Dreaming of Zhou Gong

by Traci Harding

  ‘I have dreamt of it,’ Ji Fa disclosed, ‘as I have of many things that have come to pass.’

  Dan noted Fa gripping the thigh that Dragonface had torn shreds off. ‘Does your wound ail you? Should I call for Fen?’

  ‘No,’ Fa assured him. ‘You’ve made me a happy man, Dan. I warrant I shall sleep soundly tonight. Now it’s time to feast and count our blessings. In a few days, we’ll head for home.’

  Dan was surprised. ‘So soon?’

  ‘I’ll leave the weeding and teething problems to our brothers to sort, that’s what they are good at,’ Fa asserted. ‘I have an appointment at Li Shan that is far more pressing.’

  ‘And what does this rite entail?’ Dan thought it his responsibility to enquire.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Fa said, pleading ignorance. ‘All I know is that my mandate relies upon my attendance.’

  The vast banquet hall at Yin was packed to the rafters and the rice wine, from the emperor’s private stores, was flowing freely. The king proceeded to the main table where his brothers and nobles were carousing. Jiang Huxin was waiting to greet him, for she had made it her personal mission to keep Ji Fa in good spirits. Shi watched as the tigress attended on the king and laughed with him, quietly turning green with envy. This had not escaped Fa’s notice and he seemed to be doing his utmost to torture Shi for his transgression. Dan, spotting Fen toying with a plate of food, sidetracked to join his ward, who was no doubt feeling as alone as he looked.

  ‘My lord …’ Fen went to stand but Dan placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his seat, and sat down alongside him. ‘What happened? Where has the king sent us?’

  ‘We are going back to Haojing with him,’ Dan reassured the lad, who couldn’t believe his ears.

  ‘Permanently?’

  Dan nodded in the affirmative as he accepted a plate of food from one of the dining room staff, immediately tucking into the meal as he was absolutely famished. After a few mouthfuls, Dan paused to say: ‘Fortunately for us, Fen, you are now indispensable.’

  ‘I think you are the one who is indispensable,’ Fen replied, fobbing off the flattery, and went back to playing with his food. ‘But that is good news.’

  ‘Our king is eager to get home and attend to the last condition of his mandate,’ Dan added, subtly fishing for information, in between putting food into his mouth.

  ‘The goddess rite,’ Fen said, nodding in recognition, eyes and mind focused elsewhere.

  Dan’s eating slowed, as a bad feeling made his gut sink. ‘A fertility rite then?’

  Fen nodded, still lost in a daze and only half following the conversation. ‘A man who cannot please the goddess cannot rule the land.’ He looked at Dan and could see he was distressed, and so Fen was too. ‘Sorry, I thought —’

  ‘Who will be his goddess?’ Dan swallowed hard, unsure he wished to know the answer.

  ‘That will be Tian’s decision,’ Fen replied.

  ‘The Great Mother.’ Dan’s jaw clenched and losing his appetite he pushed his plate aside.

  ‘No,’ Fen emphasised, seeking to soothe his worry. ‘Yi Wu has no say, that much I do know.’

  ‘Then how is it decided … by the candidate?’ Dan looked back to Fa, knowing he would have chosen Jiang Huxin, had she not already lost her maidenhood to their younger brother. Damn Shi, he thought, but at the same time he could hardly blame him.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Fen replied apologetically. ‘It has been quite some time since such a rite has taken place on Li Shan … certainly not within any of our lifetimes.’

  Dan nodded, accepting this; he’d learned more than he cared to in any case. The mood to celebrate had fled along with his appetite, and Dan rose to depart and escape the noise. Fen trailed him from the banquet hall.

  ‘I should not have mentioned it?’

  ‘I mentioned it,’ Dan reminded his ward as they walked. ‘I had to know,’ he continued, scolding himself for destroying the first peace of mind he’d had in a long time. ‘This torture is endless.’

  ‘Mine shall be, also.’ Fen could completely relate to the prospect of loving a woman he would never marry. ‘There is nothing to be done, so why dwell on it? I have no option. I cannot mourn her now, for fear of failing our king!’

  Dan frowned in empathy and stopped to grip Fen around the back of the neck to lend him strength. ‘You are a rock, Fen. Your strength puts me to shame … for as bad as my plight is, I should still prefer it to yours …’ he conceded, biting his tongue.

