‘You must help me,’ he begged, head bowed, hands clenched together and held high in appeal. ‘I can’t bear her not seeing me … her not knowing she carries my pride, not Ji Fa’s!’
‘Ah,’ Hudan groaned, not only fed up with being a relationship counsellor, but also the bearer of interesting news. ‘The king is aware of your claim —’
‘What!’ Shi was on his feet, horrified, for several reasons. ‘Yet still he flirts with her?’ Clearly, that fact hurt more than his exposure.
‘The king is just extracting his own justice from you, Shi, he has no real romantic interest in her. I have it on Huxin’s authority that Ji Fa is most unfashionably in love with his wife.’
Shi was stunned to learn this. ‘But they are so cold to each other, and have only ever had one child?’
Hudan was aware of this. ‘I understand brother Fa’s wife has had problems conceiving since Song was born, yet the king has never taken another wife or concubine.’
‘I thought that had changed with Jiang Huxin.’ Shi expressed his greatest fear. ‘She accompanies him everywhere.’
‘That was the command of the Great Mother,’ Hudan informed, ‘but Fa has only ever regarded Huxin as a brother. So if you were worried your claim to her pride was in question, it is not.’ Hudan saw much of the tension rush from the lord’s body, but his spirit was still repressed.
‘You told the king about us?’ Shi sounded hurt that she had betrayed his confidence.
Hudan shook her head. ‘As soon as you transformed I think Fa knew, but Dan was the first to voice the assumption.’
Shi nodded, accepting that he had instigated his own undoing. ‘And soon the Great Mother will know.’ He swallowed, obviously fearful of the repercussions. ‘What will she do to me?’
‘I told you, Huxin had permission, you’ve done nothing wrong.’ Hudan pointed out. ‘The question here is whether Huxin is to learn your identity, as her mating was only ever intended to be a hit and run affair … as tigers do.’
‘No, tigers have a strong sense of family, it’s just that males have a wider territory than their mates, but they do keep in contact always,’ Shi informed.
This was news to Hudan and she could hardly argue the fact. ‘The king, as the holder of the mandate, is the only one who might plead your cause to the Great Mother, and I warrant it would be to his favour to do so,’ she suggested, and Shi was pleasantly stunned. ‘The king wants you to marry and you need a very particular kind of mate, so …?’ Hudan couldn’t believe what was she was saying; did she want to lose both her siblings? The notion saddened her, yet Shi’s joy was overwhelming.
‘To have my family with me at Shao —’ he gasped on the excitement of the notion.
‘I did not say the Great Mother would agree,’ Hudan hushed him. ‘But it will be up to Yi Wu and the mandate to decide if Huxin is told about you, and what should happen beyond that.’
‘But just to have that to hope for!’ Shi bounded around the place like an excited animal.
‘Shi,’ Hudan called for his attention and he stilled before she stressed. ‘No promises.’
‘No,’ he confirmed with a slight shake of his head.
‘I shall discuss the matter with our king.’ Hudan winced and held both hands up to prevent being crushed by one of the lord’s huge tiger hugs.
Shi refrained from grabbing hold of her and backed away. ‘Sorry, Shanyu, I am just very grateful,’ he nodded several times to impress that on her. ‘I know you would not wish to part from your twin.’
‘Ha!’ Hudan’s cynical streak came out to obscure her sorrow. ‘I have lived with her and I warn you it is no picnic.’
‘To face the greatest peril every day, would be my pleasure, if it meant I could have her by me,’ he replied.
‘Be careful what you wish for,’ she warned in jest.
‘I would make her very happy,’ Shi said, quite serious about it.
‘My dear brother Shi, from what I hear, you do make my sister very happy.’ Hudan grinned mischievously, fairly sure that that would be the end of their discussion.
For a second the lord could only grin, no doubt deciding whether he wanted to query that comment or not. ‘Well I … I have detained you too long already.’ He backed up toward an exit. ‘I feel much more at ease, and I thank you … again.’
Hudan nodded, holding her humour until the young lord turned and swiftly fled, then she collapsed into her own devastation; as going home to Li Shan suddenly seemed a lonely prospect.
Your work here is not done. She snapped herself out of her melancholy.
