Free Snake by Jeff Stone Page B

pigs roasted whole. Thankfully, he didn't see any monkeys, a meat he remembered Hung favored.
    “Hey, Seh!” Malao shouted. “Come sit by me!”
    Seh glanced at the head of the table and saw Malao sitting near Mong. Gao sat on one side of Malao, NgGung on the other. Malao was wearing a new purple robe and matching pants. Seh wondered where he'd gotten them. Seh was still wearing the same blue silk robe and pants NgGung had given him the night Cangzhen was destroyed.
    Malao wasn't the only one to receive new clothes. Fu sat across from Malao, wearing an oversized robe and matching pants made of brilliant white silk. He looked like a big puffy cloud. Hung sat next to Fu.
    Seh stifled a grin and headed toward Malao. NgGung and Gao scooted over so that Seh could sit with them. Seh adjusted the three scrolls in the folds of his robe, pulled his sleeve down over the snake on his wrist, and sat down.
    Someone growled across the table and Seh glanced over, expecting to hear a complaint about bringing asnake to the dinner table. Instead, he saw Fu and Hung both grabbing hold of the same steamed chicken. Fu had one leg. Hung had the other.
    Fu snarled and yanked the chicken in his direction. Hung held fast. Fu was left holding only one leg.
    Fu reached for the rest of the chicken, and Hung snatched it away. Hung raised the entire carcass to his face and sank his teeth deep into the breast meat. Golden juice dribbled through his heavy beard down his neck.
    Fu's eyes narrowed. He grabbed hold of a whole roast duck and began to lift it to his mouth. Hung dropped the chicken and swiped at Fu's duck with a massive bear-claw fist. Hung connected, his dirty fingernails digging into Fu's duck.
    Fu grimaced and let go, slamming his fists on the tabletop. He glared at Hung as Hung tore into the duck.
    “Relax, Fu,” Seh said. “There's plenty of food to go around. No need to get into a food fight.”
    “Food fight?” Fu growled. “That's not a food fight.
This
is a food fight!” Fu scooped up a double handful of boiled pig intestines and hurled them at Hung's head.
    “ARRRRRRR!” Hung roared. He stood, flinging intestines out of his eyes. Hung picked up a whole smoked cow tongue and raised it high over his head. The long, thick tongue flopped back and forth, painting everyone in the immediate vicinity with specks of brown sauce.
    “Hung!” Mong shouted. “Put the tongue down.”
    Hung's beady eyes narrowed.
    “Drop it,” Mong said. “Now.”
    Hung dropped the tongue. It splashed into a large pot of corn chowder.
    “Find someplace else to sit,” Mong said. “That's an order.”
    Hung growled and walked to the opposite end of the table.
    Malao jabbed Seh in the ribs and began to giggle uncontrollably. “Did you see that? Fu almost got a licking from Hung!”
    The bandits burst into laughter. Even Fu grinned.
    Seh shook his head and reached for a bowl of pickled carrots. The pit of his stomach began to tingle, and the snake tightened on his arm.
    Seh froze. The
chi
energy patterns radiating from whoever just entered the doorway seemed oddly familiar. He spun around on the bench and saw a small, hooded figure slip into the room, clad head to toe in several layers of black silk. An eerie wave of silence washed over the room as the figure glided across the floor in a series of subtle curves, never moving in a straight line. Even Malao quieted down.
    Seh heard Gao whisper to Malao, “Whatever you do, don't look into her eyes.”
    Seh swallowed hard when the woman stopped in front of him. Two small hands emerged from within oversized robe sleeves and slowly lifted back the black hood. What was revealed was the most striking face Seh had ever seen.
    The woman's skin was dark, yet seemed to glow in the light of the hall's lanterns. She had full red lips, a tiny nose, and high cheekbones that sloped down to a delicate, angular jaw. And then there was her hair. Luxurious and black as midnight, it cascaded over her shoulders and