From: intraphase@gmail.com

In the long lines of command she would be one of the last seven allowed to reach the Blue Prince and he had explained that very first day out on the porch
like handle of the black tea cup shaped summit of the Overlords summer retreat high above the Great
City that if the chain was broken his mysterious enemy in the opposite Black Castle would surely win in this battle of unknown motives and
conspiratorial machinations. He had looked once more at the distant black rock tea cup across the Raging River with a glazed and fearful expression and she had felt a deep and profound longing not to let this poor lonely prince who was trapped in battle against a mysterious foe and forced into the streets disguised as a beggar come to any harm. If she had been commanded at that moment to leap from the porch of the hollow black rock high in the sky she would have pulled herself onto the railing and leapt to her death on the
rocky outcroppings thousands of feet below with no further thought.
The Blue Prince still wearing his beggars disguise had softly and
slowly asked her: "Shall you help me" and she had replied with an eerie calm voice never before heard in her own life "Unto my death".
The elite Jade Seven of which Lady Small Feat had become the ringleader administered and organized the Green Brigade which was responsible for many clandestine cells and very important tasks that were required in the vast hustle and bustle of the Great City. Their rivals in the countryside were the Gold Leafs of the Silver Chain and the passage of messages and interception
of messages were a high art.
Lady Small Feat had met the Leper Woman in the winding back alley shops and bazaar that sloped up the rises of the Great City and had recruited her and her wide circle of female associates. They were organized into a
twelve ringed circle of command headed by the Leper woman with three hundred and sixty members if the reclusive Leper Woman was counted.
Today’s mission was important enough to call out the very leader of the Jade-Seven and her most trusted agent the deformed Leper Woman.
From a roof two hills above the Bridge of Silence a young member of the Green Brigade had witnessed the Dark Eyed Lady transferring the Jade Pendant to

the hurtling cyclist who by rights should have run her down and caused a great ruckus. Lady Small Feat who had been watching the bridges early traffic had noticed that Evil Tolltaker Y-Clang had not even hailed the rider of the cycle or inquired of a the Dark Eyed Lady if she would be putting the toll on her bill or paying it by hand. Green articles of clothing had begun appearing all the way up the hill and reached to window of the small house that Lady Small Feat rented for her couriers and spies. Within two minutes a long line of green

shirts and jade shorts and leaf colored towels had appeared in a zig-zagging fashion across the lower reaches of the Great City like some ominous green dragon that had sprung from the fiery iron bowels of the behemoth volcanic mountain on which the majesty of the Great City was built calling the entire Green Brigade rapidly into the streets and springing to action and alerting the Leper Woman’s circle of three-sixty within seconds with the banging of the
low gong of the Dark Society. The children of the entire lower region were poised for action. The hurtling cyclist from the bridge had turned down a blind alley three blocks up the hill from the Bridge of Silence and quickly passed the small tiny Jade Pendant with its secret message hidden within thru a slot halfway up a locked and bolted
door that never opened where it had changed hands five times in that building alone before making its way out a third story window
where it was dropped into the basket of a passing laundry woman heading back down the hill who had left the laundry basket just to the left and inside the main carriage door of El Diablero's rental warehouse.



El Diablero had spotted the laundry basket and without a single eye in the carriage house noticing had scooped up the secret message hidden securely inside the Jade Pendant and placed it gingerly in his front pocket, first removing the three small copper
coins that were kept there for the roaming hands of the skilled pick pockets who worked along the waterfront beside the Bridge of Silence and its slow moving traffic that was so alluring to their nimble and skilled hands. The three copper coins now moved
and seated in his left pocket and the Jade Pendant now delicately seated on top
of a white silk hand cloth in his right pocket he had leapt into the great coach waiting to carry him down to
the river on his mission of re-assurance after yesterday’s disturbance with the
High Lady threatening to kidnap one of his urchins for cursing across the roadway. Suddenly halting the coach in the warehouse doorway he had abruptly walked out the carriage door to another great coach of exactly the same appearance except for the thick triangular leather paddings that fit between the spokes and prevented small farm animals from getting caught up in the wheels and having their bodies maimed or their necks broken.
As the warehouse workers moved the great carriage he left behind on the warehouse threshold for the carriage with the padded leather spokings
El Diablero had jumped into the side door of the coach and commanded the waiting driver to make for the Bridge of Silence. The driver who was assigned to some other important personage never questioned his mandarin Warlord master but simply glanced once over his shoulder to make sure his pull out into traffic was safe and then spurred the powerful horses pulling the mighty
great coach down the hill and passed the long line of waiting transports rapidly closing on the very rapidly rising ramp way of the Bridge of Silence.

