While stretching his arms and legs, Huan looked up at the inner wall of Han Luo fortress. He gave a brief groan. His back muscles were still twanging from the pain of climbing the Han Luo’s immense outer wall, and seeing the inner wall reminded him that had been just the first step of many.

Think of Mei.

Readjusting the rope and bag of tools on his shoulders, he palmed two climbing nails and then slid into a dark corner. After checking to make sure he couldn’t be seen by the guards patrolling the walls, he started his climb. As he pushed through the pain in his back and feet, he asked himself why he was breaking into one of the most heavily guarded fortresses in Tuqu. The answer was simple. His sister wouldn’t be happy otherwise. With any luck, she was sleeping off the drugs he’d slipped into her dinner. He planned to apologize with the best souvenir ever.

“Did you hear something?”

Huan froze, pressed himself into the shadowy corner, and breathed slowly to calm his racing heart. Above him in the archery tower, a guard peered out into the night.

“Ah, I think it was a bat or something. No rampaging hordes tonight.”

“If they knew who was here, they’d run. Hell, I’d run.”

“That’s probably why General Mao was sober this morning. Drunk men can’t run very fast.”

“Then you haven’t seen me drunk!”

As the guards continued to chat, Huan worked his way up the wall, listening carefully for any gaps in the conversation so they wouldn’t notice the clink of nail on stone. Now with adrenaline driving him, he scaled the wall in record time and alighted on the top just out of sight of the archery tower. Tucking the climbing nails into his pocket, Huan slipped on a pair of rubber-soled shoes and padded softly toward his target, a giant tower erected at the back of the fortress.

That was step two.

Both reconnaissance and experience told Huan that the guards on the inside of the walls were far less vigilant than their counterparts outside them, since they knew nothing could get in. His footsteps muffled even on the hard stone, he dashed from shadow to shadow, making sure the guards in the tower above couldn’t see him with their lanterns. Seeing that it was so easy, Huan briefly considered heading upstairs and helping himself, but luckily for the owner of the weapons, scrolls, and not least of all, gold stored on those floors, Huan wasn’t going up. He stuck to the bottom floor, slipping in behind a patrol making their rounds.

“Did you see Na Jen?” said one of the guards. “She wears the best armor!”

“She certainly got General Mao to sober up. Now we know what it takes.”

“The strength to crush rocks with your bare hands?”

“At least.”

As they walked out of sight, Huan slipped into the building. Following the map he’d stolen last week, he crept down the hallway and then scrambled up the wall and into the rafters where he peeked around the corner. Four of the tallest men he’d ever seen were guarding an unassuming metal cage. They were dressed in steel armor and armed with spears, which they kept aimed at the corridor in front of them. If Huan hadn’t jumped up to the ceiling before looking, they definitely would have seen him. Slipping his hand into his bag, Huan pulled out a glass ball filled with a drug that could knock out an elephant in an instant. It had been expensive, and part of Huan still wanted to see if he could hawk it to get his money back. Sighing at the loss, he started to aim.

A blast shook the tower, nearly knocking Huan out of the rafters.

“What was that?’

“Someone set off fireworks at the front gate!”

“Rebels?”

“Go get water!”

As one, the four guards advanced, two of them marching right under Huan. Before he could react, a messenger ran up to the guards and kneeled.

“Someone loaded up a wagon full of fireworks and rammed it into the gate,” said the messenger. “General Mao wants us on high alert!”

A horn sounded twice as the messenger raced away, leaving the motionless guards standing under Huan. Covering his mouth, Huan tried not to smile at his good luck as he let the glass ball drop right in the middle of the guards. As promised, all four of them fell to the ground in a clatter of armor and weapons. Dropping down from the ceiling and stepping over the comatose guards, Huan walked over to the cage and inspected the lock. He expected it to be a masterpiece, something that only the best thieves could crack, but when he got past the ornate exterior, he had to stifle a laugh. All it took was a gentle prod from his knife, and the lock almost came apart in his hands.

Someone pocketed that money.

