“Nothing?” I sat on a stool in front of a bronze mirror. It was not like her. Princess Gaoyang was never late, and she always showed up when I expected her to. Even when she went to meet her mentor on the mountain, she would tell me days ahead of time so I would not worry.
Apricot shook her head again.
I should get the Pure Lady myself, and perhaps by the time I returned, the princess would have arrived.
“Come.” I gestured to Xiayu to apply the cream to my face. “I must get ready now, and then we’ll go to the Quarters of the Pure Lotus together.”
“The Quarters?” Apricot poured some water into a cup and handed it to me. I was always thirsty after a walk. “I need to tell you something, my lady…”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Luminous Lady, some maids in the Quarters were gossiping. They said something strange is going on in the Empress’s quarters,” she said. “The Empress received a message and left the court. She was very angry. She said something about you.”
Alarmed, I turned to her. “What did she say?”
Apricot bit her lip. “Well…”
They must be hard words. I frowned. “Who sent the message?”
Apricot shook her head.
“When did she leave the court?”
“Before dawn broke.”
I frowned. Did the Empress suspect something? Had the Regent changed his mind and betrayed us? But it could not be possible. He hated the Empress, and he had agreed to the trial.
But what if the Empress, sensing a plot forming against her, had offered the Regent something in return? Something irresistible?
I rose and paced across the chamber, but a sick feeling sat in my stomach, expanding like a spoiled meal.
I went to the door. “Come with me, Apricot. Let’s go to the Quarters.” Whatever the Empress was up to, I must do as we planned.
We had just reached the garden’s entrance when Pheasant stumbled in, his mortarboard askew. He looked as though he had run all the way from the Audience Hall to my garden. Out of breath, he leaned against the cinnamon tree. He was alone, without his attendants or the General.
My hands turned cold. Something terrible was happening. “Pheasant! What’s wrong?”
He kept swallowing, as though a rock had gotten stuck in his throat.
I held him. “Come, sit down, and tell me.”
His hands on his knees, he bent, breathing hard. His mortarboard dropped on the ground. “The Audience Hall…is…empty,” he said, his voice hoarse. “All the high-ranking ministers—the Secretary, the Chancellor—are absent.”
My heart sank. “Where did they go? Where is the Regent?”
“He is not in the hall.”
“Why? Where is he?”
“At a trial.”
“What trial?” I picked up Pheasant’s mortarboard and handed it to him. “Are they trying the Empress?” I asked, allowing myself to hope.
“No.” He stared at me, his face ashen. “It’s a trial against Prince Ke and Fang Yi’ai.”
“What? Why?” Those two men had committed no crime. “On what grounds?”
“Treason.”
“What?” I could not believe my ears. “Where is the trial being held? Take me there. We must stop them.”
“I asked the ministers in the hall, but they did not know. I have sent the General to find out. He’ll report to me as soon as he learns the location.” Pheasant raised his head to look at me. He was swaying, as though he had lost the strength to stand. “I had to come here. I had to let you know.”
My heart thumped. I could see the shock and pain in his eyes, and I could feel his desperation and helplessness. “Who is judging the trial?”
“It’s her…” Pheasant squeezed his eyes shut and balled his fists. “I trusted him, Mei. I trusted him…”
The Regent.
He had betrayed us.
The lantern I had seen after we left the Regent’s house must have been a messenger he sent to warn the Empress, who, outraged and furious, must have offered him a deal. Together they had decided to eliminate Prince Ke and Fang Yi’ai, the two people Pheasant and I trusted and relied on.
I realized now how cunning the Regent was. He had felt threatened by Pheasant’s growing power as he recalled Prince Ke and the other ministers, but instead of voicing his objection, he took a step back and feigned weakness, hiding behind a show of old age. But all these months, he had been waiting for a chance to strike back. By siding with the Empress, the Regent had much to gain. He would win the support from all of the Empress’s people, and he would have full control of the court again. But Pheasant, my poor Pheasant, would be alone, his support cut off and his efforts in the past months wasted.
“Your Majesty!” The General strode through the entrance. “They are in the Zhengshi Tang.”
The Hall of State Matters. It was located east of the Audience Hall, and it would take one hour on foot to reach it from the garden. “Get in the carriage, Pheasant. General, take us to the hall.”
“Yes, yes!” Pheasant put on his mortarboard and leaped toward the carriage. “Let’s go now. Let’s stop them. We must save my brother!”
I quickly entered the carriage after Pheasant. I felt angry at the Regent’s betrayal, but I was also nervous about the impending fate of Prince Ke and Fang Yi’ai. Clearly, they were targeted because they supported Pheasant and me. But what would the Empress and the Regent do to them?
Once the carriage started to move, Pheasant told me more of the alleged treason the Regent and the Empress had accused our friends of. They claimed Prince Ke, his two sons, Fang Yi’ai, and a few others had gathered at a tavern in the capital a month before. They had been drinking, discussing the failed revolt Taizi and Prince Yo had led years ago. Those men were idiots, they said, and if they had been given a chance, the outcome of the revolt would have been completely different. They would have succeeded. They went on lamenting how their talents had been wasted in the court. When the opportunity came, they would overthrow Pheasant’s rule and give the kingdom a new start.
