Gateway (12 page)

It was clearly a joke, and everyone laughed lightly, except the man next to Daiyu, who frowned. “He is brilliant, which matters much more than his beauty,” he said.

“Part of his brilliance is that he knows how to exploit his beauty,” Xiang said dryly.

“I will concede that he has both, and I admire him for each,” Meireplied.

Chenglei continued to work his way around the room, still smiling, still pressing palm to palm. Mei had motioned a servant over and ordered a clean plate to be brought to her table for the prime minister. A plain-featured woman who had said almost nothing during the meal rose to her feet and excused herself, quietly stepping out of the room. Daiyu was fascinated. She remembered that Xiang had told her the number of guests at an event must always be divisible by nine. Had there been extra members of Mei’s household dressed and ready to fill any open places at the tables? For instance, if Xiang and Daiyu had not arrived, might there have been another young girl and perhaps a tired old man who would have been invited to partake of the breakfast in their places?

It was nearly half an hour before Chenglei made it to their table, and then he did not immediately take a seat, but instead made the circuit to greet everyone. Mei and Xiang were on their feet, and so was the unpleasant man, so Daiyu stood too.

She found that her heart was beating fast and her breath was quick and shallow. She had been imported to Jia specifically to meet this man, and now perhaps she would learn why Ombri and Aurora thought he was so dreadful. She had the silver bracelet in her left pocket, the quartz stone in her right, but she wasn’t wearing gloves, and this didn’t seem like the venue for causing someone to vanish mysteriously. Chenglei had finished banteringwith Mei, andnow hetookanotherstep closer to Daiyu.

“Xiang!Howgoodtoseeyou!”Chengleiexclaimed.Hebent down to kiss Xiang on the cheek, and she responded with the faintest blush and an expression of supreme satisfaction. “You look to be in extraordinarily good health,” he continued. “Or perhaps it is just your ageless beauty that takes my breath away every time I see you.”

At the fulsome compliment, she gave an almost coquettish smile.“Iamold,primeminister,butvainasanywoman.Ishall choose to believe you even though I know you lie.”

He laughed. “But that is all any politician can ask for, Mistress!”

Xiang gestured at Daiyu, who kept her gaze determinedly on her shoes. “I know you have heard me talk many times of my sister, who unfortunately lives far away from me. It is a sad thing to be separated from family! But she has kindly sent me her daughter to keep me company this summer. May I introduce you? Daiyu, this is Prime Minister Chenglei, the most intelligent man in all of Shenglang.”

Chenglei loosed an exclamation of pleasure and held up both of his hands, palms out, toward Daiyu. “But what a pretty girl she is!” he said. “How long will she be staying with you?”

“For the summer at least, and longer if all goes well,” Xiang replied.

Daiyu lifted her hands to press them against Chenglei’s. His fingers were longer than hers by a full inch, and his skin was pleasantly warm. She could feel him peering down at her. “Tell me, Daiyu,” he said, “are you enjoying your stay in Shenglang?”

He had addressed her directly; she must respond. She looked up, hoping her expression seemed shy, and found him smiling down at her. Mei was right. That streak of gray in his dark hair added the perfect complement to his basic good looks. Not only that, his smile was peculiarly attractive. Warm and intimate, it invited her to smile back or to whisper a secret.

“Very much,” she said.

“What parts of the city have you seen?”

“Mostly Xiang’s house. It is magnificent!”

“What, you haven’t been to the aviary yet?” When she shook her head, he said, “Oh, you must go. It is my favorite place in the city.”

That was not a question, so she did not reply. He still had not dropped his hands. In fact, he seemed to be leaning forward a little, so that the pressure of his touch increased. His smile became teasing. “And certainly you will be coming to the palace soon, will you not?”

“I hope so, Prime Minister.”

“For the Presentation Ball, at the very least! I suppose you and Xiang are spending all of your time poring over dress designs and hairstyles so that you will be able to outshine all the other young girls who are making their appearance that night.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. It wasn’t the actual words he said, it was the way he delivered them, in such a friendly, personal, and amused fashion, as if they shared a long history of private jokes and idle conversation. “I just want to make sure I do not shame Mistress Xiang,” she said.

“In what possible way? Come, tell me.”

“I have only recently learned the
tiaowu
,” she admitted. “Sometimes I still get the steps wrong.”

“You won’t get them wrong when you are paired with
me
,” he said. “I am a very good dancer. My partners always look graceful.” He paused. “You
will
dance with me, won’t you? I will be so disappointed if you say no.”

Since every girl presented at the ball was to be partnered by Chenglei—and he knew it—the question was ridiculous. Yet she felt a little flutter of excitement at his words. She was charmed by his eagerness.

“Prime Minister, you would honor me immensely if you would invite me to dance with you,” she said. “How excite dmy mother would be to hear that you had led me in the
tiaowu
!”

“Then your mother will be thrilled to receive the very first letter you send her after the ball,” he said with a little chuckle. He finally lowered his hands and Daiyu dropped her arms to her sides. “For you will have much to tell her! I suddenly find I cannot wait for the Presentation Ball.”

Xiang appeared to be positively elated as they rode home a short while later. “That could hardly have gone better!” she exclaimed, waving a decorative fan in front of her face, since the car’s awning wasn’t enough to turn back the late-afternoon heat. “You behaved just as you should—you did not embarrass me at all—and Mei’s son could hardly take his eyes off of you all meal.”

