by J C Kang
Chapter 13
Head feeling as if dwarves had forged an arsenal large enough to supply an army on it, Jie blinked several times to clear out the gunk. She was sitting, back to a wall, hands behind her back. How she’d ended up like this, she couldn’t remember; but the haze over her mind felt as if someone had used the clan musk toxin on her.
A muffled conversation between a male and female carried on nearby.
What was her last memory? Tian, waking her up. Her, telling him about Wen’s betrayal. No, Wen had come to the safe house, and they’d grappled. Had Wen prevailed?
Her vision cleared, only to reveal she was blindfolded. When she went to remove it, rope bit into her wrists. Her ankles were bound, as well. It felt eerily similar to when Lilian had captured her in the aftermath of Lord Ting’s assassination. She listened.
From the breaths, there were two others here, at opposite ends of a large room. Small people. The lavender scent meant Yuna or Wen. Maybe both.
“Tian? Yuna?” Jie wiggled, trying to loosen her arms.
“I’m here.” Yuna’s voice came from her right. The way the sound echoed, they were in the room where Tian had rearranged all the evidence.
“I’m here, too.” Tian said from her left. From the acoustics, it sounded like they were all sitting.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re all tied up,” Yuna said.
“Where’s Wen now?” After she’d defeated Jie, Yuna and Tian would’ve been easy targets.
“It wasn’t Wen. I…” Tian’s voice shook. “I used the toxin on you and her. I was afraid you were going to hurt each other.”
From the ache in her ankle and heel, the toxin had taken effect before Wen had torn any tendons. And Wen would’ve been knocked out, too. So, how did they all end up restrained? “Why didn’t you just use it on Wen?”
“She’s not the second shooter.”
So, how did they all end up restrained? “Then what happened?”
“Faceless Chang.” Yuna said. “As soon as you both passed out, he came in through the window. Tian tried to get to the toxins, but crashed into them, instead. I couldn’t handle him.”
“Her,” Tian said. “Faceless Chang is the Gardener of the Peony Garden. The second shooter.”
Jie tried to focus through the cobwebs in her head. How was that possible?
Yuna sucked in a sharp breath. “Did you inform the clan?”
No, Jie had slept through the courier’s check-in. “I—”
On the other side of the wall came a muffled yell, but now that the haze had started to lift from Jie’s mind, the voice was obvious to her elf ears: Yuna. And the relative pitch and tone of the sounds suggested she’d said, That wasn’t me.
Which meant whoever was in here wasn’t Yuna. It was Gardener Ju, just like Tian had said. In the six years Jie had known her, how had she never guessed? Well, now was time to play along, to bide time and find out—
“It’s not Yuna,” Tian said. “It’s Gardener Ju!”
No! The boy had all the smarts, none of the common sense.
From where Yuna had been sitting came a laugh. “Revealed. Yuna’s a clever little girl, feigning unconsciousness. She had me fooled.” The voice was Gardener Ju’s. She’d been there the whole time, mimicking Yuna’s breathing patterns and voice.
The Mockingbird’s Deception technique. Which meant, she’d been trained in Black Lotus ways. And chances were, she’d imitated Yuna to find out how much had been shared with the clan. Just who—
“Right now, you are trying to figure out who I really am.”
“One of the Steel Orchids,” Tian said.
What? That wasn’t possible. The Steel Orchids had died in an explosion along with all the other Black Lotus girls in the Floating World, nearly twenty years ago.
“The boy is smart. I was surprised he’d surmised not only that there was a second shooter, but that the second shooter was Gardener Ju. Tell me, Zheng Tian, how did you figure it out?”
“You fit Jie’s description of Faceless Chang.” Tian’s tone grew more excited, like a child praised by a parent. “You’re the same height and build as Wen. You favor your left leg. You smell like the Peony Garden, and their guards let you in late at night. The House was in chaos, because you weren’t there to manage it.”
“Impressive. How did you know I was the second shooter?”
Part of Jie wanted to tell him to shut up. The other part wanted to know, as well.
“The climbing claw marks on the Chrysanthemum Pavilion’s walls,” Tian said. “The spacing on the left side was narrower than the right. Because of your injury. Wen wouldn’t even need the claws. She could jump and reach the top. Why did you imitate Wen?”
