Gateway (27 page)

The fireworks display went on and on.

TWENTY-ONE

“IS THIS NOT
the most magnificent holiday party you have ever been to?” Xiang demanded a few minutes later as Daiyu rejoined her near one of the cooking tents. People were beginning to recover the use of their ears now that the explosions had finally died away, and they were laughing and talking and indulging in another round of refreshments.

“I can’t remember anything like it,” Daiyu said truthfully.

“Too bad we have to wait another whole year for something this good! But we will have Chenglei’s collection to view tomorrow morning,” Xiang said.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Daiyu said. The throbbing in her arm was beginning to fade, though she was afraid if anyone touched her she would cry out in pain. She might have a bruise in the morning that she would need to explain away.

Although other explanations might soon become more pressing.

“Where is Chenglei?” Xiang asked now, looking around. “I have scarcely seen him all evening.”

“Neither have I,” Daiyu said, her voice steady.

Xiang waved a hand. “An important man like Chenglei of ten has to work even through a holiday celebration,” she said. “I hope he has not been in his office all night, reading reports! I hope he got to see some of the fireworks.”

“I hope so too,” Daiyu said. “They were spectacular.”

All around them, people were having similar conversations.
What amazing colors! What a splendid party! Where is the prime minister, so I can compliment him before I go home?
It was another ten or fifteen minutes before it became common knowledge that Chenglei was nowhere to be found, but, like Xiang, the other guests seemed to assume that he had been called away on urgent matters. A few people began to leave; others lingered by the food tents, exchanging last tidbits of gossip.

Quan found them just as Xiang had decided she and her niece should retire for the night, to be sure they were rested for their private viewing the next day. “Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked Daiyu.

“She will be too busy,” Xiang answered before Daiyu could reply. “She has an appointment with the prime minister in the morning—we both do—and many things to do in the afternoon. You may see her the following day.”

Quan was trying not to grin as he held out his hands, and Daiyu managed to smile as she pressed her palms against his in farewell. She had to grit her teeth against the pain in her right arm. “The day after tomorrow, then,” Quan said. “The time will seem very long.”

“I look forward to the next hour we meet,” she replied.

She wondered if she would ever see Quan again.

Xiang chattered during the whole time they climbed the stairs and walked down the hallway to their rooms. Daiyu thought she had never seen the old woman so happy. As they paused at the door to Xiang’s suite, Daiyu impulsively leaned down and kissed her wrinkled cheek.

“Thank you for everything you have done for me,” she said in a soft voice. “I cannot imagine that was I lucky enough to have you as my aunt.”

Xiang looked surprised but deeplyp leased. “And who would have thought I would have found a niece so much after my own heart,” she said. “You have proved to be a fine girl. Now, go to bed so that you will look your best in the morning.”

Daiyu obediently entered her room and let the servants undress her, and she lay on her bed as soon as she was alone, but she did not sleep. Instead she listened to the faint reverberations of fireworks being shot off in other parts of the city late into the night, and then she listened to the silence. As dawn slowly whitened the windows, she listened to birds greet the morning with their usual cheerful music. She knew this was the day that everything would change.

From the minute Xiang and Daiyu entered the dining room, it was clear something was wrong in the house. Daiyu took her place at the table, next to the other girls, while Xiang joined the adults standing in a knot at the back of the room. She already knew what the conversation was about, but she listened anyway to the scraps of dialogue she could overhear.

“And no one has seen him since last night?”

“But he was missing last night, too! Don’t you remember?”

“I thought he had been called into the house on business.”

“Did anyone talk to him at the party? Was he even there?”

“He wasn’t there at all last night?”

“What do the servants say?”

“They’re mystified. The head of the council has been called in, but what will she be able to do?”

“Do you think it’s possible he was injured?”

“In his own
house?
”

“But if no one saw him here last night—”

Daiyu accepted only small portions when the servants came in offering food. She was not sure she would be able to choke down a bite.

Eventually, the adults joined the young women at the table, and they all ate in uneasy silence before returning to their rooms.

“Collect your things,” Xiang said to Daiyu in a tense voice. “We will not be staying to view Chenglei’s treasures after all.”

“But, Aunt!” Daiyu exclaimed. “Have we offended the prime minister in some way?”

Xiang’s mouth was tight. She was clearly disappointed, but her eyes also showed a little anger. She was not used to being abandoned without an explanation. “No,” she said at last. “But it seems his plans have changed.”

They were packed and out of the house within the hour. Daiyu was not surprised to find that news of Chenglei’s disappearance had preceded them, for Mei was awaiting them in Xiang’s overdecorated parlor when they arrived home. Xiang impatiently waved a hand at Daiyu to dismiss her, but Daiyu left the room very slowly, trying to listen.

“The whole city is talking!” Mei exclaimed before Daiyu passed out of earshot. “Where can Chenglei be? Has he fallen ill? Fallen drunk?”

“Consorted with a hired woman who poisoned his drink?” Xiang suggested. Her tone was both acid and eager—this was potentially a tragedy, but it might simply be a scandal, and Xiang and Mei lived for gossip.

“I suppose someone could have harmed him, and yet—”Mei said.

“It seems the unlikeliest of the possibilities,” Xiang agreed. “I think we will find that he has either been very indiscreet or veryunlucky.”

