Читать книгу: «Hell to Heaven», страница 3
‘You had it exactly right,’ the stone said. ‘Well done.’
‘It’s a freaking script,’ I said softly. ‘It’s all acting.’
‘It is an important ceremony that emphasises and enhances your rule over the Northern Heavens and attunes the energy flowing in the palace to your own,’ the stone said. ‘The whole thing is vital to the health of your rule and the Heavens themselves.’
‘That is the biggest load of bull I have ever heard,’ Simone said without opening her eyes.
‘How does the Tiger put up with all this?’ I said.
‘The Tiger revels in it,’ the stone said. ‘Michael’s told you about the Harvest Festival, hasn’t he?’
‘Yeah, he says it’s like the German Oktoberfest,’ Simone said. ‘Just a huge excuse to get drunk.’
‘The Tiger performs many rituals during the three days of the festival to ensure the safety and wellbeing of his family,’ the stone said. ‘Michael would be aware of that if he were further up the hierarchy of sons. For those lower down, it’s just a big party.’
‘It’s kind of disturbing the way they wear cloth patches to indicate their relationship to the Tiger so no incest takes place,’ Simone said. She opened her eyes and grabbed the side of the sedan chair as it lurched particularly violently; one of the carriers had stumbled slightly. ‘I mean, what if they met each other outside the palace and got it on? It’s so wrong.’
The stone hesitated slightly, then said, ‘Is this something that concerns you, Simone?’
She leaned back again, her expression stiff. ‘Maybe.’
‘The tradition of “calling” is a way of avoiding this. Mortals do it to mimic Celestials.’
Simone looked interested. ‘Really? I thought it was just about using the title to show respect.’
‘It’s more than just establishing the pecking order in the family,’ the stone said. ‘It’s a way of confirming exactly how closely you’re related. Junior members of the family greet senior members by “calling” them — Poh Poh, Yeh Yeh, Wai Poh for the grandmother on the mother’s side. They establish themselves immediately so everybody present, from other branches of the family too, can straightaway see where they sit in the family network.’
‘Jade told me a story about that,’ Simone said. ‘When my mother’s parents first came to visit us in Hong Kong, I went up to my grandmother and “called” her — Poh Poh probably; I don’t remember it myself. I was used to “calling” everybody in my family, but it confused them. She just stood there and said “What?”’
‘And you were standing there waiting for the “good girl” response that kids always get when they “call” their grandparents,’ I said with amusement. ‘Culture shock both ways just in the first few words.’
‘So it’s actually a way of establishing links?’ Simone said. ‘I never thought of it that way. I thought of it — like you said — as the “pecking order” in the family.’ She grinned. ‘Human families have it easy. What about your sister’s son who’s a couple of hundred years older than you and also a tree? What do you call him?’
‘Jerk-off,’ I said quietly.
Simone nodded with mock solemnity. ‘Very well, Lady Emma, when I next “call” my nephew, I will greet him as “Jerk-off”.’
I stretched out on the cushioned seat. ‘You won’t have to; I’ll probably already have done it.’
The chair lurched again and I nearly slid off the silk cushions onto the floor. I coiled up again, tightening my grip on the silk. ‘Dammit, I hate these things!’
‘I’m not surprised Daddy bought the car,’ Simone said.
The sedan chair stopped suddenly and I landed on my back on the floor in an undignified heap. I raised my tail to give me the leverage to crawl back onto the cushion but it was too late. The curtains flipped open and there we were: Simone sitting like the princess she was, and me in a three-metre-long tangle at her feet.
The officials had dismounted and stood on either side of the door to escort us out. I flipped so that I was the right way up, shook my head, and slithered out of the chair and onto the pavers in front of the palace.
Yue Gui, Simone’s big sister, and Martin, her big brother, waited for us in the forecourt of the palace. They were dressed in Tang-style silk robes: Martin in black and silver; Yue Gui in pink and gold. They bowed and saluted us. Simone and I stood opposite them and bowed back.
‘Welcome, She Zheng Zhi, Gong Zhu, Regent and Princess,’ Yue Gui said.
‘We thank you, Gong Zhu and Wang Chu, Prince and Princess,’ I said.
‘Jie Jie, Ge Ge,’ Simone said, ‘calling’ her relatives.
‘Mei Mei,’ Yue Gui and Martin both responded with pleasure.
Simone’s shoulders slumped slightly. ‘Can we stop with the formal protocol BS now?’
