The Pirate Empress (10 page)

It didn’t take long to catch up to Zheng Min and when she reached him, his party had already made camp. She wandered unnoticed between the tents, listened to every word that was said, and repeatedly heard the word ‘princess.’ She could not reveal herself to Zheng Min to question him without good reason, and she no longer felt the need to.

So, Lotus Lily, you are of royal blood
. Why hadn’t she realized that earlier? The vision: the massive ocean-going junk, the pirate queen, the small boy. It could only be that Master Yun’s power had eclipsed her own. But no more. That poor excuse for a warlock was trapped beneath the earth and stonework of First Emperor’s deathbed, and no one who entered the tomb of the Imperial dead ever returned. Had she known Lotus Lily’s lineage earlier, she would have reported the missing girl sooner, but she had thought it better to let Esen capture her rather than have the entire Imperial Army raking the countryside.

Change of plans. Zheng Min had mentioned to one of his men that the first high-ranking officer who returned Lotus Lily to her father could claim her for his bride. Fine. If Esen failed to kill the girl, then the military governor could have his shot at taming her. It hardly mattered, Jasmine mused. These games entertained her. In the process Chi Quan would be so enraged by his rival suitors that he, too, would be drawn into the game. The prize, of course, would not be Lotus Lily, but Jasmine. Because Jasmine would make sure that the Emperor’s daughter was dead, and without the daughter, there would be no heir; without an heir, all of the Middle Kingdom would succumb to debauchery and corruption, paranoia and, ultimately, chaos. It was what had brought down the Chinese empire under First Emperor Qin, and Jasmine had been at the heart of it, laughing all the way to His Majesty’s funeral.

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Captain Chi Quan arrived at the border camp only to discover that he was too late. His lieutenant, He Zhu, told him of the ambush and the destruction that the barbarians had left in their wake: a trail of bodies and festering wounds, their supplies ransacked and their weapons stolen. Quan felt a scream starting at the pit of his stomach that threatened to awaken all of the Middle Kingdom. All he could think was: Where was Li? He calmed his wits, reminded himself of his Imperial rank. He mustn’t think of one of these bodies as hers. He questioned He Zhu and the few survivors concerning the attack and sent a messenger back to Beijing to muster new forces.

“There’s one other thing,” Zhu said as Quan started to leave in search of Li. “The Mongol warlord killed everyone in his path, but he took one hostage. It was as though the barbarian had
intended
to take him.”

Quan’s heart froze in his chest, his lungs wheezed. “Who was it?”

“The young, pretty boy. His name escapes me at the moment.”

A quaking fear threatened to stop Quan’s heart. Could he trust his lieutenant? Did he have a choice? He forced his voice to be steady as he recounted to Zhu the palace news of the runaway concubine.

He Zhu’s mouth dropped open and Quan nodded, before he revealed the true identity of Esen’s captive. “Zhu, I need your help to rescue Li.”

“If Li is Ling She’s baby girl,” Zhu said. “The one that was suppose to die with the mother, that means she can
only
be His Majesty’s daughter. The Mongol has gone too far. This is the ultimate insult: to abduct an Imperial princess. We must get Lotus Lily back.” His scowl softened to a quizzical frown. “I wonder if Jasmine knew who she was.”

Was it worth warning Zhu against Jasmine? Quan wondered. No. It would do no good. The man was bewitched, and as far as Zhu was concerned that woman could do no wrong.

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The weathered Mongol stood towering over Li’s sleeping furs, brawny and brown even after having washed off the mud from their rumble during her capture. He sported creamy leather leggings and a soft leather jerkin, and his left leg was bandaged where she had stabbed him. The pale dressing peeked out from the top of his boot. Li smiled, satisfied, while his eyes devoured her. His women had cut off her clothes, bathed and dressed her without removing the bonds on her wrists and ankles. She wore some kind of dancing girl’s costume, which must have been stolen from a travelling Turkish embassy to China.
Did you strip it right off some slave girl’s back
? She scowled. The skirt was long and flowing, and of some unfamiliar, pale, shimmering fabric. The strip of silk around her breasts was as transparent as floating watercress and the same edible colour. How humiliating to be forced into this guise!

