* * *
“The Chinese! The Chinese are coming!” the last Hun announced, running back from the plains beyond the Great Wall. “They charge on horses!”
Babro Du grabbed Nora by the arm and another seized Matthew and Stephanie to quickly hurry after him.
“Thanks, Peter,” Nora accused in English. “You’ve helped us by making things worse.”
The fat boy couldn’t say a word in defense as he followed behind the group. If only she knew what he’d just committed himself to, he thought, she’d be crying for him instead. A new band of ragtag supporters had surrounded him as they pulled out of the Chinese territory and the reason was quite obvious.
“I am proud of you, my friend!” a short fellow roared behind him, slapping him on the back.
“What for?”
“No one has ever done what you just did for a long time now.”
“Even Mondo has refused to try, even though he is looked upon as our next leader,” a lean supporter began.
“Who’s Mondo?” Peter asked.
The Huns pointed out a giant walking alone.
“Throwing away your life in such a courageous manner is something of great honor to the Hsiung-nu,” the short man continued. “And what is better than challenging our great leader, Babro Du Zhang, himself, eh, Gojan?”
Peter coughed unconsciously. Leader? Great?
“Don’t worry,” the lean Gojan consoled him. “Your death will be quick and painless.”
The raiders left the enemy’s border walls with her dead littered behind it and rapidly distanced themselves from this scene of cold-blooded destruction. They had already gone far when the Chinese cavalry came up to the area, cursing themselves for being too late.
Contrary to the claim Liu Hang had made against them, the Huns had taken some prisoners with them, apart from the Quentins, that is. These were mostly women and children, and the burden of carrying the stolen goods the robbers had pillaged from their dead kinsmen and kinswomen had been transferred to these prisoners.
Nora kept glaring at Peter from time to time as they moved farther away from the only established civilization in the area and he found it hard to say anything lest he should draw the attention of his so-called supporters to the conversation. Nora saved this situation by mouthing her words instead.
“You betrayed us.”
“I’m not better off, either.”
“Just what the hell were you thinking?”
“He was gonna kill you, that’s what he said.”
And Nora looked away in her usual style.
The girl was a shrew, Peter concluded. He should have as well left her beneath that foot.
“Halt,” Babro Du ordered with a raised right arm in front of the small party.
Peter realized they had been turning and twisting further into a wilderness of rice paddies terraced into hills for a long time now. None of the few farmers on these fields had looked at them as they were passing through and the Jewish boy found himself wondering whether these ordinary folks were members of the clan as well. Now they stood facing a deep, wide valley harboring a narrow path on one of the mountains that created it, and the Hun leader intended to take this route.
“Aren’t we there yet, Matt?” Stephanie asked her brother, looking weary and lost.
“Guess we are,” Matthew whispered to her. “Just hold on in there.”
“Stop talking,” the man with them snarled and they both clamped up.
Babro Du had started on the mountainous path with Nora and the small party resumed their journey behind this two. The girl hadn’t said a word since they left the border walls of the Ch’in, because doing that would have been suicidal, but she’d been muttering curses underneath her breath whenever her annoyance reached a climax.
“Home,” someone suddenly announced in a baritone voice when they finally got to the foot of the mountain.
“How farther can we be from the truth?” Matthew sadly whispered. He’d been bemused by the lack of any house-like structure in the valley. Although he had never seen so many horses in one place, he knew this was no alternative for their Sleepy Lake home. He also felt tired and wanted to rest his feet. However, his younger sister became livelier once they mingled with the horses.
The two mountains forming the valley had many caves of various sizes at their bases and it was in these that the barbarians kept their few belongings and loot, their wives and kids.
“Tie up the prisoners,” the Hun leader ordered, taking a swig from a small leather bag of local brew. “Separate the three for the fight and put them in the cage.” And he glared at Mo Shi, his fat duel opponent, who appeared to have already started gathering like-minded fools to himself.
Matthew and his siblings were soon hurdled in the small animal cage. Stephanie slept off immediately, but Matthew stayed awake with his senior sister. “They didn’t take the book,” he slyly whispered to her. “That’s a good sign! We must now make Peter find Yung Ji.”
“You still actually believe he’s here?” Nora asked him with a frown. “And don’t bother about Peter—he’s a worthless investment.” The fat Jew sat in a cave surrounded by Huns who appeared to be helping him choose a suitable sword for a purpose Nora couldn’t fathom. She sadly watched this group for some time before Matthew broke the silence again.
“What’s he doing?”
“No idea.”
“They don’t have kids.”
“What?”
“The Huns. I see no kids with them. No . . . mothers.”
“They’re all in the caves. I’ve seen them.”
“Then why are we outside?”
It started raining.
“That’s why,” Nora pointed out. Their captors wanted to break their spirits by drenching them first and probably starving them for a long time. This was a very interesting recipe for slave production, she thought.
The rain stirred up Stephanie and the three Quentins embraced one another for warmth as the drizzle continued. They watched the horses being driven into a huge, deep cave.
“Those farmers in the mountains could be working for them,” Matthew said, shivering.
“They must have suffered this, too,” a jittery Nora agreed. Peter still sat with his new friends and she stared at him. What on earth was the Jewish boy discussing with these barbarians, even though the whole picture looked somewhat boring? Nora envied their cave shelter.
“How did you know?” Matthew asked her.
“Know what?”
“That he was the Persian guard?”
“He burped.”
“Oh.”
“Though I can’t believe I saved him from historical extinction,” Nora added after some thought.
