by Resa Nelson
How can this be happening? Is it more of Tao Chu’s magic?
“Madam,” TeaTree whispered. “Wake up.”
The daytime world of the portent vanished, replaced by the darkness of Madam Po’s room. “TeaTree?” she whispered. Madam Po felt TeaTree’s hands on her shoulders, shaking her awake.
“Take my hand,” TeaTree said. “And come with me.”
Madam Po sat up and paused on the edge of her mattress to ensure her balance before she stood up. Reaching out, she found TeaTree’s arm and clung to it. Stiff and aching, she found herself in need of her morning exercises. Without their benefit, she held on tight to TeaTree and shuffled small steps across the floor until she noticed a thin crack of vertical light.
TeaTree pressed his lips against her ear and whispered with feather lightness. “It’s the door.”
The door?
That made no sense. The door latched so tightly when locked that it allowed no light at all to seep through.
Madam Po matched TeaTree’s whisper. “It’s open.”
“I believe so. We must go now.”
“The royal guards will see us.”
“I think not,” TeaTree said. “You’ve been cooped up for many months. I’ve been traveling throughout the province. When I came here, the first thing I noticed was the lack of guards around the complex wall.”
Surprised, Madam Po said, “How can that be?”
“The empress must be drawing upon her guards for some other reason. I’ve seen only a small number compared to all the guards that used to patrol the royal complex. If we can get out of the palace, we’ll be free.”
Madam Po’s first instinct was to reach for her cane. She then remembered that Ti kept that cane sequestered in the courtroom in the Hall of Justice, leaving Madam Po with no weapon except when she trained the empress how to fight.
Madam Po squeezed his arm. “Lead the way. But don’t forget I’m stiff with kinks.”
They walked to the door and cracked it open. Looking into the hallway, they saw no guards in sight.
“Hold on,” TeaTree said. He swept Madam Po up in his arms and hurried down the hallway. Still in the depths of night, the vast hallways stood dimly lit by small sconces. At every corner in the maze of hallways inside the palace, he checked for guards before moving forward.
Madam Po thought about the layout of the palace. She knew of a nearby hallway leading to a door reserved for deliveries. Even during times of high alert, the staff often forgot about that door because of its rare use. Seeing they neared that hallway, Madam Po nudged TeaTree and pointed to it. Finding it empty, they entered that hallway and then slipped out the door to the palace grounds.
TeaTree eased Madam Po down to the ground and then shook the ache out of his arms from carrying her. The moon and stars lit up the complex, but they stayed in the shadow by the palace wall.
Madam Po gauged the layout of the complex from their position. The royal palace backed up to a storage building, which they now faced. She knew the storage building stood near a heavily guarded section of the wall.
A breeze kicked up toward them and carried a pungent scent that stirred Madam Po’s memory.
Horses. They keep horses outside the storage building.
While Madam Po and TeaTree stood in the shadow of the palace wall, a couple of guards led their horses around the corner of the opposing building and tied them up while complaining about their wives. Still complaining, the guards walked away from the restless horses.
TeaTree turned his back to her and squatted. “Put your arms around my neck.”
Madam Po understood at once and reached up to hug his neck. TeaTree then reached back with his weary arms to hoist her up on his back to let a different part of his body bear her weight. Carrying her on his back, TeaTree walked quickly in the direction of the pungent scent.
A few feet in front of the horses, TeaTree let Madam Po slide to the ground. At once, she held open palms in front of the whinnying animals. “We are friends,” Madam Po said in a quiet voice. “And we need your help.” She extended her arms to place a calming hand on the shoulder of each horse. For several long moments, the horses stared at her. No longer whinnying, their manner turned docile.
“Now,” Madam Po said to TeaTree.
After untying the horses from their posts, he boosted her onto the back of one horse and then mounted the other.
