Dreaming of Zhou Gong

  ‘Arise Ji Fa, king of our land and holder of Tian’s mandate on earth,’ Yi Wu said. ‘You are free to depart Li Shan, having earned heaven’s highest honour for the House of Ji.’

  ‘Praise heaven!’ The king rose. ‘And praise to you, Yi Wu. My family shall treasure your gift always.’

  ‘I know you are eager to be home,’ Yi Wu proffered, grinning at his impatience to leave.

  ‘What are a few hours in a saddle compared to a lifetime of bliss,’ the king replied, not about to complain.

  ‘What I meant was,’ Yi Wu continued, ‘Jiang Huxin has kindly offered to speed you back to your queen via Wu means if that would be pleasing to you?’

  The Great Mother’s offer made Fa grin with fear and elation. The thought of two hours in the saddle to reach his lover, versus his fear of being whipped through the inner world, was not a real contest. His eagerness to be home won out over his fear of the unknown. ‘I would be most obliged for that service.’

  ‘I shall have your trophies returned with your brothers on the morrow,’ Yi Wu advised. ‘Until next we meet, I wish you every happiness and success, brother Fa.’ The Great Mother bowed deeply to him in parting.

  ‘And I you, brother Yi.’ The king returned the gesture, and then took hold of Huxin’s outstretched hand.

  She already held Fen’s hand on her other side, knowing the king would not return without him. ‘At your leave, majesty,’ she allowed, as Fa was looking a little anxious — he appeared more petrified now than he had before battle.

  ‘Fear not, brother Fa,’ Yi Wu said kindly. ‘for this is not the first time you have travelled thus, nor will it be the last.’

  The king forced a smile, a little perplexed by her words, and gave Huxin a nod to get the event over with.

  As the light of Huxin’s intention began to engulf them, Fa gripped her hand tighter.

  ‘We are here, majesty.’ Huxin placed a hand on his shoulder to gently shake him, so that he might realise their passage was over, open his eyes and release her hand.

  ‘What?’ He was genuinely surprised to find himself in his private quarters at Haojing, and he gasped with delight when the fact sunk in. ‘Jiang Huxin, you are a wonder!’ he said, bowing his head to her in gratitude. ‘This is truly the end of the road for us,’ and he sounded deeply sorry about the fact.

  Huxin smiled. ‘Go to your queen, majesty,’ she urged, feeling tears coming on — she was not usually sentimental. ‘I shall treasure our victory always.’ She respectfully bowed to him in parting.

  Ji Fa, more than a little choked up himself, nodded and managed to say, ‘I shall also.’ He turned and departed for his queen’s bedchamber.

  When Huxin turned back to Fen, her tears fell. ‘I shall miss him,’ she confessed, ‘and you.’ Huxin flung her arms around Fen and held him tight.

  ‘I expect I shall be seeing more of you than either of us could expect at this moment.’

  Fen’s claim prompted Huxin to push him to arm’s length and hold him there. ‘Why?’ Her sweetness was gone, and suspicion had taken its place.

  ‘Because that is what I wish for, and I am a very powerful being,’ Fen boasted, his grin more confident than it usually was in the wake of such a statement. ‘You should really get back to Li Shan and make sure brother Hudan fares well.’

  Huxin’s eyes narrowed as she was wary and mistrustful that he was not more upset by their parting. ‘Have you got another lover you are running off to see?’

  ‘No,’ Fen insisted, still grinning. ‘Not I.’

  Huxin was still looking at him sideways. ‘What do you know that I don’t?’

  ‘Am I supposed to have an answer for such a question?’ Fen raised his eyebrows in his own defence, as Huxin’s eyes continued to bore into him.

  ‘All right, I’m going,’ Huxin conceded, dissatisfied, but realising that Fen was not going to crack.

  ‘Good,’ Fen said. ‘Have fun.’

  ‘Why fun?’ Huxin asked, delaying.

  ‘Will you just go to Hudan already!’ Fen shooed her away, and in a huff Huxin willed herself to her twin.

  It was dark, warm and moist where Huxin landed, and it didn’t take her long to realise where she was. ‘I thought I’d find you here.’

  By the light of the moon, Hudan was cleaning make-up from her face in one of the smaller thermal pools around the large pool where the siblings always swam after a big event — it had been their own personal tradition.

