Naamah's Kiss (Moirin's Trilogy #1)

"It didn't do such a good job, did it?" I muttered.

He shrugged. "Maybe not."

Inside the inner gates, there was another courtyard, a vast expanse filled with guards and attendants. And then another moat with five bridges traversing a narrow river. We crossed a bridge and passed through yet another gate, stepping carefully over the high lintel.

Another courtyard, this one housing a pavilion.

And the Son of Heaven.

So the Ch'in reckon their Emperor, and there is a special obeisance accorded him, performed on hands and knees. Despite his purported hundred and seventy years, Master Lo performed it gracefully, kneeling before the throne and touching his brow to the ground three times. Along with Bao and the general and his men, I followed suit, sinking to my knees and humbling myself.

"Old friend." Emperor Zhu's voice was heavy. I peered at him beneath my lashes. A man, only a man. Tall for his folk, with a warrior's mien, but a sorrowful, defeated aspect. He wore robes of yellow silk, embroidered with scarlet dragons. It looked well on him. Coiled dragons rode the columns that surrounded his throne, their claws reaching for the skies. A flat-topped crown sat atop the Emperor's head, dripping with strings of beaded gems. "My old, old friend. You have come at last."

Master Lo rose and straightened. When he spoke, his voice was infinitely gentle. "Yes, Celestial Majesty. You sent for me. I am here."

I felt the Emperor's gaze descend on me, weigh me, and dismiss me. "Will you see her?" he asked Master Lo. "Will you see my daughter?"

Master Lo bowed. "I will."

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Snow Tiger. Xue Hu, in Ch'in.

My skin prickled as we made our way through the endless labyrinth of the Celestial City, trailing a long line of attendants, two of them carrying a tall standing mirror that Master Lo had requested, veiled in silk. There was some question as to whether or not Bao was to be admitted to the women's quarters, where men were not allowed, but once more Master Lo insisted and prevailed.

"What about them?" I asked in confusion, indicating the attendants.

"Them?" Bao glanced. "They have been cut."

"Cut?" I echoed.

He made a slicing motion toward his groin. "Not full men anymore. Serving in the palace is one path toward power," he said thoughtfully. "Not one I would choose."

I swallowed hard. "Gods, no!"

At last we entered a small inner courtyard where gnarled trees grew amid curious limestone rocks. It was a pretty place—or at least it would have been if it were not partitioned by a wall of iron bars, the cage extending into the living quarters beyond.

"Noble Daughter!" The Emperor's voice cracked as he summoned her. He cleared his throat and collected himself. "Master Lo Feng has come to see you!"

She emerged.

Beside me, Bao drew in a long, hissing breath.

Hearing tales of the daughter raised as a prince, I had expected a more imposing figure—but no. Snow Tiger was as delicate as a flower, slender as a reed, and half a head shorter than me. Her natural beauty was what the women on the greatship sought to emulate with their cosmetics and painted brows.

And yet…..

She wore crimson robes embroidered with exotic birds. A sash of crimson silk was bound around her eyes, the ends trailing down her back. Despite it, she walked across her enclosed courtyard with deliberate, sure-footed grace, her spine as straight as a spear, her carriage proud and unbowed. And I did not doubt, not for one heartbeat, that she was a warrior.

"Truly?" Her voice was low. "After so long, he is here?"

Emperor Zhu's strong hands gripped the iron bars that divided them. "Truly, Noble Daughter."

My diadh-anam flickered and flared. I felt dizzy. I shook my head, trying to clear it, while Master Lo examined her through the bars. He felt the pulses in her wrists, studied her tongue, listened to the sound of her breathing. She bore it patiently, doubtless having been through the like a hundred times before.

With Bao's assistance, he lit a taper of incense that gave off prodigious amounts of fragrant smoke, waving it around her. The smoke writhed and coiled in intricate patterns.

Coiled like….. what?

"Forgive me, Noble Princess." Master Lo's voice sounded genuinely apologetic. "I must ask you to remove the blindfold." He nodded at the attendants. "Unveil the mirror."

Snow Tiger bowed her head in acquiescence, hands rising to undo the knot. "Step away from the bars, please. You must be sure your people are safe."

