Song grinned. ‘How about you answer my question, and then I shall answer yours?’
Hudan rose up and made sure her displeasure was apparent in her stare. ‘I do not play games, or make deals. You will answer my question or I shall take you to the Great Mother and she shall have the truth out of you.’
‘Never mind then,’ he said, waving off the offer. ‘I know the answer to my query anyway. I just have to wonder what you see in that old stuffed shirt? I am closer to your age than he is, and we have a lot more in common.’
For a second Hudan was stumped by his brazen disrespect, yet so charming all the while — it was rather unbelievable to witness. ‘Are you trying to shame me in some way, brother? For I assure you, that at this point, you have only shamed yourself.’
‘I would not wish that, Jiang Hudan,’ he said. ‘Or should I call you, Tar-rin?’
Hudan couldn’t repress a gasp. The claim came out of nowhere, and hit her hard.
‘You know that name, right?’ he reasoned, venturing closer. ‘Does the name Zhe-Fan ring any bells for you?’
‘No,’ she answered honestly, ‘should it?’
‘Say it a few times?’ Song urged.
‘Zhe-Fan, Zhe-Fan, Zhe —’ Hudan was struck by a memory of a dark-haired young man, not so dissimilar to Song, dressed as a son of the sky, with large wide eyes of pale brown.
‘ See you on the other side of the light-field,’ he was saying to her and admiring her fondly. ‘You can’t miss me. I’m a prince.’
She then recalled embracing him and telling him that he was always a prince, and that she would miss him.
‘Not if you can’t remember me.’
The memory slipped away, and Hudan returned to the present to find Song holding his arms open. ‘How much do you remember?’ she asked, fearfully.
‘Enough to know we’ve been close friends before, and are meant to be again.’ He moved closer and Hudan backed away, confused by this turn of events.
‘How close?’ she asked, and held out a hand to keep him at bay.
‘Steamy close, actually,’ he hinted in a seductive fashion.
Hudan gasped again. A memory of standing in the teeming rain, knee deep in steamy water, in the throes of a passionate embrace with Zhe-Fan, flashed through her mind and blocked all external vision for a moment.
‘You remember?’ Song suspected she did, but Hudan shook her head.
‘You know it is against Wu creed to knowingly lie?’ Song toyed and backed off.
‘That was another life. I am Wu now,’ Hudan insisted. But inwardly the memories of Zhe-Fan had rattled her — had Tar-rin been having an affair? She was appalled to think she could be such a harlot. ‘Why did you come here?’
‘I hoped you might be able to tell me why I am having these future memories?’ Song appealed, his eyes as engaging as in his previous incarnations, and Hudan saw Zhe-Fan in him now. ‘I wanted to know if you have them, too? And you obviously do.’ He held his arms wide and then dropped them to his side, a little dissatisfied with the result. ‘Do you not suppose that there might be a higher purpose behind it?’
‘Zhou Gong is the expert on past-life memory,’ Hudan told him and Song was stunned.
‘So that was a past life?’ Song was bemused.
‘More a life, still going on outside of this life,’ Hudan said, sharing her limited understanding. ‘Zhou Gong’s link to the Akashic memory is the talent he has least developed at this stage, but I suspect he still remembers more than I do.’
‘Zhou Gong has psychic talent? You have got to be kidding me?’ Song was finding the proposition hard to fathom.
‘He is Lu-Chen,’ Hudan advised, to test just how much Song did remember.
Song was even more rattled to learn this. ‘Forget I said anything!’ he insisted backing away.
‘Wait!’ Hudan enforced her will to keep him glued to the spot. ‘Tell me what you know of him?’
‘Not fair,’ the prince said, referring to his feet, but then with a little effort, he stepped out of her hold, and Hudan was gobsmacked. ‘It is not that I do not fancy a bit of bondage, you understand, but I would rather be the one in control.’
‘Dear heaven,’ Hudan mumbled, completely lost for rational thought.
‘Admit it, you are impressed,’ he goaded, with a charming smile.
All she could do was nod.
‘That would make me the first man to ever be beyond your control,’ he boasted, and Hudan noted the arrogance that Dan so deplored.
