Dragon (19 page)

There was no point in ShaoShu hiding there any longer. He needed to give Ying an update. With everyone’s eyes still fixed on the closing gate, ShaoShu slipped out of the shrub, back into the moat.

S
eh stood on the deck of Charles’ sloop in the moonlight, scanning the canal’s shoreline for signs of movement. He saw nothing. Neither did Charles, Hok, Malao, or even Fu, with his extraordinary low-light vision.

“Are you sure
this
canal goes all the way to the Forbidden City?” Seh asked. “We have been on it for quite some time and have not seen any sign of the bandits.”

“Positive,” Charles said. “This is the canal that connects the Forbidden City’s moat with the Yellow River. It is the main route over which goods are transported to the Forbidden City from all over the country. I cannot wait to unload
our
cargo there. HukJee really came through for us.”

“You can say that again,” Seh replied, glancing about at the wooden crates filled with muskets, pistols, and ammunition, not to mention the three small cannons and numerous oak barrels filled with black powder. “Will we be able to sail right up to the gates?”

“No. There are bridges over the moat that we will not be able to sail under because of the height of my mast. Cargo is usually off-loaded to horse-drawn carts at the first bridge. However, that bridge is within shooting distance of the main gate.”

“Do you think we will go all the way to the Forbidden City without meeting the bandits?” Hok asked.

“It is possible they went on to the Forbidden City without us,” Charles said. “Or maybe they have been delayed and are behind schedule. I am certain that tonight is the night we were supposed to rendezvous.”

“I wonder if Tonglong has made it to the Forbidden City yet,” Seh said. “If he has—”

“There!” Fu interrupted from the bow. “I see a bridge coming up, and I can just make out a very tall wall beyond it.”

“I see it, too!” Malao called down from the very top of the mast, Charles’ spyglass in his hands. “And there’s the main gate. There are a bunch of horsemen in front of it.”

“Bandits?” Seh asked.

“No,” Malao replied. “Tonglong’s men. They are all wearing red uniforms. Wait, some of them are going inside! Let’s blast them!”

“Not so fast,” Charles said from the helm. “We need to get closer to be within firing range. We also need to make sure those are Tonglong’s men, and not the bandits.”

“It’s them, all right,” Fu said. “Unless Mong, Hung, Sanfu, NgGung, and Bing made seventy new friends who all have horses and like to wear red.”

“You can see all that?” Charles asked. “You are not human, Fu.”

Fu growled.

“Is it possible to go faster?” Hok asked.

“This is the best we can do,” Charles replied. “We cannot risk raising any more sail in this relatively narrow canal, and rowing will do little more than make a lot of noise. They will see us soon enough as it is. Unless you want to turn around—”

“Never!” Fu said. “We will fight.”

“Mong said that the bandits could fight Tonglong’s army right in front of the Forbidden City gates for days and the imperial army would not get involved,” Charles said. “They have sworn an oath to not step foot outside the walls. Do you think this is true?”

“There is only one way to find out,” Seh answered.

“They are closing the giant gate!” Malao called down. “Five of Tonglong’s men entered without their horses. Four were carrying a big crate.”

“Malao,” Charles said, “how far do you think we are from them?”

“Based on our practice shots along the Yellow River, I think Fu could hit them with his cannon.”

“Did you hear that, Fu?” Charles asked. “Battle stations, everyone!”

Fu remained at the bow and began to load his cannon with black powder and a ball the size of a large peach. Seh and Hok raced to the stern, where Hok set to lighting several lengths of slow match fuse with a piece of flint and steel, while Seh began to load two cannons that were slightly smaller than Fu’s. Malao raced down the mast, pulled several loaded pistols from a large wooden box on deck, slipped the pistols behind his wide sash, and scurried back up to the very top of the rigging.

Charles remained at the helm.

