by Henry Lien
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t want to look like you know how to destroy a building!”
“But I have to if I want to prove how Suki did it!”
“Suki’s going to say that you found this out so you could teach the Empress Dowager how to destroy our city if we won’t share the secret of the pearl with her.”
“Then I have to get to Chingu. She’s never wrong! She’ll name Suki as the criminal. You have to convince your father to let me consult Chingu.”
“Peasprout, just stay out of this. All you did was violate curfew and leave campus without permission and buy some wine. Maybe the senseis will still let you participate in the sixth Motivation.”
“Your father threatened to have me crushed alive! That’s why I have to prove that I’m innocent.”
Doi pulls away. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“He showed me the shrunken trinket,” I say.
She stiffens.
“Help me, Doi. I don’t have anyone else. If you don’t help me, I’m on my own. Don’t let me down! Like your brother did!”
“I’m not Hisashi.” Doi refuses to look at me. She cradles an elbow in her hand and presses her fist to her lips. There is so much struggle on her face that she looks as if she would rip in two down the middle. What would it cost her to help me?
At last, she says, “I’ll help you.”
The door slams open and the Chairman thunders in. He looks at me, then at Doi.
“What are you doing here?” he says to her.
Doi drops to her knees and lays her forehead to the pearl.
“Venerable and esteemed Father. I humbly beg you to listen to my worthless entreaty on behalf—”
“Get out!”
“Father, I beg you. Chen Peasprout needs to consult Chingu, the oracular monkey. Chingu will be able to prove that Chen Peasprout is not the criminal.”
“I have all the proof I need.”
Doi stands up, skates under one of the portraits, and kneels.
“Father, my request is worthless, but I beg you to indulge it, as a paragon of honor.”
She puts her head down to the pearl again.
The portrait is of a young man, as handsome as Hisashi.
“Niu Kazuhiro. Architecture First Ranking, First, Second, and Third Years; New Deitsu Pearlworks Company First Recruit.”
He was just like me once. Filled with pride for his achievements, hope for his future, and dedication to his honor. I turn my face away when the Chairman sees me looking at him.
The silence stretches through the gallery.
At last, the Chairman says, “Be quick about it.”
* * *
The Chairman, Doi, and I arrive at Sagacious Monk Goom’s little temple on pillars, along with Sensei Madame Yao. She insisted on coming when I asked for the wine back. I’m glad because I want as many witnesses there as possible when Chingu names Suki.
Sagacious Monk Goom looks at the vessel of wine and says, “Is that all?” When I tell him yes, his sighs could fill sails.
He takes the vessel from me. He pulls out the stopper and skates over to Chingu. He holds out the vessel warily and says, “Chingu! Look what I have. I have the nice nice! Very nice nice!”
Chingu’s screeches have not stopped piercing the air since we entered the temple. When she sees the vessel, she begins to alternate her cries with grunts and she hacks with even greater force at the lacquered box on which she squats. When the vessel comes within reach, Chingu claws it from Sagacious Monk Goom’s hand, plugs it into her mouth, sucks it empty, and flings it to the floor, smashing it into pieces.
Within moments, she goes slack and slumps down, her eyes roll back in their sockets, the lids close.
“Quickly!” says Sagacious Monk Goom. He scoops up Chingu. Her fist still squeezes the handle of the cleaver, but everything else is limp.
I help him open the lid of the lacquered box. Inside, it’s like a little sedan with two seats facing each other. The walls are composed of intricate latticework that lets in light but keeps the faces of the sitters veiled from the outside. He slides Chingu into one seat and places a tray on her lap with sixty-lucky tiles. He looks at me and points to the other seat.
“Get in.”
“Me?”
“You’re the one with the question, aren’t you?”
“What if she wakes up with me in there?”
“Ah, that would not be very nice. That would be very not nice. So quickly!”
I slip into the seat, and he closes the lid above us.
“Hurry, hold her hand and ask her your question.”
I grab Chingu’s hand without the cleaver. It’s padded and soft and leathery and cold.
I close my eyes and grip her hand and say the question silently in my mind: Who is responsible for harming Pearl Famous?
At that, Chingu’s eyes pop open. She starts screeching and hacking at the sides of the box with her cleaver, her eyes rolling.
I scream and drop her hand. She immediately stops and her eyes close again.
Sagacious Monk Goom opens the lid. “You asked her something too general, didn’t you? Ask something precise.”
He closes the lid on us, and I take Chingu’s hand again and silently ask her: Who attacked the structures of Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword?
Chingu begins shrieking again. She hacks the walls of the box so hard that the box jumps and almost rolls onto its side.
Sagacious Monk Goom opens the lid and cries, “What did you ask her?”
“I asked her something precise!”
“Did you ask her about the future?”
“Yes. I mean, no.…”
“She can only answer questions about the future. She’s an oracular monkey. Phrase your question into something about the future.” He closes the lid on us again.
I take Chingu’s hand, close my eyes, and ask her: Who will be discovered as the criminal who attacked the structures of Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword?
