Nine Gates (51 page)

“Somebody! Anybody!” she yelled. “Get us out of here!”

A scream
ripped through the scholarly peace of Pearl’s house. Pearl, who had been nodding over a scroll of notes, flung her head back so suddenly she rapped it on the back of her chair.

Shen stopped copying out an elaborate design, dropped his ink brush—ruining hours of patient labor—and bolted to his feet.

Upstairs, where Des and Nissa were making amulets, the
study door flung open, striking against one of the bookshelves in the hallway. Almost immediately thereafter, two pairs of footsteps thudded down the stairs.

But Pearl had not waited for them, or for Shen. She was running toward the back of the house, toward the kitchen, in the direction from where the scream had come.

If Pearl had any thought other than to act, it was that Waking Lizard or Honey Dream had been cut or burned, but something in how her legs moved with a fluidity that Pearl had thought lost to her showed that her body knew otherwise, knew this was urgent.

Pearl found Honey Dream on her knees, head thrown forward, dark hair caught in a loose ponytail falling to curtain her face. Waking Lizard knelt next to her, one hand on the young woman’s shoulder, his face anxious.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. We were both meditating. Her scream brought me out. I found her like this.”

Pearl knelt next to Honey Dream, bending her head so she could see the girl’s face.

Honey Dream’s expression was one of blank horror, and her lips moved, repeating the same word: “
Ba Ba
.” “Daddy.”

“Honey Dream! Honey Dream! Snap out of it! What’s wrong?”

Pearl was vaguely aware that Des, Nissa, and Shen had joined them.

“Des,” Pearl said without looking away from Honey Dream, “check out the windows. This could be meant to distract us.”

Honey Dream was still muttering, “
Ba Ba! Ba Ba!
” and now tears were streaming down her cheeks. Still she did not seem completely aware of her surroundings.

Pearl glanced up at Waking Lizard. “She seems caught between states. Do you have any special way to break her out of it?”

“My teacher always threw cold water at us,” Waking Lizard
admitted, tugging at one side of his mustache, “to shock us, but Honey Dream seems shocked enough.”

Nissa had pushed her way in, and now she wrapped an arm around Honey Dream’s shoulders. Waking Lizard and Pearl moved back to give her room.

Nissa was murmuring something soft and soothing. Pearl felt a touch of ch’i woven into the words, and wondered if Nissa realized she was weaving a spell of comfort, of mother love.

Slowly, Honey Dream seemed to hear. Her breathing, which had been both irregular and ragged, eased, fell into more normal rhythms. She made as if to pull herself upward, and Nissa helped her, easing her to a seat on the carpet. Honey Dream’s eyes were no longer blank, but the horror remained.

“
Ba Ba
,” she muttered, then shook herself and looked around. As soon she registered where she was, she began pushing herself to her feet.

Nissa pressed her down. “Easy. You’ve had a shock. What’s wrong?”

Honey Dream continued to move onto her feet, and Nissa let her, rising in cadence.

“What’s wrong?” Nissa repeated.

“My father,” Honey Dream said. “I heard him talking to me. He was in terrible trouble. Dying. He was apologizing to me for not coming back.”

As she spoke, she had tried to move for the front door. Waking Lizard grabbed her by the arm, a courageous gesture, for the young woman’s eyes were becoming quite wild, and in their days of combat practice Pearl had come to respect her abilities.

“Where are you going?” Waking Lizard demanded.

“My father,” Honey Dream said simply. “I’ve got to go find him. I’ve got to save him, or if I can’t I must bring him out.”

“He’s days’ travel from here,” Des protested, coming into the room and indicating with a crisp shake of his head that
he hadn’t seen anything wrong outside the house. “One way or another, you couldn’t reach him before whatever you sensed was over.”

“If you sensed anything,” Waking Lizard said. “How do you know this isn’t a trap of some sort?”

Honey Dream stared at him. “I know. And who would wish to trap me?”

“How about those very interesting people you have been talking to in the darkness?” he said.

