The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 59 Master Liu's News

Zhou Tong bent down to secure his pack and take out his rebreather. "Here," he said, handing the breathing mask to You Xiaoqing. "You'll need this more than I will." She took the rebreather from him with a quiet thank you.

"Can you hold your breath that long?" Master Ge asked. Zhou Tong nodded quickly, but didn't say anything.

"Of course you can." The old man said.

Zhou Tong unloosed the rope that had tied us together through the first dive and began to string it along the floor in front of him.

Standing on the wet stone, I looked over my shoulder. I half expected Master Liu to burst from the darkness with a smile on his face.

Master Ge must have read my mind. "Don't worry. Xiao Yong, your godfather will be fine. He always is."

Apparently sensing my doubt, he went on, "The heavy Yin air is gone from this place. I'd wager that Master Liu scared the monster away and stumbled upon something interesting. He'll show up out of nowhere in a day or two with some wild tale of treasures and spirits. Just you wait."

I nodded at him, afraid to speak for the lump in my throat. We went about securing our wet suits. Everyone was zipped up except You Xiaoqing, but she had the rebreather clutched tightly in her hand. Master Ge went first, then me. Behind me came You Xiaoqing, aided by Zhou Tong.

The underwater trek back to the top of the well seemed to take half as much time. With the rebreather stuck firmly between my teeth, I followed Master Ge through the dark cold water. Behind me, Zhou Tong half swam, half pushed You Xiaoqing after us. He'd taken a few minutes to practice holding his breath and had only nodded repeatedly when we asked if he'd be all right. Now, looking back on his puffed out cheeks I almost believed he could do it. When we were under for about four minutes I watched in fascination as he had a mute conversation with the girl he was helping along. Through a series of hand gestures and facial expressions, the two arranged a swap. I watched You Xiaqing take a deep breath and pull the rebreather from her lips. She jammed it into Zhou Tong's mouth an instant later and pushed her thumb on the evacuation button to clear the water from the mechanism. Color seemed to flood Zhou Tong's face as he pulled in air after not breathing for so long. The man was in better shape than I'd thought.

As we continued and the pair behind me swapped the mask back and forth like clockwork, we soon came upon the well. Master Ge kicked up the tube like a dolphin going for a final triumphant flip and was pulled out of the water by groping hands. I followed him closely, not giving the rope time to tighten between us. Mere seconds behind the old man, I came out of the water as fast as I could. Two pairs of gloved hands grabbed me from either side. Ignoring the water pouring off of me, the soldiers lifted me with ease over the lip of the well. Behind me, another soldier had grabbed the rope at my waist and was pulling the other two.

My eyes adjusted slowly to the light. I blinked a thousand times before my brain understood the wall around the school and made sense of where we were, where we'd started. Only a man on a megaphone trying to restore order matched the bustle of villagers outside the school wall.

Wang Zhangan, our mighty man in charge, was standing over us with hands on his hips and a giant grin pasted on his face.

He appeared to squint behind the aviators covering his eyes. "What happened? Either one of you got much shorter and took a liking to dresses, or somebody's missing. Where is Master Liu?"

Master Ge, also adjusting to the light, scowled up at him from the ground where he lay. "The girl is weak. Get a doctor, her parents too. Don't worry about Master Liu. He'll be back."

Wang Zhangan turned to another nearby soldier, "Send the girl to doc."

Wang Zhangan looked at me and recoiled, "What's wrong with your neck? Maybe you should go too."

Master Ge interrupted him, "No need, he's already taken something."

Wang Zhangan's grin resurfaced. It made me very uncomfortable. "Master Ge," he said, in that strange drawl, "How'd it go down there?"

Master Ge only shook his head. "We'll let Master Liu give a full report when he returns. I can't tell you everything when there's so much I don't know. I-" He stopped, "We will rest for now."

Wang Zhangan nodded in that curt military fashion, " I have arranged a room for you in the village." He motioned for a separate soldier to come.

