Mulan: Before the Sword

Set in ancient China and steeped in Chinese mythology, this novel tells the story of how Hua Mulan first discovers her own strength. Two spiders, one white with nine legs, creep toward Mulan's younger sister, Xiu. The white spider, a shape-shifter called Daji, stabs its fangs into Xiu's hand. Mulan bursts in, but the damage is done.

Xiu falls gravely ill. A local healer sends Mulan to find a visiting healer. Back at the family's tulou, a large communal building, the Healer gives Mulan herbs to steep, but they dissolve into a mist that freezes every villager in statue-like sleep. Mulan's congested nose prevents her from inhaling the vapors, so she alone stays awake. She follows the Healer outside and watches him become a silver rabbit. Two foxes attack; Mulan drives them off. The Rabbit reveals himself as the Jade Rabbit of the Moon, an Immortal healer sent to Earth to cure the sick.

The Rabbit explains that Xiu's bite carries hupo poison, requiring two rare plants: Dragon Beard Grass, which he has, and a blossom of the Essence of Heavenly Majesty, found only in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West atop Kunlun Mountain. The attack has stripped the Rabbit of his powers, so Mulan insists on carrying him on her horse, Black Wind. They must obtain the flower before the new moon, or Xiu will die.

Mulan takes Xiu's cloth rabbit toy and sets out. In a forest glade, a woman in white called Daji offers Mulan a flask of honey. Before Mulan can taste it, the enchantment breaks, but Daji slips the flask into her sleeve, leaving Mulan strangely mute and unable to warn the Rabbit. Interspersed chapters from the Red Fox's perspective reveal her true name as Xianniang and confirm that Daji is the White Fox in human form; the honey is her tool of control.

While Mulan sleeps, the foxes steal their supplies, including the Dragon Beard Grass. They must now travel to Green Island, the only place the grass grows. The Rabbit reveals the White Fox targets Mulan's family because of a prophecy on an oracle bone, a divination artifact foretelling that someone from the Family of Flower will shield the Emperor. Since Hua means "flower," Mulan concludes the prophecy refers to Xiu. To extract the prophecy, the White Fox trapped a scholar on an island and fed him poisoned honey until he translated the bone; when he discovered her identity, she turned him to stone.

The Rabbit recalls that he once traveled with a mortal girl called the Unwanted Girl, whose mother despised her. Under Daji's influence, the girl ate a forbidden Fruit of Longevity in the Queen Mother's garden. They were expelled, the girl's sick brother died, and the girl became the Red Fox, doomed to serve the White Fox.

Daji appears again, urging Mulan to pick the Queen Mother's peach instead, promising it will make her the daughter she wishes to be. She sends storms and bees. At the Rabbit's instruction, Mulan pulls hairs from his leg and throws them; they become needles that transform the bees into butterflies. Mulan notices the Rabbit's wound mirrors Xiu's and realizes he, too, is dying of hupo poison. When Daji visits again with lavish food, Mulan recalls the Scholar being fed poisoned honey, throws tea at Daji, and spots a fox tail. She confronts Daji as the White Fox, who vanishes in fury. Mulan empties the honey flask; it burns the ground, confirming it was poison.

At the City of Rushing Water, a mob seizes Mulan as a sacrifice at the urging of a hag Mulan recognizes as Daji. Lu Ting-Pin, formerly one of the Mighty Eight Immortals, a legendary group of powerful beings, arrives and exposes the scheme. He reveals he broke the Immortals' code by marrying a mortal woman, Yellow Peony. Left in disgrace, Yellow Peony resented their daughter, who became the Unwanted Girl. His penance requires him to slay 10,000 demons with a peach-wood sword. He has killed 9,999 and wants the White Fox as the last.

They sail for Green Island, where the Dragon Beard Grass has vanished and the soil has been barren for 20 years. Mulan realizes a stone statue on the island is the Scholar the White Fox turned to stone and deduces that a rock they brought from the riverbank is his wife, a fairy who also turned herself to stone. She places the two rocks together, and overnight they crumble to dust. Dragon Beard Grass sprouts where they stood, and the island turns green again.

On the voyage to Kunlun Mountain, Daji awakens a monstrous sea creature. Lu Ting-Pin fights the beast while Mulan rams the boat into it. The water surrounding Kunlun cannot support floating objects, so Mulan ties the boat's sail to herself and has Lu Ting-Pin blow with his Immortal breath, soaring across to shore.

The Queen Mother of the West grants Mulan permission to pick one item after Mulan recognizes that the Queen Mother has been guiding their journey. The Rabbit is unconscious, so no one knows what the Essence of Heavenly Majesty looks like. Mulan nearly picks a peach from the Fruit of Longevity tree but recalls the Rabbit's warning and stops. The Rabbit stirs just long enough to push Xiu's cloth toy from the carrier. Its embroidered flower has nine lavender petals, allowing Mulan to identify the correct plant.

As they race to the flower, Daji and Xianniang attack, transforming into foxes. Lu Ting-Pin pins the Red Fox and battles Daji, but Daji transforms her face into Yellow Peony's, accusing Lu Ting-Pin of destroying her. Devastated, he drops his sword. Daji gloats that no man can kill her. Mulan seizes the peach-wood sword and drives it into the White Fox. Mulan plucks the flower in the last light before darkness, declares the prophecy set, and frees the Red Fox. Xianniang meets Mulan's eyes, transforms into a bird, and flies away.

They pour a decoction of the two plants into the Rabbit's mouth, restoring him fully. Lu Ting-Pin's sword gleams as metal, no longer wood: Mulan's killing of the White Fox completed his penance, since the terms required the sword to slay 10,000 demons without specifying who must wield it. He conjures a cloud for their journey home.

Mulan steps onto the cloud and arrives in her kitchen holding the cure. Her parents and the Healer are awake as if no time has passed. The Healer feeds the liquid to Xiu, who opens her eyes and asks if the spider is gone. Mulan clasps her sister's hand and says she killed it. Later, the Healer warns her memory of Immortals will fade. He tells her she is a mighty warrior, presses his forehead to hers, and urges her never to forget. He transforms back into the Jade Rabbit and disappears. Mulan sees her shadow looking strong and powerful, and runs inside to her family.

In the epilogue, Xianniang, freed from Daji's control, reflects that Mulan spared her not out of pity but out of understanding. In her true human form, wearing gray armor and a white mourning band, she decides she will neither pretend nor hide. She sees Rouran warriors, a nomadic band riding under a wolf-head banner, approaching across the desert sands and steps forward to join them.