Moon Princess (5 page)

Panting, she reached the lobby. She pushed at the front door, but it wouldn't open! For an awful moment Sienna thought she was trapped in the lobby, but then she spotted a button on the door. She pressed it quickly and the door swung wide.

Then the lift came down. Ling and the man rushed out of it, just as Sienna disappeared through the glass doors. They ran out on to the street after her.

At that moment Sienna knew she didn't stand a chance. Where could she go? She didn't even know her own neighbourhood here, let alone anywhere else in the city. She had no money with her, she couldn't speak fluent Chinese, and she knew no one. She ran for a few
more metres, then stopped, desperately looking around for the best way to go.

‘Now I've got you!' she heard Ling shout as she ran towards Sienna. The Chinese man remained standing by the glass door.

Then Sienna felt someone pulling at her hand. It was the boy from the restaurant!

‘
Gen wo lai
– come with me,' he said to her, and without a moment's thought she began to run again.

The boy pulled her into the restaurant, through the kitchen and to a rear exit. Ling tried to pursue them, struggling in her high heels. Sienna heard her screeching loudly behind them as she followed the boy through the narrow alleys behind the shops.

When they could no longer see or hear Ling, the boy stopped briefly and pushed his sweat-dampened hair out of his face. ‘
Wo shi Feng
,' he said. ‘My name is Feng.'

‘Sienna,' she panted.

He smiled and together they started running again.

5 Pengyou – Friend

‘
L
ai
– come quickly!' Feng called as he pulled Sienna through small, narrow alleys. Her shoulders almost touched the walls to her left and right. They pushed past bicycles and jumped over empty cardboard boxes and bins.

Sienna clutched Feng's hand and tried to keep up with him. Even though she was scared, she felt relieved to be out of the apartment and away from Ling! She realized that they were now in
one of Shanghai's old neighbourhoods with
long-tang
houses – a maze of interconnected alleys. Dad had told her about these places. Here stood small one-storey houses, built from red brick and with gabled roofs. Children played in the sparsely cemented streets and alleys.

Sienna was relieved when Feng stopped running a few minutes later and pushed her through a tiny, unlocked door and into one of the houses.

‘W-where are we?' managed Sienna, out of breath.

Feng replied in soft, hesitant English. ‘This is where I live. You are safe here.'

Sienna looked around the small, damp, empty house. It didn't look as if
anyone
lived here. There was no furniture, just a pile of neatly folded blankets on the floor and a rusty stove in the corner, with one or two pans beside it. The windows were half boarded up, a few planks removed and resting against the sill. The house had clearly been abandoned and shut away. She glanced at Feng, who reddened.

‘I live here for now,' he added quietly.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice. ‘What
are
we doing here? This part of the city is very dirty and smells distinctly unpleasant!'

‘Rufus!' cried Sienna. ‘I'm so glad you're here!'

‘I wish I could say the same,' snapped the little spaniel, sitting crossly on the floor and licking his right paw.

Feng coughed. ‘Who are you speaking to?' he asked with a confused look on his kind face.

Rufus gave a sarcastic laugh. Sienna frowned at him and then turned to Feng. Now was the time to see if all her hard work studying had paid off!

‘It's hard to explain,' she began. ‘You see … I have a friend – a
pengyou
. He's a dog – a
xiao gou
– that only I can see. He's invisible,
yinxing de
. His name is Rufus.' She pointed to where Rufus sat.

Feng stared hard but then shook his head and turned away, obviously unsettled.

‘I see
your
new friend is still a way away from recognizing
other
friends,' said Rufus cryptically, looking up from his paw cleaning.

‘What do you mean?' asked Sienna. Then she remembered that Rufus has said there was something special about this boy. ‘And now you've
decided to reappear, you must tell me now what you meant about Feng being “special”?'

‘Oh, all will be revealed in good time,' said her friend, yawning loudly as if he were already bored of the conversation. ‘Let me just say that you are not the only human to have an invisible friend. Although
you
are lucky enough to have me here with you, others have a more fluid relationship with their companions.'

Sienna turned back to Feng, who was now making a pot of herbal tea on the stove. She wondered if Feng
did
have an invisible friend. If so, perhaps he would tell her about it in his own time. They had only just met each other, after all.

As the new friends sipped their tea, Sienna was lost in her own thoughts. Where should she go? Was Ling looking for her? What were Ling and the horrible man planning on doing with her mum's jewellery? And how had Ling known Mum? She could feel her head spinning, and then she realized Feng was watching her attentively, smiling.

‘What is it? What are you smiling at?' she asked, frowning. She didn't find anything
amusing about their situation!

‘You look very much like your mother,' Feng said softly.

Sienna froze. The colour drained from her face, and her hands began to tremble. Why – how – did this boy know her mother? Leaning forward, she spoke in a voice that didn't sound like her own. ‘My mother is missing –
shizong de
. She's been gone for four months. Do you know where she is?'

Feng sat on the chair, deep in thought, looking at his hands. At last, he shook his head.

‘But how do you even know my mum?' Sienna asked.

‘I come from the city of Pingdingshan in Henan Province,' Feng replied hesitantly. ‘I worked in the Fragrant Mountain Temple in the city with Gege.'

