Oh son of a $%^&*!
I've just realised that I made a continuity error in the last chapter; Tigress takes both a sleeping Su and Mantis inside, yet Mantis is present when the medic is found murdered. Please forget I ever wrote that and remember that Mantis is inside the fortress at is moment.
One hour earlier.
It was over.
In a matter of hours, they would all be on their way out of the mountains, leaving the fortress behind and the operation in tatters.
If only that pampered fool Xian hadn't found that bloody log… if only Tujiu had found a better hiding spot…
It was too late now. No point in wishing he had done something different. The way he saw it, Tujiu had two options: remain in confinement and eventually be persecuted and imprisoned for life, or flee and spent the rest of his life being hunted like a common criminal. If there was a third option, he would have to have it advised to him.
"Good thing he didn't find this." Tujiu muttered as he pulled open the secret drawer concealed in the side of the map table and pulled out a small mirror rimmed with bronze. It was no ordinary mirror. It was one of those magical artifacts known as a Mirror of Communication. Unlike other artifacts, there was no one mirror. They were said to be scattered all over China; apparently there was even a pair located Gongmen City.
Tujiu walked to the door of his study, opened it, poked his head out and checked that the coast was clear. The private mess hall was empty. He shut the door and moved to the center of the room.
He hated doing this. That woman was a demon among mortals. Not only was she one of the most despised people he ever had the misfortune to meet, she was also one of the few people who scared him.
He held the mirror out in front of him and concentrated.
The mirror's rim flashed for several seconds, and then the aged vulture in the mirror's reflection disappeared, replaced with the beautiful but harsh face of a jet black panther with eyes like flawless amethysts.
Tujiu took a deep breath, decided that he was going to regret this, and spoke.
"Good evening, Lady Hei nuwang." He said in the most casual manner possible. "Why, you look just as lovely as ever."
"Oh god, don't waste my time with that crap." The panther in the mirror replied icily. "We call on you when we want you… not the other way around. You better have a good reason for interrupting my evening meal."
Tujiu suddenly realized that she was holding what looked like a bird's heart between her fingers.
"Oh! Um, er, my apologies." Tujiu stammered. Make it quick. "I disposed of all the soldiers who knew of the existence of the tomb, like you told me to-"
"Have you acquired the sarcophagus yet?" Her expression told him she already knew the answer.
"Almost, but there's been an unexpected… setback."
"Have you been exposed?" Hei nuwang suddenly snapped.
"No! No, the emperor has discovered that I have been killing off my men, and he has decided that I am no longer fit for duty. I no longer have control of the operation." Tujiu closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the moment when Emperor Xian had officially ruined his life. "My lady, I need the order's assistance to bring the situation back into our favor-"
"We don't risk the order's exposure by directly involving ourselves in these situations, that's what we have inside men for." Hei nuwang interjected with flashing dark eyes. "You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out. You wouldn't be difficult to replace, Tujiu. The imperial army is full of goons who would murder their best friend for your position. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Yes, Lady Hei nuwang." Tujiu replied. The panther's image disappeared. "Witch."
So much for that.
Fuming, he stalked the window and peered down into the courtyard, where the people who had made everything go so wrong were all gathered around a glowing orange campfire.
He would get them back for this, he vowed. But first he had to find a way to keep them from leaving. It was crucial that everyone stayed long enough for him to find a way to remove the sarcophagus from the tomb and prepare it for delivery.
But that was impossible now. By now, he had figured out that the Yeti and its mistress wanted them all gone; it wasn't lying when it said it would allow them to leave. Come sunrise, the fortress would be empty, the spirit of Ember left undisturbed, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He glared down at the campfire below in hatred, eyes eventually falling on the silhouette of Master Monkey, who had lost his father to the Yeti in such a gruesome way.
Tujiu's eyes widened as he got an idea.
There was no way he himself could convince the emperor, the army, and the kung fu warriors to stay. Unless…
A solid blast of heat sent Tujiu and Shifu crashing through a wall and plummeting to the ground below.
Oh holy-
Tujiu caught the air just in time, his wings splayed out on both sides of him, slowing his descent so he hit the ground without so much as a bump.
"Gah! Shifu!"
Tujiu spun round to find the Dragon Warrior and three of the Furious Five (Viper, Crane and Mantis) sprinting towards him in panic. No, not him. The motionless red panda half buried in a pile of snow.
"Master! Master!"
The warriors gathered around their master, and Viper put the tip of her tail to the side of his neck.
"Oh thank god! He's alive!"
Tujiu huffed in disappointment and turned his attention to the exterior wall they had just fallen from. Sixty feet up was a massive hole spewing smoke and flame. Men from the army camp were sprinting through the entrance doors of the main building, carrying buckets of dirt and snow to put out the fire with.
Good luck with that. God damn it, my helmet was in in that study!
So was any more evidence of Tujiu's involvement with the order, the vulture realized. He grinned. Good. If Xian suspected him of more than murdering dozens of men, he would have a hard time proving it.
Even better, his plan had been a success. The idiots were convinced that the Yeti had double-crossed them. They would have no choice but to stay.
And that would bring things to a satisfactory conclusion in more ways than one.
