by Henry Lien
“No need to bow ten thousand obeisances of gratitude, little birds,” he says. “You just had morningmeal. Eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight bows of obeisance will be more than plenty.” The students giggle. He has the same easy charm as Hisashi. I understand why the government asked him to handle political matters with Shin.
“Now, the most important thing to me is that none of you worries about this damage to the Pagoda of Filial Sacrifice. There’s nothing more important than your studies. We’re investigating whether there was a rogue waterspout that damaged the pagoda or an unmapped earthquake spine, but none of that matters. We’ll have the pagoda repaired as quickly as possible so you first-year boys can get on with your Vertical Battlefield Motivation. You’ll be hopping all over the tiers of the pagoda like a handful of grasshoppers tossed onto a hot skillet before you know it!”
He smiles. I see where Hisashi got his dimples.
“Now, I’ve got a job for you to do. While the New Deitsu team does its work, no one except the three third-year students who have devoted to the Conservatory of Architecture will be permitted to face the worksite. So don’t face south until your senseis say you may. Can you do that for me?”
The students murmur and giggle.
“What happens if we face south?” asks Honking Girl.
“You’ll be expelled, of course.” The Chairman assumes a mock stern expression and wags his finger. “And then imprisoned in a horrible torture chamber that will shrink until it crushes you into a tiny pebble that I can pop in my mouth!”
All the other students laugh as if it were a game.
But I grew up under the rule of the Empress Dowager. I know that when powerful leaders do strange things, it’s not something to consider a game. It’s something to fear.
“So remember,” he says, skating past the rows of students, “don’t face south until your senseis say you can. Now, concentrate on your studies so you can bring honor to your esteemed parents.”
I watch Doi’s face crumple as the Chairman skates right past her in that outrageous outfit, as if she weren’t there.
Doi looks at her father’s back as he leaves. The muscles in her jaw are set like stone.
The girls begin to disperse to do the day’s regimen of Chi-lengthening exercises.
“Nice outfit.” Suki comes skating over to Doi, flanked by the girls of the House of Flowering Blossoms. “Too bad your father didn’t see you in it. Maybe you’ll get another chance when he visits again. In another eight years.” The girls titter behind their hands.
Doi doesn’t look at them. She skates to the bench where she laid her academy robe. She begins to change out of her costume.
“When was the last time?” continues Suki. “Eight years ago? Twelve? Apparently, he doesn’t even know what you look like anymore, since he skated right past you.”
What is she talking about? Suki is an eternal waterfall of ludicrous accusations. But it’s true that Doi’s father ignored her. How could he miss her in that outfit?
Doi peels down to her undershirt.
Suki says casually, “So is it true that your father caused your mother’s death?”
Now she’s just saying things to Doi because there are people around to hear them. I want to tell Suki to shut her mouth, but I don’t want her to turn her waterfall of accusations back on me.
Doi’s elbow snags in the sleeve of her costume. She struggles and loses patience with it. She just rips the sleeve and half the bodice down, then tugs the rest of her costume off. Beads go bouncing and rolling everywhere. She pulls on her academy robe and skates away from the rest of the girls.
“Some people just can’t handle the truth,” says Suki.
While the New Deitsu team works on repairing the pagoda, Sensei Madame Liao trains us at the Conservatory of Wu Liu. She teaches us an unusual hybrid tan-toe routine involving a short wooden practice sword called Wall of Steel. We do it facing north, in formation side to side because it was originally invented to beat back an invading army. It also doesn’t require us to make any rotations, so we don’t have to face south. However, someone occasionally forgets and almost turns south before someone else screams out a warning and they all erupt in nervous giggles.
I nearly face south myself during a break, but Suki immediately grabs my arm and holds me in place. The House of Flowering Blossoms girls crowd around her.
“See! She’s trying to look at the building site!” Suki points at me and hisses, “I know you want to watch the pagoda being rebuilt so you can learn the secrets of our pearl and report it back to the Empress Dowager.”
“Like when you invaded us for our bamboo,” says Mariko.
“Vandal! Thief!” sneers Suki.
Nothing would give me greater happiness in this life than to kick her into the ocean. However, the last thing I can afford now is to break any rules.
I shake my arm free and turn to face north, mumbling something under my breath. I make sure they can’t hear anything except for the word Suki.
“What did you say?” Suki demands.
I look down at my skates and mutter again.
“Say it to my face!” she says.
She skates close to me, her face to mine.
I lift my face to hers, look her in the eyes, and say, “I said that the only thing I want to steal is a look at your face when you realize that you’re facing south, Suki.”
All the other students screech when they see this. Sensei Madame Liao whips her gaze toward us just a heartbeat after Suki spins to face east. I skate away and my heart is full of delight.
However, my joy only lasts a moment because this really is a disaster. Not just Suki’s rumor that I’m a Shinian spy. I’m also worried because the pagoda is so damaged that it will likely take days if not weeks to repair. How can I practice if I can’t face south that entire time?
And the pagoda was the site of the boys’ Motivation. What if they start accusing Cricket?
