Starry River of the Sky (3 page)

Just like that, Rendi became the chore boy at the Inn of Clear Sky. He was not used to doing chores, so when he found a broom in his hand, he had to watch Peiyi to learn how to sweep. He watched her so closely as she washed and dusted that she was convinced he was mocking her and said in annoyance, “Go clean that room by yourself.”

As he left, Peiyi added, “Do a good job. It’s the best room in the inn.”

Just by her tone, Rendi could tell that the room was a point of pride. Instead of plain wood, the couch bed in
this room was carved with ribbon-tailed birds and plum blossoms. There was a matching table, and the warm-colored wood shone as if it had just been dipped in honey. Silk scrolls hung on the wall, and lacquered, painted gourds stood as vases.

Rendi sneered. “Best room in the inn,” he scoffed to one of the painted peonies. “It’s not even good enough for one of my father’s servants.”

But as the words fell from his lips, he froze and his face darkened. Without another word, Rendi spent the rest of the time vigorously polishing and dusting, flinging the dirt from the window as if to rid the room of any of his lingering words. When he finished, the room was spotless, and even Peiyi could not find any fault with it.

Wasted work, though
, Rendi often thought. With the exception of old Mr. Shan, who did not even stay at the inn but just came to eat every day, there were no guests at the Inn of Clear Sky. Rendi watched carefully day after day, hoping another merchant or trader would arrive so he could leave this poor, pitiful village with its crying sky.

It could barely be called a village, really; most of the homes were empty and abandoned, and the people who
lived here now would barely fill the dining room of the inn. “Everyone leaves. Villagers, guests, everyone. Even my brother left,” Peiyi had said sadly to Rendi. But she had added with a note of happiness, “Even you’ll go, someday.”

I hope someday soon
, Rendi had thought.

But it was not to be today. In the morning, Rendi awoke to the strident crow of the neighbor’s rooster and looked out the window. As he expected, the hot sun shone brightly on the undisturbed yard, and there was not a horse or hoofprint visible. Rendi sighed and washed his face. Perhaps tomorrow a guest would come. A guest with a cart he could crawl into.

“You’re late,” Master Chao said as Rendi and Peiyi walked down the stairs. “We have a new guest.”

“A new guest?” Peiyi said in surprise. Rendi was also surprised. The sky’s moaning had kept him awake most of the night, and he had heard no one arrive. “Did he come in the night?”

“No,” Master Chao said. “Arrived early this morning, alone, on foot, and paid for a room for a whole month. She said she may stay longer.”

“She?” Rendi said. The word spurted from him in surprise. It was unheard of for a woman to be staying alone at an inn, much less one who came on foot and stayed for longer than a night.

“Yes,” Master Chao said, “and she wants her breakfast brought to her room. Make sure you ask her if she wants all her meals there.”

“What is she doing here?” Peiyi asked. “And for so long?”

“That’s not our business,” Master Chao said, quickly shaking his head at Peiyi. “She paid for her room and meals. That is all that concerns us.”

Peiyi looked at Rendi, but he did not return her gaze. He hoped he looked bored and uninterested, even though inside he was as curious as she was.

“I’ll help you bring up the breakfast,” Peiyi said to Rendi. He wasn’t fooled. He knew she just wanted to peek at their new, mysterious guest. But he said nothing and handed her the covered cup of tea.

The new female guest was standing at the window in the finest room of the inn, the same window Rendi had flung dust out of. Her back was toward them, and she stood against the yellow sunlight. The darkness of her silhouette reminded Rendi of the moonless sky that cried at him at night.

“Your breakfast,” Rendi said, “Madame…”

“Madame Chang,” the woman said. Her serene voice seemed out of place in the hot room, already baking in the summer sun. “Tell me,” Madame Chang said without turning, “what did you name the stone field where the mountain was?”

“The Stone Pancake,” Peiyi said, pleased that this new guest already knew the story. “It was my ancestor who moved the mountain!”

“Really?” Madame Chang said, and she turned and looked at them. Rendi and Peiyi gaped.

Madame Chang did not look like any woman Rendi had ever seen before. She was not like the painted ladies of the court, who giggled and swayed like flowers as the wind blew. Nor did she resemble a broad-shouldered peasant woman, thick and browned by the sun. Her features were fine and smooth, as if she had been carved from ivory, and the light in her dark eyes made them shine like stars. She stood with the elegance of a willow tree, and even though she wore the cotton robes of a commoner, both Rendi and Peiyi felt as if they should kowtow before her.

