16. A cursed place

"If the king finds us here, it'll cause a lot of trouble," Liu voiced misgivings after the voices in the cellar behind the wall had died down. "And what will become of you then?"

But Xiang paid no attention to her. He simply pushed the wooden plank back, put the lantern in the wing, and hobbled back down the corridor.

"What do we do now?" The peahen asked nervously.

Again she got no answer.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Shut up!" Xiang hissed at her. "Just shut up!"

Liu backed away, startled. Xiang's feather fingers literally clawed into the wall. He was charged with so much hatred that he wanted to smash the whole building to rubble and ashes. But the peacock controlled himself again and walked on with shuffling steps. Liu followed him at a safe distance.

Po sniffed with interest, but to his disappointment, nobody was cooking in the kitchen. Still, he had to admit that this room was umpteen times bigger than the kitchen of his father. Mr. Ping's restaurant would definitely fit four or five times. From top to bottom, there were shelves with all kinds of pots and pans. In addition, the most beautiful serving bowls, plates, glasses, cups...

Po was really scared of accidentally bumping into something. As clumsy as he sometimes behaved in Mr. Ping's kitchen, a pile of broken glass could arise here at any moment. In addition to the oven and stove, there were also all kinds of work tables. The only thing missing here was the staff.

"Except for me, nobody lives here," Huan explained the empty kitchen. "Unless the cleaning service comes by. But that only happens a few times a year."

"Does that mean that you cook here all by yourself?" Po asked. A meal without company was too monotonous for him.

The bull shrugged. "Who should I invite? In the past, when royalty was still in its prime, festivals were held here regularly. But that has decreased significantly over the years. Even Xiang barely allowed any events. He always lived extremely reclusive."

Shenmi, who was still walking by Shen's wing, kept her mouth open in amazement. "This kitchen is even bigger than the one at home."

Shen, annoyed by all the pomp of Xiang, just wrinkled his beak. "There are definitely better ones in the world. And besides, kitchens are not everything."

Po twisted his mouth. He loved kitchens, but he had to admit that the most beautiful one was no substitute for good food.

"Okay, so where is the pantry?" The panda to change the subject.

At least there was no shortage of food and Po immediately offered to take over the kitchen. He was tired from the trip, but he never said "no" when he was cooking.

In no time he had put together everything for a good soup and served everything in clean bowls, each time wondering how expensive they were.

They didn't talk much when they ate. Shen was only busy making sure Shenmi didn't spill her shirt. But otherwise, it was pretty quiet. Po shrugged. At least there was no complaint about the food.

When they had almost finished eating soup, there was a knock in the door frame and an ox guard came into the kitchen.

King Wang rose from his seat at the table. "What is it?"

"A couple of porters arrived at the gate," the guard reported. "They said they were coming for the lord."

Shen stood up. "Yes, I have instructed that the luggage should be brought to me. I hope you didn't mind."

Wang shrugged. "Not at all."

In front of the main entrance of the colossal palace stood three antelopes, wearily rubbing their hooves. As soon as Po saw the exhausted sailors, he frowned pityingly.

"Oh dear. A lift really has to be installed here."

Shen paid the people their wages, then he immediately took out his lance sword. Po rolled his eyes. "That figures. Do you actually take that with you everywhere?"

The peacock demonstratively brandished the sharp weapon. "In contrast to you, I have to purchase my defense."

Po twisted his mouth. "So if you practiced your Kung Fu more, then you would be able to defend yourself well without these sharp things."

Shen's features darkened. "In your opinion, Kung Fu may be a powerful weapon..."

Po uttered a choked scream as Shen came to a halt by a hair's breadth with the tip of his lance in front of his nose. The panda's eyes wandered from the blade to Shen, who gave him a piercing look.

"...but is your Kung Fu powerful enough to scare your opponent?" The peacock finished his remarks. Then he turned the sword in his wing. "Fear is a powerful weapon," Shen continued with a dark smile on his beak. "Once fear grips your rival, you're halfway won."

He took the hilt of the sword in both wings and rubbed it with his feather fingertips. That weapon really seemed to mean a lot to him. "For this reason, I prefer fighting with sharp weapons."

His satisfied gaze wandered back to the panda, who looked at him with wide eyes. Then Po nodded. "Okay, I'll think about it."

Shen's gaze shifted to Shenmi. "And, who knows, maybe you will use it at some point."

He handed the sword to his daughter. Shenmi looked at it uncertainly. Even from a distance, you could see how sharp the blade was.

"Looks dangerous," she muttered.

Her father smiled encouragingly at her. "That's why it will be useful to you one day."

Po didn't like this idea at all, which is why he pushed Shenmi a little away from the weapon. "So I think that... she is a little too... I mean, this thing is still way too big for her. She'd better start with something smaller."

"Like this here?"

