It was only after she’d finished admiring the horses that she looked at her captors. They were dark men with their hair tied in plaits. They wore sleeveless jackets made of animal skins, and leather belts with shiny gold buckles. Their felt breeches were tucked into high boots. Each man wore a fur-lined leather hat. They glanced at her and muttered to each other, making harsh sounds that Ping couldn’t understand. They smelt different to the people of the Empire. They had a sharp odour that reminded her of the goats she’d taken care of when she was a slave.
The tent flap opened and a man came out. Ping was sitting on the ground because her legs wouldn’t work. The man towered over her. His clothing was like the other men’s except that he wore a silk shirt beneath his jacket. She had a closer view of his gold buckle. It was fashioned into the shape of two animals locked in a fight. It was hard to believe that such simple people could make such an elegant ornament.
The riders fell silent and the man spoke to them in their coarse-sounding language. Ping realised she had no way of communicating with these people. She couldn’t explain anything to them. She couldn’t even beg for her life. The riders turned and left. Someone had re-kindled the embers of a fire. The man gestured for her to sit next to it. As the darkness melted away, more details of the camp were revealed. A smaller pen contained a flock of sheep. Several camels were grazing on the sparse grass. There was somebody on the other side of the fire. Ping’s heart thudded. It wasn’t a person. It was a dragon. He was slumped in a heap. She struggled to her feet and rushed over to him.
“Kai!” she shouted. “What have the barbarians done to you?”
She fell to her knees next to him. He opened his eyes and yawned.
“Nothing.”
“Are their weapons causing you pain?”
“No. Swords and spears are made of bronze.”
“You’re not hurt?”
“No.”
“Were you on one of the horses?”
“Yes.”
“But I spoke to you with my mind. You didn’t reply.”
“Sleeping.”
“It was so uncomfortable! How could you possibly sleep?”
“Kai can sleep anywhere.”
The man was watching her with interest. Ping hadn’t realised that she had spoken aloud.
“I was told that you could read the dragon’s mind,” the man said. Though he was speaking to Ping, he didn’t take his eyes off Kai.
She turned to the man in surprise. He was speaking the language of the Empire. A woman walked over and handed Ping a wooden bowl. She put one on the ground for Kai but wouldn’t go near him.
Ping looked at the contents of the bowl. Steam rose from a greyish liquid. It smelt worse than the barbarians.
“Drink,” the barbarian said. “Renew your strength. I apologise for the rough journey on horseback, but my men do not speak your language. They had no words to tell you they meant you no harm. If they had lingered, the guards of the wall would have fired arrows at them … and you.”
Kai slurped his hot drink hungrily.
“Tastes good,” he said to Ping.
Ping was cold and hungry. She sipped the grey liquid and pulled a face. It tasted like rancid milk.
“It is kumiss, a drink made from mare’s milk,” the man said. “It might not be to your taste, but drink it anyway. It will do you good.”
Ping held her breath and swallowed a mouthful of the sour drink. The taste made her shudder, but it did warm her.
“We are wandering people who live by drawing the bow. We don’t grow grains and vegetables like the people of the Empire. All our food comes from our animals or the hunt.”
Ping looked at the strange man.
“My name is Hou-yi,” he said. “I am chief of this tribe of wanderers. I see many questions in your eyes.”
“How do you come to know the language of the Empire?” Ping asked.
“I learned it from my father.”
That didn’t explain anything.
“A generation ago, our Great King made a truce with the Emperor of the southern lands,” Hou-yi continued. “To prove that he meant to keep the truce, the Emperor sent one of his daughters to be the consort of our Great King.”
“A sister of the old Emperor?”
Hou-yi nodded.
“Our Great King learned from fighting the soldiers of the Empire. He united all the tribes who live by drawing the bow. Together the tribes defeated the Empire and your old Emperor was forced to make a treaty agreeing to give us silk and wine every year. His sister was included in the deal. She came with her servants and a learned man who was her tutor. He became my father’s friend and taught him how to speak the language of the Empire.”
Princess Yangxin wasn’t the only imperial woman to be sent away as a peace offering. Growing up as a slave, Ping had imagined that anyone who was rich and royal could do whatever they pleased. Now she knew that wasn’t so. A rich woman could be given away in the barter for peace, traded like a prize horse. At least Princess Yangxin still lived within the Empire. Liu Che’s father, the old Emperor, had sent his sister beyond the Great Wall to live among the barbarians.
“So why did you capture Kai and me?”
“For your protection. News of your journey had reached us. A message arrived asking us to look out for you if you came within our territory. The men of the Ji Liao Garrison are ignorant and cruel. When we found out that you had been taken by them, I sent men to rescue you. They could have been more gentle, but you are safe now. You can continue your journey.”
“We aren’t prisoners?”
“You are free to go whenever you choose.”
Ping had many more questions to ask, but Hou-yi stopped them by raising his hand. He went over to where his people were gathered. Together they knelt, facing the rising sun, and prayed. Ping particularly wanted to know who had sent the message to look out for them. It must have been the Duke. She was glad that she had left him on good terms. If it hadn’t been for his message, she would have been dead by now at the hands of the guard from Ming Yang Lodge.
