The Pirate Empress (45 page)

Zheng Min’s face took on an evil hue. “We shall see about that.”

The military governor went to his quarters to clean himself up. Quan went to the Koi Garden to wait. They had an audience with His Majesty in two hours and Quan had to be prepared to counter every slander that Zheng Min laid at the Emperor’s feet.

The pine trees on the knoll swayed about the red curled roof and yellow pillars of the temple overlooking the koi pond. The petals of pearly mandarin blossoms fluttered from stout shrubs and on some of them, small waxy oranges ripened against the walls of the temple. Quan followed the flagstones lined with painted, ceramic planters containing bonsai trees to where two plump jade plants flanked the inside entrance. The shrine with its stone fountain was empty.

Quan tore off his helmet. When he had refreshed his throat with a deep gulp, he splashed water over his face and closed his eyes to squeeze the water from his lids. When he could see clearly again, he noticed that the jade lily pads and fish at the bottom of the basin were near the surface and the water flowing from the rock wall was but a thin trickle.

He dipped a hand into the fountain and touched the wet, jade surface of an apple green lily pad. It reminded him of Li. Why even the fish would forget to swim when confronted with her beauty. He had witnessed birds drop from the sky in her sparkling presence. She was so luminously lovely that the moon itself shied away in shame when juxtaposed to her face. If only he could have said these things to her when they were together. Then he smiled because Li would have laughed in his face. Beauty was not a power she embraced or exploited. Beauty, she deemed, was artificial.

Now to the palace, he thought.
I must meet with the Emperor and discover what twist of irony lies in store for me next.

He bowed to the sentries at the walled gate before navigating the numerous courtyards that would take him to the main audience hall. Zheng Min was already there, grinning his wicked, self-possessed grin.

“Why does His Majesty not wish to meet in the throne room?” Quan asked.

“The state of the war has his nerves on edge. He wants the exercise of walking from there to here. Your disappearance did nothing to help the matter.”

What about your disappearance?
Quan almost blurted. He stopped himself in time. Only composure and wit would get him out of whatever lies Zheng Min would use to discredit him.

“Majesty,” Zheng Min said, bowing low as the royal entourage entered the sunlit courtyard. This consisted of four armed sentries with sabres at their hips, a couple of eunuchs and a houseboy. All waited at the arched doorway on his command.

“Military Governor.” The Emperor acknowledged Zheng Min’s gesture of esteem. “Chi Quan,” he said, batting his flat, yellow-lidded eyes at the brigade general. “You have been away long. We miss your counsel in the war room.”

Quan bowed deep and graciously. “An honour to be in your presence, sire. And my apologies for neglecting to pay my respects more frequently, but the barbarians keep me busy at the wall.”

Zheng Min scowled as Quan was accorded a slight nod of the Imperial head.

“Yes,” the military governor said, irony souring his tone. “Our brigade general has been busy indeed, these last six years.” He gave Quan a contemptuous self-satisfied smirk.

“I beg your pardon?” Quan said.

The Emperor glanced up at the animosity between the two officers.

“I said you have been busy these past six years. And for some of that time, you were
not
at the wall.”

Quan’s knees began to weaken and he locked them together. “Explain yourself, Military Governor.”

The smirk returned to Zheng Min’s face and he lifted his head to fix eyes with His Majesty who disliked the presumptuousness and glowered, until the military governor lowered his sight. His gaze landed on the Fire Opal. Quan’s heart drummed like the hooves of a thousand horses. What was this stone? Was it magic? Did it have powers like Master Yun and He Zhu’s? Quan’s throat was instantly dry, his tongue thick, the saliva stuck in his gullet like a stream choked by coarse sand.

“I have proof that Chi Quan, your trusted brigade general, lied to you, Your Majesty. If you want to know who betrayed your trust, look no further. Chi Quan was the rescuer of the condemned princess Lotus Lily. And even now, he knows her whereabouts.”

The Emperor glared, swung on Zheng Min. “What’s this I hear? Did not the Mongol Esen hint as much? He contended that Lotus Lily was alive, but you refused to believe him!”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Zheng Min stammered, lips flapping, caught in his own net of deceit. “But now I have proof!” He raised his jewelled hand triumphantly and regained something of his composure.

