The Queen Mother of the West was not a giant, nor was she especially hideous. In fact, for the most part she was a quite beautiful—if rather tall—woman, with long lovely black hair flowing down her back in an ebony river that seemed to have a soul of its own.
Unfortunately, that long black hair flowed all the way down her back to a tail. A leopard's tail, to be specific, and one evidently bestowed on her as being emblematic of her temper. Her mouth was open in anger, allowing Wen to see that her teeth, too, were feline. Tiger, I believe, he found himself thinking. Plus, she was floating above the treetops, another clue suggesting that, however mortal most of her might look, this was no mortal.
Well, he told
himself, charm has worked before.
Occasionally. He bowed, deeply,
ending the gesture by bringing his forehead to the ground. "Good day, Majesty," he said—inhaling
an astonishingly sweet scent. Wu Ming,
he thought, might even kill for plants that smelled this way. Raising his head, he added, "Rest
assured we had, and have, no interest in your orchard or its fruits." Hands to yourself, Fengzi. "We are here solely to take possession
of this gardener."
"He speaks the
truth, Exalted One," the dog-headed officer said. "His papers are in order. It appears that the reason the gardener Wen Gang
was without documents of direction is that his processing was botched at the
entry to hell. He has literally been a
wandering spirit since then."
"He has done
excellent work," boomed the goddess, "and I do not see why I should
give him up. Hungry ghosts make the very
best gardeners: they are no more likely than wolves to eat fruit, and they're
far easier to train. This one in
particular has been exceptionally biddable."
That was Father,
thought Wen. Biddable in the extreme,
even after death. Bending to everyone's
wishes but his own. I wonder, is his
silence here due to the constriction of his throat, or can he just not make
himself speak up for himself?
"I should
deeply regret having to inconvenience you, Majesty," he said, "but I
do have a charge to fulfill. And my
instructions are quite clear." He
reached for the papers, still held by the officer.
"Let me see
that." No, thought Wen. Take us at our word, please.
Kowtowing, the
officer raised the hand holding the papers.
The Queen Mother of the West gestured with a long, elegant, beautifully
tipped finger, and the papers vanished from the officer's hand, reappearing in
her own. For a moment she read.
Then she snorted,
what might almost be called a laugh, if one were desperate enough. "Fool," she said to the
officer. "Are you so gullible,
then? This is clearly a forgery. In fact, I would be willing to believe that
there isn't a single legitimate character written on any of these pages. And you were going to hand over my gardener
on the basis of these?" She dropped the papers; as she did she
flicked a finger, and as each page fell to earth it puffed quietly, sparked
like a star, and burst into flame.
"No!" The word came out before Wen could stop
himself. Trapped, he thought; we're all
trapped now.
Wait a minute:
what's so horrible about being trapped in heaven? "I'm sorry, Majesty," he said. "I'm just going to have trouble
explaining the loss of the pass."
"Are
you?" The Queen Mother of the West
looked at him—into him—and Wen suddenly felt very small and weak. So this is what life was like for Father, he
thought.
She clapped her
hands together, and the disintegrated documents reappeared between those
hands. "Let us see, then," she
began. "'This person'?" She looked up from the pass at Wen, and again
he felt reduced. "I see you have
managed to avoid having your name placed anywhere on any of these documents,
Person."
"That was an
administrative convenience," Wen said.
"We wanted the pass to be usable by any of us, should circumstances
require it."
"No
doubt." The dryness of the Queen
Mother's chuckle could create drought and famine anywhere in the Middle
Kingdom, and especially in Fusang.
"You will, however, tell me your name, Person."
That means giving
you control over me, thought Wen.
"Is that really necessary for the completion of my task,
Majesty?"
"Xia..."
Fengzi said quietly, in that Mother voice.
"You don't argue with the Queen Mother of the West."
"You should
listen to your little Daoist, Person."
The goddess's voice had taken on the timber of thunder. "I was not making a request or filing a
petition with you."
Wen looked at
Father. Without the Goddess's
acquiescence, he wasn't going to be able to rescue Father and end his
curse. Both of their curses. But if he revealed his name, the fraudulence
of his errand would be obvious. And the
fates of those who tried to cheat heaven or
hell were gruesome enough; what would happen to a man who tried to cheat heaven
and hell?
He felt his head
droop. There really wasn't any choice at
all, and hadn't been since he'd ignored Yin Fengzi's warning. "Majesty," he said, "this
unworthy person is named Wen Xia. Your
gardener Wen Gang was—is—my father."
A roll of thunder
caused the trees to shake. Not a single
peach dared drop, though. Why does she
even need a gardener, Wen asked silently.
"So you admit that these documents are all forgeries."
"Not at all,
Majesty. Yes, one of them is. The document instructing any and all to hand
Wen Gang over to us for reprocessing was created by me in order to facilitate
removal of my father from this place.
The other documents were written by the appropriate authorities. They were done, however, at my suggestion and
based on information that I—well, that I made up. On the spot, mostly."
"And you
thought that you could just walk into heaven and walk out again with one of my
servants, based on lies you made up 'on the spot, mostly'?" The Queen Mother of the West began to drift
downward. The peach trees, Wen noticed,
bent themselves back and away rather than allow themselves to touch even a
fiber of her gown. Wen began to shift
back and away from the others. Let her
tear into me, he decided, since that seems to be my luck, but the others don't
deserve punishment just because I was able to talk them into this.
Next Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
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