by Grace Lin
“Yishan,” Pinmei whispered fiercely, pulling him to fall behind the king’s billowing robes. “What was that about?”
“What?” Yishan said with pretended innocence.
Pinmei glared.
“It worked out, didn’t it?” he said. “We’re going to see the stone right now.”
She looked at him with narrowed eyes as he grinned at her.
“Hey,” Yishan called as the Sea King led them out of the palace. “Aren’t we going to the treasury?”
The Sea King turned and looked at Yishan with his eyebrow raised, the disbelieving look returning to his face.
“To see Nuwa’s Tear,” the Sea King said, “we must go to the garden. Do you not know that?”
“Oh, um, yes,” Yishan said quickly. He reddened as if truly embarrassed. “I just forgot.”
“Hmm,” the Sea King said, his nostrils flaring. He continued to walk. “The garden is this way.”
It was not like any garden Pinmei had ever seen before, not even in her dreams. Again, jellyfish lanterns lit their way, making the crystal stones of the mosaic pathway sparkle. There were flowers of unimaginable colors, their closed blossoms like polished shells. Heavy with glossy pink and white fruits, the coral tree branches swayed softly above her. No, not fruits, Pinmei realized, shaking her head. Pearls!
They reached a bridge and, with a hiss, the snake slithered away. Almost soundlessly, it splashed into the water and vanished. Pinmei could not even see a faint shadow of it as they began to walk over the lake… or was it an ocean? The bridge stretched and stretched only to disappear, and Pinmei could not even imagine where it ended.
“Are we walking over the sea?” Pinmei asked faintly.
“This is the Heavenly Lake,” the Sea King told her. “The immortals of the sky call it the Celestial River and you mortals call it the Starry River, but here we call it the Heavenly Lake. I suppose to us at Sea Bottom, it seems more the size of a lake than a river.”
“But the Starry River is the sky,” Pinmei said, shaking her head in confusion. “It’s up high. This is below!”
The Sea King nodded. “Our worlds connect here,” he said. “The bottom of the Heavenly Lake is your sky.”
Pinmei could only stare. The water below them was as smooth as a jade plate and melted into the horizon. It was as if she were walking through an infinite night sky, and it was making her dizzy. After another long pause, the Sea King stopped and brought them to the edge of the bridge.
“Here it is,” he said, and waved his hands toward the water below. A soft glow shone from the reflections on the lake, bathing them all in light. “Nuwa’s tear,” he said with reverence, “or a Luminous Stone That Lights the Night.”
Or, Pinmei thought as she stared downward, the moon.
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Both Yishan and Pinmei gazed down at the moon. It was a perfect, glowing circle in the still black water, and the reflection of the thousands of fish above twinkled around it exactly like stars. Pinmei felt as if she were looking down at the night sky.
“It’s beautiful, is it not?” the Sea King said. “A Luminous Stone That Lights the Night,” the Sea King finished, motioning downward. “I myself found it long, long ago. I shaped it into a dragon’s pearl, but it was never meant to belong to one being. It belongs to everyone in the sea, sky, and earth. That is why it floats in the Heavenly Lake, so all can see it. ”
“Of course,” Yishan whispered, almost angrily. “I am such a fool. Why didn’t I remember…? I should’ve realized…”
“How would you?” Pinmei said. “Who would have thought the moon would be at the bottom of the sea?” The pure light stroked her face with the tenderness of a mother, and she felt a wave of anguish. The moon! They were here to take it to the emperor. But how could they?
“Why did you wish to see it?” the Sea King asked.
“We need to take it,” Yishan said. “To give to the emperor.”
“What?” the Sea King said, and began to laugh, a deep, roaring laugh. His head arched back and his hand thumped against his chest in amusement. “You! Take Nuwa’s tear? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!”
“It’s not ridiculous!” Yishan flashed, his face the color of his hat.
“A little goldfish like you?” The Sea King laughed again. “You are a fool! You could not even lift it from the lake, much less carry it from the sea!”