  ‘Here I am!’ Hudan slurred her words a little.

  ‘So, was it you?’ Huxin crept closer, eager to hear the gossip. ‘Did you lose your maidenhood to Ji Fa’s mighty —’

  ‘Huxin.’ Hudan pushed her away. ‘A gentle person never tells.’

  ‘What if Zhou Gong asks? And he will,’ Huxin warned.

  ‘I am not sure if it would be kinder to tell the truth or not?’ Hudan drew a deep uneasy breath and kept rubbing.

  ‘It wasn’t you,’ Huxin said, ceasing her scrutiny of her sister. ‘You are way too tense to have been so liberated this night.’

  ‘You think it would bring me joy to give myself to Ji Fa?’ Hudan stood, her voice wavering along with her body.

  ‘I would have thought you would consider it the highest honour,’ Huxin stated. For others, this would have been the truth of the matter.

  ‘Honour and joy very rarely coincide.’ Hudan staggered toward the larger pool, and Huxin rushed to help steady her on her feet, as her sister was clearly still intoxicated from the rite.

  Huxin had only ever seen Hudan like this a few times, and she was usually so much more fun and honest. ‘Is this you admitting you hold feelings for our brother Dan?’ Huxin sidled up close to her sister to ask in a whisper.

  Hudan appeared fit to burst, and she growled softly as her defences crumbled. ‘I heard their pleasure and all I could think about was him.’ She clenched her hands frustrated. ‘I tried not to, Tian knows I did …’

  A giggle of delight escaped Huxin’s lips, as she hugged her sister to her. ‘There is a human in there, after all.’

  Her comment made Hudan laugh, and she mellowed. ‘Something the Great Mother told me has changed the way I perceive my relationship to Dan.’

  ‘What did Shifu say?’ Huxin was curious, but slapped a hand over her sister’s mouth to prevent an answer as a loud roar was heard in the distance, higher up on the mountain. The sound stopped Huxin’s heart from beating for a second, and then made it beat double-time.

  ‘That is him!’ she breathed, and gripped her sister’s arm so tight it made her squeal.

  ‘Ouch!’

  ‘Sorry.’ Huxin stroked the injured limb a couple of times to silence Hudan, and then they heard the roar again. ‘We’ll talk later … I have to go.’ Huxin took off so fast she accidentally knocked her sister into the water, robe and all. She waited to see Hudan surface in a spray of water and silk, coughing and spluttering.

  ‘Are you trying to kill me?’ Hudan twisted the heavily ornate headpiece from her tangled mass of hair.

  ‘So sorry,’ Huxin giggled, as she stripped the clothes from her body on her way up the path. ‘Don’t wait up for me.’

  Huxin felt a slight twinge of guilt at leaving Hudan alone; her departure would make Fen’s absence this night even more obvious to her sister. But her heavenly appointed mate had come to visit her and their half-baked brood, and that opportunity was too rare to miss.

  At the top of the path she entered the garden, and was startled to collide with Ji Dan. ‘Brother Dan … fancy meeting you here,’ she giggled again. The poor duke seemed unsure of what to do with the naked person he found himself holding, and averted his eyes as he set her on her feet and turned away.

  ‘I thought you were … elsewhere?’

  ‘Don’t fret, I am leaving and Hudan is alone.’ She moved away. ‘I warn you, she is still quite inebriated, and feeling rather more amorous than usual, so I would tread very carefully if I were you.’

  ‘Did she say —’ Dan glanc
ed back to query her, but Huxin had shifted into the tigress.

  In animal form her desire turned solely to hunting up her mate and she took off up the mountain in pursuit of him.

  Hudan floated on her back on the surface of the pool, her ruined silk robe floating about her like soft seaweed. The night sky was glistening and the moonlight felt intense upon her being. Strangely, she did not feel alone, but rather free to indulge in her own contemplation. If her siblings were here right now they would, most likely, be ducking and teasing her and, upon reflection, this private bliss was far preferable.

  ‘Brother Hudan?’

  The sound of Dan’s voice shot a wave of fear and excitement through her being, and Hudan drew herself into a tucked position to hear more clearly and locate him.

  ‘May I join you?’