Chingu’s hand falls from mine. She runs her fingertips in circles over the tray of sixty-lucky tiles, making them click and shuffle as her head lolls wildly on its stem.
She quickly grabs one tile as if she’s catching a fly in the air, flips it over, and stabs it into my palm, facing up. Then a second. Then a third.
I read them. At first, they don’t make any more sense than Supreme Sensei Master Jio’s gibberish sayings.
Then I understand.
My Chi freezes all the way through my being.
I close my hand around the tiles, throw the lid of the box open, and jump out.
When Doi sees my face, she quickly turns to her father and says, “Oracles can be difficult to interpret. They might not really be saying what they—”
“Give them to me,” says the Chairman.
“Peasprout…”
I have no choice. I lift my hand, open my palm, and show the three tiles to the Chairman.
He takes them and reads the logograms written on them.
Sister.
Boy.
Heart.
In classical Pearlian, heart is pronounced “shin.”
“Sister of boy in Shin?” he says. “Sister of boy of Shin? The sister of the boy from Shin.”
I watch the Chairman’s eyes widen, then narrow as he arrives at the truth.
“There’s only one boy from Shin here at Pearl Famous.” He looks up at me.
“And he has only one sister.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
“I had nothing to do with it!” I cry.
The Chairman grasps one of my arms and Sensei Madame Yao, the other.
“Let me see Sensei Madame Liao!” I plead.
“This has nothing to do with wu liu,” says Sensei Madame Yao. “She has no jurisdiction over this. You might be surprised to learn that wu liu isn’t everything.”
“Foundational principle of values number thirty-nine states that the interpretation of the oracles i
s sometimes incorrect!” I say. “Maybe ‘heart’ didn’t refer to Shin at all. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
“Tell that to the Chiologists,” says the Chairman.
“Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll be detained until your trial for crimes against Pearl.”
“Detained where? What does that mean?”
“It means,” says Sensei Madame Yao, “as you students say, that you have seriously failed to keep the monkey pleased.”
They take me to the central court of the Principal Island, where the morning assemblies are held.
In the center is a small pavilion of the pearl that was not there before. I tremble when I see the pavilion is in the same shape as the trinket.
“You can’t put me in that!” I try to tear away from them, but it just gives Sensei Madame Yao an excuse to crush my arm even harder with her muscled grip.
“Doi, help me!” Where did she go?
She abandoned me! Just like her brother.
They haul me harder toward the pavilion. I try to dig my skates in. The chips nicked into the blades during the fifth Motivation are helping them dig into the pearl.
“What is going on here?”
We turn and see Sensei Madame Liao skating toward us. Beside her skates Supreme Sensei Master Jio.
And Doi. She must have fetched them. Thank you, Doi!
“We’re detaining her for trial,” says the Chairman.
“Chingu named her as the vandal,” says Sensei Madame Yao.
“You’re not using one of those on her,” says Sensei Madame Liao.
“It’s for her own protection,” says the Chairman.
“You’re not putting her in that thing,” says Sensei Madame Liao. “This is an academy matter first. New Deitsu doesn’t have jurisdiction until we determine that she has committed a crime. She will be confined to her dormitory chamber until trial.”
“She attacked three academy structures,” Sensei Madame Yao says. “This has nothing to do with wu liu. You don’t have jurisdiction here.”
“If she’s accused of attacking structures, then this is an architecture matter. And those incidents delayed the Motivations. So this is also a wu liu matter. And you don’t teach architecture or wu liu, do you?”
Sensei Madame Yao glares at her.
“Supreme Sensei?” asks Sensei Madame Liao.
Supreme Sensei Master Jio looks at all of us with sad eyes. He closes them and nods.
“You can’t just trust her to stay in her dormitory chamber!” says Sensei Madame Yao.
“I will ensure that she does not leave her chamber,” replies Sensei Madame Liao.
“How are you going to do that?”
“Are you questioning my judgment?”
“Supreme Sensei, you can’t let this happen!”
Supreme Sensei Master Jio says nothing. Sensei Madame Yao throws my arm aside and skates off toward Eastern Heaven Dining Hall in a fury.
Sensei Madame Liao bows to Supreme Sensei Master Jio. She places her hand on my shoulder and leads me away. We skate past Eastern Heaven Dining Hall. The sounds of violent clanging emanate from within, as if someone were trying to batter a gong to death.
As Sensei Madame Liao leads me toward the dormitories, I start blathering, “Sensei, I swear, I’m innocent! I know who’s behind this. Maybe she has a secret half brother from Shin or something. Or maybe the Chairman’s interpretation is incorrect. Heart is pronounced ‘shin’ only in classical Pearlian; it’s ‘shim’ in modern Pearlian. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Oracles are misinterpreted all the time.”
Sensei Madame Liao remains silent, but I can’t stop the words from spilling out. “When I was not even five, my parents took me to an oracle who said that our whole family’s destiny lay in my feet. They thought that meant that they should bind my feet so they could sell me to a noble house. But my parents didn’t have the heart to do it. It turned out that our destiny was in my feet, because my future was to become a legend of wu liu, which I would never have been able to do if they’d bound my feet. That’s why you can’t assume an oracle is saying what it seems to be saying!”