Kicking her heels into its sides, Madam Po urged her horse into a run with TeaTree close behind. The horses’ hooves clopped against the hard ground and echoed throughout the complex. They rode around the storage building and toward the low wall separating the royal complex from the city of Zangcheen.
A few guards patrolling to the far-left side of the wall shouted and raced to block their path.
“Stay the course!” Madam Po shouted back at TeaTree.
One behind the other, they sped toward the section of the wall directly in front of their path.
The guards skidded to that spot, waving daggers and poles above their heads.
Closing in, Madam Po veered her horse sharply to the left. Behind her, TeaTree made a sharp right.
Surprised, the guards floundered and reacted too late.
Each horse vaulted over the low wall, leaving the shouting guards behind to climb over it in hot pursuit.
Madam Po led the way into the heart of Zangcheen, a complex center made up of a myriad of streets and alleyways. Once there, she pulled her horse to a stop and waited for TeaTree to do the same.
“Now what?” TeaTree said. Feet on the ground, he hustled to Madam Po’s side and reached up to catch her by the waist after she swung her leg free to face him.
Madam Po huffed when her feet touched the ground. “We do what they least expect.”
TeaTree swatted the rump of each horse, and the animals ran back toward the royal complex. “What will they not expect?”
“We go home.” Madam Po smiled. “And then we leave Zangcheen and look for Frayka.”
CHAPTER 17
Njall hated the Hall of Concubines.
After Empress Ti dismissed him, the royal guard Jojen escorted Njall upstairs to one of the common sleeping rooms for the male concubines and locked him inside despite the loud protests from a dozen of Njall’s peers.
The last time he’d seen Frayka, Madam Po and TeaTree, they had stood before Emperor Po in the courtroom of the Hall of Justice. Although Njall suspected the emperor had figured out that Njall and Frayka were married, Emperor Po committed an act of kindness by giving them the benefit of the doubt in the public court of law. Instead of sentencing the Northlanders to death, Emperor Po had ordered Frayka removed to the Hall of Concubines and Njall retained as the emperor’s servant. After spending a week sequestered inside the royal stables, being escorted to the Hall of Concubines came as a shock. Expecting to reunite with Frayka, Njall faced the baffling prospect of being locked alone in this same room without knowing why. Out of necessity, Njall threw all his efforts into learning the Far Eastern language quickly.
“What have you done now?” Chi, a fellow male concubine, complained while lounging on his floor mattress. Like every man other than Njall in the room, the only clothing this concubine wore consisted of a slim pair of pants. A jade necklace rested on his muscular chest, and gold bracelets adorned his arms—all gifts from Empress Ti for a job well done. “Offended the empress again?”
Njall plopped down on his own floor mattress next to his peer. Forcing a smile, Njall said, “What can I say? I don’t have your stamina.”
Chi grinned. “Few do.”
The other men laughed and gathered around to sit near Njall and Chi as if settling in front of a stage where dancers and acrobats would perform.
Njall had come to enjoy the company of his fellow concubines. Although their customs and ways of thinking were strange next to the Northlander life he had always known, Njall also saw commonalities with these men. He found himself oddly cheered up by Chi’s teasing. Relaxing into a genuine smil
e, Njall said, “How do the rest of us stand a chance when you spoil the empress?”
Chi’s eyes gleamed. “Every girl needs a little variety now and then.” He stretched his arms up while he yawned and then clasped his hands behind his neck. When he spread his elbows wide apart, the action made his chest look even more massive and powerful. “All you do is tease her, Njall. All the better for me.”
Another concubine imitated a woman’s voice. “Njall misses his wife.”
“Of course, I miss her,” Njall said. By now, all his peers knew the truth about Frayka. That meant everyone in the royal complex knew. Although that gave Empress Ti the power to execute Njall, he assumed his staying alive must benefit her in some way. His smile widened because he enjoyed turning the table on the other concubines and the bond it seemed to forge with them. “But why don’t you miss your wives?”
Like always, the other concubines made a show of groaning in mock pain and repeating Njall’s question and making fun of it.