Entering the cage, Huan found a series of levers and pulleys, a complex and arcane control scheme for a system Huan was still amazed actually existed. Hoping that the weeks it had taken him to find the man who’d built the cage, copy that man’s plans, and then figure them out would pay off, Huan pulled the second lever from the right. With a groan, the cage jerked and then started to descend into the floor. By the light of the cage’s oil lamp, Huan saw one of the guards start to twitch.

Well, that’s step three.

As the cage jerked its way downwards, the solid stone foundation of the fortress gave way to the empty air of a large cave. Peering out into the darkness, Huan searched for anything that would help him with the next step. After months of conning bureaucrats and breaking into registry offices, the only thing he knew about this place was that it existed. Only the members of the Jade Lotus and the twelve members of the ShengXiao Guard were allowed to enter this cave, and Huan had failed to find a member of the Jade Lotus who wasn’t holed up in a palace surrounded by dozens of witnesses and guards. As for the ShengXiao Guard, their identities were closely held secrets, protected by masks styled after each of the twelve animals of the Tuquese Zodiac. People said they were mystics, sorcerers, assassins, even kings. The only thing Huan had been able to confirm was that the Yinshi, the Tiger, had died in battle a couple of years ago. Useless information that had cost more than that glass ball.

When the cage rattled to a stop, Huan pulled a torch out of his bag and lit it. The flame revealed a series of shelves and behind them a ten-foot-high wall of carved cave stone. Stepping out of the cage, He checked out what was on the first shelf, but only found scrolls filled with strange interlocking symbols. He didn’t know what they were, but he’d seen them on the clothing of the Jade Lotus. He guessed that it was probably some weird form of writing, intended to keep secrets out of the hands of common folk.

After checking all the shelves, Huan found a staircase cut into the cave that led to upwards. Climbing them, he found yet more shelves and walked past them to another set of stairs on the far end. Ascending these, he looked back and saw that the levels had been terraced, each level set back from the one below. He could still see the cage by the light of its oil lamp. Shrugging, he turned around.

A mask glared at him.

“What the—!”

When it didn’t move, Huan took a closer look at the wooden Tiger mask, which had unfamiliar characters painted into its stripes. Still Huan felt like he’d heard of this mask, and his suspicions were confirmed when he read the label on the mask’s pedestal.

Yinshi, May the Tiger’s Eyes and Strength protect you.

Huan had to keep himself from just grabbing the mask and stuffing it into his bag. If he stole the Yinshi mask, he’d be a legend with songs sung about him and beautiful women swooning into the arms of the handsome men who played him on stage. It was tempting.

Think of Mei.

Mournfully, he stepped away from the mask and started to walk down the corridor to the next set of stairs. Stopping, he sighed, went back, and stuffed the mask’s label into his bag. It wasn’t worth a song, but it would have to do. He stole the labels from the other eleven platforms and then walked up the stairs. Unlike the others, there was a solid iron door built into the stone wall at the top. When Huan opened it, his eyes burned from the bright light streaming from the ceiling. Once his vision cleared, he gasped in wonder.

The room was filled with weapons and armor that Huan had only heard rumors of. To his left lay a segmented sword arranged on a shelf. To his right stood a bronze suit of armor, which sparked on its wooden stand. Each item was something a thief would give his right hand to nab, and there was more of it than Huan had ever dreamed. He’d thought the name, Vault of Legends, was just hyperbole, something dramatic to whisper into someone’s ear. Apparently it was simply a description. Shaking off the itch to steal everything in the room, Huan focused on what he was here for, something that had never made it into tall tales. His father had forged its barrel and carved its stock and let Huan assemble it. It was Mei, his sister, who’d learned how to shoot, clean it, and care for it, and she’d delighted their mother with the meat she’d brought home. Just because a member of the Jade Lotus had stored it here after ordering the execution of their parents didn’t mean it was a legend. It was his sister’s. Huan found what he was looking for at the back of the room.