"Do as her highness bids," he agreed. "Step away."

I meant to—gods know, I did! And yet I didn't. Instead, I stood rooted to the spot and summoned the twilight without thinking, breathing it in deep. As the crimson blindfold fluttered to the ground and Snow Tiger opened her eyes, I flung the twilight around both of us.

And a half-step into the world beyond, I saw.

I caught my breath.

Her head turned, unerring. Something not human looked out from her eyes, looked out and saw itself reflected in mine. She was not alone in her body. Silver-white brightness coiled and uncoiled throughout her being.

You see me.

The voice in my thoughts crashed and echoed like mountains falling.

"I see you," I murmured in awe.

You see me! It thundered, male and triumphant. You see me! I see myself in you!

"What is it?" The Ch'in princess stood very straight and still, her dark gaze with unspeakable brightness behind it fixed on my face. "You are a foreigner. Why are you here? What have you done? Who are you?"

Somewhere, half a world away, alarm was rising. I concentrated on breathing, tuning out the frantic mortal voices.

"Moirin," I said firmly. "I am Moirin mac Fainche of the Maghuin Dhonn, my lady. And I bid you to look." In the gloaming light, I reached through the bars and turned her chin toward the full-length mirror that Master Lo had ordered brought. "Look and see."

There was no lovely Ch'in princess reflected there. There was only the infinite coils of a dragon, twining and untwining, pearlescent white scales gleaming in the depths of the mirror. As I watched, it raised its bearded, long-jowled head with joy.

You see me!

"I see it," Snow Tiger breathed. She put one slender arm through the bars, her splayed fingertips touching the mirror. "Oh! I thought it would be hideous. But it's beautiful, so beautiful."

I didn't know…..

The memory not my own surfaced. Desire, shuddering pleasure; an awakening onto dawning horror. Blindness. Thrashing panic, soft flesh tearing in the pursuit of unattainable freedom. And blood—gods! So much blood.

I felt sick.

"The dragon awoke inside you while you were making love with your bridegroom," I whispered. "He didn't know. He was only trying to free himself."

Her throat worked. "How? How did this happen?"

I shook my head. "I don't know." The sounds of alarm were growing. My grip on the twilight wavered. "My lady, we'd best go back."

STAY!

I winced at the volume of the dragon's voice in my head. Desire and panic, twined together, roiled through me. Snow Tiger caught my hand, nearly crushing it in an inhumanly strong grip. I forced myself to breathe through the pain. "I'm here," I said to the immortal being behind her eyes. "Be gentle. It's all right. I'm not really going away. It's only blindness, only for a little while. Can you endure it?"

For you, I will try.

The princess nodded in agreement, her grip loosening.

I eased my hand away and stooped to pick up her scarf. "Cover your eyes."

When I loosed the twilight, the world crashed down upon us, filled with chaos and shouting. Hands grabbed my arms, yanking me away from the cage. Bao yelled, his staff whirling as he attacked my assailants.

The dragon…..

LET HER GO!

The furious roar in my head didn't quite drown out Snow Tiger's high, fierce cry. Driven by the dragon's fury, she dropped the scarf in her hands and flung herself forward, hitting the iron bars with terrible force. The bars screeched and bent. She caught sight of the mirror and froze, then flung herself forward again, howling. With the twilight banished, the dragon could no longer see his reflection, and it maddened him further, the enormity of his rage driving the princess like a goad.

"Cover the mirror!" I shouted. "Cover the bedamned mirror!"

Bao dashed to obey, a wary eye on the princess. Once the mirror was covered, she made a great effort to wrestle herself under control, squeezing her eyes shut and tying the scarf in place.

Attendants seized me again, forcing me to my knees. The Emperor drew a long, curved sword. "You bring a barbarian witch to torment my daughter, old friend?" he asked Master Lo, his voice filled with grief and menace. "What manner of betrayal is this?"

"Father!" Snow Tiger called. "Let her go!"

"Hush, child," he said over his shoulder. "You don't know yourself."

"It is not so!" she said in frustration. "Noble Father, I beg you, spare the foreign woman and let her speak."

