The Moon in the Palace (The Empress of Bright Moon Duology) (32 page)

When I made it to the threshold, my hands were shaking, and I could hardly breathe. But I did not see a sword or any rebels.

Outside, the lights from the lanterns under the eaves were extinguished, and the yellow moon hung low, like a water-stained round fan. No one was in the corridor or the yard. Perhaps the rebels had left. I reached for the door frame.

Something exploded above my head, and thousands of shattered pieces burst in the air. Covering my head, I fell on my back as a hoof thrust through the door frame. A beast bolted into the hall.

“A horse, a horse!” the Noble Lady shouted. The women screamed.

My heart pounded. The horse, a large war mount, twisted its head and puffed thick fumes. With powerful legs hitting the ground, it lowered its head and charged.

The women screamed louder. Some ran to the corners of the walls; some raced to the doors. I was squeezed tightly among them. An elbow knocked against my head. I fell again. Scrambling, I tried to stand, but another hand flung me aside.

“Mei, Mei!”

I raised my head. There. Among the frantic legs, I glimpsed the Noble Lady, her eyes closed, shivering on the ground. And the horse, its head bent, its powerful hooves pounding, charged in her direction. “Watch out, my Noble Lady!”

Her eyes flew open. For a moment she looked dazed, as though she was unaware of what was happening around her. Then she sat up and smoothed the creases from her silk gown as though she were ready to step out of her bedchamber to greet a guest. But the horse. It was so close to her!

“Move, move!” I screamed. If only I was closer to her; if only I could push her aside.

She turned toward me, saw the horse, and her face changed. But it was too late—the horse pranced and struck her forehead.

“Noble Lady!” My heart wrenched, and a shower of black splashes blinded my vision.

The horse turned around and raced toward the gate, its tail sweeping my shoulder. Hot tears burning my eyes, I crawled through the crowd to reach her. Someone stepped on my hands. I could hardly feel it. Inch by inch, I crawled to her. When I finally found her, I held her close. I could not bring myself to look at her face, for what was left was not the face I had so loved. But she was still in my heart, no matter what had befallen her, no matter what she had done. She had forgiven me when she could have punished me. She had stood with me when I was alone. She could have been my enemy, but she opted to be my friend. “My lady, my lady. You should have listened to me. You should. Why, why you didn’t move?”

She would never reply to me.

“Mei! We need to go.” Plum shook me. “We need to get out of here.”

“The Noble Lady…”

“My heavens.” Plum covered her mouth. “We’ll get to her later, but we must leave now.”

“I can’t… No… Wait…”

In a moment, I was in the corridor. The howling was louder there, and I shivered. The revolt was far from over. I wiped away my tears. I would tell the Noble Lady’s son of the last moment of his mother, but first I had to survive. “Where are we going?”

“We can go to our bedchamber,” Plum said nervously. Some ladies ran out of the courtyard; some gathered around us.

I shook my head. “How do you know Taizi hasn’t invaded there? Besides, we can’t get there all by ourselves.”

To reach our bedchamber, we had to travel through a dozen halls, gates, and gardens. With Taizi’s rebellion, some rebels must have crossed the Tongxun Gate to the Inner Court. We would be captured before we passed one hall.

“Where can we go then?”

“We must get out of the palace,” I said. The men’s shrieks grew louder, and everywhere, entangled shadows fought each other. I felt naked standing there without protection.

“All right. Let’s go now.”

A group of men emerged in the dark in the distance and shouted at us. I pulled Plum aside. We stayed behind the wall of a building and listened to the men’s footsteps. After a while, the voices faded, and it seemed we had lost them. “Listen to me, Plum. When you pass three halls down this way, you will see the kitchen area for the eunuchs. You know the area, don’t you? There are many storage buildings, but if you keep running, you’ll see the canal and the west entrance where the eunuchs leave to purchase groceries in the morning. You will be safe there. The rebels will not go there for plunder. You can take the other women with you. Go now.”

“Yes, we’ll go.” She turned around. In the dark, her face was difficult to see, but I could feel she was nervous and frightened. “Come on.”

I shook my head.

“You’re not coming?”

“I…I have to find someone.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

I did not explain. Plum would not understand.

“Who are you trying to find, Mei?”

“I’m going to look for Pheasant, Plum,” I said. I could hear some metal clang from somewhere close. “I have to. I need to know if he is all right.”

“You are crazy!” she said. “The rebels are everywhere! What will happen to you if they catch you?”

“I…I…” I swallowed. “I’ll be careful.”

“Don’t be stupid, Mei. You must not think of him now. It’s too dangerous to go to the Eastern Palace. You will fall into rebels’ hands. How are you going to get there?”

