The Pirate Empress (4 page)

That afternoon, Esen’s men struck the rearguard. Quan’s soldiers fought to their last arrow. They battled valiantly as a thunderstorm shook them to their very core. Racked by the rain and the relentlessness of the Mongol horde, they retaliated with sabre and dagger. Finally, they used their empty bows as clubs before the barbarians cut them to shreds. Two days ahead, the Son of Heaven, escorted by Zheng Min and the Imperial vanguard, slipped safely through the Juyong pass and back to the Forbidden City.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Chinese Warlock

The Mongols were defeated. Stories circulated by Zheng Min’s men told of a fierce battle on the rugged, windswept, exposed plains of the Northeast Passage where Master of the Horses, Captain Chi Quan and his stalwart lieutenant, He Zhu, fought valiantly to save the life of their emperor. But where were they? The vanguard, the body, and the flanks of the army had survived the vicious attack. The Mongols had retreated. But with the rearguard missing, how did this qualify as a resounding defeat? Li knew men were lost in battle, even battles that were won, but Captain Chi Quan was too good a soldier to let a Mongol slay him.

She went in search of her aunt and found Jasmine in the garden courtyard, smiling into the lily pond. “They say that Captain Chi Quan and Lieutenant He Zhu are dead.”

Jasmine raised her head. “Lotus Lily, I’ve been looking for you. Come, look into the lily pond with me.”

Li shrugged off her aunt’s hand, shuddering. It felt cold and unfamiliar. What was the matter with her? Why didn’t she care that He Zhu might be dead? And what on earth was she doing making faces at a lily pond?

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to do something about it? His Highness should send out a search party for them; maybe some of the soldiers are still alive.”

“What makes you think His Highness will listen to me?” Jasmine asked.

“You’re his number one concubine. He’s listened to you before.”

“Oh?” Jasmine licked her scarlet lips, and rested dark eyes on Li’s frustrated stare.  “What makes you think that?”

Lately, a rumour had been circulating, an unpleasant rumour. It said that Jasmine was the one who had burned the grand secretary’s hands—with His Majesty’s consent.

“I thought you loved He Zhu,” Li said.

Jasmine laughed. “Silly girl. You are always thinking of love. Love is a means to an end. He Zhu was a fling. I was bored; he was available. When you grow up a little, you’ll understand.”

She was more grown up than she cared to be if this was the way adults behaved. “But what about Chi Quan?”

“Forget about Chi Quan. You were meant for royalty.”

Li pursed her lips in a pout. “I don’t care for royalty.”

Jasmine laughed, an enormously disturbing laugh. Li clutched her elbows across her midriff and screwed up her eyes.

“I understand, Lotus Lily. You want adventure and excitement. You wish to bed a warrior, not a fish-belly puppet king like our emperor.”

But this was wonderful news! Jasmine understood. No matter how they felt about being concubines, her aunt had always stressed duty first. Now, Li could reveal what she had been doing for the past year—training to be a warrior!

“There’s something I want to tell you, Jasmine.”

“That you’re in love with Chi Quan?”

Yes, but no, that wasn’t it.

Her aunt shaded her eyes from the sun, smiling. She took Li’s hand, brought her to a white stone bench at the north end of the courtyard and sat her down. “Chi Quan is not good enough for you. Sure, he’s a brave warrior, a man of superior talents, but he’s not wealthy. He’s an accountant-turned-soldier, born to a millet farmer, who showed more flair with a sabre than with numbers. If you ran away with him, you would have nothing. Besides, he would never do that. He’s loyal to the man who enabled his education and his training—his emperor.” She smiled wider. “Anyway, the point is moot because our courageous captain is dead.”

“He’s not dead. He can’t be.”

Jasmine shook her head and patted Li’s hand. “Listen to me. Do you remember that Mongol warlord that was here three months ago? He wants you. He could build you a house as grand as a palace.”

“The Mongols live in tents. Tao told me so.”

“Most of them do,” Jasmine agreed, her voice low and conspiratorial. “But Esen the warlord, he is rich.”

Li jerked her hand away. The idea was repulsive to her. “He’s a barbarian!”