‘Does that mean older brother?' asked Sienna, who had heard the word ‘Gege' before.

‘Yes, he is actually called Dewu, but I just call him Gege. We were selling drinks and things. That's where I learnt to speak English.' He paused. ‘Your mother came to the temple for her research. She was very friendly. She asked Gege
and I many questions about the temple. She found the statue there – the one in the picture I gave you. That's what she was studying when she disappeared.'

‘The moon princess?' Sienna asked, but Feng just looked at her blankly.

‘I wanted to help your mother, but the bad woman wouldn't tell me where she was.'

Sienna looked at Feng in astonishment. She felt a thrill – like a bolt of electricity – pass through her. ‘Bad woman? Do you mean Ling?'

Feng nodded. ‘She was your mother's assistant.'

Sienna took a deep breath. ‘Tell me what happened the day my mum disappeared.'

He took a sip of his tea. ‘The last time I saw your mother, Gege and Ling were with her in Pingdingshan. Gege was your mother's driver. He often picked her up from her hotel and drove her to the temple.' Feng looked Sienna in the eye. ‘One evening, four months ago, Gege didn't come back. I waited in front of the hotel for him, like I did every day. Then Ling came, in a taxi. I asked her about Gege. She said he was going to show your mother other temples and would be
away for a while. I went to the hotel every evening, but he didn't come. Your mother didn't either. I came here, to Shanghai, to find this woman, to see if she could lead me to Gege. I've been watching her for weeks, but I still don't know what's going on. I thought you might be able to help.'

The room fell silent. Sienna was reeling at this information. Surely this must mean that Gege and her mother had been together when they disappeared. Somehow it was comforting to think her mum hadn't been alone.

Rufus was the first one to break the silence. ‘Why don't you look in the box? There might be something you've missed, given this new information? Or the boy might spot something?'

Sienna looked down at her hands. She realized she hadn't let go of the tin box since she'd run out of the flat. Wordlessly she opened the box and laid the contents on the floor. The three of them looked at Sienna's treasures. She showed Feng the picture of the driver in the brown car. ‘Is that your brother?'

He nodded, his eyes dampening. ‘That's him, that's Gege.'

Rufus peered at the picture in Feng's hands. ‘And that's Ling in the back! I should have known,' he growled crossly. ‘First this woman is swanning around Henan with your mother, and now she's here, keeping an eye on you! That's no coincidence.'

Sienna's mum must have trusted Ling, told her about Sienna and her dad, about the flat in Shanghai. She felt a stab of anger at Ling's betrayal.

Taking a deep breath, she asked, ‘Feng, do you think Gege is still alive?'

Feng glanced at the door, then turned to face Sienna. He looked defiant. ‘I
know
he's alive. I'd feel it if he wasn't, wouldn't I? He's my brother.'

Sienna's head was swimming. Feng was right. Deep down, in spite of her dad and the counsellor and everyone else telling her to accept her mother's death and move on, she'd never really
felt
that her mum was dead.

Busy with her own thoughts, she didn't notice someone climbing quietly through the open window into the house. The new visitor had already made herself comfortable on the windowsill and was observing proceedings. With
an air of disdain she washed her face with her dainty paws.

It was only when she heard the tinkling of a bell that Sienna looked up. There sat a pretty white cat, a little bell hanging from her blue collar. Sienna knew immediately who she was: Minka, her mother's invisible friend.

6 Guaiwu – Monster

‘
R
ufus Archibald Henry. I might have known you'd be causing trouble again.' The cat's voice was deeper than Sienna had expected.

Sienna looked at Rufus. She heard him growl softly. ‘Minka Drusilba. It's been a long time since I chased a cat up a tree.'

Minka blinked once and the tip of her tail twitched, just a little.

‘You two know each other?' asked Sienna.

‘Yes, we do,' said Rufus. ‘As a rule I have nothing to do with animals of her kind. In this case the contact couldn't be avoided, though; we lived in the same house, so to speak.'

‘Oh, Rufus, I haven't got time for your nonsense,' Minka spat. She lowered herself gracefully from the windowsill and stalked across the room towards Sienna. She jumped on to the table. Rufus watched her suspiciously.

Feng was staring at Sienna. ‘More invisible animals?' he asked.

The boy's tone reminded Sienna of how her dad spoke about Rufus. She hoped Feng didn't think she was making it up, or being silly. ‘Yes, just one more,' she said, defensively.

The boy stared hard at Sienna, blinked, and dropped his eyes. He probably felt left out, Sienna thought, feeling sorry. He continued to search through the contents of Sienna's box.

‘Who's the boy?' asked Minka, her ears pricking in Feng's direction.

‘He's Feng. He can't see you or Rufus,' Sienna explained.

‘Oh, I see.' Minka yawned and washed her whiskers. She scrutinized Sienna. ‘Uncanny, the
similarity – her eyes are the only thing you didn't inherit. Do you know who I am, or has she kept me a secret?'

Sienna looked at the cat's pale blue eyes. ‘You're Minka. My mother told me about you. You were her cat when she was little. You're invisible, like Rufus.'

Minka's fur bristled slightly and her tail twitched. ‘What do you mean, “were”? I
am
your mother's cat, even if your mother has decided to shut me out of her life. You humans are strange. As if friends could just dissolve into thin air!'