“I understand the meaning of monastery to be where men of like mind go to pray and live apart from the rest of the world.”
“That is correct. It is the same here in China. There are many such places run by Taoist priests, who are very pious people.”
Leaving their men to take care of all the horses and rest at an isolated inn, they set out for the monastery the next morning. It took the better part of the day to reach the building, the trail being very steep and narrow, winding its way between short pine trees and scrub all the way up to the summit, which today was shrouded in a smoke-like mist.
They arrived near the top out of breath. The trees here were more dense, and the path widened into a paved path with stone walls on either side. It was quiet up here where the wind soughed through the pines, and tendrils of mist clung to the trees. They could hear the sharp hollow sound of a woodpecker tapping rapidly in the distance. Hsü had said nothing on the way up. Talon simply assumed that he was catching his breath.
Then they rounded a corner and the building was directly in front of them. It was quite substantial, with a wall all around a red-painted three storied construction with the usual elaborately tiled roof that Talon had grown quite fond of seeing. In front of the monastery there was a very beautiful rounded bridge of carved stone that crossed a small ravine. It wasn’t the bridge that took Talon’s attention.
At the front of the bridge, standing right in the path of anyone who wanted to cross over, stood a dragon. He gasped and stared. It was of white marble, but was so lifelike and its appearance was so abrupt that he instinctively put his hand on the hilt of his sword. They both stopped, but for different reasons. Talon was admiring the stone dragon, and Hsü was watching Talon’s expression. The animal was a combination of scales and short legs with formidable claws, a tail that appeared to be lashing with anger, and a huge head that was fearsome to behold. The bulging eyes and the thick mane above a wide open mouth full of long fangs were an impressive sight.
Finally, after a very long pause, Hsü said, “I humbly ask for your forgiveness, Talon. I have not lied to you, but I have misled you. This is the only good-looking dragon that I know of in China. Dragons are part of our culture, but they are long gone into legend. All you will see in this land are images of them. I had to show this one to you. It is very special.”
Talon sent him a grim look. “You have deceived me! I came all this way to China to see a dragon, and you show me a stone one? Did someone turn it into stone by magic?” he demanded, his tone heavy with sarcasm and his expression forbidding. He looked and sounded very upset.
Hsü was sincere in his contrition, but had he detected a gleam in Talon’s eye? He shook his head. “No, Talon. I am so very sorry. I had to get home somehow, and you did have a cargo that you needed to sell.” He smiled disarmingly, searching Talon’s bearded face for any sign of amusement. His friend continued to look grim.
“If anyone asks, I have seen a dragon,” Talon stated firmly. He glared at Hsü, and then at the dragon, as though either of them might argue with him.
Hsü nodded, his face solemn. “You have indeed seen the dragon.” His tone was equally firm.
Talon turned to grin at him, relishing his friend’s former discomfort. Hsü was not an easy man to unbalance. “Hah! I was beginning to think this might be the case, that you were leading me on. But as I have seen for myself, China is a very large place, sooo... you can never tell. Perhaps they live somewhere else!”
Hsü chuckled and reached forward to embrace him. Then they walked past the stone creature that guarded the bridge. Talon stroked a shiny patch on the top of its shaggy head as he went by.
“I have never brought anyone else to this place before,” Hsü said. “One day I shall bring my sons. I want very much to introduce you to an old friend of mine. The Abbot of this monastery and I have known each other since I was a boy. His name is Hu Ssu-ch’i. We will spend a pleasant evening with him, and then we must hurry back to Guangzhou.”
No battle of any importance can be won without enthusiasm.
—John Lord O’Brian
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Fang
With Hsü and Talon gone, the villa settled back into its tranquil routine. The ladies would rise at mid-morning and perform their toilette. Rav’an and Jannat would wander over to meet with Lihua when the bath house had been prepared; they would bathe and chat and plan for the day. Several times, Lihua arranged for a masseuse to come and work them over. Neither Rav’an nor Jannat had ever been pampered like this before, so they reveled in it.
“I didn’t get this well treated even when we were in the harem!” Jannat exclaimed.
If they were planning on going into the city, they would meet again at about noon and take the sampan across the river. Now they had an escort, however, as Fang had insisted upon this. Rav’an understood the need for security, but found it irksome nonetheless. The guards accompanying them were rough men who, while very polite to the women, were a little too eager to protect them and on occasion were unpleasant to unwary passers-by whom they thought might be about to bother their wards.
If they were not going into the city, they might meet up with Lady Meng Lanfen and sip tea or some guoqi jiu, a very tasty lychee wine that was Lady Lanfen’s favorite. On the days when the sun was warm, they would sit by the fountain in the garden, which Rav’an had come to love, as it reminded her of the Persian garden in Isfahan where she had lived with the doctor and his wife Fariba.
Once she had overcome her initial reserve, the old woman appeared to enjoy the company of the foreigners. Lihua, who more or less ran the household, ensured that they enjoyed sweet cakes and tiny mint sweets while being entertained The need for translation lessened, although Lihua’s help was still needed for the more intense conversations. By now both women could speak halting Cantonese, which pleased Lanfen. She was very curious and asked about their countries and was especially interested in the Persian way of life as described by Rav’an.