“Mei’s son? Which one was he?”

“The young man in the green jacket embroidered with suns.”

“Oh. Ididn’t get a chance to talk to him, but he looked very nice.”

Xiang snorted. “He’s wealthy, which is more to the point. I had not given any thought to trying to make an alliance for you, but if that’ sthe way things appear to be heading—hmmm. I will have to consider that.”

An alliance? As in a
marriage
? What a horrible thought! Surely Daiyu would not be on Jia long enough for any kind of courtship to progress too far. “He might be angry when he discovers I am not really your niece,” Daiyu ventured.

Xiang glared at her. “And how will he discover it? Unless you are foolish enough to tell him.”

“But—if your sister ever comes to Shenglang—or your true niece does—”

Xiang waved a hand as if to consign those unfortunate relatives to oblivion. “They will not come,” she said. She lapsed into thought again.

“The prime minister seemed very gracious,” Daiyu said after a moment.

“Oh, Chenglei is the worst kind of flirt,” Xiang said in a complacent tone, sounding like an indulgent aunt who secretly approved of her nephew’s wild excesses. “He can make women
and
men fall in love with him. It is all the same to him, as long as people admire him. I told him once that if he had not ascended to office, he would be the perfect courtesan. He laughed and said that a courtesan had even more power than a politician, and that if he ever tired of his present job, that was the one he wouldpursue.”

“I suppose that everybody likes him,” Daiyu said.

“Well, of course they do!” Xiang exclaimed. “Didn’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress,” she replied.

The rather frightening thing was that her words were true.

Aurora slipped into Daiyu’s room that night while she was getting ready for bed, as she had almost every night that Daiyu had spent in Xiang’s house. Before she had arrived at Xiang’s, Daiyu had expected that it would be easy to find time every day to exchange a few words with Aurora, who had explained her position in the household as
assistant to the mistress of the wardrobe
. That had not sounded like a job that would take a great deal of time.

That was, of course, before Daiyu had seen the extent of Xiang’s wardrobe. And her own.

“How was your breakfast at Mei’s house?” Aurora asked in a hushed tone. She was not supposed to be in Daiyu’s room, but they had prepared their cover story if she was caught. Daiyu would say she had found a tear in one of her shirts and was too embarrassed to tell Xiang she had ripped it, so she had begged the
cangbai
servant to come to her room in stealth. They both stood near the door that led to Daiyu’s closet—which was actually a chamber bigger than her bedroom back on Earth.

“I was nervous the whole time,” Daiyu admitted. “But Xiang seemed pleased with me afterward, so I guess I did all right.”

Aurora smiled. “If she didn’t berate you for your clumsiness and stupidity, you must have been outstanding.”

“Chenglei was there,” Daiyu said abruptly.

Aurora grew very still. “Did he speak to you?”

“He spoke to everyone in the room, including me.” She hesitated and then said, “He was nothing like what I expected.”

“How did he seem to you?”

“Gallant. Intelligent. Charismatic.” She met Aurora’s eyes. She knew her own expression was suspicious. “He did not strike me as a man who was
evil.
”

“I have always thought true evil had a seductive charm,” Aurora said quietly. “It is very easy to shun someone who is deliberately cruel, and everyone loathes a man who is brutal and vicious. Such people have a hard time winning followers. But an individual who is gracious, who is attractive, who smiles and flatters and praises—that is a person who can lead whole nations to disaster. Who would not want to follow such a man or woman? Everyone is drawn to beauty and wit.”

Daiyu was far from convinced and made no attempt to hide thatfact. “But there are plenty of people who are attractive and courteous who are
not
horrible,” she argued. “There’s a man at my father’s church who’s so good-looking, you’d think he was a television actor. But he runs the soup kitchen and he volunteers at the prison, teaching law classes. So you can’t just say beautiful people are bad.”

“I didn’t say that,” Aurora said. “I said evil is seductive. It’s two different things.”

“I suppose I’ll get a chance to gauge him a little better when we dance at the Presentation Ball,” Daiyu said.

Aurora watched her narrowly for a moment. “I suppose you will.”

Daiyu changed the subject. “How’s Kalen?” she asked, as she had asked every night. “Have you thought of away that we can see each other?”

“Daiyu—”

“I heard the bronze bell ring tonight,” Daiyu went on. “So I know he will be at the river tomorrow. Maybe I can convince Xiang that I need to buy something at the shops down by the Zhongbu.”

“And will you also convince her that you need to go by yourself, so that no servants see you go wading into the mud, seeking out
cangbai
boys?” Aurora asked in a sharp voice.

Daiyu lifted her chin defiantly. “You promised me I would be able to see Kalen again,” she said. She left the implied threat unspoken.
If you don’t keep your promise, I won’t stay at Xiang’s.

Aurora studied her a moment in silence. “He has taken a job,”shesaidatlast,almostreluctantly,“attheaviary.Hehelps clean the grounds.”

“The aviary!” Daiyu exclaimed. “Chenglei mentioned it to me. I bet Xiang would let me go there.”

Aurora shrugged. Her blue eyes were troubled. “Perhap sshe would.”

There was a sound in the hall, most likely one of the servants walking by. Aurora and Daiyu both fell silent, listening, until the faint noise receded.