‘I would not go that far,’ she cautioned. ‘I was going easy on you.’
‘Is that a fact?’ The prince folded his arms to defy her.
‘Tell me what you know about Lu-Chen … please,’ she thought to add, taking a step closer to him.
‘I do not remember him. Just you,’ he whispered, taking a step closer.
Hudan slapped her hands together and keeping her fingertips pressed firmly together, she drew her palms apart. Tiny rushes of blue-white lightning passed between her hands, startling Song backward.
‘Holy Tian!’ Song had obviously seen how bad it was to be struck by lightning.
‘I did ask nicely.’
‘You would not hurt your next sovereign, surely?’ he appealed sweetly with his eyes.
‘I am permitted to punish anyone who sets foot on this mountain uninvited,’ she stated and took several purposeful steps toward him.
‘Best go then.’ Song grinned, and vanished, leaving Hudan in a state of utter disbelief for a third time.
‘Oh, Tian!’ She clapped her hand to her heart in the wake of the visit, shocked and rattled. She had no idea what to make of the visions she’d just had, or how on earth Ji Song had become so powerful, so fast. Was Zhou Gong aware of his student’s talent? It was uncertain which of her concerns was fuelling her desire, but Hudan knew she was compelled to seek Dan.
As it was the midnight hour, Hudan was not surprised to be spirited forth to a dark room. It was silent as her eyes adjusted to the moonlit shadows of her new location.
‘Am I seeing things?’ Dan asked as he sat up in bed, naked to the waist, his long dark hair falling over his shoulders.
‘I had to see you,’ she said, and the panic in her voice spurred to the duke to her side.
‘What has happened?’ He gripped her shoulders and pulled her into the moonlight. ‘You are crying.’
The anguish of a secret love seemed a trifle compared to the guilt she was feeling, which was even more foreign to her sensibilities and twice as painful. ‘Ji Song came to see me —’
‘What?’ Dan was baffled.
‘He just popped in for a visit,’ she said laconically, and Dan’s jaw dropped.
‘Song can teleport!’ It took a second to absorb that shock, and then the duke was angry. ‘What did he do to upset you like this?’
‘No, nothing like that!’ Hudan backpedalled a little. ‘Song did not do anything apart from be his cocky, arrogant self. His powers rattled me a little, but not as much as the fact that he remembers being a son of the sky.’
‘He remembers?’
Hudan nodded. ‘The name of his incarnation among them sparked my memories of knowing him … and I wish it had not.’ She slipped free of Dan’s gasp, shaking her head in an attempt to overcome her rising dread of coming to the point.
‘What did you see?’ Dan was alarmed now, and Hudan couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
‘I know I was close to him,’ she confessed.
‘No,’ Dan said, not prepared to accept it.
‘What if Tar-rin was cheating on Lu-Chen?’ Hudan’s chest felt like it was about to rip open, and the panic was causing her to hyperventilate. ‘Now I question what kind of a life I am going back to among the sons of the sky? I want to remember, but I only see into the future. The past is your domain. But I want you to know that I would not, could not, betray anyone like that. If the woman I was among the sons of the sky could, then … I do not want to go back to being her.’
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‘Whoa!’ Dan appealed holding both hands up in truce. ‘It seems to me that you are not entirely sure what you saw.’
‘I saw enough to make me panic. I felt how much it hurt to let him go, before we came here.’ She looked at Dan and even in the dim light, she could see him hurting. ‘But that makes no sense when I consider how Tar-rin felt when she was with Lu-Chen. I feel that too, very strongly.’ She thumped a fist to her chest in frustration. ‘You know I do! I am just … completely baffled.’
‘His royal highness is in so much trouble right now,’ Dan seethed. ‘When the king and the Great Mother learn —’
‘No!’ Hudan begged the duke not to take that course. ‘Song must not know I told you.’
Dan frowned.
‘If there was any wrongdoing here, it was mine, or rather Tar-rin’s,’ she defended. ‘I know he was a good friend of hers, so I do not want to betray his trust, or yours. Maybe I have this all wrong?’ Hudan was frustrated. ‘If I could only remember more.’