Her aunt’s beautiful face turned ugly. “Suit yourself. I was only trying to help. But why should I get myself into trouble for you? You belong to the Emperor.”

“Jasmine—” Li hesitated. “Are you all right?”

“What do you mean?” She rose, exhaled a breath of exasperation. “You are a spoilt, useless girl, Lotus Lily. Well, soon His Highness will ask for you and you won’t be idle any longer.”

Jasmine glanced at Tao who beckoned at the doorway. His Majesty, she was informed, requested her services. Tao gave Li an odd look, before exiting behind Jasmine, and Li decided that the only person she could discuss the missing soldiers with was Master Yun.

Inside her bedchamber she dressed in her boy’s clothes, wiped off her makeup and rearranged her hair until she transformed into the boy that everyone in her Kung Fu class knew as Li. She strode through the halls and chambers, out the palace doors, past the sentries to the courtyards, then to the public square and the main gates.

Pine trees swayed in the breeze around a temple with a red curled roof and yellow pillars. Miniature mandarin blossoms bloomed on the shrubs in the quiet of the garden. On some of the branches, small green fruit were hardening. Li swept past the little orange bushes and followed the flagstones lined with painted ceramic planters yielding bonsai trees. She peered through the open door of the Koi Temple. Just inside the doorway were two plump jade plants, and beyond, the shrine’s stone fountain was empty of worshippers. Li departed and headed for the grassy plot by the giant pond where a long-needled pine tree cast a dappled shade. This place, too, was empty.

At this hour he always meditated by the pond, but it was hot today. So, where was he? She desperately needed his counsel. Of course! She grinned to herself. She knew where he was. She moved to the edge of the water and looked down. At first she saw only the bright orange, yellow, and white markings of black-speckled fish. But below them, in the deep shadows, was a human figure.

Master Yun lay on his back at the bottom of the pool. His eyes were wide open and he was meditating beneath the rippling surface. He had achieved physical mastery over his body and his environment, and on very warm days, like today, he would sink to the bottom and stay submerged for hours.

She was warned never to disturb him while he was thus engaged. If startled out of the trance, he could drown. So she waited. And waited.

The sun was a red disk in the sky when Master Yun left his watery bed. She bowed and waited for him to speak before she did. He was silent, and mopped his dripping beard with a cloth he had stored under the pine tree, before ordering her to turn her back while he cast aside his wet robes and donned dry ones. A taut breeze fluffed the ankle length, matt-grey robe with red piping on the sleeves, and the shoulder-length, straggling grey hair that escaped from his topknot.

“This had better be important, Li,” he finally said.

Common courtesy and respect required that she bow again before raising her head to speak. “It’s
very
important. It concerns the warriors Captain Chi Quan and Lieutenant He Zhu.”

“They are gone,” he answered bluntly, and slipped his hands into the long bell-shaped sleeves of his robe. “It’s best that they are thought to be lost.”

Why?
But before she could ask him, he started to walk. Silent, Li matched his stride. “You are growing tall and strong,” he said.

She had only come to Master Yun a year ago. Had she grown so much in a year? She decided it was wise to stay mute.

“There is something else that troubles you. Tell me what it is.”

How could she tell him? How could she explain that Li, the boy, had a relationship with the Lady Jasmine, His Majesty’s Number One Concubine?

“Stay away from her,” he warned. “She’s become a danger to you.” He reined in his stride and smiled. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Lotus Lily. Only you didn’t know it.”

He knew! Master Yun knew she was a girl! He knew she belonged to the Emperor and he never said a word. All the time she was practising Kung Fu in his class he knew she was Lotus Lily! She composed herself and spoke calmly. “You’ve been watching me? But why?”

“I’m not sure that this is the time for me to tell you.” His eyes twitched past the sculptured parkland, out across the city to the far north and then to the west as he stopped his stride. “Jasmine is no longer your aunt.” A hand rose to silence her objections. “I know it sounds incredible, but there are many things in this world that are incredible and it is time for you to know it. For a long while now, I have suspected that something was wrong with her.”

“She has not been herself, lately. It’s scary.”

