“Peppercorn!”

  Li Kung reached into his coat for the canvas bag. The drawstring was open. She was nowhere to be seen. “No!”

  He groped the sand around him, tears in his eyes. She must have fallen out of the bag during the drop. He blindly combed the sand for her body.

  There was not enough light to see anything, not even the soft soil underneath him. He stopped, exhausted, and sat back, wiping the sweat from his brow. The opening he fell from appeared tiny and distant, and for the first time Li Kung realized how deep the drop really was. Peppercorn could not have fallen so far from where he nded—perhaps she saw the ground earlier and nded safely.

  He was convinced his monkey was still alive, relieved from the thought. He pulled out a small knife and severed the left sleeve from his coat, twisted the thick wool, shaped it into a torch, and lit it on fire. The fme roared, then tapered into a comfortable size.

  There was an old woman in front of him. He gasped, nearly dropped the torch, and stumbled back in panic. Her eyes were closed, her pale face shriveled and dried, her white hair caked with dirt hanging over her face.

  The old woman flicked her wrist and he felt a sharp pain in his knee. A pebble rolled onto the soil. He colpsed.

  “Stop looking,” she said, her ancient voice hollow. “There’s no way out of hell.”

  Li Kung held his knee with one hand, lifted the torch higher with the other, and stared. “Who ...who are you? What did you just do to me?”

  “I threw a stone at your kneecap. Massage it for a minute and you’ll walk again.”

  Li Kung gripped his knee and climbed to his feet. He took a step toward her and she lifted her hand, another stone held between her fingers. He froze. Her legs were amputated from the knees down. Her eyes remained closed.

  “So, young man,” she said. “After a hundred years, you are the first to visit me here. I’ve been speaking to the rats to practice my human voice, but they never respond. It’s destiny that you came to be my companion.”

  “Who are you? Where’s my monkey?”

  “Oh, so it was a monkey. I thought it was a massive rat. Enough food to st me for days. I hit it with a stone. Softly. It should be awake soon.”

  Li Kung lowered the torch, saw Peppercorn on the ground not far from him, and crawled over to scoop her into his arms. The little monkey opened her eyes, frightened for a moment, before snuggling against his chest.

  “Where am I?”

  The old woman chuckled—it was a strange chuckle that sounded like she was clearing her throat. “You wouldn’t know my name. As for where you are? I lost my eyesight in the darkness long ago. How could I tell you?”

  “But you’re so accurate when you shoot the stones ...”

  “Snow Wolf taught me that. I can hear exactly where you are. Now, tell me young man, how many years have I been down here?”

  “Snow Wolf taught you?” Li Kung leaned forward. He checked himself, aware of the stone in her hand. “I don’t know how long you’ve been here.”

  “You don’t know? But you can see daylight! How can you not know?”

  “I don’t know when you came down here.”

  “I didn’t come down here, I was kicked down here!”

  Li Kung shrank back.

  “Now tell me!” she said, her voice cold. “How long have I been down here?”

  She lifted her hand, a much rger stone between her fingers this time. “Snow Wolf,” Li Kung said quickly. “They say that Snow Wolf died fifty years ago.”

  “Fifty years?” The old woman was lost in thought. “At least a hundred years. I was thrown into this pit the same night she was murdered.”

  “Murdered?”

  “Tell me young man, who’s ruling the Dragon House right now?”

  “The Dragon House? The Red Dragons are ruled by Wei Bin, and the Green Dragons by Wei Xi—”

  The old woman smmed her fist into the soil. “I knew it! The two idiot twins couldn’t live with each other so they’ve split the empire in two. What about their mother? I hope she’s at least dead by now.”

  “She just died,” Li Kung said. “She was ill for many years. Can you tell me how I can climb out of this cavern?”

  “Ill for many years ...” A strange look of glee filled her face. “Tell me, young man. Did she suffer? Did she at least suffer all those years?”

  “Her liver was almost useless for some time,” he said. “But for years, she wouldn’t die. She couldn’t move, she could hardly speak, and she couldn’t eat.”

  “She couldn’t move,” the old woman repeated slowly. “At least I can still move, even though I lost my legs. And I can still eat, even if there’s only one way—feasting on gigantic cave rats and algae—but I can still eat.” She chuckled the strange, hollow chuckle again.

  “Can you tell me how to leave this cavern?” Li Kung asked again. The torch he made out of his sleeve was almost used up.

  “There’s no way out of hell!” she shouted. “If there is, I would’ve gone out already! And screaming won’t help—the noise will only irritate me. The gods can’t even hear you down here.”

  Li Kung felt a chill run down his spine. He wrung his hands and swallowed to avoid making noise.

  “You’re shaking,” she said with a smile. “Fear is good. Without fear, humans would all be reckless.”

  Li Kung tore off his right sleeve and twisted the fabric. “Is there no tunnel from this cavern, or any way I can climb up the walls?”

  “So tell me,” she continued, leaning forward with interest. “The two brats Wei Bin and Wei Xi now rule the Dragon House. Who cimed the jade from Fei Long?”

