“Besides, Liu, he isn’t part of the plan,” Fang said. He was older than the other, the bristles of his unshaven face were gray like the ashes of burned offerings, and his words fell with the weight of weariness. But even more than his words, the cold, ruthless look in his eyes belied his being a trader. “We want the duke’s strings of gold, not some stray kid.”
“This kid’s worth more than the duke’s traveling cash,” Liu said. “Think how much we’ll get ransoming him to that magistrate.”
Fang scanned Rendi as if he were a calf for sale. With an unsympathetic tug, he jerked Rendi forward.
“Look at his hands,” Fang said, shining the lantern over Rendi’s hands, calloused and scarred from his frequent work at the well. “Those aren’t the hands of a rich boy.”
“I tell you, it’s him! I saw his face when the duke was talking,” Liu insisted. “And if he’s not, he knows something about it!”
Liu pushed Rendi back against the wall, thrust a lantern in front of his face, and sneered, “Right, boy?”
Rendi stared back as the two men peered into his face, strangely grateful that he couldn’t answer with the gag in his mouth. But even without speaking, he couldn’t hide his look of guilt and fear.
“Fine,” Fang said grudgingly. “We’ll get the duke’s money tonight as planned and take the boy with us. If he isn’t the magistrate’s son, we’ll get what he knows and get rid of him.”
Rendi shivered and tried not to think about how they would “get rid of him” if they chose to. Liu nodded, and Fang looked out the window into the night. Moments passed, and Rendi could barely hear the moans of the night over the thumping of his blood in his ears.
“Village of Clear Sky! Bah!” Fang said, spitting on the ground. “This place should be called the Village of Black Sky! There’s nothing out there but black. Even the stars aren’t out tonight.”
“Did you see that thing they call the Stone Pancake?” Liu said, joining Fang at the window. “Nothing but flat, dead rock for miles.”
“I don’t like this place. There’s something about it. That lady talking about tigers changing into men has me spooked,” Fang said. He spat on the ground again. “I have a feeling this inn is cursed.”
The sky made another cry, and Rendi wondered if it was the wailing that was affecting Fang and Liu. But the men gazed into the blank blackness, obviously not hearing a sound. As the night groaned, Rendi tried to work the bonds around his wrists. But the rope was as tight as the clamped claws of a crab.
“We’re out tonight, anyway,” Fang said. “You took care of the guards?”
“I put enough stuff in their wine that any of the duke’s men will be lucky if they wake up by tomorrow afternoon,” Liu said. “You didn’t drink any, did you?”
“What am I, a fool?” Fang said.
A soft knock sounded at the door.
“Quick!” said Fang, cocking his head. “Hide the kid!”
Rendi was thrust in the corner of the room behind the door. Liu piled their coats on top of him. “One sound out of you,” he hissed, “and you’ll be sorry, rich boy.”
Rendi gulped. As the door opened, he could see only the worn and dirty embroidered goldfish of Peiyi’s slippers.
“My father wanted to know if you needed more oil for your lanterns,” Peiyi said. “He can bring it up with your night wine and snack.”
“We didn’t order any night wine,” Fang said.
“It’s complimentary,” Peiyi said, as if she was reciting, “to thank our guests for visiting the Inn of Clear Sky. We hope you come again.”
“Oh,” Liu said, clearly amused. “All right, then. But make sure it’s a fresh jar of wine. We don’t want that same stuff that was served at dinner, do we, Fang?”
Fang didn’t answer. He seemed much more interested in something else. He stepped forward.
“What’s that on your forehead?” Fang asked Peiyi. “Why do you have the wang symbol written there?”
“It’s protection,” Peiyi said.
“I know,” Fang said, “but it’s not the Day of Five Poisons. Why do you need protection now?”
“I’m not supposed to talk about it to guests…” Peiyi started, her voice quavering.
“Tell me, girl!” Fang growled impatiently.
“One of the five poisons is here all the time!” Peiyi said in a scared whisper. “The Noxious Toad… it haunts this place!”
“The Noxious Toad?” Fang said. “The toad with blood eyes? With the poison vapor?”
“Yes,” Peiyi said, her voice almost impossible to hear. “If you breathe its poison, you die.”
