Dreaming of Zhou Gong

by Traci Harding

  ‘I need to speak with brother Dan, alone,’ Hudan requested politely of Fen and He Nuan. ‘Brother Fen, would you be so kind as to ask one of the gardeners to collect some lizards for me?’

  ‘Lizards?’ Fen wondered if he’d heard her correctly.

  ‘That’s right,’ she confirmed. ‘I need to study them.’

  ‘As you wish,’ said Fen, sounding a little nonplussed, but he left to follow through on her request without further question.

  ‘It is a joy to see you well, sister.’ He Nuan bowed out and followed Fen from the room, leaving Hudan and their lord to converse.

  Dan took a seat on the floor by Hudan’s bed. ‘Something vexes you, brother?’

  Considering the question, Hudan thought it was an understatement. ‘Several matters are of concern to me at present, but regarding the greatest of these I believe you may be of some assistance.’

  ‘Of course I shall assist if I can,’ he assured her.

  Hudan had broached this subject several times with Dan and seen fit not to probe too deeply, but now there was no avoiding the issue. ‘I do not wish to be insensitive by prying into matters that are clearly painful to you —’

  ‘You wish to know about the Jade Book,’ he pre-empted, sounding none too keen on the choice of topic.

  ‘No, Dan, I do not wish to know, I need to know,’ she said, stressing the difference, ‘everything you can possibly tell me.’

  ‘Does this have some bearing on our mandate?’ he queried. ‘As I said, it is written that Ji Fa will rule.’

  ‘Did the book mention Dragonface, or a curse?’ Hudan probed, but the perplexed look on the lord’s face was enough of an answer.

  ‘It is a chronological calendar of succession, that is all,’ Dan insisted, puzzled by her line of inquiry. ‘Won’t you please tell me what you have learned in your absence?’

  ‘If you tell me about the Jade Book first,’ Hudan bargained. ‘I would not insist if I did not think it vitally important.’

  Before Dan could reply, a servant entered to announce the Xibo’s arrival.

  Ji Fa had come to express his joy and relief to have Hudan back with them, and to announce that they would depart Haojing to meet the armies at Mengjin on the morrow. The Xibo hoped to join with their brothers and allied forces and cross the Huang He to begin the advance toward Yin within the week.

  In the wake of the Xibo’s departure, and news, Dan’s expression was eager when he turned his attention back to Hudan. ‘I did promise I would let you see the aforementioned item if you survived the yin rite. In view of our tight schedule, we really only have right now … if you feel up to it?’

  Hudan smiled in relief and gratitude. ‘I think I can manage, if you would be so kind.’ She held both hands toward him, and Dan graciously aided her to stand. Her knees immediately gave out, so he grabbed her close to prevent her collapsing back onto the floor.

  ‘Not the result I was hoping for,’ Hudan joked. Having Hudan pressed close against him was awkward and titillating at the same time. ‘Shall we abandon our adventure then?’ he proffered, as Hudan was forced to grip him around the back of the neck in order to help support herself.

  ‘I really must see that book.’ When Hudan raised her big brown eyes to look Dan in the face, she knew she was flirting, but to achieve Wu ends this was allowed.

  ‘In that case, pardon my means,’ Dan said gruffly, and scooped her into his arms to carry her to the royal storehouse.

  Hudan gave an uneasy laugh. ‘I am much obliged to you, brother.’ She looked ahead, feeling uncomfortable observing him from this snug vantage point.

  ‘You do not find it humiliating to have a man carry you about?’ he asked, conveying her shamelessly down the busy halls of the house, while everyone pretended not to see them.

  ‘You are not just any man,’ she replied, and was surprised that the admission made her feel a little choked up. ‘I feel I must thank and commend you for following your spiritual insight and attending me in my infirmity, despite your logical mind telling you otherwise.’

  Dan forced a smile. ‘I am fast learning that there is no logic so far as you are concerned.’

  Inside the walls of the small fortress that housed the treasury at Haojing was another dwelling, with high walls, no windows and only one iron door, which was bolted shut from the inside.

  As Dan had his hands full with Hudan, she reached out and banged on the door. ‘The storeman is here at present?’

