"Do, Mistress?"
"Do," she repeated emphatically. "My husband is planning something and I want to know what it is. You assured me that your friend Jia was in a position to find out for me, but it seems Jia was careless. Now my husband has been alerted and it will prove even more difficult to discover what he's up to. So ... what do you suggest?"
The cold tone of threat in her voice was unmistakable. Heng Yu met her eyes briefly then glanced to the side where Ming Ai stood with his arms folded across his chest, smiling at his rival's discomfort.
For a moment Heng"s mind was a blank. What could he do? He had tried everything! Then, from nowhere, he had his answer.
"I shall ask him, Mistress."
"Ask him?" she laughed scornfully. "And you think Li Yuan would tell you?"
Heng lowered his eyes. It wasn't quite what he'd meant, but if that was what she thought. He shrugged. "I am, after all, the Tang's First Minister. If he cannot trust me . . ."
"Can 7 trust you?"
"Mistress!" He fell to his knees, his forehead touching the cold stone floor beside her long silk shoes. "You have my undying devotion. As the gods are my witnesses . . ."
"Pah!" She turned away, her every movement stiff, expressive of a barely-controlled frustration. Seeing it, Heng Yu smiled inwardly. She was a dangerous woman, there was no doubting it - a veritable viper of a woman - and yet she was also, in this single matter, deeply vulnerable. For almost a decade now she had ruled the San Chang - the three Imperial palaces - at Mannheim with an iron grip. For ten long years she had been the all-seeing, all-knowing presence behind it all. But now her husband had woken like a dragon from his slumber and was planning something - something neither she, nor he, the Tang's First Minister, knew anything about.
It's Shepherd's doing, Heng thought, convinced that no one else could have pulled off such a thing right under the Empress's nose. But what was he up to? What could possibly warrant such secrecy?
He heard his own words echo in his skull. / shall ask him, Mistress. Of course! He would go to Shepherd's quarters later on and ask him.
And if he won't tell me?
Then he would have discharged his duty. For if Pei K'ung's spies could not unearth this secret, then what chance had he, except, perhaps, by such directness?
He lifted his head; saw she was watching him, a faint scowl on her lips, her hazel eyes half-lidded, cold as a corpse's.
"There is another matter, Master Heng."
"Mistress?"
"Here," she said, handing him a second paper. He got up slowly, then unfolded the document. For a time he was silent, reading, then he looked to her again. "Taxes, Mistress?"
"Why so surprised, Master Heng? We have discussed the matter often enough, surely?"
"But Mistress. . ." He tried to collect his thoughts, to muster arguments against what he knew she was about to say, but she raised a hand. Immediately he fell silent.
"You know how often my husband has argued for this. How it is his dream to reunite the lands his ancestors once ruled. Well, it is time to begin the realisation of that dream. To give it substance."
He stared back at her, seeing the steel in her, the hard, unyielding core that lay behind the ageing flesh, and knew no argument would shift her. So she had decided at last -made up her mind to raise an army and retake the East. Well, he was not surprised. It was merely the timing of the thing. If they imposed taxes now, before the hardship of the winter . . .
"You have something to say, Master Heng?"
Heng Yu shook his head. "Not at all, Mistress. If you feel the time is right."
"I do. So please take that to my husband and have him place his signature to it."
He stared at the document a moment then folded it and slipped it into the inside pocket of his cloak. "I shall do so at once, Mistress."
"Good. Then you may go."
"Mistress!"
Li Yuan had dried himself and was pulling on his shirt when his Master of the Inner Chambers, Nan Fa-hsien appeared in the doorway. Seeing his old friend's son, Yuan smiled.
"What is it, Master Nan?"
Nan Fa-hsien lowered his head respectfully. "You have a visitor, Chieh Hsia. Master Heng is at the door, requesting audience."
"Master Heng . . ." Li Yuan gave a single nod, surprised. Heng was not due to see him for another two hours. "Has something happened?"
"I do not know, Chieh Hsia. He seems . . . troubled."
"I see." Li Yuan turned, studying himself in the full-length mirror, drawing a lock of dark hair aside with his fingers. Satisfied he turned back, facing his young servant. "Tell Master Heng I shall see him in a moment. Oh, and Fa-hsien. . ."
"Yes, Chieh Hsia?'
"See if you can't find out what"s been happening with the royal barge. I understand there's been trouble of some kind."
"At once, Chieh Hsia."
As Nan Fa-hsien hurried away, Li Yuan looked about him, checking he had not forgotten anything. For ten years now he had attended to himself within these rooms, letting no servant bathe or dress him, living more simply than he'd once lived, taking the time to read and think and write. Now, after long preparation, he was ready to take the reins up once again; to take what he'd learned these past ten years and use it. To refashion his kingdom in the same way he had refashioned himself.
Pulling on a thin silk cloak of Imperial yellow, he went through the anteroom and into his study. There, on the far side of the room, Heng Yu was waiting, his head lowered patiently. Yuan glanced at him then sat behind his desk.
"Well, Master Heng?" he asked. "What brings you here so early in the day?"
Heng came across and, bowing once, laid the scroll on the table before him. "It is from the Empress, Chieh Hsia. I promised her I would deliver it at once."
"I see." He smiled back at Heng Yu, ignoring the scroll. "And how is my wife?"
"She is in good health, Chieh Hsia. She sends her best wishes."
"And that little band of thieves and ruffians she calls her servants?"
A smile flickered briefly on Heng Yu's lips then was gone. "They thrive, Chieh Hsia."
"Yes," Li Yuan said acidly, "as cockroaches thrive after some great disaster." He stared at Heng a long moment, then. "And the banquet, Master Heng? Are the preparations proceeding well?"
"Very well, Chieh Hsia. Everything is being done to the letter of your instructions."
"Good. Then you may leave me, Heng Yu."
Heng Yu looked up, meeting his eyes. "But I thought. . ." He gestured toward the scroll. "I thought you might wish to read it, Chieh Hsia."
"And so I shall, Master Heng. Tomorrow. Now ... is there anything else?"
"No, Chieh Hsia."
"Then go. I have much to do."
Heng Yu bowed and backed away. When he had gone, Li Yuan let out a long breath. He was not usually so abrupt with his Chancellor, but this morning he had other things on his mind.
Picking up the scroll, he tucked it into his pocket then left the room, hurrying down the corridor towards the guest suite where Shepherd had set up his workshop.
As he paused before the massive double doors, he could hear the sound of Shepherd singing to himself within. Waving the guards aside, he pushed back the door and looked inside.
Ben was sitting at a piano on the far side of the room, making shapes with his hands on the keyboard as he sang, but from the piano itself came no sound.
Li Yuan closed the door then turned.
Ben smiled, beckoning him closer. "You want to hear?"
He nodded. At once strange chords filled the room - an awful, hollow sound, like the sound of eternal suffering.