Hok glided to the front of the boat and handed Fu a burning piece of slow match, then she ran to the stern and gave Seh one, too. Seh watched as Hok went back to the center of the boat and quickly loaded several muskets, laying them out along the deck in front of her. She shouldered one, and Charles said, “Malao, furl the sail! Everyone else, fire at will!”

Seh saw Malao scurry along the rigging, tying down the mainsail with amazing speed and dexterity. The boat eased to a slow drift, and Seh looked over at Fu.

Fu’s eyes were fixed on a point in the distant darkness, and a group of soldiers soon came into view. They were standing before a set of the largest doors Seh had ever seen. Several of the horsemen began to point toward the boat, and two of them spurred their horses, charging toward Charles’ sloop.

Fu fired.

The cannon erupted with a thunderous
BOOM!
, and smoke filled the air around Fu. Fortunately, there was a bit of a breeze blowing across the deck, and the air cleared almost immediately. Seh saw Fu place the burning slow match between his teeth and begin to reload the cannon.

Seh looked toward the soldiers and saw that Fu’s shot had knocked one of the advancing men off his horse. That soldier would not be rejoining the fight.

The remaining charging horseman continued to race toward their boat, and Seh said, “I’ve got him.”

“No,” Hok said. “Save your cannons for multiple attackers. He’s mine.”

As the horseman neared, he withdrew a pistol from the folds of his robe and aimed it wildly at the boat. Hok did not let him get off the shot. Seh heard the
crack!
of the musket the same instant he saw the soldier tumble from his horse, a neat hole between his eyes.

“Wow,” Charles said. “Remind me to never make
you
angry.”

“You taught me well,” Hok replied.

“Uh-oh!” Malao cried, and Seh looked over to see half of the horsemen spur their horses to life. At least thirty-five soldiers charged toward the boat.

“Here we go!” Charles shouted. “There is no turning back now. I am going to run us aground to give us a more stable platform to shoot from. Wait for my signal, then make every shot count!”

Charles steered the boat toward the shore and let
go of the helm. He picked up one of the many loaded muskets he kept handy and put it to his shoulder.

Seh heard a scraping noise, and the bow of the boat rushed up onto the soft muck of the shoreline. When the boat finally stopped rocking, the soldiers were almost within pistol shot.

“Fire!” Charles yelled.

Fu fired first. His cannon blast sent a horseman flying, and before the man hit the ground, Seh had fired off a shot, as had Hok, Charles, and Malao.

Soldiers began to shout, and Fu roared back in anger as Seh took aim and fired his second cannon. He had loaded this one with grapeshot—hundreds of lead balls the size of grapes. He could not believe the damage caused as it took down several soldiers.

Hok, Malao, and Charles continued to shoot as a few horsemen returned fire, then Charles bellowed, “Cease fire!”

The smoke cleared, and Seh saw that between the five of them, they had obliterated the attacking horsemen in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Every soldier was down. Who needed kung fu when you had weapons like these?

“Here come some more!” Malao called out from the mast top, and Seh saw another group of horsemen advancing toward them. The remaining pack had split, and nearly twenty soldiers were barreling toward them with pistols drawn. Seh and Fu scrambled to reload their cannons.

The next wave of soldiers came, but they did not
venture within range of Seh’s grapeshot-filled cannon, so he did not fire. He saw with dismay that they were not able to do anywhere near as much damage without his deadly but short-range grapeshot. They managed to take down ten or eleven soldiers, but the rest remained unscathed, firing their pistols. The soldiers’ shots ricocheted around the boat, but fortunately neither Seh nor the others seemed to get hit.

The soldiers retreated once their pistols had been spent, and they regrouped, huddling atop their horses in a circle beyond the range of firearms. Seh noticed that all of them had short bows and quivers of arrows strapped to the sides of their saddles.

“Is everyone okay?” Charles asked as the smoke cleared.

Amazingly, everyone replied that they were fine.

