Page 28 of The Cinders
He moved the slipper out over the water, away from the wall.Mercy touched her rounded, gasping lips to the shoe’s subtle heel.A tingling erupted through Xian’s fingers, and the translucent fabric’s moonstone and diamond glow suddenly flashed bright gold.
He blinked.
The remarkable slipper held diamond light once more.
‘Did you see that?’He tilted the shoe, trying to recapture the illusion.‘Your colours were there…it was…’ Magickal was the word, but he dared not say so out loud.‘Resplendent.’
‘Conversing with your fish again, dear brother?’
Lady Tian’s voice came down upon him like the blow of a hammer.Xian jumped.His sleeve caught at the same sharp stones he’d warned Mercy about, and the sudden jolt dislodged the slipper from his grasp.
The masterpiece dropped into the water, swallowed by the darkness before he could utter a cry.
‘Mercy,’ he gasped.
The carp was already chasing after the sinking shoe, her sleek body shooting down into the water like a blazing arrow shot from the bow.Xian sought to squash the desperation that filled him.Mercy would ensure the shoe did not slip deep, where the old well sunk into the earth.It might actually be safer where it was.Lady Tian was like her father; greedy for beauty.
Xian pulled his fingers from the cool water and turned.
Lady Tian stood at the top of the wide set of steps that led down to Mercy’s pond; arms folded and hidden in the drape of her sleeves, emerald green and trimmed with gold thread.She had an attendant with her, a severe woman who always smirked when she heard Xian being reprimanded by her mistress.
‘Lady Tian.’Xian bowed in greeting.‘You have risen early this morning, considering last night’s festivities.How did the evening fare?’Now that Xian had calmed after losing the shoe, a fresh concern raised its head.Lady Tian never, ever, stepped foot in this section of the garden, claiming that the pond attracted too many biting bugs, eager to mark her milky skin.Likely, laziness alone prevented her visits; the pond and its gardens were far from her quarters.
‘It fared so well I am only now making my way back to my rooms.’
Xian said nothing of the fact that her rooms lay in the opposite direction.‘An exciting evening then,’ he said.
‘Very much so, once all the boring formalities were done with.’He knew her well enough to recognise the insult; his dance among those formalities.‘A pity you were too busy to attend.’Lady Tian was adept at the thin smile and steely gaze.She had removed her hair ornament; the intricate bùyáo was in her restless hands, and she twirled the hanging jewellery as she stood at the top of the stairs.‘You are going to Manhao.’
He wasn’t sure if she was asking or telling, so he simply nodded.
‘Do not shame us, brother.’She seemed unsteady on her feet, swaying a little as she spoke.‘Mandarin Feng is an influential man,’ she stumbled over so big a word.‘and has many acquaintances from the West.I shall one day travel to the Forbidden City, do not ruin my chances of being the finest dressed and most lavishly jewelled when I seek a betrothal among His Imperial Majesty’s nobles.’
Xian sighed inwardly.The lady had partaken of too much wine, and grew vainglorious when she did so.
‘I will do my utmost to bring honour to Kunming.’
Lady Tian waved her hand, a gesture that had her attendant reaching to steady her.‘Do whatever needs to be done.I hear the Mandarin is an avid collector of oddities.He shall like you, if that is the case.Perhaps he’ll keep you in a cage with all the other unusual creatures, dancing you to impress a princess of England.’She laughed at her own vision for him.‘Maybe his tastes in the bedchamber run contrary and he’ll use you when the night is dark.Whatever his wants from you, brother, let him take it.’
Her attendant bent her head, but had not hidden her tilted grin well.
Xian shivered, the weight of his clothing not enough to keep the iciness of the Lady Tian’s words at bay.
‘I am sent to dance at the New Year’s Celebrations, a gesture of goodwill I will perform dutifully.That is all.’
Lady Tian glanced at her attendant, and the ladies exchanged vicious smiles.
‘You think yourself a wonder on the dance-floor, don’t you, Xian?’Lady Tian hiccoughed, confirming Xian’s suspicions that she was addled with drink.‘Prancing and preening like a goldfinch, thinking yourself mightier than us all, because of one minor talent.If they saw beneath your robes though they’d not watch with such awe, would they?’Her eyes widened.‘Perhaps that is what the Mandarin intends?He’ll have you dancing naked for the princesses of England.The British are fond of freak shows, I am told.Did you know?’
What he knew was that ignoring her questions when she was in such a mood only made her more peevish.‘I have not heard that, no.’
‘Gods, you are dull.Does nothing rouse you?Are you always limp as a eunuch?’She waved her hands, and the bùyáo flew from her grasp.The attendant hurried to retrieve it.‘Don’t bother answering me, you shall bore me I’m sure.Go on, Xian.’She always said his name as if it were a bone stuck in her teeth.‘Leave your damned fish, or I shall believe the talk that says unnatural acts exist between you.’
Xian let go of his hold upon Mercy’s pond and gathered the tattered edges of his dignity.‘That is enough, my lady.You go too far.’
He’d not admonished her since they were both children, and even then it had not ended well for him.He held his breath, waiting as she regarded him with a cocked eyebrow and needling stare.After an interminably long time, a slow-rising smile appeared upon her face.
‘Careful with that new-found belligerence, dearest brother.Mandarin Feng would not like to hear from his captain that a petulant prince was arriving.’She was as cold as the morning itself.‘Now go.Leave your stupid fish.What do you name her?Mercy?No wonder such rumours are spread about you, holding such affection for a cold-blooded creature.Take someone to your bed for once, someone with arms and legs and all the right parts to please you, and perhaps they won’t imagine you so peculiar.Your lack of desires is unnatural.’