by Rex Sumner
her head, ignoring the Lady but carefully cataloguing her charges. "Look! There is soap! Ayee-ah! The water is very cold so high on the mountain. Ting Lah, come wash my hair, then I will do yours."
The girls flocked into the wash area, some still watching the Lady out of the corner of their eye.
Through the veil of her short wet hair Wu Nu examined the Lady. Her aura was strong and even, golden with hints of red. She thought about how the monk had tested her mind and flinched slightly. She realised that the attention had been sufficient to cause her mind to reach out and the Lady had smacked her errant thought down and back into her.
The girls were chattering away, mainly about water temperature and how wonderful the soap was, but Wu Nu could feel their nervousness seeping through their ch'i. She checked her own, and deliberately projected a calming confident ch'i.
"Look at the Lady, girls," she called as she came out of the wash area and rubbed her body and hair with a cloth. "Once she came here just like us and see! The dragon did not eat her. It is a test, and to pass it we must be like her."
The Lady did not move or show expression, though Wu Nu had the impression that she was studying her intently. Wu Nu pulled on the white shift that was laid on her bed, frowned at the simplicity and shrugged into her beautiful jacket as well. She stood watching the Lady as Ting Lah came running over with a comb and brushed her hair. One by one the girls completed their ablutions and came to stand beside Wu Nu, staring at the Lady.
Anyone else would have been unnerved, but the Lady stood serenely till they were all ready, gave them an extra minute to underline her authority and led them to the dining hall.
A fragrant soup waited for them, with some steamed dumplings and rice. There was a low table with no chairs or cushions.
Wu Nu collected a bowl of soup and two small dumplings in another bowl. She seated herself on the table directly in front of the Lady and subjected her to an intense and obvious scrutiny while she ate daintily. On consuming the dumplings she sipped her soup and raised her eyebrows at the subtle taste. She slurped the soup loudly and politely to show her appreciation, all the while not taking her eyes off the Lady.
"What is the next rank after novice?" she suddenly asked.
"Student," replied the Lady, her eyes on the horizon through the window.
"What rank are you?" she asked innocently.
"Wisdom," came the answer, a ghost of a smile barely visible.
"What is the top rank to be achieved?" Wu Nu had learnt the benefits of asking questions.
"Sung Bai Ju," answered the Wisdom. "The Chrysanthemum of the Country, the Flower of Death, Protector of the Realm."
"Will we meet her this afternoon?"
"It is more than one hundred years since the last Sung Bai Ju walked amongst us."
"Why are you not promoted?"
"You looked at my aura, Little Novice. You did not see black. I can never be a Bai Ju."
Wu Nu considered this, and hitched up her right heel higher into her lap, brow wrinkled with concentration.
"There is black in my aura."
The Wisdom looked at her with interest. "We cannot see our own aura. How did you know that, Little Novice?"
"I didn't. Until now." She paused to let the Wisdom see the trap into which she had fallen. She handed her dirty bowl to Ting Lah for washing without thinking and scratched her head, considering what to probe next. The other girls were listening to the conversation with fascination, while eating and cleaning up. The Wisdom was watching her obviously now, a glimmer in her eyes which might have been amusement or respect.
Wu Nu turned and looked at the other girls. They had finished clearing up and were standing around uncertainly. "It is time for meditation," she said, clapping her hands smartly. "We will meditate in the garden there," she pointed out of the window. "The Wisdom will come for us when it is time to be tested." She led them out to the garden leaving the Wisdom smiling serenely as she sought oneness.
Ju Qua stood proudly by the small arena. It was a bowl in the mountain, with a spring in one corner where a little well and shrine to the water god had been built. The shrine was a beautifully carved head of a dragon, with the jaws wide open. Numerous little paths crawled round the mountain and into the depression, granite rock interspersed with little rock flowers each in its own little pocket of soil.
Behind him, seated on suitable rocks, were the five boys that he had brought back, each in a new robe. They would be trained as fighting monks. Around him was every single monk from the monastery. All had gathered to see this testing. A strong candidate, lots of girls, unheard of numbers. Rarely did a recruiter bring back more than two.
Ju Qua preened mentally in the glow of their admiration and, in some cases, envy.
