The Mandate of Heaven (30 page)

‘Are you mad?’ asked Shensi. ‘Who will buy
that
?’

Teng laughed with an edge of hysteria that echoed round the huge cavern like a warning – or challenge.

‘No one alive!’ he cried. ‘Only the dead will buy! And me! Just us Dengs!’

Yun Shu gasped at such inauspicious words in so dreadful a place. She felt her store of
ch’i
energy, her life force, so diligently accumulated by meditation and the Great Work, diminish within her. They were sucking her essence! They were like hungry ghosts. What a fool she had been to come here! But the tomb-finder merely laughed at his companion’s folly.

‘The dead don’t pay in any currency I know,’ he said.

After they emerged into daylight and walked through the drizzle back to Mirror Lake, Yun Shu avoided Teng’s touch or breath lest he taint her Inner Pearl. Suddenly it seemed as precious as her chastity when Dear Uncle forced her legs apart, crushing her face with the flat of his hot palm, grunting in satisfaction. This recollection strengthened her resolve. Yun Shu’s expression was implacable by the time they reached Sitting-and-Whistling Pavilion.

‘I can allow you no further,’ she said, blocking their way onto the stepping-stones that led to Sitting-and-Whistling Pavilion. She was hugging herself, fists clenched, afraid her slender presence would not deter them.

Shensi and Teng watched in astonishment but Yun Shu was determined not to weaken. The Great Work of her existence depended on it; all she had suffered would be lost, and with it her worth in this world, her future! What did offending Teng and Shensi matter compared to that?

‘You are tainted!’ she cried, fear swelling into hysteria. ‘Both of you! I cannot allow you near Lord Lao’s shrine until you have been purified. You are infected by death.’

‘We are all touched by that sickness,’ said Teng. ‘We catch it with our first breath. Didn’t you know?’

‘Not all of us are cursed!’ she said, something softer entering her voice, perhaps an appeal for understanding.

‘Lady Serenity has had a fright,’ Teng confided to Shensi, as though she was not present – the arrogance of a man towards a foolish woman. ‘Not that I blame her.’

Shensi, however, was less tolerant. ‘Does no one in these damned hills honour their debts?’ he growled. ‘I call her an ungrateful bitch.’

That word cancelled the possibility of retreat.

‘I shall give you all the food and
cash
I possess,’ she said, haughtily. ‘Then you must go.’

A flush tinged Teng’s high cheek-boned face. His eyes narrowed. ‘As you wish, Aunty High Hat.’

Shensi spat into the lake and turned to his companion.

‘Never mind her. I’ll make those enquiries we talked about. And get our share if I can.’

‘Do not risk your life for it,’ said Teng. ‘As for me, I’ll return to Hou-ming. Join me there when you are able. There’ll always be a welcome for you in Deng Mansions.’

Yun Shu, for all her previous certainty, felt an urge to change her mind. Perhaps Teng was right. Fear motivated her conduct and fear was an enemy of balance. It was too late now.

‘If I get paid anything, my friend, so shall you,’ Shensi promised.

With that, the two comrades embraced. After Yun Shu had handed over the food and
cash
, they went their separate ways, Teng towards Port Yulan and Shensi back into the hills. Teng paused before he left, as though about to speak. Then he shrugged, picked up his sacks of bamboo strips and bones, and departed.

Yun Shu prayed to images of demon-officials and Immortals appointed by the Heavenly Court. Of course her motivations were pure. Why not preserve her Immortal treasure, little enough as it was, earned through meditation and breathing exercises, chants and prayers, hour after hour, day after day? Teng was wrong to say only the poor were forced to toil.

Inner voices argued back. How unreasonable to hold a grudge! They had been children. How did that satisfy the Third Precept? And what would happen to Teng now? She could imagine him plodding through the limestone hills, easy prey for just about anyone. If he became meat for tigers, how could she explain it to Abbess Lu Si, who had doted on Teng as a boy and still regarded the Deng clan as the legitimate rulers of Hou-ming? These were worrying prospects.

