The Emperor's Mirror

by Emily Holloway

  “Why don’t you make me a copy,” Tallis said. “I’ll see if I can fill in some blanks.”

  Sienna arched an eyebrow at him.

  “I had a visitor in the night,” Tallis said. “A boy, maybe ten years old, by the name of Luan Qiang Yu, if you can believe that, who said to call him Brannon. A curious little fellow. He says he lives downstairs. What’s more, he’s never been tested by Warders, and our honorable Elder has told him to never let a Warder touch him.”

  “Isn’t that interesting,” Calessa said. “Think he’ll come back?”

  “Oh, yes,” Tallis said. “He went through my bags, and I daresay he could add some to our map, if I asked nicely enough.”

  “Can he answer any of the bigger questions?” Sienna asked dryly.

  “He said that he knows everything that happens here. And I think he actually might. He knew my name, knew that I was a Warder. He may use those secret tunnels you found to eavesdrop. I also think he knows what’s in the chest that was stolen, but he wouldn’t tell me when I asked him.”

  “What an interesting puzzle,” Sienna said. She frowned faintly. “Luan Qiang Yu. That name is familiar.”

  “I thought so too, but I couldn’t place it.”

  “I can’t either.” Sienna put this aside. “Let’s go see how much our honorable Elder will tell us.”

  “Probably not much,” Calessa said. “For somebody who wants our help so badly, he doesn’t seem fond of sharing.”

  “He may have to,” Tallis said, “before we get this solved.”

  There was a knock on the door, and it opened to reveal a monk. He looked rather surprised to see the three of them standing there, but bowed anyway. “Elder Edrich would like for you to join us for breakfast and our morning prayer,” he said.

  “Breakfast I can do,” Sienna said. “The prayer, I can do without.”

  Tallis snorted at the horrified look on the monk’s face, and the three of them went downstairs. Breakfast was plain rice and cold fruit, served after a lengthy prayer in the old language. Calessa carefully concealed a yawn. All of them were impressed by the size of the dining hall; it was the biggest room they had seen in the monastery. Though constructed of the same drab gray stone, it had many windows facing east, allowing the morning sunlight to stream through. Fine paintings hung at regular intervals along the walls, depicting various incarnations of the gods: the solid, stocky earth god, the blue-skinned, tempestuous water goddess, the faceless spirit god. The monks ate on smooth, simple wooden benches that sat on either side of long wooden tables, and the meal was served on unadorned porcelain plates. After they had eaten, the monks departed to their daily tasks, and the Warders followed Edrich back into his chambers.

  This room was much more richly appointed than any of the others. The interior had been painted in dark reds and purples, and the support pillars were engraved with golden script. The honorable Elder’s chair, at the head of the room, was carved from the same dark wood as the rest of the furniture, but had gilt edging. There were several statues on stone pedestals, most of them bronze casts of creatures from the ancient realm: dragons, griffins, and cranes.

  “I hope you are well-rested,” Elder Edrich said, taking his seat. There were no chairs for any of the others, but there was a long stretch of burgundy fabric on the floor in front of Edrich. Tallis knelt down, tucking his feet underneath himself so he could face the Elder, and Sienna and Calessa followed his lead.

  “I would be,” Tallis said, folding his hands in his lap, “if not for the interruption.”

  “An interruption?” Edrich asked. “Of what sort?”

  “A child,” Tallis said, and watched the Elder’s face carefully. There was a string of different emotions that passed across his face in the brief moments before he regained his composure, primarily alarm, and then anger. Then his face settled back into polite inquiry. “Do you know anything about him?”

  “A child?” Edrich asked. “Here?”

  “Yes,” Tallis said. “Unless it was a particularly well constructed illusion made by a monk with a sense of humor. A little boy of about ten years. Dark hair, slender.”

  “There are no children here,” Edrich said. “We do not take monks into our order until they are thirteen.” He managed a wry smile and added, “And you three are the only ones here with hair, I believe.”

  “Yet another mystery,” Tallis said.

