chen had been surprised to see 'leopard' wei, whom hehas sent along with 'pagoda' yang to beijing todiscover what the manchu court was up to. "what areyou doing here, ninth brother?" he asked. "and whereis twelfth brother?"wei jumped down from the edge of the hole to report tothe great helmsman.

"twelfth brother and i went beijing as ordered, butfor a long time we discovered nothing," he began.

"then one day, we happened to see that traitor zhangzhaozhong and master ma zhen in the street."chen nodded. "so they went to beijing," he said. "iwas wondering how zhang managed to escape. master matold us he would take him back to wudang mountain.""have you seen zhang recently?" asked xu, who waslistening.

"just a short while ago. he is very dangerous." chentold them what had happened at the manchu camp.

"master ma and zhang were walking alone talkinganimatedly, and they didn't see us," wei continued.

"we suspected they may have joined forces against us,and carefully followed them to a house in an alleyway.

we waited until after dark, but they didn't come outagain, so we decided to go in to have a look. we twoare no match even for zhang by himself, let alone heand his martial brother together, so once over thewall into the courtyard, we lay dead still, not daringto even breath. after a long time, we heard talking ina room nearby and went across to investigate. througha crack in the window, we saw master ma lying on akang while that traitor zhang paced back and forth.

the two were arguing. we didn't dare to look for toolong and squatted down to listen. it seems zhang hadinsisted he had to go to beijing to sort out a fewprivate financial matters before he could go to wudangmountain, and master ma had agreed. a few days afterthey got there, the emperor returned to beijing aswell. zhang said that the emperor had ordered him togo to the muslim regions on important business.""what important business?" chen asked quickly.

"he didn't say exactly, but he apparently had to goand look for someone." chen frowned. "master ma spoketo him very sternly and told him he should immediatelyresign from his official post, but zhang said he couldnot refuse an imperial edict. if he did, he said, hewas afraid the whole of wudang mountain would bestamped flat by the emperor's troops. master ma toldhim that the whole country was under the heel of themanchus, and that by comparison the destruction ofwudang mountain would be nothing to grieve about. themore they argued, the more adamant they both became.

eventually, master ma jumped off the kang, absolutelyfurious, and shouted: 'i promised our friends of thered flower society!' to which zhang replied: 'thoserebellious bandits. why take them seriously?' thenthere was a metallic sound as if master ma had drawnhis sword. i had a look through the window crack andsaw master ma with sword in hand, his face black withrage, as he roared: 'don't you remember our teacher'slast wishes? you ungrateful pupil! you are trulyshameless, becoming a running dog of the manchu court.

i will fight you to the death.' zhang appeared tosoften. he sighed and said: 'if that's the way youfeel, we'll leave for wudang mountain tomorrow.'

master ma then resheathed his sword and went to sleepon the kang while zhang sat on the chair nearby. heappeared undecided about something. his body shookslightly. twelfth brother and i were worried he woulddiscover us, and wanted to wait for him to sleepbefore leaving. almost an hour passed, but still hedidn't sleep. he got up several times and then satdown again. finally, he bit his teeth together andsaid softly: 'brother ma.' master ma was by this timesleeping very soundly and snoring slightly. zhangquietly walked over to the kang..."princess fragrance suddenly let out a scream. shedidn't understand what wei was saying, but she couldfeel the dark, sinister tone of his voice, and wasterrified by it. she took hold of chen's hand andsnuggled up to him. zhou qi glanced at her in hatred.

wei continued. "zhang went to the kang, then lungedforward and sprang back again. master ma gave a wailof agony and jumped up, blood pouring from both hiseye sockets. both his eyes had been gouged out by thedog-hearted traitor."absolutely enraged, chen leapt up and slammed his fistinto the side of the pit sending sand flying in alldirections.

"i swear i will kill that traitor," he said throughclenched teeth. princess fragrance had never seen himso angry, and she tugged on his sleeve in fear.

wei's voice shook as he went on: "master ma wentsilent. his face looked horrible. he walked slowlytowards zhang, then suddenly kicked out with his leg.

zhang leapt out of the way, and master ma's footslammed into the kang. zhang looked a little shaken,and tried to get out, but master ma made it to thedoor first and stood straining his ears to hearzhang's movements. zhang suddenly laughed, and masterma kicked out with his left leg in the direction ofthe sound. but zhang stuck his sword out in front ofhim and ma's leg hit the blade and was cut clean off."zhou qi ground her teeth and stabbed the walls of thepit with her sword.

"by this time, twelth brother and i could stand it nolonger. we burst through the window into the room andfought with zhang for only a second before he escaped,probably scared that we were not alone. we chasedafter him, but twelfth brother was hit by his goldenneedles, and i had to help him back into the house. itried to stop master ma's bleeding, but he died aftersaying only a few words.

"what did he say?" asked chen. a cold wind suddenlyblew down on them and they all shivered.