‘The prince should not have been on Li Shan in the first place.’
‘I am aware of that,’ she agreed and yet she was wary. ‘But he is powerful. I have my elemental arts over him, but that is all. I fear he is every bit as masterful as I … in which case it would be most unwise to get him offside.’
‘He has you in tears, he broke a holy law and yet you defend him?’
The last thing Hudan wanted was to upset Dan, but he certainly had that tone in his voice.
‘I wish now that the Lord of Time had awakened my dormant other, when he had the chance,’ she stated, ‘so I could know what has gone before. As it is, I can only go with my gut instinct … and that is, that Song is a staunch ally and we should treat him as such.’
It took a moment, but Dan decided to be diplomatic. ‘So how do you wish me to proceed?’
‘I just thought you should be aware of Song’s capabilities, and of his visit …’ She bit her lip, contemplating whether to say more. ‘And should you remember anything damning about me, in our past life together, I want to assure you that I am not that woman now.’
To Hudan’s tremendous relief Dan embraced her, and some of her guilt lifted. ‘Clearly … when you are racked with guilt over an affair you might have had in a past life. In this life, you have done nothing wrong.’
Hudan sniffled, unable to agree as she pulled back from an embrace she should not be having. ‘Surely you jest?’
‘You’re right, you are hopeless,’ Dan chuckled, trying reverse psychology and making her smile.
‘I will say, when I told Song that you were Lu-Chen, the prince became much more cautious.’
‘You told him?’ Dan was annoyed to have been exposed.
‘Well, Song claimed that he came to me to ask about the future memories he was having,’ she justified. ‘I told him you were the expert in that department, hoping he might come to you with his queries.’
Dan nodded, finding her reasoning sound.
‘He knows something about Lu-Chen, but he refused to discuss it with me,’ she said, giving him fair warning.
‘I shall keep a close eye on the prince,’ Dan advised. ‘If he comes to see you again, come straight to me. The chances are he will pursue you, and if I catch him, I can reprimand him accordingly.’
Hudan was glad to have laid the mystery open, and to have a strategy in place to deal with the situation should it arise again. ‘Thank you for listening. I feel lightened of a great load.’
‘That you should not have been burdened with in the first place, in my view,’ Dan replied. ‘I suspect Ji Song is making mischief, and if I discover he is playing some kind of game with you, I swear —’
Hudan placed a hand over the duke’s mouth. ‘Let us hope this is just a terrible misunderstanding.’ She began to move her hand, but he kissed her fingers before they departed, and then her palm and wrist.
‘I should go.’ She was reluctant to pull away, and Dan did not let her go. ‘That is not why I came.’
‘When I first saw you appear, I thought it was, since it is my birthday,’ he explained, both eyes raised in appeal.
‘Oh, no, please tell me it isn’t!’ Hudan felt awful, dumping her woes on him on such an occasion, and not even to be aware of it. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said, and bowed to him, deeply remorseful.
‘No need to apologise, brother,’ he assured her, kindly. ‘A simple kiss would suffice.’
Under normal circumstances Hudan would have resented being put on the spot, but as it was his birthday, and she felt no harm could come of it, she obliged his request with some fervour. Her penance was disturbingly pleasurable, as he tasted like sweet wine and smelt of sandalwood, but she did not allow it to continue beyond their control.
‘Am I forgiven?’ she asked, as she slid away.
‘You are,’ he decided, graciously. ‘But …’ His benevolent mood erred on the side of caution. ‘Would you be very cross with me to know it is not really my birthday.’
Hudan shoved him backward, annoyed to have been proven so gullible, but not sorry to have had the opportunity to reassure him of how she felt. ‘When is your birthday then?’ she thought to ask, so as not to be caught out again.
‘Tomorrow,’ he grinned broadly, and Hudan knew he was just being smart.
‘Seriously.’ She placed her hands on her hips.
But Dan remained tightlipped. ‘I’m not telling you. You’ll read up on my astrology and have me worked out by the next time we meet.’
‘You flatter yourself,’ Hudan scoffed. ‘That is not what I intended at all.’
‘No?’ Dan challenged. ‘Then tell me your time and date of birth.’
