Page 67 of The Cinders

‘He must stay, Ming.Do not cast him out.’

‘Take a deep breath, sweet woman.You always forget to breathe when these turns come upon you.’

But Mai resisted his attentions, her focus still fixed upon Lim.Her lips were faintly pink, drained of their lusher colour.‘He has been locked away, but now you have the key, shoemaker.’

Master Ren with his odd words, the Englishman with his cryptic speech, now this?Lim grunted in frustration.

‘What do you mean by that?’he demanded.

She shook her head, a frown casting lines around her eyes.‘I only know what the magick will tell me.’

‘But it’s not telling you anything of worth’ Lim said, frustration making him blunt.‘Can you take me to Xian?’

Mai raised her head, her eyes wide.‘Go.He mustn’t find you.’

Lim’s temper boiled over.‘Go where?Who mustn’t find me?’

Go, she mouthed.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her body jerked violently.The suddenness tore her from her lover’s hold, and Mai toppled backwards, landing against the shafts of her cart.Her weight shoved them off the stacked bricks they’d balanced on.

‘Mai,’ Jang Ming cried.

The drop of the shafts sent the contents of the cart lifting from the wood.All at once, the world was filled with colour; the flowers lifted into the air in a storm of pretty shades.The flowers lifted as though borne by a whirlwind; cherry blossoms like raindrops, jasmine swirling like a snowstorm.

‘Find the herbalist, now!’

Jang Ming’s shout was loud enough, but Lim could barely make him out amongst the frantic flutter of petals—a rainstorm of rainbows.

‘What is going on here?’The all too familiar bellow shook Lim from his frozen state.‘Get a hold of yourselves, you damned useless pigs.’

The voice dragged itself down Lim’s senses; unforgettable with its raspy, threatening edge.

‘Mai has had another turn, Captain Duan,’ a woman cried.

Lim blinked away plum blossom petals that caught at his eyelashes.Through the deluge of petals, a shadow approached; one whose bulk belonged to the very last person Lim wished to collide with.

He mustn’t find you.

Now he understood.

‘I said out of my damned way,’ the captain bellowed.

Lim batted at the jasmine petals that swarmed over him like manic moths around a flame.Go.

He bolted, putting the captain at his back, rushing through the whirling, peculiar madness of the unsettled flowers.

‘Captain, that man!It was he who struck at Mai!’

A chorus of voices, all spouting lunacy that made Lim’s skin heat with rage.

‘Seize him!’The captain’s order punctured the air.‘Bring him to me.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

LIM’S LEGSpumped, his arms swung and his heart threw itself against his ribs.He had never run so hard or fast in his entire thirty-two years of living, but it did not seem fast enough.

He ran blindly, unfamiliar with the layout of this siheyuan, but knowing two things for certain; he’d not survive if the captain caught him, and he’d not leave here until he’d found Xian.The pouch pounded against his leg, like a whip to a stubborn donkey, urging him on.