She introduced them to the game of Shi pai, telling them that once it was fashionable to use poetry cards, but that was now less popular. The present game consisted of thirty-two pieces of carved ivory, with pips carved onto the bone. Lihua called the game xuan he pai.
It was a form of dominos that required four people to play, as there were tricks to be taken. Many afternoons were spent outside, if the late September weather permitted. They would be seated on low stools around a lacquered table, playing the game to the sound of clicking tiles, laughter, and the ever present sound of water flowing from the fountain.
Lun and Rostam had taken to the game called Buda. It was a ball game which was very popular with the maids and servants of the household. In the late afternoons, they would all come out into the main yard in front of the stables and play. Each player had a stick with a curved end, which they would use to drive a small wooden ball over a distance into a hole in the ground. There was always much banter from the servants, and the boys ran about shrieking with excitement as they played.
When not playing Buda, the boys would rush out of the gates to watch the ships moving by on the river. Lun no longer had to fear the gang of boys, Fang had seen to that. They also watched the kites flying on the other side of the river.
“Why can’t we fly those kites ourselves?” Rostam asked Lun one day.
“I don’t know, Rostam. I shall ask my brother.”
Later that day he cornered his harassed-looking older brother and asked him if he could have a kite to play with.
Fuling had dark rings around his eyes. He was exhausted from his studying; his exams were only three weeks away now, so he replied, “Leave me alone, little brother. Can’t you see I’m busy? I don’t have time for this. Why don’t you go to go to Low yen Bong the gardener and ask him? Tell him I sent you.”
Lun yelped his thanks and ran off with Rostam to confront the old gardener and ask him.
The old man was on his knees cleaning up a flower patch. He sat back on hi
s haunches and looked at the two eager boys. He stood up, handed off the work to a young assistant, looked down on them for a moment, then nodded his head. “I can make you a kite, Master Lun. You must tell me what kind of animal you wish to have painted on the wings.”
Lun thought about it, and then conferred with Rostam. “He says we can have an animal painted on the wings of the kite. What should we have?”
“A horse?” Rostam ventured.
“No! Not fierce enough. It has to be a fierce creature to fight the wind! I know! We should have a dragon!” Lun exclaimed.
Bong, who had been listening with some amusement, raised his hand for permission to speak. Lun nodded imperiously. ‘Would you not consider a crane, young master?”
Lun thought about this and then nodded. “You are right, Bong. We shall have a crane.”
He set about explaining this icon of good luck to Rostam, who agreed with him. Good luck, or Joss, as Bong called it, was a good thing to have.
Within two days Bong called them over and presented them with a large contraption that resembled the ones they could see flying on the other side of the river. Its frame was of fine strips of split bamboo, over which thin paper had been glued to form a shape with an impressive tail. Rostam could hardly believe how life-like the huge bird was. The boys were delighted and chased one another around the compound, screaming with glee as they tried to haul the kite into the sky. They couldn’t succeed, so eventually Bolin, one of the servants, took pity on them and helped them get it airborne.
Before long the delighted boys were able to hold the kite, the huge white bird with a long neck and black markings on its wings, in the sky at about one fifty feet and to play it in the changing currents. Rostam was in heaven. He delighted his mother by showing off his newfound skill to her and Jannat one day.
*****
Reza spent much of his time with Jiaya making sure that all was well with the cargo, as he didn’t fully trust the merchants and wanted to make sure that Talon’s investment was secure. He also paid frequent visits to the Arab settlement to make sure the crew and the captain were comfortable and not too restless. It was an opportunity for him to sit and have tea with the men and catch up on the gossip and rumors. He made sure that Yosef and Dar’an accompanied him, as they were both becoming restless with little to do in the compound except to keep an eye on Rostam. Yosef’s wounds were healing, although he still could not talk.
Captain Dandachi enjoyed these visits. While he was content to loaf about with his men, there was not much to be done while they waited for the cargos to be sold. He busied himself with repairs to the ship, and whenever he needed something Jiaya was quick to provide it. The other inhabitants of the Arab quarter, while polite, didn’t go out of their way to seek Reza’s company. He attributed that to his being Persian and not Arabic, but the captain told him one day that it was because he and Talon appeared to have the run of the city, which they did not, and this engendered some envy.
“They can obtain passes, just like the one I hold, and Yosef and Dar’an here. Why don’t they go out and look around?” Reza asked, somewhat annoyed.
Captain Dandachi looked embarrassed. “We don’t speak the language, Master Reza, and the Chinese don’t like us. They will trade, it is true, but there is always a distance. Even the Chinese agents who come here to negotiate with us make it clear that they dislike us.”
Reza, who now dressed very much like a Chinese man of means, had insisted that Yosef and Dar’an did the same. He had told the two young men once when they were raising feeble protests that the great rule was to ‘hide in plain sight’. This is what they were doing in the city. They might not be Chinese, but few people looked directly at another in the street, hence they were almost invisible while walking about dressed like the natives, as long as they didn’t talk.
Dandachi went on. “You also speak the language, Master Reza. I am astonished at how quickly you have accomplished that.”
