Ying continued his hunt in the moon shadows of the stronghold. He moved quickly and with purpose. Before he knew it, the sun had begun to rise, and he found himself on the opposite side of the stronghold lake’s sizable perimeter from where he normally hid for the day.
He looked around for a place to hide and spied a thick tract of tall reeds following the shoreline for quite some distance. The ground would be soft and dank in there, but the reeds would be great cover.
Not long after entering the reeds, Ying felt his dan tien begin to stir, and he heard what sounded like a dog growling. He had never known soldiers to use dogs, but the bandits might. Dogs would make a powerful first line of defense.
He stopped and was readying Grandmaster’s sword for a canine attack when a strange-looking man slipped through the reeds and faced him. The man had huge brown eyes, a big nose, and oversized ears.
The man looked Ying over, then sniffed the air. Sniff. Sniff. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Looking for friends,” Ying replied.
The strange-looking man laughed. “You? Friends? Ha-ha-ha!”
Ying took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was not there to make enemies with the bandits, for this man was indeed one of Mong’s men. His name was Gao, or Dog. Ying had caught glimpses of him in and around the bandit stronghold when the bandits still controlled it.
“I suggest you—” Gao began, but he was interrupted by a tremendous shriek from a line of tall cedar trees bordering the reeds. Ying looked up to see a large white one-eyed macaque glaring down at him. It bared its huge fangs.
This circus is going to attract attention, Ying thought. He looked back at Gao and saw that Gao was unconcerned about the monkey. Gao sniffed the air again.
The white monkey shrieked a second time, and Ying saw Gao tense. Ying fought the urge to look up at the monkey, keeping his eyes fixed on Gao. While an attack from the toothy macaque would be bad, an attack from Gao would be worse.
A soft voice drifted toward Ying from the cedar boughs overhead. “Malao! Can you make that monkey quiet down? The last thing we need is soldiers finding us because of his noise.”
“I can try,” a small voice replied. “I don’t think we need to worry, though. I just heard Gao sniffing. He’s in the reeds.”
Ying recognized the voices and relaxed. He saw Gao relax, too. That was surely Hok and Malao.
“I thought I smelled your feet, Malao,” Gao said in the direction of the voices. “Over here. There is someone you should see.”
The treetops began to rustle beyond the white macaque, and Ying saw two figures descend. One swung down on a vine, while the other seemed to float to the ground.
A moment later, Malao broke through the reeds and froze, his eyes locking on Ying’s.
The white monkey let out a howl from overhead and leaped down onto Malao’s shoulder. The macaque was huge, weighing nearly as much as Malao, but Malao took the monkey’s weight in stride. He did not show the slightest strain as the macaque bared its impressive fangs at Ying, noticeably irritated.
Ying nodded to Malao, but Malao did not acknowledge the greeting. Ying thought Malao might bare his teeth, too, but then Hok stepped into the reeds.
“Ying!” Hok said, sounding genuinely happy to see him. “What are you doing here?”
“I have recent news from ShaoShu,” Ying replied. He glanced at Gao, then looked back at Hok. “It concerns the bandits.”
Hok’s eyes widened. “You saw ShaoShu? How is he?”
“He was fine when I saw him a few days ago at Cangzhen Temple. He is with Tonglong.”
“Tonglong arrived at the stronghold several days ago,” Gao said. “What news do you have that concerns us?”
“Tonglong knows about the troops you are training,” Ying said. “He plans to attack, likely any day now. He has an elite force of ninety-nine men on horseback, plus there are the soldiers in the stronghold. That would be a sizable group. He plans to crush you, and once the remainder of his troops arrive—now tens of thousands strong—he will march upon the Forbidden City in an effort to seize the throne.”
Gao nodded. “We knew his plan involved the Forbidden City, but that he knows about our troops is news to us. We need to take action.”
“You need to retreat,” Ying said. “Unless you have pistols, muskets, and cannons.”
“We have very little in the way of firearms,” Hok said. “Unless Charles manages to—”
Gao held up a hand. “Ying does not need to know about our secret resources.”
“Charles is no secret to Ying,” Hok said. “He and Charles are friends, just as Ying is my friend. We can trust him.” She looked at Ying. “As I was saying, we are hoping Charles can find some firearms for us. In the meantime, we train mostly with spears.”