  ‘But?’ Fen sensed his lord’s restraint.

  Dan let go of the lad, feeling he had no right to complain. ‘I can accept that she will never be mine,’ he said quietly to his ward, who was his only true confidant in this affair. ‘But the thought that she might be given to my brother —’ The notion left Dan speechless, and shaking his head.

  ‘I would not lend so much energy to that supposition, if I were you,’ Fen warned, ‘as, chances are, that will not be the case.’

  ‘Why so? Is Hudan not the most noted and powerful of all the vestals of the House of Yi Wu Li Shan?’

  ‘Yes, but in this instance, I feel Tian will be looking for someone with a temperament more like Huxin,’ Fen posed, cocking an eye.

  ‘But Huxin is out of the equation.’

  ‘I said like Huxin,’ Fen clarified. ‘I can assure you that there are plenty of pretty young woman on Li Shan with curious smiles and batting eyelashes who will be more than happy to be goddess to our new king.’

  Dan smiled at his ward, thankful for his counsel. ‘You are a good man, Fen, to keep on giving, even when Tian has taken so much.’

  ‘Heaven takes when we are on the wrong path, and gives when we are on the right one.’ It seemed the lad had conceded that his sisters may have been right about Nuan and himself — they were just not meant to be.

  ‘Then we can only hope we are both on the right track now.’ Dan followed Fen’s advice and lightened his mood, pushing the distressing notion of the goddess rite to the back of his mind.

  At a desk in the outer chamber of Dan’s sleeping quarters, Hudan was seated carving characters into bone by candlelight.

  She had discovered this afternoon that there was not a spare room to be had within the palace walls at present. With all the rulers of the land in Yin, the accommodation in the palace was beyond capacity. When Ji Fa had learned of the oversight, he’d instructed to have a room cleared for the Wu. But Hudan would not hear of ousting many exhausted warriors from their much needed rest so that she might have privacy. Thus, she had returned to Dan’s quarters to find peace and quiet.

  She had begun to record the events of the months that had passed since her oracle with Ji Fa, the prophecies of which she’d made account of before setting out on their quest. Now that much of her soothsaying had transpired, events needed to be documented as a testament to that original oracle. Both accounts would be bound and stored together at Li Shan for future reference.

  The door opening disturbed her from her work and Hudan looked up to find Dan and her little brother, who immediately backed up.

  ‘I forgot … something.’ Fen bowed to Dan and left them.

  Hudan frowned at her brother’s sudden departure, wondering why he seemed so spooked, but smiled to greet Dan. ‘It seems there is not another room within the palace that does not already have several men in it,’ she explained why she was still frequenting his quarters. ‘Would you mind if I slept in here with Fen?’

  ‘No, you must take the bedroom, I insist,’ Dan decreed, but Hudan would not accept.

  ‘I robbed you of a decent night’ sleep last night, and I feel Fen will need my company now —’

  ‘You both take it,’ Dan stated as he sat down. ‘Truly, I won’t sleep.’

  ‘Why?’ Hudan was alarmed. ‘What happened in court today? Did brother Fa give you a province like your brothers?’

  Dan nodded to concur. ‘Lu.’

  The news pained Hudan a lot more than expected. ‘But that is farthe
r east? What if brother Fa becomes ill … Fen will be on the other side of country?’

  ‘Fa wants Fen with him at Haojing,’ Dan put her mind to rest on that count.

  Hudan had hoped it was just the prospect of Fen being so far afield that was upsetting her, but she still felt like her heart was being torn out. ‘When do you leave?’ she asked, unable to disguise the regret in her voice.

  This must have been pleasing to Dan, as he smiled broadly, and Hudan realised he was playing her for sport.

  ‘I knew it!’ She wanted to hit him, but instead sent a barrage of pillows hurtling in his direction with a flick of her will.

  ‘All right, I’ll confess!’ Dan blocked the last of the pillows and then brushed hair from his face to find her listening expectantly. ‘I passed the appointment onto my son, so that I may continue to be the king’s chief advisor at Haojing.’

  Hudan huffed a little breath on the news, and the emotional lump in her throat brought a tear to her eye. ‘Why would you do that?’ It was unheard of for a man to be offered so much power and just pass it by.