I hear a cracking noise in the distance. Sensei Madame Liao kneels down and places her ear to the pearl. She rises, turns to us, and announces that the New Deitsu team has finished its work and that we may resume use of all directions.
How can that be? It’s only been an hour. We all hop on the rails to skate toward the worksite. We arrive to find the Pagoda of Filial Sacrifice fully restored. Sensei Madame Liao skates to the entrance and speaks with Chairman Niu. He goes inside the pagoda.
Sensei Madame Liao ushers the students toward Eastern Heaven Dining Hall for midmeal.
“Chen Peasprout.” I freeze at the sound of Sensei Madame Liao calling my name.
“You need to answer some questions.”
“What else do you want to ask me?”
“Not I. Chairman Niu would like to speak with you.”
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Sensei Madame Liao directs me into the Pagoda of Filial Sacrifice. She does not enter. She slides the door closed behind me.
The space inside is round and sealed, like an ossuary. The Chairman stands at the back of the chamber and watches me enter. He sips his tea anemone. He’s powerfully built but holds his body oddly. He’s tipping forward like he’s being dragged down by some great weight. Is he ill?
He doesn’t speak, holding me in his unblinking gaze. The charming Chairman from this morning is gone. There’s nothing that looks like it could belong to Hisashi’s father in this man. The occasional tap of the long nail of his littlest finger against the porcelain is the only sound in the chamber.
At last, the Chairman smiles and flashes his dimples. “Little bird. I’d like to ask you to please turn in place. Slowly. Can you do that for me?”
I can’t think of a reason to disobey, so I reluctantly begin to turn.
“Stop,” he says. “Please.”
I stop two-thirds through the rotation.
“Look straight ahead,” he says. “Please.”
Why is he doing this? From the corner of my eye, I see him take the blunt knife us
ed to score the tea anemones to release their flavor. My Chi flashes.
“Open your mouth,” he says. “Please.”
This is beginning to frighten me, but surely he wouldn’t hurt me with Sensei Madame Liao waiting right outside the door. He skates to me and places the handle of the knife in my mouth.
“Bite down, please.”
I clench my teeth on the knife. He adjusts it. Then the Chairman balances his cup of tea anemones on the flat surface of the blade. He returns to the back of the room where he can see me but I can only catch a glimpse of him.
Now I understand. He’ll use this method to detect any lies. He wants to see my reaction to his questions, and if anything he says makes me turn my head to him even the slightest, he’ll know, because the cup will fall.
“I find it easier to get the truth this way, rather than rely on spoken answers,” the Chairman says. Then he begins speaking question after question in a steady voice.
“Where were you last night, little bird?”
I need to stay calm. I can’t react, or the knife will shake and spill the cup of tea.
“Did you bring anything from Shin to Pearl Famous?”
He has no right to be doing this. I want to cry out and deny what he’s suggesting.
“Have you communicated with anyone in Shin since you arrived?”
I don’t want him to read anything I do as guilt.
“Do you love the Empress Dowager?”
He’s not a sensei. He’s not a government official.
“Do you love your country?”
He’s just a businessman.
“Do you love Pearl, little bird?”
How is this an effective way to tell if I am lying? Just because I react to one of his questions doesn’t mean I’m guilty. It could mean that I’m angry or insulted. Both of which I am right now.
All of a sudden, I see why he’s doing this. It’s not to tell if I’m guilty. It’s to frighten me into confessing that I’m guilty. I refuse to be afraid of him. I refuse to give him anything.
I can see at the edge of my vision that he’s read nothing from my reaction. The Chairman comes to me and takes the cup and the knife from my teeth. He stands over me. I stare straight ahead at his shoulder, where the complicated mandalas embroidered in pearlsilk match perfectly across the seam where shoulder meets sleeve.
He lifts his hand. With the long nail on his small finger, the Chairman digs the toggle open on the breast pocket of his robe. He reaches in and pulls out something. He straightens his posture.
He holds out the object in his palm.
It’s a cord with some sort of trinket. Something small and black.
“A token for you, little bird.”
He lets it slide off his hand. When it hits the floor, it’s so heavy that it doesn’t bounce or slide. It simply stays where it lands.
He skates toward the door.
“You did not do well, little bird,” the Chairman says as he passes me. “I would ask you to do better the next time, but there will not be a next time. Do you understand?”
Without waiting for my answer, he leaves. It’s one thing to have someone like Suki as an enemy. Suki practices a school of treachery I understand. It’s all heat. The Chairman’s strange, quiet attacks are different. They are chilling.
I bend to pick up the pendant.
I try to lift it by the cord with a finger. Then I grip with my whole fist and heave it up. It weighs as much as a great jug of water.
The trinket suspended from the cord looks like a little black house with a sloped roof.
The number 2,020 is carved on the back.
I look closer and see a little indentation in the house. A minuscule door.
But it’s been sealed shut.
As if something is trapped inside.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
I have to find Cricket. If the Chairman put him through the same interrogation, Cricket’s nerves would be smashed into ten thousand pieces. And the Chairman would say that Cricket’s reaction was evidence of his guilt and use that to force whatever false confession he wanted out of Cricket.