Reza laughed. “Captain, I am being taught, but I know very little. What I do know is barely enough to order food!”
“Ah yes, the food! It’s good food, but what would I not give for a Barbari or some good Nan and goat meat!” the captain said wistfully.
Reza sighed to himself. Just as Talon had said, some people would not change, no matter what.
There was one piece of interesting news that the captain passed along. “Remember the stop we made at Kalah Bar, Master Reza?”
How could he forget? That was where he had suffered the indignity of having to eat that awful fruit, and there had been that interesting man called Sing. He nodded. “Yes, I remember.”
“A ship came in yesterday that had been attacked by pirates very soon after they left the area for the South, along the Salaht straits. They barely escaped with their lives and lost much of their cargo, as they had to jettison it to enable them to flee.”
Reza looked at him sharply. This boded ill for their return journey, as return they must someday. “Have you any other news?” he asked.
“Another ship was lost completely. Only two men survived. They were picked up on an island right at the tip of the Malay peninsula. They said their ship had been attacked by pirates, who stripped it of everything, killed most of the crew, and burned it to the water. He said that the pirate ship possessed a terrible fire-throwing device that destroyed their ship and killed many men.”
“This sounds worse than the pirates on the Bahr Al Hind!” Reza exclaimed. He resolved to talk to Talon about this new threat.
“We were all thinking about this,” the captain confessed. “Ah, here come the others. Salam, Salam!” he greeted Waqqas, Tarif, Abdullah and Umayr as they arrived with smiles of pleasure on their weathered faces. After the greetings and the kiss on both cheeks, they all settled down to drink tea and to talk.
“We have not seen Master Talon for some time now, Master Reza. Is he well?” Waqqas asked politely.
“I believe he is well. I hope so, anyway. He has gone north to have a look at the people called Mongols with the Lord Meng. He said he wanted to hunt a dragon while on the way, and Lord Meng assured him that he would do so. Nothing could stop him after that; he had to go.”
“I have seen images and paintings of these fearsome serpent things they call dragons,” said Abdullah, “but I have never seen a live one. They look like very fierce. I hope he is successful in his endeavor. We could stuff it with straw and take it home with us.”
“I hear they live in caves in the remote mountains,” Waqqas informed them.
“I have heard that they live at the bottom of huge lakes and eat unwary fishermen,” Umayr said with great authority.
The conversation continued in this vein to a point where everyone became thoroughly concerned for Talon’s safety.
“We must all pray for his deliverance.” Reza told them all, sounding pious. He’d had a difficult time holding in his laughter at some of the more absurd statements.
*****
Early one evening Fuling went to visit Fang. The bodyguard had been sulking in his room most evenings, as he was not invited to the family meals, and he felt that he should have been allowed to accompany Lord Meng on his northern journey. He stood up and bowed to Fuling when he entered the room. His breath smelled of rice wine.
“There was a fight between some Tongs and the guards of a rich merchant on the other side of the river,” Fuling told Fang, who nodded. He had heard the same thing. The guards had been from the dojo and they had defended the elder son of Wong Cheng Kean from thugs, who had lost the fight, leaving some dead and wounded behind.
“We had oral exams today at the university, but as I was coming back I am sure I was followed.”
“Did you see who it was, how many were following you?” Fang prompted him.
“No, but I think it was more than one man, and they followed me all the way home. I made sure they could see my sword, so that might have deterred them if they were thinking of attacking me.”
Fang nodded t
houghtfully. Fuling could defend himself in a tight spot but would not do well against a skilled swordsman, not yet. And if he was set upon by many....
“I shall personally escort you to the examination hall tomorrow,” he told Fuling.
Then he sought out the foreigner, Reza. He found him with the foreign women, seated outside enjoying the evening air. The sun had just set.
He bowed deeply to the group, his hand on his sword and the other rigidly at his side.
“I wish to talk to you, Master Reza,” he barked without preamble.
Reza got up and joined him just outside the guesthouse entrance.
They were able to converse in halting Chinese. Fang explained to him briefly what Fuling had told him. “I must escort the young Lord Meng to the school tomorrow and bring him back in the afternoon. It is becoming increasingly dangerous for the relatives and friends of Lord Meng in the city. Please, will you be in charge and make sure all is well during the day?” Fang asked him.
“Of course, Master Fang. I shall be on my guard and make sure nothing happens while you are away,” Reza assured him.
“I shall inform the guards, Master Reza. Remember, the quick draw,” Fang told him with a friendly glower. He grimaced fiercely and pretended to start drawing his sword. Reza laughed and nodded. “Yes, the quick draw. I shall remember.”
Fang nodded, gave a short bow and left.
That night he sent a message to the Sensei at the Dojo.
*****
The next day started off uneventfully, just like any other.
Meilin’s brother came to visit and went straight to the inner sanctum of Lady Meilin Meng, where he stayed for several hours. Rav’an and Jannat contemplated going out on the town, as Rav’an wanted to buy some fans and dominos to take home, but Reza tactfully suggested that it might not be a good idea that day. She understood immediately but said nothing, not wanting to alarm Jannat.
The Dragon's Breath Page 43