Martin gave her a quick, friendly hug, then smiled down at her with his hands on her shoulders. ‘Yes, we’re done. Come inside and have some lunch.’
I held back. ‘Is Sang Shen here?’
‘No,’ Yue Gui said, amused by my dislike of her son. ‘He’s still under house arrest at home, serving his sentence.’
The four of us sat at the round, six-seater table with a couple of demon servants to attend us. We were in Martin’s apartments in the palace: a courtyard house attached to the rest of the complex by a breezeway. It was on the western side of the complex, towards the centre, next to the main apartment occupied by Xuan Wu when he was present. The informal dining room had a pleasant aspect over a small garden next to the high internal defensive wall for Xuan Wu’s residence.
‘I could provide you with a variety of different foods, Emma,’ Martin said. ‘It doesn’t have to be alive. Snakes eat dead food too. I’ve seen you eat waffles. Why don’t you just try it?’
‘Just give up, Ge Ge,’ Simone said, sounding bored.
‘My serpent form doesn’t need to eat,’ I said for the millionth time. ‘You should know this yourself, Martin, we reptiles …’ My voice trailed off.
‘Yes. We reptiles,’ Martin said, jumping on the point. He gestured towards Yue Gui. ‘We are all reptiles together. Even Simone has a reptilian form. Do not be ashamed of it! And by the Heavens, Emma, do me the honour of accepting my hospitality while you are in this form!’
‘Well, I don’t need to eat for days on end as serpent,’ I said. ‘The food I eat as a human keeps it satisfied. If I’m going to start eating as a snake, then I’ll try things at home and let you know.’
‘This should be your home,’ Yue Gui said. ‘When the Dark Lord returns, I’m sure it will be.’
‘Is it his home?’ I said.
They were silent at that.
I continued. ‘No, Wudangshan is his home. This is one of his offices. And for me it will be too. For you, this is home. Both of you. And you should be named as rulers together.’
‘That would interfere with the alignment of the Heavens and would not be accepted,’ Martin said stiffly. He relaxed. ‘Father will return, and he will retake his place on the throne of the Northern Heavens.’
‘Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take him to come back?’ Simone said.
Martin and Yue Gui shared a look.
‘You do!’ Simone said.
‘You know they aren’t allowed to tell us mortals the future, Simone,’ I said, miserable.
‘Actually, nobody knows,’ Martin said. ‘Father is too elemental, too powerful and too aligned with the forces of nature to be predicted. He is so much a part of the fabric of the universe that he cannot be seen in divination. It is like trying to predict the course of the Earth around the Sun — the Cosmos just says “It will happen, leave it alone.”’
‘Both of us have caught glimpses of him though,’ Yue Gui said, and Martin nodded agreement.
‘You have?’ Simone said, visibly brightening. ‘You’ve seen Daddy?’ She jiggled slightly with excitement. ‘Did he say anything?’
‘We have caught glimpses,’ Yue Gui said with sympathy. ‘His Turtle and his Serpent are at opposite ends of the world. They cry. They seem to be searching for one another — and for you.’
‘And for you,’ I said.
‘We are reptiles,’ Yue Gui said. ‘We lay our eggs and leave them. That is the Way.’
The demons cleared the dishes, and Martin poured more tea all around. I flicked my tongue above it to test the temperature, then carefully lowered my snout into the bowl to drink without tipping it over.
‘See? Told you you’d get there in the end,’ Simone said, waving her own teacup. ‘It just took practice.’
‘And if you used a larger bowl you wouldn’t have any issue with it at all,’ Martin said.
I pulled my dripping snout out of the tea bowl, then wiped it on a napkin laid on the table for me. ‘I’m not drinking out of a dog’s bowl, thank you very much.’
‘Dragon bowl!’ Martin said.
‘You are argumentative today, Ming Gui,’ I said sternly. ‘You need to take some time and meditate on your faults; you are lacking in filial piety towards your senior. You should be more modest and obedient.’
Simone nearly spat out her tea, and Martin’s mouth flopped open with delight.
Yue Gui toasted me with her teacup. ‘I could not have said it better myself, ma’am; you are quite correct in your clarification of Ming Gui’s faults. He should write a ten-page, seven-legged essay outlining his shortcomings and his plan for reparation.’
‘Be careful,’ Martin said with good humour. ‘I may just do that, and make all of you read it.’
Simone shook her hands over the table. ‘No, that’s really not necessary!’ She brightened. ‘But you can write an essay for me on the reproductive variety in different species of annelids.’
‘Worms?’
‘Worms.’
