Chen felt sick. This was his fault. But he could do nothing.
Pavel did not look at him. It was clear he had chosen not to say why he had gone to the wagon. Without being told, the ku – the field workers – formed a circle about the youth and the two guards. There was an awful silence. Chen looked around the circle and saw how most of them looked down or away, anything but look at what was happening at the circle’s heart.
Teng’s voice barked out again. ‘This man was disobedient. He knew the rules and yet he broke them.’ He laughed; a curt, brutal laughter. ‘He was stupid. Now he will be punished for his stupidity.’
Teng drew the long club from his belt and turned to face Pavel. Chang smiled and thrust the young man forward at his fellow.
Without warning, Teng lashed out, the club hitting Pavel on the back of the legs, making him fall down. The sound the boy made was awful; a frightened whimper.
Chen shuddered and gritted his teeth.
Teng stood over the youth now, smiling down at him. ‘Get up, Pavel. It’s not over yet.’
Slowly, his eyes never leaving Teng’s face, Pavel got to his feet again. Teng’s smile never wavered, but seemed to burn fiercely. It was clear he was enjoying himself hugely. He looked down at the club, then let fly again, this time catching Pavel across the side of the head.
The boy went down with a groan of pain. Chen could feel the indignation ripple about the circle. But still they were all silent. No one moved. No one did a thing.
Teng put the tip of the club against the young man’s head and pushed gently, making him fall backwards. Then he looked across at his fellow guard.
‘Chang! Pass me the rod!’
This time there was a low murmur from the circle. Teng turned, looking from face to face, then laughed. ‘If there’s anyone else who’d like a taste of this, just say.’
Chang went across and took the club from him, handing him a long, thin pole that was attached by a wire to a small box. Teng clipped the box to one of his jacket pockets, then pressed a button on the side of the rod. It hissed wickedly.
Teng looked across at Pavel. ‘Drop your trousers, boy!’
Chen saw Pavel swallow awkwardly. The youth was petrified. His fingers fumbled at the strings that held up his trousers, then managed to untie the knot. Then he stood, his head drooping, letting his trousers fall around his ankles.
Under the trousers he was quite naked. He trembled uncontrollably. His penis had shrivelled up with fear.
Teng looked at him and laughed. ‘We’re a fine big boy, aren’t we, Pavel? No wonder we’ve no girlfriend yet!’ Again his brutal laugh rang out. Then, cruelly, he touched the rod against the tip of the boy’s penis.
Pavel jerked back, but Teng had not activated the rod.
Teng looked across at Chang and both men laughed loudly at the joke. Then Teng pressed the button and thrust the rod into the young man’s groin. Pavel doubled up convulsively, then lay there as if dead. Teng must have had the rod set high, for the smell of burnt flesh was suddenly sharp in the warm, still air.
‘You dirty bastard!’
The words came from Chen’s left. He turned and saw it was the old man who had spoken to him earlier.
Teng had also turned and was looking at the man. ‘What is it, Fang Hui? You want to join the fun?’
Chang’s voice sounded urgently from behind Teng. ‘Use the club, Teng Fu. The rod will kill the old fool.’
But Teng wasn’t listening. He walked slowly across to the old man and stood there, facing him, head and shoulders bigger than him.
‘What did you say, old man? What did you call me?’
Fang Hui smiled bleakly. ‘You heard me, Teng.’
Teng laughed. ‘Yes, I heard you, Fang.’ He reached forward and grabbed the man’s face in one hand, forcing his mouth open, then thrust the rod inside, closing Fang Hui’s teeth upon it. Then he moved his hand away. One finger hovered above the button of the box.
‘You’d like a taste of this, Fang Hui?’
Fang’s eyes were wide with terror. Slowly Teng withdrew the rod from the old man’s mouth, a sadistic smile of enjoyment lighting his big, ugly features.
‘A good peasant is a quiet peasant, eh, Fang?’
The old man nodded exaggeratedly.
‘Good,’ Teng said quietly, then kicked out, sending Fang sprawling.
The old man lay there, gasping. Chen looked across at him, relieved he had come to no greater harm, then turned and looked back at Teng.
