“I don’t think we have much time left, actually,” Mei whispered. “It looks like...”
“...the curse is coming here,” finished Yun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
二十一
The Curse Reborn
Yun bit his fingernails as he pondered the weather. “It must be following the emperor’s son on his way back here. This is not good.”
Mei felt like crying. She thought of the villagers back home and how they had treated one another. If the officials in the Imperial City got affected by the curse, Grandpa was a goner for sure.
And what if the curse afflicted the palace the same way it did the City of Ashes? The twins thought of their parents, forever frozen in time in the forlorn city. They recalled their smiling faces, how Baba always insisted they eat more green vegetables, how Mama sang to Smelly Tail in the kitchen on warm nights.
“There’s definitely no other way inside?” asked Mei, her voice higher than usual. “No way at all?”
Yun closed his eyes. “No. It’s heavily guarded.”
“We have to warn the emperor about the curse. Princess Zali would know what to do. I wish we could ask her.”
“Maybe we can.” Yun suddenly jumped up and began pacing the alley excitedly.
“What do you mean? How?”
Yun crouched down and lowered his voice. “Maybe we can enter the dream world and talk to her.”
Mei blinked. “You’re thinking...we should try to communicate with someone inside the palace...inside our dreams?”
“Exactly.” Yun’s mind raced. “The same way we talked to each other a few nights ago, and again last night in the Imperial Library. The Jade Rabbit said dreamweavers have the ability to control all aspects of a dream, even from within. So we just need to dream of finding the princess and communicating with her, the way we did with each other.”
“What do you mean, just?” asked Mei, her skepticism making her sound like her twin. “How do we control in advance what we dream about?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a theory, really. But if we truly are dreamweavers, we should be able to work with and within dreams...right?”
“I don’t know what we should be able to do. All I know is that Grandpa arrives in one day.”
For a moment, Yun was at a loss for words as he tried to describe what he was trying to say. Then he stood and smiled. “Well, if we’ve got nothing else, then maybe we can go with my gut feeling on this.”
Mei looked at him for a few moments. Then she slowly nodded. “All right. But where do we start? Do I just dream of walking into the palace and finding Princess Zali in the maze of halls?”
“Ideally, yes. But I’m thinking maybe we have to prepare our minds somehow. Let’s think about the palace layout the best we can, so that it’s fresh in our heads when we fall asleep. And I assume we need to recreate the exact conditions, sleeping patterns....” Yun first lay on his right side, then on his left. “Let’s see...that night, Chef Fan’s snores had woken me up, so I turned this way, and my neck was turned at a slight angle....”
Mei yawned, then wrinkled her eyebrows. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to retrace my exact movements from the first night we were able to communicate in our dreams.”
Renewed by this bizarre idea, the twins tried their best to relax, hoping to recreate what had occurred before. It took a while before they could fall asleep, partly because of the wind, partly because of their nervousness.
But when they opened their eyes again, they were lying in the same alleyway. The only thing that had changed was that it was early evening.
“What did you dream of?” asked Mei.
“Food,” Yun grumbled. He slumped his shoulders in defeat. “I don’t know what we’re doing wrong. I’m detailing everything the best I can in my head, like where the guards are and how to get past the walls, and going through the different quarters....”
“We didn’t worry about those things when we went to see Lotus,” Mei said slowly. “We sort of wished to see her, or wanted to...and then she appeared in her dream chamber.”
“That’s right,” Yun said, sitting up straight. “When we first communicated in our dreams that first night, we didn’t think about the hows. We just knew we wanted to talk to each other after so many days of being apart.”
“Same thing happened in the library,” added Mei. “We wanted to open the chests, and...they opened.”
“That’s the key, then!” said Yun. “It’s like what the Jade Rabbit told us! In the physical world, we think of how to get from step one to step two. In the dream world, step two comes to you because you wish for it.”
“Provided they make their wishes clear...”said Mei, remembering the creature’s words. In spite of the evidence, she still couldn’t help feeling dubious.” “So you’re saying we should just wish for Princess Zali to appear before we fall asleep?”
“That’s the plan.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the palace walls, the Imperial City was in mild chaos. The palace infirmary was bustling with patients brought quietly but urgently to the nurses and physicians.
“We’ve got another one,” a servant called as he carried one of the royal members inside.
A physician leaned over to examine the young girl. “What is your age?”
The girl hiccupped, then said,
“I come before seven,
Arrive after five.
These are the number of
Years I’ve been alive.”
The physician looked grave. “This is serious. How long has she been speaking like this?”
“She started just today,” the servant answered. “It comes and goes.”
Behind them in the infirmary, a few dozen more patients were mumbling worriedly. None of them seemed able to speak a proper sentence. Instead, every statement came in the form of an elaborate riddle.
“No, no!” one of the patients, a high official, said to the nurse. “I said to get me a”—he hiccupped, then continued— “that which cleans but gets dirtier with time!”
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t know what the answer is!” his nurse answered fretfully.
“That which cleans but gets dirtier with time!” the official repeated, pointing to his lips. “Once pristine but accumulates grime!”
