Five Odd Honors (66 page)

As he did so, Loyal Wind saw the Horse galloping into the distance, but he felt no terrible loss.

Yen -lo Wang was smiling faintly. Water Cloud, the Rooster, stood to one side of the judge’s throne, arms outstretched, her face bright with welcome.

Pearl was trying hard not to cry, but tears blurred her sight as Nine Ducks, Gentle Smoke, Loyal Wind, Copper Gong, and Bent Bamboo kowtowed before the Jade Petal Throne, begging forgiveness, asking to right a wrong they had not intended.

Was it the tears in her eyes that made the air above those bent figures shimmer and become momentarily solid?

Above the five curved backs the Ox, Snake, Horse, Ram, and Monkey had reshaped the air. Somehow, although wholly animal, each bore some resemblance to their human selves: a twinkle of a smile, a knowing look in an eye, a proud bearing to a head.

The five incarnations of the Earthly Branches reached forth and touched the still kowtowing humans. Between one breath and the next, each fell still. No one needed Honey Dream’s spontaneous cry of pain and grief to tell them that their friends were dead.

Pearl removed her hand from her sleeve and dashed the tears from her eyes, watching steadily as the five incarnations faded into smoke and memory.

An odd honor,
she thought,
giving death for good service, but a high tribute nonetheless, coming to see their hosts off on this last journey. Perhaps they didn’t need to come far, perhaps they were there all along. Do I become the Tiger or does the Tiger become me?

Pearl laughed quietly at herself.
I guess I won’t know until it’s too late to share that particular bit of knowledge.

Across the room, Honey Dream—who had been honestly shocked when she felt Gentle Smoke’s death and the Snake’s return to fully bond with the Lands—was sobbing in her father’s arms. A few of the nascent imperial court were gathered near, murmuring soothing comments. For the first time since her arrival, Pearl felt out of place.

Pearl gathered her friends to her with a glance.

“Come on,” she said. “They need time to adjust, and I for one could do with a nice cup of tea.”

“We’ll come back, though,” Brenda said, anxiously, touching a bit of ragged lavender fabric that hung from her wrist.

“I think so,” Pearl assured her. “I think so.”

If not in life, then in death, we will certainly return, at least a part of us, the part that belongs to the Lands.