Zhou Tong spoke first, "It's not a tremendous artifact, but it has anima. Tools such as this can be used against demons, though I pray you won't have to test that."
The masters' eyes moved slowly from the compass to Zhou Tong, then to one another. The two old men shook off their shock and began to chat about their travels. My interest in their conversation dwindled into dust. Placing the compass in my pocket and taking out the copper coin, I thanked Zhou Tong and went back to my room.
Holding the copper coin in my hand, I inspected it closely for a time. Master Liu called it, "Tong Mei". Could it expel ghosts like he'd said? "Maybe," I said aloud, "But you look like an ordinary copper." I told it. It was faded and withered, in far worse shape than most of the coppers I'd seen.
"Oh well." I said, shaking my head and dropping it into my pocket. Next I pulled out the compass.
It was very delicate, smaller than the compass I'd seen Zhao Laohei use. It fit neatly into my nine year old palm. Rolling it over in my fingers, I traced the numerous unfamiliar characters along its border. "The pointer is missing…" I whispered, drawing my eyes close to it.
"I wonder what you'll teach me." I told it. Plopping the compass in my pocket with the copper coin, my hand went to my chest and squeezed the jade amulet around my neck. "I'm practically rich!" I thought, considering the treasures in my collection. The milky snakeskin flitted through my mind, but I didn't retrieve it. I took the golden box, that which must never be opened, and put it carefully in my back pocket.
Respecting Master Ge, my mother prepared a variety of vegetarian dishes. No one seemed to mind and the food was very quickly devoured. Mom was a hell of a cook.
Zhao Laohei knocked on the door and came in very briefly during dinner. He greeted Master Ge and Zhou Tong with all of the politeness required and then excused himself, not wanting to inconvenience Master Liu's new acquaintances.
After dinner, I managed to convince Master Liu to oversee my kung fu practice in the yard. He sat with the other men and gave me pointers from the porch steps. An hour later when my muscles were stretched and the blood was pumping madly through me, Master Liu called over to me, "We'll go into the village this evening. Xiao Yong, I'd like you to come with us." I nodded readily and looked to my mom through the kitchen window where she was rinsing the heavy cooking pot. She looked up and nodded to me. My strange outings with Master Liu had long stopped causing her worry. I couldn't pay a spirit to mess with two Taoist masters by my side!
Zhou Tong was the first to show his hand and asked, "Master Liu, what do you think of the great white snake?"
Master Liu wasn't fazed in the slightest, "I've been to the site. There's something, an air about it. I've no doubt the snake is the culprit, but it's not a live creature. It's a spirit."
"Snake spirit?" Master Ge chimed, as if speculating the mad possibility of cats with hooves, or dogs solving algebra.
Master Liu only said, "Yes, if we have to make a word for it. There's more than one too. Ask my godson, he saw one of them."
Master Liu looked at me, inviting the tale behind You Xiaoqing's box and our time in the forest.
I started speaking, stumbling over my words before the two distinguished strangers, but as I went on the tale became easier and memory came to life in my head. I could see the light shining from the small green snake as it inched around the nest. I could feel the heat pulsing from the jade stone around my neck. When I was done, Master Ge and Zhou Tong looked baffled. Master Ge spoke first, "A little girl… Are you sure? A little girl brought up this… this darkness?"
I nodded and said, "I saw it."
I pulled the box from my back pocket where I'd stashed it for safekeeping. Master Ge didn't stretch out his hand to touch it, but pulled back a little. His eyes shot fire at the golden square in my palm. "That box is old. It might even be a remnant of the Ming dynasty. Whatever darkness grew within that box must be terribly powerful. He must be…"
"He? How do you know the snake is a boy?" I asked before I knew the words belonged to me.
"Not a snake," He said, his face flushing with color. "A snake can't use this kind of witchcraft. It had to be a person, and it feels like a man."
"It was a person." I repeated, my eyes widening.