“I can!” Yishan was shouting like a spoiled child, and he moved as if to climb over the railing to dive into the water.
“Yishan!” Pinmei hissed, grabbing him. “Stop it! What is wrong with you?”
“He’s laughing at me!” Yishan huffed. “He called me a fool!”
“Well, if you dive into that lake to try to get the moon, you are!” Pinmei said. “The lake is the sky! You could be falling forever!”
Yishan grabbed Pinmei’s wrists to push her away, but his fingers caught on her string bracelet. Suddenly, he stopped struggling.
“You’re right,” he said. The resentment disappeared from his face and was replaced by a mischievous expression that puzzled Pinmei even more than his anger.
“Anyway, I don’t need to jump into the lake,” he said. He gave the Sea King a smug look. “I can get the moon another way.”
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“Y-you can?” Pinmei stuttered, confused.
Yishan grinned, and Pinmei felt hope bubble inside her. Maybe he could! And if he could, they could still save Amah!
“Just let me borrow back that bracelet,” Yishan said to her.
She gave Yishan a baffled look, but rolled the string off her wrist and handed it to him. He gently tugged at the knot until one end of the string was pulled out, forming a small lasso.
“There!” he said, and began to move to the edge of the bridge.
“Yishan, you’re just teasing!” Pinmei groaned. “You know that’s much too small! It’ll never reach the water, and it won’t fit around the moon either!”
“You’ll see,” Yishan said, giving her braid a tug.
He bent over the bridge rail and dangled the lasso from his hand. Together, the Sea King and Pinmei leaned over to watch. They both gasped in disbelief.
The small circle continued to lower, going down, down toward the water, and the string in Yishan’s hand stretched longer and longer.
Noiselessly, the ring slid into the lake. Was the water magnifying it, or was the loop getting bigger? When it finally wavered next to the moon, it looked as if it were the moon’s empty outline.
Pinmei stole a glance at Yishan. Had he somehow gained a magic power? But Yishan still looked like the same boy, tilted dangerously over the bridge’s railing, now with the tip of his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth. “Almost there,” he whispered.
He flicked his wrist and the string circle swayed, missing the moon entirely. Yishan grumbled, twitched his wrist, and missed again. He did this over and over again until—
“Ha!” Yishan said. Finally, on his sixth try, the loop neatly encircled the shining moon. Yishan grunted with satisfaction and began to pull, the noose tightening around the moon until the delicate thread looked like a thin scratch of blood.
Slowly, carefully, Yishan began to lift the moon. It grew larger and larger until the great globe seemed to be filling the lake. And as it came closer, its glow became stronger and brighter, with a brilliance so dazzling Pinmei could scarcely bear to look at it. The light was whiter than snow, whiter than ice, whiter than the purest flower or pearl. The black waters and sky turned a shimmering silver, and Pinmei felt as if she could drink its radiance.
“You… are… thieves!” A choked noise broke the spell of their awe. Pinmei and Yishan looked away from the moon to see the Sea King, and both froze.
His mouth was gaping and his arms were reaching out helplessly toward the luminous water. But it was his eyes that made them stop. Those eyes, which had been so unreadable before, were now illuminated
with the light of the moon, and they were filled with horror and revulsion.
“You would steal…” the king continued, his words strangled noises. “It does not belong to you… not to only one… How… how could you?”
Yishan saw the disgusted eyes of the young boy that the Sea King had been, the great hero who had refused to hurt anyone, even to save himself. Pinmei saw the eyes of Amah, dismayed and disappointed.
Suddenly, they were both ashamed. Pinmei and Yishan looked at each other, stricken.
“Put it back,” Pinmei ordered. “Put the moon back. We can’t trade Amah for the moon. We… the emperor… have no right to take it.”
Yishan nodded. He lowered the string, and the glorious brightness began to dim. The enormous ball got smaller and smaller until, finally, it was only a glowing circle on the black silk of the night. Yishan shook his wrist to remove the string, and all watched as the released moon returned to its place in the limitless Heavenly Lake. Yishan breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t think the emperor’s going to get his Luminous Stone,” he said.
