Dragonkeeper

by Carole Wilkinson

  ”That sounds like a wonderful idea,” said Ping.

  The Emperor turned to Danzi who was crouched sullenly on the path, his great, green head sprinkled with cherry blossom.

  “My dragon will be the first creature in my new pleasure garden,” Liu Che said. “I’ll have a special enclosure built for him with a lake. Dragons like to swim, don’t they?”

  “Yes,” said Ping trying not to listen to the anxious noises coming from the dragon.

  “You will live here as well, Ping,” Liu Che said.

  “Oh,” said Ping. “Thank you, Liu Che. I’d like that.”

  It wasn’t a lie. She would like nothing better than to live at Ming Yang Lodge. She just couldn’t.

  Counsellor Tian appeared at that moment so she didn’t have to discuss the matter further.

  “Ah, Grand Counsellor,” the Emperor said cheerfully. “Just the person I wanted to see. I am going to make an imperial edict. Two in fact! Firstly the Tiger Forest is now a park for animals. Hunting there is to be forbidden. Also, henceforth, the imperial colour will be yellow. Please make arrangements for new robes to be made and for all the palaces in the empire to have yellow roofs!”

  Counsellor Tian didn’t look at all pleased by these imperial pronouncements.

  ”Perhaps you might like to seek advice on these matters, your imperial majesty,” he replied.

  “No, my mind is made up,” Liu Che said cheerfully. “Now what did you want?”

  “I came to announce that the first group of scientists has arrived.” The Grand Counsellor looked very annoyed that he still didn’t know why the Emperor had summoned the scientists. “They are waiting in the Chamber of Spreading Clouds.”

  “Ping, come with me to meet these scholars,” Liu Che said. “I’d like them to see me with my dragon.”

  Ping had been enjoying herself so much, she’d almost forgotten about the dragon on the end of the rope in her hand. Danzi’s rumbling annoyance was getting louder.

  “Is he hungry?” asked the Emperor.

  They walked towards the Chamber of Spreading Clouds. Ping’s stomach suddenly went tight. The warm, peaceful feeling that had filled her as she enjoyed the pleasures of the garden and Liu Che’s friendship froze inside her. There was someone that she knew in the chamber, but she didn’t know who. It wasn’t Diao, she was sure of that. Perhaps it was the necromancer. Surely Liu Che wouldn’t have invited him?

  Guards opened the doors to the chamber. Ping and the dragon followed the Emperor in. Ten and two serious-looking men were waiting in the Chamber of Spreading Clouds. The scientists stared at the dragon.

  Liu Che looked pleased that he had impressed the scholarly men. Ping searched their faces. They were almost all very old with long grey beards. There was only one younger man. A smile of relief spread across Ping’s face as she realised who it was. It was Wang Cao. She was just about to rush over and greet him, when the dragon’s rumbling changed to an urgent gonging.

  “Ping must pretend not to know,” said the dragon’s voice in her mind.

  Wang Cao looked at the dragon with interest as if he was seeing one for the first time. He glanced at Ping without any sign of recognition as he fell to his knees before the Emperor with the other scientists.

  “I have to welcome my guests,” the Emperor said to Ping.

  Liu Che walked over to the scientists. Ping felt Danzi pull on the cord.

  “Go back to stable,” he said.

  Ping led the dragon back to the stable and undid the cord around his neck. She looked at the dragon guiltily, aware that he hadn’t enjoyed the walk to the Garden of Secluded Harmony as much as she had.

  “How did Wang Cao know we were here?” Ping asked.

  The dragon shook his great head. “He didn’t. Wang Cao has no second sight.”

  “So he’s here just by chance?”

  ”Net of Heaven is cast wide. Though its mesh is not fine, nothing slips through.”

  As usual the dragon’s wisdom made no sense to her.

  Ping left Danzi in the stable. She needed to think. She had to work out a way to escape. She walked back up the hillside to the Garden of Secluded Harmony.