  ‘Heng is always here,’ Dan explained simply. ‘He is the most trusted and highly paid servant of this house.’

  The iron peep hatch slid aside to reveal another iron plate with tiny holes that revealed nothing of what was within.

  ‘Heng, it is I, Ji Dan.’

  ‘The voice is convincing,’ said Heng, ‘but how might a blind man know for certain?’

  Blindness explained how someone could live in the windowless dwelling and not suffer for it.

  ‘My apologies, Heng.’ Dan realised his oversight, ahead of rattling off a string of names in close succession, which Hudan could not fully catch.

  ‘Very good, lord,’ Heng conceded. ‘And who is with you?’

  Hudan looked to Dan curiously. She hadn’t breathed a word.

  ‘It is clear to me by your tone that you are under some duress, lord,’ Heng explained, and Hudan had to chuckle as Dan rolled his eyes.

  ‘Am I heavy, Ji Dan?’ she teased.

  ‘Not at all,’ he told her. ‘It is Jiang Hudan who is accompanying me and as she is still infirm from her recent trials —’

  ‘Say no more!’ Heng obviously got the picture. ‘What an honour this is! Wait one moment, lord. I shall light some lamps for your convenience.’ The iron speaking hole was closed off and silence reigned in the yard.

  ‘Let me try my feet again,’ Hudan suggested, to break the awkwardness of the moment.

  ‘As you wish.’ He placed the Wu’s feet on the ground, facing her away from himself so he could steady her from behind. Although she managed to balance herself against Dan, as soon as she attempted to bear all her weight with her knees, Hudan folded, and Dan was forced to grab her around the waist with both arms to support her.

  ‘Damn,’ she muttered. Feeling him hugging her close from the back was more pleasurable than being cradled against him. ‘This isn’t working at all.’ Her heightened emotion was making her feel decidedly ill.

  ‘I don’t mind the imposition, truly.’ His voice had softened and lost its jovial tone and for the first time in her life Hudan had no idea what to do next. Her yearning to stay exactly as they were was eating at her conscience, and Hudan feared if she looked at him he’d see her desire.

  ‘You are trembling?’ Dan noted. ‘Are you cold?’

  They were sopping wet, having walked through the rainy courtyard to get here, but the humidity made the damp enjoyable. No, it was fear giving Hudan the shakes, an emotion altogether unfamiliar to her. She shook her head in response. ‘A little weak, perhaps.’

  ‘I should take you back —’

  ‘No!’ Hudan finally found the courage to look Dan in the eye. ‘Please, I …’ The longing in his expression intensified the welling emotion in her chest, and for a moment it was as if they had passed into the spirit world, where time had no measure. She completely forgot what she was saying.

  The sound of the door unbolting startled them both from the enchantment and they laughed in the wake of the scare — or, rather, to hide the reason why they were so distracted in the first place. On the inside Hudan was thanking Tian for bringing them to their senses before they shamed both their houses.

  ‘May I?’ Dan sought permission to sweep her off her feet once more. ‘There are stairs,’ he warned.

  ‘That does seem the wisest course,’ she agreed, avoiding eye contact as he gathered her into his arms, and proceeded to enter the Ji family storehouse.

  This building stood apart from the treasury, as this was where the House of Ji stored their personal valuab
les and historic records.

  ‘What treasure brings my lord and such an honourable Wu legend to the storehouse this evening?’ Heng inquired as he led them down the stairs, carrying a lantern for their benefit.

  ‘The very one you gave up your life and eyes for, I’m afraid,’ Dan informed.

  Heng halted, perturbed. ‘Pardon, my lord, but you expressly said no one was ever to know of that treasure, much less see it … I gave my eyes to ensure that promise was kept.’

  ‘I realise I said that —’ Dan began, whereby Hudan held a hand up to explain herself.

  ‘The reason for this unusual request,’ she said, ‘is that I have learned that there is a curse connected to being named in the Jade Book.’

  ‘What?’ Both men gasped at once.

  ‘What kind of a curse?’ Dan probed further, horrified for his brother.

  ‘I do not understand it fully myself,’ Hudan replied, avoiding the gruesome particulars, unsure if anyone would believe the truth if she told it. ‘Which is why I need to see the Jade Book.’

