The Dragon and the Pearl (22 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘Y
ou should get a walking stick, old man.’

Lao Sou grunted at her suggestion. He held onto her arm as they navigated the woods and gestured with his free hand. ‘Go that way.’

Of all things, he wanted her to take a stroll with him outside the temple. As if she was a nursemaid instead of a prisoner. She had been counting the hours since Li Tao left. He would be heading toward the Jin River, toward his death if she couldn’t get free.

‘How much can you see?’ she asked.

‘Everything is murky. Shapes and shadows and only in the sunlight. Here, come here.’

He beckoned her close and then took hold of her face. She fought the urge to pull away from the leathery feel of his hands against her delicate skin, but there was something vulnerable in the way he peered at her so intently.

‘I used to see everything. Faces were like books. I could read the tiny movements around their eyes and mouth and their faces would speak to me before they had said a word. Now I see nothing.’ He let go of her. ‘Everyone grows old.’

‘So you can no longer read the intentions of those closest to you.’

He frowned. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Nothing at all.’

Lao Sou made a sound of annoyance. ‘Your veiled hints of conspiracy bore me so. This old dog knows what you are trying to insinuate. Do you know why I brought you out here?’

She looked back on the two guards following behind them at a distance. Lao Sou grabbed her attention with a yank on her wrist.

‘Li Tao cannot protect you. Come and work for me.’

‘Old Man, in case you do not know, we are enemies.’

He waved away her declaration as if swatting away a gnat. ‘I need your eyes, your ears.’

‘When you surround yourself with liars and thieves, you have to watch your back all the time.’

‘We’re not thieves.’ He sighed, exasperated. ‘You have a talent for reading people and discovering their intentions. How else could you turn someone like the righteous Ru Shan?’

‘How do you know of that?’

‘Of course I know. I know everything about your beloved Li Tao.’

‘Don’t mock me, Old Man.’

It was a painful reminder that this was all a game. He took pride in manipulating the world around him, in controlling the lives of men.

‘You’re not saying anything, Ling
Guifei
. Not like you at all. Tell me, what expression are you wearing right now?’

‘Disdain.’

‘Indeed. Well, answer me.’

Insufferable man. She glared at him. ‘Why would I serve you? You sent Li Tao to die.’

‘He put himself in this situation,’ he muttered. ‘Besides, it is the only way. Gao Shiming must be destroyed. Honourable men like Emperor Shen need men like us to do the unspeakable.’

She wanted to shout that he wasn’t doing anything but sitting back and pulling strings.

‘I swear I will put a knife in your heart the first chance I get,’ she vowed.

‘No, you won’t.’

It was strange how they spoke of revenge and death so civilly, their voices lowered in the midst of the morning stroll.

‘You are not cold enough,’ the Old Man scoffed. ‘I could always see people’s strengths and their weaknesses. I knew where to place them to make things happen.’

‘You were wrong about Li Tao.’

‘I was not wrong!
An Ying
has its share of killers. They have their uses. But the most critical tasks require sharp instincts and a strong will. Both make a person unpredictable.’

Life and death meant nothing to this man. His heart was deadened to it. The thought both chilled and saddened her. Would this have been Li Tao after a lifetime of ruthlessness? Was he already like this?

‘Think of it, you stubborn old fool. How long is your beloved empire going to last if you keep killing its leaders?’

His hand tightened around her arm. ‘You have a wicked tongue, but somehow, I like you, Ling
Guifei.
Do you know I saved your life? I learned about Gao and his amateur assassins. All it took was one message to Li Tao.’

‘Why save me?’

He shrugged. ‘You played the
qin
so beautifully. It seemed like a waste.’

‘Crazy old man,’ she muttered.

‘Ungrateful she-demon.’

Lao Sou wasn’t doing this out of hatred, but she couldn’t work out what it was that tied him to Li Tao so obsessively. For whatever reason, the old man enjoyed it when Li Tao did his bidding, whether it was reacting to a mysterious warning or assassinating a warlord.