Mei’s rifled hand cannon, their father’s last work, was set on a stand at the back of the vault like it was a famous sword. The leather case that their mother had made for it was just below it. Huan picked it up and scoffed.

Of course, they’d let dust and grime foul up the mechanism.

His sister didn’t need to see it like this. If they’d been this careless with it, then they might have lost some pieces. Carefully, Huan took apart the rifle and checked that each part was in place from the priming pan to the trigger guard, cleaning as he went. After reassembling the rifle, he wiped its leather case and slid it in. Slinging the case over his shoulder, he turned to leave.

“Magister Shi wondered how it was put together. He didn’t let me smash it to find out.”

Huan froze, not sure where the chittering voice was coming from.

“Wow, you really didn’t hold back on the guards. What did you use? We can’t get them to wake up at all.”

Huan looked up and received a smack in the face. He fell on his side then rolled, barely dodging the blow from a staff that dented the floor. Flipping to his feet, Huan faced the small female figure in front of him, leering at him from behind the wide ears and grinning face of a monkey. The ShengXiao guard spun her bo staff once and took a low fighting stance. Without hesitation, Huan ran, dodging around a suit of burning armor and making for the door.

“No, you get to stay and play!”

Huan dived to dodge a hearty swing from Monkey and made it to the door where an uppercut sent him spinning backwards. A huge man with huge ears and whiskers peered down at him.

“Stay still,” said Rat.

In reply, Huan kicked him in the balls. As Rat wailed, Huan vaulted over him and dashed down the stairs. Since the cave was terraced, he decided to just jump from level to level. Before he could start, a hand closed around his ankle.

“You fucker.”

Rat picked Huan up and smashed him face first into the back wall of the cave. Winded, Huan just managed to kick himself free when Monkey vaulted over both of them, landing just behind him. Panicking, Huan grabbed a mask pedestal and threw it, blocking Monkey’s vision and giving Huan time to turn to punch Rat. His fist passed through empty air as Rat shrank to half size and delivered a hard blow to Huan’s solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him. Winded, Huan tried to grapple the shrunken man, but Rat turned huge again and neatly threw Huan over his shoulder, smashing him into another mask pedestal. Grabbing it, Huan swung it at Rat’s feet, causing the man to stagger.

As Huan stood up, Monkey sailed over Rat’s head and double-kicked Huan in the face, sending him tumbling backwards into another stand. Cursing, Huan wiped blood off his lip, got to his feet and grabbed the nearest pedestal. Something fell to the ground. He looked down and saw the Yinshi mask. Without another thought, Huan flung the stand aside and put on the mask, praying the rumors were true.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

Huan barely dodged three thrusts from Monkey’s quarterstaff. Rat pulled her back, drew a shining double-edged sword and advanced on Huan, using the sword to keep him from jumping to freedom. Huan backed up, not wanting a blade in the back if he turned and ran toward the stairs. It was looking like the mask was a bust anyway. He decided it would make a better hostage. Huan noticed that the cave was much brighter now.

Had they lit more candles on their way in?

“Take that off!”

Huan fell away, and Tiger caught Monkey’s staff and flung her toward Rat, who sidestepped out of the way of her flailing body. The big man raised his sword and advanced. He feinted right to test Tiger’s reaction, slashed to force Tiger back, and then left a small opening to spring a—

In a flash, Tiger’s fingers were digging into Rat’s thick neck. Desperately, Rat tried to bring his sword to bear, but Tiger bit his wrist and the sword fell clattering to the lower level, allowing Tiger to continue to strangle Rat. Shouting, Monkey kicked Tiger hard, forcing him to release Rat so she could follow up with a heavy staff thrust to the ribs. The blow sent Tiger tumbling down to the lower level and Huan returned, wheezing. He tried to focus, his body buzzing with the desire to attack while he tugged at it to flee.

He’d just managed to steer himself back toward the cage when Rat and Monkey landed in front of him and dropped into fighting stances. Desperate, Huan dove for Rat’s sword, which he’d landed next to when he fell, and held it out in front of him. Huan felt the beast push forward and his tongue licked his lips of its own accord.

