by Cutter, Leah
Xiao Yen had an idea. If Udo could hold it there for just a moment . . .
She pulled her practice string out of her sleeve and untied the knot already in it. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers along the rope, feeling the smoothness of it, the hardness at the core of it, linking the string to the rat dragon's tail in her mind. Then she tied a slipknot in the string, so that if one end were pulled, the knot would tighten.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the magic had worked. The rat dragon's tail was tied around the column.
“Back up!” she called to Udo.
He didn't seem to hear her, but after a moment, he took a step backward. Then another step. The rat dragon tried to follow, but couldn't. It turned its back on Udo to see what held it.
Xiao Yen called to Udo, “Run!”
Udo hesitated, his saber held high. He smashed it down across the spine of the rat dragon then he ran. The rat dragon let out a terrible howl, angry and high-pitched. The sound raked across Xiao Yen's back teeth.
“Quick,” she said as Udo joined her. She ran toward the tunnel from which she had come.
“The treasure?” he called.
Xiao Yen stopped and turned around. “Impossible,” she said.
Udo swayed on his feet. The gnawing had started again, but this time it was a deeper, more threatening sound, the sound of rocks being crushed between long rat teeth. Xiao Yen wanted to run, but she couldn't leave Udo behind. She tried to show him the situation with her hands. “Gold,” she said, miming a large mound. “Deep hole,” she indicated, next to it. “No bridge.”
Udo nodded. He looked down at his saber and ground his teeth together. His jaw stuck out, as if a magician had cast a spell and turned it to granite. The muscles in his neck strained.
Xiao Yen walked back toward him, took his arm and said, “Run. Now.”
Udo dropped his head, defeated. He allowed Xiao Yen to lead him back to the tunnel. The horrible gnawing from the rat dragon was soon muffled. Xiao Yen had to drop Udo's arm. The tunnel wasn't wide enough for them to walk side by side. She hurried as much as she could, pausing a few times as she reconstructed the folding instructions she'd memorized as she'd come in. She listened for the scrabbling of naked claws from behind, but all she heard was Udo stumbling over rocks as he followed. She held her lantern low so he could watch where she placed her feet. This time her hand never trembled.
Xiao Yen smelled the fresh air before she felt it blowing on her face. She heard a pattering sound as they stepped out of the tunnel into the cave entrance. She paused then held up a hand to stop Udo.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Shh,” she replied. The sound drew nearer. Xiao Yen pushed Udo against the wall then flattened herself against the cold hard rock. “No move,” she said. “No talk.” Udo stayed silent. He must have seen the fear in her eyes.
A rush of wind came from deep in the mountain, pushed out by the fast-moving rat dragon. It appeared as a brown blur as it passed Xiao Yen and Udo. It didn't pause when it reached the top of the tunnel, but hurled itself out the cave entrance, into the air. Its batlike wings creaked as they spread out.
Xiao Yen's heart leapt as the dragon disappeared. Had the dragon missed them? She walked to the entrance of the cave and looked out. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. Her heart sank to her toes. They had been so close.
Udo asked, “What's the matter?”
“The plain,” Xiao Yen responded. “It—” she moved her hands in frustration, one over the other, trying to show the shape of the plain, not remembering the foreign words. “Dragon can see us. No place to hide.”
Udo stepped up to the mouth of the cave and looked out. He grunted and nodded. The flat plain offered no shelter from an airborne dragon.
“Look,” he said. “What's wrong with the dragon?”
The rat dragon flew in an erratic path across the sky. It flapped its wings hard to gain height, then rocked back and forth, as if heavy winds buffeted it.
Xiao Yen pointed and said, “The tail!”
The rat dragon still had a large chunk of rock knotted into its tail.
Like a ship with a broken rudder, it couldn't steer.
The rat dragon acted as if it heard Xiao Yen, and aimed straight for the cave entrance where they stood. It issued a high-pitched scream that ran sharp nails down Xiao Yen's back. She stepped away from the edge, tugging at Udo's sleeve.
Udo didn't budge. He raised his saber and issued his own battle cry, harsh and guttural.
The rat dragon swung from side to side as it dived, but the swinging seemed to be controlled now. The rock-laden tail hung below it like a pendulum. The beast folded its wings closer to its body to give speed to its dive. The red glowing eyes fastened on Udo.