“I’ve got it!” someone else said. “He wants a rag.”
On the other side of the infirmary, a nine-year-old boy was swinging his bamboo stick moodily as the physicians tended to him. He kept saying angrily,
“The truth resides within the double,
The pair that caused infinite trouble!”
The physicians had never seen such a thing. They tried feeding the patients herbal teas and bitter medicines. They placed cold rags on their heads. They even tried taping one patient’s mouth shut. More and more patients showed up throughout the day.
Then one physician remembered something. He hurried to the bookshelf, where hundreds of scrolls and binders were kept.
“My father mentioned an unusual case from when he worked here,” he said. “I recall it was similar....” The physician grabbed one of the archived scrolls and unraveled it. “Aha!” he said, pointing to the scroll. His look of triumph turned to worry.
“What is it?” the others asked.
“Almost seventy years ago, a general was afflicted with a frightening speech impediment. He could only speak in riddles.”
“Yes,” said the servant with the little girl. “That’s where that one quote is passed down from: ‘Better to be a salamander than to be a babbling commander.’ What’s the pattern? Who’s being affected?”
“We’re not sure yet,” the physician responded. “We’re trying to ask the patients questions, but it’s difficult to get a straight answer.” He put the scroll back and looked out the window at the rolling clouds, something the palace meteorologists had never seen before, either. “But whatever afflicted the babbling commander is back.”
That
night, Princess Zali concentrated at the parchment on her writing desk. Her latest invention was a comb made of razors, but she was having problems with the design.
“The razor must be able to embed itself in the skin deep enough,” she muttered, “while still disguised as a flowery comb.”
In frustration, she crumpled up the paper and threw it across the room. She was in a fouler mood than usual. Everything felt rather pointless. Maybe the others were right. Why did she think she was good for anything other than to sit and look pretty?
The princess yawned. It was time for bed. Outside, the dreary weather from earlier continued into the night.
A little while after she extinguished the oil lamps, she fell into a familiar dream.
Her brothers stood at the front of an ornate hall. Their backs were turned to the princess, and the emperor—her father—was congratulating each of them. “For your physical strength,” he said to one. “For your prowess in battle,” he said to another.
What about me? Princess Zali waved for their attention, but they ignored her. She spoke, but their laughter drowned out her voice. The men grew more and more distant, until the figures vanished from the hall completely. The princess now stood in the courtyard, facing the blurry figure of a twelve-year-old girl.
“It’s you,” Princess Zali said in surprise. She rubbed her eyes. The girl was faded in color, and her face was hard to read. “I’ve been worried about you.”
“Princess Zali?” Mei squeaked. Then, in triumph, “It worked! It worked!”
“The plan worked?” repeated the princess. “You were able to rescue your village?”
“Not exactly.”
The princess listened as Mei explained how she and her brother broke into the empress’s quarters and found the seal, how they went inside the Imperial Library and found the letters, about the glowing orbs. She mentioned Dice of Destiny and how they were thrown out of the palace. With each fantastic story, the scene around them changed in swirls of colors, from the long corridors, to the locked library, to the cell that had held the twins, until Mei and the princess found themselves in the middle of the guards’ quarters in the dungeons. They stood facing the long rows of empty tables.
When all was finished, Princess Zali said the only thing it made sense to say. “None of us have ever seen anything glow inside the box.”
“Er, pardon?” asked Mei.
“The box in the Imperial Library, the one that holds the Orbs of Opposites. For the longest time, I thought it was just an old, empty box from millenniums past. We all did.”
“I’m pretty sure my brother and I can see them because we’re dreamweavers. We can move from the physical world to the dream world in a way that we can control...or are learning to control, anyway. In fact, that’s how I’m speaking with you right now.”
Another shadow materialized in the room. Mei’s twin stepped forward, looking stunned.
“Yun, I thought you were keeping a lookout!” said Mei.
“I was tired and fell asleep too, I guess.” The newcomer blinked at the princess, then quickly bowed. “Sorry to interrupt, Your Highness.”
Mei turned back to the princess. “This is my brother, Yun.” There was affection in her voice this time, unlike the icy tone she’d used when she spoke of him after the play.
“Nice to meet you,” Princess Zali said. “Mei told me how you broke into Mother’s chamber. You must teach me the ways of lock picking,” she added, which made Yun blush the color of a ripe plum.
Though the princess still could not make out her expression, Mei’s voice grew serious. “Listen, Princess Zali, we don’t have much time. It’s coming. The curse—it’s coming to the palace.”
Together, the twins explained the rolling clouds and what they foretold. Princess Zali felt her chest grow tight.
“Impossible,” she breathed after the twins finished.
“We swear,” said Mei. “Haven’t you noticed anything strange in the Imperial City today?”
Princess Zali gave a terse nod. She hadn’t left her quarters that day, but she recalled how one of her cousins she passed in the hallway had spoken in rhyme.
“That’s why we need to get back in,” joined in Yun. “The curse will lift only if we clear Lotus’s husband’s name. Meanwhile, you need to warn the rest of the palace.”