“Indeed,” he said. “That is because she is not your aunt. She’s a fox faerie. She bewitched His Majesty. But before that, I believe she killed your aunt and took her form. I was hesitant to accept it at first. But the proof is in the scarred hands of Grand Secretary Ju Jong.”

He nodded when he saw acceptance contort her expression, and he sighed in sympathy. He patted her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Li. Your real aunt would never dismiss Quan’s troops so readily. I suspect the fox faerie is responsible.”

Li’s mind danced with her newfound knowledge. She was terrified and thrilled all at once. Jasmine was a magical being. And Master Yun knew things without being told. That meant he was magical, too.

“How long have you known that I was a girl?” she asked.

“Your whole life,” Master Yun said. “Your mother was executed for conceiving a girl, shortly after your birth. You were sentenced to die with her by Imperial decree. But Tao rescued you and raised you in secret. You spent your infancy in the Koi Temple. I suppose you recall nothing of that? He nursed you on a formula of soybean and ewe’s milk. At the age of three, you were delivered to your Aunt Jasmine before she was transmuted into the wickedness she is now.”

Li frowned until she was sure her eyebrows met. She wasn’t quite clear what he meant.
Was
her mother a concubine? And if she was born in the palace, then who was her father?

“Your life is in danger,” Master Yun said. “You must mingle among the concubines and never leave Tao’s sight; you must never be alone. I will devise a way to get you out of the palace permanently.”

“But surely His Highness doesn’t still want to kill me?” she said. “I mean he doesn’t know who I am, does he?”

“It is not he I’m worried about.”

“You’re worried about Jasmine?”

“She has great power, Li. As long as you and she remain in the palace together your life is in danger. She has allied herself with the Mongols.”

Either he had spies or he was a seer. All rulers had warlocks by their side; no emperor could rule by brute strength alone. But she had thought her emperor an exception. She had never seen Master Yun cast spells or conjure up spirits. And she had never seen him called to His Majesty’s side. In her whole life, all she ever saw him do was train students in the martial arts.

“Have you never wondered why no one notices that the feet of the concubine-to-be, Lotus Lily, are unbound?” he asked.

“I have small feet. And I wear flowerpot shoes to enhance the appearance.”

“Your feet are not
that
small. The illusion was not created by physical means.”

An illusion? So now, was he going to tell her he
was
a warlock?

He smiled.

This was too much; he could read her mind. She blushed.

“A spell,” he said. “When you were of age for foot-binding, I cast a spell over your feet. All who laid eyes on them would see perfect lotus-shaped feet.” His look turned gentle. “Lotus Lily, the ghost catcher and the fox faerie will soon meet face to face. This is a battle that you cannot witness. The fox faerie’s power grows daily. I am an old man; my vision grows dim. I see in my future a long, steep wall that will block my power to help you. I am powerless against this wall, but it will protect China’s men from dying. The wall will save the Middle Kingdom, but it will also feed the fox faerie’s voracious appetite for power. She will come for me and I don’t know if I will have the strength to defeat her. But the confrontation can’t be avoided. When this happens you must be far away from here.”

Suddenly, Li didn’t relish the idea of running away alone. “You can come with me.”

“No. Like the fox faerie, I only have power when I am within the palace proper. Outside I am as an ordinary man like you see now—unless an army is defeated.”

“You’re far from ordinary,” she argued. “You can read my mind.”

“I can read your
face
, your emotions. That’s something you have failed to mask.”

He looked out over the horizon. North of the city was a pleasantly green, gently rolling landscape of pavilions, villas, temples, streams and lotus-filled lakes. Interspersed with the lovely parklands, clustered settlements led to wild scrubby hills, which sloped sharply upward into the serpentine ridge of Black Mountains where Captain Chi Quan proposed building the brick wall.

“Jasmine’s power grows as the Emperor’s power wanes. She sucks the life out of him sexually and builds her strength. That is the wonder and the horror of the fox faerie. His Majesty no longer asks for my counsel or my presence at his war meetings. Yet that is where my strength lies. My power comes from the death of men …” His voice hoarsened from shame. “From the death of our own soldiers. At wartime I am as an army; at peacetime my power diminishes.”