  Sitting in the Watching Magnolia Buds Open Pavilion, she realised that she didn’t have to go all the way to Ocean to live like a princess. She imagined a life in this beautiful place. Being able to stroll around it every day, watching the trees and the flowers change with the seasons, listening to the birds and the distant chatter of monkeys, perhaps venturing into the Tiger Forest and glimpsing yellow and black stripes through the trees. She toyed with the stone seal hanging from her waist. If she wished, she could choose that life. She could eat baked owl and persimmons. Liu Che would walk with her whenever he visited Ming Yang Lodge, asking her advice on imperial matters. The most important person in the empire would be her friend. If she escaped with the dragon, she would become a hunted person again. The Emperor would no longer be her friend.

  A squirrel scampered down from a nearby tree. Its bushy tail twitched nervously, its bright little eyes darted from one side to the other looking for danger. Ping was sitting so still that it didn’t notice her. She stood up and the startled creature leapt up the tree and was gone in a flash. Such a life wasn’t possible for her. She had to get a dragon to Ocean.

  The dragon was hunched miserably in his stall.

  “Must think of way to escape,” the dragon said.

  “I’ve already thought of one,” Ping replied.

  Six roasted swallows lay on a plate in front of the dragon, untouched. Even Hua seemed to be off his food.

  “We have to leave tonight,” she said.

  “Good,” replied the dragon.

  “We’ll go through the Tiger Forest,” she continued. “No one will dare look for us there.”

  “Good evening, your majesty,” said Ping, kneeling and bowing her head to the floor as the Emperor entered the dining hall.

  Ping wasn’t Liu Che’s only guest at dinner that evening. The visiting scientists were also there, all on their knees with their foreheads resting on the floor.

  Liu Che was smiling happily. “It has been a very profitable day, Ping,” he said, waving her over to sit next to him.

  The scientists all took their places at a respectful distance from their Emperor. Ping sat down next to him, aware that Wang Cao was watching her.

  “I have learned much from the scientists already,” Liu Che continued.

  Servants began to bring in the food.

  “They already know a great deal about making elixirs to lengthen life. Did you know one of the alchemists is more than one hundred years old?”

  He pointed to a man who didn’t look a day over six tens. The sparrow broth that had been put in front of her smelled delicious, but Ping could only eat a few spoonfuls. Her stomach was churning nervously. The Emperor managed to eat and talk at the same time, telling her about the events of the day.

  “They think that an elixir of eternal youth will only need a slight adjustment.”

  More dishes were brought in—roasted quail, minced carp, crane eggs. Ping ate no more than a mouthful of each.

  “They will begin working on a new elixir when they return to Chang’an. I have set aside a small palace for their use. In the meantime I have to eat peaches and cranes’ eggs and swallow a little cinnabar each day. Have you ever seen cinnabar, Ping?”

  Ping shook her head, though she had seen cinnabar before—in Wang Cao’s explosive mixture.

  “Show Ping some cinnabar,” the Emperor commanded the scientists.

  They were all looking at Ping suspiciously.

  “It’s alright, gentlemen,” said Liu Che as he helped himself to dried plums and water chestnuts. “No need to be afraid of Ping. Wang Cao, please go and get some cinnabar so that I can show it to her.”

  Wang Cao bowed to the Emperor and left the dining hall. He returned a few minutes later with a leather pouch. He knelt at the side of Ping’s table. He moved aside her wine goblet and em
ptied out the cinnabar. It was made up of deep red crystals.

  “They’re beautiful,” Ping said, not daring to look at the herbalist.

  “Ping is the Imperial Dragonkeeper,” Liu Che explained.

  Wang Cao glanced at her sharply as he bowed in her direction.

  “The scientists are very interested in my dragon,” the Emperor continued. “They say he will be useful. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, your imperial majesty,” said Wang Cao. “Dragon scales would be an important ingredient in the elixir.”

  “Ping will get you some. Won’t you, Ping?”

  “Of course, your majesty,” Ping replied, though she wasn’t sure that Danzi would give her any of his scales.

  “It might also be useful to examine the properties of dragon blood, your imperial majesty,” said another scientist.

  Ping nodded to the scientist, though she had no intention of asking the dragon to wound himself.

  The Emperor continued to tell her about his plans. How he would send an explorer into the west to find the Kunlun Mountains and search for the fruit of life. Ping drank the rest of her wine. Now that she had decided it was time to escape, she wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. She couldn’t leave the dining hall before the Emperor though. She stifled a yawn.

