The Mandate of Heaven (69 page)

‘No,’ gasped Deng Nan-shi, waving away the food and drink, ‘give it to someone more needy.’

‘You are needy,’ said Lady Lu Si, earnestly.

‘Ah,’ sighed Deng Nan-shi, ‘I need nothing now that I know my son is alive. Except, perhaps …’ He shot a glance at Yun Shu. But whatever he wanted from her was lost in more coughing and Teng asked to be left alone with his father.

Yun Shu busied herself below, going between huddled groups of nuns and servants, ensuring all were fed. Occasionally she glanced up at the mildew-eaten pavilion on its Holy Mountain. Teng remained in earnest conversation with his father, alternatively remonstrating and dabbing his eyes. She also noticed that two men with swords had taken up position at the foot of the stairs.

Out on the lake there was a pink and orange glow. In between lay Eye Rock, also lit by flames, though she could see no more than the tiny dots of men and the dark silhouettes of ships. Eye Rock, forever associated in her mind with her triumph as Spirit Bride in the Ceremony of the Goddess Tien-Hou, brought on a desolate confusion.

Was Worthy Master Jian already an Immortal, impervious to guilt? Yet he had betrayed so many people’s trust! At least, Yun Shu told herself, she was wiser for it. Never again would she judge a man by his words alone, but by the balance of his actions over long years. There lay the true test of worthiness.

Now she, too, must face a test: whether she could save from ruin those who trusted her leadership.

It seemed the battle on the lake might be over. If so, she had no idea who was victor. Perhaps no one, in which case the madness would resume with the dawn. She was joined by Lady Lu Si; like Yun Shu, misfortune seemed to have fortified the senior nun’s determination.

‘Abbess,’ said Lady Lu Si, bowing gravely, ‘may I speak frankly?’

‘You use a title I no longer possess,’ said Yun Shu.

For a moment neither spoke, staring out at the flames on the lake.

Lady Lu Si frowned. ‘I have received no word from the Provincial Daoist Council that my licence is revoked. Neither have you. Therefore, we remain what we were.’

‘For now,’ conceded Yun Shu.

‘One can live nowhere else,’ remarked Lady Lu Si. ‘Much suffering has taught me that.’

‘You are wise.’

‘So are you. You are also stronger than me and must take the remaining Nuns of Serene Perfection to a safe place, away from Worthy Master Jian’s schemes. Mind you, now he has his divine knucklebone – if it is truly what the Tibetans claim and not stolen from a dead goat – he will be too busy with his elixirs and concoctions to seek us out. Leading us is your duty, owed to Xi-wang-nu, Queen Mother of the West.’

Yun Shu nodded. ‘Perhaps … I sense Chenghuang’s will behind your words. But where should we go? Where
can
we go?’

‘That is for you to discover as our Abbess,’ said Lady Lu Si.

With that, she went over to ancient Earth Peace, who had convinced herself they were on a holy pilgrimage to the Blessed Isles. ‘Seventy years I spent in Cloud Abode Monastery!’ she croaked to Lady Lu Si. ‘Miserable old hole! You young people will be far happier in the Blessed Isles. And so shall I.’

Yun Shu listened to this exchange carefully. Were Earth Peace’s words divinely inspired? Perhaps Lady Lu Si was right. Perhaps she would lead the Nuns of Serene Perfection to a new home.

She watched Teng descend the steps of the mound and confer with the armed men. Both saluted him with much reverence, fists pressed together and heads lowered. She wondered if they mistook him for someone else.

Yet there was a commanding air about Teng, a new confidence. Perhaps he, like Lady Lu Si, had learned one can live nowhere but the present. Seeing her, he came over.

‘You will have to excuse their devotion,’ said Teng, quietly. ‘Ts’u and Ts’an are pledged to preserve the last surviving descendents of Yueh Fei with their last breath.’

‘Given the scrapes you get into that must be a comfort,’ she said. ‘How are your wounds? Have they re-opened?’

He touched the bandage on his scalp. Checked for fresh blood. The wound from Hua’s sword seemed to be binding.

‘No,’ he said, ‘and the cut on my arm is well-bandaged.’

‘Is it true,’ she asked, unable to disguise astonishment, ‘you killed your enemy? That horrible Hua who spied for Hornets’ Nest at Mirror Lake? Shensi told me but I thought he was joking.’

