Gateway (7 page)

Daiyu felt her mild sense of disquiet intensify, forming a coil of worry in her stomach. Chenglei didn’t look like a man so terrible that he had to be flung to a different dimension in order to keep a whole world safe.

As the car pulled out of view, Daiyu glanced around at the crowds just now dispersing. People were smiling or talking to friends with great animation, still impressed and a little awed. “Everybody seems to like Chenglei,” she observed.

“A lot of people do,” Kalen answered.

“What do
you
think about him?”

“I never thought about him much until Ombri and Aurora came,” he said. This didn’t surprise her. She figured Kalen had probably poured most of his energy into staying alive; he wouldn’t have had much time to think about high-level politics. Which was too bad—she would trust his assessment of Chenglei far more than she would trust Ombri’s.

Kalen went on, “I’ve been trying to learn more about him so Iunderstandwhythey’redeterminedtosend himaway.Sofar, the worst thing seems to be the way he’s handling the
zaogao
fever epidemic in the northwest territories. Some people say he’s not sending enough doctors and supplies to fight the fever. And other people say he’s doing everything he can to make sure it doesn’t spread. Feng says thousands of people are dying because of him—”

“Who’s Feng?”

“He’s the son of one of the wealthy families, but he’s been disowned. Every few days you can find him in a park or on the street, delivering a speech about what’s wrong with the government—particularly Chenglei.”

Daiyu smiled a little as she listened to the description. “He’s a dissident. I’d love to hear him speak. Where can I find him?”

“I’ll ask around. He might be in hiding right now. But even Feng doesn’t know how bad Chenglei can be, Ombri says. Aurora says there’s no end to the misery he’ll bring to Jia. They say he’s destroyed whole cultures on other worlds.”

And we’ll have to take their word for it that such a thing is true,
Daiyu thought,
since we can hardly prove it ourselves.
She unconsciously tightened her grip on Kalen’s hand as her stomach clenched even harder. “Well,” she said. “I’m glad I got a glimpse of him. Now at least I know who I’m dealing with.”

They spent another couple of hours wandering around the city before catching a trolley back to Kalen’s neighborhood. Daiyu couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so at ease with a young man her own age. When she was around the boys at school, she usually felt awkward and unsure of herself; she rarely tried for casual conversation. She knew she had a reputation for being aloof, an impression that was reinforced by her habitually calm demeanor. But she found it easy to talk to Kalen.

They were still talking as they approached the door to his house and caught the scent of something exotic cooking. “Aurora’shome,” Kalen said as they stepped inside. She let go of his hand for the first time all afternoon.

Daiyu had been half expecting someone as dark as Ombri, but Aurora was almost his exact opposite. She was only slightly taller than Daiyu, porcelain-skinned, blue-eyed, with utterly straight yellow hair that fell almost to her waist. She looked to be about fifty years old, but Daiyu had to wonder. She had gotten the impression that Ombri, at least, had seen a lot of travel; perhaps the servants were as ageless as the gods.

“Here’s Daiyu,” Kalen said. “She arrived last night.”

“Hello,Daiyu,”Aurora said, and her voice was low and restful. “I’m so pleased to meet you.”

“We haven’t seen you for a couple of days,” Kalen said.

Aurora returned her attention to the meal she was making. “No, Xiang is keeping me pretty busy,” she said. “But that will work to our advantage, I think. She was very excited to hear about Daiyu.”

Daiyuwasconfused.“Whataboutme?Whoareyoutalking about?”

“Xiang. The woman who employs me,” Aurora said. She shook some spice into a pot and glanced back at Daiyu. Those blue eyes were truly astonishing. “She is a wealthy, ambitious woman who has no daughters. She has been bemoaning the fact that she is excluded from some of the summer events at the prime minister’s residence because they are designed to introduce young women to society.”

“Debutante balls!” Daiyu said under her breath. St. Louis had a longstanding tradition called the Veiled Prophet Ball, in which debutantes made their first formal appearances. The History Museum once had mounted an exhibit of Veiled Prophet gowns from decades’ worth of dances, and Daiyu had gone three times to see the display.

Aurora smiled at her again. “Here they are called Presentation Balls, and the annual one sponsored by the prime minister is the most glittering event of the season. Xiang has never been able to attend, and she is very disappointed that this year she will be left out again.” Aurora scooped what looked like soup from the pot and took a taste. “I wish Ombri would get home. This is ready to eat.”

“I’ll get the bowls,” Kalen said, and started rummaging through the kitchen cabinets.

“What can I do to help?” Daiyu asked, gesturing toward the bubblingpot.

“Nothing. Just sit,” Aurora said. She unwrapped a loaf of bread and began slicing it. “So the reason Xiang was excited to learn about you, Daiyu, is that she wants to borrow you.”

“What?”

“She wants to pretend you are her niece, take you to the palace, and present you to Chenglei. And I, of course, told her that she could.”

Not until Ombri was home and they all sat at the table eating bread and soup and something that seemed like cheese, but wasn’t exactly right, did Aurora explain the rest of the plan.

