The rain from the night before had left large puddles in the center of the road, squeezing traffic into two tight lines. Xiao Yen paused at the first line to let a man with a wheelbarrow full of baskets pass in front of her. She found a narrow path between two puddles in the center, then paused again to wait for an ox pulling a cart laden with spring grain. Fu Be Be was already on the other side of the street. Xiao Yen hurried to catch up.
Just as Xiao Yen reached her mother, she stepped in a small puddle. Her shoe stuck in the mud at the bottom of the hole and Xiao Yen fell onto her knees and hands. Her head snapped forward and she bit her tongue. “Ow!” she cried.
Fu Be Be rushed to her daughter’s side, gripped Xiao Yen’s elbow, and pulled her up.
Xiao Yen looked down in dismay. Mud covered her new gray travel pants. The palms of her hands burned and the mud on her knees grew chill in the cool morning air. Xiao Yen grasped her mother’s arm to steady herself. The warm silk slid under her hand. Xiao Yen let go, but it was too late. An ugly stain, like a black arrow, circled the silver sleeve.
Xiao Yen stared, horrified. She’d just ruined her new travel clothes and her mother’s best jacket. A roaring like wet thunder filled Xiao Yen’s ears. How could she have done this? She’d rarely tripped before, and had never fallen like this. Not when she’d had her luck. She rubbed the faint scar on the back of her left hand, remembering when she once thought of herself as the luckiest girl in the world.
Fu Be Be leaned over and brushed at the mud on Xiao Yen’s pants, but only dirtied her own hands. She straightened up and looked at Xiao Yen, her dark eyes cutting through Xiao Yen’s cloud of silence.
“This is a bad omen. Wang Tie-Tie should never have signed that contract. It’s shameful. Sending you away from your family, to work with those dirty foreigners. You must keep yourself apart and pure.” Fu Be Be pulled Xiao Yen’s arm down, jerking her forward, and hurrying along again.
Xiao Yen stopped. “Mother, I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’ll be good experience for me.” Xiao Yen regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth.
Fu Be Be turned and came back to where Xiao Yen was standing. Xiao Yen flinched under her mother’s angry gaze.
“Good experience? The only experience you should be getting is listening to matchmakers and swaddling babies. Who’s going to make an offer for you after you spend three months away from your home, traveling with foreigners?”
“Shhh, Mother,” Xiao Yen said, conscious of the stares from the people passing them.
Fu Be Be wouldn’t be shushed. “Wang Tie-Tie, your own aunt, has robbed you. I don’t care how much money we’re getting from this contract. A girl without family is poor.”
A water carrier, his empty buckets dangling on a pole carried over his broad shoulders, leaned against the wall next to the sidewalk to watch. Xiao Yen gestured at him and told her mother, “Remember what they say: wear your broken arm inside your sleeve.”
Fu Be Be glared at the young man, then dismissed him with a wave of her hand. Holding her nose high, she turned and walked down the sidewalk again, as proud as royalty. Xiao Yen suppressed a giggle and followed.
A small crowd had gathered in the courtyard of the merchant inn. The two foreign brothers stood next to their horses, packed and ready to go. A group of people gathered in a circle around them, staring, pointing, and whispering to each other. The brothers towered over everyone by a head at least. Xiao Yen gasped as she and Fu Be Be approached. She’d never been this close to a foreigner before. They really were as ugly as her cousins said. Wang Tie-Tie’s partner, Fu Ling, detached himself from the crowd to greet them.
Fu Ling bowed low with his hands pressed together across his chest. He wore makeup around his eyes to make them seem small and squinting, as if he spent his nights studying. His broad red nose told the truth—the only thing he studied was a wine pot. He wore a black cap with a high-standing brim and long ear flaps, like an official’s cap, but without the sign of Heaven embroidered on it. His russet silk robe had a pattern of golden blossoms embroidered across his skinny chest and long sleeves.
“Greetings, Lady Fu,” he said in a voice like silk caressing silk. “I welcome you and your”—he paused, glancing at Xiao Yen—“daughter.”
Everyone always said how much Xiao Yen looked like her mother, the same long fine fingers, well-formed nose, and oval face. Xiao Yen’s training had left her bulkier though. Her sister had teased her once, that with Xiao Yen’s shoulders, if she cut her hair, she could pass for a man. The remark still burned.