Underneath the coats, Rendi wrinkled his brow. What was Peiyi talking about? The Noxious Toad of the Day of Five Poisons? The only toad that plagued them was the one Mr. Shan played with. Was she trying to give him a message? But how could she? Peiyi didn’t even know these traders were thieves and kidnappers, much less that Rendi was tied up behind the door. Should he try to warn her? Maybe she could get help? The night made a sad whimper, and Rendi was silent. Small Peiyi was no match for these men. Anything he did would put her in danger too.
“The wine!” Liu said. “You’re not giving us that wine for hospitality, are you? You mixed realgar in the wine, didn’t you? To make sure we won’t be poisoned?”
“It’s… it’s… it’s complimentary,” Peiyi stuttered. Rendi could feel their glares, and he could see that even Peiyi’s feet were shaking.
“Tell your father we want that wine quick,” Fang said finally in a voice so cutting Rendi could imagine it drawing blood. “A fresh jar, remember. Now!”
The shabby goldfish slippers scurried away, and the door shut with an angry thud.
“Noxious Toad!” Fang spat. “I knew this place was cursed!”
CHAPTER
25
For the next few minutes, Rendi heard only a torrent of curses and swears. The coats on top of him smelled of stale wine, and he felt like a sweltering chicken in a pot. Rendi was almost glad when Liu kicked the coats off him and propped him up.
“Did you know about this poison toad, boy?” he demanded. Rendi’s arms were sticky with sweat, and Liu, repulsed, quickly dropped him to the ground. The gag, loosened from the perspiration that coated his face, drooped off, and Rendi was unsure whether he should answer.
“Is it true about the toad?” Fang growled.
“No…” Rendi started.
“Don’t lie to us,” Liu said with a glower.
“I mean, no one knows,” Rendi said, his mind racing for a lie. What had Peiyi gotten him into? The lantern light wavered, and Rendi looked at Fang’s and Liu’s faces above him. The sky screeched, and a wave of reckless anger swept over him. Scum, both of them! Why not scare them? “No one knows where or when the toad will come with its poison. It’s like a ghost toad.”
“Ghost toad,” Liu repeated.
“Yes,” Rendi said, starting to enjoy himself. Telling stories for Madame Chang had given him good practice. “It’s worse than the Noxious Toad of the Day of Five Poisons. Maybe it’s the ghost of the first Noxious Toad, because it appears out of nowhere at any time with red eyes dripping blood.”
The night sighed, and the light of the lanterns flickered violently. Fang and Liu looked at each other. Rendi continued.
“This toad’s noxious vapor is worse too,” Rendi said, lowering his voice to a hushed whisper. “When it opens its mouth, the room fills with a disgusting, foul smell, and it poisons you until you die a horrible death. You choke, and your skin tightens and turns wrinkled and covered with warts, and your eyes bulge until you’re blind, and then you die!”
Suddenly, the flames of the lanterns disappeared, one immediately after the other, leaving the room in blackness. Liu and Fang gasped in horror while Rendi, invisible in the dark, smiled with satisfaction. He had been watching the wavering, dying light and had timed his words just right.
Fang lit a match. Even in the dim light, Rendi could see his face was white as he
reached for the lantern and cursed.
“It’s out of oil,” he spat in angry annoyance.
“Maybe it’s the Noxious Toad ghost,” Rendi said, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“Gag that boy up again!” Fang said, glaring. He rummaged in his small bag and then lit a candle. “I don’t like this,” he grumbled to himself.
Liu replaced Rendi’s gag, but his eyes watched Fang.
“You think we should forget the duke?” Liu asked. “The horses are already waiting. Maybe we just take the kid and get out of here now. We’ll still make money. I swear we’ll get it off the boy.”
Fang looked at Rendi, the candle flame casting long and distorted shadows over him. The wind whimpered in the darkness.
“He isn’t a sure thing,” Fang said, slowly shaking his head. “In an hour, the duke and his men will be sleeping like stones, if they aren’t already. We’ll get the gold and leave.”
“You sure?” Liu said.
Fang nodded, his hand rubbing the coffin-nail ring again. “In the meantime, we’ll get that wine. The innkeeper thinks it’s enough protection.”
“He better be right,” Liu said.
