Heart and Soul (4 page)

Surprised that Zhang could be so discomposed—Jade had never seen him in less than perfect control—she lifted her left hand with the oversized ring on it. “I hold the power of the True Emperor,” she said, simply, even as her heart thumped hard in her chest and she wondered if Wen was in fact the True Emperor. If his magic, damaged as it was from opium, would be able to lift the Dragon Boats, even when channeled through her.

Zhang looked…worried. Which was odd, because if she and Wen couldn’t make the boats fly, then Zhang would kill them both, and the power would devolve, naturally, upon him.

So what was worrying Zhang?

Looking up, she signaled, wordlessly, that she was willing to listen to his words in private. Then she turned and walked purposely to a corner of the room where no one else stood. She heard his steps following her.

“It is about the Jewels of Power,” he said, as soon as they were isolated enough that no one else would hear them. “The twin jewels.” He spoke the words with reverence and so close to her face that his hot breath tickled her cheek. He smelled of ginger and garlic.

“What twin jewels?”

He sighed. “This is why I’d prefer to speak to His Majesty. Women are not told these things, nor are they supposed to enmesh themselves in the affairs of men.”

Jade thought of Wen, who, by now, would be well lost in his opium dreams. He might have heard of the jewels—or not, considering that their father had never been very fond of Wen. If he’d told anyone secrets of state, he was far more likely to tell them to Jade. So instead of speaking, she simply raised her hand, with the ring on it.

Zhang made a sound like a pricked balloon. “There are two rubies of great power, upon which the whole power of the world rests. The whole magical power.”

“Impossible,” Jade said. “For if that were true, then none of us would have magic or the ability to use it.”

Zhang made a sound that might have been a cough or a hastily swallowed put-down on the mental power of women. Having heard him deliver such opinions before, Jade suspected it was the latter. “I mean,” he said in the tone of a master who is barely holding back from caning a disobedient pupil, “that the jewels anchor the power of the world. That without them, no one in our world would be able to hold magic. Beyond that…” He shrugged. “Many centuries ago, it is said the king of the foreign devils stole one of them and made the magic in it his own, so that magic would pass only to him and his descendants. Which is why the most magic in Europe goes only to a few families, and why European mages are much stronger than those in other lands—the Dragon Boat people excepted, of course.”

“Ah,
a legend,
” Jade said, managing to convey in those few words the disdain she felt for Zhang.

He recoiled as though slapped. And for a moment, as he looked up at her, his dark eyes burned with unmistakable hatred so strong that it shocked even her. But almost immediately he smoothed his expression into the vague, deferential gaze he usually gave her. “It is a legend with a lot of truth,” he snapped. “The queen of the foreign devils, Queen Victoria”—he pronounced the name as an imprecation—“thinks so, too. She has sent envoys of her own to find the remaining jewel. I found out about it, with the foreseeing magic I command, and I have followed their exploits ever since. Even though they found the other jewel, they didn’t give it to the queen. Instead, one of them took the new jewel and the other went in search of the old, spent jewel…which he found and healed somehow. Now one of the envoys has both jewels, and I know where he is headed. I had a vision that told me which carpetship he will be traveling on.” Zhang’s eyes burned with light, as if he were feverish. “We can intercept the ship. We can take the jewels.”

“Why should we?” Jade asked, taken aback by the naked lust in the man’s voice.

Zhang looked at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. “They are the most powerful jewels in the world. They contain power over all the magic on Earth. Whoever holds them can deny magic to everyone else by means of a simple ritual. Whoever holds them could rule the world.”

Jade couldn’t think of anything that Wen would want less. And if the rule of the world were to devolve upon her shoulders by default, then it was more burden than she needed.

“Your brother would truly be True Emperor of All Under Heaven,” Zhang said.

“He
is
True Emperor of All Under Heaven,” Jade snapped.

“In name, at least. But with this…” Zhang’s voice dropped and slid, caressing like velvet. “With this, he could rule like your distant ancestors. He could take over the palace, and eject the interlopers.”

At this, Jade paused. Getting back their proper place was something altogether different. Since the invaders had taken over the land of her ancestors, they’d lived like pariahs aboard the Dragon Boats. Most people thought them pirates, vagabonds, people of no account. To be able to recover their position and power was something that Jade could not turn down. In fact, it would be a sin against her ancestors to refuse.

And, a secret, almost unheard thought whispered, if she were to recover the throne of her ancestors, then she could find someone else to take over looking after Wen and she, herself, could choose a husband from amid all the noblemen in the kingdom. Not many might aspire to marry the daughter of a Dragon Boat pirate, but how many would vie for the sister of the Dragon Emperor?

“Ah,” he said. “I see that you know your duty.”

“Perhaps,” she said, unwilling to concede anything. “But how are we to accomplish this daring feat? Yes, we’ve attacked carpetships before, but surely if this carpetship is carrying such a treasure as you describe, then it will have an armed escort. Are you suggesting that our Dragon Boats are enough to face the wrath of the devil-queen’s army?”