Fu Ling paused again. Fu Be Be bowed to him, a very short, curt bow, as one would give to an inferior. Xiao Yen did the same. The crowd in the courtyard now stared at her. She wished she could disappear. It was bad enough that her family knew of her position. Now all of Bao Fang would know. Gossip ran faster through the city than the goddess Chang-e could fly from the Tien Moutains in the west to the sea in the east.
Fu Be Be started to walk past Fu Ling, but he touched her sleeve and said, “Oh, gracious lady, perhaps you can untie the knot the foreigners have presented me.”
“Continue,” Fu Be Be commanded.
Xiao Yen caught her breath. If there was some way out of the current contract, her mother would find it. Xiao Yen didn’t know whether to feel sadness or joy. On the one hand, she didn’t want to go. Who would want to be separated from their family, their home, for weeks, traveling with foreigners? On the other hand, she had to go. She must do her duty. She had to fulfill her obligation to Wang Tie-Tie.
“It seems the foreigners have, ah, met someone. She calls herself Bei Xi. She also travels the merchant trail, and wants to join the brothers and their horses.”
“Does this person, this Bei Xi, expect my daughter to protect her as well?” Fu Be Be asked.
“She has her own guard, but, if they’re all traveling together, how could Xiao Yen protect one and not the other?” Wang Tie-Tie’s partner ended with an elegant shrug.
One of the two foreigners walked up to them. Xiao Yen couldn’t take her eyes off his blond hair. It was like someone had taken a piece of the sun and placed it on his head. Maybe it had happened because he was so tall. Fu Ling introduced him as Udo, then bowed and said something in a foreign language, his voice like oil running off water, though he struggled with the words.
The tall foreigner pointed to Xiao Yen and said a single word, incredulously. Xiao Yen’s cheeks burned. She could guess what had happened. Wang Tie-Tie’s partner had never told the foreigners, or had lied, about her being so young. Or about her being a girl. No one thought girls could provide good protection.
Udo’s eyes, the color of summer thunderstorms, flashed with anger. He drew himself up straight, his face turning more red, about to argue more, when a sweet voice called out. The voice spoke fluently in the foreigner language. The man turned and answered roughly.
The most beautiful woman Xiao Yen had ever seen appeared from behind the foreigner, gliding like silk on the wind. She was petite as the blossoms on a wu-tong tree, with skin finer than imperial jade. Though the pink of her cheeks had been only slightly enhanced, her lips were as red as poppies. She wore a lovely off-white silk jacket decorated with cicadas, tied loosely with sleeves that didn’t cover her wrists, giving improper glimpses of her under jacket when she moved.
Xiao Yen looked down at her feet, conscious again of her stained pants. This was the person who wanted to travel with the foreigners? From the way Bei Xi wore her clothes and the amount of makeup covering her face, she was obviously a courtesan. Equally obvious, from the quality of the jacket she wore, her cultured tones, and the number of jewels adorning her, she was from some lord’s court, possibly even a lord who knew the Emperor.
Fu Be Be made a disapproving noise. Xiao Yen knew Fu Be Be didn’t approve of second wives, let alone other women in a household. Would her mother let her travel with such a woman? Xiao Yen was certain that Wang Tie-Tie would approve of Xiao Yen associating with Bei Xi. Her aunt always sought t
o better their family’s social position. Besides, Xiao Yen knew that Wang Tie-Tie thought second wives, courtesans, even prostitutes, could help keep discord from a marriage.
Patiently, Bei Xi listened to the story told by the foreigner. She spoke in a reassuring tone, and eventually mollified the tall blond man. He walked away, still shaking his head. The woman watched him, her head tilted to one side, as if she listened to the wind. She raised her arms, clapped her hands, then turned to Fu Be Be.
A servant came running into the courtyard, breathless, carrying a large sack.
“Of course, because your talented daughter is now protecting twice as many people, you should receive twice the fee,” Bei Xi said, indicating that the servant should hand the money to Fu Be Be.
Xiao Yen felt the anger radiating from her mother. The courtesan had done the right thing, the proper thing. Her mother couldn’t back out now. “The contract . . .” she started to say.
