Chapter Two

After he arrived at the inn, his worries only grew.

He was inside for only a few seconds when he started to worry again, and his worry centered on the innkeeper. First off, the innkeeper did not greet him at the door and welcome him in warmly on this stormy night -- he stayed behind his bar, and acted like a barkeeper in a big city inn with a full house, even though Master No was the only customer in the room. There were four other people inside, but they were clearly helpers of the innkeeper. Second, Master No saw that the innkeeper was slow and clumsy at being an innkeeper, and his helpers were slow, too. They were all slow, they all looked unhappy at doing their work, and there were too many helpers -- a small inn such as this should have only one or two. Something was wrong at the inn.

Tired as he was, Master No stayed alert. He walked over to the fire at the end of the common room, and slowly removed his outer clothes while he looked around. In particular, he studied the bored innkeeper's face.

The innkeeper was, he decided, extremely ruthless and evil. He was probably a bandit leader, and he was only playing at being an innkeeper because he was waiting for someone to come. That someone would most likely be the Magic Prince.

"The prince will not come, but his magic lamp has arrived already. How long before this evil man discovers that?" wondered Master No. "And how long will I stay alive once he discovers that? Clearly, I have become part of a most interesting tale!"

Leaving immediately on such a night would quickly raise the suspicions of the bandit leader, so Master No would have to spend the night acting normally. Master No would protect himself using his wits.

"Ah you are lucky to have such nice weather down here." said Master No, "The pass is much worse."

"You came from the west?" said the innkeeper. In fact, Master No had come from the east, but he did not say so. He suspected the bandit leader knew the Magic Prince would come from the east.

"I was studying birds in the pass when this storm came up. I'm happy you have this fine inn here. I will go back up the pass and continue my studies when the weather gets better."

The innkeeper looked bored, like he did not care about an old, crazy bird watcher, which is just what Master No wanted him to think. But! The innkeeper didn't even think to offer him a room. This was bad -- he was so bored he was forgetting to pretend to be an innkeeper, which meant he might soon stop pretending and do something dramatic, such as kill Master No!

"Do you have a room?" finally asked Master No, after waiting for the innkeeper to think of this on his own.

The innkeeper paid attention to him again, "Yes." he said, and he motioned to one of his helpers. "Dong-Kee, take our honored customer to his room." This pretending was clearly going on longer than the bandits had intended, and Dong-Kee wasn't sure what to do -- there were little hand signals and motions between them as Dong-Kee figured out where to take Master No.

Dong-Kee took Master No to the last room at the end of the hall. It was small, and not a room of honor, but it was likely that these bandits had been using the nearer rooms as they waited, so they would not be clean. In fact, Master No was quite happy with the choice. If he needed to slip out quietly and quickly, this was a good room to do it from.

Master No chose to keep the lamp at his side -- its camouflage had worked this far, and it was likely his room would be searched while he was eating. As he cleaned up he thought, "So, I share this inn with a desperate and bloodthirsty bandit pack, which has most likely killed the true inn owners. Buddha has truly rewarded my search for the unusual quickly, and in a most spectacular way. Now, how am I to survive?"

Once he had washed and meditated, he returned to the common room. He was truly tired and hungry, and if he did not come back to the common room and eat dinner, that would be suspicious. Fortunately, the bandit cook was a good cook, and the meal was hearty and filling. With his belly full and his legs recovering from being sore, Master No was in the mood to find out more about this story he was in.

The Bandit leader made it easy. Every few minutes he would pace to the front door and look out.

"You seem restless tonight, Master innkeeper." commented Master No as he smoked a clay pipe while sitting next to the fire in the big room.

The innkeeper looked at him sourly, and said, "It's a rotten night out there. There should be more customers in here!"

"Truly it is a difficult night to travel. Are you expecting someone in particular?"

All eyes in the room turned on Master No, until he added, "Some particular local customer? A good friend?"

The eyes eased off.

"No. I am new here." the Bandit Leader admitted. "I... uh... bought this place recently. And the previous owner assured me this place did lots of business on stormy nights." He glared again at the door.

"Well congratulations, and good luck to you!" said Master No. "In support of your new business, please allow me to order up another drink. And, if you have time, please let me buy one for you."

The innkeeper looked around, and made a choice, "That is very kind of you." he said, and he sat down opposite Master No at the fire. He motioned to one of his men, and two drinks were brought over. Another small mistake: the drinks were expensive liquors, not the regular inn brew -- the helper habitually served the best of their loot to his boss. The innkeeper was drinking his down quickly; Master No was sipping his slowly.

"I don't travel this way often, Master Innkeeper, but I hear that this road has had more than it's share of notable people. I hear that King Yang-Yin once traveled this road."

The innkeeper gave a bored grunt, but that was all -- reverence and history were not strong points of his.

"I think a great bandit, Wu Doggie, also traveled this road, chased by that great servant of the people, Marshall Gung Ho." Master No deliberately talked about Wu Doggie and Gung Ho. Master No had no idea if they had used this trail, or not, but their story was told in many different ways by different people. Master No knew that bandits, in particular, had strong opinions on these two -- some liked Wu Doggie, and some hated him. Master No would learn more about this particular bandit by what he said about Wu Doggie.

"That is news to me. I thought Wu Doggie operated south of here." replied the innkeeper.

"Really? I've had innkeepers east of here claim that Wu Doggie slept in their places."

"You've been east of here?" the innkeeper eyed him carefully again.

"Many times." said Master No calmly, "I was quite a traveler in my youth."

The innkeeper looked bored again. He got up and walked to the door. As he did he said, "Well, I suspect those innkeepers took you for a gullible fool. Wu Doggie was never this far north."

This time as he looked out his face brightened a bit. "The snow has ended. He motioned to two of his helpers who were lounging in the common area. "You two, go scout down the trail towards the valley. See if you can find me some customers."

The innkeeper turned to Master No, "Sorry, I can't talk anymore. There's much to be done now."

"I understand, and I'm tired, as well. Congratulations again on becoming owner of this place, and I will see you in the morning."

Master No headed for his room. Tired as he was, he needed to investigate this lamp before the innkeeper decided the Magic Prince was not coming, and took up his "Plan B", whatever that was.