Gateway (10 page)

“‘Everything’s fine,’” she read back to Kalen. “‘Just take hold of the stone and don’t let go.’”

“That doesn’t tell you much,” he objected.

“I just want to be reassured and told what to do,” she said. “What’s the point of a long explanation that I won’t believe anyway?‘You’ve been transported to an alternate universe, but this piece of quartz holds the key to returning home safely.’ If I really
am
back in Ombri’s world, things will be so confusing that I don’t want anything complicated.”

“I suppose it might be even more confusing if you foundt hat message once you were already home,” he said. “If you didn’t remember anything about this trip, you wouldn’t know why you needed to be transported.”

She laughed. “Well, maybe I’ll remember more than Ombri thinks. He didn’t know I’d be able to read the
qiji
stones.Maybe he’ll be wrong about this.”

She turned toward her own bedroom door, but an odd expression on Kalen’s face stopped her. He was watching her closely, toying with one of his earring sand looking a little wistful. “What?” she said.

“Will you want to remember?” he said. “Or will you be glad to go home and forget us all?”

She paused with her hand on her doorframe. “Of course I’ll want to remember,” she said. “The idea of losing any of my memories is terrifying to me when I think about all the ways that could happen—if I have a concussion, if I have a brain tumor, if I fall into dementia when I get old. If I’m
here,
if this is
real,
I want to hold on to it forever.”

“It’s so strange for me to think that I’ll remember you for the rest of my life and you’ll forget me as soon as you go back home,” he said.

She started to respond but found that she didn’t have a good answer. Instead she just looked at him for a long time, taking in the details of his thin face, his wide mouth, the slightly rueful expression in his brown eyes. In just two days, he had turned himself into a true friend; he had become, unlike Ombri and Aurora, someone she completely trusted.

Actually, he had become that the day he rescued her at the red gate.

“I think I’ll remember you,” she said softly. “I think Ombri is wrong.”

There was a rattle at the door and Aurora stepped in, all blond hair and smiling face. “Oh, good, I was afraid you’d all be asleep by now,” shes aid. “Daiyu, we have to get your things ready. Xiang wants you to join her tomorrow morning.”

NINE

THE NIGHT HAD
been virtually sleepless, so Daiyu was exhausted, but extreme nervousness kept her wide awake the following morning as she prepared to leave. Ombri had departed early on some mysterious errand, but Aurora and Kalen stepped out of the house behind Daiyu. Kalen was carrying a small suitcase filled with an assortment of Aurora’s castoffs, although Aurora had assured Daiyu that she’d never have to wear anything they’d assembled.

“Xiang will have you in custom-made clothes before the day is out,” Aurora predicted. “She will not want you to shame her by appearing in public wearing anything as awful as what you’ve got on right now.”

Daiyu glanced down at her gold shirt and black pants, the outfit she’d been wearing when she walked through the Arch. She had the silver bracelet in her left pocket, the quartz stone in her right, just to accustom herself to the feel of their weight. “I don’t think I look so bad,” she said.

“She favors a much more elaborate style of dress. And so will you, while you’re with her.”

Daiyu was not entirely certain she trusted Aurora, but she was anxious at the idea of going to Xiang’s house with no one else she knew nearby. “You’ll be at Xiang’s, won’t you?” she asked hopefully. “Every day?”

“Most likely,” Aurora said. “But Xiang will want you to very quickly forget that you and I were ever friends. I’m a servant and a
cangbai.
It will be better if you never seem to notice me—unless you have an order to give me.”

Daiyu looked at Kalen. “And you’ll come visit me?”

“Daiyu,” Aurora said sharply. “While you are with Xiang, you will not be permitted to mingle with the lower classes. You must not think you can continue your friendship with Kalen.”

Daiyu ignored her, keeping her gaze on Kalen. “I can’t bear it if this is the last time I am ever to see you,” she said.

He smiled, but his expression was wistful. “Aurora’s right, though. People like Mistress Xiang do not even realize people like me exist.”

Daiyu shrugged and turned back toward the door. “Fine. Then I’m not going to Xiang’s. I’m not staying on Jia if I can’t see Kalen.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a sleek black car turn the corner and head their way. No other vehicle like this had come to the neighborhood since Daiyu had been in residence. Surely this car had been sent by Xiang.

“Daiyu—yes—very well,” Aurora said urgently. “We will find a way for you to meet with Kalen. Please do not take this moment to destroy all our careful planning.”

Daiyu inhaled a deep breath and faced the street again, just as the car purred to a stop. The Han driver who stepped out seemed to be trying not to sneer as he glanced around. “I have come for the girl Daiyu,” he said in a cold voice.

“This is Daiyu. I will accompany her to Mistress Xiang’s,” Auroraanswered.

The driver nodded. “You are expected,” he said. He didn’t even glance in Kalen’s direction.

Wordlessly, Kalen strapped the luggage onto the back of the car. The driver helped Aurora into the passenger compartment, an unroofed seating area behind the driver’s bench. Daiyu watched Kalen with a growing sensation of despair. She could not even hug him or take his hand to say good-bye; this unfriendly employee of Mistress Xiang’s seemed like just the type to report such transgressions. She could not make him swear he would keep Aurora’s promise and find a way to see her while she lived in Xiang’s house. She probably shouldn’t even speak to him one last time.