It had been hard. Hard not to add his voice to Fang Hui’s. Harder still just to stand there in the circle and do nothing. Pavel was stirring now. He lifted his head from the ground and looked up, his eyes unfocused, then let it fall back again.
Chang stepped up behind him, a cup of water in one hand, and poured it over the youth’s head. ‘Is this what you came for, Pavel?’ His action brought guffaws of laughter from the watching Teng.
Yes, thought Chen. I may have done nothing here today, but watch me, Teng. Be careful how you treat me. For I’ve every reason to kill you now for what you’ve done.
He thought of what Pavel had told him of the murders and knew now it was more than rumour. It was what had happened. He was sure of it.
Yes. Every reason.
The sound of laughter carried from the garden into the house through the wide, open doorway. Outside the morning was bright and warm; inside, where Li Yuan sat with his eight-year-old nephew, Tsu Tao Chu, it was cooler and in shadow.
They were playing wei chi, practising openings and corner plays, but Li Yuan seemed distracted. He kept looking out into the garden where the maids were playing ball.
The younger boy’s high, sing-song voice broke the silence that had lain between them for some time. ‘Your heart’s not in this, is it Yuan? It’s a lovely morning. Why don’t we go riding instead?’
Li Yuan turned and looked at him. ‘I’m sorry, Tao Chu. What did you say?’
‘I said…’ He laughed sweetly, then leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘Tell me, Yuan. Which one is it?’
Li Yuan blushed and set a white stone down. ‘I don’t know what you mean, Tao Chu.’
Tao Chu raised his eyebrows, then placed a black stone on the board, removing the six white captives he had surrounded.
‘I thought Fei Yen was your sweetheart, Yuan. It’s clear, though, that some other maiden has won your heart. Or if not your heart…’
‘Tao Chu!’ Li Yuan looked down at the board and saw the position was lost, his forces disrupted. He laughed. ‘Is it so obvious?’
Tao Chu busied himself removing the stones and returning them to the bowls, then set the situation up anew. He looked up. ‘Again?’
Li Yuan shook his head. Then he stood up and went over to the open doorway. The maids were out beyond the ornamental pool, playing catch with a ball of stitched silk. He watched them for a while, his eyes going time and again to Pearl Heart. At first he didn’t think she’d seen him, but then he saw her pick up the ball and turn, looking directly at him; her smile holding a special meaning, for him alone.
He lifted his head slightly, smiling back at her, and saw her pause, then throw the ball to one of the other maids, saying something that he couldn’t catch. Then he saw her go, between the magnolia and out down the pathway, heading towards his room.
He caught up with her in the corridor outside his room, and turned her, pulling her against him.
‘Not here,’ she said, laughing. ‘Inside, Li Yuan. Let’s get inside.’
He could barely wait for her. As she undressed he ran his hands across her skin, and pressed his face against her hair, which smelled of ginger and cinnamon. He would have taken her then, while he was still fully clothed, but she stopped him and began to undress him, her hands lingering against his painfully stiff penis. In daylight her body seemed different; harder, firmer, less melting than it had seemed in the darkness, but no less desirable. He let her draw him down onto the bed, then he was inside her, spilling his seed at
once.
She laughed tenderly, no trace of mockery in her laughter. ‘I see I’ll have to teach you tricks, Li Yuan. Ways of holding back.’
‘What do you mean?’ He lay there against her, his eyes closed, letting her caress his neck, his shoulders, the top of his back.
‘There are books we can get. Chun hua. And devices.’
He shivered. The light touch of her fingers on his flesh was delicious, making him want to purr like a cat. ‘Chun hua?’ He had not heard of such things. ‘Spring pictures? What kind of spring pictures?’
She laughed again, then whispered in his ear. ‘Pictures of men and women doing things to each other. All kind of things. You’d not believe the number of ways it can be done, Li Yuan. And not just with two.’
She saw his interest and laughed. ‘Ah, yes, I thought as much. There’s no man living who has not desired two girls in bed with him.’
He swallowed. ‘What do you mean, Pearl Heart?’ But he was answered almost at once. From behind a screen on the far side of the room came the unmistakable sound of suppressed laughter.
