Ying jammed his toes and fingers into spaces between the wall bricks, and he began to climb. He positioned himself over the doorway, holding fast like an eagle clinging to the side of its nest.
Long looked back out of the window and saw that Wuya and Tonglong had disappeared. A few moments later, Long heard talking on the other side of the door. People were coming. He heard Wuya say, “We are about to enter the Emperor’s private suite. I believe the seals are hidden here. Inside you will also find the surprises I mentioned earlier. Brace yourself.”
Someone placed a key within the lock, and Long backed away from the door. It opened, and Wuya entered with Tonglong and the four soldiers carrying the large dilapidated crate. The crate reeked of neglected pigs. In the hall stood several Forbidden City soldiers, standing guard.
Tonglong saw Long and Xie, and he laughed. “Unbelievable! The two most wanted individuals on my criminal list, and here they are, waiting for me inside my new chambers. Wuya, perhaps I will let you be the one to execute Xie. It would be fitting for you to take his title as the new Western Warlord by removing his head with a jade sword. The stone is surprisingly sharp.”
“You will pay for this, Wuya!” Xie said. “If not in this lifetime, in the next.”
Wuya shrugged and stepped backward into the doorway.
Long saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and he noticed that Tonglong was adjusting his long, thick ponytail braid over the shoulder of his white jade armor.
Ying must have noticed, too, because while Tonglong was preoccupied, he struck. Ying released his grip on the wall and soared through the air toward Tonglong with his arms held up and back in a classic eagle-style kung fu pose. However, Tonglong happened to look up at that same instant, and he ducked.
Ying missed Tonglong and landed with a thud atop one side of the wooden crate. The jarring force of his heavy landing caused the four soldiers to lose their grip, and the crate crashed onto the suite’s hard wooden floor, splintering into a hundred pieces. A foul stench filled the room.
Ying rolled away, shaking his head as if he were dazed, and Long saw a man lying inside the remains of the opposite side of the crate from where Ying had crashed. The man was seemingly half-dead. His face was sallow and covered in a woolly matted beard, and his clothes were little more than deeply stained shreds. He spied Xie and struggled to sit up.
“Emperor!” Xie shouted. He bolted for the ragged man, and two of Tonglong’s soldiers sprang into action. They lunged at Xie, one low and one high.
Xie leaped cleanly over the lower man, but the soldier who went high struck Xie square in the sternum with his shoulder. The collision ended in a stalemate, with both men dropping to their knees. The soldier held a pistol in one hand, and he slammed the butt of it into the side of Xie’s head. The impact caused the pistol to fire, the recoil driving the pistol butt against Xie’s skull a second time.
Xie dropped into unconsciousness.
Long could see the other soldier raising his pistol toward Xie when the soldier was shot himself. An instant later, the man who’d knocked Xie out was shot dead, as were Tonglong’s two remaining soldiers. Long looked into the doorway and saw Wuya holding two large pistols. Both pistol barrels were smoking. Wuya winked at Long.
Tonglong roared and pointed at Wuya. “You have made me play the fool! Your game all along has been to get the Emperor back here alive, hasn’t it?”
Wuya smirked.
Tonglong howled. He raised the white jade sword and leaped at the Emperor.
Long leaped, too. Closer to the Emperor than Tonglong, he got there first and yanked the ragged ruler to the ground. Tonglong tried to spin and adjust his swing downward, but could not compensate enough. The sword missed by a handbreadth. Tonglong snapped his head around, and at the same time Long saw Ying rip Grandmaster’s sword from his sash and dive recklessly toward them.
From the corner of his eye, Long noticed the end of Tonglong’s ponytail braid swinging toward the Emperor. Ying reached out and grabbed its knotted end, then cried out. He slashed at the braid with Grandmaster’s sword, severing it close to Tonglong’s head. Tonglong’s remaining hair spilled out like black water.
Ying cursed, and Long saw that he was still holding the end of the braid. It was stuck to his hand with a series of metal barbs that had been hidden within the knot of hair. Ying tugged at the tangled mass and ripped it from his palm. He hurled it across the room, tottered, and then fell.
Tonglong erupted with laughter. “A little trick from my dear mother, AnGangseh. Those barbs are tipped with her favorite poison.”
Ying struggled to stand, and Long rushed to his side. “What are you doing?” Long whispered. “Stop moving. Slow your heart rate. I will find you an antidote.”