‘You are sceptical, Yun Shu. I don’t blame you. After all, we Dengs usually let others settle our disputes. I just hope Hsiung’s sword arm has preserved his life as well.’

They glanced out at the glow on the lake.

‘Let us hope he escaped,’ said Yun Shu.

He watched her face in the moonlight. ‘You are very afraid, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘And not just for Hsiung.’

‘Oh, Teng!’ she exclaimed. ‘Of course I am! Where are we to go tomorrow? All these people …’ She waved at the huddles around them, sleeping or warming their hands before campfires. ‘Where are they to go?’

Teng nodded. ‘Please indulge me, Yun Shu. Are those your bags?’

‘Yes,’ she said, frowning down at her leather shoulder bag and roll of clothes. ‘Why do you …’

‘Do you still have the scroll I gave you?’

‘Of course, it is …’

‘Show it to me.’

There was something in his manner, an inner certainty absent in all the years she had known him, that inclined her to do as he asked.

‘Very well,’ she said, rummaging in the bag. ‘Here it is. But I can assure you it won’t fill a single bowl.’

The scroll in the gilded ox bone case was duly handed over. He promptly unrolled it.

‘Bo-Bai!’ he called. ‘Fetch a lamp, there’s a good fellow.’

Wearily the old eunuch rose and did as he was commanded.

‘Hold it up so we may all read it, including yourself. See how it was written by my noble ancestor, Yueh Fei, granting a sizable estate called Wei Valley to the Yun clan
in perpetuity
– mark that! – and it says this fiefdom cannot be reclaimed by his future descendents – meaning Father and myself – without the consent of the Yun clan. Well, perhaps that is where we should go. To Wei Valley. And a property there called Three-Step-House.’

Bo-Bai glanced at his young mistress. ‘Abbess, that is all very well. What if, as only seems likely, someone else already owns this Three-Step-House? They’ll hardly like a band of nuns turning up and demanding their home. Even if you do possess a scroll written by the illustrious Yueh Fei.’

Teng’s expression stiffened slightly, yet his smile retained every sign of satisfaction. ‘Exactly, Bo-Bai! But might not such owners, or perhaps the owners of another suitable estate, be tempted into selling?’

Yun Shu decided her decorum in allowing the males to speak had gone far enough. Besides, Bo-Bai was hardly male at all. ‘Teng,’ she said, ‘you mean well, and we are grateful. But really, unworldly as I am, even I know that
to buy
entails
payment
.’

Deng Teng’s indomitable smile grew strained. ‘Will this do?’ he asked, peevishly. Whereupon he showed Bo-Bai and Yun Shu the contents of a large leather sack. Their staring eyes and indrawn breaths provided his answer.

‘Oh, I’m sure we’ll end up somewhere or other,’ he said, jauntily. ‘As long as we escape Hou-ming, that is.’

There lay the problem, escaping Hou-ming, a dilemma that leather bags stuffed with gold and jewels and silver could not resolve until one worked out who to bribe. Discovering such vital information in a city swarming with soldiers was perilous in itself.

Yun Shu wandered to the cliff edge defining the eastern limits of the garden, looking for the first signs of dawn. If only she could escape her burdens! Fly all the way up to the Jade Emperor’s Cloud Terrace.

As she stared out, Yun Shu hugged her chest. How small her own chance of flying to the Heavenly Places had become! Her
ch’i
energy, sowed by devotion and reaped by ritual, had been stolen and squandered by a perfidious teacher. Somehow she could not grieve too deeply. Witnessing the contortions Jian had endured to gain Immortality diminished her desire for it. Instead she conceived of humbler callings. There were many ways of serving the Dao. Why shouldn’t she strive to be happy?

‘Do not stand so close to the edge,’ advised a low, familiar voice, ‘I’d hate to see you step the wrong way.’

Yun Shu glanced at Teng. He bowed slightly before standing beside her. As ever, the perfect gentleman. But once she had thought that of Worthy Master Jian. For a while they stood awkwardly. He seemed, for a change, to have nothing to say. Yun Shu rarely felt uncomfortable around silence; it was the noisiest of places if one listened carefully. Yet this time she wanted him to speak.

