TWELVE

Wen forced his good eye to stay open. I want to see clearly for as long as I can, he thought. The scimitar blade came down toward his face.

And then it was gone, blown sideways along with Chin Gwai as a huge gust of wind roared across Dockyard Square from the sea. Wen saw the effects of the wind but felt nothing himself. Strange weather they have here, he thought. Then he saw her.

Yin Fengzi was flying toward him, slowly and majestically, gown and trouser-legs fluttering madly in the winds that swirled around her and made a mad thing of her hair. Sparks and tiny bolts of blue-green lightning emanated from her hands, one of which was wrapped around the hilt of a delicate little sword while the other gestured toward Chin Gwai, who was blown over again as he tried to get to his feet.

"Hey, Li!" Wen shouted, feeling the smile stretching his face, "Can your cheap magician do that?" Liang Sheng squeaked again, but more angrily this time.

"Sorry we took so long, Xia," Fengzi said as she floated past him. "Until you got your Dragon Eye back on we thought you were still in the governor's fortress. We'd made quite a mess of it by the time I realized you were here." She was grinning broadly herself, and Wen had to resist the urge to leap up, grab her and pull her down with him.

"Sorry it took me so long to get it back on," he told her. "It's been interesting; I'll tell you all about it once we're finished here." He got to his feet, then sat down again. "I seem to be hurt," he said.

"Oh, no!" Before he could stop her, Fengzi was beside him, delicately touching his shoulder where the armor had split away. "Not cut," she said, and he could hear the relief. "I have recipes for poultices that will deal with this. Once we're finished here." She giggled.

"Look out!" Chin was back on his feet and picking up speed as he charged toward them. Wen tried to get up; Fengzi pushed him back down.

"This one is mine," she said, and this time her voice reminded Wen more than a little of that of the Queen Mother of the West.

"You!" she shouted in a voice she had clearly borrowed from the Thunder God. She rose into the air until her feet were on a level with Chin's eyes. "You killed my guards. You wanted to kill me. I have been thinking about this for months now. What price should you pay for the way you insulted me?"

"How about your death, you perverted witch?" Chin raised his sword again and, howling, charged her.

Before Wen could wonder whether or not to look away, Chin had stampeded past them both, stopped, turned—and stared in wonder as two long, thin, nasty looking cuts began bleeding, one along the length of each of his cheeks. Wen glanced back at Fengzi. The tip of her sword shone like a ruby, and she wore a look of determination that, yes, made her look like a goddess.

Something seemed to pull Fengzi's attention away from her target. She closed her eyes and nodded slightly. From the bottom of the pit Liang Sheng yelped and Wen heard the rattling of wood being disturbed from the pile. "You," she said, pointing down into the pit. "Stay."

Chin wiped his cheeks, smearing blood across his face. When the sting of the cuts finally reached his brain he howled in agony, and charged again.

This time when he stopped his helmet was gone and there were two long, thin cuts running in parallel across his forehead. "That's four," Fengzi said in a tiny but clear voice. "Nine hundred and ninety-six to go, Chin Gwai."

Chin might insist all he want that he wasn't a stupid man, but he charged twice more—collecting another four cuts on his face and losing his breastplate and the metal scales from his left arm—before he stopped. To his credit, he was smart enough to shrug out of the remaining armor—Yin Fengzi happily allowing him to do so—before he ran, crying, up one of the hills overlooking the harbor.

By the time Chin Gwai had gone, the pirates had landed. The garrison from the Jīn-sè Mèn citadel had emerged in full to deal with the invasion, but about half of them, on seeing what they were up against, promptly deserted. A significant portion of the remainder was diverted from its purpose by the arrival of a mob of miners, merchants, gamblers and even a few heavily armed prostitutes that set into them and began persuading them, in its own inimitable fashion, to switch sides and join the rebellion. So only about a hundred soldiers remained to join the few dozen already gathered around Governor Li at the seaward side of Dockyard Square. They were the more heavily armed, but the pirates outnumbered them, Wen estimated, by more than two to one.

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