She knew he wasn’t insane, despite her insults. He was shrewd and manipulative. But however formidable the clan leader had been in the past, she was beginning to see his weakness. He’d grown self-centred, vain and indulgent—on the outside.

Lao Sou was lonely. She understood that sentiment more than she would care to admit. He had built his organisation, kept too many secrets all his life, and now there was no one to share his glory. In time, she could gain his trust, but she didn’t have time. She needed to find Li Tao and prevent him from sacrificing himself.

‘If you discovered Gao’s plot, then you must know why he wanted me dead,’ she ventured.

‘Why else do men act rashly? Jealousy, greed…’

He was rambling now. He didn’t know about Gao’s plans. She’d have to persuade him another way.

‘Which of those explains why you sent Li Tao to his death?’

‘Simple.’ The old man snorted. ‘I needed that bastard Gao removed and Li Tao is my finest weapon.’

‘You’re a sentimental fool.’

She witnessed his anger rising, the instant regaining of control, and, a second before that, a glimmer of contemplation. Lao Sou didn’t care at all about Gao Shiming. This was a personal grudge over Li Tao’s defiance. She pounced.

‘You made a mistake, Old Man. You acted out of emotion.’

‘She-demon,’ he grumbled. He had run out of responses.

‘Li Tao is more useful to you alive.’

‘Not if he doesn’t follow orders.’ Suddenly, a slow grin spread across his face and Suyin doubted she’d won the battle at all.

‘Can you control him, Lady Ling?’ he asked.

This was precarious ground. ‘No one can control Li Tao.’

Lao Sou shook his head. ‘Nothing so sinister, my lady. I have a feeling you can persuade him where no one else could. Yin balances yang, does it not?’

This was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? A chance for a compromise.

‘What do you require from him? One thing only.’

Lao Sou stroked his beard, enjoying the moment. ‘That requires some thought.’

After all their days and nights together, Li Tao still remained impenetrable. She wouldn’t try to deceive him, not even to save him. And he would never allow anyone to speak on his behalf.

She was being asked to make a promise she couldn’t keep, to a man she didn’t trust. But Li Tao was going to die if she didn’t do something. He would die without knowing he’d fathered a child. She was falling into a chasm, air rushing past her, almost certain death below.

‘Take me to him.’ It was a good thing the Old Man couldn’t read her expression and couldn’t see her doubt. ‘Li Tao will listen to me.’

The meeting point was further along the Jin River, in a remote location between major cities. A tea house rose along the banks to serve weary travellers, but the owners had evacuated weeks earlier when the barricades formed.

Li Tao’s army held the southern bank. He approached the tea house with only two of his bodyguards. Gao had done the same. He could see the horses tethered beside the bridge that spanned the water. The enemy was camped on the far side, out of sight.

Li Tao left his men by the bridge. He took the path slowly, using the time to empty his head of all doubt. The instinct was still in him. He didn’t need to search deep to find it. The coldness was there, sleeping just beneath his skin. It had always been there.

With steady breaths, in, then out, he slowed his heartbeat. Gao would be able to smell any fear on him, but he’d show none. He only needed to get close enough to strike.

Soon all his debts would be paid. His debt to Lao Sou. His debt to Suyin. He would end as a lone assassin, the same as he had started.

The tea house was a magnificent one, rising several floors with an elaborate frame of wooden beams and columns. Li Tao entered with all senses on alert. His footsteps echoed in the wide open spaces of the tea house. The tables and chairs were all empty. No ambush awaited him.

Gao had seated himself beside the window with the best view of the river. His guards stood against the wall, one on either side of the table. Only two men. Li Tao could take two.

The ageing warlord waited with a tray of wine set before him, looking formal and cultured in a silk robe trimmed with brocade. The blade at his side was likely tarnished from disuse. The warlord had gotten heavier in his grey years, but Gao’s advanced age gained no sympathy. His look was as shrewd as ever.

‘Governor Li.’ Gao’s tone could be described as jovial. And smug. ‘I’m pleased you’ve come.’

Li Tao’s very presence would have to mean he was considering the deal. Gao was a politician who trusted that two warlords would never draw swords directly against one another. That would be unfathomable. Uncivilised. Barbaric.

