Dreaming of Zhou Gong

by Traci Harding

  ‘I’ll go check the dragon pit and see if there are any left down there.’ The lord vanished from their midst.

  ‘Fen?’ Hudan moved to drag her brother away from the creature, but Fen was too overwhelmed by grief.

  ‘The poison worked too fast. She was gone before I knew what had happened!’ He collapsed over Nuan’s body, weeping.

  ‘So sad,’ the lizard sobbed, blue tears of empathy streaming down its snout, one arm around Fen in comfort.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Fen,’ Hudan told him, trying to remove the creature’s arm from around her brother, but it held tight, shaking its head as it cried harder.

  ‘What on earth?’ The king limped over, unable to believe what he was seeing.

  Hudan rose and approached Ji Fa to whisper an explanation. ‘Fen can pass his emotions on to others. That is he why is such an exceptional healer.’

  ‘Really? Good to know. How long will it last?’

  ‘Difficult to say, really,’ Hudan advised.

  ‘We have to kill it,’ Dan insisted. ‘It could turn into Dragonface at any second. Or this could be a trick.’

  ‘Is anyone going to restrain that tiger?’ Chu was wary of it roaming around free. ‘And what happened to Shi?’ he asked, as he witnessed the tiger transform into the said missing person. ‘Oh …’.

  ‘Bugger me,’ uttered Xian. His naked brother rose and giving his stunned brothers a wave, moved to get his clothes and get dressed.

  ‘That explains a lot,’ Zhenduo added.

  ‘Shi saved my life twice,’ the king spoke up, as his siblings moved in Shi’s direction, ‘so if I hear one word of ridicule from any of you, or anyone breathes a word about his secret to anyone, I’ll have your head for it. Is that clear?’

  ‘Sure thing,’ Xian muttered, not really listening, as he pursued his brothers who were keen to speak with their supernatural brother.

  ‘You knew,’ Dan accused Hudan. ‘He’s the father of Huxin’s little bundle.’

  She raised her eyebrows at his reasoning, and Fa didn’t know whether he should be pleased about it or not. ‘Well, at least I know what you were being so secretive about.’

  ‘Huxin doesn’t know,’ Hudan was quick to add, and Fa was even more perplexed, but he had other concerns at present.

  ‘Lock this thing in the strongest cell we have for now,’ Fa ordered, indicating the weeping lizard.

  ‘We must kill it!’ Dan stressed.

  ‘Yes, we must,’ Fa agreed, then posited, ‘but we might like to question it first?’

  ‘He might know where Dragonface has gone?’ Hudan suggested, as four of the king’s guard seized Fen’s weeping lizard and easily bound its hands and feet to a pole. ‘Their leader certainly didn’t seem very concerned about offing himself,’ she added, which was making her very uneasy.

  ‘It’s probably wondering how we knew about his lair,’ Dan proposed. ‘An enemy with no fixed address is much harder to root out.’

  Fen clearly didn’t know how to feel as he watched the pacified creature being bound. ‘Something is wrong,’ he said, as the lizard was lifted to be carted away. It was writhing in pain and making a straining sound. Before Fen could rise to soothe it, the creature exploded, and the guards dropped their load in disgust.

  ‘There goes that problem.’ Fa commented, turning back to his advisors.

  ‘That did not look like a suicide,’ Dan observed.

  The suggestion sent a chill through Hudan’s body as she bowed down to try and pry her shell-shocked brother away from his dead lover. ‘Fen, your king has been injured.’

  The lad raised his head to view the king, and shifted to kneel before Ji Fa. ‘I beg your forgiveness, highness, but I can aid no one like this.’ Fen held his hands palm upward his fingers clenched inward like injured claws, and bowing his head in shame, he silently wept anew.

  ‘Perfectly understandable, my brother.’ The king leaned on a member of his guard for support. ‘Come and see me once you are able.’

  ‘The cavern is empty.’ Avery startled Dan and Hudan with his sudden reappearance. ‘There are no other exits in there.’

  ‘What’s the matter with both of you?’ Ji Fa asked, startled by Hudan and Dan as they both flinched at once.

  ‘As we seem to have eliminated Yin’s lizard infestation, we should have no problem retrieving the rest of the royal treasury from the dragon’s pit,’ Hudan advised.

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Ji Fa decided. ‘I believe we’ve all had enough adventure for one day.’ He wiped more slime from the front of his armour and flicked it aside, revolted.

