Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Dragon Sight
Damn, I forgot I lied to her, and now I actually do have the rotted dragon pearl. I scramble for a plan, a feint, something to buy some time, but I come up empty.
‘Wait,’ Mr Lee says, his voice a hoarse rattle. ‘Lady Jing has claimed me. I willingly offered her my yang qi. She drank four bottles of it.’
‘What?’ Niang Niang snaps.
I stare at Mr Lee. What?
‘I gave her my blood. Fresh, willing blood carries yang qi, does it not?’
‘Snowflakes and watermelon rind!’ I blurt out. That crisp, fresh, familiar scent from the blood he brought me. The flavours I couldn’t place. The ones that are uniquely Mr Lee.
His doe eyes meet mine, and he smiles, sheepish and shy. ‘It was my honour to do so. I don’t care what you are. You were right. I like you.’ His voice is barely a whisper on a breeze, but his words carve themselves into my heart.
My eyes prick with tears, and I whisper, ‘I like you too.’
But Niang Niang growls and cuts short our moment. She leans forward in her throne. The bones in her face shift under her skin, her jaw elongates. ‘You will submit to me, mongrel. Ladies – finish him.’
The handmaids fall on him once more. Mr Lee convulses as the women pull his yang from him.
The sight ignites a white-hot rage. My vision blurs and doubles again, and I see myself speaking words heavy with Celestial command, laden with barbs.
I see my words slither among the hulijing on the floor and force them from Mr Lee.
Lord Black’s words ring in my mind. Clear your vision, and you will see. Open your heart, and you will be loved.
The lava running through my veins renews me. I fist my hands and snarl, ‘Enough.’
This time, the voice that rings from me pulsates through the hall, whispering echoes of multitudes contained in that one word.
Celestial command. Niang Niang visibly shudders at my voice.
The women on the floor jerk away from Mr Lee as if I’ve slapped them.
I check quickly that he still breathes. He looks withered and ancient, but still alive. Just.
‘You seek to defy me?’ Niang Niang’s eyes glow red. She raises a hand. At the same time, a golden strand rises from Mr Lee’s chest. His yang qi. With a flick of her wrist, the strand arcs through the air and pools neatly into her palm.
‘Stop!’ I say, using the voice on Niang Niang, but she only laughs.
‘Little mongrel, you think your nascent voice can command me? Your elder? The matriarch of this court? You truly know nothing about anything.’
Mr Lee twitches as the golden strand of qi continues to thin until it’s no thicker than a thread of gossamer. A glowing orb the size of a peach hovers where the strand meets Mr Lee’s chest.
‘That there is the mortal’s prenatal qi. It is the last of his life-force. Once I take it, he will die.’
My hands reach out as if I can stop her, as if I can hold his qi in place. But I know I can’t. I fall to my knees.
‘Please,’ I beg.
Niang Niang’s smile is all sharp little teeth. ‘Do we have a deal?’
I nod.
‘Say it!’
‘I will give you the dragon pearl in exchange for sparing Mr Lee’s life.’
‘Not just the dragon pearl,’ she purrs. ‘I want you to forfeit your life as well.’
I don’t hesitate. ‘My life is yours.’
‘Done.’ She flicks the strand away, and the golden orb sinks back into Mr Lee’s chest.
He gasps, then settles into stillness. I scramble towards him and place a hand over his heart. He’s barely breathing.
‘Give me the pearl,’ Niang Niang hisses.
She holds out her hand. The jade nail guards curve like talons over her fingers. I do not want those near my eyes. I glance at Mr Lee. I need to get the pearl out of my eye.
But how? ‘I’m supposed to blow on my third eye,’ I mutter to myself. ‘What does that mean?’
Niang Niang’s black gaze settles on me. ‘What nonsense are you spewing? The only thing that can touch your third eye is your qi.’
I lean back on my heels, swallowing down a hysterical urge to laugh.
Of course. That convoluted old dragon. Why the Tian didn’t he just say that.
I will Mr Lee to hang on. I focus my qi and send it over my third eye.
There’s a strange pressure behind my forehead, akin to the hollow feeling of an empty stomach, and something pushes against my eye.
‘I see it!’ shrieks Niang Niang.
She flies down the dais stairs, waving her handmaids away from us. Her talons are at my face, but I bat her away and hunch forward protecting myself from her nails. There’s a wet sucking sound and something falls, glistening and sticky, into my waiting hands. The dragon pearl.
I stare at it, stunned that blowing on it actually worked. Niang Niang snatches the pearl from my palm, hissing in triumph. Her eyes have a wild sheen to them. A smile slashes across her face like cracked porcelain.
