I could not see her. There were so many shadows, so many clubs, and so many feet. I stumbled closer to a pillar and finally found Jewel near the stone stairs. At first, she covered her head, her body recoiling from one fist or another. Then she collapsed to the ground. Rods clobbered her back. Powerful kicks were aimed at her abdomen where a life had been nourished, and a hard sheath rammed into her right eye. She thrashed, twisted, trembled, and wallowed on the blood-drenched earth.
I closed my eyes, my bones aching from watching her. When I opened my eyes again, before me was a naked thing, wearing nothing but blood. Her trembling fingers dug into the ground, and her body heaved, but she slumped again.
I should have felt joyous and relieved. My rival for all these years, my worst enemy—the conniving, deceiving Jewel, who had sabotaged my chances and ruined my life—had finally fallen, with no way to return.
But my face was chilled, my hands numb. Why did it have to be like that? Why so many men and so many clubs?
“She deserved it,” the Noble Lady said beside me.
“She didn’t moan,” I said. “Not one moan.”
Nor had she cried. Not a tear.
“Would it help if she had?”
I did not know what to say, and I wanted to look away.
“Hold her!” the Emperor hollered. A guard clamped his arms around Jewel’s shoulder, and the Emperor cut her face with his sword. One line, another, and then another. A character, bleeding thick blood, formed on her cheek. Nu.
Slave.
“I here denounce you.” His voice was filled with venom. “You shall be stripped of your title, imprisoned in the Yeting Court, and dwell in the darkest room infested with mold and rodents for the rest of your life. You shall clean chamber pots and rake muck in the garden from sunrise to sunset. Captain! Take her!”
The Captain answered. He picked up Jewel’s limp body and hurled her in a wheelbarrow. The Emperor shouted again, fuming, and finally stormed away. Beckoning to the guards, the Captain pushed the wheelbarrow to leave. It squeaked past me, the single apricot tree in the courtyard, and finally reached the immense stone statue of kylin, the mythical unicorn that guarded the entrance of the compound.
It stopped, and inside the wheelbarrow, a shadow rose.
I went to her. I did not know why. The Noble Lady was still standing behind me, and she perhaps wondered what I was doing. But I could not help it. I just wanted to look at her. One last look.
She was struggling to hold on to the statue, which sat on a raised pedestal, trying to climb it. The statue was too tall for her, and if she had been standing on the ground, she only would have been able to touch its belly. But there she was, standing in the wheelbarrow, heaving, her arms flinging over the back of the mythical animal. When she took hold of it, she swung over, lying on its massive back. Then one hand pushing against the statue, she raised her head toward me. Her white hair, matted and bloody, spread around her face like poisonous vines, and her eyes, her catlike eyes, gazed at me with an expression I had never seen on any living face.
I wanted to say something, but I did not know what.
“There you are, Mei,” she said, her voice hoarse, indistinct. “How interesting this turns out. I would never have expected it. But don’t feel pity for me. Don’t. Because I should have known.”
I tore my gaze away. “I…I didn’t know they would treat you like this—”
“You did what you had to do. I can’t blame you. In fact…it’s me… I should be the one…” Blood trickled down her cheek, but she did not wipe it off. “I wish to apologize for all the foolish things I have done. Tricking you, setting you up…”
“I—”
“But it’s all right. You don’t need to say anything. Just forget everything. Forget all, and forget me.”
She flung her arms out, and something wet dropped on my neck, scalding me, like a droplet of burning oil. I cringed.
“You’ll come back. You always do,” I said.
She shook her head. “Not this time.”
“You’re a fighter. You’ll fight, Jewel.”
She turned away. She seemed to be struggling to rise, to stand on the statue, but her legs wobbled, and she kept slipping. Finally, she stood, her body swaying and her long, matted hair sticking to her back like a stained white cape. “I am tired, Mei. I am so tired.” Her voice was weaker, barely audible, as though all the climbing had drained her energy. “I shall go now. Farewell, my friend.”
She leaped into the air. Her arms spread wide, her head down, and her hair swept through the air and arched like a colorless rainbow.
Then she plunged. Her head crashed against the wall. There was a dull thud, and thousands of tiny droplets raced through the air like heavy beads. Abruptly, they halted and finally transformed into a shower of black rain.
For a long time, I stared at the darkness, unable to move. Sometime later, there was movement around me. The Emperor ordered everyone to leave. He had returned to the courtyard at some time, but I did not know when or whether he had watched Jewel jump. Shouting, he threw his sleeves behind him and left the courtyard. The Noble Lady called for me. I did not answer, and soon, she left too.