  ‘I shall have the body of Bi Gan exhumed from the dragon pit immediately and prepared for a decent burial,’ Dan granted, knowing this would be his brother’s wish.

  ‘At least we can identify him,’ the king said, ‘unlike all these other poor souls. Once Yin’s treasure is retrieved I want this pit filled in and a memorial built here to honour those who suffered under Shou’s rule.’

  ‘It will be done.’ Dan bowed his head as Fa limped off.

  ‘Good work today!’ he called back, as a few of his guard swept the king off his feet to carry him back into the palace proper.

  ‘Come, Fen,’ Hudan said gently, encouraging him to his feet, but he pulled away to take He Nuan in hand and carry her from the field.

  The remaining Ji brothers fell silent to pay their respects to their fallen ally as Fen passed them by, and then followed him out through the gate.

  Left alone amid the slaughter, Hudan turned to her co-conspirator to congratulate him.

  ‘Would you like a hug?’ Dan invited, covered in lizard guts and smelling repulsive.

  ‘I think I’ll pass,’ Hudan decided, having managed to avoid being doused in carnage. ‘But congratulations, we made it through the day.’

  ‘Praise Tian,’ he returned her smile, clearly grateful for their deliverance.

  ‘Hey, you two!’ Avery startled them both, and Hudan was a little vexed.

  ‘Are we done here, do you think, my lord?’

  ‘By all indications, it seems we are,’ he said happily.

  ‘Then on behalf of the people of our land, I thank you,’ she said kindly, and he lapped up her attention. ‘You are dismissed.’

  ‘Hey —’ He vanished with a stunned look on his face.

  ‘Thank heaven for small mercies,’ Dan grinned, and noting the clean-up crew entering the enclosure, he wiped his hand on a clean part of his trousers and extended it palm up to Hudan.

  The gesture made her a little uncomfortable, now that she no longer needed gossip to fuel Daji’s anger, but she accepted with a cheeky grin and closing her eyes she envisioned the king’s council chamber.

  ‘Hudan?’ Dan queried, dismayed and enchanted, as Hudan directed her chi to encompass him and drag him along for the ride. ‘I don’t know …’

  ‘… about this,’ he concluded to find he was already elsewhere, grinning deliriously as Hudan released him and he staggered about regaining his equilibrium.

  ‘Dan?’ Zai rose from the king’s chair, obviously shocked to see his brother appear out of thin air with the Wu, in the middle of the council chamber.

  ‘Is it over?’ Huxin came striding toward them to inquire, but stopped in her tracks, repelled by the stench. ‘Dear heaven, what happened to you? You smell as horrendous as old Jizi did when he came straight from the dungeon.’

  ‘That, my dear brother, is the sweet smell of victory,’ Dan advised.

  ‘The king lives?’ Zai queried, sounding more disappointed than concerned.

  ‘You need not fear having kingship thrust upon you, Zai,’ Dan said, sarcastically. ‘Ji Fa has but a few scratches to show for the battle, thanks to Shi.’

  ‘Shi?’ Zai was surprised to hear him singled out for special note.

  ‘Shi saved Ji Fa?’ Huxin’s ears picked up.

  ‘Twice!’ Dan held up to fingers to emphasise.

  ‘I don’t believe you.’ Zai clearly thought his older brother was playin
g him for sport.

  ‘I believe a debriefing may be taking place in the imperial bathhouse about now. Which is exactly where I am headed if you want to accompany me?’ Dan offered.

  ‘At a distance, perhaps,’ Zai replied, motioning for Dan to lead the way.

  ‘Brothers.’ Dan bowed out, and left the chamber with Zai trailing behind.

  ‘How I would love to be a fly on that bathhouse wall,’ Huxin commented aside to Hudan, once the men where out of sight. But looking at her sister, Huxin found Hudan not so amused.

  ‘Fen saved Nuan from the creatures, only to lose her to a poison dart,’ Hudan explained her sadness, and Huxin looked horrified. ‘Ji Fa’s wound is far greater than just a scratch, and Fen is a mess and incapable of healing him.’

  Huxin thought through the problem. ‘I should go and see that our king’s wound is cleaned properly,’ she decided, keen to rush off.

  ‘Huxin!’ Hudan was surprised at her. ‘Don’t you care that our brother is hurting? His lover has been killed!’

