"To be fair, Majesty, it was never my intent to walk into heaven at all. Lovely as it is here, by the way. I really like what you've done with this orchard." You're babbling, Wen, he thought. Get hold of yourself. "The fault is all mine, that I admit. I was away from home when Father died and did not perform the proper rituals. Even when I learned of his death I refused, out of spite and willfulness, to do the right thing. As a result he became a hungry ghost, and I was cursed. I was merely trying to set everything right again."
"You could not have done any of this by yourself," the Queen Mother of the West said. "You had to have your little Daoist here bring you to the underworld. You had to have assistance from your ancestors in learning the ways of hell and heaven, and in reading and writing the Manifold Characters."
"They did this at my—because I tricked them into doing it," Wen said. "Just as I tricked the General of the Five Ways, Yenluo Wang, and his staff in the Primary Court of the Fifth Hell, and the gate-keeper at the Fifty-Eighth Year God's mansion into writing the documents they wrote for me."
"You can't lie to the Queen Mother of the West, Wen," said Yin Fengzi softly. "Majesty, I admit to being the person who brought Wen Xia to the afterworld. I will not allow him to suffer by himself for my own misjudgments."
"You did this by yourself?" the goddess asked. "No assistance from a necromancer or some adept seeker after immortality?"
"No, Majesty. The spell was my own. The only assistance I sought was from a pirate in Fusang, who helped deliver certain necessary details to the right place at the right time."
"Interesting," the goddess said. "Who was your teacher, little Daoist?"
"Myself," Fengzi said. From the look on her face, Wen realized with a smile, she wanted to stamp her foot as she said it. "Who, after all, would teach The Way to a mere girl?"
"Who indeed? Well, you have all been very impressive, in your own deviant fashion." The Queen Mother of the West settled lightly onto the ground, but when her gold-and-jade slippers touched down the whole firmament trembled a little. "But you still have committed grave offenses, both against the laws of heaven and against my person. I cannot allow these offenses to go unpunished."
"My father has not committed any offense," Wen said. "He has done nothing at all, save what he was ordered to do. He was a dutiful son, a dutiful subject, a dutiful subordinate—and a loving father, as much as those duties allowed him to be. He should not be punished."
"That," the goddess said, "is not for you to decide, Wen Xia. Do not presume to tell the Queen Mother of the West how to administer her dominions or enforce her own brand of justice!"
Wen found himself straightening up. Horrified, he felt his right hand reaching across his body for the sword that was normally strapped there. "I am the Notorious Wen Xia!" he shouted. "Bloody Sheet Wen the Pirate! I know my own brand of justice, and I know when wrong is being done by those whom birth or chance has put in dominion over others! You may do with me as you will, Queen Mother of the West, but by Tiandi, Heaven Honored Jade Emperor and High God in Heaven you will not punish an innocent man and call it justice!"
"Xia!" Yin Fengzi shouted, despair bursting from her.
Something burned in Wen's breast, and he found himself moving so rapidly his nostrils picked up a scent of burning hair and he was forced to close his eyes. It hurt to move, but eventually he was able to get a hand up to his face to protect his eyes; opening them he saw a kaleidoscope below him, green-brown-blue. It was a moment before he realized he was flying around the universe, and that what he could see below him was the Middle Kingdom, then Fusang, then hell, and finally heaven again. Then he saw and felt nothing for a moment.
When he regained his senses he felt heat and pain everywhere on his body; looking down he saw that his tunic and trousers were singed, blackened and holed throughout by the force of the air through which the Queen Mother of the West had thrown him. Then he couldn't hold himself up any longer, and sank to the soft, fragrant grass.
"That," the goddess said, "is for daring to insult me in that fashion. Do not think for a moment that this is in any way related to your ultimate punishment, Wen Xia. Or that of the other members of your party of conspiracy."
He tried to speak, but his lips would not obey his mind. The fire began to consume him.
And then it was gone. He could smell the sweetness of grass and peach, and his skin no longer burned when the breeze touched it. She is toying with me, he thought. Then he looked around, and saw Yin Fengzi huddled on the grass, seeming to disappear inside her clothes.
"What did you do?" he shouted.
"I did nothing, Wen Xia," said the Queen Mother of the West. "Your little Daoist cast a spell while I was thinking about your punishment. So I have cast my own spell, to show her what happens to those who thwart my will."
"That—" he sputtered, faltered. "That was not right, Majesty. She has only ever revered you, and anything she may have done was done out of pity for me, and not in defiance."
"I do not care," said the goddess, her voice mockingly sweet. She showed her tiger teeth, and raised her hand.
"That is enough, I think," said the thunder, and lightning lit the peach orchard.
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