31. With the Last of His Strength
"But only so that one thing is clear. I'm still against it!" Liu said firmly.
She dragged the luggage that Shen had brought to the palace the day before. They were in a huge hall that had probably served as a ballroom.
On the left side, there were several large balcony windows that led to a large balcony outside, which was as long as the hall itself. There were doors at the back and right. And around the hall there was a walkway with an ornate balustrade. It was like a long, small, narrow balcony that ran around the hall. Probably where the guests could stay up there. At the end of the room was a large throne, which was reserved for the host of the palace and from there he could overlook the guests.
In the meantime, Shen had tied Xiang with a rope and placed him on the ground in front of the throne. The blue peacock lay helplessly tied up in front of it and somehow he tried to get out of the shackles.
Shen looked down at him mockingly. "Well, that brings back memories, doesn't it?"
"Untie me immediately!" Xiang ordered.
But Shen waved his loud request away with a disparaging movement of his wing.
"Keep screaming. In this way you make a perfect decoy."
"But nothing will happen to him, will it?" Liu asked worriedly.
"Stop talking!" The white peacock snapped at her. "Just unpack the things."
Liu looked inside the sacks.
"Do you always lug something like that around in your luggage?"
Shen growled in annoyance. Sighing, the peahen leaned against the luggage.
"What do you need now?"
"Give me the green jar."
Liu wrinkled her beak, but she did what he asked. After some searching, she found several containers shaped like bottles and filled with a liquid. Shen immediately took the first bottle from her. To Liu's amazement, he tipped out the contents around Xiang on the floor.
Liu sniffed. The liquid had such a strange smell. "What's this?"
"You'll see," Shen replied.
The bottle was empty.
"Give me the other one now," he ordered.
Liu did it, albeit with a bad feeling. Her eyes widened when Shen walked up to Xiang with it.
"Hold still," Shen said, and dumped the contents over the blue peacock.
"Hey! What should that be?!"
Xiang tried to avoid pouring it over, but he couldn't prevent the white peacock from soaking him completely.
That was getting too much for Liu. "Now tell me what it is, otherwise I won't take part!"
Shen wrinkled his beak. "This is a new invention of mine. A flammable liquid. Quickly flammable and very easily combustible."
"Are you insane?!" Xiang yelled.
Liu's face ran out of color. "Does that mean you want him…?"
Shen raised the wing. "As long as you do what I tell you, nothing will happen."
"But isn't that too dangerous?"
Shen shrugged. "Call it what you want. I think, it's time for a few guests to have fun here again. I'll take care of the festival lighting."
He grinned at Xiang, who panicked at the sight of the flammable liquid on the floor and at himself.
"Do you want to set everything on fire?! This is still my house!"
"Didn't you want to blow up my city, too? I guess that would make us even."
Liu felt compelled to say something. "But you can't risk that like that!"
Shen pushed her away. "Either you play along, or you can be responsible not only for his death, but also the death of a little girl! Can you carry so much on your shoulders?!"
Liu looked down. "Please just promise me that nothing will happen to him."
Shen looked at her seriously. Then he glanced over at Xiang.
"Just do what I tell you."
He waved his wing. "Now hand me the red bottle."
With a heavy sigh, Liu did what he asked. Shen dumped that bottle too, this time in the center of the room and along the walls. Then he filled a bowl with the fuel oil.
After the work was done, he turned to Xiang. "So, you will call your aunt now."
Xiang shook his head violently. "No, I will not do that!"
Shen's eyes narrowed. "As you will. I'll lure her here in a different way."
He took a couple of firecrackers out of his luggage and lit them.
Tigress, Master Ox and Sheng winced as loud cracking noises rushed through the palace. They were still busy search the doctor out.
"Where did that come from?" Tigress wondered.
"We'd better look," Master Ox decided, but Sheng held him back.
"No, these are father's firecrackers. I know them. Let him do his job. He'll want to do it alone."
Liu poised behind the throne in the hall. Almost a minute had passed since the blast.
"Maybe she didn't hear anything," she whispered.
Shen, who crouched on the walkway balcony above the throne, hissed at her. "She'll come."
As if on cue, steps could be heard that echoed from the corridor into the hall. Xiang held his breath. But running away was pointless to him. Then a shadow appeared in the entrance. The purple peahen looked around. Shenmi wriggled in Chiwa's grasp. Chiwa held her beak shut so that she could only make muffled noises, but you could see in her eyes how frightened she was.
The peahen turned her sparkling eyes on Xiang.
