Thirteen Orphans

by Jane Lindskold

  “However, this perception of cultural continuity is false as well. Dynasty has succeeded dynasty, but not in the peaceful manner that one president follows another president in the United States, or even how modern European royal houses marry, and change their names while leaving essentially the same people in power.”

  Righteous Drum looked rather proud of himself as he made this statement, and Pearl didn’t wonder that he did. If Righteous Drum had indeed learned all of this in a few months’ time, then he was a scholar of note, even among Dragons, who were traditionally scholarly.

  Once again Pearl wondered who might have helped Righteous Drum, Honey Dream, and Flying Claw after their arrival. She would not let Righteous Drum’s eloquence make her forget to ask. But for now, she kept silent, and listened.

  “War, civil and uncivil, was the common way for dynasties to change. Indeed, the emperor who ordered the burning of the books and slaughter of the scholars is still revered as the first ruler to unify China. One of the things he commanded be burned were histories of past rulers, past wars. His motivation, so he claimed, was peace, but there is a great difference between peace and pacification. Pacification is just another form of war. And because so many warlike histories were burned, my land is very unlike your China in two key elements. Not only is it not one nation, but it is also a land in which peace is difficult to attain.”

  Riprap nodded. “We knew that war occurred in the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice, because ‘our’ emperor was defeated by your emperor, or at least his ancestor—grandfather, maybe? That wouldn’t have happened if everything was peaceful—or stagnant.”

  “That is so.” Righteous Drum looked a little sad. “Enough history. I will move now to the events that brought us here.”

  28

  “About time,” Brenda muttered, but she knew her grumpiness had little to do with the light brush strokes of history Righteous Drum was using to introduce his tale. It had to do with the same thing that caused Righteous Drum to periodically look around to survey their surroundings.

  Where are Honey Dream and Flying Claw? she thought, and knew that her real question was What are they doing?

  Brenda knew she was not beautiful, and there was no doubt that in her snaky way, Honey Dream definitely was not only beautiful, but sexy as well. How could Foster resist when she was coming on to him like that? Why would he even want to if they’d been lovers before?

  Brenda bit into her lower lip to fight back tears, forcing herself to concentrate hard on what Righteous Drum was saying.

  “I do not know whether you will feel pleased to learn that the emperor who succeeded the one your ancestors served did not hold the Jade Petal Throne for very long. Within ten years, he was assassinated, not by someone from the former emperor’s faction, but from a faction led by a general who did not see why his former comrade-in-arms should suddenly acquire honors and divinity when this general—as well as many other former allies—knew how very human the new emperor could be.”

  Brenda noted that Des was surreptitiously counting something off on his fingertips. She thought she knew what he was considering. Could the various attacks that had driven the Thirteen Orphans first from China to Japan, then eventually to the United States have been influenced in any way by these political upheavals?

  Righteous Drum continued, “The deposed emperor’s advisors—the very ones who had offered exile to your ancestors—were not shown nearly so much mercy. They were executed. The new emperor had his own advisors in matters arcane, and these were the first to suspect that something had gone very wrong when exile, rather than execution, was offered to those you term the Orphans.

  “You already know that although ability in the arcane arts is not limited to the Twelve Advisors of the Earthly Branches, special abilities accrue to those who take up the mantle of the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Hare …”

  “The Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Pig,” Lani recited in a singsong voice. “I know those. Mama is a Hare, which is a Rabbit, too, and I will be one someday.”

  Righteous Drum blinked in mild astonishment at the interruption, then inclined his head toward the child. “So it is, and I find myself rebuked for repeating a lesson even a child knows.”

  “Mama and I sing,” Lani said, “songs about the animals. There’s a Cat, too.”

  “Hush, Lani,” Nissa said. “Mr. Righteous Drum needs to tell his story. Play with the penguins now.”

  “Okay.” Lani allowed herself to be distracted, obviously pleased to have substantially contributed to such a serious discussion.

  Righteous Drum smiled slightly, and Brenda found herself wondering if Honey Dream had been anywhere near as cute when she was the same age as Lani.

  “As I was saying, special abilities accrue to those who take up the mantle of the Twelve Earthly Branches. What the advisors to the new emperor gradually realized after they were initiated into their posts was that the power they received seemed attenuated. At first they credited this to their own relative lack of training in such matters. The Twelve are normally chosen from those who have undergone extensive preparation, concluding with an apprenticeship under the one who they may, in time, succeed. I say ‘may’ rather than ‘will’ since the training is complex, and one who holds the title usually accumulates several apprentices, so that when the time comes for the title to be passed on there will be a suitable choice.”

  Riprap nodded. “Wouldn’t do to have the whole mob be contemporaries. After all, if the master chose to retain his—or her—title until he—or she—was of venerable years, a formerly young apprentice might be nearly retirement age him—or her—self.”

  “Precisely,” Righteous Drum said. “Also, numerous apprentices provide some insurance against an accident in which both master and apprentice might be killed.”