Rendi’s feelings of gratification were quickly draining away. No matter what happened, Fang and Liu were going to take him. He needed to think of a way out. Would Fang and Liu leave him in the room while they went after the duke’s money? Maybe Rendi could get Peiyi and Master Chao to hear him… Master Chao! He was coming with the wine! Rendi could alert him! Though it wasn’t really fair. Rendi thought about short, soft Master Chao, whose belly was like a stuffed dumpling. Master Chao was only a better match for Fang and Liu when compared with Peiyi. But Rendi was starting to feel desperate.
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door.
“It must be the innkeeper with the wine,” Liu said. Both men stood up and went to the door, Rendi forgotten. As Fang opened the door, the dim light from the hallway cascaded in like a gliding ghost. Rendi heard Master Chao’s voice, polite and proper. “Good evening. Your complimentary night wine?”
“It’s not complimentary,” Fang growled as he took a step forward, the door blocking him from Rendi’s view. “We know what it’s for!”
This is my only chance! Rendi thought. The black sky screamed in agreement, and Rendi began to kick at the wall with his bound feet, as hard as he could. “Master Chao!” he tried to yell through the gag. “Help!”
Liu strode over to Rendi and, with a swift sweep of his arms, grabbed him—easily forcing him to be still.
“Is something wrong?” Master Chao asked.
“Master Chao!” Rendi tried to yell again, the gag making his words just a mumble of noises. Liu took a coat and threw it over Rendi’s head.
“Nothing’s wrong, except for your cursed inn!” Fang said loudly. He pretended to look behind him. “Our lanterns don’t even have oil, and we have to trip around in the dark. What kind of inn is this?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Master Chao said humbly. “I thought you had enough lantern oil. I will go get some immediately.”
“Forget it,” Fang said. “The less we see your face, the better we’ll feel. Just give me the wine, and leave us alone.”
Rendi could hear the clinking of glasses on a tray as Fang took it, and a sick, nauseated feeling overcame him. Master Chao was leaving! The night howled in his ears, and Rendi gave one last struggle, pushing the coat off his head, but Liu’s strong arms fixed him firmly. Rendi could do nothing but watch the faint light draw away as the door closed with a solid bang, like the lid of a coffin.
CHAPTER
26
As soon as the door closed, Liu grabbed Rendi off the ground and shook him violently. “That was really stupid, rich boy,” Liu sneered. “Really stupid!” He threw Rendi on the ground and was about to strike him when Fang grabbed his arm.
“Later,” Fang said. “The last thing we need is some blubbering kid making more noise. That peacock of an innkeeper was curious enough.”
Fang had put the tray on the small table near the door, but it could barely be seen in the blackness of the room. The sounds of the night had lessened to a miserable whine, and the wavering candlelight did little more than cast shadows, leaving the room as dark as the inside of a tomb.
“Fine.” Liu nodded, giving Rendi a menacing glare, which looked even more malevolent in the flickering light. He gave Rendi’s legs a silent, but not gentle, kick and followed Fang back across the room.
Fang brought the candle closer to the table, and Rendi could see that the tray was full. Master Chao had been unusually generous, for not only was there a jug of wine and two cups, but an assortment of covered dishes, the largest big enough to hold a roasted chicken. Rendi frowned in puzzlement. Had Master Chao ever given a complimentary meal like this before?
“That pudgy innkeeper will have enough to think about after we leave,” Liu said with a sneering laugh. “Did I tell you about that last one, the prince we robbed the same way? They arrested all the inn workers—from the cook to the owner. Ha!”
“Since we’re taking the boy, this time they’ll think he did it,” Fang said, but he obviously wasn’t that interested. He looked out the window again. “You can’t see a thing out there. The horses are ready, right?”
“Everything’s right outside the door,” Liu said. “Horses, packs… just waiting for us to grab the gold and go.”
Was what Fang said true? In the morning, when the duke saw that the gold was missing, they would see that Rendi had disappeared too. Maybe the duke would realize he had been drugged, and Peiyi and Master Chao and Madame Chang would remember that Rendi had poured the wine! They would think he was the thief, and they would all hate him, he thought. And he wouldn’t be able to explain or tell them the truth. He would be gone! All this time, Rendi had been trying to leave the Village of Clear Sky, and now all he wished was to stay. Suddenly, the emptiness in his stomach seemed to become a hole swallowing him, and the sky’s sadness, his own. A single tear, like a sliver of stone, leaked from his eye.
