chen woke towards midnight, his strength revived.

under the light of a moonbeam shining down from thecrack in the roof of the cave, he could see huoqingtong and princess fragrance leaning against oneanother on one of the jade seats, fast asleep. in thesilence, he heard their breathing and smelt thefragrance, even more beautiful than that of freshflowers or musk, emanating from the younger sister.

he wondered again what the wolves outside the mountainwere doing and whether the three of them would ever beable to escape. and if they did, would his brother theemperor hold to his word and throw out the manchus?

"which one do i really love?" over the past few days,this thought had been gyrating round his braincontinuously. "well, which one really loves me? if iwere to die, princess fragrance would not be able togo on living, but huo qingtong would. but that doesn'tmean princess fragrance loves me more."the moon beam slowly shifted onto huo qingtong's face.

"princess fragrance and i have declared our love foreach other, but although huo qingtong has never said aword about it, her feelings towards me are clear too,"he thought. "and why did i come so far to give her amessage if it was not because i loved her? what ismore, restoring the throne to the chinese people willinvolve immense trials and tribulations. she is abetter strategist even than brother xu, and herassistance would be invaluable," he stopped himself,ashamed of his own thoughts.

"ah, chen jialuo," he whispered under his breath. "areyou really so narrow-minded?"time passed and the moonbeam moved across ontoprincess fragrance.

"with her, all i would have is happiness, happiness,happiness," he thought.

his eyes opened wide and he stared up at the crack oflight in the rock high above them for a long, longtime. slowly, the moonlight faded and a sunbeam beganto slant in, filling the room with daylight. with ayawn, princes fragrance woke. she looked over at himthrough half-open eyes and smiled, her face lookinglike a newly-opened flower.

suddenly she jerked upright. "listen!" she whispered.

footsteps sounded distantly from the tunnel, graduallymoving closer. in the silence of the old caverns, eachstep could be heard clearly, and their skin crawled asthey listened. chen shook huo qingtong's arm to wakeher and the three ran quickly back down the tunnel.

when they reached the main chamber, chen picked upthree jade swords and gave one each to the twosisters. "jade wards off evil," he whispered.

by now, the footsteps were just outside the chamber,and the three hid in a corner near the entrance, notdaring to move. they saw the flickering light oftorches and four men walked in. the two in front, theyinstantly recognised as zhang and gu.

there was a series of clanging sounds as the weaponsof the four flew out of their hands to the ground.

chen knew this was an opportunity not to be missed,and as they stood staring at the floor in dumbsurprise, he gave a shout and leapt out, and withknocked the torches to the ground, plunging thechamber into complete darkness. zhang and the threedevils turned and raced back down the tunnel. theyheard a dull thud followed by a sharp curse as one ofthem bumped into the wall.

the footsteps gradually receded again.

suddenly, huo qingtong gave a scream of panic. "oh no!

chase them!"chen immediately realised what she meant and raced outof the chamber into the tunnel. but before he reachedits end, he heard a steady creaking sound followed bya heavy bang, and he knew the stone door was closed.

huo qingtong and princess fragrance ran up behind him.

he felt around for a piece of wood, found one and litit, then looked again at the scarred surface of thestone door, the relic of the death struggle of theskeletons around them.

"we're finished!" huo qingtong said, despairingly.

princess fragrance grabbed her hand. "sister, don't beafraid!"chen forced a smile. "it would be strange if we threedied here."for some reason, he felt a sense of relief wash overhim as if a great weight had been taken from hisshoulders. he picked a skull off the ground and saidto it: "well brother, you have three new companions."princess fragrance gasped, and then laughed out loud.

huo qingtong looked at them both. "let's go back tothe jade room," she said after a while. "once we'vesettled down we can start thinking things through."they walked back the way they had come. huo qingtongpulled out the map once more and pored over it,desperately searching for a way out. chen knew that ifthey were to escape it was more likely to be becauseof outside help or because zhang returned to look forthem. but how could rescuers find them? and zhang,after the fright he had just received, was unlikely todare to come in again.

"i want to sing a song," princess fragrance announced.

"please do," replied chen.

she sang for a while then stopped, concerned about huoqingtong who was still staring hard at the map, herhead resting on her hands.

"sister, you should rest for while," princessfragrance said. she stood up and went over to the jadebed and said to the skeleton lying on it: "excuse me,i wonder if you could move over a bit? my sister needsto lie down and rest." she carefully pushed the bonesinto a pile in the corner of the bed. "oh!" she said,picking something up. "what's this?"chen and huo qingtong walked over and saw she washolding a goatskin scroll of great antiquity. thescroll had turned black, but under the sunlight, itwas possible to see it was covered in writing, all inan ancient muslim hand. huo qingtong glanced throughit, and pointed at the skeleton on the bed.

"it was written by this girl with her own blood justbefore she died. her name was mami," she said.

"mami?" asked chen.

"it means 'beautiful'. i'm sure she was very beautifulwhen she was alive." she put down the book and wentback to examining the map.

"does the map indicate some other exit?" chen asked.