‘Wait, the whole phylum? That’s a hell of a lot of worms! Their reproductive variety is astounding — did you choose this topic yourself?’
Simone nodded. ‘I like worms.’ She sagged slightly. ‘But you’re right, it’s a huge topic.’
‘When’s it due?’ Martin said.
‘Two weeks from tomorrow.’
He put his hand out over the table. ‘Sounds like fun. I’ll help you. Deal?’
She shook his hand. ‘Deal. You like biology too?’
He shrugged. ‘Most interesting field of science there is. Some Celestial biology makes Earthly biology look very tame in comparison.’ He turned to me. ‘Now that we’re finished, I think it’s time to move to general matters at hand. There aren’t many cases for you to hear; I’ll provide you with a list in the morning.’
‘Is Sang Shen still going on about me living in the wrong part of the palace?’ I said.
‘No,’ Yue Gui said. ‘I talked to him and offered him a compromise.’
‘Which is?’
Martin cut in. ‘Emma, if we move the fittings from the Serpent Concubine Pavilion into the Pavilion of Dark Celestial Bliss, will you move there?’
‘That’s what I’ve been asking for! It would solve the whole problem, but they said the fittings couldn’t be moved without disrupting the fung shui of Dark Bliss. The pavilion was designed to be occupied by a human not a snake.’
‘We have a fung shui master who says it can be done with some alterations to the layout to counteract the excessive yang of a snake presence. It will mean making the northern part of the pavilion larger, adding a water feature of some sort and choosing more turtle motifs in the decoration.’
‘Sounds very nice,’ I said. ‘How much will it cost?’
He hesitated. ‘Ten jin of Celestial jade.’
‘Ten jin?’ I said, horrified.
‘That’s, like, ten ounces, isn’t it?’ Simone said. ‘About a million dollars? That’s a bit over the top.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s ten kilos. A hundred and sixty ounces. Ten cattys!’
‘That’s … what … sixteen mill?’ Simone said. ‘To add one room and a water feature? That’s ridiculous.’
‘We could have the whole goddamn pavilion knocked down and rebuilt for that,’ I said.
‘It’s made of aged Celestial teak and ebony from the plantations on the southern shores of the Northern Heavens — the trees from there take five hundred years to grow,’ Martin said. ‘The fittings are Earthly black and white jade trimmed with pure silver. The multicoloured floor tiles are semi-precious stones — topaz, garnet and tourmaline — and it will be hard to find stones that large again.’
I rested my head on the table. ‘I’ll just stay in the concubine quarters. It’s only Sang Shen who’s making a fuss about me moving.’ I raised my head. ‘Look, tell him that I’ll be happy to move into the Empress’s quarters, but he has to pay the ten jin to have it altered.’
Yue Gui nodded. ‘Good idea. I will tell him.’ She smiled slightly.
‘You really love tormenting him, don’t you, Jie Jie,’ Simone said.
Yue Gui shrugged. ‘He is in my custody to serve a sentence. And serve a sentence he will.’
‘Speaking of living quarters, there is one other matter, and then we have nothing else until tomorrow,’ Martin said. He pulled himself upright and spoke more formally. ‘Lady Emma, now that the Northern Heavens have been restored and are no longer a frigid wasteland, it would be most fitting to harmonious Celestial alignment if your family — your parents — were to be living in these Heavens rather than those in the West. This is where they belong as your family, and it is your filial duty to serve them closely. This is best achieved by them moving here.’
I stared at him, shocked. My parents had been living in the West for ten years and now he wanted them to move to a completely new — and strange — place?
‘I can’t see Nanna and Pop wanting to do that,’ Simone said mildly. ‘They’ve made a lot of friends in the West over the last ten years, Martin. I really think they’re more comfortable in the West.’
Martin opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. ‘I will take the matter under advisement and discuss it with my parents.’
He nodded. ‘Very good, ma’am.’
CHAPTER 4
That evening Simone and I spread out on some beanbags in the Serpent Concubine Pavilion and watched a DVD together, she in her pyjamas and me stretched out next to her in serpent form. When the movie finished, she switched off the DVD and spread her arms. ‘Hug, Emma.’
I slithered next her and she held me close, my head resting on her shoulder.
‘I worry I’m gonna squeeze you and hurt you,’ she said. ‘You’re kinda soft and squishy under the scales.’
‘I think my ribs are pretty springy, and you’ve never hurt me yet,’ I said. I wished I could smile, but opening my mouth made my fangs slide down, which wasn’t a good look.