Pearl and Shen exchanged confused glances, but Honey Dream clearly knew what Waking Lizard was talking about.

The anguish did not leave her, but now surprise was there as well. “You knew?”

“Of course I know,” Waking Lizard said. “You’ve already proven yourself unpredictable—and unreliable. Do you think we haven’t been watching you?”

“But you let me?”

“Why interfere? We might learn something, although I think they probably learned more.”

Honey Dream shook free of his grasp, and stood considering.

“Waking Lizard, I know. That was my father I heard. He was in agony, wrung out, dreading something so horrible that he knew he was going to die. I know his voice…”

The last words were a plea, but there was not a trace of doubt in them.

“And what are you going to do?” Waking Lizard said. He didn’t move, but Des had inserted himself in the door that led to the front of the house. His posture was casual, but Pearl knew how quickly Des could move and was certain Honey Dream would not get by him. The backyard was a dead end. Ever since the night of the prowlers, the locks and wards had been intensified so that even if anyone got in, they would never get out.

Honey Dream seemed to realize she was trapped, and her shoulders slumped. “Please. I have to go. I have to help him. You didn’t hear him. He needs me.”

“What were you going to do?” Waking Lizard persisted.

Pearl wanted to ask other things. Were the others in equal danger? Were all of them dead? She bit down on the questions and schooled her expression to calm interest. Whatever the nature of Honey Dream’s vision—true or false—it had clearly been intensely personal.

“I was…” Honey Dream looked as if she was considering the details of her plan for the first time, and realizing how tenuous they were. “I was going to go outside. Find a cab. Get it to take me to the gate. Beg Pai Hu to take me to where I could find my father.”

“Not bad,” Waking Lizard said. “And now?”

“Please!” Honey Dream said. “I have to know. Auguries won’t tell us anything. Let me at least go and beg Pai Hu if he knows anything.”

She stopped. Swallowed hard. Then with incredible ease and grace she fell to her knees in front of Pearl and began beating her head against the floor in a humiliatingly groveling kowtow.

“Please, Tiger. Come with me. Help me ask the White Tiger of the West about my father’s fate. He might not care about Righteous Drum, but surely he has some sense of the other Tiger. I beg you!”

“Child!” Pearl grabbed those slender shoulders and forced Honey Dream to her feet, surprising herself with her own strength. “Stop that! You could have just asked.”

“I am unworthy. I am an unworthy ally. I have consorted with our enemies. I am lower than the dust beneath a snake’s belly. I have been jealous, envious, and lazy, but in one thing I have been true. I have been a good daughter to my father. I beg you, you who should be upheld with Miao Shan as an exemplar of filial piety in adversity, please, help me.”

It was quite a speech, and Pearl found herself wondering if it had been rehearsed, but there was a red mark on Honey Dream’s forehead where she had struck it against the floor. The tears in her eyes were genuine, as was the anguish on her face.

Pearl looked around at the others. “Well,” she said slowly, “I don’t see what harm could come from asking. What do the rest of you think?”

“Two of us should stay,” Nissa said promptly, “in case Honey Dream is being manipulated. We know we have adversaries in the Rock Dove Society, and the prisoners might have pulled something off. Lani will be back from a playdate with some of Joanne’s other prospects in an hour, so I’ll stay.”

“I had better, too,” Shen said. “My spells will work better in defense than in the field. I fear I have let myself become too much of a scholar.”

“Then the rest of us will go,” Pearl said. “Des, can you bring the town car around?”

“Done,” he said. “I’m going to run upstairs for a few things, then I’ll be off.”

“Don’t forget we must be careful not to create an incident,” she said.

“I remember,” Des agreed. “In fact, I’ve prepared a kit precisely for this sort of thing.”

“Waking Lizard? Do you agree that we need to let Honey Dream reassure herself? And do you understand that if this is a trap, we must take special care not to create an incident that can be used against us by Franklin Deng and his allies?”