The story was so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh. It was sheer slander that bore no truth. But the prince and Fang Yi’ai would not have a chance to speak for themselves. If we did not arrive on time, the Empress and the Regent might find them guilty and throw them into a dungeon. All of Pheasant’s efforts at recalling ministers and building his support group would come to nothing, and Pheasant would return to being nothing but an ineffective ruler.
When the carriage slowed, I leaped out, nearly falling over. Pheasant caught me and pulled me up. “Are you all right?”
I pulled away and rushed through the courtyard, climbed the stairs, three at once, my hands holding my swelling stomach, and burst into the hall. My jaw dropped.
The hall was empty.
“Where is everyone?” Pheasant shouted. His voice echoed in the great hall. The sunlight lingered at the door, refusing to enter the enormous room. “General? I thought you said they were here.”
“They were an hour ago.” The General turned around, frowning.
“Your Majesty, General Li, Luminous Lady.” A minister in a green robe hurried to greet us. He performed a full court courtesy, his head lowered to his waist, and then dropped to his knees. “Kneeling before you is your humble servant Li Yifu, the assistant minister of justice.” His head went up and down. “May Heaven continue to bless Your Majesty with eternal good health, and our Luminous Lady with eternal beauty and courage. How may I be of service today?”
There was no time for etiquette. “Was a trial being held here?” I asked. “Where is everyone?”
“Luminous Lady, it’s the Regent’s order. I am afraid—”
Pheasant seized the minister by his robe and pulled him toward him. “One word of shit, and I will send you and your family to the farthest corner of the kin
gdom for the rest of your lives, Minister.”
“Your Majesty! I will speak the truth…yes. They were here. But the trial…”
Pheasant let him go, and the minister fell back to the ground. “Where is the trial?”
The minister swallowed. “Yes… Your Majesty, the trial… Allow me to give you the details. The procedure was not followed properly. Several ministers were not present—Minister Yu Zhiwen, for example. It was conducted rather hastily, as well. First, the Empress stated the crime of each criminal, and the Regent confirmed it. No witnesses were called, which I thought was quite out of ordinary, and then the Regent announced the sentences. The convicted prince and the others did not have a chance to speak or deny. It was the queerest trial, if I might be allowed to say so,” the minister said in a maddeningly slow manner. “And—”
“Just tell me.” I could not bear to listen to him blather on anymore. “Where are the prince and the princess’s husband?”
“Luminous Lady, it is an honor to answer your question,” he said. “But I regret to tell you they are on the way to the Western Market.”
“The Western Market?” The execution grounds where Emperor Taizong had executed his uncle and many conspirators of the revolt? “He sentenced them to death? To be executed now?”
“Again, Luminous Lady, the shock you have expressed is equally shared by many of us—”
“They want to kill my brother! How dare they!” Pheasant strode out the hall, sizzling with anger. “Go to the market, General. Now!”
I ran after him. “We don’t have time.” The execution grounds were located in the center of the Western Market, the busy area in the city, and the Regent must have left the palace half an hour ago. It would take us another half hour at least to reach the market. I wiped the perspiration off my forehead. It was so hot. “Send an edict, Pheasant. State that you have conveyed mercy on them and spare their lives. Ask the General to carry it on horseback. Ask him to go to the market now. He will be faster than us.”
Pheasant agreed, and immediately, he drafted a letter on a sheet of paper Minister Li Yifu offered and pressed his jade seal on the edict. The General took the edict and raced off on horseback.
“We will follow him.” I walked toward the carriage. Two of the General’s guards were standing there. I gestured to one to drive the carriage.
“You don’t look very well, Mei.” Pheasant stopped me. “You need to rest.”
“I’m fine. Let’s go. I must see them.” I climbed inside the carriage. But Pheasant was right. I did not feel well. “We must get to the market as fast as we can.”
“Sit, then. Captain Pei! To the market!”
The carriage lurched, throwing me forward. Suddenly, the carriage felt so small, and the air, a mixture of stale sweat and sour odor, choked me. I gagged. My toes bent, and a spasm seized me.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a cramp in my leg.” I breathed hard.
Pheasant rubbed it. “Here? Here? Better? No? Let’s go back. Let’s go find a physician. Captain Pei!”
“No, no.” We had to keep moving. We had to go to the market. Desperately, I kicked my legs to ease the cramp and shouted at the top of my lungs. “Go, go now. Take us to the market!”
The carriage sped up, throwing me to the side. Pheasant held my shoulders to steady me. I buried my head in his arms as the pain eased. I wanted to cry.
Prince Ke. He was a good man, a good brother to Pheasant, and a trusted friend. He held no grudge against Pheasant or even the Regent, and he wished only to start anew after his return to the court. He had brought much happiness to Pheasant and good memories to me too. Now he was facing his death because of us. And Fang Yi’ai had certainly done nothing wrong.
