

Hok began to rummage through the items, taking care to keep the skiff on its steady course down the center of the river. At the very bottom of the basket, she noticed a corner of blue cloth. She grabbed hold of it and tugged. It was a large silk bag that matched her pale blue silk robe. Hok opened it and found an impressive collection of dried medicinal herbs. She grinned. PawPaw was the best.

Hok slipped the bag's single long strap around her neck and over one shoulder, then glanced over at Seh. He had curled into a ball on the floor of the skiff. Hok watched him sleep. The gentle rocking motion of the boat made keeping her eyes open a bit of a challenge, but she wanted to keep pressing onward. She also wanted to eat.

Hok looked up and saw a particularly narrow bend in the river ahead. Until now, the river had been growing increasingly wide, as PawPaw said it would. Hok sighed and replaced the lid on the basket. She would eat after she steered the boat through the bend and on to wider waters.

Hok glanced at the shore, then at the water, then back at the shore. She noticed that the current in this section of the river was pulling them along faster than previous sections.
Uh-oh,
she thought. With the fear
of rapids creeping into her mind, Hok grabbed the rudder with both hands.

As she steered the boat into the curve, her grip tightened. Hok didn't see any rocks in the water, but there was an obstacle ahead that could prove to be far more dangerous. If the river had been a road, she would have been better prepared for the sight. However, being on the water, she had failed to recognize the bend for what it was—a natural choke point. The perfect place for an ambush.