"there appears to be a secret tunnel somewhere, but ican't work out where."chen sighed. "would you read out this miss mami's lastwords to me?" he asked princess fragrance. she nodded,and began to quietly recite:

"everyone in the city, thousands upon thousands ofpeople are all dead. the guards of the mountain andthe warriors of islam are all dead. my ali has gone tomeet allah, and his mami will be going soon too. iwill write our story out here, so that the children ofallah will know that, victorious or defeated, ourwarriors of islam fight to the end, and neversurrender!""so this lady was not only beautiful, but courageoustoo," commented chen.

princess fragrance continued to read:

"baojunlonga oppressed us for forty years. in thoseforty years, he forced thousands of commoners toconstruct this secret city and carve out the chambersand halls within the sacred mountain. he killed themall. after he died, his son sanglaba proved to be evenmore cruel. of every ten goats raised by the muslimpeople every year, four had to be given to him; ofevery five camels, he claimed two. we became poorerand poorer each year. any beautiful daughters amongthe muslim families were taken into the city, and oncethere, none ever came out alive.

"we are the brave children of islam. could we standsuch oppression from these pagans? of course not! overa period of twenty years, our warriors attacked thecity five times. but each time, they lost because theycould not find their way through the maze. on twooccasions, they made it into the sacred mountain butsanglaba used some devilry to steal their weapons, andthey were all killed by his guards.""that's the magnet," said chen. princess fragrancenodded and continued:

"in the year that i turned eighteen, my mother andfather were killed by sanglaba's men and my elderbrother became the chief of our tribe. that spring, imet ali. he was a hero of the tribe. he had killedthree tigers, and wolf packs scattered when they sawhim. he could beat ten ordinary men, no, a hundred.

his eyes were as soft as those of a deer and his bodywas as beautiful as a fresh flower, but he had thestrength of a desert hurricane...""the lady is exaggerating, i think," chen said with asmile.

"why do you say that?" princess fragrance askedsolemly. "are there not such people in the world?""one day, ali came to our tent to talk to my brotherabout another attack on the city. he had obtained acopy of a book about chinese kung fu and had studiedit for a year. he said he now understood the basics ofthe martial arts, and was convinced that even withoutweapons, they could kill sanglaba's man. he took fivehundred fighters and taught them what he knew, andthey practised for another year. by then, i wasalready ali's. i was his from the moment i first sawhim. he told me that when he saw me, he knew that wewould win this time. but although they had masteredkung fu, they still did not know the way through themaze of the city, much less the secrets of the sacredmountain. ali and my brother talked for ten days andnights, but could find solution.

"finally, i said: 'brother,let me go.' they understoodmy meaning. ali was a brave warrior but he began tocry. i took a hundred goats and went to graze themoutside the city. on the fourth day, sanglaba's menseized me and took me to him. i cried for three daysand three nights before giving in to him. he liked mevery much and gave me everything i wanted.

"at first sanglaba would not let me take so much asone step outside, but he liked me more and more. ithought about our people every day and of singingwhile tending goats on the grasslands: that is realhappiness. what i thought of most was ali. sanglabasaw me becoming more thin and haggard each day andasked me what i wanted. i said i wanted to go out andwander round everywhere. he flew into a great rage andslapped me, so for seven days and nights i didn'tsmile or say a word to him. on the eighth day, he tookme out, and after that on every third day. at first,we only travelled about the city, but later we evenwent to the very entrance of the maze. i memorizedclearly every single street and path until i couldhave found my way through the maze even if i wasblind.

"this took almost a year. i knew my brother and aliwould be getting impatient, but i still did not knowthe secrets of the sacred mountain. soon after, ibecame pregnant with sanglaba's bastard child. he wasdelighted, but i cried every day in loathing. he askedme what i wanted, and i said: 'you have made mepregnant but you don't love me at all.'

"'i don't love you?' he replied. 'do you think thereis anything i would not give you? do you want redcoral from the bottom of the sea, or sapphires fromthe south? they are yours.""'i have heard that you have a jade pool which makesbeautiful people who wash in it even more beautifuland ugly people even uglier,'" i said.

"his face drained of all colour and in a shaky voice,he asked me where i had heard this. i told him a fairyhad whispered it to me in a dream, but in fact i hadheard about the pool from the servant girls who saidthat sanglaba had never let anyone see it.

"'you can go and wash there, but whoever sees the poolmust have their tongue cut out afterwards to preventthe secret being revealed. it is a rule decided by theancestors,'" he said. he begged me not to go, but iinsisted. i said: 'you must think i am very ugly anddo not wish me to become even uglier.' finally, hetook me there.

"i took a small knife with me, planning to stab him todeath by the pool, which was the only place in thepalace where there were no guards, but the knife wassnatched away by some magic under the floor of thegreat hall. after i had bathed in the jade pool, idon't know if i really became more beautiful or not,but he loved me even more. however, he still cut outmy tongue, because he feared that i would reveal thesecret. i knew everything, but had no way of tellingmy brother and ali.

"every day and every night, i prayed to allah, andallah finally heard the cries of his poor daughter. hegave me wisdom. sanglaba had a small dagger which hekept on his person at all times. the dagger had twoscabbards, and the inner scabbard was exactly like theblade of a knife. i asked him for it, then i drew amap of the city including all the paths and tunnels init, sealed it inside a ball of wax and placed itinside the inner scabbard. in the third month afterthe birth of the child, he took me out hunting. whenno-one was looking, i threw the dagger into the tengbolake. when we returned to the palace, i released manyeagles with 'tengbo lake' written on pieces of papertied to their legs."huo qingtong put down the map and concentrated onlistening to her sister's translation of the ancientscroll.

