by Brian Godawa
Antiochus smirked, “Well, we know we are in the right place, then.”
At that very moment, Balthazar’s attention was drawn to the water below their ship. The sight evoked in him both a shiver of fear and an undeniable sense of wonder. He saw a huge scaled serpentine body glide silently below the surface, barely visible in the darkness of the deep. It passed beneath them with long fluid movement. It was huge. It passed and sank smoothly back into the deep like a phantom. Balthazar figured it was three times the size of their own ship. Massive.
And then the sea monster was gone.
He looked back up to see if Antiochus or the others had seen it as well. But everyone had been focused on the members of the opposing vessel, and the tense moment of possible confrontation.
No one else had seen the colossal creature.
Was it a magical protector of these strange mystical people? A secret weapon at their bidding?
A pale of dread came over Balthazar. It was surely an omen of the future.
CHAPTER 12
Antiochus docked his ship at the Langya port. A mountain rose before them with a large tower on it that reached to the heavens. The General had a receiving party arrive from the tower above. Antiochus could see the beginning of the long spiral of steps that led up to the top. But there was also a mechanical elevator that could carry a dozen or more people directly up the precipitous mountainside. He stood on the dock with Balthazar and a few guards. They watched Chang ten feet away talking to the General. They could hear snippets of their dialogue.
Antiochus noticed that the General had his helmet off. His hair was black and long as a woman’s, as was that of all the soldiers. Some of it was pulled up into a silly looking knot on the top of his head with huge hair pins in it, allowing the rest of the long locks to lie down around his shoulders. He had learned from Chang that their hair was considered sacred, and an expression of their status. It struck Antiochus as a hindrance for battle.
Balthazar whispered to Antiochus, “Langya is one of the emperor’s favorite vacation spots. He keeps a complete retinue of servants and concubines available for visits at any time.”
Antiochus was barely listening to him, because he had scanned the entourage of a dozen servants and had noticed a single woman in their midst.
A single vision of heaven.
It was difficult for Antiochus to distinguish most of them because they all looked so similar to him. The same almond-shaped dark eyes, the same long black hair, with the exception that the plebeians apparently tended to have their hair down. But this servant stood out to him like a shining star. She wore the same plain brown woolen robe as the others, but it didn’t seem to fit her glowing presence. Her skin was very pale, almost translucent. Her lips were pulpy and her eyes unusually large. But the mark that distinguished her most, that gave her a haunting presence, was a large scar that crossed her left cheek down to her chin. It was like a gash from the gods to keep her beauty from achieving absolute earthly perfection. A reminder of human frailty in the face of a goddess.
But it couldn’t stop Antiochus from his worshipful stare.
Balthazar noticed his leader’s trance and saw the servant woman staring back, transfixed. Then she suddenly turned and scurried away into the housing structures on the dock. Antiochus was shaken out of his trance.
The Ch’inese General advanced toward Antiochus and Balthazar with Chang at his side, smiling as always.
A guard of eight soldiers followed the General protectively.
He stopped and stood before Antiochus. They were approximately the same height, which was unusual as the rest of the Ch’inese tended to be a foot smaller than the average Greek.
Balthazar wondered why the gods made them so small. Antiochus wondered what their diet consisted of.
The General looked at Antiochus with what appeared to be a stern frown. Chang had warned Antiochus earlier that this was the general’s normal look.
Antiochus bowed deferentially as he had been advised to do. It consisted of placing one’s arms in a circle in front of them, hands cupped within each other. The General returned the bow and spoke to Antiochus in Ch’inese. Balthazar whispered to him, “He says his name is General Meng Tian and he welcomes you on behalf of the emperor.”
Antiochus replied to him, “I am honored to meet you, General. My name is Antiochus the Younger, son of Antiochus the Great, emperor of Seleucia. I am here on a diplomatic mission to your emperor.”
Balthazar did his best with Ch’inese to repeat the words to the general. Chang corrected him on some minor pronunciations.
Meng Tian looked at Balthazar with a bit of surprise. He said in Ch’inese, “I am impressed that you have learned a bit of our language.”
The General turned and gestured to a large stone monument at the center of the walkway to the stairs. It had an inscription on it. “Do you see this declaration of the emperor? I will read it and your scholar shall translate for all your party to listen and understand.”
He gestured for them to follow him to the stele. Antiochus alerted his own guard to follow him. They stood before the monument and Meng Tian read it, with Balthazar translating.
A new age is inaugurated by the Emperor.
Rules and measures are rectified,
The myriad things set in order,
There is harmony between fathers and sons.
The Emperor in his sagacity, benevolence and justice
Has made all laws and principles manifest.
It was typical tyrant drivel to Antiochus. Exaltation of the emperor, his righteousness and compassion, demands for obedience by his subjects, and warnings of punishment for disobedience. Finally, they finished with an ode to his absolute sovereignty.
The universe entire
Is our Emperor’s realm,
Wherever human life is found,
All acknowledge his suzerainty,
All creatures benefit from his virtue,
All live in peace at home.
