City of Jade (39 page)

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Authors: Dennis McKiernan

BOOK: City of Jade
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Pipper’s plan was simplicity itself. Over the wall, across the yard, a padded grapnel to the balcony, up the rope, through the window, and to the strongbox. But if they couldn’t get in through the window, there was always the balcony door.
 
 
 
On opening night at the Rivers End Theater, Pipper and Binkton watched as Largo Rackburn stepped into the carriage to go.
 
 
“Now’s ours to do,” said Binkton. “Let’s get back Lady Jane’s money.”
 
 
“Right,” said Pipper, and he and his cousin slipped to the back wall. As Pipper padded the grapnel, Binkton stealthily climbed to the top of the wall, only to discover several large dogs patrolling the yard.
 
 
35
 
 
Jade Carving
 
 
ELVENSHIP
MID SPRING, 6E8,
TO LATE SPRING, 6E9
 
 
 
 
The message awaiting Aylis at Port Arbalin was written in Queen Dresha’s own fine hand:
 
 
 
My dear Aylis:
 
 
Some two years past, I received the gift of a small chest of black lacquerware decorated with exotic designs in gold leaf of Jingarian Dragons and landscapes and other such. It originally came from Janjong, to be exact. It is quite a lovely piece, and it would please us most dearly if you would fetch a variety of black lacquerware—bowls, chests, vases, and the like, whatever might strike your fancy—of similar design the next time you and your Captain Aravan are at that port city.
 
 
 
With Our warmest regards,
Dresha,
Queen of Mithgar
 
 
 
 
And so it was that in the spring of 6E8, Aravan set sail for Jinga to purchase lacquerware—bowls, chests, vases, and the like—as well as a cargo of fine porcelain.
 
 
They docked in Janjong, the principal port city of that realm. And even as the Elvenship tied up at the pier, peddlers and merchants selling their wares crowded the wharf, calling out to the crew of the
Eroean
to come and look at their goods.
 
 
When Aylis decided to look for lacquerware as well as to explore the city, Lissa hid in the hood of her cloak, for she would see the city, too. Vex obediently trotted at Aylis’s side, a very light leash ’round her neck—more of a string than a lead—the fox finally submitting to Lissa’s commands to be ignominiously led by such.
 
 
And even as they embarked, the hawkers rushed forward, and then shied back, not only at the sight of the fox, but also at the pair of armed and armored Dwarves escorting this person and her familiar, for surely with such unusual guardians and a wild fox attendant she must be a
nyuwu
, a witch.
 
 
Yet one young man braved the escort of fox and fierce Dwarves, and he stepped discreetly to one side of the path and said, “I have been waiting for you, Lady Fox, for I had a dream you would come, and you must see what my father has carved.”
 
 
Aylis laughed. “A dream, you say?”
 
 
“Oh, yes, oh, yes. In my dream I saw a great ship arrive, and you stepped from it, though in my dream you had no fox.”
 
 
Again Aylis laughed, for she had never before had a hawker tell such a tale. “And this carving is . . . ?”
 
 
“Jade, my lady. Jade. The finest of gemstone, and carved by Master Luong, my father. You must come and see.”
 
 
“Let’s go look,” whispered Lissa in Aylis’s ear.
 
 
“I must admit, I am intrigued,” said Aylis, replying more to Lissa than the youth.
 
 
And so “Lady Fox” followed the young man through the streets of Janjong, the merchant heading for his shop, the two Châkka trailing not far behind, their gazes ever on the alert for dangers that might threaten their charge.
 
 
And Aylis was led to a stall where the young man, Huang by name, showed her a carving of a jade tower. It was not the tower itself that arrested her curiosity, even though it somewhat resembled the Seers’ Tower at the College of Mages; nay, rather it was the inscription in a strange tongue etched around the base of the figurine. With an arcane word muttered under her breath she read:
 
 
 
Thrice I dreamt the dream
The City of Jade I fled
Nought but shades now dwell
 
 
 
 
It was a particular form of Ryodoan poetry, yet not of Ryodo was this work. It was instead carved by a Jingarian jade master, or so said Huang, who again proclaimed it was his own sire, Luong. Aylis bought the statuette, but only under the condition that she meet the artist. The young man gave her directions to a dwelling where he and his wife and his father lived, but he warned her that Master Luong was a recluse. Undaunted, Aylis took the jade carving and hailed a jinricksha. The man who pulled the vehicle seemed both surprised and honored as well as awed to have Lady Fox as his passenger, for the word of the witch and her familiar had spread across the neighborhood. And he set off at a brisk pace toward the address given.
 
 
Behind her, two Dwarves scrambled into a jinricksha of their own and followed after.
 
 
It was the very fact that a lady and a fox came to call upon Luong that the jade master deigned to see this curiosity for himself.
 
 
Dressed in silks and soft sandals, he was a man of about sixty years, his hair and beard white and long, his eyes so dark as to nearly be black. When Aylis told him that she had come seeking knowledge about the statuette, he was amazed that she, a foreigner, spoke such flawless Jingarian.
 
