‘What has happened here?’ he said, breathless. It was the most discomposed I’d ever seen the man.
I remained silent for a long time. Lupina looked at me closely, eyes narrowing. ‘A man. On the gallery, waiting in the dark. For a moment I thought it was—’
‘What?’ Huáng asked, face intense.
‘Nothing,’ I responded, shaking my head. Secundus and Tenebrae seemed very puzzled. ‘I fired once but he moved too fast and fled into the garden.’
Huáng went to the balusters and looked down. He deflated some, then, and put his free hand on his back and winced. ‘I will send guards into the garden to see where this intruder might have gone. Possibly it was a brigand or thief looking for a trinket to steal.’ He sagged and looked tired in the moonlight. The zuhílí were gone, scattered on the wind. All was quiet. ‘I am not too old for speed, but I am too old not to feel it afterward. Good evening.’ Min took his arm and escorted him back down the gallery.
When Huáng and Min were gone, I said to Secundus simply, ‘Stretchers.’
Of course there was argument and discussion, but by the end I had convinced them – with Lupina’s help – that what I’d seen was truly vaettir. Tenebrae speculated a long while on why the stretcher would be wearing clothes and a hat, since most of the ones we’ve witnessed in the west were clad in skins and the cast-offs of their victims. We came to no answers then, but agreed there was more to these creatures than we understood. For a long while, we discussed the possibility that it could have been a tall daemon-possessed man and, truly, I could not answer with any definitive proof it was not except I didn’t feel that was the right answer.
In the morning, they brought us back before Tsing Huáng, but this time we did not take tea in the rice-paper building. Descending from the brilliant sun-ripened world of the roof into the Winter Palace below felt like entering a crypt. The dragonback wall gate was open and we passed through into the other half of the great chamber. While I was rested and young Fiscelion quiescent within me – indeed, I felt quite buoyant and hale, my hands and feet swollen no longer – the events of the night before weighed on my mind as we made our way beyond the spiky partition. Again there was a hall within the hall, and this time the guards stopped us before entering and, with brusque hands, took our weapons – removing pistols, jians, and knives and placing them in an ante-chamber on a silk-lined table lit by guttering candlelight. They did not, however, take my sawn-off, which was strapped to my leg. Something regarding my condition prevented them from searching me, a sort of vestigial sense of propriety. The head guard, a weasel-faced man with sparse facial hair and a squint, looked at me closely, taking note of my stomach, and waved his men away.
The building beyond the dragonback wall was strange – stranger than any other we’d been in. Here there were artisans painting, and sculptors moving larger stone works with block and tackle. The building seemed more like a theatre than the hall of rulers – there was what we Rumans would consider an atrium, every inch of which was illuminated by lanterns and candles so that the oily smoke from them rose and pooled in a high open space ringed in lesser galleries. A great set of red double doors stood closed, with guards outside, and waiting in the atrium were numerous people that were not guards but seemed more likely to be performers, dressed in blousy, bright silks like acrobats might wear and accoutred with strange devices I could not discern the usage of.
We were led on silent feet up a set of lush carpeted stairs into a side room – Tenebrae and Secundus once more carrying the ash messenger’s box from Tamberlaine. The room was massive and golden and centred on a long table with a map of Kithai at the centre of it and brilliant with numerous daemonlight lamps and lanterns, casting a buttery-yellow glow that seemed different from Ruman engineers’ daemonlight. The map was intricate and I guessed it would be worth thousands of sesterius to any man or woman of military mind back in Rume, but it was so detailed and large it was hard to take in all at once. It was a map for those who knew the land. Tsing Huáng greeted us through welcoming hand gestures and bade us sit and take our rest. Min, looking at her grandfather, took her seat next to Tsing to better translate his words for us, and Sun Huáng positioned himself on the other side while Tsing Huáng’s slaves and servants bowed and brought cushions.
Of the Ruman contingent, we sat together, first Secundus, then me, Carnelia, and Tenebrae. Lupina waited, standing, watching the room and Tsing Huáng’s guards with a frown. All nobles have servants and so Lupina was not remarked upon and had clutched Fantasma’s hand to keep him from toddling about, and for the moment the young man was calm and quite manageable. I examined the art in the room, various paintings of battles and farmlands, dragons and warriors, and a series of finely wrought ceramic busts set in alcoves in the room’s wall – each one a man resembling Tsing Huáng. Possibly his ancestors; most likely former August Ones That Speak for the Autumn Lords.