  When Liu Che finally retired for the night, Ping went back to her chamber. The silk sheets and the warm bed looked very inviting. She yawned. How could she feel so tired with such an important task ahead of her? She took off the blue silk gown that she had been wearing for the last two days and laid it neatly on the bed. She put on her own plain gown (which had been returned to her clean and sweet smelling) and picked up her basket. She took a last look at the silk hangings and the wall paintings, which she could just make out in the moonlight, and left the beautiful room.

  There were three imperial guards in the courtyard. Ping slipped past without them noticing. She walked through the garden towards the stable. It wasn’t the shortest way, but she wanted to see the garden one more time. It was bathed in moonlight. The leaves looked as if they’d been splashed with silver paint. Each pond and stream contained its own rippling image of the moon. Only the low noises of the night—the call of a night bird, the flap of a passing bat, the rustling of small animals—disturbed the silence.

  The moonlight hadn’t found its way into the stable. Ping wished she’d brought a lamp. She moved slowly to the dragon’s stall, feeling her way along the rough timbers of the walls.

  She could just make out the dragon in the darkness. He wasn’t alone. Wang Cao was with him. The two were huddled together. The herbalist was talking in a low whisper. The dragon was making contented tinkling sounds as if thin strips of metal were being stirred by a light breeze. Ping hadn’t heard him make that sound for days. When they saw Ping enter, they stopped talking.

  “Ping,” said Wang Cao. “Who would have expected we would meet again!”

  He sounded pleased to see her, but his face stayed stern.

  Ping smiled. “It is good to see you, Wang Cao.”

  The herbalist had something in his lap. Ping looked closer. Her smile faded. He was holding the dragon stone.

  “I can see you’ve been taking better care of the dragon stone,” Wang Cao said.

  “We are leaving tonight,” Ping said. For some reason her mouth had trouble forming the words.

  “So Danzi has told me.”

  Ping reached out and took the dragon stone from Wang Cao. She noticed that he had a leather bag over his shoulder. She felt the stone’s cool surface beneath her fingers. A ripple of pleasure coursed up her arm and through her whole body. At the same moment the moon came from behind a cloud and cast a pale light on the stone. The purple colour was rich and deep, the milky swirls only just visible in the dim light. She put the stone into her basket. It was a tight fit.

  Ping felt dizzy.

  “Is Ping sure she wants to leave?” the dragon asked.

  Ping lifted the basket onto her shoulder and felt the stone resting on her hip. “I’m sure,” she said.

  “Emperor will be angry.”

  “I know. Liu Che will restore the decree that I am to be beheaded,” said Ping sadly. “It can’t be helped.”

  Ping untied the rope around the dragon’s neck and threw it aside. She checked that Hua was safely behind one of the reverse scales.

  “Danzi,” she said. “I have a favour to ask you.”

  She stroked the soft place under the dragon’s chin.

  “Liu Che’s scientists want a dragon scale for the Emperor’s youth elixir,” she said. “Would you let me have one to leave for them?”

  The dragon suddenly reared up on his back legs. Ping stepped back, startled. Then Danzi started to examine the scales on his belly with his front paws.

  ”These scales easier to remove,” he said. “Grow back quicker.”

  Ping watched as he selected a scale. She remembered what Danzi had told her before about some of his scales having properties to do good, some to do bad.

  “Make sure you pick one that is for good,” she said.

  She winced as the dragon yanked out the scale. It looked painful. He pulled out another and then another. He handed the three scales to Ping.

  “If I could write, I’d leave him a note,” Ping said. “Can you make sure he gets them, Wang Cao?”

  The herbalist took the scales and nodded.

  Danzi continued searching through his scales. He pulled out another one.

  “This one for Ping,” he said, handing her the scale. “May need it one day.”

  Ping didn’t imagine that she’d have any shortage of dragon scales if she needed them, with a large dragon at her side. She took the scale though. It was shaped like a small fan and fitted in the palm of her hand. It was hard like a fingernail and rough to the touch. The scales were green but the colour had a strange quality that made her think that if she held one up to a bright light she’d be able to see through it. There was a speck of blood where the scale had been pulled from the dragon’s flesh.

