by Resa Nelson
Ti gave a broad smile and clapped her hands together, feigning happiness. “How wonderful! We’ve all been so worried about her.”
“Wonderful, indeed,” Tao Chu said. He shifted his attention away from Ti and watched the other advisors until they stopped talking. “And now for the unpleasant information. I don’t believe Emperor Po died by accident. I believe he was murdered.”
“Impossible!” Ti said. She slammed her hand against the table so hard that she felt the reverberations.
No one else spoke. Instead, everyone stared at Ti.
Suddenly uncomfortable, Ti made the most obvious point. “How could my father have been murdered? Everyone in this room—other than me—was present when he died. You saw what happened.” Turning toward the other advisors, Ti said, “Did you see anyone place a hand on my father?”
The advisors agreed they had seen no one harm Emperor Po, but they fidgeted and appeared distraught by the question.
Ti offered a warm smile to the magician. “See? Everyone agrees it’s impossible.”
Tao Chu’s jaw clenched before he spoke. “You weren’t there. How do you know no one touched the emperor?”
A small gasp escaped from one of the advisors. They all looked at Ti with suspicion in their eyes.
“I was told,” Ti said. Nonetheless, she worried.
I can’t let them find out what really happened.
The magician’s eyes narrowed. “Who told you?”
“I did,” Li Chien said. He kept a serene and calm expression, looking as if he had just returned from a relaxing boat ride meandering down a gentle river. “I believed the Imperial Daughter had the right to know how Emperor Po met his fate.”
“I thank you for delivering this information, both the pleasant and the unpleasant,” Ti said to Tao Chu. “You may return to your quarters.” Facing the other advisors, she said, “Per tradition of the Po Dynasty, I proclaim this week as a period of mourning for my father. No business will take place during this time, and all buildings will be closed, including the Hall of Justice. No court will be held until the period of mourning ends.”
“I do not believe Emperor Po died a natural death,” Tao Chu said, ignoring the empress’s dismissal and refusing to move.
He knows.
Ti willed herself to stay strong. She feigned ignorance. “You have been granted leave, Tao Chu. I suggest you take it.”
Tao Chu looked at the advisors. “You were there. No one has ever seen a wind behave that way by itself. Something controlled it. Something used that wind to murder Emperor Po.”
While some advisors kept a painful silence, others voiced agreement.
“Something?” Ti interrupted, knowing she had to regain control. “What are you talking about?”
“Magic,” Tao Chu said. “Of the most troubling kind.”
Ti stood tall. “But Tao Chu, you’re the only court magician. Who else has the power to conjure up magic of the most troubling kind?”
The advisors protested, and some of them repeated Ti’s question.
“Don’t be fooled by her,” Tao Chu said to the advisors.
Ti raised her voice. “Don’t forget you speak about your empress!”
“Don’t forget Ming Shen,” Tao Chu said to the advisors. “Emperor Po wasn’t the first to die. Lightning struck Ming Shen and harmed none of the rest of us, even though we stood next to him.” He pointed at Ti. “We all know Emperor Po chastised Ming Shen for trying to capture this girl as his bride. Think! Who has reason to want Ming Shen dead?”
A commotion outside the room interrupted Tao Chu. Silence fell upon the room, and everyone stared at the closed door.
On the other side, a fist pounded against the wooden door. “Empress Ti!” a girl’s voice called out. “My sister is in danger. I came to court because of her. Please help me!” Her following cries were muffled by shouts from the guards.
An uncanny ease befell Ti. Time seemed to freeze, allowing her the luxury of analyzing the opportunity that presented itself.
I don’t recognize the voice on the other side of the door. The girl has an accent—she sounds like the people from Dragon Mountain. If she is a commoner seeking help in court, the guards must have told her that court will be closed for the next week in respect of my father’s death. If she needs help now, then she’s desperate. And if she’s desperate, any help I can give her will make me look good.
