Page 82 of The Wind Dancer
As soon as I finished, the door creaked.
I already knew who it was. The footsteps gave her away.
“Mei Lin,” I said loudly. “I hope you came to talk, and not to arrest me.”
Silence. Then I heard footsteps again. She entered like a shadow and closed the door behind her.
“You’re alive,” she said. There was no surprise, no emotion in her voice. But there was steel in it.
I looked up. She stood in a gray cloak, her hair tied up. The uniform of the Secret Chancellery was peeking beneath the cloak. But she wasn’t wearing a mask. Her face looked tired and had a fresh scar. Someone had had a rough week.
“Did you know we were looking for you?” she asked.
“I assumed. But to be honest, I was a little busy... trying not to die.”
She came closer. She studied me, as if she were trying to find an answer neither reports nor agents could give her.
“Are you...?” The question hung in the air.
I nodded.
“Yes. I am a dragonblood and am on the path of Ascension.”
She started laughing. There was so much pain and sadness in that laugh that I wanted to hug her, but if I did that now, I’d get a dagger between my ribs.
“The Heavens like to jest,” she said after she calmed down a little. “And which of the dragons granted you their power?”
“Men Lun, Lady of Water,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I didn’t ask for it.” I rose and walked past her to the shrine, lighting the incense. “But now the power is in me... and it was terrifying.”
“Tell me everything.”
I met her gaze, held it for a moment, then nodded.
“Sit, my mentor had excellent wine. Let’s have a drink and I’ll tell you everything...”
CHAPTER 23
Opening the cupboard, I took out an unopened jug of rice wine and poured us each a cup. I motioned her to the table and sat down at it as well. The incense was smoldering, and the air in the room was thick, almost viscous. We sat across from each other in absolute silence.
She waited. With each new meeting, I admired her more and more. She silently drank the wine, nodding to show that she approved of the taste. But her eyes were like the sharpest daggers, and her attentive gaze seemed to dissect me.
“Everything started off as planned,” I finally said. “That bastard wasn’t just interested in the amulet, but me as well.”
“Fouche,” she said the bastard’s name as if the very word disgusted her.
“Yes. I don’t know what information you have on him, but he’s mad. On one hand, he’s a great manipulator and planner, on the other...”
“A cultist of the Broken Seal Cult...” Mei Lin cut in again.
“Not just a random cultist. He’s a priest or something along those lines. I’ll get to what happened if I don’t get interrupted.”
She nodded and poured herself more wine.
I took this seriously. I wouldn’t make things up from scratch. I would piece the truth together, like I always had, like my mentor had taught me. I would make a true story, which was a lie at its core. I could hear his words clear as day.“The best lie is a half-truth mixed with the actual truth. You just had to remain calm and believe in your words. After all, the person you were talking to could feel it if you didn’t.”
“Fouche is very dangerous; he wasn’t surprised by my arrival. He put together an impressive dossier on me. He predicted my move and recalled the other Lotuses because he knew I’d come to him on my own.”
Mei Lin nodded slightly. The intensity of her gaze didn’t let up.
