Page 24 of The Poet Empress
“Because of their complexity?”
“Because they are love poems,” Ciyi corrected. “The Ancestors are fair, after all. To be the judge of whether it is necessary for someone to die, one must love them first. But once there islove,it becomes very hard to still want them dead, does it not?”
“Is there a specific form the poem must take? Any rules for it to be written?”
The eunuch gave me a strange look. “It is the feelings that matter, andthe bareness of the recipient’s heart on display. I am no literomancer, but I do know that heart-spirit poems in the past have all taken different forms. The only thing they had in common was being emotionally powerful enough to move the Ancestors.” A pause as his look became searching. “Lady Yin, surely you are not fool enough to think of writing one yourself?”
I pretended to be frightened by lowering my eyes. “Of course not. I only wanted to be assured that our prince will be safe.”
From the mixture of disdain and twisted satisfaction on Ciyi’s face, I knew what he deduced from my words—that I was growing fond of the prince. Falling for him like any unwise concubine might, once she had experienced the pleasures of his bed.
I did not care what Ciyi thought of me.
“Let us continue with our lessons,” he said at last, face settling closer to satisfaction. “You are upholding your end of the bargain, so I shall make good on mine.”
As much as Ciyi and I argued, our lessons were the one respite I had against the tiger and the serpents, against the spider spinning her web. They were the only times when I did not feel helpless.
With every character I copied, hot summer wind drying the ink, I felt in control. The words on the page were mine. Nobody could take them away. Even if they burned these papers, I could simply write more.
Two months into my studies, Ciyi brought me my first book.
“These are from the palace archives.” He dropped a bamboo crate onto the desk, thethumpof it startling the robins nesting on the windowsill. There were more than twenty scrolls in the crate. “The Annals of the Four Seasons: mandatory reading for any schoolboy wishing to become a scholar. It chronicles the period of history from the beginning of the War of the Seasons to the First Emperor’s unification of Tensha. If there is any character you do not recognize, ask me.”
He put the first volume into my arms. The scroll’s lacquered dowel was smooth, the ribbon tying it soft. I marveled at its beauty as I unraveled it.
The hardest part about reading, I was surprised to find, was not the characters themselves. It was the sheer number of new concepts.Tariff,vanguard, vassal state.Growing up on the rice terraces of Lu’an, I had no concept of trade or diplomacy, no understanding of bureaucratic systems or titles given to officials. I had not heard of all the historical names and places referenced, ones that the author assumed the reader already knew.
As I went through the volumes, I had to pause many, many times to ask Ciyi questions.Where is the Caeyang Corridor? How vast is the Inner Sea? Who was the explorer Mei Xian?Images I had never seen before swam through my mind. Images of wind-flattened steppes, and valleys carved by ancient rivers, and mountains so high their tops were bone-cold with ice. I saw bustling cities, and empty deserts, and vast and violent oceans; I witnessed as three-masted junks braved their hungry waves, shipping salt and jade to faraway nations.
The Annalsmight not be literomancy, I came to realize, but they were still magic all the same. They allowed for the impossible: to take someone, even a concubine trapped in the palace, to another place, another time. It was a warm and beautiful feeling. Like the world had only been for other people before, but now I was a part of it too. As if this country, this dynasty, they could also belong to people like me.
15CHESS PIECES
Towards the end of summer, something strange began to happen: I began to understand the men’s conversations at court.
“While it is true we must obey the Mandate of Heaven,” said a clan leader with a face long like a horse’s, “even you must agree that the emperor’s change of heir was rather sudden. If His Majesty woke up from his illness, are you so sure that he would not change his mind again? The Gaoping Emperor of the Liang Dynasty changed his successorthree timeswhile in the grip of death. Those who pledged early were the biggest losers.”
“That is not always true,” Hesin replied evenly. “Those who supported the First Emperor from the very beginning, for example, were rewarded in multitudes for their loyalty. Those who joined him later saw no such profit. It is an Aolian teaching even the youngest schoolboy has memorized:an even temperament and a steady heart shall win in the end.”
The clan leader’s face darkened at the subtle chastising, but shortly afterwards, he agreed to continue his allyship with Terren.
After he left, the next guest was sent in.
This time, it was a red-faced soldier, who sighed much more than he spoke. “Wewouldaid the East Palace during the coronation,” he lamented, “but it is a shame that my army is unworthy. Many of my men are still using old, worn-down swords from our last campaign. Hardly weapons fit for taming a dragon.” A sigh. “Your Highness deserves a much better army to support him than mine.”
Hesin took the hint. “I will speak with the prince, Captain Zhu, and ask him to outfit four hundred of your men in time for the coronation.Once we are successful, and he has his magic amplified by the Crown, we can discuss the rest of your army.” It was a different tactic entirely than what he had used with the clan leader, and I marveled at how quickly the eunuch was able to adapt.
“What are you staring at?” Sun Jia hissed to me from where we knelt by the wall. “Ogling the captain, are you, village filth? I heard your kind breeds with anything that moves.”
I kept my eyes on Captain Zhu. “I thought you said we are dogs that breed with dirt,” I whispered back. “The last time I checked, dirt does not move.”
After the captain left, a governor from one of the western provinces entered. His brows were thick and perpetually furrowed. “The West Palace, I’m afraid, is offering us a greater boon. The province of Nanbo stretches deep into the Eriet Mountains, where few roads lead. Prince Maro promised he would build us a route straight to the capital.”
The old eunuch put on an expression of false sympathy. “Ah, Governor Yuan. I understand the burden of being near the mountains. Few roads for trading men, but plenty of open space for raiders. I have heard that two of your border cities have been pillaged by the Cividí since spring. It is unfortunate that Prince Maro would not arm you with sharp weapons, and instead promises only more dirt and stones.”
Governor Yuan turned firecracker-red. After a few more rounds of verbal sparring, he was persuaded to back Terren’s Dao seal over Maro’s Lu.
Each meeting, I noted the words I didn’t know.Treaty. Expansionism. Global policy.I memorized the figures they mentioned and the scholars they quoted, so that I could ask Ciyi about them later.
