Paper Mage

by Cutter, Leah

  Xiao Yen drifted in the quiet, resolved to not think about her conflicting duties: to Wang Tie-Tie; to her mother; or even, as Master Wei pointed out, to herself.

  As sleep came, Xiao Yen dreamed she danced with her crane again. She lifted one arm over her head, then the other, in a graceful imitation of flying. The crane jumped into the air, straight-legged, long toes pointed down. Xiao Yen jumped too, the happy jumps of a child, playing.

  At one point the crane reached its long beak across the space dividing them. Xiao Yen thought it was going to peck her feet, but it picked up a figure that had been dancing, unnoticed, next to Xiao Yen. It flung the doll shape over its shoulder, much the same way her crane had flung Fat Fang's birds out the door that afternoon.

  Xiao Yen tried to see whom the crane had flung. Had it been Wang Tie-Tie? Her mother? Some mysterious stranger she was supposed to marry?

  It didn't matter. The dance went on.

  Chapter Thirteen

  On the Trail

  Xiao Yen and Udo pushed through the crowd in the street gathered outside Young Lu's complex. The gate was open, but they couldn't see beyond the spirit wall. A broad peasant woman with froglike eyes set almost on the sides of her face stood with her mouth open, gaping. Xiao Yen asked her what had happened.

  “The horse soldiers came. Looking for thieves,” she said.

  “Oh no,” said Xiao Yen. She made her way to the gate.

  “Wait!” Udo called from behind her.

  Xiao Yen ignored him and hurried through.

  No one stood in the outer, formal courtyard. The brass bells hanging under the eaves of the Hall of Ancestors rang with quiet sweet notes across the empty space. It seemed peaceful, but something wasn't right. Xiao Yen took a deep breath and it came to her. She couldn't smell incense. Young Lu always burned incense to honor her ancestors. She'd never let it go out unless something was terribly wrong.

  Xiao Yen ran to the gate that separated the formal courtyard from the family compound. Udo stopped her before she could go through and asked, “Are you sure it's safe?”

  Xiao Yen couldn't take the time to answer, to try to explain. Maybe it wasn't safe. But Young Lu was family. Maybe Xiao Yen could help Vakhtang's soldiers find the thieves. She had to try.

  The family courtyard was in chaos. Beds, wardrobes, dishes, clothes were scattered everywhere. No one seemed to be in charge. Soldiers—men wearing Vakhtang's badge, the stylized horse—stood clumped together. One group shared a jug of wine. Three soldiers came out of one of the buildings, carrying a heavy wardrobe between them. They heaved it out the door. When it hit the ground, it split and spilled its contents. A few soldiers cheered, and the group went back into the building.

  Xiao Yen put her hands over her mouth, too shocked to say anything. What were the soldiers doing? Why were they destroying Young Lu's things? Where were the thieves? She backed up a step. These weren't good men. Udo had been right. It wasn't safe. Someone in the household had betrayed them.

  A strong hand gripped her upper right arm. She heard Udo cursing and struggling. Xiao Yen looked back. A man with greasy hair leered at her. A scar streaked from his right eye to his lip. Two teeth were missing from the upper right side of his mouth, under the scar. He lifted the bag from her back and handed it to another soldier.

  Xiao Yen forced herself to look away. Maybe if they didn't realize how important her bag was they wouldn't destroy everything inside of it. How would she recover the hairpin?

  The man holding Udo struck him hard enough to make Udo drop to his knees. Udo's head lolled to one side before he straightened up. He didn't say anything more, but just glared at his captors. Then the soldier holding Xiao Yen yanked her arm, making her look forward.

  Another of Vakhtang's soldiers, wearing a leather chest plate, walked across the courtyard toward her. He picked his teeth with a short knife as he walked. A group of men followed him, like an honor guard. The soldier with the knife stopped in front of Xiao Yen, then looked her all over, pausing at her face, hands, and boots. Xiao Yen didn't struggle. She stood tall, and willed her gaze to be ice.

  The soldier took his knife out of his mouth and called one of the honor guards to him. He said something in the man's ear. Xiao Yen listened hard, but he spoke too quietly for her to understand. The guard made a half-bow and rapidly walked away from the group. The man with the knife went back to picking his teeth and looking at Xiao Yen. Udo shouted, asking who he was, what they wanted. Xiao Yen stiffened when she heard the blow. Udo stopped asking questions.