Master Liu came to my rescue, "Leave the boy alone Lao Ge, he's too young to know the intricacies of witchcraft or Taoism." He nodded towards the box still sitting in my hand. "Can you tell who did it from the curse?"
Master Ge shook his head and said, "No, I'm not that good. This blood curse is ancient and far more complicated than any modern witchcraft I've seen. That is to say, we're dealing with something very old, and very angry."
Master Liu nodded in agreement. "That's why I asked you here." He placed a hand on Master Ge's shoulder. "You have more experience with witchcraft than I." He grinned. The smile lit his face in the darkening afternoon. "You'd have to after all that time as a wizard!"
Master Ge scowled at Master Liu's grinning face, "Oh damn you, I knew you wouldn't let me get through this trip without that coming up! Forget the past!" He swatted a friendly smack towards Master Liu who pulled his face back just in time. Master Ge turned to Zhou Tong, "Well you've been awfully quiet. Got any ideas?"
Zhou Tong smiled at Master Liu, "You already knew." He looked to Master Ge, "Before Master Liu invited us here, he'd told me about the grave." Zhou Tong turned back to Master Liu, "That means that you knew the master of whatever witchcraft this is might be under the grave. Why didn't you just tell us?"
"Ah, you're too quick for me Zhou Tong." Master Liu smiled. "Let me walk you through it." We'd reached the edge of the school property and Master Liu sat on a bench near the sidewalk. He gestured for the others to do the same. Once we were all sitting, he leaned forward and began, "When we found the golden box, we found a map." I looked at him sharply and he returned it with a knowing grin. "It's on the inside of the lid- no, don't open it, remember?" I paused, catching myself about to ruin everything and put my hand atop the box. "The map shows the layout of the houses around You Xiaoqing's house. As you've probably guessed, they were built in the shape of a tortoise.
"Yin air…" Master Ge said under his breath.
"Always too fast." Master Liu grinned. he moved his eyes to me, happy to explain to someone who wouldn't get there before he did. "The Yin air implies that something foul resides beneath the houses. If the tomb were empty, the Yin air wouldn't be so dense. We also found the cloth doll, an artifact from the grave."
"How?" I started.
"Yin air." Master Ge said, poking an older finger into my shoulder with each word.
Master Liu went on, "Finally, we found two pieces of snakeskin that have the same Yin air as the doll and the grave. Which means whatever snake-thing we're dealing with returned from death." He looked at me, eyes sparkling, "And lastly, Xiao Yong here, has an intact snakeskin from a different snake. I found one, you found one." He told me.
Master Ge took over, "So whoever put the cloth doll in the box must've been the one in control of the snake spirit. Perhaps he's been to the tomb, or lived in the tomb. Perhaps he even learned witchcraft from something inside it."
Master Liu spoke up, "So our last question is about the grave. I've no doubt that the turtle has been controlling the foul spirit. Whoever built the houses knew that their shape would collect Yang air from the exuberance of school children and dampen any Yin the tomb was emitting."
"But who built it?" I asked. The two old men only shook their heads.
"We may never know. We do know, however, that someone has been into the tomb. They've been providing it with their own Yang air and controlling the spirits there. We need to get into that tomb and make sure it's clear." Silence fell on the three men sitting around me. My thoughts galloped in circles, trying to catch every word that had been said. I was so distracted in my own mind that I jumped when Master Liu spoke again.
"Not for nothing, but I suspect that whoever placed the ancient curse hasn't been alive for a very long time. It may even be the foul spirit down there."
"No." Zhou Tong whispered. The word drew out like it was being pulled from him. Master Ge sat silently chin in hand.
Master Ge finally spoke, "If it is an ancient foul spirit lurking in the tomb, we're in for trouble. I suggest you both," He stopped and then looked at me, "You all prepare before we go in."
My eyebrows came together in confusion. Zhou Tong asked before I could say anything, "Master Liu, do you have any evidence?"