  ‘Everything I desire is in Zhou,’ he stated, his eyes intent on her, which made Hudan a little uncomfortable until a realisation made her gasp. ‘It is as we foresaw?’

  Dan nodded. ‘I did not even realise myself until brother Fa pronounced me Zhou Gong Dan.’

  Hudan’s heart was suddenly brimming with emotion and she was at a loss to prevent tears from streaming down her face.

  ‘Why are you crying?’ Dan sat forward in his chair to ask. He knew better than to make a move to comfort her without an invitation.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Hudan brushed the tears away, ‘relief, I guess. It is an odd feeling witnessing a prophecy come to pass. But it is well that you will be by brother Fa, to advise him.’ Hudan returned to her work. She hadn’t lied, because she was relieved, but it was more from knowing that Dan had not made the wrong decision due to his misguided feelings for her.

  ‘And what will you do now?’ Dan sat back in his seat.

  ‘I shall return to Li Shan and record all this,’ she explained.

  ‘I had hoped to do the same myself,’ Dan warranted, and Hudan gave a laugh.

  ‘You shall be too busy making history to log it,’ Hudan said, glancing up at him and smiling, ‘but I will make account of your great achievements, never fear.’

  ‘I would be flattered to be part of your dossier,’ he granted kindly, as Fen finally stuck his head around the door.

  ‘I need somewhere to sleep,’ he explained the interruption, looking ready to drop where he stood.

  ‘Take the bedroom,’ Dan motioned to the door at the far side of the room.

  ‘No,’ Hudan insisted, ‘we’ll be fine in here.’

  Fen meandered in, grabbed one of the pillows laying strewn about the room, and collapsing onto the rug, he curled up and immediately fell asleep.

  ‘That seems to settle that then?’ Hudan put down her tools, and Dan got up defeated. ‘Sleep well.’ She passed him her candle, having no further use for it this night.

  Dan smiled, a little deflated as he accepted her offering. It was as if he had more he wished to say, but was unprepared. ‘Goodnight.’

  Hudan watched him leave, silently thanking Tian for not sending her little brother and her best friend to live in the farthest quarter of the land from Li Shan. Even though she would rarely see either of them, just knowing they were close would be a comfort.

  She tossed a pillow down beside her brother, and curled up with her arm around him as she used to do when he was little. Soon they would be leading entirely different lives and this close bond they shared would be gone. ‘I love you, Fen … and I am going to miss you more than any soul I have ever lost,’ she whispered, knowing Fen was too deep in slumber to be affected by her sorrow. But if Hudan were to be honest with herself, her tears were welling at the thought of bidding farewell to Zhou Gong Dan, whose company and counsel she had come to cherish above all others, including her Shifu.

  Recollections of his dreams, of life among the sons of the sky, preoccupied Dan’s thoughts and robbed him of sleep — he could not put the otherworldly visions from his mind. The Great Mother knew about these dreams he and Hudan shared, and she knew, as well as he did, that Hudan was Tar-rin — his lover and wife from another life. So what right did the Great Mother have, or even Tian, to keep them apart, or worse, to give her to another in this incarnation?

  Also, sleep was made more difficult because Hudan’s otherworldly lord had heightened Dan’s spirit sight — he could see other spirits akin to the son of the sky attached to the Wu of his acquaintance, and to his brother Shi. Dan recognised these people from the glimpses he’d had of Lu Chen’s life — were they all members of the ‘team’ the otherworldly lord had mentioned?

  Worse still were the myriad ghosts he could now see plainly, lurking about the palace — some bitter, some lost, but all human — but no sign of the dark, tormenting spirit that he’d seen pass between the lizard warriors and then vanish.

  Even now as he lay there, Dan could see an entity lurking in the shadows in the corner of the room. When the spectre burst into flame, Dan was up on his feet in an effort to discern if the fire was real, or an apparition of the spirit world. As there was no heat emanating from the blaze, Dan figured there was no need to call for aid. The man-sized flame began dancing about the room and laughing, and Dan’s body chilled as he recognised the dead emperor’s insane mirth.

  ‘Zi Shou,’ Dan stated to acknowledge his adversary. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘To gloat!’ The fire frolicked merrily about him.

  ‘We defeated you,’ Dan pointed out, finding the spirit’s merriment vexing.

