He stomped on a branch before it could take hold of him. “I’ll take care of this. You find the way out.”
Mulan bounded away from the tree’s clutches, skirting the edge of the rosebushes along Meng Po’s courtyard. The pavilion and the pond were the only places untouched by Meng Po’s monstrous trees.
The Lady of Forgetfulness had to be behind the trees’ attacks. She hadn’t moved from her position on the steps of the pavilion, where she was still chanting those strange words.
“Stop it!” Mulan yelled. “Let ShiShi go!”
For a second, Meng Po’s dark eyes met Mulan’s. She stopped shouting and snapped her fan closed, and the intensity of her gaze made Mulan wonder if she was actually considering Mulan’s request. But then, her thin, wrinkled lips curled into a faint smile before she turned her back to Mulan and went inside her pavilion.
Mulan tried to follow the Lady of Forgetfulness, but the pond begun to bubble. Horns emerged, then yellow and red eyes, and the tips of newly sharpened spears.
And now Mulan could guess whom Meng Po had summoned—
The demons.
The demons were coming.
Mulan dove into the rosebushes, scrabbling for the bronze spade that Meng Po had discarded. To her relief, it was still there. Quickly, she tossed it to Shang.
“Demons!” she shouted. “Coming from the pond. Help ShiShi!”
As the captain hacked at the trees, freeing ShiShi branch by branch, Mulan wrestled against the rosebushes, which had also come alive to attack her. Their stems hissed like snakes and entwined about her ankles.
She glanced quickly to the pond, taking note of the demons who had emerged. There were dozens of them—as many as could fit in the pond. They looked different from the guards she’d met on the Bridge of Helplessness. These demons looked like wolves, and they wore battle armor just like hers; they were soldiers trained to kill.
Mulan gulped, scanning their surroundings. No cannon to fire this time, and no snow to create an avalanche. I don’t even have my sword.
She kicked away the roses and hurried back toward ShiShi. The lion was almost free from the trees, but one stubborn tangerine tree held on. Its branches wrapped around ShiShi’s neck, trying to choke him. While Shang cut at the branches, Mulan pulled ShiShi out of the tree’s clutches by his tail, a rescue the guardian didn’t seem to appreciate.
“I hate trees,” ShiShi snarled at the garden, shaking his mane until the cords holding his jade pendant untangled. “That was Meng Po!”
“We know.”
“What a fool she made out of me,” ShiShi huffed. “I’ll never live this down with the other guardians if they find out. And to think, I was the one who warned you all not to—”
This wasn’t the time for ShiShi to pour out his anger at the Lady of Forgetfulness or grieve at how quickly he’d fallen into her trap. Mulan pulled on his mane.
“Ow! What are you—”
“Run,” urged Mulan. Then she took her own advice and sprinted away from the pond.
Shang held the spade over his shoulder as he ran beside her. Even though he was a spirit, sweat dribbled down his temples. “How many?”
“What—” ShiShi bolted to keep up with Shang and Mulan. “Don’t tell me you’re all afraid of a few plants,” he huffed. “Those trees barely scratched me. They came out of nowhere. It was surprise that got me. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had a—”
“We’re not running from the trees,” Mulan interrupted, panting. “We’re running from the demons.”
Looking skeptical, ShiShi glanced back. A horde of demons came into sight, rustling through the bushes and trees. Some looked like the wolf demons Mulan had seen emerge from the pond, and others looked more human—but with red or yellow skin. From her glimpse back, Mulan saw yellow teeth, bloodshot eyes, fur and scales. The wolf demons were fastest. Even though they ran on two feet like humans, they bared glistening fangs. They led the charge, sniffing and howling as they ran.
ShiShi’s eyelids peeled back with alarm. He raced to the front of the line, his powerful legs springing off the brick path. “Hurry, Li Shang. Hurry, little soldier. Pick up those puny legs or you’ll end up as dinner.”
Mulan clenched her jaw, but ShiShi’s threat worked. She ran faster.
Not that it mattered. The wolf demons quickly gained on them, the others not far behind. “I-I say we fight,” Mulan said, already nearly out of breath. “We can’t run forever.”
“Three against thirty,” Shang calculated between breaths.
“We’ve fought against worse!”
Mulan slowed down, forcing the encounter.