Three times the song charm was repeated, and then his majesty bowed again toward Grief of Dawn's bedchamber. The Golden Girls also bowed. Then the king and his girls were gone, blending into the shadows, and I suppose that my face was rather expressive. How many young women are courted by a huge, powerful, infinitely courteous and gentle, yet infinitely barbaric monarch? Sable and gold awaited Grief of Dawn, not to mention an impossibly handsome young man named Moon Boy.
“Oh, Ox. Poor Ox,” Grief of Dawn said softly.
Her hand slipped into mine. “Come and walk with me, come and sit with me, come and sleep and share my pillow,” she whispered.
“Cluck-cluck!” I said.
There are mornings one would prefer to forget.
This one began beautifully, with sunlight sliding through the window and dappling Grief of Dawn's lovely shoulder. I nuzzled her cheek and listened to the lethargic buzz of lazy flies, and a drowsy drone of bees, and the curtains gently rustling in a whispering breeze, and a happy voice that bellowed, “Come back here, you little bugger!”
I sat bolt upright.
“Oh, damn,” Grief of Dawn sighed plaintively.
A naked boy, perhaps thirteen or fourteen, raced past the window on the veranda.
“Hey, bugger, don't you want the plugger snugger?” the happy voice yelled.
“Ten million curses,” Grief of Dawn groaned, smothering a yawn.
A naked young man galloped past the window after the boy, stopped, trotted back, and stuck his head inside the room.
“Good morning, my love!” Moon Boy said cheerfully.
“Why must you waste that thing on boys?” she said.
He glanced down complacently at his crotch. “Waste? What do you mean waste? You know very well that some of the little darlings can't sit down for a month.” Moon Boy climbed through the window and sauntered up to the bed. “My, you've certainly picked a splendid specimen this time. Congratulations!”
I hastily jerked the covers up to my shoulders.
“You're Number Ten Ox, aren't you? Where did you get that divine nose? Looks like a cow stepped on it,” Moon Boy said.
“Er… A slight disagreement with Big Hong the blacksmith,” I mumbled.
“I trust he received a decent funeral,” Moon Boy said, and then he sat down on the side of the bed and began caressing Grief of Dawn's right thigh. “Speaking of funerals, I once saw Master Li during one of his black periods,” he said. “He wouldn't remember me. I was in the back row at court waiting to give my first imperial performance, and this wicked old man kowtowed to the emperor, got to his feet, whipped a knife from his sleeve, and cut the throat of the Minister of Trade. Blood all over the place.”
“Moon Boy, is that true?” Grief of Dawn said skeptically.
“Every word. When the emperor learned the motive for the mayhem, he couldn't decide whether to boil Master Li in oil or make him a duke, but it was academic because the old man had already escaped to Turkestan. Shortly thereafter the High Priest of Samarkand was found with his nose caressing the sole of his left foot, which says something about the condition of his spine, and when the bailiffs paid a call on Master Li, they found he'd suddenly been called to the sickbed of a great-granddaughter in Serendip.”
I was used to Master Li stories, only a tiny fraction of which are even marginally true, but I was not used to hearing one from a revoltingly beautiful young man who climbed stark naked through the bedroom window and began stroking my girl's bare leg. Now he was stroking her left breast, and taking her into his arms.
“I've missed you,” he said softly.
“How I love you,” she whispered.
The king was wrong about Moon Boy's name. He was perfectly named, I decided, because the moon is inhabited by a large white rabbit, and everybody knows that rabbits are notorious perverts.
“Why not give up boys for a week and try me?” Grief of Dawn whispered.
In addition, I decided, he moved like a cat, and Master Li once said that certain Egyptians say that a cat lives in the moon, and everybody knows that the soul of a cat is formed from the composite souls of nine debauched nuns who failed in their vows.
“Come away with me,” Grief of Dawn whispered.
“Darling, I'd like nothing better, but his majesty is a wee bit possessive,” he said.
“Master Li will take care of that. He has a job for you, and that boy you were chasing resembles a Swatow sea slug.”
“Tell the wicked old man I accept. I shall pack a few essential clothes and jewels—you must see the emerald the king gave me—and kiss the lads farewell.”
The lad on the balcony had realized he was no longer being chased, and was coughing self-consciously outside the window. Moon Boy was up with a smooth feline motion.
“Work, work, work,” he complained. “Why must one's responsibilities always interfere with one's pleasures? Still, duty is duty.”
With a catlike bound he was at the window, and with another he was out of it. “Come back here, you little bugger!” he yelled, and he was gone.
Grief of Dawn smiled and settled back in my arms. “Well, now you've met Moon Boy,” she said. “Slightly larger than life, isn't he?”
“Will he come to visit after we're married?” I asked apprehensively.
She looked at me gravely, “Ox, I can never get married,” she said. “Moon Boy and I think that we were part of the same soul, and somehow it was split on the Great Wheel of Incarnations, and a piece of it is still missing. Apart we're nothing, and even when we're together we aren't complete. We wander the world, Ox, searching for the missing piece, and I can never settle down until I find it.”
I wanted to argue about that, but Grief of Dawn had a better idea. We were getting back to where we started before the interruption, and things warmed up nicely, and it appeared that the morning would be saved after all.
“Good morning, my children!” Master Li said happily as he trotted into the room. “Why is it that the most delightful of physical positions to the participants is an aesthetic abomination to onlookers?”
We managed to get separated, and Master Li took Moon Boy's position on the side of the bed.
“Your absurdly good-looking young man just galloped lewdly past my window,” he said to Grief of Dawn. “I've never been much for hopping into bed with boys, but if I could be ninety again, I'd be delighted to make an exception with him. Buddha, what a creature! Has he agreed?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“Good. I want to get out of here as fast as possible. Ox, Grief of Dawn, I want you to find the highest point in the castle you can reach, with the best view of the courtyards and walls.”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“This evening Moon Boy is scheduled to perform, and after that the Golden Girls will put on a show. Nobody will pay attention to young lovers walking by the lakes in the gardens. How long would it take you to get a sackful of toads and two sackfuls of lanternflies?”
“Not long,” I said. “An hour or two.”
“Splendid,” said Master Li. “Plan to slip out and collect them just after Moon Boy's performance, and with any luck we'll be out of here before midnight. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves.”
Grief of Dawn and I lay back. Dogs were barking and cats were yowling and roosters were crowing and grooms were swearing and cooks were screaming. We got up and dressed and went out to find the highest vantage point.