“Once I knew Jie was watching, I put on an act.” Gardener Ju’s tone sounded smug. “She’s so impulsive, and now especially suspicious because of Lilian’s betrayal, I knew I could trick her by pretending to be Wen. Turn the two on each other, and the cell would fall apart.”
Jie had fallen for the trick, and it had almost succeeded.
“Now what impresses me the most,” Gardener Ju continued, “is that you figured out I am one of the Steel Orchids.”
This was indeed, impressive. How had Tian figured it out?
“You used clan techniques, but all clan members were accounted for. Unless, they’d faked their deaths. Like Lilian tried to do. Through an explosion.”
Gardener Ju laughed. “I suspect that’s where she got the inspiration.”
Jie swallowed hard. Lilian had taken measures to make sure nobody else got hurt. This Steel Orchid had wiped out an entire cell, probably to leave no witnesses. Though if one Steel Orchid survived, she’d probably plotted the whole thing with her twin.
“You returned to the Floating World after enough time had passed,” Tian said. “Anyone who knew you as a Blossom would’ve died in the fire. Or left the Floating World. Or forgotten who you were. And you’re about the right age, too. Fifty-something.”
“Maybe you’re not that smart.” Gardener Ju snorted. “A word of advice, Zheng Tian: if you live through today, always underestimate a lady’s age to her face.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She laughed. “I jest.”
“Why?” Jie asked. “Why did you desert the clan?”
“Same as your beloved Lilian. I was tired of spreading my legs for the Black Lotus. Master Yan had always promised me reassignment. When that didn’t happen after The Beauty died, I knew it never would. I had to orchestrate my way out.”
“Why did you kill your clan Sisters?”
Tian shuddered. “If she ever wanted to come back to the Floating World, she couldn’t leave anyone who remembered her as Black Lotus.”
“I even let my twin die, because she was too blinded by loyalty to the clan.”
The nonchalance. A chill went up Jie’s spine, even as a part of her died. She’d always assumed the clan Sisters embedded in the Floating World formed an even deeper bond than other clan members. “Why did you return to the Floating World at all, then?”
Gardener Ju laughed. “To make money, from other girls spreading their legs.”
“And from selling yue,” Tian said.
“Yes.”
It was all about money. Jie snorted. “Why did you kill Lord Ting?”
“Oh, you will love this.” Gardener Ju lowered her voice. “Lord Ting had a controlling stake in Jinjing Lumber. He was money behind the Fangs and the Red Dragons, and was getting quite rich off yue. But then, he made the mistake of siding with the Fangs.”
“And you recruited Lilian to kill him.”
“I’d identified both of you as clan assets almost as soon as you joined the Chrysanthemum Pavilion as Florets. I knew how to co-opt your communications, and I also knew she wanted out. I just gave her a path. It cost me the Chrysanthemum Pavilion, but the Floating World Houses pool money into a fund for such disasters—a lesson from my fire, oh so long ago. I’ll be using that to rebuild a
new House, complete with unpurified yue to keep the Hummingbirds coming back.”
The self-satisfied tone. The hallmark of an enemy who knew they had the upper hand, and needed to gloat about their success. On the one hand, it meant Gardener Ju planned on killing them; on the other it could be used to stall.
“Now, Zheng Tian, I was going to turn you over to the Emperor and collect the reward. Now that I’ve seen how smart you are, that would be a waste. I’m going to find a way to keep you.”
“I will help you, as long as you let Wen, Yuna, and Jie live.”
In that order. Jie’s snort was cut short by a cold blade pressed to her neck.
“Of course Wen and Yuna will live. They are too valuable to my House, and all it takes will be the Tiger’s Eye and the musk toxin to make them believe whatever story I tell them.”
Did she have the toxin? It was a secret formula that only the clan compounders knew, and any cache from when Gardener Ju had still been a clan member two decades ago would’ve lost its potency.
Jie sniffed. The saturation of the musk in the air suggested Tian had smashed most, if not all of the vials when he ran into it. Maybe that was for the better.
“As for Jie… If she tells me what I want to know, maybe.”