"several of the eagles were shot down by sanglaba'smen, but i knew that at least one or two would becaught by people of our tribe and that my brother andali would go to tengbo lake and make a thoroughsearch. they would then find the knife and know theway through the city.

"ah! how could i guess that although they found thedagger, they did not discover its secret, and did notwork out that there was a scabbard within thescabbard? my brother, and ali decided that the daggermust be a call for them to attack. so they attacked.

most of the warriors lost their way in the maze. mybrother, stronger than two camels, was lost in thisway. ali and some of the others caught one ofsanglaba's men and forced him to lead them in theirattack on the sacred mountain. in the great hall,sanglaba's men fell on them with their jade weapons.

but ali and his warriors had learned their lessonswell and even empty-handed they held their own andmost died along with their opponents. seeing hisguards being slaughtered and ali pressing in closerall the time, sanglaba ran into the jade room andwanted me to escape with him via the jade pool..."huo qingtong jumped to her feet. "aha!" she exclaimed.

"he wanted to escape via the jade pool!""suddenly ali ran in, and i flung myself into hisarms. we embraced, and he called me many beautifulthings. i had no tongue and could not answer him, buthe understood the cry of my heart. then thatdespicable sanglaba, ten thousands times more evilthan a thousand devils, struck him with an axe frombehind...."princess fragrance screamed and threw the scroll backonto the bed, an expression of horror on his face. huoqingtong gently patted her shoulder, then picked upthe scroll herself and continued to read it out loud:

"....with an axe from behind and split my ali's headin two. his blood spurted out all over my body.

sanglaba picked the child up off the bed, placed it inmy hands and shouted: 'we must leave quickly!' iraised that bastard baby high about my head and threwit to the ground with all my strength, and he died inali's blood. sanglaba was deeply shocked at the sightof me killing his son. he raised his golden axe, and ibowed my head, offering my neck to him, but he sighedand rushed back out into the great hall.

"ali has gone to allah's side and i will soon followhim. our warriors are many, and with all his soldiersdead, sanglaba will certainly not survive. he willnever again be able to oppress us followers of islam.

i myself killed his only son, so we will be free ofoppression from his descendants, because he has none.

in the future, our people will be able to livepeacefully in the desert and on the grasslands, younggirls will be able to lie in their lovers' arms andsing. my brother, ali, myself, we are all dead, but weconquered the tyrants. even if their fortress had beenstronger than it is, we would still have brokenthrough eventually. may allah, the true god, protectour people."huo qingtong slowly rolled up the ancient scroll. thethree of them sat for a long time without saying aword, deeply moved by mami's courage and virtue.

finally princess fragrance, her eyes full of tears,sighed.

"to relieve the oppression of her people, she waswilling to leave her loved ones, to have her tonguecut out and even to kill her own child," she said.

chen started in fright, thinking of his own conductcompared to this lady of old. faced with the task ofrecovering china for the chinese people, he selfishlythought only of his own romantic problems.

princess fragrance noticed the sudden change in hisexpression. she pulled out her handkerchief and wentover to wipe the beads of sweat from his brow, butchen pushed her away impatiently. she stepped back,startled at his aggressiveness, and chen's heartsoftened. taking the handkerchief from her, he made uphis mind that while the great endeavour of therestoration remained unfinished he would pay nofurther attention to his romantic affairs, and wouldtreat both sisters purely as friends, as his ownsisters.

huo qingtong, meanwhile, was once more poring over themap and pondering phrases in the ancient scroll.

"it says here that sanglaba came to this jade room andwanted her to escape with him to the jade pool," shemurmured. "but this room is a dead end ... afterwards,he returned the way he had come. he must have beenextraordinarily strong. the islam warriors failed tostop him and he forced his way through to the stonedoor and locked them all inside, condemning them todeath. but the map clearly indicates another tunnel tothe pool....""then it must be in this room," chen replied. he litanother torch and began to examine the walls closelyfor cracks, while huo qingtong looked at the jade bed.

chen remembered how wen tailai had been captured atiron gall manor and said: "could the tunnel be underthe table?" he placed his hands beneath the roundtable top and tried to lift it, but it did not budge.

"there's something strange about this table," he said,pleased. huo qingtong brought the torch over to givehim more light.

"oh, look!" princess fragrance exclaimed. "there's adesign carved onto the surface." they looked closerand saw that it was a herd of winged camels. they hadnot noticed it before because the carving wasextremely shallow. but strangely, the heads and bodiesof the camels were not joined, and were more than afoot away from each other. on an impulse, princessfragrance grasped the table edge and pulled it fromleft to right in an attempt to line up the heads andbodies, and it did indeed move an inch or so. chen andhuo qingtong joined her and slowly moved the rim rounduntil the camels were whole again. just as the carvingwas complete, a grinding sound began and a panelbeside the bed slid back to reveal a row of stepsleading downwards. the three shouted in triumph.

chen led the way into the hole, torch in hand. thepassage twisted and turned for a while and then ranstraight for more than a hundred feet. then, around acorner, they burst out into daylight. looking aroundthey saw they were in a small basin surrounded by highmountains. in the centre was a circular pool, thewater in which was as green as jade. they wereimmediately enraptured by the beauty of the scenebefore them.