“I know you,” she said, tossing her loose black hair with a tilt of her chin and forcing an air of indifference. “You are the barbarian, Esen.” Esen’s eyes lit up, flattered that she recognized him. If Li’s hands had been free she would have planted them on her hips. She tried to stand up, but with her hands and feet tied, she failed and collapsed onto her side, sending her skirt rippling like the pale, moonstruck waters of a lake at night.

She rolled to one side while Esen eyed her lasciviously. “Would you like me to cut your bonds?”

As long as her legs were bound together, he couldn’t force her to accept his jade spear. “I’m quite comfortable as I am,” she said.

He laughed. “You don’t look comfortable. Tell you what. If I cut your bonds, promise me you’ll be a good girl and not try to run away.”

Li weighed the chances of escape with the alternative. She knew what the barbarian had in mind, had seen the same look on Lok Yu’s face. Only this time she wasn’t going to take it lying down, or any other way. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how well you please me. I hear the palace concubines know of many tricks to pleasure a man.”

“You should know; it isn’t like you haven’t had the Emperor’s Number One Concubine in your bed. What do you think His Majesty will do when he finds out?”

“That lump of lard will never find out. I’ve had my way with Jasmine right under his nose and the Imperial goat didn’t have a clue.”

“Well, if you must know, I’m not really a concubine. Not yet. I haven’t learned anything at all, which is why His Majesty has never asked for me.”

“That’s not what I hear. Isn’t it true that you might be carrying the Emperor’s grandson?”

If her hands weren’t tied behind her back, she would have clapped a hand over her mouth to smother her gasp. It never occurred to her that Lok Yu might have impregnated her in that scuffle by the river that had ended with a brick to his head. But how absurd: the son of Lok Yu an Imperial heir? She almost laughed out loud. Then she squeezed her eyes shut. Why did the barbarian think these things? Any child of hers could only be the Emperor’s grandson if she was His Majesty’s daughter. Her heart jumped to her mouth while the truth threatened to shatter her mind.

She struggled with the rope at her wrists. If she could only break free! He smiled, mocking as she found her voice. “So, Jasmine knew I was His Majesty’s daughter, and she never told
me
. But she told
you
.”

“I don’t think she knew until she saw you in the vision.”

Vision? Li’s mind was a maze of fragmented thoughts. Of course, Jasmine had visions. That was why she was always staring at tealeaves and into the depths of lily ponds. Jasmine was a fox faerie. So why hadn’t she known the truth earlier?

Esen sympathised. “Surely, your wrists and ankles must be sore.”

They
were
sore. And she couldn’t use her hands and feet with them trussed like this. “I’m also hungry. I wouldn’t mind something to eat.”

His eyes gleamed with wicked humour. “First, you serve me.
Then
, I’ll serve you.”

“I don’t think I will please you. I have no idea what I’m doing. The last man that had sex with me, the father of the supposed child you think I’m carrying ... Well, now he’s dead.”

Esen threw back his head and roared with laughter, before he squatted beside her and cut her bonds with a knife he jerked out of his boot. His injured leg didn’t seem to hurt him at all, and he moved with the ease of a stallion. When she was free, he returned the knife to his boot, grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet.

He spun her to get a good look at his prize and she let him fling her around. He was not much taller than her, but he was sturdy like his horses.

“You are even more beautiful than Jasmine,” he said.

“Don’t let
her
hear you say that.”

“Do you always speak before you’re asked to?”

“Always,” Li said, softly.

He would have dropped her to his bed furs had she not whirled out of his arms, tripping him in the process. Her foot landed on his injured calf, and he plunged face down on the furs and pillows, screaming with rage. Li steadied her breath, felt every muscle tense in her body and found her stance. Master Yun’s voice echoed in her mind:
Practice your form like you were sparring and spar like it was a form.
She stood firm, hands braced, ready to slash like knives, eyes peeled for his next move.