  As she spotted the duke at the top of the path, her excitement surged and she gave him a friendly wave. ‘Be my guest.’ She waved him forth. ‘My siblings have abandoned me, although we always swim after sacred rites. It helps us regain our senses.’

  ‘I know,’ Dan confessed, as he approached the edge of the pool, and crouched down to speak with her. ‘I saw the three of you here on my first night at Li Shan.’

  Hudan gasped. ‘It was you?’ She splashed water in his direction, and he stood and backed away. ‘We were talking about you that night —’ She remembered, and then grinned mischievously. ‘I notice you no longer wear a beard?’

  Dan applauded her powers of perception, and she flicked another stream of water in his direction. ‘Well, I had to do something to make you see me differently … as more than another tool you carried around with you. Does it please you?’ he asked. Hudan had choked up at his first sentence, but with a deep breath she expelled her regret at treating him so badly in the beginning.

  ‘I think it suits you very well,’ she admitted, impishly. ‘So, are you going to come in or are you merely spectating?’ The invitation came out sounding rather more seductive than intended; it was like her mouth and body had their own agenda and the regular Hudan was not invited.

  ‘Is that permissible?’ he queried, removing his boots.

  ‘There is no law in our creed that prevents Wu brothers from bathing together. In fact, we do it all the time,’ Hudan was delighted to realise and thinking herself very clever as she intently watched Dan disrobe in the moonlight, captivated by the sight.

  Dan did not have the warrior physique that some of his more martial brothers had, but his tall, athletic body was well developed, slender and smooth. Hudan was rather annoyed when he only stripped to his trousers and made a move to approach the pool. ‘Are you shy, Brother Dan?’

  The duke grinned at her challenge. ‘No,’ he assured her, ‘I merely wished to avoid offence. And you did not bother removing your clothes, I see.’

  Hudan immediately stripped the silk from her body, rolled it into a ball and cast it from the pool. ‘Do you think you have something down there that I haven’t seen before?’

  He glanced down at the front of his trousers, and raised both eyebrows to concede, ‘Maybe?’

  Hudan found his antics amusing and floated her body on the surface of the pool to look to the night sky and let him out of his predicament. When she heard him dive into the water, Hudan tucked back into a wading pose for greater manoeuvrability, and then squealed as she felt him pass underneath her, releasing bubbles as he did so. He surfaced in a spray of water in front of her. ‘Brother Dan,’ she grinned at his close proximity and took a stroke away from him.

  ‘Brother Hudan ….’ he did the same. ‘How did the rite go?’

  ‘Well, Fa pleased the goddess very well,’ she said, deciding in that second whether or not to tell him the truth. ‘Very, very well, from what I heard,’ she stressed, so that he might realise she was just a bystander to the event. Dan was silent, his face in shadow, so she could not gauge his reaction. ‘I believe the other candidates envied the goddess her rapture —’

  ‘And you?’ Dan asked, expectantly. Hudan took a stroke toward him, and another to circle around until his face caught the moonlight.

  She gave her head a small shake. ‘I imagined it was us.’

  In one synchronised movement they came together, his kisses warm, tender and moist, their bodies pressed against one another in a sudden frenzy to harness their closeness. The evidence of Dan’s passion was pressed hard against Hudan’s pelvis and abdomen, and her legs wrapped about him in an effort to maintain the pleasurable pressure of rubbing against him. Dan’s hands and arms slid over her body in an attempt to support her in her intent, and it was only as she released a pleasured groan that she realised Dan’s lips were moving down her neck.

  Then, unexpectedly, Dan let loose a frustrated cry and pushed her away to swim for the edge.

  ‘Dan?’ Hudan was left gasping and bewildered.

  ‘You are not yourself tonight,’ he conceded, thwarted by his own sense of fair play.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Hudan appealed with conviction, desperate to make him understand her seemingly sudden change of heart. ‘I think you are wrong. What if tonight I am myself, and it is every other day I wear the mask of someone else?’

  The statement turned Dan about, as it struck a chord in him too. ‘The Great Mother told you … that we were not meant to fall in love in this life.’

  Hudan nodded. ‘But the way I see it, you don’t have to take my maidenhood and cause some catastrophic event when we spawn a child that was never meant to exist! But, if this is it … if this is all we get in this life, well …’ Her voice wavered under the weight of her want. ‘Just as we were then, felt wonderful to me, and for the years ahead that we must be apart, I believe Tian owes us this small kindness. I promise you, neither one of us will regret it tomorrow.’