Po stared into Shenmi's wing in amazement. "What's that?"

Shenmi held the object up between two feather fingers. "Daddy's sword, only much smaller."

Carefully, Po took the little paper sword from the girl. Of course folded in origami, as always, and almost as long as Po finger.

"Oh, you like making origami?" Huan asked. Shenmi confirmed with a nod.

"Then come with me. I think I have something interesting for you."

The custodian led the group into a specific room, which luckily was not far from the main entrance. Once there, the bull pushed open two double doors.

Behind it, a bright room opened up, which was so large that you might think you were entering a library. Only it wasn't filled with books, but with all sorts of things to paint and design. On one side, there were shelves with paintbrushes, painting paper, and paint buckets, and on the other side there was even a pottery corner. The walls were painted gray and white and a spiral staircase led to a terrace-like wooden floor, from where you could also look through additional windows. Po immediately noticed a picture next to the door, which showed a beautiful view of the city. Presumably it was painted from here by looking out of this room.

"This is the art room," Huan introduced. "Here you can find everything for making art."

Shenmi's gaze immediately fell on all of the painting utensils. "Fantao would like that."

The bull led the group into a corner where several shelves with colored paper stood next to a wooden table. Shenmi tore herself away from Shen's wing enthusiastically and ran along the colorful shelves. The white peacock was reluctant to let go of the girl for a moment, but let her go.

"May I?" the girl asked.

The bull shrugged. "Go ahead. Nobody uses it anymore anyway."

Excited, she immediately pulled out a few blue pages. Then she sat on the floor and began to fold. Po looked interested over her shoulder. This girl was really skilled with her hands. In no time she had made a figure.

"What's that?" Examining Po took it in his hand and turned the paper figurine. "A blue fish?"

Shenmi smiled sheepishly. "I like blue."

"All well and good," Shen interrupted. "But we have to keep looking for your mother."

"Can't I stay here?" the girl asked.

"No!" Shen cut in firmly. "Not in this place!"

Po lifted his head in horror. "But Shen, we have no clue. Where should we start? That is an impossibility when they have already searched everything..."

"Panda!" Po ducked his head in shock when he saw Shen's angry face. "I thought you wanted to help me out!"

Embarrassed, Po put his fingers together. "Well, well, actually..."

"Kindly do as you're told!" He took Shenmi by the hand and reluctantly the girl left everything. She only managed to take a piece of blue paper under her little coat.

The peahen felt how she began to shiver. It wasn't warm behind the walls. They had been on the way for quite a while now. And because Xiang limped on only one leg, the whole thing took that long again, and Liu had no clue whatsoever where the peacock was actually going.

Suddenly Xiang stopped. Liu had to hold her mouth tight, just to avoid asking questions. At first, she thought he just wanted to take a break, but then the peacock turned to the left and pushed another sliding board on the wall aside. Again he looked through two cracks and peered into a room.

"What's behind that wall?" Liu wanted to know.

Xiang quickly closed the board. "It's none of your business!"

"Gradually this sentence annoys me," she burst out, but immediately she regretted it again.

Xiang narrowed his eyes angrily. "Another cheeky sentence and you can disappear."

He turned back to go. Liu followed, but she couldn't fail to take a look. She quickly pushed the board aside and looked through a crack. But the room was almost completely in the dark. The peahen narrowed her eyes. Only very weak light penetrated the room and she thought she could see a large bed in it.

"Feathers off!"

Startled, Liu backed away while Xiang closed the board aggressively.

"Nobody is allowed to look or go in there!" He snapped at her.

"Why not?" She asked carefully.

"Prohibited zone!" Xiang hissed at her. "For everyone!"

With these words he turned away and the march started all over again. Sighing, Liu followed him again. After a while, Liu began to wonder when they'd finally reached their destination. Fortunately for her, it didn't take long. At some point, a wooden door appeared in the wall on the right side. Xiang pushed a bolt and entered a small room. There were a lot of wooden boxes inside. Liu picked up one of the lids. The box was full of provisions. Liu guessed it was something like an emergency shelter.

The peahen jumped up briefly when it suddenly got a little lighter in the room. Xiang had found more lanterns and lit them. There was a small table in the middle of the room. Otherwise, there was nothing more to discover than bare walls.

A little tired, Liu sat down on a box and watched Xiang. She worried that he would overstrain his leg. He had never run so much in one day.

"Don't you want to take a rest?" She asked.

But Xiang just slammed the lantern on the table and said nothing. Instead, he hobbled to a chest that was covered with a large cloth. He pushed the blanket aside and opened it. Liu craned her neck, but she couldn't immediately see what he was rummaging in. Only when he took out the object, what he was looking for, it took her breath away.

It was a dagger with a gilded handle.

"What do you want with that?" She asked anxiously.

