‘That explains why she kept repeating my name —’ Dan muttered to himself, entranced by the recollection.
‘— so she would not forget it.’ Hudan looked at Dan across the table, with conflict and panic in her eyes.
‘It is unfortunate that that has been the way of it, but it cannot be helped now,’ Shifu Yi spoke up to calm them both, a slight reproof in her tone. ‘I told you both to sleep that evening; it is not my fault you did not listen. Yes, Lucian and Taren were lovers … husband and wife, in fact. But that was another life and time, which you will revisit in due course; provided you do not allow the past to intrude into the present. You must accomplish what your incarnations were put on the earth at this time to do.’
Hudan’s frown was as deep as Dan’s at this point. ‘I’m afraid you have lost me, Great Mother.’
‘You cannot not allow this dream to influence your lives now.’ Yi Wu stated more clearly. ‘Our souls are embroiled in a rescue mission of intergalactic proportions and personal feelings cannot enter into it. If you do not want to ruin the prospects of the greatest dynasty this land will ever see, then you will focus on your lives as Shanyu Jiang Hudan and Zhou Gong Dan, until your days in this life are done.’
‘Zhou Gong Dan.’ He repeated the Great Mother’s slip of the tongue — the title sounded so strange and daunting. ‘How long do I live?’ He knew the Great Mother would know, and he also knew that with such responsibility to the state, his days among the Wu were numbered.
‘Quite some time yet,’ Yi Wu advised. ‘Such greatness as you shall achieve is never built in a short season.’
He felt ill, as the crushing reality that Hudan would be taken from him one way or another hit home.
‘I know this must seem a hard and cruel cross to bear,’ she advised, ‘but this life is short compared to what lies beyond. I too have foregone love to pursue this quest for the greater good. Tian asks no more of you than he has asked of any son of the sky who has returned to this place and time to pursue the reptilian.’
‘How many of us are there?’ Dan asked, obviously more surprised by this news than Hudan.
‘More than a handful, less than an army, but all talented and pure of heart,’ Yi Wu concluded. ‘And I shall say no more on that matter until the Ji family rule our land.’
A heavy silence fell as the questions ran out, leaving many conflicting thoughts and mixed emotions in their wake.
‘You both appear in need of rest,’ their hostess suggested, and Dan was more than content to end the discussion.
‘A turn in your garden would be most welcome.’ Dan stood, as he suddenly felt like he was going to suffocate on the emotion he was suppressing. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I know the way.’ He left to be with his own thoughts.
10
THE ROAD TO MENGJIN
In the company of his brothers, Wu and Zhenduo, Shi had been maintaining a low profile during the ride to Mengjin. All the while, his conscience gnawed on the fact that the great tigress, Jiang Huxin, was carrying his offspring.
He should never have sought to meet Jiang Hudan, but he’d always been fascinated by the Wu, especially the tales of Shanyu Jiang Huxin as, from all reports, she was a shapeshifter, as he was. But his desire to know more about Jiang Hudan’s sister had led to the knowledge that he was in so much more trouble with Tian than he could have possibly imagined, and worse than this, Jiang Hudan knew of his transgression … or, at the very least, strongly suspected.
Yet Shi could not suppress the pride that kept filling his heart to bursting point every time he considered that the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen would be secretly bonded to him henceforth. His were-tiger legacy, unknown to all, would live on through their progeny. Their brood would not be forced into hiding as he had been, but rise to greatness through the guidance of the Wu, just as their mother had — he could not have hoped for a better life for his children. For in truth, he’d never expected to have a family, and would not contemplate inflicting such a birth on an earthly woman. But Jiang Huxin was designed to carry his seed, and if he died for that honour, he would die a happy man.
‘You’re very quiet, Shi,’ Wu noted, as they made camp for the night.
‘And still!’ Zhenduo emphasised. ‘We’ve been here a full hour and you haven’t disappeared into the forest yet. Are you ill?’
‘No.’ Shi forced a smile to reassure them.
‘The only other time you’re this tame is when you’re in trouble,’ Wu jeered at him, and the suggestion rattled Shi a little, and Wu — perceptive like Dan — noted it at once. ‘Are you in trouble?’