“I told Xiang that I was expecting a visitor from the northwestern territories—a poor girl, but full-blooded Han, not a worthless
cangbai
woman like me,” Aurora said. “I said you were coming to the city to try to find work. That you had been educated by a rich uncle who lost interest in you when his own daughter bore a child late in life. So you have no prospects and no connections, and you cannot be expected to have the polish of a city woman, but you are genteel. I think this will explain away any oddness in your language or gaps in your knowledge,” Aurora added.

“And you want me to pretend Xiang is my aunt so that I can attend the Presentation Ball?”

“Precisely,” Ombri replied.

“It’s almost three weeks until the ball,” Aurora said. “That will give Xiang time to drill you in how to behave in society. And to have clothes made, of course.”

Daiyu laid down her oversized spoon. “Wait,” she said. “You want me to go
live
with her for a couple of weeks?”

“Perhaps not quite so long,” Aurora said. “But you’ll certainly have to spend time with her before the ball so that she can coach you in some of the behaviors you will be expected to know.”

“You could train me,” Daiyu suggested.

Ombri shook his head. “There are subtleties and nuances that you could only learn from a native.”

She looked at Kalen for support, and he laughed. “
I
don’t know how to behave at a society dinner.”

“You must go live with Xiang, because she is your route to Chenglei’s side,” Ombri said firmly. “Once you have banished Chenglei, you will be free to leave Xiang’s household and return to your own world.”

“Ah, that’s something we have to explain very carefully,” Aurora said. “Exactly how we want you to send Chenglei home.”

SEVEN

AFTER DINNER THE
four of them sat on a brightly colored rug spread over the floor, and Aurora laid a selection of items before her. One was a simple piece of shimmering rose quartz about the size of a robin’s egg, polished to a slippery smooth shine. It lay beside a red silk bag with a gold drawstring top. Another was a broad silver bracelet etched with an indecipherable design; it was hinged in the middle, and just now lay open in two connected curves. Next to it was a small scuffed box that looked just big enough to hold the bracelet in its closed position.

Aurora had pulled on thin white cotton gloves that went all the way up to her elbows, and she tossed a similar pair to Daiyu.

“Never touch any of the talismans with your bare hands,” Ombri said, his sonorous voice making the prohibition all the more compelling. “They are designed to respond almost instantly to contact with skin. Even if you drop them after only a second or two, the damage will be done. You will already be transported.”

“Transported where?”

Aurora pointed at the piece of quartz, and Daiyu picked it upinherglovedhand. For a moment she caught a faint familiar fragrance, as if the stone had been daubed with her father’s aftershave or her mother’s perfume, but then it faded.

“This piece of quartz is big enough to send you home even if you are nowhere near the gateway,” Aurora said. “The talisman was precisely calibrated to send you back to the exact place and time you were when you left Earth. It will be as if not a single minute has passed.” She handed the silk bag to Daiyu. “Put the quartz inside the pouch and carry it with you at all times,since you never know when you might need it.”

“If ever you feel endangered, take the stone out of the bag and hold it in your bare hand for a moment,” Ombri said. “You will almost instantly be home—puzzled, confused, but essentially unchanged.”

Daiyu couldn’t resist rubbing the smooth quartz through the even smoother fabric. It
did
feel magical, charged with inexplicable energy, although that was probably just the power of suggestion. For a moment, she was horribly tempted to shake the rock into her hand and disappear. She didn’t want to go live with Xiang, an utter stranger; she was far from sure that she wanted to be the means of banishing Chenglei from this world. All she really wanted was to go home, to be with familiar people in a familiar place. To forget that Jia even existed.

If, in fact, it did. If, in fact, she was not still dreaming.

It wa sthe first time since breakfast that she had questioned the reality of her new situation. What was even more disturbing was that she had spent very little time all day thinking about her proper world. It seemed—less urgent, perhaps. Less vivid. She had been so content to wander the streets of Shenglang, her fingers interlaced with Kalen’s, that she hadn’t wasted much energy worrying about the city she had left behind.

What if she became so at ease here in Jia that she forgot there was another life awaiting her in the place where she belonged?

What if she became so comfortable with Aurora and Ombri that she stopped questioning their motives and their explanations?

What if she became so attached to Kalen that she wouldn’t want to part with him when it was time to go?

Shouldn’t she leave now, while her mind was still relatively clear, while her heart was still disengaged?

Her fingers closed more tightly over the bag. She stared at the golden drawstring.

I’m not ready to leave,
she thought. Partly because she was curious. She would like to know if the stories she’d been told were true; how would she ever find out if she didn’t let the adventure run its course?

Partly because of Kalen.

Which was ridiculous. She had only known him a day. She wouldn’t even remember him once this wild adventure was over. It would be stupid to base any decision on her feelings for a
cangbai
boy.

“All right,”she said at last, hoping her voice showed none of her inner strain. “And what about the bracelet?”

Aurora picked it up and snapped it shut around her own arm. It was clear the bracelet was made for a man’s thicker wrist, for it was almost big enough to slide down over her gloved fist. “If you touch the silver for more than a second,” she said, “you will be sent to
our
world. You will be safe there, and the residents will recognize you as a sojourner who does not belong and who is probably afraid. But most of them will not know where you
do
belong or how to return you there.”

Daiyu was alarmed. “Couldn’t one of you come after me?”