"I still don't really understand why I'm here." Guang Ling, struggling gamely to keep her mount under contrl, looked back down the long slope they'd climbed since leaving Hsiao-pei-ho.
The mountain town lay far, far below them, a warm, cozy reminder of the cold, barren wilderness she was following four insane women into.
"Ever go fishing?" asked Wei-Yong, Dau Li padding alongside. The tall woman wore an uncharacteristically fashionable cloak lined with silk and looked uncomfortable with her hair done up in a complicated arrangement. Her earrings still dangled, however.
"No."
Wei-Yong exchanged a glance with Li Fa.
"Never mind, then. You're with us because Shan likes you."
"What?"
"Nothing."
Shan turned to frown at Wei-Yong, and asked, "Aren't YOU the bait?"
Wei-Yong glared.
"It's just coincidence. I'm not getting married."
"Speaking of fishing, I'm getting hungry."
"Shan, it's only been a few hours since breakfast."
"Exactly."
They'd been climbing steadily into the mountains north of Hsiao-pei-ho. Somewhere up ahead they expected to find Lang-xia-gu, a deep canyon that cut through the mountains and eventually (they were told) became an underground river that travelled beneath the city of Liao-chung.
Where Wei-Yong was getting married.
*****
Last Night
"Is this some kind of joke? Or sorcery?"
Ming-Wa looked back and forth between her friend, Muen Wei-Yong, and the young woman who'd just joined them. Guang Ling nodded.
"This is Tang Fei Liu, daughter of Merchant Tang. We fear she has been targetted by an assassin hired by Fan Tian Jing, and that the assassin will strike as she travels to her wedding in Liao-chung. This is why I asked you to help us."
Guang Ling gestured between the two women, who stared at each other curiously.
They could have been twin sisters, so close was the resemblance. Both tall and slender, with high cheekbones and broad shoulders. But where Wei-Yong stood in her travel-stained furs, hair peeking out untidly from under her fur cap, Fei Liu approached them with a formal gown draping behind her, hair coiffed elaborately and nails polished.
"Obviously, the resemblance is striking enough that I hope the assassin will pursue Miss Muen rather than Miss Tang. If we can make the assassin believe that you are escorting Miss Tang to Liao-chung, we can take her there by a less direct route. Once she is married to the powerful Xue family, Fan will never dare strike at her."
Ming-Wa considered the wealthy woman with evident disapproval, but looked over at Li Fa for her friend's opinion. Fa turned to Guang Ling.
"Who is this assassin?"
The clerk bit her lip and looked around. The women stood in a vast warehouse near the Mountain Gate of Hsiao-pei-ho, owned by Tang Bai Rui, Fei Liu's father. In a far corner labourers lowered sacks of rice from a towering pile, their figures dwarfed by the great beams and pillars the building was constructed from.
"His name is Maliss. I saw him. Once. He... He's a kind of... I mean, he's not... human. Exactly."
"A demon? A spirit?"
"He's half... snake."
Fa's expression did not change.
"We'll do it."
Miss Tang, who'd been standing motionless all this time, fell to her knees.
"Oh, thank you, Angels! You don't know how terrified I've been. Thank you, thank you, my father and I both thank you from the very corners of our hearts. May the Goddess bless you all."
"Oh, she will."
"She'd better."
"Shan!"
"Sorry, Ming-Wa. Sorry, Goddess."
*****
Shan's glower had been building all day. At the sight of the ruined fort, it deepened further.
"Is it lunch time now?"
Wei-Yong shook her head. She was watching down the trail behind them, plucking distractedly at her new robe. She slipped off her mount and shielded her eyes.
"I don't think so. Somebody's following us."
The glower disappeared in a bright, happy smile as Shan considered the possibility of a fight. She joined Wei-Yong and stared down the slope, unable to see any sign of whatever her keen-eyed friend had spotted.
"It's still weird seeing you all dressed up like that."
