Keihan knocked on Cragon’s door and pushed it open without waiting for an answer. He knew the little monk was inside, and that the monk knew he was outside. He had felt Cragon’s Qh’i touch his own before he reached the door because he was no longer careful to keep it escaping the surface of his being.
He bowed politely to the monk and said, “Master Cragon, I am here to say that I am perfectly aware that the hearing is going to be in four days. I do not forget things easily and it is not beyond my skill to count backwards.” He stepped into the little monk’s room and closed the door behind him. “And, as you may have suspected, I have been learning the Shaolin martial arts in secret. You have hounded me to discover the truth of it, so there it is, laid out before you. What are you going to do about it?”
Cragon collected his thoughts and said, “That depends entirely on your purpose. What is it? Why have you done this?”
“Because it seemed to me the only option. I came here solely for the purpose of learning your martial art.”
“But I thought you came here because of Mao?”
Keihan shook his head. “Don’t be daft. If it were that I’d hardly feel the need to go to the lengths I did to learn what I did. I am not his servant. Never was! It was his idea to have the masquerade because he felt sorry for me, I guess. We met on the road here and I was worried I would not be allowed to learn from you because I do not possess a noble lineage; neither do I have anyone to recommend me. And in actual fact, if truth be known, there are probably many reasons why I shouldn’t be allowed in. I am not here so I can learn all that bull crap about being a good person and benevolence and forgiveness and kindness and what have you. I am only interested in the fighting arts because I want people to know what I am made of. I want people to know I am a force to be reckoned with, and if any fool dares to cross me! then I’ll make sure he doesn’t live to regret it. My world would be much better without idiots like that blocking my path. I want the power so I shall never again have to submit my will to anyone. You’d never understand what it is like to be so smothered and opposed it makes you ill –”
“Actually,” said Cragon, “you will find I do know what it is like.”
“Yeah, sure,” Keihan sneered. “Of course, everyone imagines they are opposed when they find their whims thwarted.”
“My calling is not a whim. I thought long and hard before rebelling against my family to come here. They wanted me to marry into a trading family and become a clerk; a mere pawn in their eternal trade bickering. I wanted only to come here and take the vows and live my life in the peace and tranquillity of the temple appreciating the finer points of Shaolin teachings. Do you have no calling except for the fighting arts?” asked Cragon. “I fear if that is the case, it does not speak well for the hearing.”
“I feel no calling. I would never dream of becoming a monk,” Keihan folded his arms. “I don’t understand why anyone should. That is the plain truth; so if you must condemn me for it, then go ahead. But leave Mao out of it. He was ignorant of my doings until the very end when he started that nonsense about me becoming a disciple and so I was forced to tell him the truth of it: that being made a disciple has no appeal because I have learned all I need to know, except for the last of your teachings. The only one I could not find referenced in the library. Your epitome Form, the secret scroll. And that I assume is something passed only between monks. And there I am thwarted, poor me.”
“Well, if that is what you think, why are you still here?”
“Because I have made up my mind that I will not leave until I have what I came for, and the last of it is your secret scroll. I am not leaving without it.”
“But from what you have told me, you aren’t fit to possess it. If anything, it is likely to be decided that you should be divested of the knowledge that you have learned, and then be asked to leave,” said Cragon.
Keihan shrugged. “In that case, it has all been for nothing, and you might as well kill me now. But you won’t find that easy.”
“You can leave and find other masters –”
“I am well aware of other masters, but if Shaolin means to smash through my internal gates, then what would be the point?”
“You can escape that if you leave before the hearing,” said Cragon.
Keihan raised his eyebrows. “Why are you recommending me to leave?”
