The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 45 A Cloth Doll

"Is this it?" Master Liu asked, looking at the overturned and broken-down nest beneath the tree's limbs.

Zhao Jie and I nodded at the same time.

Master Liu walked around the tree several times, looking up and down the trunk, through the limbs, and at the ground. He came to the barren spot that You Xiaoqing had made for her green friend. It was disfigured and trampled, but still there.

He crouched down and cleared the surrounding weeds. "What's this?" He asked us.

I didn't dare open my mouth, afraid that I'd speak. It was a secret! My secret! Only to be known between You Xiaoqing and I. Zhao Jie only shook his head and said, "I don't know. I've never seen it before."

Master Liu stooped on hands and knees, placing his face right into the nest. He breathed in through his nose and thrust his face into the weeds, smelling everything.

"He's going to find out!" My mind screamed. "He's going to know!" I stepped forward and asked, "What is it?"

Master Liu stood, brushed himself off and said, "Something dark has been here. Moreover..."

He stopped, cutting his words short and then he took the golden box out of his pocket. He looked at it curiously and continued, "It is the same darkness that's inside the box."

His dark old eyes found mine and froze me in place. "Xiao Yong, tell me the truth. Did You Xiaoqing bring this box when you brought her here?"

I felt my mouth open, but no sound came out. "I'm going to lie to him." I thought, blinking my eyes about a million times. Master Liu closed the small distance between us and pinched my ear in his hand. He twisted and said, "Don't lie to me. I'll know if you do! If you don't tell me the truth, there will be consequences!" His voice was deep and gravelly, a darker version of him than I've ever heard before.

"Of course he'd know" My mind told me, "I've never lied to him before." I wriggled and whined, the pain in my ear sending fiery tendrils down my neck and into my jaw. He yanked on my ear and it pulled me forward like a dog on a leash. I felt a new pain spring from my backside as he used his other hand to spank me. I cried out in pain and surprise.

Master Liu continued, "If you lie to me I won't be able to save your friend! If I don't know what's going on we won't be able to enter the tomb. Do you want You Xiaoqing to die?" He was screaming into my face by then, alternating spankings and rhetorical questions. My face was beet red and sticky with tears and snot.

"No!" I wailed, "I don't want her to die!" My voice was watery and hitched with hiccups, "Is she really in the tomb?"

He took my face in both hands and brought his eyes to mine. He nodded gravely and asked, "Have I ever lied to you?"

I felt a flush of hot shame fill my stomach.

Zhao Jie, who had kept his head down and was trying not to be next, stepped closer to us and began to encourage me, "Xiao Yong, tell him! He's trying to help your girlfriend!"

"She is not my girlfriend." I screamed, the shame and embarrassment mixing with anger.

"Enough!" Master Liu cut in, "If you don't tell me, I'll drop it. She is none of my concern anyway..."

"No, no, no, no!" I wept, feeling like a drowning man clutching for straws, "I'll tell you!"

He hugged me, and Zhao Jie patted me awkwardly on the back until I had calmed down enough to tell him the story. I told Master Liu everything about the little green snake, about You Xiaoqing's face, about the snakeskin in my room, how it felt when I held it, all of it.

"Of course she brought it here, how smart it must be. The ground beneath the emperor bird's nest has great power. Look…" He pointed towards the nest that You Xiaoqing had released the snake into. "And there, look." He pointed to a tree close by.

The tree next to us was an aspen that stood three times taller than any other around us. "That is a Lombardy poplar, named so because it sticks straight into the sky!"

Eyeing the plain looking tree, I asked Master Liu, "So? It's just a tree."

Master Liu put on his teacher voice that was tinged with derision, "These are aspen woods. All of the roots of all of the trees are interlaced and touch the Lombardy poplar, especially the tree next to us. These three trees," He nodded his head to another near by and the one by which the nest sat. "Have main roots that comingle with the Lombardy poplar. The power that the poplar gets from the sky is transmitted to these three trees. Sky and earth my boy," He patted me on the shoulder. "Can't you feel the power?"

Zhao Jie asked curiously, "Is the Lombardy poplar, like, the mother of these trees?"

Master Liu shook his head and said, "No, quite the other way around. These aspens are probably keeping it alive. In fact, the Lombardy poplar is a variation of a diseased aspen. It can grow fast and tall, but its trunk is hollow as to transmit power easily. It can't endure the power for very long though."

"So, it's like a lightning rod? A wooden…one?" Zhao Jie asked.

"Kind of." Master Liu quipped, hiding a small grin. He looked at the tree nearest us and said, "This one might be different. Its anima, power that is, is coming from the Lombardy poplar. A secondary connection, if you will." He tapped on the tree lightly. "Its lifespan won't be influenced by the power. On the contrary, in a hundred years or so it might be an elf." He stopped talking so matter of factly that I didn't catch it immediately.

"An elf?" I squawked.

Master Liu replied, "Of course! Elves have existed for thousands of years, but they don't bother with humans. They get everything they need from nature." He smiled his plain old smile, ignoring the bewildered looks on our faces. "Actually they're a lot like us humans. Some are nice and helpful, and some are scoundrels." He shrugged.