  “Or,” Pearl said dryly, “against the apprentice putting the master out of the way—especially if said master was reluctant to retire.”

  “You understand the complexities, then,” Righteous Drum said, and Brenda thought his smile was uncomfortably sly. “Very well. Initially, these new Twelve thought they merely needed to study the appropriate rites and rituals, to school themselves in the appropriate branches of arcane lore. Former apprentices were located and convinced to become tutors. Many were very willing to do this, since having not been chosen themselves, they bore resentment at being rejected.

  “Yet, despite extensive studies, despite examinations passed, thus proving that every theoretical point was perfectly understood, still the new advisors did not attain the strength they should have held. However, they were still very powerful, and possessed insights and abilities held by no others, and so they retained their posts. Moreover, the belief had come to be commonly held that when the mantle was passed to the next generation of apprentices, each of these duly trained and appropriately—rather than somewhat haphazardly—initiated into the rites, all would be well again.”

  Des grinned. “But the situation didn’t improve, did it? How long did it take for someone to realize that in exiling the twelve duly appointed holders of the Earthly Branch titles, the full range of abilities had been exiled along with them?”

  Righteous Drum drew himself up, and looked stiff and rather, Brenda thought, huffy. She swallowed a grin. It was pretty easy to see that Righteous Drum the Dragon was accustomed to being treated with the deference due to the person of high rank and prestige that he was in his own land.

  But you’re among equals now, Brenda thought, sort of, kind of. That’s the Rooster talking to you, not some underling. That’s the Tiger looking at you through slitted eyes—and she’s no young man you rather dislike because your daughter’s in love with him. That Tiger may be old, but she’s fierce. And that’s the Rabbit with her daughter beside her, and the Dog on guard, just in case you think you can get away with something. Wake up to it, man. You’re addressing your equals—and if I’m following what you’re saying, your betters as
well.

  Righteous Drum seemed to remember the need to mind his manners, and gradually the tightness in his shoulders eased and the air of affronted pride left him.

  “The realization,” Righteous Drum said, inclining his head toward Des, “as you term it, came slowly, and, even to this day is not universally accepted as the correct solution to the problem.”

  “After all,” Pearl said softly, “to accept that as the answer would also be to accept one’s own essential inferiority.”

  Righteous Drum inclined his head, and a trace of a smile pulled at one corner of his mouth. “That certainly was one source of resistance. There were others, and the disagreement among the various groups is one reason that your ancestors—and in some cases yourselves—experienced decades without interference from our universe.”

  Brenda cut in, her mind buzzing with the force of a sudden revelation. “But something has changed, hasn’t it? Something recent—or relatively so. I’m betting there has been another coup, hasn’t there? And that you represent those who helped overthrow the last government, right?”

  Righteous Drum looked at her, and this time he made no effort to hide his astonishment. Then he looked suspicious.

  “Did Flying Claw retain more of his memory than we were led to believe? Or has my daughter betrayed information that should be confidential?”

  “Neither.” Brenda fought an urge to roll her eyes in exasperation. She figured it would drive this man up the wall about as fast as it did her mother. “Look. It’s obvious, right? Something is wrong in your homeland, something that drove you to the extremes of coming here. Now, maybe you represent a stable and well-established government, but there’s a lot to indicate that you do not.”

  No one interrupted her, so Brenda started ticking things off on her fingers.

  “One, there’s Honey Dream and Flying Claw—your Snake and Tiger. They’re both young. Pearl has told us about how although her father had spent his entire life training, he was still considered very young to take up the role as Tiger. I’m willing to bet that Honey Dream and Flying Claw are about the same age that Pearl’s dad was.

  “Pearl has also told us that the training for those who hoped to take up one of the named branches was extensive, and you’ve seconded that. So why, if everything was going well, would you and your associates select two young candidates from among the many apprentices? From what Des has been lecturing us about the talents associated with the various signs, in a crisis the Tiger is a war leader, the Snake a diplomat and spy. Well, I’d guess that Foster might be a pretty good warrior, but he’s young enough that surely there should have been some apprentice Tiger who was older, someone with more experience in tactics and with actual experience in battle. And, I hate to tell you this, Mr. Righteous Drum, but whatever else your daughter is, a diplomat she is not.”

  Brenda waited for someone to tell her to be quiet, but only Des spoke, and he was encouraging, “Brenda, you said there were ‘a lot’ of reasons it was ‘obvious’ that Righteous Drum did not represent an established order. You’ve given just one.”

  “Well,” Brenda said, “if Righteous Drum here is part of an established order, why is he undertaking this strange and dangerous mission with just two young assistants? There are twelve who bear the mantles, right? If things were peaceful, then I would think that everyone would want to be part of this. The job would go faster, too: one specialist per memory. But that’s not how they went about it. That argues the others are needed elsewhere. One really likely reason they would be needed elsewhere would be because their emperor—and their own place—is endangered.