  The man with the knife continued to watch her with interest. Xiao Yen stared at the man's face, willing him to challenge her gaze. He wouldn't meet her eye. Was he afraid of her? Xiao Yen wasn't certain.

  She stared so hard at the man with the knife she didn't see the guard return. She only looked up at Udo's gasp. Gi Tang, Bei Xi's guard, the one they'd left with Ehran, stood there. Xiao Yen glanced at him, then went back to staring at the man with the knife. Ten thousand questions fluttered inside her. How had Gi Tang escaped from Ehran? Where was Ehran? Was he hurt? Was he captured? And Young Lu? Had she been taken into custody because she was Xiao Yen's aunt? What about the rest of Young Lu's family?

  “That's her,” Gi Tang said. Xiao Yen continued to ignore him. She didn't want to show any fear.

  The soldier that held her arm pulled it back, and grabbed her other arm as well. Rough rope slid across her wrists. Gi Tang stopped the soldier, saying something that Xiao Yen didn't catch in the horsemen's dialect, the language of the kingdom of Turic. Gi Tang looked around then grabbed a peacock blue silk jacket from one of the broken wardrobes. He tore a strip off it and gestured for the man behind Xiao Yen to turn her around. They made her clasp her fingers together while they tied her wrists. They took a long while, tying many knots.

  At any other time, Xiao Yen would have laughed. They took such care, as if she were some great mage, not a student, barely graduated, on her first commission.

  They weren't as careful with Udo. His face had already bruised from where he'd been hit. The soldiers bent Udo's arms up behind his back when they tied them. It looked painful.

  The soldiers circled Xiao Yen as they marched across the formal courtyard, around the spirit wall and out the gate. The crowd shouted insults. What if Vakhtang killed her, and hung her body on the city walls like a common thief? Wang Tie-Tie would be so disappointed if word ever got to her of how Xiao Yen had died.

  The crowd grew louder, and more bold, when they saw Udo. He was taller than everyone around him. Nothing could mask his foreign looks or hair. Xiao Yen shook her head. He didn't belong here, in the Middle Kingdom. At least the crowd wouldn't throw stones or rotten vegetables at him. He was too closely surrounded by soldiers. No one would risk accidentally hitting one of them.

  Xiao Yen wished she could close her eyes and wake up in her quiet room at school. This wasn't a visit from Xi Mong, the bringer of nightmares. What was happening was real. She was going to have to face it.

  The soldiers were taller than Xiao Yen was, so she couldn't look over their shoulders and see where they were going, but there was only one possible destination. She and Udo had never planned how they were going to get into the governor's compound to see Vakhtang. She had wanted to work that out with Young Lu once she and Udo had returned from the rat dragon's cave. They didn't have to worry about that now.

  Xiao Yen tried to take deep breaths and stay in her center, but she was scared. More scared than she'd been in the rat dragon's cave. That beast would have just killed her. Men knew about torture. Plus, Vakhtang could suck the soul from her body, use her essence to make the bubble surrounding his heart stronger. There'd be no hope for rebirth for her until he was killed. Even the knowledge that she wouldn't have to kill him brought no respite.

  The soldiers turned and led them off the street. The gate was wide enough for wagons to pass through. The spirit wall wasn't just painted; the dragon bulged out of it, as if breaking free, ready to attack. The gray courtyard
stones fit so well against each other it was like they were a single piece of rock. Nothing could escape between the cracks. The buildings, what little she could see of them, were all stone, not wood, with colorful murals covering the walls. Some even seemed to be two stories tall.

  They passed through two more courtyards and were about to go into a third when someone called out a command. The group stopped abruptly. The soldiers surrounding Xiao Yen stood up straight. Xiao Yen smelled their fear.

  A soldier grabbed Xiao Yen's arms. Before she knew what was happening, he'd cut the cloth binding her. She brought her arms down to her sides, flexed her fingers and her toes. It surprised her how solid the ground felt beneath her feet with her hands freed.