‘Yun Shu,’ he said, ‘I wish to tell you what happened to me in the Salt Pans.’

He did, and at length, not sparing the details. Every so often she winced in sympathy. Finally he described how Salt Minister Gui had sent him, crushed by a block of salt, on a hellish march to his death.

‘I wish you to know so you can decide whether to hate me,’ he said, ‘for I am your father’s enemy. I would not blame you for hating me. It would be filial of you to do so.’

Yun Shu smiled bitterly. ‘I have been accused of dreadful disloyalty before now,’ she said, ‘and every kind of unfilial conduct. No, I shall make up my own mind when it comes to hating people. My Honoured Father is a model I choose not to follow. No doubt you find that shocking and reprehensible.’

He smiled sadly. ‘Perhaps it is. What of it? I’ve learned people are not paper characters in a morality play of my composition. I have learned that about myself, Yun Shu. Above all, I have learned to want happiness
before
not
after
I die.’

Yun Shu was startled. He had guessed her earlier thoughts. Yet on reflection it did not seem strange. Of all people on earth he understood her best.

‘I sometimes wonder if my happiness is served by being Abbess,’ she said. ‘As I approach my thirtieth year I think – you will smile at this – not of position or titles, but a family. Children and grandchildren.’

‘That is natural, you are a woman. I’m glad you think of children.’

She watched him from the corner of her eyes. ‘Are you glad I’m a woman?’

‘Yes, I am glad.’

Her eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, Teng, I must tell you. I fear the Worthy Master’s elixirs have hurt my womb! Hurt it forever! What if I cannot bear children? Yet I meant to save Cloud Abode Monastery by obeying him. And look at me now!’ She gestured at herself. ‘Everything I won for myself has been poisoned, even the future. I tell you this so there is no deceit between us. No misunderstandings.’ She looked into his eyes. ‘Are you still glad I am a woman? Answer me honestly!’

He met her frank gaze. Did not look away. ‘Oh, I am glad,’ he said, ‘and I shall tell you why.’

Teng described his final thoughts as he lay staring up at the sky like a beetle on its back, pinned down by the block of salt. ‘Do you know who I thought of at that last moment?’ he asked. ‘The moment I expected to die?’

Yun Shu’s heart quickened.

‘Your father, of course,’ she said. ‘As a good, loyal son should.’

‘No, not him.’

‘Then your mother?’

‘No, another lady entirely. I thought of you, Yun Shu! And of something wickedly indecorous. In fact … ‘ He coughed, struggled on. ‘Of kissing your face, your lips.’

Silence on the cliff edge. It was hard to say who was more surprised.

‘Evidently the thought of it revolts you,’ he said, hurriedly, ‘forgive me.’

Her eyelids fluttered involuntarily as she examined the distant fires on the lake. She turned to him. ‘Teng, do you really believe I am Lady Serenity, as you once called me? Lady Purity? I am neither. You see, Worthy Master Jian …’

He gestured for her to go no further. ‘Forgive my rudeness,’ he said, ‘I don’t wish to hear his name ever again. And as for the elixirs damaging your womb, it seems an outlandish notion.’

‘How can you be sure?’

He gestured expansively. ‘Because I don’t want it to be true! That is enough for me.’

Her sideways glance returned, bolder now.

‘Yun Shu,’ he said, ‘I have one more thing to say to you. I wonder if you will recognise it.’ Then he recited a poem, one she had learned from the book of her ancestor’s poems given to her by her poor mother and read a thousand times over. One of the famous
West Lake
poems by Yun Cai:

The lake ripples as four winds will.
Fish rise, mouths gape like coins.
West Lake might as well be an ocean.
Heart’s desire waits for shores to kiss,
No balance until they touch.

Yun Shu realised she was shaking. Oh, to hear a tender poem she had learned and filled with her own longings and desperate need for affection when she was a dismal wife in vile Chenglingji! To hear it from a handsome, brave, kindly scholar’s lips as she imagined Yun Cai must have spoken it! What did he mean by uttering such a charm? Yet they had known each other so very long, nearly all their lives.

‘Thank you, Teng, I … Now I must ensure my people are safe.’

He laid his hand on her arm. ‘Let me help you, Yun Shu, and
we
shall ensure their safety. When that is accomplished, our own happiness should …’