Xiao Yen put a hand up toward Udo then dropped it again. She couldn't stop him or save him. She took a deep breath and waited to see Udo's fate.
Just before the rat dragon got to the cave entrance, it raised its head and extended its wings, braking, reaching for Udo with its hind claws. It screamed again as it glided forward.
And down.
The rat dragon wasn't used to the extra weight from the rock its tail still held. While momentum carried the beast forward, the rock dragged it down. It was too late for the beast to compensate with its wings.
Its snout smashed next to Udo's feet. The rest of the rat dragon's body hit the hill hard. The ground shook, as if a small earthquake had just occurred. Xiao Yen heard several loud snaps as she tried to stay on her feet: the rat dragon's ribs breaking. Then the beast tumbled backward. Its tail came up, and the rock still tied there crashed into the rat dragon's face, snapping its snout in two. The rat dragon continued to somersault down the hill, and landed with a loud crash next to the pile of garbage. It didn't move again.
Udo shouted with joy, raising his saber in victory.
Xiao Yen wanted to laugh. He hadn't done anything to kill the dragon, but he was going to take all the credit for it. He was such a foreigner.
Chapter Twelve
Bao Fang
“And Liang Ko Fu's family? They have a large house in Bao Fang, of course, but an even larger one in the capital. Its gardens are said to rival the Emperor's!” Gan Ou bragged.
“The harvest here wasn't too large, but down south, it was tremendous. I've doubled our contract for millet, and our profits too,” said Wang Tie-Tie.
“Do you have enough blankets at night?” asked Fu Be Be.
Xiao Yen almost laughed. Though the dinner Wang Tie-Tie had ordered was supposedly in her honor, no one had let her say a word until now.
“I have plenty of blankets. I'm learning many things at school too. Master Wei is a good teacher.”
A pained look crossed Fu Be Be's face. “Have some more huo qiezi,” she said, passing a plate of fried eggplant with fire sauce.
Xiao Yen sighed, depressed. Her family expected her to do well, to pass all her exams and excel at being a paper mage. Conversely, they acted ashamed of her attending school, and would never let her talk about it.
“What happened to your hand?” Fu Be Be asked.
Xiao Yen followed her mother's stare to her left hand, holding the plate. She knew she should minimize the importance of what the cloth covered, but she couldn't.
“Today, at the contest, my crane, well, we, uhm, interacted, and he pecked me.” Xiao Yen didn't know how to explain the importance of the event.
Fu Be Be pulled back in horror. “Your creature attacked you?”
“No Mother. It didn't attack me. It scarred me, marked me as a paper mage. Master Wei even called me a paper mage.”
“No child of mine is going to have scars on her hands,” Fu Be Be said, unwrapping the cloth bound around Xiao Yen's left hand. She gasped when she saw the ash covering the wound. She got up, pulling Xiao Yen with her.
“Mama, Master Wei said I should keep it covered for a week,” Xiao Yen said.
Fu Be Be responded, “Proper ladies don't have scars on the backs of their ha
nds. That's the sort of thing a superstitious peasant woman would do. You're going to have nice, beautiful hands.”
Xiao Yen didn't argue. She didn't want to start one of their usual screaming fights. She wanted the time she spent with her family to be happy. She didn't see them very often. She let her mother clean her hand, put healing herbs on it, then bandage it again.
Xiao Yen also vowed to herself that she would reopen the cut and put more ash in it later that night. Her mother wouldn't know, and Xiao Yen could still have the scar marking her as a true paper mage.
* * *
“Did I show you the writing set my fiancé sent me?” Gan Ou asked Xiao Yen. Before Xiao Yen could reply, Gan Ou leapt off their shared bed and started rummaging under it. The three candles sitting on the window ledge behind her threw her shadow across the bed and up the wall.
Xiao Yen stretched, then lay down, across the bed, her head near the edge where Gan Ou sat. She grinned at her sister, though Gan Ou couldn't see it. It was fun to see her sister so excited about something. Ladies never indulged in simple enthusiasm, so Gan Ou always pretended to not care as well.