‘No,’ he swore, wishing he’d stated that with more conviction.
‘Ji Shi!’
The brothers all looked to Dan’s new ward, Fen, who announced: ‘The Xibo is requesting to speak with you at once.’
‘Are you quite sure you’re not keeping something from us, brother?’ Wu gave him one last chance to speak, as being brother number nine it was seldom that Shi was summoned without his older brothers. ‘Fa’s tigress eats liars, you know?’
‘I am completely loyal to our brother and have nothing to fear,’ he told Wu and Zhenduo, but inwardly Shi was unnerved. Of course Jiang Huxin would detect any falsehood, and with far more ease than he could most likely.
On approach to the entrance of the Xibo’s tent, Shi pushed any speculation from his mind to focus solely on his Xibo’s concerns, but as he entered behind Fen he saw Jiang Huxin wearing her lovely human persona. His heart leapt into his throat and he stopped breathing.
‘We meet again, Ji Shi,’ she said, smiling at his dazed expression.
There she stood, no trace of her condition evident in her slender figure. Only a radiant glow on her skin and hair, and a soft contentedness in her demeanour, betrayed the truth of what Jiang Hudan had told him.
‘Jiang Huxin.’ He drew breath to bow to her and his Xibo.
‘You two have met?’ Ji Fa was surprised to hear this.
‘Ji Shi mistook me for You Ling one evening.’ Huxin explained and the Xibo calmed. The tigress cast her sights back to Shi. ‘But now you know who I truly am,’ she noted.
‘The revelation dawned on me recently,’ he thought it fair to say. ‘I apologise for any offence I may have caused you in my ignorance.’
‘Offence?’ the Xibo asked, worried, but the tigress pacified him with a gentle touch on the shoulder.
‘Ji Shi tried to save me from his tigers one evening,’ she told him with some amusement.
‘Oh, I see.’ Ji Fa found the idea laughable and Shi saw the humour also, happy for the jovial mood. He didn’t sense that he was in trouble, just yet. ‘I have an errand for you, Shi,’ his brother stated. ‘As you may have noted Dan and the caravan containing Jiang Hudan have still not joined us. Backtrack to where we left them and if you fail to find them, go to Li Shan.’
Shi tried not to look anxious at the thought of carrying out this instruction.
‘I feel my sister may have wished to see the Great Mother, and sidetracked to Li Shan in order to do so,’ Jiang Huxin explained.
‘But why ask me to go?’ Shi wondered why he’d been singled out.
‘I cannot send any of the Wu I have with me … brothers Huxin and Fen are indispensable at present, and He Nuan will not be allowed entry,’ the Xibo clarified. ‘Chances are you shall find our brothers between here and the House of Yi Wu Li Shan, but if you must light the torches and request a meeting with the Wu, Jiang Huxin feels that, amongst our present company, it is you that the Great Mother will find most pleasing.’
Shi didn’t know what to say. He was terrified at the thought of meeting personally with the Great Mother and attempting to hide his guilt from her. ‘It is a great honour that a legend would think of me so highly.’
‘Yes, it is,’ agreed the Xibo, with a good serving of suspicion. ‘So be sure and live up to our expectations of you. Find our missing brothers and bring them back to us. If I do not see you before Mengjin, I shall awai
t you there.’
‘I will not fail you in this,’ Shi vowed, and was dismissed.
As he headed for the tent flap, Shi felt his nerves fluttering in his gut and he thought he might be sick.
‘Ji Shi!’ the tigress called, and his stomach churned a little more as he heard her approaching to speak with him. ‘You should not fear the Great Mother so,’ she advised with a reassuring smile as she reached him. ‘Shifu Yi is wise and just.’
That is what I fear. Clearly, the tigress had picked up on his dread of meeting her Shifu, but thankfully the tigress was not telepathic, or she would already know the reason why he wished to avoid such a meeting. ‘I trust your word in all things,’ Shi managed to say and kept going, eager to ride solo for a while and escape the prying gaze of everyone — his heart’s desire included.