"Thank you Mr. Wang, but I'd better go to with Xiao Yong. I will contact you when I'm ready."

Wang Zhangan's face snapped shut. When the soldier arrived he told him to find a car, saluted, and then walked away from us in an uncharacteristic silence.

"Where is You Xiaoqing?" I asked Master Ge once we were in the vehicle.

"She's being taken care of, my boy. Don't you worry. Wang Zhangan will send her to her parents when the doctors have checked her over. You can visit her after you rest."

The car we rode in passed the small gaggle of villagers still huddling around the school wall. There weren't nearly as many as yesterday. "Old news fades fast." My dad would've said.

We pulled up to my house and got out. The soldier driving us saluted Master Ge, Zhou Tong, me, and then wheeled the car back towards the school. My mother rushed from the house and threw her arms around me. She kissed my head and face until my cheeks were a bright crimson. "Oh I'm so glad your safe!" She said. After a moment she looked to Master Ge. "Where is Master Liu?"

I gave my best, most confident smile. "He's still down there. He'll be back in a few days."

My hoarse croak of a voice made her eyes widen. "What's wrong with your throat?" She practically yelled at me, shooting a dangerous look at Master Ge.

"The lad's throat is fine." Master Ge said, "He took a medicine to cure those eyes of his. This is a normal reaction."

"There's nothing normal about poisonous zombie pills." I thought.

My dad greeted us as we entered the house and we went through the routine questions again. Master Ge gave the short and sweet, and then turned to my mother, "May we have something to eat? That freeze dried crap the soldiers gave us was terrible."

Mom jumped into action.

Sitting at the kitchen table while my mom cooked around them, Master Ge said to my dad, "Xiao Yong is lucky to have such a godfather." He went on to explain the eye curing medicine and rain praise on Master Liu. The three men chatted for a few minutes until a knock sounded from the door. Heading to open it, I saw Zhao Jie dancing on the front yard through the kitchen window.

Zhao Laohei marched past me directly to Master Ge. "I've heard something terrible, is it true?"

"What have you heard son?" Master Ge asked expressionlessly.

"Is he still down there?" Zhao Laohei's eyes were bulging from his pale face.

Master Ge nodded and began to explain before Zhao Laohei interrupted him. "Thank you for your time." He bowed very low to Master Ge, Zhou Tong, and my father, then took his wife's hand and led her from the house. Zhao Jie and Yuan stayed in the kitchen. All of us were looking after them, waiting for something to happen. Nothing ever did. Zhao Laohei and his wife stomped down the road towards the school.

"That was weird," Zhao Yuan said. She turned to me and Zhao Jie, "Let's go outside and play. I want to hear everything!"

And so we did. And they did. Starting with the swim, I told them about the corridors, the alchemy rooms, the battle, everything. Zhao Jie gasped at the appropriate times and both of them stuck their tongues out when I got to the bushy zombie ball of medicine. I pointed at my throat and uttered a loud "Yuck!" when describing it.

When I came to the ending, after we'd said goodbye to the snake spirits, Zhou Jie bawled at me in a whiny tone, "Why didn't you bring me with you! That sounds so freakin' cool!" He punched me lightly on the shoulder and continued, "I can't believe you actually ate a ball of zombie hair."

"It wasn't zombie hair!" I cried at him, returning the punch, maybe a bit harder than he deserved. "Besides, you don't even know! That medicine made me immortal!" I threw my hands out to either side in a magnificent flourish and smiled as wide as I could.

Zhao Jie looked at me in awe. A small voice in my head chided something along the lines of, "Keep talking and your head will pop." I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt.

Zhao Jie spoke in the awestruck tone only ten year olds specialize in, "Teach me!"

I nodded at once, "Sure!"

Zhao Yuan burst into gales of laughter. She put her hands on her hips and almost doubled over with one powerful guffaw. Wiping tears from her cheeks and gripping her jaw she said, "Oh my face hurts! Xiao Yong you big liar! You're not immortal! I think you're a stupid boy who ate some old nasty grave food and hurt your throat!"