  “Fei Long?”

  “Ah, you don’t know Fei Long either, of course. He was the leader. His wife, Lady Wu, was known as Snow Wolf. Understand?”

  Li Kung touched the dying fme of his first torch into the new one, and the cavern was bright again.

  “And Su Ling? Where’s Su Ling now?”

  “Who’s Su Ling? And who are you?”

  She ughed. “I’m a servant girl in the household. Lady Wu called me Little Butterfly. So, young man, and who are you?”

  “My name is Li Kung—”

  “Do I look like I care what your name is? What I asked you was, how did you fall in here? This is a banned area! You’re not a member of the Dragon House. You’re weak and pathetic, and yet, you’ve come through this forbidden pine forest. Tell me, it’s still a pine forest out there, isn’t it?”

  “It is.” Li Kung could not summon energy into his voice. He looked to his left, to his right, then behind him—and found only walls of smooth stone. There really was no way out. “I’m here for the Old Grandmother’s funeral, and I got lost in the pine forest. I was trying to find my way out, and ...”

  “And someone saw you. You were trying to steal something and you were afraid of being caught, so you ran and fell in here. What were you stealing, young man?”

  Li Kung hesitated. The old woman was unstable. She may destroy his samples if he revealed them to her. But there was no way out of this cavern anyway. The stone walls were cold and slippery, with no footholds. A sense of gloom hovered over him, and for the first time, it dawned upon him that he may be in here for the rest of his life. But the samples! He had to get the samples to Shifu Two. He climbed to his feet and a sharp pain fshed across the side of his head. He dropped to his knees.

  “There’s no way out of hell, young man. Don’t pretend to be deaf!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You were thinking about how to leave this cavern. Didn’t I tell you there’s no way out?”

  “I ...I was looking for some of the gold that they say Wei Bin stashed away,” he said, trying to think quickly through the bring pain. “I heard that he collected gemstones and ...”

  “Pathetic! How do you survive in the Martial Society if you don’t even know how to lie? You smell of herbs from head to toe. You were sent to steal some medicine, weren’t you? Tell me, young man, what do you pn to do with this medicine? Who sent you?”

  Li Kung’s jaw dropped. A lie, he needed a lie. No one had ever taught him what a good lie should sound like. The pain pulsed through him. He gripped the side of his head. There had to be a way out of this cavern. He thought of dying in there, of eating rats that he would learn to catch with flying stones, of watching the tiny sliver of daylight above him each day until the darkness made him as blind as the old woman. He thought of the hundreds of thousands of families across the nd that would suffer from Wei Bin’s poison—all because he couldn’t get out of this cavern. A sensation of stinging heat trickled through him. Li Kung turned to face the old woman. “Snow Wolf sent me!”

  The old woman froze, the faint color on her face rapidly fading to a stiff gray. Li Kung squeezed Peppercorn against his chest and bolted for the nearest wall. The old woman paid no attention to him.

  Li Kung tossed the monkey to the ground and urged her forward.

  Then, he sensed the old woman turn her head, and with a short scream, Li Kung leaped in front of his monkey. A small stone ripped across the air and struck him on his side. He shrieked in pain.

  “Run!” he shouted. Peppercorn raced for the wall. Li Kung scrambled to his feet and charged the old woman, screaming as loud as he could. She cocked her head to hear the monkey, but Li Kung’s screams overwhelmed every sound in the cavern. In a burst of fury, the old woman fired a handful of stones. Li Kung absorbed the pain, colpsed to one knee and doubled over to vomit.

  His monkey should have been at least halfway up the wall by now.

  A new volley of stones sshed through the air and pummeled Li Kung at close range. His head swooned, his vision foggy and he sank into the soil. Far above him came a soft chirp from Peppercorn. He smiled through the pool of blood in his mouth. He couldn’t find a way out—but Peppercorn should.

  The waiting seemed like eternity. The old woman was quiet, listening to his breathing. Yes, she could take his life now. But the most she would gain from killing him would be additional meat. He pushed himself onto one elbow. The fire that he created earlier had completely died, and the cavern was pitch bck. He thought he saw stars through the tiny opening above.

  The old woman moved closer to him, pushing herself forward with her hands. Li Kung y still and waited. Maybe she decided she could use the extra meat after all.

  The old woman moved beside him and leaned forward with a bony finger to touch his forehead, tracing the contours of his eyes and nose.

  “A very young man,” she said. “So much courage for someone so young.” A stiff smile emerged through the maze of wrinkles on her face. “You think your monkey can find help?”

  She touched his head again. He shut his eyes, waiting for her to kill him, for her to crush his skull under her bony fingers.

  “Silly boy. I didn’t strike hard. The pain will go away.”

  She did strike hard. Hard enough to kill Peppercorn. He lifted his body and edged away from her.

  “You’re a brave boy. When help comes, I’ll let you leave. Don’t be afraid.”

  Li Kung didn’t believe her. He checked his pockets, certain that all his samples were safe, and touched his body for broken bones. There were none.

  “While you’re waiting for help, let me tell you a story,” the old woman said.

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