The Way of the Tigress 1-4

by Jade Lee - The Way of the Tigress 1-4

  All except one: the monk. No, she silently corrected herself. The General's son.

  Shi Po slowed her pace, her mind working furiously. She could not afford a rash action here. The soldiers would soon work their way to the monk's room.

  The General made his way over to her, and she rounded on him, allowing her fury to boil over. Tears and supplication had not worked with the man; she would try outrage.

  "How can you be so cruel?" she screeched. "You swore to me you would not upset these ladies' delicate conditions!" Right on cue, her cubs descended into wails, not all of which were feigned. "Is the word of an Imperial general worth so little?"

  "My gravest apologies, Lady Tan," Kang said as he took in every detail: her cubs' beauty, their fit figures, their easily removable clothing. "My men misunderstood my direction. Their actions were rash."

  Shi Po sincerely doubted his men had misunderstood anything, but she held her tongue. Especially as the General ordered the soldiers to release the women. They did, but their lewd and hungry eyes continued to travel over the girls. At least none of her students seemed harmed.

  Shi Po sent a speaking look to Little Pearl, who nodded her head and quickly shepherded the other cubs away. They would be given mundane clothing to wear, and each would disappear to their homes. Those who had nowhere to go would dress as deformed servants—scullery maids with dark red rashes or diseased beggars come inside for a crumb of bread. There would be no trace of the beauties that studied with her, and so they would be safe.

  Not so with the monk and his white woman who were hiding on the upper floor, relying on Shi Po to keep them safe.

  "General, call all your men back! I have sick women upstairs," she lied.

  "Disease is a natural result of your unholy work," he replied in a bored tone. Then he spoke to his lieutenant: "Tell them to be wary of foulness."

  "You said they would not disturb the women!" Shi Po cried again.

  "Oh yes," General Kang drawled. "An error on my part. No harm done. My men will return in a moment."

  What could she do? Nothing. Only scramble for an excuse for not having handed over the monk and his white woman earlier. And still there was no sign of Kui Yu. There was no rescue from her husband or the doom that awaited her.

  She swallowed. "General Kang, surely this is not necessary. You can see—"

  "Silence, sorceress. You have no voice here."

  For emphasis, the nearest soldier drew his sword, the scrape of metal loud in the perfumed garden. All around Shi Po, the men tensed, ready to battle whatever mystical forces might appear between her ornamental bushes and sweet-smelling grasses. Their pose might have been funny if they weren't so earnest—if they didn't truly think she was some evil mystic they planned to kill if the wind so much as rustled in the trees.

  "Very well," she murmured, her spirit struggling against the inevitable. There was nothing she could do to help the monk and his woman; she would do what she could to protect herself and her students. "I will see to my distraught women." She turned, intending to walk calmly and quickly out of the garden.

  "You will wait upon my pleasure, Tigress." The General sneered her title, the sound so foul she would have preferred to be called a whore.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to say that men waited upon her pleasure, not the other way around. Why else would she become a Tigress? But then there was a commotion from the building, and she managed—just barely—to keep her tongue.

  "Anything?" the General called out to his men, his voice as tight as his face.

  One soldier appeared. Two. Then two more exited the building. But no monk. And no white girl.

  "We found empty bedrooms, General. Rumpled sheets. Water in the basins. But no people, diseased or otherwise."

  The General stepped forward, the smell of his anger and fear multiplying. "No one?"

  "No, sir."

  "Were there signs of a man? Anything that would indicate—"

  "Nothing, General. Just rumpled sheets and water."

  Shi Po listened with a bowed head, her eyes carefully downcast. They had found nothing? No monk? No ghost woman? She lifted her gaze, narrowing her eyes as she tried to imagine where the two might be hiding. Where would the white woman go?

  She cared nothing for the monk, except for the desire that he and his father quit her home immediately. That he had escaped meant nothing to her, as long as he left the girl behind. Shi Po had been most explicit. She had told the white woman to stay here, and the white woman had nodded in agreement.