She kissed the end of my nose. ‘I’m going to bed. See you at breakfast.’
‘Night, Simone.’
She disappeared; she would travel invisible to the apartment she’d commandeered so that nobody would see her in her pyjamas. There were no human-suitable beds in my quarters.
I slithered into my own bedroom, which had a recessed floor area filled with beanbags, and a couple of infra-red heat lamps above to provide heat without light. My quarters were generally kept at a warmer temperature than was comfortable for humans but very pleasant by reptile standards. I put my head next to the edge of the sleeping recess and the stone from my ring, now in the filigree crown on my head, reached out a long green tendril and lifted itself and the crown onto the recess ledge. It grabbed a paper seal from the stack there, reached towards me and stuck the seal onto the top of my head between my eyes.
I stretched out under the ray lamps and performed a mild meditation cycle, moving my serpent chi through the length of my body. The serpent’s chi was different from both human and demon essence; darker and brighter at the same time, and colder because of my cold-bloodedness.
The stone moved around the edge of the recess so it was closer to my head.
‘You’ll be asleep yourself; you won’t know if the seal slips,’ I said drowsily.
‘You’re too casual about the consequences of losing that seal,’ the stone said.
I began to drift off, my vision blurring. ‘I’m more comfortable as a snake anyway; I doubt I’ll lose the form.’
‘I’ll make sure you don’t,’ the stone said, but I barely heard it.
The next morning I joined Simone in her apartment while she ate breakfast. She was already in her school uniform, and she checked the art deco mantle clock on the rosewood side table as she scooped up her cereal.
‘You still have time,’ I said.
She nodded, but finished quickly and bounced up. ‘I have swimming training after school so I’ll be late back.’
‘Stay down there. Monica and Leo can look after you,’ I said.
She hesitated, then shrugged. ‘Okay. I’ll come back on the weekend.’
‘How’s the swimming going?’
‘I’m second best on the team,’ she said proudly. ‘We have a meet in two weeks.’
‘Book me in,’ I said.
‘Already did.’ She came around the table, put her hand on the back of my neck and kissed the top of my head. ‘See you on the weekend, Emma.’
‘I’ll call you later,’ I said.
After she’d gone, I took myself over to the palace’s administrative centre. The Serpent Concubine Pavilion was on the western side of the palace complex, with only the servants’ quarters and the support areas — the laundry and kitchens — further north of it. There had only ever been one Serpent Concubine in the entire history of the palace, and nobody would say much about her. John had never bothered to have the Serpent Pavilion returned to a human-style dwelling, and nobody had spoken much about his reasons for that either. The servants wouldn’t even tell me whether the Serpent Concubine had died or had left him; they all suggested that I contact the Archivist for the full story.
The palace was divided into two rectangular areas: the residential section took up the northern half; the administrative section, the southern half. A four-metre internal wall with a single gate separated them, entirely blocking off one side from the other. Tradition called for the Emperor and his most senior advisors — and consorts — to be carried around the complex in sedan chairs, but John had never bothered with that, preferring to walk through the complex so he could check the status of the different areas as he passed. He was a very early — by a few hundred years — practitioner of ‘management by walking around’. In more recent times, apparently, he’d taken to riding a motorbike around the complex, occasionally doing outrageous jumps over some of the decorative semicircular bridges in the gardens. The resulting skid marks on the pristine white marble had caused the domestic demons much grief.
John’s welcome in the various sections of the palace would have been very different from mine. As my three-metre-long snake form slithered through the gardens, the demons either froze with terror or skittered away. I’d gone through all the support sections the first time I’d visited the palace, greeting the demons and trying to allay their fears, but to no avail. Maybe their reaction had something to do with the Serpent Concubine; they might have had bad experiences with snakes in the past. Or maybe it was just that I brought back nasty memories of the Snake Mothers in Hell. Then again, maybe it was just because I was a snake.
I reached the wall that divided the residential and administrative areas. The gate building was set on top of three terraces, each bordered with black marble balustrades. The building itself was around ten metres to a side, built of gunmetal-coloured stone with a traditional upward-curving, black-tiled roof. It had thick hardwood doors on both sides reinforced with metre-wide black metal studs. I slithered up the three flights of stairs and found the reception area empty, except for four humanoid demon guards at the gate’s two doors. They stood to attention as I passed and thumped their chests with their fists, but their expressions weren’t happy.
