It was snowing, and snowing hard.
Fang Yu led Remo to what he took to be a Mongolian tavern.
Inside the solid oak door, it was exactly that--a saloon.
Wide bronze faces regarded them with a kind of curious indifference. Fang Yu looked around, then nodded. She strode boldly over to a corner table, Remo following, his eyes swiveling around the room. If there was going to be trouble, he wanted to be ready.
Fang Yu presented Remo to a thick-necked Mongolian man who sat nursing a cup of steaming-hot wine. He wore a black leather vest and quiltlike pants. His face had all the color and expression of a bronze gong.
Fang Yu rattled off a quick burst of Chinese.
"Speak English," the Mongol said brusquely. "I do not wish our conversation to be overheard. There are many ears here, three times as many as there are heads to carry them."
"This is the man," Fang Yu repeated in English.
"Can he not speak for himself?" the Mongol grunted thickly.
"Call me Remo."
"I am called Kula- Can you ride, one called Remo?"
"Yes."
"You lie!" Kula the Mongol spat. "This Chinese girl tells me you cannot."
"I can learn," Remo said confidently.
Kula grunted. "The price is double."
"What?" Fang Yu demanded hotly. "We agreed on price!"
Kula took a sip from his cup, never taking his eyes off Remo. "He cannot ride, so he must be taught. It will slow us."
"I told you he cannot ride!" Fang Yu spat.
"But he lied to me. Lying adds to the risk. If he lies about one thing, why not another? The price is double," Kula repeated, draining his cup.
Remo drew Fang Yu out of earshot of the sullen-eyed Mongol. "Forget it," he said. "We don't need this guy."
"We do," Fang Yu said. "He is Kula-the bandit chief of this province. Without him, there is no safe passage."
"We'll make our own safe passage," Remo said loudly enough to be overheard.
The Mongol laughed at that. "I like him," Kula burst out. "But the price is still double."
"Very well," Fang Yu said reluctantly. "We pay. Five hundred yuan."
"Done!" said Kula the Mongol, slapping his cup on the age-stained table. "We ride now. Come."
The Mongol stood up, hitching up his leather belt. A short dagger dangled from it by a silver chain. Gesturing, he led them to a rear door and into an adjoining stable. Horses neighed at their approach.
"Have you no better clothes, white foreigner?" Kula demanded. "The steppe winds will lift the skin off your meat in sheets and split the muscles from your bones."
"I lost my luggage in Hong Kong," Remo said sourly.
"The Chinese are looking for a murderer," Kula rumbled throatily. "Since you will ride a Mongol horse, you must dress like a Mongol."
"No chance," Remo said.
"Please," Fang Yu said, her hand going to Remo's bare arm.
Noticing the contact, Kula grunted. "What one hears of the prowess of Westerners must be untrue. Of course, she is Chinese. No Mongol woman would have you."
Remo and Fang Yu ignored the crude remark.
"Please Remo," Fang Yu implored. "Do not be stubborn now. Our lives are in danger."
Remo relented with a mute nodding of his head. He accepted a stack of padded clothes that resembled a rolled-up sleeping bag.
He went behind a stall and changed. He returned looking like an overgrown child who had been bundled up by a parent.
"That better," Fang Yu said.
"I'm not wearing this hat," Remo muttered, raising a cap with long floppy earflaps.
"Your ears will fall off," Kula said curtly.
"So my ears fall off," Remo said, looking around for a place to dump the cap.
Kula shrugged. "They are your ears," he said.
Remo stuffed the hat in a pocket, just in case.
The Mongol led a snow-white horse out of a stable bay.
"This is a good horse," Kula grunted, throwing a silverfiligreed wood saddle over the horse's back. "You will ride him. He is good for a new rider."
"If you say so," Remo said dubiously. The horse shook its long head nervously.
When Kula had finished tying the saddle, Remo climbed onto the horse. His felt boots found the iron stirrups. The high pommel and flared back of the saddle made him ride high, as if on a camel's hump. He hoped it wouldn't tip over.
The others saddled up and led their horses outside.
Kula the Mongol looked back. "Why you wait?" he grunted.
"How do you start this thing?" Remo asked sheepishly.