“My wife,” Chi said, “does nothing but complain. All day. Every day.” Chi mimicked her voice. “Chi, you’re so lazy. Chi, you must help me. Chi, you’re good for nothing.” He sat up and thumped his chest. “This body doesn’t happen by accident. I was a laborer! I carried stones all day and constructed new buildings. Did I come home to loving arms and sweet words? No! My wife is worse than my foreman!”
One by one, each male concubine told a similar story of days spent performing labor or guarding the city’s border or training as an acrobat. To a man, every man preferred his work life to his home life. They laughed with glee at the thought of never seeing their wives again.
Njall never tired of hearing their complaints, because they gave him an ever-deepening appreciation of his own wife.
Frayka never hesitates to fight by my side. She never belittles me. She appreciates me. And she makes me laugh.
“Who wouldn’t rather serve the empress in her Hall of Concubines?” one of the men said. “We eat the best food, better than anything in Zangcheen. We do what we want. And that includes satisfying the empress.”
Another man spoke up. “She’s so easy to please.”
“She had no experience before us,” Chi said. “That makes it easy to satisfy her.”
Everyone except Njall laughed in appreciation.
“Poor Njall,” one of the men said. “So sad. He misses his wife.”
“I do miss her,” Njall said. “I miss her terribly.”
And I need to find out if it’s true that she’s had a child. If it’s true, the child is mine. I know it.
What if I’m a father?
The locked door to the room clicked, and a guard opened it long enough to shove a new man inside. The man let go of a small shriek when he stumbled and fell onto the floor. The door closed and locked behind him.
Chi stood strong and proud as if he ruled the male concubines. “Welcome,” Chi said to the stranger. “You’re among friends.”
The stranger gathered himself and stood from where he’d fallen. Unlike the other men in the room, he had a slight and delicate build. Wide-eyed, the stranger said, “What is this place? Why am I here?”
Everyone except Njall laughed. One of his fellow concubines said to the stranger, “This is the best place you’ll ever know.”
“But guards arrested me,” the stranger said. His voice and body shook. “I was at practice. I did nothing wrong.”
“Practice?” Chi said. He looked the slight stranger up and down to size him up. “What do you practice?”
“I’m a dancer,” the stranger said. “My troupe is creating a special show for Empress Ti.”
“A dancer!” Chi flitted around the room in a clumsy manner. “Look at me! I’m a dancer, too.”
“And me!” another concubine said, following Chi’s lead while the others cackled in delight.
Njall stepped toward the stranger. “Everyone here was taken away from his life. His work. His wife.”
The stranger looked up at Njall with fear in his eyes. “Please don’t hurt me,” the strange man whispered.
Chi finished his clumsy dancing and joined Njall’s side, draping a relaxed arm around Njall’s shoulders.
The stranger brightened at the sight, looking hopefully from one man to the next.
“It’s not what you think, little man,” Chi said. “We’re here to service the empress. Not each other.”
The stranger took a step back and then ran toward the closed door. He struggled but failed to open the locked door.
“What’s wrong?” another concubine shouted.
“This little man likes us more than Empress Ti,” Chi said.
Njall felt as if a chill permeated the room, and he felt Chi’s arm tense, still draped around Njall’s shoulder.
“Us?” One of the concubines tried to walk past Njall, but the Northlander reached out to grasp the man’s shoulder and stop him.
Chi let his arm fall away from Njall and stood with his feet planted wide apart. “Us,” Chi confirmed.
Njall took a few steps forward to place himself between the stranger and the other concubines. “Have pity,” he said. “The dancer has it hard enough. If the empress finds out the truth about him, she might—” Njall stopped, not wanting to scare the stranger.
“Might what?” the stranger said, still trying in vain to open the locked door.
“Kill you,” Chi said nonchalantly. “She would tell her guards to do it.”
The stranger’s face paled. He turned toward the door and tried to pry it open with his fingers to no avail. “I have to get out of here.”
