Chereads / The Vermillion Throne / Chapter 24 - Lishi shu'Ling (1/2)

Chapter 24 - Lishi shu'Ling (1/2)

The sun was dancing on her eyelids.

Lishi blinked and raised her hand to shade herself from the glare. She glimpsed lacy cuffs and felt the warmth of a thick blanket over her. She raised her head: she was in a room she'd never seen before, large and richly decorated with a single door. On the wall opposite the foot of her bed was an ornate fireplace within whose hearth Lishi could have easily stood upright, and to her left white curtains billowed inward with a breeze from a balcony. The night robe she wore was not one of hers. The door opened and a head peered in: a young woman, the white, loose cap of a house servant futilely attempting to contain her red curls. "Oh," she said. "You're awake, Ei'Torii."

The door closed, only to open again before Lishi could move from the bed. Two more servants entered: a middle-aged, stout woman and a younger woman who from their shared features must have been the older woman's daughter. The daughter bore a tray with a silver teapot and plates of fruit and bread; the matarh hurried over to the bed. "Stay there, Ei'Torii. Here, let me put this tray up over you. Now, a few pillows behind your head..." A moment later, the tray was placed before Lishi as she sat up against the headboard. A sumptuous breakfast steamed in front of her, fragrant, and she realized that she was famished.

"Where am I?" Lishi asked, and the servants chuckled in unison. They had the same laugh, also.

"The Guji said you'd probably be confused when you woke," the older woman said. "You're in your own apartments, across the plaza from the temple." The daughter went to a chest across the room and pulled underclothing and a green robe from the drawers, placing them gently over the foot of the bed. The older woman fluffed the pillows around her, then went to the balcony doors, pulling back the curtains. Lishi could glimpse the domes of the Guji's Shrine behind her. "Are you feeling better, Ei'Torii? Go on, eat the toast before it gets cold, and here, let me pour you some of this wonderful tea; it comes all the way from Moca in the province of Sichuan. The Guji, he said that Inari touched you after your appointment and that's why you were so exhausted, and we were to let him know when you woke. I've already sent Twang to tell him."

Lishi half-listened to the woman's prattling as she sipped the tea (which was indeed wonderful, flavored with spices that flirted coyly with her tongue) and ate the bread and fruit before her. She learned that the woman was Shufen and the other one, who was indeed her daughter, was Kai, and that Kai was betrothed to a minor sergeant of the Huangd Patrol, "but he's on the Commandant wan'Zhuge's staff, and very visible to the commandant;" that they came from Anhui and their family name was Hathiga, currently without any prefix of rank though the Guji had promised them that they would become ce'Hathiga in the Rolls next year; that they'd been in the Guji's employ for the last six years and were now attached to Lishi's apartments.

By the time she'd learned all this, she'd eaten her breakfast, performed her morning ablutions, and allowed the servants to help her dress. Twang knocked on the door as she finished. "The Guji is in the reception room, Ei'Torii," she said with a quick pressing of hands to forehead. "He said to come in as soon as you're ready."

The reception room was, like the bedroom, lavish and large, with its own balcony and fireplace, set with a desk, leather sofa, and plush matching chairs. The Guji was standing out on the balcony, so small that for a moment Lishi thought he might be a child. Then he turned and she saw the ancient face, the stunted arms, the bowed legs and bent spine. "Good morning to you, Ei'Torii Lishi," he said. "Please, come out here..."

She came to stand alongside him. The morning was cool, a breeze ruffling the folds of the soft, grass-colored robes she wore and bringing them the scent of wood fire from the breakfast hearths of the city. She was looking down to the courtyard of the temple from four stories up— the top floor. Directly across, seemingly nearly at eye level, the golden domes of the temple itself reflected sunlight back to the sky. As she looked, watching the people below scurrying about their business, the wind-horns sounded First Ring. Automatically, Ana went to a knee and bowed her head; she felt the Guji do the same alongside her. She silently mouthed the morning prayers: as the wind-horns continued to call, the strident sound carrying the burden of the city's prayers skyward to Inari and the other gods. As the last notes died, Lishi rose again. The Guji held out his small hand toward her. "If you would..." She helped him rise, the dwarf groaning as his knee cracked once in protest. "Old joints," he said. "I wonder if you could cure them."

With the words, the events of the evening before came back to Lishi: Mamaqin, the spell of healing, the darkness closing around her... "My mamaqin..."

He smiled up at her, his lips caught in folds. "She is doing quite well, from what I understand. I sent Baihu to your family's house this morning to inquire after her, knowing you'd ask. He was told that she slept easily last night, that her cough had vanished, and she is conversing with your papaqin and the house servants as if nothing had ever happened. It would appear that a minor miracle has occurred, eh?" One eyebrow raised as he glanced at Lishi. "She also doesn't remember what happened in the temple last night—which is just as well. I would suggest that you don't remember it, either."

"Guji, what I did..." She wasn't certain what she wanted to say.

"Is something that will remain between the two of us, because it must," he answered for her. "Let's go inside; the air is holding a bit of the old winter this morning."