Page 94 of The Cinders
‘Are you ready for this evening?’
Xian pulled his gaze from the striped horse, blinking.‘Yes, my lord.’
Feng exhaled a ring of smoke.‘Good boy.’
Xian shifted uncomfortably beneath the mandarin’s intense regard.He felt an odd kinship with these poor skinned and stuffed animals; trapped spectacles.
A torrent of bitter smoke poured from the mandarin’s nostrils.‘I’m told there is a trespassing thief who claims to be your shoemaker?’
‘He is no thief, his is truly my shoemaker,’ Xian said sharply.‘There was a misunderstanding, as I’m sure you know.Master Song brought me something I think you’ll be most pleased with.I intend to wear his shoes tonight, and they are beyond compare.’
‘Are they now?Very well, they shall enhance the gown I have organised for you.That is why I have summoned you here.They were slower than I’d have liked with finishing it, so best we see it done quickly, in case adjustments are needed.’
The glow of the pipe brightened, highlighting a disturbing glint in Feng’s eyes.
‘But my lord, I have a gown already.’
He tilted the pipe away from his face.‘Your audience are a very select group, your highness.Valuable business colleagues and investors, who are very much looking forward to seeing what you offer them.’
‘Offer them?’The mandarin’s words turned his stomach.
‘I want my guests to be filled with desire.’He dragged on his pipe, speaking as he exhaled.‘Where there is desire, there comes a greater eagerness to comply, to bargain and trade.’
‘But I am only to dance.’Xian swallowed against a dry throat.‘That was the agreement.’
‘Of course, your highness.’Feng lowered his pipe.‘Gracious, what else do you suggest I imply?You are the emperor’s thirteenth son, and famed for your dance.You’ve seen already how hungry my guests are to see you perform.I was offered many bribes by those who wished to be invited to the private performances you graciously allowed me.But I told them, we must not wear his highness out yet.’He laughed, an ugly sound that dragged at Xian’s senses.
‘I imply nothing, my lord.Forgive me, I am nervous about the dance tonight.I wish to please the court.’
Xian willed his pulse to steady.He might be innocent, but he was not stupid, and had the captain’s lewd words in Kunming to remember; he’d spoken plainly of Manhao’s appetite for the peculiar, of how they would clamour to see Xian.Clamour to touch him.Xian had been too stupefied by the tincture to understand the true meaning before now.
No mind.Let them leer and clamour all they wanted.Tomorrow, he and Song Lim would be gone.
He raised his head from a bow of apology and met Feng’s unsettling gaze.Xian refused to retreat from it.He’d spent far too many years wilting beneath the regard of others.Xian imagined Marchioness Shen in his place, and he lifted his chin higher.
‘I am not to return to Kunming, am I, your lordship?’
That earned him a twitch of Feng’s brows, a glint of genuine amusement on his usually impassive face.
‘Does that displease you?I am led to believe your life there was less than fulfilling.Would you rather return, than remain here, where you may do as you please, in exchange for a few favours?I will not ask you to tend to the hearths or chamber pots.They shall not call you the Prince of the Cinders in Manhao, I promise you.’
Likely they would call Xian far worse.
‘What was my price?’He breathed in the tang of death and preservation in the room; his feet upon the lion and the banma at his back.‘I wish to know.’
Feng shifted from his cross-legged position, lifting one knee to lean his arm against it.‘There lies a spirit beneath those scars.How enticing.’
‘Mandarin Feng, will you answer my question?’He licked his lips.‘I am grateful to be away from the manor, I will be honest.My life was hard there.A freer life here in Manhao appeals to me greatly.I thank you for what you offer and will do my utmost to further the renown of your court…in whichever way I can.’
The lies tasted like hawthorn berries—tart and sour but fawning seemed wiser than protest.
Feng regarded him through narrowed eyes, and Xian feared his fledgling attempt at politics had failed him.
‘Marchioness Shen would be a harsh master to serve,’ he smiled and failed at it once more.‘We negotiated long on Kunming becoming the exclusive thoroughfare for my trade, a gateway to take the cargo from my ships beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom.But she is a resolute woman.We were at a stalemate about what the ultimate price should be.I wasn’t satisfied with the agreement, until she spoke of her displeasure at having the burden of your care for so many years.She considered it an insult to her sister, Noble Consort Jing, being forced to raise the child of the woman who’d tried to steal the emperor’s favour away from her.’Xian didn’t blink, though the words, utter lies, pained him; Jing was behind his exile to Kunming to begin with.‘So, we agreed, at last.I wished to have the Cursed Prince to add to my palace’s finery, and she wished to have you removed from her sight.’He fanned his hand.‘As did her beloved sister.So you see, your highness, I rescued you, because there is no telling what might have befallen you otherwise.Now you are disappeared from that old life entirely.’
Feng picked up his pipe again and shifted back against the pile of cushions arranged behind his desk; watching Xian as a sparrowhawk watches the mouse.
‘You have indeed…’ Xian said hoarsely.‘Rescued me.’