  Now, where was she?

  Shi Po's anger got the best of her, and she pushed forward. "What of the sick girl? The one with no voice. She is not there?"

  The soldier didn't look at her, answering her question as if the General had posed it. "No one, sir. No sick women. And no men at all. We searched most thoroughly."

  General Kang spit out a curse that echoed through the garden. Shi Po would have blushed if she were not thinking the same thing. Where had the woman gone? She had to find her. Immortality depended upon it.

  But first she had an angry general to deal with, and no husband to take the weight from her shoulders. "You see, do you not, that you were misinformed?" she said. "I do not know where your..." She would have said son, but the General's eyes narrowed to slits and she hastily changed her words. "Your monk is not in my home. Please, you have disrupted everything. Will you not leave me in peace?"

  The General stepped up to her. His body, his smell, his very presence was poisonous. "If I find you lie..." He did not complete his threat. He did not need to. All knew what he meant.

  She bowed her head. "He is not here. And I have no way to find him." She spoke the truth, and it was her doom. For the white girl was surely with the monk, the pair fled to a place where neither general nor Tigress could discover them.

  General Kang wasted no more time on her. Issuing orders with a sharp tongue, he and his soldiers departed quickly, leaving noise and clutter and anxious servants in their wake.

  It was only after he was gone, after the last sound of armor and horses faded from the street that Shi Po allowed herself to move. Then, with heavy steps, she moved through her building. It was empty; every room open, every piece of furniture disturbed. She did not need to walk to their room to know the truth; she felt it in the still and suddenly sour air:

  The white woman was gone.

  And so Shi Po would die.

  * * *

  Kui Yu jumped from the rickshaw. His long, black Manchurian queue bounced on his back as he ran through the front gate. Fear churned in his belly as his thoughts boiled. Why would an Imperial General come to his home? On today of all days, when he was with Lily and nowhere to be found?

  He rushed through the receiving room and into the back garden. What had Shi Po done now? He should have paid more attention to her activities. A man was responsible for his home, but what his wife did with her women was of little interest to him. And what she did with the men left him cold and resentful. So he had looked the other way. And now an Imperial General had invaded his home.

  His steps faltered. Vague impressions hit him—some from memory, some from what was directly in front of him. First he recalled the receiving room. Though he couldn't quite remember what, something had been amiss there. Something was skewed. And looking about, he felt the same strangeness in the garden but could not identify what he perceived. A branch was broken here. A stone was kicked into the pathway there. But what...?

  Silence.

  There was total and absolute silence. Not from the birds or cats, not even from the wind in the trees or the clatter of wheels on the distant road; this was a different silence. A human silence. It was the absence of servant noise, of students in their rooms, of people anywhere.

  Was his home deserted?

  No. Here came a maid, sidling close. What was her name? He couldn't remember. His wife took in females from all over China: destitute girls, abandoned girls, girls of ill-repute. It seemed that all found
their way to his home, were given a fresh start, then eventually went on their way.

  So, what was this one's name?

  "Master. Master, you are home." The maid probably meant to exclaim loudly, but her voice was too soft, her demeanor too quiet. Indeed, she was nearly on top of him before he realized she was speaking.

  "What has happened?" he asked. The girl shied backwards and her eyes widened in alarm. He tried to soften his expression, but some of the maids were too delicate for his coarse features. He was a large man, strong and intense. His face was common and his hands were calloused with labor. But he was still master here and he required answers. "Where is Shi Po?"

  "The mistress is in her meditation chamber."

  Kui Yu nodded, knowing that was where Shi Po always sought refuge. At least she was not dead or arrested.

  "What happened this afternoon? Are all the Imperial soldiers gone?"

  She bowed and said again, "The mistress is in her meditation chamber."

  "Yes, yes," he snapped. "But tell me—"

  She grabbed his arm—a bold and shocking gesture for one so timid—and tugged him toward the private family quarters. "The mistress," she repeated.