  Clearly Heng understood what her assertion might mean to the Ji family. ‘I am the humble servant of this house. You pay me to protect its secrets and this is greatest of them, but I shall always abide by your will, lord, for in this matter you are the highest authority.’

  Dan’s soft affectionate gaze had changed to one filled with alarm, which Hudan felt cruel in thinking was a blessing — as clearly, he was no longer feeling so amorous toward her. ‘Lead the way, Heng.’

  The storeman bowed and gravely resumed his descent down the stairs.

  ‘Your reluctance to be forthcoming with information is a worry,’ Dan told her, voicing his frustration.

  ‘I would have thought that as an advocate for logic, you wouldn’t pay much heed to something so intangible as a curse,’ Hudan said, trying to make light of her secrecy, knowing full well that the curse was very tangible.

  ‘That depends on what form the curse might take?’ he reasoned. ‘You mentioned Dragonface in the same breath as this curse earlier. What does having a Dragonface have to do with anything?’

  ‘It would seem that having a Dragonface is the curse.’

  ‘I do not think you could really describe Ji Fa as having a Dragonface,’ Dan said, thinking that his brother would be fine.

  ‘At present he does not,’ Hudan concurred, ‘but once we reach the Shang capital at Yin, that could change.’

  The deep frown on the lord’s brow conveyed how confused he was.

  ‘Here it is.’ Heng placed the oil lamp on a low table, next to a tall wooden chest that was bolted closed in several places. ‘I shall leave you to your business.’ Heng returned upstairs.

  ‘He gave his eyes to ensure he never read this,’ Hudan remarked, as Dan put her feet to the floor and lowered her down to seated position beside the low table.

  ‘And lives his life in this storehouse to guard it always,’ Dan added. ‘In return his family thrives and prospers from his sacrifice.’

  ‘All the names in the long password that Heng uses to identify you,’ Hudan deduced, as Dan pulled the bolts from their fasteners and each side of the the wooden chest fell open to expose a book of thin jade tablets, bound with silken rope and engraved in gold. On top of the volume, a serpentine creature was depicted, and the image made Hudan draw a sharp breath. ‘Dragonface.’

  ‘I took it to represent the Green Dragon of the East.’

  ‘The physique is rather humanlike though, do you see?’ she asked Dan, and he frowned as he’d obviously failed to notice that the depiction of the dragon was not perfect.

  ‘Were the rest of the book not so exquisite, I would have said it might be a lack of skill on the artist’s behalf,’ Dan said.

  ‘Quite right,’ Hudan agreed, ‘but in this case I suspect the misrepresentation was quite purposeful.’

  ‘Are you saying Dragonface is an entity rather than an imperial term of flattery?’ There was no scepticism in his voice, only interest, so Hudan figured she may as well come clean with him.

  ‘That is correct,’ Hudan confided in a hushed tone, ‘and he is not a solo entity either. He has minions under his command who feast on good people and live under the palace at Yin, at the emperor and Su Daji’s pleasure.’ The memory of the pit of bones made Hudan sick to her core, and that horror must have reflected in her tone and expression, for Dan’s cynical streak did not come bursting forth. To her surprise and relief, he took her claim quite seriously.

  ‘Dear heaven,’ Dan exclaimed, repulsed by the allegation. ‘Hence your sudden interest in lizards?’

  ‘I need to figure out how to deal with these creatures before we get to Yin.’ Hudan laid out her problems and raised her eyebrows at the challenge ahead.

  ‘I was fairly fond of lizards when I was a lad, and I can tell you that there is very little they dislike or fear.’ Dan thought hard. ‘They dislike the cold, anything with a sour taste, or any creature bigger than they are … how big are they?’

  Hudan cringed, as the answer was daunting. ‘Dragonface, the tallest of them, stands at nearly twice your height —’

  Dan whistled to emphasise he was impressed. ‘There are not many creatures bigger than that!’

  ‘I saw roughly eight more, exactly like him.’ Hudan was somewhat agitated by that fact. ‘You say they dislike cold, but as we are heading into summer, cold is not going to be easy to come by.’