  Ping turned to Wang Cao.

  “I won’t be seeing you again,” she said. At least that’s what she tried to say, but her words came out slurred and incomprehensible.

  She took a step, but lost her balance. She reached out to steady herself, but her legs crumpled beneath her before her hand reached the wall. The stables were fading. She saw the expression on Wang Cao’s serious face change. She thought it must be a trick of the moonlight, but there was no mistake. He was smiling.

  Ping’s vision blurred.

  Ping waited for her eyes to focus again. It took a few moments. She got to her feet and stood unsteadily. She didn’t have to look for the dragon stone. She knew it was gone. Shafts of pale moonlight threaded through the bamboo poles that made up the wall of the animal stall. It was empty. The dragon had gone as well.

  A terrible sound shattered the silence of the night. It was a scream of pain and betrayal. The sort of rending cry that makes anyone who hears it despair. Ping was on her hands and knees. Something small and furry scurried up her and burrowed into the folds of her gown. It gave her no comfort. Imperial guards appeared behind her, shining a lamp in her direction, but too frightened to come any closer. Their faces reflected the misery of the scream. The scream went on and on. It would drain all the happiness from the entire world. Ping had no connection to the body crouching in the straw. There was nothing but the scream. That was all she was. All she would ever be.

  The guards parted and a smaller figure came forward in a white nightgown. Ping was only dimly aware of these movements. They were happening somewhere else, far away from where she was. Then the figure in the white gown took hold of her arms and shook her.

  “Ping,” he said.

  The scream stopped and Ping leant on the Emperor’s shoulder and cried.

  • chapter twenty-one •

  HALFWAY TO HEAVEN

  “I want you to come with me,”

  Liu C
he said. “Tai Shan is

  beautiful, so I’m told.”

  Ping was back in the warm bed between the smooth silk sheets. She was drinking something hot from a blue earthenware cup. It had been prepared by the Emperor’s personal physician. The Emperor himself was standing at the end of the bed surrounded by guards, ministers and servants. Though the Emperor was looking at her with concern, the others were staring at the source of that awful scream with frightened faces. Ping wished that she could consider the idea that she had just had a bad dream, but even that small comfort wasn’t possible.

  Ping felt like someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart.

  “The dragon has gone,” she said.

  The Emperor nodded. “He is not the only one who has gone,” he said. “Wang Cao, the herbalist from Chang’an, has also disappeared during the night. My guards discovered that the southern gate has been opened. They believe that the herbalist and the dragon have both gone into the Tiger Forest.”

  Ping’s hands shook. The physician reached out and grabbed the cup before she dropped it. She sank back onto the bed.

  “She needs rest, your imperial majesty,” said the physician. “This loss has greatly weakened her.”

  Other things were said, but Ping didn’t hear them. The figures around her bed disappeared. She was only dimly aware of them leaving. Sunlight was seeping into the room. She covered her head with the silk sheet. She didn’t want to see the brightness of the dawn. The outside world had become a ghost world that didn’t really exist. The only thing she was aware of was the pain inside, as if she’d been stabbed. Lao Ma had told her stories of princesses who had been broken-hearted. Ping hadn’t realised that heartache was a physical pain.

  Danzi had left her and he had taken the dragon stone with him. He had told her that she was a special person, a Dragonkeeper. He had held out the Dragonkeeper’s mirror to her. She had reached out to take it. But it had never lain in her hands, she’d been distracted. She had spent too much time with Liu Che. The comforts of imperial life had seduced her. She had allowed herself to be diverted from their quest to reach Ocean by the friendship of someone close to her own age. Worst of all, she had accepted the seal of the Imperial Dragonkeeper. Danzi saw her take it from the Emperor and tie it to her belt. Wang Cao would have seen it hanging from her waist by its bright purple ribbon. Anger filled her when she thought of the herbalist. She remembered his hand passing over her goblet while he was showing her the cinnabar crystals. He must have put some sort of sleeping draught in her wine so that she wouldn’t be able to follow them. The dragon hadn’t trusted her. Danzi had chosen Wang Cao to go with him to Ocean instead. She had failed the test.