  Dan returned to her embrace and their enjoyment with so much enthusiasm that it seemed their momentum had not been disturbed in the slightest. The feeling aroused by their love-play transported Hudan to the place she’d only ever been to in her dreams of Lu Chen. The way he touched her and kissed her — the sounds he made when aroused — it was all so familiar and disarming that she held none of her desire back. And when finally she felt his member — slipping between her legs — ejaculate, his cry of relief triggered her climax, and they collapsed around each other gasping for breath, sighing, and praising the heavens for the release.

  ‘I love you, Zhou Gong Dan,’ she whispered into his ear, head resting on his shoulder as he carried her to the side of the pool with the aim of sitting them both down before they drowned.

  ‘I never would have guessed,’ he jested with a grin, taking a seat on a rock by the edge, with Hudan still straddling him.

  ‘Share my room tonight,’ she said as she snuggled into him. ‘Now that I am aware of the purpose behind my cloistered vocation, I am no longer afraid our love will offend Tian. I am only mindful of not defeating our own purpose in the long run.’

  ‘As much as I would love to wake up beside you,’ Dan kissed her head, ‘I think that might land us both in a lot of hot water.’

  Then, considering their current location, they both laughed at the irony.

  ‘I can sneak you in,’ Hudan whispered seductively, then nibbled his earlobe, as she’d seen Huxin do to Fa’s enjoyment.

  ‘You could do that.’ Dan was pleasantly distracted. ‘And I certainly could not stop you. But Yi Wu —’

  ‘As long as my maidenhood is still intact,’ Hudan silenced him with her fingers, ‘he–she should have nothing to complain about.’

  Dan grinned, in complete agreement with her reasoning. ‘That seems a perfectly fetching compromise to me.’

  His tigress was very amorous this evening, rubbing against him, and grooming him affectionately. As she was already with child, Shi was not here to mate with her; he just wanted to be near her and that instinct was entirely human.

  On the freshly replenished grass on the mountainside he lay soaking up Huxin’s affection and feeling guilty for not having transf
ormed into his human form the second he’d laid eyes on her — he had intended to. But Huxin never gave him this much affection as a man, and he was priming himself for his confession. Dan’s insight this afternoon had given Shi some hope of success, and his hesitation was due mainly to fearing that once she knew the truth, this lovely enchantment would end. The lord finally reached a point where he could not bear the suspense any longer and shifted form.

  When his tigress found herself licking the face of a man, she sprang away from him and shifted form also. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Jiang Huxin, it is I, Ji Shi.’ He moved into the moonlight where she might see him.

  ‘Shi?’ Her defensiveness shifted, and she was left awestruck. ‘You are a shifter?’

  He nodded.

  ‘It was you who saved my sister. It was you who —’ She gasped as the realisation hit, and held the little bulge on her naked belly.

  ‘I wanted to tell you, but I had to wait to ask the Great Mother’s permission to do so, which I did not receive until today,’ he explained, to Huxin’s mortification.

  ‘Shifu Yi is aware I betrayed my creed by sleeping with a man?’ Huxin wailed, holding her head as if she had a massive headache and was going to be sick. ‘I’ll be banished for sure.’

  Of all the reactions Shi had anticipated, this had not been one of them. ‘The Great Mother knows that no one knew my secret, and you are free to stay and live on Li Shan and raise our pride here if you so wish it,’ he told her, on the verge of tears, and wary of asking her now what he had intended to.

  ‘Our pride,’ Huxin repeated, sounding very upset. ‘I hadn’t thought to ever see you again.’

  ‘I have thought of nothing else,’ said Shi, falling to his knees to appeal for her forgiveness. ‘I should have stayed and told you the truth the morning after the yin rite. But when I saw you were human, and a Wu, I fled for fear I had offended heaven. When Jiang Hudan told me you were pregnant —’

  ‘Hudan knew you were the father of my pride all along?’ Huxin’s frown and anger deepened, and Shi was beginning to realise what Hudan had meant when she’d said that her sister was a handful. ‘ That is what has been going on between you two …’ Her tone lightened suddenly, and Shi took this to be a good sign.