Dragon Moon (9 page)

By dawn they were many
li
from the village. As soon as she was sure that no one was following them, Ping turned off the westward path and headed north.

“Wrong way,” Kai said. “Father said we have to travel west.”

“I know. But I have an idea.”

Just before they had been taken to the last village, Ping had caught a glimpse of something on a distant mountain. It snaked across the peaks like one of Kai’s pythons, like a line of embroidery on the billowing hem of a lady’s gown. It was the Great Wall.

Ping had read about the Great Wall in the Duke’s library. Hundreds of years ago, different warlords across the land had built high walls to keep out their enemies. When Emperor Qin conquered all the kingdoms, he decided to link the walls to form a single line of defence
across the entire northern border of his new Empire. It had taken many years and tens of thousands of workers to build it. Thousands had died from exhaustion. Others had been buried alive by rockfalls. Emperors had come and gone, and the task wasn’t complete. The wall was still inching its way eastward and westward as the Empire expanded.

It took four days for Ping and Kai to reach the wall. It had seemed small from a distance, but when they finally stood in its shadow, it towered above them, at least three
chang
high. It was built from stone quarried from the surrounding mountains, cut roughly into squares and stacked one on top of the other. Beacon towers had been constructed along its length. Each tower was in sight of the next. Depending on the landscape the next watchtower might be no more than a couple of
li
away, or, if it was on a high peak, there could be 30
li
to the next one.

Ping didn’t want to creep through the countryside, hiding like a criminal, nor did she want their path to be heralded near and far for all to see. Instead they would walk along the Great Wall. What better way could there be of heading west? She changed into her trousers and jacket, and packed away her gown. She tied her hair up in the style of a boy and put on a grass hat like those farmers wore in the fields.

Kai wasn’t convinced that Ping’s plan would work. “The guards won’t let us pass,” he said.

“I’ll say I’m a pedlar,” Ping replied. “We have grain and jujubes that we can sell to them.”

They walked along the foot of the wall until they came to a beacon tower. It was set on top of the wall and built of the same rough stone blocks.

“They have iron weapons. Kai can feel them already.”

“You must use your mirage skill so that the guards only see a patch of stonework. Climb the tower as quickly as you can and wait for me on the other side of the checkpoint where you won’t feel the effects of the iron.”

The two guards were busy trying to kill birds with a slingshot. They didn’t even notice Ping approaching.

She called up to them. “Good morning!”

The guards scrabbled for their bows and spears. “Who approaches?”

“I’m just a pedlar,” Ping said in a gruff voice, hoping she sounded like a boy. “May I come up and show you what I have to sell?”

The Great Wall was built to keep out the hordes of barbarians who lived to the north. The guards had no reason to fear anyone coming from within the Empire.

“Come up,” they called.

One of them went down to open a gate set in the wall and let in their unexpected visitor. Ping bowed respectfully. The guard looked behind her as if he saw some movement or a shadow, but soon convinced
himself that the pedlar was travelling alone. Ping and the invisible dragon followed the guard up a set of steps and emerged on top of the wall. Before they had a chance to peer under her hat, Ping pulled out a bag of grain and a handful of jujubes. She had guessed that a soldier’s rations on the edge of the Empire would be meagre and without variety. The two men were very interested in her wares. She let them haggle, until they thought they had beat her down to a very good price.

“There’s been a truce between the Empire and the nearest tribe of barbarians for half a year,” one of the guards told Ping as he chewed a jujube. “Occasionally, a few of them will raid a storehouse—more for amusement than a need for food. But it’s usually pretty quiet out here.”

The guards stationed on the Great Wall were not the same as the disciplined men who Ping had seen guarding the Emperor. Only criminals and the sons of the poorest families were stationed on the Great Wall. The uniforms of these two guards weren’t well kept. Their leather leg guards were cracked, they weren’t wearing their regulation caps, and their spearheads were dull and covered with patches of rust. As well as watching out for barbarians, they were also supposed to keep the wall in good order. If weeds were allowed to grow in the cracks, they would push the stones apart and make the wall weak. The guards had neglected their
duty. There were weeds sprouting all along the wall.