‘Oh, no.’ Hudan felt she was wise to his game this time. ‘You won’t outfox me twice in one evening.’
‘I have better things to do, quite frankly,’ Dan assured her with a cheeky grin.
Despite his stratagem and coquetry, or perhaps directly due to it, Hudan felt so much more at ease now. ‘Onward and upward then.’
‘As we were,’ he assured, and Hudan breathed easier knowing Song could not spring news of his secret visit with her on his uncle at any point in the future and catch him off-guard.
It was no surprise to note how respectful Song was when he arrived for his lesson the next day, and he seemed relieved to find his tutor in good cheer, and not furious as he had probably anticipated. Dan figured that Song believed Jiang Hudan had kept his secret from his mentor and rival for her affections and was revelling in the fact. Since it had been Dan tasting her affection the day before, he knew her love was securely in his quarter.
The morning session of Dao Yin passed without incident, but during the theory lesson Dan steered the discussion toward the various powers the Wu developed, to see if Song would disclose any of his secrets to them of his own accord.
‘So, you have been studying Wu doctrine for some time now, Uncle,’ Song commented, looking at Dan curiously. ‘Have you developed any psychic skill?’
Cunning, Dan thought, as he gave a nod in confirmation. ‘I see spirits.’
‘Dead people?’ Song queried, sounding spooked.
‘Dead, living, abstract,’ Dan concurred.
‘And that’s it?’ Song said, sounding unimpressed, but the duke knew he was fishing for something in particular.
‘Not at all,’ Fen spoke up, proud of his student. ‘My lord saw through a wall the other day.’
Song looked back at his uncle, and Dan smiled and nodded. ‘Now that I envy, Uncle. Such a talent would come in very handy.’ The prince grinned mischievously, rubbing his hands together.
‘I have also met a son of the sky,’ Dan boasted and Song was immediately intrigued. ‘It was, in fact, he who heightened my psychic sight.’
‘It is true,’ Fen assured the prince, ‘I was there and so was Jiang Hudan.’
‘So you had cosmic help to develop your skills,’ Song said in a superior tone. Dan gathered that that was not how Song had developed his talents.
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Dan laughed, thinking him clueless. ‘I can also see a son of the sky lying dormant inside of you, Song.’ Dan shocked the prince with the news. ‘And another within Fen Gong,’ he added, and Fen was stunned in equal measure.
‘You never said so?’ Fen was a mite disconcerted by the news.
‘It was that entity who aided me to heal you,’ Dan said. ‘He has your same talent for healing and growing.’
‘I wondered how that had come about. I thought I might have healed myself.’
‘Well, in a way, you did,’ the duke granted.
‘That is why I keep dreaming of future worlds?’ Song surmised, speaking out loud.
‘I’m guessing that the son of the sky within you has the same talents that you are developing,’ Dan told him, ‘and so you see, you have also had some cosmic help. What do you remember?’ the duke asked casually and Song’s eyes narrowed in caution.
‘I recall arguing with my superior over a woman,’ he stated, and Fen was forced to suppress a laugh as the scenario seemed so typical of the prince. But Dan knew Lu-Chen was Song’s superior in that other life, so he was not laughing. ‘He, my superior,’ Song advised, ‘doubted this woman’s loyalty, but I did not. It was his wife’s word he wanted to believe when, in fact, I knew she was the traitor.’
Dan was frowning now, having totally lost track of the plot. ‘So what happened?’
‘I told him to stick his job and went to work for the accused,’ Song concluded, punching the air in support of his other incarnation.
‘Good for you!’ Fen cheered.
‘Do you remember any names?’ Dan attempted to keep the conversation on track.
‘I remember her name,’ Song teased, a dark expression on his face as he stared his uncle down. ‘I remember a whole lot about her. Her name was … a bit hard to pronounce actually, but something like, Tar-rin Lin-ox.’ Song shrugged as though he was none the wiser, but Dan was reeling.
Did this mean Lu-Chen had not been married to Tar-rin — as the Great Mother had said? Or was Song twisting the truth to his own ends? It was certainly a prime motivation to develop the universal memory Dan had been told he possessed.