Li Yuan sat up and looked across. ‘Who’s there? I demand to know…’
He fell silent. It was Sweet Rose, the youngest of his maids. She stepped out from behind the screen, demure but naked, a faint blush on her cheeks and at her neck. ‘May I join you on the bed, Li Yuan?’
Li Yuan shuddered, then turned and looked mutely at Pearl Heart. She was smiling broadly at him. ‘That’s what we’re here for. Didn’t you realize it, Li Yuan? For this time. For when you woke to your manhood.’
Pearl Heart leaned forward and summoned the younger girl, then drew Li Yuan back onto the bed, making Sweet Rose lie the other side of him. Then, with a shared, sisterly exchange of laughter, they began their work, stroking and kissing him, their skin like silk, their breath like almonds, enflaming his senses until he blossomed and caught fire again.
Nan Ho stood there outside the room, his head bowed, his manner apologetic but firm. ‘I am sorry, Lady Fei, but you cannot go inside.’
She looked at him, astonished. It was the second time he had defied her. ‘What do you mean, cannot? I think you forget yourself, Nan Ho. If I wish to see Li Yuan, I have every right to call on him. I want to ask him if he will ride with me this afternoon, that’s all. Now, please, stand out of my way.’
He saw it was hopeless to try to deny her any further and stood to one side, his head lowered. ‘I beg you, Lady Fei…’ But she brushed past him and opened the door to Li Yuan’s rooms.
‘Ridiculous man…’ she had started to say, then fell silent, sniffing the air. Then she noticed the sounds, coming from beyond the screen. Unusual sounds to be coming from the bedroom of a twelve-year-old boy. She crept up to the screen, then put her hand to her mouth to stifle her surprise.
It was Li Yuan! Gods! Li Yuan with two of his maids!
For a moment she stood there, mesmerized by the sight of his firm, almost perfect bottom jutting and rutting with one of the maids while the other caressed and stroked the two of them. Then she saw him stiffen and groan and saw the maid’s legs tighten momentarily about his back, drawing him down into her.
She shuddered and began to back away, then put her hand to her mouth to stop the laughter that had come unbidden to her lips. Li Yuan! Of all the cold fishes in the sea of life, imagine Li Yuan, rutting with his maids! The dirty little beggar!
Outside she looked at Nan Ho sternly. ‘I was not here, Nan Ho. Do you understand me?’
The servant bowed deeply. ‘I understand you, Lady Fei. And I will leave your message for the young prince. I am sure he would welcome the chance to ride with you this afternoon.’
She nodded, then turned, conscious of the blush that had come to her cheeks and neck, and walked quickly away.
Li Yuan! She gave a brief laugh, then stopped dead, remembering the sight of those small, perfectly formed buttocks clenching at the moment of his orgasm.
‘And I thought you so cold, so passionless. So above all this.’
She laughed again; a strange, querulous laugh, then walked on, surprised by what she was thinking.
‘Do you remember this place, Karr?’
Karr smiled and looked out from their private box into the pit with its surrounding tiers.
‘How could I forget it, General?’
Tolonen leaned back and sighed. ‘Men forget many things they’d do best to remember. They forget their roots. And when that happens they lose their ability to judge things true and clear.’
Karr smiled. ‘This business…’ He pointed to the brilliantly lit combat circle. ‘It had a way of clearing the mind of everything but truth.’
‘I can see that.’
Karr turned and faced Tolonen. ‘I’m glad you’re back, General. I mean no disrespect to General Nocenzi, but things haven’t been the same without you at the helm.’
The old man sniffed and tilted his head slightly. ‘I’ve missed it too, Karr. Missed it badly. But, listen, I’m not at the helm. Not in the sense that you’re probably thinking. No. This is something else. Something secret that the T’ang has asked me to organize.’
He spelled it out quickly, simply, letting Karr understand that he would be briefed more fully later.
‘This is a contingency plan, you understand. We hope never to have to use it. If the House votes in favour of the veto on space exploration – as it should – we can put this little scheme to the flame – throw it on the fire, so to speak.’
‘But you don’t believe that, do you, General?’
Tolonen shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. I think the T’ang hopes against hope. The House is no friend to the Seven.’