But she did. She ignored the driver’s outstretched hand and trained her fierce gaze on Kalen. “I will not forget your many kindnesses,” Daiyu said. “I will not forget any of it.”

He didn’t speak, but his eyes met hers, and in his expression she read both sadness and resolve. He nodded once, very briefly, and she knew it was an answer to the unspoken question on her own face:
Will I see you again?
Then he turned away.

She took the driver’s hand and stepped into the car, settling herself beside Aurora, who gave her a quick look of exasperation. The driver put the car in motion; within three minutes they had turned two corners. Daiyu had to suppress a clutch of terror at the thought that Kalen was now irretrievably out of sight.

She took a deep breath and tried to focus on the trip. Soon enough they were winding through streets that she had never explored with Kalen—wide avenues lined with massive trees that shaded mansions crowded together on the bustling street. They had left most vehicular traffic behind as soon as they entered this district, which was clearly where the wealthy lived. The driver had followed such twisting streets that Daiyu was having a hard time placing where they might be in relation to St. Louis, but she knew there was no neighborhood like this in the same space back home. Maybe these houses stood along what would be Jefferson or 20th, home to the big skyscrapers that housed financial companies. In both iterations that would mean that these neighborhoods enjoyed a concentration of money.

“I usually walk this distance or take the trolley,” Aurora murmured to Daiyu. “This is much nicer, don’t you think?”

Daiyu nodded without answering.

A minute later, the car stopped in front of one of the most impressive houses in the district. It was three stories high and built mostly of white stone, with red pagoda-shaped accents ove rthe main door and a few of the bigger windows. The house was surrounded by an inviting and well-tended garden, which in turn was enclosed by a lattice dwooden fence that ran around the entire property. The front walkway was accessed through a round moon gate. The whole aspect was so serene that Daiyu felt a little of her trepidation fade.

The driver jumped out, grabbed her bag, and offered her a hand out of the car. “Mistress Xiang awaits,” he said in an important voice. “I will take you to her.”

Xiang was terrifying.

She was a tiny woman, almost lost in an enormous room overdecorated with gold furnishings, gold statuettes, red wall hangings, and scattered pieces of jade and enamel. She sat stiffly in a plush chair covered with gold cushions, her black hair and black clothing irresistibly putting Daiyu in mind of a spider at the heart of a particularly gorgeous web. She looked old enough to be Daiyu’s grandmother, with deep lines etched into her face, and eyes so dark it was impossible to find a pupil. Those eyes were boring into Daiyu the minute the driver led her across the threshold.

“Daiyu has arrived,” he announced.

“Leave her with me,” Xiang said in a voice made raspy with age and perhaps whatever the local version of alcohol and cigarettes might be.

The driver bowed and stepped back, then Aurora did the same. There was the soft sound of the door closing, and Daiyu was left alone with Xiang.

Daiyu stayed near the door, trying to appear self-possessed without looking too sure of herself. She had to act as if she knew she was better than the servants but not nearly as good as Xiang. She tipped her head down slightly but did not drop her gaze, and she and Xiang studied each other for a few moments.

“Come closer,” the old woman finally said. “Sit by me.” She unfurled her hands to gesture at an ornate footstool situated beside her chair. Her fingers ended in impossibly long fingernails painted the brightest red.

Daiyu complied, folding her hands in her lap and continuing to watch Xiang. She kept her expression absolutely empty—hard to do when her heart was pounding.

“Tell me how old you are,” Xiang commanded.

“Seventeen.”

“Describe your parents.”

“My mother is a farm worker in one of the northwest provinces,” Daiyu replied. Aurora had fashioned a sketchy history for her, assuring her that Xiang wouldn’t want many details. “My father was a laborer in a manufacturing plant. He died when I was a little girl.”

Xiang waved one of those red-tipped hands to indicate her lack of interest. “Han, both of them?”

“Full-blooded.Yes.”

“I suppose you have no education.”

“A little. I can read—” At least, she could as long as she was wearing her translator ring. “And do math. And—”

“I see you have not been educated in the art of conversation,” Xiang interrupted.

Daiyu was silent.

“Still, no one expects young girls to speak, and they won’t listen if you do,” the old woman continued. “They will look at your face, and your face is good.” Unexpectedly, Xiang put out her hand and used those red talons to lift Daiyu’s chin. “The skin is exquisite. The lips are too large, but the eyes are perfectly acceptable.”

This did not seem to require an answer either.

“I have no interest in adopting you,” were the next surprising words out of Xiang’s mouth. “Put that thought out of your mind this instant.”

“It was never my hope, Mistress.”

“But if you present yourself well in front of my friends, and if you please me, I will be generous. I will pour enough money into your hands to allow you to return to your wretched province and buy any husband you desire.”

Daiyu lifted her chin and Xiang’s hand fell away. “I didn’t know that men could be purchased, Mistress.”

Xiang’s laugh had little humor in it. “Everything can be purchased,” she said. “Not everything is worth the price. Men very rarely are.” She tilted her small head and pursed her lips, which accentuated all the wrinkles in her face. “I believe I will purchase you,” she added. “Do not disappoint me.”

Now Daiyu allowed the slightest bit of frost to come to her voice. “I am not in the habit of disappointing anyone,” she said.

Xiang smiled, a somewhat chilling expression. “Then you will be my most beloved niece.”