Five Odd Honors (55 page)

“I didn’t put it exactly that way,” Parnell said with a grin. “I don’t know much of your magic, but my gut tells me you’re right. You could slip into the Lands that way, but it’s going to be very dangerous for you—even if you win.”

“I know,” Pearl said, “but I have a very bad feeling about what’s happening to our scouts. I don’t think Tea Rose’s ghost would have had such power if Thundering Heaven wasn’t ascendant.”

And there’s only one way he could be “ascendant,”
Brenda thought, her heart twisting.
And that’s if he’s reclaimed the Tiger of the Lands, and the only way he could do that is if Flying Claw has given it up. And I don’t think he’d do that if he was still alive.

Her vision blurred with tears she didn’t try to hide, but neither did she let her grief take over. Time enough for that later. Time enough when the fight was won.

Time enough when they had a body to bury.

Righteous Drum was speaking. “Pearl, are you certain you’re strong enough to try to fight this kuei?”

“No.” Pearl looked at him straight on. “I’m not, but what I am certain of takes precedence. No one but me can even try this, and we need all the advantages we can get. Therefore, I must try.”

No one disagreed, and if Brenda had needed any further persuading as to the seriousness of the situation, that would have convinced her.

Dad,
she thought.
We’re going to need you, too. If Albert doesn’t suggest it, then I guess I have to.

Righteous Drum rose from his chair and moved to the right side of Pearl’s bed. “If I might examine your hand?”

Pearl lifted it. “It’s mostly healed. Dr. Andersen said I was lucky that the break was in the bone. A dislocation or torn tendons would have actually taken longer to heal, and needed more rehab after. Still, it’s not as strong as I’d like.”

“I may be able to help,” Righteous Drum said. “If you would permit me to use some ch’i to probe?”

Pearl blinked, stiffened, then visibly forced herself to relax. “Very well.”

Righteous Drum nodded, then grasped Pearl’s hand between the fingers of his remaining hand. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Pearl,” he said, his voice strained, “please, stop fighting me.”

“Sorry,” Pearl said. “Habit.”

She leaned back against the pillow and closed her eyes. The muscles of her face relaxed, then her neck and shoulders. She sagged gently back, looking older as lines that had not been evident were suddenly visible.

Righteous Drum let his eyes slide shut as he muttered something rhythmic and cadenced. He ran his hand up and down Pearl’s fingers, touching the bones of each finger, then the hand, then the wrist.

Opening his eyes, and politely letting Pearl’s hand rest on the counterpane, Righteous Drum said, “I can help. If the bone was still broken, that would be beyond me as I am, but the break is knit. I can strengthen that knitting and widen the vessels that carry blood so that the circulation will improve. At the same time, I can give you additional ch’i, since your own is dangerously low.”

“I accept your very generous offer,” Pearl said, “but can you afford the ch’i?”

“I can,” Righteous Drum said, glancing at Honey Dream to forestall any protest on her part. “I believe you will be entering battle long before I can.”

“That raises,” Albert said, “the tactics of our approach. We have a small force going in via the sidhe, and now Pearl—if she can exploit this peculiar connection. What will the rest of us do?”

“Distract,” Righteous Drum said firmly. “Honey Dream and I discussed the matter with Twentyseven-Ten, Thorn, and Shackles last night. Li Szu will look for an invasion along the same route the scouts took. After all, as far as he knows, that is the only way we know to enter his barricaded Center. If we do not approach, then he will be left wondering why.”

“Then those of us who cannot go in through ‘back doors,’ ” Albert said, “will provide a distraction.”

“Only until we cross the barriers,” Honey Dream hissed. “Then I plan to do a great deal more than distract.”

“We have settled how,” Albert said, accepting Honey Dream’s declaration as what it was: empty bravado, “and the groups are defined. That only leaves—”

Brenda interrupted, afraid that if she didn’t, she’d use any excuse to avoid saying something.

“Albert, we need all the help we can get. There’s one Orphan we could have and you haven’t called him.”

Albert looked at her, and for a moment Brenda could have sworn his confusion was genuine. Then he nodded.

“You mean Gaheris.” A strange little smile quirked the corner of Albert’s mouth. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I keep thinking of you as the Rat. You’re right. We need to call Gaheris, and we will. I will explain why you are involved.”

“I can face him,” Brenda said. “Even if he’s pissed.”

“I believe you,” Albert said, “but some responsibility should come with all the honors I get for being the Cat. I’ll talk to him first.”

What honors?
Brenda thought.
A lot of expectations, a lot of scorn. I haven’t seen many honors.

“Gaheris,” Albert said, “is certain to show up more quickly if I can tell him we’ve set a time for our depature. Does anyone have any suggestions?”

Righteous Drum said, “I will need several hours to work on Pearl’s hand, and on restoring her ch’i. She should have several hours after that to adjust to the changes I will have made. Tomorrow would be best.”

“Tomorrow?” Albert considered. “All right. Even Gaheris can’t complain about tomorrow.”

He turned and squeezed his way from the crowded room, reaching for his cell phone as he did so. Shen turned to Righteous Drum.