Below them, in the pit, the two contestants came out and took their places. The fight marshal read out the rules and then stepped back. The pit went deathly silent.
The fight was brief but brutal. In less than a minute one of the two men was dead. The crowd went mad, roaring its approval. Karr watched the stewards carry the body away, then shivered.
‘I’m glad I let you buy my contract out. That could have been me.’
‘No,’ Tolonen said. ‘You were the exception. No one would have carried you from the circle. Not in a hundred fights. I knew that at once.’
‘The first time you saw me?’ Karr turned to face the older man.
‘Almost…’
Karr was smiling. ‘I remember even now how you looked at me that first time – so dismissive, it was, that look – and then you turned your back on me.’
Tolonen laughed, remembering. ‘Well, sometimes it’s best not to let a man know all you’re thinking. But it was true. It was why I welcomed your offer. I knew at once I could use you. The way you stood up to young Hans. I liked that. It put him on his mettle.’
Karr looked down. ‘Have you heard that I’ve traced DeVore?’
Tolonen’s eyes widened. ‘No! Where?’
‘I’m not certain, but I think he’s taken an overseer’s job on one of the big plantations. My man, Chen, is investigating him right now. As soon as he has proof we’re going in.’
Tolonen shook his head. ‘Not possible, I’m afraid.’
‘I’m sorry, General, but what do you mean?’
Tolonen leaned forward and held the top of one of Karr’s huge arms. ‘I need you at once, that’s why. I want you training for this operation from this evening. So that we can put the scheme into operation at a moment’s notice.’
‘Is there no one else?’
‘No. There’s only one man in the whole of Chung Kuo who could carry out this scheme, and that’s you, Gregor. Chen will be all right. I’ll see he has full back-up. But I can’t spare you. Not this time.’
Karr considered a moment, then looked up again, smiling. ‘Then I’d best get busy, neh, General?’
Overseer Bergson looked up as Chen entered. The room was dark but for a tight circle of light surrounding where he sat at a table in the centre. He was bare-headed, his dark hair slicked back wetly, and he was
wearing a simple silk pau, but Chen thought he recognized him at once. It was DeVore. He was almost certain of it. On the low table in front of him a wei chi board had been set up, seven rounded black stones placed on the handicap points, forming the outline of a huge letter H in the centre of the grid. On either side of the board was a tray, one filled with white stones, the other with black.
‘Do you play, Tong Chou?’
Chen met DeVore’s eyes, wondering for a moment if it was possible he too would see through the disguise, then dismissed the thought, remembering how DeVore had killed the man he, Chen, had hired to play himself that day five years ago when Kao Jyan had died. No, he thought, to you I am Tong Chou, the new worker. A bright man. Obedient. Quick to learn. But nothing more.
‘My father played, Shih Bergson. I learned a little from him.’
DeVore looked past Chen at the two henchmen and made a small gesture of dismissal with his chin. They went at once.
‘Sit down, Tong Chou. Facing me. We’ll talk as we play.’
Chen moved into the circle of light and sat. DeVore watched him a moment, relaxed, his hands resting lightly on his knees, then smiled.
‘Those two who’ve just gone. They’re useful men, but when it comes to this game they’ve shit in their heads instead of brains. Have you got shit in your head, Tong Chou? Or are you a useful man?’
‘I’m useful, Shih Bergson.’
DeVore stared back at him a moment, then looked down.
‘We’ll see.’
He took a white stone from the tray and set it down, two lines in, six down at the top left-hand corner of the board from where Chen sat – in shang, the South. Chen noticed how firmly yet delicately DeVore had held the stone between thumb and forefinger; how sharp the click of stone against wood had been as he placed it; how crisp and definite that movement had seemed. He studied the board a while, conscious of his seven black stones, like fortresses marking out territory on the uncluttered battle-ground of the board. His seven and DeVore’s one. That one so white it seemed to eclipse the dull power of his own.
Chen took a black stone from the tray and held it in his hand a moment, turning it between his fingers, experiencing the smooth coolness of it, the perfect roundness of its edges, the satisfyingly oblate feel of it. He shivered. He had never felt anything like it before; had never played with stones and board. It had always been machines. Machines, like the one in Kao Jyan’s room.
Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series Page 21