"Look at you," she said. "Who brought you here?"
She approached him, looking around again and again. She noticed that something was wrong here.
"So, who is hiding here?!" she shouted into the ballroom.
When she received no answer, she continued to walk towards Xiang, keeping the knife pressed to Shenmi's neck.
"I'm warning you!" She hissed. "If this is a game, it can be fatal…"
She paused when she felt something wet under her feet. She looked down at herself in amazement. The whole floor below her was wet.
"You better stand still!"
Chiwa looked up where the white peacock was standing on the walkway on the balustrade.
"How did you get out of the room?" she snapped at him.
Shen picked up a burning torch. "If you kill her or me, I'll drop this."
Chiwa laughed. "How nice. Do you want to play with fire?"
"Aren't you wondering what you're into? Then take a look at this."
Shen put the torch in the bowl. The oil shot almost to the ceiling in a jet flame.
"This liquid, where you are standing on, is flammable. If you kill me, this torch will fall down and everything will go up in flames!"
Chiwa kept her mouth open for a moment, but then she narrowed her eyes.
"You forget that I have your crumb in my wings."
She pressed the knife to Shenmi's chest. Shen's face twitched, but he managed to keep calm. Instead, he forced a grin on his beak.
"You will then be on fire and ruin your beauty." He turned the burning torch in his wing. "You may even be buried disguised as a corpse. Not exactly a nice death."
This made the peahen hesitant in her killing plan.
"Well, we can make it so difficult or easier."
"And that should that be?"
"A swap. My daughter against him."
Chiwa narrowed her eyes. "First you run away with him and now you hand him over to me of your own free will? How stupid do you think I am?"
Shen took a deep breath and let out a derogatory snort, his hateful gaze resting on Xiang.
"For the others, maybe. But his life has no meaning for me. He threatened my family more than once. He cannot expect a good testimony for that. With him you can do whatever you want. I just want my daughter. And you only your nephew. Well. We swap and you get him, undamaged. Unless you'd rather be under fire."
For a moment, Chiwa stood completely petrified. Then a wicked smile crossed her beak. "You're a pretty nasty bird."
"Is a talent."
"Fine. Here you are."
She tossed the girl where Shen caught her. But at the next moment, Chiwa threw a knife at him. But this time, Shen was faster. He grabbed the torch in his foot and blocked the sharp thing with his free wing. The knife landed in a corner somewhere.
"Not this time." He grinned at Chiwa.
He put the torch back in the wing and kept his eyes on Chiwa.
"Stand still."
Shen walked down the walkway of the room balcony while Chiwa stared furiously after him from below. Shen suddenly threw a powder grenade. In a matter of seconds, everything was full of smoke. Even Xiang, who lay still on the floor, couldn't see anything. But then he felt wings around him. He knew Liu's grip and he didn't fight it. The young peahen carried Xiang with her and ran blindly across the ballroom towards the exit of the hall, where she met Shen. Meanwhile the smoke had cleared again.
Chiwa had recovered in the meantime and ran after them. Shen did not hesitate and threw the torch at the oil that he had previously poured around the room. In just a second a wall of flames rose up around the back of the room, into which Chiwa disappeared.
Liu gave a startled cry and clung to Xiang. "How could you do that?! He will burn, too!"
Shen shrugged. "Nonsense. The liquid in the green bottle that I spilled on him was just treated water. Absolutely incombustible. Only that in the red bottle was combustible."
Liu looked at him with an open beak. "Why didn't you say that?"
Shen grinned. "It should look real."
In the meantime, Shen had released his little daughter from her bonds. The little one was still a little anxious, until Shen put his wings around her soothingly that she calmed down again.
"Daddy, I want to go home," the girl whimpered.
"Yes, yes," Shen said. "We're going home now."
In the meantime, Liu had also loosened the shackles around Xiang. The blue peacock straightened up furiously.
"Don't do that to me again!" he snapped at Shen.
The flames in the hall licked up the walls.
"Let's get out of here," Shen said firmly, and turned around.
Liu had no choice but to support Xiang again and together they hurried into the corridor. But the next moment, they met in the corridor voices belonging to Tongfu.
"The bang came from here! Hurry up! I still want to get my money! Not that the turkey blew up…"
The geckos stopped as if rooted to the spot and stared at the peacock birds in surprise.
"Hey, where is the old biddy?" Tongfu asked in surprise when he saw Shenmi in Shen's wings.
Quickly, Shen put his daughter down on the floor.