  ‘I heard you were acquainted with the Lord of the Elements,’ Dan said. ‘Might he not be of aid in that regard?’

  Hudan considered the suggestion. ‘Maybe,’ she nodded in response. ‘My hope was that the Jade Book might give me some insight, as the lord made it quite clear that these creatures are our problem. He did mention that emperors had learned how to control the curse in the past, but not how they had avoided paying Dragonface’s tribute to have a long and prosperous reign.’ She took hold of the jade tablets and carefully laid them out on the table from left to right to read.

  ‘Well, as I said, to the best of my knowledge this volume is a list of kingship past and future, which is in itself extraordinary.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Hudan agreed. ‘One has to wonder about the author … who would have had to be a very skilled clairvoyant, or … a time traveller.’ Hudan was encouraged by her own suggestion. ‘The Lord of Time.’ She gazed at the Jade Book in wonder and awe. ‘Could he have something to do with this?’

  ‘You have met the Lord of Time?’ Dan was starting to sound sceptical again.

  ‘I met a Lord of Time, who claimed there were many sons and daughters of the sky who could time-shift as he did … so this could have been penned by any one of them.’ Hudan cast her eyes over the text, lost in speculation. ‘But what is the connection between this book and Dragonface? Could he be a time lord, or even the author?’ She looked at Dan, who had taken a seat alongside her, and his expression was one of utter bewilderment.

  ‘Maybe Dragonface merely stole the book so he could check which individual he needed to exploit next in order to maintain ultimate power over his food supply?’ Dan suggested.

  ‘Either way, we know that when Shun of Yu found the Jade Book at Li Shan, Dragonface came with it, so the creature has surely read the original and would know that the jade volume that you gave Daji was a fake. Yet she and the emperor still believe they have the original and that Zi Shou will rule for seventy years!’ She smiled proudly at Dan. ‘The fake treasure you gave Su Daji has made the emperor complacent.’

  ‘Some good news is better than none,’ he warranted, obviously more preoccupied by the point she was trying to make. ‘So why has Dragonface not told Su Daji the truth?’

  Hudan nodded at him, as that was also her worry. ‘If he knows the end for the Shang is nigh, then perhaps he’s just waiting for Ji Fa to arrive at Yin? But if that was the case why send Su Daji to fetch the book?’ Hudan looked at the book, lost in her own line of inquiry. ‘Perhaps he’d forgotten the exact year of the uprising? Did Su Daji say ho
w she knew about the book? Why she wanted it?’ Hudan looked at Dan who had gone ghostly white.

  He meekly shook his head. ‘She just claimed it was the property of the emperor and that she wanted it returned. I only recently discovered that my youngest brother, only a boy at the time, had gotten wind of my discovery and shared the news with some of his friends. I can only assume that this was how word of the treasure got back to the emperor.’

  ‘So, if you gave Su Daji the book and she believed it to be the genuine article, then what cause did she have to hex your father and cause his death?’ This was the only piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit for Hudan, and Dan appeared distressed again.

  ‘She wanted me to …’ Dan was clearly discomfitted by the reminiscence ‘… to pleasure her.’

  ‘But instead you consented to play the qin,’ Hudan said, sparing him from relating any more of the details.

  Dan nodded. ‘But, afterward, she decided that as I had refused her prior request, she would allow everyone under her sleeping spell at Haojing to awaken, bar my father.’

  Hudan covered her mouth, as the notion of being placed in such a predicament turned her stomach. No wonder Ji Dan had never played the qin again! ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘It was not your doing,’ he replied, breathing deeply in the wake of the confession.

  ‘I should not have pried,’ she insisted, her eyes tearing up in empathy. She was truly sorry to have upset him.

  ‘Actually,’ he confessed, ‘it is liberating to finally tell the truth about that night.’

  Hudan realised that Ji Dan had carried his guilt a long time, and she was disarmed that the lord would choose her as his confessor, but as such, she felt she must reassure him. ‘In order to discourage opposition, evil will always seek to offload responsibility for its ill deeds onto the good people who are its greatest adversaries. You must not believe whatever lies Su Daji fed you that night. You were in no way responsible for your father’s death.’