he shouted to Chen, who stopped in his tracks and stared dumbly back at Zhang. "If you don"t get out, I"ll throw her to the wolves!" He picked the girl up and swung her about above his head. Chen heart pounded and his brain whirled in confusion.
"Ride out and lead the wolves away!" Zhang shouted again.
Chen knew Zhang would do what he said and so he slowly untied the white horse"s reins and mounted up.
"I"ll count to three. If you"re not out of the circle by then, I"ll let her go. One....two....three!" As he said three, the white horse bounded out of the ring.
Chen landed in the midst of the wolves, grabbed the first two that attacked him by the scruffs of their necks, then turned the horse round, soared back into the ring of fire and flung them at Zhang.
With two such ferocious animals flying at him, Zhang was forced to drop Princess Fragrance to protect himself. Chen threw two of his chess pieces at him, scooped Princess Fragrance up, then leapt out of the circle of fire once more with another horse close behind: Huo Qingtong had taken advantage of the fight to cut the reins of a horse and mount up without the Three Devils noticing.
She and Chen waded through the wolf pack, slashing right and left with their weapons as if chopping vegetables, and in a moment, the two horses were out in the open and galloping off westwards with the wolf pack chasing behind. The horses were much faster than the wolves, and before long, they had left the pack far behind. But Chen knew the hard part would be staying ahead of these tireless, hungry beasts.
** 9 **
As the three rode along, the land about them gradually became more rocky and a crooked path appeared. It grew dark, and the White Jade Peak began to tower over them.
"According to the map, the Secret City was built around the base of the mountain," said Huo Qingtong. "It doesn"t look as if it would be more than three or four miles from here." The three dismounted and gave their two horses some water.
Chen stroked the white horse"s mane lovingly, knowing that without it, he would never have been able to rescue Princess Fragrance. He also knew he would not have left without her.
They rested for a while until the horses had recovered some of their strength and then continued on, the cries of the wolves already vaguely discernible in the distance. Chen rode the chestnut horse alone and the two sisters rode together on the white horse.
The night was cool and the snow on the peak glistened brilliant white under the moon, looking almost close enough to touch. The path became rough and treacherous and suddenly split a dozen or so ways, with no indication of which was the correct one.
"With so many paths, it"s not surprising people get lost," said Chen. Huo Qingtong pulled out the map and examined it under the moonlight.
"It says: `left three right two"," she said.
"What does that mean?"
"It doesn"t explain." In the distance, they heard the wolves howling in unison.
"It"s about midnight," Huo Qingtong said. "They must have stopped to howl at the moon. When they"ve finished, they will be after us again. We must choose the path and go quickly."
"There are five paths on the left here," said Chen pointing. "The map says left three right two, so let"s take the third."
"If it"s a dead end, we won"t have time to come back again," replied Huo Qingtong.
"In that case, the three of us will die together," said Chen.
As Chen spoke, Huo Qingtong felt a sudden warmth in her breast and tears welled into her eyes. She raised her horse whip and led them into the middle path.
The track narrowed into a stone-walled corridor which had obviously been hacked out of the mountainside by men. After a while, they came to another crossroads from which three paths branched out to the right.
"We"re saved!