"the scroll said that if beautiful people washed inthe pool they would become even more beautiful," huoqingtong said to her sister with a smile. "you shouldgo and wash."princess fragrance blushed. "you are older than i, yougo first," she replied.

"ai-ya! but i will become more ugly," huo qingtongprotested. "are you going to wash or not?" princessfragrance shook her head.

huo qingtong walked to the edge of the pool and puther hands in the water: it was intensely cold. shecupped her hands and scooped up some water and saw itwas very clear: the water appeared green only becauseof the jade all about. she took a sip and found itextraordinarily cool and tasty. they all drank theirfill. the white peak towering above them reflected offthe surface of the pool in a picture of loveliness,and princess fragrance lazily moved her hand about inthe water, unwilling to leave such an enchantingplace.

"the thing to do now is to think of a way to avoidthose four devils outside," said huo qingtong.

"first, let's bring mami's remains out and bury thembeside the pool," chen suggested.

princess fragrance clapped her hands in delight. "itwould be best if we buried her and ali together," shesaid.

"yes. i expect the skeleton in the corner is ali's."they returned to the jade room. as they werecollecting ali's bones, they found amongst them somebamboo slivers used in china in ancient times forwriting. chen picked them up, and saw they werethickly covered with chinese characters written in redink on a black background. glancing through them, herecognized the writings of the chinese philospherzhuangzi. he had thought it might be some special bookand was rather disappointed to find it was insteadsomething he had read and memorized as a child.

"what is it?" princess fragrance asked.

"it's an old chinese book, but it's not much useexcept to archaeologists." he threw the slivers backon the ground, and as they scattered, he noticed onewhich looked slightly different from the rest. besideevery character, were circles and dots and muslimwriting. chen picked the sliver up and saw it was asection entitled 'the butcher dissects the cow' fromthe philosopher zhuangzi's lecture, 'the secret ofcaring for life.' he pointed to the muslim characterswritten alongside.

"what does this say?" he asked princess fragrance.

"'the key to smashing the enemy is here'," shereplied.

"what can that mean?" he wondered out loud, greatlysurprised.

"mami's last testament said ali got hold of a chinesebook and had learned kung fu from it. this could beit," huo qingtong suggested.

"zhuangzi taught that one should be oblivious ofemotion in adversity and obedient to one's superiors,"said chen. "it has nothing to do with kung fu." hethrew the sliver back down again, then picked up thepile of bones and walked out. they buried the remainsof mami and ali beside the jade pool and bowedrespectfully before the graves.

"let's go now," said chen. "i wonder if the whitehorse managed to escape the wolves?""what is the section of that book about?" huo qingtongasked.

"it's about a butcher who is very good at his job. themovements of his hands and legs, the sound of hisknife chopping, are all perfectly coordinated. thesound has the rhythm of music, the movements are likedancing.""it would be useful to have such skill when facing anenemy," huo qingtong commented.

chen stared at her in surprise. every word of zhuangziwas familiar to him, but suddenly he felt as if he hadnever read it before. the words of 'the butcherdissects the cow' ran through his mind: 'when i firstbegan cutting up oxen, all i could see was the oxitself. after three years, i no longer saw the wholeox. and now -- now, i go at it by spirit and don'tlook with my eyes. perception and understanding havecome to a stop and spirit moves where it wants.'

"if it really is like that," he thought, "i could killthat traitor zhang with my eyes closed with just aslight movement of the knife..." the two sistersstared at him, wondering what he was thinking about.

"wait a moment," he said, and ran back inside. a longtime passed and still he did not re-emerge. feelingworried, the two sisters went in as well and found himprancing about among the skeletons in the great hall,his face wreathed in smiles. he danced around a pairof skeletons for a moment and then stood stock-stillstaring at another pair. princess fragrance glanced toher sister in fright, afraid that he had lost hismind.

huo qingtong took her sister's hand. "don't be afraid,he's all right," she said. "let's go and wait for himoutside."the two returned to the jade pool. "what's he doing inthere?" princess fragrance asked.

"i think he's worked out some new kung fu moves afterhaving read those bamboo slivers and he's nowpractising them by copying the positions of theskeletons. it would be best if we didn't disturb him."princess fragrance nodded. after a while, she sighed.

"now i understand." she said.

"what?""all those people in the great hall must have beenvery good fighters. even after their weapons had beensnatched from them, they still fought on withsanglaba's guards.""yes, but they weren't necessarily very good at kungfu," huo qingtong replied. "i would guess they justlearned a few really formidable moves which allowedthem to take their enemies with them.""ah, they were so brave ... but what is he learningthem for? does he want to die with his enemies too?""no, a martial arts master would not be killed alongwith his opponent. he is just studying the finerpoints of the moves."princess fragrance smiled. "well i won't worry anymore, then." she looked out over the surface of thepool. "sister," she said. "let's bathe in the water.""don't be ridiculous. what if he should come out?""i really want to go and bathe," princess fragrancereplied. she stared out at the cool water once again.