I avoided dinner that night despite the heavy pang of hunger now paying rent in my stomach. The only thing I could swallow was warm water. Even a bite of soft vegetables felt like shards of glass crawling down my swollen throat. My mom asked Master Ge worriedly if I needed to go to the hospital.

"No, he'll be fine. I think he'll survive a little bit of hunger."

That night I dreamt that Gui Yuanzi was chasing me. The tusks jutting from his mouth were terribly long and he slashed at me with poisonous black claws. "What do you want?" I screamed when he finally caught up to me. Just before he unleashed a bout of the black gas from his mouth into mine he said, "My shen yuan back!"

I woke up at midnight in a cold sweat and an empty room. Shaking residual dream tears off my face I pulled my blankets all around me and made sure my feet were safely on the bed. After a few moments I managed to catch up to my heartbeat and wrangle it into a controlled pace. Taking deep breaths, I fell back into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning Master Ge and Zhou Tong visited the school only to come back hours later. They returned, but without Master Liu.

"Was there anything at all?" I asked the two men.

Master Ge shook his head, "We reported to that soldier man," Master Ge didn't seem to like our muscled friend, "But there's been no word of Lui Chunan. What about you Xiao Yong, is your throat better?"

I raised a hand to my neck and found that it wasn't hot or itchy at all. I hummed a little tune and tried to clear my throat. "I think it's back to normal!" I told them with a smile. The dream long lost to my subconscious.

I begged them to come with me and look for Master Liu, but both men disagreed and told me he'd come back in time.

I thought about going alone, though I expected the soldiers would put a stop to my efforts pretty quickly.

I considered Zhao Laohei's peach wood sword. Maybe Zhao Jie and I could borrow it without him knowing and sneak past the soldiers. With that sword we'd be completely safe in the tomb. The idea didn't hold much water. Zhao Laoheo would see us black and blue if we stole his sword.

My mind stayed on Master Liu. I thought constantly of the enormous door and its hidden secrets.

When I couldn't stand it any further I went to Zhou Tong and did my best impression of a bothersome kid. "Please?" Held out for minutes at a time can be a very effective negotiator. When he finally gave in we went back to the school there was nothing to see. The soldiers kept everyone out and the well was under constant supervision.

"Can we go back down there?" I asked Zhou Tong. He shook his head immediately, face going a very stern version of concern.

"Your godfather is very capable and he knows what he's doing. We'd only be in the way. Be patient little man. He'll be back."

After visiting the school and another bout of pleas with my now perfectly capable vocal cords, Zhou Tong and I visited You Xiaoqing. Her story had spread throughout the village, though it wasn't what one would call the truth. Popular consensus held that You Xiaoqing was stricken with a severe case of sleepwalking and a concerned man took her to his home for safekeeping. As far as her parents would say, the very efficient police force was responsible for her safe recovery.

That's what they said and everyone believed it.

When I walked into her room, You Xiaoqing was lying on her bed looking very weak. I sat next to her and we talked for a long time, mostly about the snakes. She told me anew of how she'd found it and how it'd shed its skin time and time again. Her parents popped in the door every now and then to make sure their baby had everything she needed.

After an hour or so I stood up and stretched, ready to leave and head home. You Xiaoqing grabbed my arm with surprising strength. "Xiao Yong," she said in a whisper, "Master Liu came to me last night with… with them."

"Who?" I asked, mimicking her tone of secrecy.

"The snakes!" She said. Her eyes lit up. "He brought them to say goodbye! He's taking them somewhere safe!"

A smile crept across her lips. It made me think of the cooling sensation the snakeskin gave off when I held it in my hand. "Has she felt that way for the last few months? What will that do to her?" I thought.

"He knew you'd visit me." She said, still smiling. "He wanted me to tell you not to worry. He'll be back soon."

I gaped at her in disbelief. "Why didn't he come see me?" I asked her, not really expecting an answer. "What was behind the Hou-faced door?"

"What secrets did he find?"

Chapter end