The king planned to leave Yin soon, and they had yet to determine if Dragonface had been destroyed or if the creature had merely shifted elsewhere. The reptilian had shape-shifted his way out of Yi Wu’s clutches once before, only to return and curse their rulers once again. The reportedly dead prince of Shang had been found shortly after Dragonface’s disappearing act and Hudan needed to make sure that was not just a happy coincidence.
The occupants of the palace at Yin — Shang and Zhou alike — observed Hudan with a kind of wary respect. After ten years subjected to Su Daji, it was going to take a while for the people of the East to realise that the Wu were only ever meant to be benevolent. Yet, it was now a widely known fact that Hudan had ended the drought at Ji Fa’s request, hence the veneration she received from the people was most sincere. Much as at Haojing, her mystique gave her run of the palace, as no one dared query her agenda.
As luck would have it, the one-time prince of the Shang finally felt well enough this morning to meet with the Zhou king. Hudan was announced and permitted entry to the council chamber, and there she found the royals and Dan seated in conference. Fen was standing behind the dethroned Shang prince, with his hands upon his shoulders, and Huxin perched on the side of Ji Fa’s chair. All the men moved to stand, but Hudan motioned them to refrain. ‘Please.’
‘The last of my Wu trio,’ Fa informed Wu Geng and then motioned to him as he looked back to Hudan. ‘Your little brother was just working his magic on Yinhou.’
The new title seemed to pain the prince a little, but some regret was to be expected when you lose a heavenly mandate. ‘That is well,’ Hudan said, observing the former Shang prince, who seemed gaunt, yet quite vital in Fen’s hands.
‘Clearly, not all the Wu are of my stepmother’s ilk,’ he said, and forced a smile to make her acquaintance. ‘Our land owes you, and all the Wu of Li Shan, a great debt, Jiang Hudan.’
‘I am not entirely convinced that my job here is done,’ Hudan told them all, although Dan did not appear surprised. ‘Might I borrow Zhou Gong for one moment?’ she requested.
‘Our talks here are concluded,’ Fa granted, ‘so you may borrow my advisor for as many moments as you wish.’
Huxin found the king’s retort amusing, and added her own. ‘We may never see you again, Zhou Gong.’
Hudan served her sister a sweet smile, knowing her spite was just unwarranted bitterness left in the wake of Ji Shi’s visit this morning. ‘I shall return your advisor presently.’
Dan escorted her from the room and into an antechamber at the far end that was used for just such private conferences.
‘Do you see anything unusual around the former prince?’ Hudan came straight to the point once she had the newly named duke alone.
‘Funny you should ask,’ Dan raised both brows, intrigued. ‘Since your friend turned up my second sight, I’ve seen beings within the people of my close acquaintance … you, Fen, Huxin, the Great Mother, even Shi.’
‘Shi.’ Hudan was really not surprised to hear him named, as he was no stranger to the supernatural. ‘Fa too,’ she assumed, knowing he was one of the sons of the sky.
‘No, not Fa,’ Dan said, surprised about this, as was Hudan.
‘But Fa is Hreen?’ That fact just slipped out and Hudan covered her mouth too late to prevent it.
‘The one Tar-rin mentions in our dream?’ he posed. ‘The time lord?’
Hudan nodded, trying desperately to repress her grin, roused by the thought of that dream. ‘He is the only one of us I have ever seen in the Lord …’ Ang-wei — the name flashed through her mind but she prevented herself from uttering it ‘… I mean, the elemental lord’s company.’ I must avoid saying Ang-wei’s name out loud, she lectured herself inwardly. For to know an entity’s name was to have the power to summon them to you. Fortunately, Dan, knowing very little about the laws of summons, had never asked after it. ‘Perhaps that’s why the son of the sky’s presence is not within Ji Fa?’ She shook her head to cast off that curious anomaly and returned to more pressing matters. ‘But what do you see in Wu Geng?’
‘Not Dragonface, if that is what you were hoping,’ Dan replied, sorry to disappoint her. ‘I had the same thought, but no such luck.’
‘Damn … where is that accursed creature?’ Hudan felt in her gut that Dragonface was leading them a merry dance.
