Using ancient Buddhist Mountain Running And Leaping Skills which Vessel had learnt at his mother’s knee,31 they managed to cover huge distances in mere minutes so that by late afternoon they were having tea and cakes in Shangri-La, and by evening they had reached the Chinese border. Of course, once they crossed into China, the mystical running and leaping skills stopped working and they were forced to travel on foot. Nevertheless, they reached the Great Wall of China Inn and Noodle Takeaway Number Seventy-Three by nightfall, just in time for a delicious meal before the kitchen closed. Their pursuers had to make do with bicycles and a faulty broomstick that kept flying backwards. This meant that when they finally reached the Inn, it was after midnight and they were forced to eat what they could scavenge out of the dustbins. ‘The Princess has been chewing this,’ said Stain, sticking a chicken bone up his nose and inhaling deeply. ‘So what’s the plan?’ said Cliché. ‘Grab her and kill the rest of them?’ ‘It’s not that simple,’ said the Hearse Whisperer.
