The Last Concubine (2 page)

“We will consider these tokens. You have a memorial?” Lord Jiang cut the man off expertly.

“It happens that I do. Wu Min wished to ensure that your graciousness was aware of his loyalty—”

“So you had mentioned.” Jiang held out his hand for the scroll.

The courtier got to his feet and approached the dais, withdrawing the scroll from the sleeve of his robe. He winced as Jiang gripped his arm with one hand while he accepted the scroll in the other. He glanced at Hüi Wei’s face but could vouchsafe nothing and surrendered the scroll without a struggle.

“The audience is at an end. You may all withdraw,” Jiang announced. “The Princess Lan’xiu is to be conveyed to the harem.” He snapped his fingers at the general’s soldiers, who came forward immediately.

“But—the princess—her guard—she must not be left unprotected!” the courtier sputtered. “Her guards must—”

“I am sure we will be able to protect her adequately. The guards you brought may leave with you, while they still can,” Jiang said, his voice implying he would accept no argument.

“Her servant, then. At least permit her servant to bear her company as she makes a new home here—”

For the first time Jiang examined the short, slim manservant with a soft, slightly feminine face. “You are eunuch?”

Blushing, the servant nodded without looking up, taking a tiny step closer to the princess.

The princess’s beautiful face showed nothing of the emotion to be expected of a noble girl being delivered into an unknown court and a stranger’s bed, but she seemed to sway slightly in the direction of her eunuch servant.

Hüi Wei waved a hand and his soldiers came forward to lead the girl and her servant from the room. The soldiers who had guarded her made no move, as if they had no idea what to do in this unforeseen circumstance.

The courtier’s face wore a frustrated expression as he watched the princess disappear, but he seemed to accept his impotence and, once again, pressed his forehead to the floor. “I shall convey to his gracious Lordship Wu Min the fact that the Lord General Qiang Hüi Wei accepted the gifts he chose with much deliberation and thought for the enjoyment and enrichment of your Lordship’s house—”

Hüi Wei’s shoulders shook as he strode from the room chuckling, accompanied by Jiang. “Do you think he is still speaking?”

“I gave orders to the guards to take note of what he says, but I fear it is in vain to hope for some indiscretion. He is well versed in spewing many words while saying very little. I have no idea what Wu Min hopes to gain with this display.”

Hüi’s lips tightened into a grim smile as he walked through the halls. “Have you not? And you so long-headed, unless you flatter me by allowing me to be the one to elucidate. Answer me this: how did a man who governs a landlocked province many miles from the sea come by such a quantity of peerless pearls?”

Jiang looked much struck as he hurried to keep up. “That is a very interesting question. It would greatly add to his power and control if he had access to a seaport, but I fail to see how selling his sister would gain this for him.”

“At least, not to me. I am well supplied with wives and concubines. One might suppose that another would be a surfeit.”

“The emperor is said to have a harem of hundreds of concubines.”

“The emperor is the emperor and he does not need to ride to war or put down rebellions from upstart provinces,” Hüi Wei snapped. “A plain man like me does not need a different woman to warm his bed every night.”

“Speaking of peerless,” Jiang said, tactfully turning the conversation, “I have never seen a girl more beautiful than this princess.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Hüi Wei lied.

“Of course you hadn’t, but when you can spare the time, you might have a look at her face.” Jiang sighed in admiration. “Such perfection of form. Her skin is as flawless as those pearls delivered with her. Almond eyes as deep as the night sky, a mouth curved like a—”

“Like a snake in its death throes? Enough! I shall take your word for it that she is a paragon of all female graces,” Hüi Wei said, laughing. “Take care
you
don’t fall under her spell. It is punishable by death to dally with another man’s concubine.”

“Then you mean to keep her?”

“I have not yet decided,” Hüi said coolly.

“But you’re not sending her back?”

Hüi opened the door to his private chamber. “Come in with me.”

Jiang entered the room, shutting the door behind him. “What game are you playing at? Do not hide your teeth with me.”

“What does he say in that scroll?”

Jiang unrolled it. “If I’m reading between the lines correctly, he is hoping to prevent you from invading his province and hopes you will honor your mutual borders. That means he’s doing something that he doesn’t want you to know about but warrants an invasion. Perhaps he’s hoping to distract your attention with her beauty.”

Hüi flung himself into a chair with none of the deliberate ceremony he had employed in the audience chamber when taking the throne. He poured both of them a cup of
huáng jiǔ
and took a sip before he spoke. “I shall keep her for a time, if only in order to find out what Wu Min’s plan is. He is ambitious and clever but owes allegiance only to himself. He is a careful man. I have fought on the same field with him, and he does not commit to an attack when it will not benefit him personally, no matter what treaty he’s signed. He resorts to deceit and trickery to get what he wants.”

“And by giving you this girl, he hopes to gain—what? That her beauty will occupy you to the point that he may march past you on the way to the sea?” Jiang laughed at the thought of any woman distracting Hüi Wei to the point of neglecting his sacred, heaven-decreed duty. “He doesn’t know you well.”

“At the very least, if you had allowed her guard to remain with her, he would have planted some spies in my court. Who knows? Perhaps
she
spies for him.” Hüi Wei held the glass up to the light, gazing at the golden liquor. “He judges others to be lesser strategists than himself. That is Wu Min’s greatest handicap. No, he has some other reason for sending me this girl. Something he hopes to gain by putting me in possession of her. Perhaps she was born under a curse and brings bad luck to whatever roof she resides under, despite her beauty. The gods sometimes amuse themselves by giving a gift with one hand and taking it back with the other.” He laughed. “It must have gone against his grain to give up that tribute of silver, pearls, and silk, simply to disguise his true intent. He must be confident that he will be able to retrieve it all at some point. Wu Min does not open his fist easily.”