  “Now, maybe the lack of participation is because not everyone likes the theory that they didn’t get initiated into their full powers, but even so, there must be a few others who think this is a valid explanation. Moreover, if he—Righteous Drum—was making this move, and I were one of his associates, I’d not want him grabbing hold of something I’d want. Righteous Drum might not give the power over to me freely. He might trade favors for it. My best guess as to why the rest of their Twelve let Righteous Drum and his junior duo go after something so valuable is because they really, really need it—and that the need is so great that they figure he won’t hesitate to turn over what’s been retrieved to the proper owners, or rather to those they want to think of as the proper owners.”

  Brenda stopped talking, out of breath, and, momentarily, out of inspiration. This time Righteous Drum did cut in.

  “You worked this out all on your own? ‘Foster’ did not remember fragments? Honey Dream did not trade information for Flying Claw’s freedom?”

  “I worked it out on my own,” Brenda said. “Does your asking mean I am right?”

  “You are very close,” Righteous Drum admitted. “You are correct in that we—my associates in the Twelve and I—represent a new government. However, we prefer to think of ourselves as an older reign returned to power.”

  He stopped for a moment, and looked at them with an almost pleading expression. “You see, we are descended from those who served the emperor deposed by those who sent your ancestors into exile. In a sense, we are your kin.”

  Pearl stared at Righteous Drum in purest astonishment. This she had not expected, not even in her wildest speculations.

  But you came close, she chided herself, when you thought about how Foster might be related to you. You just didn’t take it far enough. You thought Foster had simply entered some training hall, been taken under the tutelage of someone who was willing to overlook the sins of ancestors exiled for over a hundred years. Yet this is a better answer.

  She spoke aloud. “My father and his friends often wondered what had happened to the families they left behind. They had done their best to protect them, but once the Twelve found themselves attacked even here in the universe of their exile, they assumed that the treaty provisions meant to protect their families had been broken as well. Are you telling me that they were not?”

  “They were, and they were not,” Righteous Drum said. “Now that this rather astonishing young woman has deduced what would have taken me hours to explain, I need a moment to adjust my thoughts. There is still much to tell.”

  “Adjust,” Pearl said, pouring tea from the thermos, “and then tell us how not only did our ancestral families survive, but how they came to rise to power once more.”

  “And why,” Riprap added, his tone full of suspicion, “they are in trouble already, and why we should believe you anyhow. Seems to me, your tale is one crafted to undo the suspicions of a romantic soul.”

  He looked hard at Des when he said this, but Pearl smiled to herself as she filled Righteous Drum’s teacup.

  Romantic souls—like those who have modeled their own conduct after tales of a certain Brave Dog? Well, it takes a wise man to know his own vulnerabilities.

  Righteous Drum nodded. “The families survived because the emperor who promised they would be left alone kept his word. He did not particularly wish to do so, but his hold on the Jade Petal Throne was tenuous, based on many promises to many people. To break a promise made so publically before his reign was solidified would have been to risk rebellions within his court. The general who deposed this emperor honored the treaty as well, for this was one way he could make clear that his quarrel was with the immediately late emperor personally, rather than with his policies.”

  Nissa rubbed her forehead. “All these emperors and deposed emperors and former emperors. I’m having trouble keeping it straight. Just who do you serve, Righteous Drum?”

  “As I said, I am of a faction made up of those who wished to restore things to the way they had been before the Orphans were exiled.”

  Riprap was quick to pick up on a certain hesitation in Righteous Drum’s tone. “So you’re not really related to our ancestors, are you? This restoring has more to do with restoring what the Thirteen Orphans took with them than with restoring the Cat’s royal line to the Jade Petal Throne.”

  Righteous Drum did not bother to pretend
he did not know who the Cat was. Once again, Pearl found herself wondering who had been his source for information here in this world, for the Cat was a title exclusive to the ranks of the Thirteen Orphans. This was not the time to ask. Later, though …

  Righteous Drum was nodding in reply to Riprap’s question. “Yes. What you say has an element of truth in it. Although much of the military support for the coup came from those who remember the reign of Albert Yu’s ancestors with a nostalgic longing that is perhaps not merited, those who brought their magical gifts into the conflict and in time rose to take the role of the Twelve were all recruited from those who believed that—much as we did not like to face it—something had been lost when the Exiles left, something far more potent than an infant emperor.

  “We hoped that when our own emperor was settled on the throne we would be able to research the matter at our leisure, to eventually venture across the divide between the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice into the world of Origin, and once there to retrieve the soul-ch’i that had been taken away. However, if there is any truth in all the universes, it is that coups breed further coups.

  “Brenda asked why our Snake and our Tiger are both so young. Simply told, the woman and man who held those titles and were in age closer to being my contemporaries were slain in the coup attempt that followed our rise to power. Their deaths, among many others, kept us in power, but that newly secured power is under siege. I convinced my allies that we could wait no longer to begin our quest for the soul-ch’i. I had hoped they would let me take as much as half of our number with me, but all they would agree to spare were these two half-tried, barely initiated youths.

  “Even so, we did well, concentrating first on those we believed would pose either no threat or the greatest threat … .”