“No escort,” he said, making a dismissive gesture with his hand. “No armed men. This man who carries the jewels is no longer working for his queen, nor is he traveling with her permission. He is attempting to return the jewels to Africa.”

“To Africa?” Jade said, in dismay, thinking of the distances they would have to fly to intercept such a carpetship. Not only that, but they would fly over many peopled lands, places where others were bound to see them. And with her magic being bound to the kingdom, she wasn’t sure at all if it would work over foreign lands.

“Are you afraid that you can’t fly the boats that far?” Zhang asked. “Perhaps we should ask His Majesty—”

“No,” Jade said. His Majesty would probably not be much more use than an infant now. She thought hard. Her mother had told her, far back in childhood, that a good part of her magic was from the foreign-devil side of Jade’s ancestry. Surely that would be enough to allow her to fly the Dragon Boats wherever she needed.

“Very well, then. How do we go about this?”

“I have drawn a map from my vision.” From his sleeve, Zhang pulled a scroll which he opened, showing Jade where they were and where the carpetship would be when they reached it.

Jade looked at the vast expanse of undulating lines which she supposed signified the ocean in between and bit her lip, but said nothing. Then again, she’d never heard that Zhang had the gift of foresight. It was a rare, near-untamable power, one that was as prized as it was feared. But to draw this map of a future event, Zhang would have had to employ it. Why had Jade’s father never told her of Zhang’s power?

“So, milady, do you think you can make the boats fly?”

“I’m sure I can. By the power of my brother, the emperor.” She glared at Zhang and swept past him, to the place where the emperor stood while making the prayer that caused the boats to fly. It was a place on the deck, just outside the emperor’s quarters, looking out over the entire flotilla. “If you’re sure we can take the carpetship?”

“That I am sure of. This ship is no stronger than the
Light of the Orient.
And your father and I took that easily just last month.”

Jade did not dignify that with an answer. Instead, she stepped out onto the flat, polished deck. She could feel the courtiers assemble in a rough circle behind her, as they waited for her to make the boats fly.

She heard the conversations diminish from normal voices to whispers, and finally from whispers to a heavy silence. The news must have spread that she was using her brother’s power. She could sense the doubt and confusion in all their minds. Those who knew of Wen’s problem would doubt Wen’s ability to wield any power, and those who didn’t know of it would, of course, question Jade’s ability to borrow that power.

Their doubt pricked at Jade’s consciousness like thorns. In her mind, she said the prayer she’d heard her father say hundreds of times before, but nothing happened.

She folded her hands, her right hand covering the ring. Was she imagining it, or was the stone warm to her touch? She took a deep breath. Her father always said the prayer aloud. Perhaps she must do the same. But what if the prayer failed?

Jade choked back a laugh. It didn’t matter. If Wen’s power failed her, then neither of them would last long enough to worry about anything ever again. And the Dragon Boats would be Zhang’s problem.

Taking a deep breath, she started reciting the prayer to the gods of wind and air, and to her ancestors. She begged them to take the Dragon Boats and bear them aloft, bend them to her commands.

After she finished, there was a long, expectant silence, then the whispers started again, behind her, in various tones of worry. Then, suddenly, the jewel caught fire. Warmth and light shone from it, displaying the bones of her fingers through her skin. She made a sound of surprise and removed her hand, and the red light of the jewel shone over the Dragon Boats. And then the boat rocked beneath her feet, rising slowly, like a bird taking wing.

With her ringed left hand, she pointed above and to the west, in the direction the boats were to take. And, as one, they rose, bright and tattered under the sun—Dragon Boats with their elaborately carved prows, their multicolored sails, their shabby decks, their multitudes of gaudily dressed dragon lords.

Jade cast a triumphant look at Zhang. Was she mistaken, or did he look a little disappointed?

But he also looked excited. And greedy. They would raid at his command, but if he thought Jade would be confined to the women’s quarters as she normally was when everything started, he was out of his mind.

The twin jewels, with their power, were too rich a prize for the ambitious Zhang. No, this was one raid Jade herself would take part in. Her father had taught her to fight as well as most men her age. And though he hadn’t encouraged her to go to battle, she was as capable as most. More capable than Wen. She would put men’s clothes on and join the fray.

Zhang could not be trusted out of her sight. And she had no intention of letting the Dragon Throne be stolen.

THIRD LADY

Jade turned from the flying. Once the boats had lifted
and been set on their course, the other Dragon Lords could make the adjustments necessary to the flight. The emperor—or his representative—was no longer needed. Her presence on deck wasn’t required. And on this, the last day of her mourning for her father, the first day of her brother’s reign, she wished to be alone, to seek the comforting solitude and familiarity of her quarters.

They were not on this boat. This boat was Wen’s, and the domain of the male members of the family, their counselors and eventually their sons—though her father had produced no other son than Wen. And no other daughter than Jade. And whether Wen would ever produce sons…