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The minister turned to Batu. "General, if we don't make peace with the barbarians, who will win the
war?"
Several people seemed confused by the change of subject, but Batu answered immediately. "I can't
say," he said, fixing a vacant stare on the minister. Continuing in an empty voice, he added, "The Tuigan are
trapped in Shou Kuan; but they outnumber us and stand a good chance of winning when they sally. Even if
they don't attack, we may not be able to starve them out, for I've heard they'll eat their horses and even
each other. What's worse is that while the enemy sleeps beneath the roofs of Shou Kuan, our men are
ex-posed to chill weather and autumn rains. The risk of epi-demic is high."
The answer was not the one Ju-Hai had hoped to hear. It meant that much more was at stake than his
life or Batu's.
The Minister of State bowed to the emperor, but did not dare to look him in the eye. "I beg your
forgiveness, Divine One," he said. "The letters are genuine. When I learned of Yamun Khahan's success in
uniting the horse tribes, I of-fered my help to his treacherous stepmother. At my re-quest, Kwan sent an
assassin to aid her."
A stunned silence fell over the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but only for a moment. Ting Mei Wan sprang
to her feet as if to flee, but the emperor was not taken by surprise. "Minis-ter Ting!" he boomed, pointing a
long-nailed finger at her. "At the moment, you face only one death. If you flee, I will see to it that you die a
thousand times!"
Ting looked from the emperor to the guards behind Batu. They still had not moved, and Ju-Hai thought
his former protege stood a chance of escaping if she acted quickly enough. Then her gaze fell on Batu. The
general's face was warped into a hateful scowl and his bitter eyes were locked on Ting's. Without looking
away, the Minister of State Secu-rity collapsed back into her chair.
"A wise decision," Ju-Hai said. "There is no place you could run that General Batu would not find you."
The Divine One motioned to the guards behind Batu, "Lock her in the First Spire of Ultimate Despair.
Ministers Kwan and Ju-Hai are confined to the palace grounds until further notice. Do not let them out of
your sight."
"You wouldn't think of sending us to the barbarians!" Kwan protested.
Rising to leave the hall, the emperor said, "That will be de-cided after Ting's execution."
Kwan started to follow the Son of Heaven. "Divine One, let us explain!"
Ju-Hai rose. "There's nothing to explain, you fool." He knew that the emperor could reach only one
conclusion: two lives were a small price to pay for ending a costly war that had little prospect of victory.
The Minister of State turned to the guards assigned to him. "I'd like to spend the day in my garden."
* * * * *
The sword fell and there was a hollow pop. Ting's head, covered by a silk hood, dropped into the waiting
basket. The kneeling corpse remained perched on the executioner's block, its hands bound behind its back.
In the pale morning light, everything seemed gray except Ting's cheosong. It was her favorite scarlet
dress, the one with the golden dragon that entwined her body. Now, cling-ing to a headless corpse, it was
the dragon that looked full and alive.
Batu had expected to feel something when Ting died: vin-dication, relief, perhaps elation. Instead, his
emotions re-mained as colorless as the morning. He could not seem to accept that the traitorous mandarin
had killed his entire family.
Accompanied by Pe, the general had passed the night at the house where his wife and children had died,
but he had not grieved. He had seen Wu's bloodstains in the sleeping hall. He had sat in the courtyard and
tried to weep.
Throughout the night, he kept hearing their voices call to him. Once he had dozed off and awakened to
the imagined touch of his children's hands upon his back.
The thought had occurred to him that his family's spirits might be trapped at the site of the murders.
Though far from a superstitious man, the general had tried talking to them. When he had received no
response, Batu had sent for a shukenja. The priest had found no wayward spirits, but had suggested that if
Wu and the children were trapped in the house, their murderer's death would free them to begin the journey
to the Land of Extreme Felicity.
So, at first light, the general and his adjutant had gone to the Square of Paramount Justice, where they
had joined a small group gathered to witness Ting's execution. Although Pe had found ceremonial uniforms
for both of them, Batu still wore his barbarian hauberk. The others who had been invited to witness the
execution—the emperor, Ju-Hai, Kwan, and Koja—had raised their eyebrows at his attire, but Batu did not
care. He could not bear to wear the uniform of the emperor who had turned a blind eye to the mur-der of
his family. Feeling as he did, the general wondered how he could continue serving in the army of Shou
Lung—or, for that matter, how he could continue living at all.
For the rest of his life, his mind and his heart would be at war. Though he knew rationally that Wu and
the children were dead, he would never believe it in his heart. Batu's only hope of fully accepting their fates,
viewing their lifeless bodies, had been taken away. His family had been cremated, their ashes scattered to
the winds like those of common thieves. For that insult, especially, Batu had wanted Ting to suffer.
However, the traitorous mandarin had died with more dignity than she deserved. As the guards had led
her into the Square of Paramount Justice, her knees had buckled, and she had looked pale and frightened.
When the execu-tioner had slipped the hood over her head, she had shame-fully avoided the eyes of those
gathered to witness her death.
Still, she had not begged for mercy, nor even cried out in despair, and Batu felt that his family had
deserved at least that much retribution. If the general had administered the execution, she would have died
shrieking in pain and plead-ing for mercy.
Unfortunately, the Divine One considered torture uncivil-ized, at least in his presence. He had only
allowed Batu to watch an impersonal executioner exact the vengeance which belonged to the general.
"You must be very happy, General," Kwan Chan said, inter-rupting Batu's reverie. The old man stood
between two guards. His hands were bound behind his back, as if there were a chance he would break free
and totter away. As a badge of dishonor, Kwan wore a dingy samfu of undyed hemp instead of a
mandarin's brocaded waitao.
When Batu did not answer the old man's comment, Pe took up the gauntlet. "Why should the general be
happy, prisoner?" the youth demanded. He clearly enjoyed ad-dressing his hated ex-superior with the
derogatory term.
Kwan gave the adjutant a patronizing smile. "He has de-feated his enemies."
"The khahan has not been defeated!" Koja snapped from a few feet away.
Though Batu knew the minister was not referring to the barbarians, the general had no wish to elevate
either Kwan or Ting to the status of enemy. He always held at least a grudging respect for his opponents,
and he felt nothing of the kind for either of the two mandarins. He added his own comment to Koja's
assertion, "The Tuigan still hold Shou Kuan. I have not defeated any enemies." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]