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Pinmei smiled feebly at Yishan, but when their eyes met, she knew they were both aghast at what they had almost done. Yishan looked over at the Sea King. Even now, the Sea King was leaning motionlessly over the bridge, the glow of the moon on his still-concerned face.
“Don’t worry! We’re not going to take it,” Yishan called out. The Sea King raised his head to look at him. “We were just, uh, joking,” Yishan finished lamely.
To Pinmei’s surprise, the Sea King turned to them and bowed to Yishan. “I apologize. I should not have doubted you,” he said with a respect one gives to an equal. “I should have realized that even while young, you could still…”
“It’s nothing,” Yishan said, cutting him off. His face flushed again, this time from shame.
Pinmei’s hands were trembling, and she felt her knees quake. Weakly, she sat down, her back against the carved stone wall of the bridge. Her hand rubbed her wrist, naked without Amah’s bracelet or even the red string. Yishan, waving away any further words from the Sea King, sat next to her.
“I got carried away,” Yishan admitted in a low tone. “But the moon isn’t something the emperor should have. We can’t take it.”
“Amah wouldn’t want us to anyway,” Pinmei said. Just thinking of Amah cut into her chest, but she knew her words were true. Amah would never want them to take the moon out of the sky. She would be horrified by the thought. But without the Luminous Stone, without the moon, would she ever see Amah again? The blackness of the sea suddenly overwhelmed her; it was nothing more than a vast emptiness. Pinmei’s eyes stung with tears.
“You’re right,” Yishan said after a long moment. He handed her the damp string bracelet, returned to its original size. “We’ll find another way to get Amah back.”
Pinmei nodded and rolled the bracelet onto her wrist, not meeting his eyes. Despite Yishan’s assured tone, she knew it was a hollow hope. There was no other way. What else could they do?
Tears continued to fill her eyes, and she reached into her sleeve for her handkerchief. But, as Pinmei brought it to her face, she realized she was holding the Paper of Answers. She stared at it, and shafts of light from the full moon below streamed in through carved openings behind her.
“If there is another way to get Amah,” Pinmei said, waving the clutched paper at Yishan, “this is how we can find out!”
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“What?” Yishan said, startled and confused.
“The Paper will answer any question in the light of the full moon,” Pinmei said, waving the Paper toward the dark water. “The moon is full here! And any immortal can read the Paper—the emperor said so, remember?”
“An immortal?” Yishan asked.
Pinmei cocked her head over at the Sea King.
“You mean, ask him to read it for us?” Yishan said.
Pinmei rolled her eyes. “Yes!” she said. “The Paper can tell us if there is another way to get Amah!”
Yishan took the Paper from Pinmei, his hands caressing it in an almost loving gesture. Then he stood.
“Your Majesty,” he said as Pinmei scrambled to her feet, “we have a favor to ask you.”
The Sea King stepped forward. “Ah, just a paper now?” he asked. “Not a book anymore?”
Pinmei’s words rushed out in her eagerness. “It’s the Paper of Answers,” she said. “If we ask it a question, can you read us the answer?”
“Yes,” the Sea King said, but he had a puzzled look on his face. “But surely—”
“Thank you,” Yishan said in a voice that made both Pinmei and the Sea King quiet. Yishan stepped closer to the edge of the bridge, holding the Paper in front of him as if offering it to the sky.
Pinmei tingled with such excitement that she felt she could have been one of the flickering fish above. They could still save Amah! The Paper knew everything!
Yishan was already speaking. In a loud voice, each word like a stone dropping into water, he asked his question.
“How has the emperor captured the Black Tortoise of Winter?” Yishan said.
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Pinmei shrieked a sound of disbelief.
“Yishan!” she hissed. “What about Amah? You were supposed to ask about Amah!”