  A man approached them, followed by another group of soldiers. He asked a question. His voice rumbled like water falling down a mountain. Xiao Yen felt the power of the man coming from the inner gate, though she couldn't see him clearly. The soldier with the knife lost all his casualness. He called Gi Tang forward.

  Even Gi Tang spoke with much respect. Xiao Yen blessed Bei Xi for teaching her something of the kingdom of Turic's language. She caught a few words. He said “Bao Fang,” “trail,” and “thief,” pointing at Xiao Yen.

  “I'm not a thief,” she said loudly in her own language, drowning out the other man's words.

  The soldiers around her froze like a cage of icicles.

  The man with power laughed. The menace held in that gentle sound caved in Xiao Yen's stomach. The sweat in her mouth tasted stale. The soldiers in front of her parted.

  A single man faced her. His dark brown eyes were like a greedy whirlpool, sucking in everything they saw. They stared at her above a thin, spiked nose. Deep lines ran from next to his nose around the ends of his mouth. A few long hairs—known as a scholar's beard—grew out of the bottom of his chin. His broad forehead had three furrows running the length of it, with matching lines running from the corners of his eyes; lines the sun had beaten into his face, lines that power ran along.

  Xiao Yen had never met another mage before, besides Master Wei. She wished she didn't have to confront this one.

  The man looked at her for a long moment.

  Xiao Yen wondered if he'd understood her. She didn't meet his eye, but kept her gaze demurely unfocused.

  “If you aren't a thief, what are you?” he said, the words rolling from him, wrapping around her like a wet tongue. He spoke the language of the Middle Kingdom with a thick accent using formal terms.

  Xiao Yen drew herself up straighter and replied, “I am Bei Xi's maid. This—” she paused and flicked a scorn-filled gaze at Gi Tang “—man?” She deliberately made it a question. “He made inappropriate suggestions. I refused. That is the only reason he's accusing me.”

  The man with power looked over his shoulder at Gi Tang.

  “I do see the lust in his eyes,” he said. “But,” he added, turning back to Xiao Yen, “I still think you stole something from me.”

  Xiao Yen waited. He obviously wanted her to ask what she'd stolen. Gan Ou had played that game. Xiao Yen had learned how to not respond. She took a deep breath, willing herself to be calm, and even smile at the man challenging her. She drew strength from the ensuing silence.

  The man didn't seem disconcerted by the silence either. After a while he bowed his head to her, as if in defeat, gave her a crooked smile, and said, “You've stolen Bei Xi. You turned her into a snake.”

  Xiao Yen laughed as if she had no fear and replied, “How could I turn someone into a snake? That would take a great magician. I am small and powerless. You're talking nonsense. Take me to Lord Vakhtang.”

  The man in front of her said something over his shoulder, in the soldiers' language. The men behind her laughed. Then he turned back to her and said, “I am Lord Vakhtang.”

  “Excuse me, my lord. I didn't recog—”

  Vakhtang held up one hand to stop her. He pulled on his long beard hairs, considering. Then he raised his head and sniffed the air between them. “You have a delicious strength,” he said. “I was told that Bei Xi traveled with a woman who practiced magic.”

  Xiao Yen tried to turn her fear into anger. She spat on the ground near Vakhtang's feet and took a step forward. “Do I look like a grave-robbing Taoist?” she asked. She held up one hand, sleeve drooping. With the other hand, she pulled back the material, revealing her polished fingernails. “Do these nails look like they muck around with dyes and potions all day, searching for immortality?”

  “No,” Vakhtang replied. “But they might be the hands of someone who works with paper and string.” He grabbed her wrists and caught them together with just one hand. Then he held her arms up and delved into her left sleeve.

  Xiao Yen twisted and cried, “Let me go! How dare you touch me!”

  From inside the deep corner of her left sleeve he pulled out a knotted piece of cord. He held it up before her eyes, dangling it like a hangman's noose.

  Xiao Yen said desperately, “That isn't mine! Gi Tang placed that in my sleeve!”

  Vakhtang looked at the string, rubbing the amulet-sized knot between his fingers. He wrapped his hands around it then closed his eyes. When he opened his hands, the illusion melted from the knot.

  Xiao Yen swallowed with dread. It took strong magic to return something to its natural state. Master Wei could do it, of course, but she couldn't.