Students are finishing up midmeal and coming out of Eastern Heaven Dining Hall. When I see Cricket skate out, I hook my arm through his and drag him away from the others. I take him to a maintenance rail built into the side of the cliff over the sea behind Eastern Heaven Dining Hall. No one comes out here, and the sound of the sea prevents us from being overheard.
“Cricket, what happened this morning after the boys’ Motivation was postponed? Did the Chairman speak to you?”
“No, just Sensei Master Bao. He asked all the boys one by one if they knew anything about the damage to the pagoda. Did you see it, Peasprout? What could have done that? It couldn’t be fire, because the damage went down from the top tier to the bottom in a neat line. How did they repair it in just an hour?”
“Don’t let anyone hear you asking any of those questions! Don’t look too interested in architecture or the pearl.”
“Why not?”
“Because Suki’s trying to set us up! Or at least me. Suki committed the attack to try to make me look like I’m a spy. She’s come up with some ridiculous story that I’ve destroyed the pagoda so I can watch the pearl being rebuilt and learn its secrets.”
“But, Peasprout, wouldn’t Suki have had to commit an actual crime to do that?”
“That wouldn’t stop Suki! That’s why she’s dangerous! That’s why—”
I cut myself short. Why didn’t I see this before?
The vandal attack has a secret gift in it.
Suki’s trying to set me up as a criminal.
But Suki had to commit an actual crime to do it.
Thus, if I can prove that Suki is responsible, I wouldn’t just clear my name. I would take down Suki. My bitterest rival for first ranking would be thrown in prison, or at least expelled.
I’m going to catch her in her own trap. My safety and Cricket’s safety depend on it.
* * *
After my evening bath, I sit on my futon in my dormitory chamber and consider how to ensnare Suki. The first step is to figure out how Suki wreaked that terrible damage. Knowing what destroyed the pearl will help me know what sort of evidence to gather.
As I think, the Chairman’s trinket catches my gaze. I’m certain he gave it to me as a warning. It’s intricately carved, but it doesn’t look anything like the pearl. It’s small, black, and heavier than anything under heaven.
I try to bite it, but as soon as I put it in my mouth, I feel like it’s trying to suck my whole tongue into it from within my own mouth. I quickly spit it out.
I know that Hisashi doesn’t have any special knowledge just because he’s the Chairman’s son. Especially if it’s true that, for whatever reason, the Chairman hasn’t seen his children in years, even though they live in the same city. And I really don’t think Hisashi knows anything about the pearl. Still, I should show him the trinket.
The next day, I look for him everywhere on campus. It’s hard to find him because it’s difficult to see anyone now. The season has changed, completely and unmistakably, like the switching of the stage between operas. The Season of Spouts has ended, and the Season of Spirits has begun. In this season, a mist rises from the pearl so that the city is filled with shrouding, billowing clouds.
I don’t bother to look for him in Eastern Heaven Dining Hall. I’ve never seen him eat there, probably because everything they serve has meat or other animal parts in it. He’s never come to tea anemone hour, either. It occurs to me that he might like sitting in the gondolas to eat his meals, like the first time I met him. After midmeal, I skate toward the entrance to the academy. It’s hard to see because the mist in the Season of Spirits collects everywhere into thick forms that float above the pearl and gather around us. It’s one of the two seasons when everyone doesn’t have to wear smoked spectacles against the gleam of the pearl. I’m almost at the gondolas before I can see that they’re empty.
Cricket said that Hisashi almost never goes to classes. Attendance isn’t mandatory, but how will he perform well at his Motivations, Recitals, and Composition projects? Even if he wants to devote to architecture, they post the rankings in every discipline publicly. Who wants to finish last?
That afternoon, I leave wu liu class as quickly as possible to skate to the site of the boys’ wu liu class. As I cross the Conservatory of Wu Liu, the pearl is doing something that it never did during the Season of Spouts. It makes noises as I skate across it, little sighs and whistles, like steam escaping from the pores of the world.
When I get to the boys’ training court, I peer at the crowd of boys coming out. However, at that moment, the thick mists part and sunlight pierces through. It stabs into my eyes because I didn’t bring my smoked spectacles and because the sun is intense, since it’s summer in the world. My eyes are watering trying to see the boys in this light, but I definitely don’t see Hisashi. I should be irritated, but the beauty of the scene before me quells that.
With the golden beams and slats of light slicing through the tumbling mists and sweeping across the academy, Pearl Famous looks like the capital of heaven.
* * *
Finally, three days after the Chairman’s interrogation, I skate through a great tumbling cloud, like a cauliflower lanced with rays of sun that looks as if it’s illuminated from within, to find Hisashi on the other side of it, skating in the other direction. I skate over to him.
“Where did you get that?” he says when I show him the trinket. “It’s so heavy.” I grow alarmed when I see he’s alarmed.
“Your fath—the Chairman gave it to me. What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think Suki used something like this to attack the pagoda?”
“No, but this is bad. I remember now that I heard about an employee of New Deitsu who was given one of these,” Hisashi says slowly. “He was never seen again. I thought maybe it was some kind of poison.”
“Poison? I put it in my mouth!”
“No! You should go get checked by Doctor Dio.”
