He stood in stark blackness and even his Moonstone failed to glow. Slowly, his vision adjusted and he saw that the place wasn’t totally without light. Before him, shapes materialized: a hundred soldiers armed with scimitars with the same sharpened bronze staffs as the sentinels below, while four bronze horses pulled the golden chariot of Emperor Qin. Even in the dull light it glimmered like the vehicle of some unearthly being, and standing and rising above all else was the statue of First Emperor himself.
The regal figure did not move. Nor did the hundred member clay sentry.
“Majesty,” Master Yun said, bowing gravely. “I’ve come to ask for your help.”
“I have waited here for more than a thousand years and you have not come to pay tribute before. Do you think I don’t remember you, Master Warlock?”
“I had no knowledge you desired my company.”
The stiff form of Emperor Qin dropped the reins to his four steeds and turned to face him. “I cannot leave this place, but you can. I cannot lift my feet from this chariot. Tell me how I can leave this place and I will grant you any request.”
“I need your army.”
The power of the ghost army was invincible. These men were already dead and could not die again, but their energy could rise once more.
“You want power, my army’s power, so that your own desire can consume it. You’ve forgotten, Warlock, I know all about you. A millennium and more of death has not erased my memory.”
“All of the Middle Kingdom is at risk,” Master Yun implored. “The Mongol Esen threatens to bring down the Empire and place himself on the throne.”
Ghostly laughter rattled the vault. “You fear Esen? If only you knew. That one is the least of the Empire’s worries. Look at your gemstone, Master Warlock; its gift is not only to bring you sight in black places. If you are afraid to see the future, why should I help you?”
In truth he had dared not look since Lotus Lily’s birth, but now the clean light of the Moonstone burned his eyes: Two babies born, one a Mongol, born in a tent honed to brutality by the wolf-haunted steppe; the other Chinese, born in the Waterworld aboard a ragged, stolen junk.
“The Mongol is the spawn of Altan,” the statue said. “You know who the other belongs to.”
“Altan is the younger brother of Esen.”
“He is also the father of the Mongol who will rule the Middle Kingdom by force.”
“Then I need your help even more than I feared.”
“Indeed. But what do I care if I am dead?” Master Yun was powerless to grant First Emperor his wish except for a few short days, and only at a cost. His freedom required the entombment of someone else to take his place, a being of transcendent power.
“I know your thoughts,” the statue said. “I know how this enchantment works. Bring me the fox faerie to take my place and I will grant you what you wish. If you fail to bring her to me, then you will take her place. The army will be yours and victory ensured, but I must lead them. Only I have the power to move them. But first—first you must pass a test. Are you worthy Master Warlock? Are you worthy to be the vessel of Emperor Qin’s Military Command?”
The terracotta soldiers broke ranks, gliding into a circle in which Master Yun found himself the focus. With the floor exposed, he saw that the ground was lavishly decorated with huge, glowing maps. Quicksilver flowed over the terrain, forming lakes, rivers and streams. If the statue could have smiled, a deep smirk would have creased its face. “Oh, you will be tested.”
The terracotta head barely moved, but Master Yun recognized the dismissal. The Emperor resumed his lifeless brittleness, and all returned to what it was.
A black veil descended over his eyes and he frowned into the dark. He raised a fist to aim the Moonstone, but before he could see anything clearly, the floor beneath his feet gave way. He clamped his arms to his side and squeezed his eyes shut. As he fell a hundred feet, he murmured a mantra to still his reverberating heart, held his breath to prevent his Chi from escaping his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he had regained the seat of the Military Command.
Swiftly, he passed the sentinels with their pointed bronze staffs, exited the polygon-shaped cavern and retraced his steps until he entered the chamber where the pottery soldiers stood in T-formation. He had entered the burial mound via the vault of the Night Guards Army, and there he would find his gateway.
Master Yun moved into the corridor that would lead him to his destination, and rammed into something solid that knocked the breath out of him. When he stepped back, he saw a giant of a terracotta warrior blocking his path.