With a steady heart, Li Tao approached the table head on. He hadn’t yet drawn a path in his mind. His hands remained loose by his sides. For this sort of task, it was better not to plan too far in advance. Success or failure would be decided in a grain of time. A perfect moment.

No need to risk signalling his intention too soon.

Gao watched him with single-minded intensity, his eyes like dark glass. ‘No greeting, Governor Li?’

A nod. ‘Governor Gao.’

Li Tao stopped and planted his feet firmly against the floor boards. A coil of readiness wound within him, but outwardly he remained uncommitted, his shoulders relaxed. Utter stillness before the strike. Lao Sou trained assassins who could slip in and out of locked rooms. He recruited men and woman who killed with poison and made death look still and natural. Li Tao had never been one of those stealthy operators. He dealt death swift and clean.

Gao must have tasted something in the air. ‘Won’t you be seated?’

The old warlord’s gaze veered out to the river. Li Tao knew without reason, knew it in his blood that it had to be then.

He lashed forwards like an arrow, brash and blind.

Li Tao narrowed in on a single point: Gao’s throat. The killing instinct was there in his hands and in his blood. Gao’s smooth exterior faded. He opened his mouth to utter something, whether it was a question or a cry for help, Li Tao didn’t know.

He no longer thought of the man as his enemy. Gao no longer existed.

Chapter Twenty-Three

S
uyin rode behind Jun in the saddle, clinging to youth’s waist so tightly that her arms ached. The forest rushed by on either side of her in a flood of browns and greens. This time, the blind fear came not from the horse or from the speed of the ride. Her fear came from the inevitable drip of time.

She held her breath in a useless attempt to hold back the minutes. Her heart beat out each second, one after another. She urged Jun to go faster, but she didn’t know whether he heard her. The rush of the wind swallowed her shout and swept it away.

Li Tao was somewhere close, ready to plunge a dagger into Gao’s heart. A cold sweat broke out over her brow and an odd sensation caught in her throat. She fought down the wave of nausea. Whether it was from the motion or from pregnancy, she couldn’t tell.

She had to stop Li Tao. She had to.

A red bridge appeared ahead, with the tea house beside it. The ornate building stood over the river in a deceptively tranquil welcome.
An Ying
knew of the meeting place between the two warlords. Their spies seemed to know everything.

Jun dismounted just outside the tree line and helped her down from the saddle. Her legs wobbled as her feet hit the earth. She tried to centre herself, inside and out. Success. She’d only think of success, and not failure.

The boy steadied her with one arm awkwardly around her shoulders. Jun wasn’t merely a boy any more. He didn’t appear so young and vulnerable when she looked at him now.

‘Be careful, Lady Ling,’ he said, before pulling himself back on to the horse. ‘You’re going?’

The corner of his mouth lifted in a rueful smile. ‘You forget how I betrayed Governor Li.’

‘I didn’t forget.’

‘Neither will he.’ He nodded toward the tea house in the distance. ‘Go quickly, Lady Ling. They’re already inside.’

She turned to the river and spied the horses beside the bridge. Beside them, Li Tao’s guards stood in a silent watch. They faced away, their attention focused on the opposite bank, in the direction of the approaching armies.

When she looked back, Jun had disappeared. She heard nothing, not even the stamp of hooves to signal his retreat. The woods were silent and shadowed as she searched the dark patches between the light. Was the clan hiding in there, watching and waiting to report on Li Tao’s failure or success?

She hurried to the tea house and slipped in through the side entrance. The echo of voices floated through the deserted structure. She heard two, both resonating down to her very bones. One was Li Tao’s, deep and familiar, curling around her and tugging her forwards.

He was alive. She quickened her step.

The second voice was one she hadn’t heard in years. One she’d hoped to never hear again.

Suyin came to a halt in the main room. Li Tao’s back was to her. He was stalking forwards with deliberate purpose and she caught sight of a long-forgotten face over his shoulder. Gao Shiming. The man who wanted her dead, who wanted Li Tao under his control.

Li Tao’s fingers flexed at his side. It was going to happen.

