Page 3 of The Poet Empress
“I have come to Guishan to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.” Isan’s bright voice rang through the plaza, pulling the crowd’s attention back to him. “I am here to give Blessings to the people, and make one request. First, the Blessings.”
At his command, the officials and servants in red livery all produced strings of firecrackers and lit them. They burst into deafening crackles, and through the smoke, tiny red papers fluttered over the city square like quince blossoms in spring.
“Catch one, sister! Catch one for me!” Bao cried, and then I wasscrambling, like everybody else, to get my hands on one. But I didn’t have to fight for it. There were plenty to go around.
I managed to catch two slips in the end, each inked with a glowing four-character proverb. I gave both to Bao, who laughed like a toddler and bounced up and down. He shoved them into his pocket and threw his arms around me in a hug.
“What do you think they are?” he asked, eyes so shiny with excitement that I couldn’t help but smile back.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to find out when we get home, won’t we?”
He looked about to burst with impatience. “We can ask someone here. Someone in Guishan will know how to read. I don’t wanna wait—”
“Now the request,” Prince Isan announced, sending the crowd into a renewed hush. “As you may be aware, my father has recently changed his chosen successor. The heir of the Azalea House is no longer my eldest brother, Maro, but my second brother, Terren. As part of his new duties, Prince Terren has begun a search for concubines. All interested candidates between the ages of fifteen and nineteen should gather in this square for appraisals, one week from now at noon.”
This announcement, even more so than the Blessings, sent the crowd into a chattering frenzy.
Everyone here knew of Isan and his Guo seal, but there was not a soul in Tensha who did not fear Prince Terren and his Dao sigil. Prince Terren, whose affinity for blades made him the most powerful man in the nation. Prince Terren, terrifying and ruthless and cruel, who was to inherit the throne after his father’s death.
Nobody knew for sure why the ailing emperor had suddenly named his second son heir, but it was certainly not for Terren’s character. I had heard that he would have a servant flayed for merely spilling his tea. I had heard that he would have a dog slaughtered if it so much as barked at him as he passed, that he would have a maid’s tongue cut off if only she forgot to address him by his proper title.
I had heard that he killed his own mother.
But watching the crowd, it was clear that nobody was thinking of those whispers. Or if they were, they did not care. All they had heard in that speech was an opportunity.
“Sister?” Bao tugged at my arm.
And, it terrified me to admit, so had I. I ran my hand through my brother’s hair absently as I stared at the retreating procession. It terrified me that I was not thinking of Prince Terren’s cruelty, of flayings or slaughtered dogs or cut-off tongues.
I was thinking of full bellies, and nights on soft beds, and little sisters who did not have to be buried.
I was thinking of Ma’s hollow cheeks filled in and of Ba’s pain getting fixed. With the gifts I might receive as a favored concubine, we could buy anything we wanted, even prunes on days that were not New Year’s.
“I wanna go home,” Bao pressed. He was tugging at my arm again. “I wanna try the Blessings. Please please please?”
I was thinking of Bao going to school. Going to school and learning to read. I was thinking of Bao leaving the famished village life behind and becoming whatever he wished.
My hand closed around my little brother’s, and for a brief moment, I let myself imagine a future as sweet as the peach juice lingering on my tongue.
2POWER AND GREATNESS
Ma took to the idea right away, and even got the whole village excited.
For the next week she collected gifts from everyone in Lu’an. New shoes from Aunt Lien, necklaces of beads and daisies from Grandpa Cai’s sons, more dried prunes from Uncle Gray. They would all go in my basket of offerings, the day I was to get appraised to be Prince Terren’s concubine.
In Tensha, one did not borrow. One gave what one could, always. The idea was that if I became a concubine, I would have so much more to give. The whole village was counting on me for that.
For the next week, I learned and learned again how generous my neighbors and friends were. I was managing pretty well to hold in my tears until the two Rui sisters showed up at our door with their goat on a leash.
“Myrna gives great milk,” said Rui Fan, her sun-leathered cheeks tugging into a smile.
“Fresh and sweet,” said Rui Shina. “I think Prince Terren will love it.”
Then I couldn’t keep it together anymore, because I knew Myrna’s milk was not supposed to be for me. It was supposed to be for the Rui family’s youngest son, because we all knew that the milk was the only reason Rui Dan had so much energy to run around and play. “I can’t accept this,” I said between sobs. “Keep her for Dan, I beg you, for him to grow up lively and strong.”
But they kept shoving Myrna’s lead into my arms, and in Tensha when somebody insisted three times it became rude to refuse.
The evening before I was to go into town for the appraisal, all the villagers from Lu’an gathered on the hill where the Ancestors lived, where Larkspur and the other siblings and so many others were buried, where ghostssometimes roamed. We sat together in the clearing in the larch grove on the hill, where wild poppies grew, and we all lit red lanterns and let them float into the sky.