Tsing said through Min, ‘Now we are to the business of treaty.’ He snapped his fingers and one of his servants hustled forward with a scroll while others moved through the room, around the great map table, with drinks and light foods to break our fasts. Another servant brought a sheaf of parchment and an elegant brush and inkwell. Tsing Huáng handed the scroll to Min and said something in Tchinee.
Min looked to us. ‘Tsing Huáng asks that I read aloud his proposed terms of treaty and then you may discuss.’
Secundus and I indicated she should continue. She did, reading in a slow voice much of what had been discussed the day before.
Once she had finished reading Tsing Huáng’s terms, Tenebrae said to Secundus, ‘The Emperor has authorized me to accede to monetary demands. To an extent. These terms fall within those limits.’ He pursed his lips. ‘He will be more upset about the apology on display in Jiang than the money itself, though the money smarts.’
Secundus rubbed his chin, thinking. He turned to Tsing Huáng. ‘We need assurance you will not take up arms against Rume in the future, or assist its enemies by granting them resources or passage.’
Tsing spoke to Min and she said, ‘You mean the Medieran King, Diegal.’
‘Yes,’ Secundus said, simply. ‘We are here to procure a treaty so that the world doesn’t erupt into war.’
After Min had translated that, Tsing Huáng laughed. ‘It is doubtful there is much you can do to stop it. But treating with us now is a good beginning.’
‘We have noticed you have had some dealings with Mediera,’ I said, pointing at the guards stationed at the door, Hellfire rifles held loosely, pistols holstered, jians tucked into their belts. ‘Those are not Ruman make.’
‘Yes,’ Tsing said. ‘Until now, Rume has proven reticent to sell its munitions. Despite our long history of firegardening, we do not have the physical engineering capabilities that Rume or Mediera possess and so it remains an esoteric study, fit for the few initiated in its secrets.’
‘And that’s what it boils down to,’ I said. ‘We need assurances you will not assist Mediera and you want our technology and engineering.’
Tsing Huáng looked at me very closely as Min translated for him. When she finished, a tight smile touched his lips and he gave me the barest intimation of a nod.
‘The Hellfire and engineers, that is easily quantifiable. But for your part,’ I said, ‘and Kithai, what do we have other than your word you will not assist Mediera?’
Tsing laughed as Min translated. ‘Indeed! All treaty-making is based on trust.’
Tenebrae shifted in his seat and, from around his neck, removed a chain and key and tossed it in front of Secundus. It clattered to a stop, drawing all eyes. Tenebrae looked somewhat pale, and discomposed. ‘I think it is time to open it, Secundus.’
‘Why are you shaking, Tenebrae?’
Tenebrae, for his part, swallowed heavily and then gave a nervous laugh. ‘Secundus,’ he said, and there was the totality of their relation in his expression. As long as Tamberlaine’s box remained locked and the message unread, they were free to be f
riends and lovers. Tenebrae’s wrists remained unblooded, the Quotidians silent. Both he and Secundus could forget that Tamberlaine was his master and great father, as he was all of ours. But his sacred duty as a Praetorian was to safeguard the Emperor’s designs. Once the ash box yielded up its contents, those contents might not make Tenebrae and Secundus rejoice. Some ineffable puff of air locked tight inside the box, the air of Rume, might be anathema to their relationship.
Tenebrae is not a likeable man – he is a handsome man, and an aggressive one, and an able one – but I felt for a moment a great sadness for him. He looked at Secundus with such fear and self-loathing, the pain twisting across his face almost too much for me to bear.
Secundus placed his hand on the key, lifted it, and opened the box.
From inside, he removed a small piece of paper embossed with the Imperial signet, an eagle bearing a flaming sword in its claws.
Secundus read in a flat, emotionless voice, ‘From Tamberlaine, Emperor, Lord and Master, Best and Greatest, Ruler of Myriad Kingdoms, Wielder of the Secret of Emrys, Sacred God of the Latinum Hills – a Message to the Autumn Lords, Rulers of Far Tchinee, Kithai, Cathay, or Whatever Else You Wish to Call Yourselves.’
