FOUR YEARS AGO.
Fēicháng. Thirty minutes on horseback from Taiyuan--the Imperial Capital.
~~~
The sky was as black as the Devil's heart. Vengeful, starless, grumbling and rumbling—a keening omen of the events to follow. The steady drumming of the waters pounded in the distance, while above and in the west, blackening clouds massed.
Suddenly, churning winds ripped across the sky above him, and the dark clouds let forth sheets of rain. Stinging nails of rain hitting him. He shivered under the prickly feeling and raised his hands to protect his face from the icy-cold spikes.
Fistfuls of droplets, increasingly heavy and unusually cold for the time, crushed the last of the summer buds peeking through the shallow grass around his feet. And the ground turned into a slushy sooty grey goo sticking to his boots and tugging his steps deeper in.
Still, unmovable like the mightiest mountain, Shufeng was anxiously waiting for her: His eyes scanning the first row of bamboo trees that stared at him like silent sentries.
How long and tortuous the wait was!
The mournful cry of a lonely wolf echoed from a distant mountain and woke him up from his absent-mindedness. He shook his head as he welcomed a gust of icy wind hitting him for he needed to focus and remain alert.
The pale moon now hung high into the abyss-black sky. He then realised that a very long time had passed since the heavens started to weep incessantly. His whole body ached. The cold and wet seeped in through his open cross-collar jacket. He was trembling uncontrollably; not so much from the coldness and wetness, but rather from the fear and trepidation soaking him to the core of his bones.
Then, all of a sudden, the ruthless rain finally stopped.
An eerie silence descended.
Nothing moved.
Nothing stirred.
Shufeng could see the other side of the river shrouded in a ghost grey fog, rising up, slithering slowly over the waters towards him and stretching out its spineless tentacles to grasp his legs. Shreds of it also crept over the meadow and trailed heavily towards the bamboo grove. And, the bone-white fog quickly charged in, thick fingers crawling into the first line of bamboo trees. It clung to and swallowed everything it could, fading the forest into a grey thick nothingness.
Just then he heard a distant shout.
It was Emika.
His heart leaped. He made a grab for the hilt of his sword.
"Emika! I am here! ... Emika! Em! Over here!" he called out, slogging his way through the packed mud and the matted layers of mushy grassland, kicking up small drifts.
She shouted again but this time it resounded in the cool air with deeper anguish. Running to the direction of her voice, Shufeng could barely make out her fragile figure painfully escaping the grim and misty shadowy grove. As she came closer, her frenetic pace suddenly turned hesitant.
He stretched out his hands impatiently for her to hurry. She briefly glanced over her shoulder, stopped running and stood still. Once more, she twisted her neck to look behind her. This time, she held her gaze on the bamboo grove a little longer.
When she turned her pallid face around and their eyes met again, he felt uneasy at her hesitation. Thus, he ran even faster towards her, pulled her tightly in his embrace, and cradled her head against his chest. Her hair was in such total disarray that birds would be happy to nest in it, however the flowery fragrance of her locks slowly comforted his restless heart.
His fingers clenched around her shoulders, and pulling his body away from her, he queried, "Oh, my sweet Emika, tell me you are alright!" She nodded vigorously. He then bracketed his hands around her thin waist. "I hope you did not take unnecessary risks. What happened? What took you so long?" He asked, peppering her cheeks with kisses to soothe his own worried heart.
Before she could answer, his eyes searched intensely, scanning the semi-darkness of the bamboo grove behind her, "Where is Jian?"
She shifted uneasily and avoided to meet his questioning gaze, "The soldiers were pursuing us..." She clutched the hem of her left sleeve. "They caught up with us..." She forced herself to release the sleeve and straightened the fabric with a nervous stroke. "I am sorry, he... Jian didn't make it."
His heart dropped to his stomach. He staggered, his legs filled with both a shaky and numb sensation. Tears hovered behind Shufeng's eyes but this was not the place nor the time to grief. First, they had to stay alive to be able to mourn him later.
Jian was more than his royal bodyguard. On her deathbed, Shufeng's mother, Royal Noble Consort* Soyong, had eagerly entrusted her son to the care of this then, eight years old boy:
"My sweet Jian, swear to me that you shall never falter in your allegiance to my precious beloved son, His Second Highness. I well know that my trust in you is not misplaced."
The boy nodded proudly in agreement. Shufeng's eyes brushed by Jian's small and fragile figure, and blinked in confusion: he himself was three years older, taller and stronger than this boy. Till this day, his mother's request had remained a mystery to both of them.
With a gesture of the hand, Consort Soyong invited in her bedchambers a court official posted by her door. The bearded man placed in her hands a finely carved jade amulet. On the outer circle were two dragons facing each other, and an inner twist surrounded a smaller dragon in the center. This little dragon had a red spinel for an eye. She handed the object to Jian:
"This amulet identify you as one of His Second Highness' special people. Always carry it with you."
The little boy's father had entered the room and knelt down before Royal Noble Consort Soyong, then she carried on:
"And now, Jian Nagoya, I appoint you as one of the royal bodyguards. Make your father proud and never disappoint the Imperial House."
Earlier that day, Shufeng's mother had raised this matter with his father, Emperor Akishino. Thus, the dying wish of a disgraced consort miraculously carried out an Imperial edict:
"As ordained by the Heavens, the Emperor decrees: 'The Nagoya family has lived a blameless and outstanding life, and have sacrificed three generations of sons on the battlefields to protect the greatness of our Empire. Therefore, I appoint the future sons of the Nagoya family birthed after the date of this decree, to be appointed as Third-ranked Court Officials.
'The last son of the Nagoya family, Jian, is intelligent, kind, brave and a filial son to a loyal family. He is to be conferred the title of Royal Bodyguard and be assigned to His Second Highness, at the Palace of Celestial Tranquility. He shall also reside with Second Highness Shufeng at the Palace of Celestial Tranquility.
'His mind will be enlightened with all the books of the Imperial Library and with all the knowledge of our great scholars. Likewise, his body will be trained in all the forms of martial arts and military tactics.'"
After the reading of the decree, Soyong took Jian's little hand and placed it on her son's heart.
"But foremost, you shall be closer than a blood brother to my Shufeng. You shall be an umbrella to shelter him from the rain, a parasol to hide him from the scorching sun, a guiding light when he is lost in darkness, a soothing balm to cure his pains, water and food when he is thirsty and hungry, and you shall be the hands that wipe his tears away."
Following his mother's burial, for days Jian cried as much as he did, if not even more. And while he wiped Jian's tears away, Shufeng smiled, fondly remembering his beloved mother's last words.
When Shufeng was weary of living, Jian's presence strengthened him. Over the years, unwavering in their mutual affections, the reliance and trust they had for each other steadily kept on growing stronger than hundreds of sugi* trees.
Jian was his mother's gift, his childhood friend, his one and only ally in the Imperial House.
How could he bear the pain of losing him?
~~~
* Royal Noble Consort : a high-ranked royal concubine.
* Sugi tree: a very strong type of cedar tree, can reach up to 70 m in height, and can reach trunk diameters of 4m.