“His position will be compromised,” Mei said.

“Unless he has a very good story.”

“But what could that story be?”

Satisfied, Daiyu continued on up to her room. She was fairly confident that, no matter what theories they proposed, they would never come close to the truth.

She pushed open the door to her room and found Aurora waiting inside.

“Daiyu, what did you do?” the blond woman asked in a hushed voice.

Hastily, Daiyu shut the door and the two of them huddled together just inside the closet, talking in whispers. They had not spoken to each other in two weeks, but all they really needed to discuss was yesterday. Aurora gasped when Daiyu related Chenglei’s plan to flood the river and showed alarm when Daiyu repeated the conversation in the backyard.

“He said he was going to arrest me,” Daiyu finished up. “I reached for my quartz talisman so I could go home—but he took it from me and opened the pouch. He—he disappeared. But no one saw him go because we were standing at the back of the lawn and all the fireworks were going off.”

Aurora stared at her. “You sent him away—to your own iteration?”

“I suppose. I didn’t mean to. Oh, Aurora, is that where he’s gone? To Earth? What will happen to him there?”

Aurora shook her head in a disbelieving motion. “I have no idea. I don’t even know where he might have ended up. The quartz talisman was calculated for your body, not for his. He could be anywhere—at any time.”

“Will you and Ombri go after him?” Daiyu asked.

Aurora nodded. “Yes. If we don’t, he will find a way to wreak damage in your iteration.”

“I’m so sorry,” Daiyu said.

Unexpectedly,Aurorahuggedher.“Don’tbesorry.Youwere given a difficult job and you managed to do it, even though you didn’t do it the way we planned.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about Chenglei. But when I talked to him—he was so charming—I actually liked him. And I was pleased that he liked me.”

“You are not the first person who has fallen under his spell, and, unfortunately, you will not be the last,” Aurora said. “If men like Chenglei were easier to resist, the world—every world—would be a less hazardous place.”

Aurora patted Daiyu’s shoulder and then stepped back, turning brisk. “Now,” she said, “Xiang will be preoccupied with Mei for a good long while, don’t you suppose? This will be an excellent time for you to leave.”

“Leave? To do what?” Daiyu said. She felt her face light up. “Can I go to the aviary? Can I see Kalen? I have so much to tell him!”

“I meant, it’s time for you to leave Jia,” Aurora said gently. “Time for you to go back to Earth.”

Daiyu stared at her, suddenly feeling stricken. “Home?” she repeated.“Today?”

Aurora nodded. “We have no time to waste. Ombri and I must go after Chenglei, and we cannot leave until we have seen you safely home.”

“But I—but
now
?” Daiyu stammered. “There are so many things left to do—”

Aurora watched her steadily. “There was only one thing here youhadtodo,andithasbeendone.Itistimeforyoutogo.”

Daiyu shook her head, slowly, stubbornly, even as a bubbling grief built up in her chest. “I’m not leaving until I say good-bye to Kalen.”

“Daiyu—”

“I’m
not
!”

Aurora shrugged helplessly. “All right. We will return to the house before we send you on your way.”

Daiyu was already hurrying out of the closet and over to a small desk stocked with writing materials. “And I have to leave a note for Xiang. I have to make up some excuse, give her some reason. She’s become attached to me, and I don’t want her to be hurt.”

“It will hurt her no matter when you go and how you do it,” Aurora said. “A note will not change that.”

But Daiyu was adamant on this point as well. “It will only take a minute,” she said.

Nonetheless, she sat there for at least five minutes, trying to think up a story that Xiang would accept with relief instead of pain. Finally, she picked up the elegant writing utensil and wrote with great care on the thick, pressed sheet of paper.

Aurora was reading over Daiyu’s shoulder. “Very well put,” she said. “Now, let us go.”

It was heartbreakingly simple to leave the house. There was little need to pack, since the only items Daiyu had to bring with her were the gold shirt and black pants she had been wearing when she arrived in Jia. Xiang did not unexpectedly emerge from the parlor to demand where she was going; no servants challenged them at the door. Daiyu and Aurora simply walked out the front entrance, strolled down the sidewalk, and soon lost themselves in the bustle of the congested streets. They were a few blocks away from Xiang’s before Aurora hailed a trolley, and they elbowed their way into the crowded aisle for the ride to the riverfront. A change of trolleys, another dreary ride, and they were in the
cangbai
district where Ombri and Aurora had their house.

They disembarked and walked the final few blocks. Aurora made no attempt at conversation, for she appeared to be deep in thought, and Daiyu just trudged along beside her, clasping her folded clothes to her chest. Compared to the streets where Xiang lived, this neighborhood seemed even more downtrodden, the tents ragged and pathetic, the standing houses decrepit. Most everyone they passed was
cangbai
or
heiren
; the few Han they encountered looked strained and miserable.

But the thought of leaving this place behind forever was pushing Daiyu into despair.

The thought of leaving Kalen behind forever. . . .

It was scarcely noon by the time they arrived at the house. Daiyu looked around eagerly, in case Kalen was there, but it was quickly evident that he was not. She felt her shoulders slump with weariness and disappointment and a mounting sense of loss.