The Leper Woman gazed in a hand mirror backwards down the line of parked carriages at the approaching mandarin Warlord El Diablero as he passed the Leper Woman she would signal Lady Small Feat if he was driving a padded
wheel transport and it was safe to jump out at him and force him to stop and possibly steal the Jade Pendant.
Two blocks behind El Diablero a figure in a black silk coat with two
golden double dragons on each shoulder suddenly turned onto the access road and rapidly strode towards the Bridge of Silence following El Diablero.


Cry-Chang-E Chorus

Lady Small Feat and her partner Leper Woman are waiting for
the mandarin Warlord who is followed by secret Temple assassin Bhagda Duder.

What thunderous calamity of the gods and spirits has forced the Jade-Seven inner circle to deal with the Double Back Single Bridge Gambit this fair and gentle morning of breezes and rising sun that caressingly buffet this days bridge crossings. Shall the assassin strike or shall the mandarin make it too the traffic stopping ploy of Lady Small Feat and her top agent in the highly skilled Dark Society the famed reclusive Leper Woman.

The scene was set for a two loop back to front Single Bridge gambit.


Leper Woman watched in her pocket mirror as mandarin Warlord El Diablero rolled slowly downward to the river in his mighty horse drawn carriage. The high mountain Secret Temple warrior Bhagda Duder had accelerated his pace in a fluid motion that caused no eyes of attention to be drawn to his movements and in one smooth step had come out between two parked and waiting carriages and gently alighted onto the short back step of El Diablero's coach where servants of the carriage renters rode behind the main cabin on long journeys thru the Countryside.

As El Diablero passed the Leper Woman hidden in a rented carriage in the long line downhill line stretched out waiting to cross the bridge she turned her hand mirror towards the tensed and coiled Lady Small Feat who lay waiting seven carriages ahead between two parked river bound transports poised for her leap and reflected the sunlight in three quick flashes on to her
face reassuring the tiny Lady Small Feat that El Diablero was in a carriage with the leather padded spokings covering the triangular holes in the wheels of the mighty coach.
When El Diablero passed she leapt with tigress might and true loyalty to the mysterious Blue Prince and hurled herself mightily from between the parked carriages in a cannonball posture with knees bent opening her arms and slapping the leather wheel thongings as her small form struck the huge wheels of leather wood and steel making as loud a whomping thump as possible. Even the horses neighed and whinnied wondering what fearful creature might be preparing to nip at their heels. The driver hearing the thump and the seeing horses perking to the alertness of possible danger was already slowing as mandarin El Diablero was leaning out the gilded window of the great
coach yelling. "Halt this monstrosity we have struck a tiny child."

The Leper Woman had observed the flawless leap into the oncoming coach and Lady Small Feats impact and smooth graceful recoil after slapping into the padded thongings as loud as her little body and tiny spread winged arms would allow but became wary upon suddenly noticing a secret Bhagda Temple warrior
of the Double Golden Dragon step off the coach and blend back into the foot traffic heading down the sidewalk towards the Bridge of Silence.
Stepping out of the transport on the street side opposite the tiny child and quickly circling the halted great coach El Diablero walked around the backside from which the temple warrior had just stepped off a brief moment before and continued swiftly to walk round the carriage. His relief was immediate upon seeing the child had bounced off the carriage and was standing straight and not wailing and blaring with pain.

El Diablero stood towering over Lady Small Feat in his dark leather walking boots and riding pantaloons and drew his hands up and hooked them
by the thumbs into his indigo vestment pockets holding his arms akimbo with ponderous wonderment at the beautiful little girl with the smudges on her knees who had just come crashing bodily into his great coach bringing the powerful contrivance with its massive weight and driver and four quarter
horse team to a screeching halt. Looking down into her glazed and wounded eyes he began feeling a sense of his own difficult childhood as a beggar who had dared to cross into the Great City and work his way up through the ranks of urchins and beggars until after many years he was now a titled mandarin with his own thriving enterprise employing many dusty young castaways himself.

He was about to ask the gentle beautiful young girl in the dark ocean jade shirt if she was alright. While the very words of concern were almost pursing in his lips the small child thrust her arm out commandingly with its tiny white finger pointed curiously back at the coach. When El Diablero turned the neigh of a horse caught his attention momentarily as he sensed the ruffling of his clothing with the gentle morning breeze.



--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)