“We better drink that wine,” Fang said, turning back from the window. Rendi watched as Liu sat down, looking at the full tray with greedy eyes.
“And eat,” Liu said, lifting the cover off the largest platter. “Let’s see what the…”
Liu’s voice died away as a disgusting, vile odor filled the air. His arm froze, holding the platter cover, and all eyes bulged as they saw what lay underneath.
It was a large, glowing toad. Eerie greenish lights quivered inside its grotesque belly, like trapped spirits. It sat in a pool of evil reddish-black liquid, with bubbling warts and dark-stained lines dripping from its eyes. Those swollen eyes stared, and the foul, revolting odor made Rendi’s eyes water.
“The Noxious Toad!” Fang whispered.
The toad opened its mouth. A tiny light shot out of it only to be snatched back by the toad’s gruesome tongue. “EERRR-rripp!” the toad bellowed.
Fang and Liu screamed. The table and the tray were kicked over, and all Rendi could hear was the mad panic of clattering dishes and curses as the men climbed over each other to reach the door. They shouted and swore and sobbed in terror. Finally, the door jerked open, and fresh air and faint light beckoned. There was no hesitation. With the night shrieking, Fang and Liu raced out of the room, out of the inn, and into the black night, riding their hidden horses as fast as they could so that they could leave the Inn of Clear Sky far, far behind them.
CHAPTER
27
Rendi stared. A pale rectangle of light streamed from the hallway onto the wreckage of broken dishware and splattered wine. But the room was empty. Fang and Liu had left. Without him. Rendi was filled with shocked disbelief.
Then, like an exploding firecracker, the room burst with light and lanterns and people and sound.
“Rendi! Rendi! Are you all right?” Peiyi said. Noises and words mixed together, and the bright lights blinded him. When he was finally able to see, a cr
owd of faces was looking down at him. They were the faces of Peiyi, Master Chao, Madame Chang, Mr. Shan, and even Widow Yan and MeiLan. He blinked at them, feeling as if he had just awakened from a nightmare.
“I’ll get that,” Master Chao said, cutting the bonds on Rendi’s arms. Widow Yan untied his feet, and Madame Chang removed the gag. Peiyi kept talking, her jumbled words like a rushing river.
“We saw them grab you—me and Madame Chang saw it from her window,” Peiyi said. “And I didn’t know what to do, but Madame Chang told me to get Mr. Shan, and then he told us to get Widow Yan’s fermented tofu and have the toad swallow some fireflies and paint the wang symbol on my forehead, and we could fake the Noxious Toad…”
“What?” Rendi said in bewilderment, his mind still dazed. They had faked the Noxious Toad? The revolting smell of the noxious vapor was Widow Yan’s tofu? The eerie, glowing toad was Mr. Shan’s toad with a firefly dinner? Rendi was too bewildered to laugh.
“We knew the men were superstitious, so Mr. Shan said scaring them away would be the best way to save you,” Peiyi continued. “I was so scared! Why did they take you, Rendi? What did they want you for? My father melted his cinnabar belt decoration to make the blood—did I tell you that part?”
“What?” Rendi said again. Peiyi was asking questions faster than he could answer, but Rendi was glad. He wasn’t sure he knew how to answer them.
“Peiyi,” MeiLan said, “you can tell Rendi the details later.”
“Yes,” Master Chao said, helping Rendi stagger onto his feet. Rendi’s legs felt stiff and sore, as if he hadn’t moved in days. “Let’s go downstairs.”
As Rendi stood in a room full of golden light and people, a room that had just moments before been nothing but darkness, he suddenly understood what had happened. Peiyi, Madame Chang, Master Chao—all these people had plotted and acted to save him. Him, Rendi, who had sneered and scoffed, been rude and unfriendly, and who had tried so hard not to care about anyone or anything in this small, poor village. The night made a sobbing sound, and Rendi opened his mouth to speak, but the words he wished to say dried up as his eyes filled with tears. He blinked and swallowed, and finally said instead, “Where’s the toad?”