  ‘No,’ Huxin said quite frankly. ‘She was wrong for him, and we never liked her. My duty is to Ji Fa and his welfare.’

  Hudan would have called her an animal, but Huxin would take it as a compliment.

  ‘He’ll get over it, Hudan,’ Huxin advised, not liking the way Hudan was looking at her. ‘He must. You must make him.’

  ‘Is that how you would feel if it was the father of your pride?’ Hudan asked. ‘Over him, are you?’

  Huxin’s expression hardened. ‘Fine. I’ll go and watch Fen wallow in the loss of that useless whore, whilst our king’s wound festers!’ she suggested cattishly. ‘Unless, of course, you are prepared to brave a room full of naked men to treat him? From what Dan was saying it sounds like they will be in there for awhile, and with an animal wound every second counts? So, be my guest?’

  ‘I should comfort Fen,’ Hudan conceded, almost ashamed of her sibling, whose animal instincts ran so contrary to Hudan’s own spiritual nature at times that she couldn’t help but resent it. Once again, Hudan was left with the responsibility and Huxin did what she liked.

  ‘Off I go to the bathhouse then,’ Huxin concluded happily. ‘It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. I shall retrieve what I need from Fen’s stores.’ She waved farewell and was on her merry way.

  It was beyond Hudan how Huxin could be so callous. Whether they thought Fen was better off without Nuan was irrelevant; their little brother was heartbroken and rousing him from that melancholy promised to be a more formidable task than the reunification of their land had been.

  As anticipated, Fen was inconsolable. To give him sympathy only increased his grieving, and his grief was infectious and then off-putting to Hudan. Tough love seemed the only remedy when Fen expressed a desire to be buried with Nuan.

  ‘Wake up!’ Hudan yanked him out of his pitiful state. ‘Your king is suffering! He has endless duties to perform in the coming weeks, and only you can spare him from undue pain, so that he might comfort the entire land! Tian chose a life path of service to the Ji clan for you. Nuan was a blessing you picked up along the way, but she was not your sacred calling.’

  ‘I can’t do it without her,’ Fen protested. ‘I want to go back to Li Shan with you and Huxin!’

  ‘You know the Great Mother loves you, Fen, but she will not have you back,’ Hudan said firmly, regretting having to speak the truth. ‘Your place is with Ji Dan now.’

  ‘But I heard the king plans to divide the land into fiefs and assign them to his brothers,’ Fen appealed, ‘so heaven only knows what corner of the land we shall be sent to?’

  Hudan was a little disconcerted to hear this, as she had always imagined Dan and Fen would return to Haojing, where they were a short ride from Li Shan. ‘I wouldn’t worry too much,’ Hudan reassured him and herself. ‘I feel sure Ji Fa will want his chief advisor and his Wu healer close at hand.’

  As Fen shook his head, it was clear that he had never been so miserable. ‘How can I heal? I have no happy place, Hudan, they have been taken from me. Every memory I could use to raise my chi, now only gives me pain for I shall never know such happiness again.’

  Hudan took a deep breath … this was really going to hurt. ‘Fen,’ she held him squarely by the shoulders, ‘you claimed to be man enough to take a wife, now be man enough to bury her and complete the task the Great Mother sent you here to do.’ She let go of him, to avoid feeling his utter desolation. ‘I wish I could let you grieve for years, or end your days with her if you so wish it, but I cannot. Your admittance into the Ji family was not a free ride, it was a great honour, and now it is time for you to prove that the Great Mother was right to let you live.’

  Hudan closed her heart to his tears and self-pity to be harsh with him. ‘You have until morning to get your wits about you. If you cannot aid our king by then, I shall disown you.’ Fen gasped and shook his head, convinced that she couldn’t mean it.

  ‘And Huxin certainly will,’ she emphasised then continued a little more gently. ‘Please, Fen, step back from your own tiny world of pain and see the big picture … it has never been more vital that you do so.’ With those words, Hudan left him in the mortuary to find her bed for the night. This had been the longest, most trying, but also exhilarating, day of her entire life and she could hardly wait for it to end.

  13

  ZHOU GONG

  The bedchamber of Wu Geng was the most luxurious situation Hudan had ever awoken in. She’d found her way back to this room the previous night, and as it was unoccupied, Hudan had collapsed on the bed.