“Why not pretend?” Chi said. “It’ll be easier.”
The atmosphere shifted. When the other concubines spoke, they followed Chi’s relaxed lead.
“That’s a good idea,” one of the men said. “Just pretend she’s a man.”
“She won’t be able to tell,” another man said. “Until she brought us here, she had never been with a man before.”
The stranger looked from one man to another. “I don’t understand.”
Chi laughed and pointed at Njall. “Or do what Njall does. Tell her you love someone else!”
All the other concubines laughed and tossed out their opinions.
“That’s right. You’ll be another Njall. He won’t be so lonely.”
“Or blame Njall. Tell her if Njall can withhold his affections, so can you.”
Heartened by the laughter of the male concubines, Njall turned toward the stranger. “Come join us. No one will harm you here.”
The stranger blinked at him. “But if the empress finds out, I’m doomed.”
Chi scoffed. “No need for any of us to tell her.” He mulled over his thoughts and brightened. “We can show you ways to talk to her so she’ll never guess.”
The other concubines chattered excitedly about all the things they could teach the stranger, who let go of the locked door and walked into their midst.
Njall lingered at the edge of the group, happy to observe. It gave him hope to see such good in a country where so much trouble existed.
CHAPTER 18
The royal magician’s son, Asu Chu, hated the cold.
Having spent all his life in the royal complex nestled in the center of the city of Zangcheen, Asu typically enjoyed a temperate climate. While he sometimes broke a sweat in summer and sometimes felt chilly during winter, Asu could withstand those mild swings in temperature.
What he couldn’t stand was the extreme cold that blasted through the mountains far away from his beloved city.
After promising Empress Ti that he would create a decoy to counter the twig figure sent by the dragon god to trick them into believing they’d captured Frayka, Asu Chu wished he had never made such a promise.
What was I thinking? Why did I make Ti think I know what I’m doing? I still haven’t figured out what kind of decoy I can make, much less what to do afterwards.
Although it had been only a short time since his traveling companio
ns—a dozen royal guards—had roused Asu Chu from sleep and begun today’s trek through the mountains where Frayka had last been seen, the boy tired of clomping up a slope. But complaining to the guards of his aching feet would do nothing except encourage them to remind him of the promise he’d made to the empress.
Instead, Asu Chu clung to the golden bearskin cape draped over his shoulders and tried not to think about the way the cold air forced tears from his eyes that crystallized on his face.
Fortunately, the guards found a brook and replenished their supply of water while debating the advantages of following it up the slope.
Asu sank onto a boulder next to the brook and shivered while looking at the tiny icicles clinging to dead, brown weeds along the bank. He ignored the pointless chatter of the guards and stared at the water, thinking about how little sense the world made.
Life seemed very simple to Asu Chu. It all boiled down to survival. Asu found people—and their relationships—to be confounding. All anyone had to do was see to his own survival. But most people let their emotions overwhelm them and cloud their judgment. They let themselves be bothered by the well being of others instead of focusing on their own. Asu saw no reason to care about anyone other than himself.
He made one exception: Empress Ti. When she was the Imperial Daughter, Ti took a shine to him for reasons Asu never comprehended. He quickly learned that being a friend of a member of the royal family carried excellent benefits. Before Ti’s friendship, he’d been teased and beaten by his larger and stronger peers.
That stopped the moment everyone saw the Imperial Daughter walk by his side.
Soon after, Asu realized his father had a close camaraderie with Emperor Po, and the emperor himself approved of Asu’s friendship with the Imperial Daughter Ti. With intelligence greater than the vast majority of people in Zangcheen, Asu made a habit of observing his father’s interactions with Emperor Po and the benefit of those interactions. Asu soon calculated that he’d stumbled onto great and good fortune when Ti decided to take him on as her companion. Asu knew he would be wise to keep Ti close and do anything necessary to stay in her good graces.