“Is this true?” the Emperor roared, slinging his anger on Quan. “Is Lotus Lily alive?”

“I have no idea whether she lives or not on this day,” he replied. That was true. Quan’s last message concerning Li was from He Zhu, and he had not seen Zhu in several moons.

The Emperor turned on his heel, flapping his Imperial yellow sleeves to confront Zheng Min again. “This is a serious accusation, Military Governor. What proof do you have?”

Quan’s eyes flitted from emperor to military governor to the sentries at the arch. Outside this audience hall and beyond the walls of the courtyard, no doubt more guards waited. Zheng Min held out his hand so that both His Majesty and Quan could see the Fire Opal on his hand. “I possess one of the Gemstones of Seeing,” he gloated. “I was lucky enough to have it fall into my hands. The guardian of the jewel is dead and its power has been transmitted to me. I alone can open its eye.”

“Let me see that ring!” the Emperor bellowed. “Take it off and put it on my finger.”

“But it won’t work for you, My Liege,” Zheng Min implored.

“How do you know? You brought me one of these gemstones before and allowed it to escape. I don’t trust you.”

“That gemstone was the Tiger’s Eye, the monk’s jewel. It performs only for the monk and those of monk-kind.” Zheng Min cast a glare of accusation at Quan. “Apparently, it also works at the bidding of Chi Quan’s son. As you have witnessed.”

“I am Tongtian, Heaven’s Pass, ruler of all of the Middle Kingdom. It should have been placed on my finger and left for me to decide. Now it is gone because of your negligence. And the thief who took it has vanished, too. I want the traitor brought before me and punished.”

Zheng Min shot an acid look at Quan. “There is your traitor. He is the father of the boy who stole the Monk’s gemstone from under your chin and escaped with his accomplice the Mongol Esen. I had the warlord chained in the dungeons, but the boy must have escaped and freed his master.”

“My son did no such thing,” Quan flung back, disgusted. “How could a boy knee-high to a camel reach the dungeon’s chains and slice them?”

“Silence.” The Emperor held up a hand, glared at Zheng Min. “I ordered you to lock up the boy.”

“I did, Majesty. But such is his deviousness that he slipped his cage and raced straight to the dungeons to free Esen. Somehow, sorcery was on his side, and he managed to free the savage. What’s more, Chi Quan has defied you with more treachery than you know. Let me show you with the gemstone. Guards!” he shouted to the waiting sentry. “Build a small fire here in the hearth.”

The guards glanced to the Emperor and His Majesty nodded. They sent the houseboy to collect wood and build a fire. When the orange flames turned to blue, Zheng Min knelt before the hearth and heated the gemstone while his knuckles reddened from the heat and the coarse hairs on the backside of his hand crisped and crumpled. Quickly, he withdrew the gem and flipped it face-up to his audience. The colour of the stone intensified until it turned a brilliant orange. In the center an image formed and grew forth.

Quan’s jaw fell as he witnessed himself appear in the public square of the Forbidden City. He tied his brown and white stallion to a green pillar, and then sought He Zhu. An argument followed, and Zhu, in obvious vexation turned away before Quan’s likeness stalked back to his horse. The princess Lotus Lily entered the public square flanked by guardsmen, and stumbled to the chopping block in the middle of the square. As Quan watched the horror of that day replay itself, his heart stopped. How had Zheng Min stolen this priceless, evil jewel? He thought to swing out his sabre and slice off the offending hand that wore the gemstone. But what good would that do? Either way he was doomed. He shut his eyes, snapped them open. And saw the events projected by the gemstone unfold exactly as he remembered them, watched himself mount his beautiful brown and white stallion, saw his hand draw the Scimitar from his saddle. Before the eyes of Zheng Min and the outraged emperor, Quan’s face and body transfigured into a foreign soldier in ancient raiment; the mystery soldier was mystery no more. Quan beat off His Majesty’s executioner and the princess’s fearless guards with his bronze blade.

The Emperor’s face grew ten shades of deep plum. “You …” he stuttered barely able to contain himself. “You defied my orders. You rescued Lotus Lily.”