Cragon sighed, “Our temple has nothing to offer you since you are determined to go after your own doom. And you have nothing to offer us. Since it is your destruction you want, it is better away from here. As for what you have already stolen, there is no help for it. I shall pray that you find peace –”
Keihan laughed, “Haven’t you been paying attention? I want your secret scroll and I’m not planning on leaving here without it. I am going to get it or die trying. What is the point of having come this far only to turn away at the last hurdle? Why should I when I am at the final door and have only to wrench it open? And that is precisely what I intend to do if nobody is kind enough to open it for me. So what if all the Shaolin Masters are arrayed against me? You can’t turn me away with your pretty words. That is too easy. You’ll have to throw out my corpse. And I know how much you monks abhor killing a living creature. You want me to leave so you won’t have blood on your hands, don’t you? Well, I have no intention of making it that easy for you!”
Cragon shook his head at this obstinate young man determined to continue heading towards his doom despite his cautioning. “But surely you see that we can’t possibly let you anywhere near the secret scroll given this monstrous instinct you have for destruction? The Shaolin arts must never be used for war.”
“I have no intention of using martial art for war if I can help it. I only want it so that if anyone should war against me they will find themselves very sorry indeed. That is all.”
“I see,” said Cragon. “In that case, will you agree to strike a bargain with me?”
“Explain,” said Keihan.
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“I have no wish to see your blood on our hands if it can be avoided. I can’t give you the secret scroll, but if I give you a chance of obtaining it, will you leave before the hearing?”
“What do you mean?”
“There is a riddle passed only between temple masters which point to the hiding place of the secret scroll. If I tell you this, will you leave before the hearing?”
Keihan thought about it for a second. There was no chance if he had to attend the hearing. This was a slim chance. “Agreed. Monks aren’t allowed to lie, so tell me this riddle. And I will be gone from here before the hearing.”
“Regardless of whether you have the secret scroll or not?”
Keihan hesitated before replying, “You have my word that I shall leave before the hearing.”
“Very well then,” said Cragon. And thus, for the first time in history, the riddle was spoken to one who was neither a monk, nor a white jacket disciple of Shaolin. “I shall tell you the riddle, but I doubt you will be able to solve it. I have known it for the past three years and am no closer to the secret scroll myself, so here it is: Sixty Four Forms of the Shaolin Art fall humble before the Sacred Heart; Shadowless prayers through the flames of Qh’i brings you the Secret Scroll rest within.”
Keihan was silent for a moment. “Is that it?”
“That is the entirety of the riddle. I’ve kept my end of the bargain. Will you keep yours?”
“Very well,” Keihan bowed politely, “Master Cragon.”
As the young man closed the door behind him, and his Qh’i faded away, Cragon shook his head sadly. Now it was out of his hands. He had not lied about having told him the entirety of the riddle. He just neglected to mention one small detail. That, and the difficulty of the riddle itself, made him certain that Keihan would never be able to lay his hands on the scroll before the hearing. Thus the peace of the temple will be kept, and the blood of the young wolf should not be spilled within its environs. The break from tradition and the small lie by omission was an acceptable price.
~~~
Mao woke from an uneasy and brief slumber before the light of dawn (having struggled to fall asleep the night previously) and looked to see if his friend was in the room. The mat was stowed in its usual place and he wondered if his friend had even bothered to return to the room. He dressed quickly and wondered where he should start looking. He was startled to find, upon opening the door, that Keihan was – right outside – sitting on the railing of the walkway, with one leg drawn up so he could rest one arm on it while he leaned against the post, staring across the courtyard with its garden shrubs, rockery and pebbled pathways.
“Kei, how did it go with Cragon Sihfu? Did he tell you what he is going to do about the junior disciples?”
Mao repeated his question as it appeared Keihan didn’t hear him the first time, and then he was startled when Keihan faced him with a scowl, and a harsh, “What are you blithering about, Mao? You sound like an idiot.” Mao realised that Keihan had no idea about the trouble Lingmon was causing against him, and so he explained. As comprehension dawned on Keihan, a certain humour crept into his features and he said, “So, you think I should be concerned over this insignificant speck! That I should quake at the thought of little boys with pebbles?”