I did not know. Eastern Palace was even farther than my bedchamber, and it was where the revolt had started.

In the dark, another group of men raced toward us in the distance. I pushed her. “Go, Plum. Don’t worry about me. Go before it’s too late.”

The other ladies urged her too, and finally, Plum ran down the path. Soon my friend and the others receded into the darkness.

Footfalls pounded closer from the other side of the wall. I wished there had been bushes or trees so I could hide, but there was only a terrace and kylin statues. I darted to a statue and couched behind it, my hands around my knees. Men’s voices grew louder. Torches sputtered in the air. I was surrounded. My eyes became damp, and I held my breath.

It seemed ages had passed before the men finally left. I dashed from behind the statue and ran. A few times, the voices of the men were so close, I crawled on the ground so they would not notice me. When I found trees, I pressed myself against a trunk, waiting for the men to pass, and ran again. The distance to the Eastern Palace seemed farther than the earth to the sky, and I wished I could turn into a crane and fly over the halls’ roofs.

Finally, I glimpsed the roofs of the Ninth Heaven Hall, a building near the Eastern Palace. Seeing no one around me, I dashed behind the building.

I froze. Smoke. Layers of smoke. Rising from dried leaves on the ground to the elms, birches, and oaks decorated with rows of lanterns celebrating the festival. Still hanging, the lanterns were blazing fireballs.

I coughed. Smoke choked me, or perhaps it was my fear.

Something growled in the smoke. I froze. Animals. Everywhere. Deer darted into the chrysanthemum bushes; monkeys squeaked across the mulberry trees; hunting hounds snarled in the corridors of the Ninth Heaven Hall; a rhinoceros paced in the front yard; a leopard scoured the flower beds; a wolf with glinting eyes perched on a man-made mountain in the center of the yard. And overhead spiraled falcons, vultures, and many owls.

They must have come from the imperial stables and corrals. That meant the rebels had attacked there already.

My legs trembling, I raced down a trail near the trees. Body after body lay still on the ground. The Gold Bird Guards. The Emperor’s men.

“Hell is rising,” someone screamed.

Eunuchs, servants, palace maids, and ministers poured out of the darkness. A servant who had served in the feast hall earlier fled. He carried a gold statue—loot, most likely—high above the crowd. A eunuch bumped him from behind, and the servant smacked him with the statue. “All is for the taking. Hell is rising!”

I could not turn back. Tongxun Gate was closer. Once I reached the gate, I could run all the way to the Eastern Palace. I pulled up my skirt and rushed down the path along the wall.

I stepped on something marshy. My arms grew rigid. I forced myself to look down. A cluster of coiled ropes. No, too soft. My throat tightened. Snakes?

I faltered.

Angry growls came from behind me. I spun around, my heart pounding. Two dogs raced past me to the coil. One dug in and pulled out a string of ropes, while the other gnawed the other end. I stepped back, feeling sick. The ropes were not snakes.

Stumbling, I trudged to the back of the hall toward the gate. There, again, clouds of smoke draped in front of me like a vast canopy. I could not breathe, my throat burned, and my legs were weak. Something furry swept by my feet. I did not look down.

Finally, I reached the gate, a formidable building with an arched tunnel. Elated, I ran toward it. The gates were left ajar, and I held on to the bolt and pushed it open.

“Hold!” a voice shouted at me from the other side of the gate, and a torch appeared. The fire almost singed my hair. I had yet to cover my face when a man in a bloody tunic, unlike any outfits the Gold Bird Guards wore, grabbed my arms and locked them tightly behind my back. “Here’s another!”

A rebel!

I struggled, kicking him as hard as I could. “Get away from me. Let me go!”

“You’re not going anywhere.” The man dragged me to a vast open area in the Eastern Palace. Everywhere, I saw people. Their faces smeared with blood, their heads drooped as they knelt. I could not see who they were, but I would never forget those black hats, colorful skirts, and tattered clothes. They were ministers, scribes, palace ladies, eunuchs, servants from the kitchen.

My knees weakened.

Prince Yo had won. The Emperor had lost.

But that could not be possible! The Emperor had never lost a war! He always won! He was Li Shimin, the greatest conqueror of all land and seas! He had flattened the mountains in the west; he was feared even by wolves in the prairies. And now…now defeated in his own home?

I shivered. What would happen to me? To us? To everyone in the palace? And Pheasant. What about him? Did he get away? Did he… A figure, limbs splayed in a weird angle, sprawled against the wall. His head cocked to one side, blood gushing from his slit throat, and his robe, his familiar white robe, was soaked in a pool of blood. Pheasant? My heart wrenched, and I wanted to scream. Then I saw his face. He was only a scribe. I breathed out in relief. But where was Pheasant?