The girls arrived, led confidently by Wu Nu while the Wisdom followed behind her with her gliding walk, hands hidden in her sleeves.
Wu Nu spied him across the little area. "Shanyang Fen!" She waved happily. "Are my boys doing well?"
Ju Qua gave a lordly nod of his head to acknowledge the girl's respect to her guide and noticed the other monks looking at him oddly. His world and satisfaction collapsed as he replayed the conversation and realised he had been called Goat Shit in front of every person in the monastery and, worse, had acknowledged the name.
Wu Nu took her girls over to the dragon shrine, and arrayed them in front of it, seating them on the ground. The Wisdom walked into the shrine and retrieved several small clay dishes, simple oil lamps. She placed them on a flat rock and started to light them, going into a light trance as she did so.
She started out of the trance as Wu Nu took the taper from her and took over lighting the lamps. "Allow me, Wisdom. It will allow you to start the ritual in a more relaxed mind."
The Wisdom smiled, sat on the stone dragon's tongue, cleared her mind and started to meditate, chanting lightly as she did so.
Behind her, Wu Nu placed the largest lamps in the stone dragon's eyes and more in the nostrils. The dragon appeared to come to life. Wu Nu gestured at her awestruck girls, who went into the seated position and picked up the Wisdom's chant. Instead of joining them, Wu Nu took up a position slightly to the right of the Wisdom, wear she cast an impression of such importance, with her novice's robe covered by her jacket, that an unprecedented amused murmur went around the assembled monks.
The Wisdom came to a stop. She opened her eyes and looked without seeing over the group. "First the Reading Test. Step forward those who can read and write."
She was taken aback when all the girls arose and stepped forward. It was unusual for girls to be able to read and write, but Wu Nu had chosen for cleverness, and clever girls frequently could, especially if they aspired to become a courtesan where it was an important skill. Usually the recruiters only found the dullards. Wu Nu's promises to the peasants had produced a very different class of recruit.
Wu Nu felt a draft of ch'i coming from the dragon's throat and saw another Lady appear, dressed identically to the Wisdom but built a little larger. She had some scrolls in her arms and she was coming out of the dragon's throat, making it apparent that it was, in fact, a tunnel. Wu Nu's interest peaked, especially as she realised that the flow of ch'i was huge, clearly from a powerful, spiritual person and not the second Lady as at first appeared. Without conscious thought, the call of the ch'i too much to resist, she pushed past the Lady, following the flow of ch'i. Down the throat of the dragon.
Seeing their leader disappear so determinedly, her girls jumped to their feet and followed. So did the boys.
Ju Qua was able to restrain the boys, with the help of his fellow monks. The Wisdom was not so fast and watched helplessly as the girls pushed past her and her fellow Wisdom and went down the tunnel. The real test was just to detect the flow of ch'i, not to find its source.
It was dark in the tunnel, but Wu Nu went downwards swiftly, immersed in the massive flow of ch'i. The girls had caught up with her and nobod
y had stumbled or fallen, for the floor of the tunnel was smooth with the erosion of years. Somehow the source of the ch'i sensed them coming, for it cut off abruptly and Wu Nu felt bereft. Too late for them to stop, though, for a light was visible at the end of the tunnel.
Wu Nu burst into the sunlight and stopped, the girls arrayed behind her, looking into a beautiful meadow. Green grass rippled down to the banks of a laughing stream tumbling down one side; wildflowers winked from the green waves as a zephyr of wind fluttered through the grass. Sheep and cattle grazed along the bank of the stream and lying on a large rock in the middle of the meadow was an enormous lizard, basking in the sunlight.
A medium sized head was at the end of a long neck, now raised to look at them, with huge back legs and front legs that looked more like arms and seemed to end in fingers. A crest ran down the back of the lizard, becoming a magnificent sail down the centre of his back. Predominantly yellow-green over most of the body, the sail was a startling gold with red and black patterns, and his throat the vivid blue of a babbler's egg.
"That," said Wu Nu in tones of wonder "is a dragon."
It looked nothing like the drawings, paintings, images and models of dragons that appeared in their daily life, but all the girls were convinced they were looking at a dragon.
She set off across the meadow towards it, without thinking, almost in a trance and able to feel