Snake (Five Ancestors #3)(46)
Author: Jeff Stone

Seh’s eyes narrowed, and he turned back to face Tonglong. Though they were greatly outnumbered, Seh felt invigorated by the arrival of the bandits. “I didn’t plan to,” he shouted.

Tonglong tucked his long ponytail braid into his sash. “I had a feeling you would say that,” he shouted. He raised one arm high, then let it drop. “FIRE!”

Twenty qiangs rang out from Tonglong’s dragon boat, and scrambling bystanders howled as qiang balls tore into them. Seh blinked several times and glanced around. No one he knew had been hit, though he wasn’t sure about Malao. The screaming of the bystanders intensified, and the snake shimmied up Seh’s arm. It tightened its grip as the ranks of soldiers surged forward from the riverbank and the men in Tonglong’s boat began to reload.

“Crane Defends the Nest!” Mong shouted, and before Seh knew it, the bandits had formed a ring around him, Fu, Hok, Hok’s sister, and Charles. Seh stared wide-eyed when he noticed Hok’s mother had joined the bandits in the ring formation.

“MaMa!” Hok’s sister shouted. “No!”

“Shhh,” Hok said to her. “MaMa is going to be all right.”

Hok’s mother didn’t respond. Seh watched her stand shoulder to shoulder with the bandits as the first rush of soldiers hit them. Hok’s mother fought with the deadly precision and smooth flow of a crane-style master. She delivered an endless barrage of elbow strikes and crane-beak blows to shocked soldiers, leaving them bloodied and broken at her feet. The pile soon grew so large before her that the bandits had to rotate to give her more room.

The other bandits did their fair share, too. Hung swung his mighty war hammers while Sanfu swung his huge tiger-claw fists. Gao barked and kicked, and NgGung taunted his attackers by daring them to punch him in the stomach before following through with vicious spinning back fists. Mong simply waited for an attacker to step within his reach, then squeezed the life out of them.

“Let me fight!” Fu roared.

“NO!” Sanfu said.

Seh turned and saw Fu attempt to rush out of the ring of bandits, between Hung and Sanfu. Fu’s eyes were fixed on Sanfu, and it appeared as though Fu never saw Hung’s huge, hairy elbow coming. The elbow slammed into the side of Fu’s head, and Fu dropped to the ground, out cold. Seh cringed. That was going to leave a mark.

As the bandits fought off wave after wave of attackers, Seh began to worry. The soldiers with the qiangs would finish reloading soon. And there was still no sign of Malao. Seh turned to Hok. “I need to know what’s going on. Snake Slithers Up the Tree!”

Hok bobbed her head once and dropped into a shallow horse stance. Seh stepped onto one of her legs and shimmied up her narrow back until his knees rested on her shoulders. Hok straightened her legs and stood—on her tiptoes.

“Hey!” Charles said. “You’re going to hurt her!”

“I doubt it,” Seh said. He felt Hok fumbling with something and looked down. Hok’s turban had come unraveled. She pulled the entire wrap off her head, and Seh nearly tumbled off her shoulders. Hok’s hair was brown! Just like her little sister’s!

Seh felt the pit of his stomach begin to tingle, and he looked over at Tonglong’s boat. His eyes widened. “Malao!” he shouted. “Look out!”

Shouting proved to be useless. Malao was in the boat with Tonglong and the soldiers, jumping around like crazy, throwing qiangs into the water and swinging his monkey stick. Malao’s upper lip was curled back. He was out of control. Seh watched helplessly as a brown arm rose up out of the water next to Malao.

Except the arm never came in contact with Malao. Instead, it wrapped around the neck of the man next to Malao and yanked the man over the side.

The eel twins! Seh thought.

But his excitement was short-lived. Malao leaped to the front of the boat, where the drummer usually sat, and froze as he locked eyes with a man sitting in one of the frontmost seats. It was the fat man from the bridge.

Malao’s back was to the very front of the boat, and Seh saw a tiny person in a black hood slowly rise up behind Malao from beneath the drummer’s seat.

“MALAO!” Seh shouted, and this time Malao heard him. Malao looked to the shore and was hit in the back of the neck with the fastest snake-head fist Seh had ever seen.

Malao went limp.

And the boat began to move.

Seh’s heart leaped into his throat. “My mother!” he shouted. “She’s with Tonglong! They have Malao and—”

Tonglong raised one arm and let it fall. “FIRE!”

The BOOM! of the qiangs was followed by shouts from the bandits.

Hung stumbled backward, gripping his shoulder. Blood seeped between his hairy fingers.

Sanfu roared, clutching his cheek with one hand.

“RETREAT!” Mong shouted.