“Just…get out of my way,” Huan said, Tiger growling beneath his words. “I’ll…I’ll leave the mask outside the front gate or something. I don’t even want it.”

Monkey spat.

“Like we’d let a thief walk out of here alive,” she said.

“Don’t talk to him,” said Rat, his voice a soft whisper.

“I can take him.”

“I’m not sure you can,” said Huan, as Tiger inspected her slim neck.

“Fuck you!”

Monkey charged, her staff a whirlwind. As she brought it down on his head, Tiger caught the staff with his left hand, ignoring the pop in Huan’s shoulder. In one motion, he pushed aside the staff and thrust the sword at Monkey’s neck.

“Xiaoming!” shouted Rat.

Rat appeared in front of Tiger, and the sword sank into the man’s belly. The rounded ears on the Rat mask shook as its owner fell back and tripped over Monkey.

She gaped at her colleague. “Chan? Chan!”

Satisfied, Tiger faded and Huan fled, pausing only to tug the sword out of Rat’s body. Jumping down to the lowest level, he made it to the cage before Monkey could follow. As he pulled the last lever on the left, he heard Monkey’s wails as the cage started to ascend. With danger gone, Tiger retreated to a corner, leaving Huan exhausted. Shaking, Huan pulled at the mask, trying to get it off, but he couldn’t find the seam where his face started and the mask ended. All he could feel was a rapidly thickening layer of fur. Then he nicked himself with his nails.

“Shit.”

He looked down at his fingers and saw claws.

“Shit!”

When the cage rattled to a stop, Huan stumbled out, stepped over the still comatose guards and started to run.

“Stop.”

The voice, authoritative and sure, banished Tiger completely from the tired and battered thief’s mind. Fully in control, Huan turned to face the voice’s owner. The warrior in front of him was seven feet tall and bore a spear that reached up into the rafters. The only armor she wore was a chest plate, and her bulging arms were bare. Those arms were already the basis for a hasty retreat, and the woman’s Dragon mask was the basis for prayer. Sensing danger, Tiger tried to rise again, but Huan kept him back and brought Rat’s sword forward in a dimly remembered pose his mother had taught him long ago.

“The Li style,” said Dragon. “Rare nowadays.”

Her voice pushed Tiger back even further, allowing Huan’s fear to kick in. He started to inch away from Dragon.

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” he said. “Thought everyone did it this way.”

“Leave the mask, the sword, and the cannon here,” said Dragon, “and I’ll let you go.”

His hands shaking, Huan pulled the mask up so she could see his face, relieved that the mask could come off now.

“How about just the mask?” he asked, tugging at it. “I didn’t even want to take it.” The mask felt glued to his scalp.

“Just give me a min— Whoa!”

Dragon’s spear drilled a hole in the space Huan had just been. He pulled the mask back over his face, prompting Tiger to roar to the surface. This time Huan indulged the beast, letting Tiger parry the spear with Rat’s sword while Huan tried to think of a way out of this. It took him two near misses to think of a dumb plan.

As Dragon wound up for another round of vigorous spear thrusts, he threw Rat’s bloody blade into her face, and in the moment it took her to knock it away, Huan got his climbing ropes out of his pack. Seeing them, Dragon watched him warily for a moment and then her spear was barreling toward Huan’s chest. Deftly Huan sidestepped and looped the rope around the haft of the spear. When Dragon tried to pull the spear back, he pulled on the rope just long enough for her to use all her strength, and then let go. When she tumbled to the ground, Huan ran, Tiger whining in disappointment at the failure to take down his prey.

He made it as far as the courtyard before Dragon’s shout boomed into the night.

“Archers, shoot the thief!”

Through Tiger’s ears, Huan heard a dozen bowstrings twang at once. Two arrows nicked him as he ran to the center of the courtyard. As more than three dozen arrows were notched, Huan regretted dying and leaving his sister alone.

BOOM!