"wouldn't it be nice if the three of us could livehere together forever!" she said softly.

huo qingtong's heart jumped. she blushed, and quicklyturned her head away towards the white jade peak.

a long time passed and still chen did not emerge.

princess fragrance took off her leather boots and puther feet in the water. resting her head on hersister's lap, she gazed up at the white clouds in thesky and slowly fell asleep.

chen woke towards midnight, his strength revived.

under the light of a moonbeam shining down from thecrack in the roof of the cave, he could see huoqingtong and princess fragrance leaning against oneanother on one of the jade seats, fast asleep. in thesilence, he heard their breathing and smelt thefragrance, even more beautiful than that of freshflowers or musk, emanating from the younger sister.

he wondered again what the wolves outside the mountainwere doing and whether the three of them would ever beable to escape. and if they did, would his brother theemperor hold to his word and throw out the manchus?

"which one do i really love?" over the past few days,this thought had been gyrating round his braincontinuously. "well, which one really loves me? if iwere to die, princess fragrance would not be able togo on living, but huo qingtong would. but that doesn'tmean princess fragrance loves me more."the moon beam slowly shifted onto huo qingtong's face.

"princess fragrance and i have declared our love foreach other, but although huo qingtong has never said aword about it, her feelings towards me are clear too,"he thought. "and why did i come so far to give her amessage if it was not because i loved her? what ismore, restoring the throne to the chinese people willinvolve immense trials and tribulations. she is abetter strategist even than brother xu, and herassistance would be invaluable," he stopped himself,ashamed of his own thoughts.

"ah, chen jialuo," he whispered under his breath. "areyou really so narrow-minded?"time passed and the moonbeam moved across ontoprincess fragrance.

"with her, all i would have is happiness, happiness,happiness," he thought.

his eyes opened wide and he stared up at the crack oflight in the rock high above them for a long, longtime. slowly, the moonlight faded and a sunbeam beganto slant in, filling the room with daylight. with ayawn, princes fragrance woke. she looked over at himthrough half-open eyes and smiled, her face lookinglike a newly-opened flower.

suddenly she jerked upright. "listen!" she whispered.

footsteps sounded distantly from the tunnel, graduallymoving closer. in the silence of the old caverns, eachstep could be heard clearly, and their skin crawled asthey listened. chen shook huo qingtong's arm to wakeher and the three ran quickly back down the tunnel.

when they reached the main chamber, chen picked upthree jade swords and gave one each to the twosisters. "jade wards off evil," he whispered.

by now, the footsteps were just outside the chamber,and the three hid in a corner near the entrance, notdaring to move. they saw the flickering light oftorches and four men walked in. the two in front, theyinstantly recognised as zhang and gu.

there was a series of clanging sounds as the weaponsof the four flew out of their hands to the ground.

chen knew this was an opportunity not to be missed,and as they stood staring at the floor in dumbsurprise, he gave a shout and leapt out, and withknocked the torches to the ground, plunging thechamber into complete darkness. zhang and the threedevils turned and raced back down the tunnel. theyheard a dull thud followed by a sharp curse as one ofthem bumped into the wall.

the footsteps gradually receded again.

suddenly, huo qingtong gave a scream of panic. "oh no!

chase them!"chen immediately realised what she meant and raced outof the chamber into the tunnel. but before he reachedits end, he heard a steady creaking sound followed bya heavy bang, and he knew the stone door was closed.

huo qingtong and princess fragrance ran up behind him.

he felt around for a piece of wood, found one and litit, then looked again at the scarred surface of thestone door, the relic of the death struggle of theskeletons around them.

"we're finished!" huo qingtong said, despairingly.

princess fragrance grabbed her hand. "sister, don't beafraid!"chen forced a smile. "it would be strange if we threedied here."for some reason, he felt a sense of relief wash overhim as if a great weight had been taken from hisshoulders. he picked a skull off the ground and saidto it: "well brother, you have three new companions."princess fragrance gasped, and then laughed out loud.

huo qingtong looked at them both. "let's go back tothe jade room," she said after a while. "once we'vesettled down we can start thinking things through."they walked back the way they had come. huo qingtongpulled out the map once more and pored over it,desperately searching for a way out. chen knew that ifthey were to escape it was more likely to be becauseof outside help or because zhang returned to look forthem. but how could rescuers find them? and zhang,after the fright he had just received, was unlikely todare to come in again.

"i want to sing a song," princess fragrance announced.

"please do," replied chen.

she sang for a while then stopped, concerned about huoqingtong who was still staring hard at the map, herhead resting on her hands.

"sister, you should rest for while," princessfragrance said. she stood up and went over to the jadebed and said to the skeleton lying on it: "excuse me,i wonder if you could move over a bit? my sister needsto lie down and rest." she carefully pushed the bonesinto a pile in the corner of the bed. "oh!" she said,picking something up. "what's this?"chen and huo qingtong walked over and saw she washolding a goatskin scroll of great antiquity. thescroll had turned black, but under the sunlight, itwas possible to see it was covered in writing, all inan ancient muslim hand. huo qingtong glanced throughit, and pointed at the skeleton on the bed.

"it was written by this girl with her own blood justbefore she died. her name was mami," she said.

"mami?" asked chen.

"it means 'beautiful'. i'm sure she was very beautifulwhen she was alive." she put down the book and wentback to examining the map.

"does the map indicate some other exit?" chen asked.