“Is still valid,” Wang Tie-Tie’s partner smoothly inserted as he reached for the bag.
Xiao Yen looked at her feet. Of course it was. She still had to go, to do her duty, to make Wang Tie-Tie proud.
The foreign brothers had traveled the entire length of the Great Merchant road, from the fabled city of Constantinople, over the Mountains of Heaven, through the Bone Desert, and down to Xian, the capital of the Middle Kingdom. Their home was a town called Reric, on the other side of the world, just east of the kingdom of Jutland. They’d hired Xiao Yen to protect their merchandise, their horses, as they made their way through the Middle Kingdom to the seaport Khuangho. They’d make much more money selling the horses on the coast than selling them inland. Xiao Yen didn’t know how they’d gotten permission to do it. Almost all horses were the property of the Emperor or his men.
The brothers had traveled to Xian with a different mage, one who enchanted cloth. He’d conjured blankets that changed the appearance of the horses. Xiao Yen wished she could have met him, though she’d been warned by her master many times that all other mages would be a threat to her. The brothers dismissed the cloth mage when he tried to steal their horses while at the capital.
The brothers wanted to go back home by sea. A sea route back to the foreign lands of the west had been open for ten years or so. It wasn’t a safe journey, but the land route was less safe than it had been. When Emperor Dezong had forged the peace treaty with the Tibetans to the west and the kingdom of Turk—the land of the horsemen—to the north, and the Great Merchant road to the west had reopened, all three kingdoms had dedicated soldiers to keeping merchants safe from robbers. Now, the horsemen ignored the treaty, raiding both merchants and the villages on the border between their lands and the Middle Kingdom. In addition, on the other side of the trade route, the great foreign king, Charlemagne, had died, and his son was old and weak. His lands, too, were under attack.
Everything happened quickly in the courtyard. One of Bei Xi’s servants led Xiao Yen to her horse. It had a ragged, dark brown coat with matching mane, and the character for “ox” branded on its right shoulder. The characters branded on the left side of its tail indicated that the horse was foreign. The brands on the right showed that it could be used privately. It smelled of hay and dust.
Xiao Yen remembered another brand she’d seen, only once. She shivered, and wished she could ask the horse if it still hurt.
Xiao Yen’s head didn’t crest the horse’s back, while the foreigners’ heads stood almost as high as their horses! Xiao Yen had never been on a horse before. Her fear hollowed out the pit of her stomach as she looked up at it. What if she injured it? If she took all the money from her contract, maybe she could pay for one horse.
Bei Xi’s servant tied Xiao Yen’s bags across the back of the horse, and showed her how to step on the mounting block, and how to swing one leg up and over the horse. Xiao Yen forced herself to follow his instructions precisely, trying to make the foreign movements seem natural. She couldn’t let anyone guess how full of fear she was. She was their defense against mercenaries and bandits on the road. She couldn’t be afraid of what she was protecting.
From her high perch, Xiao Yen could see over the heads of everyone in the courtyard. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. She wasn’t afraid of falling off. Her training with Master Wei had given her an excellent sense of balance.
Then the horse took a step.
Xiao Yen stopped looking around and concentrated on her horse. She’d never sat in a cart or ridden in a palanquin. Moving without taking a step was an odd sensation. It reminded her of her dreams of flying.
A sharp whistle cut through the air. Xiao Yen’s horse turned around and started walking toward the gate, following the rest of the horses. Xiao Yen clutched at the reins and looked around for her mother. This was it. She was leaving. Leaving Bao Fang. Leaving her family.
Xiao Yen bent her head as she passed through the arch of the merchant’s inn, though she didn’t need to, unlike the foreigners. Her mother came hurrying up, pushing her way through the crowd. Xiao Yen wasn’t sure how to stop her horse. She couldn’t dismount. She’d never be able to get back on it again without help.
Fu Be Be handed Xiao Yen a small willow branch, saying, “I look forward to your return.”
Xiao Yen squeezed her lips together, biting them. The willow branch was a traditional parting gift. It cried all the tears that the parties saying good-bye could never shed. Xiao Yen didn’t know what to say. She’d never thought her mother would shed any tears, real or metaphorical, at her departure.
“Be well,” her mother said, falling away.
