horse saw the fire, he picked up speed.
“Ping!” Yao and Ling hurried over to help her lift Shang off Khan’s back. Chi Fu saw her, too. He crossed his arms and glared at Yao and Ling.
“Where do you two think you are going?” he shouted. “Come back here.”
“We’re going to cut some more wood,” Ling responded. “Be right back!”
“Insubordinate ruffians!” Chi Fu harrumphed, then pushed open his tent flap to go back inside. He glanced back, fixing a stare on Mulan. “I knew Captain Li wasn’t ready to lead. I knew he didn’t deserve such a great responsibility. And look now; if his soldiers had learned to follow his orders, he wouldn’t be dying.”
Yao raised a fist at the Emperor’s counsel. “The captain isn’t dead!”
But Chi Fu had already swiveled on his heel and gone inside his tent.
Mulan bit her lip and turned to her friends. “Thanks for your help.”
“We were worried you got lost,” replied Ling. “How’s Captain Li doing?”
Mulan shook her head. Her eyes were swollen, her voice raw. “Not great.”
Yao’s shoulders slumped. He was usually the most belligerent of the group, but even his bruised black eye looked sad. “We caught some pigeons. Chien-Po’s making soup. I’ll bring you some.”
“All right,” Mulan said tiredly. How long had it been since she’d eaten? How could she be hungry when Shang was fighting for his life? Still, she forced a smile. “Shang could use some good, hot soup. Are there any more tents?”
“Take mine,” Ling offered, pointing. “We made it ready for you.”
Mulan looked at her friends gratefully. “You guys are the best.”
“It’s the least we can do,” Ling replied with a shrug. He picked up Shang by the shoulders, Yao lifted the captain’s legs, and they walked with her to the tent.
“What are you doing?” Chi Fu cried, popping out to observe the soldiers carry Shang into Ling’s tent. “I said no one is permitted to help Ping.”
“We made camp,” Yao argued. “What does it matter if we help him now or not? So report me.”
“And me.”
“And me,” Chien-Po chimed in, holding up a soup ladle.
Chi Fu grunted, and he scribbled furiously on his scroll. “I will.”
Chien-Po shrugged. “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said, as cheerfully as he could muster. A pot bubbled over the fire, and Mulan inhaled, savoring the delicious aroma of hot, freshly prepared soup.
As the soldiers crowded around the pot, eagerly slurping, Chien-Po helped Mulan and the others settle Shang into Ling’s tent.
Most of the tents in the camp were patched together out of saddle blankets, capes, and animal skins, but Ling had managed to procure one of the Huns’ tents. Several wooden poles propped up its triangular roof, and the material was thick muslin, like the tents in their training barracks at the Wu Zong camp. Chien-Po could barely fit inside.
“We made him a bed out of some wood,” Chien-Po said, gesturing at the makeshift bed in the center of the tent, outfitted with a thin pallet of extra blankets. “He’ll be more comfortable traveling that way. We will help you carry him tomorrow.”
Mulan’s heart warmed and her spirits lifted. Her friends had thought of everything. There was even a little stool and a bucket of clean water with a neat stack of cloths next to it.
She dipped one of the cloths into the bucket, wrung out the excess water, and started peeling away Shang’s bandages to clean his wound.
Yao and Ling returned with two steaming bowls of soup.
“I’ll eat later,” Mulan said. Too much to do now. She filled another cloth with snow and placed it on Shang’s forehead.
Ling crouched beside the captain and tried to feed him some soup. “He’s still unconscious.”
She nodded. “He woke up a couple hours ago, but he’s been out since then.” She swallowed, trying to stay positive. “He’s stopped bleeding, so we won’t have to cauterize the wound.” She let out a small sigh of relief. “And I don’t think it’s infected, which is good news.”
Her voice fell soft. “But I can’t get his fever down.”
The wind whistled outside, shuffling the tent’s flaps. Mulan leaned against one of the wooden poles and started removing her armor. She hadn’t realized how tired she was, how her muscles ached and her body demanded rest. She could hardly keep her shoulders up.
“You need to eat something,” Yao said, observing her.
“You need to sleep,” Chien-Po said, noting the dark circles under her eyes.
Mulan shook her head. “The only reason Shang is injured is because he saved me from Shan-Yu. It’s my