I just looked at him, unable to do anything else. Master Liu shook his head as if clearing away a fog and said, "Anyway! You said You Xiaoqing gave you a flap of snakeskin. Do you have it now?"

I nodded and said, "Yeah, it's at home."

Master Liu looked at the aspen and said, "Then this is your opportunity. Seize it."

We left the woods, walking single file with Zhao Jie leading the way. When we arrived at the house I went to my dresser and took out the snakeskin. Picking it up, I was filled with the cold clarity. It ran up my fingers and arm, into my neck and exploded the familiar euphoria into my brain. My vision immediately became sharper and I felt like I could conquer the world. I held it out to Master Liu. He smiled grandly and touched it with the tip of his gnarled finger. I watched him take in a sharp breath and close his eyes before pulling his hand back, again like he'd been shocked.

"It is filled with animate." He told me. "It seems that whatever darkness You Xiaoqing's been raising has extensive power. If a Taoist eats this snakeskin, he'll obtain great inner power."

The idea of inner power overwhelmed my thoughts. I held it out to him. "It's useless to me then, I'm no Taoist. If you want it, you can keep it."

Master Liu shook his head, saying "Oh no my boy, this is your opportunity. I can't keep it. It is the furthest thing from useless, don't you see? With the protection of this snakeskin, your supernatural eyes will never worsen. The Yin air in your body won't spread out!" I could see the excitement in his eyes.

"But you said it was darkness, and full of Yin air. How can it control my Yin air? Why does it make me feel…"

His teacher tone returned. "The darkness shed this skin, it isn't in it anymore. In fact, the snakeskin has components that work against its own Yin air. In other words, the snakeskin has Yang air! The cold Yang air is different from the Yin air within your body. It won't hurt, but help you."

His explanation began to tie knots in my brain and I let out a frustrated groan. "I don't understand!"

"Okay," he said. "Imagine you have a tiny monster inside your eyes." I nodded. "That is the Yin air, a hot little monster that has cursed you with supernatural sight." I nodded again. "Now, imagine the snakeskin is a jail cell." I looked at it in my hand and squeezed, feeling the chill it sent into my head and nodded again. "The snakeskin has Yang air, a cold jail house that will keep the monster locked up." I smiled at him, the snakeskin untying knots in my brain.

"I get it!" I shouted, grinning.

"Get what?" My mother asked, peeking her head into my room.

"Nothing." Master Liu told her. "Well, there is one thing. I'll be going soon and I'd like to take Xiao Yong with me. It shouldn't be more than five days." I watched the two, wondering if she still trusted him after all this time.

"It's for his eyes." Master Liu added.

"Oh of course!" My mother told him with a flashy new smile. "By all means, take him!" She smiled again and then popped back out the door, returning to whatever she was doing.

Master Liu grinned at the door and then turned back to Zhao Jie and I. Zhao Jie was playing with the corner of my blanket, looking worried. Master Liu pulled out the golden box and both of us snapped our eyes to it.

Master Liu asked, "Do you want to know what is inside?"

Zhao Jie and I nodded as one. Master Liu said, "Open your eyes, big."

Both of us sat up a little straighter on the bed and strained out eyes to open as wide as they could.

"Ahhhhh." I let out, the anticipation mixing with fear in my belly. The snakeskin still clutched in my hand made my eyesight unnaturally sharp and I could see every scratch and imperfection on the golden box.

The lid lifted in Master Liu's hand. Inside was a bloody cloth doll, folded to fill box's small volume. It was lying cramped and sideways, and it was horrible. On its exposed belly was written a name, "You Xiaoqing", in what could only have been blood.

My mom heard the screams and yelled into the room, "Is everyone okay?"

I immediately called back, "We're fine..."

Master Liu closed the box. Zhao Jie and I drew in deep gulps of air. Zhao Jie asked in a voice that trembled, "Master Liu, what's wrong with the doll? Why is it bloody? Why is her name on it? The box was in her room the whole time. Why didn't anyone find it?"

Master Liu looked down at the golden cube in his hand. "The doll is a curse. It's a bloody one too, given to You Xiaoqing. What we need to find out is who that was."

He continued, "The box was charmed so you'd only find it if you were looking for it." He looked at me. "And you were looking for it, weren't you Xiao Yong?"

I swallowed a lump in my throat and stayed quiet.

Master Liu looked at us in the silence for a moment. "Nevertheless, we have seen it now. Why don't you two go out and practice your Da Hong Fist for a while? I've got some thinking to do."

Zhao Jie and I got up and walked to the door. Before leaving, I turned to ask Master Liu, "Can you break the curse?"

"Not without hurting your friend." He said, his voice low and thoughtful. "A blood curse is like witchcraft. If I break it, something terrible will happen and that might anger the person who cursed her. Don't worry too much, we'll find a way."

I nodded at him, feeling a deep trust for the old man.

Zhao Jie and I went outside, but our practice was halfhearted and our thoughts were full of bloody dolls and black empty eyes.

Chapter end