All the way to the Li Shan ferry Shi prayed to Tian and his ancestors to release him from the obligation to meet with Yi Wu. He felt that if his plea was answered and the meeting was avoided, then that was a sign that heaven had forgiven him.
But as the torches burned and the ferry approached across the dark misty surface of the lake, Shi held little hope that he was going to escape the wrath of the Wu this night.
A woman hooded in white led him on board the ferry, and eight dark hooded others stood at attention around him. The ferry moved back across the lake at a steady even pace, in utter silence, and without any physical effort on behalf of the occupants. The others ducked low, suddenly, and he was urged down with them, then their vessel floated into the mountain.
Inside the cavern was a dock, and when Shi spotted his brother Dan awaiting him, he couldn’t cease silently praising his ancestors — he’d never been so relieved to see anyone in all his born days. ‘Thank Tian I found you!’
‘I was not lost,’ Dan assured him, sounding slightly annoyed. ‘Just delayed.’
‘I should return at once and inform our Xibo,’ Shi suggested, looking ready to jump back into the ferry, but his travelling companions flew onto the dock and departed via a stairway in the rock wall.
‘I believe the ferry service is closed for the evening. Looks like you’ll have to stay the night.’ Dan grinned at Shi’s apparent discomfort.
‘I could swim back,’ Shi said desperately, eyeing the distance, as he was a fairly good swimmer, but Dan laughed off the suggestion.
‘The Wu won’t eat you, you realise. You’ll be perfectly safe.’ Dan grabbed his shoulders and directed him toward the stairs.
‘Now that I have found you, there is really no need for me to meet with the Great Mother,’ Shi reasoned, taking small steps.
‘Of course not,’ Dan agreed. ‘The Great Mother does not meet with any man without good reason.’
‘And there is no reason for her to be interested in me?’ Shi proffered.
‘And why is there a question in your voice?’
‘I don’t claim to know the will of heaven,’ Shi grinned, relieved, and Dan decided he could not be bothered pursuing the matter.
‘I am returning to our Xibo’s party first thing on the morrow. You can leave with me,’ Dan advised, as he began to scale the stairs.
‘And Jiang Hudan?’ Shi asked after his other charge.
‘She will be waiting for us at Mengjin.’ Shi thought Dan sounded slightly agitated.
‘Waiting for us …’ Shi noted the wording. ‘Has she left already?’ he asked, wondering if he’d missed her en route, but didn’t imagine that Dan would have allowed the Wu to ride off alone.
‘No more questions, Shi.’ Dan stopped abruptly as they reached the fresh air of the open cloister. ‘Actually, I have a question for you. Why did you need to speak with Jiang Hudan alone, just before we left Haojing?’
‘Like you, I am curious about the Wu,’ Shi shrugged, hoping that would be the end of it.
‘Well, I would have introduced you, if you’d asked,’ Dan lectured. ‘You didn’t have to send me on a false errand so that you could speak with her alone.’
‘You’ve made that point several times.’ Shi hadn’t realised just how possessive Dan had become. ‘You sound like a jealous husband.’
Shi saw fury flare in Dan’s eyes, but it ebbed just as quickly. ‘I am a concerned brother,’ he emphasised, ‘that is all.’
‘My mistake.’ Shi was as happy to drop the topic as Dan was.
‘Follow me to our rooms, and stay there until I come for you.’
‘We leave at first light?’ Shi asked, seeking confirmation so that he might sleep at ease in that knowledge.
‘Those are the Great Mother’s orders,’ he said drily, and Shi could not have been more thankful to hear it.
When Hudan saw Dan leading his younger brother to their guest quarters, she could not believe her luck. Even though she’d vowed not to be distracted from her quest by earthly affairs of the heart, she felt she would be hard pressed to find another opportunity in the near future to speak with Shi in private without arousing suspicion.
She waited for an hour after the house fell completely silent before she staggered as quietly as she was able into Ji Shi’s room.
When Shi awoke to find a hand over his mouth, he began to struggle. ‘It is I, Jiang Hudan,’ she whispered to calm him, and he immediately ceased retaliation. ‘I wish to talk with you. Follow me,’ she instructed, but he grabbed her arm to prevent her moving off and urged her near once more.
