Part 20 (1/2)

Maybe, Kuei Jen thought, looking up at his husband, immensely proud of him at that moment, but first we must survive the next two days.

They took him to a cave below the lip of the great rock and sat him on a rock ledge. There they removed his blindfold and unbound him, then left him. It was a long, low-ceilinged cave. A single lamp burned in a cresset to his left. It was cool and dry and smelled of cinnamon and spice. Alone in the half dark, Li Yuan sat and waited, listening to the slow drip of water from the far end of the cave. The very sound of stillness. Outside it was night. A pitch black, moonless night Even so, he could make out the outline of the entrance, above him and to his right, shaped like an inverted s.h.i.+eld, jagged on one side, smooth on the other. Li Yuan looked down, staring at his hands, remembering the heavy ring of iron he had once worn on the index finger of his left hand; a ring of power, symbol of the authority of the Seven who had once ruled Chung Kuo. His father's ring, and his father's before that. The same ring that now lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where his son had thrown it.

Li Yuan frowned, recalling Kuei Jen's words that day when they had left City Europe. ”Chung Kuo is gone. We must learn to be ordinary people now.” So it was. But though he had not been happy when he had worn the ring, he still could not understand how Kuei Jen had thrown it away so casually. ”Oh, it was far from casual.”

Li Yuan turned, startled. He had heard no one come into the cave. The voice - the same voice as earlier - came from the shadows behind him. He turned to face them, unable to discern a figure there.

”I am here, Li Yuan. But you cannot see me. Not yet. Not until you are ready to see me.”

”What is this?” Li Yuan asked. But he felt shaken. How had his interrogator known what he was thinking?

”Oh, I know many things, my friend. All manner of things that you would rather have kept hidden.”

Li Yuan took a long breath, then, ”How do you do that?””Tell what1 s on your mind?” There was gentle laughter. ”It is not hard, Li Yuan. You are a simple man when it comes down to it Oh, maybe not as simple as these Americans, but certainly no wiser.”

”You seem to take great pleasure in insulting me.” There was a brief silence then. ”No. No pleasure. And I meant no insult Yet we are not here to flatter each other.”

”Then what are we here for?”

”To find out what manner of man you are, and why you have wasted your life.” ”Wasted?” Li Yuan stood and took a step toward the voice. Still he could not see the figure of his interrogator. ”How do you mean, wasted?” ”You wish to argue otherwise?”

”I...” He paused, then backtracked. ”I heard your voice... out in the desert, coming here.”

”That is so.”

Li Yuan nodded to himself, then smiled, as if he suddenly understood. ”Speakers.

You are using hidden speakers, aren't you? It is all tricks. Illusions.”

”If that explanation makes you happy.”

”But it is the truth, neh?”

The same gentle laughter spilled out into the darkness, making Li Yuan go rigid with anger. He did not like being patronised.

”Too tense,” the voice said, more familiar by the moment ”You were always too tense. Except with your maids. And there you had nothing to prove, neh?” Li Yuan jutted out his jaw, an ugly expression on his face. ”What do you mean, loo jen?”

”Only that a poor horseman always blames his animal...”

Li Yuan closed his eyes, anger burning in him. Insults. Nothing but insults.

”... or kills it”

His eyes flicked open, surprised that the old man knew so much about him. He had indeed killed his horses, but only to stop his pregnant wife from riding. ”Rather drastic, wouldn't you say?”

Li Yuan shook himself, as if to wake himself from a dream. ”How ...?” ”... do I know your thoughts?” There was the rustle of silks, then, ”It is a power I have. To see clearly into the minds of others. For a long time I had forgotten how, but now my powers have returned. The time is almost upon us, and the way must be prepared.”

”The way?”

”Of that I cannot speak. Not yet. But you are part of it, Li Yuan, and must be prepared for what lies ahead. You must be purged. Then, and only then, can you be reborn.”

”It sounds ...” he sought for the word Zelic had used for some of the Han beliefs they had talked about, ”... cranky.”

”Irrational, you mean?”

”That also.”

”And you were ever one for rational explanations, weren't you, Li Yuan?”

”The world is what it is,” he answered, ”subject to fixed laws.” ”That is true,” the voice answered from the darkness, ”but what if you do not understand those laws, Li Yuan? What if those laws make the universe quite other than you think it is. Your senses, after all, are limited.” ”Even so...”

”Go to the pool, Li Yuan.”

The voice was commanding. Li Yuan stood.

”Behind you,” the voice said. ”Can you not hear the water dripping?” Li Yuan turned, then slowly walked across, stopping before what looked like a large, shallow bowl. The surface of it was black like ink. Staring down into it, Li Yuan s.h.i.+vered, the memory returning to him of all the times he had stood beside the carp pond in Tongjiang, watching the dark shapes of the fish move slowly in the depths like circling thoughts. A drop of water fell. The dark surface rippled, then settled again. It was like looking into the pupil of an eye.

”Well, Li Yuan? What would you like to see?”He looked up, turning his head. It was as if the voice was at his shoulder now. More trickery, he guessed. Like this. This too, he suspected, was an elaborate trick. ”My mother,” he said. ”I'd like to see my mother.” A drop of water fell, the surface rippled. As it cleared, the pool began to glow. Slowly an image formed.

Two naked, sweat-wreathed bodies in the throes of pa.s.sion, the man pressing down, the tendons in his arms strained and rigid beside the woman's head, his powerful b.u.t.tocks thrusting like a blacksmith hammering iron, the woman's limbs embracing his flanks, her pert b.r.e.a.s.t.s moulded to his chest as she pushed up to receive each penetrating stroke.

And their faces ...

Li Yuan gasped, realising what he was witnessing. He fell onto his knees, horrified, but unable now to look away.

A drop fell, rippling the surface, but still it went on. Slowly their movements grew more urgent, like two riders urging their mounts on, each matching thrust more brutal and more desperate until, the muscles of their faces locking in mutual agony, their two bodies tensed and seemed to quiver against each other, their groins pressed as close as flesh permitted. And then a great spasm pa.s.sed through them, making them shudder, as if an electric shock had been administered.

Their mouths groaned silently as they strained to break down the natural barriers of flesh, he into her, she into him. And then, when it seemed relief would never come, she fell back, he expiring upon her. And there they lay, her hand about his neck, caressing him.

Li Yuan s.h.i.+vered, astonished by the sight, amazed both by the brutality of the act and the tenderness that followed.

'Thus were you conceived, Li Yuan.”

Yes, and thus had his father wors.h.i.+pped.his mother, and she him.

”You understand, then, Li Yuan?”