Gan Ou dragged a large, off-white bundle of cloth from under the bed. The knotted cloth covered an eight-sided box, lacquered in an elegant, emerald-and-cherry colored design. The sides interwove at the corners, showing excellent craftsmanship. Gan Ou stood up and placed the box on the bed, next to Xiao Yen. Then she fetched one of the candles from the window.
Gan Ou handed Xiao Yen the candle so the older sister could lift the lid off the box with both hands. Nestled in luxurious crimson silk lay three brushes, lacquered like the box, with fine straight bristles. Next to the brushes lay a slab of ink so black it was like a solid piece of night. The ink stone, used for grinding and holding the ink, was just as black. A slim knife with a pearl handle, used for trimming the brushes, glittered in the light.
“Surely that ink stick is so fine that twelve tiny dragons will want to live in it, like in Wen Zhang's, the god of literature!” Xiao Yen proclaimed.
Gan Ou said, “I hope so.” She sighed, and gazed for a moment at the contents of her writing set. Then she sighed again, put the snug-fitting cover on the box, and placed it back in the center of the cloth.
“Why do you keep such a fine gift under the bed? Why isn't it displayed on your table, or in the Hall of Receiving?” Xiao Yen asked.
“It's part of Wang Tie-Tie's strategy,” Gan Ou said as she tied the final knot. “She won't let me display it until Ko Fu sends a more expensive bridal gift.”
Xiao Yen had never heard such a tone in Gan Ou's voice; at least, not when talking about family. Normally she reserved that disparaging tone for merchants. Xiao Yen peered at Gan Ou after she replaced the box, but the flickering candlelight made if difficult to see any details in her sister's face.
“Fu Be Be says Wang Tie-Tie is a miserly harpy, like old man Ti, that elder who wouldn't give any of his gold to help the goddess Nü-gua.”
Xiao Yen was shocked. Fu Be Be and Wang Tie-Tie argued, often, but always in private. Neither Xiao Yen or Gan Ou were ever included. Puzzling over the content of their battles had been a source of more than one late-night conversation between the sisters.
“Did Wang Tie-Tie actually tell you that you should receive more expensive bridal gift?” Xiao Yen asked.
“No. She just said this gift was inappropriate. He should have sent jewels or something, a gift just for me. She said the writing set was a selfish present. That he gave it to me to keep it in his family, not so that I might enjoy it. But I would enjoy it! I'm not some illiterate peasant who doesn't know how to write her own name. I compose poetry that even Fu Be Be says is good.”
Xiao Yen weighed both sides of the argument. It was an expensive gift, well made and beautiful. She believed Wang Tie-Tie was right though. It wasn't appropriate for a young bride. Gan Ou should have something that was hers alone, not something an unscrupulous husband could “borrow” and never return.
“Wang Tie-Tie's just looking after your interests,” Xiao Yen said, trying to smooth things out.
“No she isn't. She only wants to protect her interests, to further her plans.”
“That's not true,” Xiao Yen replied. “She's looking out for the family.”
Gan Ou snorted. “She isn't part of our family. She's our uncle's wife, not our mother's sister.”
“She took us in when our father died,” Xiao Yen pointed out.
Gan Ou looked away then glanced back with a sly smile. “So, if she's looking out for us, tell me about the husband she's found for you. Tell me when you'll be meeting with the matchmaker.”
Xiao Yen looked down. Her hands lay still in her lap. Master Wei had punished her often enough for fidgeting that she no longer did it. The silence grew tangible, dripping off the walls like wax dripping off the candles.
Gan Ou plucked at the bedspread. She started to say something, but stopped when Xiao Yen stared at her. Gan Ou bit her lip and wrung her hands, uncomfortable in the growing silence, while Xiao Yen took a deep breath and relaxed, her soul expanding in the familiar quiet. Gan Ou grew more agitated. Xiao Yen hid her smile. Finally, here was something she could do to tease Gan Ou.
Xiao Yen let the silence expand another few moments before she took pity on her sister and replied. “I don't know who Wang Tie-Tie has picked out for me to marry. Maybe no matchmaker has approached her, or will approach her, until after you're married. Or maybe she has someone in mind, but she hasn't told me yet. I've only been home for one evening. But I know Wang Tie-Tie has my best interests at heart.”