  ‘You think you got me good, don’t you, Dan?’ Shou’s form appeared in the flames and his head flew off to simulate his decapitation. The entity only laughed harder, as the flaming head returned to its undulating form. ‘You had NOTHING to do with my defeat. You think I had the courage to kill myself?’ If Shou had still been alive he would have asphyxiated on his own laughter.

  ‘Actually, no, I did not,’ Dan said, indignant, endeavouring to remain unaffected by the foreboding feeling building in his gut.

  ‘The curse was loose long before you arrived,’ Shou said, his jovial mood turning nasty. ‘IT lurks amongst you.’

  ‘We killed your pet lizards,’ Dan reported calmly.

  ‘You haven’t destroyed IT, only freed my kindred from IT. And my gift to the Ji family in return is a THOUSAND YEARS of torment.’ The flames flared, burnt themselves out and were gone in a fit of laughter.

  For the longest while Dan just stood there, at first shocked but hesitant to show it. He didn’t want to give the dead emperor anything more to gloat over. He returned to bed and lay there, gradually becoming more frustrated by the ghostly emperor’s claims.

  When at last daylight began to obscure the night sky, Dan rose and dressed to get an early start — the king would have many matters of state to settle this day, if he intended to leave for Haojing tomorrow, and Dan needed to continue his search for Dragonface. He did have one advantage in that very few knew about his developing second sight, and chances were that his adversary had no idea he could be spotted.

  In the outer chamber of his quarters, Dan encountered a beguiling scene that tore at his heartstrings.

  On the floor, Hudan was curled on her side sleeping soundly, with Fen folded around her — a situation Dan had only dreamed of being in himself. At some stage during the night Jiang Huxin had crept in, and was circled up behind Fen, hugging both her brothers.

  Dan deeply envied the trust and love that existed between this trio, and yearned to share that same kind of closeness with Hudan. There was a bond between himself and his brothers, but genuine affection was not something Dan had experienced, or even welcomed, very often in his life. His wife he’d barely known, and his son had been raised in his wife’s household, as Dan had been constantly on the move with his father’s armed
forces.

  A knock on the outer door stirred the sleeping Wu, and the enchantment ended.

  Shi entered and, realising he’d woken everyone, then wanted to retreat.

  ‘You have disturbed us all now.’ Dan startled his brother further — Shi had obviously not spotted him in the doorway opposite. ‘Can I help you with something?’

  Shi nodded, and looked to the huddle of Wu on the floor. ‘I was hoping to speak with Jiang Hudan.’

  Hudan looked surprised as Huxin served her a hate-face.

  ‘It is rather early, Shi.’ Dan knew what vexed his brother, as did just about everyone in their close acquaintance, except for Jiang Huxin; the king’s threat of death had kept everyone silent on the matter.

  ‘I know today will be busy, so I wanted to —’

  Hudan held a hand up to stop Shi’s tortured explanation, and stood to straighten herself. ‘Brother Dan, might we borrow your room for a moment?’

  Dan forced a smile and stepping out of the doorway he motioned them inside.

  ‘I should attend the king,’ Huxin decided, turning first to kiss Fen’s cheek. ‘How are you feeling?’ She caressed his face affectionately.

  ‘Better,’ he granted, his eyebrows raised in worry as he noted Shi’s scowl.

  Huxin turned her attention his way and Shi’s concern melted into tortured delight once again. ‘My lords.’ She included Dan in her farewell, and then swaggered purposefully from their midst.

  ‘I am just wanting some advice,’ Shi explained meekly to Dan.

  ‘I understand,’ Dan conceded, moving past him to address his ward. ‘Come, Fen, we have work to do.’

  When Fen noted Shi still scowling at him, he approached the tall lord to explain. ‘Are you aware that Jiang Huxin and Jiang Hudan are my sisters, as well as my Wu brothers.’

  Shi appeared a little confused.

  ‘They are my family,’ Fen clarified, whereby the scowl finally left the lord’s face.

  ‘No … I was not aware.’ Shi’s mood lightened considerably, and nodding in understanding to one another, they happily went their separate ways.

  Hudan had a fair idea what this meeting was about, but when Shi closed the door and fell on his knees before her, there was no doubt. ‘This is about Huxin.’