“Li Kung?”

  It was Pun’s voice. Li Kung scrambled to his feet, ran toward the cavern opening, where, high above him, the haze of early dawn brought vertical rays of velvet light, bathing him in warmth and hope. “Pun! I’m here!”

  A thick rope dropped in next to him. “Li Kung! I can’t see you! Just grab the rope and I’ll pull you up.”

  Li Kung clutched the rope with both hands. He felt a sting from the bruises on his body, reminding him of the stones he was pelted with. He turned toward the middle of the cavern and stared into the darkness. Little Butterfly had already disappeared.

  Eventually, he was pulled to the surface. Pun leaped into his embrace, tears in her eyes. Peppercorn climbed onto his shoulders and wrapped her little arms around his neck.

  Li Kung peered into the cavern. The old woman was still down there, somewhere, without the use of her eyes or her legs. Should he bring her to the surface? But where could he take her? She could not survive on Redwood Cliff, and he would not be able to carry her down, especially now.

  “Are you hurt? How did you fall in there?”

  Deep in the distance, the hollow sound of funeral gongs reverberated across Redwood Cliff.

  “I’m not hurt,” Li Kung lied. At least his face wasn’t bruised. “We need to go. I think I found what we came for.”

  “We can’t leave now. We need to wait for the funeral to be over or we’ll look suspicious.”

  Li Kung nodded. He severed the rope dangling into the cavern so no one would discover Little Butterfly in there.

  Pun skipped through the pine forest with the monkey on her shoulder, endlessly chatting about how each guest was called into the courtyard before dawn and asked to line up in preparation for the funeral. She told him how Peppercorn came to her just in time, when she was about to leave the mansions, and how she was able to slip away in the confusion of the marching procession.

  “What’s wrong?” She peered into his face.

  Li Kung was staring at the silver pine needles, now even more metallic against the morning sun. “She pnted the entire forest because she knew there were enemies in the family. She was prepared. How could she have been poisoned?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing.” There was no time to tell her the story now. “When does the funeral begin?”

  “Soon, I think.” There was a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “There are so many people on Redwood Cliff this morning, I don’t think we’ll get close enough to see anything. Did you know that people continued to arrive all st night? People are still climbing those stairs this morning. The cliff will be so crowded people will get pushed off.”

  Li Kung didn’t seem to hear. Wei Bin and Wei Xi are evil, and they must be destroyed ...He clenched his teeth together until his jaws hurt. What if Little Butterfly was telling the truth and these two madmen had the inclination to kill thousands of innocent people? The alchemy . . .

  “Do you know,” Pun continued, “I heard two warriors talking this morning. They both agreed that people didn’t come here because they wanted to pay respects to the Old Grandmother. They actually care very little about her. Members of the Martial Society are here because they learned that Wei Bin found some jade. I wonder what this jade is all about. Could it be Sochai’s jade? But anyway, they said that because Wei Bin has the jade, everyone wants to be his friend again.”

  The terrain sloped downward, and they could already see the swarms of people gathering. Pun raised her hand to shield the sun from her eyes. “Too many people,” she said. “I heard the Red Dragons now cim the Green Dragons are their inferiors. They think the Green Dragons should accept orders and be driven like dogs. But Wei Xi’s men think the Red Dragons are treacherous scum, and that the jade really belongs to the Green Dragons. I think they want to kill each other today.”

  Pun paused. Li Kung was not listening. She pinched him on the arm. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Nothing, just ...I saw something down there. I’ll tell you about it ter.”

  The pine forest was behind them, and far across the rocks, along the main grounds of Redwood Cliff, came ghastly sounds of weeping, of tormented wails and cries. They were mostly women’s voices, and they screamed so passionately that for a moment, Li Kung almost believed that true sorrow filled the air.

  A sea of people resembling a colony of ants paraded through the barren terrain of Redwood Cliff. From the higher vantage point, Li Kung could clearly identify the twins, Wei Bin and Wei Xi, walking side by side in front of the coffin. They were dressed in coarse white canvas, a white headband around their heads. Wei Xi was holding a silver bowl with a tall base, the water in the bowl high above his head.

  “See that gold dagger in the Green Dragon master’s topknot?” Pun asked.

  Li Kung squinted and noticed a thin bde horizontally inserted into Wei Xi’s hair, in pce of a traditional jade pin.

  “I heard this morning,” Pun continued, “that he always dresses his hair with a gold dagger even though he’s never stabbed anyone with it. What a strange man.”

  A train of people followed behind the coffin; close retives of the Old Grandmother. Some of them tossed thin shreds of paper into the air, while others carried nterns, fans, pavilion-shaped floats, or melon-shaped paper ornaments on a pole. They all walked respectfully, side-by-side, hands close to their weapons.

  Li Kung’s eyes panned across the barren rocks into an area where the soft soil rested under a thin yer of gssy ice. This was the destination. Below them, on an empty strip of elevated nd overlooking the cliff, were multiple tombs. The gravesites were all built the same, with a solid cement dome behind the tombstone, and a wall erected in a semi-arch around the back. The tombs higher on the hill were older.