When the General finished, Antiochus saw a tear in his eye. He knew this one was not like Hermias after all. He was a true believer. A man of tradition and loyalty. That could prove to be far more dangerous.
The General said, “The emperor will want to meet you.”
CHAPTER 13
Chang stood with Antiochus and Balthazar on the deck of the trireme as it followed the junk ship up the river into the interior. Fortunately, the trireme was shallow enough to navigate the river waters. Antiochus used his oarsmen to paddle upstream. The Ch’inese ship was so constructed that its sail could completely spin around, allowing it to advance directly into the wind without a need for human labors at the oars. Balthazar suspected this was just the beginning of wondrous knowledge he was about to gain from these strange foreigners and their strange ways.
The landscape was as exotic as was the people. They first passed through thick rich jungle forests followed by mountains unlike any they had seen in Mesopotamia or Syria. They rose in multitudes like tall individual piles of rock in the setting sun. They reminded Balthazar of a field of natural ziggurats.
He spotted a most alien creature staring out at their ship as they passed. It appeared to be a bear that was black and white in its color with big black spots around its eyes. Chang told him it was a “panda.”
Antiochus muttered under his breath, “So they do exist.” He smiled, remembering the story his mother told him of how these peaceful bears gained their spotted black and white coloring. As the fable went, long ago, they were once white. But one day, a shepherdess saved a little panda cub from being attacked by a leopard. In protecting the baby bear, the girl was killed by the large cat. Then at her funeral, all the bears came and put ashes on their fur as was the custom. They rubbed their eyes from crying and held their ears because the mourning had become so loud. The ashes then created the coloring that would mark the bears for the rest of their lives.
The panda watched them from the midst of a forest of tall green, straight skinny trees Cha
ng called “bamboo.”
Chang said, “Bamboo is the staff of life. It is food for creatures like the panda and the gorilla. It is considered a noble gentleman in our culture, virtuous, upright, strong and—” Antiochus interrupted him, “And persevering.” He was repeating what his mother had told him so many times he could not forget.
Balthazar looked at Antiochus with curiosity. Chang smiled and finished, “Yes, that is correct. We use it for writing, building homes, weapons, and even eating.”
Have I run from my future only to face my past? thought Antiochus. Have I reached the ends of the earth, only to return home?
The “virtuous” bamboo reminded him of the beautiful woman he had seen at the landing place. He could not stop thinking about her. He could not forget her dangerous beauty.
They were interrupted by the arrival of a sailor announcing, “General Antiochus. We have a stowaway.” He crowed proudly, pulling forward a bound woman in a dark robe.
Antiochus saw it was the beautiful servant woman he had seen earlier.
“Release her,” he huffed.
The sailor was surprised. He had been hoping for some recognition. Instead he was reprimanded.
They retired quickly to Antiochus’ cabin, joined by Balthazar and Chang.
Antiochus handed the woman a cup of water. He asked her with his limited Ch’inese, “Who are you?”
She averted her eyes when she spoke. “My name is Mei Li.”
Chang added, “She is one of the emperor’s concubines.”
Antiochus and Balthazar responded with shock.
Antiochus asked Chang, “Then why does she dress as a servant? And why did she stowaway? Is she in trouble?”
Chang did not have to ask her. He knew the answer. “She disdain her station. She has rebellious spirit. In Tianxia, hierarchy must be obeyed. Independence not allowed.”
Antiochus could not keep his eyes off of her. He asked, “Why would she spurn such privileged status?”
Chang answered, “She was at Langya because she is out of his favor.”
Chang then explained to Mei Li what Antiochus was asking him. Antiochus now knew with certainty that he was in the land of his mother’s people. His suspicions had been confirmed. There was something in that beautiful concubine’s eyes that carried the mystery of his origins, and he hoped the salvation of his soul.
She spoke in Ch’inese simple enough for Antiochus to follow, “My scar makes me an outcast from the royal palace.”
Antiochus saw in her bodily behavior a ritual humility. She would rarely look any of them in the eye. Was she timid or ashamed? But he now felt a strong desire to learn their language, unlike his feelings about it during the entire trip across the sea. He was determined to immerse himself to catch up in his understanding.
“I am sorry for your suffering,” said Antiochus.
Mei Li replied, still not looking at him, “Do not be. The emperor ignores me. I can move about freely, so long as I stay out of his way.”
Antiochus could not believe it. “But that is cruelty.”
“It is my freedom.”
Chang added, “Do not be quick to judge.”
Antiochus pulled back.
Chang added, “In Tianxia, it would be wrong to allow such blemish in the presence of the perfection of the emperor.”
Antiochus knew that their worlds thought differently and treated each other differently. Nevertheless, he could see the self-exaltation of tyrants was the same all over the world. Maybe they were not all that different in their nature after all.
“This emperor of yours acts like a god.”
Chang replied, “He is a god.”
CHAPTER 14
The journey through five hundred miles of intersecting river systems took them days to navigate before arriving at their destination, which now towered above them on the north side of the River Wei: the imperial city of Xianyang.