Min’s voice was low, translating Secundus’ words, an incessant drone filling the room as my brother spoke.
‘My greetings. I am sorry I cannot be there myself to conduct this meeting. As Emperor, it is often my duty to look unpleasant realities in the face, to accept the hard truths of rule.
‘The hard truth in this situation between Kithai and Rume is that there is no foundation upon which a structure of trust can be built. Regarding the Shang Tzu incident, mistakes were made by Rume. Possibly mistakes were made by Tchinee and its emissaries. Right now, trust is what we need between our two nations so that an accord can be reached.
‘So, it is my thought that I bind myself to you and bind you to me. My son and heir Marcus Aurelius will take to wife a Tchinee woman of noble birth, chosen by you with the input of Sun Huáng, who knows me. He will sire children upon her so to join my family with yours. Furthermore, I hereby declare that I have formally adopted Secundus, Livia, and Carnelia Cornelius. From this moment forward they are my heirs – in addition to Marcus Aurelius, who retains primacy – and are in direct line of succession to the throne after my first-born son. Of the women, choose between them. The younger is unattached, and the elder is obviously fertile. All previous bonds of marriage are hereby dissolved and dismissed.’
Secundus paused. I felt as though I had been shot. My stomach cramped. There was a stunned silence. Secundus remained quiet. The parchment shook in his hand. He did not look away, but a great struggle warred within him.
‘This is my offer, and I hope it falls on reasonable ears. Everything I do, I do for the continued safety and prosperity of Rume and her citizens. Sincerely—’
Secundus dropped the parchment, letting it fall toward Min and Tsing without finishing it.
‘I did not know,’ Tenebrae said, opening his hands, helplessly. ‘I was instructed to only open the box in the presence of the August Ones. How could I have known?’
‘Then why did your hand shake?’ Secundus asked.
‘Because I had reason to fear.’
Secundus turned away from him. Carnelia stood, looked about the room, sat down again. I was silent for a long while.
Tsing Huáng watched us avidly, an oily smile on his face. Sun Huáng looked uncomfortable.
I focused on my breath, in and out. In and out. Fiscelion shifted and kicked inside me. I felt my mind going away, unable to focus on any one thing for too long.
‘Wine,’ Sun Huáng said, and then he repeated it in his own language. Servants bustled forward, bringing ceramic bottles of the pale rice wine.
After a long while, Tsing Huáng broke the silence. ‘Your Emperor doesn’t understand the situation here. While his offer is very kind, we must consider it very closely.’ He bowed to us. ‘Shall we continue? Sun Huáng said you had issue with the figures for the two ships?’
Secundus seemed to shake himself out of his reverie. In the course of a single letter, he’d become second in succession to rule the Ruman Empire. And, my love, Fiscelion swelling in my stomach, is also in that line of succession.
Know this, love: we are wed, our blood is joined by the wound we both bear, and no force on this earth can put us asunder. I am, and will remain, your wife. As will become clear.
Tsing Huáng had sense enough not to push us Cornelians – though the smirk on his face made him even more unctuous and greasy than usual. He was the snake in the garden grass, already triumphant.
‘Let us discuss figures and your somewhat … specious … valuation of the two ships,’ Secundus said, setting his shoulders. His ability to set it all aside awed me, the turmoil within me was so great. His face, still smooth with the softness of youth – he is just twenty-four – seemed a mask, hiding a greater confusion and anger.
Picking up the scroll with the figures Tsing Huáng had presented us with the day before, he ran down the list. ‘Item one – you have valued an unspecified cargo at 10,000 yín, which converts to something around 3,500 denarius. What was this cargo?’
Tsing Huáng’s eyes narrowed and he clapped loudly for his secretary, who rushed forward. Secundus, Tsing, Min, and the secretary put their heads together and began discussing money in quiet tones.
Carnelia looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. I moved down the table from where I sat to join my sister, ignoring Tenebrae.
‘Oh, sissy,’ she sobbed, putting her head on my breast. ‘How could he?’
‘Tamberlaine?’ I asked. ‘Very easily.’
She sniffled for a bit. ‘That terrible, terrible man. How could he just dissolve your marriage like that? You are pregnant!’