  “The Old Grandmother will be buried beside her husband,” Pun said quietly, pointing to an unfinished tomb in the middle of the hill. “They kept his grave unfinished so he could wait for her.”

  “Look,” Li Kung said. “They haven’t dug the grave yet. I wonder why?”

  “I heard it’s disrespectful to her te husband if they opened the ground ahead of time. It would be too close to his grave.”

  “Let’s get closer,” Li Kung said. He took her hand and hurried around the top of the hill overlooking the main stretch of the cliff. The line of mourners, with white fgs high in the air, rapidly approached the designated gravesite. Li Kung pulled harder on Pun’s hand. “Let’s hide over there. We’ll be in front of everyone, but they won’t see us because we’re high up.”

  They took a long, winding detour and hid behind a boulder.

  “Can you see from here?” he asked.

  Pun poked her head out and nodded. “They’re right below us.”

  On the side of the cemetery was a stone furnace, a bzing fme fed by fresh coal dancing from it. A striking old man stood beside the fire, his long robe fluttering, his beard hanging below his chest. The poison user, Li Kung thought to himself. Something about the old man: confident, alert, proud, standing next to a source of heat without a single weapon on him. He had to be the famed poison user.

  Thousands of guests, with Wei Bin and Wei Xi leading the coffin, entered the cemetery. Li Kung noted the faces arriving behind the two leaders, recognized Dong and Cricket, Wei Bin’s two sons. The younger son, Cricket, though merely a boy, stood out to defend him only a few nights ago after he angered all on Redwood Cliff. Li Kung suggested that the Old Grandmother should be allowed to die, to end the pain, and the Red Dragons wanted to kill him on the spot. It was Cricket who persuaded Wei Bin to release him. He would never forget.

  Behind Wei Xi were also two younger men. Li Kung instantly recognized Stump and wondered whether his foot had recovered from Tao Hing’s spikes yet.

  The Butcher followed. Fnking the two Dragon House leaders were numerous armed warriors moving in tight clusters, only differentiated by their robes in deep red or light green. They carried broadswords, double-edged swords, spears, and heavy cudgels. The stout men carrying the cudgels wore red headbands.

  Horns sounded. The sea of men halted in their tracks. An old Taoist priest stepped to the front, waving a white tassel above his head and shouted to the thousands. “The auspicious hour has arrived! Please open the ground for the final resting pce of our Old Grandmother, Wei Lin Cha!”

  Twelve muscur men appeared with shovels to dig the designated plot of earth. Soil was hurled high as they burrowed into the frozen ground.

  The old Taoist priest then shouted. “We will prostrate ourselves in final respect and kowtow three times to the dead. Would the oldest son, Lord Wei Xi, kowtow first!”

  Wei Xi dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground.

  “We need to get these samples to Shifu Two as soon as possible,” Li Kung whispered into Pun’s ear.

  She shook her head. “There’s no way we can get down now.”

  “Would the second son, Master Wei Bin, please kneel!” The Taoist priest shouted at the top of his voice. Wei Bin dropped to his knees.

  “What if they find the samples on us?” Li Kung whispered again. “We’ll have no chance of leaving Redwood Cliff.”

  “Would Wei Xi’s son, Jian, please kneel! Would Master Wei Bin’s sons, Dong and Cricket, please kneel! Would the adopted son, Ho Tin, please kneel!”

  There was a brief murmur among the guests at the mention of an adopted son being in a position of such privilege. Stump stepped forward to kneel.

  The Taoist priest shouted: “Would the Red Dragon warriors, the Butcher, and the Flute Demon please kneel! Would the Green Dragon warriors, the Chaos Spearmen, please kneel!”

  Li Kung peered into the distance, squinting against the sun now high in the sky, and watched a group of men with long spears, dressed in light green, prostrating themselves.

  “Would the Red Dragon warriors known as the Gentle Swordsmen please kneel!”

  “These are the elite,” Pun whispered into Li Kung’s ear. “I heard some men talking about them this morning. Any one of these elite warriors could take on twenty ordinary fighters by himself. You can imagine how powerful they are when fighting together.”

  “Would the Green Dragon warriors known as Thunder Broadswords please kneel! Would the Red Dragon warriors known as Red Headbands please kneel!”

  “Where’s Sochai?” Li Kung asked in a loud voice. Pun csped a hand over his mouth.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered in response. “He was there this morning, but I slipped away with Peppercorn and didn’t have a chance to tell him.”

  “Would the junior students of the Green Dragon House and the Red Dragon House please kneel! Would Master Chen of the Tuo Shan House, among the guests, please kneel in respect to the Old Grandmother!”

  One after another, each school of the Martial Society was called. Small groups prostrated themselves in response. Li Kung scanned the sea of warriors in front of him, hoping to find Sochai, but the Mongolian probably hid himself in the rear, among the less significant schools, to avoid being discovered.

  “Look!” someone shouted. “What is that?”

  The twelve men backed away from the pit they were digging.

  “What is that?” one of them shouted again.

  Dong and Stump both leaped closer and stood over the opening in the ground. The murmur of thousands instantly swept across the surface of Redwood Cliff.