The administrative section of the palace was much more open and formal. The main buildings sat on three-tiered terraces in the centre of the rectangular area, while smaller buildings — for the support staff — flanked the sides. At the far end of the dividing wall was another gatehouse: the main entry into the palace. The long avenue up to the palace was visible through the gate’s open doors.
A group of officials were waiting for me with a sedan chair, all of them on one knee. I nodded to them and swiftly slithered around them to avoid the chair. They jumped up and followed me, then stopped and saluted again when Martin appeared on the top balcony of the central administrative building. He waved to me and came down the steps.
‘Rise,’ he said to the officials as he came closer, and they all rose and bowed again. He waved them away. ‘I will guide Lady Emma to the hearings.’
I accompanied him up the stairs.
‘The petitions should only take a couple of days,’ he said. ‘Since the energy has returned to the North, the residents have had much less to complain about and the petitions have dried up.’
‘That’s wonderful news,’ I said.
We entered the Pavilion of Dark Justice together, and all those present fell to one knee. The pavilion was rectangular and made of gunmetal-coloured polished stone with a black roof, same as the other buildings. The doors to the hearing room opened in front of us; inside, officials sat behind desks and gathered the information required for the day’s proceedings. The petitioners would wait their turn in luxuriously appointed waiting rooms along the sides of the pavilion, with demon servants shuttling backwards and forwards to tend to their needs.
Lily, one of the court administrators, rose from her desk and walked to the doorway. ‘All salute Regent General Da Na Huo and Tai Zi Ming Gui, the Bright One.’
The staff fell to one knee and saluted us.
‘Rise,’ I said. ‘Return to your duties.’
They returned to what they’d been doing without any fuss.
‘They finally got it,’ I said with relief.
‘Well, some of them have worked for more traditional Shen,’ Martin said as we entered the hearing room and climbed the dais to the throne. ‘An order like that could be a trick to see if they were truly showing respect.’
‘Sounds stupid to me,’ I grumbled under my breath as I pulled myself up onto the black silk cushions. ‘Okay, what have we got?’
Lily approached with a document printed from one of the computers in the office. ‘Not many changes to the list I emailed you last week. Three disputes on the ownership of demon servants, as in the email. One new case, not previously mentioned: about the parentage of a particularly fine colt that was born over at the House of Ling only yesterday —’
‘The mare dropped?’ I cut in. ‘I must go have a look.’
‘It’s palomino, Emma,’ Martin said.
I hissed with amusement. ‘Somebody’s stallion’s been sneaking around! No way could that mating produce a palomino.’
Lily winced. ‘There is some suggestion that the colt was fathered by a horse demon.’
‘Do we have horse demons here?’ I said.
Both of them nodded.
‘You have a list, right?’ I said.
Lily nodded again. ‘On my desk, ma’am. There are three or four possible fathers.’
‘The owner of the mare is petitioning … for what?’ I said. ‘We just do a DNA test, establish the father, slap a fine on the owner of the demon stallion for failing to control the animal, end of story.’
‘The owner of the mare is petitioning that the owner of the stallion be reprimanded for not controlling his demons. She says the mare has been ruined by carrying a demon foal and she wants a very large sum in compensation.’
‘I see. When’s the hearing on that?’
‘It’s one of the last — I knew you’d want to see the files first,’ Lily said. ‘You must order the DNA test and then decide on how much to fine the owner of the stallion.’
‘It’s possible the owner of the sire may claim the colt as well,’ Martin said.
‘As soon as you provide me with all the details, and we establish the colt’s parentage, we’ll take it from there,’ I said. ‘What else?’
‘One other petition delivered just yesterday — Sang Shen —’
I hissed with frustration. ‘Sometimes I almost wish he had been executed!’
‘Sang Shen has raised the price of the leaves from his mulberry tree exponentially,’ Lily said. ‘The Blue Dragon has requested a mediation to discuss renegotiating the contract for provision of the leaves.’
‘He’s a tree, they’re his leaves, he can set the price. Tell the Dragon to get lost,’ I said.
‘He’s charging ten times the weight of the leaves in Celestial Jade.’
That stopped me. ‘That’s insane!’
‘The worst part is that the Dragon is prepared to pay something close to this, but he wants to squeal about it first.’
‘This is a bad precedent. Other leaf suppliers will raise their prices to match Sang Shen’s, and the rise in costs will drive up the price of silk,’ I said, lowering my head to think. I looked up at them. ‘Ensure that this is a completely closed court; this is an extremely private matter between Sang Shen and the Blue Dragon. Nobody must know that the Dragon’s silkworms eat the leaves from Sang Shen’s tree.’