Sensei Madame Liao doesn’t reply.
When we reach my dormitory chamber, she accompanies me inside and slides the shoji door closed.
“Chen Peasprout,” she says slowly. “The steps of an honorable person lead through walls; the steps of a dishonorable person become a prison.”
She makes a hollow fist and strikes me in the five essential meridian points.
The Dian Mai.
My own body has become a prison.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
The flakes float upward like snow cascading in reverse.
The pearl in the courtyard of the girls’ dormitory has been shedding flakes for days, lifted by the gaseous substances issuing from the pearl now that it is the Season of Drifts.
It must be distracting to do wu liu in these drifts.
The birds must not like them, either. I wonder if they have to write their headlines differently to compensate. I hear them crying as they must do two headlines a day now to keep up with the news. I could see them if I stood in the center of the courtyard.
But that would require me to take more than five steps outside of my dormitory chamber.
Today, two girls skating down the hall stop as they hear the birds. They stand in the courtyard and read aloud what they see in the sky.
“Mutilated. Hostage. Sent. Back. By. Empress. Dowager. Tells. Of. Mysterious. Third. Skater. Sent. In. Failed. Plot. To. Free. Them. Buy. Pearl. Shining. Sun. News. To. Get. Whole. Story.”
I should be paying attention to this because it could be true and it could affect me. The newspaper was right about the Empress Dowager binding her hostage’s feet, after all. Who is this third skater? Did the Empress Dowager capture him or her?
However, I can’t summon the energy to care. Exhaustion pours through me. I close my shoji and crawl back to my futon.
My body feels torn. I’ve never been more depleted in my life. I’ve never been more agitated. At some point, I just go numb. I scoop my spirit and set it in a bowl floating beside my body.
* * *
Look at that girl, kneeling on her futon for the last five days so that she doesn’t accidentally take five steps. Trapped in a space that any baby could cross.
She once said that she is the smartest, most capable person she knows.
She’s been wrong about so many things and so many people.
But she was right about some things and some people.
If she can’t keep her brother safe, no one can.
If she can’t save herself, no one can.
And she is truly on her own.
In the evening, there is a knock on my shoji. I collect my used dishes and chamber pot and bowl of bathing water for one of the Shinian servant girls to clear. None of them ever speaks to me. I keep wondering if one of them is the girl who tried to teach me how to eat the Cave of Jade during the Osmanthus Banquet, whom I was so cold to. However, I never got a good look at her face. Every servant girl who comes in could be that girl, could spit in the food she brings me.
“Enter,” I say.
It’s not the Shinian servant girl.
Hisashi skates in. He kneels in front of me.
“They said you could have visitors now.”
I don’t say anything.
“Do you want me to leave?”
I say nothing.
“I blame myself. I should have tried harder to convince you not to—”
The emotions I’ve been holding away begin slamming into my stomach again. I can feel the shape of their fists as if they’re screaming their names with every punch to make sure that I never forget them.
I double over. “Just … go.”
Some time later, there is another knock on my shoji.
When I do not answer, the door slides open slowly.
It’s Doi.
She does not
kneel down to me.
“Stand up,” she says.
I don’t look at her.
“Peasprout. Stand. Up.”
I’m so weary.
“Peasprout, don’t you see?” She comes closer and kneels next to me. “This is the best thing that could have happened. If there’s another attack while you’re imprisoned in the Dian Mai, you’ll be proven innocent.”
She’s right. If I weren’t so weary, I might have thought of this. I get up. I make sure to plant my socks firmly on the pearl and not move them so as not to take any steps.
“How do we know that another one’s going to happen?” I ask. “Why would Suki do that when she knows I’m trapped in here? She’s already won.”
“Forget about Suki! Every mistake you’ve made this whole year has been because you were focused on Suki. Focus on your own safety.”
“What does it matter anymore?”
“Then focus on Cricket’s safety.”
At the sound of his name, I straighten up. Doi is right. I don’t have the luxury to feel discouraged. They could still charge Cricket as an accomplice. His safety depends on my finding out who the true criminal is. “All right. I have noticed a pattern. The attacks always happen at the site of the boys’ Motivations. The night before they’re to take place. Doi, what if someone wants to prevent the boys’ Motivations from proceeding?”
I look to see if Doi shares my excitement about this revelation. She looks as if she’s so intensely bored that her heart might stop beating.
“That’s silly. Why would anyone want to do that? New Deitsu just repairs the damage and the boys’ Motivation goes forward in a day or two.”
“That’s true. Well, it doesn’t matter anyway because I can’t wait until the sixth Motivation. The tribunal of Chiologists is going to hold my trial in two days.”
“Maybe another attack will happen sooner. Don’t worry about that. Just stay here. That’s the best thing you can do for yourself and Cricket.”
“But I can’t count on another attack happening! And without that, I don’t have any evidence to disprove the Chairman’s interpretation of Chingu’s oracle! And even if another attack happens before my trial, I can’t just let Suki get away with it.”