‘I saw the flaming ghost of Zi Shou last night,’ Dan admitted, ‘and he claims Dragonface is still here.’
Hudan was most concerned, as Dan hadn’t been trained to deal with the supernatural yet, an oversight that needed to be corrected. ‘That must have been fairly traumatic. Are you all right?’
Dan was a bit stunned by her concern. ‘I … I think so.’
‘You must not believe everything you hear from ghosts. Many of them are just thought forms left in the wake of tortured spirits, that have no reasoning capability.’
Dan raised his eyebrows, bemused.
‘They are just bundles of bad emotional energy that a soul cannot take with it to the next life, so they must be shed and left behind. Depending on how strong these emotions were in life, will determine how long the thought form will take to dissipate, or how difficult it will be to exorcise.’
‘But Zi Shou has yet to be laid to rest,’ Dan reasoned, ‘and he sounded very pleased to have passed the curse onto the Ji family. I’ve looked over everyone of consequence these past few days, and I promise you,’ Dan eyes widened to accentuate the fact, ‘I’ve seen all manner of spooks hanging around people, and the palace itself, but nothing that looks like Dragonface.’
‘And you don’t see anything odd about Wu Geng?’ Hudan pressed.
‘He has a son of the sky within him,’ Dan informed her, ‘but no one I recognise.’
That seemed to Hudan to beg the question. I wonder if my Lord Ang-wei would know him?
‘Know who?’ Avery started them both with his appearance.
‘Did you have to summon him?’ Dan protested.
‘I didn’t know I had,’ Hudan said defensively. She quietly realised that she had indeed thought the lord’s name three times in close succession, which according to the esoteric law of three quests, was enough to summon forth an entity.
‘Is that any way to greet a valued ally?’
‘You present more like a nemesis,’ Dan retorted, and the youthful lord had a chuckle at this.
‘Well, since you are here …’ Hudan interrupted the banter and asked Avery to go and view the former prince of Shang, to see if he recognised the soul-mind lurking beneath the surface of his being.
With Dan’s departure, Wu Geng also requested to take his leave of the king. Wu Geng had no end of praise for Fen in leaving. ‘You are a treasure more priceless and mysterious than the Jade Book of Shun; I shall be very sorry to see you leave on the morrow.’
‘I should be happy to come attend you again before then.’ Fen bowed graciously to accept the praise.
‘You would be most welcome,’ Wu Geng replied happily. ‘Heaven truly smiles on you, my king, to send you such blessed subjects.’
‘I am greatly honoured,’ Fa concurred.
As Wu Geng’s servants entered to carry his chair out, the Shang prince stopped them, and attempted to stand for the first time since he was found in prison — he was very surprised to sustain the stance. ‘I thought it would be months, if ever, that I felt strong enough to stand again … is there nothing you cannot cure?’
‘I have yet to find an ailment I could not remedy, excepting death itself,’ Fen replied, and the comment got Ji Fa thinking.
The king watched the Yinhou accompanied from the room and then turned to his tigress. ‘Huxin, my darling brother, would you be so kind as to fetch me something to eat. I wish to speak with Fen a moment, man to man.’
Huxin observed her little brother as she departed, obviously still amused to hear him referred to as a man. ‘I wonder if Hudan and Dan are ever coming out of there,’ she commented as she looked at the closed door at the end of the chamber, and then exited through the guarded door to her right.
‘Is that true what you said to Wu Geng just now, about being able to heal anything?’ the king queried, and Fen nodded to confirm. ‘Then I am wanting to ask a favour, if I may?’
‘Something ails my king?’ Fen was immediately concerned.
‘No, no,’ Fa smiled to reassure him, ‘at least not when you are near.’ Fa continued awkwardly. ‘No, I wish to ask on behalf of my wife, Yi Jiang. Since she gave birth to Song, she has been unable to conceive again. Hence I fear my goddess rite shall be a frightful waste of time for those involved, for I want no other concubine.’
‘Pardon my asking, majesty,’ Fen ventured, ‘but do you know what the goddess rite entails?’
Fa corrected his last statement. ‘Perhaps I should have said that I want no other earthly concubine. During the rite I am required to refrain from impregnating my goddess, so there is no chance of an issue between us that might threaten Song’s rule or my queen’s standing.’
