As the Tao Tei’s body slumped into lifelessness, Pero asked caustically, “This is where you want to die?”
“Wherever we go, you always ask me that.” William whirled and fired more arrows as another Tao Tei hurled itself out of the fog towards them.
Pero leaped forward to finish the Tao Tei off, then deflected the attack of another of the creatures, giving William time to fire another pair of arrows into its eyes.
“And you never answer!”
William grinned, exhilarated by the adrenaline pumping through his system, and in the lull between attacks rushed across to the unconscious Tao Tei. He examined the chain, which, though a little mangled by Tao Tei teeth, looked as though it would hold okay, and then the harpoon, the metal of which was splintered and frayed like old rope.
Quickly he looped the slack length of chain lying on the ground around one of the creature’s stumpy, powerful legs and cinched it as tight as he could. He gave three hard yanks on the chain, hoping the winch bearers above would recognize it as a signal that they should reel the creature in. How he and Pero would get out of their current predicament he didn’t know, but it was a question he’d asked himself a hundred times before. So far they had managed to get by on their wits, their skill and an awful lot of luck.
Another Tao Tei came out of the fog at them, and then, almost simultaneously, another. Perhaps they could smell his and Pero’s blood and were starting to home in. Or maybe they were alarmed at the thought of one of their own kind in the hands of the enemy, and were swarming forward to prevent that happening.
It certainly seemed to William that those up above had received and understood his message. Slowly—too slowly—the chain was tightening and the Tao Tei’s limp body was rising into the air. It hung upside down by one leg, its huge arms dangling either side of its head, black talons scraping the stonework of the Wall as it was hauled up, inch by painstaking inch.
William and Pero, meanwhile, were fighting a desperate rearguard action, spinning and jumping and firing and slashing, relying on their speed and their instincts to defend their valuable prize as the Tao Tei came at them from all sides. But whereas they were slowly but surely beginning to tire, the Tao Tei were not. And whereas William was running out of arrows, and didn’t have time to retrieve any of the ones he had fired, the Tao Tei had teeth and claws to spare.
Although the winch bearers were working hard, and the chain was gradually being reeled in, Lin Mae knew it was taking far too long. She was also worried about William. If he wasn’t dead already, he very soon would be.
“Prepare black powder weapons!” she yelled.
Chen, at the winch, looked up at her, shocked. “General?”
“Do it!”
The attacking Tao Tei were now little more than a blurred chaos of green flesh, black talons and teeth-lined maws rushing at them out of the fog. One of them bit down on Pero’s axe blade as he swung it and jerked its head back, lifting him off his feet, and causing him to cry out as his shoulder was almost wrenched from its socket. William spun and let loose two arrows, piercing the creature’s eyes. Pero fell back to earth as the creature collapsed. But before he had time to take evasive action, another Tao Tei came at William from the side, swinging a claw and knocking him over. He sprawled on the sand as the creature charged, its jaws yawning wide.
On the top of the Wall, Bear Corps warriors were carrying locked metal boxes from the towers. The instant the boxes were placed on the ground, they were unlocked and thrown open by Eagle, Deer and Tiger Corps warriors. The contents of the boxes—black powder arrows and lances—were rapidly lifted out and passed along the ranks.
“Light the fuses!” Lin Mae shouted.
Desperately William thrust his bow forward, jamming it between the creature’s wide open jaws. It screeched and bit down, but although the bow bent it didn’t break. Frustrated, the creature lashed out, its claw catching William on the shoulder as he tried to stand up and sending him spinning through the air again. He landed heavily, his fall partly broken by the dead body of another Tao Tei.
He had no idea where Pero was. The fog shrouded everything beyond a six feet radius. Suddenly there was a sizzling whoosh and a soft thud. William turned his head to see what looked like the shaft of an arrow sticking up out of the ground. Curiously the arrow was still sizzling and smoking.
Instinctively he turned away to shield his face, as with an enormous bang the arrow exploded in an eruption of crimson flame. William felt red hot sand pattering down on him, stinging the backs of his hands. When the sand stopped falling he swung back round, his ears ringing from the explosion. He saw a huge ball of fire rising and engulfing the creature that had attacked him, black grainy smoke mixing with the fog, reducing his vision still further. His body trembling, as though shock waves were still running through it, he struggled to his feet and began to stagger through the fog, calling Pero’s name in a voice that felt thick and muffled in his ears.
As though from far, far away he heard Pero’s answering cry. “William? Damn it, William!”
Standing among the burned remains of the creature whose mouth he had jammed with his bow—a blackened claw here, a lump of charred meat that might have been its head there—he swung this way and that, trying to locate the source of his friend’s voice.
Then he saw movement in the gritty grey fog, something shambling slowly towards him. He tensed, but almost immediately realized the figure was too short and thin to be a Tao Tei.
But what was this? His friend or some kind of demon? The figure’s skin was black, its clothes hanging in tattered rags.
“Pero?” William said uncertainly.
The figure slowly raised its head. But before it could answer, there was another enormous explosion from somewhere behind it, and propelled by a gout of fiery air it was thrown forward, smashing into William, the two of them landing in a choking sprawl of flailing limbs.
Coughing, his eyes gritty with smoke, William rolled on to his front, pushed himself up on his hands and knees. Beside him the ragged figure was lying on its back, its body racked by spluttering coughs. William wiped his eyes and looked at it more closely—and was delighted to discover that it was Pero.
He was about to say his friend’s name when a shattering roar interrupted him. Turning to his right, he saw a Tao Tei charging towards them through the grimy air, head low and mouth wide open, as though to scoop them into its maw and swallow them whole. William grabbed at Pero’s arm, trying to haul him up, but Pero was as limp as a corpse. He looked around for something he could use to defend himself with, but there was nothing except charred and burning meat. His bow had been lost when the creature had died in the explosion and Pero had stumbled into view with no weapon in his hand. Which meant that out here, in this environment, they were now as helpless as babies.
When the Tao Tei was no more than six feet away from them, another arrow sizzled down from the sky and lodged itself in the creature’s mouth, burying itself deep within its rows of teeth. Perhaps in pain, perhaps by instinct, the creature clamped its jaw shut.
It was almost certainly this action that saved William and Pero’s lives.
The arrow exploded inside the Tao Tei’s mouth, blowing its head into a thousand pieces. Bombarded by a rain of flesh and green blood, William reeled and spun, his head ringing as if he’d been caught with a knock out punch. He tried to stay upright, but his vision was spinning and closing down, and he no longer had control over his limbs. The sky swooped away from him, but he didn’t realize he’d fallen until he tasted sand in his mouth.