“Move!” A hand pushed me forward.

I stumbled. The torches leaped and wavered before me, burning my face. Anguished groans and frantic screams filled my ears, each sound a stake thrust into my heart. When I was stopped again, I raised my head. I faltered.

In front of me was a tree stump. Near it, a masked man heaved, and an ax fell.

A crunch. A ball-like head bounced, gathering dirt, leaves, and horse dung, hit the bare roots of an elm tree, slowed, and came to a stop at my feet, while thick liquid gushed like maple syrup. The masked man came over. He grabbed the head’s hair, wiped the dirt on a body lying nearby, and thrust the head onto a spear.

Sourness rushed from my stomach. I staggered back. Again and again, I swallowed, pushing back the bile.

The hand struck my back again. “Move!”

I stumbled sideways. Before me stood a fence of spears that staked severed heads, their eyes round, their mouths contorted, their faces etched in blood and agony.

I bent and vomited.

“Move!”

I could no longer walk.

“Move!”

“Please…no…please…”

“Move now!”

I did not want to die. I did not want to become one of those faces on the stakes. A blow fell on my back, and the ground slammed into my face. I lay there, numb. A strange sensation seized me. I was floating, riding in a roofless carriage that raced in the air. Around me, the sound of horse hooves echoed.
Clop, clop, clop
. It drove and drove, pushing through dark tunnels, diving into the clouds of smoke, flying through the frozen sheets of rain, and reaching stands of cypresses and stone statues that shed drops of red tears. Love and destiny were two wild horses that could not be curbed…the thought came to me. So there I was. Riding on the back of the horse I chose…

A melodious voice came from somewhere, so smooth, like milk, and so pure, like the summer sky. It tempted me to follow it, like the sound from a distant dream.

“Oh, weep, my child, weep,

let the mist of your eyes flow

over the mountains of sorrow.

Oh, weep, my child, weep,

let the wind of your thoughts blow

passing the empty meadow.

For the clouds are gathering, and the storms are coming,

drowning the moon, and tearing the sky of eternity.

Let go the tethers of your heart, knotted, drifting like feathers,

and the light of your memories, fading, fleeing with night’s fireflies.

And into the pond, your soul gazes

and shivers,

at fate’s reflection, luminous, inevitable,

like a tear on a shallot.”

Tears poured out of me. I closed my eyes. “No.” I clenched my hands. “No.”

A pair of hands pulled me up, and I stared into Daisy’s teary eyes.

“Mei…” Her clothing was torn, and her hairpin was askew. Around her were other palace women. Their shawls were missing, and their faces were stained with blood and tears.

I sat up. “Daisy. Poor Daisy, are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“Plum… Plum…” Daisy glanced at the tree stump. “She… She.…”

My heart wept.

“Bring the women!” a voice shouted.

A man grabbed my arms. All around me, women wailed, their pitiful cries tightening around me like a noose. Too soon, I was stopped again. Before me were Prince Yo, the Pure Lady, the Emperor’s uncle, and Taizi.

“Get off me.” I shook off the arms and stood. If I was going to die, I would die standing. “Let me ask my last question, Taizi. Where’s Pheasant? Let me see him before I die.”

“Pheasant?” He frowned.

“What did you do to him?”

He did not answer at first. “What are you talking about?” His voice was thick, and he looked larger than ever.

I was no longer afraid. “You know what I mean. He went to talk to you. He found out you kept the weapons. He wanted to talk sense into you. He had faith in you!”

He was quiet. “I didn’t see him.”

“You didn’t?” I was confounded. “You didn’t see him tonight? He didn’t talk to you?”

“That’s what I said.”

Had the rebels killed Pheasant? I could not understand. “He left me before the insurgence started.”

“He’s a man. He knows where it would be safe,” Taizi said.

“Then where is he?”

Taizi spun, his hands on his hips. “Has anyone seen Pheasant?” he shouted at the crowd.

He still cared about him.

“Pheasant is a traitor, like everyone else,” Prince Yo said.

“He’s not a traitor!” I turned to Taizi. “You know he’s not. He loves you. He cares about you. He will not let anyone harm you. Find him! Find him before these people kill him. Before it’s too late.”

Taizi folded his arms across his chest. He frowned. He knew what I had said was true.

“Nonsense,” Prince Yo said. “We have a lot to do. Don’t waste time on Pheasant.”

“You don’t tell me what to do.” Taizi balled his hands.

“You’ll listen to a woman?” Prince Yo spat. “Are you crazy?”

I had not thought of what to say when Taizi lunged at Prince Yo. His hands circled Prince Yo’s neck. “Send men to find Pheasant. It’s my order. Do you hear?”

