I bowed deeply to her. “I will never forget your kindness, my Noble Lady. I shall leave at this instant…” I could not finish. The late Empress’s crowns…
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mei.” She began to spin the wheel.
I turned to the stone stairs. The light from the hall failed to reach there, and I could see a valley of darkness lurking under the stairs, reminding me of what awaited if I left now. I felt ashamed of asking the Noble Lady to help me retrieve the crowns. After all, she was a peaceful, honorable woman, and she had no reason to confront Jewel because of me. Yet she was my only hope. “My Noble Lady, what do you think Jewel and the Pure Lady will do when they learn they have failed?”
She stopped spinning, looking thoughtful.
“I do not mean to upset you, my Noble Lady.” I walked to her. I needed an ally, and I had to persuade her to be on my side. “But you should know by now that the Pure Lady is a persistent woman. This time she plotted to extinguish the fire. Next time she will plan something else. She will not stop until she succeeds.”
Holding the spindle wheel with two hands, she hesitated.
I seized my chance. “I have a suggestion, my Noble Lady. If you’ll bear to listen to me.”
“What do you suggest? Report to the Emperor?”
“Why not?”
“Do you think he will let me come off without blame? If I could, I would have done that last year. I know what kind of man he is. I might as well ask for my own disgrace.”
“I am not asking you to explain, my Noble Lady. I would never put you in harm’s way,” I said softly. “I would explain to him.”
She gazed at me. “You?”
I nodded.
“You’re accountable for the loss of the crowns.”
“I know.”
“Are you not afraid?”
“I think the most important thing is I tell the truth,” I said with conviction and hoped she would not hear the fear in my voice. “This is the best solution.”
She did not speak. But her plump face looked serene, and I knew she was considering my suggestion.
“Yet I have one request, my Noble Lady.” I held my hands tightly. “Would you agree to come with me?”
She looked pensive. Whether she would become my ally depended on her answer. If she agreed, I would have support in the court from that moment on. If not…
“I shall be glad to go with you.” She nodded.
I let out a sigh of relief.
? ? ?
The Emperor swung his mallet, grimaced, and then swung again. A ball bounced in the courtyard in the early morning light. A servant ran in haste to catch it and put it near his feet. He cursed, touching his chest.
Nearly a year had passed since the assassination attempt. His wound had healed, and the physician Sun Simiao had suggested it was time to strengthen his qi and nurture his vital organs. He prescribed food recipes that contained fungus, such as ginseng, musk, and oyster, and some tonics mixed with realgar, rhinoceros horn, and deer velvet. The Emperor had taken short walks every day. Soon he would be able to ride a horse, and within a few months, even play polo.
But Daisy told me he had changed somehow. He slept fitfully at night and often fell asleep after drinking jugs of herbal wine. Several times, he slipped off his stool, and if it were not for Daisy and the other night attendants, he would have injured himself.
He also appeared bad tempered in the morning, and when he dined, he would be angry when served a lamb stew, even though he had asked for it in the first place. He had not officially resumed the bedding schedule yet, only summoning the Ladies, sometimes the Ladies-in-Waiting, and always, the conniving Jewel. But he was not interested in bedding them, Plum had whispered to me. One time he summoned Lady Virtue, but he let her sit on the floor, naked, for hours, without touching her, and then kicked her out, blaming her for staring at the mirror and not him.
He looked morose, his face hard and his lips pursed tight. He did not appear to notice me kneeling in the corner or how long I had waited. Perhaps that was a good thing. I ran through the phrases again in my mind and glanced at the Noble Lady, standing under the apricot tree. I was ready.
Then two figures scurried to hide behind a pillar in the corridor, one holding a fan and the other stroking a white cat in her arms.
Jewel and the Pure Lady.
The words in my mind turned to dust.
The mallet touched my chin. The Emperor stood before me. He was breathing faster than usual, his whiskers leaping up and down.
“I remember you,” he finally said.
“The One Above All.” I lowered my gaze to the front of his robe where a golden dragon, soaring in the clouds, glared at me. I remembered folding that robe. “Forgive my insolence. I should not have come—”
“What’s the matter?”
“I can’t locate the crowns that belonged to the late Empress. I asked the Noble Lady, who has kindly offered to help me, but it seems the items inside the chest were all misplaced.”
“Were they taken or were they misplaced?”
I swallowed.
“Where were you?” The dragon seemed to come alive as his chest rose and fell.
“I…I was receiving the apples in the courtyard.”