  “Quite,” Edrich said, with a thin smile. “But you were not called here to investigate this monastery or our order. We would like you to find the object that was stolen. That is all.”

  “Of course we’ll do our best,” Calessa said, smiling at him warmly. As Warders, they were entitled to investigate anything they found suspicious, but there was no point in reminding the Elder of this. “What else can you tell us about this cult?”

  Edrich relaxed slightly, now that the focus of the conversation had changed. “Several months ago, we began hearing rumors from Hazleton. We do not often leave the monastery, but once a month we do send someone to town for supplies. Since then, the cult seems to have increased in size over a dozen times. It is growing at an alarming rate.”

  “Why do you call it a cult?” Tallis asked. “It could just be a new religion.”

  The Elder gave him an annoyed look. “As a follower of the old gods, the true gods,” he said coldly, “I would think that you could understand there need be no distinction between a cult and a new religion.”

  “Oh, bosh,” Sienna snapped. “You’ve no proof that your gods are any more real than these new ones. When was the last time the old gods gave any sign of their existence?”

  Edrich drew himself up indignantly. “If you study the old scrolls – ”

  “Yes, yes,” Sienna interrupted, “I’ve read them same as you. The old gods gave birth to the first Emperor, and he ruled by divine right, and so long as there was an Emperor with gods’ blood on the throne, the land was peaceful and et cetera et cetera. Well, there hasn’t been an Emperor for a thousand years, and you’ve no right to say that new gods won’t be of more help than the old gods.”

  Tallis cleared his throat, seeing that the Elder was about to lose his temper. “Let’s not be drawn into a religious debate,” he suggested. “I just wanted to know if there was something particularly suspicious about this new religion, and if you are certain of any illegal acts they have been committing.”

  Edrich relaxed back into his chair. “Surely the mere rate at which it is growing is suspicious,” he said.

  “Admittedly,” Tallis said, trying to be diplomatic, “religions do not generally grow that quickly. But if the religious leader offers something that people want, some sign that they believe is true . . .”

  “He offers them nothing,” Edrich said impatiently. “My brothers have spoken with some of the followers of this cult. They agree whole-heartedly with what they are being told, yet when pinned down, cannot quite seem to articulate what they believe. They just know that they believe it. Whatever comes from this man’s mouth, they believe.”

  “We’ll look into it,” Calessa said. “Where is it located?”

  “About half a day from here, there is a small city called Nuan Huo,” Edrich said, and they nodded in recognition. “The temple, if it could be called that, is about another hour south of there. I can provide a carriage, if you wish to rest your horses.”

  “A carriage would be appreciated,” Calessa said. “However, first we need to see the room from which the object was taken.”

  “Certainly,” Edrich said. “We have preserved the scene exactly.”

  “Thank you,” Calessa said. The three of them followed him down a series of complicated twists and turns into a small room that was set up as a shrine, with a long table draped in red cloth at the far end. There were six chests placed on top of the table, all emanating a soft magical residue and all matching the description that Edrich had given them the night before. All three Warders noted the empty spot where another chest clearly belonged, judgin
g by the bright scarlet rectangle amidst the dust. The room was only large enough for a dozen monks at most, and the floor was half-covered with small flat cushions, presumably placed to protect the knees of the worshippers from the hard stone floor. Windows were placed at intervals along the wall, allowing sunlight to hit the altar no matter the time of day. Unlike most of the windows in the monastery, which were screened with either bamboo or rice paper, these had paned glass. One of the panes was cracked, although not broken.

  “This is where it sat,” Edrich said, touching the cloth runner gently. “I would tell you what happened, but there is no story. One day it was here – the next, not. That is all I know. But the shrine has strong magical wards, which you must have noticed. No petty thief could have taken it.”

  “Who knows how to disarm the wards?” Tallis asked.

  “Only myself,” Edrich said. “The other brothers can enter the room to meditate, but they cannot touch the chests unless I permit it.”