Despite Tao Chu’s accusations, no one knew Ti had taken the water from the Fountain of Immortality—the water intended to heal her ailing step-sister. No one saw Ti drink all the water in order to ensure her own safety and reign as empress. Ti’s step-sister still lived but would likely die soon.
And Tao Chu’s suspicions about Ti were right. She’d always known Tao Chu to be a powerful magician. But now she realized he also had a bright and attentive mind. He might never know how Ti cheated her step-sister. And yet he’d deduced that only Ti had reason to murder the advisor who had tried to capture her as his bride. Even worse, Tao Chu had the intelligence to guess that Ti had killed her own father, an emperor who had handed down a death sentence to his own mother when she failed to grieve her dead husband in the way the law deemed proper.
The girl on the other side of the door can help me distract the other advisors. If I show compassion for this girl, they might forget Tao Chu’s accusations against me.
To Li Chien, she said, “Open the door.”
When Li Chien obeyed and swung the door toward him, his action revealed a girl who looked to be sixteen, the same age as Ti. But this girl’s long black hair looked wild and unkempt, as if she had endured a fierce storm at sea and then forgotten to brush it out of her hair. Her simple cotton pants and shirt were muddy brown and indicated she came from the poverty found in the mountain villages. Although a few guards clamped strong hands on the girl’s arms and shoulders, she didn’t let that stop her from struggling to break free.
“Let go of her,” Ti shouted.
The guards paused as if confused but then obeyed.
The mountain girl stood straight and brushed her clothing back into its proper place. “Thank you, my Empress.”
Ti recognized one of the guards as the man who had stopped Ming Shen from capturing her. She assumed that same guard had alerted her father about Ming Shen’s inappropriate behavior.
That meant this guard had played an important role in the events that led her father to changing the law so that she could become empress.
This guard knows he saved me from the terrible fate of being married to one of these horrible advisors. That means he has reason to be loyal to me. I can trust him.
She stepped away from the table and gestured for the guard to approach. When he did, she asked for his name.
“Jojen,” the guard said. He looked to be ten years older than Ti and kept himself fit and lean.
“Jojen.” Ti softened her voice and spoke in a conspiratorial tone. “I need your help.”
Just as she’d expected, Jojen stood even straighter and pulled his shoulders back with pride. “Anything.”
What do I do with Tao Chu? If he suspects chaotic magic, then he suspects his own son. But he hasn’t said a word about Asu. That means he knows I manipulated him. I can’t let Tao Chu remain in the palace. But if I kill him, it might upset Asu—what if I lose his help? I need time to figure out what to do. But time gives Tao Chu more opportunity to talk and plant ideas in people’s heads. The more Tao Chu talks, the sooner people will believe him instead of me.
Perhaps the solution had just presented itself.
To the mountain girl, Ti said, “Come to me. Tell me why you’re here.”
Casting an angry glare at the guards who had tried to drag her away, the mountain girl held her head up high when she walked into the council room. “My name is Luan Lu, and I live on Dragon Mountain.”
Ti couldn’t help but smile at her own cleverness in recognizing where the girl came from. “Go on.”
“A serpent terrorizes our v
illage. This has been happening for all my life. Every year the village gives a girl to the serpent to appease it. That way, it leaves the village alone for an entire year. The elders say it would otherwise destroy our crops and kill us all.”
Ti nodded. Prior to becoming empress, Ti felt endangered of being captured as a bride so her new husband would gain the advantage of being first in line to be named emperor. It made her feel unsafe in her own home. It made her feel like she couldn’t breathe the air surrounding her for fear that a predator would hear her.
Every woman faces her own kind of danger in the Wulong Province. None of us is safe.
Ti remembered what Luan had first shouted: that her sister was in danger and she’d come to court because of it.
“Your sister,” Ti said. “Did your village give her to the serpent?”
Luan’s face became drawn and strained. “Yes. They selected her and then took her to the serpent’s lair and tied her to a stake. They bound her hands and feet. No girl has ever escaped.”