"there appears to be a secret tunnel somewhere, but ican't work out where."chen sighed. "would you read out this miss mami's lastwords to me?" he asked princess fragrance. she nodded,and began to quietly recite:

"everyone in the city, thousands upon thousands ofpeople are all dead. the guards of the mountain andthe warriors of islam are all dead. my ali has gone tomeet allah, and his mami will be going soon too. iwill write our story out here, so that the children ofallah will know that, victorious or defeated, ourwarriors of islam fight to the end, and neversurrender!""so this lady was not only beautiful, but courageoustoo," commented chen.

princess fragrance continued to read:

"baojunlonga oppressed us for forty years. in thoseforty years, he forced thousands of commoners toconstruct this secret city and carve out the chambersand halls within the sacred mountain. he killed themall. after he died, his son sanglaba proved to be evenmore cruel. of every ten goats raised by the muslimpeople every year, four had to be given to him; ofevery five camels, he claimed two. we became poorerand poorer each year. any beautiful daughters amongthe muslim families were taken into the city, and oncethere, none ever came out alive.

"we are the brave children of islam. could we standsuch oppression from these pagans? of course not! overa period of twenty years, our warriors attacked thecity five times. but each time, they lost because theycould not find their way through the maze. on twooccasions, they made it into the sacred mountain butsanglaba used some devilry to steal their weapons, andthey were all killed by his guards.""that's the magnet," said chen. princess fragrancenodded and continued:

"in the year that i turned eighteen, my mother andfather were killed by sanglaba's men and my elderbrother became the chief of our tribe. that spring, imet ali. he was a hero of the tribe. he had killedthree tigers, and wolf packs scattered when they sawhim. he could beat ten ordinary men, no, a hundred.

his eyes were as soft as those of a deer and his bodywas as beautiful as a fresh flower, but he had thestrength of a desert hurricane...""the lady is exaggerating, i think," chen said with asmile.

"why do you say that?" princess fragrance askedsolemly. "are there not such people in the world?""one day, ali came to our tent to talk to my brotherabout another attack on the city. he had obtained acopy of a book about chinese kung fu and had studiedit for a year. he said he now understood the basics ofthe martial arts, and was convinced that even withoutweapons, they could kill sanglaba's man. he took fivehundred fighters and taught them what he knew, andthey practised for another year. by then, i wasalready ali's. i was his from the moment i first sawhim. he told me that when he saw me, he knew that wewould win this time. but although they had masteredkung fu, they still did not know the way through themaze of the city, much less the secrets of the sacredmountain. ali and my brother talked for ten days andnights, but could find solution.

"finally, i said: 'brother,let me go.' they understoodmy meaning. ali was a brave warrior but he began tocry. i took a hundred goats and went to graze themoutside the city. on the fourth day, sanglaba's menseized me and took me to him. i cried for three daysand three nights before giving in to him. he liked mevery much and gave me everything i wanted.

"at first sanglaba would not let me take so much asone step outside, but he liked me more and more. ithought about our people every day and of singingwhile tending goats on the grasslands: that is realhappiness. what i thought of most was ali. sanglabasaw me becoming more thin and haggard each day andasked me what i wanted. i said i wanted to go out andwander round everywhere. he flew into a great rage andslapped me, so for seven days and nights i didn'tsmile or say a word to him. on the eighth day, he tookme out, and after that on every third day. at first,we only travelled about the city, but later we evenwent to the very entrance of the maze. i memorizedclearly every single street and path until i couldhave found my way through the maze even if i wasblind.

"this took almost a year. i knew my brother and aliwould be getting impatient, but i still did not knowthe secrets of the sacred mountain. soon after, ibecame pregnant with sanglaba's bastard child. he wasdelighted, but i cried every day in loathing. he askedme what i wanted, and i said: 'you have made mepregnant but you don't love me at all.'

"'i don't love you?' he replied. 'do you think thereis anything i would not give you? do you want redcoral from the bottom of the sea, or sapphires fromthe south? they are yours.""'i have heard that you have a jade pool which makesbeautiful people who wash in it even more beautifuland ugly people even uglier,'" i said.

"his face drained of all colour and in a shaky voice,he asked me where i had heard this. i told him a fairyhad whispered it to me in a dream, but in fact i hadheard about the pool from the servant girls who saidthat sanglaba had never let anyone see it.

"'you can go and wash there, but whoever sees the poolmust have their tongue cut out afterwards to preventthe secret being revealed. it is a rule decided by theancestors,'" he said. he begged me not to go, but iinsisted. i said: 'you must think i am very ugly anddo not wish me to become even uglier.' finally, hetook me there.

"i took a small knife with me, planning to stab him todeath by the pool, which was the only place in thepalace where there were no guards, but the knife wassnatched away by some magic under the floor of thegreat hall. after i had bathed in the jade pool, idon't know if i really became more beautiful or not,but he loved me even more. however, he still cut outmy tongue, because he feared that i would reveal thesecret. i knew everything, but had no way of tellingmy brother and ali.

"every day and every night, i prayed to allah, andallah finally heard the cries of his poor daughter. hegave me wisdom. sanglaba had a small dagger which hekept on his person at all times. the dagger had twoscabbards, and the inner scabbard was exactly like theblade of a knife. i asked him for it, then i drew amap of the city including all the paths and tunnels init, sealed it inside a ball of wax and placed itinside the inner scabbard. in the third month afterthe birth of the child, he took me out hunting. whenno-one was looking, i threw the dagger into the tengbolake. when we returned to the palace, i released manyeagles with 'tengbo lake' written on pieces of papertied to their legs."huo qingtong put down the map and concentrated onlistening to her sister's translation of the ancientscroll.