There was no way Jie was leaving here alive. No doubt, Gardener Ju wanted to find out if the clan knew about her. Jie’s best bet was to dissemble and stall. She feigned fear. “I… I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“I wonder.” Gardener Ju wedged herself between Jie and the wall. The knife disappeared from her neck, while iron fingers clamped down on both her wrists over her pulse—another clan technique for detecting lies, and one which could be countered by controlling the heartbeat. “What is your name?”
“Yan Jie.” Jie closed her eyes and concentrated on control of her pulse. The Viper’s Rest technique could slow a heartbeat and breath so that all but the most skilled doctors would believe the person dead. It came with the nasty side effect of amnesia. Going a quarter of the way into the Viper’s Calm, however, could help a Fist maintain composure under the most stressful situations.
“How long have you been in the clan?”
“Nineteen years.” Actually twenty, her entire life, but the lie would throw off Gardener Ju’s lie detection technique.
“When did you find out I was involved in the shooting?”
Time to mix in some of the truth. “Just now.”
“So the clan doesn’t know?”
“In my message to them, I told them Wen was Faceless Chang.” Hopefully, her breathing technique disguised this lie.
“I can tell you are using the Viper’s Calm.” Gardener Ju’s hands left Jie’s wrists. Her stealth suit rasped as its threads tore, exposing her back to the air. “Now, let’s try again. Does the clan know about me?”
Pain seared in Jie’s shoulder blade, yanking her out of the Viper’s Calm. All coherent focus shattered into fragments of thoughts. Jerking forward, she screamed.
“What are you doing?” Panic rose in Tian’s voice. “Leave her alone!”
“Oh, it’s a very shallow cut, not even into the muscle. She’s always been a fast healer, so this won’t leave much of a mark. Now, little tramp, you who cost me your significant virgin price with your indiscretion: does the clan know about me?”
Skin peeled away from the incision, sending burning waves over her shoulder. Jie gritted her teeth and fought to regain concentration. “Thank you! The scar from this will keep me from ever being reassigned to the Floating World again.”
“Had I known you enjoyed a little punishment, I would’ve let Lord Ting play with you, like he did with Lilian. Does the clan know about me?”
“The clan is all-knowing.” Pain under control, Jie made her tone flippant. Another slow cut ran down the ridge of her spine. Despite her best efforts, she screamed again.
“Stop!” Tian’s voice bubbled with tears.
The blindfold came off, and Gardener Ju’s looming presence left. Jie squinted to allow her eyes to adjust to the light.
A blurry form gliding soundlessly across the room, albeit with a limp, crystallized into focus. Gardener Ju’s stealth suit, an older version, clung a little too tightly to her plump figure. She moved behind Tian, blindfolded with hands bound in front of him. “If the half-elf won’t talk, maybe you will.”
Tian’s lips trembled. Without clan training, he’d reveal that the clan knew nothing, and that would be Jie’s death. Maybe his, too.
Jie’s eyes darted to the shelf of toxins. The entire row of musk had been shattered. Shards of glass lay all over the floor. Not like she could reach it before Gardener Ju stopped her, anyway.
With a deft slash, Gardener Ju split open the back of Tian’s robes, and he whimpered.
“Now, Little Tian, you will find out what it means to be a Black Lotus Fist. Enlighten me, what did Jie tell the clan?”
Tian’s body went rigid. He was going to answer, and Jie’d be dead. She scooched forward with her bound hands and feet.
“Red, sword, wheel, dagger, green, stab, cloudy, spicy, crossbow, opera, bludgeon, slippery, sun, finger, six, two, zero, nine.”
Brave boy. Jie had misjudged him.
Gardener Ju squinted, then looked to Jie. “What? Is this some kind of code?”
Jie shrugged. A stupid mistake, since pain from the wounds seared in her spine and shoulder. She yelped.
“There’s one way to find out. Answer me.” Gardener Ju ran the blade somewhere down Tian’s back.
“Red, sword, wheel, dagger, green, stab, cloudy, spicy, crossbow, opera, bludgeon, slippery, sun, finger, six, two, zero, nine.” His tone came out level, and his face contorted only a fraction.
How had a spoiled ten-year-old resisted, without training?