‘Governor Li.’ Louder. ‘Tao, I’m here.’

He swung around and glared at her with black eyes devoid of light. Her heart skipped dangerously.

‘Ling
Guifei
?’ Gao sputtered.

The old warlord was startled. His guards, confused. And Li Tao was angry, angrier than she’d ever seen him. The muscles in his jaw wrenched tight.

Of all of them, Gao recovered first. ‘Please join us.’ His smile was welcoming, his gaze keen.

‘You have no place here,’ Li Tao growled.

He angled himself to shield her from Gao as she stepped forwards. The fluidity of the movement shocked her.

‘But Lady Ling must stay! We need something more engaging to look at than our own frightful faces.’

All the smooth charm that Li Tao didn’t possess. Gao looked at the two of them with growing amusement. He didn’t know how close he’d come, how close he still was, to death. All three of them dangled preciously close to it.

Lao Sou had his men take her to the meeting place. They’d left her to disappear into the forest, but they would be waiting. The leader of the assassinations would demand her obedience now, as well as Li Tao’s. But she couldn’t think of that now. The immediate danger was before her, gesturing politely for her to sit.

She brushed past Li Tao to take one of the chairs at the table. He had no choice but to seat himself rigidly beside her. He was there. He was alive. Her heart ached at the sight of him and she wanted so much to touch him, but there was no opportunity. Gao was watching.

‘The last time I saw Ling
Guifei
was at the banquet hall in the imperial palace. These old eyes still remember the sight.’

‘It has been a long time, Governor Gao.’

He nodded warmly, as if they were co-conspirators, but they had never been anything of the sort. He had held all the power and she had feared him. Gao pinned her with his gaze. He was assessing her, planning for this sudden change.

Her old fear remained, but it had grown like a wound that had festered over time. She was no longer in the palace and no longer the expendable concubine, but she had so much more to lose. A child grew inside her, a tiny thing that held more power over her than Gao Shiming ever had.

Li Tao remained tense, ready to strike. She was here beside him, unharmed, yet he still refused to back down. If he murdered Gao, there would be no escape for any of them. Li Tao would be denounced and executed. Her stomach lurched and she forced out a breath. She knew what had to be done.

Gao Shiming had used her and tried to kill her, but now she had to keep him alive.

She lifted the ewer to pour with poised hands, supple wrists, practised grace. Courtesans were brought to such dealings to be beautiful diversions. It was akin to being a mediator used to keep the peace.

‘You do look very well, Lady Ling.’

‘The governor is kind. I am well.’ She glanced to Li Tao as she handed him his wine. ‘Well and safe.’

His hand paused on the cup for a heartbeat, his fingers just shy of hers.

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve poured for such illustrious company,’ she said.

‘An art form,’ Gao acknowledged appreciatively.

Li Tao scowled. Everyone was playing the part but him.

‘The rule of the August Emperor was a different time, wasn’t it, Governor Li?’ Gao lifted his wine cup in tribute. ‘It was.’

‘A great time, blessed by Heaven,’ Gao remarked.

Li Tao finished his wine and set his cup down. ‘Say what you came to say.’

A low rumble hid beneath those words. The old warlord laughed. Showing impatience was a sign of weakness. Someone else was in control and you were not.

‘I forget who I’m dealing with,’ Gao crowed.

‘I doubt that.’

Gao took his time sipping from his cup, enjoying the game too much. Her heart pounded, and she could feel her palms going damp. Gao was oblivious, overconfident in his advantage. His guards wouldn’t be able to stop Li Tao.

‘Don’t be so impatient, Tao,’ she scolded with a sweetness she’d never affected for him.

Li Tao stared directly at Gao. ‘I don’t think anything said here will change my mind.’

‘But one must always consider alternatives,’ she argued hastily.

If Li Tao would only look at her. She was no longer hostage. Yet he still believed killing Gao was the best solution. Nothing could sway him. She groped for his hand beneath the table and brought it to her midsection. To the place where a tiny part of them rested, innocent and unknowing of any turmoil beyond its haven. She was shaking inside and out as she closed her hand over his.

