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.