“How are you doing this, boy?” The traitor ripped off his blindfold.
He blinked several times, and his gaze met Jie’s. His fists squeezed tight, and he thrust them between his legs, concealing them.
Gardener Ju’s gaze locked on his hands. “Hmmm, you value your hands. Well, you don’t need all your fingers to be useful to me.”
She came around to the front of him and knelt. She seized his arm and pulled.
Head shaking back and forth, jaws clenched, he resisted.
Setting the blade between her teeth, she wrapped two hands around one of his arms. She leaned in—
Snick. Glass shattered. A musk scent filled the air.
Tian flung shards and liquid at her face.
The toxin! How had he hidden it from the Gardener? The coin trick, maybe.
“No! Clever little bastard.” The blade slipped from Ju’s teeth as she stumbled back a few steps, hands patting at her face. Her glare shifted from Tian to Jie. She retrieved the knife and then approached on wobbling legs. “Whatever happens, I’ll make sure you won’t live through this.”
Nine steps. Jie might have nine steps before the toxin took effect, and the Gardener could cover the space between them in five. One, two, her knees buckled from the toxin coursing through her veins.
Three, she was within arms’ reach.
Jie scuttled back to the wall, creating two extra steps. Tian rolled toward them, crushing or scattering all the evidence he’d painstakingly rearranged.
Four. If more toxin had splashed on her, the Gardener might have passed out already. Even now, her eyes were glassy. Five.
He bowled into the back of the Gardener’s legs, sending her toppling toward Jie, blade pointed down.
Jie lurched to the side best she could with her ankles and wrists bound. Pain burned through her shoulders and spine. The knife tip passed within a hair of her cheek.
The Gardener collapsed with an oomph and a gurgle. Her body went limp. Her head lolled toward Jie, her glassed-over eyes managing a baleful glare. Blood leaked from the corner of her gawk.
With a little squirming, Jie flipped the Gardener onto her back.
The knife was lodged between her ribs, into h
er lung. The weapon must’ve turned on impact with the floor. If she died, the clan would lose the chance to interrogate her, to find out more about the Red Dragons, Lord Ting’s murder, and Jinjing Lumber. More importantly, if the Gardener had trained any apprentices in Black Lotus ways.
Before Jie could do anything else, the hatred in the Gardener’s eyes dimmed as her life winked out.
Epilogue
Tian studied his web of evidence, painstakingly rearranged in the two days since Gardener Ju’s attack. Wen, Yuna, and Jie had scoured Gardener Ju’s quarters in the Peony Garden, and added new items to the evidence room: the demon mask, red cloak, and climbing claws and other Black Fist weapons and tools. A porcelain vase containing ashes had a name inscribed on the bottom, confirmed by Master Yan to be the other Steel Orchid.
Most interesting to Tian were the ledgers and tax receipts to the imperial treasury. After a thorough investigation into every entity that had either paid or received monies from Gardener Ju, there was no evidence she’d ever invested money into training an apprentice in Black Lotus ways. Running a brothel, it was unlikely she ever had time, and perhaps no interest, either. If there was anything to be learned from her financial records, it was that the Lords of the North could be duped into paying twice as much for polished jade.
Gardener Ju’s strangest expense, outlandish in that she never did anything that didn’t benefit to her, had been payment to a midwife about two years ago. It had coincided with a period when Jie said she’d disappeared from the Floating World for hours at a time, but she’d never appeared to be pregnant. The clan had tracked down the midwife, who had record of the payment, but no memory of whose birth it had paid for. It was a mystery that might never be answered, yet one which kept him from sleeping.
In the end, everything added up. Lilian’s betrayal and Lord Ting’s murder had all been about money. Jie, now joining him at his side with Wen and Yuna, had been especially bitter at this conclusion.
Why, he wasn’t sure. The clan knew, and they’d passed that information to the Emperor. Government soldiers had raided Jinjing Lumber, discovered the illegal yue production, and shut it down. Their ledgers and documents proved Gardener Ju’s assertion that Lord Ting had been behind the company; and that after his death, Jinjing Holdings became the majority shareholder—and it was owned by yet another shell company. Gardener Ju’s ledgers revealed her to be its sole owner.