Li Tao grew deathly still.

Would this child mean anything to him? Or had he already resigned himself to death? The knot at his throat lifted as he swallowed. His gaze was still pointed at Gao, but his hand tensed beneath hers.

‘One must always think of the future,’ she went on. Her throat was suddenly parched, but she didn’t dare drink. She didn’t dare to do anything but wait for Li Tao’s response. If one soul could ever cry out to another in silence, she did it now with all her being.

Please, Tao. Please.

Endless heartbeats passed between them. She willed him to choose the right path. Only a slight sharpening of the lines around his mouth told her anything. Her true adversary wasn’t Gao or Lao Sou. It was Li Tao and he was more difficult to negotiate with than either of those scheming old men.

Gao chuckled. ‘Why, Lady Ling, you should do all my negotiation for me!’

She shot the elder warlord a warning glance. His presence was as welcome as a disease. ‘Perhaps you should speak quickly, Governor,’ she said.

Her challenge brought back the Gao Shiming she had feared all those years ago. He shed all civility and charm and fixed his attention intently on Li Tao. She became nothing. She was below nothing. An instinctive shudder slid down her spine.

She held her breath and prayed.

The earth stood still. The heavens revolved around it and he was nothing but a speck beneath the sky. Suyin’s fingers twined gently over his.

He knew. He knew deep in his flesh and blood what she was telling him. On the heels of the knowledge came true fear.

Across the table, Old Gao stared at them with a shrewd look. Li Tao never felt anything when he was asked to kill, but this time—this one time, he wanted nothing more than to remove this smiling demon from the world. A quick sword through the tangled weeds and Gao would no longer be able to threaten them. Now that he had the crafty warlord before him, Li Tao could sense the truth of the Old Man’s taunt.

It would be easy. One knife, one death. This was what he was meant to do.

‘You and me,’ Gao proposed.

‘Why would I even consider it?’

Li Tao removed his hand from Suyin. She was trembling, though her expression showed nothing but cool tranquillity.

‘You and I want the same thing,’ Gao continued.

‘Which is?’

‘To honour the memory of the August Emperor. The true imperial line. The only claim Shen holds over the empire is the strength of his army. He’s a usurper and a barbarian.’

‘I’m surprised that you’ve decided to act so openly,’ Li Tao countered. ‘A man who usually thrives on rules and laws and petitions before the court.’

‘Times are changing.’

He regarded Gao sceptically. ‘Who will rule, then? You?’

‘No.’ Suyin’s response startled everyone. She faced her old enemy with all the poise the years in the court had given her. ‘The revered governor never acts directly. He’s found some puppet. Some distant relation with a blood tie to Emperor Li Ming. Your family claims imperial blood, does it not?’

Gao wanted to use Li Tao’s army to face Emperor Shen on the battlefield, while Gao would continue to fight political battles in the capital. This was
sh
u gu
n
: endgame. A time for bold moves and decisive measures.

Li Tao had come here committed to action. The bitter taste of death hovered on his tongue. After years of scheming and politics, he welcomed the quick efficiency of this solution. This was familiar. Certain.

He looked to Suyin. Grace and beauty, even now. Her poise never broke in the face of her longtime enemy. She hadn’t faltered before Lao Sou either, not until he’d been threatened. He wanted to embrace her for it. Hold her fiercely to him. Hide her away from all this. He could never have peace, but she could. Their child could.

He had decided.

‘You spoke of loyalty to our August Emperor and to the dynasty.’ Li Tao folded his hands thoughtfully before him, the daggers beneath his sleeve easily within reach. He had a clear line to both of the guardsmen should it come to that. ‘Laughable, considering that you owe Emperor Li a debt of blood.’

Gao’s focus darted to Suyin.

‘Don’t,’ Li Tao warned.

The sharp reprimand brought the older man’s gaze back to him. No one was smiling now, feigned or otherwise.

‘I would advise you not to look at Lady Ling. Do not do anything to convince me you have any intention of harming her. We will talk now, like civilised men as you so desired. But if I think for a moment that she’s in danger, I will stop talking.’