Master Liu only shook his head, "No, it's a speculation, but if I'm right and we can't stop it in time, the aftermath will be beyond my control."
After a moment, they began to talk about You Xiaoqing again.
Zhou Tong asked, "Are you sure she's down there?" Master Liu smiled slightly, "I didn't want to boast. I've learned how to calculate birthdays and triangulate organic matter. According to my deduction, You Xiaoqing should be directly on top of that stone slab. As she is not on the ground, she must be under it."
"Calculating birthdays?" Master Ge asked, leaning forward and resting his hands on his knees. "Did a senior apprentice teach you that?"
Master Liu smiled, but kept silent.
With a loud groan, Master Liu stood up and stretched, creating a cacophony of cracks as his spine stretched. "Let's continue." He said simply, and strode away. Master Ge and Zhou Tong followed suit. Soon we were walking through the east edge of the village. I breathed in the cool evening air and sighed, stretching my back the way I'd seen Master Liu. Mine wasn't nearly as talkative. I opened my mouth to ask whether all old folk were noisy when they stretched, when Master Ge shouted, "What is that?"
We followed his outstretched finger towards a writhing shape in the darkness ahead of us. The light had faltered with the setting sun and shadows were growing from the buildings around us. Our party stood frozen in the street, illuminated only by nearby houses.
I felt adrenaline surf into my system and my skin roughened with goose bumps. The muscles in my neck tightened as if they could lend strength to my ears. Zhou Tong crouched slightly so he was closer to me and whispered, "Don't worry. We'll be fine, the masters are here."
"There!" Master Liu shouted, pointing far to the left of where Master Ge had pointed. The darkness slithered hideously as if curling in on itself. Incredibly, Master Liu and Ge began running towards it. They moved with speed that their frail bodies couldn't have been able to maintain. I couldn't move. My muscles got the messages, but refused to budge. "Come on!" Zhou Tong hefted me beneath the armpits and pulled me along after them. When I started to drag behind him my feet apparently decided to contribute. We pounded the ground towards a giant black snake that seemed a hundred miles away.
After a minute and before we were even remotely within reach, the snake disappeared.
"It's going towards the grave." Master Liu puffed between gasps. His face had gone a pale gray color with bright patches of red glowing on his cheeks. He bent and put his hands on his knees, taking in air with great bounding whoops.
Master Ge, in a similar condition, but with his hands on his hips and his face towards the sky, took a hearty swallow of air and said, "It has to be at least seven hundred years old!"
"How could you know that?" I asked both of them.
The wheezing old men continued to puff and pant. Beyond them I saw what the snake was after and my feet took me to it of their own volition. "Xiao Yong?" Zhou Tong called after me. I walked between the breathless masters and approached the wooden fence they'd almost reached in time. The old slats of wood were rotten, but intact. The grass below them was overgrown and rustled beneath my footsteps. I placed a foot onto the only healthy piece of fence nearby and hoisted myself to get a better look. The area beyond, which had once housed at least twenty-five pigs, was nothing more than a mess of blood, innards, and broken corpses.
The others amassed behind me. I heard Master Liu curse when he saw what lay ahead. Master Ge was still panting and now sounded as if he might revisit the vegetable dishes my mother had prepared earlier. Zhou Tong uttered a long and low, "Woah."
We made our way to the nearest house and told the owner what had happened. He didn't believe Master Ge at first, who would? When Zhou Tong lead him to the blood soaked pen then man began to curse and holler. His wife came out to investigate and began bawling at the sight of blood. The police were called and two officers arrived to take Master Liu and Ge's statements. Zhou Tong and I were spared because we'd been too far behind when it happened.
Before we were allowed to leave, Master Liu pulled one of the officers to the side and whispered something to him. The officer nodded several times and said in a volume that made Master Liu scowl, "Yes, we'll call him right away."
"What's he doing?" I asked Master Ge.
"Something he wouldn't do if he didn't have to, my boy." Master Ge said, not looking at me. "He's asking for help."