“And what is that message?” AnGangseh asked.
Gigantic beads of sweat began to run down HukJee's bloated forehead and cheeks. “The message is, if I don't give you any information I have, you will kill my family. Then afterward, most certainly, you will kill me. Considering how close you both are to the Emperor, I should keep in mind that there is nothing I nor anyone else can do about it.”
Tonglong nodded approvingly. “I've always heard that pigs are intelligent creatures. Now I know this to be true. I will ask you one more time, HukJee—what is your best guess as to Ying's current location?”
HukJee took a deep breath and exhaled. He wiped more tears from his eyes. “If I had to wager my life, which it appears I do, I would guess that Ying is on a quest for dragon bone.”
“Dragon bone?” Tonglong said. “Why?”
HukJee shook his behemoth head. “How am I supposed to know these things? I only heard that a young girl with short hair purchased a small quantity of dragon bone in a village upstream early yesterday. Apparently, she wanted more, but everyone was sold out. She was seen leaving with another individual in a skiff. They headed farther upstream. Since rumors claim she looked just like the girl in your new wanted posters, perhaps the person with her was Ying.”
“That has to be them,” AnGangseh said. “She went upstream, you sssay? Clever girl.”
“Indeed,” Tonglong said. He glared at HukJee. “Is this all you know?”
“Yes,” HukJee replied. “I swear on my life, and on the life of my poor nephew.” He sniffled.
Tonglong turned away from HukJee and whispered into his mother's ear, “Where do you think they are going? Back to Kaifeng to search for the bandits?”
AnGangseh shook her head. “The Grand Canal is upstream.”
“Of course,” Tonglong whispered. “The map! Ying is going to follow it while looking for dragon bone. He would not have destroyed the scroll the other night unless he had another copy. The girl must be going along to help him. He knows he cannot show his face. We need to track them.”
AnGangseh nodded.
Tonglong straightened and turned to HukJee. “Here are your orders, you oversized, sniveling ham hock. Send word through your network of black-market suppliers that Ying and a young girl with pale skin and short brown hair will be traveling south along the Grand Canal seeking powdered dragon bone. No one is to sell them any until further notice. Violators will have to deal with me personally. I need you to set up a system to track their positions and keep me apprised. My mother and I will be traveling that way with the Emperor in the coming weeks. We shouldn't be difficult to find. I look forward to hearing from members of your network along the way.”
HukJee swallowed hard, his numerous chins jiggling. “I understand.”
“Pleasure doing business with you, Pig,” Tonglong said. He stepped over HukJee's nephew and walked out of the office, his mother slithering along beside him.
Ying sat alone in the skiff on the bank of the Grand Canal, half a It south of a nameless village. He was waiting for Hok to return on foot in the fading daylight. She had visited ten similar villages over the past week and had searched each for dragon bone, but had returned empty-handed every time. Ying was beginning to lose patience.
Ying and Hok had reached the Grand Canal the first night they shoved off together, and since then the scenery had changed little. The canal was wide, more than one hundred paces across, with stone walls protecting the shores of the villages. Outside of the populated areas, however, the canal walls fell quickly away to become muddy, unprotected banks, giving the appearance of a typical river.
Ying knew that the canal stretched for more than a thousand It from end to end and was dug entirely by hand. It was the country's main north/south route for transporting goods and was considered one of man kind's greatest accomplishments. Some said even greater than the Great Wall.
Ying was not impressed by many things, but the thought of hundreds of thousands of men working together, digging for years to complete the Grand Canal, gave him pause. He was certain they would have been under pressure to complete it in a certain time frame, and wondered how long it actually took.
Time was something Ying felt he was running out of. While they had not encountered any major obstacles, he and Hok were not making great progress. Not only were they stopping often for Hok to fruitlessly shop for dragon bone, but there were stretches of the canal where the land sloped so steeply that locks were required to raise and lower boats.
The locks were another marvel of engineering, but one that Ying could do without. They cost money and time to navigate, and every one meant a chance that he and Hok might be recognized. Whenever possible, they would navigate the locks in the middle of the day, when boat traffic was heaviest. With so many boats jostling for position, bumping and crashing into one another, no one bothered to scrutinize Ying's masked face or Hok's turbaned head.