The Veiled Dragon h-12 Page 18

  "No." The witch's answer reverberated through the tabletop and returned to her ear sounding loud and deep.

  "Lady Feng has been abducted."

  Ruha's assertion elicited no cries of outrage or gasps of surprise. The Shou remained as silent as stones, and by their silence the witch knew that none of them, even Hsieh, gave any credence to her claims.

  Wei Dao reached for Yu Po's sword.

  "I can prove what I say!" Ruha exclaimed.

  It was Hsieh who scorned the witch's claim. "How can you prove what is not possible?"

  The mandarin's tone was severe and impatient, as though he had expected her to say something else. Cold fingers of panic began to creep through the witch's belly.

  Yu Po was awaiting permission to yield his sword, and Ruha could not imagine what Hsieh wished to hear. Wei Dao had already declared anything the witch said to be a lie, and the Shou seemed unwilling, perhaps even unable, to believe otherwise. The truth, even if it could be proved, did not matter-and Ruha suddenly realized what the minister wanted her to say.

  "Princess Wei Dao is protecting her mother-in-law," the witch said. "Lady Feng has taken a lover."

  Hsieh gasped much too loudly, prompting Yu Po to step back and sheath his sword.

  "Lady Ruha, you are certain?" Hsieh did not even bother to feign his shock well. "Princess Dao is. •. mis- taken?"

  "Is that not a good reason for her to have me silenced?"

  "Indeed, but it does not work. I suspect this myself."

  Hsieh whirled on Wei Dao and fixed her with a stony glare. "Do I not warn you about lying to me?"

  "I am Shou Princess." Though her chin was trembling,

  Wei Dao held it high. "I do not lie, Esteemed Mandarin."

  "No?" Hsieh glanced at the guards pinning Ruha to the table, who promptly released the witch and stepped back.

  "Lady Ruha, please to show proof of Lady Feng's imprudence."

  Ruha straightened her aba and started to remind the mandarin that what she had offered to prove was not Lady Feng's infidelity, but her abduction-then she thought twice about confusing the issue and held her tongue. To the Shou, the witch was beginning to realize, truth was a relative thing. As long as she had Hsieh's support, any evidence she offered would no doubt be taken as proof of whatever the mandarin wished.

  Ruha started to lead the way out of the room, then remembered her manners and bowed to Wei Dao, gesturing toward the door. "If the princess will show us to Lady Feng's apartment?"

  Wei Dao frowned in confusion, then turned to lead the way out of the room.

  Halfway to the door, she suddenly stopped. Her fore- head was slick with sweat and her face was sick with fear. "This is not right. I cannot show others into Lady Feng's apartment."

  "Then I shall." Behind her veil, Ruha allowed herself a small smile. "I know the way, as I'm sure you remember."

  As the witch moved to step past, she saw Wei Dao's hand drop toward her sash.

  In the next instant, two of Hsieh's guards lay on the floor holding their bloody throats, and Wei Dao was leaping through the air, slashing at Ruha's throat with her jambiya. The witch twisted her body to the side and reached out to meet the assault at the wrist, but the princess's reflexes were as quick as lightning. She circled the blade beneath Ruha's blocking arm and reversed it, driving the tip toward her victim's heart as though she had been fighting with jambiyas all her life. The witch saved herself only by falling to the floor and madly flailing her feet in a desperate attempt to trip her attacker.

  There was no need. Moving with a deliberate grace that appeared almost languid, Hsieh slipped behind the princess. He clamped one hand over the wrist of Wei Dao's weapon hand, then shot his other forearm around her throat and brought it up under herjawline so hard her feet came off the ground.

  Wei Dao's eyes bulged and her tongue appeared between her lips. She flung her head back in an attempt to smash her captor's nose, but Hsieh simply tipped his face out of the way. The princess made a brief, rasping attempt to breathe, but the veins in her neck were being pinched shut by the mandarin's arm, causing her head to run out of blood long before her lungs ran out of air. Her face turned a shocking shade of purple-gray, and the Jam — biya slipped from her hand. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets; then she stopped struggling and began to spasm.

  Hsieh dropped her at a guard's feet. "Greatly unexpected. I am most curious to see what we find in Lady Feng's chamber."