Ping turned to Kai. “You didn’t leave,” she said quietly.
“Did leave.”
Ping’s heart felt as it someone were squeezing it.
“But Kai changed mind, thought Ping might get lost on her own.”
Ping had a sudden thought. She remembered the fourth line of the Yi Jing reading. A dragon about to leap hesitates. There will be no mistake.
“I suppose you could say that you were about to leap, but you hesitated?” said Ping.
“Like in the old book.”
“Yes. And there was no mistake, just as it said. Here we are outside the Empire at the mercy of the barbarians, but we’re safe, safer than we were within the Empire.”
Once the prayers were over, everyone ate the morning meal which had been prepared by the Xiong Nu women. The women were as dark-skinned as the men. They wore long skirts and felt shoes. Beneath their jackets they wore blouses made of coloured silk. One of them came over with bowls of food for Ping and Kai. She wouldn’t come close to the dragon and left the bowls on the ground at a distance. She wore a gold necklace suspended from jade earrings which swung beneath her chin as she bent down. Ping picked up the bowls. They contained lumps of milk curd and strips of cooked meat.
Kai speared one of the curds with a talon and inspected it suspiciously before tasting it with the tip of his red tongue. Then he put it in his mouth and chewed.
“Kai likes the solid milk lumps.”
The meal smelt strange, but Ping was hungry. Though she had chopsticks in her bag, she ate with her fingers, like the barbarians.
“Barbarians are nice,” said Kai as he gnawed on a bone.
Ping had to agree with him. Though the Xiong Nu were wary of the girl who had been brought to their camp, and frightened of the strange creature with her, Ping and Kai were being treated well.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t call them barbarians,” Ping said. “Or Xiong Nu eith
er.” Xiong Nu meant fierce slaves.
“Should call them Ma Ren,” Kai said.
“Horse People. That’s a good name for them.”
Ping picked at her food, trying to tell herself that it would give her strength, even though it had the taste of sour milk and smelly socks. Kai licked out his bowl. She felt safe with the Ma Ren. She hoped they were travelling west and that she and Kai could go with them. Ping chewed another piece of meat. She would have to get used to their strange food.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” she said when Hou-yi came back.
“It is strange for a young girl to be travelling alone,” he said.
“I’m not alone,” Ping said, indicating the dragon.
Hou-yi smiled. “Stranger still to be travelling with a dragon.”
Ping expected him to ask how she came to be in the company of a dragon, and where they were going, but he didn’t.
“You are a wanderer, like we are,” he said.
Ping nodded. “I am, but from need not from choice. One day I hope to be able to stay in one place and call it my home. Don’t you?”
“No,” Hou-yi replied. “I will wander until I die.”
After they had eaten, the women and girls set about their daily tasks—caring for the animals, preparing the next meal, mending the tents. The young boys practised firing arrows with small bows. They also improved their riding skills—the older ones on young horses, the littlest on sheep. Ping couldn’t help laughing at the sight of the toddlers careering around on the startled animals.
The Ma Ren were generous and courteous, but they were wary of Kai. They didn’t want to touch him. If they had to pass him, they turned their eyes away. The children wouldn’t go near him. Hou-yi was the only one who wasn’t uneasy in the dragon’s presence. He wasn’t afraid to look at Kai, and even touched his scales and spines.
A tent was put up for Ping’s use. It was very comfortable, carpeted with felt and furnished with silk cushions and fur rugs. Ping enjoyed spending the day resting and mending her jacket. Hou-yi didn’t sit with her, but with the other men. Kai tried to play with the children, but they ran away and hid behind their mothers’ skirts.
At dusk Ping was given a plate of mutton gruel and more kumiss.
“Thank you,” she said.
The woman who had brought the food nodded and left.
“May we travel with you for a way?” Ping asked Hou-yi.
“We are not riding in your direction,” Hou-yi said. “The grass is sparse this spring. We must travel east to find better pasture. Perhaps we will have to breach the Great Wall and look for grass in the Empire.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
Ping couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“I am sorry, but my people come first.”
“They don’t like Kai, do they?” Ping asked. She suspected that the search for grass wasn’t the only reason they were leaving so soon.
Hou-yi pointed to his gold buckle which gleamed in the firelight. Ping looked closely at the design. She could now see the animals that were fighting—a bear and a dragon.
“Such creatures are in our stories,” he said. “Our tales tell of cruel creatures.”
The dragon on the buckle had its teeth buried in the bear’s neck. Its claws raked terrible wounds in the bear’s belly.
“They are strong but not of this world.”
The Ma Ren took down their tents early the next morning. What had looked like a substantial village had, with the removal of a few poles, collapsed into a heap of cloth. Their entire homes were soon packed into baskets and loaded onto camels.
“I have something for you,” Hou-yi said.
He was holding the reins of a horse. Ping had assumed it was his, but he handed the reins to her.
“This will speed your journey,” he said.
She didn’t know how much such a horse was worth, but she knew it would be many gold jin. “I can give you the gold I have, but it won’t be enough to pay for such a fine horse.”