‘I think part of this lawsuit is Sang Shen trying to make it known that he is the provider of the leaves,’ Martin said.
‘That sounds like him,’ I said. ‘He vowed to the Dragon that he wouldn’t reveal himself as the source of the leaves, but he’s been dropping heavy hints in the public domain ever since. He’s followed the letter of the agreement but definitely not the spirit.’
‘You could reprimand him for that and order him to fix the price of his leaves,’ Lily said.
‘That would not be fair to either of them. I must hear this in secret, and emerge with a judgement that’s fair to both of them.’
‘What if neither of them agrees with your decision?’ Martin said.
‘If both of them are upset about the decision, then I think I’ve succeeded in mediating it fairly,’ I said.
Three days later, on the evening before the final day of hearings, I was settling down to sleep when a demon servant crept into my quarters and hesitated beside the door.
‘Don’t be afraid,’ I said gently. ‘Tell me.’
‘The Lord of the East, the Blue Dragon Qing Long, is here and requests audience, madam,’ the demon said, its voice barely above a whisper.
‘Show him into the formal salon,’ I said. After the demon had gone I tapped the stone with my nose. ‘Hop back on — the Dragon wants to talk to me.’
The stone grumbled quietly as it floated its setting onto the top of my head. I twisted my head a couple of times to make sure the crown fitted comfortably, then I slithered to the salon. The audience chamber was the place where the Emperor and his concubine would formally meet and discuss any issues arising from the management of the household. I couldn’t imagine John ever using it — he wasn’t a fan of formality — and so wasn’t surprised that the furniture, which was probably at least a thousand years old, appeared as new. I slid up onto the black and silver silk cushions of the throne, which was two metres long and intricately carved with serpents.
The Dragon was escorted in by the demon; he fell to one knee in front of me, saluting. ‘This humble servant greets his master,’ he said, then rose again.
I bowed my head. ‘You are welcome, my Lord. Please, sit and drink tea with me.’
A stool that looked very much like a piano stool was brought for the Dragon, and a small table with tea was placed in front of him. The demons were so quiet and smooth in their movements it was as if the furniture arrived by itself.
I stretched out on the soft cushions, enjoying the sensation on my serpent belly. ‘What can I do for you?’
The Dragon raised his teacup. ‘Finest Celestial tea I’ve had in a long while, ma’am.’ He sat slightly straighter. ‘I know you don’t like wasting time on formal protocol, so I’ll get straight to the point. I hear that you are living in this pavilion designed for a concubine rather than in the Empress’s Pavilion as is fitting.’
‘The architect estimates a cost of ten jin of jade to make the necessary alterations to the Dark Bliss Pavilion. I’m just as comfortable staying here, so we won’t be making the changes,’ I said.
He nodded, unsurprised. ‘That is a great deal of money, ma’am. But if you extended the Pavilion of Dark Bliss, the fung shui aspects would be perfectly aligned. As well as that, you would have more room for your clothes, your make-up, all your feminine necessities —’
I cut him off. ‘Snakes don’t need clothes or make-up. Where is this going?’
‘One day you will be able to take human form here, ma’am, I’m sure of it. If you were to extend Dark Bliss as they have suggested, it would not only improve the harmonious resonance of the building, it would provide you with more space for all your needs.’
‘I fail to see where this is heading, Dragon.’
‘I would hate to see a beautiful lady such as yourself unable to make herself as attractive as she possibly can for the return of her lover. I would like to help.’
‘You want to help? How?’
‘How about I pay for the additions to the pavilion? It would be my pleasure, ma’am. I know that the Northern coffers have been drained by the recent difficulties, while the East remains strong. Let me do this thing for you.’
I hesitated a moment, studying him, then said, ‘And what do you want in return?’
‘Well, I will have more of a budget for the renovation if I do not have to pay such ridiculously exorbitant prices for the leaves for my silk factories.’
I stared at him, stunned.
He shrugged and smiled slightly. ‘You are a beautiful woman, Lady Emma. It is such a shame that you do not have the space to allow you to enhance your appearance to the utmost — for your Lord, of course. With the space for proper baths and personal care staff here, you would always look your best. I can provide you with clothing assistants, make-up artists and hair designers. You will want for nothing.’
I opened my mouth then closed it again.
‘So, would you like me to pay for the alterations?’ the Dragon said, his face full of hope.
‘I tell you what,’ I said, ‘I will take your offer into consideration when I am hearing the case tomorrow.’
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