Master Lo's face was pale, but composed. He folded his hands in his sleeves. "I urge you to heed your daughter's plea, Celestial Majesty. My pupil's people have a gift for magic and her destiny has led her to this place. If you wish to hear what she has to say, I suggest you let her keep her head. Your daughter's fate may depend on it."

Emperor Zhu hesitated, knuckles white on his sword-hilt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bao sidling closer, trying to decide if saving my life was worth assaulting the Son of Heaven. I shook my head at him, sure it would be his death sentence if he did.

"Let her up." The Emperor sheathed his blade brusquely and nodded at me. "Speak."

I rose unsteadily, only now beginning to tremble. I breathed the Breath of Earth's Pulse until I could speak. "It's not a demon. It's a dragon." I pointed to the embroidered crimson figures swirling on his robes. "Like that, only white. Like the dragon on Lord Jiang's standard," I added. "It's trapped inside her. I don't know how or why, but it is."

Master Lo paled further, an involuntary sound escaping from him. That shocked me as much as anything that had transpired.

"It's true." Snow Tiger clutched the iron bars hard enough to make them creak in protest, but her blindfold was in place and she maintained control. "Father, I saw it."

"Sorcery," Emperor Zhu said grimly.

"No, old friend." Master Lo's voice was faint, but steady. It grew stronger as he spoke. "I fear she speaks the truth."

A memory that made no sense surfaced in his thoughts. A toddler, plump and merry as any of Bao's imaginary babies, playing with a shimmering pearl the size of a ball. I blinked and frowned, not comprehending.

Master Lo met my gaze for a long, grave moment, then turned to Snow Tiger. "Noble Princess, someone gave you a drink the night of your wedding, did they not?"

"You did, Master," she said in perplexity. "That is, I drank the tonic that you gave to Lord Jiang's physician to hold in keeping for my wedding night." Beneath the blindfold, her cheeks turned faintly pink. I could hazard a guess at the tonic's intended effect.

My mentor nodded. "And you had no cause not to trust Lord Jiang's own physician. It tasted of vinegar, did it not?"

"Yes. Why?"

He took a few steps, turning away from all of us. "It is well known that a dragon hides the essence of his spirit in a great pearl," he said in a low tone. "As it is well known that a pearl dissolves in vinegar. When I was a young man, I did many foolish things in the pursuit of ambition. One of these things was to lull a dragon to sleep and steal his pearl."

Two things came together in my mind.

"Oh, gods!" I blurted out the words without thinking. It made sense. The child. The pearl. "Lord Jiang's physician, Black Sleeve. He's your son!"

Master Lo bowed his head. "Yes."

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

A moment of silence followed Master Lo's revelation. Emperor Zhu broke it by swearing, crashing his fist into his other hand. "So, old friend. Leaving aside the matter of Black Sleeve's paternity, how do we get the dragon out of my most treasured daughter?"

HOME!

I winced at the sudden joyous thunder of the dragon's voice in my thoughts and echoed the word. "Home."

Bao gave me a curious look. Master Lo inclined his head. "My pupil is correct. Snow Tiger must journey to White Jade Mountain, where the dragon resides. Only in the lake where the snow-capped peak is reflected can she disgorge the pearl."

Home…..

It was a more wistful tone. In my head, I saw a dizzying aerial image of a white mountain-top reflected in the pristine waters far, far below. "You see yourself," I murmured. "That's why it's important to you. It's part of what you are. That's why it maddens you to see and not be seen, not to see yourself reflected."

Yes, the dragon agreed. It is better not to see at all.

"Are you talking to it?" Bao asked me suspiciously.

"Aye."

He shook his head. "You get stranger and stranger every day."

The Emperor was pacing, yellow robes swirling. Helpless attendants trailed in his wake. Behind the bars, Snow Tiger stood with her head tilted, concentrating on listening. "White Jade Mountain is deep within Lord Jiang's territory," the Emperor mused. "But surely he will call off this war once he knows what Black Sleeve has done, and that it is no demon my daughter houses." He gave a decisive nod, beckoning to an attendant. "I will send word to him at once."