The peacock stood up with difficulty. His leg wasn't used to walking that much without a walker. Still he managed to stand up straight, holding the dagger tightly in the wing.

"You stay here!" He ordered.

Liu's gaze was still on the dagger. "What are you going to do?"

Instead of answering, he hobbled over to her and pressed his wing onto her shoulder. "You don't move from the spot. I'll be right back."

"Are you sure that you..."

A stern look from him and Liu was forced to close her mouth. So she sat obediently and watched the peacock disappearing through the door with limping steps. She swallowed. If he had been willing to hobble on one leg the whole time, then there had to be extreme motivation behind it. And she knew it wasn't a positive force that animated him. She rubbed her wings nervously together. She could only hope he didn't do anything stupid.

"It's already late. We should continue tomorrow," Po suggested, who became extremely exhausted because of the searching through the rooms. Tired, he sat down on the floor of a long corridor. However, Shen did not approve of this proposal.

"We'll keep looking until we find her," Shen said firmly.

"But Shen," Po tried again. "Shenmi is already completely wrecked, too."

As if on cue, Shenmi had to yawn.

"We all need a break," the panda added to his request.

Shen actually had other plans, but it was getting dark outside and Yin-Yu would probably not have agreed to ask so much from Shenmi. Theoretically, the peacock could have searched all night without her, but he didn't want to leave her alone for a minute.

"There are nice guest rooms here," Huan offered. "You could spend the night there."

For Po there was a ray of light in the dark firmament. "That would be too nice. Where are they?"

"Five floors up on the other side of the palace."

"Oh, my feet have blisters on the blisters," Po wailed after he sat down on a bed. With an effort he lifted one foot and massaged the sole of the foot. He was so preoccupied with his suffering of the feet that he couldn't enjoy the facility. The room had light blue walls with gilded squares, plus some Chinese painted pictures, and even the floor was beautifully painted and covered with a glossy layer. There was also a small room with a bathroom and mirror and an adjoining room with a table and chairs for the dining area and a small living room.

Po put his hands in the air and yawned loudly.

"Panda!"

Po's yawn got stuck in the throat and quickly closed his mouth again. "I'm sorry."

Shen was standing between the dining room and bedroom and was just coming out of the bathroom with Shenmi. The white peacock pointed behind.

"I hope you don't mind that you sleep on the sofa."

The panda groaned softly. He had actually hoped not to have to take another step today, but he could understand that Shen wanted to offer his daughter a normal bed for the night.

"Okay," muttered Po. "I've got it."

With laborious shuffling steps, the panda toddled the short, but for him long distance towards the living room.

With a shake of his head, Shen led his daughter to the bed and wiped with his wing over the blanket. He could only hope that the panda would wash every now and then. Who knows how often such villagers took a bath. Then he pushed the bedsheets aside and put his daughter in. The girl lay down and let herself be covered. While her father was straightening the blanket, she took the paper out of her coat and looked at it thoughtfully. What kind of figure should she fold with it?

"Shenmi!" Sighing, the girl put the paper away again when her father looked at her admonishingly. "It's time to sleep."

"Will mom come back soon?" Shenmi asked.

Shen sighed but tried to avoid a sad face. Gently he stroked her head. "Yes, she will."

"Oops!" There was a brief rumble in the next room and someone fell to the floor with a loud thud. Shen quickly left the bedroom and looked over into the living room. Po lay on the floor with a vase in his paws that he had almost smashed dozily.

With a mischievous smile, the panda rose from his predicament and put the vase back in its place on a small table. "Sorry. It stood in the way." With embarrassment, Po put his hands together, but he couldn't help but ask a question.

"Shen? Do you think it still makes sense to look here?"

Shen looked behind himself quickly, just to make sure that Shenmi didn't listen. The girl lay peacefully in bed. Shen blew out a few candles so that the room was semi-dark, then he turned to the panda.

"If you don't like the search, panda," the peacock hissed. "Then you can also go on vacation again."

Po sighed heavily. "I just mean. It's just, I have the feeling that all the rummaging through the rooms just doesn't work. Who knows, maybe she isn't here anymore."

Shenmi yawned. She didn't really hear the conversations of the adults in the next room. She turned on her side and snuggled into the blanket. She didn't even notice that something was moving on the wall not far from her bed. A dark figure appeared in the corner of the room and approached her as quietly as possible. It was extremely difficult for him to stand on just one leg and had to support himself on a table. The person screwed up his eyes. His venomous gaze rested on the little girl. It had to be done very quickly. Luckily for him, the bed wasn't far from the secret passage. When he finally reached the bed, he raised his wings and was ready to rebound.

Shenmi screamed as the wings grabbed her and yanked her out of bed.

Shen and Po jumped up, electrified.

"Shenmi!"

Shen was the first in the room, but all he found was an empty bed.