%%%
The idea of that milksop of a military governor forcing Li to marry him was unthinkable, and even marriage to Quan himself was probably not in her plans, but he’d do it—even against her will if it would save her from the hirsute paws of Zheng Min.
“Military Governor!” Quan shouted over the pandemonium of their departure. He would send Zheng Min on a wild goose chase. “It’s likely the girl is not far if she was only missed a fortnight ago. She has no horse I hear. On foot, she would have probably gone north to hide among the broken walls.”
No delicate palace-woman-runaway would ever head north. It was more likely she would aim for the nearest large city, preferably near a watercourse. But, of course, Li was no delicate palace woman.
“We go south,” Zheng Min said, “to Dengzhou. That town is a port on the seaside where ships come and go. If she really wanted to escape His Imperial Highness, she’d get passage on a junk, not race into the greasy arms of the waiting barbarians.”
Quan shook his head. “I say north. She would think that that’s the last place we would look.”
“Do what you want, Captain; I want Lotus Lily for my bride. The search party goes with me. Form your own if you wish—if you can find anyone who will go with you on your ridiculous hunt. My men are waiting.” He paused, smiled, showing his large yellow teeth. “See you back at the palace, and may the best man win!”
With that, Zheng Min was gone and the troops in his wake. Two stragglers towed the covered palanquin. Quan waited until they were well out of sight, and then he laughed out loud. He made one more scan of the gardens and the Koi Temple for Master Yun, before he headed north.
%%%
The horses trampled the young grass as they approached the pass at Quingshuiying. From there, they crossed the wall at Shanxi, where the ramparts formed an inner circle that joined Juyongguan, Xuanfu and Datong to Shanxi. They stopped once inside the wall. The sentries, as anticipated, were sleeping, playing games, or drinking cheap wine. No one suspected an invasion from an inland route. Esen whistled to his men, making calls like a night bird and they rode quietly on the rich-smelling earth softened by last night’s rain. The Chinese camp lay ahead, totally unaware, for the workers were busy with the evening meal, none armed, and some half-dressed. Esen raised a hand and his unit of horsemen stopped twenty paces away.
How secure you Chinese are: how utterly smug. And stupid. He sighted the girl dressed like a boy, tall, but slimmer than the others, and gave the signal to charge. He raced straight for her, just as she rose to investigate the ruckus, and with one hand on the reins, snatched her around the waist with his free arm and hoisted her onto his horse, flopping her facedown onto her stomach.
He grinned. That was easy. But he had underestimated the concubine dressed in ram’s clothing. A sharp pain pierced his calf as a cooking knife stabbed the muscle of his left leg directly above the boot. He leaned forward, grabbed her wrist to shake the weapon out of her hand, which caused him to lose his balance, and sent the horse careening. He scissored the girl around the waist as they both tumbled onto soft mud. She broke free of him, and might have gotten away had she run, but she stayed, kicked out as he rose, and felled him once more. She tried it again, but this time he was ready for her.
He grabbed her foot, hamstringed her to the ground with a fist-chop to the thigh, and dropped his entire weight on her. He could crush her or let
her breathe. The choice was hers.
He whistled for his horse and the young mare obeyed, got to his feet with the girl in his arms and slammed her into the side of the horse, making her gasp and the horse neigh. He drew a dagger from the sheath at his hip and warned her against making a run for it. “Mount the horse,” he commanded, one hand on the reins. “Or I will slice off your leg where you injured mine.”
She scowled, obeyed. When firmly seated on the saddle, he mounted behind her. The rest of his men were hacking and chopping away at the panicked workers. A few escaped, and a big warrior, that some men were calling He Zhu, fought relentlessly with a bow and then a sabre.
Esen gave the signal to pull back. He had what he had come for. He raced across the garrison over the brick wall, across miles of grassland back to his camp, and to the waiting arms of Jasmine.
%%%
Li’s hands were bound behind her back and her ankles laced together. Esen dropped her onto his sleeping furs with the ease of a poacher who had just bagged an ewe.
“Why didn’t you kill her?” Jasmine asked.