She pictured him arriving in Port Yulan. His troubles would hardly end there. He had no money for the passage-fee back to Hou-ming. And while he was at home with the most obscure scroll, she suspected the dockside loiterers would fleece him like a village idiot.

Yun Shu chanted and burned incense until, weary of disquiet, she curled up on a prayer mat while the monsoon spilled from a warm, swirling grey sky.

‘Are you sure you left her here?’

Even in the fogged state between sleep and consciousness, the voice was familiar. Joy quickened into wakefulness. Yun Shu threw aside her blanket and cried out: ‘Bo-Bai! Is it you?’

Outside, she did indeed find Cloud Abode Monastery’s eunuch servant, wearing travel clothes and accompanied by porters. It was his other companion who provoked her frown. There, smiling sardonically, stood Teng.

Weeks earlier word had reached the monastery of a battle near Port Yulan. Then Governor Jebe Khoja himself sailed off with an army to punish the Yueh Fei rebels. ‘We were all afraid for your safety,’ said Bo-Bai. ‘And though Abbess Lu Si petitioned Worthy Master Jian for permission to send me to find you, he refused, ordering all Daoist clergy to stay clear of rebel areas lest we be tainted.’

‘
Tainted
?’ interrupted Teng, glancing significantly at Yun Shu. ‘You Daoists seem to like that word. It’s a shame you’re not so pure yourselves. Worthy Master Jian, for instance, never protests when the peasants starve.’

Yun Shu remembered the Worthy Master from her ceremony of acceptance as an Acolyte, a handsome, active man with shining silver hair, watching her closely as he stroked his wispy beard.

‘Go on,’ she told Bo-Bai.

‘Abbess Lu Si decided to send me in secret,’ said the eunuch. ‘Before she did, Honourable Deng Nan-shi visited her with a request. He, too, had heard of the battle in Lingling County. He begged that I conduct his son, Honourable Teng, back to Hou-ming.’

Yun Shu felt a blush coming on and folded her arms. ‘And what was Abbess Lu Si’s response?’ she asked, already guessing the answer.

‘
Yes
, of course! What else?’ broke in Teng. ‘Lady Lu Si was like a stepmother to me after Mother died. She, at least, has a sense of generosity.’

Bo-Bai nodded solemnly. ‘A very strong sense.’

‘How foolish of me,’ muttered Yun Shu.

The eunuch glanced sharply between them then continued his tale.

Upon arrival at Port Yulan, he found the hill country restless with rumours: Hornets’ Nest had been overthrown by his deputy and Jebe Khoja’s army slaughtered almost to a man. Recruits were flooding to the Yueh Fei cause. In short, it was advisable to return to Hou-ming while one still could.

Yun Shu, however, had other plans. ‘I am afraid that I cannot return just yet,’ she said. ‘I swore an oath to walk upon Holy Mount Chang and cannot leave until it is accomplished.’

‘
Cannot
is a debatable term,’ said Teng. ‘You mean
will not
. A simple removal of
not
solves the problem.’

Yun Shu ignored him. When it became clear she had no intention of relenting, even Bo-Bai agreed. He needed little encouragement. The eunuch had long desired to offer a sacrifice on the Holy Mountain to ensure he was reborn in his next re-incarnation as a complete man. He even kept the shrivelled member he parted with as a boy in a jar of vinegar in case a miracle occurred in this life. Everyone knew miracles were commonplace on Mount Chang.

Only Teng protested, but as no one paid the slightest attention he adopted a brooding silence, punctuated by observations of an acerbic nature.

Yun Shu left Sitting-and-Whistling Pavilion, turning her back on Mirror Lake, unaware she would never see the hills and limestone crags with their brocade of green again. Not in this life, at least. Even as she climbed through the woods, Yun Shu knew the map of her soul would forever include Mirror Lake.