"I'll do that."
With these words, Shen threw himself forward and knocked the first geckos aside.
"Hey!" Tongfu shouted indignantly. "Catch him!"
Liu waited, hoping to find a gap in the commotion. But the geckos didn't want the peacock to be able to pave a way. Tongfu was the only one who stood on the edge and watched everything. Then a thought occurred to him. He waited a moment, then he jumped forward and aimed his foot directly into Shen's stomach.
The white peacock screamed and convulsed on the ground. He held the surgical wound that Tongfu had stepped too brutally on.
Tongfu grinned. "I guess I hit the sore spot there, didn't I?"
But Tongfu didn't leave it at that and aimed the wounded wing now. And again and again, when Shen started another counterattack, the geckos kicked him on the gash on his stomach. Liu saw that the peacock was no longer able to fight. She herself had no experience of fighting and Xiang was especially unable to do so because of his lame leg.
"Get out of here!" She pushes everyone back into the hall. There she slammed the door and locked it, leaving the geckos angry behind the door. But they were far from safe. Already in their backs, they could feel the blaze of fire in the hall.
"That was a great idea of yours!" Xiang scolded sarcastically. "Another brilliant idea?"
Shen's gaze wandered to the balcony window. "To the balcony!"
Suddenly, one of the floor slabs in front of them peeled off. A moment later, a dark figure jumped out of the ground. They all kept their beaks open when Chiwa stood before them like an angry predator.
"My nephew really doesn't know every corner of this house. Which is why it is rightly my house. And my sister's." She grinned. "You can easily lift the floor panels with a knife." She twisted a knife in the tips of her wings. "Where we would be back to the topic."
Liu hugged Xiang. Shen's eyes narrowed. Chiwa wasn't just after Xiang. This devil wouldn't stop at his little daughter either. He glanced over at Liu. The young peahen caught his eye.
Suddenly, the peacock threw a powder in Chiwa's face. The dark peahen stepped back for a moment, blinded.
"Go to the balcony!" Shen yelled at the others and rushed to the luggage what he had stowed in the corner of the room. There he took out a wushu podao, a short sword with a long handle, like a lance. Liu didn't dare to ask him if he always carried it around with him. Instead, she dragged Xiang along with her while Shenmi hesitantly ran after them.
In the next second, Chiwa had wiped the powder off her face and was looking around for her victims.
"You won't escape me forever!"
Before she could pursue them, Shen stood in her way.
"Just one step closer to my daughter and I'll slit you open!"
He held the lance in front of him, but Chiwa only acknowledged this with a broad grin, which in the light of the fire looked even more demonic than it already was.
With a cry of rage, she pounced on the white peacock. Shen dodged her and tried to hit her with the sharp end, but the dark peahen also had good reflexes and the two played a constant game of cat and mouse.
Outside on the balcony, Liu looked over the parapet, where it went very deep.
"Not exactly a good escape route, either," Xiang said.
"Then we have to try to fly."
Xiang backed away. "Flying? Never!"
"But what if it's the only option we have?" Liu's eyes fell on Shenmi. "I could carry her. You can fly yourself."
"I can't fly!" Xiang yelled at her. "Because your nice friend hurt my shoulders!"
Liu rolled his eyes. "How do you want to know? You have never tried it before! You never try anything! You give up on yourself and only bury yourself in self-pity! You don't even want to try it!"
Suddenly, a large shadow appeared over them. Laishi grabbed Xiang and swung himself into the air with him. Liu responded immediately and grabbed the vulture by the claws.
"Hey, let go of him!"
"Out of the question!" The vulture laughed. "I'll stuff him. Like his father."
"Look who's there!"
Zedong pointed up where they could only half see the balcony.
"That's where the ballroom is," Yin-Yu said.
Only now, they noticed the light smoke rising into the sky from this floor.
Something fluttered in the air over the balcony.
"Isn't that…"
Tigress narrowed her eyes and saw how Laishi not only dragged Xiang but also Liu up with her, but the vulture had to drag two large birds so that he could hardly get up.
"Crane, help them!" The tigress called to her friend.
Immediately, the crane shot to the balcony.
In the meantime, the soldiers had also arrived at the top of the palace. Wang waved her over to him. It was time to storm the palace. "Come on up!"
With that, they disappeared into the building. Yin-Yu also ran after them. She was very afraid for Shen and Shenmi. Why weren't they out yet?
Liu clung to the vulture. "Let go of him now!"
But the vulture did not think of letting go and tried to shake off the peahen.