Hou-yi smiled. “It is a gift.”
“But I can’t accept it,” Ping said.
“You have a friend who is concerned about your safety. I promised him I would help you.”
Ping wondered if the Duke had sent gold to Hou-yi.
He fondled Kai’s ears. “And meeting a dragon has been a rare privilege.”
“Thank you,” Ping said. “It is very kind of you. But I don’t know how to ride a horse.”
“Nothing is easier,” Hou-yi replied. “All you have to do is sit.”
The Ma Ren learned to ride horses when they were children. For them riding was as easy as walking. Hou-yi bent down and laced the fingers of his hands together so that Ping could step up onto the horse.
“What about Kai?”
Hou-yi looked at the dragon doubtfully. “I don’t think the horse would let him mount.”
“Kai doesn’t want to ride the horse,” the dragon said. He was as wary of the horse as it was of him.
“You have to,” Ping said.
The dragon shook his head. “Kai can walk.”
“But a horse travels fast, many li each day.”
“If the horse-beast carries the bag, Kai will be able to keep pace.”
Kai was less than half the size of a horse, but Ping didn’t argue with him. Hou-yi took the saddlebag from Kai’s shoulders and fitted it onto the horse. He gave Ping some meat and a sheepskin bag full of kumiss. The Ma Ren were shifting in their saddles, children pulling at their mothers’ skirts, camels making restless noises.
“Have you heard of a place called Long Xiang?” Ping asked.
Hou-yi shook his head. “There are no villages in the lands of those who draw the bow.”
“Then we will return to the Empire.”
“If you want to cross over the wall without the guards seeing you,” Hou-yi said, “I can tell you of a place where the watchtowers are far apart and there is a hidden hole that leads beneath the wall.”
Ping didn’t ask if the Ma Ren had excavated it themselves, but she listened closely to his directions for finding this hole in the wall.
“You have been very kind to us,” Ping said.
Hou-yi leapt gracefully onto his own horse and raised his hand. The riders dug their heels into their horses’ flanks, those on foot flicked the camels’ rumps with leather thongs. The Ma Ren set off, heading east. Ping watched their departure. Men on horseback herded the horses. Women on foot, with the smallest children strapped to their backs, urged on the flock of sheep. Swaying camels lumbered off, piled high with folded tents and baskets of cooking utensils. Only Hou-yi turned to wave goodbye.
Ping’s horse snorted impatiently. Ping dug her heels into the horse’s flank, as she had seen the Ma Ren do. It refused to move.
“Come on, you stupid beast!” she said, kicking the horse with her heels as hard as she could.
The horse didn’t move an inch. Even though there was no more grass to eat, it examined the ground, snorting and snuffling at stones. She kicked the horse as hard as she could and flicked it with a thong of leather Hou-yi had given her. It still wouldn’t shift. Then as it turned to look for more grass, it caught sight of its horse friends disappearing into the distance. It suddenly cantered off—in the wrong direction. Ping was concentrating too hard on clinging on—to the reins with her hands and the horse with her thighs—to try and stop it. They had almost caught up with the Ma Ren, when Hou-yi saw her.
He rode back and took the reins from her.
“You have to be firm when you command the horse,” he said. “It has to know that you are its master.”
He turned the horse round, gave the reins back to Ping and flicked the horse gently on the rump. It trotted off as meekly as a tame dog.
“I think I’d prefer to walk,” Ping muttered to herself.
• chapter ten •
YELLOW EARTH
Ping wrapped herself in her bearskin and
lay
down. She couldn’t sleep.
The horse trotted obediently for the rest of the morning. Ping considered eating as she rode so that she wouldn’t have to get the horse moving again after she’d stopped. But eventually she’d have to stop to pee, and her bottom was getting sore. She reined the horse in and slid awkwardly to the ground.
Ping was glad to be able to stretch her legs, and she was surprisingly hungry considering she’d done nothing but sit all morning. She and Kai ate the strips of dried meat and drank kumiss from the sheepskin that Hou-yi had given them. All too soon it was time to get back onto the horse.
“You hold the reins, Kai,” Ping said, “while I get on.”
As soon as Kai took hold of the reins, the horse started rearing and whinnying. It didn’t like the dragon anymore than the Ma Ren had. Ping took the reins again and tried to calm the horse. Its back was as high as her shoulder. She grabbed hold of the felt saddlecloth, but she couldn’t mount it. It was too tall. She looked around. They were surrounded by a flat plain. There wasn’t a tree she could climb or a rock she could stand on to mount the horse.
“You can stand on Kai’s back,” the dragon suggested.
The horse was calmly pulling up a tuft of yellow grass, but when Kai approached, it cantered away.
“Try shape-changing,” Ping suggested.
Kai took on the shape of a rock. The horse went back to chewing the dry grass. Kai inched closer, until he was next to the horse. Ping carefully stood on Kai’s rock-shaped back and then flung her leg over the horse. She was glad she was still wearing trousers. The horse skittered around for a while but then settled. Ping thought she’d won, but now the horse wouldn’t move. She kicked it, called it names, flicked it with the leather thong, but it wouldn’t budge.