You don’t know that. If any girl escaped such a horror, she would be a fool to return to the village that offered her as a sacrifice. Just like I’d be a fool to not show all the advisors I’m inheriting from my father that I’m the good girl he always claimed me to be. And good girls love their sisters and will do anything to help them. Just like they love their fathers and will do anything to save them.
“You came here seeking help from Emperor Po, but the guards told you of our family tragedy,” Ti said. She focused on thinking about the danger she’d suffered at the hands of Ming Shen until her eyes watered and her voice cracked. “We have something in common. My beloved father was taken from me, and you stand to lose your sister. If I’d known my father was in danger, I would have done anything to save his life. I can’t help him. But I can help your sister.”
“Oh, Empress!” Luan cried and fell to her knees. “Thank you!”
Ti looked at the magician, knowing very well that he had lived a safe and comfortable life inside the royal complex. She found it impossible to imagine that he had the courage to face an angry serpent denied of the sacrifice it demanded. “Tao Chu! You should escort Luan Lu back to her village and use your most powerful magic to fight the serpent, protect her sister, and convince their fellow villagers that the serpent won’t seek revenge against them.”
Just as Ti expected, Tao Chu paled and then stuttered. “But I know nothing of serpents or how to wage magic against them.”
“How difficult can it be?” Ti said. She waved her hands in the air as if performing magic herself. “All you have to do is kill the serpent.”
Still flustered, Tao Chu protested the empress’s suggestion. “My expertise is the kind of magic that helps an emperor with the way he rules his country. The magic is about making the best rulings in court and enforcing the laws and sometimes negotiating with other provinces to avoid war.” Tao Chu shuddered. “I know nothing about using magic against monsters.”
Still on her knees, Luan Lu looked up at Ti in a panic. “Empress, please! How can I let my sister die?”
Ti forced her heart to be hard and hollow. She couldn’t afford to let the silly sentiments of a mountain girl make her lose focus. If Ti didn’t put all her efforts into making sure she maintained control over the rule of the Wulong Province, the advisors could gang up against her, take that control away from her, and force new laws into effect.
The trick was making the advisors think it would be impossible to wrestle control away from Ti. Exhibiting her power over the court magician would help to keep that illusion in place.
“Tao Chu!” Ti said. “How can you let her sister die?”
The magician’s face lit up with new hope. “It’s not a magician you want,” Tao Chu said with fragile enthusiasm. “The girl would be better off with someone blessed with the power of portents!”
Rising at Ti’s commanding gesture, Luan Lu said, “Portents?”
“The ability to see the future,” Ti said. “How is that better than being a magician?”
“Because my skills are suited better for an emperor than a mountain girl, I doubt any of the magic I know will help her,” Tao Chu said, pointing at Luan Lu. “But consider someone who sees portents. That someone can learn about the serpent and its ways. Learn about what the serpent wants. Learn the way to defeat the serpent forever so that it never harms anyone again.” Tao Chu shrugged as if giving in to the inevitable. “That power is far greater than mine.”
I doubt that. Otherwise, my father would have made sure he had advisors at hand with that ability. It’s time to dispense with Tao Chu.
“Seeing portents is old fashioned,” Ti said. “Few people believe there’s any real use to it, and Father never put much stock in it. I’ve never met anyone blessed with portents, so how can we find anyone to help Luan?”
Tao Chu offered a chilling smile. “I know two women in Zangcheen who can see portents. Madam Po. And her great-granddaughter Frayka.”
Ti’s hardened and hollow heart sank.
Of course. The ability to see portents runs in the Po family.
Although Ti knew little about portents, she remembered stories she’d heard long ago about women in her family who had the gift to see them. It now occurred to her that such women shouldn’t be discounted.
On one hand, women with the gift to see portents could help Ti in her reign as empress by forecasting problems in time to prevent them.
On the other hand, such women who failed to work with Ti could just as easily work against her by forecasting the empress’s intents and relaying them to her enemies.
Suddenly, Ti appreciated the importance of luring anyone with portents to work on behalf of the Po Dynasty.