At that moment, Crane slammed the vulture. Laishi dropped Xiang. Liu also landed roughly on the ground. The two birds fluttered wildly into the sky and continued to fight there. With bated breath, Liu watched as the two birds disappeared into the mountains.
Shen did his best not to let Chiwa outside on the balcony. And for a moment it even looked as if he was about to push the peahen to the limit. But suddenly…
The peacock lost his sight. For a moment, he saw everything black. He shook his head violently, but he could not prevent the seizure.
This second of inattention was his undoing. Chiwa took advantage of his weakness and hurled him against the wall with the swinging sleeve strips.
Shen groaned and lay on the floor. His circulation first had to recover. Chiwa might have impaled him if she hadn't been after something else. She looked around for murderous lusts like a vampire. Then she looked outside at the balcony.
"Come on!" Liu pleaded the blue peacock. "We have to fly! At least try it!"
But Xiang strongly opposed it. "No, not in a million years!"
"All the better."
Both peafowls froze when Chiwa suddenly stood at the other end of the balcony.
The dark peahen smirked at them and took a step towards. Liu immediately ran to meet her and stood in her way.
"Leave him alone at last! You'd better hold your own nose! You had no right to abuse him like that!"
"Get out of my way, you ugly bitch!"
Chiwa pushed her aside and flung her away. Liu rolled across the floor and hit the balcony parapet. Chiwa's gaze wandered to her nephew, who stood frozen on one leg on the balcony. The dark peahen rubbed her wings.
"And now we're finally coming to you. Apparently, nobody wants me to bring you a slow death. Well then, let's make it quick and painless. Just like you always wanted it to be."
She pulled a knife out of the wing. Xiang stared at her in horror.
"You are really like your sister!" He yelled at her, which only made Chiwa laugh.
"Then I'll tell you what she would have told you as a polite lady, my fine, beautiful nephew. We will pay you our last honor, or more our last respects to you."
The dark peahen laughed with a mean grin. She raised the knife with her wing and aimed it at Xiang. Xiang's gaze wandered back to the edge of the balcony. Either he jumped or his aunt got him. Finally, he turned and crawled quickly towards the parapet.
"Oh, no, not like that anymore!" Chiwa shouted and threw the knife at him.
But before the knife could hit the blue peacock, a shadow was cast in front of him. Xiang heard a choked scream behind him. Wings clung to him from behind.
He looked behind and saw Liu's face. Both fell to the ground. Xiang stared at her back in horror. The knife had just hit Liu between the shoulders and was now stuck inside.
At first, Chiwa stood frozen, but then she angrily approached the two of them.
"You damn bitch!" she shouted "You damn poultry! Get out of here!"
She grabbed Liu by the shoulders and tried to pull her away from Xiang, but Liu refused to let go of him and held her tightly to the blue peacock despite the knife in her back.
At the next moment, something white was running towards Chiwa.
"Hey, leave him alone!" Shenmi yelled at her.
Chiwa trembled with anger.
"You! I'll stuff you, too!"
She pounced on her. Shenmi screamed and raced across the balcony.
"Help! FATHER!"
Shen straightened with a groan. He shook his head vigorously several times, but the exertion from earlier had put a strain on his condition. With an effort, he heaved himself up against the wall and managed to keep himself on his feet. At that moment, he saw Shenmi running towards him, closely followed by an angry peahen. The white peacock found no strength to fight. Instead, he threw himself forward and wrapped his wings around the girl. Chiwa stopped and glared down at the two white birds.
"That's enough for me now!" She took both of her sleeve strips and swung them briefly in the air. "I'll kill you first, you ugly rabble! Then I can finally let my nephew atone for his misdeeds!"
Chiwa swung her sleeves and hit the white peacock from both sides as if with whips.
Shen fell to one side, but he still held Shenmi protected in his wings.
Chiwa was always in a rage. She wrapped her long sleeve strips around the white peacock and hurled him through one of the balcony windows with full force. In a shower of broken glass, the peacock crashed outside, rolled over the balcony, and came to a stop on the parapet. Shenmi peeked out of his wings, frightened. She ducked her head when Chiwa came across the balcony towards her. Her sleeve strips were still tightly clutched, which she still swung around like whips.
"Daddy, wake up!" Panicked, she shook her father. Shen convulsed. He could hear Shenmi, but his head was still empty.
Chiwa giggled angrily. "You really are a pathetic wimp."
Shenmi screamed when Chiwa grabbed her neck. "Well, I still have a bone to pick with you."