"several of the eagles were shot down by sanglaba'smen, but i knew that at least one or two would becaught by people of our tribe and that my brother andali would go to tengbo lake and make a thoroughsearch. they would then find the knife and know theway through the city.

"ah! how could i guess that although they found thedagger, they did not discover its secret, and did notwork out that there was a scabbard within thescabbard? my brother, and ali decided that the daggermust be a call for them to attack. so they attacked.

most of the warriors lost their way in the maze. mybrother, stronger than two camels, was lost in thisway. ali and some of the others caught one ofsanglaba's men and forced him to lead them in theirattack on the sacred mountain. in the great hall,sanglaba's men fell on them with their jade weapons.

but ali and his warriors had learned their lessonswell and even empty-handed they held their own andmost died along with their opponents. seeing hisguards being slaughtered and ali pressing in closerall the time, sanglaba ran into the jade room andwanted me to escape with him via the jade pool..."huo qingtong jumped to her feet. "aha!" she exclaimed.

"he wanted to escape via the jade pool!""suddenly ali ran in, and i flung myself into hisarms. we embraced, and he called me many beautifulthings. i had no tongue and could not answer him, buthe understood the cry of my heart. then thatdespicable sanglaba, ten thousands times more evilthan a thousand devils, struck him with an axe frombehind...."princess fragrance screamed and threw the scroll backonto the bed, an expression of horror on his face. huoqingtong gently patted her shoulder, then picked upthe scroll herself and continued to read it out loud:

"....with an axe from behind and split my ali's headin two. his blood spurted out all over my body.

sanglaba picked the child up off the bed, placed it inmy hands and shouted: 'we must leave quickly!' iraised that bastard baby high about my head and threwit to the ground with all my strength, and he died inali's blood. sanglaba was deeply shocked at the sightof me killing his son. he raised his golden axe, and ibowed my head, offering my neck to him, but he sighedand rushed back out into the great hall.

"ali has gone to allah's side and i will soon followhim. our warriors are many, and with all his soldiersdead, sanglaba will certainly not survive. he willnever again be able to oppress us followers of islam.

i myself killed his only son, so we will be free ofoppression from his descendants, because he has none.

in the future, our people will be able to livepeacefully in the desert and on the grasslands, younggirls will be able to lie in their lovers' arms andsing. my brother, ali, myself, we are all dead, but weconquered the tyrants. even if their fortress had beenstronger than it is, we would still have brokenthrough eventually. may allah, the true god, protectour people."huo qingtong slowly rolled up the ancient scroll. thethree of them sat for a long time without saying aword, deeply moved by mami's courage and virtue.

finally princess fragrance, her eyes full of tears,sighed.

"to relieve the oppression of her people, she waswilling to leave her loved ones, to have her tonguecut out and even to kill her own child," she said.

chen started in fright, thinking of his own conductcompared to this lady of old. faced with the task ofrecovering china for the chinese people, he selfishlythought only of his own romantic problems.

princess fragrance noticed the sudden change in hisexpression. she pulled out her handkerchief and wentover to wipe the beads of sweat from his brow, butchen pushed her away impatiently. she stepped back,startled at his aggressiveness, and chen's heartsoftened. taking the handkerchief from her, he made uphis mind that while the great endeavour of therestoration remained unfinished he would pay nofurther attention to his romantic affairs, and wouldtreat both sisters purely as friends, as his ownsisters.

huo qingtong, meanwhile, was once more poring over themap and pondering phrases in the ancient scroll.

"it says here that sanglaba came to this jade room andwanted her to escape with him to the jade pool," shemurmured. "but this room is a dead end ... afterwards,he returned the way he had come. he must have beenextraordinarily strong. the islam warriors failed tostop him and he forced his way through to the stonedoor and locked them all inside, condemning them todeath. but the map clearly indicates another tunnel tothe pool....""then it must be in this room," chen replied. he litanother torch and began to examine the walls closelyfor cracks, while huo qingtong looked at the jade bed.

chen remembered how wen tailai had been captured atiron gall manor and said: "could the tunnel be underthe table?" he placed his hands beneath the roundtable top and tried to lift it, but it did not budge.

"there's something strange about this table," he said,pleased. huo qingtong brought the torch over to givehim more light.

"oh, look!" princess fragrance exclaimed. "there's adesign carved onto the surface." they looked closerand saw that it was a herd of winged camels. they hadnot noticed it before because the carving wasextremely shallow. but strangely, the heads and bodiesof the camels were not joined, and were more than afoot away from each other. on an impulse, princessfragrance grasped the table edge and pulled it fromleft to right in an attempt to line up the heads andbodies, and it did indeed move an inch or so. chen andhuo qingtong joined her and slowly moved the rim rounduntil the camels were whole again. just as the carvingwas complete, a grinding sound began and a panelbeside the bed slid back to reveal a row of stepsleading downwards. the three shouted in triumph.

chen led the way into the hole, torch in hand. thepassage twisted and turned for a while and then ranstraight for more than a hundred feet. then, around acorner, they burst out into daylight. looking aroundthey saw they were in a small basin surrounded by highmountains. in the centre was a circular pool, thewater in which was as green as jade. they wereimmediately enraptured by the beauty of the scenebefore them.