Suddenly it was New Year’s again as the night sky lit up with fireworks, some of which landed among the archers as they scrambled for cover. Grateful, Huan used Tiger’s strength to make it the final few wirs to the front gate. More fireworks went off as he approached, scattering the guards with their dancing red and yellow sparks. Vaulting over the cowering guards, Huan made it to the gate and unbarred the massive door.

“Stop!”

This time Dragon’s voice didn’t still Tiger. Huan pushed open the door and fled down the road where a small figure stood. As he approached her, she held out her hand.

“Mei, what are you doing here?” he asked.

Mei kept her hand open. Huan tried to pull her away, but she fended him off and kept her hand out.

“Fine.”

Huan handed her the rifle. In a flurry of motion, she pulled it out of its case, loaded it with a small lead bullet and powder, and aimed along its barrel. Dragon had already made it as far as the gate.

“Stop!” Dragon’s voice betrayed a torrent of anger. “Stop, now!”

Mei pulled the trigger, and the rifle gave off a crack and a small cloud of smoke. Dragon was still charging toward them, still roaring for them to stop. Before Huan could contemplate his sister missing, Dragon fell to the ground, clutching her ankle. A believer again, Huan pulled his sister away and into the forest.

***

Three days later, Mei watched her brother sleep with the strange mask he’d stolen hidden underneath a stolen dark blue scarf. Cradling her gun case, she watched him dream, his slow breathing indicating that he was enjoying himself. That was good. He needed sleep to recover from the dozens of new bruises and cuts he’d hidden under his long sleeves. Considering that he winced every time he tried to laugh, he was probably concealing a cracked rib too. That was likely why he’d bought rather than stolen the short sword he kept nearby at all times. It had been the first time she had ever seen her older brother buy something. By the end of the sale, the storekeeper was convinced that Huan was actually a nobleman’s son, even though Huan had growled, something Mei had never heard her brother do before. Huan preferred to be liked and then forgotten. Fear had a way of sticking in people’s memories, he said.

There was a knock on the barn door. Mei stood up and let the farmer’s wife waddle in.

“Still asleep, eh?” said the old woman. “Must be all that talking he does. Will you stay another night?”

Mei shook her head.

“Good. I need this barn for animals. I like your money, but I like them more. You understand?”

Mei nodded. The old woman waddled back out of the barn. When she was gone, Mei carefully shook her brother awake. He rose with a snarl.

“Oh…oh fuck,” he said. He looked around and groaned.

“How much did we pay for this?” he asked. Mei held up two fingers.

“Ugh, that’s way too much,” said Huan. “And now we stink like horse droppings.”

Mei watched her brother flip to his feet and start shadow fighting, something he used to do all the time when they were little. Right now he was imagining some tall opponent with impossibly long reach. He froze, shook his head, and then pictured a much shorter opponent, one who could apparently jump over his head. As Huan fought his ghosts, Mei stepped outside and inspected the forest lining the horizon. The camps of guards still combing the forest for them belched columns of black smoke into a clouded sky. One of the camps was closer than it was last night. They would have to move.

Huan caught up to Mei while she was watching the old woman tend to her chickens.

“Going to write a poem about chickens?” he asked.

Mei shook her head. Huan looked at the forest and then pulled away from the old woman.

“They’re getting closer, aren’t they?” he asked in a whisper.

Mei nodded.

“They’re pushing us east. I bet they have some men going west to cut us off. Think I could fight them all off with this?” Huan tapped the scarf.

Mei shook her head.

“Yeah, me neither. If only I could get this damn thing off, we’d be in the clear.”

Mei pointed northeast.

“Yulan’s Pass,” she said.

“There’s no way I could beat them there. Unless…right. Think that old woman will talk?”

Mei shrugged.

Huan pulled the mask out of the scarf and pulled it onto his face. Mei tightened her grip on her rifle as a low growl tumbled out of her brother’s throat. He stayed frozen in place, breathing slow as he took control of his body. When the growling stopped, Mei relaxed.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Huan. He picked up and started to run northeast. Before they disappeared into the forest, Mei watched the old woman’s face shift from shock to fear.