It was very early in the morning. The sky was dark as ink. Snow drifted. The court was quiet, and most servants were still asleep.
We walked until we reached the Xuanwu Gate at the back of the Inner Court, where a group of guards were waiting for us. The Emperor beckoned them to follow, and together we passed the Gate and went into the woodland that was part of the Forbidden Park. For hours, we trudged through the snow-sodden, knee-high thickets. I had never set my foot on that part of the Forbidden Park before. The area was vast and hilly, challenging to climb.
The dawn’s light appeared, and the trees and hills revealed themselves. Daisy and I extinguished the lights inside the lanterns. When we reached a clearing near a valley, the Emperor stopped under a poplar near a giant rock with a steep front and a pointy tip. He ordered the guards to spread out nearby. “And do not approach unless I give you an order.”
The guards left, and Daisy and I stood close together, waiting for him to dismiss us too. But he did not say anything, his head raised at the sky where two hawks soared.
Why did he want to come here in the early morning?
The warmth quickly escaped me, and the chilly morning air plunged savagely into my throat. My nose was runny; my face was chilled. I rubbed my hands and looked around. The frozen land, covered with towering trees and thorny bushes, stretched endlessly before me, while at my left, a deep valley, its rugged surface sprinkled with white, cut through a grove of fallen trees and disappeared behind snow-dusted spruce.
I shivered. The frosty sheet buried the tracks ahead of me but could not hide the crackling bark of the trees and the stark barrenness of the land. There was no man or animal as far as I could see, and the only sound I heard was water gurgling in the distance near the valley, perhaps from the canal that ran through the palace.
The Emperor was still standing there, his hands crossed behind his back. I stamped my feet to keep warm. If we stayed any longer, we would miss our morning meal.
A faint screech came from the sky. A hawk, or something similar, plunged.
“Stay here,” the Emperor ordered us. He walked along a trail near a steep rock and disappeared behind it.
“Where is he going?” I asked Daisy, tucking my hands under my arms.
She shook her head, her face buried in her scarf, her breath puffing near her ears. For a long time, we simply wrapped our arms around our bodies and jumped to keep warm. I kept checking the rock, hoping to see the Emperor return.
“Ah…” A faint voice, guttural and masculine.
I stopped jumping. “What was that?”
Daisy shook her head before lowering it farther into her coat.
I hesitated. It sounded like it had come from where the Emperor had gone.
“Ah…” Another cry.
I made up my mind. “I’m going to take a look. I’ll be right back, Daisy.”
“What?” She stared at me, her face bearing the usual look of confusion.
“It could be the Emperor.”
“Don’t leave me alone.” She looked around, the flaps of her hat shaking like two ears. “Wolves will come. Nobody comes here but wolves. And snakes! I’m afraid of snakes.”
“Follow me then. I won’t go too far.”
We went to the steep rock, following the Emperor’s trail. Behind it was the valley, where the woods were dense and the tree branches were laden with layers of snow. I paused, searching. A gentle slope with tall reeds and dead trees rose ahead of us, and I glimpsed some water in a distant section of the canal that ran through the palace. There was no Emperor, and the faint cries had vanished. I was about to turn back when I saw a boat appear in the canal. Inside it stood a hooded figure.
The Duke. Rather than wearing his usual ornate court regalia, he had donned a black tunic like a monk’s stole. The tunic clung to his legs and chest, looking wet, as if he had waded through water. Some black animals, small, like dogs, were wriggling near his feet. He lowered his head and kicked them.
I frowned. Did the Emperor come here to meet the Duke? Where was the Emperor? I stood on tiptoe, searching hard. I found him, standing below a jutted rock some distance before me. His back facing me, he waved at the Duke in the boat, as though giving him a signal.
I raised my head toward the Duke, but his boat had moved out of my sight.
“I don’t see anything,” Daisy said. “Let’s go back.”
“Wait,” I said. Those black animals in the boat must have been important or the Emperor would not have ventured out in the cold to see them. And the Duke. He looked furtive, dressed in a hooded black tunic. What were those animals?