 
[It did come to me in a dream,] said Luong, as soon as they had settled down upon tatamis, a small tea table between, a steaming pot of tea thereon. As he poured two cups of the pale drink, Luong said, [I don’t know what it means. Not only that, but I suspect it is a form of poetry, one that I have never seen before.]
 
 
[It is Ryodoan,] said Aylis. [A strange form that never deviates from its syllabic count—five, seven, five, you see.]
 
 
[Ryodoan it may be, but it is not in that language, for I would know; written Ryodoan and Jingarian are much alike. Regardless, do you know what it says?]
 
 
[You don’t know?]
 
 
[It is not in any language I have.]
 
 
[It is strange that you would carve it, then,] said Aylis.
 
 
[Yet carve it I did, even though I know not its meaning. As I said, it came in a dream, and I felt compelled to set it in jade.] Luong then turned up a hand toward the statuette, and he looked at Aylis in anticipation.
 
 
[These are its words,] said Aylis.
 
 
 
 
[Thrice I dreamt the dream
From the City of Jade I fled
Nought but shades now dwell.]
 
 
 
 
[Oh, how mysterious,] said Luong. [Not words that I would choose to carve, nor a dream I would choose to dream, I think.]
 
 
[Only sometimes can we choose our dreams,] said Aylis, harkening back to the time she and Jinnarin had learned to dreamwalk. Aylis sipped her drink and added, [Perhaps it was a sending.]
 
 
[Sending? Sending? What are these sendings? Are they dangerous? My son Huang had a dream as well.]
 
 
[He did?]
 
 
Luong nodded. [He said a lady from a great ship would like to see my carving. He said nothing of a fox.]
 
 
Aylis nodded. [That’s what he told me.] She laughed. [I thought it but a ruse to get me to see this beautiful jade figurine.]
 
 
[No, his was a dream, as was mine. Yet you call them ‘sendings.’ What are they?]
 
 
[A message from someone else—a spirit, a lost soul, a Mage—someone who fled the City of Jade. If so, then it is something I cannot trace back, for finding the source of dreams is beyond my ken.]
 
 
Luong’s eyes widened. [You are one who can do ?]
 
 
Aylis laughed and shook her head. [I have only a bit of .]
 
 
[Then how is it you can read those words?]
 
 
In that moment Aylis’s hood sneezed, or so it seemed. Luong reared back, concern on his features.
 
 
“Oh, well,” said Lissa, stepping from the hood and onto Aylis’s shoulder. “I gave myself away. Besides, I’d like some tea, too.”
 
 
Luong’s mouth fell agape. [I-I . . . I cannot believe my eyes.] And he backed away and prostrated himself before the two. [Forgive me, mistress, I did not know you had such . . . such power.]
 
 
It took some coaxing for Aylis to get the man back onto his tatami. And when she said that Lissa would like some tea as well, Luong did not call his servants, but rushed out to get a vessel himself. Moments later he was back with a porcelain thimble, and with trembling hands he poured a bit of tea into the improvised cup and proffered it to Lissa, who now sat atop the small table.
 
 
In that moment Aylis frowned, and she spoke a word and looked at the figurine. Then she sighed and said to Lissa, “There has been no casting, for it contains no .”
 
 
“What contains no ?” asked Lissa, looking up from her drink.
 
 
“The statuette.”
 
 
Luong looked back and forth between the two females.
 
 
[I said it contains no ,] said Aylis, for Luong’s benefit.
 
 
[Ah, then, so you can see power. Perhaps that is why you have such a companion and how you can read the words, eh, and mayhap as well speak such beautiful Jingarian?]
 
 
Aylis inclined her head in assent, and Luong smiled in his discernment, though his eyes yet held a glimmer of awe.
 
 
[Do you remember anything else about the dream?] asked Aylis.
 
 
[Only what I etched on the bottom, but I do not understand that either.]
 
 
Frowning, Aylis took up the statuette and looked at the bottom. Curving lines were scribed, but she had no idea what they might represent. She spoke another arcane word, yet her revealed nothing further.
 
 
Luong looked at Lissa and asked, [What are you called? What folk are you from?]
 
 
Lissa shrugged and looked at Aylis. “He wants to know what type creature you are.”
 
 
“Tell him I am a sprite of great power, and should he ever speak to anyone of me, I will appear in a whirling cloud and carry him away to a fiery pit of darkness, where he will burn in shadow forever.” To prove her point, blackness suddenly enveloped the Pysk.
 
 
[Wah!] exclaimed Luong, juggling his cup.
 
 
[You must never speak of her to anyone else,] said Aylis.
 
 
[No, no. I am sworn to silence.] Again he prostrated himself before the pair.
 
 
Aylis nodded toward the blot of darkness, and the shadow vanished, revealing the Pysk once more.
 
 
Once again Aylis had to persuade Luong to return to his tatami, after which they spoke for long moments, yet nothing else was forthcoming about the dream or the figurine.
 
 
Finally, Aylis and Lissa and Vex took their leave, much to Luong’s relief, for to have such persons of power in his very own chambers, well, it was all quite beyond his ability to cope. Yet it was but moments after they had left that Luong began a new jade carving. One of a very small person, or perhaps it was nothing more than a tiny statuette.

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