I put my forehead on Mr Lee’s chest. His heartbeat is weak and fading fast. After all that, I may lose him anyways.
But then something strange happens. All the handmaids who fed on Mr Lee start to twitch.
They fall to their knees, gasping, hands clawing at their throats.
They writhe on the ground, their skin sloughing away like a crumbling wasp’s nest.
Niang Niang stares at them, mouth wide in horror. ‘What is happening?’
As the handmaids wither, Mr Lee’s skin plumps out. His breathing eases. As if being nourished by their qi. For a moment, I’m as confused as Niang Niang. And then I remember.
‘The jade.’ I laugh, long and hard. ‘Dear Niang Niang, you’ve landed yourself in a spot of mafan. Not only have you attacked a mortal with prior claim, you’ve attacked a mortal under the dual protection of Lord Lei and Queen Mother of the West. Mr Lee has her qi in him.’
Niang Niang’s complexion turns a ghastly shade of grey. ‘Impossible. Why would she—’
I step forward. ‘Look at your handmaids. You’ll have some explaining to do. Queen Mother of the West does not take kindly to hers being harmed.’
‘I did not know! You never told me!’
‘Give me back my dragon pearl and I’ll tell her myself that you did not know.’
Niang Niang’s fingers close around the pearl. She steps backwards, clutching the pearl to her chest.
‘Never. It is mine now. You gave it to me.’
‘As I understand it, dragon pearls can neither be bought, sold, or bartered. It is mine. And you will give it back.’
‘Little mongrel, you of all people, have no authority to make me do anything.’
I stand and move towards my grandmother who seems to shrink with every step I take.
‘Parley on behalf of the Ministry of Hell. Ordinance 6.2 of the Jade Emperor’s Treaty of Mount Kunlun,’ I invoke.
Niang Niang backs onto the dais steps.
‘I have come into my Celestial voice,’ I continue, emboldened by her reaction.
‘I claim both my position as a minister of Hell and a minister of the Hulijing Court. I claim protection of both the Ministry of Hell and the Hulijing Court according to the laws of Tian. You think I have no authority?’ I step forward again.
My grandmother moves up the steps to her dais, her gaze never leaving mine.
But she’s lost her smile. She looks diminished.
‘I have the authority to bring you before the Jade Emperor for breaching his Treaty,’ I say, biting out each word. I step onto the first step of the dais, forcing her backwards.
‘I have the authority to bring you before the dragon kings for stealing my dragon pearl,’ I say and take two more steps up as she too moves up the steps to maintain her distance.
‘I have the authority to bring you before the great Queen Mother of the West for harming one of hers.’ With one more step I’m level with my grandmother who backs into her throne. She has nowhere else to go.
I hold my hand out. ‘Give me back my pearl.’
Niang Niang grips the pearl tighter. ‘You disrespectful little leech—’
I cut her off. ‘The pearl cannot stop Big Wang’s banking project, nor can it compel demand for yin silver. Surely you know this.’
She swipes at the air as if she can repel me, stumbles, and lands heavily on her throne.
‘I heard Lord Black say the pearl gifted dragon sight. What could a mongrel do with such a gift? Wasted on you! With dragon sight I could lead my court to better trade deals, more power, more prestige. We could throw off the limits imposed by Tian on hunting mortals. We would no longer be under the thumb of that mortal-loving bleeding heart, the Jade Emperor. I don’t care if you’ve ascended. You will never have authority over me!’
I tilt my head and give her my sad face. ‘Grandmother, has no one given you a snack? I, too, get grumpy when I’m hungry.’
‘How dare you!’
I hold my hand out for the pearl again. ‘I can’t claim to truly understand the dragon uncle when he talks, but I’m pretty sure you can’t use the dragon pearl the way you think. It’s about embracing the Cosmos, or something. Now give it back. It isn’t yours.’
She snarls. ‘Never.’
I sigh and decide to try and emulate Lord Black. Gathering my qi, I send it towards the pearl, willing it to swell.
With a gasp, Niang Niang stares at the suddenly melon-sized pearl in her hand. Concentrating, I do it again, only willing it to shrink this time. I want it as small as the tip of my pinkie.
As I hoped, Niang Niang is too surprised by the shrinking pearl to stop me from smacking it out of her hand.
The pearl plinks down the dais stairs and rolls across the floor until it comes to a stop against a bare black-skinned foot.
The rest of the leg is clad in an emerald green siwar, gathered at the knee.
Big Wang kneels to pick up the dragon pearl, inspecting it for damage.
I nearly weep with relief as I rush down the stairs back to Mr Lee.