The desert rocky terrain in this area was a marked contrast with the lush green forests and mountain jungles they had recently passed through. It seemed as if they entered into a land that had the life sucked out of the ground. In a way, it seemed to match the stoic emotionless character of the Ch’inese Balthazar had already met. Even Chang had reverted back to his expressionless original self, no longer joining in hearty laughter or outward emotion.
Chameleon indeed, thought Balthazar. But he couldn’t judge him too harshly for it. It was one way to survive. Scholarly knowledge had a way of diffusing loyalty to anyone or anything other than the hungry pursuit of more knowledge. And the more one learned of worlds outside one’s own, the more one learned about ignorance and prejudice and the more one became less able to fanatically support any single world.
They walked through the gates of the towering walls before them and entered into a different world yet again. It was a lively city, full of hardworking peasants carrying water, food and building materials on their shoulders. They were dressed in simple colorless tattered robes, the eastern version of their plebeian western counterparts in Mesopotamia. They passed through markets that sold vegetables and other foods, much of it unrecognizable to the Greek visitors.
The governmental architecture riveted Antiochus and Balthazar. It contained all the imagination and color that seemed lacking in their home city. The color red dominated on colorful buildings with orange tiled roofs that looked like large hats with curled up edges. Chang called this a “pagoda” style. The larger buildings with multiple stories looked like a series of curled pagoda hats placed on top of each level.
Balthazar thought of the square, colorless and lifeless Babylonian living space compared to this colorful, organic Ch’inese sensibility for beauty. The wood and earth-packed walls of Tianxia were flexible and alive, the stone of his home Mesopotamia was immovable and lifeless in comparison.
The Imperial Palace was even more outstanding as they entered it. The colorful Ishtar Gate was primitive compared to the intricacies of detail in the gates of this Palace district. Curling flames, flowers and dragons. It was like entering a kind of paradise.
Antiochus led his pared-down crew, surrounded by Meng Tian’s soldiers, through a vast, wide open courtyard to the next inner gate of the palace. Hellenic palaces were large, but filled with pillars and cold damp stone architecture. He felt he could breathe easier here, the air itself feeling pure and fresh in his lungs. This new world was enchanting.
They moved through a second gate into new palatial grounds. Balthazar noticed it was laid out like a temple with increasing areas of gated holiness the closer one got to the sanctuary. And the sanctuary stood before them now, at the top of a myriad of steps. The Palace of Ch’in, a massive towering achievement of oriental architecture.
Ascending the steps felt like ascension into heaven itself.
Too bad this god is only a man, thought Balthazar.
Antiochus wondered where the Achilles heel was for this proud despot they were about to meet. When he found it, he would exploit it.
When they reached the top, they could see up close the intricacy of beauty in all its detail. Mammoth multi-leveled sloping pagoda roofs. Bright red pillars. Ornate latticework that looked like hand-carved wooden lace adorning the entire imperial house. It stunned the Greeks. All of them.
And yet, it was strangely familiar to Antiochus. As if he had been here before, but only in his dreams—dreams that were fueled by his mother’s exotic fairy tales of distant adventure and romance. Those dreams now came alive before his eyes with wonder.
They entered the palace.
Two fighters clashed with staffs before the royal throne as entertainment. One of them was Wu Shu, the champion of the emperor. His taut, sinewy form moved gracefully, effortlessly, like a cobra toying with its prey.
His prey was Fusu, the eldest royal son of the emperor. Over twenty years of age, well built, and practiced, Fusu was still no match for his master. His powerful thrusts and strong attacks were easily diverted and turned against him by Wu Shu.
&nbs
p; Antiochus sat transfixed by the fighting style. It was alien and exotic, yet strangely poetic, like a ballet. He wanted to understand its principle, the philosophy behind the power. He thought again of the dangerous beauty that seemed to typify much of this entire Asian cosmos.
Balthazar was more entranced by the throne room. He kept glancing around at the vast hall. Soldiers lined up along the huge pillars. They held artistically designed glaives, large menacing blades at the end of a pole. The Greek arrival party sat on the floor facing the throne, and between visitors and host, the current sparring went on. On either side, an assortment of scholars, royalty and other advisors watched the combat display, sitting perfectly still, some with pin-bunned hair, others with tightly fit hats, all with flowing robes and hidden hands.
The throne was particularly exalting. Balthazar read the large banners hanging on red pillars as best he could. Emperor of all under heaven.
Everything upon the throne was adorned with paintings, engravings and tapestries of fluid-looking curlicues, flowers and serpentine dragons. The Ch’inese dragons were not like the western conception of a full bodied reptilian behemoth. They were more like long twisting and writhing snakes with small legs. Western notions of dragons involved fire, these Eastern ones involved water.
A few advisors and royal members stood beside the throne dressed in shimmering, flowing black fabric with bright accents of blue, red and gold dragons. The sleeves of their robes expanded like hanging waterfalls of smooth fabric. Chang had described the shiny material to them as “silk.” It was made from web-like material created by special worms. It made the wearers seem otherworldly to Balthazar. And black seemed to be their royal color as purple was for the Seleucids. Most of their hair was pinned up in buns or knots with elaborate ornate carved head pieces and huge hair pins.