He leaped to his feet, scowled. “Get down on your knees. I will take you like the animal you are.”

The man was quick, but he could be outmaneuvered, and she waited for him to make his move. When he reached for her arm, she slammed the sides of her hands into his neck, and he went down. She kicked, aiming for his groin, but he divined her intent and rolled forward so that she struck him in the hip. No ram could be angrier than he was now; he had become a wolf. He snarled showing his teeth, lunged at her, and she spun, dodging him, but not fast enough. As he collapsed to the ground, his hand shot out to take her ankle, and she crashed onto her stomach. He dragged her, hand over hand, and when he reached her hair, he grabbed a handful of it and wrenched her head up nearly breaking her neck. He was on her now, seizing the delicate fabric of her skirt and threw it up over her back. He would have pierced her with his jade spear, but she stopped him by shouting, “Wait.”

Hands twined in her hair, he hauled her face to meet his. “I wait for no one. And I take orders from no one. Especially not an imp of a girl like you.”

Imp, am I?
Li turned her head so that she could see him better and to relieve some of the pressure from her neck as she forced her body to slacken and her expression to cajole. The man was a beast, but he wasn’t stupid. When he saw that she was getting into position to receive his jade spear, he loosened his grip. Li forced her beating heart to still and her breathing to cease. Her plan would only work if she convinced him of her compliance. “I like it more like this,” she said, sticking her rump into the air.

He grinned. “That’s better.”

Li hunched herself into a ball, touching her head to the ground, and let her hands slither toward her ankles. He knelt behind her, but his boots were too distant for her to reach, and just as he unfastened his jerkin and positioned himself, she turned around on her knees and said, “I have a better idea.”

His eyes furrowed into suspicious creases as she pretended to admire the grandness of his manhood. She resumed a kneeling position, smiled up at him, before looking down. Though the idea of pleasuring him with her tongue made her stomach turn, it was the only way she could reach into his boot and grab his knife. His quivering, as her fingers spidered their way up his calves, told her that his mind was sending him warning signals though his body spoke otherwise. Had she learned something from the concubines after all? Maybe. She stroked him like one of His Majesty’s Shih Tzus until he was in total rapture, waiting for her to bring him to ecstasy. Was he in for one hell of a surprise. Her hand shot into his boot and ripped the knife out. He jerked back, realizing he’d been fooled, but not before she took a slice out of his upper thigh.

“Bitch,” he cursed. He had a dagger in the other boot and now he withdrew that one and slung it at her.

She dodged, and the blade struck the felt cloth of the tent, puncturing it to the hilt. Now only she had a knife and the warlord was half naked, his jade spear a spear no more.

“You can’t get out of here without being seen,” Esen taunted.

Li begged to differ. She was getting out of here.

Bleeding, badly wounded, if he didn’t see to that wound soon, he would die.

“The knife, you dragon’s spawn. Give it to me.”

When dragons spew lakewater
.

The knife left her hand and struck the charging Mongol in the chest, stopping him cold. He staggered backward, eyes blinking in dumbfounded horror.

A deathblow? She hoped so. The warlord, Esen, was a beast. And he
was
stupid.

She turned, plucked the blade from the tent wall, and slipped under the wolf pelt and outside. Fast as a filly she split—and slammed straight into the shocked faced of Captain Chi Quan. His hand was on her wrist, forcing her to drop the weapon before she could stab him. Li was so overcharged that a slip of the knife, killing an innocent bystander, wasn’t out of the question. She got control of herself and shook free of his grip. “Captain,” she managed to say hoarsely. “If you came to rescue me, you’re a bit late.”

The astonished look on Quan’s face dropped from her eyes to her Turkish dancing girl costume, and He Zhu who was staring, equally stunned by her sudden appearance, ripped his sight from the seductive fabric dripping from her hips to meet the Mongol blade that had landed point end into the ground. He touched a finger to his lips to silence her, and gestured to where the mournful notes of a flute sounded, his eyebrows arched.