  Clearly he would get no more answers from her. So he pressed his lips together and lengthened his stride. All too soon the maid fell behind, and he maneuvered through the garden alone and into his disturbed home toward his wife's most private chamber.

  The antechamber was in typical disarray. This was the room where Shi Po vented her spleen—on walls and furniture and clothing. It was always in chaos, and no cushion ever survived beyond a week. Kui Yu called it the Place of Ill Humors, for this was where Shi Po destroyed things as she released her frustrations. And when she was done, she would calmly and quietly walk into her meditation room. There she would sit in contemplation, her eyes half closed, her body completely still. Having just purged her ill humors, she was able to exist in absolute stillness.

  That the room was completely destroyed did not surprise him; any visit by an Imperial general would likely produce a vehement response. So he stepped past the splinters of cheap wood and shredded cotton. He walked to the door of her meditation chamber, coming to stand beside it, his heart pounding until he feared it would jump from his throat. He opened the door.

  His wife sat in the center of the room, her eyes fully open, her legs pushed out before her and not folded neatly in her meditative pose. To the side, Kui Yu saw rice cakes and wine, a mango and steamed dumplings. All these foods most tempted his wife, but she had not touched a single one. Nearby the statue of Kwan Yin, Goddess of Hope, stood in shadow. The altar candles had guttered into darkness. And set before Shi Po, arrayed in a line, were a hanging noose, a tea cup and vial of something unnamed, a cage of two scorpions, and lastly, a long, thin dagger.

  Kui Yu stared, speechless. The Chinese were always aware of death, his wife much more than most. To see these things arrayed in front of her told him she had moved beyond thinking to planning.

  "You are late." His wife's voice was flat. Dull.

  He swallowed, his guilt overwhelming as he fought for balance. "I came as soon as the messenger found me."

  "Then perhaps we should hire a new messenger."

  Kui Yu nodded, though he knew it wasn't the boy's fault. He had worked hard to ensure he could not be found. He had not known an Imperial General would visit.

  "Come in," his wife ordered.

  He did as she bade him, easing the door shut before walking with steady, measured steps into the room. He sank to his knees before Shi Po, the long line of objects between them. They were all objects designed to kill.

  "If you wish to die, a viper would be better than a pair of scorpions," he said. He did not know where the comment came from. Indeed, he had no wish to see his wife near any of the items. But that was his constant sin: speaking without thought, reaching for humor in situations that required extreme delicacy.

  His wife looked at the small cage, a frown on her face. "You do not think two will suffice?"

  He shook his head. "You would need a dozen at least."

  She sighed, took the cage and carefully set it aside. "That is why I waited for you," she said. "You are wise."

  He looked down at the remaining items, then picked up the vial. It was labeled, he now saw, but the words meant nothing to him. Given the other items, he expected it would be poison. A deadly one.

  He set the vial back down and looked up at his wife. "Perhaps you should tell me exactly what occurred with General Kang. The messenger gave no details at all, and I have spoken to no one but you since returning home." It wasn't worth mentioning the taciturn maid.

  His wife shrugged, the movement weary. "He came. He disliked my tea. He and his men searched the house, then left empty-handed."

  "The monk? And the white woman?"

  "Gone." She looked up at him, and for the first time that day, Kui Yu saw an emotion slip past Shi Po's control: anguish, deep and searing, and quickly masked. "They fled," she said. "Probably just in time." She swallowed, her gaze dropping back to the floor. "I told her to stay, but I could not prevent the soldiers from searching."

  "But they found nothing, correct?" Kui Yu pressed. "There is nothing to prove we hid the woman or the—"

  "General Kang's son."

  He jerked back. "What?" He had heard her, of course, but it took time to imagine the implications. Shi Po understood, and waited in silence while his mind grappled with the possibilities. "General Kang is the most influential, most powerful man in China, with the exception of the Emperor and his mother," he said at last.

