Chapter 6: At Dawn
Shang woke with a start that morning. He'd been dreaming about her again.
He was haunted by images of her whenever he slept now. The crouched half-naked figure in the snow under the sword that he was holding, her head raised, her eyes bravely meeting his. The tiny silhouette of her fighting Shan-Yu on the roof. The memory of her powerful steed Khan barreling up to the platform, separating Chi Fu from her and carrying his little mistress to safety.
Shang sat up and blinked, glancing at his surroundings and trying to orient himself as to where he was. It was easy to forget, being on the move constantly and sleeping in a different place each night.
At least now they were spending the nights inside, in the inns of the villages they passed through. It was more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. And, more importantly, he slept in his own room with the door closed, away from Chi Fu.
The sun was just starting to rise. He would have to face Chi Fu shortly and then they would be riding off after her again, on this pointless mission to chase down a young girl that had done nothing but save their country and everyone in it. She had sacrificed her own safety to do it, too. She could have gone home and been safe after he had left her in the Tung Shao Pass. But she hadn't. She had risked her life again - after risking her life once to save him - to come to the city and warn them. And had brought on her own final death sentence.
He lifted himself out of bed abruptly as he felt the anger and the frustration with the unfairness of it all rise within him. He washed, then dressed and tied his hair up into his usual neat topknot.
It had been Chi Fu's idea to come with him; he wanted to make sure that Shang carried out the Emperor's order. Chi Fu seemed to have his own personal vendetta against Mulan; some bizarre need for vengeance against her, to see her put to death.
He shook his head. To even imagine what was in that man's mind was chilling.
He walked outside and watched the sunrise, breathing in the fresh air and trying to clear his mind. He had always loved early mornings and watching the sunrise. He took in the beauty of it now, letting it calm him.
He needed to think objectively about what to do once they found Mulan, if they found her. But he couldn't. Every time he tried to think rationally about it, he found himself daydreaming about ways to get rid of Chi Fu. He didn't know what he was going to do.
The Emperor had given him the choice to either kill her when he found her or bring her to the Imperial City to be executed. Chi Fu would most likely insist that he kill her immediately and not wait to bring her back.
But the idea of murdering Mulan disturbed him greatly. Deep in his heart Shang didn't believe that he would be able to do it. Nor did he want to.
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As dawn approached and the men who had gathered at Pei's inn began to depart, Mulan went out to Khan with some carrots that she had swiped from the kitchen. Khan was very pleased to have such a special treat and he nuzzled her gratefully when he had finished eating. She brushed him thoroughly then, just as she had promised him. She threw her arms around his neck then, hugging him before returning to the inn.
One man had remained behind and he and Pei were talking.
Pei turned to Mulan as she entered the room and asked her if she would be willing to stay and work there. He told her that he would provide her room and board and pay her a small stipend if she would stay on as his cook.
Mulan thanked him and told him that she had to be moving on.
"You seem to be in a great hurry, young man," the other man said. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"
Mulan looked at him, warily, uncomfortable with the fact that he was questioning her so directly. She looked at Pei then. Pei had a kind face, but the other man was the meanest, scariest looking one in the bunch that had gathered there.
"You are awfully young to be in trouble with the law," the man continued.
She began to back up toward the hallway, ready to run to her room where her father's sword was.
"Don't worry," Pei told her. "We know how easy it is to be in trouble with the law these days. We won't give you away. I assure you, people in this village and in many of the villages near here have no love for the Emperor. Or his laws."
"And maybe we can help each other. There are two men who are coming from the Imperial City," the other man continued. "We are particularly interested in one of them."
"Sheng-Li," Pei interrupted. "You were not introduced to anyone, including this man. This is Guang-Zhi."
"How do you know about these two men coming here?" she asked, cautiously.
"We know much about what goes on in the Imperial City," Pei explained. "We have a continuous, threadless network set up between here and Chang'an. Our man in Chang'an rides to the next village and gives each message to our contact there. That man in turn rides on to the next village with the message. And so on, until the contact in the village just before this one comes here. Our man in Chang'an left the same day as the councilman and the Imperial officer but beat them here by almost five days. It is an efficient and speedy method of communication that we have, in both directions. One man coming from Chang'an all the way to here would have to stop to rest and fortify himself, as well as his horse. But each of our men has only to make one leg of the journey, from one village to the next; they can ride day or night, at top speed and without resting because the next man takes over then."
Mulan still looked at them suspiciously. There was a reason why they had such a complicated set up. She wondered who they were plotting to kill.
"I assume that if you are in trouble with the law these two are the ones that were sent after you. Chi Fu and the Imperial captain," Guang-Zhi pressed further.
"I have to go," she said, backing up. "I must be getting to my family in the south."
"Wait," Pei said, grasping her arm. "We won't hurt you. You can help us. And we will protect you, Fa Mulan."