Seh’s ears were ringing from all the noise, but even so he thought he heard a rushing noise, like the sound of running water. He turned toward the center of the deck, expecting to see a leak. Instead, he saw black powder pouring out of several holes in the oak barrels. Neither he nor any of the others had been hit because not all of the soldiers had been aiming at them. Some had been aiming at the stack of barrels, which were clearly labeled with large Chinese characters: Black Powder!

“Charles, look!” Seh cried, pointing at the powder accumulating on deck.

“Huh?” Charles replied. “Oh, no!”

The horsemen broke their circle and formed a line,
and Seh saw that each man held his short bow and three flaming arrows.

“What do we do?” Seh asked Charles. “Dump the powder overboard?”

“Too late,” Charles said.

The horsemen began to charge, and Charles yelled, “Abandon ship!”

“Never!” Fu roared.

Hok grabbed Fu’s wrist and yanked him toward the stern of the boat, which was nearest the deepest water. Seh watched her dive in, followed by huge splashes from Charles and Fu. Seh heard a long, shrill screech followed by a small splash, as Malao leaped from somewhere high atop the rigging.

Two flaming arrows passed over Seh’s head, and he fired his cannons in a final act of defiance.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Several soldiers were torn from their horses, and Seh dove into the canal’s icy water. The shock took his breath away, yet he still kicked and swam underwater with all his might until he thought his lungs would burst.

Then Charles’ boat exploded.

The massive shock wave blasted Seh clear out of the water, and he managed to gulp in two mouthfuls of air before splashing back down. Pieces of charred wood and twisted iron began to fall from the sky, and he dove once more beneath the surface, staying down as long as he could. Something heavy bumped against
his arm as it sank, and he pushed it away, remembering the time his mother had nearly drowned him. He hated swimming.

When Seh surfaced again, he found things eerily still. No more debris fell, and the canal water rocked gently from the aftermath of the blast. His ears were ringing even more now, and he was winded from holding his breath so long. Other than that, he seemed fine. He spotted the burning hulk of what remained of Charles’ boat, and tried to decide which way to swim. The shore opposite the soldiers seemed like the obvious choice, but then a noise made him look toward the Forbidden City’s main gate. He could hardly believe his eyes and ears. The bandits had arrived!

Mong, Hung, Sanfu, NgGung, and Bing were atop horses, accompanied by a thin old man who Seh had never seen before. They were literally riding circles around the remaining soldiers. While the soldiers rode fine horses, the bandits and the old man were on even more beautifully proportioned, muscular animals, with coats that practically shimmered in the moonlight. The bandits shot several of the soldiers, and as Seh began to swim toward that shore, he saw the old man pull a long rope from a bag tied to his saddle.

Still riding in a circle around the soldiers, the old man threw the rope over one of Tonglong’s men and yanked him to the ground. The old man let go of the rope, and Sanfu leaped from his horse. He ran over to the man and tied him up.

The old man produced a second rope and began to
swing it in a wide loop over his head. By the time Seh reached shore, that rope was around another dismounted soldier and Bing was beside the soldier, tying him up like a butcher might bind a pig.

As the old man pulled a third rope from the bag, Seh saw a mob of men rush through the darkness on foot toward the bandits and Tonglong’s horsemen. Fortunately, he recognized most of these newcomers, having trained them at the bandits’ camp. They were on the bandits’ side. They used their spears and swords admirably, dispatching any soldier who did not willingly surrender.

Seh pulled himself onto the bank and lay there, exhausted. He glanced around, looking for the others, and saw them all together down the shoreline. He waved, and they waved back.

Seh smiled with relief. They appeared to be fine. He looked back toward the bandits and saw NgGung approaching atop a spectacular horse. Seh thought he felt the ground begin to vibrate, and he compared what he felt with the rhythm of the horse’s hooves. They did not match.

NgGung jumped out of his saddle and hurried over to Seh. The horse had stopped, but the vibrations continued.

“Are you okay?” NgGung asked.

“I thought so,” Seh replied. “But now I’m not so sure. Feel the ground. Am I imagining things?”