  Shi Po nodded, encouraging him to voice his thoughts. This was the way they often spoke on important matters: She was silent, he wrestled aloud. In this she acted as a typical woman of China—silent and beautiful. He preferred it when she spoke.

  "The monk," he continued. "The Manchurian. You are sure he is General Kang's son?"

  She inclined her head, her shoulders swaying slightly with the movement.

  "And we hid his son from him." It was not a question, so his wife said nothing. "We forced a white woman on him."

  At this Shi Po looked up, her eyes flashing the fire that sometimes lit their dark depths. "I forced him. He wished to learn. I was the one to choose his partner."

  He waved her comment away. "This is my house, Tan Shi Po. You may be the Tigress, but I am responsible for what happens here."

  Her eyes burned with disobedience but then she lowered them, hiding their obsidian depths. Disobedience was not all she hid, he knew, but he had no access to her thoughts. He never had. So he forced himself to continue his previous train of thought.

  "The monk..." He pondered. "So, Kang's son is gone, running from his father for his own reasons. The white woman left with him." He saw his wife flinch at his words then still. Kui Yu waited, hoping she would speak, but she remained stubbornly silent. In the end, he continued: "They are gone. The general found nothing here to suspect."

  "He needs no other reason," Shi Po snapped. "He knows of my faith, and accuses me of depravity with every breath."

  "Then he is a fool," Kui Yu returned, both hating and admiring his wife for having chosen such a difficult path. "And powerful fools are always dangerous."

  A moment later he frowned. "How did he know what you are?" he asked. The cult of the Tigress was virtually unknown in China. Few would accept a religion that embraced sex as a means to Enlightenment. Fewer still would learn from a woman. That the general knew of her practice and title suggested larger issues at work. And bigger danger.

  Shi Po lifted her gaze to him, her pain obvious though she tried to hide it. "He murdered my brother."

  Kui Yu sighed. He had suspected as much. There were few other ways the general could have learned the truth. "Because of a feud with his son?"

  "It is a good guess," Shi Po agreed.

  Kui Yu sighed again. "We are caught in a family struggle."

  "'When dragons fight, the rice field is destroyed,'" h
is wife quoted mournfully.

  Kui Yu nodded, agreeing. Still, he was unable to explain the array of dangerous objects around her.

  "Do you think to fight our way to safety?" he asked, ready to forbid such a rash action.

  She frowned at him, obviously confused. "General Kang is gone. I do not fear his return."

  "Then who will you poison? Or hang? Or stab?"

  Suddenly, he knew the answer. A hanging cord was used for only one purpose. The poison as well, for it had a vile smell that could not be disguised. As for the dagger... He picked it up.

  "Be careful!" she snapped, her hand jerking forward but stopping short of the blade. "It has been dipped in snake venom. The merest cut..."

  He nodded. "So you did think of the viper." He looked at her face, trying to keep his expression open to encourage confession. "I am not dishonored by your life, wife. Why do you contemplate suicide?"

  He watched her shoulders relax and knew that he had finally learned what she wanted to discuss. She said, "The ghost woman is gone." He blinked and waited for the full explanation, but Shi Po said nothing more. She sat, her eyes dull as old coal.

  He played for time, repeating her words. "The white woman left. With Kang's son."

  She nodded. Then, at his obvious confusion, she dropped another clue. "I told her to stay, but she left."

  Kui Yu frowned. He still didn't understand. "She left despite your orders? She chose the Kang son over your tutelage?"

  Shi Po nodded.

  He shrugged. Many of Shi Po's students eventually chose a different path. Some left for husbands, some for the easier and wealthier life of prostitution. Therefore, the problem was less obvious than what she'd said.

  "Why would you want the ghost woman to stay?" he asked. He purposely used the derogatory phrase for a white, knowing that Shi Po believed what the Emperor taught: The barbarians were insubstantial, ghostly, no more than animals. Indeed, she had once laughingly told him that one of her students kept a white woman as a pet—as his slave. So...