‘Dan told me to stay here, until he came for me,’ he whispered.
‘Well, we could discuss what we must here,’ she replied softly, ‘but Dan might overhear details you’d rather keep secret.’
Weighing up his options, Shi nodded to confirm that he would accompany her and then noting how she struggled to raise herself, he hoisted Hudan to her feet and half carried her with him as she pointed the way to the gardens.
It felt a little awkward being dragged about by a man who was practically a stranger, yet when Hudan remembered him in his tiger form, he felt like kindred and she did not mind so much.
At the garden gate, Hudan broke away from him. ‘Thank you for your assistance, lord, but I can take it from here.’
‘My apologies for being so abrupt, but I feared Dan would catch us, and he’s stressed enough about our last meeting.’ He followed her out the gate and down the path.
‘Well, I suppose he would wonder what we have to talk about,’ Hudan granted.
‘I don’t think we should have anything to talk about either,’ Shi argued.
‘I am not here to judge you, Shi, and I will never tell anyone what I know, so long as you live,’ she vowed. ‘But what if, one day, one of my nieces or nephews asks where their father hailed from? I would like to be able to tell them something more than I have been told. I am not an animal-shifter like my sister, but I am still of your kind, and just as curious to unlock the mystery of our origins.’
Obviously, for Shi, the subject matter was awkward to discuss because he was used to being so guarded about it. ‘I was very young when my father came and took me to live with him, but like you he claimed I was Shanyu. My father encountered my mother whilst exploring a mountainous region in Qiang, further east of Yong, known as Bayan Har Shan.’ Shi smiled as he recalled his father’s account of her. ‘Father had wandered out of camp to take a …’ Shi stopped to rephrase. ‘… to relieve himself, when he was bowled over by a white tigress, and just when he thought she would devour him, she transformed into a beautiful woman who made love to him instead.’
Hudan smiled at his tale. ‘I wonder about our father often.’ The delight fell from her face. ‘I wonder if he was chosen in the same random fashion?’
Shi nodded, supposing he probably had been. ‘Father boasted that if he hadn’t been so handsome, he would have died that night. Instead, the tigress asked him to return after two years. That’s when she presented my father with me.’
‘You were the only one of your litter?’
‘I was the only male,’ Shi said. ‘If I had been female, mother would
have kept me with her.’
‘So you may have a sister, or sisters?’ Hudan suggested, and Shi went very pale.
‘You think we might be related?’ He stopped breathing.
‘We are not your sisters, Shi,’ Hudan realised his worry and quashed it. ‘Our mother died giving birth to us, a few years before you were born.’
Shi drew breath again, thankful for the reassurance. ‘I already feel guilty enough for my offence against heaven,’ he confessed. ‘I swear to you that, even though I had heard the stories of Jiang Huxin being a shifter, I did not believe it until the morning after we’d mated. Only then did I realise I had seduced one of the Wu.’
‘But I told you before the rite who she was, Shi,’ Hudan pointed out, but not in a scolding manner.
‘It is difficult to explain to anyone who is not a shifter but, when in my tiger form, animal instinct overrules intellect,’ Shi shrugged. ‘It was only once I returned to my human form the next morning, that I had any cause for regret.’
Rather surprisingly, Hudan nodded, empathising with him. ‘When I travel in spirit form, it is the same; the desires of the spiritual and physical body are very different. Sometimes I wish I had inherited just a little of Huxin’s wild abandon,’ Hudan sighed. ‘But alas, someone has to keep a level head.’
‘You sound like Dan,’ Shi noted with amusement, but Hudan did not smile.
‘I would rather not speak about brother Dan,’ she said coolly. It seemed she could not escape the subject of him with anyone.
‘Has my brother offended you in some way?’ Shi was concerned.
‘No!’ Hudan was quick to contest. ‘Quite the contrary. Sometimes I find him a little too pleasing for my own peace of mind. But I thank you for your concern.’
Shi relaxed. ‘Know I am always at your service, Jiang Hudan.’
He was so like Dan in his sincerity, but without the intellect to keep his emotions in check. Shi wore his feelings on his sleeve as Fen did, and Hudan could see what her sister found so attractive about him.