Peiyi’s eyes were as large as lychees, and it took a moment before Rendi realized that they were both staring.

“Master Chao would like to know if you want all your meals brought to you in your room,” Rendi said.

“It’s cooler in the dining room,” Peiyi said, and then with an attempt at a grown-up air, “but it’s hot everywhere, these days.”

“Yes, it is,” Madame Chang agreed with a smile. “But at least it’s not as hot as when there were six suns in the sky.”

“Six suns?” Peiyi asked.

“You don’t know the story?” Madame Chang asked, looking from Peiyi to Rendi. Both shook their heads.

T
HE
S
TORY OF THE
S
IX
S
UNS

L
ong ago, so long that only the sky, mountains, and water can truly remember, six suns appeared in the sky. These six suns caused
great suffering and devastation to the earth. Rain boiled away before ever touching the ground. The trees and plants withered, leaving behind only the scorched earth, burned and brown. All the villagers were forced to live like worms, crowding into an ancient dark hole in one of the hills. As they began to starve, they also began to despair.

But then a rumor began to murmur at night, perhaps sent by the Spirit of the Mountain above. “The one marked with power can save you,” it whispered. “The one who bears the mark of power can save you.”

The people looked at one another in confusion until a man stepped forward. His name was WangYi, and he was the strongest, bravest, and quickest of all men. He had already done many great deeds. They said he had tamed the flooding water serpent with just the fierceness of his eyes, and he had killed the single-toothed earth giant with his mighty strength. But more than that, WangYi had an unusual scar on his forehead. It looked like the character
wang
, a symbol of power.

“It must be WangYi whom the Spirit of the Mountain meant,” the people said. “The scar is the mark of power!”

But when WangYi stepped on the scorched earth and gazed at the six suns, he knew his strength and fierceness would not help. He had to stand in the shade of the mountain, for the ground lit by the suns burned his feet. Everything on earth was suffering—even the giant tree next to the mountain seemed to be withering. WangYi realized that he could not fight the suns. His only hope was to shoot them down from the sky.

So he shot his arrows at the suns, pulling his mighty crescent bow so that it made the shape of a full moon. But no matter how powerfully he pulled, the arrows could not reach. Over and over he shot, until the shade of the mountain disappeared as the suns moved overhead. Finally, with only six arrows left in his case, WangYi was forced to dip his feet in water to cool them. He looked down in defeat.

It was then that he saw his reflection in the pool. The great lake had shrunk because of the heat, but the shade of the mountain had saved it from completely vanishing. There was still enough water for him to see the six suns reflected in it.

“I will shoot them here!” WangYi said. And with his back to the mountain, he quickly placed an arrow in his bow and shot at the reflection of one of the suns. As the arrow flew into the water, a sun sank from the sky. WangYi fitted another arrow and shot again. Another sun fell.

Immediately, the people felt a change in the temperature. They crawled out from the hole to watch WangYi shoot the third sun and then the fourth. But as everyone cheered, WangYi’s wife thought quickly.

“If he shoots all the suns,” she realized, “we will be forever in darkness.”

So, knowing better than to disturb her husband’s concentration, she crept behind WangYi as he prepared his arrow for the fifth sun. With all eyes on WangYi, only the mountain saw her as she silently took the sixth and last arrow from his case and swiftly hid it in her sleeve. As a result, after shooting the fifth sun, WangYi found his case empty and laid down his bow.

This is why there is now one sun.

“Well, that one sun is hot enough,” Rendi said. The guest room had grown even hotter during the story, and a drop of sweat rolled down his forehead like a falling grain of rice.

“That is true,” Madame Chang said, and she looked out the window at the dry, yellowing earth below. Then she looked again at Peiyi and Rendi. “Please tell Master Chao I will take the rest of my meals downstairs with the other guests. I think I would enjoy the company.”

Rendi didn’t think Madame Chang would much enjoy the company of old, slow-witted Mr. Shan, the inn’s one regular mealtime guest, but he refrained from saying so. Instead, both he and Peiyi bowed respectfully and left the room.