Tujiu calmly made his way through the chaos and in the direction of the entrance doors. He would hide out in the library until things calmed down, maybe read a book and-
The door burst open before he could reach it, and out leapt Master Tigress and Mantis.
"Tujiu, what was that explosion just now?" Tigress demanded. A second later she spotted Grandmaster Shifu, lying limp on the ground with his terrified students surrounding him.
"No… no…" She whispered. Her fists started to shake. Tears sprung up in her eyes. Aren't you being a little overdramatic? Tujiu thought. "SHIFU!"
She charged towards them, Mantis closed behind. Tujiu didn't see what happened next, for by the time she and her comrade reached their wounded master he was already in the entrance hall and heading towards the corridor leading to the library.
The library was empty when he reached it, just as he'd hoped. He hadn't seen Xian, Di Tan, Eagle Jr. or that little panda cub since the explosion, so they were more likely elsewhere in the fortress. Their whereabouts was at the moment insignificant, so Tujiu sat down on a bench and stared up at the third floor of the library, where the secret entrance to the tomb was located.
Nice try, my dear. Tujiu smirked. You're going to have to do better than that to derail my-
"Sir."
Tujiu turned his head to see Sao glaring accusingly at him from the entrance. His fur was covered in soot.
"What have you done?" The fox asked quietly.
"What I had to." Tujiu brushed the soot off his wings. "It is imperative that we stay here until the sarcophagus is in the order's possession."
"Sir, you have just sentenced us all to death!" Sao stormed into the room. "If the Yeti doesn't kill us, the demon surely will! Do you have any idea what you have just-"
"In case you hadn't noticed, the 'demon' as you call it, just tried to kill me and Master Shifu just now and failed miserably." Tujiu replied. He chuckled as it dawned on him that one of the most powerful entities in Asia had failed to kill him. Failed to kill the great General Tujiu. "I think things are going to turn out just fine. Just… fine."
"But why?" Sao demanded. Tujiu could hear the fury in disbelief in the fox's voice, but didn't bother looking at his expression. "Why would you put all of us in danger? Do you realize that if Shifu or Xian find out what you've done, our lives won't be worth a single yuan!"
"They won't live long enough to figure it out." Tujiu replied. "None of them will."
That made Sao fall silent.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Tujiu sighed inwardly. Sao was loyal, but he would need a lot of convincing on this one. For a single moment, he wondered if he had thought this entirely through after all, but then he pushed those thoughts aside. He had a job to do. He turned to face Sao at last.
"Look, it had to be done." Tujiu said slowly. "Xian left me no choice. He's not ruthless enough to understand. None of them are. For both ours sakes, none of them can make it off this mountain."
"General, you can't kill the Emperor!" Sao shouted.
"Keep your voice down!" Tujiu snapped back. "Are you trying to get us both killed?"
"If we get discovered then we will get killed!" Sao snarled, his eyes narrow slits.
"Look, sooner or later the Yeti is going to have to confront us directly." Tujiu explained impatiently. "People are going to get hurt or worse. What if…" he grinned at Sao. "What if the emperor is one of them?"
"Are you saying that-"
"It's simple: instead of killing the emperor ourselves, we'll just let the Yeti do the job for us."
"What about Shifu and his students? I highly doubt they'll be easy for even that monster to kill."
"I highly doubt that any of them will escape a battle with a creature that powerful alive- not without injury or exhaustion. We'll just kill them while they're weak."
Suddenly Sao lost patience.
"Are you out of your mind, General?!" The fox snapped. "You have no guarantee that this plan will work! Why can't we just leave while the Yeti and the demon are giving us the opportunity? We can always come back later with the soldiers in league with the order! For god's sake, listen to sense!"
Tujiu glared at him, unmoved.
"Think about this, colonel." Tujiu said calmly. "If this goes well, then the order will have eight or nine less powerful enemies to worry about when they finally make their move." Sao started to protest some more, only for the vulture to strike him across the face with a wing. "Have you forgotten that we are on a time limit here?" Tujiu growled. "In a matter of days, the sarcophagus will be opened and the demon will be released at its full power! The sarcophagus has to be in the order's hands by then!"
Sao rubbed his cheek and glared at Tujiu in contempt.
"The emperor was right." Sao said. "You're insane. But you have a point."
"Are you in or not?" Tujiu asked impatiently.
Sao closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, weighing his options.
"If- no, when this blows up in our faces… you're on your own."
Damn you, Tujiu!
The Yeti had seen the brutal murder of the army medic with its own eyes, known the vulture's intent the moment he heard the master come running and watched Tujiu flee the scene before anyone spotted him.
Just when things were beginning to go back in the Yeti's favor, that vulture had to trick everyone into staying. Worse, it had no way of proving that it hadn't committed the crime. And now the son of the person it had killed fifteen years ago was hunting it, complicating things even further.
I'm sorry, mistress. I have disappointed you. It thought.
It reached its lair. It wasted no time in tossing all the helmets, weapons and pieces of armor it had collected into a large leather bag. It tossed the bag over its shoulder and activated the stairway to the crumbling city where many creatures like itself had once lived.
The Yeti cursed General Tujiu once more and made his way down the steps.
Time for Plan B.