“It will be hard getting members of the royal family on my side,” said Princess Zali, whose senses finally seemed to return. “You realize the words of two random children—intruders and thieves, no less—are not going to convince most people? You need to obtain the evidence and show them.”
“We don’t have the seal anymore,” Mei said. “Fu-Fu took it. But maybe you can help us. Everything we need is in the Imperial Library. We can tell you exactly where the evidence is.”
Princess Zali pursed her lips. “Again, this is a chicken-and-egg problem. I cannot convince someone to get the evidence without telling them your side of the story. And I cannot tell your side of the story without getting the evidence first. However, if Fu-Fu has the seal...” The princess paused. “You know, Fu-Fu knows more secret passageways than I do, and he’s much quicker and stealthier. If there’s one thing he likes, it’s breaking rules.”
“Oh, no,” groaned Mei, evidently seeing where this was going. Yun did, too, and said, “There’s no way you’re suggesting...?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, Fu-Fu is our best bet at this point. You’ll have to appeal to him.”
Mei and Yun gaped at her. “Appeal to the brat Fu-Fu?” sputtered Yun. “No offense, Your Highness, but he’s like, eight years old—”
“Nine and a half,” corrected Princess Zali.
“—and he nearly got us killed!”
“Plus he claims he’s the Noble General’s great-grandson,” joined in Mei.
Princess Zali blinked. “That could very well be true. Let me guess: he’s upset and won’t let you besmirch his great-grandfather’s good name?”
The twins nodded. “There’s no way we can convince him, but you can,” said Mei.
Princess Zali looked skeptical. “I have the feeling you wish me to come up with a decree, something like, I shall force Fu-Fu to replace the stolen seal, by my father’s power!”
“Sure, that sounds good,” Yun said quickly.
“If only you knew how little power I have,” the princess said wryly. After a few moments, she spoke again. “I understand where Fu-Fu is coming from. Our ancestors are an important part of who we are. More people in this palace likely have relations to the Noble General, not only Fu-Fu.”
The hall disappeared, replaced by faded portraits of Princess Zali’s cousins and various officials.
“Like...the emperor’s son!” said Yun, glancing at one of the faded figures. “The one who came to visit our village.”
“Precisely. If the general was already quite unpopular in his day, proof of this frame-up, which inadvertently led to the destruction of an entire city, would make his legacy ten times worse. Nobody wants something like that dug up on their family name. You understand, surely?”
The twins started to protest. The princess pursed her lips and waited for the siblings to calm down. “You will have to find a way to convince Fu-Fu,” she repeated. “I am not in the best position to help you. Not with something like this.”
“Maybe we can bribe Fu-Fu,” suggested Mei after a moment.
“Don’t bother. If material wealth was enough to make someone happy, everyone here in the palace would be smiling perpetually. Fu-Fu has never been a happy kid. Even more so now. He’s likely going to be afflicted by the babbling curse soon, if he hasn’t already.”
Mei and Yun were quiet. The princess raised her head.
“Do not be so glum. In one week, you’ve managed to enter the Imperial City, infiltrate the palace, break into the Imperial Library, and find evidence that clears an innocent person of a crime that was committed seventy years ago. It’s clear you two are extraordinary people. I’ll...” The princess took a d
eep breath. “I’ll do what I can on my side, arranging things with the emperor for what I expect will be a trial for your grandfather. But the rest falls in your hands.”
“We’re just a couple of peasants,” grumbled Yun.
“The Monkey King was considered to be just a stinky primate by some, yet he was the hero of his story. In the same way, you two are the heroes of your story.” The princess smiled. “That I am sure of.”
Mei stood straight. “I think I know how to convince Fu-Fu,” she said confidently. Before she and Yun vanished, Mei said to the princess, “You are the hero of your own story, too.”
Then the twins disappeared. The hall faded back to the princess’s quarters. Princess Zali blinked in the dark. She was back in her bed, thoughts swirling in her mind.
She sat up and called for the servants stationed outside her door. They entered the room.
“What is it, Your Highness?” they asked.
“Please send an urgent message to my father,” the princess replied. “I wish to request an audience with him.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
二十二
Dreamfishing
Later that same night, after awakening in their hiding place, Mei and Yun finally spotted the hidden trapdoor in the marketplace, next to a furtive vendor selling peacock eggs and other strange delicacies the twins had never tried. They made their way inside the hidden tunnel. The passageway was narrow, the air thin. There was no light at either end, only the faint knowledge inside their hearts that they needed to keep going.
Half an hour later, slightly covered in soot and grime, they finally made their way back to the palace kitchen. It was much quieter at night, no chefs and servants flying about. Outside the tall windows, the bright moon peeked in and out behind the clouds, covering the tables and stoves in the still room with its white light.
Yun handed Mei an apron, then tied an identical one around his waist. “I still don’t know your plan for Fu-Fu,” he said uneasily. “Shouldn’t we be trying to get back into the Imperial Library somehow, ourselves?”
“No, I have a gut feeling about this one,” answered Mei. “Trust me.”
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