“We can go for months without seeing anything more than a mountain goat or an eagle,” the second guard said.

“May I travel along the wall to the next watchtower and sell my wares to the guards there?” Ping asked.

She gave them a few extra jujubes for free, ignoring a faint sound like a cracked bell that came from further along the wall. Kai was finding it hard to create his mirage skill so close to iron. He had concealed himself in a cloud of mist instead. The wind carried away his mournful notes, so that the guards didn’t hear them. Ping hoped it didn’t blow away Kai’s mist.

One of the guards shrugged. “We’re here to stop barbarians getting into the Empire. No one said anything about stopping people using it as a footpath.”

The other guard nodded. “Just to the next tower.”

“Thank you,” Ping said.

She bowed to the guards and set out walking westward along the top of the wall.

“Still hundreds of
li
to travel,” Kai said when Ping caught up to him. “Ping will soon run out of grain to sell … and jujubes,” he added sadly.

“I don’t think I’ll have to sell them anything.”

“Why not?”

“You’re not the only one with a new skill. I’ve discovered that the mirror Danzi gave me has another use, besides calling you.”

“It shows Ping that her hair needs combing?” Kai suggested.

Ping smiled. “Another use besides that.”

“What?”

“If I reflect a beam of light from the mirror into someone’s eyes, I can suggest things to them with my thoughts.”

Kai’s brow creased.

“You don’t believe me. We’ll see if I’m right. I’ll try it out at the next beacon tower.”

The next tower was only a few
li
away. It wasn’t built on top of the wall like the first one. An outcrop of rock rose up alongside the wall with a huge boulder balanced on top of it. The beacon tower was perched on top of that. Grass sprouted along the tops of the ramparts and a small pine tree had taken root on the roof. The guards were playing a game of chess as Ping approached. They fitted bolts to their crossbows and raised them ready to fire. Ping held up one hand, palm facing out in a sign of peace. The mirror was nestled in her other hand. Kai hung back making his scales look like a patch of stonework, keeping as far away from their iron weapons as he could.

“I mean you no harm,” Ping said. “I have permission to travel along the wall.”

She held out her mirror as if it was some sort of pass and angled it so that it caught the sunlight. As she did, she formed a simple thought in her head.

“You can let me pass.”

“We aren’t allowed.” the second guard said, but when she flashed the mirror in his eyes, his sentence trailed off.

“I think that will be all right,” the first guard said.

The guards wouldn’t let her go until she had given them news from the east. They wanted to know if the drought was as bad in other places, if Wang who was posted three towers away was still sick, and if she had seen any signs of fresh supplies being transported in their direction.

Ping answered their questions, asked them about their wives and children, admired their view. Then she bowed and walked on. The guards peered at a patch of stones that seemed to shift a little, then went back to their game of chess.

“Ping was right,” Kai said, as he caught up with her. Ping was pleased that her plan was working. The top of the Great Wall was like an imperial road. It was more than two
chang
wide and the surface was smooth and even, so that imperial guards could march along it. It was often so steep that the path along the top turned into steps, but it was much easier than clambering up mountain sides, stumbling over rocks and trying to find tracks where none existed. Ping soon became very skilled at tricking the guards, and it was only when they came to a garrison where troops were housed that she had to sell some of their food supply.

The sky was kingfisher blue and, though the mountain air was cold, it was good weather for travelling. Each morning, they started out as soon as the first rays of light were visible on the horizon.

The wall wound along the crest of mountains and swept down into valleys. It snaked high above treetops, gliding over hills that would have taken them many hours to negotiate. Once or twice the wall marched across a river, the water channelled beneath it. The crumpled peaks of the mountain range stretched in all directions.