“I do.” He reached into an umbrella stand and pulled out his hard whip, a stiff rod that to an untrained eye could be mistaken for a walking stick. “See? I won’t even carry a sword.”

Pearl, who had seen him do amazing things with nothing but a length of bamboo, only smiled. She turned to Honey Dream.

“Wash your face and pull yourself together. I’m going to phone Albert and Gaheris. This may be nothing—I hope it is—but we’re not going to leave without taking precautions.”

Honey Dream looked calmer, but there was still a wildness to her eyes. “We won’t take long?”

“We’ll take less time,” Pearl promised, “than you would have to find a taxi in this neighborhood at this time of day.”

Pearl was still on the phone talking to Albert when Des brought the car around. She got in the front, and motioned Honey Dream and Waking Lizard to the backseat.

Nissa had come out with them, and now she handed in Pearl’s sword case, and a handful of amulet bracelets.

“Good luck,” she said, and closed the car door firmly behind them. Honey Dream watched as if she were still in a trance as Nissa ran up the porch steps and closed the door of the house. She imagined she could hear the Rabbit snapping closed the locks and resetting the wards.

Des pulled away from the curb, muttering as he navigated the sudden congestion of traffic as some event let out at the museum. Waking Lizard sat very still and quiet on his side of the seat, but Honey Dream did not mind. She needed to think.

Part of me feels half asleep, as if I still haven’t broken out of my meditation. Another part of me—it’s as if I’m awake for the first time in a long time. What has happened?

Honey Dream looked deep into her own soul, and tried not to flinch away from what she saw. She saw how for many months now she had been wrapped up in herself, so deeply involved with herself and her own desires that every event was distorted by the broken prism of self-interest.

Even before they had left the Lands, she had felt this way, even before she had been anointed the Snake. She had so wanted to prove herself, so wanted to stand out, to be remarkable, to be unique that she had not cared what happened as long as she could turn the opportunities to her benefit.

And why? A face rose into her mind. Flying Claw. It was his fault. If he had only looked at her, not scorned the love she had thrown at his feet…

At his feet. Honey Dream had a sudden image of herself just a few minutes ago, down on the floor, beating her head
against the floor. She touched her forehead with one finger and found it slightly swollen. It would bruise.

And she realized she didn’t care. And she realized that Flying Claw was not to blame for not accepting her love. Love wasn’t something that could be forced, but she had tried to force it. He had even been noble. There had been times…

She blushed and was glad that no one was looking at her. Yes. There had been times. Not only over these last several months, not even since they became Tiger and Snake, but before: when they met at court events, when they had “chanced” on each other.

How little “chance” had there been in some of those encounters, but Flying Claw had not taken advantage even when she had given him ample excuse. Honey Dream wanted to hate him for being noble when she had been debased, but in her current rawness of soul she could not. The rawness hurt, and she dug a mental finger into it, probing for the root of this new honesty.

What has broken me so? Where have my illusions gone?

And she knew. No matter what the others thought, she had heard Righteous Drum’s voice, full of pain, but unmistakable nonetheless.

“Honey…Honey…I am sorry.”

Sorry. Sorry because he wasn’t going to come back. Sorry because he had tried and failed. Sorry because now she was going to have to push on alone, and even if she succeeded, her reward would be telling her mother that Righteous Drum was dead, that he had gone into the underworld, and was not going to return.

Honey Dream knew she loved her father, knew that love to be as sweet and pure as a drop of honey from the comb. For him she had studied and striven, for him she had sought the Snake’s lore, because if she could not be a Dragon as he was, then she would be the Dragon’s match—the Snake.

How angry she had been when they came to this world and she had seen how everything was distorted, how there were
female Tigers and male Roosters. It had been an anger to feed other angers that had been brooding since before they had left the Lands—anger at those who had not thought her worthy of being the Snake, anger at those who did not believe Righteous Drum’s theory explaining why their powers were attenuated, anger at the enemies who pressed their emperor—and even anger at the Snake she had succeeded for not having given Honey Dream enough time to prove herself.