Tao Chu’s smile widened with confidence. “If I may, I suggest you compare the two possibilities. Madam Po is more experienced with her portents, but it’s unlikely she has the strength to face a deadly serpent. On the other hand, Frayka may be a Far Easterner in appearance, but she comes from a land of warriors. Her skills with portents may be lower but I doubt she would fear the sight of a serpent.”
“Yes! Please, Empress!” Luan Lu said. Her eyes filled with tears of hope. “A warrior is just what my sister needs!”
Ti considered the situation.
She would rather send Tao Chu to the mountain village because she hoped either the serpent or the villagers would kill him. She needed to be rid of him to keep the magician from planting any more seeds of doubt about Ti in her advisors’ heads so she could maintain control over them.
On the other hand, Luan Lu wasn’t the only one who looked excited at the idea of Frayka solving the serpent problem. With the exception of Ti’s new most trusted advisor Li Chien, every man in the room brightened at Tao Chu’s recommendation.
Ti had spent her short lifetime observing her father and asking questions at every opportunity. While her silly step-mother and step-sisters chattered about nonsensical things like clothing and jewelry and which of the emperor’s guards they considered to be the most handsome, Ti preferred to learn about the world in which they lived. She’d learned how to read what a man thought by the change in expression on his face. She’d learned how to read an entire room full of people and recognize when their moods shifted.
My advisors think Tao Chu offers a wise recommendation. They trust him.
If I fail to follow Tao Chu’s advice, the advisors will look at me with suspicion. They will wonder why I rejected Tao Chu’s advice. Then they will be more inclined to listen to him instead of me. That could be the beginning of my downfall.
What if I send Frayka to Luan Lu’s village? If Frayka succeeds, the advisors will say I have good judgment for taking Tao Chu’s advice. If Frayka fails, they will say I trusted Tao Chu in the same way my father did—and that it was Tao Chu who failed.
“I will take your advice, Tao Chu,” Ti said. “I agree that a warrior like Frayka is the better candidate to help Luan Lu, her sister, and her village.”
Ti rem
embered spying on the court trial where her father ruled in Frayka’s favor but sent her to the Hall of Concubines for safe keeping.
Returning her attention to the guard Jojen, Ti said, “You can find Frayka in the Hall of Concubines. Bring her here at once so she can meet Luan Lu and be on her way to help the girl.”
Ti remembered Li Chien’s earlier advice about how to use the Hall of Concubines to show Ti’s supremacy as empress.
Before Jojen could join the other guards exiting the council room, Ti caught him by the arm. Taking it as a command, Jojen halted and stood at attention.
“One more thing,” Ti said. “All of my father’s concubines have lost their standing. They will now become my handmaidens. Move them to the palace.” She leaned forward and whispered, “I will be gathering my own collection of concubines.”
Jojen blinked in surprise.
“Male concubines,” Ti said. “I would like you to keep your eyes open for any man you think I might like.”
“Yes, my empress,” Jojen said.
Ti liked the fear that had entered his eyes. “Wait for me outside. I will need your help soon.” As an afterthought, she said, “Take Luan Lu with you.”
Jojen hurried out of the room with the mountain girl and closed the door.
Drumming up the most appreciative tone she could muster, Ti spoke to the advisors. “I thank the gods that my father left me such fine advisors. And I give special gratitude to the court magician Tao Chu for thinking of a wise solution that will benefit our people who live on Dragon Mountain.”
Careful not to let her feelings show on her face, Ti marveled at the way the royal magician Tao Chu basked so quickly in the approval of his fellow advisors that he seemed to have forgotten his accusations against her.
“Please forgive my weariness,” Ti said. “The tragedy of my father’s death weighs heavy on my shoulders, and I’m exhausted. Accept my great thanks for your help in getting through this terrible time. Let’s all use the coming week to recover.”
While the advisors shuffled out of the council room, Ti gave a subtle nod to her most trusted advisor, Li Chien, indicating he should stay.