“I’ll try,” Xiao Yen called over her shoulder. She couldn’t look backward for more than a moment. Though she had good balance, it was still unsettling.
Besides, she didn’t want to see her mother actually cry.
Xiao Yen held the reins to her horse in one cold hand and clutched the willow branch in the other. Her thighs trembled and her buttocks ached. She’d never ridden a horse before that day. Now she’d been on one all day, and wasn’t sure she could dismount. Everyone in camp seemed too busy to help her. The long-haired guard, a barbarian horseman from the north, Gi Tang, was setting up a tent for Bei Xi on the eastern edge of camp. The trail guide looked after the horses, lifting up hooves one at a time, checking for rocks.
The foreign brothers, Udo and Ehran, worked together; Ehran built a fire and Udo unpacked large cast-iron cooking pots. They yelled at each other with big, hearty voices, as if they stood many li apart. Their voices dominated the other sounds in the camp: the grunts from the barbarian guard as he raised the center pole of a tent, the chorus of frogs from the river, the horses nickering as the trail guide led them to the edge of camp. Xiao Yen longed to be outside of all the noise, in the woods with only the wind speaking to her. Though the oaks still held their leaves, the other trees were only budding, so the blazing orange sunset shone through the clearing. From her high perch, Xiao Yen smelled the damp ground. Her horse was warm against her thighs, but her shoulders were cold. At least her legs had finally dried.
She suppressed a shudder remembering the river crossing that morning. Only her horse had stumbled, dropping to its knees. Only Xiao Yen had soaked her legs. The foreigners had laughed, saying she was now “baptized,” whatever that meant. Xiao Yen knew it was the river dragon trying to drag her under, angry with her because the city dragon was angry with her. She was glad they didn’t have to cross the river again, though they would ride beside it for weeks as they traveled north along the merchant trail. It would provide their water the entire trip.
Udo approached her. He was the uglier of the two foreigners, with a large nose and the grin of a carnivore. His best feature was his hair, golden as summer wheat. It rested in waves across the top of his head, and he tied it in a ponytail in the back. He wore the cuffs of his gray pants loose, like a woman, instead of bound tightly around his ankles, like a man. Over his reddish cotton shirt he wore a short black vest, lined with brown fur.
Udo said somet
hing to her in his harsh, guttural foreign tongue, and held out his hands. She assumed he wanted to help her down so she said, “Yes, down please,” in his tongue. He looked surprised and rattled off more words at her.
Xiao Yen didn’t know what he’d said. She smiled as if she agreed, hoping that was the right answer. He yelled at his brother—something about a flower? Then he turned back and smiled at her, showing all his teeth like an angry dog. Xiao Yen suppressed a shudder and didn’t flinch when he touched her elbow and helped her slide off her horse. His warm fingers held her upper arm, steadying her. When Xiao Yen found she could stand, she pulled away from him.
Udo untied her bags, hanging on either side of her horse. He grunted as he lifted them over the horse, then dropped them to the ground. Xiao Yen let go of her willow branch and picked her bags up. Why hadn’t he just handed them to her? He said something more that she didn’t understand.
“He’s asking how you can carry such heavy bags,” came a soft voice over her right shoulder. Xiao Yen spun around, clutching her bags to her chest like a shield. Bei Xi the courtesan stood there, more beautiful than the painting Wang Tie-Tie had of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy. A sweet scent flowed from Bei Xi to Xiao Yen. In the dimming light her skin glowed like a new moon. Her teeth looked like little pearls, expertly strung.
Xiao Yen realized that both Bei Xi and Udo stared at her, waiting for an answer. One word popped out from her terror of addressing such a perfect being. “Practice.”
Udo roared with laughter when Bei Xi repeated the word to him in his language. The courtesan smiled politely, though her eyes laughed as well. Xiao Yen turned away, taking small steps with her shaky legs. Udo came up beside her before she was halfway across the camp clearing and took her bags from her. He grunted again at their weight.
He led her to a small tent set up next to Bei Xi’s. Xiao Yen glanced at Bei Xi’s tent, then looked away. Why had they put her tent next to Bei Xi’s? The courtesan’s tent was made from off-white cloth, like the muslin used for mourning clothes. Xiao Yen had often heard the northern barbarians referred to as “the ones who sleep in death tents.”
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