  “You!” Dong shouted, pointing at the men with shovels, his thick eyebrows instantly knit together. “Come and take this out!”

  “Yes, sir!” Four men ran back to the pit with their shovels, jumped in to dig again.

  By then, every man on Redwood Cliff was on his feet, hands close to his weapon.

  “What is it?” Wei Xi asked.

  “A cauldron of some sort,” Stump responded. “An old cauldron.”

  Wei Bin stepped up, the metal fan folded and rhythmically tapping his palm. “What’s a cauldron doing in my mother’s burial spot? Who’s in charge of the cemetery?”

  “Master Bin, I maintain this area,” one of the men with the shovels said. “The ground was untouched this morning. No one has touched this plot of nd for a very long time!”

  “Look!” one of the men inside the pit shouted. “There are roots growing through the copper. It must be a hundred years old!”

  “Nonsense!” Wei Xi fumed. “Bring it to the surface!”

  In a moment, the four men lifted the copper cauldron out of the pit. The surface of the copper was green with decay and already crumbling. Parts of tree roots dangled from crevices on its sides. Both Dong and Stump stepped back and looked to their fathers for help.

  “Open it,” Wei Bin said.

  Dong gnced once at Stump before yanking away the rotted lid. Stump peered inside. “There’s a porcein urn in there. It’s sealed with wax.”

  Dong pushed him aside, drew a knife, and sliced the cover off the urn. “A scroll!” he shouted. He pulled away the fragile cover. “There’s a scroll in here!”

  Another murmur swept across the surface of Redwood Cliff. Dong tossed the lid to the ground, shattering the brittle porcein, and reached into the urn. “Let me see.”

  The scroll was made of thick cloth. Both Wei Bin and Wei Xi moved in for a closer look.

  “Read it,” Wei Bin said to his son.

  The guests fell silent and held their breaths.

  “It’s an ancestral decree!” Dong decred.

  “Read it!” Wei Bin said again.

  “At the passing away of my wife Lin Cha,” Dong began. “I, Wei Fei Xing, believing that the Dragon House could never be united, and acting to prevent further turmoil within the family, hereby designate Wei Bin to be the new ruler of the Dragon House, and hereby order all possessions, nd, and disciples that belong to my elder son, Wei Xi, to be surrendered immediately to Wei Bin. I also mandate my elder son, Wei Xi, to obey and submit to the authority of Wei Bin, and to henceforth fall under his command.”

  Stump shouted something and swiped the scroll from Dong’s hands. “How dare you ...” Stump’s face was red, his eyes on fire. He couldn’t finish his sentence. “How dare you!”

  Dong took a menacing step; disregarding the thousands of eyes pinned on his every move. He lunged forward to snatch the scroll back. “Read the ancestral decree!”

  Stump evaded. Wei Xi’s son, Jian, who stood behind his father the entire time, leaped forward with sword in hand. “Only a child would believe these lies. This is Redwood Cliff. A Red Dragon could bury whatever he wants here!”

  Every Green Dragon on Redwood Cliff reached for their weapons.

  The Red Dragons responded, partially drawing theirs.

  Wei Bin spun around to face his men. “Hold it! Sheathe your weapons!”

  The Red Dragons obeyed.

  “Jian, step down!” Wei Xi called.

  “You saw the tree roots growing through the cauldron,” Dong hollered. “Admit it! This is a legitimate ancestral decree written by our grandfather. How dare you call it a lie!”

  “Silence!” Wei Bin roared. He leaped to the front with one nimble step and shoved his son aside. “My Red Dragon students! My Green Dragon nephews! My friends in the Martial Society! Please listen to me!” He pulled the jade dragon from his pocket and held it in the air. “The ultimate symbol of power is here!”

  Everyone on Redwood Cliff fell silent.

  Wei Bin csped the jade with both hands. “But it’s my mother’s wish that this symbol be offered to my older brother. I heard her instructions with my own ears. Now, does anyone dare dispute the final words of the Old Grandmother?”

  No one responded. Dong stood to the side with head bowed, his thick eyebrows pressed together, his eyes wide with frustration. This sudden change of events brought the thousands on Redwood Cliff to utter disbelief.

  Wei Bin presented the jade to his older brother with both hands, his head bowed low. The older twin eyed his lifelong enemy with distrust. But he had no choice. With a forced smile on his face, he accepted the jade.

  “Hypocrites!” Stump screamed. “Admit it if you’re afraid of us! Why sneak in this pathetic ancestral decree?”

  “Hold it!” Wei Xi shouted. But it was too te.

  Stump clenched the opened scroll with both hands and tore it in half with one vicious rip.

  Dong screamed, drew his sword, charging at Stump. “You dare destroy the decree of my ancestors; you adopted bastard!”

  Wei Xi, suddenly fearing for the safety of his adopted son, jumped in with his hand up. “Hold it, Dong!”

  Dong swung his sword, completely missing his uncle, but the damage was done. Every warrior on Redwood Cliff drew his weapon.

  “Did you see how much dust came out of the scroll?” Li Kung whispered into Pun’s ear. “It looked like powder!”

  “What does that mean?”

  In front of them, the silence of thousands amplified the unbearable tension.

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