‘It is the tail of the yak, a beast not seen in China but much esteemed by the western barbarians. It is a sign to them that you are of noble birth and you will be respected. Receive it with my blessing.’
‘And to you gentlemen – staffs also for your journey, but more than that, I now give my daughter into your protection.’
‘My Lord, we…’ Nicander struggled for words.
‘I take that to be your accepting. Then… then if you will permit me, I would desire to take farewell of my daughter in private.’
Nicander motioned for the others to leave and they went outside into a bright early morning. There was a small carriage waiting, with gauze veils over the window spaces. Behind were four mules, two with saddles, two with packs.
A pair of birds began singing among the blossom of a nearby tree. The sweetness of their song brought a lump to his throat as he thought of the anguish that now must be in Ying Mei’s heart.
Then she emerged. Pale but erect she stood and blinked, eyes overbright but her face a mask of control. Without a backward glance she went toward the carriage.
Impulsively Nicander pressed forward. ‘Miss Ying Mei, do please understand how much I feel for you in this-’
She stopped… and looked into the distance, her chin lifting defiantly.
‘How dare you!’ Tai Yi thrust herself between them, her face pinched with anger. ‘This is the Lady Kuo Ying Mei! Ni sheng – know that any communication from the likes of you goes through me, and me alone!’
Struck dumb, Nicander watched Ying Mei enter the carriage and draw the veil.
‘In the future I’ll thank you to remember your manners, foreign devil,’ Tai Yi said icily.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Yellow River was broad and slow-moving, its muddy waters sliding along as they had done for untold centuries through the featureless flat plain.
Settled under an awning on the timber cargo of the big lighter, Nicander watched the passing spectacle while Marius snoozed.
He looked aft. The amiable old man in a curious conical bamboo hat at the steering oar, who was owner and captain of the craft, gave a toothless smile. His whole family was on board in a tiny house-like structure perched right on the stern.
From above came the comfortable creaks of the single lofty rectangular sail, heavily slatted and needing little handling, driving them on at a steady pace.
Forward, Ying Mei and Tai Yi were keeping out of sight in the privacy of their own spacious temporary quarters atop the long timbers. He shifted in annoyance. There had been no thawing in the Ice Queen and in fact it felt as if she was going out of her way to antagonise them with her airs.
Damn her Chinese ways!
He had reluctantly accepted that there was a distance to be kept between a high-born and commoner but this was ridiculous – having to communicate only through her doughty and ever-vigilant lady-in-waiting, the averted eyes, the cold hauteur. The boatman and his wife were always fawning and bowing, overawed by her presence. Even Marius was uneasily polite and deferential in front of her.
Nicander had tried to get Ying Mei to utter words directly but never once succeeded. He’d come up with strategems, from saying there was a unicorn behind her, to pretending she was not there and passing sly comments to Marius on her appearance. None had broken the silence.
There was no future in a confrontation. No doubt he and Marius could seize the chest, but to what purpose? Her uncle was crucial to their deliverance and that needed her presence. The Ice Queen had the upper hand.
They left the broad expanse of the Yellow River for a tributary and with distant mountains always to the left, sailed on westward.
Nicander idly wandered back to the boatman, who grinned in pleasure at the break in the tedium.
‘Ho!’ he cackled, pointing to the horizon off to the right where a long, low dun-coloured smoke haze betrayed the presence of a great city. ‘Chang An!’
Although it was hard going, as the accent in this part of China was flat and guttural, Nicander pressed the old man for information about their destination.
It was a very old city, perhaps the oldest. It had been the capital of the first emperor of China and counted on gnarled fingers by centuries, it was apparently two thousand years older than the Rome of Augustus – clearly impossible, of course.
Its size was equally fantastic – from excited sweeps of the arms it would need to be measured in handfuls of miles, but he’d not wanted to show sceptic and let the old man babble on about the sights and the pleasures in the venerable city.
Marius was not impressed. There was only one thing he was interested in and that was getting back to Roman civilisation and a decent feed.
The waterway was now busy; barges and lighters like their own, slim fishing craft and fat brick transports, pleasure skiffs and sampans – all the usual bustle at the approaches to a great metropolis.
Outer settlements began to appear along the bank, here and there pagodas on the skyline.
The Lady Kuo Ying Mei stepped out of her quarters. She had long restored her appearance, the slim silk gown with its elegant embroidery setting off her elaborate hairstyle, her ceruse-daubed face restored to its impassive rigidity. She looked about with cool detachment.
The captain hurried up, enquiring of her lady-in-waiting if there was anything she desired. It seemed not and the man was dismissed.
The sprawl of settlement became continuous. They dropped sail and were pulled down a long canal against the wind by hundreds of whipcord-thin men.
What they had seen before was the overflow of buildings outside the city. Inside a rectangle of great, towering walls twenty feet high and pierced only once each side with a single set of three gateways, Chang An proper was indeed immense in size.
Peoples of all kinds in every sort of dress were coming and going, quite ignoring the arrival of yet another boat from the outside world.
Tai Yi was soon engaged in spirited bargaining for the hire of their transport.
The merchants’ quarter was well known and they set off, My Lady in a curtained sedan chair, Tai Yi sitting next to the driver of a cart, the foreign devils on the tailgate.
Passing through one of the city gateways they came on an impressive sight – arrow-straight, immensely broad treelined avenues that disappeared into the distance in a regular grid. Minor boulevards and streets led off them and there were canals with pretty arched bridges and every so often a noble pagoda or vermilion eaved mansion showed above the roofs.
They swung off the main avenue and proceeded along a street with high, blank walls on either side. They turned again, into a residential district. Then, past the hubbub and commotion of a bazaar, they came to street stalls selling fish, pastries and flowers.
Through more urban bustle they crossed another broad avenue and continued along by a residential ward, spacious and well guarded.
Abruptly, they stopped by a dignified entrance. Painted on each panel of the heavy wooden gate were demons. Above, a large red triangular flag trimmed in yellow with huge Chinese characters in black flapped lazily.
Nicander dropped to the ground. ‘Looks like we’re here.’
Tai Yi spoke with a guard who went away, returning quickly to open the gates.
Waiting inside was a group of people, in the centre a small figure in a flowing blue robe, his face so creased with pleasure his eyes almost disappeared.
Ying Mei went up to him and bowed.
Words passed between them; she turned and beckoned the others forward. ‘Dear Uncle, you know my lady companion, Lai Tai Yi, who has served me steadfastly since I was a child. Those two are foreign holy men, Ni and Ma, who are accompanying me in my visit.’
Kuo looked at them in keen interest. ‘From where do they hail, Ying Mei?’
‘A long story, Uncle. It were best left to later.’