  “Strip her,” Vakhtang said in her language, stepping back and folding his arms over his chest. The men didn't need the words translated.

  Xiao Yen lifted her head and tried to catch Vakhtang's eye, but she couldn't see over the shoulders of the guards surrounding her. She wanted to stare at him, have an anchor outside of herself, a physical thing on which to focus her anger.

  The man with the knife came forward. He held the blade against her cheek, like a lover's hand. Xiao Yen closed her eyes. Her stomach dropped. She felt nauseated. The cold metal knife rested on the side of her neck, branding her with fear. The hard back of the knife pressed against her collarbone then abruptly disappeared. The first frog of her outer garment snapped off. The men laughed, making a game of catching the flying buttons as they fell.

  Xiao Yen shivered once, violently, as her robe was torn from her, exposing her breasts and thin waist. The men around her laughed, making jokes about her anatomy. Xiao Yen was glad she couldn't understand their language very well. No one had seen her this undressed, not even her mother, since she had been a little girl. Hands touched her, stroked her back, her sides, tweaked her nipples, making her jump, which made the men laugh more. She flinched with each touch.

  Though Xiao Yen took short breaths, and her sides trembled, her arms were still. She sent whatever peace she could find, whatever part of her mind that wasn't screaming with fear, embarrassment and rage into her fingers, her clever fingers, which would save her, get her revenge, later, if they could.

  The cold knife rested against her belly, then slid down, beneath the waist of her pants. She sucked in her breath so the tip of the knife wouldn't cut her. Xiao Yen was jerked forward as the man with the knife tried to cut through the ties around her waist. She heard someone cursing, harsh and guttural. Xiao Yen shivered at the menace in his voice. He would just as soon cut her as cut the pants. While he sawed at the strong cord, someone said something in her language: “Be careful. When she's presented to me she must be in one piece, still complete.”

  Xiao Yen's eyes snapped open. She would get another chance at Vakhtang? He stood behind the guards, his face visible between their shoulders. Xiao Yen stared him, her hatred fanning to life, her fear and her revulsion of taking another's life forgotten. If she could change herself into a tiger, she'd leap over the other men and claw his throat out in an instant.

  “You will get your wish, little mage, and be presented before me, though not in the fashion you had imagined. I like virgins. And I desire your strength. But first we have to temper your will, encourage you to obey.”

  The fear returned, dropping like a weight a
gainst Xiao Yen. Even if she had wings, she was so heavy now she couldn't fly away. Vakhtang barked some orders to the guards then turned. Xiao Yen closed her eyes again. She was naked, embarrassed, and cold. She didn't know where her aunt was, if she was in some prison; what had happened to Ehran; or what they were doing with Udo.

  She shivered, striving to ignore the hands touching her, desecrating her.

  The worst was yet to come.

  Xiao Yen had never seen a man's bone flute before, let alone had one shoved into her face, her mouth. She gagged, wanting to vomit, to force the men away. She bit down without thinking. The man withdrew and struck Xiao Yen across her cheek. Her vision darkened and blurred. She tasted blood in her mouth. No one had ever hit her like that before.

  She couldn't help herself. She started crying. Her tears shamed her as much as her nakedness.

  A man shoved her arm up behind her back. Another forced her mouth open.

  Xiao Yen tried to hang on, to exist without feeling. Then someone probed her back passage. Xiao Yen fled deep inside herself. She found her silence running through her like a sluggish river, clawed her way into it, and endured what she had to, kneeling on the cold dirt between the two courtyards. She stayed in her silence, a deeply buried seed, unconscious in a moving tide of filth. She no longer heard the men's jeers. She clung to herself, her core, and kept it apart from the atrocities being performed on her body. It was little consolation that her maidenhood wasn't being violated.

  After a time she would never be able to measure, she heard, but did not hear, high-pitched scoldings coming from behind the wall of soldiers. She saw, but did not see, a young woman with bright red lips, dressed in a flimsy, emerald-colored robe that was improperly tied, who hit the soldiers with her folded fan. She felt, but did not feel, a woman with white braids, wearing a long silver robe, touch her arm and tug her to her feet. She heard, but didn't hear, the giggles and squeals of other women as she was led into one of the buildings at the back of the courtyard.