Winged: A Novella (Of Two Girls) (16 page)

“Hey, bird-girl,” the teenage boy greeted Min Feng
with a grin and a twinkle in his eyes. He had raven-black hair and
dusky skin. He had an athletic build, clad in a simple blue shirt
and brown trousers.

Min Feng frowned at him. Bird-girl. He hardly knew
her.

“
I am
not
a bird-girl,” she said imperiously and no less
offended. The boy laughed and apologized. His eyes were intent on
her though. But they seemed more of the “interested” sort than
malice or ill will.

“I am sorry,” he said, handing her a package of fry
bread, still hot from the oil. She gave him the money and he kept
it in a large metal box already bursting with the day’s work. “It
is just that you give me the impression of a bird. Like an eagle or
a hawk. Something winged.”

“
Oh,” she breathed. He was
remarkably perceptive. And handsome too, she realized with some
heat in her cheeks. She had certainly noticed
that
.

“I am Javen,” he held out his hand.
“Javen.Windwalker. Navajo tribe, from the planet Mesa.”

Min Feng considered him for a moment, unsure of her
own response. She smiled and touched his hand back. It was a little
greasy. “Thorne. Earnestine Thorne. I live around here.” She
understood that Javen could only see her face and it was a face
that could belong to a girl from a merchant family. To him, she was
not the princess of the Phoenix Court and subsequent heir to the
throne.

It was a refreshing change.

“Thank you, but I do have to go,” Min Feng
half-lied. The masquerade had made her a little nervous and
exhilarated.

“Glad to have met you, Thorne,” Javen smiled warmly
and the middle-aged woman rapped out an annoyed scolding at him. He
went back to watching the pot.

The princess melted back into the throngs of people.
It was reaching mid-day and the crowds were bound to get intense.
She inhaled the aroma of the fry bread and remembered the face of a
good-looking young man. Unnoticed, she slipped back into the
Imperial kitchen, marking the end of her day out as a “common”.

Her dreams later that night had plains and mesas,
baked red and dry under the hot sun, with hawks soaring on the
thermals.

***

Private audiences with your consort/husband
should be made special, without airs and stringent
protocols
.

These thoughts ran through Empress
Ze Tian’s mind as she waited for Duke Zhang to arrive. To distract
herself, she added more detail to the embroidered kerchief she was
making. An Empress needed to have wholesome hobbies. Her mother was
known for her origami cranes.
Good way
, the old Dowager had said once,
to channel your
stress into
something beautiful
and
constructive
.

A resonant voice announced the arrival of Duke Zhang
and she kept her needle and kerchief into a large lacquered box
ringed with little carved phoenixes in flight. A tall man, wearing
the severe garb of the Imperial military, strode in, his cloak
draped on his left arm. He had steel-grey hair, cut close to his
skull. His facial features were aquiline, cold towards his
subordinates and only kept warm towards his loved ones.

“Your Majesty,” he bowed in the protocol stated for
greeting the Empress. Ze Tian winced. They were being watched by
their bodyguards and maids-in-waiting. It was all an act and they
both knew it. Played along with it. They had been married long
enough to dispense with such pleasantries.

“Good afternoon, my consort,” she replied, loud
enough for the listening ears to hear. Duke Zhang had a ghost of a
smile on his thin lips.

As always, she waved her servants away and the
chamber was once again truly private, a place where husband and
wife could talk in peace.

“Lukas,” Ze Tian said, without preamble. “We need to
send our daughter on an apprentice-ship.”

Duke Zhang looked at her closely. He knew which
daughter she was referring to. He had his concerns too. The girl
was growing fast. His heart contracted tightly. “Remember, my love,
that she was not too happy when you sent her to the Ermei
nunnery.”

“It was needed,” Ze Tian retorted back. “Her temper
got the better of her. It was not becoming of a princess of the
Phoenix Court.”

“Like someone I once knew,” Lukas Zhang smiled now
and it changed his face, made it friendlier, approachable.

“Please do not change the subject,” the Empress
glared at him mock-fiercely and she chuckled. “But I honestly feel
that she needs to see the world.”

“
You could send her to Fourth
Aunt’s ship as an attaché,” her consort suggested, sipping a bit of
light tea, his favorite –
Oolong
.
“As far as I know, her ship is due for re-fitting and supplies in a
month. She is also quite welcome to apprentices.”

“Fourth Aunt,” Ze Tian pursed her lips and became
thoughtful. “That would mean Min Feng have to go through a week or
two of basic military training. That ship is not a leisure craft.
She will have to go in as a mere cadet.”

“I will arrange it,” Duke Lukas Zhang took out his
digital stylus and noted it down quickly.

Ze Tian felt a pang of relief as well as a surge of
… sadness. This trip would be a rite of passage. Her little phoenix
would now truly fledge.

Lukas noticed her expression and walked up to her,
placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It is needed, isn’t
it?”

“Should it be any easier for her?” Ze Tian gazed
back sorrowfully at her husband and they stood together, drawing
comfort from one another.

***

Young Javen Windwalker helped his aunt pack up for
the night, cleaning the large oil-slicked pot, taking care not to
burn his fingers. He learned the lesson the hard way once. While
his aunt did the accounts, he placed everything – pots, plates and
paper packages – back into the plastic box they used to transport
the cooking utensils and assorted paraphernalia. They would soon
retire back to the little apartment they had rented for their stay
at the Imperial City.