The fury that had been building in me rose some. ‘Father plays us as pawns. Tamberlaine plays our whole family.’
Carnelia’s eyes widened in realization. ‘Tata is childless now.’
‘Nonsense. He has us.’
‘But we’ve been “adopted”.’
‘Against our will. I refuse to believe we’re powerless in this situation.’
‘So, if this man—’ She waved her hand at Tsing Huáng. ‘If he decides to take you as a bride, you’ll fight?’
‘I will make that decision when I must. As will you,’ I said, brushing back her hair. ‘Tamberlaine offered this without knowing the situation here with the Autumn Lords and the real rulers, these August Ones.’ I shrugged. ‘They call us “foreign devils”, sissy. I doubt they’re jumping to wed and bed you and I.’ Looking about, I noticed something. ‘Where is the boy?’
Carnelia sat up. ‘Fantasma? I saw him twiddling about near that tapestry a while ago.’ A thick wooden door, carved as two carp wheeling underwater, stood open.
I stood. ‘I will fetch him,’ I said.
‘I will come with you,’ she said.
‘No,’ I said, waving her back. ‘I need to clear my head.’
I walked around the table and approached Min, asking if there was a water-closet behind the carp door. She nodded, giving me directions. I went through the open doorway, entering a long arched hallway, stone-floored with a red runner carpet that gave the impression of a tongue dashing away down a long gullet. Each wall was replete with images of dragons, birds, insects, flowers, flora, fauna, dogs, cats, men and women, and other more hideous creatures, daemonic faces leering with tongues caught between gnashing teeth and avaricious eyes. Faded tapestries hung limply, stirred by no breeze, their colour leeched away. After passing a stone bust of who I could only assume was another of the August Ones Who Speak for the Autumn Lords (this one notable because it was a woman, and lovely) I found the door with a moth and moon motif carved into it and with great effort wrenched it open and performed my ablutions in the lavish, candlelit silken washroom.
Afterwards, I was puzzled. I hadn’t seen Fantasma, and worried he’d wandered off in one of his dreamlike states,
staring into lantern light or tracing frescoes with his index finger. I turned away from the room of negotiations and walked deeper into the building within a palace.
Following the throat-like hall, I found it curved to the left and into the deep guts of the building. My feet were silent on the carpeted stone, and a hushed expectancy filled me. It was as if I were internally performing one of the Eight Silken Movements, or the whole world was, drawing in a great breath and pausing before the moment of exhalation. The release. The silence drew out with each step forward. I put my hands on my stomach.
Eventually, I came to a crossing of passages in the throat of the building, and there, thirty paces to my right, stood the boy, Fantasma.
He stood above a pair of the Tchinee guards crumpled on the floor. His face was smeared with blood, and the rich red stuff dripped from his lower jaw as if he’d been buried deep in gore. In bloody hands he held a jian, obviously pilfered from his victims.
My heart sank. I’d been a blind fool. I had wanted to believe that the boy was an innocent and the village women superstitious fools. But I was the fool instead. The boy was every bit of what the women in Uxi had believed.
Seeing me, the thing in the shape of a boy raised his head and his glittering gaze fixed upon me. His mouth spread apart in a grin, showing two rows of sharp teeth.
As I dug frantically at my leg to retrieve my sawn-off, Fantasma turned and raced down the hallway, holding the pilfered jian off to the side, angled away from his body. He moved like an arrow, a lance, a striking bird. His movement was almost too fast for my bewildered eye to follow. In a blink, he was out of sight. I chased him, running as fast as my thickened body would allow, my gun in hand.
My mind raced. Why would Fantasma lurk in our midst, docile and only now show his true face? Why kill now? I thought of how we found him. Monkey-boys. I thought of Sun Wukong, and how Fantasma had followed his order. How they had watched us. Sun Wukong.
The passage made a hard left and narrowed. The ceiling pressed in more tightly and the walls possessed less ornamentation and frillwork. The buttery daemonlight lanterns stood farther apart, lit at fewer intervals. This area, lined in doorways, seemed a more functional area – there were scents of herbs and spices, and behind one door I could hear two women chattering excitedly and the clatter of wood and straw on flooring. I imagined brooms being swept across stone.
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