The Black Book

  * * *

  “That’s one rescue I would’ve never seen!” Peter croaked as he was helped up while holding his side. Gojan had dismissed the crowd and now stood with Mondo and some other highly placed barbarians near the dead man’s body, arms akimbo. The torches continued burning.

  “Why did they have to wait till the very end before killing him?” Stephanie asked Peter.

  “I don’t know,” he painfully confessed, watching some men remove the body with the others. The kind Gojan sighed and turned to him, looking him over.

  “You are now safe, my friend,” the nomad told Mo Shi in case he hadn’t realized that. “None is above our laws and we had to silence him for that blow you received to your side! It was unjust.”

  “I fully agree with you, Gojan,” the fat Jew craftily interjected.

  “The prize for the fight is now yours, and everything your opponent possessed in his lifetime, including his wives and children,” Gojan continued.

  “Everything? His . . . wives?” The burning scroll caught Peter’s eyes. “And that?”

  “We have no need for Chinese magic, my friend,” Gojan reassured. “Ours is superior. Your slaves can take back what is theirs.”

  “What’s he saying, Peter?” Matthew asked, puzzled.

  “Go get the scroll,” Peter told him. A group of women and children had gathered near a cave with a richly decorated interior and Peter’s attention was drawn to them.

  “His wives and children,” Gojan reminded him. “You can give them to Mondo if you don’t want them.”

  “I’ll take only Yung Ji.”

  “Who?”

  “Uh—that one,” Peter pointed out with Nora’s help and the Hunnish boy was immediately separated from his mother, who looked as unconcerned as she felt. Peter would have chosen the woman as well for her beauty if Nora hadn’t looked so jealous. “I shall also take Babro Du’s cave,” he also told the Huns.

  “His cave is for our next leader, Mo Shi,” Gojan said. “Remember your foe defeated you even though he never killed you. Since Mondo killed him, he is our next leader, Mo Shi.”

  Peter regretted missing the rules when the short guy was reading them out. “I understand, Gojan,” he said. “Such is the way of Pure Blood.”

  “You will take my cave instead,” Mondo revealed in a weak voice, which belied his mountainous shape.

  “Where is it?” Peter thankfully asked.

  He was shown a small one standing alone.

  “You can now retire with your slaves and prize, Mo Shi,” Gojan told him. “Your new belongings will be brought to you from your enemy’s cave this night.”

  “Is it much?”

  “Stop asking for her, Peter,” Nora urged in English. “You know she’ll never fit into Sleepy Lake.”

  “And who told you I was doing just that?”

  “Well . . . I thought I saw her blush.”