Prince Yo gurgled, his face red and his feet dangling above the ground. I could hardly breathe. Would Taizi strangle him? I hoped so. If Prince Yo died, the rebellion perhaps would end.

But then without warning, Taizi’s hands left the prince’s throat, and he stumbled back. Slowly, he turned around.

A dagger had sunk deep into his back.

“I was looking for an opportunity to put you down,” the Pure Lady said, wiping her bejeweled hand on her silver gown. “You don’t think we went through all this trouble for you, do you?”

To my horror, Taizi swayed and dropped to the ground. They had used him. They had used his grief to break the palace’s gates, and then they simply stabbed him and let him die.

“Good riddance.” Prince Yo turned around and shouted, “Now bring my father!”

He had caught the Emperor?

I felt chilled, as though the prince had just stabbed me with a dagger, and all around me, the women and ministers screamed and cried.

And he came. The mighty one, the One Above All, and the lord of all the land and the seven seas, was dragged across the blood-soaked earth and, his head lolling to one side, he knelt before his son.

“So what do you say, Father?” Prince Yo laughed. “You never cared about me. You sent me into exile. For what? I did nothing wrong, I told you. You wouldn’t listen. You never listened. During the months of my exile, I swore that since I could not make you listen to me while you were on your feet, I must have your ears while you are on your knees.”

“You are as foolish as you are devious.” The Emperor’s voice, slow and slurred, was filled with venom. “I do not have a son like you.”

“Are you sure, Father?” Prince Yo leaned over. “Can’t you see it? I am your true son. I did precisely what you have done. I am like you, exactly like you, and when I rule, I shall rule like you.”

The Emperor’s body trembled, as though he were seized and shaken by an invisible hand again. For a moment, I thought he would tumble to the ground, just like he had surprised us in the Audience Hall. But he did not. He held on, his head jerking repeatedly.

“You’re an old man, Father. You’re going to die.” Prince Yo shook his head. “You will die now. Tonight. Face it.”

“I—will—not—”

“Then be proud of me! Look at me! Why are you not proud of me? What do you want that I don’t have? I deserve so much more. I can do so much more. Why? Why?” he screamed.

The Pure Lady put a hand on his arm.

“Very well,” Prince Yo said, panting. “I will finish you myself. But you should have seen this coming, Father.”

I wanted to close my eyes. I had never loved the Emperor. He was not a good man or a good lover, like Jewel had said, but had I wished him to die?

Perhaps.

But not like that.

Prince Yo raised his sword. I shivered, and without thinking, I closed my eyes.

“No!” a voice shouted.

My eyes flew open. Pheasant!

His sword paused in the air. Prince Yo turned.

From behind the tree stump, many shadows sprang, carving the night’s black shade like thunderbolts. For a second, I thought the rebels had all converged from the corners of the kingdom and tried to cut a slice of the Emperor and us. Then I saw the Captain’s bloodstained face, his men swarming behind him, and among them, riding on a horse, was Pheasant.

I straightened. Oh, Pheasant! The bonfire blazed near him and illuminated his face. He looked golden, supreme, and magnificent, and his motion, steady and determined, glimmered with brightness. He thrust his arm forward, shouting, and the men around him roared, invigorated.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wanted to run and embrace him. I could not, because a surge of commotion had engulfed me. A scream rent the sky, and around me, shadows leaped and fell, chasing one another. Swords, daggers, spears, and lances flew in the air and entangled. Men groaned. Bones crushed. Knuckles cracked. Skulls collided against one another. I drew back, my gaze still fixed on the lithe figure on the horse.

“Pheasant!” I shouted.

He turned his head in my direction but did not seem to see me. It did not matter. I ran. Every part of my body ached as I limped toward the arched gateway. I found Daisy and helped her rise. Another palace woman groaned at my feet, and I pulled her up too. Together, we trudged across the sticky ground, while the sharp clang of weapons rang in my ears. Finally, we crossed the archway of the Tongxun Gate and arrived at the vast area in the Inner Court. I slid down the wall and stretched out my legs. I was spent.

“I’ve got the Emperor!” someone cried out on the other side of the gate. “Keep him safe!”

“No one touches my brother!” Pheasant’s voice. “Leave Taizi to me!”

“My son!” a woman shrieked. The Pure Lady. “Oh, my son! You murderer—”

Then all of a sudden, her piercing voice ceased.

I wanted to see what was happening to her, but I was too exhausted. Warm liquid splashed my face, and I did not trouble to wipe it away. I was used to blood, the sticky liquid with a thick odor. A man wielding a sword raced through the archway and dove toward us. He was about to reach me when he fell to his knees. A sword—the Captain’s—had sunk into his back. More rebels poured through the passage but sagged, and finally, the only people who stood before me were the Captain and his men.