The subject had succeeded in shaking off his admirers and came hurrying over to the cage in the rain. “Hey,” he whispered when he came over, looking around at the busy nomadic settlement. Their Hunnish hosts appeared unconcerned with this action of his. “Look, we’ve gotta go now! Things are getting a bit hot around here.”
“You must find Yung Ji before we do that,” Matthew declared.
“Not here,” Peter said.
“Did you look?” Stephanie stepped in.
“We would’ve found him by now if he’s here! So he’s not,” Peter said.
“Supported,” Nora agreed.
“I’m not leaving here without Yung Ji,” Matthew announced with a stubborn countenance. “There’re kids in those caves.”
“Gojan said they’re all girls,” Peter revealed. “The boys go away to learn horse riding and fighting skills.”
“Who’s Gojan?” Nora demanded.
“One of them?” Peter replied.
“I’m still not convinced,” Matthew repeated.
“What’s cooking?” Nora suddenly perceived with a sniff.
“Is that smoke from you, Matt?” Stephanie began, noticing the fumes rising up from her foster brother.
“Whoa!” Matthew cried, quick
ly realizing what was wrong. “The book’s on fire!” He pulled out the smoldering scroll and involuntarily dropped it on the cage’s floor where the slight breeze fanned up tongues of flame from it. This startled the Huns around into coming out from their caves and leveling out spears towards the four kids.
The cage caught fire.
This despite the rain.
“Get us out!” Nora screamed at Peter.
“H-How?” Peter stammered. He was pushed aside by the gargantuan Mondo who had a spiky club with him.
The cage’s front came off with one heavy swing and the three captives sprang out of the burning structure, coughing and blinking. Matthew made to retrieve the papyrus, but the Hun had already done so with his fearsome weapon. “Give that back!” he shouted in Chinese but was completely ignored.
“A magic scroll, eh?” Babro Du grinned as Mondo handed him the item on the tip of a bronze spear. It still burned and the Hun propped up the spear’s shaft on the soft soil to admire the picture in the rain. “Perhaps it would have helped your magicians to locate you,” he told Nora, “but then, no Chinese soldier had ever dared enter these parts.”
“What’s he saying?” Nora asked Peter, looking at the Hun leader in order not to attract attention.
“That we’re lost?” Peter replied. “Thanks to Matthew, here.”
“And what have you done yourself?” Nora accused him. “You couldn’t even save us from a burning cage!”
“You guys said the fire was harmless! Heartwarming?” Peter said.
“The cage fire was not,” Matthew informed him. “You felt the heat yourself, didn’t you?”
Babro Du had stopped talking. He was studying the four characters before him. The three Chinese prisoners noticed this and the fat Mo Shi moved away from them. “He cannot save you now,” the Hun chief told the three slaves, pointing at Mo Shi, of the Unknown. “He already has an appointment with death by nightfall today.” This attracted bouts of laughter from all around him. Raucous laughter.
“What’re they laughing at?” Stephanie asked Matthew. “Why can’t we understand them?”
“‘Cause they all speak Hunnish and we don’t?” Matthew suggested, turning his attention to the brightly lit scroll and feeling about his waist for signs of skin burn. This was the last time he would hide that thing in his garment! “We must get it back,” he declared.
“And do what after that?” Nora blasted. “Find Yung Ji? You could’ve helped us out, you know.”
“By doing what?”
“By making the right decisions, Bonehead.” Too late. Nora realized she was shouting. The Huns had fallen silent and their leader walked up to her with a puzzled look on his face. Stephanie tightly hugged Matthew as they stood there before the barbarian, evoking a pathetic image in their soaked Chinese attire. The huge man looked into Nora’s face with open wonder, and turned away from her to stare at her siblings.
“You don’t look like Chinese! You don’t even speak their tongue like them,” Babro Du remarked. “Perhaps you speak magic, eh? You regret and complain amongst yourselves! That will not help you.”
“They—They deserve to be sheltered,” Peter shouted at him with some courage and his own supporters nodded their agreement.
“Not good, Peter, not good,” Nora muttered, shaking her head at him.
“Do you think he’ll get . . . mad at us?” Matthew asked her.
“He’s already mad.”
Babro Du glared at Mo Shi for a long time, visibly angered by this opposition coming from him. A rift had even appeared in the ranks of his men due to this fat challenger and he clenched his fists in wild rage. “That will be decided by the fight,” he decided and turned to his men. “Do slaves deserve shelter before they know who their master is? No. The prize for the fight wants to escape before the fight has been fought by demanding shelter,” he growled at them. “Tie them up so that they cannot escape before their fate is known.” Again, he glared at Mo Shi before walking away with his closest colleagues.
“What’re they going to do with us?” Stephanie whispered as her hands were secured behind her back. “Tame us to be slaves?”
“Maybe.” Nora shrugged, glowering at Peter. What? he mouthed and her eyes widened. “This is all your fault,” she told him. “You like what’s happening to Stephanie, huh? Why do you keep making things worse for us?”
“I’m just trying to help, Nora.”
“Well, I’m trying to figure out how you really intend to do that,” she stormed, ignoring the Huns laughing at her ranting.
“Mo Shi, where did you learn Chinese?” one of the men asked Peter.
“I grew up in China,” he replied.
“Is that where you met her?” Gojan asked Peter, laughing. The tall chinese girl kept looking from him to Peter. “She will be a hell of a wife.”
“What did he just say?” Nora asked Peter.
“You’ll be a hell of a wife,” he interpreted and dejectedly walked away.
The three Quentins were pushed into the midst of the other Chinese prisoners and completely forgotten by their captors.
Such was the way of the Hsiung-nu.