Xiao Yen heard the lie even as she said it. Wang Tie-Tie was selfish. She wanted Xiao Yen in the paper mage school for her own reasons, not because it was best for Xiao Yen. “I must do my duty,” she added, almost whispering.
Gan Ou emitted a harsh bark of laughter. “Your duty? Your duty is to your family, to your mother and me.”
“Wang Tie-Tie is the head of our family,” Xiao Yen said. “Every year she goes through the dedication ceremony and swears to follow the tenets listed in our family poem.” Xiao Yen's most treasured possession at school was a scroll with two of the stanzas from the family poem written on it. Wang Tie-Tie had copied them for her. Xiao Yen marveled at the calligraphy every time she studied it. Though Xiao Yen could fold for hours without lowering her arms, her hand would never be as graceful as her aunt's.
Gan Ou shot a skeptical look at Xiao Yen and said, “You've always been naïve, little sister.”
Xiao Yen was tempted to let the silence grow to make Gan Ou uncomfortable again. Instead, she said, “I still wish you ten thousand happinesses for your upcoming wedding.”
Gan Ou's smile made the room seem brighter. “Fu Be Be said Ko Fu is handsome, and his neighbors say he's kind. And he's smart too! He passed his civil exam on the first try.”
“The first try! Really! You must be very proud of him,” Xiao Yen said. “I passed my school exam on the first try,” she added.
Gan Ou acted as if she hadn't heard Xiao Yen. “Ko Fu comes from a small family, but he says he wants many children, to make up for it.”
Xiao Yen giggled with Gan Ou. They both knew what it took to achieve “many children.”
“Fu Be Be said she knows a woman who had a cousin who married a woman who owned a magic pearl that—”
“That's impossible,” Xiao Yen interrupted.
Gan Ou looked startled. A younger sister wasn't supposed to contradict her older sister like that.
Xiao Yen made herself continue. “Only artifacts can be made magic, not elements. Maybe this woman had a magic pearl ring or necklace. She couldn't have had just a magic pearl. That would take too much strength, too much energy from the mage when he'd made it.”
“How would you know?” Gan Ou asked in her most annoyed older sister voice.
“I study magic,” Xiao Yen said. “What do you think I do at school? We don't just sit around folding pretty flowers all day.”
“Why can't, w
hat, an element, be made magic?” Gan Ou asked, still challenging.
“Elements are more permanent,” Xiao Yen said, trying to use terms that Gan Ou would understand, and not talk in the manner Master Wei always did. “Artifacts are made, and can be unmade. Paper is an easy element to enchant, because it doesn't last. Cloth too. A ring, anything metal, is harder to make magic, because it lasts so long. It has a life all its own, so it takes a lot of a mage's strength, and energy, to make something like that magic. A mage might have to die to make something like a pearl magic.” Xiao Yen paused. “Maybe that's what happened. Maybe a mage gave his life to enchant the pearl. Maybe that's why the pearl is magic,” Xiao Yen ended, trying to mollify Gan Ou.
Silence crept back into the room. Xiao Yen tried again. “What was this magic pearl supposed to do?”
“It was supposed to help the woman have many sons,” Gan Ou finally said, looking away.
“I will pray day and night that you have many sons,” Xiao Yen said in the most pompous voice she could. “May you never have the bad fortune of having a daughter.”
Gan Ou giggled, then continued in a more serious tone. “I have wished for at least one daughter too. ‘Sons to protect you, daughters to warm your heart.'“
Xiao Yen reached out and held her sister's hand. Their mother had often quoted those words to them when their male cousins had teased them too much.
They smiled at each other for another moment, finally at peace.
Xiao Yen handed the candle to her sister, then climbed under the light cotton blanket and curled up on her side of the bed, closest to the wall. It was the coldest spot in the bed, so she, as the younger sister, always had to sleep there. Gan Ou placed the candle back on the window ledge, blew all three out, and then climbed under the covers as well.
“Sweetest dreams of nothingness,” Xiao Yen said.
“The same for you, dear heart,” Gan Ou replied, part of their usual ritual.
Xiao Yen lay awake, listening to her sister's breathing grow slower, more even. She listened beyond the room as well, catching the unfolding silence, holding it to her like a second blanket. Funny how she needed the quiet now. She remembered when she'd first started at the paper mage school, more than four years before, and how she'd hated the stillness.