Quan’s mouth and throat were too dry for anything more than a twitch of muscle. He bowed, almost kowtowed, but he had done nothing wrong. He tried for clemency, but spoke boldly. “Lotus Lily was innocent. She is your daughter.”

“Do not raise your voice at me, soldier.”

Quan tried to wet his cracked lips. “Your daughter, sire,” he said, meekly.

“I know she was my daughter and I decreed that she should join her traitorous mother in the Netherworld. With any luck Yan Luo has Ling She in Feng Du Mountain even now, burning in the fire labyrinths for her crimes.”

“One cannot be burned twice, Majesty,” Quan said.

The Emperor scowled, shut his eyes as though weary, exhaled and then turned his attention back to Quan. “You have always been my best warrior, Chi Quan. Why have you failed me at this? Lotus Lily is only a woman.”

“I love her,” he said simply.

“How can you love her? When have you ever seen her?”

Zheng Min jumped in to discredit Quan with a biting shot of his own. “Have you forgotten, Majesty? Quan harboured Lotus Lily at the work camps on the frontier. She was disguised as a boy so that all who worked with her knew her as the boy Li. She spent many a moon’s cycle at the wall unsuspected, but was exposed by a lad by the name of Lok Yu. She killed him to keep her identity secret. So, not only did Chi Quan defy your orders to have her executed, but he rescued a murderess!”

All this time Quan was silent. All of it was true.

“What do you have to say to this?” the Emperor demanded.

“She was raped by the scoundrel. She was defending herself.”

“She was training to be a concubine,” Zheng Min snapped. “Servicing men
is
her job.”

Quan shook his head. “His Majesty would not take his own daughter to his bed.”

“At the time, he didn’t know she was his daughter.”

“Enough of this,” the Emperor shouted, putting a halt to the quibbling. “You have betrayed me, Chi Quan. You have committed a serious error. No longer are you Brigade General. Take him to the dungeons.”

The sentries moved forward.

“The dungeons?” Zheng Min argued. “Why not just execute him here and now, and be done with it? I can do it myself.” He unsheathed his sabre. The ring of tough steel vibrated the air as he brandished the blade over his head.

“Put that away.”

Zheng Min reluctantly lowered his sword arm and the Emperor continued, “Chi Quan has served me faithfully until this incident with my daughter. He is a good warrior and a good man, but because of this act of treason, he can no longer work in my service. He cannot be trusted. Still, I won’t have him executed. Instead, I want him taken to the dungeons to ponder what he has done. His crime was to fall in love, an unhappy and shameful weakness. But a weakness we have all suffered. I have yet to decide how that crime should be punished.”

Zheng Min cut in. “Make him tell you where she is. And make him kill Lotus Lily himself!”

“That seems quite the thing
you
would do. What’s more, you sound like a jealous lover. Don’t tell me you have feelings for the fugitive princess as well?”

The military governor gulped. “No, sire,” he said and bowed.

The Emperor turned back to Quan, studying him. “Where is my daughter?”

“I wish I knew, Highness,” Quan said, keeping his voice as flat as possible.

“Horseshit.” Zheng Min scoffed. “You know exactly where she is. The Mongol Esen told us he found her among the water people. She is with them: those slippery, slimy, eel-like folk who have no place to call home. Lotus Lily is with the pirates that are stealing our silver. Silver that we need to pay for the war!”

“Enough, Military Governor. Take the prisoner to the dungeons, but do not harm him. Or you will answer to me.”

Zheng Min bowed to his sovereign, and ordered the sentry to relieve Quan of his weapons and to convey him to the dungeons.

Weaponless and heavily escorted, Quan followed through the myriad of courtyards to the rear entrance of the Forbidden City. A door led down several corridors before his nostrils recoiled at the dankness they were forced to endure. The cold stone of ceiling and floor deflected the chill air back at him, raising the hairs along his arms as they descended a steep set of stairs. Compliantly, he plunged deeper into the dark light of the dungeon prodded by armed guards. They reached bottom and the click of heavy boots resounded on the stone floor. Zheng Min ordered the prisoner manacled to the wall. The snick and clank of metal clasps assured his bondage, and the guards were dismissed. Victory gleamed in Zheng Min’s eyes.