  Ruha could not take her eyes off Wei Dao's unconscious form. During all her training with the Harpers, she had never seen a woman move with such deadly speed and grace. Had she not seen the ease with which Hsieh dis- abled her, the witch would not have believed anyone-especially a one-eyed man of Hsieh's age-could move more swiftly.

  "Minister Hsieh, I thank you for my life," Ruha said. "You are a man of many hidden talents."

  The mandarin smiled. "In Shou Lung, we long ago learn wisdom of being better warriors than those who guard us." He turned to Yu Po and gestured at Wei Dao.

  "Bind princess well and take her to apartment. Inspect her chambers to see that she is… safe."

  Yu Po bowed, then began issuing orders in Shou. As Hsieh's guards scurried into action, the mandarin selected a half-dozen men to accompany him, then led the way up an immense staircase to the second story, where he astonished the palace sentries by allowing Ruha to use her wind magic to open the door to the Third Virtuous Concubine's apartment. The minister scowled at the macabre frescoes that decorated Lady Feng's antechamber, then followed the witch through the dress- ing closet into the bedchamber.

  Ruha went straight to the corner and pulled Lady Feng's writing desk from the wall. When she did not hear any scratching or whining on the other side of the secret door, she began to fear that Wei Dao had done something with Chalk Ears. The witch took a deep breath and, won- dering how Hsieh would react if it turned out she could prove neither Lady Feng's indiscretion nor her abduction, pushed open the hidden panel.

  The secret chamber looked as though a whirlwind had erupted inside. The worktable in the center of the room had been swept clean of its cauldrons and balances, which now sat upon the floor amid a knee-deep jumble of books and broken glass. Heaps of severed bat wings, blackened fingernails, and silk-wrapped spider eggs were scattered everywhere, often coated by stripes ofrainbow- hued dusts and powders. One of the cabinets had even been pulled over and now lay broken into two splintered pieces.

  Save for a sleeping cushion, sandbox, and two silver bowls containing untouched supplies of food and water, there was no sign of Chalk Ears. Although the jagged shards of glass had been broken out of the window through which Ruha had escaped, the casement itself remained open and not repaired.

  "Is this what you bring me to see?" Hsieh asked.

  "No. What I brought you to see is gone."

  Ruha could almost see what had happened. After she jumped through the window, Wei Dao, or some other guards, had tried to capture Chalk Ears. The familiar had panicked, and the ensuing struggle had destroyed Lady Feng's laboratory. In the end, the little creature had escaped through the broken window, and the princess had elected to leave it open in the hope that the beast would return.

  The witch picked her way across the room. "I had hoped to show you Lady Feng's familiar." She picked up the red sleeping cushion. "But I fear Chalk Ears has fled."

  "Chalk Ears? Perhaps you mean Winter Blossom?"

  Ruha held her hands about a foot apart. "It was a little creature that could have been a cross between a monkey and a raccoon. I found it here when I-" The witch stopped short of admitting what she had been doing in Lady Feng's chambers. "It looked like it had not eaten for a week."

  "He," Hsieh corrected. The mandarin waded into the room and kneeled beside the familiar's lair. "Winter Blos- som is male lemur-though I think Eye Biter is better name."

  Ruha caught herself staring at Hsieh's silken eye patch and looked away. "Winter Blossom is more than a pet to Lady Feng. Had she departed the Ginger P
alace willingly, I doubt she would have left him behind."

  Hsieh sighed heavily. "But familiar is not here."

  The mandarin waved his guards into the room, and Ruha's mouth went dry. She glanced out the empty win- dow pane, already summoning to mind the same wind spell she had used to escape Wei Dao, then swallowed her fear and told herself not to panic. The guards arrived and arrayed themselves around Hsieh, at the same time blocking the witch's path through the window.

  Ruha squatted beside Winter Blossom's silver bowls and waved her hand over the contents. "The familiar escaped after Lady Feng's departure, or these would not be full. Wei Dao hopes to lure him back."

  Hsieh met Ruha's gaze. "I do not doubt what you say. If Lady Feng takes Winter Blossom, she takes his bed." He picked up the lemur's sleeping cushion, then tossed it to a guard. "So, where is Lady Feng, and why does she not take familiar?"

  "I told you-she was abducted."