Yishan said nothing and just looked at her sheepishly, holding the Paper away from her as she flew at him. Dark marks were already forming on the page.
“Why did you ask about the tortoise?” Pinmei said, unable to stop. “How will we ever get Amah now?
Her last words ripped out of her in a wail, plaintive and piercing. But the cry, so raw in her throat, disappeared in the blackness like a single tear falling into the sea.
“Pinmei,” Yishan said in a wheedling tone, “we’ll get her back.”
“How?” Pinmei said accusingly.
“The emperor wants Amah for her stories, right?” Yishan said. “You know all the stories too. We can figure it out ourselves.”
“Figure it out ourselves?” she said, glaring. “We wouldn’t have to if you hadn’t asked the Paper about… about… the tortoise!”
“Listen,” Yishan said, coaxing her, “I had to ask about the tortoise. We need to save Amah from the emperor, right? Well, how do you think he suddenly became so powerful? He’s captured the tortoise. That’s why it’s still winter and the emperor is invincible.”
If one could make the Black Tortoise do anything, that person would be invincible, Amah had said. Could Yishan be right? If the emperor had the Black Tortoise of Winter, he was invincible, and they knew the emperor had taken Amah because he wanted to be immortal. Did the emperor plan on being invincible forever?
Pinmei looked at Yishan, and his eyes gazed into hers with a rare earnestness.
“It’s not just Amah who needs to be rescued,” Yishan said, and suddenly Pinmei thought of Lady Meng and the slave workers of the Vast Wall, the hollow eyes of the king of the City of Bright Moonlight, the tearstained faces of the village children, and Suya’s emptying rice jar. Pinmei closed her eyes. The emperor. The tortoise. The winter. Amah. Was it somehow all sewn together? And was the Black Tortoise the stitch that needed to be pulled first before it could all unravel?
Pinmei opened her eyes, but she still saw Amah’s face in her mind. Her chest felt as if the weight of the moon pressed against it, but she slowly nodded. “You’re right,” she said, the words dry in her mouth.
Yishan smiled gratefully. He turned to the Sea King, who had been watching them in uncomfortable silence.
“Please, Your Majesty,” Yishan said, handing the Sea King the Paper, “could you read this?”
The king took the Paper with an uneasy look on his face, and he gave Yishan a questioning glance. But he held the Paper over his head. His eyes widened.
“What does it say?” Yishan asked. “How has the emperor captured the tortoise?”
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br /> “It says,” the Sea King said as he lowered the Paper, the look of shock still on his face, “with the Iron Rod.”
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“That makes sense,” Yishan muttered, more to himself than to the others. “What else could hold the Black Tortoise? It’s the only thing! The Iron Rod!”
“The Iron Rod?” Pinmei asked, the king’s confused look now on her own face as well. “Isn’t that… Nuwa’s hair? Isn’t that here…”
Instead of answering, the Sea King opened his mouth, and a roar, like the rushing of waves, sounded. Before the call could even echo, two figures appeared. They were obviously royal guards or generals, for their heavy copper-colored armor almost completely encased them, with only tufts of fur peeking out. As they bowed low, it was easy to imagine them as transformed crabs.
“Go to the treasury,” the king said, “and see if the Iron Rod is there.”
The two guards bowed again and, with a flash, disappeared.
The Sea King turned back to the children.
“If the Iron Rod has been stolen, it must be found immediately,” he said to them gravely. “It is much too powerful to be misused, as I fear it has been already.”
“The emperor must have gotten it,” Yishan said.
“I do not understand how,” the Sea King said. “We do not heavily guard it, for only an immortal could take it from Sea Bottom. Your emperor must have gotten an immortal to steal it for him.”
“Or he just got lucky,” Yishan said darkly. “The emperor has a bit of an obsession with immortality.”
Pinmei looked at Yishan, a hundred questions silently filling her open mouth. He looked like the same boy she had always known, but he was acting as if he were as powerful as the Sea King. But before she could force out a word, a clicking sounded behind them. The two crab guards had returned.