  After yesterday’s furore, the room seemed deathly quiet, so Hudan slid out of bed to approach the balcony doors and observe the situation outside. But, upon discovering Ji Dan asleep amid a pile of pillows on the floor at the end of the bed, her heart gave a little jolt in her chest and she froze. Oh, dear. She’d never seen Dan sleep, nor appear so peaceful. To honour the rare event, she abandoned her trek to the door, and slid back across the bed to find her shoes.

  ‘Good morning.’

  Hudan was startled and twisted about on her haunches to find Dan stretching the kinks from his body. ‘I was trying not to wake you.’ Hudan sat on her behind to strap on her boots. ‘Are beds in such short supply in Yin?’ she queried.

  ‘Something like that,’ he replied with a smile. ‘This was the room I was assigned. But when I entered and found the bed was already occupied, I took the floor.’

  The tale made Hudan feel rather guilty, and thankful. ‘I robbed you of your bed, I do apologise. You should have woken me —’

  ‘Not at all,’ and he waved off the inconvenience. ‘It was the most delightful theft I am ever likely to discover.’

  Hudan forced a smile, and having no idea how to respond to that remark, she turned her attention back to tying off her boots.

  ‘Your sister caused quite a stir at the bathhouse last night.’ Dan rose to kneeling to brush his long hair back from his face.

  ‘I’m sure she did.’ Hudan wanted to roll her eyes, as she stood up.

  ‘I dare say brother Fa has never been so happy to be infirm,’ he added. ‘Although Shi seemed a little green.’

  ‘As he would,’ she stated deadpan.

  ‘What is to be done about them?’ Dan asked, his tone gentle and curious.

  ‘That would be for the Great Mother and Ji Fa to decide, I suppose. But I have far greater concerns this day than my sister’s love life. I have to deal with Fen.’

  Dan noted it was barely dawn. ‘He’s probably still with Nuan, poor kid.’

  ‘No doubt.’ Hudan turned and headed to the door.

  ‘Brother Hudan,’ Dan called to waylay her. ‘I know you have a lot on your plate today. If there is anything I can do to help —’

  ‘I’m sure you’ll have your hands full also,’ Hudan warranted, trying not to take her frustration with her siblings out on Dan. ‘Dealing with broken hearts and complicated relationships is really not my forte.’

  ‘Nor
mine,’ he concurred.

  ‘Especially when there is so much else to be done!’

  ‘Our king is eager to set this city to rights and return to Haojing,’ Dan mentioned, in prelude to his next query. ‘He said something about needing to perform a rite at Li Shan, when heaven will officially acknowledge his mandate?’

  ‘That is correct.’ Hudan confirmed. The rite in question was the last thing she wished to discuss right now, especially with Dan. ‘But as we have many ceremonies to organise before then, I really must beg your leave.’ She bowed, turned and headed for the door.

  ‘There has been another development that might interest you,’ Dan suddenly recalled. ‘The prince of Shou, who we thought had been murdered, has been found alive, though barely.’

  Hudan turned back, concerned.

  ‘But he has gladly yielded to our king’s rule, in exchange for his life and return to his family.’

  That was reassuring. ‘I guess he’ll be wanting his room back,’ Hudan joked, as she retreated, hoping to make it out the door this time.

  ‘Unfortunately for Wu Geng, I outrank him these days.’

  Indeed he did. Dan and his brothers would be named princes this day, and by nightfall she suspected that her dear friend would have stepped into the current that would sweep him swiftly toward his huge destiny. The unification of their land was just the beginning for Dan. He had far greater achievements to realise in his future.

  Fen was where Hudan had left him, but he’d obviously moved from the mortuary at some stage as he’d gathered mountains of stunted plants, which he was willing into full bloom and weaving over Nuan’s bamboo coffin. He’d stopped sobbing, so that was a good sign. ‘What do you think?’ Fen queried, with a sniffle.

  ‘It’s beautiful, Fen. Fit for a princess.’

  ‘My king said he will honour her with cremation in the high ancestral temple here in Yin, this day, when he offers tribute to Tian.’

  ‘That is a high honour indeed,’ Hudan agreed, ‘but should you not —’

  ‘Fen!’ Huxin stormed into the mortuary and was momentarily stunned to see so many flowers — the rain was only just beginning to tinge the wasteland of the East green and to fill the river that flowed through the city. ‘You’ve been collecting flowers while our king lies suffering?’