“But the fact –”
Mao was cut off when he realised Keihan wasn’t shaking from uncontrollable fear, but laughter. His humour became more apparent, when he suddenly flung his hands into the air, and proclaimed, “Let them come, I shall take on a thousand and deal with them all before breakfast. How dare the irritating little toe-rags cross my path and not know I am not to be trifled with! I shall make them suffer my wrath! I shall make them rue the day they were ever born. So thundered the great and mighty and terrible duke to his assembled bum-lickers.”
“That’s not funny,” said Mao.
“But it is,” said Keihan, in such good humour that he was unable to stay on the railing and had to step down onto the floor to lean on it for support. He felt it was such a good laugh he did it again, with even wilder gestures around his head as if trying to catch numerous flies, and then declared, “And the more the worms writhe the more I yearn to crush their entrails! The more the bastards squirm, the more I wish they’d leave and save me the trouble.” Then he collapsed onto the floor clutching his stomach while Mao stared at him stonily and had to wait until he calmed down enough to ask him, “So, if that wasn’t what you talked to sihfu about, what did you talk to him about?”
Keihan’s good humour snapped and he got to his feet, saying, “Nothing.”
“Can’t be nothing! You were away a long time.”
Keihan shrugged, and said, “So? He told me his sob story. I told him mine. Now we are best of friends.” Then he stalked off in such a foul mood that Mao felt unequal to the task of going after him to press for details. He watched, as Keihan lashed his arm at a shrub near the end of the passageway, and leaves scattered.
In the temple kitchen and yard, the servants started to feel themselves spooked when they saw how Keihan would start a task, only to step away from it to pace a bit scratching his head, before returning to it, only to break off and so on. Eventually, a few of them petitioned Greson Monk to do something about it. Greson did not know what to do so he did nothing, beyond excusing Keihan’s unhinged behaviour on account of his understandably nervous energies. However, when this continued for a day or so, he placed a hand on Keihan’s shoulder and told him to leave off doing the chores; since his elevation from servant status was imminent, there was no point carrying on. However, this did not achieve the result the servants wanted, which was that he should be asked to leave their workplace. Keihan still paced around, and when he didn’t, he was standing in the shadows of archways and suchlike. Some servants were even so freaked out as to say he had the look of a wolf calculating which among them was the weakest and tastiest. They were very glad when upon the afternoon of the day before the hearing, Mao showed up. Some of the more daring servants expressed their delight that the nobleman had come to remove his scary servant. Mao ignored them, intent on his own thoughts concerning how he should treat his troubled friend.
Mao had been thinking through many things, and now decided it was time to demand some explanations. He squatted in front of Keihan who was sitting on a step massaging his forehead with such ferocity that red marks showed on his pale skin.
“Kei, can we talk for a minute?” said Mao.
It was a few minutes before Keihan focused his full attention on Mao, and when he did, he nodded unhappily.
“Let’s go somewhere more quiet.” So Mao led Keihan away from the kitchen environs.
~~~
To start with, when Lingmon heard Keihan’s declaration of going to have it out with Master Cragon, he was fearful that the little monk would take up the matter with him, but as the days passed he was emboldened by the fact that nothing happened. He then reasoned that this was because Cragon probably did not approve of this upstart toad in the first place and that he wasn’t the only monk with this sentiment. Thus he assembled his army and told them that since the arrogant snivelling servant had snitched on him, with no result, it was probable that the monks did not like him and wished him removed, much as any feeling person would wish a thorn removed. Therefore, if they took the initiative and sorted him out, they would be doing the temple a favour and their actions were certain to be approved. Obviously, monks preached benign actions and not doing harm to others, so if they were caught, the monks would make a show of displeasure, so the boys should wait and select the moment when he is away from people who might witness their cause of justice and take it the wrong way. When one of that army saw Mao lead Keihan away from the kitchens, they passed messages to the rest that this might be one such opportunity.