  "So you do, but I think you are lying. It is so much bet- ter if she takes lover." Hsieh shook his head in disap- pointment, then gave Ruha a stern glance. "Perhaps you tell me what you are doing in Ginger Palace-and no lies.

  Today, I grow impatient with lies."

  When Ruha paused to consider how much she should say, the mandarin rose. "Please do not refuse." He glanced at two guards, who took Ruha by the arms and jerked her to her feet. "Truth potions are most damaging to mind, and you cannot escape."

  "It was not my intention to try to escape-and let us both hope that does not become necessary." Ruha fixed an icy glare on Hsieh and remained silent. When he finally waved his guards off, she began, "Not long ago, a staff of some sentimental value was stolen from the Lady Yansel- dara…"

  The witch told Hsieh of how someone was using the staff to steal Yanseldara's spirit, and of Vaerana's belief that Lady Feng was responsible, and of her own effort to recover the staff from the Ginger Palace, and, finally, of her subsequent discovery of the Third Virtuous Concubine's abduction. The mandarin listened patiently and closely. He did not interrupt, even when she told him of Tang's involvement in the Cult of the Dragon and how the prince had attempted to conceal his mother's kidnapping.

  When Ruha finished, the mandarin contemplated her account in silence for many moments, then raised his hand and held up three splayed fingers. "I have ques- tions. Where is Prince Tang now?"

  "He seems to have decided that the only way to redeem himself is to personally rescue his mother." Ruha did not say in whose eyes the prince wished to redeem himself.

  The less Hsieh knew about the prince's attraction to her, the better. "I believe he has taken a company of guards and gone to attempt that."

  Hsieh winced, but nodded and folded down one of his fingers. "Second question. Theft of spirit takes no more than two or three days. Why has Lady Feng not fin- ished?"

  "I am not certain. But I do know Prince Tang was awaiting the fresh ylang blossoms aboard the Ginger Lady." When the mandarin furrowed his brow, Ruha has- tened to add, "The kidnapper believes he is in love with Yanseldara. Perhaps they are for a love potion?"

  Hsieh shook his head. "Then why does he steal spirit?

  Only reason to use love potion on spirit is to bind it to another spirit, for long journey through Ten Courts of Afterlife."

  A feeling of nausea crept over Ruha. "The thief is… he is not living. He is one of the undead."

  An expression of pity passed over Hsieh's face, and he folded down his second finger. "Final question. Who is kidnapper?"

  This was the question Ruha had been dreading. She had omitted any mention of Cypress's identity, fearing that the mandarin would decide it was safer for Lady

  Feng to cooperate with the dragon than to help Vaerana save Yanseldara. Nevertheless, the witch had no choice except to hope she could persuade Hsieh to ally with her, for it was growing clearer all the time that she did not understand enough about Lady Feng's magic to save Yanseldara.

  "Who take Lady Feng?" Hsieh demanded.

  Ruha swallowed, then said, "The same barbarian who tried to assassinate you."

  Hsieh frowned at her. "No one tries to kill me."

  Ruha nodded. "On the Ginger Lady. The dragon."

  "You are greatly mistaken." Hsieh's rebuke was both confident and gentle. "Dragon is after gold and jewels-"

  "And you," Ruha replied. "His name is Cypress, and he is the leader of the Cult of the Dragon. He fears you have come to replace Tang and stop the palace's trade in poi- sons, and so he tried to kill you."

  "That is most impossible." Hsieh shook his head stub- bornly. "I send messenger with word of my visit only one day before dragon attack. Because I travel with only light bodyguard, I instruct Prince and Princess to tell no one of my journey-unless they tell Lady Feng?"

  Ruha shook her head. "I overheard them say Lady Feng was abducted before your message arrived."

  "Then dragon cannot know I am coming. Who tell him?"

  That was when Yu Po appeared at the door. "Esteemed Minister, I beg permission to report."

  Hsieh frowned and started to hold him off, but Ruha, who needed time to think, said, "Yu Po is not interrupt- ing. Let him speak."

  Hsieh nodded to his adjutant, who quickly picked his way across the debris and bowed. "Princess Wei Dao is most comfortable in her apartment," Yu Po reported. "As

  I was inspecting her chambers to be certain of her safety, I find this."

  The adjutant opened his hand, revealing the exotic Calimshan gold that Tombor had put into Ruha's coffer to impress Wei Dao.

