Taming Poison Dragons Read Online Free Page A

Daughter-in-law.
    For once I fear no reproach. I feel utter certitude.
    Ceremoniously, like a general before the fight, I unroll a scroll prepared with the assistance of Xia-Dong and Lakshi. It sets out the position of my forces.
    I read in a bold voice, so that any unseen listeners are aware of my resolve. For a moment there is a stunned silence in the room. They are unused to decisiveness on my part. Then Headman Wudi calls out: ‘Long live our wise father, Lord Yun Cai!’, and prostrates himself. All follow his lead. Some of the women sob with relief.
    ‘Everything is prepared,’ I say. ‘Wudi, gather the village on pain of my displeasure, young and old, man and woman. The sick or menstruating must stay behind locked doors. See it is done within the hour!’
    He bows his way out and rushes down the hill.
    We use the hour wisely, proceeding to the ancestral shrine Father built in a grove above Three-Step-House.
    There I release white doves from a bamboo cage. The clattering of their wings echoes round the pine trees. Eldest Son can barely disguise his pride. My heart is glad.
    When we reach the gatehouse, hundreds of the peasants await us. They roar with one voice as I arrive. In obedience to my instructions, many bear iron pots and gongs, clay drums and musical instruments. Others carry branches of willow, peach or artemisia, which they wave like swords. Eldest Son and my grandsons are armed with squares of paper bearing potent characters and spells.
    We proceed on the route I have chosen. The uproar is continual. First we drive the demons and ghosts to the west of the valley, blocking their return with spells speared on twigs. The wind rises as if in approval, blowing invisible spirits before us like whirling leaves. And so through the cardinal points of north and south. At each I build a wall of sacrifice, burning incense on a brazier and pouring out sacred earth from the ancestral shrine. In the south, where Two-Face-Crag rises, Xia-Dong ladles out a jar of water while Devout Lakshi chants, transfixing sheep lungs on a stake.
    I lead the procession to the village well. Here the Goddess of Wei Valley may often be glimpsed, smiling up at the villagers, especially on moon-lit nights.
    By now wine flows through the crowd and jubilation is general. We march east, our final cardinal point. A frenzy of noise makes the valley echo. Peasants beat the air with branches, flattening bushes beside the road where stubborn demons lurk.
    At last we reach the bend where the valley narrows between pine-clad hillsides. Monkeys scream and swing through the trees, alarmed by our approach. Meanwhile the remainder of our spells are fixed with iron nails onto the trees, effectively closing the gates on the hostile spirits who flee before us. Xia-Dong sets fire to branches of artemisia, thus satisfying the fifth element. It is done. Our valley purified. Finally, we spit prodigiously, for demons hate to be spat at.
    In the strange way of crowds, we fall silent. People look around nervously. Mothers reach out for their children. A drumming of hooves approaches from the east. Cries of men in battle. I have heard that noise before, such wild shouts, long ago when I was young. Dread fills me.
    ‘Wudi!’ I bellow. ‘Order the people into the trees!
    Quickly, to the trees!’
    He hesitates for breath only.
    ‘Follow Lord Yun Cai! To the trees! Leave the road! To the trees!’
    Panic flutters through the crowd. We become a mass of elbows, heels, jostling bodies. The drumming of hooves grows louder. Before half the people have left the road, horsemen appear round the bend in the valley, whipping their mounts.
    A dozen armoured cavalry wearing sky-blue cloaks, the emperor’s colour, thunder through us. Dust and neighing fills the air, cries of children. Behind them come a larger group of horsemen on shaggy ponies. They bend bows and release a hail of arrows.
    Screams amongst the scrambling villagers. One man falls, an arrow piercing his