Fen nodded in understanding. ‘But a king is expected to have many heirs, to secure the dynasty. Even if your wife is cured, she does not have so many child-bearing years left.’
‘Song will rule after me,’ Ji Fa said, sure and proud. ‘He probably has a few heirs on the way from the concubines he’s taken already! But you know what it is to love one woman above all others,’ the king petitioned Fen, whom he knew could sympathise with his view. ‘And there is nothing my wife would love more dearly than to bear me another child.’ The joy of the notion welled in his heart and brought a lump to his throat, making Fa’s voice horse. ‘Do you think that could be possible?’
‘I believe that is entirely possible, majesty,’ Fen allowed in an encouraging fashion. Ji Fa nearly collapsed into tears, and felt urged to hug the lad. ‘Thank you, Fen Gong.’ He gripped the stunned lad’s shoulders to hold him at arm’s length. ‘I shall make you lord of your own fief one day!’
‘I wish only to serve my king, my duke and Zhou.’ The lad sounded panicked.
The king play punched Fen’s cheek, his fist gently giving Fen’s cheek a nudge. ‘You have been hanging around my brother too long, you’ve caught his madness.’
‘All I know is how to heal and grow things,’ Fen reasoned.
‘That sounds like the perfect qualifications to run a province to me,’ Ji Fa considered.
‘Majesty, please!’ Fen fell on his knees to beg, ‘ Promise me you will never take such action. I wish to stay in the service of Zhou Gong, that is the only thing I shall ever ask in return for my services.’
‘Done,’ the king granted, shaking his head in wonder. ‘You are a strange breed, you Wu, but I praise heaven for you.’
‘And we praise heaven for you, majesty.’ Fen bowed to the ground in gratitude for their agreement.
The Lord Avery returned from observing Wu Geng in the next room, shaking his head. ‘I have no idea who he is.’
‘Pardon?’ Hudan felt sure he’d know. ‘So he isn’t a son of the sky?’
‘Well, I thought I was aware of every soul taking part in this time-trekking odyssey …’ Avery shrugged. ‘Yet I’ve never seen him before!’
‘Could he be a spy, or working with Dragonface?’ A variety of scenarios were darting through Hudan’s mind.
‘Dragonface doesn’t know we are here, so he’d hardly have a spy after us,’ the lord informed.
>
‘Might your brother recognise him?’ Hudan posed another solution.
‘I really don’t want to drag him into this,’ Avery said, his reluctance showing. ‘If he recognises this person, he’ll want to get involved and the last time that happened the outcome was … not so good.’
‘The last time this happened?’ Dan found this curious. ‘Is history repeating?’
‘Playing with timelines presents infinite possibilities to alter history much more than you desire, and the more you try to rework one point in time to eradicate unwanted changes, the harder it is to have causality come out in your favour.’
‘How many times has this instance been reworked?’ Dan wondered and the lord seemed surprised that the duke had understood the principle so quickly.
‘Counting the original timeline, this will be the third run-through, but only the second conscious attempt any son of the sky has had at it.’
Both Hudan and Dan were boggling at the information. ‘Was Wu Geng dangerous the last time around?’ Dan asked.
‘None of us were involved on a super-conscious level last time around,’ Avery advised, ‘except my brother, who completely screwed, not only the future of your land, but the future of our entire planet!’
‘He sounds like a handful,’ Dan observed.
‘You always thought so,’ the lord grinned. ‘I, however, was never meant to be involved in this. This part of history is not really my stomping ground. I’m a bit more of a futuristic kinda guy. You were the ones who chose to come back here and eliminate Shyamal … sorry, Dragonface.’
‘Is that his real name?’ Hudan felt that that knowledge might come in handy one day. A name was even better than an image when it came to enchanting someone.
‘Who knows? The point I’m trying to make is that this is your mission, your life … and, pretty well none of my business.’
‘But the Great Mother said that destroying Dragonface was also your quest,’ Hudan appealed.
‘More my brother’s really,’ Avery pointed out, ‘and we are prepared to wait for history to run its course before we take action … well, I am prepared. My brother, not so much.’