He missed the night sky of Mesa,
where it seemed to stretch forever. Here, there were buildings
blocking the heavens and he could not see the constellations
through the layer of thin smog.
A promise is a
promise
, he told himself mentally. He
promised his mother to help her sister. After a year or two, he
would enroll himself at the Mesa Academy. He wanted to be a healer,
a doctor like his father currently serving as a physician in the
Imperial Fleet. He had not seen his father for ages now, though he
did receive letters and gifts.

He looked at his hands, still a
little greasy from the day’s activities.
A medicine man’s
hands
, the aunts used to tell him. No, he did
not want to pick herbs and fragrant sage for the rest of his life.
The world was out there, waiting for him to explore. He was
nineteen, already a man in the eyes of his mother and
aunts.

And ah, Earnestine Thorne
.
What a strange girl, with such a presence about and
in
her. She intrigued him. And such an
unforgettable face! Impassive, with hints of fire. She seemed deep,
with many layers within her.

Perhaps, she would appear tomorrow. He began to hum
an old warrior’s dance song to himself.

Earnestine Thorne did appear again, buying some of
the delicious fry bread. They ended up talking and Javen brought
the girl to a quiet place that he had discovered: a grass slope
facing a canal. They exchanged little stories, anecdotes and jokes,
attempting to know each other without letting on too much. Javen
told her about the legends passed down by his ancestors, about
Coyote and Raven.

The meetings grew more regular and they would sit on
the grass slope, watching the purple river herons fish in the
shallow canal. Earnestine Thorne seemed happier and relaxed. They
shared fry bread and fresh peaches. Sometimes, Javen would bring a
flask of horchata, a specialty made by his aunt.

One day, Earnestine was late and Javen Windwalker
wondered why. She appeared hours later, looking flushed and
evidently trying to control her anger. She schooled her expression
to that of relative calm when she saw him, smiled and shook her
head when he asked her about it. This time, they nibbled on crepes
filled with finely chopped peanuts and sugar. Earnestine remained
ill at ease and her vivid face clouded with hidden emotions. She
managed to finish her food and simply sat, observing the flocks of
white doves roosting on the cable lines above their heads.

“I am not able to see you after next week,” she said
suddenly, unhidden. Javen felt surprised but he listened quietly.
“I am… my family is leaving the Imperial city. I am being sent off
to… a school.”

Javen had the unexpected vision of a great bird
spreading its wings and blinked. Did she have a totem or animal
guide?

“We can still keep in contact,” Javen tried to
reassure Earnestine who only smiled wanly.

“The school … is quite restrictive when it comes to
personal correspondences,” she sighed and brushed the bits of
peanut and sugar off her lap.

“I am sure we can communicate again if our paths
cross.”

Earnestine gave him that rueful tired smile once
more and did not say anything else.

***

Min Feng yanked off her hood the moment she entered
back into Imperial grounds. Her heart seethed in turmoil. Almost
instantly, her fingers sparked white. Some of the guards manning
the gates certainly saw the phenomenon and came rushing to her.

“Your Highness, do you need help?” The commander
saluted smartly. She had to wave him away, blunting her
snappishness with a half-smile and a negative shake of her
head.

She fled back into her own chambers where she
removed her robes and hood. The garments pooled around her feet and
she kicked off her boots. Must her esteemed parents always send her
away? Was she such a disturbance and irritation in their lives?

She fought down the urge to shift into phoenix. Her
phoenix flame, her nei huo, roared within its icy shields,
demanding to be let out. She had to breathe in and out, calming
herself down. It was too dangerous to shift indoors, inside her
chambers.

As Earnestine Thorne, she had
developed a friendship with the Amerindian boy Javen. As
Earnestine
and
Min Feng, she
certainly experienced something more than friendship. When she bid
her farewell to Javen, she could see the regret and disappointment
in his eyes. It was all too unbearable for her.

In the Court, she had no
confidant. Save for Bei who had since left for her home planet.
Talking to her cousin via the cumbersome machines paled in
comparison to having her physically beside her, holding her hand in
mute sympathy. Little Min Xin was too young to understand her older
sister and Min Feng was not close to her siblings. Even her
youngest brother, Min De, was more interested in warships and war
games, taking no part in her life whatsoever.
And what
would Bei say regarding this matter anyway?

Talking to her mother was out of the question, since
the Empress was the main cause of her problem.

It was supposed to be an apprentice-ship onboard a
starship captained by one of her grand aunts. She ought to be
excited about it. She might end up being a captain of her own ship
one day. Except that she was not.

None at all
.

Min Feng felt as if she was about to implode and go
super-nova. Instead, she sank to the floor and tasted bitter
tears.

***

A slim dark figure slipped out from the kitchen
backdoor, clad in nondescript cloths and shielding its face with a
veil. It was past midnight and still, the silence only broken by
the shuffle of soldier boots and the occasional whinny from the
stables. The figure had evaded the sounds as much as it had evaded
the soldiers and guards patrolling the area.

The dark figure carried nothing, save for a small
bag. It stayed with the shadows, following its instincts and an
address. The Left Quadrant had closed for the night and there were
only a few people, mostly cleaners, combing the area and scouring
the ground with hot water and disinfectant.

Closer and closer. A simple white metal door. A
furtive knock. No answer. Louder knocks, almost desperate. A
masculine voice, sleep-drenched, muttered something. The door
opened, light spilling forth like sun rays. The boy’s eyes
widened.

“Earnestine!”