Ping felt as if she were striding across the sky and could see as far as Kai. They glimpsed deer and squirrels below, busy with their daily life. Sometimes they saw bears, still sleepy from hibernation, which Kai watched with great interest. Occasionally they met messengers or porters carrying supplies, but most of the time it was as if they had a road just for their own use.

They walked all day, pausing only to eat. Kai’s hunting skills improved and he caught birds to add to their dwindling supplies. Each evening they stopped after dark and made their camp on the wall, rising again before dawn to greet the next lot of guards. Ping’s second sight gave her no warning of any danger. She felt as if she could march to the ends of the Empire.

“We’re active and vigilant all day,” she said to Kai as they walked. “In the evenings we’re alert. We’re obeying the third reading of the
Yi Jing
. At last.”

Kai was lagging behind, staring back the way they had come.

“Kai, what are you doing? Can you see something?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? I have this feeling there’s someone behind us.”

“No, there’s no one there.”

“Why don’t you keep up?”

“Busy.”

“Busy doing what?”

“Nothing.”

Ping sighed with exasperation. Tendrils of mist streamed from the dragon’s mouth. Ping knew he’d been trying to make rain clouds again and his failure had put him in a bad mood.

“We’ll have some food when we get to the top of the next hill.”

“Kai’s sick of lentils.”

“There’s beancurd.”

“Sick of that too.”

He spent the next hour recounting all the delicious meals they’d eaten at Beibai Palace—baked duck with ginger sauce, braised fish and lotus roots, bear paw soup.

Then he suddenly stopped. “Kai could go hunting and catch a bear!”

“No, we’d only be able to eat a little bit of it and have to leave the rest behind,” Ping argued, though
she didn’t really believe that Kai was capable of killing a bear. “It would be a terrible waste.”

“Kai can smell deer.”

“No, Kai. You can’t hunt deer either. I don’t want to lose sight of you.”

The dragon muttered and mumbled to himself and fell even further behind.

Each time they approached a beacon tower, they found the guards trying to amuse themselves by playing chess on a board carved into the stone of the wall itself, or wagering who could throw a stone the farthest. They were bored and homesick. None of them had seen an attack from the Xiong Nu for months. Once Ping had convinced them that she was no threat, they were happy to be diverted by an unexpected traveller for a few minutes of their uneventful day. She did some sleight-of-hand tricks that she had learned from one of the Duke’s soldiers over the winter months, or told them stories that she had read in the Beibai library.

They explained to Ping that if there was a barbarian attack, they had to light the beacon to alert the guards at the next tower. If it happened during the day they would light a pile of straw and wolf dung which produced thick black smoke. One column of smoke indicated that there were up to 50 attackers. Two columns meant that there were anything up to 3000 attackers. Four columns meant an invasion force of 10 000. If there was an attack at night, they lit bright, flaming wood fires
instead. Word of the attack would pass swiftly along the wall from tower to tower to the nearest garrison. It was quicker than sending a messenger on horseback.

Ping was enjoying walking along a relatively level section of the wall. She wasn’t expecting to see anyone until they reached the next tower which was at least ten
li
away. She was startled when she saw three men up ahead. She glanced behind and saw the dragon looking out over the edge of the wall.

“Quick, you must hide!” she said.

“Kai wants to catch a bear.”

“You should be keeping a look-out on the wall, not looking for bears.”

Ping was too close to the guards to argue further with the dragon.

“Hello there,” she said cheerily as she approached them.

The men, who were half-heartedly pulling out the weeds that were growing in the cracks in the wall, jumped when they heard her voice. They were the first guards she’d come across who were doing their duty and maintaining the wall. They reached for their weapons. Ping was too far away to flash the mirror in their eyes, so she posed as a pedlar again.

“I have some food to sell, if you’re interested,” she called out.

None of the men moved. They continued to stare at Ping.

“Fresh grain with no weevils,” Ping said. Her forced cheerfulness was wearing thin. “Jujubes? Calfskin to write to your loved-ones?”