The Last Honor

15. Without a trace

Further down, Xiang and Liu had meanwhile reached the foot of the mountain. They were far away from the palace stairs, where there wasn't a single house and mostly bushes and trees overgrown everything.
Liu's back ached from all the bracing she had to provide for the half-paralyzed peacock. But Xiang's foot didn't feel much better either.
"Take me there." He waved his wing at a stone.
The peahen put him down there. Then he lifted his healthy leg and rubbed the sore sole of his foot. Liu sat down on the grass and looked around.
"What are we looking for?" She asked.
"We?" Xiang grumbled sullenly. "Who says, we're looking?"
Liu sighed. "All right, then just you look for something. But what do you hope to find here?"
Xiang let go of his leg again. "Something that you don't have to know. Now leave."
The peahen raised her head in surprise. "Now?"
The peacock's icy eyes caught her cold. "Do I speak Japanese or what? I said if I want you to go, then you go."
"But... but you still need me."
"Needing you?" Xiang seemed to be extremely surprised. "For what? For feeding? Or bathing? From now on, I can take care of my own!"
Liu cocked her head. "Are you sure? What if something happens to you on your way?"
"I'm not a little child!" The peacock stood up furiously, struggling to stand on one leg only. "And I would advise you to leave, or do you want me to hurt you?!"
Liu would have loved to ask him how he could have hurt her, but she didn't want to provoke him unnecessarily, which is why she got up, bowed again and then slowly walked back the way they had come from. She turned to him again. But Xiang relentlessly folded his wings, and Liu knew he didn't want to be changed. Sadly, she pushed through the bushes to find the way to the outskirts. She had only come a few yards when she caught a few familiar voices.
"She will massacre us!" She heard someone curse.
"Uh, just don't say that," another person begged. "My claws pull up even if I even think about how she will freak out that we have lost her order."
Liu quickly ducked herself behind a bush. She was shocked when she saw three of the geckos from last night strutting across a clearing not far away.
"Don't get so upset now, Tongfu," one of the geckos said to his interlocutor. "He'll show up again. Somebody like him can't hide forever."
Liu didn't want to listen longer. She turned and ran back down the path in a crouched position.

Meanwhile, Xiang had gone to a rock face on the mountain and seemed to be looking for something.
"Watch out!" Liu hissed as quietly as possible, but just enough for the peacock to hear.
"What are you still doing here?" Xiang snapped at her angrily. "Didn't I say you should...?!"
"Yes, yes! I know!" The peahen whispered nervously. "But there are those geckos again. We have to hide."
This caused the peacock to feel the rock face even more hastily. Liu looked at him in amazement. "Aren't you afraid that they could find us here?"
"Pssst!" Xiang hissed without interrupting his search. "You better run away now!"
"But what about you?" Liu asked worriedly.
The peacock let out an exasperated sigh. "For the last time! Just leav...!"
At that moment, a part of the rock wall gave way and Xiang fell backwards into a black hole. Liu was so startled that she almost screamed, but she held her beak shut at the last moment.
"Are you alright?" She asked, rushing to the gap in the rock. Inside, a straight corridor opened up in front of her that led horizontally further into the mountain. No sooner had Liu overcome her amazement, she bent over the peacock, who was lying on the ground, rubbing his wing.
"Are you okay?" Liu asked again and received only a muffled swearing.
Suddenly, the voices could be heard again from outside. Startled, Liu instinctively grabbed the rock face and pushed it back. The door closed again and both peacocks stood in the dark.
"Hey!" Xiang shouted mad with anger. "Are you crazy?!"
"How so?!"
The peacock got up and pressed her against the stone wall. "I didn't allow you to come in here!"
Liu sucked in a sharp breath as his feather fingers dug threateningly through her plumage into her wings.
"I'm not going to tell anyone," she said.
She saw nothing in the dark, but she could feel his piercing gaze.
But then, he let go of her abruptly and she heard him shuffling down the corridor. He was probably leaning against the wall as he hobbled.
"Where do you want to go?"
"Where I go is none of your business," the blue peacock growled in the blackness. "Get out of here."
Liu swallowed. "Can't I stay with you at least a little longer?"
"Damn it! Can't you just get out of here?!" Xiang snapped at her. "You're worse than a tick."
"Only until I can disappear again unobserved," Liu muttered meekly. "If they find me here, then they will surely assume that you are here, too."
This caused the peacock to stop briefly. He actually didn't want this brat anywhere near Mendong City, but at the moment these geckos weren't exactly harmless either.
"Alright," he snorted after a minute's silence. "But only for a short time."
"Should I prop you up...?"
"No," Xiang interrupted her quickly and continued to struggle along the wall.
"Is there anything I need to look out for?" Liu asked after a moment's hesitation.
"No," he hissed. "The corridor is dead straight."
"Where is it going?"
"You don't need to know that. And even if you can, can't you imagine that?"
There was a period of tense silence before Liu suggested anything.
"Is the corridor connected to the palace?"
Xiang didn't answer. He just didn't want to reveal any information that he didn't think was her business anyway.
They followed the corridor, which ended several meters in a cavity. When Xiang felt that the wall ended, he groped for a lantern in the dark and lit it.
Liu shrank back in shock when a wooden frame appeared in the weak light in front of her. It was a kind of platform and wooden bars were built around it, like the scaffolding of a construction site.
The peacock climbed onto the wooden platform, despite his lame leg.
"What is this here?" Liu asked when Xiang did not give her an introduction. But she immediately bowed her head again when the peacock glared at her.
"What do you think, where I want to go?" Xiang asked patronizingly.
Liu's gaze wandered upwards. "Do you want to go to the palace?"
Xiang snorted disparagingly. "You see, you have no knowledge about royal life. Rulers will be carried up or drive up."
Liu raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Drive?"
Xiang didn't elucidate this suggestion and attached the lantern to the wooden facade. Then he leaned back thoughtfully against the facade and looked down at the peahen. After staring for a while, he waved his head towards him.
"Now get in. I want to get to the top today. Provided you refrain from asking stupid questions."
Liu clenched her beak lips and stepped onto the wooden platform. As soon as she was on it, the peacock actuated a lever and released a mechanism that lifted the wooden panel on ropes and carried it upwards. Liu's mouth remained open in amazement as the elevator pulled them up the mountain, but she thought it's best not to comment on it.