Esen glowered. “I want to use her first. Such a waste to destroy such beauty without at least a taste.”
“She doesn’t look like much now. Her face is bronzed and her hair a squirrel’s nest. Her hands are those of a common labourer and she’s covered in mud.”
“I will get my women to clean her up.”
Jasmine shook her head. “You should kill her. To be sure the prophecy does not come true, the safest bet is to shove your dagger between those lily white breasts.”
“I intend to do exactly that, but in my own time. First, I would like to sample those lily white breasts.”
“All right, but be quick about it.” She jerked up suddenly.
“What is it?”
“Something in the air moves, someone is coming. And they are coming for her.”
Jasmine strolled out of the tent and went to the fire where the women were making tea, and sent them to their lord before cupping a bowlful of boiling water from the skin drum. She reached into a pouch that she carried around her waist and withdrew a fingerful of her own special tealeaves. These she sprinkled in the hot water and waited for them to settle. An image of Chi Quan galloping full speed in the direction of the wall builder’s camp, just east of Datong, appeared in the dappled liquid. It was exactly as she suspected, and even as she watched, his scent was strong in her nostrils. And now, as she gazed more deeply, she saw another warrior: a man of determination, flying the Imperial standard of green dragon and yellow triangle. Zheng Min.
She looked up at the warlord’s tent. Two women had been ordered to prepare a bath for the captive, and carried bladders of clean water and fresh robes of Turkish make, the fabrics flowing like a shimmering river. Jasmine frowned, felt an energy rising from the earth, threatening her own power. The leaves in the tea bowl flittered, the amber liquid trembled, and then the vision was gone. Her black eyes blinked, became wild, and her soft white skin transformed into the pelt of the golden fox. More quickly than any of Esen’s people could turn to witness her transformation, she dashed off into the night toward the Yellow Sea.
It didn’t take long to catch up to Zheng Min and when she reached him, his party had already made camp. She wandered unnoticed between the tents, listened to every word that was said, and repeatedly heard the word ‘princess.’ She could not reveal herself to Zheng Min to question him without good reason, and she no longer felt the need to.
So, Lotus Lily, you are of royal blood. Why hadn’t she realized that earlier? The vision: the massive ocean-going junk, the pirate queen, the small boy. It could only be that Master Yun’s power had eclipsed her own. But no more. That poor excuse for a warlock was trapped beneath the earth and stonework of First Emperor’s deathbed, and no one who entered the tomb of the Imperial dead ever returned. Had she known Lotus Lily’s lineage earlier, she would have reported the missing girl sooner, but she had thought it better to let Esen capture her rather than have the entire Imperial Army raking the countryside.
Change of plans. Zheng Min had mentioned to one of his men that the first high-ranking officer who returned Lotus Lily to her father could claim her for his bride. Fine. If Esen failed to kill the girl, then the military governor could have his shot at taming her. It hardly mattered, Jasmine mused. These games entertained her. In the process Chi Quan would be so enraged by his rival suitors that he, too, would be drawn into the game. The prize, of course, would not be Lotus Lily, but Jasmine. Because Jasmine would make sure that the Emperor’s daughter was dead, and without the daughter, there would be no heir; without an heir, all of the Middle Kingdom would succumb to debauchery and corruption, paranoia and, ultimately, chaos. It was what had brought down the Chinese empire under First Emperor Qin, and Jasmine had been at the heart of it, laughing all the way to His Majesty’s funeral.
%%%
Captain Chi Quan arrived at the border camp only to discover that he was too late. His lieutenant, He Zhu, told him of the ambush and the destruction that the barbarians had left in their wake: a trail of bodies and festering wounds, their supplies ransacked and their weapons stolen. Quan felt a scream starting at the pit of his stomach that threatened to awaken all of the Middle Kingdom. All he could think was: Where was Li? He calmed his wits, reminded himself of his Imperial rank. He mustn’t think of one of these bodies as hers. He questioned He Zhu and the few survivors concerning the attack and sent a messenger back to Beijing to muster new forces.