"Dad!"
"This is the ballroom!" Yin-Yu shouted and pointed to the door.
But then Wang and the soldiers stopped in surprise.
"What the…?"
Tongfu, who was still standing in front of the door with his geckos, looked at the troop in amazement.
Wang waved his soldiers forward. "Arrest them!"
At that moment, Shen jumped up and tore her Shenmi out of her wings and tucked her under his robe, which he then put back over her to protect her. Then he leaned against the balustrades, groaning. This action only made Chiwa angrier. She bundled her sleeve strips from her right sleeve again and hurled them at the peacock. The fabrics banged loudly against the white body. But Shen kept standing, if swaying a little. His wing had started bleeding again, as had his stomach wound. But he remained steadfast.
Chiwa trembled with anger. Wasn't there anything that could bring down this ugly bird?
Eventually, Shen could no longer stand on his feet. He sagged.
"You are a tough bird," Chiwa said approvingly and bent over the white peacock. "The father sacrifices himself for his little daughter, how cute."
She grabbed Shen, yanked him up and pushed him over the balustrade of the balcony.
Xiang, who was still lying stunned a little further away in Liu's wings, finally found the strength to move his wings again and stroked Liu's back where he could feel the knife. His finger feathers clutched the murder instrument and pulled hard on it.
Meanwhile, Shen felt dizzy as Chiwa kept pushing him over the edge and threatening to topple him off the balcony.
"Laishi is waiting for you downstairs," she sneered.
Suddenly, the purple peahen heard a noise behind her.
She turned around, but at the next moment something jumped and stabbed her.
A harsh scream tore the air.
"It's over!"
Wang looked down at the geckos, all of whom were now being held by his soldiers.
Tongfu snorted. "100 against 11, that's unfair!"
Wang left this argument completely cold. "Come on, break in the door!"
Several soldiers immediately threw themselves against the door. This gave way and the way was finally free. Wang tried to get an overview. The fire had spread far and wide in the ballroom.
"Put out the fire immediately!" He called to his soldiers.
Then he looked around. Where were the others?
His gaze wandered over to the smashed balcony window panes. "Go there!"
Yin-Yu, who had entered the hall, stood frozen at the sight of the fire.
"Good heavens, where is Shen?"
Her gaze wandered to the balcony, where she saw a white figure.
"Shen!"
She ran outside. Wang followed closely on her heels.
When they reached the balcony, they stopped in amazement and stared at the picture that was presented to them.
Shen lay panting and exhausted against the balcony railing, Shenmi had ventured out from under his robe and shook him around fearfully. When she saw her mother, she ran towards her. "Mum!"
Quickly, Yin-Yu caught the girl. Still, she couldn't look away from what she saw. A dark body lay on the floor in front of them. In front of it, Xiang sat, half upright on the floor and stared numbly at the body.
The blue peacock turned to face them. His eyes were wide open. "She ... she lies there like my mother."
In the next moment, he let out a wheezing groan and collapsed crying.
Wang stepped closer and stared at the body that had once been Chiwa. She was lying on her back, her wings stretched out, her eyes wide. The knife was right in her heart.
Wang wrinkled his nose. "I guess she can't be dangerous to us anymore."
Yin-Yu ran past him and ran to Shen. "Shen!"
At that moment, Xia, Zedong, Fantao and Jian also showed up and just saw their mother pick up their father.
"Father!"
Everyone rushed over to him and surrounded the white peacock.
Shen blinked. "What ... what about Shenmi?" he muttered.
"She is fine," Yin-Yu said soothingly and stroked his head. "She is fine."
"She is fine…" Shen muttered, almost in disbelief. Relief crept through him. "She is fine…" A smile crossed his beak. Tears welled up in his eyes. "That's good to hear."
He closed his eyes, still with a slight smile on his face.
Everyone looked at him, startled.
"Shen!" Yin-Yu quickly looked around. "Is the doctor here?!"
"I'll see to him at once," Wang assured. "He won't have any rest today."
His gaze wandered to another figure on the balcony who he hadn't noticed immediately before. The ox walked up to her and looked down at Liu, whose back was dyed blood red.
"I think we need a doctor here, too!"
Wang looked back to Xiang and his dead aunt with the knife in his chest. Without the King of the Huns knowing it, it was the same knife that Xiang had pulled out of Liu's back and then used to stab his own aunt.
Xiang did not notice anything that was happening around him. Not even when Wang stood next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He just sat there and cried.