  “What’s in these chests to worship?” Tallis asked.

  “Religious artifacts,” Edrich said. “From the old gods.”

  “How specific,” Sienna said tartly.

  Edrich shot her a dirty look. “Some people do not deserve the knowledge.”

  Tallis took a deep breath. “We’ll have difficulty helping you if we don’t know what we’re trying to find.”

  “Find the chest,” Edrich said. “And you’ll find what it contains. That is all. I will allow you time to examine the room. Excuse me.” He swept out of the room without another word.

  Tallis rolled his eyes. “Give me kidnapped maidens and armed men any day of the week,” he said. He looked at Sienna and mouthed ‘silencing spell?’ She nodded and drew several runes in the air. They hovered around the group, shimmering in the air.

  Calessa looked over at the cracked window. “Someone’s gone to a great deal of trouble to make us believe that it was actually taken from this room,” she said. “You have to wonder where it was really kept.”

  “You think this chest was a decoy?” Tallis asked, gesturing to the spot. “There was obviously one sitting there. Even the grain of the fabric has been crushed.”

  “Yes,” Calessa said. “But these warding spells are recent. Even the best require maintenance, but these are new.” She let her hand trail along the altar. “Shall we see what’s in these chests?” she asked, grinning slightly. “I’m so curious.”

  “Do it,” Sienna said.

  Calessa nodded. Her pretty face became quite serious as she knelt down in front of one of the chests and extended her hands toward it. A slight frown of concentration crossed her face, and a line of energy appeared at her fingertips, solidifying into a hairpin. Tallis drew a few quick sigils in the air to keep the wards quiet as Calessa picked the lock on one of the chests.

  “How disappointing,” Sienna said, studying the interior of the chest. “A bowl.”

  “A very valuable bowl,” Calessa said, lifting it out and examining the blue and white porcelain. “Excellent craftsmanship. Look at the intricacy of that dragon painted on the side. This was done by an extremely skilled artisan. It must be very old, yet it’s totally undamaged.”

  “It’s the Imperial Dragon,” Tallis said, leaning over her shoulder. He recognized it from some of the reading he had done on the old religion. The Imperial Dragon was easily recognizable because it had wings; most of the ancient dragons had been more serpentine in nature. “This bowl must have belonged to the last Emperor.” He reached out to touch it, then pulled his hand back. “It is quite a relic. It would be worth thousands to a collector.”

  “I can see why it’s so well-guarded,” Sienna said. “But that raises an important question. If these things are the smaller, less important relics, then what on earth was in the chest that was stolen?”

  They stood in silence for a few moments.

  “Let’s look in the others,” Calessa suggested. A few minutes’ work revealed a tea set, a pair of chopsticks, a folded origami dragon, a paintbrush, and a scroll. “Interesting,” Calessa said. “What an odd mix.”

  Tallis reached down and reverently picked up the origami dragon, a little thing less than three inches long, folded from purple and gold paper. “It’s even the right colors,” he murmured.

  “To be what?” Sienna asked.

  Tallis startled. “What?”

  “You said, ‘it’s even the right colors’,” Sienna said impatiently. “The right colors to be what?”

  “I – I don’t know.” Tallis put down the piece of paper.

  “It’s remarkably well-preserved,” Sienna mused, looking down at it. “These chests must have strong spells on them, but they aren’t that hard to open. Any decent Warder could do it. The one we’re looking for must have been much better warded.”

  “Which means that there would have been a much larger disturbance than a cracked window if someone had tampered it,” Calessa remarked, closing and locking the chests.

  “Agreed,” Sienna said. She glanced over her shoulder and dropped the silencing spell with a quick gesture. “The Elder will probably return any moment. It will be interesting to see how this temple in Nuan Huo compares.”

  They studied each other for a moment.

  “You know what bothers me?” Sienna asked, careful to speak quietly now that others could hear.

  “What?” Calessa asked.