“There’s one other thing,” Zhu said as Quan started to leave in search of Li. “The Mongol warlord killed everyone in his path, but he took one hostage. It was as though the barbarian had intended to take him.”
Quan’s heart froze in his chest, his lungs wheezed. “Who was it?”
“The young, pretty boy. His name escapes me at the moment.”
A quaking fear threatened to stop Quan’s heart. Could he trust his lieutenant? Did he have a choice? He forced his voice to be steady as he recounted to Zhu the palace news of the runaway concubine.
He Zhu’s mouth dropped open and Quan nodded, before he revealed the true identity of Esen’s captive. “Zhu, I need your help to rescue Li.”
“If Li is Ling She’s baby girl,” Zhu said. “The one that was suppose to die with the mother, that means she can only be His Majesty’s daughter. The Mongol has gone too far. This is the ultimate insult: to abduct an Imperial princess. We must get Lotus Lily back.” His scowl softened to a quizzical frown. “I wonder if Jasmine knew who she was.”
Was it worth warning Zhu against Jasmine? Quan wondered. No. It would do no good. The man was bewitched, and as far as Zhu was concerned that woman could do no wrong.
%%%
The weathered Mongol stood towering over Li’s sleeping furs, brawny and brown even after having washed off the mud from their rumble during her capture. He sported creamy leather leggings and a soft leather jerkin, and his left leg was bandaged where she had stabbed him. The pale dressing peeked out from the top of his boot. Li smiled, satisfied, while his eyes devoured her. His women had cut off her clothes, bathed and dressed her without removing the bonds on her wrists and ankles. She wore some kind of dancing girl’s costume, which must have been stolen from a travelling Turkish embassy to China. Did you strip it right off some slave girl’s back? She scowled. The skirt was long and flowing, and of some unfamiliar, pale, shimmering fabric. The strip of silk around her breasts was as transparent as floating watercress and the same edible colour. How humiliating to be forced into this guise!
“I know you,” she said, tossing her loose black hair with a tilt of her chin and forcing an air of indifference. “You are the barbarian, Esen.” Esen’s eyes lit up, flattered that she recognized him. If Li’s hands had been free she would have planted them on her hips. She tried to stand up, but with her hands and feet tied, she failed and collapsed onto her side, sending her skirt rippling like the pale, moonstruck waters of a lake at night.
; She rolled to one side while Esen eyed her lasciviously. “Would you like me to cut your bonds?”
As long as her legs were bound together, he couldn’t force her to accept his jade spear. “I’m quite comfortable as I am,” she said.
He laughed. “You don’t look comfortable. Tell you what. If I cut your bonds, promise me you’ll be a good girl and not try to run away.”
Li weighed the chances of escape with the alternative. She knew what the barbarian had in mind, had seen the same look on Lok Yu’s face. Only this time she wasn’t going to take it lying down, or any other way. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how well you please me. I hear the palace concubines know of many tricks to pleasure a man.”
“You should know; it isn’t like you haven’t had the Emperor’s Number One Concubine in your bed. What do you think His Majesty will do when he finds out?”
“That lump of lard will never find out. I’ve had my way with Jasmine right under his nose and the Imperial goat didn’t have a clue.”
“Well, if you must know, I’m not really a concubine. Not yet. I haven’t learned anything at all, which is why His Majesty has never asked for me.”
“That’s not what I hear. Isn’t it true that you might be carrying the Emperor’s grandson?”
If her hands weren’t tied behind her back, she would have clapped a hand over her mouth to smother her gasp. It never occurred to her that Lok Yu might have impregnated her in that scuffle by the river that had ended with a brick to his head. But how absurd: the son of Lok Yu an Imperial heir? She almost laughed out loud. Then she squeezed her eyes shut. Why did the barbarian think these things? Any child of hers could only be the Emperor’s grandson if she was His Majesty’s daughter. Her heart jumped to her mouth while the truth threatened to shatter her mind.
She struggled with the rope at her wrists. If she could only break free! He smiled, mocking as she found her voice. “So, Jasmine knew I was His Majesty’s daughter, and she never told me. But she told you.”
The Pirate Empress Page 10