“He cannot hope that her presence will lead to strife in your household,” Jiang mused in a perplexed voice. “A man does not concern himself with the petty squabbles of mere concubines.”

“Even Wu Min would not make that mistake,” Hüi Wei agreed dryly. “Have her escorted to the seventh house.”

“When you do see her, do you think she will tell you why Wu Min sent her?”

“She may not know. And I shall not see her, not at once,” Hüi said.

“I thought not,” Jiang said in a satisfied tone. “The news will be conveyed to Wu Min that you have ignored his gifts. Leaving them on the floor as you did when you left the audience room was a stroke of genius. Perhaps it might spur him to an incautious action.”

“Perhaps,” Hüi said. “In any case, have all the tribute cataloged and taken to the strong room.”

“With the exception of the Princess Lan’xiu,” teased Jiang.

“Find out about that family,” Hüi said suddenly. “It must be a most heartless man to send his own sister to endure the fate of becoming a minor concubine in an established household. I could not do it, even if the emperor commanded it. There is something odd behind this whole affair.”

“I shall see that the princess is established in the seventh house with her servant, but I shan’t make her too comfortable just yet. And perhaps I might arrange a meeting between her and first wife, Lady Mei Ju?”

A slow smile crossed Hüi’s lips. “I knew there was some reason I kept a jester in my court.”

“Jester! I am no jester!” Jiang exclaimed in pretended outrage. “The joke would be on you if I took that insult to heart and made humor my primary objective in your service.”

“I would not insult any but my closest friend so, Jiang.” Hüi rose and placed his hand upon Jiang’s shoulder. “We shall see this through together as we always have, come what may.”

“We shall,” Jiang agreed.

P
RINCESS
L
AN
’
XIU
followed the soldier in the lead, conscious of the second soldier, sword in hand, trailing her and her servant. She cast covert glances about her, taking in the strong walls of stone about the palace, too high to scale and too smoothly fitted to offer a toehold if one dared to try their luck in climbing them. And beyond that was a similar wall around the city to be gotten past, if one did manage the first.

Armed guards patrolled every method of egress to prevent any intruder from getting in. Great artistry had been employed within the walls to encourage the inmates to feel they were within some beautiful park. Trees and bushes had borne flowers in the proper season, although just now a slight powdering of snow lay upon the ground. In despair, Lan’xiu noted the footprints left in the mantle of white that made a stealthy escape impossible.

She followed docilely to another securely guarded square, a sort of fort within a fortress, and her heart sank when she recognized that this was the harem. It was walled off with great iron gates always kept locked. The soldier used a key to permit them entry, and she heard a bar being lifted from the inside in response to his knock. The soldier locked the gates again once they were inside. However, instead of one great building with communal facilities, she saw twelve separate houses positioned around the square. Bare peach and plum trees stood within the center of the park, surrounded by brown bushes stripped of their leaves by the season. Six benches were set out within the open space.

Each house was identical, save the first. Where the roof tiles on all the other homes were of cobalt blue, the most splendid home was crowned with brilliant crimson tiles, to bring auspicious fortune to those residing under it. This house was bigger, more magnificent, with ceramic temple dogs set at each sweeping corner of the roof to guard that the good luck did not escape. A covered walkway led to the front door and light shone from within, giving the red curtains a warm glow. Shadows moving behind the curtains suggested a family within, enjoying an evening’s entertainment.

Lan’xiu looked at this house with longing. It was suitable for one of her birth, but her rank accorded her no perquisites any longer. She knew that despite the destiny foretold at her birth, her fortunes had been turned onto a darker, more sinister path.

Each house in the square had a lantern hung to the right of the door. The lantern was lit at only the fifth house, gleaming through the cold blue dusk. As they passed the house where the lantern shone, one of the soldiers grunted.

Correctly assuming this inarticulate commentary had nothing to do with her, the Princess Lan’xiu continued to follow the soldier in silence until he paused in front of the seventh house, producing a huge iron key. The lock screeched in protest when the key turned, and the hinges groaned as the soldier pushed the door open.

Lan’xiu gathered her cloak together to step into the dark, cold hallway, steeling herself for whatever might come next. For all she knew, the soldiers had been given orders to bring her here and execute her. She could feel the warmth of his body as Shu Ning, her eunuch, positioned himself between her and the soldier following them. It did not comfort her to realize he entertained the same suspicions as she.

She controlled her instinctive impulse to jump when the first soldier spoke, not wanting the man to see how frightened she was.

“Your Ladyship, my Lord Jiang extends his apologies. We had no prior knowledge of your coming, and the house is not prepared for you. If your Ladyship will be patient, servants will be here presently to light the fires and the lamps. The house has been kept clean, so it is habitable. Your luggage will be brought to you.”

“Jiang? I thought the general’s name was Qiang Hüi Wei?” the eunuch questioned the soldier sharply.

“Lord Jiang is the General’s second in command. He sees to the smooth running of General Qiang’s establishment. It is to him that you would address any complaints or requests.”

Lan’xiu waved a graceful hand but did not speak. A lady of her status did not give direct orders to servants. That is what one had eunuchs for.

Once again, Shu Ning spoke. “I am sure the princess will have no cause for complaint. How am I to procure food for her?”

“Food will be brought presently, along with water, tea, and wine.” The soldier appeared to have no wish for more conversation. He and his fellow retreated to stand guard at either side of the door.

The shutters were barred from the outside, and dusk had made the shadows within the house grow deeper. Only the faint light of the moon streaming through the circular window over the door silvered the polished floor as Lan’xiu waited anxiously for some sound, a soft footfall or rustle of clothing, to tell her when the attack would begin.