Meanwhile, Fa, Ming-Wa and Ling stood at the edge of a cliff that dropped several hundred feet into the cut that formed Lang-xia-gu, the canyon they meant to travel along. The wrecked fort had obviously once stood guard over a rope-and-counter-weight elevator that used to raise and lower loads along the cliff. The elevator platform hung twisted in the ropes and the counter-weights had crashed to the bottom of the cliff. Ming-Wa and Fa studied the situation.
Fa spoke first.
"Not too worn."
Ming-Wa answered.
"Should reach."
"Guy to the pillars, blocks look okay."
"Make sure to peg the running end before Shan takes hold."
They both nodded and Ming-Wa stepped out over the edge and plunged into the chasm. Guang Ling stifled an exclamation of horror and rushed to the edge to see the slender woman drifting downwards easily, gown a little ruffled by the wind but otherwise completely unperturbed. And evidently uninterested in the wooden ladder that descended alongside the elevator cables. Guang Ling, mystified, turned to Fa, who was engrossed in laying out lengths of cable. She straightened up as Shan asked a question.
"Why don't we just wait here and put an end to this whole thing right now?"
Fa sighed.
"Because, Shan, we can't kill them. Fan will know they've failed and will send another assassin, one who might be able to find the real Miss Tang. We have to keep this assassin chasing us for three days, so that Miss Tang has enough time to reach Liao-chung and the protection of the Xue family."
"Oh. That's boring."
"We're not actually doing this just to provide you with entertainment, you know. We're trying to help somebody."
"I'd be more helpful if I was less hungry."
Fa looked down at where Ming-Wa stood among the jumbled counterweights and organized Shan and Wei-Yong into threading the complex pulley system and lowered cables down to the their friend. Between the lot of them they got the machine operating again. Shan clambered down the long, unsteady ladder to where Ming-Wa rested beside the now-stable platform.
"Hop on, sweetie."
Shan started hauling on the ropes and watched the platform rise to the top. She tied off the rope to hold it in place and wiped her forehead, panting slightly with exertion. The platform was a good two hundred feet above her now, and she could see it swaying as her friends guided their mounts aboard. Fa leaned out and waved to her.
"Down we go."
The canyon floor was a pleasant, quiet place, out of the wind that had knifed through their robes up top. Loose shale lay in broken piles along either side of a well-marked path leading deeper into the mountains. Shan smiled as she hauled on the cable.
Far above, the four women stood together on the swaying wooden platform and watched the top of the cliff recede above them as Shan worked the cables. Pulleys creaked and beams groaned with the strain as they slowly descended.
"Shan, go faster."
The big woman grumbled at Wei-Yong's insistence.
"You think you can do this, you go right ahead, you -- "
"I'm serious. I think that's a dragon."
Fa frowned.
"There's no such thing as -- "
"Okay," Wei-Yong interrupted, peering upwards, "It's not a dragon. It's just a big lizardy flying thing with teeth and claws coming straight at us."
She grabbed for her bow. Guang Ling leapt at her, sending the platform tilting unsteadily.
"Don't! Miss Tang can't use a bow! They'll know it's not her."
"Oh, this is just great."
They could all see the creature now, spiralling down into the canyon above them. Its scales glittered like burnished bronze and a long tail undulated behind it. It flew the way a snake swims, with long twists of its body, hanging in the air without wings or any evident means of support. They watched it come. Shan kept hauling on the rope.
Li Fa looked around. She could draw on the power of the Shadow Realm to fight this creature, but doing so allowed the life-sapping energies of that dark place to infect those around her. She didn't have enough room to make use of her power without putting her friends in danger.
"Ming-Wa, this one's all yours."
"Defend us, Goddess."
Ming-Wa braced herself and threw back her hair, then reached out towards the approaching beast. A vague purple glow built up around her, and as Li Fa watched, the woman's small hands clutched at nothingness and her normally serene face twisted in sudden agony. Her eyes snapped open.
The dragon shrieked, twisted in on itself and plunged downward. Straight towards Tong Shan. Who was grinning.
"Dragons are good eating, I bet."
Her grin broadened as the thing seemed to recover and charged straight at her.
"Don't let go of the rope, Shan or we'll fall."
"Right. Good. Excellent. Hang on."