"he said 'tell brother lu and yu yutong to avenge mydeath!' just then, some people outside who had heardthe fighting started shouting, so i helped twelfthbrother out and we returned to our lodgings. the nextday, i went back to have a look and saw master ma'sbody had already been taken away. twelfth brother hadbeen hit by five golden needles, but i extracted themfor him and he's now convalescing in twin willows lanein beijing.

"zhang said the emperor wanted him to come to thenorthwest to look for someone, and i thought perhapsit could be your teacher, great helmsman. i rememberyou said once that there were two important itemsrelating to the emperor being kept by your teacher,master yuan. so i came out with the others to warnhim.""how is twelfth brother?" chen asked.

"his wounds are serious, but luckily not fatal," weireplied.

by now, the cold wind was blowing hard, and thick,leaden clouds were gathering above them.

"it's going to snow soon," princess fragrance said,and moved even closer to chen.

zhou qi could control herself no longer. "what did shesay?" she demanded.

chen was surprised by her outraged tone. "she saidit's going to snow.""huh! how would she know?" she paused for a moment,then suddenly added: "great helmsman, just who it isthat you love? sister huo qingtong is a nice girl andi won't allow her to be cheated.""mistress huo qingtong is indeed a nice person and weall have a great deal of respect for her...." chenbegan.

"then why did you cast her aside as soon as you mether beautiful sister?" zhou qi interrupted.

chen blushed, and luo bing came to his rescue. "thegreat helmsman, like the rest of us, has only metsister huo qingtong once. she is just an ordinaryfriend. you can't start talking about whether he lovesher or not.""what are you supporting him for?" zhou qi demanded,even more agitated. "she gave him an antique dagger,and the way the great helmsman looked at her, it wasplainly a case of love at first sight....."princess fragrance listened to them talking excitedlyand looked on with her big round eyes, full ofcuriosity.

"mistress huo qingtong already had a suitor before shemet me," chen said. "even if i had such an intention,what would be the point of unnecessarily making thingsdifficult for myself?"zhou qi stared at him in surprise. "is that true?""why would i deceive you?""well, that's all right, then," she said, immediatelychanging her tone. "you are a good man. i was wrong toaccuse you. i'm sorry." the others laughed at herfrankness. zhou qi took princess fragrance's hand andsqueezed it. suddenly, they felt a wave of coldness ontheir faces and looked up to see snow flakes as big asgoose feathers floating down towards them.

"you were right," she said. "it's snowing!""if we don't get reinforcements to rescue us, we aregoing to die here," said luo bing.

"master muzhuolun will certainly send out scouts tolook for his daughter and the great helmsman when theyfail to return," xu replied.

"i`m sure they have," chen said. "but we have come sofar south, i'm afraid they may have difficulty findingus.""well then, we will have to send someone out to gethelp.""i'll go!" volunteered xin yan.

chen thought for a moment and then nodded. he askedprincess fragrance to write a note to her father, andxin yan took a writing brush and some ink from hisknapsack and gave them to her.

"take sister luo bing's white horse," chen said to xinyan. "we will make a diversionary attack to the east,and you can make a break for it to the west." he thengave him directions to the muslim camp. on the signal,the heroes leapt out of the pit and charged eastwardswith shouts and battle cries leaving only zhou qi andprincess fragrance behind. xin yan led the white horseout of the hole, jumped onto its back and galloped offwestwards. the manchu troops loosed off a few arrowsbut none came even close to hitting him. once theheroes were sure xin yan had escaped, they retreatedback to the pit.

by this time, the snow was falling heavily and theground about them had been transformed into a vastwhite carpet. they settled down for the night, but allslept badly except for princess fragrance was stillfast asleep when dawn broke. her hair and shoulderswere covered with snow which shuddered slightly as shebreathed. luo bing laughed gently. "this child is notthe least bit concerned," she said.

time dragged by and xu frowned deeply. "why is therestill no sign of a rescue attempt?" he asked slowly.

"could xin yan have met some trouble on the road?"said wen.

"what i'm worried about is something else," repliedxu.

"what is it?" zhou qi demanded. "stop mumbling and geton with it.""great helmsman, who makes the decisions in the muslimcamp?" xu asked. "master muzhuolun or mistress huoqingtong?""both, apparently. master muzhuolun discusseseverything with his daughter.""if huo qingtong refused to send out soldiers, then...

things would be difficult," xu continued. the otherssaw what he was getting at.

"how could you say such a thing about sister huoqingtong?" zhou qi demanded, jumping up. "doesn't shealready have a suitor? and even if she was jealous ofher sister, would she refuse to save the man sheloved?""when women become jealous, they are capable ofanything," answered xu. zhou qi began shoutingangrily, and princess fragrance woke with a start. theheroes had only met huo qingtong once and although sheseemed nice, they knew very little about her. xu'swords seemed not unreasonable.