"the scroll said that if beautiful people washed inthe pool they would become even more beautiful," huoqingtong said to her sister with a smile. "you shouldgo and wash."princess fragrance blushed. "you are older than i, yougo first," she replied.

"ai-ya! but i will become more ugly," huo qingtongprotested. "are you going to wash or not?" princessfragrance shook her head.

huo qingtong walked to the edge of the pool and puther hands in the water: it was intensely cold. shecupped her hands and scooped up some water and saw itwas very clear: the water appeared green only becauseof the jade all about. she took a sip and found itextraordinarily cool and tasty. they all drank theirfill. the white peak towering above them reflected offthe surface of the pool in a picture of loveliness,and princess fragrance lazily moved her hand about inthe water, unwilling to leave such an enchantingplace.

"the thing to do now is to think of a way to avoidthose four devils outside," said huo qingtong.

"first, let's bring mami's remains out and bury thembeside the pool," chen suggested.

princess fragrance clapped her hands in delight. "itwould be best if we buried her and ali together," shesaid.

"yes. i expect the skeleton in the corner is ali's."they returned to the jade room. as they werecollecting ali's bones, they found amongst them somebamboo slivers used in china in ancient times forwriting. chen picked them up, and saw they werethickly covered with chinese characters written in redink on a black background. glancing through them, herecognized the writings of the chinese philospherzhuangzi. he had thought it might be some special bookand was rather disappointed to find it was insteadsomething he had read and memorized as a child.

"what is it?" princess fragrance asked.

"it's an old chinese book, but it's not much useexcept to archaeologists." he threw the slivers backon the ground, and as they scattered, he noticed onewhich looked slightly different from the rest. besideevery character, were circles and dots and muslimwriting. chen picked the sliver up and saw it was asection entitled 'the butcher dissects the cow' fromthe philosopher zhuangzi's lecture, 'the secret ofcaring for life.' he pointed to the muslim characterswritten alongside.

"what does this say?" he asked princess fragrance.

"'the key to smashing the enemy is here'," shereplied.

"what can that mean?" he wondered out loud, greatlysurprised.

"mami's last testament said ali got hold of a chinesebook and had learned kung fu from it. this could beit," huo qingtong suggested.

"zhuangzi taught that one should be oblivious ofemotion in adversity and obedient to one's superiors,"said chen. "it has nothing to do with kung fu." hethrew the sliver back down again, then picked up thepile of bones and walked out. they buried the remainsof mami and ali beside the jade pool and bowedrespectfully before the graves.

"let's go now," said chen. "i wonder if the whitehorse managed to escape the wolves?""what is the section of that book about?" huo qingtongasked.

"it's about a butcher who is very good at his job. themovements of his hands and legs, the sound of hisknife chopping, are all perfectly coordinated. thesound has the rhythm of music, the movements are likedancing.""it would be useful to have such skill when facing anenemy," huo qingtong commented.

chen stared at her in surprise. every word of zhuangziwas familiar to him, but suddenly he felt as if he hadnever read it before. the words of 'the butcherdissects the cow' ran through his mind: 'when i firstbegan cutting up oxen, all i could see was the oxitself. after three years, i no longer saw the wholeox. and now -- now, i go at it by spirit and don'tlook with my eyes. perception and understanding havecome to a stop and spirit moves where it wants.'

"if it really is like that," he thought, "i could killthat traitor zhang with my eyes closed with just aslight movement of the knife..." the two sistersstared at him, wondering what he was thinking about.

"wait a moment," he said, and ran back inside. a longtime passed and still he did not re-emerge. feelingworried, the two sisters went in as well and found himprancing about among the skeletons in the great hall,his face wreathed in smiles. he danced around a pairof skeletons for a moment and then stood stock-stillstaring at another pair. princess fragrance glanced toher sister in fright, afraid that he had lost hismind.

huo qingtong took her sister's hand. "don't be afraid,he's all right," she said. "let's go and wait for himoutside."the two returned to the jade pool. "what's he doing inthere?" princess fragrance asked.

"i think he's worked out some new kung fu moves afterhaving read those bamboo slivers and he's nowpractising them by copying the positions of theskeletons. it would be best if we didn't disturb him."princess fragrance nodded. after a while, she sighed.

"now i understand." she said.

"what?""all those people in the great hall must have beenvery good fighters. even after their weapons had beensnatched from them, they still fought on withsanglaba's guards.""yes, but they weren't necessarily very good at kungfu," huo qingtong replied. "i would guess they justlearned a few really formidable moves which allowedthem to take their enemies with them.""ah, they were so brave ... but what is he learningthem for? does he want to die with his enemies too?""no, a martial arts master would not be killed alongwith his opponent. he is just studying the finerpoints of the moves."princess fragrance smiled. "well i won't worry anymore, then." she looked out over the surface of thepool. "sister," she said. "let's bathe in the water.""don't be ridiculous. what if he should come out?""i really want to go and bathe," princess fragrancereplied. she stared out at the cool water once again.

"wouldn't it be nice if the three of us could livehere together forever!" she said softly.

huo qingtong's heart jumped. she blushed, and quicklyturned her head away towards the white jade peak.

a long time passed and still chen did not emerge.

princess fragrance took off her leather boots and puther feet in the water. resting her head on hersister's lap, she gazed up at the white clouds in thesky and slowly fell asleep.