  Hsieh studied the coin, then scowled at his adjutant.

  "Wei Dao is Princess, Yu Po. Do you expect to find no gold in her chamber?"

  "Not gold like this."

  Yu Po pinched the edges of the coin with both hands and pulled. The coin came apart, revealing a tiny com- partment where a small paper message might be con- cealed.

  Hsieh took the two halves from his adjutant. "Most ingenious. Do you find what is inside?"

  "No," Yu Po admitted.

  "But I know who sent it to her," Ruha said. "And if I am correct, Esteemed Mandarin, I also know who told Cypress you were aboard the Ginger Lady."

  "Wei Dao?" Hsieh asked.

  "That coin was given to me by someone who promised it would win the princess's hospitality," Ruha said. "It did."

  "How come Yu Po finds it in her chamber?"

  "I saw her sneak it from my gold coffer. The person who gave it to me said the princess had a fondness for foreign coins," Ruha explained. "Now I think it contained a message from a spy in Moonstorm House, warning Wei Dao of my identity. The princess has been most insistent about wishing to kill me-regardless of Prince Tang's commands to the contrary."

  Hsieh pushed the two halves of the coin together and folded it into his palm, then waved the witch toward the door. "It seems our mutual problem is solved, does it not, Lady Ruha?"

  Ruha did not move. "No. How could it be?"

  "If dragon kidnaps Lady Feng, then kidnapper is no threat."

  The witch was confused by the mandarin's misunder standing-until she recalled that Hsieh had seen her destroy Cypress on the Dragonmere. She had said noth- ing about the dragon taking another body, and Ruha cer- tainly saw no reason to broach the subject now.

  "Do you not understand, Lady Ruha?" Hsieh asked.

  "We have only to locate dragon's lair; then we find both Lady Feng and Yanseldara's stolen staff."

  "Of course!" Ruha did her best to sound astonished.

  "And if you will me tell more about these ylang blossoms, perhaps I know someone who can be tricked into leading us to the lair."

  Eleven

  Tang's punt came to another fork in the slough. His boatpushers jammed their poles into the black water, the butts angled forward to halt the little dugout while he guessed at the way to Cypress's lair. Behind him arose a gentle sloshing as his men struggled to stop their heavy log rafts. Save for the unremitting hum ofmosquitos, no other sound broke the silence of the swamp. The evening light l
ay upon the glassy waters as sinuous and wispy as smoke, yielding no hint of the sun's location. Along the banks of the chan- nels rose tangled webs of prop roots, supporting thickets of vine-choked bog cane as impenetrable to the eye as walls of stone. Even the sky itself was hidden from view, concealed behind a murky canopy of moss-draped boughs.

  Somewhere nearby loomed the Giant's Run Moun- tains, a chain of high peaks lying half a day's canter southeast of the Ginger Palace, but Tang could not find the way to their steep slopes. Though he had commanded his men to remain confident, he could feel their trust ebbing with every minute he remained lost, and even he was losing faith in his abilities. The swamp was so small that it had no name-indeed, few outside the Cult of the Dragon knew it existed at all-and twice the prince had come to Lair here with fellow cult members. It seemed impossible that its meager maze of waterways should disorient him or anyone else, yet Tang had been trying to locate Cypress's hole for more than two hours.

  The punt rocked beneath the prince's feet. He glanced back to see the commander of the palace garrison, Gen- eral Fui D'hang, stepping into the dugout from a wagon- sized raft of lashed logs. A squat, flat-cheeked man with an unwavering scowl and granite eyes, he wore a helmet of silver-trimmed brass and an oversized battle tunic over leather armor. Most of the men behind him were dressed in a similar manner, save their helmets were steel with brass trim.

  The general bowed. "May it please the Prince to hear me."

  As with all Fui said, the statement was a command, not a request. Prince Tang nodded, but looked away to emphasize that he would not allow the general to bully him.

  "Night falls soon, and men are uneasy at being lost-"

  "Do I say we are lost?" Tang whirled on the general so fast that, had his boatpushers not had their poles planted on the bottom, the punt would have capsized. "We are not lost. Dragon uses Invisible Art to confuse honorable sol- diers. They may eat another lasal leaf."

  Fui did not turn to issue the command. "Since you are not lost, perhaps you guide us to dry land. It is better to camp outside swamp."