Someone smacked him on the back of the head and he inhaled warm, salty water. Sputtering, he tried to shift so that he was upright in the water, but hands pressed down on his head and shoulders, and his angry shout emerged as impotent bubbles.
"This is not a time for laziness and indolence." The voice was as dry and brittle as it had ever been—but it somehow sounded more clearly in his head than it ever had, even though at the moment a multitude of bony hands seemed to be holding him under water.
The pressure eased, and Wen popped, gasping, to the surface. Around him were scores of elderly men, more grandfathers than he had ever seen in one place before. They looked down on him, with disgust, from where they hovered just above the surface of the pool.
"You!" he shouted. "What sorts of ancestors are you, anyway? Where were you yesterday? You went to all the trouble of telling me about the Meiyou and the treasure it carried; why couldn't you be bothered to actually help me to take it. It was your idea for me to get all the money Father needed in one blow, wasn't it?" He paused, feeling suddenly sick to his stomach. "Why are there so many of you, all of a sudden?" As soon as he had asked the question, Wen knew the answer. "My father has died, hasn't he?"
"Early yesterday," said his grandfather's voice. The man seemed even more unhappy than he'd been the first time he'd appeared before Wen, in Magistrate Li's cell.
"Yesterday?" he asked. "Is that why you weren't with me while I
was trying to capture the Meiyou?"
"Oh, we were there," Number One Grandfather said. "Waiting."
"What? Waiting? I needed help! Now my crew is grumbling and my—and Fengzi is unhappy. Why were you just waiting?"
"There are rules," Number One Grandfather said. "You didn't do what you were supposed to. For us to help you could be considered encouragement of your breaking those rules."
"Rules?"
"We were waiting for you to perform the rituals," said an especially scraggly ancestor. "To ask for our advice and assistance."
"Our permission," said one of the others.
"You wanted me to ask permission to do something you'd already told me to do?" Wen tried to wave indignantly; being in the water as he was, all he succeeded in doing was swallowing more salty water than was good for him.
"Things have changed." Number One Grandfather actually sounded a bit unsure of himself. Or perhaps just unhappy. "You are now the head of the family. Well, the living head, anyway. The rules are different now."
"What?! Why didn't you tell me?"
"We tried. You weren't paying attention."
Wen swallowed more water. "Tried? I didn't hear a thing!" He paused. "Wait a minute. Was it you who split my sail yesterday?" It would have been better had it been an adept on the Meiyou, but suddenly that seemed a lot less likely.
"We couldn't think of anything else that would catch your attention and follow the prescribed approaches," said a third ancestor.
"You let someone else steal my treasure because I didn't burn incense?"
"Don't take that tone with me, you wretch," said Number One Grandfather. "I am still founder of the family. And with your father finally departed from the Middle Kingdom your job from now on is to make me happy—make us happy. Perform the rituals, and right away, or you will regret it."
Wen ducked his own head, then struck out for shore. When he reached the beach, sluicing water from his skin, the grandfathers reappeared. "You are on your way to perform the rituals, yes?" one of them asked.
"I am on my way to perform the rituals, no," Wen said. "As far as I am concerned we had an arrangement: you would keep my father alive for as long as it took me to raise the money needed to cure him. My father is no longer alive, therefore I intend to use the money I have raised—and will raise—for my own pleasure."
"You cannot make deals with the spirits," Number One Grandfather said, in a voice like rust. "And you do not disobey your ancestors. Perform the rituals!"
"Nobody tells me what to do!" Wen shouted. "Not anymore! Why do you think I became a pirate? I got tired of following orders!" With a fluttery hum a coconut fell from overhead, missing Wen's head by maybe the span of a closed fist.
"Learn to like it," said Number One Grandfather.
"I need a drink," said Wen.
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