“May I help with your ‘surgery’?” Shen asked . “I know a little of healing magics, but mostly of the ‘first aid’ type. My grandfather’s interests were more arcane.”

“I was going to ask if I could at least watch,” Nissa added. “Pearl keeps telling me that the Rabbit is associated with the healing arts, but I really know very little.”

“Both of you may assist,” Righteous Drum said. “That will free Honey Dream to write some amulets for us. If the ch’i of the Lands is as tightly bound as we have been told, then we should bring in what we can.”

Lani hopped down from the bed. “I’ll go, too. Wang is coming today.” Brenda left her seat on the windowsill. “Righteous Drum made a good point about our needing to bring in some of our own ch’i. I’ll go make an amulet bracelet, one of the Twins, I think.”

Pearl roused herself from what looked like the beginnings of a drowse. “Breakfast first, Brenda. I noticed you’ve only had coffee. Get something solid into you. This is not a time to forget the basics.”

Someone was
screaming. A woman, Loyal Wind thought, but he had been on enough battlefields to know how shrilly men could scream.

He was back in his box, stuffed in by guards who had seemed not only indifferent but flat-out impatient, as if better things were going on elsewhere, and they wanted to be there.

Now Loyal Wind had an idea of what those “better things” might be, and he shuddered to think what kind of men might hurry to be present at torture.

Another scream, this one higher, suddenly smothered as if by a heavy weight.

Or rape.

Loyal Wind listened, trying to discern whose voice was the source of those cries of pain and torment. He couldn’t be certain. One moment he was sure it was Nine Ducks. Another time he thought he caught the somehow foreign inflections of Riprap.

Of only one thing was he absolutely certain. The sounds were perfectly genuine, too erratic, too ragged to be faked.

Unaware even of the growing ache in his legs, Loyal Wind crouched in thebox , listening with every fiber of his being, as if his bearing witness could somehow give value to the victim’s suffering.

As Loyal Wind listened to the screams, a steady cadence beneath the cries reached his ears. It took him a moment to identify the sound of boots on the stone floor of the passage.

They were coming for him next.

Pearl Bright awoke to dawn glow and the first staccato notes of birdsong feeling physically stronger than she had for weeks.

Righteous Drum’s ch’i manipulation had removed from the healing bones of her hand a lingering ache she had not even realized was there. Sleep had enabled her body to assimilate the ch’i he had given her, digesting it so that she could draw on it as automatically as her muscles drew upon the food she ate.

Yet, despite this care, Pearl was aware of a sense of impending dread.

“My doom is come upon me,” she murmured.

Who’d said that? Of course, Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot.

“A loser,” Pearl said aloud, “if ever I heard of one.”

“Pearl?” Nissa’s voice, anxious, from the other side of the door. “Are you all right?”

Pearl remembered the baby monitor. Poor Nissa, ever watchful. Well, after today, that particular vigil should be over.

“I’m fine,” Pearl reassured her, going to the door and opening it. “I was thinking about how Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot was a wimp.”

“Was she? I think I read that poem in high school, but I don’t really remember it.”

A strong, very familiar male voice cut in, speaking up from the base of the stairs.

“Never let my mother hear you say that, Pearl,” Gaheris Morris said. “You know she all but worships Tennyson’s version of the Arthurian tales.”

“Wimp,” Pearl said firmly. “Up and dying because a mirror cracks. When did you get in, Gaheris?”

“Three
A.M.
red-eye,” came the reply, almost triumphant. “I took a cab over and phoned Albert. He came down and let me in. I decided that meditation would do me more good than sleep, so I’ve been in the front parlor storing up my ch’i.”

“We’re glad to have you here,” Pearl said.

She turned to Nissa, noting that the young woman actually looked less than perfectly pleased. Well, a nurturing Rabbit would not particularly care for a self-centered Rat.

“Nissa, thanks for checking on me. I’m going to shower, then I’ll be right down. Did Lani get you up too early?”

“Not really,” Nissa said. “Well, a little, but I feel fine. She understands that she’s going to stay with Joanne, possibly for a few days, and seems to be taking it well. She’s downstairs with Albert.”

“Children,” Pearl said, “can be astonishingly wise. Lani certainly was last night. Ghost Lady. We’re going to have to be very careful how we raise her.”

A certain tension around Nissa’s eyes melted away at those words. “We. Good. You’re not giving up then, not going on some suicide mission?”

Pearl shook her head. “My mirror is perfectly intact, but if I don’t wash up and get some makeup on, I will probably look frightening enough to break mirrors. I’ll be down shortly.”

All the
house hold was gathered downstairs by the time Pearl made her descent. Unlike previous ventures through the Nine Gates, robes and other such elaborate forms of dress were not in evidence. The team entering via the gates was going to try to move as quickly and decisively as possible.

Quantities of food were already laid out, most prepared the day before while Pearl had been recuperating in bed. She helped herself to a hearty portion of the egg, cheese, and green chile casserole that Des had made a staple of the house hold’s table over the summer, added several slices of whole wheat toast, and joined the group already at the table.