  “This is a theft. Theft of an extremely important relic, presumably, but a theft. It’s possible that there’s a cult, and a powerful mage. Three Warders, yes, might be warranted. But three of us? Why? There’s something more, something far more to this than we’re seeing. The Oracle wouldn’t have sent us if – ”

  The door opened and the Elder walked in. “Have you concluded?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Calessa said, smiling at him.

  “Your carriage is ready,” he said.

  “Excellent,” Calessa said, as Tallis surreptitiously drew a few sigils to cancel his spell on the wards.

  “Would you like us to send a driver with you?” Edrich asked. “Or will you drive yourselves?”

  “We may stay overnight,” Sienna said. “We’ll drive ourselves.”

  * * *

  “How is it that you know so much about this old religion, anyway?” Sienna asked curiously, as they rode towards Nuan Huo. “I’ve read the books, yet you seem particularly well-versed. Do you actually believe in these old gods?”

  “Well, yes,” Tallis said. “This doesn’t mean that I think the honorable Elder has told us a single truth since we’ve arrived here, or that he’s not hiding far more than he’s revealing. But that’s not the gods’ fault.”

  “I barely know anything about it,” Calessa remarked with a laugh. It was a nice autumn day, and they were all riding up front so they could talk; Tallis had the reins. The road was dirt, but packed smooth and obviously well-maintained with magic, and gave the carriage no trouble. The monastery may have been isolated, but the forest was particularly beautiful at this time of year; the leaves a brilliant combination of red and gold that reminded Tallis of the monks’ robes. “I slept through that part of my education, I’m afraid. Was this the religion with the four elemental gods?”

  “Five total,” Tallis said. “Yes. Earth, air, fire, water, and the spirit god.”

  “Sounds interesting,” Calessa said. “Why did the religion start to die out?”

  “The religion died when the last Emperor died,” Sienna said. “I know that much, but not the details.”

  “The Emperor was the conduit,” Tallis said, feeling a little awkward about giving a religious lesson to his older colleagues. “The will of the gods was imposed through him. There was peace and a just rule. Then the Emperor and his family were all killed. No one knows how – something about a rebellion within the royal family. Since there was no heir, the conduit was destroyed, and the gods were cut off from the people. After that, war broke out, and the world was separated into the nation-states. People stop
ped believing in the gods when the gods couldn’t help them. That’s all.”

  Calessa watched his profile. “You look so sad,” she mused.

  “It’s a sad set of circumstances,” Tallis said.

  “So why the dragon, then?” Calessa asked. “On the bowl, and the origami?”

  “In the legends,” Sienna said, “there was a dragon that guarded the family.”

  “The Imperial Dragon disappeared when the family died,” Tallis added. “And it was the only one of its kind.”

  “Why didn’t the gods just make a new Emperor?” Calessa asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tallis said. “Maybe they couldn’t. According to legend, the first Emperor was one of the first people to walk the earth. It would be hard to just plunk down a new one and expect everyone to accept it.”

  “So what about this new religion?” Sienna asked. “Do you think it’s magic? Or does the honorable Elder just have a compensation problem?”

  Tallis snorted. “I’m not sure. Maybe both.”

  “Funny thing about that boy, though,” Sienna said, pinching her lower lip. “Elder Edrich must have known that we wouldn’t believe him if he just outright denied the boy’s presence. Why not try to spin some sort of lie or story, rather than just flat denial? It doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Maybe we just took him off guard,” Tallis suggested. He winced and added, “I hope I didn’t just get that kid into a world of trouble.” He pulled the horses into a small clearing. “I think we’re far enough from the monastery now,” he said. “Shall we Gate over?”

  “Do you know the Gate in Nuan Huo well enough to do that?” Calessa asked, concerned. “You know how precise those things need to be.”

  “I know there is a Gate in Nuan Huo,” Tallis replied. “That’s good enough.”

  “Oh dear. Tallis, if I lose a single hair due to your lousy Gating, I’ll take it out of your hide.”

  “You could just take one of my hairs instead,” Tallis said. “I don’t see you offering to make a Gate.”