And my poor Princess Gaoyang. All morning I had wondered why she had not come to my garden. She must have been going through the horror of having her husband arrested, tried, and sent to the execution grounds. She would be shocked and devastated. So alone she was, surrounded by the Empress and the treacherous Regent, and now she was probably at the execution grounds, shouting in anger and despair while no one listened.
I clenched my hands and pounded on the carriage door. “Faster! Faster!”
22
A thick odor of charred food, sweat, and burned hide wafted to my nose, and a wave of rumbling noises, mixed with curses, shrieks, and shouts of selling noodles and firewood rose around me. We had left the palace and arrived somewhere near the market.
I opened the carriage window. Many bodies jostled around the carriage. Many people, wearing straw hats, black hats, and leather caps, flooded the street, blocking our way. A gray wall—the wall of the market—stood in the distance, cloaked in a cloud of coppery dust. We were still far from the execution grounds.
The carriage slowed down.
“Aside, aside!” the driver, Captain Pei, shouted.
But the carriage slowed more.
I could not sit still. A moment stopped here was a moment wasted. “Tell them to get out of the way,” I shouted at the Captain.
“There are too many of them, Luminous Lady,” he replied. “They won’t step aside.”
I stared down at the people blocking the path, a thought dawning on me. They were here to watch the executions. Rage rushed through me. I knew the commoners of the city liked them, idling around with nothing to do. They watched executions with a feverish fascination as though they were at circus shows, and afterward, the blood of those spilled would become drinks of their amusement. The kingdom was filled with people of that sort, and the rise and fall of the dynasties before us had fed their fascination and fired their morbid appetite for more. It was a disease, a deep-rooted pandemic that paralyzed people’s brains and devoured the basic nature of human sympathy.
“Would you like us to wait here, Your Majesty?” Captain Pei asked.
“No,” I answered for Pheasant, and closed the window. I would run all the way to the market if necessary and confront the Regent and the Empress face-to-face. I must stop them, question their baseless trial, before they had a chance to murder my friends. “We must get to the execution grounds.”
“It’s not safe, Luminous Lady,” the Captain replied. “We have only twenty guards with us.”
I did not understand at first, but then I heard a faint clamor rise outside the carriage. I pushed the window open again. People on the street were turning to me. Some whispered, and I could see anger simmering in the eyes of those close to me. Some shouted, waving their fists, spittle flying through the air. My heart constricted. Spectators of executions were nothing more than senseless ants, but spectators filled with anger could be a dangerous mob. And they looked dangerous now.
“The prince is innocent! He would never conspire to revolt,” one man shouted.
Another raised his head. “Fang Yi’ai only built roads for us. Is that a crime?”
“Your Majesty, spare the prince!”
I was wrong. The people had come to speak. I turned to Pheasant.
“Do I hear them correctly?” Pheasant frowned. “They think I ordered the executions?”
I nodded. “I think so. You must order them to disperse. We must get through.”
We might be able to force our horses through the crowd. The four steeds were powerful enough, but people in the crowd would be hurt.
Pheasant straightened. “Captain Pei, order them to disperse.”
The Captain shouted, “Aside, aside! By the imperial order!”
A thunderous roar erupted to answer him. Fists flung in the air, and waves of voices rocked the sky. The carriage began to shake as the crowd swarmed forward. I lost my balance and slid sideways into Pheasant’s arms.
He steadied me and held me tightly. “Don’t worry. I shall take care of it.”
I was about to speak when a rattling came from above my head. Something pounded on the roof of
the carriage. Rocks.
We would not make it to the market on time. Where was the General? I hoped he had reached the execution grounds safely. I hoped he had delivered the edict before it was too late. Outside, the roar of the crowd was deafening, and the carriage shook violently. I swallowed hard. I was so nervous I could hardly breathe.
The Captain shouted something, but his voice was drowned out in the din, and we could not hear him.
Pheasant raised his voice. “What did you say, Captain Pei?”
“We have a riot, Your Majesty!”
The carriage rocked, and Pheasant grabbed me as I slipped to the floor. “Hold on here. How many of them, Captain Pei?” Pheasant’s voice, to my amazement, was calm.
“At least two thousand. They are…out of control.” The carriage shook again.
From behind the carriage came the frightened shouts of the ministers who had followed us from the palace.
Pheasant opened the carriage door. “You stay here,” he said, and before I could ask him what he was going to do, he stepped outside. “Good people of my kingdom!” he shouted, and for a moment the noise quieted. “I ask you, everyone and each of you, to move back two hundred paces, and cease throwing the rocks in your hands. I have come here to investigate the executions that you are concerned with, and I promise you, I, the son of Emperor Taizong, your Emperor, is here to give you justice.”
“Don’t listen to him!”
“He ordered the executions!”
“The Empress came to deliver his message!”
Another uproar erupted, louder than before, and through the half-open carriage door, I could see the bodies of the maddening mob surge to break through the wall of the few guards who shielded Pheasant. A rock flew through the air.
It was too dangerous. He must come back to the carriage.
“Arrest that man!” Captain Pei shouted. “Attacking the Emperor is a capital crime!”
“Hold it.” Pheasant raised his hand. “Arrest no one. Let them speak. I wish to hear.”
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