At Ou-Fang Village they were met by Mother Muxing and her sons. Other villagers soon joined them, bowing to the young Nun of Serene Perfection and her entourage. While Yun Shu blessed the villagers with a fortune-bringing spell, Bo-Bai entered into deep conversation with Muxing, glancing often between the nun and Teng. When it was time to leave, Yun Shu was surprised by tears in her eyes as she waved farewell.

They comprised an unusual party on the dirt road through the hills. Bo-Bai led, accompanied by Teng using his bamboo spear as a walking stick. Next came Yun Shu, slightly apart lest she inhale impure breaths or brush her sleeve against someone lewd. At the rear were the porters; thin, gangrelly fellows dressed in threadbare hemp clothes, recruited from the stews of Hou-ming for the price of their feed.

Deeper into the foothills of Mount Chang they climbed, the Holy Mountain rising before them, its peaks and power enveloped by clouds. Yun Shu noticed these things and contemplated the intertwining flow of
yin
and
yang
.

Teng, however, incessantly disturbed her meditation.

‘See that,’ he muttered, turning to address her, ‘how does
that
embody the Dao?’

They were passing through a village where a mournful, wailing crowd had gathered. Not for a funeral but a different kind of dying. The peasants’ landlord – a petite man in silks surrounded by armed relatives and retainers – was evicting late rent payers, dumping whole households onto the road like buckets of slops. Already a straggle of grandparents, children, mothers and fathers thin as weasels, were leaving their ancestral village. Teng glowered at the landlord, quickening his pace until he joined the drifting cloud of evicted peasants.

‘What is he doing now?’ asked Yun Shu, in exasperation. ‘I hope he does not get us into trouble.’

Bo-Bai’s fleshy features were impassive. They watched Teng greet an old man and enter into conversation. Yun Shu noticed how the headman bowed to the youthful scholar, despite Teng’s stained rags. She wondered at his natural authority; unless, of course, it flowed from mere arrogance, an assumption of superiority.

After a while Teng joined Yun Shu and Bo-Bai. To her surprise, he was more conciliatory than usual.

‘Lady Yun Shu,’ he said, ‘please ensure the temple authorities in Lingling feed this unfortunate clan. It appears they have been evicted to satisfy the landlord’s spite rather than through failings of their own.’

Wondering how he could be so sure, Yun Shu bowed. ‘I will do what I can.’

She did not add that the Daoist leaders in Hou-ming Province had ordered all clergy to avoid the slightest contention with the authorities; and it was certain a wealthy landlord like this would smell sweet to local officials, as would his bribes.

‘I have learned other things,’ Teng mused. ‘Hornets’ Nest’s replacement has sworn to make Lingling his capital and raises an army as we speak. The old man told me he has sent his sons to join the Yueh Fei rebels. That is his only hope of justice.’

‘This new Hornets’ Nest is more ambitious than his predecessor,’ said Yun Shu. ‘What is his name?’

Teng shook his head. ‘A common name yet one that makes me melancholy. He would be my trusted servant if things had not turned out as they did. Poor Hsiung!’

Yun Shu glanced at him curiously. They walked in silence. Then Teng said: ‘There is more. The mighty Jebe Khoja has been carried in a litter to Port Yulan and shipped to Hou-ming like a dying tiger. The authorities of Lingling County are in a panic.’

‘Are you not a direct descendent of Yueh Fei?’ she asked, softly.

He glanced at her. ‘How do you know that?’

‘Abbess Lu Si speaks of you Dengs often. Besides, it is common knowledge.’

‘Better not remind our enemies. We are never safe.’

‘Then you better not attract official attention,’ she said. ‘Why not masquerade as my servant?’

Deep offence darkened his brows. He laughed uncertainly: ‘How droll! Very good!’

Yun Shu was about to retort she had never been more serious, for all their sakes, when his pain and humiliation stopped her.